3 Small Business CRM Apps for Ecommerce

Small business CRM ( customer relationship management ) is a growing market, and for good reason. CRM is a business strategy that helps you to better understand the customer -- and a CRM system provides the means for small business ecommerce owners to manage interactions with customers and partners. 

Most small business CRM systems provide the tools needed to better manage a number of business communications tasks such as organizing and managing contacts, partners, contract wins and sales leads. 

Small Business CRM Systems

Until recently, CRM software was something only the larger enterprise market would typically invest in. Most CRM systems you read about are enterprise applications – e.g., a platform that is just too large and complex for individual or small business use.  

Now, a new breed of CRM software and solutions are available to small business owners. These CRM solutions are designed for small business and provide only the features that are most relevant to SMB owners, such as calendar and event notifications, contact management, lead management, email marketing and similar options.

Here are three hosted (SaaS) small business CRM applications ecommerce site owner can use to better manage its customer relations.

1. Email Marketing 2.0 and Integrated CRM by Infusionsoft

Infusionsoft's Email Marketing 2.0 for entrepreneurs and small businesses puts a focus on email marketing, but the software offers additional small business CRM features such as contact management, company tracking, customer tracking as well as follow-up and lead management.

The permission-based email marketing tools let you create sign-up forms for your website, and these leads are automatically tracked by the CRM.  You can then send targeted email campaigns based on the form-generated data and track the email marketing campaigns through the CRM reporting.

The integrated CRM functions of Email Marketing 2.0 lets small business ecommerce owners store leads, prospects and customers in a centralized database. As the customer or company relationship develops, you continue to add all details of transactions and communications to the application and associate it to that specific customer.

 Infusionsoft's Email Marketing 2.0 is available for a free 15-day trial. The basic plan, available for $199 per month is suitable for most small businesses.  The company offers two additional plans, which are designed for small business ecommerce owners. These plans include the basic features (marketing automation, CRM, Email Marketing 2.0, and lead nurturing) but also incorporate opportunities, orders and invoicing, shopping cart and order forms and affiliate management. Depending on number of users and contacts, these plans cost $299 for Deluxe and $499 for Pro, per month.

2. ContactMe Small Business Contact Management Solution

ContactMe is a relatively new small business CRM solution targeted to micro businesses: home-based businesses, individuals and businesses with fewer than five employees.  As such, this solution is a lightweight offering providing only the tools and reports that the smallest of small businesses would be inclined to use.

The main features of ContactMe include contact management, task and scheduling tracking, and online forms for lead generation. ContactMe allows you to consolidate existing contact lists, add new contacts and attach communications, such as an email follow-up to the contact within the platform. You can schedule and set tasks and also receive SMS notifications of these events, plus view reporting tools that can help you decide where to focus your marketing efforts.

ContactMe also offers automatically generated contact Web forms that you can post just about anywhere -- Craigslist, Facebook (via an application), your blog, website, eBay and other publishing spaces. The ContactMe button lets customers reach out to you, and the information a customer or lead provides in the Web form is automatically integrated into the small business CRM platform.

ContactMe lets businesses use the free buttons (with unlimited contacts and groups), however it is ad supported and a slimmed down version of the solution. This option is best only for people interested in lead generation. If you are looking for a small business CRM app, the Pro version offers all features, including calendar, notes, tasks, reporting and mobile options for $9.95 per month.

3. SMB CRM Essentials by NextCorp

NextCorp's application, SMB CRM, is built around the Microsoft Dynamics CRM platform. The company offers two versions of its platform -- Essentials for small businesses as well as an enterprise version.

The Essentials small business CRM package basically provides ecommerce site owners with a way to manage a number of tasks from a single interface.  This version supports Sales Force automation, customer support and an Outlook Client.

To enhance your SMB CRM software, which larger small businesses would want to do, you can purchase additional modules as needed. While the basics are covered in the base package, there is little doubt that small business owners will want to purchase some additional modules such as the analytics dashboard, business alerts and quotes, orders and invoices.

A custom quote on the NextCorp website -- tailored for ecommerce site owners -- includes the application tools to manage inventory, invoicing, order processing, purchase orders, and other ecommerce-focused apps, would run an ecommerce site owner just under $900 per month.

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.

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Microsoft Bing Now Serving All Yahoo Paid Searches

Microsoft’s Bing technologies now power 100 percent of paid searches on Yahoo sites in the U.S. and Canada, the two companies said Wednesday. The switchover came right on schedule, and in time for holiday sales.

"This marks the completion of the transition of advertisers' Yahoo (NASDAQ: YHOO) Search Marketing accounts to AdCenter," said a post on the Yahoo Advertising Blog.

That means that advertisers can manage their ad campaigns from one client account.

"Advertisers will operate a single account in AdCenter to reach Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) and Yahoo's audience of 163 million searchers in the U.S. and 15 million searchers in Canada," David Pann, general manager for the Search Network at Microsoft, said in a post on the AdCenter Blog.

The two companies have been working since last spring to transition Microsoft's Bing search technologies over to support Yahoo's sites and to handle much of Yahoo's search advertising -- for a cut of the proceeds.

The ten-year deal had a tough birth. Microsoft pursued Yahoo initially as a hostile takeover target in 2008. However, Yahoo strenuously resisted, and eventually Microsoft dropped its bid.

A year later, in July 2009, the two companies struck a deal for Microsoft to provide search engine technologies and search advertising infrastructure to Yahoo's various sites in return for some of the advertising revenues.

The deal got the nod from federal regulators in February.

In mid-August, Yahoo and Microsoft announced they had begun transitioning Yahoo's searches to Microsoft's Bing search infrastructure. A week later the companies confirmed that the integration of the back-end technology was already complete.

By early September, the project had moved forward to the point that Yahoo advertisers could begin transitioning their paid search campaigns over to Microsoft's AdCenter. The plan was to have the work done by the end of October, and now that phase of the project has been completed.

Stuart J. Johnston is a contributing writer at InternetNews.com, the news service of Internet.com, the network for technology professionals. Follow him on Twitter @stuartj1000.

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Small Business Marketing Tips: An Affiliate Marketing Tool

We've got more small business marketing tips from our favorite guru, Andrew Lock. The best part of his advice is that you can always adapt it to your small business -- whether it's on or off the Web. This week's topics include a critique of a TV ad, a resource for creating affiliate programs -- and additional revenue, plus a look at a few jobs that you wouldn’t wish on your worst enemy.

There are some jobs that are simply insane, and in this week's episode, I share a few of them with you, so watch out for that.

Join me in Orlando, November 5-7 in Orlando, Florida, and for just $197 you can hear and interact with 16 experts in various areas of small business, to help you. More details at the Orlando Summit.

This week's question concerns TV advertising. Viewer Bob Postal has a new TV commercial for a teeth-whitening product, and it’s not working as well as he expected. I’ll dissect it for you and provide some suggestions on how to improve it.

If you don’t have an affiliate program, you should definitely consider it. Affiliates sell for you, and you only pay them for sales made, so it’s a great solution for marketing your products and services to a wider audience, without risk. I receive many questions about how to attract, and manage affiliates, and I highly recommend the affiliate dashboard from Marlon Sanders. There are six step-by-step sections that guide you through the process very simply.

The big marketing lesson comes from PC World magazine, which I really enjoy as a subscriber. Interestingly, the latest issue had an extra cover on the front of the magazine, that’s actually an advertisement. I’ll show why and how they did it to generate more revenue, and how you can adapt this principle for your small business.

Remember as always, everything is marketing, and marketing is everything.

Let me know your opinion about the topics covered in the show to help your small business this week -- leave your comment below, it’s really easy to do.

You'll find lots more small business marketing tips and resources from Andrew Lock in our Small Business In-Depth series, Lock in Your Marketing Resources.

Andrew Lock is a self-described maverick marketer and the creator and host of Help! My Business Sucks, a free, weekly Web TV show full of practical marketing tips, advice and resources to help small businesses "get more done and have more fun."

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PayPal Talks Up Mobile Commerce at Innovate 2010

SAN FRANCISCO -- Online payments giant PayPal kicked off its second annual Innovate developer's conference by unveiling new mobile, social media and digital goods payment options along with a slew of partner announcements from both small and big players including Facebook and Verifone.

Mobile Express Checkout, a new secure two-click checkout feature, extends PayPal's mobile payments platform. PayPal said it expects more than $700 million in mobile payments to go through its payment infrastructure by the end of 2010 out of the $1 Billion in payments it expects to process from all sources.

The new PayPal Mobile for iPhone 3.0 app includes a location-based feature that lets users find the closest businesses to their location that accept PayPal payments. Merchants can also use the service to send coupons and promotions to users in their area.

PayPal partner Bling Nation is testing its BlingTag local services offering in the San Francisco Bay Area starting next month. Consumers tap the BlingTag proprietary microchip, which can be attached to a mobile phone, to receive discounts and other merchant offers at checkout. They can also opt-in to "like" a business to their Facebook page.

PayPal execs emphasized that the overriding goal behind all their offerings is to reduce the friction or steps consumers need to take to complete an online transaction.

"What we're really excited about is the new extended login feature," Laura Chambers, senior director of PayPal Mobile, told InternetNews.com. With extended login, PayPal Mobile users can opt to store their login info so they don't have to re-login each time they want to make a PayPal payment on different mobile sites. Chambers said that PayPal Mobile 3.0, which is currently available for the iPhone, is going to be available for Android devices "soon."

PayPal said the mobile solution is easy to deploy for merchants that already have PayPal's Express Checkout on their online stores. The company said merchants testing the new feature reported double-digit sales growth on their mobile stores after adding Mobile Express Checkout.

PayPal also announced a deal with payments provider Verifone, giving merchants the capability to accept both credit cards and PayPal payments using Verifone's PAYWare mobile app. Customers can also "bump to pay." The application incorporates Bump Technologies' feature that lets registered users physically bump devices to transfer money.

FreshBooks announced its participation in the new PayPal Business Payments program powered by the PayPal X global payments platform. A key feature of Business Payments is the reduced service fees. Instead of the typical 3 percent service charge for using a credit card for online invoices, the fee is a flat $5.50.

"We're the leader in online invoicing," said Freshbook's CEO Mike McDerment, noting the company's customer base includes lots of software developers and freelancers. The new pricing model is an ideal solution for any invoice over $150, the company said, and it helps move payments from a "the check's in the mail" model, to more immediate cloud-based payments.

The biggest improvement in PayPal's digital goods service is giving users the capability to buy in the context of the application, such as virtual goods in an online game. In the earlier version users had to switch to PayPal's site to make a payment.

Launched as a pilot earlier this year, PayPal announced it's making the digital goods payments service more broadly available this quarter -- including to developers on Facebook.

"Gaming, is often an indicator of what's to come," said Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg, in remarks on stage. She noted Facebook already boasts more gamers than the top three gaming consoles combined, led by companies like Zynga (Farmville) with more than 100 million users.

In a Q&A with reporters following the keynotes, PayPal's Osama Bedier, vice president of platform, mobile and new ventures, compared the state of ecommerce to where the Web was in the mid-1990s. Back then we were asking 'How big can the Web be?' and no one predicted how big it became," he said.

As PayPal and others simplify online payments, Bedier said online commerce has huge upside potential. In five years he said he expects half of all mobile payments to be made on mobile devices.

"I can imagine ten years from now, only ten percent of PCs will do online payments, the rest will be done on devices," he said. "We're pushing to get there as fast as we can."

PayPal said the sold-out Innovate conference attracted over 2,500 developers, almost double the number who attended last year's inaugural event.

David Needle is the West Coast bureau chief at InternetNews.com, the news service of Internet.com, the network for technology professionals.

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4 Ecommerce Regulations to Need to Know

When starting a small business ecommerce site, retail is one type business that many people lean toward.  While it may seem that the requirements for conducting retail business online are easier than those for a brick-and-mortar store, it's important to know you still have rules, regulations and standards to comply with.

 In the United States, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is the primary agency that regulates ecommerce activities. This includes regulations for a number of ecommerce activities such as commercial email, online advertising and consumer privacy.  Another organization that ecommerce site owners should become familiar with is the PCI (Payment Card Industry) Security Standards Council. This organization provides security standards and regulations for handling and storing your customer’s financial data.

Some of the important regulations you will need to learn about before starting your online retail business include protecting consumer privacy, handling customer data, collecting taxes and complying with online advertising regulations.  In this ecommerce regulations guide we discuss these four issues and provide details that every ecommerce site owner should know to comply with federal laws in the U.S.

Protecting Your Customer's Privacy Online

Online privacy is a big issue as many ecommerce sites collect and retain personal information about customers. Some of the personal data you will likely obtain would include a customer's name, address, email address, and possibly their credit card and other types of financial information. As the ecommerce site owner it is your responsibility to ensure this personally identifiable information is protected, and that when you collect such data you comply with federal and state privacy laws.

Ecommerce site owners should provide a privacy policy and post it on the ecommerce website. This policy should clearly identify what kinds of personal information you will collect from users visiting your website, who you will share the information you collect with, and how you will use and store that information.

Most small business ecommerce site owners approach a privacy policy like any business requirement.  You could have a lawyer draft a privacy policy document for your business, or secure a trusted service provider to manage and host your privacy policy. Once you have privacy policy in place, be sure to remain in compliance with it -- if not your business can face costly legal fees. For more tips on creating a privacy policy, see Ecommerce Content: Writing a Good Privacy Policy.

Online Advertising Compliance

Ecommerce site owners must know about the applicable laws for online advertising. Like traditional advertising for brick-and-mortar stores, online retailers must also comply with regulations when advertising online. The FTC regulations for advertising are designed to protect consumers and to prevent deceptive and unfair acts or practices.

One of the main forms of online advertising for a small business ecommerce owner is email. For this reason, ecommerce business owners need to become familiar with federal advertising laws to ensure the content of any emails is compliant, but also be familiar with the CAN-SPAM Act (Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act) of 2003. This act establishes requirements that any business that engages in email marketing must follow.

Under the CAN-SPAM Act, hefty penalties can be levied against email marketers who violate the law -- each email sent that violates the act is subject to penalties of up to $16,000. Additionally, any commercial email message you send must include notice that the message is an advertisement, and it must also include opt-out information and your business postal address. To comply with this law you must also honor opt-out requests promptly. The FTC website defines the laws you need to know about email marketing.

How to Collect Taxes Online

When you shop at a store you pay tax on the purchase, and the Internet does not change this -- but there are differences. 

Have you ever noticed that some ecommerce websites charge you tax when you make an online purchase, while others don’t? The reason is because if a business has a physical presence in a state (e.g. a store or office), then it is required by law to collect state and local sales tax from customers.  However, if the business doesn’t have a "physical presence,” then collecting tax on purchases is not required.

This dates back to a 1992 Supreme Court ruling that said states cannot require mail-order businesses, and by extension, online retailers to collect sales tax unless they have a physical presence in the state.

For ecommerce site owners, the one thing you will have to research is how your state classifies a physical presence. In legal terms, this is called a "nexus," and each state defines nexus differently.

Navigating sales tax laws can be difficult. To ensure you are in compliance with tax laws, it's always best to contact your state's revenue agency to ensure you have the correct information on taxation before starting your ecommerce venture.

How to Handle Customer Financial Data

PCI compliance is a term familiar to many people researching ecommerce regulations. As an ecommerce site owner, one of the standards you will need to know about is the PCI DSS standard, which is short for Payment Card Industry (PCI) Data Security Standard (DSS). All organizations, including online retailers, must follow this standard when storing, processing and transmitting credit card data.

The PCI Security Standards Council is the organization -- founded by a number of financial institutions including JCB International, MasterCard and Visa -- that is responsible for the development and implementation of security standards for account data protection. Through its PCI Security Standards, the organization seeks to enhance payment account data security. 

There are a number of security initiatives in this standard, such as using a firewall between a wireless network and the cardholder data environment, making use the latest security and authentication, and using a network intrusion detection system.  The PCI DSS standard, as of September 2009 (DSS v 1.2), includes the following 12 requirements for best security practices:

To achieve PCI compliance, an online retailer must meet all PCI DSS requirements. The PCI DSS standard is broken down into six milestones with a number of requirements to be fulfilled at each stage. The PCI Security Standards Council website offers this PDF, which is designed to help merchants to better understand the requirements. It is probably the best resource online to begin to understand what compliance entails.

There's no question that meeting PCI compliance is a challenge for small business ecommerce site owners -- and being certified as PCI-compliant is a time-consuming process.  One way that a small business can meet standards is to outsource PCI to a third party that has the experience and payment system to ensure your business meets PCI regulations. 

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

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Amazon Q3 Profits, Revenue Beat the Street

Online retail giant Amazon reported solid financial results for its third quarter on Thursday, posting healthy growth over the year-earlier period and besting analysts' projections in both profits and revenue.

For the quarter running from July through September, Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) posted net income of $231 million, or 51 cents per share, 16 percent ahead of the third quarter of 2009, when the ecommerce heavyweight reported profits of $199 million, or 45 cents per share.

Overall, Amazon posted sales of $7.56 billion for the period, up 39 percent from last year's mark of $5.45 billion.

Analysts had been expecting the company to post earnings of 48 cents a share on sales of $7.36 billion, according to polling by Thomson Reuters.

Looking ahead to the all-important holiday season, Amazon is projecting fourth-quarter sales to check in between $12 billion and $13.3 billion, for an increase of 26 percent to 40 percent over the year-end period in 2009.

"Every year for the last 15 years we've worked to improve the things customers care about, and this year is no exception," CEO Jeff Bezos said in a statement. "This holiday season we'll have the best prices, the biggest selection, the highest in-stock and the fastest delivery in our history."

Amazon continues to aggressively market its Kindle e-reading device, which it says has become the company's best-selling product, though it does not divulge sales figures.

During the third quarter, Amazon began shipping a new, lighter-weight Kindle model with improved screen contrast and longer battery life. It also continued fleshing out a strategy it calls "buy once, read everywhere," through which customers can read e-books they have purchased form Amazon on a variety of devices. Amazon has been seeding its Kindle apps across various devices and platforms, including Apple's (NASDAQ: AAPL) iPad and iPhone, the Android family of smartphones and tablets and the forthcoming BlackBerry PlayBook tablet.

Kenneth Corbin is an associate editor at InternetNews.com, the news service of Internet.com, the network for technology professionals.

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EBay Q3 Profits Spike, Revenue Holds Steady

Driven by sustained growth in its payment-processing division, ecommerce giant eBay on Wednesday reported third-quarter profits up 23 percent from the year earlier period, though revenue was nearly stagnant, up just 1 percent from last year.

For the quarter ending Sept. 30, eBay (NASDAQ: EBAY) posted net income of $432 million, or 33 cents per share, up from $350 million, or 27 cents per share, in the same period last year.

Excluding one-time items, eBay posted earnings of 40 cents per share, beating out analysts' forecast of 37 cents per share, according to a survey by Thomson Reuters.

Total revenue checked in at $2.25 billion for the quarter, just beating out the year-earlier mark of $2.24 billion. Analysts had been expecting revenues of $2.18 billion.

Revenue in the company's payments division, headlined by PayPal, increased 22 percent year-over-year, rising to $838 million in the third quarter of 2010 from $688 million last year.

"We delivered strong third quarter results, with great performance at PayPal and stable results at eBay," eBay President and CEO John Donahoe said in a statement. "PayPal gained share globally and eBay continued to improve key metrics. Our company is strong and we are managing our global portfolio to balance strengths, challenges and opportunities, invest in growth and deliver consistent performance."

PayPal closed the quarter with more than 90 million active accounts, adding more than 1 million new accounts each month of the period, eBay said.

Looking ahead to the fourth quarter, eBay offered net-revenue guidance in the range of $2.39 billion and $2.49 billion, and earnings between $0.37 and $0.40.

Shares of eBay were up more than 6.5 percent in after-hours trading.

Kenneth Corbin is an associate editor at InternetNews.com, the news service of Internet.com, the network for technology professionals.

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9 Ecommerce Conversion and Remarketing Words to Know

From capturing customer data to remarketing to shopping cart abandoners, small business ecommerce site owners have a lot of lingo to learn. This Ecommerce Dictionary, with definitions and links to helpful articles on Ecommerce-Guide.com, will make it easier to understand ecommerce conversion and remarketing.

Abandonment

The term used to describe a website visitor who exits the website before completing a desired action, such as exiting before signing up for a newsletter , registering as a website member, or downloading an incentive.

Abandonment Rate

A calculation used to determine the percent of website visitor abandonment. Abandonment rate is determined by the total number of website orders divided by the total number of "add to cart" clicks (percentage).

Conversion

In ecommerce, the word conversion is used to describe the act of converting a website visitor into a customer who takes a specific action on your website (e.g. make a purchase, fill out a quote form, and so on).

Search Engine Marketing, From Keyword to ConversionConversion Marketing

Marketing techniques used by a business to convert the website visitor into a customer. For example, if a shopping cart has been abandoned and not checked out, the merchant may offer a special deal or coupon code to encourage that visitor to complete the checkout. Conversion marketing is measured by conversion rate -- the percentage of visitors who take the desired action.

How to Find an E-Mail Marketing Service ProviderConversion Rate

In ecommerce and online advertising, the conversion rate is the percentage of total website visitors that complete a desired action on the website. For example, actions include making a purchase, submitting a form, registering on the site or clicking an advertisement. Conversion rate may also be called cart conversion rate.

Ecommerce Remarketing

Ecommerce remarketing (also called remarketing) describes the different strategies and automated ecommerce systems used by ecommerce site owners to follow up with website visitors who do not make a desired action when visiting the site. The phrase is remarketing because you first market to bring a visitor to your website, and if he doesn't make a purchase or complete the desired action, you then use remarketing tactics to bring the visitor back to convert him in to a customer. Remarketing expands on conversion marketing tactics.

A Buyer's Guide to Remarketing ServicesSeeWhy Adds Social Media Remarketing ToolShopping Cart

The shopping cart is a part of the ecommerce platform that acts as an online store's catalog and ordering process. Shopping carts can be sold as independent pieces of software to be integrated into existing ecommerce platforms or offered as a part of an ecommerce Web store or ecommerce hosting package.

Choosing an E-commerce Shopping CartShopping Cart Abandonment

A similar term to "abandonment," however this term refers specifically to those visitors who add items to the online shopping cart, but exit without completing the purchase.

Save Our Sales: Preventing Abandoned Shopping CartsShopping Cart Abandonment Rate

A calculation used to determine what percentage of website visitors do not complete the checkout process on the website. It is a percentage derived from the total number of website visitors who start the checkout process, divided by the total number of visitors who clicked "add to cart" links.

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.

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3 Web Tools for Building Better Websites for Less

Are you pinching pennies and stretching dollars till they scream? Then you'll appreciate these free, or low-cost Web tools that can help you build or improve upon your small business ecommerce website.

If you need graphics, the first Web resource provides thousands of them -- buttons, backgrounds, bullets -- for free. And, if you hate wasting time painfully searching for domain names, the second Web tool grabs the info for you in mere seconds.

Finally, how about creating a members-only website that shows off your expertise and builds a residual income at the same time? Check out our third Web resource for more info. Our sister site, Small Business Computing has the full story on all three Web tools.

The Free Graphics Store

"Free" is the most overused word on the Internet, but in this case, the Free Graphics Store really does mean it. This Web tool delivers exactly what it advertises: free graphics.

The site offers a huge list of free graphics that you can use for your website design. For example, you can choose 15 Everyday Objects, 18 Assorted Graphics, 48 Bullets, Animations, Icons, Backgrounds, Tiled Backgrounds. That's just a small sampling; the list goes on and on.

Read the complete Cool Web Tools -- 2 Out of 3 Free article

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Facebook Changes Equal More Control, Smaller Groups

If you're trying to build a brand for your small business ecommerce site using social media, pay close attention to Facebook. The latest changes will give you much tighter control over privacy and chat, plus, you can connect with smaller groups of people -- a good thing if you're targeting a specific niche. Our sister site Datamation.com has all the details.

Social networking colossus Facebook rolled out an ambitious set of new features on Wednesday, each aimed at giving users finer-grained control over their activities and interactions on the site.

The changes include an overhaul of Facebook Groups, which the company is retooling to make more suitable to smaller, more closely connected sets of people, such as an extended family or a sports team.

Read the complete Facebook Retools With Focus on User Control article

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5 Facebook Apps for Small Business Ecommerce Sites

Creating a business page on Facebook will not suddenly boost brand loyalty or drive sales, but it is an important Web marketing tool for small business ecommerce site owners. 

If you're new to Facebook in terms of creating and managing a business Account, Facebook lets you create a Business Page -- which is different from a personal profile page on the site. To get started you can read our Facebook Business Page tips to learn more about setting up your Facebook Page.

Once your Facebook Page is ready you can then use any of the following Facebook apps on your business page to make it more interactive and interesting to the people who "Like" your business on the social networking site.

As you go through the process of setting up applications on your Facebook Business Page, remember to pay close attention to the installation and to make sure you are associating the application with your Page -- and not your Personal profile -- on Facebook.

1. A Facebook Business Page App for Blogs

Networked Blogs is a blogger community on Facebook where you can add your blog and connect with others who read and write about the same subjects you do. This Facebook app is useful to any small business ecommerce site owner who maintains an ecommerce blog. With the application installed you can promote your blog on Facebook by syndicating your blog feed to your Facebook Wall and Page.

2. The Updated Facebook Notes Application

Facebook Notes has always been a part of Facebook -- but the newer version of Facebook Notes is an application that lets you tag others in the note, and people can also leave comments on Notes.

Facebook Notes is a good way to provide information to your Facebook fans, such as details on your business, tips and FAQs related to your area of expertise, and so on. Using the Facebook Notes also provides you with an RSS Feed so you can display your Facebook Notes on your blog, website and other Internet publishing spaces.

3. Link Twitter with Your Facebook Page

Facebook provides its own integration with Twitter that links the two pages together. When you use third-party Twitter applications to connect the app to Twitter, it will link your personal Twitter account to a Business page (or a personal Facebook page to Twitter and not your Business Page).

Using Facebook’s Twitter integration will solve this problem. Using the Twitter application by Facebook will let you publish Facebook Page updates to Twitter accounts automatically. You also have options to share updates with their Twitter followers and control what type of updates to display on your Facebook Page.

4. Provide Extended Info on Your Facebook Page

You can use the Facebook Extended Info application to provide more details in your profile. A Facebook profile offers fields such as Activities and Interests -- and by adding the Extended Info application you can add extra fields to your profile that support videos, images, music, and HTML.

After you have added the application to your page, you will need to edit your Page settings to add Extended Info as a Tab or Box on your Page. To add new content, you access the Extended Info Editor and display new information fields to your Page.

5. Market Your Ecommerce Promotions on Facebook

Wildfire Promotion Builder is a Facebook application that small business ecommerce site owners can use to run different promotions on Facebook Pages, such as contests, coupons and special deals. After adding the application you configure the promotion through the app, publish it, and then add it as a Tab on your Facebook Page.

This application is not free, but pricing is reasonable. Using this promotion builder will also simultaneously publish your marketing campaign on Facebook, Twitter and your own ecommerce website.

More Facebook Business Page Marketing Tips

Looking to get a better handle on integrating Facebook into your small business marketing plan? Try these Facebook tips and guides for small business ecommerce sites:

How to Add Facebook Like to Your Ecommerce Site

How to Customize a Business Facebook Page with Apps

Facebook How-To Guide: Create Business Pages

Facebook How-To Guide: Create Ad Campaigns

Facebook Tips: How to Use the New Business Page Layout

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.

Stream video of games, events3 Twitter Tools for Small Business Ecommerce Sites

10 Tips for Better Social Media Marketing

Are you looking for more ways to promote your small business ecommerce site? One of the most affordable and effective ways to do that is through social media marketing. Sites like Facebook, Twitter and a host of others provide a great opportunity to build strong customer relationships and brand advocates for y our ecommerce site.

Our sister site, Small Business Computing, has the low down on 10 best practices for engaging your customers online and for building a strong social network.

Social media, popular Web-based technologies that let people socially interact with one another online, has changed the way small businesses communicate with customers and market products and services. Social media lets many businesses -- especially small businesses that cannot afford to launch private online communities -- interact with customers in a more personal way to build better customer relationships.

Read the complete Top 10 Social Media Tips for Small Business Marketing article

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Online Marketing Tools, Tips and Resources

Every business -- even an online business -- uses printers, and our small business marketing guru Andrew Lock shares his thoughts on the cost of inkjet cartridges. He also offers up a great resource for finding similar Web. That's a handy way to search out your competition or to find more than one source of information on a particular subject. Plus, see how eDiet.com engages its customers, and learn how you can apply similar methods in your business.

Ink for inkjet printers costs an outrageous $8,000 a gallon. Not that you would ever buy a gallon of it, but that illustrates how ridiculous the cost is. Is a laser printer a better option? What's your opinion?

Join Alex Mandossian and me for the Virtual Wealth Expo, an online event this October 18-23, where you’ll get to hear from people like Richard Branson, The Dalai Lama, Harvey Mackay, and many other celebrities, entrepreneurs, wealth building experts, and thought leaders.

This week's question raises the subject of having home service providers (plumbers, electricians, carpenters etc) handing out business cards. That’s fine, but there’s a lot more you can and should do, in my opinion. First impressions count, so it’s really important to give attention to clean uniforms, overalls etc.

I've found a resource that lets you find similar websites. I use it to find joint venture partners in my niche, new competitors in my niche, and other sites that are like useful ones that I already use. Try it, you’ll soon pick it up. The big marketing lesson for this episode is from eDiets.com. They’ve done a great job with the interactivity options on their home page. I discuss why this is important, and how you can achieve the same result with your marketing.

As usual, let me know your opinion about the topics covered in the show to help your small business this week – leave your comment below, it’s really easy to do.

You'll find lots more small business marketing tips and resources from Andrew Lock in our Small Business In-Depth series, Lock in Your Marketing Resources.

Andrew Lock is a self-described maverick marketer and the creator and host of Help! My Business Sucks, a free, weekly Web TV show full of practical marketing tips, advice and resources to help small businesses "get more done and have more fun."

Ecommerce Marketing: Failed Customer ServiceGet back to bootstrapping roots to speed your business’ recovery

Digital River Lets Ecommerce Stores Capture Social Media Metrics

For many small business ecommerce sites, using a full-ecommerce service provider has its benefits. Most notably it allows the e-store owner to focus on the tasks required to run the business and spend less time involved with the technology needed to manage the online store.

As ecommerce trends come and go, small business ecommerce sites using a hosted storefront can often jump on the new trends -- like mobile commerce and social commerce -- quickly because most vendors update services to incorporate new trends and ecommerce features.  One area that is growing is social commerce and online store owners are looking for ways to incorporate social media and to leverage social media to make or increase revenue.

Digital River SocialStream Offers Social Media Campaigns and Metrics

Digital River (NASDAQ: DRIV), a global ecommerce service provider, is one company that recently announced a new social media tool for its global ecommerce platform. Called SocialStream, the new social media tool lets Digital River customers quickly launch and manage e-store promotions over multiple Facebook and Twitter accounts.  

Also -- a very important feature -- is that SocialStream gives e-store owners the capability to capture social sales metrics. This social media tool release comes at a time when many small business ecommerce site owners are still trying to figure out how to tap in to social media analytics to discover the potential ROI of social commerce.

Making the Social Connection with SocialStream

In an interview with Ecommerce-Guide.com, Jim Wehmann, senior vice president of global marketing for Digital River said that Social Stream lets marketers and e-store owners optimize social media campaigns with just a few clicks from within the standard Digital River interface they already know and use.

"SocialStream is integrated right into the Digital River workflow," he said. "Marketers can decide to post promotions or features to Facebook and Twitter by making a simple action to send those messages out around the tasks they are already working on.”

For example, this could be creating a “preview” type promotion for new software or for a special deal in your e-store.  As you set the campaign you can send it out across the social media platforms in addition to your own e-store and other marketing channels you use -- right from where you are working in the Digital River interface.

E-store owners also do not need to do much to use this feature.  Wehmann said that due to some legal issues with connecting to third-party or external sites, customers will need to agree to a change in the Terms of Service to access SocialStream, but after that they simply need to connect their Facebook and Twitter accounts and it is immediately available.

Capturing the ROI of Social Sales

While Digital River is certainly not the first ecommerce platform provider to offer some sort of social media functionality for its customers, one big benefit with the SocialStream offering is that e-store owners  will also have access to social analytics as part of the deal.

Some small business ecommerce sites using social media are stuck as there is no clear way to go from traditional Web analytics to social media analytics with the ecommerce tools and services they use. For the most part, many use standard Web analytics to see site traffic and pageviews or click-through rates that come to the ecommerce website from Facebook or Twitter as the referring source. 

While this can give you a good indication of how important these social media sites are to your e-store and your small business ecommerce site, it doesn’t capture your real social media metrics or help you determine your own social media marketing ROI (return on investment).

The reports offered in SocialStream let you see the commerce actions that have come directly through the supported social media platforms. Expanding on this, Wehmann said that Digital River SocialStream generates campaign reports that show metrics for actual social media customer activities. SocialStream can track unique clicks, conversions and revenue generated for each social campaign for each of your social accounts.

When you have reporting tools to track metrics like average order value, revenue per visitor, revenue generated per follower, and click through -- an ecommerce site owner can then see which social media campaigns are converting and see the real return and sales generated thorough each social media marketing opportunity.

For its ecommerce customers, Digital River has rolled out SocialStream into two of its ecommerce platforms; the fully-managed ecommerce solution, Global Ecommerce, and also in its self-managed solution, Commerce Express.

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 .

Social Media Analytics for Small Business Ecommerce SitesAnita Wadhwani: Inclusive deals give record labels chance to make up revenue

3 Twitter Tools for Small Business Ecommerce Sites

In what seems like a never-ending quest to stay on top of ecommerce trends, small business and ecommerce site owners are adding social media campaigns, such as Twitter, to existing marketing plans.  One thing you should be aware of -- once you start tweeting to customers you’ll find that using Twitter can be time consuming.

The good news is that there are many free and low-cost tools available to help you better manage your Twitter marketing tasks. Even better is that most Twitter tools are Web-based and very easy to use.

The three Twitter tools picked for this round-up are best-suited to help a small business ecommerce site owner stay on-task with Twitter marking efforts. These Twitter tools will cut down on your Twitter time investment by automating the tweeting process or by providing features that help integrate Twitter into the marketing tasks you already do.

Create a Promotional Coupon with TwtQpon

Small business ecommerce sites will find the Twitter coupon generator, TwtQpon, useful for promoting Web store deals on Twitter. You can also create special reward coupons for your own loyal Twitter followers.

When you visit the TwtQpon site, click on the "Create a Coupon" button and enter the following information in the Web form:

Your Twitter account nameThe coupon titleThe coupon details (in 140 characters or less)Upload a 700 x 300 pixel imageSpecify a coupon code (if blank the coupon will show “no code required” on it)Add a redirect URL (your promotion landing page or ecommerce site URL)The expiration date of the coupon

This information is all you need to create your free Twitter coupon.  Your Twitter followers will see a Tweet, which is the text you enter in TwtQpon Web form. Customers who click the link are directed to the image-enabled version of the coupon page (on TwtQpon.com) and are then redirected to the URL you specified when they click to redeem.  What we like about this Twitter tool is that you can create and publish your Twitter coupon in seconds.

You do have an upgrade option to add personal branding, which is shown on the image-enabled version hosted at TwtQpon.com.  The website doesn’t specify a fixed price for the upgrade but suggests you enter a price at check-out based on what you think the upgrade is worth.  On its website TwtQpon says that the branding service is a way of supporting hosting and development costs.

Schedule Tweets with FutureTweets

FutureTweets by SolidFlux is another useful tool for busy small business ecommerce sites. If you often forget to update your Twitter status or you have difficulties working in regular tweet time this is a good tool to use.

The Web-based service lets you schedule a number of tweets and specify the time you want the tweets to be published on Twitter.  You could pick one or two days a week to add multiple tweets that you set to publish at different times.  The scheduling aspect will not be noticed by your followers and it will appear as if you Tweet on a more regular basis.

To use FutureTweets you need to give permission for the application to access your Twitter account. Once the connection between Twitter and FutureTweets has been made, you'll find yourself looking at a very simple form on the FutureTweets website.  

All you need to do is type in your Twitter message and then select a publish date. You can enter the publish date manually in the form field (e.g. 2010-09-14 15:25) or you can choose the date on a calendar button and select the time by dragging the hands on the clock widget beside the message box on the form.

After scheduling your Tweets you’ll see a list of all scheduled tweets you have written with a star noting the ones that have been published. From this single Web page you can also edit or delete any Tweet you set using the tool.

What we liked best about FutureTweets is that it offers a simple interface with everything you need on one page so you can go in and schedule future tweets quickly. 

HootSuite Social Media Dashboard

HootSuite is a social application that you can use to manage a number of social media tasks in an efficient way from one Web-based interface.  The service supports a number of social platforms in addition to Twitter -- like Facebook, WordPress and others.

HootSuite offers several tools that will help small business ecommerce site owners to better manage their Twitter and social media marketing tactics. Some of the tools let you schedule updates across one or more social media sites, and you can also collaborate and manage multiple social accounts that are spread amongst your marketing team.

Small business ecommerce site owners will also like two of the more business-focused tools in HootSuite. The first is the “Monitor Mentions” tool. This is used to track and gather mentions of your company or brand across multiple social sites.  Another business tool in HootSuite is used to review statistics and reports on individual status messages tweets you publish.

HootSuite is a more professional Twitter tool with a focus on the needs of a business user. We like that it offers multiple tools for multiple social media sites in a single Web-based interface.

HootSuite offers a free ad-supported version that lets you monitor and post to five social networks, use 2 RSS feeds, and caps your statistics history to the first 30-days of use.  The full unlimited version with all features and one team member for collaboration is $5.99 per month. Additional team members can be added for $10 per month per person.

More Twitter Tips

Looking to get a better handle on integrating Twitter into your small business marketing plan? Try these Twitter tips and guides for small business ecommerce sites:

How to Twitter for E-commerce SuccessTwitter Tips to Boost Small Business MarketingWebopedia's Twitter DictionaryFree Twitter Tools to Tweak Your TweetsCheapTweet Gives Twittering Retailers more Exposure

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.

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Review: 3DCart Offers Social Media Integration

Small businesses or entrepreneurs often look to a hosted ecommerce software platform to launch an online Web store. The benefit of using a hosted ecommerce solution is that you can set up your store and shopping cart, plus use a number of tools for inventory management or customer marketing -- all from within a single Web-based control panel.

3DCart Version 3.2 is an ecommerce software solution that offers all the basic tools and customization options you would expect when using a hosted ecommerce provider. One thing we liked about 3DCart is that it offers a few extra features, like marketing and social commerce tools that are not industry-standard features found in most hosted ecommerce software platforms.

Getting Started: Create a 3DCart Account

Setting up a store using 3DCart is a simple process. You can create your store, upload products and be open for business pretty much right away. It is advisable to have files ready to use, such as your business logo, product catalog, images and other assets that you will need to customize your Web store.

3DCart offers a free 15-day trial, so you can create a free account and try the service to see if it will meet your needs. Once you have provided provide a name, email address and phone number you are forwarded to a screen to setup your store. After you create a new store you can use the account and then upgrade to a paid subscription (see full plans and pricing here) if you decide to continue using 3DCart as your ecommerce software.

Next: Design, Set Up and Customize Your New Store

3DCart offers a built-in wizard that will help you get all the required information into the system, and then it will guide you through the creation and customization of your Web shop. If you prefer to skip the wizard, you can access all of your store management options through the "Online Store Manager," which is your administration dashboard. This is the Web-based interface that lets you manage your orders, products and marketing -- and it lets you access additional tools for store management tasks.

To launch your store, you will first need to customize the following six options:

Design allows you to create or choose templates and create a store logo. Using the Web-based control panel allows you to design a storefront without needing to know any code at all. You can also choose to include features such as product reviews, or "email-a-friend" links.Store Set-up is where you provide information such as your store name, and a description of your business. If you didn't create a logo in the Design phase, you can upload one you already have during this step.Add Categories lets you establish categories to organize your products in the Web storeAdd Products is the tool you use to upload your product catalog or to enter products individually. 3DCart offers a number of options for managing your products. For example you can choose which items to display on your main page, create bundles of products, offer per item discounts, and customize the product description, title, meta tags, and more.Payment Methods lets you choose which types of payments customers may use by selecting your payment gateway. 3DCart supports all major payment gateways including Authorize.net, Verisign, PayPal, Google Checkout, and more.Shipping Options allows you to select a carrier for delivery. 3DCart offers integration with UPS, FedEx, Canada Post and USPS. When customers make a purchase from your Web store, they can obtain real-time shipping quotes and also get package tracking information.

These standard ecommerce software functions are all you are required to customize in order to launch an online store using 3DCart.

One thing that 3DCart does well is provide ample options to customize the store to suit your own business needs in terms of shipping, taxes and inventory management. Also, there is plenty of opportunity for merchants to add or edit keywords, meta tags, page titles and images for search engine optimization (SEO) purposes.

Another thing that we liked about 3DCart is that the Web-based interface used to manage your store and 3DCart account is laid out in such a way that it's easy for even a novice to figure out how to customize and open a store in a short amount of time.

The 3DCart ecommerce software platform also offers a number of additional features that small businesses and entrepreneurs will want to use to get the most out of what the platform has to offer and to tweak their online store.

Social and Mobile Commerce Features

With this new 3.2 version release, 3DCart provides mobile commerce, built-in marketing tools and social commerce integration.

The built-in social commerce features of 3DCart will help you move your Web store to a social setting. The ecommerce software platform allows you to easily integrate the Facebook Like Button (see Facebook Like Guide), add your store to your Facebook Fan Page within its own tab, and share products and news across multiple Social Bookmarking sites using the Add This widget.

3DCart also provides iPhone and smartphone templates which will optimize your Web store for visitors who are browsing -- and buying -- from their mobile devices.

Another feature worth mentioning is the built-in blog, which is helpful for SEO efforts. In just a couple of clicks you can create a store blog to post news, articles and other content. The blog interface lets you schedule posts and provides an RSS feed for syndication.

In addition to these features, you will also have access to online marketing tools, product reviews and store widgets. You also get an image editor to prep your product images, the "Newsletter SmartLists" to manage mailing list subscribers, and a CRM feature to track and manage customer communications and relations.

Pricing, Support and Availability

3DCart offers a number of pricing plans to suit any small business or entrepreneur. The "Mini" plan falls on the low-end of the scale, but it's a good choice for a part-time or casual seller looking to expand from eBay and online auction sites. It's designed for low-traffic stores, has a 50 product-listings cap and starts at $19.99 per month.

The mid-range "Professional" plan is designed for medium-traffic stores (around 8,000 visitors per month). It costs $65.99 per month and includes a LiveChat plug-in. The high-end small business "Premium" plan costs $199.99 per month, and it's designed to handle around 120,000 visitors per month. You also receive extra features in this plan, such as enhanced statistics, LiveChat and a QuickBooks plug-in. take a look at all the 3DCart subscription plans and pricing.

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.

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SMBs Balance Social Media Risks, Rewards

Small businesses and small business ecommerce sites have embraced social media as a means to advertise their products and services and connect with customers, but this affinity for sites like Facebook and Twitter has also put data -- their own and their customers' -- at greater risk.

Security software vendor Panda Security's Social Media Risk Index (available in PDF format) study found that 33 percent of the 315 U.S.-based SMBs surveyed have endured at least one significant malware or virus infection from social networks.

And of that infected group, 35 percent said they've suffered some sort of financial loss as a result of the security breach. Facebook was cited at the No. 1 culprit, followed by YouTube and Twitter. One-third of these of breaches cost in excess of $5,000 apiece, according to the report.

Researchers said they expect these numbers to continue to grow as more hackers target smaller companies that often lack either the budget or the resources to shore up their data networks compared to their enterprise brethren.

"Social media is now ubiquitous among SMBs because of its many obvious business benefits," Sean-Paul Correll, a threat researcher at Panda Security, said in the report. "Yet these tools don't come without serious risks."

To meet this growing demand for SMB-appropriate security applications and services, vendors such as McAfee (NYSE: MFE), Symantec (NASDAQ: SYMC), Dell (NASDAQ: DELL) and others are rolling out integrated security offerings designed to provide adequate security for smaller companies and their limited IT budgets.

But antivirus and endpoint security applications can only do so much. In order to maintain consistent and reliable protection from ever-more-creative phishing and malware scams, companies of all sizes need to incorporate ironclad governance and education programs and procedures throughout their companies to ward off new emerging threats.

Surprisingly, most SMBs are actually doing a good job on this front.

The survey found that 57 percent of companies with less than 1,000 employees have already installed a social media governance policy. More important, 81 percent of those companies said they also have the personnel in place to actively enforce those policies. Another 64 percent said they have formal training programs in place to teach workers about the inherent risks and benefits of social media sites.

"While a relatively high number of SMBS have been infected by malware from social sites, we were pleased to see that the majority of companies already have formal governance and education programs in place," Correll said. "These types of policies combined with up-to-date network security solutions are required to minimize risk and ultimately prevent loss."

Even with the additions of security software apps and formal training and governance policies, most SMBs (62 percent) still ban employees from using social networking sites like Facebook or Twitter while on the job.

Another 25 percent said they actively block popular social media sites for employees -- typically by using either a gateway security appliance or cloud-based security software service-- which limits both security risks and the employees' ability to harness social nets for business purposes.

For those SMBs that are willing to live with the risks to drive sales and marketing campaigns, Facebook was by far the most popular social network used (69 percent) followed by Twitter (44 percent), YouTube (32 percent) and LinkedIn (23 percent).

Larry Barrett is a senior editor at InternetNews.com, the news service of Internet.com, the network for technology professionals.

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Will PCI Outsourcing Kill Conversion Rates?

Small business ecommerce site owners cannot afford to slack off when it comes to the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS). Its strict security requirements make being PCI compliant challenging for small retailers, but PCI DSS is a standard that all organizations must follow when storing, processing and transmitting its customer's credit card data.

One of the easiest ways to be PCI-compliant is to outsource payment processing and work with a payment provider who has the experience, systems and security in place that meets the PCI DSS standard. By outsourcing PCI compliance you basically remove the PCI burden from your small business to a trusted provider.

The Benefits of PCI Outsourcing

The PCI DSS standard is complex, and a small business ecommerce site can easily fail to reach PCI compliance simply because its owners do not have the knowledge or means to implement a PCI compliant system in-house.

One of the benefits to outsourcing PCI is that you leverage a third party that has the knowledge, experience and payment system to ensure your business meets PCI regulations.  Outsourcing also significantly reduces the time required to become PCI compliant.

 “Payment providers using new technology can wipe PCI compliance right off a small retailer’s plate,” said Peter Caparso, president of Adyen U.S. operations.  “Outsourcing PCI to a payment provider lets you meet PCI regulations and also provides you with better business options," he added.

As a small business ecommerce site owner, if you touch any element of a customer’s credit card data then you are required to meet PCI standards.  This, according to Caparso, is one area where merchants can fail to meet PCI regulations.

“Some retailers simply don’t understand that you cannot touch the data at all," he explained. “A system where the retailer simply passes the data along instead of storing it, still requires the retailer to meet Level 4 compliance.”

PCI Outsourcing and Conversion Rates

One concern that small business ecommerce sites may have about outsourcing payment processing and PCI compliance is that it kills its conversion rates.  This is not always the case, said Caparso, if you work with your payment processor and take advantage of new technology.

Some outsourced ecommerce systems work in such a way that it can leave shoppers feeling insecure about making a purchase. This is largely due to online retailers who use redirects at checkout.  Any customer who looks in the address bar in their browser may notice they have left your website URL and are at a different URL to complete the checkout process.

While the URL change is simply a part of the process to move the customer off your site to the payment processor, it can make customers feel uncomfortable if they notice it.  Of course, if a customer doesn’t feel secure at the time of checkout, your cart abandonment rate will go up.

In most cases when PCI compliance shifts to an external provider, it is the lack of customization on the actual payment page that contributes to cart abandonment. 

Caparso recommends that small business ecommerce sites choose a hosted payment processor that provides the option to bury the URL in redirects and the capability to customize the payment page so the payment process is completely transparent to the customer. This will encourage consumer trust and boost the conversion rate when outsourcing PCI.

Payment Processor Services to Boost Conversions

While the redirect is a big issue for cart abandonment rates, there are other business processes that can help boost conversion rates when a small business ecommerce site chooses to outsource PCI. For this reason you need to take a good look at additional services being offered by the payment processor.

For example, a payment processor should be able to provide you with real-time data on conversions. You should be able to see the transaction flow through a management dashboard so you can see accepted, rejected and abandoned carts. This gives you access to data that can help you boost conversion rates even though the PCI process has been turned over to a third party.

Other services, like access to customer analytics and localized payments are all services that a payment processor should offer to help you, as its customer, boost conversion rates.

In the end, PCI outsourcing is an option that a small business ecommerce site owner can implement quickly to be PCI compliant. Choosing the right payment processor is the key to not killing your conversion rates.

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 .

Get back to bootstrapping roots to speed your business’ recoveryReward Ecommerce Customers with Loyalty Programs

Social Media Analytics for Small Business Ecommerce Sites

Small business ecommerce site owners know there is value in social media marketing. However, make sure you can determine whether your efforts have a positive impact. If you can't measure results of your Twitter or Facebook campaign, it's virtually impossible to manage social media marketing.

The best way to track your campaigns is with a social media analytics tool. Any small business ecommerce site that uses social media can use this type of tool to track how successful you are in meeting campaign goals.

One tool you can consider is SWIX (Social Web Index).  SWIX is a social media analytics tool that helps you track, monitor and analyze your account data from more than twenty different social media sites including Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and many other popular platforms.

Creating a SWIX Account for Social Media Analytics

As with most Web-based tools, SWIX offers a free trial account so you can try the service to see if it is right for your small business ecommerce site before upgrading to a paid account. Just register on the SWIX website for a free account, verify your account through an email link and you are ready to start tracking and analyzing your social media profiles.

 When you log in to SWIX for the first time, you need to add “Tracking Pods" to your account. These Pods are your profiles and accounts on any of the SWIX-supported social sites that you want to start tracking.  As you add each Pod you will need to give permission for SWIX to access -- or connect -- with your social media account to access data for reports.

Each Tracking Pod offers options to customize the specific data (the metrics) you want included in the social media analytics report.  For example, after you connect your Facebook Profile in SWIX, you can choose to add Friends or Wall posts to your reports. For Twitter accounts, SWIX allows you to add Followers, Friends, and Statuses to your reports for tracking.

Once you have selected all possible Tracking Pods and the metrics for reporting, SWIX will begin tracking and analyzing your social profiles. You can go in to the “Tracking” tool at any time to add or delete social media accounts.  SWIX gathers your visitor and usage data on a daily basis and graphs it over time.

Useful and Unique Social Analytics Features

SWIX offers small business ecommerce site owners a number of tools to better manage social media tactics through analytics and reporting. One tool that many will find helpful is the Worksheet -- an overview of all your social media campaigns in one screen. To use the worksheet you provide your own production costs (e.g. for YouTube you might have paid to have a video designed) and SWIX will automatically calculate your unit costs and growth.

One unique feature of SWIX includes a return on investment (ROI) tool. This tool lets you enter monetary values to social media metrics, such as Facebook fans or YouTube views.  You can then add your own marketing costs to see estimated ROI of your social accounts.

Another thing we liked about SWIX is that it is easy to create, manage, and track results of social media campaigns. Campaigns in SWIX are used to organize social media accounts based on the advertising campaigns that they fall under.  To create a campaign you group together Tracking Pods so you can collect specific information.  With SWIX you can create and manage multiple campaigns and track the success of each one separately.

SWIX makes it easy for small business ecommerce sites to see detailed social media analytics and reports -- and also the value of your social media marketing tasks in an easy-to-use interface.

Pricing and Availability

SWIX is free for the first 30-day. After this, you will need to upgrade to a paid plan, or cancel your account.  Paid accounts are billed at $9/month per each active campaign associated with your account.  The SWIX website indicates that you can add and remove subsequent campaigns and SWIX will pro-rate the monthly charges accordingly.

More Social Media Tips

Looking to get a better handle on integrating social media into your small business marketing plan? Try these social media tips and guides for small business ecommerce sites:

How to Add Facebook Like to Your Ecommerce SiteSocial Media: Tips for Small Business Marketing3 Twitter Tools for Small Business Ecommerce SitesHow to Use Social Networks to Engage ConsumersSocial Network Marketing Meets Small Business

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.

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Microsoft Bing Pulls Into Second Place in Search

It took 15 months from when it launched, but Microsoft's Bing search technology finally pulled ahead of Yahoo search and into second place behind Google, at least in the U.S., according to one leading Web analytics firm.

The Nielsen Company said that Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) Bing outstripped partner Yahoo (NASDAQ: YHOO) in August, pulling slightly ahead of Yahoo search.

"For the first time, MSN/Windows Live/Bing Search overtook Yahoo as the number two search engine in the U.S. with a 13.9 percent share of search volume in August 2010," said a post to the NielsenWire blog on Tuesday.

By comparison, Yahoo Search logged a 13.1 percent user share of U.S. searches in August. At the same time, Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) pulled in a 65.1 percent share, which has remained basically flat for the past year.

Microsoft launched Bing in late May 2009. Since then, it has slowly picked up user share, but it had never broken into the number two position before.

Bing still has a long way to go to threaten Google's solid leadership slot, though.

Yahoo's share declined by 18 percent over the past year. Bing, in the meantime, grew by 30 percent overall since August 2009, making it obvious that Microsoft's growth has come primarily at the expense of Yahoo -- the software giant's partner.

In July, Google's share was 64.2 percent versus 14.3 percent for Yahoo and 13.6 percent for Bing.

Microsoft and Yahoo inked a deal last winter whereby the Bing technology will provide the search infrastructure for Yahoo sites in return for Microsoft getting a share of the advertising revenues for ten years.

The two companies finished integrating Bing search into Yahoo's sites on August 24, but Nielsen did not count that as traffic to Bing.

"The eight days of Bing-powered search on Yahoo are not included in the Bing number," a Nielsen Company spokesperson said in an e-mail to InternetNews.com. "Both Bing and Yahoo will continue to be reported as separate entities," the spokesperson added.

Stuart J. Johnston is a contributing writer at InternetNews.com, the news service of Internet.com, the network for technology professionals. Follow him on Twitter @stuartj1000.

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Google Predicts Social, Real-Time Ads

What new technologies are businesses likely to leverage in the near future to help market their company's products and services? Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) has some ideas.

The search giant's made billions of dollars over the years via systems that place relevant text ads next to user's search results. More recently, it's been looking to richer display advertising as the next great frontier of opportunity. Google has been ramping up new display ad services as part of its Google Display Network as it looks to take on take on market leaders Facebook and Yahoo (NASDAQ: YHOO) and others.

The stakes are huge. The research firm comScore (NASDAQ: SCORE) reported earlier this year that U.S. consumers received over a trillion display ads in the first quarter of 2010, up 15 percent from a year ago.

Another research firm, eMarketer, says the U.S. display ad market is set to grow 12.9 percent to $8.56 billion this year, up from $7.6 billion in 2009. By 2014, eMarketer forecasts display ad spending will reach $14.71 billion. Google predicts the global market for online display advertising will grow to $50 billion by 2015.

Google said in a blog post this week that it thinks "display advertising is about to go through the biggest and most important revolution in its history."

As a follow up to "Display 2015: Smart and Sexy" presentation it made recently at an advertising conference, the blog reveals how Google sees ad formats and consumption changing in the years ahead -- think social, personalized and real-time.

In five years, Google expects that 75 percent of ads on the Web will be "social" and broadly distributed across multiple formats and sites. Social features will include the ability to comment, share, discuss and recommend specifics ads to friends or a broader social network.

Another Google prediction is that by 2015 at least half of all online ad campaigns will include video ads that advertisers will only pay for (on a cost-per-view basis) if the user chooses to watch them. Google is already testing a new cost-per-view video ad format on YouTube called TrueView that's due to go live later this year. TrueView gives users the choice of skipping an ad or choosing from multiple ads.

Google also expects that real-time bidding technology will continue to advance, designed to help advertisers tailor ads to specific audiences. "In 2015, 50 percent of these ads will be bought using this real-time technology," the blog said.

"Display advertising really is at the heart of what we’re doing at Google these days," said Neal Mohan, Google's vice president of product management and Barry Salzman, managing director of Media & Platforms for the Americas, the blog's co-authors.

David Needle is the West Coast bureau chief at InternetNews.com, the news service of Internet.com, the network for technology professionals.

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Mobile Commerce: Coming to Ecommerce Sites Near You

According to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, in the past year, the company's customers around the world used mobile devices to buy more than $1 billion in products from the ecommerce giant. That's one heck of a trend, and anyone who owns a small business ecommerce site would be well advised to watch it closely.

Mobile commerce is coming, and not just to the big ecommerce shops. Small Business Computing and analyst Laurie McCabe provide what Web shop owners need to know about this mobile ecommerce revolution.

What is Mobile Commerce?

Mobile commerce (also known as mobile ecommerce, m-commerce and other variations) consists of two primary components. The first is the ability to use a wireless phone or other mobile device to conduct financial transactions and exchange payments over the Internet. The second is the ability to deliver information that can facilitate a transaction -- from making it easy for your business to be "found" via a mobile Web browser to creating mobile marketing campaigns such as text promotions and loyalty programs. Why Should You Care?

Just as the Internet and ecommerce revolutionized the way we promote, market, shop for and buy goods and services, wireless devices and mobile commerce are poised to create another revolution in the world of commerce.

Read the complete mobile commerce article

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Yahoo Plans New Search, Email as It Speeds Release Cycle

Yahoo, in the midst of a corporate turnaround effort, is planning to speed up the pace of new product and feature rollouts, pledging an accelerated roadmap that will see rapid iterations to its core services, including search and email.

Blake Irving, who recently joined Yahoo (NASDAQ: YHOO) as chief product officer, spoke of the company's evolving strategy at an event this week Yahoo dubbed "Product Runway." Irving touted Yahoo's global computing infrastructure that supports the massive traffic to the company's content and services, reminding his audience that Yahoo remains one of the premier brands on the Web.

He also noted the strong ties between Yahoo's research labs and product divisions, explaining that Yahoo benefits from healthy collaboration between the two sides of the house, which in many IT firms effectively operate as silos.

At the same time, he acknowledged that Yahoo needs to do more, both to impress its advertisers and retain consumer loyalty with a swifter pace of innovation and more relevant, personalized content.

"With great technology and great technologists and great labs, you know, there's an opportunity for us to do things better, frankly," Irving said.

"You're going to see things from us over the course of the next year -- course of the [next] year and a half, three years, five years -- that are going to feel a little different to you. We're going to be iterating much more frequently than we do today."

Those changes will begin this fall, with Yahoo detailing plans for upgrades to its core search and email platforms.

In search, Yahoo is billing the fall rollout as one of the "most significant updates" to its search service, which has seen its market share erode in recent years. By one analyst firm's measure of U.S. search queries, Microsoft's search engine eclipsed Yahoo for the first time last month

Yahoo plans to stock its search results for popular or trending queries with a variety of content formats presented in a streamlined, easily navigable layout. Searches for popular entertainment topics or individuals will present results organized by images, news stories, videos, tweets and other types of information, presenting users with an array of one-click bars to display the results in the format of their choosing. Yahoo will offer a similar presentation for news items.

Those new features will roll out as Yahoo continues to transition its search-engineering operations over to Microsoft's (NASDAQ: MSFT) technology as part of a long-term revenue-sharing agreement between the two companies. Yahoo has sought to defuse speculation about its exit from the search market through the partnership, explaining that it will continue to innovate and improve the user-facing layer of its search engine, even if it no longer has a hand in maintaining the underlying infrastructure.

Yahoo is also planning a redesign of its email service, which currently serves some 281 million global users. Later this fall, Yahoo expects to release a beta version of a new, streamlined inbox, boasting a faster response time and new integrations with social services Facebook and Twitter.

The company is also planning to roll out new advertising formats that enable marketers to customize their creatives with messages more precisely tailored to users. A crucial pillar of the company's efforts on the advertising front will be to glean more information about its users' interests and preferences.

Currently, roughly half of the 600 million monthly visitors to Yahoo are logged in when they visit one of the company's sites, Irving said. Yahoo is now "striving for 100 percent authentication," he said, explaining that the company will begin accepting login credentials from Facebook, Twitter and other open ID schemes.

"The vision is bringing personal meaning to the Web," Irving said. "Using insights and data, we're going to understand what brings personal meaning to individuals on the Web. And that doesn't just mean owned-and-operated sites. It means across the Web."

Kenneth Corbin is an associate editor at InternetNews.com, the news service of Internet.com, the network for technology professionals.

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