Today, Comscore forecasted flat growth for e-commerce holiday spending. Many online retailers are experiencing slowing growth due to customers deal-hunting and buying fewer, less expensive gifts. As customers become more frugal and spend with discretion, it’s important for online retailers to engage customers. The E-Commerce Times recently published an article about enhancing customer experience that mentioned that “traditional e-commerce sites are almost absurdly passive,” (which is also true about most company web sites in the service industry).

Part of good marketing and earning new customers is knowing them and anticipating their needs. Engaging customers — and touching on emotion — can help generate sales. The article discusses a few examples of website features and microsites that are good examples of “out of the box” sales generation tools.

During a client presentation back in September, I used the example of JC Penney’s “Get that look” microsite as a good example of how online retailers can use online video and interactivity to engage customers and sell products. The video was for the “back to school” timeframe and has been taken down, but the “choose-your-own-adventure-style” interactive rich media featured well-merchandised products available at JCPenney’s web site.

The Ecommerce Times article lists other examples of retailers that engage customers if you’d like to see examples.

Get some other ideas to respond to the economic downturn:

• Download and watch the “No Retreat! Investing in eCommerce Despite the Times” webinar from Lauren Freedman and the Acquity Group
• Read the PlumbersSurplus interview with e-commerce analyst Linda Bustos
• Boost your site’s average order size. Learn some tips to do this at Blue Acorn’s blog
• Carefully weigh the costs and benefits of offering free shipping
• 80% of customers say they would likely increase coupon use if coupons were tailored to their interests and delivered online.

There are a number of free, easy or cheap ways that online retailers can boost their traffic and sales this holiday season. With the economic downturn in full swing, retailers are being forced to be more innovative to keep pace with last year’s sales numbers. Here are some ideas.
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Ok, I’ll start by saying that this isn’t easy. It’s not for the lazy. It’s not easy money. It takes a lot of effort, but you can do it. It’s making money from a blog. So how is it done?
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Last week, we launched the new Thalhimer web site. For those not in Virginia, Morton G. Thalhimer, Inc. is a commercial real estate company based in Richmond, VA with multiple offices across the state. We redesigned and redeveloped their web site.

The process started with a full web site assessment. We analyzed how their target audience used their web site by conducting usability studies and examining web analytics. We used all of this information to complete a full visual redesign of the web site, and we redeveloped the site to make it easier for customers on both traditional screens and on mobile devices to use. The site is also easier to update — they don’t have to involve the IT group to make changes or add content.

The site uses Expression Engine to control most site content, and integrates with internal databases as well.

See the site at thalhimer.com.

When publishing articles online, there are a few guidelines that help people read your site — use bullet points, write in short paragraphs and offer an article summary. CNN’s web site, though, provides the best implementation of article summaries I’ve seen.

While I’ve seen and even recommended the approach of using article summaries before, I think CNN’s article summaries do a few things very well.

• The summary is located in the right place. The headline is large and attracts attention, and the summary is immediately to the right.
• The summary uses short, one-line bullet points
• There’s a small yet noticeable link to the next article in case the current one does not interest you.