Not to late to make these changes to your ecommerce website before the holidays. Rock On and have a great holiday selling season.

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Great list from a trusted source, Jeff Sauer. My favorite reasons Jeff notes why a website sucks include:

#2. IT teams seek efficiency, marketing teams want traffic. Those two goals don't always play nice together.

#5. Designers are another dangerous group to a website's ability to convert visitors into buyers. Designers are important partners, but have firm ideas about preferences for conversion over pretty pictures and recognize the difference.

#6. You get what you pay for and no free or $10 site is going to sing, perform magic or help your mission critical online marketing much. Don't invade Russia in the winter (i.e. outspend your ROI), but don't think you can get anything worth anything for free either. Expertise is expensive, but you save money in the end because you spend less than  having to redo the same work over and over again and make more.

#11 We've all been to websites where there is no there, there. If you don't have a passion you want to share with the world don't create a website. Remember the web is a huge lie detecting amplifier. If you have cracks the web magnifies them. If you have flaws they are not up there on the big screen. Good news is everyone does, so an honest, passionate and real share has and will always work beautifully online (just not with a $10 designer or your mom's friend, friend).

#14 Dedicated landing pages separates pros from everyone else. Those with more landing pages do exponentially better than those with fewer. That stat may not past Freakonomics muster, but the idea is sound. Create more landing pages dedicated to supporting a single PPC keyword with a solid offer and a clearly visible CTA (Call To Action).

These are great #ecommerce tips? My favorite and perhaps easiest fix for the most benefit is big, clear and creative CALLS TO ACTION.

5 Must Steals From REI
Here re five easy steals from http://www.rei.com that will increase your Holiday sales:

* Red DEAL or SALE button Far Right.

* Deal of the Day (you can put this anywhere).

* Loyalty Program (there are canned ones you can install).

* Trigger Point Free Shipping (below Login).

* BIG Search Box Next to logo.

Red Deals Button
REI.com is aware that the right side of a website can be a gutter. If you use the F design idea, and they do, and watch eyetracking you know you can manipulate a visitors eyes with things like a long horizontal menu bar. Since everyone clicks on DEALS REI.com puts it far right and in a somber red (to match their black menu bar).

Deal of the Day
REI.com's is above their footer in the middle (another potential gutter). DEAL shoppers will find that link no matter where you put it, so put it in a potential gutter and you convert "dead space" to ROI positive with a simple graphic and idea. At this time of year and with social media being so HUGE if you don't have a great Deal of the Day lined up you will suffer at the hands of the REI.com's.

Loyalty Program
I hesitated to put this in since installing a loyalty program can feel like invading Russia in the winter. Don't let it get that way. Buy a canned and simple loyalty program or create some easy way to reward your most loyal shoppers. If you can't get your website loyalty together by the holidays use your "Multi-Buyer" segment and serendipitous give them something no one else gets (via an email). Find your 80/20 rule (20% of your customers will do 80% of your sales) and REWARD the 20%.

Free Shipping Trigger
When I was a Director of Ecommerce my boss was so skeptical and worried about Free Shipping I had to do extensive analysis and tests. Here is what we found:

* Free Shipping Triggers are always exceeded by 40% or more.
* Free Shipping beats no Free Shipping every time.
* Make sure your Shipping Schedule is PRESENT and easy to understand.

REI.com's $50 Free Shipping probably produces an Average Order Value (AOV) of just under $100 (or more). Remove the objection (shipping costs are seen as a "don't buy" objection) and your buyers will buy. Interestingly all orders, all shipments FREE SHIPPING didn't always win. Seems Free Shipping is related to BUYER PSYCHOLOGY so some friction actually helps, some hurdle may help buyers feel special.

Big Search Box
My theory is REI.com's menu system is so complex they have to have great internal search. Even if your navigation is perfect expect half of your customers to want it their way (by using search). If you want to get really cool make sure you are merchandising your search sets with either faceted search or dynamic zones (zones you fill with content based on behavior or modeled analytics).