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Archive for the ‘Ecommerce’ Category
5 Ways to Promote Free Shipping
Monday, October 12, 2009
If you search online for a particular product you probably find lots of people who are selling what you want or what you are selling. How does a person choose who to buy from? You may think that price is important though you may be surprised it isn’t the only factor. Plus, many websites have similar prices that don’t make significant differences, so it is how you differentiate what makes your business special that makes a difference.
For promotions like “Free Shipping” to work you need to make it obvious for online shoppers
For the tips listed below you can substitute what ever promotion your website has including flat rate shipping, free returns, gift with purchase, or etc.
Especially with the holiday season approaches, research has shown that promotions like free shipping or free returns is what makes the difference for holiday shoppers.
5 Ways to Promotion Your Promotion Like Free Shipping
- Meta tags: meta tags are the information that is displayed in the search engine results like Google. Adding your promotion into your meta tags means that online searchers are going to see that your organic listing offers free shipping which can be the reason a customer chooses to click on your search results over your competition.
- Home page: is your promotion obvious on your home page? That doesn’t mean at the bottom right of your navigation. If your promotion is a business differentiator than highlight it in your header of your website so very visitor sees your promotion.
- Product feeds: if you are using shopping portals like Shopping.com or Nextag.com as examples check out to see if the shopping portals allow you to put “free shipping” into your product feed. In comparison shopping portals “free shipping” will drastically increase your click throughs and conversions.
- Category pages: for your online store your category page shows a list of your products in that category. This page may seem obvious so most people over look its potential. This page is one of the #1 pages visitors look at so showing your promotion like “free shipping” underneath each product listing adds another opportunity for visitors to get your message.
- Product pages: add your promotion in the title of your product pages so as people find the product they are looking for they automatically see your promotion. Also, add your promotion right next to the “add to cart” button. You can never over state your online store’s differentiators.
3 Ecommerce Website Store Trends
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
If you want to open an Ecommerce online store it is easier than ever. There are many different options that allow users with no to little programming experience build an online store to sell their products. The question comes how do you seperate yourself from your competition. My first answer would be SEO. If you can out rank your competition for not just major keywords though the thousands of different ways your customers are searching for your products right now you will be successful.
Videos are one Ecommerce trend you could implement without any tech knowledge
For the purpose of this post though we are looking at Ecommerce website store trends which are going to demonstrate more professionalism and hopefully work to convert more visitors to sales. The goal of these trends are to increase conversion percentage though these are not listed as tested ways to increase conversions, simply trends in where online stores are going.
3 Ecommerce Website Store Trends
- Videos: with the use of embed codes videos are easy to add to your website. Videos offer the visitor greater access to what your products or services offer. Also, videos increase time on the site which Google tracks and uses as a way to determine if people are liking your website. Load your video onto a any of the video sites and then copy and paste the embed code into your website. I personally really like Vimeo.com which has professional options that you can customize into your look and feel.
- Content Sliders: content sliders are the carousels that websites use to showcase certain products with photos and descriptions that visitors can rotate through. Content sliders increase the tech “know how” which in turns increases the web visitors confidence that your online store is professional.
- Go Large: if you have noticed big is in. Large product images, big banners, gigantic font, and so on is the latest trend in Ecommerce websites. More people now have larger screen sizes and better updated browsers can handle the load times. All of these factors allow bigger to be better. Larger images and text draw the eyes to where you want them and are easier to read. You have 3-5 seconds to grab your visitor into staying. Going large makes that job easier for people to instantly understand what your website is about.
Steps You Need to Translate the Language of Ecommerce Website
Saturday, August 22, 2009
You are looking at the stats of your Google Analytics and you see foreign countries that have visited your ecommerce online store. Won’t it be great if those people could read your products in their own language. Yes, we could be myopic and think that they should just learn English. Business is about opportunities and right now very few online stores are taking advantage of all the potential customers who speak different languages. Especially even in the United States that has a heavily populated Hispanic population.
To translate your store you have to do more than Google translator
Google has a feature called Google Translator that will translate any web page into your language. This sounds good though as you know not everything translates perfectly from language to language.
For those websites that want to capture non English speaking customers than you want to think about in terms of a commitment to making your website available for those non English speaking customers than just a quick fix.
5 Tips for Translating your Ecommerce Website
- Rephrase: phrases mean different things in different languages. You want to take the time to find out how different cultures call things differently. For example if you are selling pocket knives you may call them folding knives in Spanish.
- Translation Sheet: make a list of common terms used on your website, for example “On Sale.” You many use this term hundreds to thousands of times throughout your website though you only want to pay to have it translated once.
- Hire a Real Person: you will find that if you use a program to translate your website there will be all sorts of errors which you don’t even know about because you don’t speak the language. You will make the money back in conversions and more sales if you hire a professional translator to match what you want to say into the right phrase in the new language.
- Translation Memory: you can get a software program to track already translated terms and phrases. This way you don’t have to hire a translator or a foreign language writer every time you add a new product.
- Review: this works for your website in English as well. It is vital that you review and look over your translated sections of your website. You may have to hire a professional to do this. Look for broken links not just errors in the text.
3 Ecommerce Website Upgrades that Increase Sales
Saturday, August 22, 2009
Ecommerce websites are always looking on how to increase conversions. Sometimes a website owner can tinker with their website so much with different items that they decrease conversions. The following are three items that have been shown to increase conversions which means you increase sales without more traffic to your website.
If you haven’t spent time on your conversion percentage, now is the time
Increasing sales through conversion percentage is always important though it can be even more important with the holiday season approaching. Ecommerce websites need to have everything in place months before the holiday season to make sure all the bugs are out. You don’t want to be making changes to your website the day before Cyber Monday.
3 Ecommerce Website Upgrades that Increase Sales
- Perpetual shopping carts: there are many different versions of perpetual shopping carts based on the company you chose. The idea is the same though that a dynamic photo of items added to your shopping cart are displayed for the visitor. This a visual reminder that there are items in their shopping cart and decreases shopping cart abandonment. You can also have price and shipping costs displayed with the photo.
- Internal site search: hopefully your ecommerce website has a site search capability which allows visitors to search your site for the exact products or items they are looking for. Customers consistently prefer site search over using your category navigation, especially if they know what they want. You can optimize your site search to display items that are expiring first, largest profit margins first, or any other format that would optimize your ability to promote or move inventory.
- Better product pages: when is the last time you looked at the display page for your products. Enhanced displays to offer more photos, details, and maybe even videos can increase the percentage of web visitors who purchase. It is important that these items flow and don’t clutter up the page. You can also have the most vital information with a large add to cart button “above the fold” while allowing those that want more info to find it by scrolling down on the page. Adding more photo options is an easy way to increase the display of your product pages.
5 Ecommerce Tips You Can Implement Today
Saturday, August 22, 2009
Every ecommerce website owner is always looking for ways to increase sales, lower costs, and make their marketing plan more effective. Often small business owners get lost in the details of what they are already doing for their Internet marketing. The goal of this article is to give the small business owner 5 tips that they can implement immediately that will support their overall efforts to increase profit from their website.
Having your entire team understand how they can play a role in your SEO can pay huge dividends with extra links and content for your business
5 Ecommerce Tips You Can Implement Today
- Google Alerts: Google Alerts is a free service that sends email alerts anytime a keyword of your choosing is indexed by Google including blogs, news, and organic results. You can use this tool in two ways. First, you can track any reference of your company online so you know what people are saying about you. Second, you can track major keywords that your team is working on so you will know anytime Google has indexed that keyword with reference to your website.
- Keyword Research: Many companies don’t spend the time doing keyword research to discover all of the different keyword phrases people are using to search for your respected business. For every major keyword relevant to your business there are at least a thousand different keyword phrases using your major keyword that people are typing into search engines right now.
- Security: As your website grows so does your need for added security. Do you know why Apple computers have so few viruses, because 98% of people use PCs. Hackers go where the action is. When you are effective with your SEO then you will become a target for hackers, so keeping up to date with all security protocols becomes vital. Even Twitter was hacked and broke down for a few hours just a week ago.
- Coordinate: Does your entire team know what pages on your site your SEO team is focusing on and what keywords. Many important factors that will enhance your rankings can come from other parts of your team who can get high quality links from the relationships they are creating. For example, your sales team understanding that links are important can work out adding a link to your website from a new vendor which can have tremendous power, and a link like that an SEO expert has no access to.
- Promotion: Add features to your website that allow for you to easy change out promotions and upcoming events. Many websites have static header graphics and right/ left side borders. By making certain key areas editable for promotions you can promote specific sales instantly throughout your website including holiday specials as the season grows near.
5 Items to Check on Competitor Websites
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
A vital part that should be part of your SEO and Internet marketing strategy is checking and verifying what the competition is doing. Seeing what the competitions is doing can give you a great idea on what is working and what isn’t. When you start taking a look at your online competition you need to know what you are looking at. The goal would be start a list that you can track and update with new information. It is a good idea to do a review of your competition once a month.
Your competition can give you great insight avenues for more revenue that you are missing
5 Items to Check on Competitor Websites
- Promotions: it is a good idea to keep up to date on your competitions promotions. Our there products or services that you could be offering. Also, checking to see what kind of promotions they are doing and how often. The frequency of promotions can tell you the success rate of using promotions to increase sales.
- Conversion Funnel: good websites lead their visitors to the information that supports them making a buying decision or contact your company decision. Verify how your competition is doing this. Depending on your business model you may need more or less information to convert a visitor into a sale.
- Validation: I call them “warm and fuzzies.” Look for external validation markers like the Better Business Bureau, Hacker Safe, or industry related certifications. Factors that increase reliability and give external validation that you are legitimate business are vital for increasing trust and sales.
- Price: be careful of getting into price wars. You can find more success by offerings great value to your customers than just being the lowest price. You do want to pay attention though if you are way too low or high as it relates to your competition.
- Payments: how are your competition receiving payments. Do they have a shopping cart? Do they use external payment methods like Google Checkout or Paypal, or do you need to make payments over the phone?
12 Steps Your Ecommerce Website Needs to Process Credit Cards
Monday, June 29, 2009
Once you start the process of getting a merchant account so your business has the ability to charge credit cards you will hear the term PCI Compliance. PCI stands for Payment Card Industry which has its own set of rules for ecommerce website to have the ability to charge credit cards.
Unfortunately, the Payment Card Industry holds all the power and your website will comply with their standards or you won’t be able to charge credit cards on your online store.
The following are the twelve steps you need to do with your website to make sure that you comply with all regulations. By already getting this list down can save you time and headaches instead of having the merchant credit card processing company tell you that you need them.
12 Steps to be PCI Compliant and Process Credit Cards
- Firewall: you will need a firewall in place that protects cardholder data
- Passwords: all passwords must be changed to unique phrases and no default software passwords
- Stored info: where you store the card holder data most be protected from hackers
- Encryption: you will need a SSL certificate which encrypts the data being processed
- Anti-Virus: you will need to have and keep updated anti-virus software
- Secure system: your entire system needs to maintained and updated
- Restrict access: you will have to cardholder data visible to restricted access
- Physical access: there can be no physical access to credit card holder’s information
- ID: each order and customer needs to have an unique identifying number
- Monitor: your network needs to be monitored to who has accessed the card holder’s information
- Testing: you most have a protocol in place that regularly tests security systems
- Policy: your policy on how you utilize card holder information has to be visible on your website. Usually placed in footer.
Lowering Prices is Not the Only Way to Increase Conversions on Your Online Store
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
With every online merchant, you are constantly looking at how to improve your conversion rates. Conversion rates are the percentage of visitors that follow through and make a purchase. The average ecommerce website typically has a conversion rate of less than 2%. If you use Google Adwords instead of organic search then expect an even smaller percentage of your visitors to buy. You need to keep that number in mind when you estimate the revenue that your website can generate.
You can also do the math to realize that if you could move the needle to a consistent 3% what that would do to your revenue stream. Many online stores are always looking at how they get more traffic though are not spending the same energy on how they can retain more customers and increase their conversion percentage. There is one fool proof way to increase conversion percentage and that is to lower prices or have a sale. I would warn you though as this may give you the instant satisfaction of increased conversions in the short term; it could hurt more than you know in the long term.
When you use price to drive customers than having the lowest price will always have to be your priority. What happens when the website next to you lowers their price? Are you going to match him/ her and get into a price war. No one wins in a price war. You could say the customer does though price wars run companies out of business, reduce service, and when companies go out of business less competition means higher prices than before.
Top 10 Ecommerce Tips
Thursday, May 28, 2009
We all want to sell more online. As you start to plan how to increase sales on your website, listed below are ten tips to increase ecommerce.
Top 10 Ecommerce Tips
1. Invest part of your budget into more fun and easy shopping experiences. Fun doesn’t have to cost much money and can separate you from your competition.
2. Use the analytics tools to better segment your visitors to create more direct and localized marketing messages.
3. Add product videos and other media you might have on your products.
4. Remove any annoying banners that flash or force people to listen to them over and over.
5. Add video demonstrations of your products or services in action.
6. Add rewards program or some source of community. You want to create an audience for your website.
7. The dollar has gained strength making foreign orders more viable. Also, USPS offers cost effective shipping methods over seas.
8. Increase local traffic through localized search engine marketing.
9. Offer prizes and rewards in your newsletters to past customers who write reviews and add you to their social sites.
10. Plan your next 6 months of newsletters. You can increase conversions with a email campaign plan than just sending out specials you might have going on.
Ecommerce Solutions
Thursday, May 28, 2009
Authority SEO is a complete solution for your ecommerce needs and goals. Starting an online business can be overwhelming. The goal of Authority SEO is walk you through the process and the decision making to allow you to create the right online environment which generates sales. Authority SEO was started by successful ecommerce business owners who have gone through every process of creating an ecommerce website to generating sales by search engine optimization. We now utilized our proven team to create your ecommerce solution without the hassels of not knowing everything that needs to happen.
“LiveLeanToday.com achieved 278,296 new visitors in its first year of operation”
Authority SEO works with clients to either create their entire ecommerce solution or drive traffic to their current solution
Complete Online Shopping Solution
1. Secure shopping cart
2. Easy to navigate online experience
3. SEO friendly platforms that allows growth
4. Targeted traffic to your products that converts to sales
“BridalOnlineStore.com increased organic search traffic from Google by 900% in one year”
Domain Names: find the right domain name for your business.
Merchant Services: creates shopping carts with merchant service requirements
SSL: give your customers secure experience during checkout to prevent identity theft
Marketing: set your website up for success from the beginning with search engine friendly platforms that allow for your products to be found by online keyword rankings.
Contact Authority SEO about a free consultation