Adulthood Checklist.

(Inspired by Rudy-san's blog post)
Keep in mind that all adults reach their developmental milestones at their own pace. It is important not to compare your adult's rate of development to that of his peers. The following list is meant only as a guideline and not as a cause for alarm.
By thirty-years-old, your adult will probably be able to...
Feed and maintain a house pet - does an ex husband count? hehe the true answer is YES
Hold down a job - I held it down for 5 years, the past two jobs that I've held down have punched me back.
Maintain eye contact while speaking - Thankfully yes.
Refrain from discussing high school - Nah, I still talk about it at least once a week like it was...10 years ago.
Cook a meal (three-course) - I can watch it, cook it, and eat it. does that make me advanced?
Make small talk - small and big talk
Forgive his family - Oh yes. They forgive me back.
Acknowledge other viewpoints (social) - I do. but not always in agreement or with humor
Detect and respond to ambiguity - I don't respond well to it, but I can recognize it.
Finish school - NYU *buuurp* finished it, plate is all clean.


Your thirty-year-old adult may be able to...
Make a martini (vodka) - No, I can make a shot though.
Tie a half-Windsor knot - Absolutely not. But I do know how to put a garter belt together.
Drive a manual transmission - No. -1 point
Refrain from discussing college - absolutely not.
Get married - Yes, and "ungot" it too.
File his taxes (EZ form) - ez form is for noobs.
Remember 5-10 friends' birthdays - I remember friends' birthdays if i was friends with them from high school. shows my acumen for numbers lasted until i was 16.
Acknowledge other viewpoints (political) - I do.
Get a flu shot - yes, and it hurt for a week.
Give a toast - no, never have....hmm I have to consider this for a second.
Install storm windows - Yes!
Go back to school - will do after s**tstorm subsides in 2011


Some advanced thirty-year-olds may possibly be able to...
Make a martini (gin) - no but again, I can make a shot of this too!
File his taxes (standard 1040) - 1040s are for noobs
Make and keep dental appointments - hooray for not having any cavities! +2 points
Have a baby - Woopiee! +999 points * 100 points per year before Adam is self sufficient
Finish school - *buuurp* finished it again.

Will it be a White Christmas this year?

This year I'm going all out celebration. Hoping it's going to be a white Christmas so I can show Adam how to make snow angels. While I'm at it I'm making a list of Top 10 reasons...

Top 10 Reasons why Christmas is so Awesome:

1) snow angels
2) reason to drink hot cocoa with whipped cream and cocoa powder
3) always something excellent cooking in the kitchen
4) Christmas albums
5) rosy cheeks
6) sets the bar back down low so when spring comes it's amazing
7) shoveling snow until my back hurts
8) gift wrapping - a lost art
9) the shiny decorations everywhere. Us women LOVE shiny things.
10) making memories, christmas cards, etc.

What are your favs for this time of year?

Chili con Carne - Winter favorites!

I recently cooked a batch of Chili con carne and brought it into my office - to the delight of a coworker of mine, who bought a bowl for $3.

This recipe will feed a small army of 8. Garnish it with chives or sour cream or shredded cheddar - I like mine over some rice.

Chili Con Carne
1 pound of ground chuck
1 small green bell pepper, diced
1 small red bell pepper, diced
1 medium onion, diced
14.5 ounce can of Hunt's Fire Roasted Tomatoes, diced
7 ounce can of Hunt's tomato sauce
6 ounce can of Cento tomato paste
19 ounce can of Progresso dark red kidney beans
if you like it really rich, add in another 14 ounce can of pink beans
1.14 ounce bottle of McCormick Chili Powder
Goya Adobo powder
Salt, Pepper
Garlic Powder

Preparations:

In a non-stick frying pan over medium heat, brown ground chuck and onions. Season at any time with 2 tablespoons of chili powder, 1 teaspoon of Adobo, 1 teaspoon each of salt, pepper, and garlic powder. Toss in green and red bell peppers and fry for another minute before shutting off the flame.

In a soup pot over low heat, mix tomatoes, paste, sauce, beans, and one cup water. Pour in contents of your frying pan.

Simmer over low heat, stirring every 30 minutes, for about 1.5 hours.

Oh-so-deliciousness awaits!

Coming Soon...

A new background, new images, new layout.

Ideas for me? Send to cwang924@gmail.com

The Importance of Site Search Analytics for e-Commerce

Executives can't get enough of case studies. Why? Because they like to hear how others in the same vertical/industry/boat have failed in an endeavor and then rattle off at least 3 reasons why their own business is going to succeed and why they have an upper hand.

I was tasked with making a case for why a previous ecommerce client needed to invest X dollars into building a better site search engine. The following is my case study on "Company 734" (alias) that I presented to my client.

"Company 734 and Site Search" (so exciting, I know.)

The Business

Company-734.com began in 1990 with the idea of extending their reach of the brick and mortar brand online as many of its competitors began launching simliar retail eCommerce websites. The main focus was to attract the Baby boomers who were beginning to adopt the idea of the web as a new way of shopping. Through this initiative, Company 734 strove to better service online shoppers while preserving its brand.

Company 734's recent marketing strategies have included partnerships with comparison shopping sites such as CouponCabing and DealSea. On average, 85% of buyers coming from comparison shopping sites used promotion codes to make a purchase. Versus all other shoppers, these promotion code users were three times more likely to make a purchase, and their average order value was $20 higher, resulting in a positive $11 ROI [Figure 1].

Promotion code usage dropped significantly when other channels of traffic were evaluated, especially among the loyal customers, who received promotion codes weekly through email newsletters.

Considering the higher conversion rates of segments that had easy access to promotion codes, it was in Company 734's best interest to have their codes front and center in all marketing channels.

The Challenge

Compared to all customers, loyal customers of Company-734.com were unable to locate the best promotion codes for their purchase, exhibited by their lower site search usage as compared to other segments' site search usage. To counteract this, the content team published codes weekly onto a "content" page, but weekly promotion code usage did not rise as a result.

The analytics data showed that customers were not able locate promotion codes. Searches including the word "Coupon" and "Promotion Code" were trending upward month over month as the holiday season approached. At its height, "Promotion" -related search terms accounted for 20% of all site search but generated 0% conversion. The majority of these searches were coming from loyal customers.

The Technology

After initial research it was determined that iNile, Company 734's eCommerce platform provider, had built a basic site search engine that could only index product pages. This meant that the Promotion code content page that was published as a means to fix this problem was not showing up in search results. To further exacerbate this problem, iNile's system was unable to show available promotion codes at checkout, though this is not best practice for eCommerce sites, it would have been a workaround until the advanced site search engine was built.

Assuming that customers who were seeking promotions on-site act the same way as customers who came to the site with a promotion code (visitors from CouponCabin and other comparison shopping networks), this technical failure carried an opportunity cost of $5,425 in lost revenue, or 1% of annual revenue [Figure 2]. With consumer spending trending downward month over month, this opportunity to gain incremental revenue could not be ignored.

The Results

iNile's development team provided a workaround for their site search by building an "intelligent" redirect system. The content team would upload a batch of search terms - variations of "Coupon" and "Promotion Code" - and when a visitor entered a string that matched the batch, the Promotion Code content page would be served in place of the normal Search Results page.

Within a month after implementation, conversion from the "Coupon" and "Promotion Code" search terms and variations increased to 3% from 0% - a 300% increase. Average Order Value from these search strings was 15% higher than the site average. The growth in conversion was the impetus the content team needed to further optimize their search term batch that triggered the intelligent redirect. After 1 week of optimization efforts, the conversion from "Coupon" and "Promotion Code" related search terms grew to 4%.

The end result was that the segment of visitors who were searching for Promotion Codes once they got to the site outperformed the comparison shopping segment in terms of Net Revenue [Figure 3]

Next Steps: Building a Better Coupon Strategy

With the success of this site search project, Company 734 is now building a more robust shopping cart where there is much more flexibility to display and add multiple promotion codes. Customers can layer available deals in different product categories.