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.”

3 Apps to Boost Your Facebook Business Page

When you create a Facebook Business Page or Fan Page for your ecommerce business, one challenge you might have is figuring out how to create something that isn’t a static, basic Facebook Page.   Other than the text descriptions you add, your Facebook Business Page, without any extra work, is going to look the same as many other Pages on this popular social networking site. Just having a Page on Facebook doesn’t mean it will automatically appeal to consumers. The best way to get noticed and to have people make use of the "Like" button on your Page is to have a professional developer design your Facebook page and work with your business to create Facebook-friendly photos, video and other assets.  This will help highlight what your business has to offer and also make your Facebook page an appealing destination for your customers. Of course, that project will cost money and take time. If your small business or ecommerce business is lacking in either of those departments, then the following three Web apps and services can help you bring your business to Facebook with a little style. 1. Design and Customize Your Facebook Fan Page with Pagemodo Pagemodo is a free Web tool that can help you create an interesting and unique look for your Facebook Fan Page.  Pagemodo lets you choose a pre-designed template and then customize it to your business by uploading your own images, video and text.  For example, you can edit a basic template to highlight some of your new Web store products to show your fans what’s new.  The resulting page is quite different and more visually attractive than what most small businesses will be able to create on Facebook without design and development assistance. To try Pagemodo’s Pagebuilder -- you can register for free -- add the application on your Facebook profile, which gives you access to one active page that you can install on Facebook with a Pagemodo-branded footer. Small business owners can opt-in for $6.25 per month to have three active pages and drop the branded footer. Additional plans to add video, personal branding, support and Google analytics are also available (see all pricing plans). To see how other people have used Pagemodo, you can have a look at some of their customer's Facebook pages in the Pagemodo Showroom. 2. Bring your Ecommerce Blog to Facebook with NetworkedBlogs One way to keep Facebook users coming back to your business Page is to provide new and interesting content. Long before Facebook, many businesses used blogs as a way to provide new content to customers and site visitors. You can (and should) bring your blog to Facebook, too. There are a number of Facebook applications that will send your blog posts to your Wall, but one of the best apps to use is NetworkedBlogs -- and currently more than 1.5M Facebook users agree. The NetworkedBlogs app can be used on both personal and Business Facebook pages to import your blog feed, add a visual blogroll to your profile, offer a directory of blogs organized by topic and also let people read news and vote for articles they like. 3. Add Ecommerce and Business Promotions to Your Page Promotions are currently all the rage on Facebook. Even television and paper ads promote a corporation's Facebook page where consumers simply click 'Like and get a coupon, discount or other promotional incentive.  The size of your business is irrelevant in this case because consumers like promotions, and you can offer a Facebook incentive that is relevant and scaled to your own ecommerce business. Wildfire is one company that can help you bring promotional campaigns to Facebook. The Wildfire Promotion Builder is a Web tool that lets business owners and marketers create unique branded campaigns including sweepstakes, contests and incentive-based surveys -- and simultaneously publish them in multiple social networks and on your business website. Basic pricing to run a social media promotional campaign using Wildfire Promotion Builder starts at $5 per campaign plus a 99-cent fee each day the promo runs. Additional plans that offer more features, including analytics and customization are also available ( see all pricing plans ). 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 3 Facebook Apps for eBay Sellers How to Add Facebook Like to Your Ecommerce Site How to Customize a Business Facebook Page with Apps Facebook How-To Guide: Create Ad Campaigns  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.