Knowing what online shoppers expect when visiting an ecommerce site is just one part of the puzzle. Online retailers need to offer consumers a variety of useful features to build loyalty and get conversions.

Coverage of the Shop.org 2009 Annual Summit conference continues at WebProNews Videos.  Stay with WebProNews for more notes and videos from the event this week.

In the session "Innovations in eCommerce" the panel offered a number of tips on how to be a successful online retailer.

Sheila Dahlgren, Director of Product Marketing for Scene7, Adobe, noted how ecommerce sites are now displaying "quick clicks" and eliminating extra clicks. Consumers can just mouse over and get their product information, which can help to drive conversions.

Ivy Chin, VP, QVC

Ivy Chin, Vice President, QVC, said getting customers to product detail speeds up the shopping process and leads to conversions. As an example, some sites are giving consumers options for displaying more products per page in addition to best selling items, top rated, and other guided options.

Peter Cobb, Co-Founder, eBags, believes there will be stronger integration of guided options moving forward. People don’t have the patience to search, so retailers need to make the buying process speedy and easy for the consumers. That can lead to conversions and customer loyalty.

Paul Miller, President, Enservio Retail, said the content in guided options has to be relevant to what consumers want. Focus on what’s relevant and not just having a lot of options.

Fast Forward: Consumers drive trends

1. Automated targeting and personalization
2. Social shopping/commerce
3. Long-tail merchandising: build your own, sell it to yourself and to others
4. Controlled content: open site – vendor content/consumer content
5. Mobile/portable and multichannel commerce

Chin expects personalization will expand.  Consumers in the future will expect more from retailers, so they must apply the information they have.

Miller pointed out if personalization is done poorly, retailers will lose customers. Testing is very necessary because just getting information out there is not enough, it has to be good.

Cobb said retailers need to think ahead. If a customer buys a tent, then the retailers can assume they need other camping accessories and offer them to the customer.

Chin added, know your customers and meet their needs. Don’t just do what’s popular.

WebProNews Reporter/Anchor Abby Johnson contributed to this report.