Ecommerce Shopping Cart Blog by InstanteStore » News & Events

Online Shopping Cart Tutorial – Hot Product Search Methods

desmond — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 03:47:56 +0000

Merchants need a lot more than just a feature-filled website shopping cart and the best free shopping cart software available to succeed. They need an edge when it comes to products. An edge could mean better pricing, a more accommodating return policy, better customer support, more efficient after-sales service and, of course, the latest item in demand for a particular niche.

But how does one go about finding out about new products, fads and such? Are there any free tools available to help merchants keep abreast with current news regarding products and related industries? We shall attempt to address those questions in this online shopping cart tutorial installment.

The Present

Well, the first thing to remember is to always keep an open mind about things. If you can’t be the first to spot a potential best seller or hot-selling item then at least be quick enough to react and ride the wave before it crashes. A good example is the vuvuzela – a horn used widely at African and South American football events. The controversy surrounding it only increased its popularity among worldwide audiences resulting in massive orders for this “Made in China” instrument.

Many street merchants as well as a few online merchants had already foreseen that this plastic horn, with the ability to deafen a person when unmodified, would be a big hit during the World Cup. Not only did they stock these horns, they also made it available in various participating country colors, which makes it appealing to a wider market.

If you were running a sports store with a steady stream of visitors, and you found out about this instrument on the first day of the World Cup, you might still have had time to get a few of these wholesale and sell it on your site just to make a few extra bucks.

The Future

In fact, many online stores are already providing variants of vuvuzelas for countries that did not even make it to the 2010 World Cup. There are even designs for popular teams but I get the feeling some stadiums might not take too kindly to these noisy instruments and could end up banning it.

Fortunately, this instrument is not very expensive and, due to its current popularity, can fetch quite a profit.

Old Is Gold

If you are stuck with leftover stocks of vuvuzelas, fret not, just remarket them as World Cup souvenirs. You might even want to sell it with a nice display box to bump up their perceived value.

Tools

One of the ways of getting the latest information or news about the latest products within a certain industry is by subscribing to news portals related to the industry. Another way is by keeping tabs on what top competitors are promoting. Either way, you can use notify.me or Google Alerts to help you garner all the latest updates in just one place.

notify.me is great for sourcing information from specific sites while Google Alerts scrapes the Net for news related to search terms which have been keyed in and sends the updates directly to your Gmail account.

We hope you have found this installment of our online shopping cart tutorial useful. Give us some feedback on this article, and if you like, let us know what you’d like us to blog about in our next online shopping cart tutorial.Recent Posts:

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Secure Ecommerce Shopping Cart Abandonment Rates Rising

desmond — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 06:07:15 +0000

There’s a reason why Amazon.com continues to invest so much effort in tracking customer behavior on its site. You can bet your bottom dollar that every little tweak that Amazon.com makes to its site is because it thinks each change will impact sales in a positive manner and curb secure ecommerce shopping cart abandonment rates. If there’s one thing we can learn from Amazon.com, it’s that it’s important to continuously adapt to changing customer trends.

A recent survey by Forrester has shown that up to 88% of consumers have abandoned secure ecommerce shopping carts during the checkout process. The reasons are far removed from those we addressed a while back in a previous post. This time around, it’s not a lengthy checkout process or lack of certain features that’s turning customers away: It’s (hidden) cost.

Top on the list of reasons why customers are abandoning carts is high shipping prices. Although the shipping price ultimately may not impact their final decision, it may still be a good idea to give the customer an idea of how much shipping will cost. At least this will save the customer time and thus give them a better impression of the store.

As a long term remedy, you might want to consider a flat rate shipping fee for all your products. One shopping cart tip that might also work is to try to factor in part of the shipping cost into your product cost. Test it and see which works best for you.

According to Webcredible, another reason why customers are not completing the checkout process is because the overall price of the product is too high. Many online stores are guilty of hiding additional costs from the customer right up to the very last stage of the checkout process. As a result, a store runs a very high risk of losing customers’ trust and it also risks damaging its reputation.

Put yourself in your customers’ shoes when designing your checkout process. People have more web know-how than ever before and are not likely to take too kindly to “surprises” at the end of a checkout process. If your prices are on the premium side of the scale, a quick shopping cart tip would be to be upfront about it. Explain why it is so. Is it because all items are individually checked to ensure quality? Or perhaps your store has a very customer-friendly return policy. What ever the reason may be, people appreciate honesty.Recent Posts:

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Secure Ecommerce Shopping Cart Insight – World Cup Keywords

desmond — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 00:10:36 +0000

We blogged earlier about the World Cup being just a few months away. We also disclosed that quite a number of stores have already started with their World Cup inspired shopping cart design templates and have begun selling World Cup merchandise in preparation for the big event. Many are promoting pre-orders for certain items with heavy discounts to entice buyers.

In this post, we will offer another secure ecommerce shopping cart insight into the kinds of keywords these merchants use and what the hottest World Cup related searches are right now.

Here’s our first secure ecommerce shopping cart insight: As you already know, keywords are important to a web store. The type of keywords a store is ranked for reveals the type of market it is aiming for. And, some keywords convert better than others. Take for instance, South Africa World Cup Tickets and Ivory Coast vs North Korea 2010 World Cup Tickets. Both are long tail keywords but the latter is more specific and has a more urgent ring to it. A person who searches with that keyword would seem more focused and ready to make a purchase.

Our second secure ecommerce shopping cart insight touches on the hottest keywords for this event. As you might have guessed, World Cup Tickets are currently a hot commodity right now, both in terms of keywords as well as the actual event tickets themselves. Sites selling travel and holiday packages are already using this keyword and according to Google Adwords, competition for this keyword is at a maximum.

But there are other World Cup related keywords that do not rank high in terms of competition but have garnered a fair amount of searches. These keywords – fifa world cup xbox, fifa world cup ps2, fifa world cup ps3 - are usually used by merchants selling games for the xbox, PS2 and PS3. Surprisingly, there is no mention of Wii World Cup games. This does not, however, mean that no one is searching for it. After all, a Google search for that keyword revealed 1.8 million results.

Spain is a hot favorite at this year’s World Cup. However, if you do a search for FIFA World Cup Spain Jersey via Google’s Keyword Tool, it’ll return a Not enough data statement. Search Google for the same keyword and you’ll be presented with 340,000 search results. Now try adding Xavi (as in Spanish midfielder Xavi Hernandez) to the end of that long tail keyword and the search results drop dramatically to just 15,800. But don’t let those figures fool you. The competition might be low but those sites could be very strong (ranking well for their targeted keywords). Think out of the box. Try something different.

Here’s a dynamic online shopping cart idea. What about selling Personalized FIFA World Cup Spain Jerseys? A quick search reveals that there are 43,000 search results. But take a closer look at the top 10 sites listed and you’ll find that only one site has the word “personalized” in the title and description. The most occurring words are FIFA World Cup. So if you have a store selling sports merchandise, you may have a chance successfully marketing personalized World Cup jerseys.Recent Posts:

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Ecommerce Shopping Carts – Ideas For FIFA 2010 World Cup

desmond — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 09:41:34 +0000

Football fans started buying their favorite national team jerseys as soon as the teams they support qualified for the World Cup Finals in South Africa. Teams from 32 countries will take part in the World Cup. The “traditional” World Cup heavyweights such as Brazil, Germany, Argentina, France, England, Spain and Italy have loads of fans the world over from nations who did not qualify as well. To try to take advantage of this huge event, we present a few quick shopping cart ideas for owners of ecommerce shopping carts stores in this post.

Attendance in South Africa will be in the millions but billions more will be following it from home. As a show of solidarity for their beloved teams, fans around the world will be seen donning the jerseys of their favorite teams jerseys come June.

Even before the end of the Winter Olympics, ecommerce shopping carts sports, gifts and souvenir related stores dedicated a few pages each to the FIFA World Cup that’s coming up in a few months. There’s even a merchant selling home products who’s already promoting World Cup related beddings and toiletries. This just goes to show that if you know what your market wants and you market your product well, the likelihood of success is high.

Jerseys

For those store owners who are not fans of soccer/football, there are many types of jerseys – home, away and “third”/alternate kits – for a single team. These can be further divided into kids and youth jerseys, standard kits and look-alike tees. Jersey tops with individual player names and numbers on the back sell for more. One shopping cart tip would be to stock up on the big names of the game and pray they don’t get injured before the event. As usual, adequate research is essential.

Other Standard Souvenirs

Just like for the Winter Olympics, scarves, mascot (Zakumi) related items, flags, banners, key rings, mugs and head gear are all popular items that will usually sell well during these events. Let’s not forget mini soccer balls as well. Quite a few stores are already selling ABE (Anyone But England) shirts which have drummed up a bit of controversy. To be safe, stick to the stuff that sells by the truckload. After all, the reason we run web stores is to make money.

Collectors Items

The thing about collectors items is that they sell for a good price and they are hot even after the actual event is over. Items like program booklets, ticket stubs and even stamps have a waiting market. From an ecommerce shopping carts point of view, this niche is too lucrative to be overlooked.

Keep a lookout for commemorative items like special issue soft drinks and bottled water. They too have a market and can fetch a good price. Of course the items that are worth the most are the ones that are autographed. Some sporting merchandise store owners have actually invested in having someone present when the teams arrive and depart the stadiums just to get autographs. Just a single autographed item from a popular player would be enough to cover the initial investment.

So far, this has been a good year for merchants, with two big sporting events to boost earnings. Most merchants are only limited by awareness and creativity. Otherwise, the sky is the limit.Recent Posts:

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What To Sell Online, Shopping Cart Ideas For Big Events

desmond — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 08:55:13 +0000

Just like all big events, the 2010 Winter Olympics is looked upon as yet another opportunity for merchants to make extra money. In fact, the profit margins are higher for items sold in conjunction with events such as this.

Read on and find out what the best products to sell online are, shopping cart ideas for post-Winter Games and ideas on how to prepare for the upcoming FIFA World Cup Finals in June.

The 2010 Winter Olympics began with a slight glitch and an outstanding performance from k.d. lang. The ongoing publicity surrounding the Winter Olympics has resulted in interest from over the world. This has fueled the demand for related merchandise and souvenirs. Many merchants have reported that certain items have sold out; some thrice over.

Some of the best selling items were the commemorative red mittens the Canadian National team wore during the opening ceremony. These were especially popular among women. But it’s not difficult to see why items like these are hot sellers – they’re affordable to many, they’re useful (since it’s winter), they’re easy to carry around, they make wonderful gifts and they look pretty darn good.

Unlike the mittens, which many had foreseen would be a best seller, producers of US ice hockey team merchandise did not predict a surge in demand. And who could blame them? The US hockey team came into these Games as underdogs who many predicted would not be in the same league as the gold medal contenders. But all this changed when they defeated hosts and perennial favorites Team Canada in the last game of the Pool A round-robin, making themselves potential gold medal candidates. This win boosted sales of US hockey team merchandise by a few notches. That said, Team Canada’s hockey jerseys are still selling well even at $400.

Standard souvenirs like mugs, key rings, pens, magnets, scarves, hats, commemorative coins and of course the game’s mascot- the Quatchi - have also been selling well according to online shopping cart Canada merchants. Some have completely sold out with some merchants reporting 3 times the business they had during the Christmas season.

Some merchants are already preparing for post-games merchandise sales. It’s not so different from post-holiday sales for hard-to-sell or leftover items. However, some items have been specifically designed for post-games sales like the Goodbye Vancouver, Hello Sochi tees, hoodies, hats, mugs, scarves and mittens. If you are wondering what to sell for occasions such as these, online shopping cart sales ideas like these are usually a sure bet.

But speaking of what to sell online shopping cart ideas and such, let’s not put these tips to waste as another major sporting event is just around the corner – the FIFA World Cup Finals. Start doing your homework now. Make sure your store is peppered with all the necessary keywords a couple of months before the event takes place. Mind you, some merchants were already selling Winter Olympic items during the Christmas sales at special pre-event prices. This means they already had their Olympic related design and shopping cart software pages prepared much earlier to get a head start on things. The early bird catches the worm, as the adage goes.Recent Posts:

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Free Keyword, Site Design And Shopping Cart Software Tips

desmond — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 12:57:41 +0000

Here are a few more FREE keyword, site design and shopping cart software tips that we’ve garnered by analyzing customer questions, digesting the latest ecommerce findings and carrying out our own little experiments. It’s still basically the usual suspects – keywords, site design and shopping cart software – that are under the microscope, but with a little twist here and there. All these little tweaks are important as customer trends keep changing.

Every year it seems like we encourage our merchants to get their Christmas/Holiday store preparations done a little bit earlier than the year before. This year is no different.

Avoid The Christmas Rush

We all know how important it is to get ranked for the keywords that you’ve been targeting. Though many merchants have achieved success through organic SEO alone, quite a few have invested in PPC as well in order to get additional targeted traffic to their sites. Provided you’ve done adequate research on keywords, the next thing you’ll want to do is obtain those keywords for as low a price as possible. The best time to bid for keywords you plan to target for Christmas is … now. If you wait until it’s very close to Christmas, those keywords might cost too much by then.

Of course, not everyone knows now what they’re going to be promoting for the Christmas season 10 months away. This is why you should keep your finger on the pulse of trends related to the products that you’re selling. For example, merchants who sell sports shoes would probably look for previews and reviews of upcoming shoe models. This way, merchants can probably anticipate which shoes will be in demand in the near future and thus know what keywords to bid for.

Two Step Landing Pages

We’ve written before about the importance of a well-designed shopping cart template as well as about shopping cart templates in general. Today, we will look at something a little different: two step landing pages.

Some sites are experiencing as much as 30% increase in conversion rates by introducing two step landing pages. In fact, 60% of visitors actually click on to proceed to the next page.

Two step landing pages are great for less specific keywords. For example, “Brooks Glycerin 8″ can be the targeted keyword for a two step landing page. The links on that page could lead to two other pages targeting keywords – Men’s Brooks Glycerin 8 and Women’s Brooks Glycerin 8 – respectively. This way, you can target a wider spectrum of related keywords.

Successful two step landing pages are simple and to the point, usually prompting a visitor to click on a link within a second of landing. Keeping it simple is key to engaging a customer and subtly gaining their trust.

Free Live Chat Software

The net has made people, especially shoppers, very impatient. Not everyone can wait 24 hours to have their product inquiry answered. For these shoppers, it’s all too easy to just click the mouse and shop somewhere else instead. To help remedy this, InstanteStore is offering a Free Live Chat Software that can be downloaded here. This is a novel way to engage customers and improve conversion rates at no extra charge. It’s easy to install and it’s FREE to as well.

More To Come

There will be more site design and shopping cart software related articles to come as we scour the Net for the latest ecommerce news and tips. If you have anything new that you’ve discovered, or would like us to write about any particular ecommerce topic that you feel is relevant, leave us a comment and we’ll see what we can do.Recent Posts:

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Introducing Free Live Chat Software from InstanteStore

terry — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 08:51:43 +0000

Over the last while, we’ve received numerous queries from our merchants, asking if there’s a particular live chat software solution that we recommend for use (free live chat or otherwise). It’s partly in response to these requests that we’ve now introduced InstanteStore’s very own free live chat software.

When it comes to running an ecommerce store, one of the main factors that will determine a store’s success or failure is the quality of customer service and support that’s offered. Customer support comes in many forms: email, support ticket systems, phone support, etc. One of the most direct and effective forms of customer support is live chat software.

Live chat support software allows store owners to communicate instantly with their customers as they browse and shop. This gives store merchants the opportunity to engage customers as they are in the process of deciding whether or not to make purchases. A crucial intervention at the right time could mean the difference between closing a sale or having a customer browse to another store. Having live chat support available also lends a measure of credibility to the store as customers will be able to have their questions, concerns, and queries answered on the spot without having to wait for responses.

We’ve tried to make the InstanteStore free live chat solution as easy to set up and use as possible. The operator module is currently available as a free download for Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7. Once installed and launched, the InstanteStore live chat software can be minimized to the taskbar to tuck it neatly out of the way when there are no customer requests. New chat requests will be indicated by instant pop-up alerts so that operators know when to respond.

Get Started Quick: Installation

Download the InstanteStore free live chat software from http://www.instantestore.com/livechat_software.cfm.
The Microsoft .Net Framework is required for the installation. Windows Vista and Windows 7 should already have this installed. Some versions of Windows XP may require you to install this separately, though. If you have any issues installing or running the live chat software, then click here to go to Microsoft’s website to download and install it.
Once installed, double-click the InstanteStore Live Chat icon at the desktop, or click on ‘InstanteStore Live Chat -> InstanteStore Live Chat’ from the Programs folder to launch the live chat application.
The first time the live chat software launches, the LiveChat Signup page will be displayed. Just fill in the necessary details and click the SIGNUP button to register your Live Chat username.
Once you’ve signed up, an email containing the activation code will be sent to the email address you used to register. Copy and paste this activation code into the Activation Code field at the live chat window, then click on the ACTIVATE & LOGIN button.
At the Install livechat code page, copy the displayed code.

For InstanteStore Users

Go to your store’s administrator control panel, and go to ‘Manage Your Store -> Design/Customization -> Customize Template’.
Click on the Click to Edit button at either the left or right border of your store’s template, depending on where you want your live chat icon to be displayed.
Click on the Additional HTML tab at the following page.
Select the Add Extra HTML: radio button and paste the code at the appropriate text area, depending on whether you want the live chat icon to be displayed at the top or the bottom of the left/right border.
Click the PUBLISH CHANGES button to finalize your changes.
The live chat icon will now be displayed at the appropriate location on your store template. Click on the GO CHAT NOW button to start taking customer requests.

For non-InstanteStore Users

Just paste the livechat code from Step 6 above at the appropriate location at your website.
The live chat icon will now be displayed where you’ve placed it at your site. Click on the GO CHAT NOW button to start taking customer requests.

All Ready to Communicate with Customers

Once you’re online, customers will be able to request live chat sessions with you or your operators by just clicking on the live chat icon at your site. Customers will chat with you via whichever browser they’re using.

When you want to go offline, just click the Logout link to log out of your live chat account and go offline. When all of your operators are offline, the live chat icon at your site will change accordingly to reflect this. When you want to go online again, just launch the InstanteStore live chat application and log in using your account username and password.

Customization: It’s Live Chat to Suit Your Store

Once you have the live chat window open, you can click on the Settings link at the right side of the chat window to customize your live chat settings and account. You can view your live chat installation code by clicking on the Install code tab, view and modify your account details at the Account Details tab, add up to 3 additional sub-operators at the Add Operator tab, as well as customize your live chat logo/icon/company name at the Customize Buttons/Graphics tab. Customizations will take effect automatically without any need to change the installation code at your store.

You Don’t Have To Go It Alone: Multiple Operators

InstanteStore’s free live chat software lets you add up to 3 additional sub-operators per account. This means that you can field questions alongside additional colleagues or employees. This is really useful if many customers come online at the same time, as you won’t have to handle all your customer requests all at once, on your own. InstanteStore’s live chat support software also comes built-in with a nifty little request allocation mechanism that will allocate customer requests uniformly, depending on the number of operators you have online. This means that each operator will always be handling roughly the same number of customers at once, so that no single operator ever gets overloaded with too many customers.

We trust that you’ll find that the InstanteStore Free Live Chat Software is pretty feature-packed and useful, especially for a completely free application. Try it out and let us know what you think. We appreciate any and all feedback.Recent Posts:

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Benefits Of Virtual Shopping Cart Software Backed Stores

desmond — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 05:51:54 +0000

There was an article today entitled Where You Might Not Shop In 2010 at Forbes.com. The stores featured were famous brick and mortar stores. None of the stores featured were virtual shopping cart software backed stores. The article talked about stores having to close for all sorts of reasons – overcapacity, liquidity issues and the need to consolidate – stemming from the economic slowdown. Fortunately, the situation is not as dire with virtual shopping cart software powered stores. In fact, some virtual shopping cart software run stores such as consignment stores have actually thrived during the economic downturn.

According to economic consultant Retail Forward sales are expected to pick up, increasing by as much as 3% in the second half of 2010 but more needs to be done to reduce excess inventory and align supply with demand.

The good thing about e commerce shopping cart software backed stores is that overhead is minuscule compared to the thousands or millions of dollars giant chains of brick and mortar brands have to fork out each month just to maintain their stores.

Some offline stores are surviving because they also have an online presence. While their physical stores are making losses because of lack of sales in particular areas, their online stores are still receiving orders, 24/7, from places where the economy isn’t so badly hit. Being borderless in terms of sales is not only a key factor to growth, it is also paramount to survival in times like these.

Keeping costs as low as possible is another way to improve profits. Offline stores have no choice but to hold inventory. The best they can do to reduce the cost of holding inventory is to practice the JIT (just in time) approach. However, web store owners have an enviable advantage by employing the services of reliable drop shippers. Web stores need not hold stock at all as order fulfillment will be completely taken care of by the drop shipper. Integration with drop shippers or drop shipper suppliers are included as one of many shopping cart features in major ecommerce solutions.

The recent economic downturn has been seen by some as a blessing in disguise. As shoppers avoided offline stores, traffic to online stores improved as people scoured the Net for better deals that would allow them to stretch their dollars. Both offline and online stores were forced to up the ante in terms of efficiency to remain competitive and improve services to retain or win over customers.

Needless to say, carrying out store makeovers or analysis is easier done online than offline, and much cheaper too. Online holiday store designs take just a few days to produce and minutes to upload. It is also environmentally friendly. There is no need to spend money on mobiles, stickers and posters to be placed all around each and every store.

Also, online stores are more organic in terms of strategic adaptability and can react to trends much quicker. Just ask the folks at Onitsuka. The pair Uma Thurman wore in the Kill Bill movies caused a search spike for that model and resulted in them being completely sold out in weeks.

Where You Might Not Shop In 2010

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Coldfusion Shopping Cart News – More Do’s And Don’ts For 2010

desmond — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 10:39:44 +0000

So far this year we’ve looked at past trends, ecommerce statistics and tried to predict upcoming trends by analyzing shopping cart reviews and feedback. In this coldfusion shopping cart news post, we will look at the little things that can affect the performance of a web store. We will also look at what the big boys are doing in terms of reaching out to customers and finally, see how some stores are making brave moves by going against the norm.

The first thing we shall look at in this installment of coldfusion shopping cart news is how some stores are making tons of sales just by offering a particular service for free. We have some merchants who sell similar products but each store caters to its own particular niche. However, there are some stores that are similar in almost every way but somehow, one manages to outsell the other by quite a margin. We have identified what we thought was the deciding factor and researched this further. Apparently last year, quite a number of customers bought from stores which offered free shipping for all or if not all, then for a number of their products. This was not the case in previous years as customers did not consider shipping as a major determining factor.

Some analysts believe that the current economic situation has caused shoppers to be more prudent in their spending. Free shipping is “value” that they look out for when looking for good deals.

For stores which cannot afford to offer free shipping, charging a flat rate to all destinations or to a certain region/country would be a good alternative. Now is the best time to test which strategy would work best for your store by conducting a A/B split test. Remember, nothing is set in stone so stores have to be able to adapt to the whims of shoppers.

Our next coldfusion shopping cart news item has to do with how the big boys like Ebay and Amazon are reaching out to potential customers.

Smart phones have been selling very well despite the current economic situation. Hot smart phones include the iPhone, phones based on Google’s Android and the Blackberry. The thing that makes smart phones so unique is their apps. Smart phone users download or purchase their desired apps and use them to do anything from calculating calories to finding restaurant reviews and locations. So it was only a matter of time before mobile (m-)commerce would start taking off.

However, m-commerce was supposed to take 2009 by storm but didn’t. Many were still adopting a wait and see attitude but it looks like 2010 could be the year of m-commerce. Certain coffee shop chains and even a few airlines have already created apps and distributed them for free, allowing customers to order and pay via their mobile devices through a credit repository.

If there’s 1 shopping cart tip that might shock merchants it’s this following one, but rest assured this strategy has worked wonders for many in terms of gaining customer confidence.

Many merchants are not too comfortable revealing information about product returns. The theory is that this might cause potential customers to think that the site provides products or services that are wanting in quality. However, it’s important to note that people return goods for many reasons and most of them have nothing to do with product quality. For example, some people who buy sports shoes online might return them because they wanted them in a larger size, with more cushioning or with better support.

This information could be crucial to other shoppers. It would help potential shoppers make more informed decisions and may actually help reduce future returns. Of course you might lose a handful of customers but you’ll gain the trust and loyalty of many more.

One way to go about this is to present the information in a review format with a few variable rating systems. For instance, a person who has just bought a pair of shoes would be invited to give a short review (perhaps with the sweetener of a gift certificate) and the person would also be invited to rate the product on a few factors like “Size true to fit” and “Re-purchase likelihood”.

But don’t just stop there. You can also show what product the customer eventually ended up with after the original product was returned. Even if the customer review was not flattering to the store and there was no alternative purchase made, constructive suggestions can be made in reply to the bad review. This shows that the store sincerely wants to please its customers.

This is a bold move, to say the least, but those of you who are really confident about the quality of your products and services may want to take this leap of faith.Recent Posts:

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Thinking Of Starting Your Own Business In The UK?

desmond — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 10:34:02 +0000

Are you thinking of starting your own business in the UK? Well, according to the numbers, now may be a good time to do so.

In 2008, UK consumers were already spending 17% per retail pound online. Some experts predict that online shopping could make up as much as 40% of retail sales by 2020.

Verdict, a company specializing in retail research, made a forecast that British online retail spending would more than triple to £67 billion pounds in 2020 from £21 billion in 2009. That’s quite a fair bit of money and certainly an incentive for those of you who are thinking of starting your own business in the UK.

If you are thinking of starting your own business in the UK, there are a few things you need to be aware of in order to ensure that you get off to the best possible start.

Market Research And Marketing

It’s true that there’s a market for everything but whether the market is lucrative enough to sustain your business is another question altogether. Carry out adequate market research to make sure there is a big enough market for you to sustain and grow your business in the future.

Since online retail works differently from normal (offline) retail, you also need to carry out adequate keyword research and marketing to ensure that your site will not only be highly ranked, but that it will also be found by your intended target market.

Financial Planning

Running an online store may not cost much but it’s not free either. There are a variety of expenses, both obvious and not-so-obvious, that you need to plan for. Even if you are only running a store part-time, you still need to ensure you have enough cash to cover a fast web hosting shopping cart UK or anywhere else and other web store related fees for at least a year. It usually takes around that long before a business can start earning decent revenue. If you want to go into business, you have to be realistic about financial timelines. You can’t expect to make money hand over fist just 2 months into a business, although that has happened in very rare cases.

If you do need financial help, do a search for “UK government help starting a new business”. There may be grants available for certain businesses.

Supplier and Customer Relations

Many merchants underestimate the importance of having reliable suppliers and drop shippers until it is too late. Constant complaints about incorrect quantities being sent out, poor quality goods and late deliveries from your store will soon make their way to retail forums and before you know it, your sales will have dried up. Make sure you have a good supplier backing you before you get your store up. Again, proper research is a must.

The main complaint from online shoppers all over Europe is the lack of customer service. People want accurate and timely answers to their queries. If they can’t get customer service personnel on the phone, then the next best thing is a live chat option. It is very important that the customer knows that there’s a real person handling their queries instead of an auto reply program.Recent Posts:

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Online Business Opportunity Internet Online Marketing Tips For 2010

desmond — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 10:21:04 +0000

What a difference a year makes. It seems like only yesterday everyone was putting email marketing at the bottom of their “to do” lists but now it’s back in vogue. Some online business opportunity Internet online marketing tips from yesteryear have made a comeback, while some others are now less relevant.

If you’re looking to start an online business Internet marketing should not be an afterthought. You need to write marketing strategy that will integrate everything the best elements available on the web in order to rank high search engine-wise and successfully convert visitors.

The Email Juggernaut

Email was the first form of social media. It’s been around for over 15 years now. Friends, relatives and colleagues were sharing product reviews, gossip and recipes long before the advent of forums, social networking sites and micro blogging arenas.

To many, email is their primary form of communication. These people do not want all the apps, widgets and other bells and whistles that are the trademark of social networking sites. Think of email as Social Networking Lite. Email has so many good things going for it. It’s safe to say that almost everyone has at least one email account. Email marketing registered the highest ROI last year; not surprising since sending out email costs hardly anything. It is also the most effective and measurable form of online marketing.

So it’s not surprising that our top online business opportunity Internet online marketing tip is to make sure that you keep those marketing email efforts going. But remember to use A/B split testing to make sure your email converts at its most optimum level.

Going Realtime And Mobile

Our next online business opportunity Internet online marketing tip is not unexpected. In fact, it was touted by many to take off … last year. Well, better late than never.

Realtime reviews and and promotions are expected to be hot this year as smart phones and built-in social networking widgets become more commonplace. Restaurants are tweeting lunch specials right before lunchtime to help the hungry masses decide what they should fill their tummies with. Customers can then make reservations from wherever they are. This is a clear example of potential customers being offered realistic options at a calculated time.

Experts say that more people will buy from sites that feature reviews and also welcome user reviews. And some sites will take this further by allowing viewers to contact reviewers directly in order to get further information. This will escalate customer interaction to a whole new level and dimension.

Take A Course Before Buying

Sony came up with an ingenious idea a couple of years ago to boost sales and try to improve customer loyalty in an increasingly disloyal market. Looks like their plan worked and the bandwagon will soon fill up this year.

What Sony did was create an online tutorial, providing tips and information on digital photography. The content was generic to the industry and basically free from Sony marketing propaganda. Well, maybe not totally free: once in a while a pop-up would appear displaying relevant Sony products. But overall, the course seemed sincere in educating the viewer in the finer aspects of photography, which was what made it so successful. The numbers speak for themselves. 90% of people who followed the course gave it the thumbs-up with those who took the course being more likely to purchase a Sony product they just learned about.

What do you think of these ideas? Leave a comment. We’d love to hear from you.Recent Posts:

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2010 Marketing Tips For Websites – Add Real Value To Your Brand

desmond — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 05:06:36 +0000

The economic downturn has brought new emphasis to the term “Value” among consumers. The old marketing tips for websites of yesteryear may not be as effective anymore as shoppers are now more cautious with their spending. Although sales figures show that people are still spending money on all sorts of goods, they now (more than ever) indulge in more research to ensure they are really getting their money’s worth.

Now the reason to spend must be heavily influenced by the actual need for the product as well as the authentic meaningful value associated with the product. Gone are the days when people used to easily buy into assuring yet hollow tag lines and seemingly unrelated celebrity endorsements.

Online business opportunity Internet marketing suc cess now depends on how companies engage their customers. It matters little whether a store is an easy home based business or an established name in the business, consumers will no longer part with their cash just for the lowest priced item. Instead, many customers have adopted the “reason-to-buy at all” mentality.

Companies need to adapt fast to the current trend. A paradigm shift is needed with most companies, as consumer expectations are higher than ever.

Brand awareness used to be a staple on lists of marketing tips for websites, but the term no longer carries the same mileage that it used to. Consumers are placing more and more emphasis on brand differentiation. A brand that can successfully align itself with the needs of the consumer while setting itself apart from the competition will gain the most in terms of market share and profits.

For instance, there are hundreds of web stores that sell sports merchandise, yet how many have put in the effort to ensure total customer satisfaction in terms of the quality of their products, timely delivery and helpful after-sales service, for instance. As stated earlier, low prices are not the only determining factor anymore.

Customers take tag lines at face value, for the most part assuming that they are unsubstantiated claims or statements (until proven otherwise). If a web store makes a claim then it must back it up with proof such as real customer feedback from email, forums or review sites. Web stores must also be seen as continually trying to improve every aspect of their store by displaying survey questionnaires on their sites, for example.

We end this post on marketing tips for websites with a reminder that it is the consumer that decides if a brand has value. Therefore, constantly get feedback from your customers on whatever services or features associated with your brand or product are of value to them. Feedback such as this goes towards building your brand, which will bring success in the long run.Recent Posts:

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Start A Profitable Online Business Now

desmond — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 08:01:15 +0000

The forecasts for ecommerce in 2010 look good. Projections indicate that ecommerce will continue to grow even if the economy hasn’t yet fully recovered from the downturn. This can be attributed to many factors but all of which point to the same conclusion: this is a good time to start a profitable online business. If you’ve got an income opportunity home based business idea, don’t just sit on it – start a profitable online business now.

We’ve presented quite a few viable home based business ideas in previous posts. This time around, we will take a look at what we can do to take full advantage of the expected growth in ecommerce.

It has been predicted that ecommerce sales in Europe will top 300 billion Euros by 2011 with the UK having the strongest growth rate. This is certainly good news to those thinking about starting a new business in the UK. Figures show that there will be more people looking to purchase online. That said, whether or not they can find your store and end up making a purchase depends on a few factors.

SEO

Search Engine Optimization is a crucial element in getting your store ranked for certain keywords. Be sure to check to see if the keywords you’ve used for the past year or so are still relevant. There is no point in ranking well for keywords that people hardly search for. Most merchants just optimize their main store page and main category pages. However, many merchants have reported success in targeting less competitive keywords for their product pages as well. Targeting less competitive keywords for your sub categories, info pages and product pages could result in more visitors to your site. The more pages your site ranks for, the more chances of drawing in visitors.

SMO

Social Media Optimization is also an important element in promoting your brand and products. There are tons of social media, micro blogging, video and image sharing sites out there with Facebook, Twitter and YouTube having the most potential for businesses. Many major brands have at least one account on these sites. Nike has 3 on Facebook alone. SMO affords a business a very cost-effective way to get word across in a relatively short period of time. Many companies have utilized sites like Facebook to launch viral marketing campaigns to good effect. Popular sites like Facebook have 250 million active users with half of them logging in every day. The potential is just too great for any business to ignore.

Conversion

Of course all the traffic in the world means nothing if visitors to your site remain just visitors. Traffic conversion is what it’s all about. In order to achieve as high a conversion rate as possible, all the elements on your site – images, content, layout – must be designed to convert visitors into buyers. In order to find out what works and what doesn’t, conduct an A/B split test (to determine the better of two variations) or a multivariate test (to test multiple combinations). You should carry out these test periodically as visitor trends tend to change. These tests also come in handy when you want to maximize your marketing efforts. You’ d be surprised to find that just tweaking the layout or changing certain colors can result in a conversion spike.

We hope that the advice we’ve given here will be useful to you should you decide to start a profitable online business soon. With an affordable and full-featured ecommerce solution and a rosy economic outlook for ecommerce in general this year, this could be the right time to find success online. With the right products, good research and well-targeted marketing, your very own successful web store beckons. Good luck!Recent Posts:

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Business Start Up Advice – It’s A Good Time To Start A Web Store

desmond — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 07:44:45 +0000

The figures for the recent holiday sales including Black Friday are in and they’re looking good. Which is great news for merchants everywhere. As far as business start up advice goes, this would be a great time to start your very own web store.

Here’s why you should take that business start up advice: Starting your store now will give you ample time to plan for the summer sales and even more time to prep your store for next Christmas. Just sign up with InstanteStore for a free trial and get a feel of what it would be like to have your very own store. You don’t need to build shopping cart from scratch. That’s right, no need to build online shopping cart or fiddle around with setting up your store from the ground up. We’ve done all the groundwork for you with InstanteStore. Sign up and see for yourself how easy it is to run a store with our solution.

There are smiles on many of our merchants’ faces, especially those who planned well for last year’s holiday shopping season. Last year’s Black Friday saw shoppers spending close to $600 million online – $60 million more than the previous year. The Black Friday shopping spree was typically enjoyed by offline stores, but over the years, more and more online stores are beginning to take bites out of the Black Friday pie.

And more good news: shoppers are not just spending big money on Black Friday or Cyber Monday alone. They also spent almost $320 million on Thanksgiving Day itself, a 10% increase from the year before. In fact, from the start of November through Black Friday, consumers spent close to $11 billion.

Overall, Boxing Day was the second biggest shopping day behind Black Friday. Overall, retail receipts hit $7.9 billion the day after Christmas. Black Friday registered $10.6 billion overall. Although sales figures were impressive, it must be noted that the volume of shoppers at offline stores suffered a decline. Many have cited the bad weather at several places as the main factor behind this. And who can blame shoppers, really? Most of us don’t particularly enjoy going out in the cold and lining up for hours in the early hours of the morning just to get the latest movie-inspired toy (which will probably end up as a paperweight in 6 months, anyway). While bad news to brick and mortar stores, this is good news to online merchants, as this is another good reason for shoppers to go online to get their shopping done instead.

Here’s more business start up advice for new merchants: According to a recent survey, online shoppers listed price as the main factor that would influence their overall satisfaction. This was followed by selection or variety offered and site functionality. So make sure you do sufficient research especially when it comes to pricing. Use pricing bots to help you price your goods competitively. Of course, if your web store is going to be your bread and butter, you should ensure that you can garner a decent profit before starting your store.Recent Posts:

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Interesting Times In Store For InstanteStore Users

Charles Tang — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 09:45:01 +0000

The next few months will be an interesting time for all our InstanteStore users. The crazy team here have a few COOL things lined up to help you get more buyers to your store and sell more to those buyers. Notice I said “get more buyers” and not “get more traffic” or “get more visitors”.

Why?

Because when it comes down to it, you want BUYERS coming to your store. Not “traffic” or even “visitors”!

I can’t actually share the details of these “skunkworks” tools we’re working on yet. However, I’ll definitely keep you guys updated as we progress.

As always, if you have any specific requests or ideas on how we can improve the InstanteStore solution, post your comments below.Recent Posts:

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