Holiday 2011 Trends: Are you Ready for Free Shipping Day?

This holiday season consumers are expected to shop earlier, spend less and do their homework to find the best deals and most value for their money. New ecommerce holiday research from SymphonyIRI Group predicts that 74 percent of consumers will be spending less than $800 in total on the holidays and 73 percent will begin shopping before December first.  Online, one of the biggest holiday shopping trends is to offer free shipping for the holidays. The National Retail Federation (NRF) recently reported that free shipping offers were one  of consumers' favorite holiday promotions, and this year we should expect t to see more than ninety-two percent (nine in 10) of online retailers  planning to jump on the free shipping bandwagon. For consumers, free shipping deals allow them to research online to find the best price and keep that purchase price low because, as we all know, the cost of shipping inflates a consumer’s overall purchase cost. Free Shipping Day: A Trendy Online Shopping Event One of the biggest events based on the holiday shopping trend of boosting sales by offering free shipping is Free Shipping Day. It’s a one day online event where participating merchants offer free shipping with guaranteed delivery by Christmas Eve. Kendal Perez, a representative of Free Shipping Day said that the goal behind Free Shipping Day when it was started four years ago (by Founder Luke Knowles) was to extend the holiday shopping period for both consumers and merchants-- “People are hesitant to order online in mid-December because they worry the item will not arrive in time for Christmas. Free Shipping Day is a method to make that happen for shoppers and retailers,” Perez explained. The fourth annual Free Shipping Day is scheduled for December 16, 2011, and the online event has already attracted more than 750 registered merchants who will offer free shipping for the 24-hour period with delivery by December 24th. Perez said in its first year, Free Shipping Day attracted a little more than 200 merchants, but more than 2,000 merchants are expected to participate this year. Designed for Merchants of All Sizes What’s nice about it, from a retailer’s perspective is that small businesses and large businesses can participate and for this one day it evens the playing field -- smaller online merchants are promoted right beside the big retailers for 24-hours. This year the Free Shipping day program has been expanded to also include eBay Store owners, Etsy artisans and Bonanza sellers. These online sellers will be featured with big brands like Target and Nordstrom. In an email conversation with Ecommerce-Guide.com, Director of Happiness & Co Founder of Bonanza.com, Mark Dorsey, said the free shipping promo day was brought to its attention by one of the Bonanza community members as an opportunity for all Bonanza sellers to have another outlet of promotion.  "We then contacted Freeshippingday.com to add Bonanza as one of their marketplace choices. They agreed to add Bonanza if we could sign up at least 50 of our sellers," said Dorsey. It took less than 24 hours for Bonanza to achieve that goal, and now it is listed as a category on Freeshippingday.com. Small Business Merchant Tips for Free Shipping Day Participation If you decide to join the program, you simply need to locate the ‘Merchant Sign-Up’ link on the Free Shipping Day website. You’ll need to provide your business details in the online form provided, and choose a product category to be listed in (note that eBay, Etsy and Bonanza are listed as a category if you sell on one of those sites). Participation in the program is free for merchants. Outside of completing the merchant form on the site, you’ll also need to evaluate the program and your business to determine if you can offer free shipping and be profitable on December 16. Some businesses will opt to set a minimum order value for free shipping, and this is fine to do with the Free Shipping Day promotion. “For consumers, free shipping with no minimum is the preferred offer, but some retailers -- big and small -- will offer free shipping on orders over $50 or $75. So there are options to consider when retailers are evaluating if this is something they can afford to do,” said Perez. Before signing on, small businesses will also want to have a good idea that staff can handle the influx of traffic on Free Shipping Day, and that you have both inventory and in-house resources to package items and get them out to meet the Christmas Eve delivery guarantee. Vangie Beal is a veteran online seller and frequent contributor to ECommerce-Guide.com. She is also managing editor of Webopedia.com. You can tweet with her online @AuroraGG.

7 Tips to Manage Customer Service on Facebook

Facebook can be a valuable customer service tool, and today customers are more likely to write on your Facebook Wall than pick up the phone or send you an email. When starting out on Facebook, small business ecommerce site owners can usually handle up to several thousand fans on their own with “manual” moderation and commenting.  As your Facebook customer base grows, however, you might need to upgrade to a customer service app to help you stay on top of things. The following Facebook customer service tips and tools can help you to provide top-notch customer service through this communication channel. Tip #1: Respond to All Messages Quickly Customers expect the response time on social networking sites to be much shorter compared to using email, Web forms or phone to contact a business.  To meet customer’s expectation you have to put the time in and monitor your Facebook Page for new comments and be prepared to respond quickly to all discussions and comments. Tip #2: Respond to All Messages Individually An auto-responder to let customers know you have received their email is fine, but on Facebook and other social sites you’ll have to move beyond automating the communication process and respond to customers on an individual basis with an individual message. A standard cut-and-paste response on Facebook will not be of value to a customer looking to connect with you. Tip #3: Solve the Problem Without Redirecting Customers know how to find your website so don’t redirect them to your site to find an answer to a question they ask on Facebook; always respond to the customer service message in the same channel the customer used to connect with you.  In a case where the customer has a specific order question, respond on Facebook to the question by explaining the action you’ll take, but invite the customer to join you in live chat, phone or email so they can provide the personal information (e.g. order number) that will be required for resolution. Tip #4: Engage in Conversations with Consumers Customers don’t join you on Facebook just to ask questions; they will also engage in general discussions with you and other people who use your Facebook Business Page.  Always participate in general conversations -- not just the order and support-related ones. You should also take part in the conversations your customers have with each other. Tip #6: Be Interesting It’s not hard to be interesting. Post videos, photos and messages that would be of interest to your Facebook customers. You can discuss general topics that are related to your product and brand or talk about special holiday and promotions. Tip #6: Ask Questions; Observe the Answer and Respond Asking customers questions on Facebook is a good way to increase user comments and participation, but this is also an excellent opportunity for you to observe the answers to better your business and brand. If customers respond and voice an opinion to your question, respond to keep the conversation going. Tip #7: Use a Customer Service App for High Volume As more customers seek you out on Facebook, you may find it difficult to respond to all comments quickly, and you might also start missing comments as they roll off the Wall on a busy Facebook Business Page. When your Facebook Page gets too busy for manual moderation, then it might be the right time to invest and have a custom Facebook application developed to help you with Facebook customer service. If a custom app isn’t an option for you (e.g. a small ecommerce business without in-house IT), then you can look at the following third-party applications with small business subscription services and plans to help you manage your Facebook customer service. 1. Assistly lets you control and monitor customer conversations by pulling all customer service conversations -- from email, phone, Facebook and Twitter -- into one place. 2. Get Satisfaction offers a starter package for small businesses that provides moderation tools and customer feedback widgets to help you build your Facebook customer community. 3. UserEcho is a feedback widget that lets you to collect customer responses and ideas. You can respond to your customer feedback, engage in conversation with customers, broadcast and organize the conversations. UserEcho integrates with Facebook and Twitter. More Facebook Small Business Ecommerce Tips Looking to get a better handle on integrating Facebook into your small business ecommerce marketing plan? Try these Facebook tips and guides for small business ecommerce sites: 5 Facebook Apps for Small Business Ecommerce Sites 5 Great Facebook Shopping Cart Apps Juice up Your Facebook Page with Shopping Tabs How to Add Facebook Like to Your Ecommerce Site How to Customize a Business Facebook Page with Apps  Vangie Beal is a veteran online seller and frequent contributor to ECommerce-Guide.com. She is also managing editor of Webopedia.com. You can tweet with her online @AuroraGG.

2011 Holiday Shopping Research and Trends

Keeping track of holiday shopping trends, research and statistics gives small business ecommerce site owners a solid foundation to plan a retail strategy to optimize for holiday shopping. The following 2011 holiday ecommerce research and statistics are from trusted industry sources and experts in the field of retail and electronic commerce.  11 Ecommerce Holiday Revenue Forecasts for 2011 Industry analysts are predicting a good -- but not great -- 2011 holiday shopping season for retailers. Overall spending is down and consumers are expected to be more conservative and controlled when it comes to spending on gifts and seasonal goods this year. Here are the top industry research reports and ecommerce revenue forecasts so you know what to expect in ecommerce sales this year. U.S. online retail reached $175 billion in 2007 and is projected to grow to $335 billion by 2012. Despite strength in overall online retail numbers, there is no denying that ecommerce is beyond its earlier years of unbridled growth. (Source: Forrester Research; U.S. Ecommerce Forecast: 2008 To 2012) According to the survey, 212 million shoppers visited stores and websites over Black Friday weekend, up from 195 million last year. People also spent more, with the average shopper this weekend spending $365.34, up from last year’s $343.31. Total spending reached an estimated $45.0 billion. (Source: NRF; Black Friday weekend 2011) The report forecasts that ecommerce revenue will grow to $680 billion worldwide up 18.9 percent from 2010 revenue. Online retail commerce in the U.S. alone will grow 13.2 percent to $187 billion. J.P. Morgan anticipates that global ecommerce revenue will hit a whopping $963 billion by 2013. (Source: J.P. Morgan via TechCrunch; Global E-Commerce Revenue To Grow By 19 Percent In 2011 To $680B by Leena Rao) Eighty-four percent of consumers intend to spend less or the same amount while shopping as compared to last year. Breaking down the data, GfK reports that a stunning 40 percent of American households will spend less this year, while 44 percent will mirror their spending from 2010. Only 11 percent plan to spend more. (Source: 2011 Holiday Shopping Survey; GfK Custom Research North America) Consumers will spend less on gifts and seasonal goods this Christmas, according to the NRF's 2011 Holiday Consumer Intentions and Actions Survey. The average spend is forecast to be $14 less than last year at $704.18. (Source: National Retail Federation via BizReport; NRF decreases festive season consumer spending forecast by Helen Leggatt) Fifty-two percent of consumers plan to spend $500 or more on gifts this season. Thirty-six percent said they will spend less than $500, and 12 percent indicated that they do not have a budget. Conducted from Sept. 7-15, 2011, the survey includes responses from 3,070 U.S. online shopping consumers (Source: Pricegrabber; Winter Holiday Shopping Survey) Deloitte’s retail and distribution practice expects total holiday sales to reach between $873 and $877 billion, representing a 2.5 to 3 percent increase in November through January holiday sales, excluding motor vehicles and gasoline, over last season. (Source: Deloitte; Deloitte Forecasts a 2.5 to 3 Percent Increase in Holiday Sales) Seventy two percent of U.S. consumers expect their holiday spending to be "careful" or "controlled" in 2011. While 88 percent of shoppers intend to spend the same or less than last year, 71 percent of those respondents earning more than $100,000 expect to spend more than $500 on gifts this holiday season. (Accenture; Annual Consumer Holiday Shopping Study) A whopping 71 percent of consumers earning less than $100,000 per year are planning to trim back their spending this holiday season. In addition, 74 percent of consumers will be spending less than $800 in total on the holidays and 73 percent will begin shopping before Dec. 1. (Source: SymphonyIRI Group; Holiday Shopping 2011) 2010 Research: The 2010 online holiday shopping season was a memorable one in which we saw spending rebound strongly from the recession of 2008 and 2009. Retail ecommerce spending for the entire November – December 2010 holiday season reached $32.6 billion, marking a 12-percent increase versus last year and an all-time record for the season. (Source: comScore; Ecommerce spending for November – December 2010) 2010 Research:  As the 2011 holiday season approaches, data from comScore's Q2 2011 found that ecommerce sales in 2010 reached $43 billion. Looking back at last year’s trends, these are the top holiday spending days, with Cyber Monday coming in at number one. (Source: GoDataFeed; Stand Out this Holiday Season) 7 Ecommerce Holiday Shopping Trends for 2011 From smartphone shoppers to categories of gifts and the dollar amounts consumer are expected to spend on holiday shopping, the following ecommerce research reports can help you get ready for this year’s trends. According to the survey, half (52.6 percent) of those who own a smartphone said they will use their device to research products, redeem coupons, use apps to assist in their purchase, and purchase holiday gifts and items. (Source: NRF; The NRF 2011 Holiday Consumer Intentions and Actions Survey) Cross-border holiday sales have flowed in remarkably similar patterns during the past three years. If consumers follow the same cycles in 2011, daily sales peaks will be highly predictable – with one key exception: Gift buyers around the world may have an extra week to shop this year. (Source: FiftyOne; Will Faster Shipping Extend Holiday 2011?) While many traditional categories like clothing (48.2 percent) and books (47.3 percent) will appear on a majority of wish lists this year, one item will appear more often than a year ago: jewelry. As a potential sign that discretionary gifts may become more popular, 23.0 percent of people will ask for jewelry this year, a significant 10 percent jump from last year’s 20.8 percent. (Source: NRF; 2010 Holiday Consumer Intentions and Actions Survey) The largest portion of a consumer’s holiday budget will go toward gifts for family members, with the average person expected to shell out $403.26 on kids, parents and other family members. Friends, co-workers and even the family pet can expect something nice this year as well; holiday celebrants will spend an average of $68.23 on friends, $21.06 on co-workers, and $23.39 on other gifts. (Source: NRF; The NRF 2011 Holiday Consumer Intentions and Actions Survey) Retailers that integrate the power of the sensory experience in-store with relevant, timely information via their websites and mobile applications are well-positioned to lead the way this holiday season. (Source: Deloitte; Deloitte Forecasts a 2.5 to 3 Percent Increase in Holiday Sales) Online shopping scored higher in almost every respect than did shopping at walk-in stores in Consumer Reports' Annual Electronics Buying Survey. Respondents made 34 percent of electronics purchases online, which is more than double the percentage from just five years ago. (Source: Consumer Reports; Annual Consumer Reports Electronics Issue) The allure of the holiday sweater appears to have returned in 2011. When asked what items they plan to purchase as holiday gifts this season (respondents could select as many choices as they liked), consumers overwhelmingly chose clothing (66 percent). This was followed by 52 percent of consumers who said they would purchase gift cards; 46 percent opting for books, CDs, DVDs or video games; 43 percent choosing toys; and 31 percent planning to buy hobby-related items. (Source: Pricegrabber; Winter Holiday Shopping Survey) 4 Global and Cross-Border Holiday Ecommerce Research With U.S. customers expected to spend less during the 2011 holiday shopping season, more businesses are looking at global sales and cross-border shopping to increase profits. The following research reports provide a look at some of the facts, figures and issues surrounding cross-border ecommerce. International orders just don’t come back very often. Canadians led the world with a return rate of 8 percent across all merchandise categories. Australians and Asians were the least likely customers to return their purchases, sending back only 3 percent of what they bought during the past three years. Overall Europeans wound up in the middle, returning 5 percent of their purchases. (Source: FiftyOne; Cross-border Returns: Few and Far Between) As the U.S. dollar’s continued weakness attracts droves of Canadian and European consumers to American ecommerce sites, their numbers include thousands of power shoppers. Canadian power shoppers more than compensated for their relatively low average order values (AOVs) by ordering far more frequently than other power shoppers. As a result the value of Canadians’ total orders over 12 months actually exceeds the worldwide average. (Source: FiftyOne; Cross-border Power Shoppers: Where They Live, How They Buy) Brazilian shoppers significantly increased their AOVs during the holiday selling season. While AOV worldwide and in every other major market remained more or less constant compared to the rest of 2010, Brazil's AOV climbed more than 30 percent to $303USD during the holiday selling season. (Source: FiftyOne; Brazilian Shoppers Led Global Holiday Charge) According to the Consumer scoreboard, consumers' perceptions seem to be a major barrier to cross-border ecommerce. Among consumers who have already shopped cross-border, 61 percent were equally confident in cross-border and domestic online shopping compared to only 33 percent of the general population. (Source: European Commissio; The spring Consumer Scoreboard) 6 Expert Advice Guides to Get Ready for 2011 Holiday Sales 3dcart: Shopping Cart offers 7 tips to prepare for the 2011 holiday season. Shipwire: Ten ECommerce Sales Tips for Holiday 2011 by Aurora David. GoDataFeed: Top Holiday Strategies for Q4 2011 (Month-by-Month Tactics). IDS: Last-minute inventory and fulfillment planning tips from IDS. Marin Software: Online Marketer’s Guide for the Holiday. Stamps.com: 8 Tips for Holiday Shipping Recommended Reading: Is mobile commerce on your holiday 2011 list? Check out the highlights from 27 expert mobile commerce research reports to help you plan your strategy. Vangie Beal is a veteran online seller and frequent contributor to ECommerce-Guide.com. She is also managing editor of Webopedia.com. You can tweet with her online @AuroraGG.

Tips for Successful Mobile Text Message Marketing

According to Global Mobile Statistics 2011 , a mobile research report from mobiThinking, there are 5.3 billion mobile subscribers: that's 77 percent of the world population, and ComScore pegs the number of U.S. smartphone owners at 82.2 million people. Given the surge in adoption of mobile phone usage by consumers, it’s easy to see why small business and ecommerce website owners want to boost their marketing efforts with mobile marketing (SMS marketing) techniques. When is Mobile the Best Marketing Choice? All types of marketing strategies are not suited to all types of businesses, but text marketing is a good way to communicate with customers about your promotions, contests and other campaigns that are likely to interest younger mobile-enabled consumers. Jeff Judge, co-founder and CEO of Signal, a company that provides mobile, social and email marketing in a single platform, said it is important to remember that unlike traditional email marketing, mobile marketing isn’t designed for more general and lengthy “what’s new” type newsletters and longer promotions.  “Mobile marketing drives value and gets people to your kiosk. People pay for text messages so your marketing message must provide an immediate now or today value for customers, “said Judge. Another thing to keep in mind when choosing to use SMS marketing is to remember that mobile -- like social networking -- is not a marketing channel you can use once and then drop it. “Don’t treat text marketing as a test where you jump in and try it and then drop off,” said Judge. “If you don’t communicate with your mobile customers for a period of ninety-days to six months they will be surprised to get a message from you.  Just like Twitter, you need to focus on value to keep retention going.” Mobile Marketing Best Practices: Use Double Opt-In for SMS Marketing While it may not be any more difficult to build a text marketing list than an email list, you should start with a strong call-to-action to encourage immediate sign-up and also advertise your SMS program to build and grow your list.  Judge said it is best to put your mobile program details on the main page of your website, in emails and also to make it option in Web-based member profile forms. The easier you make it for customers to opt-in to mobile, the more subscribers you’ll get. One reason businesses have difficulty growing a mobile marketing list is because their SMS program may not be consistent with the business. “It might be that mobile isn’t suited to your demographic. Perhaps your demographic wants to use an app and not text,” said Judge. “To be successful you need to understand your customer base and understand the composure. “ Mobile carriers have a strict set of guidelines that regulate the SMS marketing industry.  With SMS, opt-in customers send a text message, typically a keyword, to a short code. For example the call-to-action is something like: “text commerce to 12345.” “This is a single opt-in experience, but best practice is to send that customer a message when the mobile phone number is added to confirm he or she wants to receive mobile communications from you. A double opt-in ensures compliance with guidelines and confirms that this person really is interested in participating in your program,” said Judge. He also said that if you’re not following those basic principles of SMS marketing, then you might see high growth but you’ll also see a high percentage of “mistakes” that quickly leave the program. 9 Tips to Get You Started with Mobile Marketing Jeff Judge offered the following tips to take some of the guesswork out of SMS marketing for small business and ecommerce site owners looking to get started with text messaging customers. Keep it simple and determine what you are trying to drive with this mobile message. Consider mobile in combination with other channels and post across mobile, Facebook, Twitter, email and any online communications channel you use. Remember that customers pay for text messaging, so don’t send a lot of messages. One or two per month is plenty. Use a single marketing platform to obtain reporting across all your marketing channels (e.g. email, social and mobile). Make sure your mobile message contains an immediate value (e.g. a promo or contest entry “now”). Use a strong call to action (CTA) in mobile marketing messages that is consistent with your customer demographic. Make your mobile SMS easy for customers to opt-in (e./g. scan a QR code or text a simple code to a number). Enforce a double opt-in for mobile subscribers. After the consumer has opted-in send a confirmation message. Advertise your mobile subscription everywhere you do business -- your website, email newsletter, store kiosk -- anywhere you do business. Learn about customers (e.g. let customer manage profiles on the web) so you can segment your mobile marketing list for specific communications. More Mobile and Marketing Small Business Ecommerce Tips Looking to get a better handle on integrating mobile into your small business ecommerce marketing plan? Try these mobile marketing and mobile commerce tips and guides for small business ecommerce sites: Mobile Commerce: iPad and Tablet Shoppers Buy More Mobile Commerce Research for Online Retailers 3 Consumer Shopping Trends Online Retailers Need to Know Vangie Beal is a veteran online seller and frequent contributor to ECommerce-Guide.com. She is also managing editor of Webopedia.com. You can tweet with her online @AuroraGG.

EBay Set to Launch Open X.Commerce Platform Today

EBay Inc. (NASDAQ:EBAY) is set to launch its new X.Commerce open platform today at the X.commerce Innovate Developer Conference in San Francisco (October 12-13). The X.commerce platform is a combination of technology assets and developer communities from within the eBay portfolio. Under its X.Commerce banner eBay is basically taking all the APIs and the developer communities that have been built up around many of the “eBay Inc. assets” (including PayPal, Magento, WHERE, Zong, RedLaser, GSI , Milo and others) and centralizing these technologies. The goal is to make it easier for ecommerce software developers to use the assets to deliver solutions for social, local, digital and mobile commerce. “In the past year we’ve been hearing eBay talk about the mega-trends that are fundamentally changing what the relationship between buyer and seller means," said Anuj Nayer director of communications for PayPal. "Things like the mobile phone, the increasing blur between online and offline shopping and social commerce are all impacting this relationship," Most purchases now touch the Web at some point and while most mammoth-size retailers have the means to use new and innovative technology, the smaller retailers often find it difficult to compete. There is where X.Commerce comes in – it's a way to help retailers connect with ecommerce software developers and to provide the t echnologies that consumers now expect a retail business to offer.  “For the first time ever it’s the developers creating the ecommerce solutions,” explained Nayer. EBay has a number of properties that have a developer-based community and APIs to fuel the new X.Commerce business. PayPal’s own developer community gained popularity in 2009 when PayPal opened up its APIs. Earlier this year, eBay also acquired the ecommerce platform, Magento, with its development community of more than 760,000 people. Developers who want to work with just one product, like the Magento API for example, still have that option, but in the X.Commerce ecosystem those developers can also take advantage of all the other APIs and developer communities from eBay and other X.Commerce partners. While eBay has impressive assets to launch its X.Commerce ecosystem, it is expected that retailers will have needs that eBay doesn’t have a product for, like SEO and analytics. To meet these potential requirements of merchants, Nayer told Ecommerce-Guide that X.Commerce is open to any tech company that wants to be a part of the ecosystem and provide merchants of all sizes and developers with easy access to their cutting-edge technologies. At the Innovate Developer Conference today, eBay President and Chief Executive Officer, John Donahoe will officially unveil eBay’s new X.Commerce commerce strategy to developers, systems integrators and merchants.  A number of announcements are expected to be made that will detail eBay's growing list of partners, including Adobe, Kenshoo and Outright. VirtualPiggy, among other ecommerce businesses, has already announced that its secure online accounts service can be integrated into eBay's Magento platform, allowing any merchant using the X.Commerce framework to have access to VirtualPiggy. Early reports also suggest that eBay plans to deepen its relationship with social network leader Facebook and that PayPal will announce PayPal Access, a new identification service that will let shoppers log on to participating retail sites and pay with their PayPal username and password. Keynote speakers at the conference include Blake Mycoskie (Founder, TOMS Shoes), Katie Burke Mitic (Platform Marketing, Facebook), Chris Bangle (former head of design at BMW) and Marshal Cohen (author of Buy It!).  “One of the best things about X.Commerce is that it levels the playing field for smaller retailers, allowing them to compete by offering innovative tech services,” Nayer said. “With X.Commerce it’s easier for them to work with developers to bring their investment online, and they don’t have to do much to integrate it to make it a reality.” Nayer said that the smaller retailers will need to work with a developer partner to make it happen, but they won’t need a full IT infrastructure to support it. The platform, while touted as being open, developer-friendly and an opportunity for merchants lagging in ecommerce technology, will benefit eBay if merchants and developers in the X.Commerce ecosystem use any of eBay's assets. Vangie Beal is a veteran online seller and frequent contributor to ECommerce-Guide.com. She is also managing editor of Webopedia.com. You can tweet with her online @AuroraGG.

Mobile Commerce: iPad and Tablet Shoppers Buy More

New findings show that mobile devices continue to drive traffic on ecommerce websites. However, shoppers who use iPads and tablets convert to the purchase funnel more often and also spend more money compared to smartphone shoppers. Ability Commerce, a company that provides mobile-optimized versions of ecommerce sites for its clients through the SmartSite ecommerce platform noticed this trend within their customer's analytics. Among a sampling of retailer clients mobile traffic from August 2010 to August 2011, was found to be dispersed between the popular operating systems but revenues and conversions were consistently skewed toward the iPad. "We track analytics for our customers all the time," said Jennifer Tonisson, marketing manager for Ability Commerce. "This particular data was interesting because everyone talks about how much traffic is coming from smartphones…but the conversion rate is much higher on tablets," she said. Ability Commerce collected analytics data from three of its client retailers. Two had mobile traffic spread throughout the various mobile operating systems, but the revenues significantly favored the iPad.  For the third retailer, however, iPad shoppers generated almost all the revenue. In this case, the client offered an iPad-specific application. Why iPads Earn Higher Conversion Rates on Ecommerce Sites There are a number of reasons why the conversion rates differ so much between mobile phones and iPads (note: iPads have a much greater market share than Android- or Windows-based tablets that are just now entering the market). Tonisson said that a likely reason was because an iPad has a much bigger screen compared to a smartphone and the shopping experience is improved graphically. On an iPad, you can see more images in larger sizes, and with the bigger touchscreen you have better interactions with site elements such as hyperlinks. Or as Susannah Edelbaum, editor of The High Low, recently suggested in a post, the upswing could just be because people who have iPads have more disposable income. IPad Optimization Tips for Small Business Ecommerce Sites Using an iPad is more comparable to browsing on a computer, but there are many differences between a computer and tablet. Online retailers should be optimizing websites to provide a better user experience for the growing number of tablet users. Gavin Miller, lead developer and co-owner of RandomType Inc. has been developing websites and applications for both mobile phone and tablet platforms for the past two years. He said the biggest difference between using ecommerce sites on mobile devices and the computer is the reduced screen size and the limited capabilities of mobile device browsers. Another issue is websites that use Flash. "On an iPad tablet you don't have support for Flash, you have smaller browser capabilities and you have less processing power, so there are a lot of little optimizations that need to be made," said Miller. For example, your website shouldn't be heavy with JavaScript; and because tablets have touch screens instead of a mouse, you lose mouse-hover functionality and you also need to make sure that hyperlinks are bigger on the mobile version of your site. Miller recommends that ecommerce site owners consider the following strategies to improve the user experience for tablet users: Simplify It: Look at how people move through your website -- from initial discovery to purchase to checkout -- and "dumb it down" so every step is obvious. Make it Stimulating: Without mouse-hover effects and Flash, the user experience is not as stimulating. Make sure everything pops properly on its own without the extra visual stimulus a desktop browser provides. Use a Tablet Yourself: Look at the site using a tablet and test everything. Also find some people who aren't familiar with the site and who don't know how the mobile version is supposed to work. Ask them go through the shopping and checkout process so you can see how they interact with the site on a tablet. Free Tools to Validate Mobile Ecommerce Websites Since tablets have been around for only two years, Miller said tools are still being developed but there are a few free websites where you can validate your site. On a mobile validation site you do things like check for incompatible code on your pages, verify the size is tight for smaller or even select a mobile device simulator to see how your site looks to those users. Here are the testing tools that Miller recommends you try to see if your ecommerce website is ready for iPad and tablet users: Mobile WebPageTest allows you to enter your site URL and it loads your site onto various devices (such as iPhone, Android-based phones or iPads) and provides a screenshot of what your site looks like on that device. MobiReady is a tool that will give you an idea of how well your site is optimized for mobile devices. W3C Mobile Validator is a tool that developers can use to evaluate whether the site is optimized for mobile devices or not. It's a bit more technical than the others. LiveView is a tool that designers can use when creating mobile sites. Vangie Beal is a seasoned online marketplace seller, frequent contributor to ECommerce-Guide.com and avid online bargain hunter. She is also managing editor of Webopedia.com.

Loyalty Programs Reward Sales and Social Contributions

Rewarding customers through a loyalty program is a great way for a retailer to acquire, engage and retain customers and also to increase sales.  Rewards and loyalty programs were once seen as something that only the corporate big-box retailers could afford to offer, but today, even the smallest ecommerce business owner can afford to manage a loyalty program. Rewarding Customer Participation and Interactions Traditionally loyalty programs were all about the money and getting customers to come and spend more money. The incentive, of course, was to earn rewards based on dollars spent.  This has changed in that online, a loyalty program can move beyond your ecommerce checkout, and you can reward more than just the purchase. Ecommerce site owners can use loyalty programs to reward customers for content-focused contributions that serve to establish a deeper relationship between the customer and your business. This includes things like submitting a review, sharing a blog post with friends, Liking your Facebook page or Tweeting your URL. Ranjith Kumaran, PunchTab's founder, said these are important customer actions that should be rewarded. “The check-out funnel starts way at the top,” said Kumaran. “It might be a Twitter mention or recommendation down through mobile where you can take that in-store and finally to the cash register.” PunchTab, which currently powers more than 2,000 loyalty programs, is an instant-loyalty platform that allows website owners and brands to create a social and mobile-enabled loyalty program for free in minutes. PunchTab: For Any Business of Any Size An ecommerce business owner could use a service like PunchTab to reward paying customers with a reward currency and also reward them for participation in a discussion, for writing a review and sharing content on Facebook or Google+.  “These social actions would typically reward in micro-credits,” said Kumaran. “An online purchase might reward 1,000 credits but sharing a blog post or a review might earn the customer 100 points for participation.” According to Kumaran the combination of rewarding for online purchase and rewarding for recommending your business or product, nearly covers the full checkout funnel, but there is still another piece to fill -- which is the offline piece for businesses with a brick-and-mortar stores. The full-service reward covers offline, mobile, social and the ecommerce presence. But if you don’t have all those elements a small business could still uses PunchTab to drive a loyalty program. “PunchTab is designed to power what you have,” said Kumaran. For a small business that could be just an online blog and the checkout. For small business ecommerce site owners looking to get started with a customer loyalty program, Kumaran recommends planning and choosing the best type of reward for your customer to create a successful program. “Typically an ecommerce store or large community would provide their own rewards. We do offer a limited catalog of stuff we make available, but the most successful are the ones who offer their own incentives,” he said. PunchTab, which currently powers more than 2,000 loyalty programs for business owners, is free for up to 1,000 members. The service is available in two flavors; an ongoing loyalty program that you can use to encourage your users to visit every day or as a one-time promotional giveaway widget that encourages users to spread the word about your site in exchange for entries into a prize raffle. More Small Business Ecommerce Tips Looking to get a better handle on managing customer interactions for your small business? Try these tips and guides for small business ecommerce sites: Is Social Media a Waste of Time for Small Business Ecommerce Sites? Reward Ecommerce Customers with Loyalty Programs Merchant Secrets for Conversion - Part 2 How to Add Facebook Like to Your Ecommerce Site Vangie Beal is a veteran online seller and frequent contributor to ECommerce-Guide.com. She is also managing editor of Webopedia.com. You can tweet with her online @AuroraGG.

5 Social Media Tools to Track Ecommerce Marketing Efforts

5 Useful Social Media Tools for Ecommerce Site Owners In Internet marketing, using social media services like Facebook and Twitter is a great way to help you talk about your ecommerce business and connect with your customers. However, it can be difficult for small business ecommerce-site owners to determine whether anyone is noticing their social marketing efforts. The following social media tools will help you get started on the right path to tracking your social media success. 1.  Social Media Management with Argyle Social Argyle Social is a social media marketing dashboard that lets you view publishing, engagement and social analytics. From this single platform, you can manage all your accounts and passwords, publish to a number of popular social sites, create custom short URLs, and even create follow-up posts and schedule them around initial posts. To track success, Argyle Social provides you with a social stream that monitors all conversation around each one of your social properties, including retweets, mentions, likes and so on. The conversations are stored in an inbox so you can take action when someone communicates with (or about) you. Argyle Social also provides you with analytical data so you can easily track Twitter Follower counts, Facebook fan counts, engagement tracking from a URL shortener and conversion metrics from Web analytics. 2.  Ice Rocket: The Social Search Engine IceRocket is a search engine that lets you search Twitter, Facebook, blogs, news and images for any phrase. Using this free online service you can search for your Tweets, your brand, or your company or product name. When you choose to search Twitter results you will see who tweeted the message, how many followers that person has and how long ago the tweet took place.  The Blog search will allow you to narrow down results by day, week or month. You can also subscribe to an RSS feed based on your search query. 3. Sysomos Offers Business Intelligence for Social Media Sysomos tools helps you listen in on social conversations from blogs, social networks and micro-blogging services to forums, video sites and media sources. You can access metrics to measure and track campaigns in real-time, and identify the conversations and influencers to build your social relationships. Sysomos offers a number of social media products including Sysomos MAP to effectively listen, measure, understand and engage; Sysomos Audience to measure your social media ROI; and Facebook Page Central a professional tool to manage Facebook Fan Pages. 4. Discover How Far Your Tweets Go with TweetReach TweetReach is a social analytics tool that helps businesses measure the impact of social media conversations. Using TweetReach you can discover how many users received your tweets, how far your message has traveled, and who is influencing the conversation about your brand or product. From the search box on the TweetReach main page you simply enter a search term (e.g. a URL, your company name or a phrases you tweeted etc.) to view the reach and exposure data for those tweets. The free version will search a maximum of 50 tweets. In the search results you can click the Twitter name of a person who tweeted your search query to view their Twitter profile and follow. 5. TwentyFeet Offers Social Aggregation TwentyFeet is a social media service that will aggregate your social statistics from Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, bit.ly, Google Analytics and Myspace in one convenient location. You can use TwentyFeet to compare your metrics from different social services, see how your key performance indicators develop over time, and if the service notices any change in metrics -- you'll automatically be notified. More Social Media Small Business Ecommerce Tips Looking to get a better handle on integrating Twitter into your small business ecommerce marketing plan? Try these Twitter tips and guides for small business ecommerce sites: How to Use Twitter as an Online Marketing Tool A Beginner’s Guide to Twitter Terms BrandConnect: Social Media Tools for Brand Awareness How to Twitter for E-commerce Success Social Media Analytics for Small Business Ecommerce Sites Vangie Beal is a veteran online seller and frequent contributor to ECommerce-Guide.com. She is also managing editor of Webopedia.com. You can tweet with her online @AuroraGG.

Review: Campaigner's Smart Email Builder

Email marketing is no easy task. Getting subscribers to open your email is only half the battle. Once prospects open the email, you still have to provide an engaging design that encourages them to read and click through to your site and landing pages. Unless you have experience with graphic design and HTML, creating a professional-looking email can be a challenge for most small business ecommerce site owners who manage a mailing list. Campaigner's Smart Email Builder offers more than 700 professional templates for email marketing campaign design. (Click for larger image). Campaigner's newest email-marketing tool looks to remove the rocket science aspect from email marketing by automating the process developing professional emails with a new tool called Smart Email Builder. The Smart Way to Design an Email If you're unfamiliar with Campaigner, it's an email marketing service that small businesses can use to create and send email communications to subscribers and customers. Campaigner is a hosted service that takes care of storage and reporting, email list subscribes and unsubscribes, and it also helps you to meet email regulations like CAN-SPAM.  The company also offers Campaigner Free for very small and individual ecommerce marketers, providing the service completely free as long as you maintain a contact list of 500 or fewer contacts. Since we last reviewed Campaigner Free, the company has released a new email editor tool that's designed to help those unfamiliar with design and code to create and send professional-looking email communications to list subscribers.  The tool is not an extra add-in and no additional subscription fee is required to use it. You simply start building a new email campaign using the Smart Email Builder instead of the Full Email Editor when logged in to your account. When the Smart Email Builder loads, you are presented with a number of basic options to get you started. This is the main design area (called Smart Templates), and you choose a layout and design for your newsletter. For example, choices include single column, two columns or right side bar. In total there are five options for layout, but each layout offers a number of theme templates with placeholders for graphics, headlines and the content you will include in the email message. Each template and theme combination can be customized in different colors.  After choosing a template, you go to a full-screen edit mode where you provide the content for your email communication. In total the Smart Email Builder provides more than 700 templates, themes and color schemes to help you design an email newsletter to match any type of content, promotion or seasonal newsletter you want to create and send. Why Campaigner’s Smart Builder is an Easy Builder The Smart Email Builder interface is designed to provide you with a lot of design options with minimal work required to create the email. For example, when you upload images they are the right size, and you have a simple “resizing slider” that maintains image proportions so your email images are never dithered and unsightly.  Smart Builder's template-based, drag-and-drop interface makes creating your email newsletter an easy task. (Click for larger image). You can also drag-and-drop blocks of content around on the page. Depending on where you place a block of content in the template, the Smart Email Builder automatically designs the text according to that area's pre-defined format. The workflow process makes the Smart Email Builder to use. The template display automatically updates on-the-fly as you add your text and make changes.  As you work on putting your own text and assets into the email, you can also go back and change any aspect of your layout, theme or color template if you decide your content doesn’t quite look right in the one you initially selected.  This is useful for getting the right look and layout for your marketing communication without a lot of fuss. Working in a live design mode and seeing how the email will look as you create your copy saves time compared to saving changes and going back screens to make basic template layout and color changes. Available for free Smart Email Builder is available in both the Campaigner Free version and in subscription-based paid versions. It’s a handy tool for people who find it difficult to create nice, professional looking email newsletters -- but at the same time anyone with a little more experience can still choose the Full Email Editor when creating an email marketing campaign in Campaigner. More Email Marketing Tips From beginner guides to expert tips, our selection of email marketing tips and articles can help you to better manage your small business marketing tasks.  Email Marketing Tips: Segment Lists for Targeted Campaigns Ecommerce Conversion, Email and Other Marketing Words to Know  A Buyer's Guide to Remarketing Services How to Find an E-Mail Marketing Service Provider Review: Campaigner Offers Free Email Marketing Service Vangie Beal is a veteran online seller and frequent contributor to ECommerce-Guide.com. She is also managing editor of Webopedia.com. You can tweet with her online @AuroraGG.

Need an eBay Alternative? Try This List.

Article updated on August 31, 2011. Original post date: February 17, 2010 When it comes to online selling, there is no denying that the industry giants, like eBay and Amazon are top notch. Everyone knows that it's hard to beat eBay in terms of traffic, but many online sellers do look elsewhere -- especially individuals and part-time sellers who use this as a way to boost an existing income. This eBay alternatives list looks at 18 of the online marketplaces we've covered in the Ecommerce-Guide.com weekly online selling column over the years. Atomic Mall Listings:  fixed-price, make an offer, Web stores Cost: final sale fees (range from 10 cents to 1 percent) Blujay Listings: classified ad Cost: free Bonanzale (Formerly called Bonanzle) Listings:  fixed-price, make an offer, Bonanza Booths (similar to a Web shop) Cost: final sale fee (ranges from 50 cents to $10) BikerBids.com Listings: auction, swap, Web stores Cost: final sale fee (3 percent up to a maximum of $35) Craigslist Listings: classified Ads Cost: all ads except job postings, apartment rentals and adult services are free Etsy Listing: Web shop for handmade and vintage items Cost: 20 cents per listing plus a final value fee of 3.5 percent Facebook Marketplace Listing: List items for buy, sell, free or trade on Facebook's Marketplace (powered by Oodle) Cost: free HiBidder   Listings: auction, fixed-price, Web stores Cost: final value fees (max $2.50) Hoobly Listings: classified ads (local transactions) Cost:  Most categories are free Ebay Classifieds (Kijiji)   Listing: classified ads (local transactions) Cost: free, some listing upgrades My Auction Planet Listings: auction, fixed price, Web store Cost: free to list, some listing features have fees OLX Listings: classified ads (local transactions) Cost:  Most categories are free OnlineAuction.com (OLA) Listings: auction, Web store Cost:  yearly membership fees PlunderHere Listings: auction, fixed-price, Web stores Cost:  final value fees (max 5 percent), Verification fee $2.50 ProStores Listings:  Web store, integration with eBay Cost:  monthly subscription fees starting at $29.95 Shopify Listings: fixed-price, Web store Cost: monthly subscription fees starting at $29 WeBidz Auctions Listings: auction, fixed-price, Web stores Cost: free basic listings, $5 verification fee, some paid listing options Wensy Listings: auction, fixed price, Web store Cost:  free More Tools and Tips for Online Sellers From beginner guides to expert tips, our selection of eBay and Web shop articles can help you to better manage your ecommerce business. 12 Tips for Selling on Kijiji & eBay Classifieds E-Commerce Tools: Five Ways to Sell Digital Goods Online 5 Market Research Tools for EBay Sellers Vangie Beal is a veteran online seller and frequent contributor to ECommerce-Guide.com. She is also managing editor of Webopedia.com. You can tweet with her online @AuroraGG.