'Net Features : merchant

Get Personal with E-commerce Emails

Allison Howen — Thu, 20 Sep 2012 14:22:00 GMT

It’s time to get personal with your customers – and merchants can do exactly that with GoECart.

The e-commerce solutions provider has launched enhancements to its transactional email module. The goal is to help merchants create and send relevant and personalized emails based on site events, such as customer registration, order confirmation, shipping notification and shopping cart abandonment.

For example, the feature can be leveraged to follow up with customers who abandon a site before making a purchase. It can also be used to encourage customers to submit product reviews or can be combined with a discount offer in order to improve email-to-sale conversions. Additional benefits of sending personalized emails include reduced customer service calls, improved email deliverability and better organic search rankings.

“We are proud to offer exceptional transactional email capability available natively in our multi-channel ecommerce solution," said Manish Chowdhary, GoECart’s CEO. "It’s a testament to our team’s commitment to constantly innovate and offer the broadest and deepest e-commerce functionality in any single solution on the market. The capability not only empowers merchants to communicate more effectively with their customers and nurture relationships, but it can even be used to recover lost revenue from incomplete orders and abandoned shopping carts.”

Merchants can create, manage, optimize and send the email creative directly from the software’s Administration Console. Additionally, email templates can be customized to include customer and order information – such as customer name, order date, order number and shipment tracking information.

Add Coupons and Offers Directly to Consumer Payment Cards

Michael Garrity — Fri, 15 Jun 2012 02:00:00 GMT

Gamification and digital coupon company Fanplayr has been on a partnership acquisition binge as of late. It has already signed off on joint ventures with eBay’s X.Commerce platform, Shopify, ifeelgoods, MailChimp and Constant Contact, and now it has added CardSpring to the list.

CardSpring, for the unfamiliar, is a payment platform that helps developers add both Web and mobile applications (including coupons, loyalty programs and digital receipts) to credit and debit cards.

Adding the CardSpring API to the First Data OfferWise solution with Fanplayr’s Gamified “Smart & Targeted” Coupons and Offers platform means that merchants can add Fanplayr coupons straight to a consumer’s payment card. This allows the shopper to turn around and redeem it in real time at the point-of-sale.

The result is a simplified coupon collection and redemption process for both the merchant and consumer, and another step toward improving the digital reward experience for all parties.

With this latest pairing, Fanplayr continues to expand upon its ability to help merchants and retailers reach, influence and convert online shoppers.

Building the Best Brand Advocate

Michael Garrity — Fri, 08 Jun 2012 20:00:00 GMT

As Web workers, we all strive to provide experiences for our customers that ultimately transform them into loyal and lifelong brand advocates.

But the truth is that the majority of customers don’t think much about the companies from which they purchase product, outside of the transaction cycle. In fact, for smaller and medium-sized businesses, finding meaningful support from customers can be a difficult task.

There are, however, some best practices that brands can follow to turn certain website visitors into their most valued customers.

Here are four that you should know:

Market, market, market
Success starts with getting your brand recognized – so market it. The best way to reel in those potentially permanent customers is to keep getting the word out about your business, casting a net wide enough to pull in as many people as possible.

This also means giving them a reason to notice you in the first place. Create promotions that incentivize their patronage, which can mean discounts, deals for a quantity of items purchased or additional accessories/items when customers buy a complementary product.

Evaluate interest
You may have many customers that stand out based on the number of orders they place, but there is always more to it than meets the eye. If these customers have a habit of buying only through promotions, or are only purchasing outlet items, they are probably not in line to become your top revenue generators.

That isn’t to say they don’t have value, nor that you shouldn’t continue to try to cultivate relationships with them. But they may never grow to become your most profitable customers, so instead focus on users who are always coming to your site to shop – not just when you are offering incentives.

Build relationships
The cornerstone of a good business is good customer service. If you want to create the perfect customer, it has to be a two-way street. This requires addressing any issues that your customers may have in a timely and efficient manner, always offering useful information and always being available as a resource whenever the customer may need you.

Brands are expected to take a more active role in giving customers personalized experiences that are relevant to their wants and needs. A little analysis goes a long way, and simply paying close attention to a user’s purchasing behavior should provide great baseline insights.

If you’re really interested in optimizing your connections and generally streamlining the process, try using a customer relationship management (CRM) solution. There are a number of worthwhile options out there, including Salesforce.com, Fiitfu and NetSuite CRM+, plus many others.

Show your appreciation
When it’s all said and done, the trick to creating a true brand advocate is to remember that people like to feel appreciated. This is especially true of your premier customers, as they’ve invested a lot in your business.

Once you’ve defined this top-tier segment of your audience, establish loyalty programs with them specifically in mind. Not only will they feel as if they are getting rewarded for being such dependable customers, but it will likely also increase repeat purchases.

Manage Payment Processing On The Go

Allison Howen — Thu, 17 May 2012 00:00:00 GMT

Merchants who leverage 2Checkout to process online payments can now manage their accounts on the go.

Inexika recently launched the 2Checkout Vendor app for the iPhone and iPod touch, which is designed for vendors who would rather monitor their account from the palms of their hands instead of logging into their Web account on a browser.

The 2Checkout Vendor app is available in the iTunes App Store for $4.99. It enables merchants to view all purchases made by customers, sort specific groups of sales, search sales information and view details of selected orders – including customer information and invoice details. The app also allows merchants to issue refunds, as well as get in touch with customers by using the sales details.

The app uses 2Checkout's API and requires users to create a special API username. Merchants can create a 2Checkout API username by logging into their Web account, clicking on the account tab and user management sub-tab, and then choosing the create username link. Then, a new username must be created that has API Access and API Updating selected for the Access type.

Getting Started Selling on Amazon

Allison Howen — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 20:00:00 GMT

Marketplaces are becoming the go-to Web destination for consumers.

Familiar shopping interfaces, more balanced reviews, one-stop shopping and comparison functionality are just a couple of reasons why some consumers prefer marketplace shopping over shopping on a brand’s website. But marketplaces aren’t only valuable for consumers; they are also valuable for merchants because they provide businesses with more visibility and therefore a better opportunity to sell products.

For example, selling products on Amazon.com can help a merchant reach millions of customers that flock to the leading ecommerce site every day. So stop wasting time, and start creating another revenue avenue by putting your products in the Amazon Marketplace.

Existing Ecommerce Merchants

Merchants who already have their own ecommerce stores can start selling products through Amazon by signing up for the professional solution for $39.99 per month. To get started, merchants must list products and set up their seller profiles.

First, merchants should prepare product information for the items that they wish to sell. Every product on Amazon has its own Product Detail Page, so in order to start selling, merchants should prepare product identification information, product attributes such as title and description, product images and search terms. Once this information is prepared, it can be entered into the Product Detail Page. If the item being sold already has a Product Detail Page, merchants need only type in the price, quantity and condition of the item in order to list it.

Merchants have four different options for listing their products:

Add a Product – This tool is inside of Seller Central and is the best option for merchants that are selling less than 50 products.

Listings Loader – A great option for merchants who are selling many products that are already in the Amazon catalog. The template is an Excel format and can be downloaded from Seller Central.

Inventory File – This template is also in Excel and can be downloaded from Seller Central. It is best for merchants who are selling multiple products that are not in the Amazon catalog.

Amazon Seller Desktop – An application that allows merchants to work offline to list products.

Before merchants can start selling, they must set up their accounts. This includes entering basic information such as a business name, contact information, shipping and payment information. Merchants can also add things like a logo, explain return policies and tell customers why they should purchase from them in the Seller Profile Page. This is the merchant’s opportunity to create trust and persuade customers to purchase their products.

Merchants Completely New to Ecommerce

For merchants who are just starting out in the ecommerce world, Amazon also offers a complete ecommerce Webstore solution that allows them to set up customized websites to start selling online.

The Amazon Webstore provides merchants with template design tools, the option to create custom navigation and product categories, merchandising widgets for promoting products, the ability to monitor customer reviews, a shopping cart that can be branded to reflect your business, credit card processing, inventory management features and more.

Merchants can choose the Amazon Webstore solution that includes selling on Amazon, which is free for the first two years, with a $14.99 monthly rate after that. Additionally, the fee for selling on Amazon is $39.99 per month after the first three free months. This solution allows retailers to sell an unlimited number of products and use an unlimted amount of bandwidth and storage. It also includes Fullfillment by Amazon, which is a packing and shipping service.

Marketplace Selling Tips

There are many best practices for becoming a real player in the Amazon Marketplace community. Merchants should always remember the basics, such as checking orders daily, confirming shipping, keeping up with inventory (especially if you have multiple channels) and keeping pricing accurate.

However, there are also best practices for getting your products to the top of the marketplace search feeds over time, such as obtaining positive feedback from consumers, minimizing order cancellations, increasing inventory availability and maintaining competitive pricing.

Whether you are just starting out or you have been in the ecommerce game for a long time, becoming visible on Amazon – the largest ecommerce site on the Web – will provide merchants with the ability to reach more consumers and better improve their overall ecommerce business.

Offermatic Launches New Marketing Channel

Michael Garrity — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 19:00:00 GMT

Wednesday saw the debut of OfferMatch, the first pay-for-performance marketing channel from Offermatic.

Offermatic is a startup company that delivers targeted offers to consumers based on the purchase history of their members in an effort to bring "guarenteed new and profitable customers to any offline merchant." The offers are based on the actual purchase history of Offermatic's customers and with OfferMatch, they're giving merchants the ability to send offers to potential customers. Most importantly, these offers are based on the predicted lifetime value (LTV) of these attainable consumers.

All offers are private and matched to customer quality based on their predicted LTV, making it easier for merchants by showing them how to turn new customers into frequent, loyal customers.

"This is the future of marketing," says Offermatic founder and CEO Faisal Qureshi, "A customer who is worth $500 should receive a better offer than one worth $50."

In addtion to being able to establish a new, long-time customer base, OfferMatch gives merchants the ability to optimize a customer's LTV after an acquisition by targeting retention offers to customers who may be lapsed or inactive with that particular company, but are still shopping in the same category with different merchants.

There is no integration or implementation necessary for merchants to start using Offermatic.

So far, in its brief existence, Offermatic members have already received offers from the likes of Kmart, Subway, Sports Authority, Nordstrom, Fandango, Drugstore.com, Amazon and more.

Click here to check out OfferMatch.