iknowthe.net | Internet and Ecommerce Consultant

More than half of websites selling electronic goods and tested in an EU investigation were breaking European laws aimed at protecting consumers.

The analysis of 369 websites selling mobiles, DVD players and games consoles in 28 European countries found that 203 of them held misleading information.
The biggest failure surrounded the right to return a product bought on the internet within seven days.
Of the 203 cases facing further investigation:
Two-thirds (66%) failed to adequately explain that consumers had seven days to return a product bought over distance for a full refund and without giving a reason. Others failed to explain the right to have a faulty product repaired or replaced for at least two years after sale
Details about extra delivery charges were missing or difficult to find on the website in 45% of cases
A third (33%) did not fully outline the trader’s name, address or email details so they could not be contacted if there was a problem.

Really great presentation on designing for the social web. Many of the principles work for site conversion too – definitely worth a read.

I found a great post by Getelastic on add to cart buttons.

Loads of examples and some useful stats on usage. Of course, its US centric, but useful none the less.

Hitwise reports that [Bing] “Traffic peaked on June 3, when Bing was the eighth most visited website in the UK (ahead of all BBC properties, but one behind MSN UK) and the third ranked search engine, accounting for 10.8% of the UK market. Since the initial launch hype, traffic to the site has declined. However, one positive sign is that average visit time has increased to eight and a half minutes. This is half of Google UK’s number but only slightly below Yahoo! UK Search, implying that the people are actually spending time on the site and using it rather than just visiting out of curiosity.”