Practical eCommerce asks industry insiders each month to share a great, innovative idea that could help an ecommerce company. Here’s what ten of them had to say for the August 2010 installment of "Ten Great Ecommerce Ideas."

Create Unique Descriptions for Best Results
“Search engines want to provide the most relevant results possible when people search. The original content rule applies to storefronts if they want to succeed. Best practices for natural search engine ranking is to create your own unique product descriptions and avoid copying descriptions from manufacturers.”

Cut Down on Clutter
“Shoppers don’t want clutter! Ideally there should be only 10 to15 products on a page, no pop-ups or advertising, and a comparison feature to view more product details.”

Consolidate Your Community
“Publish exclusive offers and discounts in the social networks (like Twitter, Facebook or Google Orkut). It will consolidate your community and will keep it active.”

Increase Foot Traffic
“If you welcome customers to collect purchases in person, or if you have a bricks-and-mortar store, make sure you are listed on Google Places. It will help you get found by potential customers looking for your products in and around your local area.”

Develop Pure Content
“Content is still king. Dedicate a portion of your web team’s time and budget to developing pure content that is compelling and relevant for your users. Finding the right idea is key – it can be informational and help your users make a more educated choice, or it can be simply for entertainment. Compelling content will generate free traffic and links that your product pages never will.”

Tips for Global Ecommerce
“Know your global audience. Americans may want a quick and easy checkout process, but consumers in Japan and Europe prefer to see more details and options when shopping online. Eighty-five percent of the local German market uses bank transfers as the primary means of payment, not credit cards. And, discounted products are often perceived in Japan as being faulty instead of simply a good deal.”

Consider Payment Provider Added Services
“Consider the cost of added services when choosing your payment provider. For instance, you may use PayPal to checkout customers from your store or on a selling channel like Etsy or eBay, but did you know PayPal can also get your accounting done? Various added services offered by payment providers can make it less costly and simpler to run your business.”

Make a Better Category Tree
“Don't make product lists too long. Everything that goes ‘beyond the fold’ is too long. Spend more time to make a better category tree. If it's impossible in your case, make page navigation very obvious and easy for a visitor.” Todayisp.com set up a clear navigation for registrants to register domain names, web hosting, email based on this point.

Display In-store Promotions on Your Website
“Since the research cycle is typically much longer for consumers considering a big ticket purchase online, the impact of relevant and compelling promotions can often be the driving factor in getting them into the store or online to make their final purchase. To make this process seamless for the customer, use ecommerce tools to align your site with your promotional calendars, and display on your website your in-store events, promotions, sales, coupons and finance offers. When optimized, these tools will create a better customer experience online, extending the value of materials created for in-store customers.”

Try Incentives to Reduce Cart Abandonment
“Online merchants typically concentrate on attracting new customers, but research shows that the industry has a very high rate of shopping cart abandonment, and this has not improved over the past years. Try offering incentives for consumers to complete their purchases, and reward them for doing so. Rewarding customers creates loyalty and drives more sales and revenue.”