Posted October 28th, 2011
by Pablo
Q: We’ve had our ecommerce website for a little over two years and have had the same design for some time now. When is it the right time to change the design on the website or when should you consider a website redesign?
A: Website redesigns are something to strongly consider and I believe to be different for many industries across the board. In general, it’s important to always keep changing the look of your website as you do not want to look like a ‘stagnant’ website or business to consumers that may be coming back to visit your website and see the same ‘ol.
Changing your websites design lets consumers know you are an active company. Also, as it goes for any ecommerce business, certain products, not all, have seasonalities. Sometimes you have new products you want to really showcase, sometimes you may have sales that you really need to showcase.
A redesign should be implemented as your business demands it. Always keep an eye on your competitors and see how they are changing things up. That is to say, look at the biggest players in your niche, not the small websites that you are competing against.
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Posted in Q&A
Posted October 27th, 2011
by Pablo
Want to know how competitive keywords are in Google Adwords for paid search? See the new feature on Googles KEYWORD TOOL that allows you to see how competitive a keyword is.
If you advertise in Google Adwords (if you’re a pay-per-click advertiser,) it’s important that while you’re doing your keyword research you understand the competitive nature of the keywords. How competitive a keyword is can tell you a lot about the market for that niche and information like knowing that a competitive keyword will cost more money to bid on.
Source: WebsiteMagazine.com
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Posted in Pay-Per-Click
Posted October 26th, 2011
by Rafael Solorzano
We know that ecommerce is still a booming market worldwide. As technology advances (more internet in third world countries and smart phone usage for web browsing,) ecommerce moves right along in its growing path.
If you’re in ecommerce, and chances are if you’re reading this post or blog you are, you should be very excited about the next few years to come and the possibilities you can have growing your business with the right type of online marketing.
A vital part of ecommerce success is really doing your research. With the right data and research for your market, you can really thrive in ecommerce.
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Posted in Ecommerce Essentials & Tips
Posted October 24th, 2011
by Roger McGershen
Mobile, mobile and more mobile. If you’re an ecommerce merchant and reading the latest tech and online marketing blogs, you know how important mobile is, has become and will be even more so in the near future. The world is moving toward surfing the net more and more via mobile devices and tablets.
Emarketer.com forecast a 50% increase in mobile shopping for the 2011 holiday season! If you don’t see this stat and say, “OK, we need to make sure we’re doing what we need to for mobile,” you’ll really be behind your competition or miss out on sales. MAKE SURE your ecommerce website has a mobile version for easy and faster navigation for consumers browsing through your website.
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Posted in mCommerce
Posted October 21st, 2011
by Pablo
OK, so we did use the title to grab your attention a little bit. In an Entreprenuer.com article titled, “Steve Jobs and the Seven Rules of Success,” they list what Steve Jobs considered to be the 7 rules of success. If you read through them, this really applies to any ecommerce business as well…any business in general.
Since his death, you’ve must have seen his quotes on your friends Facebook, Twitter and blogs/news sources. Indeed, he was a wise man and had wise words that we should all take into account as one of the most successful entrepreneurs of our time.
1. DO WHAT YOU LOVE: Jobs said, “People with passion can change the world for the better.” You may think (but hopefully not,) you may just want to run or start an ecommerce business. If you love it, the business will become bigger than what you think. Passion is a path to great success.
2. PUT A DENT IN THE UNIVERSE: It’s all about vision. Do you have one for your website? Your business? How can you make it different? What message you will your brand have? Try to INNOVATE.
3. MAKE CONNECTIONS: I never thought much about this one myself, but it’s a great one to put into any business or life strategy. Jobs said creativity is connecting things. DON’T LIVE IN A BUBBLE. “Connect ideas from different fields.” – from Entreprenuer.com
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Posted in Ecommerce Essentials & Tips
Posted October 19th, 2011
by Pablo
You’ve been hearing all the buzz about tablets, especially the iPad, right? The iPad has and is revolutionizing the way consumers search and use the web. It’s yet another tech gadget that gives us the ability to do what we want from a small machine, especially use the internet.
When it comes to mobile, a recent study shows that tablet users show greater ‘mobile’ purchasing than smart phone users!
Emarketer also reports on a very interesting state which states, “Ipsos also presents a group of consumers called “dual owners”—those who own both tablet and smartphone devices. Dual owners, Ipsos determined, conduct m-commerce purchases twice as often as those who own only smartphones. Dual owners, on average, made more than 20 mobile purchases over the past year.”
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Posted in mCommerce
Posted October 18th, 2011
by Pablo
It’s important to always follow what the ecommerce industry is focused in terms of online marketing. Following trends and research, we can prioritize some of the things we need to do for our own websites. Having said that, it’s also not always about following what other are doing, but if you ask enough ecommerce merchants where their focus is in terms of online marketing, you have to look at the data as a whole which will give you a significant signal of maybe where we should focus our internet marketing ourselves.
From a survey in one of our blog post titled, “ecommerce trends to watch for in 2011,” and an email to some customers, we asked where the focus was in terms of online marketing for their ecommerce marketing efforts (exposure, sales, etc.)
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Posted in Online Marketing Strategies
Posted October 17th, 2011
by Pablo
Are you advertising in the search engines like Google and Yahoo/Bing yet? If you are, you know how expensive PPC can get. But, you also may know and see how much your business can grow with a very good PPC campaign. The great thing about search engine marketing is the fact that you can bid on keywords that searchers are actively looking for.
Have you ever thought about advertising in Facebook? Facebook ads have a very similar model to search engine PPC. The way Facebook ads works is that not only can you target keywords (interest, hobbies, and more from Facebook users,) but you can target exact demographics.
Facebook will offer up to $10 million in free Facebook ads for small businesses to have a chance and see how Facebook ads will impact their business. Facebook ads is great for generating leads and sales. So, if you have an ecommerce website and have some marketing budget to allocate to social ads, I strongly encourage you to start a campaign on Facebook and see how it converts for you. You can start a Facebook campaign for as low as $10+ a day.
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Posted in Social Media For eCommerce
Posted October 13th, 2011
by Pablo
For web marketers, tools for search engine optimization are one of the important things that they need in order to be effective at the work they do. Fortunately, Google offers quite a number of SEO tools that these web marketers can use in order to maximize search engine optimization.
Google Analytics
Google Analytics is considered way up in rank when compared to other Google free tools. This tool, together with Google’s Keyword Tool, are known as Google’s Core Tools when it comes to SEO analytics. Google Analytics provides not only a free analytics solution to web marketers; it offers easy-to-implement solutions, as well. This tool also allows a web marketer to connect natural searches and sales to the entry page and to the keyword.
Google Keyword Tools
Like Google Analytics, the Keyword Tool that Google offers for free is also considered a Core SEO analytics tool. This particular tool provides users with a window by which keywords, or key phrases, will be the most advantageous to use.
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Posted in SEO for eCommerce
Posted October 12th, 2011
by Roger McGershen
For online merchants, common sense would indicate that their treatment of customers will matter when it comes to bringing in more sales to the business. Engaging a visitor with their online store will help significantly in turning them from visitors to customers, and therefore increase the business’ conversion rate. Here are a few tips in how to personalize websites for a more engaging shopping experience.
Personalize Your Site Such That a Visitor Will be Driven to Purchase
An example of a site that has been personalized to drive visitors to purchase from it is Amazon.com. This particular website has personalized recommendations that are designed to appeal to potential customers visiting the site. Personalized tools include public profile, community settings, registries, gift lists or ideas, product reviews, personalized content and shopping lists. These tools can be used by customers/visitors to browse the site and the products offered in it. With the help of personalized recommendations, there would be a higher possibility for these customers to be tempted and eventually buy some items on the site.
Create and Encourage a Community on the Website
A community within an e-commerce site is also one way to personalize a visitor or shopper’s experience. When a visitor, or a site user, becomes a part of the site’s community, he will then be able to share their own dedicated page, progress blog, and track a number of product reviews. This community will also allow shoppers to interact with people who share common interests. With the chat features of a forum, users can see which products are recommended by other users and can then discuss about these recommendations. A good example for this kind of site would be Vitacost.com.
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Posted in Ecommerce Essentials & Tips
