'Net Features : volusion

Which Social Network is Best for Merchants?

Michael Garrity — Wed, 05 Jun 2013 16:00:00 GMT

For the most part, e-commerce and marketing professionals tend to agree that social media plays an important role in the success of an online retail business. That’s good to know, but one tiny problem remains: With so many social networks and ways to interact with consumers on the World Wide Web, which site is THE BEST one to invest your time and energy on?

This is a question that has plagued marketers for a few years now, but since social media has officially been around long enough for every facet of it to be thoroughly examined (in most cases, more than twice), the pros and cons of the various social networks out there are well documented. This means finding the one that is going to be best for merchants should be a cinch, right?

Facebook
When it comes to social media, the first thing that pops into most people’s minds is their Facebook profile. Mark Zuckerberg’s famous website may have a questionable privacy policy, but there’s no doubt that when it comes to growing and engaging with your audience, advertising and even selling your products (through “f-commerce” services from companies like Volusion and Ecwid), Facebook has all of its competitors beat. With more than 1 billion users, Facebook has the largest collection of potential consumers out there, and plenty of ways to get your brand in front of their eyeballs, including its various advertising programs (display ads, Sponsored Stories, etc.) and the new-ish Graph Search feature.

Twitter
Twitter is a great platform for marketing your brand and sharing your unique message with the world. Since you only have 140 characters to say what you need to say, it really ensures that you stick to the essentials (something most marketers would be smart to do more of). It’s also an excellent platform for accepting and responding to customer queries and complaints (and retweeting compliments) in an efficient manner. Plus, with new services like Chirpify, in-stream Twitter-commerce is starting to become a reality, although a shaky and certainly immature reality, for the time being.

Google+
Google+ has yet to come out with a really feasible, useful shopping option like Facebook or Twitter, and it certainly doesn’t have the audience reach that Facebook can offer, but it does do one thing: help you get found. Since G+ is so closely integrated with Google Search, setting up a Google+ Page for your online e-commerce business is a great way to improve the way your business shows up on the world’s most popular search engine (by a long shot). Google+ also offers the added benefit of Google Authorship, which is great for online merchants with a blog, as it will provide their content with more credibility and authority in the SERPs.

Pinterest
Merchants love Pinterest, because it allows them to share images of their products to interested consumers, and we all know how much people on the Internet love pictures. The huge surge in popularity that Pinterest has seen in the last two years has been a dream for retailers, particularly those that sell products that lend themselves to being looked at repeatedly, such as apparel or home décor. And although interested consumers can’t actually make purchases on the social pinboarding site, Pinterest does allow them to click and link and be taken directly the specific page on their website for the product their interested in. So, since it is basically the online version of “just browsing” through a store, and can thus lead to impulsive purchasing decisions, Pinterest is certainly a favorite among online merchants, for good reason.

So, which is best?
Well, I guess that depends on what you’re looking for. Having a presence on the “Big 3” (Facebook, Twitter and Google+) is more or less imperative for different reasons (brand recognition, search visibility, customer engagement, etc.), but finding the one that works best for your business is really a matter of what your company’s unique needs are. While Facebook currently offers the largest selection of audience targeting and advertising options, as well as third-party services that allow you to actually sell your products through the search engine, making it the most solid, go-to social network for most merchants. But with that being said, don’t discount the power of Pinterest as a way to drive interest in your products and help browsing consumers find your offerings while they’re already searching for similar items.

7 Key Principles for Mobile Commerce Success

Administrator — Thu, 16 May 2013 17:45:00 GMT

:: By Nathan Joynt, Volusion ::

There are currently 115 million smartphone users in the U.S. and an estimated 200 million users by 2017. According to Internet Retailer, in 2012 U.S. smartphone and tablet users spent over $24 billion in mobile commerce sales, accounting for 11% of total ecommerce sales. The digital age is advancing quickly, and with the boom of ever-increasing technology use and some promising statistics, online businesses can’t deny the fact that there is huge moneymaking potential in mobile business. Mobile commerce, or m-commerce, is the browsing, buying and selling of products and services on mobile devices. If being able to shop from your home computer wasn’t easy enough, smartphones and tablets enable you to research and compare products in a physical storefront. Often this can lead to a direct sale online – often from a competitor of the storefront. If you are looking to maximize your online business through mobile, this post will give you some important factors to consider when developing your m-commerce strategy.

7 Key Principles to Maximize your M-Commerce Strategy

To keep your m-commerce strategy running effectively and help your online business grow, make sure you adopt these principles:

1. Do on-going research to determine what mobile devices are popular with your target market.

This is about understanding how you need to prioritize your mobile strategy to maximize ROI. Not every online market makes use of mobile devices. You may have a business where users actually find it more difficult to research and shop for your products through a smartphone. What does your current analytics data suggest? Also, what is your competition currently offering in terms of mobile presence? A story can be formed by performing gap and opportunity analysis. The more persistent you are with research and analysis, typically the better you will be able to focus on what’s most important.

2. Keep brand consistency across your web and mobile properties.

Make sure your ecommerce and m-commerce sites are consistent and congruent in terms of design, product offering, content flow and overall brand messaging. If you are in a position to take advantage of responsive design, do so. Your visitors will expect a consistent branding experience, whether they know it or not. This builds trust, whereas any inconsistency is a sure-fire way to lose sales.

3. Try to keep it simple at first and then add complexity.

As a colleague states, “web users are finicky; mobile users are finickier.” Mobile users typically expect their content to load quickly. You have to take extra care to ensure your mobile content can be consumed in multiple formats. This means making the pages more light weight: use clean code, be careful with large data features like videos and make sure to test all your site’s features so you know what needs to be sped up, taken down or added in.

4. Remember to include mobile in your online testing strategy.

Smart marketers understand how to increase ecommerce sales through practices like user testing, landing page testing and conversion rate optimization. Due to the fact that the user interface and user experience on mobile devices are different, it’s important to understand what your target market expects from your mobile site and include these considerations in your testing strategy.

5. Remember to QA your mobile site.

The concept seems simple enough, but it can be overlooked, especially as websites continue to grow and stakeholders forget to take into account the mobile experience. Does the design break at any point? Is the site cross-browser compatible? Does the checkout process work? Are you able to track everything appropriately in terms of analytics? Do the forms work? Does every link and do all calls-to-action perform as expected? It can be frustrating to try and purchase something through a mobile device and encounter a broken link. This will typically lead to a lost sale.

6. Keep reading more about mobile optimization.

Things move quickly in this area. In order to correctly optimize your mobile business make sure all your mobile data is in order, know what metrics are key to your success and know the specifics of what your customers are searching for most. Mobile optimization is a key factor when looking to increase sales and improve customer satisfaction. This leads to…

7. Leverage customer feedback.

It’s very important to have a customer feedback page, suggestion box, review section, etc. Most businesses have drastically increased their online sales by listening to customer feedback, so why not do the same for your m-commerce business? Utilize your Facebook and Twitter friends/followers to understand their likes/pain points. Send out a survey to your email list. What one customer wants, usually many more will want. If you tailor your mobile business to your customer feedback you will keep them satisfied and coming back for more.

eMarketer estimates that by 2017, approximately 25% of online retail transactions in the U.S. will take place on mobile devices. As technology is changing and rapidly increasing, so is the way consumers buy their products, which means you, as an online business owner, has to change as well. The potential for your business to grow through m-commerce is extremely promising and is up to you, with a little help from the experts, to make the most of your mobile business.

Nathan Joynt is a Marketing Manager for Volusion, a leading mobile and ecommerce software company. He specializes in SEO, user experience and content marketing. Follow him on Twitter @nathanjoynt.

6 Super Calls-to-Action (Plus Tips)

Amberly Dressler — Thu, 02 May 2013 18:20:00 GMT

Whether it’s completing a project or taking an action, people will take as long as you give them to do it. This is why in business, deadlines (enforceable ones) work and why, on the Web, calls-to-action (good ones) are integral to a website’s success.

IaaS and Web hosting provider SingleHop recently released an infographic (click here) that details five tips for a more successful call-to-action (CTA). In it, the company details that, unsurprisingly, the click-through rates (CTRs) of above-the-fold CTAs are substantially higher (72 percent) than below-the-fold CTAs (47 percent). While that may be best practice number one, SingleHop provides interesting data on the fact that buttons, as opposed to text, provide upward of a 200 percent higher CTR. With SingleHop’s tips in mind, Website Magazine has compiled six super CTAs.

H.BLOOM

Super CTA: Nothing creates urgency (and a sense of value) more than mom does. By providing the date for Mother's Day, the copy leading into the CTA enhances the urgency and the words "Shop Now" are direct. Additionally, this floral subscription service's CTA uses high contrast to grab attention.

SKYPE

Super CTA: In SingleHop's infographic, it's suggested to play with shape, which Skype uses in a purposeful manner. It's clear to the user that the CTA is part of the product description and the best course of action is to "Join."

NETFLIX

Super CTA: After offering a one-month free trial and then conveying value (e.g. you can watch your programs wherever you want), Netflix directs users to "Start Your Free Month." Notice that Netflix uses its above-the-fold real estate to confirm and then reconfirm that a one-month free trial is available.

MailChimp

Super CTA: This beautiful, sleek homepage uses a calming color palate, but hits users with a sense of urgency with its "Sign Up Free" CTA.

Volusion

Super CTA: Volusion wants users to try their product for free. If you couldn't tell, the e-commerce software provider uses the same CTA in the center of the page (larger) and in the upper right-hand corner (smaller) to reinforce where they want users to go and what they'll do when they get there.

PagePart

Super CTA: While PagePart's CTA differs from the rest on this list, it's appropriate for this mobile and social Web platform, because business owners want to create a mobile website, which is why they ventured to PagePart in the first place. The words "instantly" and then "Go" provide even more urgency.

Bonus: There are myriad factors to keep in mind when designing a website, but there are many seen repeatedly (like a missing call-to-action). Make sure your site isn't making these mistakes by checking out this article by Rafi Sweary, the co-founder of WalkMe.com.

Volusion Prime Time Ready with v13

Pete Prestipino — Mon, 13 Aug 2012 18:00:00 GMT

Internet retail platform Volusion has unveiled its thirteenth version. Ecommerce merchants looking to make a switch should pay close attention to what’s inside – namely Ebay integration and Improved ratings and review features. .

Ebay Integration

Merchants on Gold, Platinum and custom plans will now be able to submit fixed price listings on Ebay from the backend of their Volusion store. All products, shipping and payments information can be viewed, and as items are sold on Ebay they appear will as orders within Volusion.

Ratings & Reviews

One of the best new features of the platform is related to ratings and reviews. Merchant products “review stars” will now automatically display in Google search results (see below) as well as across their site; the star ratings and reviews will be featured on categories, search results and featured product pages.

Admin Enhancements

Version 13 from Volusion also brings several improvements to the store administration area. The navigation and styling of the admin area have been enhanced, but Volusion managed to keep the same workflows which will prove important to those transitioning to the upgraded system. Merchants will likely also be excited by the ability to manage their store from tablet devices – from managing inventory, processing orders and accepting payments.

Screenshot of how rating data will appear in Google SERPs with the new Volusion v13 feature:

Volusion Offers Daily Deals for Ecommerce Sites

Allison Howen — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 18:00:00 GMT

It’s not a big secret – everyone loves a great deal. In fact, according to BIA/Kelsey, consumer spending on daily deal offers is predicted to reach $3.9 billion in the U.S. by 2015.

So why not take advantage of this industry and display a daily deal directly on your ecommerce site? Ecommerce provider Volusion has announced a deal-of-the-day feature that allows merchants to do just that by providing merchants with the ability to set up daily deal offers directly from the administrative panel of their ecommerce stores.

To launch a daily deal, a merchant simply needs to enable the daily deal feature and then pick the desired product to be promoted. Then, the merchant needs to enter a discounted price as well as timeframe of the promotion for the selected product. After the previous steps are completed, customers should be able to quickly find and purchase the deal within the ecommerce site.

The new feature also gives merchants the choice to either set up one deal or multiple deals a day, as well as schedule promotions that can span multiple days. Furthermore, merchants can draw attention to their deals through built-in social marketing capabilities in the Volusion platform.

E-Commerce Abandonment on the Rise

Pete Prestipino — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 01:32:00 GMT

Shopping cart abandonment has risen to 71%, as reported by Forrester, translating into an $18 billion issue for online retailers. With 7 out of 10 carts being abandoned, it becomes imperative for online retailers to put a strategy in place to recoup that lost revenue. The channel and strategy is increasingly found in email.

Ecommerce software solution Volusion has partnered with email marketing service provider Listrak to provide merchants with an automated shopping cart abandonment solution. The solution incorporates dynamic merchandising to remind abandoners of the items left in the cart and prompts them to complete the purchase. Listrak’s solution also provides the opportunity for retailers to do a series of messages, test offers, and incorporate product reviews to recover those lost sales.

“We’re always looking for industry-leading partners who can support our merchants’ online selling experiences. Partnering with Listrak enables us to offer our clients additional solutions to add to their revenue generating arsenal,” said Neil Patel, Director of Business Development. “And due to issues like shopping cart abandonment, this solution is very valuable for our merchants.”

Shopping Carts and Social Media

Administrator — Wed, 08 Jun 2011 22:10:00 GMT

Merchants that bave been slow to adopt social media support and functionality within their shopping carts are now officially late to the game.

According to Merchant Circle, 70 percent of local US small-to-medium size business owners are actively using social media marketing to promote their businesses. Couple that with a report from McKinsey Global Institute which indicates that 63 percent of companies using social media say it has increased marketing effectiveness (playing an important role in actual sales) and merchants simply have no reason not to do what they can on the social media front right now.

Shopping cart software and service provider Volusion is aiming to supports its merchants’ social initiatives by releasing several social media features into its platform that aim to help clients connect their ecommerce stores to popular social media channels.

Features include administrative integration with Facebook and Twitter (Volusion clients will be able to post content to the social networks), the addition of the Facebook Send Button so shoppers can share a stores products, and a tool that helps merchants manage YouTube videos within product pages.

Volusion Gets More Socially Savvy

Pete Prestipino — Mon, 04 Apr 2011 19:00:00 GMT

Web-based PR and marketing software Volusion unveiled their Spring '11 edition last week. Volusion customers are now able to send messages, share news and join conversions on Twitter and Facebook directly within the Vocus dashboard.

“Today, companies are asked to build and track relationships with influencers and customers in both traditional media and on the social networks. Vocus customers can now do that all within one application,” said You Mon Tsang, Senior Vice President, Products at Vocus. “We have built the first integrated platform that meets the needs of marketing and PR professionals.”

The new release also tracks all interactions across social networks, monitors responses to the links they share, and builds a complete profile of key influencers.

Some other noteworthy features of the new release include the ability to measure the response of individual twets, recent tweets of influencers, Twitter handles and Facebook profile of media outlets are added to teh Vocus Media Database, as well as Facebook searches and analytics.

A Year-by-Year Look at Holiday E-commerce

Linc Wonham — Fri, 07 Jan 2011 20:00:00 GMT

Inspired by the record online spending that occurred during the final weeks of 2010, e-commerce solutions provider Volusion has taken a closer look at each of the holiday shopping seasons of the past decade. A link to Volusion’s comprehensive infographic can be found here, but below are some of the most interesting conclusions:

Not only did the 2010 holiday season set record highs for online spending, it was also the first time that Cyber Monday earned the top spot for busiest e-commerce selling day of the year.

Because of the increasing amount of sales offered on Cyber Monday, it began to close the gap between it and the biggest-selling day of the season starting in 2008.

In 2009, there were nine days between the biggest-selling day of the holidays and Christmas Day; in 2010, there were 25 days. The average number of days between the two during the past nine years has been 10.2 days.

Since 2000, the biggest-selling day of the holidays has fallen on a Monday eight times; on a Tuesday twice, and on a Wednesday one time.

For more information, follow the link to the Volusion blog to see the holiday e-commerce infographic.

’Tis the Season: Free Holiday Graphics from Volusion

Linc Wonham — Fri, 15 Oct 2010 20:20:00 GMT

E-commerce solutions provider Volusion is in the giving spirit. The company announced on its blog Friday that it is offering free holiday graphics to help visitors spruce up their own online storefronts.

The Volusion e-commerce design team created the holiday-themed art, which can be downloaded for free simply by clicking on an image and saving it to your computer. Visitors can simply browse or take as many or as few of the graphics as they please.

The page also provides a link to Volusion’s own holiday savings for merchants, which include 20 to 50 percent off of various design and marketing services.

Volusion Goes Mobile

Pete Prestipino — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 20:42:00 GMT

Shopping cart software vendor Volusion took a step in the mobile direction at SXSW today with the launch of Volusion mCommerce.

The beta release offers Volusion customers a way to optimize their online stores for consumers smartphone shopping.

All Volusion customers, including small retailers that typically do not have access to mobile-optimization capabilities, can easily enable a setting in their store’s admin for the optimized version to work with mobile browsers. Shoppers who navigate to any of Volusion’s customer sites using an iPhone will automatically have access to the mobile-optimized version of the retailer’s site. Additional internet-enabled smartphones will be added in the future.

“Volusion mCommerce allows my customers to view my site in a convenient, snapshot version,” said Andrea Bridges of repeatpossessions.com. “The popularity of Twitter and other social media platforms is proving that time and space are limited and people are expecting the kind of simplified interface Volusion is providing. Volusion mCommerce makes shopping more convenient for my customers and will provide me with a revenue boost.”

New Volusion Features Focus on Customer Satisfaction

Pete Prestipino — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 17:30:00 GMT

E-commerce software provider Volusion announced a broad and very interesting set of new features related to merchandising, social media, user interface, administration and its actual shopping cart today. The platform enhancements include:

- Soft add-to-cart: allows customers to add products to their cart without leaving the product details page.
- Gift Registry: merchants can now offer a global gift registry to their customers.
- AddThis™ integration: enables online businesses to share products across hundreds of social media networks and news sources – including Facebook, Twitter, Kaboodle, and StumbleUpon.
- Interactive administrative interface: provides more intuitive navigation menus, tabs and tables, as well as easier order processing.
- Advanced search capabilities: provides corrections or suggestions on consumer search terms, automatic spell check functionality, and allows grouping of additional terms by keywords. Also, search results can now be refined by brand and price.
- My Rewards: a loyalty program that empowers merchants to reward their customers. Merchants can choose to offer points for products or points for cash. Merchants can also control the amount and timing of the point payout.

“As the competitive ecommerce software industry continues to evolve, vendors must remain nimble enough to keep up with market trends like social shopping and advanced search engine optimization,” said Michael Fauscette, IDC’s group vice president, Software Business Solutions. “With its latest product release, Volusion is addressing these issues that are critical to its merchant customer base. Established ecommerce SaaS vendors like Volusion are in a good position as online businesses look for simple, affordable options in the current economic climate.”

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Interactive E-Commerce on Social Networks

Pete Prestipino — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 22:00:00 GMT

Results from a survey conducted by Harris Interactive and commissioned by e-commerce solution provider Volusion found that consumers are looking to social networks for advice and recommendations on online purchases. How timely considering that Black Friday is just days away!

Among online shoppers, key findings include:

27% said viewing comments on various items for sale would encourage them to shop on social networks
30% said special sales and exclusive products would encourage them to shop on social networks
48% said easy-to-use features as a very important feature for initially attracting them to an online shopping website
92% said brand is at least somewhat important to initially attracting them to an online shopping web site
32% would shop online more if sites were easier to use
24% would shop online more if checkout procedures were easier
50% of correspondents said special online offers would encourage them to shop online more frequently

“Since the birth of e-commerce ten years ago, consumers have come to expect an advanced level of online shopping experience,” said Kevin Sproles, CEO and founder of Volusion. “Beyond easy navigation and check out, consumers want online shopping to be integrated with the way they communicate with their peers, making their preferences and interests known on social networks (such as MySpace and Facebook) and enabling retailers to develop a more intimate relationship with them.”

You may remember that earlier this year Volusion announced its Social Store Builder, allowing online store owners to directly tap the power of social networks. The Volusion solution allows featured products from a merchant stores to be rotated on a social networking page.

Volusion Social Store Builder

Pete Prestipino — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 15:14:00 GMT

Ecommerce solution provider Volusion recently announced an upgrade to its shopping cart software with Social Store Builder. The solution enables merchants to push their products onto social networks sites such as MySpace and Facebook.

“Over the last decade, ecommerce has become a highly competitive market and merchants are always looking for better ways to attract and retain customers,” said Kevin Sproles, CEO and founder at Volusion. “Volusion 5 with Social Store Builder gives merchants an all-in-one shopping cart solution, while allowing them to tap into the exploding social networking channels and reach consumers where they are increasingly spending their time online.”

Social Store Builder is available for free to Volusion clients using the gold plan and above (which starts at $99 per month. Users are recommended to only grant a specific number of products and regularly update this group to best market their products.

Products are listed in the sidebar of Facebook pages - like this one for Sun and Ski Sports. Take a look at the screen shot below - overall, a nice looking implementation.