Here are Truaxis’ top 10 ways to increase sales in the 2012 while giving your customers exactly what they need, when they need it:

Use Analytics and Metrics
ROI for Targeted Advertising
Loyalty Programs
Segmentation
Invest in Mobile Tactics
Build Relationships with Customers
Localization
Socialize Your Site
Manage Your Reputation
Gamification

More detalis in this infographic.

Here is a selection of 25 useful plugins for your WordPress that covers different areas, from performance of the website to SEO and social media:
Enhancing content

Scribe SEO – instructs web writers how to tweak their content to get more search engine traffic, all while maintaining quality reader-focused copy
iflickr – allows to easily download Flickr photos that are licensed under Creative Commons to the local server for attaching to posts
Photo Dropper – lets you add Creative Commons licensed Photos to Your Posts from Flickr
WordPress Video Plugin – allows easy video embedding …

comScore released an interesting global report providing an in-depth analysis of the female Internet user, highlighting key trends by Internet activity, worldwide region and digital channel. While some female behaviors are somewhat obvious, others are quite surprising. What we thought we knew about how moms, college girls, and retirees use the Web is constantly evolving. Here are some of the key findings:
Social networking is central to women’s Internet experience. Regardless of how much you believe that women are primarily communicators, networkers and facilitators, it’s clear they are embracing social networking …

When you finally find a free WordPress theme for your project, you might discover that it’s got loads of spammy links in the footer, and they seem to be encrypted. If you simply try to edit the footer file and delete them you’ll see that theme it’s not working anymore…
But, thanks to the guys from GetNetted, there is a magic trick to remove that encrypted links. And you don’t have to be a senior programmer in order to complete this task in less than 3 minutes. So, you can find …

For many parents, the final weeks of summer means only one thing: the first day of school for children is near, so it’s time for back-to-school shopping. According to Compete survey of consumers conducting back-to-school shopping revealed that 3 out of 4 back-to-school shoppers plan to spend as much or more money than last year.

Nearly 30% of back-to-school shoppers said they plan to do at least half of their purchasing online. Product categories that will benefit the most from that trend include electronics, dorm room accessories and kitchen supplies, suggesting …

Is your website driving sales or driving them away? New findings in Oneupweb’s latest white paper, Revolutionizing Website Design: The New Rules Of Usability, reveal the new standards in website form and function and show how they directly affect sales.
“Website functionality is comprised of many complex variables,” says Oneupweb Founder and CEO, Lisa Wehr. “And we’ve managed to break down the chaos by uncovering the significant relationship between visual aesthetics, usability and sales.”
And, Oneupweb has uncovered more than the relationship between these three success factors – they’ve distilled the instrumental …

Here is a different approach for a shopping cart. A funny one :
“Many have tried. Many have failed. Do you have what it takes to be a hero?”

Searching for a Wordpress theme for a niche website, I found a very nice one & free and I want to share it with you. It’s called Single Product and it comes from PrimoThemes:

Here are the most important details you need to know:

works with WP 2.8.4+
PHP 5.2+ required on your server
3 color variations available: blue, tan, purple
multiple options for theme customization
support for custom thumbnail display
threaded comments
support for Gravatars
AddThis included for social networking
widgets ready
ad codes widget for Adsense or your sponsor banners, with option to shuffle/rotate them
FREE, no need to keep …

What people buy online differs substantially from what they buy in-store. According to a study by the US Census Bureau, the bulk of sales are still in-store. There are, however, several categories in which online sales dominate each product marketplace. These include books and magazines, clothing, and electronics.
Here is an excellent graphic from Permuto that ilustrates that (click to enlarge):

Google released a guide on five tools that could help you converting clicks into profits. Tools covered in this guide are:

Google Insight for Search
AdWords Conversion Tracking
Conversion Optimizer
Google Analytics
Website Optimizer

You get 25 useful pages that will help you increase your online profits by tracking results and driving competitive improvements. Full guide (14 languages available) can be downloaded from here.