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.

21 Places to Sell Your Products Online

10 Easy, Hosted Storefronts and Shopping Carts Hosted storefronts are an easy way to set-up your own Web store and a good option for small or individual sellers who aren't quite ready to invest in a large ecommerce website. Storefronts -- a managed service -- make it easy to create and manage a store because you don't need any HTML or programming skills, and you can customize the storefronts to suite your business needs. 1.  BigCommerce.  A storefront solution that lets you create your own Web shop -- plus you can sell on Facebook and eBay with BigCommerce.  Extra features include multi-channel retailing, mobile commerce, SEO and easy upselling. 2.  E-Junkie. A shopping cart and digital delivery system for publishers who want to include buy-now buttons to sell digital goods. You store the files on E-Junkie's servers, and buyers receive an email with instructions to download the product after making a purchase. 3.   GoEmerchant. Use it to build an ecommerce store, or you can purchase the Buy-Me Button plan to add payment options to an existing website. 4.  Mercantec E-Commerce Express. An entry-level storefront and shopping-cart service that lets you sell in a number of places including your own site and on eBay. 5.  Miva Merchant offers full ecommerce hosting and just about everything you need to start an online store – all in one package. You can upgrade accounts as your business grows. 6.  Payvment. This Facebook-wide shopping cart system offers an admin area built directly into Facebook to manage your storefront, inventory and sales. You can customize the Facebook Shopping Tab for your Facebook Business Page. 7.  ProStores. An online ecommerce platform that lets you design a storefront that fully integrates with eBay. 8.  Shopify. This hosted service lets sellers accept credit card payments, use their own domain and customize their store design. It also features built-in analytics that helps sellers track progress. 9.  TabJuice. A social commerce platform that you can use to bring products to Facebook. This storefront application adds a customizable shopping tab to your Facebook Business Page. 10.  Volusion. An all-in-one ecommerce solution that lets you design and manage your online storefront; plus it provides tools for marketing, merchandising and CRM. 4 Online Auction Sites and General Marketplaces 11.  Atomic Mall. An online marketplace that features fixed-price, make-an-offer and Web store listings. 12.  Bonanza. Sellers create booths of items (similar to a Web shop) and list products at a fixed-price. Buyers can also submit an offer to purchase. 13.  Ebay. The world’s largest online marketplace with more than 94 million active users. On eBay you can list items via auction or buy-now format, and you can also manage your own eBay-hosted storefront. 14.  Etsy. An online marketplace offering Web shops for handmade and vintage items and also supplies for making handcrafted items.  7 Free-to-List Classified-Ad Sites Free local classified-ad sites are a good choice for online sellers who have larger items that are difficult to ship. Most general categories on classified sites don't charge a fee to list, but special categories (such as adult services) are usually fee-based.  Classified-ad sites take no responsibility for the transactions and you deal with local customers face-to-face to complete a sale. 15.  Backpage. Covers more than 400 cities and regions from the United States, Canada and Mexico. Backpage is free for posting ads; the adult entertainment and personals categories are fee-based. 16.  Craigslist. Choose a location site from cities located in the United States, Canada, Asia, Americas, Europe, and other International cities. Most classified ads on Craigslist don't cost anything to place, but some specific sections for some cities do carry a fee, such as job postings, brokered apartment rentals, and adult services. 17.  eBay Classifieds (Kijiji). eBay Classifieds in the United States (and Kijiji in Canada) is an eBay-owned network of classified sites for specific countries including the United States, Canada, China, Taiwan, Germany, India and others.  18.  Facebook Marketplace. On Facebook, Marketplace, which is operated by Oodle, helps people buy and sell items in a trusted environment (e.g. within your network of friends). 19.  Hoobly. Integrates a local classifieds market into a national marketplace. This lets consumers look for general ads and then be more specific about location. Ads placed on Hoobly are free; however you may opt to place a Premium Ad, which is posted to a paid area. 20.  OLX. An established online classified site available in more than 96 countries in 40 languages. Ads are free, but the site offers paid options that appear at the top of search results. 21.  Oodle. Pulls millions of listings from all over the Web. Consumers can place an Oodle ad for free, by creating an online account. When you post to Oodle, your classified ad may also be posted to hundreds of other sites. 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 15 EBay Listing Tools to Make Selling Online Easier, Faster 5 Market Research Tools for EBay Sellers Need an eBay Alternative? Try This List. Shopping Cart Software Tips and Reviews E-Commerce Tools: Five Ways to Sell Digital Goods Online 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.

Email Marketing Tips: Segment Lists for Targeted Campaigns

From building customer loyalty to acquiring customers and communicating promotional offers, email marketing has changed the way small business ecommerce site owners do business today. Most companies realize there is much more to email marketing than just scoring a customer's email address and sending content every couple weeks. Email marketing requires practice and dedication to be a successful marketing and communication tool for your small business.   What Is Email Segmenting? There are a number of tactics that small business owners can use to boost email marketing efforts. One technique that will help you send relevant communications to specific people in your list is called email list segmentation. Email segmentation is basically when you segment (or split) your subscriber list, based on any number of conditions -- including purchase history, age, geographic location, or previous email campaign interactions. The point of segmented email campaigns is to drive response to your email marketing messages by sending relevant and targeted messages to specific people in the list. One example of when you might want to use email list segmentation is if you own a retail store and have a special promotion event that isn’t going to be available through your online store. If you headline this event in your weekly newsletter to all subscribers you will have customers who would note the “local aspect” and delete the email knowing it wasn’t at all relevant to them.  In this scenario you could use list segmentation based on the subscriber’s location to send that known target group (or “segment”) of your list a special email -- and avoid sending to those who would not be interested in the details. Getting Started: How to Segment Your Email List Paul Turnbull, product manager for Campaigner said that the more information about a subscriber you have in your email marketing software, the more options you have for segmenting your list. The email address is the one piece of data you must have, but even a history of subscriber actions -- something you easily obtain through campaign reporting -- can be the basis for segmentation. “If you import nothing but email addresses you still have some data to work with,” said Turnbull. “If you previously sent email to these contacts, and they opened or clicked a link in the email, [it] gives you behavioral data and you can do quite a bit with that.” He noted that in the Campaigner platform automatically tracks this type of data, but you can also provide the email system with information you acquire through Web forms or customer sales records by importing standard spreadsheets and attaching it to an email address in the system. A great way to obtain data about subscribers is to capture secondary data (that is data other than a name and email address) when they sign-up to receive email communications from your business.  “The sign-up form capabilities we include with Campaigner allow you to request both optional and required information from customers,” Turnbull said. “By default the email address and the user’s first and last name is required, but you can customize this kind of form to obtain additional information,” he added. 5 Email Segmentation Tips to Get You Started Requesting information from customers can be tricky. You want customer data but you don’t want to discourage them from opting in to your email list by asking for too much. Turnbull offered the following tips to help small businesses get started with collecting data so you can segment your subscriber list for highly targeted campaigns: 1.  When customers fill in these forms they are aware that the information is being collected and used in some capacity. Business owners need to cover all the bases through privacy policies with their customers. 2.  Think about the questions you ask from the customer’s perspective: it’s a matter of asking yourself what information you absolutely need. You can build the customer story out over time with follow-up campaigns after a relationship with your business has been established. 3.  Customize sign-up forms and have different versions hosted in different places. This allows you to ask questions in places where it makes sense to do so. For example, customers may feel more comfortable answering more personal question on a blog or a Facebook sign-up form compared to your business website form. Remember that tracking where the customer signed up with you is another piece of data you can use for segmenting. 4.  A person’s location data is useful for segmenting for regional campaigns.  You can capture zip codes through sign-up forms or at a store kiosk. You can do a lot with just a zip code, so asking for a full mailing address isn’t always necessary. 5.  Reporting is your friend. Pay attention to the results of your marketing campaigns and look at those reports as opportunities for segmenting.  For example, as you drill down into your last campaign report and see that a number of people clicked a specific link, this is an opportunity to follow up with that segment of list subscribers with a related special offer. Learn More About Email Marketing From beginner guides to expert tips, our selection of ecommerce marketing articles can help you to better manage your email marketing campaigns. Ecommerce Conversion, Email and Other Marketing Words to Know Email Marketing Tips: Add Visual Imagery Grow Your Email Marketing List Using QR Codes 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.

Milo Bridges Gap between Online Shoppers and Local Retail

In the ecommerce world, the numbers look great -- online retail sales are up and expected to reach $248.7 billion by 2014. Reports indicate consumers are more comfortable with shopping online and retailers are investing more in their online operations. When put in perspective of the retail industry as a whole, according to this TechCrunch report, a study released by Forrester Research indicates that Web sales account for only 8 percent of total retail sales. Forrester also estimates that "Web-influenced" offline (in-store) sales accounted for 42 percent of total retail sales in the preceding year and that percentage will grow to 53 percent by 2014. Milo Puts Your Local Inventory Online For merchants who have a physical retail store -- but do not sell products online -- this type of market research clearly shows there is good reason to present your inventory to online consumers. That is where Milo, a local shopping company, pitches its service as a bridge to connect local retail inventory with online shoppers.  Acquired last year by eBay Inc., Milo claims its technology can take every product on every shelf at every local store and put it online to help shoppers find the best prices and availability. On the consumer side of shopping, Milo basically shows online shoppers what's in-stock, where to buy it and what the best price is. Jack Abraham, Milo.com founder and CEO, said that now customers turn to the Web to search for products and to help them decide what they want to buy -- and where they want to buy it. Shoppers are using the Internet as a tool that actually drives sales in the real world. "The old way used to be to call a store or drive around in the hopes of finding a product or just looking in stores to see if product is available," said Abraham. "Our team had the ambition to bring this local inventory online so all that you can find the products available right now on the shelf at your local stores -- online." The Milo Fetch Beta for Small Business Retailers The technology driving Milo is a local search engine. When eBay acquired the company, it started integrating local products on eBay -- largely consisting of product inventory from big box retailers. Milo recently opened up the local search to bring small businesses online with its Milo Fetch Beta, allowing retailers of all sizes to show their inventory on Milo's local search results and on other high-traffic partner sites including RedLaser, eBay, PriceGrabber and Yellowbook.com. Currently Milo Fetch supports integration with Intuit’s QuickBooks Point of Sale (POS) systems, and it's a quick, three-step process to start using Milo Fetch. Retailers go to the Milo Fetch website and download and install the software. During installation you’ll need to provide a little information about your store and then sync Milo with your inventory. After that you don’t have to do anything.  Abraham said that the installation process leaves a small icon in the task bar that, when you mouse-over it, shows the real-time sync details. "It’s a free, easy way for small businesses to get exposure to their customers on the Web and ultimately drive more sales," said Abraham.  "A lot of small businesses have just a basic page with a photo, address and store hours.  This allows them to create a full, dynamic ecommerce experience without having to do anything. You don’t need to hire a developer, get technical support or invest financially. Just install the software, and you’re done." Abraham also said that Milo is currently working on other inventory types of systems for future releases in addition to adding tools that will help a small business manage its online presence.  The Milo Fetch Beta is free for any retailer to use. While there may be a subscription fee or per-referral transaction fee charged in the future in the future, Abraham said the service will be "free for quite some time yet." A note on the Milo Fetch website claims that retailers who join the Milo Fetch beta will receive a free subscription for 12 additional months after the service launches out of beta. 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.

PayPal Handles PCI Compliance for SMB Ecommerce Merchants

While the phrase PCI compliance is enough to make a small business ecommerce merchant groan, the reality for merchants is that compliance is required in this day and age of online shopping -- regardless of the size of your online business. PCI Compliance Explained The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) is designed to be a baseline minimum standard for credit card security. In a nutshell, PCI DSS is a security process to help you identify all parts of your business that are vulnerable to theft, ranging from how you dispose of paper records to how you transmit and store personally identifiable information online -- including your customers' credit card information. To achieve PCI compliance, an online retailer must meet all PCI DSS requirements. Lee Castro, a senior marketing manager at PayPal said that when it comes to being in compliance with PCI regulations, a lot of responsibility falls to the merchant. "Some of the responsibilities for merchants include building and maintaining a secure network, protecting cardholder data, maintaining a vulnerability-management program, implementing strong access control measures, regularly monitoring and testing networks, and maintaining an information security policy," he explained. The problem most small business ecommerce site owners will face is putting the infrastructure into place to meet those requirements. The approach that merchants use in meeting these requirements is an important business consideration. “Merchants can decide to build and maintain the infrastructure to meet these requirements themselves, or they can outsource that infrastructure by using a third party, like PayPal, that stores, transmits, and processes the data on their behalf.  The decision is certainly a key decision for the merchant, as it has implications in terms of overall cost and time investment,” Castro said. Outsourcing PCI Security and Compliance to PayPal Working to assist small business site owners and online merchants tackle PCI compliance, PayPal recently announced a significant update to PayPal Payflow Link that provides merchants with "PCI peace of mind" and buyers with a streamlined purchasing experience. “Our recent PayPal Payflow update allows merchants peace of mind when it comes to PCI compliance management.  PayPal achieves this by offering hosted templates that ensure that sensitive cardholder data is stored, transmitted, and processed by PayPal, not the merchant,” said Castro. “As a result, merchants can stay focused on future business growth instead of website security.” In this way, PayPal acts as a trusted third-party that stores, transmits, and processes credit card data on behalf of the merchant and also assumes the responsibility of keeping customers’ information safe and the transaction secure to meet PCI requirements.  As part of your ongoing PCI Compliance management you will need to periodically certify your compliance to PCI regulations, but by outsourcing the infrastructure, that certification workload is greatly reduced.  Embedded Checkout Templates One issue that merchants may face when outsourcing PCI Compliance is being able to offload the security and still provide a seamless transaction process for the customer. In most cases merchants want to provide customers with the level of PCI security, but also don’t want to let customers know that another player has entered the transaction process. PayPal solves this problem with Payflow Link’s embedded checkout template so your customers do not have to leave your site during the checkout process to buy securely. This, according to PayPal, creates an efficient and secure transaction that meets key expectations of the shopping experience.  “The element that stands out in terms of consumer preference is those sites that offer the most efficiency.  A key part of delivering that efficiency is having a streamlined shopping experience that doesn’t redirect the customer,” said Castro. “The seamless process means that the customer will be less likely to abandon the sale as a result of additional websites and windows to navigate.” PayPal’s Payflow Link tool is available to merchants who want to conduct sales and transactions from their own website or online Web store. Related PCI Compliance ArticlesFrom beginner guides to expert tips, our selection of PCI compliance articles can help you to better manage your ecommerce business. Will PCI Outsourcing Kill Conversion Rates? 4 Ecommerce Regulations to Need to Know PCI Security: Small E-tailers Face Large Fines if Hacked The Tangled Web of PCI Compliance, Are You Ready? 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.

Ecommerce Website Design Tips: The Product Page

Article updated on July 20, 2011. Original post date: January 23, 2006. Product pages on an ecommerce website are the pages that spotlight products and offer shoppers a "Buy" button. Think of your ecommerce product pages as your site's "payoff" pages. It all comes down to that moment when a shopper lands on the product page and considers entering his or her credit card number. A well-designed product page is absolutely critical to an online retailer's business. With this in mind, Ecommerce-Guide spoke with Jakob Nielsen, a leading Internet usability guru, about the essential principles of product page design. Product Page Design: Step One is Simplicity Because online merchants spend so much money driving shoppers to their product pages, they want to make sure to make a sale from these pages. Consequently, many e-tailers crowd their product pages with a plethora of items -- they figure that if one item doesn't clinch the deal, then the item right next to it will. But these crowded product pages are counterproductive. Simplicity is key in a product page, Nielsen says. "Simplicity in the sense that it's about one product, because when you have multiple products that's when you add complexity, and it just becomes overwhelming." Focusing each product page on a single product has become the norm among successful online merchants. Clarity, too, is important. "The main thing should be extremely clear, like 'what is this product?' Here's a picture of it, here's the price, and here's the shopping cart." But there are exceptions, he notes. All of a single product's options should be offered on a single page. "There can be variants of a product, let's say, a shirt comes in multiple colors and sizes — I would view that as one product." But in the case of two truly different shirts, they are best placed on two different product pages. In the case of items that are similar yet different -- for example, various types of camera with different lenses -- links to them should be displayed not on a product page but on a category page. (A category page is one level up from a product page, and it offers links to a broad array of products). In this case, these similar cameras should be presented on the category page with short descriptions, such as: "Here's one for the professional photographer, here's one that's more point-and-shoot, here's a more feature-rich camera." The key point: each link on the category page should link to separate, individual product pages. Product Page 'Dimensional Navigation' Imagine a shopper on your product page who has found almost exactly what she was looking for. However, she wants just one more attribute. If the product had this one last feature, she'd plunk down her cash. But that hypothetical shopper is stuck. Because, for example, the DVD player she's looking at longingly fits all the specs she wants, except for one -- but your product page doesn't show her how to navigate to find a DVD player that has that one additional feature. The shopper "is typically lost in that situation; she has to go back up and visit all products," Nielsen says. "And that's awfully difficult for people to do." To solve this problem, Nielsen recommends what he refers to as "dimensional navigation." This navigation style enables the shopper to move from one product to the other according to highly specific criteria -- often just one more thing. Building a page with dimensional navigation means "product pages should actually be linked together," according to different dimensions or attributes that make sense to the customer. In other words, "If you know from market analysis that there are certain criteria that people use to buy, build it into your navigation." Product Pages Must Be Information Rich Product pages should be simple, but they shouldn't lack ready access to a complete source of information. "Quite often people need to know some specifics to decide whether they want it or not," Nielsen says. "And this is one of the reasons people give up on buying, because they're uncertain about some of its attributes -- like, 'Will it work with what I already have?'" If you don't make it clear, "People aren't going to gamble and order it just in case it might work," he says. Providing information, however, should be done with care. While a classic mistake is not giving enough information, "there's a dual problem of giving too complicated information." Dumping a load of product specs can create the "deer in the headlights" effect in your shoppers, which doesn't help sales. The best strategy for providing information is layering. Layering is when all the information is available, yet it's one click away -- but just one click. "It can't require another fishing expedition to go and find it -- it's got to be a clear link that says 'technical specs' -- you click that and then you get it." That way, product information is readily available for those who want it, but won't confuse those who don't need it. Recommended Reading: Ecommerce Content: Writing Product Descriptions Offer Expert Opinions on Product Pages In some cases, presenting an array of expert opinions on the product page can be a seductive sales tool. However, e-tailer beware: expert reviews must be used cautiously. "They problem is, can people trust them to be independent reviews, or do they feel like it's more and more sales information?" Nielsen says. Shoppers, of course, often visit other sites for research prior to purchase; so placing expert opinions on your product page may be either redundant or actually distracting. However, if a merchant has a truly accredited source to quote -- a well-known publication or product guru -- "That's a big credibility booster," Nielsen says. "It's not just you saying it, but there's actually someone else who's saying it as well." This is especially true if you can link to an external site that is clearly independent of yours. Ask 'Questions' Before Showing the Cart Page Many product pages offer shoppers an array of product options; for example, 'what color do you want that shirt in?' Or, 'how finely do you want that coffee ground?' A product page should ask shoppers to select these options before they put that item in the shopping cart, Nielsen recommends. The reason: Once that item is in the cart, shoppers may proceed to check out without realizing they haven't selected all their options. Also, customers often use the "Back" button to exit the cart (instead of "Continue Shopping"), so any selections they've made to the item in the cart could be undone. He also cautions against presenting shoppers with multilevel menus on a product page to select product options. If the user's mouse strays off the menu at this critical juncture, they could become frustrated. How to Build the Ideal Product Page In Nielsen's view, a well-built product page must include certain key elements: 1. It has a clearly descriptive title and, if possible, a photo Any search engine expert will tell you that a page's title is how it's found in search engines, so a descriptive title is a must in a product page's title and text. As for the photo, it's best if a shopper can click to enlarge it, and that this enlarged photo is significantly bigger, not just a little bigger. (And to enlarge the photo, the shopper should be given the choice of clicking the image itself or a "click to enlarge" link.)  When the enlarged photo appears, it should be accompanied by the same (or more) product information as the small photo -- don't ever leave the information behind. And the enlarged photo should definitely include a Buy button. Ideally, the alternate photos should show different views, allowing the shopper to visually "stroll around" the item. Nielsen describes the ideal product photo as "big, detailed and free of visual distraction." (And if that picture doesn't reveal all the product's details, accompanying text should fully describe it.) Recommended Reading: Prepping Product Shots for Web Shops 2. It provides ALL the information a shopper will need A product page should include not only a detailed list of product attributes (with a nearby link to still more information) but also final cost, including, if feasible, shipping charges and tax. In Nielsen's consumer research studies, 11 percent of "sales catastrophes" (a failure to make a sale) were due to the product page not providing enough information. Also important: avoid jargon or industry-specific lingo. 3. It states product availability and, when appropriate, delivery time You've ruined a customer relationship when you force a customer to go through check out to discover that the item won't ship for three weeks. On the other hand, letting them know the item is "in-stock" and "usually ships same day" is an attractive offer. "The bottom line is that the product page should clearly indicate whether an item is in stock, and if it is not, the page should explain the situation," Nielsen notes. Lack of information about ship date and availability "really lowers willingness to buy." 4. It links to your site's guarantee policy and, if possible, the manufacturer's warranty Many experts have noted that a prominently displayed guarantee policy, with a money-back offer, is a trust builder (and hence a sales builder). In fact, many design gurus say that guarantees should be on every page of a site, not just the product pages. 5. The no-brainer: a prominently displayed 'Buy' button If shoppers can't get it into the shopping cart -- easily -- they're not going to buy it. Remarkably, in Nielsen's studies of consumer interactions with e-commerce sites, "We've had cases where people haven't been able to find out how to buy, because it's so complicated." His study found that six percent of sales catastrophes were created by a user's difficulty getting the item into the cart. More Small Business Ecommerce Site Design Tips Looking to get a better handle on your ecommerce website? Try these content and design tips for small business ecommerce sites: E-commerce Content: Be Ready for Any Holiday E-commerce Content: Writing Product Descriptions Ecommerce Content: Writing a Good Privacy Policy Ecommerce Design: Writing an "About Me" Page James Maguire is a contributor to ECommerce-Guide.com. His weekly feature appears every Monday.

Product Review Software for Small Business Ecommerce Sites

Today's s Internet shoppers spend a lot of time researching a product before making a purchase. A new survey released by PowerReviews in conjunction with the e-tailing group indicates that one-in-two respondents (of the 1,000 shoppers surveyed) spent 75 percent of their overall shopping time researching products, compared to just 21 percent in 2010. User-generated reviews make up a big part of consumer research.  A detailed product shot and description can build interest for your products -- but nothing says "buy me" more than knowing that others have purchased and tried the product with positive results. What are PHP Product Review Scripts? Many product review systems and software are PHP-based scripts that provide a form-based process for customers to rate your products and add comments on your ecommerce product pages. PHP is a server-side scripting language that can be embedded directly into HTML Web pages. When the page is viewed, the Web server executes the code automatically; visitors don't need to install anything for the PHP script to run.  Most review scripts also use MySQL for the back-end database. To work, PHP must be installed on your Web server. Each review script will list all Web server requirements for the software. If you are unsure what is installed on your Web server, be sure to check with your ISP or ecommerce Web host for availability and version information. PHP Review Scripts for Ecommerce Websites Five Star Review Script : The Five Star Review Script can be used to let users read and write reviews for your products or services. It is a PHP-based script that provides functionality similar to that of Amazon’s user reviews. Shoppers can rate a product on a scale of 1 to 5 stars and submit comments review for site visitors to read.   Website owners can manage Five Star Reviews through a single file that controls the entire site layout. Other features of note include a bad-word filter that administrators can modify, an option for users to recommend a specific product to their friends, and more. Pricing starts at $50.00 for a leased license for one domain. Star Rating System PRO :  Star Rating System PRO is a template-based solution offered by GraFX Software Solutions. It is a commercial PHP program for ecommerce product pages or community discussion forums. Star Rating System PRO is a simple forum where users on your site can add a rating based on Excellent, Good, Fair, Poor or Very Poor. It provides fields to enter a name, email address, URL and brief comments. Star Rating System PRO uses an email system to alert administrators and site owners when reviews come in, and you can even moderate the comments over email. Other useful tools and features include a security verification image to help prevent SPAM, the capability to customize the number of reviews per page, edit comments and more. The pricing for Star Rating System PRO starts at $29.00 for one domain license. ReviewPost PHP Pro User Reviews : Another option for adding user reviews to your website is ReviewPost PHP Pro by All Enthusiast, Inc. ReviewPost PHP Pro works completely on its own with all functionality included, and it also works with vBulletin, phpBB 2.0, and UBB Threads v5 and v6, to keep your website users from having to register twice.  The program lets reviewers upload product images, search reviews by keyword, rate products on a scale of one to five and provide a pros and cons list in the review.  ReviewPost PHP Pro can be integrated into an existing site which gives administrators several options to control how it looks by changing color choices, font choices, custom headers/footers and CSS.  ReviewPost PHP Pro offers a robust selection of admin options including an easy Web-based setup, options to approve, reject or edit reviews before they go live on the site, create and rename categories, track user views and more.  Pricing starts at $89.00 for the review software installation on one domain. More Product Review Tips and Trends Looking to get a better handle on integrating user-generated product reviews into your small business ecommerce website? Try these tips and guides: Capitalize on Customer Reviews The Good News About Bad Reviews Profitable Product Pages 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.

The Ecommerce Guide to Social Media Back Ups

We all know that creating a backup of your hard drive and all your small business data on a regular basis is important -- but have you ever thought about backing up your online and social media accounts? Imagine what would happen to your small business marketing campaigns if you suddenly lost all your online social contacts, history and customer insights. Of course all business owners need to keep up-to-date records of all online communications for legal reasons, and while email is often backed up; tweets and Facebook messages can be overlooked.  These business communications also need to be archived. Something else to keep in mind is that you don't really own the online account and the data associated with it. Any online account you create (e.g. Facebook, Gmail or Twitter) can be suspended or the account can be terminated without warning if you are suspected of violating the terms of service for that particular site. The site may also close its virtual door without warning and leave a small business without any access to the contacts you have made and the data you have created online. Small business owners spend a lot of time in social accounts, and these are just a few of the reasons why it is important to have a system in place to create backups of your online account data. Options to Back Up Your Online and Social Accounts There are basically two approaches to back up your social media data. You can create backups of your social accounts from within the service itself, or you can use a third-party backup tool to archive data across multiple social and online accounts. Creating Archives From Within the Social Site Some of the common social media and networking sites provide tools that will let you create an archive of your account that you can download to your computer. In choosing this method, you would maintain the archive and it would become part of your usual small business back-up process. If your small business uses only personal profiles for making contacts with customers, then you may want to look at backing up your account or exporting contacts from within the site itself. Here are the step-by step instructions to create a backup of Facebook and LinkedIn profiles. How to Back Up Your Facebook Account Facebook offers a way to download your complete profile. When archived, the backup file includes an HTML page that lets you preview all the content in your profile.  To download the archive from Facebook follows these steps: Login to Facebook Go to Account > Account Settings (located in the top right-hand corner of your profile page) On Account Settings , select the following option: Download Your Information Facebook will generate the download and send you an email notification when it is ready. You will be prompted to enter your account username and password to download the archive (zip file) of your account to your computer. How to Export LinkedIn Contacts On LinkedIn you have the option to export LinkedIn connections to email applications including Microsoft Outlook, Outlook Express, Yahoo Address Book, or Mac OS Address Book. To export your connections, follow these steps: Login to LinkedIn Click Contacts > Export Connections (located at the top of your home page) Leave the Export to field as it appears and enter the security text when prompted Click Export, and then save the file to your computer After you have saved your LinkedIn contact list, you will then be able to import the contact list from within your email application. Using Third-Party Services and Tools to Create Social Account Backups Not every social media or social networking site will offer a way for you to back up your online account from within the service. Twitter, for example, experiences such volumes of messages that it would be difficult (and costly) for the service to keep a record of every single message ever sent.  In fact, Twitter only allows people to access their most recent 3,200 tweets. The good news is that if the social service itself doesn’t provide an online backup tool, there are a number of third-party backup and recovery services that automate the process of archiving all data associated with your online accounts. Most third-party services most store your backup online, so be diligent in reading the service’s privacy policy to make sure it will not have access to any of your personal data. Remember, backing up your online data and only storing it with another online service is also a risk. Be sure the service also provides you with a way to archive the data to your local computer. 3 Ways to Back Up Social and Online Accounts 1. Backupify is an online service that builds a single, searchable archive of all your online data. The service backs up your authenticated services either weekly or daily, based on your subscription plan ( see pricing ).  Backupify supports Gmail, Google Docs, Google Sites, Google Calendar, Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, Blogger, Google Contacts, Picasa, Zoho and LinkedIn. 2. SocialSafe securely export your Facebook and Twitter account data to your hard drive. There is a free and upgraded Pro version (see pricing). SocialSafe works on Windows and Mac computers. 3. BackupMyTweets.com : This online service lets you backup more than the last 3,200 tweets that Twitter lets you access. The service will back up your existing tweets and check every day for new ones. A free and premium subscription is available (see pricing).  Other "BackupMy" services are available for online email accounts, blogs and online photos. More Facebook Small Business Ecommerce Tips Want 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 3 Facebook Apps for eBay Sellers How to Add Facebook Like to Your Ecommerce Site How to Customize a Business Facebook Page with Apps 3 Apps to Boost Your Facebook Business Page 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.

Shopping Carts for EBay Sellers

EBay sellers looking to expand sales to their own small business ecommerce website need to use a shopping cart or third-party software that integrates an ecommerce shopping cart with eBay.  This integration will enable sales and inventory data to be shared between the systems and save you a lot of time and help you manage your online selling business across both selling channels. Why Online Sellers Need Web store and E Bay Integration Back-end integration with eBay is important if you plan to sell on your own website and on eBay. Ecommerce integration with eBay lets you easily manage all orders, no matter which site generates the sale. You can list all your items in one system and have your inventory displayed in both selling channels. Plus each system will recognize a sale on the other site and provide a single inventory, sales and customer history.  8 EBay-Compatible Shopping Carts and Integration Services Here are eight eBay compatible shopping carts and integration software packages that will help you sell on your own ecommerce website while staying on top of your eBay sales. 1. AuctionBlox eMarketConnect AuctionBlox provides access to eBay and Amazon.com (via your storefront administration screens) from your existing online store. By connecting your store with eBay, AuctionBlox lets you list your products on eBay and process checkouts in your own store. CRE Loaded, oscommerce, Zen Cart and Magento art software is supported. eMarketConnect is free with a paid subscription to an AuctionBlox store. 2. DesignCart DesignCart is a third-party hosted online shopping cart designed for a small to mid-size businesses that want to sell products on the Web. It works on any hosting platform and provides the capability to list and complete payment for your eBay auctions. Winning bidders will be presented with an add button via email and, upon successful payment, the cart will update the eBay auction status automatically. 3. Kosmos Central EBay ecommerce integration software from Kosmos lets you upload items from your online store to your eBay account, and download orders from eBay to your ecommerce website, integrating all purchases into one system to keep your eBay and online storefronts  in sync. The latest version of X-Cart is required in addition to the eBay Ecommerce Integration software. 4. Mercantec E-Commerce Express Mercantec offers an entry-level storefront and cart service that lets you sell in a number of places including your own site and eBay. You can use E-Commerce Express for auction (and other) checkouts and payments and it can also be used to create eBay fixed price listings. 5. ProStores ProStores is an online ecommerce platform for merchants and eBay sellers.  The platform is a full ecommerce solution that lets online merchants design online storefronts and catalog products. Plus it lets you manage store-administration tasks and offers full integration with any eBay selling business. 6. Shopping Cart Elite Shopping Cart Elite lets you push products in various marketplaces including eBay, Amazon, Craigslist and many others. It uses your existing product database and can also be programmed to list only those items you have in stock or that are competitive enough to sell. 7. Techwave Free Shopping Cart Techwave shopping cart software provides everything you need to build, update and maintain an online store. Techwave is fully integrated with Microsoft CRM and Sugar CRM for organized business and sharing procedure. It also offers an EBay Integration Module for Techwave Ecommerce that will fully integrate your ecommerce website with an eBay store.  8. T-Hub for QuickBooks The T-Hub order management solution is designed to integrate your ecommerce stores with QuickBooks and Shipping services (UPS/FedEx/USPS).  T-Hub works with several leading ecommerce platforms and shopping carts such as Amazon, EBay, Yahoo stores, Magento, Volusion, GoDaddy, X-Cart, BigCommerce, AmeriCommerce, osCommerce, AspDotNetStorefront and others. More Tools and Tips for EBay 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 15 EBay Listing Tools to Make Selling Online Easier, Faster 5 Market Research Tools for EBay Sellers Ecommerce Marketing: Best EBay Auction Length? Need an eBay Alternative? Try This List

3 Consumer Shopping Trends Online Retailers Need to Know

The world of online shopping is a never-ending barrage of fads, trends and change. Just when you think you have a handle on what’s new, along comes a new (or revived) trend to negotiate. New research published earlier this month by PowerReviews in conjunction with the E-tailing Group gives online retailers unique insight as to how consumers research, select and purchase goods online and helps to identify the best strategies for connecting with consumers. The 2011 Social Shopping Study The study, The 2011 Social Shopping Study, is based on a survey of more than 1,000 consumers about their online shopping habits, as well as their level of engagement with brands and retailers across various online channels. In the survey introduction, Lauren Freedman, president, the E-tailing Group said that 2011 has been a volatile year for ecommerce with a multitude of dynamics in play from social media and community to mobile. "This year’s survey explored consumer utilization of social media across a range of merchants and channels to understand perception, interest, and propensity to buy based on that engagement,” she wrote. “We wanted to know the implications for researching and shopping behavior, particularly as it relates to Facebook, which is the beneficiary of much of the community attention.” Trend #1: Product Research Remains Top Purchasing Decision Tool One consumer shopping trend the survey set out to determine was if user-generated content (UGC) continued to play a role in consumer shopping choices.   Findings suggest that consumers do invest greater time in online research before making a purchase, as 15 percent of respondents said that 90 percent or more of all online shopping time was spent researching products (compared to just 21 percent in 2010). Respondents confirmed that search engines, like Google, are still the main starting point for research by 44 percent, followed by gathering information from retailer and manufacturer websites.  To that end it is apparent that search engine optimization (SEO) is still a crucial task for online retailers. The important take away for merchants is knowledge of where consumers start their product research. Nadim Hossain, VP of marketing at PowerReviews, said that the first step in the research process for consumers is Google. "Google is where people start, so SEO is really important to online retailers. Our research found that product reviews are the number one factor impacting the buying decision," explained Hossain. " Trend #2: Social Shopping and Customer Reviews as an Influencer Another big question playing on the minds of many retailers is just how much influence social media has on the customer’s purchase decision.   Social shopping and social media has been a huge topic for online retailers this year, but only 2 percent of respondents used Facebook or other social recommendations as their main research starting point. Forty-nine percent of those surveyed said they have never researched products on social sites.  Where social media does shine is in Facebook Business Pages and Facebook newsfeeds, with 13 percent of respondents saying those social tools impacted their buying behavior. “Merchants are testing social media by trying to integrate it and understand how to monetize it,” said Lauren Freedman.  “Retailers typically evaluate then go first for the promotions to increase their fan base, in a way that is similar to email list building.” When it comes to user-generated content, a number of community and social tools impact buying behavior, customer reviews  (user-generated product reviews) influence purchasing the most with 59 percent of survey respondents, followed by customer Q&As (42 percent) and community forums (26 percent). Consumers still favor writing product reviews as an activity.  The survey indicated that 70 percent of respondents participated in “rate a product purchased” compared to 49 percent who engage in using the “Like” button for a retailer or manufacturer. Trend #3: Mobile Phones Empower Consumers In-Store Mobile phones are also a popular influence in customer purchase decisions. Usage in the retail store is also increasing as mobile phones give consumers immediate access to research, price shopping and promotional coupons for immediate redemption. Merchants are interested in the mobile phone and the tablet audience because these are the consumers who are going to shop and consume.  Lauren Freedman said that retailers see the traffic penetration coming from this demographic and online retailers view mobile shoppers as an audience ripe for business. What's most interesting about the mobile portion of the study is seeing the break-down of how consumers use mobile phones. In response to the question "How likely are you to do each of the following using your mobile phone when researching a product while in a physical store?" the top three answers were: Access promotional coupons for redemption at the store (38 percent) Look for competitive pricing at Amazon (36 percent) Look for competitive prices on products at retailers online other than Amazon (36 percent)  Other activities shoppers use their mobile phone for include scanning bar codes, scanning QR Codes (quick response codes) or use mobile apps to receive points, rewards or badges. “Mobile phones are the merging of the offline experience in-store, and it all goes back to pricing,” said Freedman.  “Consumers use a mobile phone to check sales and specials, to look up store information pre-visit and to scan reviews for product information while in-store.” Predictions for Mobile and Social In the coming year both Hossain and Freedman predict that mobile phones and social tools will grow in importance as more consumers use these mediums for product research and shopping. “The mobile piece will continue to accelerate fast but the social will be more challenging for the retailers to understand, explore and monetize,” said Freedman. “Retailers will continue investment in both areas and see continued sales growth in mobile versus exploration in social.”