The E-Commerce Blog

Zip Code Guy provides detailed zip code maps for every county in the U.S. You can choose by state or individual county, or buy maps for the entire country. They are also offering a special free U.S. zip code database.

For those of you who are wondering “Why in the world would I want information on zip codes?”, targeting marketing campaigns by specific areas based on demographics is highly effective. For instance, you may be marketing a specific high-end service in a metropolitan area, so targeting to only the high-income zip codes will save you a lot of money and time.

There are multiple uses for zip code information. E-Commerce store owners can use the information to research potential credit card fraud issues, or match postal zip codes to cities.

Your e-commerce store’s conversion rate is the ratio of visitors to customers. It’s the percentage of visitors that actually complete a sale online. Simple example:

20 sales / 1000 unique visitors = 0.02 = 2% conversion rate

Your store’s conversion rate is critical to your success. The average conversion rate for retail B2B e-commerce is 2-4%. I think this metric is actual skewed however, because many of the largest e-commerce businesses have conversion rates of over 10%.

I’d estimate the average e-commerce store with revenues under $1,000,000 has a conversion rate of less than 1%. And I’d bet that most of the owners don’t even know their conversion rate is that low because they either don’t understand what a conversion rate is or they don’t check it often and do anything about it.

Knowing your conversion rate is necessary if you plan on improving it. There are website analytics tools such as Google Analytics that can be configured to show your store’s conversion rate very easily. Use a tool and monitor your store’s conversion rate at least monthly, and especially whenever you make changes to your store’s layout or design.

Worldwide Brands has released a video series on e-commerce. If you’re not familiar with the company, WorldWide Brands is a product sourcing company for e-commerce and retail businesses. They are on of the only reputable sourcing companies I’ve found for sourcing product for your e-commerce store.

Worldwide Brands has one of the largest directories of bulk wholesalers, light bulk wholesalers and drop shippers. They verify the information of all their suppliers rigorously. Unlike many “drop shipper” directories you can find in Google, Worldwide Brands is a legitimate company. They have been around for years (I have been a member for at least 3 years) and is the only product directory I recommend.

They have released a new video series on e-commerce and the current “recession” in the United States. Only two videos have been released so far, but there is some good content and will get you thinking and planning your e-commerce store. I’m sure this video series will be an excellent source of information and inspiration for new e-commerce store owners (or those thinking about starting one).

The video series won’t be up forever, so make sure to sign up and watch it. It’s totally free, and there’s no catch. If you like the information and want to start an e-commerce business (or another one) I highly recommend Worldwide Brands as a way of finding reputable companies to purchase product from.

I am not affiliated with Worldwide Brands in any way. I’m just a satisfied customer.