'Net Features : wm-ecommerce

Foster User-Generated Videos with Buzztala

Allison Howen — Wed, 22 May 2013 19:15:00 GMT

Obtaining video testimonials from customers is simple with Buzztala, which is a social content marketing company that just released an updated version of its platform that includes a self-service portal for businesses with a website.

Buzztala’s Social Content Marketing platform helps companies take advantage of user-generated content. The platform uses a plug-in that when clicked on, brings up a widget that overlays the page and provides full access to the Buzztala social marketing system.

From the widget, viewers can watch user-generated video marketing clips such as reviews, testimonials or comments, as well as record a comment of their own. Plus, all consumer-generated content is shared across that visitor’s Facebook and Twitter accounts. In addition, when their friends click on the post, they arrive at the business's website, which helps businesses generate qualified leads and increase conversion rates.

Buzztala is also optimized for both computers and mobile devices, as the company uses a patent-pending combination of HTML5 and Flash technology to assist businesses in reaching mobile customers. Plus, Buzztala includes a mobile app for clients, which allows for the rapid creation and publishing of social video content at all times.

Lastly, it is important to note that for a limited time Buzztala is free to install and use. Furthermore, Buzztala’s cloud-based system uses gold-standard Rackspace servers for reliability and security, and the platform’s turnkey system allows companies to simply drop in a line of code to use the platform, as everything is controllable through the browser-based dashboard.

E-Commerce Social Traffic Declines, Tablet Traffic Grows

Allison Howen — Wed, 22 May 2013 18:30:00 GMT

A new report from marketing and website optimization solutions provider Monetate is shedding some light on recent social commerce trends, the growing importance of mobile devices and the opportunity retailers have with U.S. military online shoppers.

The Ecommerce Quarterly report, which analyzed a random sample of more than 500 million online shopping experiences in the first quarter of 2013, reveals that social media is lagging as a direct traffic source to e-commerce websites and online purchases despite the investment brands are putting into this channel. In fact, social media represented only 1.55 percent of all e-commerce traffic, which puts it behind email (2.82%) and far behind search (31.43%). Plus, social media traffic numbers are down from Q1 2012, when they reached 2.36 percent.

That being said, mobile devices including tablets and smartphones are grabbing a larger share of e-commerce traffic. For instance, tablet and smartphones made up 21.02 percent of traffic, which is a huge increase from just 2 percent two years ago. In addition, one of the most surprising stats from the study found that tablets actually led smartphones in e-commerce traffic, with 10.58 percent of the traffic share compared to 10.44 percent.

Another noteworthy insight from the Ecommerce Quarterly study shows that marketing to U.S. military personnel pays off. The data reveals that conversion rates among military personnel in the U.S. is at 5.15 percent, 4.3 percent in Europe and 3.57 percent in Asia. All of these numbers are higher than the overall U.S. consumer segment, which has an average conversion rate of 2.53 percent. Likewise, the average order value of military personnel was 23.39 percent higher than U.S. shoppers.

"As marketers know, data can tell a story and the EQ1 2013 tells the story of a fast-growing ecommerce market where companies face growing opportunities and challenges," said Blair Lyon , vice president, marketing, Monetate. "We focused this EQ on social commerce since the data shows the companies have not yet cracked the code in leveraging social media to drive ecommerce traffic. We know that social media plays an important role in influencing social purchases – to what degree brands are able to leverage social to build loyalty is the next big question."

Accept E-Commerce Pre-Orders With… Celery?

Pete Prestipino — Wed, 22 May 2013 06:35:00 GMT

Sometimes you have to wonder about the naming conventions of the digital companies you encounter around the Web. But not the technology, and certainly not the technology’s usefulness.

Case in point, Celery from AirBrite, which provides a way for retailers to accept credit cards and charge only when products have been shipped. It could be revolutionary for millions looking to sell products quickly and simply – if you can get past the name. Thanks to flexible charging options (each order is charged when merchants indicate its time to do – including deferring the inclusion of shipping and taxes to a later time) the result is a more elegant buying experience for users.

“Our goal is to fuel the next wave of commerce by providing an e-commerce solution for anyone to sell their products, anywhere--whether it’s an individual just getting started or an established business needing a modern and relevant way to sell to their customers,” said Chris Tsai, Airbrite Co-Founder.

Ok, fine. It sounds terrific. But let’s dig a little deeper into this fruitful garden of technology. Airbrite, maker of Celery, is an open API e-commerce platform (an infrastructure, really) that enables interactions between buyers and sellers that addresses what Airbrite calls “pre-commerce,” allowing its users to set up pre-orders for products and services. The benefit? Sellers can get an idea of the market demand and collect feedback on pricing – two important elements in digital success particularly for retailers.

“We’re building products to address the growing number of businesses that understand they need to sell to potential customers wherever they are – mobile, tablet, Facebook, Twitter, or even Google Glass. The possibilities are endless, and Celery is an important first step towards making sophisticated e-commerce tools accessible to anyone.”

5 Simple Steps to Set Product Targets for Google Shopping

Administrator — Mon, 20 May 2013 16:00:00 GMT

:: By Jacques van der Wilt, DataFeedWatch & WordWatch ::

Google Shopping is a great channel for Web shops, but many merchants are still struggling to figure out how to set product targets for their Product Listing Ads campaign.

We've developed a successful standard operating procedure for setting up new PLA campaigns by sticking to these five simple guidelines:

1. Start Simple: Brand & Product Type

If you are creating the first Google Shopping campaign for your shop, keep it simple. You need performance data before you can set any fancy product targets. So start getting that data in a simple way: Set product targets for each brand or each product type or each combination of the two. Don’t worry whether that is the best you can do: get started and get the data you need.

2. Performance Data: Don’t Spread it Too Thin

If your product targets get two conversions per month, your data is too thin. It will be weeks before you have enough statistically relevant data to change your bids and then it will be another month before you can evaluate it.

So it’s great that you set 80 product targets for all 10 sneaker-types of each of your eight brands, but you buried yourself in detail. Set your product targets for brands only or product type only and start collecting the data.

There is one way to get the best of both worlds: create one adgroup for each of your eight brands and put product targets in there for each of the 10 product types. That’s still 80 product targets, but you can aggregate the data on brand-level and get enough data for your first optimizations.

3. Top Performers Get Their Own Product Target

If you have a few products that make most of your sales, you should get them ‘their own’ product target. Don’t do that for the best 100 products because you will bury yourself in data. But if five or 10 products make >50% of your revenue, you want to monitor and optimize the performance of these Product Listing Ads closely.

4. Group by Conversion Rate

Conversion rate is the single most important reason for grouping products into a single product target. If all your tennis shoes (regardless of brand) have similar conversion rates, you can group ‘m together. Bidding up or down may affect impressions, but conversions happen on your site, when the customer has already arrived to your store.

So dig into Analytics and find similarities. You may find that tennis-shoe-conversion is not dependent on brand, but that the pink ones convert better than the other colors. That means that you want to create an additional product target for pink tennis shoes (set an AdWords Labels for color) and set a higher bid. You’ll get more conversions and still have a lower CPA.

5. Mind Your Margin

Cash is King. You may have successfully executed the previous four steps, but always keep your eye on your Gross Margin. If your Tennis-shoes and your Tennis-socks have a similar conversion rate, you still don’t want them to have the same product target: With a $20 gross margin on shoes you want to bid a lot more than for the socks with a $2 gross margin. So always combine the wisdom of the first four steps with the financial rationale of step five.

One way of ensuring that there is a fit between your bid and your margin, use AdWords grouping to group all your products based on price (or margin if you have that in your data feed). Then you can set separate product targets, with higher bids for high-margin products.

About the author

Jacques van der Wilt has worked in online media for more than 20 years. He has held leadership positions in both the US and Europe. In the past 10 years he has worked as an entrepreneur and founded several start-ups. He is also a mentor at accelerator Startupboothcamp. As founder of WordWatch (automated bid management) he became an expert in search engine marketing for medium sized advertisers and with its spin-off DataFeedWatch (a web-based tool for merchants to optimize their data feed for Google Shopping and other comparison shopping channels) he established a leadership position in managing data feeds and Product Listing Ads campaigns.

GoECart Glues Together Fragmented E-Commerce Channels

Amberly Dressler — Mon, 20 May 2013 14:55:00 GMT

Sixty-five percent of shoppers in the U.S. currently shop across at least two channels, while 21 percent of U.S. respondents are using four or five channels to shop, according to a PricewaterhouseCoopers report. What does this mean for retailers?

It means online merchants must find e-commerce solutions that meet the demands of the increasingly sophisticated online shopper. In fact, PwC reports that 72 percent of the consumers surveyed consider themselves to be either confident or experts in researching and purchasing online.

“Online merchants face massive competition today, and most of them are feeling stranded by multiple e-commerce systems and technologies,” said GoECart’s founder and CEO Manish Chowdhary. “But, there is a better way.”

GoECart, which provides integrated, on-demand e-commerce solutions, thinks its the solution to streamline processes. This is because GoECart helps clients sell across multiple channels, manage and fulfill inventory across multiple warehouses and process tens of thousands of orders each month without skipping a beat, like it recently did for GameQuestDirect.

GameQuestDirect offers a vast selection of new and rare video games online with more than 10,000 titles for all leading game consoles. In addition to selling via its own website, the company sells its products through 15-plus online marketplaces including Amazon.com, eBay and Buy.com.

Previously to leverage GoECart, GameQuestDirect used three systems to run its multi-channel retail operation: a standalone ecommerce solution, an independent order management system (OMS) and a separate shipping software. Since switching to GoECart, GameQuestDirect has lowered its costs by 60 percent, while increasing order volume by 40 percent.

Talking Internet Taxes, Outright

Amberly Dressler — Mon, 20 May 2013 14:40:00 GMT

As one of the first beta testers for Outright, accounting software for small businesses and those who are self-employed that was launched in 2008, Kat Simpson has seen her fair share of changes affecting online sellers. Perhaps no fluctuations as impactful as the one facing Internet retailers today, however.

“We are in the middle of a new era and whether or not the Marketplace Fairness Act passes will make a huge impact on how we proceed,” said Simpson. “Currently my advice is hold and keep an eye on our Senate.”

Simpson, who started her business in 1997 selling household items on eBay for extra money around the house, currently has a branded store, Kat's Boutique, on eBay selling products invented by and used by women. She also sells some of everything on the Amazon FBA platform.

In addition to tax changes, Simpson has seen changes to Outright, a solution she relies heavily on. In 2012, Outright was acquired by Go Daddy, a natural fit as both companies are passionate about helping small businesses grow. Go Daddy helps companies get online, and Outright helps them stay there with bookkeeping needs.

“I use Outright each week to reconcile my books, keep an eye on expenses and prepare for taxes,” said Simpson. “Monthly, I use the Sales Tax Reports to help me file sales taxes in the 10 states in which I have a presence thanks to FBA and at the end of the year I rely heavily on Outright to help prepare my income taxes.”

For those companies needing extra assistance in regard to the impending Marketplace Fairness Act, Priyanka Sharma, Product and Marketing at Outright, says they’ll be there to help.

“Regardless of what happens, Outright is committed to helping small businesses understand their sales tax obligations,” Sharma. “We have easy sales tax reporting so that sellers can see how much sales tax they have collected and submitted. Additionally, our blog, The Bottom Line, provides tips and information for online sellers, including a state-by-state guide to sales tax collection.”

Outright’s sales tax report also shows sellers how much they have collected in sales tax. Its sales-by-state report shows how much they have sold for the year in each state, so that they can determine whether they have met the limits that require them to collect sales tax.

Flash Sale Sites Don't Deliver when it Comes to Shipping

Allison Howen — Mon, 20 May 2013 14:35:00 GMT

Flash sale sites like Fab, Gilt and RueLaLa excel at offering savings to consumers, however, they often fall short of meeting consumer shipping expectations, according to a new study.

Fullfillment and logisitics solutions provider Dotcom Distribution has announced the results of its Facebook Flash Sale Analysis, which took a look at 2,776 Facebook conversations between customers and flash sale sites. The results reveal that one in five (22%) Facebook comments are related to negative shipping experiences with these companies. In addition, 49 percent of all negative comments were related to shipping.

“Flash sale customers are social-savvy, and they are taking to Facebook to express their frustrations, specifically when it comes to issues like delayed orders or shipping issues,” said Maria Haggerty, president of Dotcom Distribution. “If these sites want to improve their social feedback, they need to start by selecting a fulfillment partner that has the scalability to handle the high volume of orders that come with flash sales.”

While most of the customer complaints regarded the speed of delivery, others mentioned the condition of products. According to the report, Fab.com and Gilt.com ranked the best out of the top 11 flash sale sites, with 36 percent of negative comments relating to shipping. Conversely, BeyondtheRack.com, HautLook.com and Zulily.com all tied for last with almost two-thirds of negative comments mentioning shipping problems.

That being said, the report also notes that customers post positive comments on these companies’ Facebook Pages as well, especially in regards to specific products and positive customer service experiences. According to the data, 30 percent of all positive comments are about products. Ideeli.com, for instance, ranked highest among the sites with 57 percent of positive comments relating to its products. One Ideeli customer even posted, “Got my new OTBT ShoShone shoes tonight – even my cat can’t stop admiring them! They’re so comfortable – I don’t even want to take them off to go to bed!”

On the other hand, Facebook comments about customer service were mixed with both positive and negative reviews. One example from a Fab.com customer commended a customer service representative, saying, “I would like to recognize customer service agent, Nicholas. He helped me with a problem on December 6 and was a great spokesperson for Fab. Please give him a giant raise, or at least a giant cookie.”

Other noteworthy findings from the Dotcom study show that out of all the comments analyzed, 44 percent were negative, 29 percent were positive and the remaining 27 percent were neutral. Moreover, OneKingsLane.com and Zulily.com were the only two sites that received more positive comments than negative overall, while RueLaLa.com had an equal amount of positive and negative comments (each at 38%), and the rest of the analyzed sites received mostly negative comments. However, one in five negative comments involved flash sellers’ websites, and many complaints related to login issues. In fact, three percent of all conversations were about login issues or a preference to not login at all.

Check out the list of flash sale sites ranked by percentage of negative comments related to shipping, lowest to highest, below:

1. Fab.com (36%)

1. Gilt.com (36%)

3. RueLaLa.com (37%)

4. JackThreads.com (39%)

5. Ideeli.com (43%)

6. OneKingsLane.com (44%)

7. Plndr.com (53%)

8. Foundary.com (57%)

9. BeyondtheRack.com (61%)

9. HauteLook.com (61%)

9. Zulily.com (61%)

What's Vital in the E-Commerce Store Today?

Pete Prestipino — Mon, 20 May 2013 14:30:00 GMT

The elements that make for a robust and effective e-commerce presence today likely aren't foreign to Internet retailers, but it's useful to periodically review what the new and emerging platforms are focusing on and what merchants are looking for in a e-commerce software solution.

The e-commerce software market is a competitive one for a few different reasons, including that there are so many merchants selling online today, and that there is little team-switching going on, meaning that online retailers don't change solutions every few months. Instead, merchants can stay with their platform for many years.

BlueSnap, a global buying platform for digital, physical and mobile markets, recently announced a newly redesigned platform for its users that provides an opportunity to explore just what the market is seeking out, tolerating and excited about. Its new SnapConsole features newly optimized page navigation that simplifies daily management tasks, a diverse and global network of payment processing options, automated subscription reminders, optimized checkout pages for mobile devices and more.

Last month, BlueSnap announced their new Automated Subscription Reminder technology that enables merchants to push beyond card-only transactions and optimize recurring payments for local payment types as well as wire transfers. Today, that offering just got stronger with the addition of six new payment types—Alipay, cashU, iDeal, Giropay, eNETS and SOFORT Banking—greatly expanding merchants’ global reach into Europe, Singapore, China, Africa and the Middle East

In late April, BlueSnap also unveiled its SnapMobile technology, which enables merchants to have two checkout pages for a single product, one for PC and one for mobile. BlueSnap auto detects which template to display based on the shopper’s device and serve up content in an optimized, user-friendly fashion, allowing merchants to capture revenue that is typically lost with other e-commerce and payment processing service providers.

“Evolving our technology is what drives our customer’s success,” said Ralph Dangelmaier, CEO of BlueSnap. “We strive to be on the forefront of innovation, working closely with our customers, we’re able to offer the choices that our merchants want. Now more than ever with our easy-to-go SnapConsole, our customers can run their business better and faster. As always, BlueSnap strives to offer what today’s businesses need.”

Simpler Checkout for Single Page Websites

Pete Prestipino — Thu, 16 May 2013 17:40:00 GMT

Single-page site design is a popular Web trend, but it's not typically a good fit for those actually selling products.

There are plenty of good examples where this style of design is used, but it's mainly for information publishers and digital brands looking to raise awareness, not neccessarily conversions. For the most part, the actual checkout process is left for another page and a far more robust (and often expensive to maintain) e-commerce platform. But does it need to be that way? Fortunately, no it doesn't.

A jQuery plugin by the name of SimpleCart could by just what you're looking for. The free and open-source javascript shopping cart integrates very easily into a website/web page without the need for a database, or any programming familiarity at all per say - just copy and paste some simple HTML and Javascript and you're good to go.

SimpleCart works with multiple payment gateways including Paypal Express, Google Checkout, and Amazon Payments (others including Authorize.net and an email checkout are expected soon).

Williams-Sonoma Goes Global with NetSuite

Amberly Dressler — Wed, 15 May 2013 18:20:00 GMT

Williams-Sonoma brought a tight timeline and lofty expectations to its shopping criteria for an agile platform that enabled it to handle the complexity of global multi-channel commerce. The high-end, multi-channel retailer was impressed by the capabilities of NetSuite SuiteCommerce, which it ultimately selected for its global expansion into Australia.

NetSuite CEO, Zach Nelson, made this announcement during his keynoe at SuiteWorld on Tuesday, but the brand went live on the platform May 2. NetSuite SuiteCommerce powers four newly launched and individually branded e-commerce storefronts in Australia, combined with NetSuite Retail Anywhere POS as the point-of-sale solution for four new retail stores in the Bondi Junction suburb of Sydney, Australia.

From planning to retail store opening, NetSuite and Williams-Sonoma report the entire rollout of all these capabilities was delivered efficiently. The NetSuite solution has given Williams-Sonoma, Inc. critical speed, cost reduction and agility advantages to accelerate time to value from its multi-channel Australian initiative with flexibility to readily expand the solution to enter new global markets, according to a NetSuite statement.

Australia seems to be ripe for the multichannel picking, as not only have 71 percent of Australian consumers made an online purchase, but they actively research products on social media and search engines before making purchases. In fact, 30 percent of Australian buyers search for the location of the nearest store/supplier for specific products and services (eBay/PayPal, Dec. 2012). For more Australian e-commerce statistics, visit visual.ly's infographic on the subject.

Answered: 5 E-Commerce Sales Tax Questions

Allison Howen — Mon, 13 May 2013 19:35:00 GMT

There seems to be at least one thing that Democrats and Republicans agree on: all merchants should collect sales tax, regardless if they sell through a traditional brick-and-mortar store or exclusively online.

In fact, the e-commerce sales tax bill, known as the Marketplace Fairness Act, successfully made its way through the Senate with a bipartisan vote of 69-27 just a week ago, and is now awaiting a vote in the House of Representatives. And if this bill makes it to the President’s desk, gets signed and becomes law, most e-commerce merchants will need to collect sales tax from their customers in the near future.

Despite the rapid adoption of this bill, there are still many uncertainties surrounding the Marketplace Fairness Act. Website Magazine looks to answer some of the most common asked questions about e-commerce sales tax:

1. What is the current state of e-commerce sales tax?

Currently, online retailers are required to collect sales tax from customers in their own state. In addition, Nexus, which is defined as having a significant physical presence in a state, determines whether an online retailer is also required to collect sales tax from out-of-state customers. For example, online retailers must collect sales tax from out-of-state customers if the retailer has a physical presence within that customer’s state, which includes a temporary or permanent presence of property or people working in that state.

2. What is the Marketplace Fairness Act?

According to marketplacefairness.org, this bill would grant states the authority to require online and catalog retailers, otherwise known as remote sellers, to collect local sales tax at the time of transaction. However, it is important to note that this bill actually aims to simplify the state tax codes to make compliance easier for retailers, which is the result of two previous Supreme Court rulings that cite collecting sales tax for multiple states is too difficult.

This is why the bill requires states to simplify their tax laws in order to make multistate sales tax collection easier. This can be done by either voluntarily adopting measures of the Streamlined Sales and Use Tax Agreement (SSUTA), which aims at making sales tax collection simple and has already been adopted by 24 states, or by meeting the five simplification mandates within the Marketplace Fairness Act. These mandates include: notifying retailers in advance of any rate changes within the state; designating a single-state organization to handle sales tax registrations, filings and audits; establishing a uniform sales tax base for use throughout the state; using destination sourcing to determine sales tax rates for out-of-state purchases; and lastly, providing free software to retailers for managing sales tax compliance.

3. What is the Small Seller Exception?

The Small Seller Exception essentially exempts retailers who made less than $1 million of total remote sales in the United States within the preceding calendar year from tax collection requirements.

4. How long until the bill is enforced?

Since the bill hasn’t passed the House or been signed by the President yet, there is no firm date set in place. However, if it is passed, the bill could go into full effect before the end of the year.

According to marketplacefairness.org, “Online retailers who do not qualify for the Small Seller Exception will be required to collect sales tax starting the first day of the calendar quarter that is at least 90 days after the date of enactment of the Marketplace Fairness Act.” This date, which could be as early as Oct. 1, 2013, will require sales tax collection for all sales shipped to the 22 states that are full members of the Streamlined Sales and Use Tax Agreement (SSUTA).

As for the remaining states, the website notes that if they implement the provisions of the SSUTA, they will receive collection authority on the first day of the calendar quarter that is at least 90 days after achieving full member status. Conversely, states that implement the simplification requirements of the Marketplace Fairness Act will receive collection authority six months after the date of enactment, which will be no earlier than the first day of the following calendar quarter.

5. How do merchants comply?

As previously stated, if the Marketplace Fairness Act passes, states will be required to provide free software to retailers for managing sales tax compliance.

That said, managing sales tax collection has already been accounted for in the SSUTA. In fact, the SSUTA Governing Board oversees a certification process that includes the testing and verification of software and services to ensure compliance not only with the SSUTA, but also with other applicable state and local laws related to sales tax. Currently, there are six certified service provider platforms available to help retailers achieve compliance, including Enterprise TaxTools by Accurate Tax, AvaTax by Avalara, SpeedTax by CCH, Exactor by Exactor, TaxCloud by FedTax and TaxWare by TaxWare. It is important to note that out of these services, TaxCloud is currently the only free certified option for retailers, as state commissions pay the company when it transfers sales tax funds from the retailer to the state.

Marketing to Moms: Rewards Required

Allison Howen — Mon, 13 May 2013 19:25:00 GMT

Moms are a valuable customer segment, as they tend to make the majority of a family’s purchasing decisions. But what motivates this influential customer segment to engage with brands online and make purchases?

According to a new study from PunchTab the answer is rewards. In fact, the study, which surveyed more than 600 moms, reveals that 81 percent of moms will engage more with a brand when offered some type of incentive. In addition, the study found that some non-financial compensation, like elite status or early access to products, can also work as behavior motivators for moms.

That said, moms value some rewards more highly than others. For example, 83 percent of respondents claim that free products and services from a brand are effective motivators, followed by 82 percent stating that gift cards from popular retailers are good incentives. Likewise, moms value discounts and coupons, with 60 percent saying they would take an action in return for a discount or coupon to use on a future purchase of a brand’s product.

“Moms are the most critical demographic segment for many brands. They are the primary decision makers when it comes to household purchases and influence $2.4 trillion in spend every year. Everyone wants to engage this audience segment. The question is: what motivates moms to take action?” said Angela Sanfilippo, CMO at PunchTab. “This study offers definitive evidence that providing moms with the right incentives can boost word-of-mouth and drive sales across a company’s entire brand portfolio.”

It is also important to note that rewards are effective at driving participation in surveys and polls. According to the study, 72 percent of respondents would take a survey or poll for an incentive, while 59 percent would sign up for regular email updates when a reward is offered. Plus, 41 percent say they would share personal details and purchase behavior for incentives.

The study also reveals that rewards are effective at driving word-of-mouth advertising. In fact, 41 percent of moms will post a review and 50 percent of moms are willing to share brand content on Facebook when offered an incentive. Moreover, rewards can motivate moms to follow a brand on social channels, as 57 percent of respondents said they would “like” a brand’s Page on Facebook for a reward, while 50 percent would follow a brand on Pinterest and 52 percent would do so on Twitter.

As for non-financial incentives, the study shows that 67 percent of respondents would be interested in perks associated with elite status as compensation, such as free shipping or branded merchandise. For instance, more than one-third of moms said they’d value incentives that offered them exclusive access to a brand, including being able to purchase new products ahead of the general public (39 percent), being able to influence a brand’s future products (38 percent) or receiving advanced notifications of new products (36 percent). Furthermore, 58 percent of moms said they would want a brand to make a donation to charity on their behalf as a reward.

Perhaps the most shocking insight from the study found that gamification strategies, like leaderboards and badges, are actually the least motivating incentive – with only 6 percent of respondents interested in being rewarded with badges and 23 percent appreciating recognition for their contributions.

That said, the study suggests that big companies may be better off implementing umbrella loyalty programs rather than brand-specific programs, as this strategy can influence moms to purchase other products in a company’s portfolio. For example, 73 percent of moms said they’d be interested in a loyalty program for a parent company, with 59 percent of moms saying they would purchase other products from the parent company if doing so resulted in more loyalty points. In addition, 52 percent of moms are willing to take a social action in return for a discount or coupon to use on a future purchase from a brand’s broader set of products, and 46 percent say they would actually switch from a competitor’s product to a brand or parent company in order to earn loyalty points (as long as the products are equivalent in quality).

Take a look at the PunchTab infographic below to learn more about how rewards can influence moms' social behavior:

7 Hot Summer Marketing Strategies for Merchants

Allison Howen — Mon, 06 May 2013 19:20:00 GMT

The flowers are blooming and the temperatures are rising, which means that summer is getting ready to make its official debut.

While this leaves most of us fantasizing about lying by the pool and sipping fruity drinks with umbrellas, online merchants are left strategizing ways to attract customers and increase sales during this notoriously slow time of the year. In order to allow merchants more time for the beach, Website Magazine has eased the process by compiling a list of seven hot marketing tactics that will help get customers out of the heat and onto your website. Check them out below:

1. Sizzlin’ Social

Just because consumers will be spending the majority of their time at picnics and parks this summer, doesn’t mean they won’t be checking in with social networks on their mobile devices. This is why an active social presence can greatly benefit merchants during the summer months. Merchants should use these channels to promote products, sales and events. However, in order to capture attention, it is important to keep all status updates relevant (for example, don’t promote a bathing suit on a rainy day), as well as to include a variety of content formats, such as images and videos. In fact, marketers can even save time by cross-promoting social content. For example, if a clothing retailer uploads a filtered photo of a best-selling outfit on Instagram or creates a video about summer’s hottest fashion trends on YouTube, that content can also be shared to networks like Facebook, Twitter and Google+ to reach a larger audience.

2. Effective Email

Just as consumers check their social networks while en route to their favorite summer activity, they also check their inboxes, which is why it is important for email campaigns to be optimized for mobile. That said, in order to influence consumers to skip the BBQ for a shopping trip to your brick-and-mortar store, merchants should re-evaluate their email strategy. For instance, maybe it's time to consider implementing better targeting features so that messages are more relevant. On the other hand, it’s probably a good idea to retest delivery times, because the change in season often brings changes in schedules. However, aside from launching more targeted messages and prominently featuring sales, merchants can also try to influence customers into making purchases by incorporating ratings and reviews into their messages, which is feature that Listrak launched earlier this year.

3. Hot Pricing

Although it is always a best practice to maintain competitive pricing, this is especially vital during the summer months. This is because an extra-low price or big sale could give consumers the extra bit of incentive needed to convert. In fact, merchants should use the summer holidays and events, such as Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Memorial Day, Fourth of July, Labor Day and “back-to-school” time, to launch and publicize promotions and discounts. Moreover, featuring a “Summer Clearance” section on your site and spreading the word about it through social and email can help to boost sales and clean out some inventory.

4. Must-Attend Events

Summer is a time for special projects, so why not throw an event to gain some exposure for your business? While brick-and-mortar retailers have the ability to throw an event at their physical location, online retailers can get innovative by hosting an event at a local park or with a platform like Google Hangouts. For example, a brick-and-mortar beauty store could host a skincare workshop, while an online pet supply store could throw a “picnic in the park” event at a local dog park (with the park’s permission, of course). Furthermore, both types of retailers can throw an event, like a Q&A or new product showcase, on Google+ with Google Hangouts.

5. Real-Time Targeting

In order to influence the purchasing decisions of the consumers who have taken time out of their busy summer to visit your site, consider implementing real-time targeting to help close the sale. Fanplayr, for instance, offers a Smart & Targeted product that analyzes a merchant’s site to determine the profiles of visitors that would be the most receptive to specific offers. According to the company, these real-time offers can increase conversion rates by up to 30 percent and average order values by up to 50 percent. Conversely, SteelHouse has a Real Time Offers platform that also allows merchants to provide personalized offers to shoppers based on their real-time behavior.

6. Blog for Traffic

As previously stated, summer is a time for special projects, so if your business doesn’t already maintain a blog, it’s time to start. Blogging can help merchants improve their visibility, as well as provides extra content for social and email campaigns. In fact, a HubSpot study reveals that on average, companies that publish 15 or more blog articles per month generate five times more traffic than companies that don’t blog at all. Blog content should stay true to your brand and touch on topics relevant to your industry. Additionally, you can reach out to industry professionals for contributed content to post on your blog. Not only will this help you foster relationships with influential people in your industry, but it will also boost the visibility of your business, as the professional will most likely market the content to their friends and social networks.

7. Fresh Advertising

Last, but certainly not least, merchants should launch a solid advertising campaign this summer. In fact, brick-and-mortar merchants in particular should be using Google’s new Enhanced Campaigns to reach customers who are on-the-go. For example, merchants can launch mobile-specific ads that target consumers within a certain location, such as within 5 miles of the brick-and-mortar establishment, and during a specific time-of-day, like business hours. Moreover, since summer is a time for vacationing to new places, merchants should consider launching ads on Yelp to target traveling consumers. Not only can merchants launch daily deals on this location-based service, but they can also advertise at the top of the Yelp search results and on the pages of related businesses.

Checkout vs. Cart Abandonment

Pete Prestipino — Mon, 06 May 2013 16:25:00 GMT

Abandonment occurs when website visitors leave before their order is completed. But there's a difference between "checkout abandonment" and "cart abandonment" and as an e-commerce merchant you need to know the difference if you want to improve this key performance indicator - it's also important to have metrics in place to indicate the difference.

Cart Abandonment refers to the loss of a customer that has added products to their shopping cart but not yet arrived at a point where they can submit their payment information. Checkout abandonment on the other hand is when users have added items to their cart, pulled out their credit card and started entering their personal information into available payment fields, only then to abandon the process.

Merchants should know that users abandon carts before reaching the final payment stage all the time - it's not unlike an offline, brick-and-mortar merchant seeing people in store just looking around at their products. Many times, there's nothing you can do - users like to window shop - but that's not the case in every instance.

Industry abandonment averages, which hover around 60%, can be misleading if merchants don't look at exactly where (and why) users are leaving. As a merchant it's very important you understand what's happening on your own e-commerce website (is it cart abandonment or checkout abandonment) if you aim to correct the problem. In the case of cart abandonment, the use of incentives/discounts are a proven way to encourage users to continue to the actual checkout process. Many savvy merchants are even exploring the use of remarketing/retargeting to bring back those visitors that never arrived upon the checkout page.

In the case of checkout abandonment, merchants need to reverse engineer the problem. Exit surveys, for example, could reveal that perhaps the shipping costs were too high, the registration form was too lengthy, or that the coupons they had already expired. What can you do with that information? In the case of shipping costs, that data could be shared earlier in the funnel, registration forms could be shortened to only include payment information or break up lengthier payment forms into more manageable parts.

The problem of "abandonment" is a significant one for retailers but there are steps merchants can take to keep users engaged and moving through the conversion funnel.

Merchants Fight for Protection from Fraudulent Chargebacks

Michael Garrity — Mon, 06 May 2013 16:15:00 GMT

Chargebacks were initially introduced to protect credit card-holding consumers in the United States, allowing them to receive a return of funds from an issuing bank and reverse an outbound transfer from their credit/debits cards.

However, over the years, a few rogue consumers have been using chargebacks to cheat merchants out of goods, and according to former online retailer Monica Eaton-Cardone, it is widespread ignorance about chargebacks, particularly on the part of merchants, that is contributing to this growing problem today.

Although stolen credit cards and identity theft were rampant problems in the Internet marketplace just five years ago, comprising almost 30 percent of all chargebacks, online retailers these days experience actual incidents like these less than five percent of the time. This is largely thanks to credit card companies, particularly Visa and MasterCard, issuing banks and authorities taking significant measures to ensure this doesn’t happen.

Now, more consumers are aware of the availability of chargebacks, and the process of filing one has been dramatically streamlined by most banks, as they now provide automated online features for filing chargebacks with the click of a button. This has led to a number of consumers engaging the practice of filing fraudulent chargebacks for products they have purchased online and already received, meaning they get something for literally nothing, in many cases.

After dealing with this issue for years now, Eaton-Cardone founded Chargebacks911, a company that aims to help merchants and financial institutions, alike, better understand and eventually revise the chargeback system, as well as educate consumers about the negative impacts or the current system.

Chargebacks911 aims to service merchants and banking institutions with chargeback solutions, including helping merchants take the offensive and confront unjust disputes, encouraging banks that provide credit cards to weigh the cases between cardholders and merchants before assigning guilt to merchants and issuing instantaneous chargebacks and informing consumers about the fact that too many chargeback fees will eventually result in higher rates and product prices.