'Net Features : internet retail

Guidelines for Secure Payments

Pete Prestipino — Mon, 11 Feb 2013 18:35:00 GMT

The PCI Security Standards Council (PCI SSC) has released new guidelines to help e-commerce merchants keep their customers' data safe.

The digital security landscape is a complicated one where the roles, risks and responsibilities of involved parties can quickly become muddled. That confusion of course, can lead to stagnation when it comes to finding (and implementing) fixes - on both an individual site and industry level.

“Take SQL injections as an example. This is not a new attack, and something we’ve known about in the industry for years. Yet it continues to be one of the most common methods by which e-commerce websites are compromised, said Bob Russo, general manager, PCI Security Standards Council.

Over 60 organizations representing banks, merchants, security assessors and technology vendors collaborated to produce guidance that will help organizations better understand their responsibilities when it comes to PCI DSS; the risks they need to evaluate when considering ecommerce solutions; and how to determine their PCI DSS scope.

The guide, which comes at a time when ecommerce fraud is rising, includes an overview of ecommerce and PCI DSS. and outlines common vulnerabilities in ecommerce that merchants should consider when developing or choosing ecommerce software and services.

The guidelines also include best practice recommendations on securing ecommerce environments and a checklist of responsibilities that outlines, when payments are outsourced, which elements of security the merchant and the payments company are responsible for.

“This can be addressed through simple, prudent coding practices, but merchants often don’t know where to start. These guidelines will help them better understand their responsibilities and the kinds of questions they need to ask of their service providers. In the case of SQL injections, one of the most important items to request of an e-commerce service provider is a description of the security controls and methods it has in place to protect websites against these vulnerabilities.”

Protecting Special Audience Discounts

Administrator — Wed, 18 Jul 2012 12:51:00 GMT

Does your e-commerce property offer military or student discounts? How can you confirm these buyers qualify? Well, if you’re a Magento powered platform, you’ll now be able to use SheerID’s verification plugin to protect your most special, targeted discounts.

SheerID’s recently announced integration with Magento™ enables e-commerce retailers to create and promote codes and discounts on the Web that can only be redeemed by qualified customers who belong to “select” customer groups such as veterans, active-duty military, teachers, college students, or members of preferred non-profit associations.

The integration for Internet retailers seems straightforward. SheerID now provides a plugin that uses the SheerID API to provide the instant verification capabilities. The actual verification can happen at any point within a Magento™ site, including targeted landing pages (using CMS template tags) or by adding the SheerID Verify block to a layout. SheerID indicated that in the future capabilities will include the addition of catalog items that require verification and verified account registration for creating preferred customer accounts.

“SheerID is excited to provide a solution for Magento™ platform users who want to offer targeted discounts without risking their ROI or margins,” said SheerID CEO, Jake Weatherly. “SheerID has changed the face of online discounts. With SheerID, retailers can manage and track their special offers, expand their marketing, and deepen their discounts, all while eliminating fraud."

E-Commerce Emergency - Inside the Online World

Administrator — Wed, 04 Jul 2012 21:00:00 GMT

There are three types of Web workers – the information publisher, the service provider, and the Internet retailer.

The latter is in many ways the driving force behind many of the technology innovations that you see and discuss day in and day out. The reason, of course, is that the e-commerce landscape is hyper-competitive, and merchants continually clamor for better ways to serve their customers and optimize their revenue streams simultaneously.

However, outside of the top-tier merchants — and even they aren’t immune to the most deadly ills of a virtual ’Net presence — there is significant digital suffering to go around. In fact, some might even call it an epidemic. It’s not uncommon to hear that a retailer’s shopping cart abandonment rate has skyrocketed to more than 80 percent, or that their social media efforts are losing engaged users at an alarming rate.

Merchants are often pained by the challenge of meeting the increasingly complex expectations of users and the growing sophistication of new technology. Despite strong growth and generous projections for the future, knowing the most common ailments now will put your Web retail presence on the road to recovery. The feature article of Website Magazine’s August 2012 issue provides readers with a Web prescription for success with their digital properties. Readers will discover the most common threats to their continued e-commerce health, learn how to apply some virtual triage and discover numerous highly practical ways to turn their websites into the digital temple that was always needed and demanded.

Website Magazine is also excited to present several other useful articles and columns on a variety of topics that contribute to Web success. Readers will learn how to create a unified Web strategy with Olivier Naimi from Sony, access practical tips for increasing conversion rates with Kevin Sparks of PrismaStar, and learn the basics of responsive layouts with award-winning Web designer Robby Leonardi. You will also find techniques and tactics for the use of color in Web design, scaling a growing Web business, and articles on email, video and social media marketing, to name but a few.

There’s a lot to get through so get started right now — and remember that as a Website Magazine subscriber, this edition is also available on the Web, in digital flipbook format as well as on the iPad. Enjoy this issue and share your stories of ’Net success with our editors and the Website Magazine community online at www.websitemagazine.com.

Best Web Wishes,
Editor-in-Chief, Website Magazine
Peter@WebsiteMagazine.com

360 Degree Analytics Come to Digital River Dashboards

Pete Prestipino — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 22:47:00 GMT

It's a trend you're likely familiar with first hand - software vendors are increasingly (and rapidly) rolling out much more sophisticated analytics tools within their solutions. Digital River for example has just released 360 Dashboards, a reporting analytics system for its Global Commerce and Commerce Express solutions which is designed to give merchans more detailed metrics on store performance and lifetime value of their customers.

The dashboards are designed to display business related metrics including online store sales, close, rates, shopper recency and frequency, revenue per visitor and more. While most, if not all, e-commerce solutions have some variation of analytics within their dashboards, what makes the Digital River offering interesting is that it puts customer lifetime value front and center.
The system allows merchants to monitor a customers activity based on recency, freqnecy and monetary value (often called RFM metrics). Perhaps more than anything else, these insights provide businesses with a better ability to map and predict shopper engagement. And in today's highly competitive retail environment, that's increasingly important. Digital also makes it possible to analyze and compare the success of several online marketing camapgins and engagements, including bid management, behavioral merchandising and other promotional activities.

“Gaining access to the right e-business metrics and acting on them can tremendously boost incremental revenue. The challenge is that while most online merchants have access to a good standard set of performance metrics they lack the full-picture view of their business at the customer level,” said Joel Ronning, Digital River’s CEO. “Merchants that can operate at this deeper level are at a competitive advantage when it comes to transforming and accelerating growth across an online business.”

Elemental Product Page Design

Administrator — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 20:00:00 GMT

Once an Internet retailer gets a prospective buyer on their product page, there are quite a few design elements and functions that must be present for today's savvy shopper. Product pages can be complex and require ongoing testing, but starting out with some basics will ensure that the conversion opportunities earned (or bought) won’t be wasted.

In today’s E-commerce Express newsletter, we looked at some essential and elemental product-page designs, identifying some patterns and exploring the norm as it stands today.

Product Titles and Descriptions: It is unlikely that you will have a product page that is devoid of any product title or description, but their presence cannot be emphasized enough. What is most important about product titles and descriptions is how unique they are in identifying the differences between other products. Product titles and descriptions must also be unique as they play a fundamental role in search engine optimization. Basing product title-naming based on keyword volume and buying-intent levels is Step One in elemental product page design.

Price and the Buy Button: If there is one area of focus for e-commerce product page designers, it is the intricacies of layout of price indicators and buy-now buttons. Website Magazine has written extensively on the topic of buy-now buttons, but remember that size, color, text and position of these two elements (which ideally should be located near one another to support eye-gaze flow) is of paramount importance.

High-quality Images: The Web is a visual medium and those merchants who optimize the image experience for users will be those ringing the cash register at the end of the day. Today, users expect product images for two reasons – to confirm that what they are looking for is in fact what attracted them to the page in the first place, and of course to evaluate quality of those products. To satisfy users, merchants must ensure that image use is consistent across their sites (and marketing/advertising), and that they are sized in a way so that users can examine the product in more detail.

Options and Functions: While images engage, it is the options and functions within product pages that initiate a commitment from users to continue through the sales funnel. The aim with these general design elements is to give the user some control over the specifications – from colors, sizes/dimensions, styles, etc. The integration of these elements can be technically challenging and present some design layout issues, but their presence is of increasing importance.

Well-built product pages do several things well. They provide a descriptive title that matches the query of the user; they provide information that shoppers need; they indicate product availability; they provide information on warranties and policy, and yes, they must feature a means to actually proceed through the sales funnel (the buy button). These are basic or elemental requirements of product-page design, but remember that testing these elements (placement, style, etc.) is the only way to know for sure what is appealing to users.

Keep in mind that the elemental design components of a well-built e-commerce product page address herein is only a start. There are quite a few others and Website Magazine will explore additional elements such as the inclusion of video, customer reviews, bulk ordering, available stock, wish lists, delivery details, trust signals and social media integrations in the next edition of the E-commerce Express newsletter. Make sure to sign up so you don’t miss out!

Doubling AOV with Behavioral Commerce

Pete Prestipino — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 16:30:00 GMT

The more you know about your customers, the better positioned you are to sell them products - and sell more in general. Online hat retailer Hats in the Belfry can apparently attest to that.

The internet retailer selected retargeting and behavioral commerce platform Steelhouse, an Ad-Tech Innovation award winner, and saw its average order values increase a whopping 95 percent. Steelhouse enabled the retailer to segment shoppers based on their buying habits and then engage them in a 1-on-1 dialogue (go ahead, call it what it is - live chat) with those customers in real time on the site.

As a test, Hats in the Belfry targeted the “Toe-in-the-Water Shopper,” – one who places relatively low dollar item(s) in their cart and then purchases the item(s). The retailer offered a 15-percent discount on orders of more than $75 to Toe-in-the-Water shoppers, and in doing so, increased their average order values from $53.67 to $104.16.

“With the SteelHouse platform, we can deploy real-time offers to dozens of segments of shoppers in order to maximize our average order value and revenue by shopper type,” says James Sackar, ecommerce general manager of Hats in the Belfry. “We’re able to see the results immediately hit our bottom line.”

L'Oreal USA Selects PFSweb for More eCommerce Sites

Pete Prestipino — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 20:45:00 GMT

Ecommerce solution provider PFSweb has signed an agreement with L'Oreal USA to develop and manage multiple end-to-end ecommerce solutions for some of L'Oreal's key brands.

PFSweb launched several ecommerce sites in 2010 for four L'Oreal brands including Kiehl's, Lancome, Yves St. Laurent Beaute and Giorgio Armani Beauty. Two more are expected this year.

The solutions according to the announcement include customer care functionality, branded order fulfillment, financial transaction management and interactive marketing services.

"We chose PFSweb because of their expertise in beauty and cosmetics. With their help we can provide considerably more flexible, functional and effective solutions to our customers," said Daren Hull, Vice President of Luxury Direct, L'Oreal USA. "By utilizing PFSweb, we are able to give each of our brands unique consideration, while also providing our consumers the same high quality service that they find anytime they experience our brands in stores. We also expect to leverage PFSweb's expertise to provide each brand with innovative programs that connect directly with our customers."

Wishpond F-Commerce for the Brick & Mortar Set

Pete Prestipino — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 02:00:00 GMT

If you are a local store looking to capitalize on the social media trend, and more specifically through Facebook, you might want to take a look at RetailConnect - launched last month by local shopping platform Wishpond.

The solution enables merchants to import their product data from point of sale systems (including prices, locations and product images), e-commerce sites or storefronts on eBay, Shopify and Google Merchant center and turn them into full fledged Facebook stores. Screenshots were a little hard to come by but we'll update this post as they become available.

Perhaps most interesting about RetailConnect is that it automatically refreshes merchant stores, monitoring inventory data in real time from the actual store and updating it on the Facebook page of the merchant - making it one of the few vendors to connect in such a way. The solution can even help merchants post promotions and other notifications on the walls of their fans. And all while gaining a few insights along the way. Analytics to dig into include data on location, age, gender, and even the number of users who action on a promotion.

According to a post on the Wishpond blog from July 2011, Wishpond RetailConnect is free to retailers with fewer than five bricks-and-mortar stores that have 100 or fewer items in their inventory. Paid plans start at $30 per month and go up to $300 per month for larger retailers with 25,000 or more products.

Retailers and Smart(er) Consumers

Administrator — Wed, 08 Jun 2011 18:30:00 GMT

Are you meeting the expectations of your web-savvy consumers? Unlikely - at least according to a new survey from Demandware which indicates that retailers are simply not prepared when they encounter the smarter consumer of today’s Internet.

The Demandware study suggests that all retailers must embrace new technologies and significantly change the way they approach multichannel commerce if they plan to meet or exceed consumers’ heightened expectations.

“This research should put brands on notice that the traditional, channel-centric, transaction-based approach to commerce is no longer enough. Smart Consumers are demanding unified, highly branded experiences across all touch points,” said Jamus Driscoll, vice president of marketing, Demandware. “Brands that don’t marry consumers’ growing expectations with their own operational realities will struggle to compete and thrive in the evolving commerce market.”

Findings from the study include:

- Only 12 percent of retailers allow consumers to download a retail or brand shopping application (23 percent of consumers are currently doing this and 50 percent plan to do it in the future)

- 54 percent of consumers would like the ability to click on barcodes or smart tags in magazines or catalogs that link to websites, but only 12 percent of the retailers surveyed currently offer this feature

- While 62 percent of consumers say they intend to purchase products or services on mobile websites or apps, only 32 percent of retailers currently enable this

- Only 29 percent of retailers allow consumers to use their mobile phones to check in-store product availability, yet 38 percent of shoppers do this now and 52 percent expect to do it in the future

- 23 percent of retailers allow consumers to add items to their carts via mobile phones and complete the transaction later on computer or tablet, but 51 percent of consumers would like to be able to do this

Movers & Shakers: ChannelAdvisor

Pete Prestipino — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 22:15:00 GMT

E-commerce platform provider ChannelAdvisor, a software provider that helps retailers manage sales (through product catalog feed distribution) within channels such as marketplaces, paid search and comparison shopping engines, is on the move.

The company brought on 320 new customers in the past quarter alone including top retailers like Motorola, Deckers Europe, Misco and Cloggs. This brings ChannelAdvisor’s client roster to more than 3,000 retailers globally. Other retail brands utilizing the service include Nike, Wal-Mart, Dell, Victoria’s Secret, Under Armour, Staples, Crocs, Bed, Bath & Beyond, Jos. A. Bank, Urban Outfitters and more.

“We’ve come into 2011 with our foot on the accelerator,” said ChannelAdvisor President and Chief Operating Officer David Spitz. “This quarter was our largest first quarter ever and marks our fastest growth in more than two and a half years, and we’re forecasting continued acceleration in growth for the rest of 2011. Our business continues to grow at such an impressive rate because we’re incredibly well-positioned within a global market that is projected to grow to $1 trillion by 2014.”

Recent WM Coverage of ChannelAdvisor:

- Sears and ChannelAdvisor

- ChannelAdvisor Offers Inventory-driven Paid Search

- Online Shoppers Want One Thing This Holiday Season

- ChannelAdvisor Introduces Fully Loaded Mobile Webstore

eCC Mobile for Magento from Webgility

Pete Prestipino — Mon, 25 Apr 2011 22:00:00 GMT

Can you manage your online storefront from your mobile device?

Webgility (a provider of eCommerce and QuickBooks integration software) is making that task possible with eCC Mobile, an iphone application that enables merchants to manage their online store through their mobile device.

eCC Mobile currently supports the Magento eCommerce platform (Community, Professional and Enterprise editions) and will be integrating with other shopping cart platforms this year, including X-Cart, Ubercart, Open Cart, ZenCart, osCommerce and many more.

eCC Mobile is compatible with iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad, and requires iOS 4.1 or later. Users of the application can monitor sales performance, view order status, review store catalog, and update product details (pricing, quantity, etc.). You can also directly contact customers using native iPhone features, such as text messaging, email and phone.

E-Commerce Stats - $913 Million in Online Spending on 12-15-09

Pete Prestipino — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 16:30:00 GMT

Comscore has reported that holiday season retail e-commerce spending for the first 48 days of the November/December 2009 holiday season to date has reach $24.8 billion – a four percent increase versus the same time last year.

The most recent week began on a slightly disappointing note, with sales of $854 million on Green Monday (Dec. 14, 2009) down 1 percent versus year ago, but was followed by three strong spending days that each surpassed $800 million. Most notably, Tuesday, December 15 set an individual day spending record with $913 million, the first such day to surpass the $900 million threshold.

So what were the other top selling days thus far for Internet retailers?
Consider using this as a guide to plan your 2010 e-commerce marketing.

3D (Virtual) Shopping Arrives

Pete Prestipino — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 17:00:00 GMT

File this one under innovative but ultimately a little too much (in my opinion) to make a dent in the highly competitive world of e-commerce.

VirtualEShopping.com combines social networking features with a three dimensional shopping environemnt. The site bills itself as an “alternative to mall traffic, pulsing crowds and parking headaches” (isn’t that what the holidays are all about?)

Shoppers must download the mall software (free) to enter the virtual shopping mall and create a persona to represent themselves or interact with other shoppers. Once setup is complete however, they can view storefronts from familiar retailers like Apple, Best Buy and Footlocker and from unusual web retailers like Prankplace, Preschoolians, and ShopIrish.

Retailers offer coupons, have salesbots and sales personas in front of their stores and have storefronts, mall carts, billboards and info’ kiosks to woo customers to shop. Special events like seminars, concerts, guest appearances and contests are held on the main stage in the mall atrium.

While I won’t be doing any virtual shopping in a 3D environment, I have to admit that it’s quite creative. VirtualEShopping is offering a $500 gift card for new users. The contest requires no registration or activity completion on the site such as inviting friends.

Payment Processing on the iPhone

Pete Prestipino — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 13:39:00 GMT

Payment processor Encore Payment Systems has introduced an iPhone application for merchants (mobile or otherwise).

Using the app, merchants can type the card information into the phone and the credit and devit card transactions are processed as “card-not-present” or “offline-debit” payments. Receipts are emailed to the cardholder but future enhancements will include the ability for merchants to print a receipt on the spot.

"At Encore Payment Systems our goal has always been to create a customized payment processing solution for the various needs of each business," said Vice President of Operations Robel Sebany. "With the growing technological advancements of these mobile devices we wanted to ensure our merchants had access to a payment processing option as portable as their business."

If you’re an Encore Payment systems client, you’ll need to contact the company’s sales team who will help you set it up through a one-time install through a Web browser.

Seeking out more tools and resources like this to accelerate your Web success?
Request a professional-level membership from Website Magazine or upgrade today!

Focus on Checkout to Increase Sales; Everybody's Doing It

Pete Prestipino — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 17:36:00 GMT

It looks like retailers are going to be paying a lot more attention to how the shopping experience ends - that means the checkout process.

According to a survey scheduled for release this morning at Shop.org’s Online Merchandising Workshop in San Diego (conducted by Forrester Research), retailers plan to focus heavily this year on improving customers’ check-out experience. Companies will also place an emphasis on image enhancement on product detail pages and site search filters to help shoppers more easily find what they’re looking for.

According to the survey, eight out of ten retailers (79%) said enhancing the checkout process was on the top of their to-do lists for the remainder of the year, with 90 percent of medium-sized retailers* listing checkout as a top priority.

The largest initiative in this area among retailers seems to be an emphasis on shipping, with retailers specifically increasing the transparency around shipping charges to reduce shopping cart abandonment. According to the survey, 88 percent of retailers will focus on providing more shipping information within the next year, including such details as when a customer can expect to receive a package and information about when products have left the warehouse. In addition, two-thirds of retailers (67%) said they would pay special attention to calculating the loaded cost of an order prior to checkout.

“Retailers realize that, particularly during an economic downturn, shoppers who understand shipping charges at the beginning of the checkout process are less likely to abandon their purchases,” said Sucharita Mulpuru, Forrester Research Vice President, Principal Analyst and lead author of the report.