Great Conversion Cast, i really enjoy the way you break it down in a clear, easy for site owners to comprehend fashion.

You covered almost everything, the one change i would make is to add some interesting content/headlines to really make the Students and Teachers categories stand out and serve a purpose. Right now theirs no descriptions or headlines welcoming students and explaining how the products are made for them…its just a page of products under the student/teacher headings…

One rule that i like to follow is that everything should serve a purpose.. if they are going to go to the extent of adding that top navigation they should go the extra mile and really communicate the purpose of it.

Hope this helps.

I agree with you about the Live Chat feature, especially for eCommerce sites. In Joe Pulizzi, and the folks at Be Greeted did a webinar that talked about the advantage of chat in the content cycle. You can view it here.

Regarding ratings and reviews, you’ll see that Bazaarvoice, a provider of retail ratings and reviews solutions is using chat on their Web site.

Having said all of this, there are a few strategies that you’ve got to get right, or the rest of this doesn’t matter. That is what I’m shooting for when I do a ConversionCast. I count on smart guys like you to fill in the rest.

–Brian

I would like to add my $0.02 and see what your thoughts are about them:

1) I noticed the company had some kind of pseudo-chat tool. I think it said “Click here to leave a message”. Maybe it was chat, and it was after hours. Nonetheless, I feel that live chat is a HUGE factor in getting higher conversions, particularly with complex products. Rackspace/Mosso uses live chat to not only provide support, but to aid conversions, and it works very well. Depending on how this company staffs their chat, I would place more emphasis on that chat box to aid the customer. I have seen some chat boxes that float up and down the page, so you don’t lose site of them. What is your take on those?

2) I think there would be added benefit if each product had options for ratings and comments. When we see e-commerce pages with lots of product choices, we’re not always sure as to which one is best. So I think the way download.com, or newegg.com have their ratings and commenting system, could provide lots of added value to the site, and increase conversions.