So if you're looking for new buttons, here are some absolutely free ones that I made for sharing. No payment required, no link back needed (though it's appreciated if you want!). If you use them, leave a comment so others can take a look, if you feel like it. Regardless...enjoy!

Each ZIP file contains the original Adobe Photoshop .PSD file, "Buy Now" and "Add to Cart" versions of the buttons, and a blank button for you to add your own text. Several buttons are provided in multiple colors.

Button 1

Button one is a dark gray button with yellow text. It has a slight 3D effect that actually works a little better on circular buttons, but isn't bad at all on this one. If you're sticking to a monochromatic theme, this adds a bit of color without being overwhelming.

Download Button 1

Button 2

Button two is a shiny "Web 2.0" button with a nice shine, in several bright colors to complement many sites.

Download Button 2

Button 3

Button three is also a shiny one, but has a nice touch of a faint diagonal stripe to it. I also made it in several different colors.

Download Button 3

Button 4

Button four has a faded drop-shadow and a circular area for an icon. It's shown here with a shopping-cart icon, but could be replaced with other graphics as desired.

Download Button 4

Button 5

Button five has a glassy feel, but is in the shape of a heart instead of a normal button shape. Linda Bustos and Brian Eisenberg have discussed unusual shapes for buttons in other places, so here's a non-traditional shape in a few colors.

Download Button 5

So how do larger stores manage to display their breadth of navigation choices while still having a usable website? Let's take a look at some examples.

Let's Start with Amazon

Possibly the largest e-commerce site online today is Amazon.com. Although their approach to navigation may not work for every e-commerce site, it's a great one to study because of their large customer base. Initially, on the Amazon.com homepage, you see a vertical list of top-level categories with flyouts in the left column, and a search bar across the top in place of a horizontal navigation bar:

Amazon.com's Homepage Navigation

The top-level categories in the menu aren't clickable, so the highest you can navigate to is a second-level category. Once there, the next level of navigation appears as a horizontal navigation bar below the search form.

Top Level Navigation from Subcategory on Amazon.com

Additionally, the search form now defaults to searching within the current category - you can change that to a higher-level category or "All Categories" if desired. There's also a list of faceted "drill-down" navigation links in the left column. Finally, hovering over the orange "Shop All Departments" link in the top left reveals a menu of the top-level categories, which is identical to the menu on the homepage except that it's a dropdown instead of fixed in place on the page.

This navigation works well for Amazon, and has replaced what used to be rows and rows of tabs representing each category. It's often said that what works on Amazon won't necessarily work on other sites, but if you manage a wide range of products in many categories, it might be worthwhile to test this kind of navigation.

Highlighting the Most Popular Categories

A second approach is to list the most popular top-level categories in a standard navigation bar, and to include a link to a sitemap-style page that lists all categories in a hierarchical fashion. VitamimWorld.com does a nice job of this, with a 2-level horizontal navigation bar that includes popular categories such as Bodybuilding and Diet, along with promotional categories such as Spectacular Values and Top Sellers on the top level, and a second level with a link to "A-Z Shopping" (which links to the sitemap-style page) along with other non-categorical links. The two levels of the navigation bar are visually separated by color.

VitaminWorld Header Navigation

Costco is another site that uses this approach, with the menu item labeled "View All" but serving the same purpose as VitaminWorld's "A-Z Shopping" link. Costco's header menu is quite a bit more overwhelming, though, with 4 distinct rows of links, including two rows of top-level categories with no visual prominence or separation other than one being above the other. This makes the "View All" link less noticeable, but once you find it, you end up at the same kind of sitemap style page as VitaminWorld, which lets you see the wide variety of product types that the sites carry.

Costco's Menu with View All Link

Alphabetical Navigation

This one is a little harder to find online, but for stores with well-known kinds of products, an alphabetical navigation bar with dropdown menus can be very usable. OfficeMax has been noted for this kind of navigation, though it's not currently in use. (I borrowed these screenshots from GetElastic's wonderful article on OfficeMax's approach to navigation.)

OfficeMax's Former Alphabetical Navigation Bar

Dropdown from OfficeMax's Menu

Multiple Stores

Another approach is to run multiple storefronts. There are several large corporations with multiple brands that do this. For example, take Sears, Kmart, Lands' End, and The Great Indoors. Take a look at the very top of Lands End's website, and you'll see links to their related stores/brands:

Lands' End and Related Stores

The problem with this set of sites is that each one has a separate shopping cart. So if you want to order a shirt from Lands' End, get a lawnmower from Sears, and take advantage of Kmart's blue light specials, then you'll have to place three separate orders.

A better approach is one used by the company that owns The Gap, Old Navy, Banana Republic, PiperLime, and Athleta:

Shared Shopping Cart from Gap.com, Old Navy, and More

On these sites, a single shopping cart can contain items from each store. Items are marked in the left column with the logo of the appropriate store, which helps maintain brand integrity while offering a great user experience. No matter how many times you switch between the various sites, the shopping cart maintains the items from each one.

This approach isn't just for well-known retailers like these, either. Here's a group of sites that works the same way - including the shared shopping cart - but uses the separate storefronts to help delineate their related but distinct product lines:

4 Stores, 1 Shipping Policy, 1 Cart

The four related stores can be accessed from tabs in the top left, and a graphic to the right of the tabs lets customers know up-front that they can make a single order that includes products from all 4 stores, and that shipping is charged as a single order (instead of one shipping charge from each store).

Undoubtedly, categorization and navigation are essential to all e-commerce sites, but the larger the selection, the more problematic it becomes. I've presented several ways sites tackle this problem; what other examples have you seen? Let us know by leaving a comment.

Provide "Breadcrumbs"

Many shopping carts don't provide a single-page checkout, and the jury is still out on whether they are more user-friendly than checkout processes that span multiple pages. If your checkout process includes more than one page, make it simpler by reminding your customer where they are in the overall process with a clear graphic. Think of it as the sign near the entrance to your local shopping mall with the "You are Here" pointer, except it's a map for your website. As an added bonus, you can also reinforce the concept of security with your choice of words and graphics in the image.

Checkout Breadcrumbs

Ask for as Much Information as You Need...

...but not a single field more. A customer's sense of dread increases dramatically with every field you add to a form on a page. For some, it's just a matter of the time it takes to type in all their information; for others, their worry about identity theft and fraud grows with each piece of information they need to provide. Even if your shopping cart software has a default field, you likely don't need to use it. For example, if you don't use a customer's fax number for anything, why ask for it? Most e-commerce communications are handled by email and phone, not fax, so many companies can omit this field. If you only ship within your own country, don't ask customers to choose a country. Simply put a small statement at the bottom that reminds people of your policy, instead of a dropdown with a single country in it. (Or even worse, a dropdown filled with countries that generate an error when the form is submitted!)

Required and Optional Fields

A corollary to the above rule: don't make a field required unless it needs to be. Visually, the customer address forms need to have an indicator that shows which fields are required and which ones are optional, and they need to align well vertically. The most common indicator is an asterisk. However, if every field is required, don't put an asterisk by each one. A single statement at the top that says "All fields are required" will suffice and clear some of the visual clutter - and customer confusion over why every field has the asterisk.

Customer Address Form

Scrub Addresses

Scrubbing addresses is becoming more widespread on e-commerce sites. The idea is that there's a layer of technology on the back-end that takes the addresses (especially the shipping address) and compares it against a known set of addresses, such as the US Postal Service address database, and returns a scrubbed address - one that has been verified as a real address, and formatted according to carrier preferences.

This concept has a number of benefits. First, it can reduce address-correction fees with your shipping carriers (UPS, FedEx, and the postal service). Second, it can reduce costs associated with returned packages due to undeliverable addresses. Third, it can improve the accuracy of sales tax calculations in destination-based tax states. The USPS provides this service, but under very limited circumstances (for example, you must be an active USPS shipper). Our own AccurateTax service offers address scrubbing as a stand-alone service or as part of our sales tax solutions. And there are other options for various carts.

Use Trust Marks

Recognized trust marks are a simple way to remind customers of the protection you place on their personal information and payment details. Trust marks come in a variety of forms. The simplest one to include, that usually doesn't add any additional cost to your overhead, is the security badge offered as part of your SSL certificate. All of the major SSL certificate providers offer such badges - you've likely seen Verisign, GeoTrust, Thawte, and other security badges on major e-commerce sites.

A second form of trust marks includes those from companies that scan your site for security holes and PCI violations. These became well-known several years ago when the HackerSafe logo become prominent, and MarketingSherpa reported amazing increases in conversion rates for PetCo when displaying the logo in the site's header. Today, HackerSafe has become McafeeSecure and is still a leader in this type of service. While the McafeeSecure logo can still be seen on many e-commerce sites, they've been joined by a number of competitors, including ControlScan and Shopper Safe.

On checkout pages, particularly the page where customers enter their credit card details, it's especially important to show it high on the page. On our redesign, we grouped the trust marks into a bar along with the customer service phone number and provided it near the top of every page in the checkout process for consistency.

We'll be exploring other trust marks in an upcoming article.

Trust Marks

Indicate Processing and Shipping Times

Customers want to know when they will receive their order. In most cases, this depends on two factors:

1. Processing time: how long it takes your warehouse to pack the order for shipment, and
2. Shipping time: how long it takes the package to reach the destination.

Explain both to the customer as early as possible in the checkout process, and repeat the information as needed and in the confirmation email.

Shipping Times

Provide a Printable Receipt

A printable invoice or receipt is necessary because a) emails don't always reach their destination, and b) customers don't always remember their orders. Offering customers the ability to print a black-and-white, bare bones receipt once their order is complete allows them to get hard copy proof that they did indeed order X, Y, and Z from you. It also helps them find discrepancies and call to have them corrected earlier in the process.

Printable Receipt

Send an Automatic Receipt by Email

You should automatically send a receipt by email immediately after the order is placed. Some customers won't use the printable receipt, but will expect the emailed receipt to arrive in their inbox within a minute or two of the order being completed. The email should provide a copy of the billing and shipping addresses, the cart contents (including any discounts, tax, and shipping charges), and a phone number to call in case of errors. If you can't send out an email immediately, state the expected delay time boldly somewhere on your web-based receipt page.

Use the Receipt Page for Merchandising and Engagement

The receipt page is an often-overlooked place to ask the customer for additional sales, feedback, and participation. Here are a few ideas to include on your receipt page:

• Link to your Facebook page
• Link to your Twitter account
• A form to sign up for your email newsletter or paper catalog
• The chance to add a popular accessory to their order
• An offer to upgrade their shipping for a special price

What about you?

Have you tried any of these already on your site or your customers' stores? What kind of difference did you see? In our particular case, we've noted a 1.5% improvement in conversion rates inside the funnel since implementing many of these changes, and we still have two pages left to tackle (the login page and the receipt page) - not to mention the receipt email itself! Leave your thoughts and ideas in the comments below.

No MMUI Please!

Miva Merchant ships with a default look-and-feel called MMUI - the Miva Merchant User Interface. It's there because it HAS to have SOMETHING, right? But it was never meant for public consumption...the developers always assumed people would replace it with an actual design. But many retailers didn't replace it - either they didn't have the skills, they were cheap, they were lazy, they didn't know better, or whatever - but lots of stores used it. And have been since year 19-whatever. Miva Merchant has since released a built-in CSS skin that is better, but still very basic, and yet this MMUI (see image, right, under the big red X) is still around on the web. You've probably seen it and groaned.

So I wanted to take this chance and showcase a bit of what CAN be done with Miva Merchant. Although I'd been planning this for a couple of weeks, in a timely coincidence, Chuck over at Merchant Tutorials posted about common Miva Merchant myths and the very first one is that the cart is limited in it's look and feel. Let's debunk that right now.

1. Green Tree Coffee & Tea

Green Tree Coffee & Tea

2. smallfri.com Birth Announcements

smallfri.com Birth Announcements

3. DJ Shadow

DJ Shadow

4. California Caviar

California Caviar

5. Mad Cat Toys

Mad Cat Toys

6. Bee Global

Bee Global Candle Studio

7. Mezzetta

Mezzetta Mediterranean Food

8. Rusty's Off-Road Products

Rusty's Off Road Products

9. Arcadia Publishing

Arcadia Publishing

10. Michael's Finer Meats and Seafoods

Michael's Finer Meats and Seafoods

One small caveat just for the sake of transparency: Mad Cat Toys is out of our clients at NetBlazon. But the design is completely the work of the owner, Dale Carlson of Propaganza...we just did the backend programming. So I'm not sneaking in a self-backpat or anything. Also, thanks to Scott from Sebenza for pointing us in the direction of Michael's Meats, a site I hadn't seen before.

Got any other examples of truly beautifully-designed Miva Merchant websites? Post them in the comments below!

The Landing Page Bible

Adler's argument is a good one. Landing pages, whether they are the result of a click from a PPC campaign, an email blast, printed advertisements, or other sources, need to be written and rewritten, designed and redesigned, all based on significant analytics and testing of their conversion and ROI. A good landing page can stand on its own and be tweaked ad infinitum to achieve its desired goal. Even if it passes traffic directly to the main website, the initial page a potential customer sees needs to do a good enough job of selling the product or service to convince the customer not to immediately go elsewhere, or "bounce".

Convinced yet? If so, it's time to take Cisco's advice on building the best landing page possible. Cisco is an expert in landing page design, providing optimization services to clients through his firm Adler Interactive. Prior to founding his company, he was vice president of marketing and communications for Belmont Abbey College. During his tenure he completely rebuilt Belmont Abbey's online initiatives. He has developed landing page strategies for companies throughout numerous industries and is a passionate believer in the value of high performance landing pages.

The number one thing to remember, according to the book, is to STAY FOCUSED. The landing page's headlines, imagery, and copy should all focus on the single most important benefit the user can receive by purchasing the product or service you're advertising. Beyond that, you should also address your writing to a single person. Don't focus on a group of users; instead, have a one-way conversation with the exact person reading your page, to convince them to make a purchase. From there, make sure your page addresses common objections to purchase, backs up its claims with statistics and facts, and avoids hype.

Once you have the landing page designed and written, read back through and then get it out there! According to Cisco, "If good is the enemy of great, then perfection is the enemy of online marketing." You can spend hours tweaking the copy, changing the image, and playing with position and color. But the longer it takes to publish the page, the more sales you are losing. The maneuverability of a single landing page allows it to be tweaked as needed after you publish it.

What other nuggets can you glean from the book?

1. How to organize your bullet points
2. How to increase the number of visitors that submit your landing pages' forms
3. What to put under your form's button
4. How to choose an image that conveys your message, instead of distracting from it

The best part is that the book also gives more cutting-edge ways to improve your landing pages. Cisco effectively discusses the use of video, prospect segmentation, content creation, and testing strategies. A bonus section at the end of the book gives you 5 Ways to Improve ROI.

Overall, "The Landing Page Bible" is an easy read, with a topic that is both well-covered and clearly explained. Cisco leaves you with the enthusiasm that you CAN actually increase your conversion rate, and a roadmap for finding the sweet spot on your landing page design. For those who don't wish to handle landing page optimization in-house, Cisco's firm Adler Interactive offers landing page optimization services to help you increase lead generation and conversion rates.

FREE DOWNLOAD - Read the first 5 chapters for free by downloading the sample from http://a.adlerinteractive.com/LPBReviewNetblazon

1. Be Transparent - In a medium as anonymous as the Internet, the concept of transparency means being clear about who you are and your motives and goals. Transparency is especially important on ecommerce sites. Customers want to know that the people behind the site are honest and trustworthy, not someone who's using the site as a front for fraud. One way to do this is on your "About" page. Identify the person or people behind the business, including a brief background as it pertains to the business (education, career, etc). A picture is a great benefit, because visually-oriented customers can develop a sense of the people they are doing business and communicating with. Video is even better!
   

   About Page from Melissa and Doug

2. Start a Blog - Publishing a blog takes commitment, but it's a great way to show your business personality to customers, and to show them that behind the site is a living, breathing business. Frequently-updated content also shows commitment, a kind of "TLC" to your audience. Allow comments, too, so that you can start a conversation back-and-forth with readers of the blog.
3. Use a dedicated SSL certificate - They are relatively inexpensive and typically require very little work on your part. When customers see your site go from http://www.yoursite.com to https://site12345.somelargehost.com/yoursite/whatever during checkout, it can be disconcerting. On a related note, make sure that your checkout pages don't include content that is not loaded securely, because a warning message will appear.
   

   Avoid Security Warnings

4. Use Security Badges - Demonstrate security with standard graphics that customers have come to expected. Credit card icons show that you have taken the time to select and integrate true payment-processing into your site, instead of relying solely on Paypal or checks by mail. Many SSL certificate providers offer badges that customers can click to confirm that the site uses standard encryption. Take that a step further by signing up for McAfee or Controlscan, which also offer site testing measures. Traditional businesses often display Better Business Bureau window stickers or Chamber of Commerce plaques; there are equivalent BBB and Chamber images that accomplish the same thing on ecommerce sites.
   

   Credibility Badges from Newegg.com

5. Phone, Email, Live Chat - Make it easy for customers to contact you using a variety of methods. Publish a phone number - a toll-free one if possible - in a prominent location on all pages, and try to answer calls during business hours. If you can't always answer it, return voice messages quickly. Use a live chat service for customers who don't want to interrupt their surfing to look for a phone, or offer contact forms on every page that are quickly answered by email.
   

   Crutchfield offers a variety of contact methods

6. Display Customer Testimonials - Gather customer testimonials and publish them on your website. While it's ok to ask customers for testimonials, don't make them up; people can spot fakes pretty easily. Offer a single testimonial on your homepage, and link to a page of additional testimonials.
   

   IDWholesaler.com shows one testimonial on their Homepage

7. Publish Store Policies - Publish your policies and link to them from your sitewide footer and within your help section. At a minimum, you should publish:
   • a privacy policy covering customers' personal and financial information
   • a return policy outlining what products can be returned and what the process is
   • shipping policies that describe what carriers you use, what the lead or fulfillment time is, and whether you guarantee shipping delivery dates
8. After The Sale - Follow up on your promises and thank your customer for their business. A customer's first order with your store solidifies (or demolishes) any credibility created on your actual ecommerce site. Offers customers a fair price and a good shopping experience, and many will return. When you make a mistake: Explain, apologize, and offer to make amends.