Posted in eCommerce February 7th, 2010 by admin - Be the first to comment
Google Analytics (GA) is a popular service for many small – medium ecommerce businesses because it can provide almost all the features that other commercial (paid) services can provide while staying FREE.
Many people, however, don’t know how to take full advantage of the power that GA offers them. Last week I was chatting with a client and turned out she did not know that she could track what the customers search on her site with GA. Just imagine how surprised and happy she was. Knowing what your customers searching on your site along with other factors (how many times they have to refine their search, how deep did they have to dig down, … to find what they are looking for) can help you to stock your store with the products that are on demand, or to re-work your internal search engine to give better search result.
Setting up site search tracking is very easy:
http://www.google.com/support/analytics/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=75817
For Zencart, you should use keyword for “Query Parameter” and categories_id for “Category Parameter”
Posted in eCommerce January 31st, 2010 by admin - Be the first to comment
As the economy slowly begins to bottom out, opening the way for improvement, there is one major point that seems to be being proven again and again: small businesses will be a major part of that recovery. Without an emphasis being placed on the smaller businesses that have suffered for years under the dominance of large (and often corrupt) banks and businesses, the job market will continue to slow, and the annual revenue will once again decline on a country-wide basis.
Because of this fact, those who watched President Obama’s address may have noticed that small businesses were a main focus of the direction of the way forward. Several plans have been put into play that will help small businesses once again prosper and become more focused in a new era of the job and business market. However, the opinions of how much these plans will help are mixed, with some feeling as though it will not be enough, and others saying that something is better than nothing. But what will it mean for you, the small business owner? Read more…
Posted in eCommerce December 20th, 2009 by admin - Be the first to comment
Going green. It is a term that has become increasingly popular since 2006, when Al Gore released his award winning documentary “An Inconvenient Truth”. Since then, a craze has taken off that is dedicated to creating a cleaner, more energy efficient world, and battling the phenomenon of global warming. There are still skeptics out there, and those that have believed from the beginning. Whichever category you fall into hardly matters; the benefits of going green as a small business speak for themselves.
The truth is, there a number of pros to becoming more environmentally conscious, both in terms of saving and making money. Companies that cater to a growing client base that is dedicated to frequenting eco-friendly businesses are becoming more popular than ever, and for the first time a large number of people will choose a business based partially on this ideal.
Read more…
Posted in eCommerce December 14th, 2009 by admin - Be the first to comment
Alright, so you have your business ideas, your business plans, your target audience, your niche, advertising campaigns worked out…it is all coming together. But before you invest your money and launch into a new business venture, there is one thing you may want to know for sure: does it have a chance of succeeding.
There is a common misconception – albeit an optimistic one – that if you have a good idea and a willingness to work hard your business will be a hit. This is the American way, combining innovation with good old fashion sweat. This may have been the case fifty years ago, but today’s market is very different, and there will be plenty of failed businesses to tally as 2009 comes to a close, with may more to follow in the years to come.
Luckily, there is a way around this. As long as you analyze your business idea in a structured and honest way, you will be able to avoid a pitfall that could be potentially hazardous. But you should take this a step even further and analyze yourself. If you are not the kind of person who can effectively run a small business you shouldn’t be attempting it. There are many check lists that can offer you assistance in this regard, and there are even consultant you can hire that will speak to you in depth about yourself, and your idea. But some questions are more common than others, and completely necessary to answer. Read more…
Posted in eCommerce August 20th, 2009 by admin - Comments (2)
The dot come bubble
The online business boom really garnered a ton of media attention about 10 years ago when “dot com” was one of the most heard terms on television and in publications like Newsweek. That type of online business was completely unexplored territory and definitely had its ups and downs. Today, the online business world is a different place but is especially ripe for the picking if you have the drive and motivation to make it happen. It sounds scary but the number of people who attempt to form an online business compared to the number that actually succeed is extremely low. Some circles will swear as many as 90% will fail. Read more…
Posted in eCommerce August 17th, 2009 by admin - Be the first to comment
According to a new research conducted by Bianca Price PhD of University of South Australia, the power of “gorgeous girls” at the counter has some very clear limits. Regardless of whether or not the product was related to appearance (for example, a mobile phone compared to mascara) if the female customer perceived the staff member to be better looking than her, she was less likely to purchase the product.
Good looks don't convert to sales?
This may raise some eyebrows but it’s something I suspected all along (I never liked salemen who are better looking than me :p). How does this apply to online selling, you ask? Well, there are several take home lessons from this research for online marketers and business owners: Read more…
Posted in eCommerce August 16th, 2009 by admin - Be the first to comment
There can be no doubt that the online sector is the largest growing business arena today. Almost every company, large or small, is attempting to establish a profitable and efficient online presence. For some organisations, this means the creation of an ecommerce site, for others it simply means setting up a professional website, to act as a store window. However a company decides it can best make use of the World Wide Web; there are a whole host of challenges to be overcome. Below we will take a look at some of the issues face by a business wishing to establish itself online, and discuss how these can be overcome. Read more…
Posted in Tips & Tricks, eCommerce August 12th, 2009 by admin - Be the first to comment
Ehh? SSL? What is it?
SSL: Secure Sockets Layer (this is the predecessor of TLS)
TLS: Transport Layer Security
What are they: cryptographic protocols that provide security and data integrity for communications over networks such as the Internet. TLS and SSL encrypt the segments of network connections at the Transport Layer end-to-end. (wikipedia)
Why is it important (technically): The TLS protocol allows client/server applications to communicate across a network in a way designed to prevent eavesdropping, tampering, and message forgery. TLS provides endpoint authentication and communications confidentiality over the Internet using cryptography. (please view the wikipedia link above for more info) Read more…
Posted in eCommerce August 10th, 2009 by admin - Be the first to comment
The Trials and Successes of an Online Business
I have been the proud owner of an online business for just under three years now, and it hasn’t always been easy. In fact, I would go so far as to say that until recently it hardly seemed worth the huge efforts I was putting into keeping my business afloat. But now that my life has finally settled down, and I have been able to start bringing in regular profits, I can say that the dues I paid were well worth it.
But that doesn’t mean you have to go through the same trials I did. If you are thinking about starting an online business, or you have been running one with less than stellar results, you don’t have to learn the hard way by trial and error. Instead, you can learn from my mistakes, and follow these guidelines to getting started, and running a successful, profitable online business, no matter what niche you settle into. Read more…
Posted in Web design's Tips, eCommerce August 1st, 2009 by admin - Comments (2)
Recently we have been working with zencart stores that have thousands of products with over a hundred categories and sub categories. We have also seen other zencart stores with more than 100000 products, pretty amazing right? The dilemma is how to present these products and categories in a user friendly way yet still allow search engines to index them well (remember: search engines don’t necessarily index all your links especially if you have too many links and if they are too “deep” in the level. (By levels, I mean something like this: site.com/level1/level2/level3/…. If you are using the default zencart you won’t have this type of link, but if you use some Zencart SEO URL such as Simple Seo Url(SSU) you do have the ability to create links with levels like that. By default SSU uses only 2 level which is really good).
- You can put products in multiple levels of categories, allowing users to drill down to the exact category that contain the products they want.
Cons: too many levels will drive the users nuts and you will your your sales. Also, search engines will more than likely ignore many of your product links or update them very slowly.
- You can put reduce the category levels, but then you will end up having too many top level categories or putting too many products in one category.
Cons: too confusing and inconvenient for users to easily locate their products (zencart’s search happens to be NOT the best search one can have). Read more…
