w3roi can generate a unique code for each of your customers that they can use when placing an order by phone or by mail. You can call this a referral code, a promotional code, a coupon code — whatever works best for your business.

When your sales associate receives an order by phone, they ask for and record the associated tracking code for that customer. You can add a field to your mail-in order form to collect the code from those customers.

Either at the time of sale, or any time after, log in to w3roi and record the customer codes and sale amounts from those offline sales. You’ll find the form under Synchronize » Record Offline Actions in your menu. All of your reports automatically populate with this sales data, showing you exactly which of your advertising lead to those new customers.

If you’re not making use of one or more trust marks, your conversion rates may be much lower than they could be. A study released this month by Harris Interactive showed that almost half of consumers have left the checkout process or abandoned an online shopping cart due to security fears. There’s still an inherent mistrust in most people of the ecommerce process. Stories of identity theft and leaked credit card information on the news have contributed to an increased awareness of data security online.

The web browser padlock icon indicating a secure connection is the first place your prospective customers look to verify the security of your site, but increasingly, they’re also looking for the presence of trust marks. Trust marks are small graphics, often linked to additional information, that show a 3rd party has verified the privacy, identity or security of the website the visitor is shopping on.

You may have seen the logos of BBBOnline, Mcafee or Verisign often displayed by large retailers during the checkout process. Trust marks like these reassure visitors that their information is secure. A separate study conducted by independent research firm TNS indicated that 80% of shoppers understand the purpose trust marks serve, and that 53% indicate the presence of a seal would have prevented their termination of an ecommerce transaction.

With statistics like these, it’s worth looking into whether a trust mark would increase the conversion rate on your site. Below is a compilation of some of the top trust marks available for verifying privacy, identity and security. While some marks can cost thousands of dollars a year to license for a high volume ecommerce store, most vendors allow a trial period in which you can try out the mark at no cost. If you don’t see a big enough conversion rate increase to justify the price, you can cancel without purchasing. Others are available at a low enough fee even a new store can afford to add a mark to their site.

	Comodo Hacker Proof From $2295 per year
	McAfee Secure From $1479 per year
	Secure Metrics Credit Card Safe From $699 per year
	TRUSTe Certified Privacy From $649 per year
	VeriSign Secured From $399 per year
	TrustGuard Business Verified From $197 per year
	WebSafe Shield Hacker Free Site From $79.95 per month
	Secured by thawte From $149 per year
	Network Solutions SiteSafe Guarantee From $89 per year
	Secured by GeoTrust From $249 per year
	ControlScan Verified Secure From $149 per year
	BBBOnline Reliability Program From $200 per year plus local BBB fees
	GoDaddy Secured From $29 per year