Archive for November, 2009

Ecommerce Jargon For New Online Store Owners

Monday, November 30th, 2009

There are lots of shopping cart software providers out there (3d shopping cart, Agora shopping cart software, to name a few). But whether you are using a low cost shopping cart solution or one that costs a bomb (or an even better alternative: you’re getting InstanteStore), a newbie online merchant might get lost in all the ecommerce jargon strewn across cyberspace. It seems that everyday new terms are being coined. Some terms remain but many more are dismissed just as easily as the were conjured. Here are 5 terms which have been here been with us for a while.

SEO

Search Engine Optimization or SEO is a technique of driving quality traffic to a site without any financial outlay. This natural or organic method involves tweaking the site’s content, coding and HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language) to raise its relevance to particular keywords and make it easier for search engines to index and subsequently raising the site’s visibility on a search engine’s result’s page (SERP).

SEM

Search Engine Marketing or SEM is a technique of promoting a site via the use of paid placements or paid inclusion. This form of internet marketing can raise your visibility in SERP’s much faster then SEO alone, but at a cost of course. Before engaging in an SEM program, make sure you carry out a viability study. Ensure the returns can justify the investment before you go out and spend your hard earned cash.

Hard Goods And Soft Goods

An online store may sell various goods that are generally divided into 2 categories – hard goods and soft goods. Hard goods are tangible items like books and MP3 players. Soft goods are products that exist electronically like MP3’s, software and ebooks – items that can be downloaded. The wonderful thing about soft goods is that you do not need to ponder about packaging, shipping and inventory space. Practically every process involved in the sale and delivery of soft goods may be e-store proprietors who are already running more than one internet store but do not intend to increase their manpower.

Internet Merchant Account

An internet merchant account facilitates the receiving of online payments, generally by credit card. If you have problems getting an internet merchant account, you can consider the services of a merchant broker. A merchant broker would then charge a setup fee and provide the software and hardware necessary either by lease or sale, as needed.

Conversion Rate

Conversion rate has nothing to do with religion. Instead it pertains to the percentage of visitors to an online store who are converted into buyers. Conversions do not happen automatically and depend on a few factors to help capture a visitor to buy from a certain store. The clever use of images, content and call to action phrases all play a part in this process of conversion. All content should be concise and to the point. In fact, everything on a internet store should be geared to convert traffic, whether directly of indirectly. Web pages should be clear from clutter and all elements that could distract a visitor for the actual converting into a customer.

So before you sign up for a feature-rich yet cheap shopping cart solution like InstanteStore, ensure you brush up on your ecommerce jargon.

Share and Enjoy:
  • Digg
  • Bumpzee
  • del.icio.us
  • Facebook
  • Furl
  • Mixx
  • NewsVine
  • Reddit
  • StumbleUpon
  • YahooMyWeb
  • Google Bookmarks

Good Product Reviews And Shopping Guides To Assist You Make Your Shopping All The More Exciting

Monday, November 30th, 2009

Many of us simply love the act of going on random shopping trips. The experience of walking about long isles of good looking items seems very satisfying and calming. Shopping for clothes is usually seen to be topping the list when talking of shopping spree’s. It is seen that it is generally casual clothes that one goes around buying most commonly. People try to opt for casual clothing that serves a number of purposes and occasions. The old trick of ‘mix and match’ is back in our shopping strategies . There are some simple tips and tricks in a general Shopping Help which when followed and kept in mind can aid you with your shopping. Natural fabrics, such as cotton, wool and linen never go out of style. There are so many variations provided by them that you need not worry about the palette getting boring or dull. While your favorite color may be sky blue, try to get in various colors, to attain an illusion of a much larger wardrobe. Fashionable patterns and color combinations, made of synthetic fabrics, tend to become out-of-date within a year. Neutral colors, such as light brown gray, navy and your basic black are ideal choices for the pant and skirt department, since they go with virtually every other color. Mixing color with pairing separates gives you flexibility in a casual, but fashionable collection of outfits.

If you’re set on maintaining a stylish look that still appears up to date more than a few years down the road, choosing casual clothing of natural fibers will take you there. Costume jewelry, trendy belts, bags and scarves are another inexpensive way to add dimension to your versatile casual clothing wardrobe.
Apart from clothes it is seen that electronics and other gadgets too are very popular with people. Shopping for television sets, music systems, phones etc is very popular in the consumer market. Speaking of TV, it is seen that now a days the craze is all towards LCD or Plasma sets. The buzz here generally seems to be around the use of 100Hz or 200Hz in Plasma LCD TV’s. An average PAL TV would refresh the picture 50 times per second or at a level of 50Hz. The Frames Per Second (FPS) are the number of frames needed to make the illusion of moving . Our eyes are often aware of this level regarding the speed of the figure, the quality of darkness, along with the quality of brightness. Accordingly, you would occasionally locate the figure sparkle on a 50Hz TV. Furthermore the more massive the screen is, the more apparent the sparkle is.

At 100 FPS (100Hz), a plasma or LCD TV operates at two times the Frames Per Second by making a duplicate of each frame and placing it in following the previous one. On a 50 FPS (50Hz) Cathode Ray Television (CRT), because the figure is formed by an aroused particle scan, there is an evident sparkle that could be viewed by the human eye. There is no doubt that a LCD or Plasma TV would go about improving its features much better than that found in an ordinary old set.

Share and Enjoy:
  • Digg
  • Bumpzee
  • del.icio.us
  • Facebook
  • Furl
  • Mixx
  • NewsVine
  • Reddit
  • StumbleUpon
  • YahooMyWeb
  • Google Bookmarks

Ecommerce Jargon For Newbie e Store Owners

Monday, November 30th, 2009

There are lots of shopping cart software providers out there (3d shopping cart software, Agora shopping cart, to name a few). But whether you are using a cheap shopping cart solution or one that costs a bomb (or better alternative: you’re getting InstanteStore), a newbie online merchant might get lost in all the ecommerce jargon strewn across cyberspace. It may seem that everyday new terms are being invented. Some terms stay on but many more are forgotten just as easily as the were conjured. Here are 5 terms which have been here been with us for a while.

SEO

Search Engine Optimization or SEO is a way of driving quality traffic to a site without any financial outlay. This natural or organic method involves tweaking the site’s content, coding and HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language) to raise its relevance to particular keywords and make it easier for search engines to index and subsequently increasing the site’s visibility on a search engine’s result’s page (SERP).

SEM

Search Engine Marketing or SEM is a way of marketing a site via the use of paid placements or paid inclusion. This form of internet marketing can raise your visibility in SERP’s much faster then SEO alone, but at a cost of course. Before engaging in an SEM program, make sure you carry out a viability study. Ensure the returns can justify the investment before you go out and spend your hard earned cash.

Hard Goods And Soft Goods

An online store may sell quite a number of goods that are generally divided into 2 categories – hard goods and soft goods. Hard goods are tangible items like books and MP3 players. Soft goods are products that exist electronically like MP3’s, software and ebooks – items that can be downloaded. The good thing about soft goods is that you need not fret about packaging, shipping and inventory space. Virtually every process involved in the sale and delivery of soft goods may be done who are already running more than one web store but do not plan to increase their manpower.

Internet Merchant Account

An internet merchant account helps the receiving of online payments, generally by credit card. If you have hassle engaging an internet merchant account, you can consider the services of a merchant broker. A merchant broker would then charge a setup fee and provide the software and hardware necessary either by lease or sale, as needed.

Conversion Rate

Conversion rate has nothing to do with religion. But rather it pertains to the percentage of visitors to an online store who are converted into buyers. Conversions do not happen automatically and depend on a few factors to help capture a visitor to buy from a certain store. The clever use of images, content and call to action phrases all play a part in this process of conversion. All content should be concise and to the point. In actual fact, everything on a web store should be geared to convert traffic, whether directly of indirectly. Web pages should be clear from clutter and all elements that might distract a visitor for the actual converting into a customer.

So before you sign up for a feature-rich yet cheap shopping cart solution like InstanteStore, keep in mind you brush up on your ecommerce jargon.

Share and Enjoy:
  • Digg
  • Bumpzee
  • del.icio.us
  • Facebook
  • Furl
  • Mixx
  • NewsVine
  • Reddit
  • StumbleUpon
  • YahooMyWeb
  • Google Bookmarks

Ecommerce Jargon For Newbie Online Store Proprietors

Saturday, November 28th, 2009

There are lots of shopping cart software providers out there (3d shopping cart, Agora shopping cart, to name a few). But whether you are using a low cost shopping cart solution or one that costs a bomb (or an even better alternative: you’re getting InstanteStore), a newbie online merchant might get lost in all the ecommerce jargon strewn across cyberspace. It may appear that everyday new terms are being coined. Some terms remain but many more are forgotten just as easily as the were conjured. Here are 5 terms which have been here been with us for a while.

SEO

Search Engine Optimization or SEO is a technique of driving quality traffic to a site without any financial outlay. This natural or organic method requires tweaking the site’s content, coding and HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language) to raise its relevance to particular keywords and make it easier for search engines to index and subsequently increasing the site’s visibility on a search engine’s result’s page (SERP).

SEM

Search Engine Marketing or SEM is a technique of marketing a site via the use of paid placements or paid inclusion. This form of internet marketing can raise your visibility in SERP’s much faster then SEO alone, but at a cost of course. Before engaging in an SEM program, make sure you carry out a viability study. Ensure the returns can justify the investment before you go out and spend your hard earned cash.

Hard Goods And Soft Goods

An online store may sell a variety of goods that are generally divided into 2 categories – hard goods and soft goods. Hard goods are tangible items like books and MP3 players. Soft goods are products that exist electronically like MP3’s, software and ebooks – items that can be downloaded. The good thing about soft goods is that you need not ponder about packaging, shipping and storage. Literally every process involved in the sale and delivery of soft goods can be done who are already running more than one online store but do not intend to increase their manpower.

Internet Merchant Account

An internet merchant account assists the receiving of online payments, generally by credit card. If you have difficulties getting an internet merchant account, you can consider the services of a merchant broker. A merchant broker would then charge a setup fee and provide the software and hardware necessary either by lease or sale, as required.

Conversion Rate

Conversion rate has nothing to do with religion. As an alternative it pertains to the percentage of visitors to an online store who are converted into buyers. Conversions do not happen automatically and depend on a few factors to help capture a visitor to buy from a certain store. The clever use of images, content and call to action phrases all play a part in this process of conversion. All content should be concise and to the point. In fact, everything on a online store should be geared to convert traffic, whether directly of indirectly. Web pages should be clear from clutter and all elements that might distract a visitor for the actual converting into a customer.

So before you sign up for a feature-rich yet low cost shopping cart solution like InstanteStore, ensure you brush up on your ecommerce jargon.

Share and Enjoy:
  • Digg
  • Bumpzee
  • del.icio.us
  • Facebook
  • Furl
  • Mixx
  • NewsVine
  • Reddit
  • StumbleUpon
  • YahooMyWeb
  • Google Bookmarks

Shopping Carts Cross-selling Tips

Friday, November 27th, 2009

Ecommerce Success Checklist

Dependable shopping cart – Check

Keyword research – Check

SEO – Check

Eye-Catching ecommerce template – Check

Products uploaded and in stock – Check

All well and good – but what’s next?

You’ve done everything correct so far – you’ve signed up with a top web site ecommerce hosting shopping cart and you’ve made sure it’s a secure web hosting shopping cart at that. You done all your keyword and SEO homework, so now it’s time to modify the page marketing aspects of your store.

If you take all your cross-selling cues from Amazon, you might not get the same results as them. Amazon bases their cross-selling decisions on a LOT of constantly updated data which is processed by experts – constantly learning and constantly tuning their recommendations. A relatively large number of shopping cart merchants do not have the resources to try to replicate this. For the rest of us, it’s better to play by a few simple guidelines when it comes to cross-selling.

Below are 4 basic guidelines to assist you make the most out of your cross-selling efforts:

Keep To A Limit

The idea of cross-selling is to indicate products that a customer may be interested in or may not have realized that they need. Advising too many products may irritate some customers as well as confuse others. The ideal number of recommended products should be between 3 and 5. Remember, make it easy for the customer to make a decision. Remove all other unnecessary factors that might hinder this.

Keep Them Related

Blindly introducing products might relay a sense of desperation or seem unprofessional. As mentioned earlier, most merchants are not privy to the latest information on buying trends that the big players have so it would be a risk to indicate products that are unrelated. The closer the products are linked the easier it is to sell the “need to have” angle.

Product Credibility

Featuring product ratings by customers and experts can go a long way towards building product credibility. People like to be given the assurance that they are spending money on something that is worthwhile. Assurances by other people who have already purchased the product can aid here.

Provide Enough Useful Information

People research before they buy nowadays – not just to see if they can get a great bargain but also to find out if the item is best for them. Many merchants have product information in abundance but most of the information is useless. Always keep in mind that any information that you put up must be geared to assist you close a sale. The information that you present should be answers to questions you predict your customers would ask.

For example, a customer looking for a pair of sports trainers would probably want to know the type of shoe (basketball, running, tennis), what type of gait it suits (neutral, overpronator, supinator), the weight of the shoe, and the expected mileage it offers before it is retired. Be sure to tailor your product information to cater to what you expect your site visitors will want to know.

Share and Enjoy:
  • Digg
  • Bumpzee
  • del.icio.us
  • Facebook
  • Furl
  • Mixx
  • NewsVine
  • Reddit
  • StumbleUpon
  • YahooMyWeb
  • Google Bookmarks