'Net Features : shopify

Wix’ Ecommerce Inspirations and Aspirations

Pete Prestipino — Mon, 19 Nov 2012 14:30:00 GMT

Web-publishing platform Wix has announced a partnership with ecommerce solution Shopify which enables the Wix user base to integrate the popular ecommerce solution from Shopify into their websites.

“Together Wix and Shopify will propel entrepreneurs and small businesses to new levels,” said Wix Co-founder and CEO, Avishai Abrahami. “The web enables small business owners to play in the same field as huge corporations. By adding a Shopify ecommerce solution into our App Market and thereby into Wix websites we set out to bridge the gap even more. Through this partnership, we’re providing small businesses with advanced, affordable and professional tools that heighten their competitive edge.”

A Shopify ecommerce App is now available through the Wix App Market. Combining the two solutions is a good fit for those with limited coding experience, but an active interest in building a basic ecommerce web presence. Wix currently serves 27 million users worldwide while Shopify counts 35,000 online retailers as its own.

“This partnership is a great example of how technology is helping to democratize small business and retail,” said Harley Finkelstein, Chief Platform Officer, Shopify.com. “Combining Wix’ industry-leading HTML5 website builder with Shopify’s best-in-class ecommerce platform will give entrepreneurs and SMB’s the most seamless, easy-to-use and scalable website and ecommerce package imaginable. The partnership of Shopify and Wix is an absolute game changer for small businesses."

Shopify Merchants Posting Profits from Pinterest

Allison Howen — Wed, 23 May 2012 01:00:00 GMT

Pinterest has quickly become the third most popular social network on the Web and, in doing so, the pinboarding social network has turned out to be a whole lot more than pretty photos and themed boards.

Instead, it has become a very valuable tool for e-commerce merchants.

A recent study reveals that referral traffic from Pinterest to e-commerce solutions provider Shopify stores is equal to the amount of traffic that comes from Twitter, and more than the amount that comes from Google+, YouTube and LinkedIn combined.

And not only is more traffic coming from Pinterest than most other social networks, but the traffic is also more valuable. The study reveals that these consumers are 10 percent more likely to make a purchase compared to those who arrive from other social sites, and are also spending an average of $80 on their purchases – double the average order value of Facebook shoppers.

Merchants who are leveraging the social pinboarding site should also know that the study found that pins with prices receive 36 percent more likes than those without prices.

And it’s not too late for retailers to jump on the Pinterest bandwagon because the conversion rates for e-commerce sites are still growing. In fact, the number of Shopify orders generated from pins has more than quadrupled during the last six months – from 75 orders in September 2011 to 320 orders in April 2012.

Improve Engagement and Conversions By Playing Games

Michael Garrity — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 22:05:00 GMT

Have you heard of Fanplayr? If not, keep reading, because this new marketing solution could really help improve your social media strategy, particularly in increasing user engagement and conversions. Or, at the very least, it'll pique your interest in the rapidly growing field of gamification.

Fanplayr is a social game marketing tool for converting targeted consumers to sales by combining social coupons and gamification marketing. It works by helping users create a special coupon based on its "type," value and amount and then promote them among their various Web properties. However, Fanplayr provides more than just easy coupon creation; it also gives the user an easy way to add gamification options to their offers, which can increase user engagement with the coupons and drive conversions.

Marketers can include the social game coupons and offers to their emails, Web pages, e-commerce sites, mobile properties and, of course, social pages to improve their reach, influence social consumers and turn them into sales. Best of all, the solution is self-service, meaning it requires no IT to implement and making it perfect for everyone from agency and direct marketers to Internet retailers to small and medium-sized businesses.

This is a hot time to start implementing such a service, as eMarketer has reported that nearly 92.5 million Internet users are likely to use online coupons throughout the next year.

Now, Fanplayr has entered into a “strategic integration partnership” with e-commerce solution provider Shopify to help online marketers jump on the gamification bandwagon.

Fanplayr will now be available to Shopify’s 20,000 e-commerce merchants via the company’s App Store. When retailers download the application, they’ll be able to create social coupons and/or marketing games, and then promote their creations across Facebook and Twitter pages, e-commerce pages, emails and even Facebook Ads.

Shopify Contest Yields Big Money and Bigger Ideas

Linc Wonham — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 18:00:00 GMT

Back in June, e-commerce platform Shopify invited Web entrepreneurs to enter its $500,000 Build-A-Business Competition. More than 3,000 entries were received and now, after eight months of competition, a winner has finally been announced.

Coffee Joulies is a startup company that sells a new product by the same name. Joulies are polished stainless steel beans that regulate the temperature of coffee, and were developed by New Jersey mechanical engineers Dave Jackson and Dave Petrillo.

The two Daves went on Kickstarter to crowdsource their funding with a goal of $9,500 and ended up raising $306,944 with 4,818 backers. Then they entered the Shopify competition and built their Web store on the platform, ultimately earning the $100,000 first-place prize. In all, $12 million in products were sold by competing startups during the eight-month period (see the entire list of winners below).

“I spent one evening building our online store on Shopify,” says Petrillo. “We were accepting orders the next day and quickly sold out. Using Shopify for e-commerce eliminated most of the tedious parts associated with starting a business.”

“The only thing we had to focus on was our brand, our products and our customers – the way it should be, adds Jackson. “We know if we build our brand slowly and carefully, we can make Coffee Joulies a million dollar business by the end of the year.”

Along with Shopify’s grand prize of $100,000 cash, Jackson and Petrillo also earn VIP trips to New York City and San Francisco to meet Web marketing gurus Seth Godin, Gary Vaynerchuk and Timothy Ferriss to gain some high-end business advice to further grow their company. Shopify is also awarding a total of $150,000 cash and $60,000 in Google AdWords credits to the following industry and regional category winners:

Tattly: Tina Roth Eisenberg was frustrated that children’s rub-on tattoos were often poorly designed. Tina (aka Swiss Miss), opened her own temporary tattoo online store featuring art by famous designers.

Opena Case: Rob Ward and Chris Peters solved a dilemma of epic proportions, having a cold beer but no way of opening it. What’s the one thing you always have on you? Your phone. Solution: an iPhone bottle opener.

FlockStocks: Sophie Kovic was working at a local movie theatre until she read Tim Ferriss’ book “The 4-Hour Workweek.” She followed his step-by-step business plan and created a feather hair extension online store. Her feathers are selling all around the world.

NeuYear: Jesse Phillips was disillusioned with his computer science degree and became determined to save himself from a life working in a cubicle. He semi-quit his day job and developed an artistic one-year calendar poster.

MyFootyBoots: Brad Jorgensen was tired of overpriced soccer cleats in his native Australia. He found suppliers and opened an online store offering fair prices.

Simply Hops: Small batch beer makers often have difficulty finding a variety of quality hops available for purchase in small quantities. Simply Hops was developed to cater to craft brewers that don’t want to make expensive bulk purchases.

Clearpath Robotics: Matthew Randall and four other mechanical engineers from the University of Waterloo created an open-source and fully customizable robot called TurtleBot. It’s currently the most powerful and capable entry-level robot in the world.

Selling on Twitter with Chirpify

Pete Prestipino — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 23:00:00 GMT

Most Web workers will consider Twitter more of a social network than an e-commerce platform, but that’s exactly what Twitter might become as Chirpify launches this week.

Once known as Sell Simply, Chirpify enables merchants (or anyone processing an order really) to conduct direct, person-to-person payments and donations over Twitter through its retail sales platform.

While a relatively new concept to say the least, it’s definitely being hyped as a way to “turn Tweets into transactions.” To determine whether or not that will ultimately be the case on a larger scale you’ll need a crystal ball far more accurate than my own, but a peak into how the platform actually works provides a good look into what you might expect.

Chirpify essentially just integrates with PayPal, but what makes the platform interesting is its ease of use - making a purchase or donation requires the user to only reply to a Tweet with something akin to @username BUY or @username DONATE. No fees are charged to the user for purchasing/donating.

Likely what will give Chirpify a boost, at least initially, is that it offers integration with existing e-commerce storefronts, including Magento (perhaps a nod in exchange for using PayPal as a payment platform. Integrating with popular e-commerce storefronts – the only others listed being Shopify and SAP – is a smart move out of the gate particularly as many likely to use the service aren’t familiar with tasks such as back-end fulfillment, listing and transaction management.

To use Chirpify, merchants simply click the “list on Twitter” button when drafting an item listing for sale in their e-commerce dashboard. Inbound sales information appears as either an email or as part of the retailer’s back-end system, as well as via a DM on Twitter. There are three Chirpify pricing plans (Basic, Pro, and Enterprise).

Chirpify receives a flat 4 percent commission on basic accounts and a flat 4 percent commission for Pro accounts, which start at $49.00 per month. For those merchants interested in going the route of the enterprise-level, Chirpify won’t take any commission at all but expect a hefty monthly or annual fee in exchange.

“Brands, retailers, politicians, celebrities and individuals have spent the past six years using Twitter to build communities and brand affinity, so why not allow them to sell on Twitter directly?” says Chris Teso, founder of Chirpify. “Customers don’t have to leave Twitter to make a purchase or donation. Chirpify removes the frictions of traditional e-commerce check-out processes.”

Shopify Contest Calling All Web Entrepreneurs

Linc Wonham — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 14:29:00 GMT

E-commerce platform Shopify is presently conducting its second annual Build-A-Business contest for Web entrepreneurs. The company is offering over $500,000 in winnings, including a $100,000 first prize, to inspire people to start an online business.

To provide entrepreneurs with additional support, Shopify has teamed up with experts Seth Godin, Gary Vaynerchuk and Tim Ferriss to provide ongoing advice, education and encouragement to contestants. The concept is simple: think of something to sell, create an online store, and then build your business.

The contest runs until December 31, and participants can sign up any time as long as they’re selling for at least two months prior to the end of the year. The store with the highest grossing two months (non-consecutive) wins the grand prize, with six $20,000 prizes awarded to winners from designated categories: Apparel and Jewelry, Food and Health, Sports and Hobbies, Art and Photography, Home and Office, and Other.

Contestants will be using Shopify’s Software-as-a-Service platform, and previous technical or e-commerce experience is not required to enter.

“The prize money is significant, but don't forget the spirit of the contest: to give a kick in the pants to all those people who have wanted to start businesses but haven’t,” said Tobi Lütke, co-founder and CEO of Shopify. “The real prize is having a business of your own at the end of the contest.”

Shopify will be offering marketing and sales tips through a Build-A-Business website, which will offer insight from partners and sponsors such as Google, MailChimp and PayPal.

Shopify has also built out significant prizes for the winners to help their businesses succeed long after the contest:

• Grand Prize: $100,000 cash; VIP trip to New York for lunch with Seth Godin; one-hour power session with Gary Vaynerchuk; trip to Google headquarters to chat with experts; and a dinner with Tim Ferriss.

• 6 Industry Prizes: $20,000 cash each; VIP trip to New York for lunch with Seth Godin; $7,500 Google AdWords credit.

• Canadian Prize: $5,000 credit at the Apple Store; VIP trip to New York for lunch with Seth Godin; $15,000 Google AdWords credit.

The winner of last year’s contest – which saw nearly 1,400 businesses created and generated over $3.5 million in combined revenue – was DODOcase, a San Francisco company that makes iPad cases using traditional book-binding techniques. The founders, Patrick Buckley and Craig Dalton, are now running a company with projected annual earnings of $4 to $5 million.

Visit Shopify for more details on the contest.

Ecommerce: Shopify Affiliate Program

Administrator — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 15:59:00 GMT

Ecommerce solution provider Jaded Pixel, creators of the Shopify ecommerce platform, announced the launch of an affiliate program. The program is open to everyone from Web designers with clients who are interested in creating an online store, to e-commerce or technology bloggers with an interested audience, to current shop owners who run Shopify and want to spread the word about the service.

The payout? Refer clients to Shopify and share 20% of the revenue for the lifetime of the referred online stores. Pricing for Shopify range from $24 per month for the basic plan to $299 per month for the enterprise level plan. If my math is correct, Shopify affiliates referring just one enterprise level client could earn just over $700 in one year.

“We provide all Shopify affiliates with an intuitive online interface used to sign up new stores, track current revenue and view total earnings. In addition to the great revenue incentive, Shopify affiliates receive creative collateral and ongoing information on how to get the most from the Shopify application,” said Shannon McKarney, Director of Affiliate Programs, Jaded Pixel. “We are pleased to be sharing the benefits of the Shopify application with individuals that want to help ensure the success of this great e-commerce tool.”

You may want to learn more about the Shopify e-commerce application which by the way is currently being used by more than 26,000 merchants.