Shopster's Dropshippers, eCommerce, and Selling Online Blog

The Glass is Half Full, Because the Other Half is on My Pants

Guest Blog provided by KikScore

Optimism.  That’s the number one characteristic of most entrepreneurs.  Is it raining today?  No worries, because I look great in my raincoat.  No food at the party?  Not a problem, people just come for the beer.  The economy is on the verge of the second Great Depression?  Hmmm…I guess, no worries, because I look great in my raincoat. 

What made me think about the preponderance of sunshine in most entrepenuers’ outlooks?  Well, as usual, it began with a margarita (actually 2 and 1/2 margaritas).  My wife and I were having lunch at Rosa Mexicano.  And as the saying goes, “When in Rosa, order at least three pomegranate margaritas.”  It could have been the humidity, or the sheer weight of the glass, but as I gripped the drink and raised it to my mouth, it just fell into my lap.  I could have quit, but I started scooping the pooled liquid back into the glass (see above drink picture and realize most of that was sitting on my jeans prior to being salvaged).

So, how does this relate to small business and optimism?  I guess it’s a bit tenuous, but making the best of whatever the economy or marketplace throws you (or what you throw on yourself) appears to be a cornerstone for successful entrepreneurs. 

The University of Chicago Graduate School of Business did a thorough study on optimism as it relates to an investment standard for start-ups.  The outcome of the study is not shocking (but when you have a GSB study to back you up, you sound more impressive).  The overall gist was that entrepreneurs generally are overally optimistic in their assessment of their own businesses.  This has both good and bad implications for investors in these start-ups.  The Bad:  optimism makes it difficult for the founders to truly asses market acceptance and overall value of the business.  The Good:  Because of their optimism, most founders will work the required nights and weekends to make sure the business is successful.  Of course, the study hedges the overall take-away by claiming that “realistic” entrepreneurs will have a better ability to value the business.

So, is optimism a curse or a blessing?  And did I actually drink the salvaged margarita?

 

Using Facebook to Drive Traffic to Your Online Store

Facebook is one of today’s most popular social media networks. It is estimated to have 150 million members all over the world. Business owners – particularly those in retail or in other B2C businesses – should take advantage of the traffic Facebook can drive to your online store.

Here are some tips and tricks for using Facebook to help you sell online better:

• Create a Fan Page for your store and notify your market of the most current news about your brand or the latest products to sell online.
• Create an application that will pique interest and will most likely spread through the network. Simple quizzes work best for this purpose. Don’t forget to link back to your site in different parts of your application (such as the application fan page, the application description and even in the quiz results).
• Share links to your latest articles, upload photos and videos about your company in your Page or on your personal wall. This creates one-way links for your articles, at the same time it spreads the word about your latest news.  
•  Use notes to create short, blog-like articles your audience can easily access right on Facebook. This is for the percentage of Facebook users that are afraid of clicking on links because it disrupts their surfing. Keep them in Facebook but let know what’s going on with your free online store by writing a note about it and tagging some of your most loyal customers.
• Post special discounts and promos for your Facebook fans. This way, they are reminded why they became a fan of your page in the first place.
• Cross-pollinate the traffic between your online stores and Facebook. Use Facebook Connect to add social networking widgets to your website.
• Try Facebook ads, but make sure you are targeting the right audience. This can bring in a lot of traffic but you need to be mindful of the quality of traffic you are getting. Refine your targets and write a good ad copy. Continuously check on your conversions and the ROI for the ad spend.
•  Aside from Fan Pages, you can also start Groups and Networks. You can do this for products to sell online, your brand or your business.
• If you’re hosting or sponsoring any events (such as conferences, pizza and beer night or webinars), set a Facebook event for it and invite your contacts.  

Today, Facebook has become a crucial tool for business. Aside from its potential to bring in a substantial amount of traffic to your online store, Facebook can also help you keep track of what your customers are saying about your brand. You’d be surprised at how open and straightforward they can be at communicating exactly how they feel about your services via this channel. With that, Facebook helps improve customer interaction and can help you steer customer satisfaction in the right direction.

7 SEO Tips for your Small Business

While many small business owners understand the importance and necessity of favorable rankings in the major, search engine optimization (SEO) is still a mystery to most of them. Not sure what it takes to get your website ranking well in the search engines? Here are 7 simple yet powerful tips to help jumpstart your SEO efforts.

Add More Unique Content – In the world of SEO, content is king, especially well-written, coherent content. The major search engines are partial to cogent content so add more unique content sprinkled with relevant keywords to your website.

Don’t Neglect Page Titles – The page title appears at the top of each webpage in your browser. Since the search engines also heavily weight page titles, it’s important you use relevant keywords instead of simply putting the name of your company.

There are No Guarantees in SEO – Steer clear of any SEO companies that guarantee top rankings, make grand promises, or say they will submit your website to thousands of search engines. Not only are there only a few major search engines (they’re the only ones that really matter), no company can guarantee top-place rankings and if they do, it should be a major red flag to prospective customers.

Be Patient – Effective SEO takes time and isn’t about instant gratification. In fact, it can take months to see the results you want, especially if you are small and just starting to build an online presence.

Implement Web Analytics – A web analytics program allows you to track your website’s traffic, including how many visitors you get in a specific timeframe and how these visitors are finding your website (e.g. from searching a specific keyword in the  search engines). Subsequently, it can also help you determine which SEO efforts are yielding the most traffic and pinpoint areas that need improvement.

Do Keyword Research – Which keywords and phrases relevant to your website are being searched the most? For example, if your site sells toys, trying to rank on “toys” may not be feasible but targeting more niche, tail terms such as “toddler games” can help your website rank and yield more traffic.

SEO Software – Since most small businesses don’t have the funds to outsource their Internet marketing to SEO firms, SEO software is an affordable, viable option that makes SEO for beginners easy to understand and perform in-house.

Guest Blog provided by: Lotus Jump

Customer Service Tips for E-Commerce

Setting-up an online business can be a very big challenge especially for start-ups. Aside from the demands of establishing and managing the operations, ensuring customer satisfaction is another aspect of doing business online that should never be missed.

So how should start-ups establish good customer service? The following are some tips:
 

KEEP THINGS SIMPLE
Nothing turns-off potential customers more than a complicated interface. So before you take your e-commerce site out, have some people try your website and get their feedback. Make sure the links are correct and the buttons function the way they should.

MAKE PRODUCT INFORMATION READILY AVAILABLE
An effective e-commerce website should provide easily accessible information and support to its online shoppers. The real point to setting-up a website is to make doing business with your company more convenient for customers. So do not forget to put product information, payment options and shipping arrangements so customers will never have to call your hotline.

PROVIDE A CLEAR TERMS AND CONDITIONS
Terms and Conditions cover the general rules, requirements, provisions, specifications and standards of doing business with your company. It also covers the responsibilities and liabilities of the shoppers while doing business online. Not only do clear terms and conditions safeguard your business, it also gives customers an overview of what to expect from doing online business with you.

KEEP YOUR HOTLINES AVAILABLE
While online business should be able to provide the same service you have offline, good old telephone-based customer service should never be abandoned. Don’t forget to include your telephone number in your website and equip your staff with at least the basics of taking customer service calls.

LEAVE A POSITIVE MARK TO EVERY CUSTOMER
Whether your customer is browsing your website online or complaining on the phone, every customer contact is crucial to your business. Provide a memorable experience to website visitors and they will keep coming back. Even the most horrible customer complaint may end as a winning moment for you. By leaving a positive mark to every customer, you create a good impression to your company, build your brand and avoid online reputation problems.

Following these tips may be a big help to any online business. However, no business can go wrong as long as customer satisfaction is the top priority. Always keep in mind that in business, whether online or offline, you get what you want by giving other people what they want.

Power Merchant Tip: Go Green

With St. Patrick's Day just around the corner, online merchants can take advantage of selling on a color-based theme. That means it's time to go green! There are two ways to do it: literally and figuratively.

Take advantage of this season by putting everything Irish and green on sale. Dust off those shamrock-shaped items and highlight them in your inventory.

People all over the globe -- both the Irish and the Irish-at-heart -- celebrate the man who spent six years in slavery. The Romano-Briton and Christian missionary is recognized as the patron saint of Ireland.

Also known as Saint Paddy's Day, March 17th is believed to be the day the he passed away. It is celebrated both as a liturgical and a non-liturgical holiday in and out of Ireland.

The merriment is accompanied by Irish greetings. "Beannachtaí na Féile Pádraig" is a Gaelic way of wishing someone the luck of the Irish. Of course, drinking is a must. Parades and feasts are a common sight. And the simplest way to celebrate is to don the color of the day: green. Warning: you may get pinched if you don't.

So for power merchants, start selling anything with a hint of green in them: from poker tables to shirts. Other traditional symbols of St. Patrick's Day include the shamrock and leprechauns. If you have any items with these designs, now is a good time to bring them to light.

As an alternative, you can also go green in a different way. Upsell your eco-friendly products. Today's consumer are more concerned about the environment and consider how an item was produced in their buying decision. Reusable, biodegradable and recycled are important keywords to take note of when doing an eco-friendly themed sale. 

Only 7 days left before March 17. Get on the holiday sale bandwagon as early as now and start picking out your green inventory.

Happy selling and advanced Happy St. Paddy's to you! 

Social Media Optimization for Your Online Store

If you’re planning to build an online store, one of the things you should consider is gaining visibility in the social media scene. We’ve written articles on how to optimize your online store for search engines before. You can find that here: http://blog.shopster.com/shoptalk/search-engine-optimization/

Now, you can get more referral visitors to your free webstore on Shopster by creating links on social media networks. Here are some sites to explore for this purpose:

1. Social bookmarks – Digg, del.icio.us, Reddit and Newsvine are just some examples of social bookmarking sites. These became popular because they let you access your bookmarks online even from a different computer. Even more so because they let you share links with a network of people. So, for those with new online stores, it’s a good idea to set up a social bookmarking profile, add up your friends and join groups, then market your website through that.
2. Social networks – Facebook, MySpace, Hi5, Orkut and Multiply are examples of networks where you can connect with your friends. Among these, Facebook is the most popular and the easiest to use for social media optimization of your online store. You can create dedicated pages, upload product photos and get a a fan base for your store with the available tools.
3. Microblogging platforms – Twitter, Tumblr and Plurk are places that allow you to post short updates called microblogs. While the 140 character limit may not seem much, it can do wonders for quick updates and creating links to your free webstore. Add up your friends and business contacts and keep them updated with what’s new via Twitter. You can also use this for posting special promos.
4. Photo and Video Sharing Sites - Sites that let you share photos and videos are another way to get the word out about your online store. Create a screencast explaining how your online store works and upload it in YouTube, Vimeo and other video sharing sites. You can also ask your clients for video testimonials and share this with the world. For photo sharing sites like Picasa and Flickr, you can feature some of your products there.

Online social media is a great tool for driving additional visitors and getting more links for your site. However, the conversion you get from these may be limited and is really dependent on what kind of items you sell in your online store.

The market that uses social networks is usually composed of the younger age group and are very internet savvy. As such, they are prone to shopping online (read: jumping from one online store to another to look for the best deal) and may even have limited purchasing power.

By any means, social networking is a good tactic for online stores, but nothing beats creating real relationships with your potential buyers. As a tip, work on your social media presence to be visible to the market you would otherwise have difficultly reaching. More importantly, established that you are a reliable seller with good products. With this, people will naturally become loyal to your brand and leveraging on the relationship on the web becomes all that much easier.

Winter is Not Yet Over

While the weather in Vancouver stunned TV viewers everywhere this past Olympics (and destroyed many long-standing stereotypes about the Great White North), the rest of the world hasn’t been quite so lucky.

For those of you who have been living in a cave these last two weeks here’s a quick recap: Temperatures in Vancouver and Whistler hit record highs of around 50 degrees F. The situation got so bad that Vancouver ended up airlifting in snow at five-minute intervals so the skiing and snowboarding events could take place.  Even then, standing room tickets for the snowboarding and freestyle events were refunded because of unsafe conditions created form heavy warm RAIN washing away more than 1 foot of that precious airlifted snow. Rather ironic for a “Winter” Olympic if I say so myself (bad luck there Vancouver). 

Check out some of the pictures snapped throughout the course of the game, and if you look really closely, you might even see some snow:

 

Meanwhile, elsewhere in the world...

Morale of the story: If you don’t live in Vancouver, don't pack your winter clothes just yet. There's still lots of time to sit by the warmth of the fireplace and sip some hot cocoa.

Understanding Profit Margin

A lot of people have planned to venture into online sales, but only a few have successfully done it. Despite what many may think, selling online profitably is not just about building an online store.  Cost and markup are two of the most important concepts you need to learn before you sell online.

There are several types of costs associated with a business, some of the most common ones for retail include: cost of goods, CAPEX and OPEX.

Cost of goods is a common accounting term that covers all expenses related to the acquisition of the products you intend to sell online. If the goods are specifically manufactured for your company, it will include the cost of raw materials, labor and shipping from supplier. Here, product sourcing becomes a crucial management decision. Find the lowest possible cost of goods for the specific product you want to sell by shopping for a good source. You can get in touch with a whitebox supplier, you can have it made for you or you can choose dropshipping as an option.  All these options have their pros and their cons. For instance,  for dropshipping, it means being able to run your business without the need for storage, shipping and handling facilities. Some say this is a risky supply management technique, but the trick for successful use of dropshipping is to find a reliable supplier.

Opex or operating expenditure, are on-going costs generated by running a business or a system. These include electricity, rent, manpower.  Meanwhile, CAPEX or capital expenditure, refers to cost incurred for fixed assets. This can include purchase of equipment, licenses, buildings and property. Combined, the CAPEX and the OPEX are referred to as overhead cost.

The failure point in most businesses that sell products online is that they only look at the increasing revenues – or the total earnings out of the sales – without considering the cost it entails. Increasing revenue is not an indicator of an online store’s success.

Profit, on the other hand, is a different story. Profit margin or gross profit margin, is the ratio of the revenue to the gross profit. The margin reflects the difference between the revenue and the costs. In retail, we have what is known as the markup. The retailer bases this on a percentage of the cost to calculate the sales price that would earn the best margin. Essentially, markup and margin are two related terms calculated in different ways.  As an example, if the product you sell online costs  $5, with 100% markup, the selling price becomes $10. This means, that you get a 50% margin on the revenue.

Understanding your online store’s profit margin will help you determine how successful your business really is. It measures how much out of every dollar sold, you actually get to keep.

Power Merchant Tips: Selling Jewelry Online

Planning to set up your own online jewelry store? In the past, buyers were very wary of purchasing high-ticket items online, including jewelry. But some merchants have successfully broken that barrier of fear and have been in business for years. Trust is indeed a major issue any seller has to overcome.

Here are some simple tips you can follow to establish your credibility as a seller and start your own online jewelry retail business:

1. Start small – test your market with items that are in the lower price range. Silver and crystals (ie Swarovski jewelry) are good test items for an online jewelry store. Some first-time sellers prefer to start off in the lower-price niche markets such as body jewelry (tongue rings, belly rings, etc). Ceramic and wooden accessories are also relatively risk-free and are easier to sell to the younger market.
2.  Pictures paint a thousand words – When it comes to jewelry and online sales, nothing beats the power of photos.  Your customers won’t be able to see the actual products. Descriptions of how it looks just won’t cut it. The solution: post images of your product. Make sure they are clear, so adjust the lighting before taking product shots. You should also consider taking pictures from different angles. If you have pictures of the piece worn by a model, that would be a nice addition to the product’s gallery.
3. Be very detail-oriented – This applies to product descriptions. Indicate the right size and color of the piece. If it has precious stones add the cut and clarity in the product description. Special care instructions also need to be included in your product page.
4. Certifications – If the jewelry you want to sell online is made of precious stones or metals, it would be ideal to get those professionally assessed and certified. It adds to that much-coveted trust factor.
5. Be clear about your policies – Your customers need to know what they can do if they are not 100% satisfied with the purchase, so this should be reflected in your return policies. They also need to be made aware that their purchases are safe. You can communicate this through your shipping policy. Be detailed about how the item will be packaged to ensure protection. If insurance is included in the shipping, please indicate the maximum amount for coverage and if this will entail cost to the buyer.

As a parting tip, a well-presented product means nothing if you do not deliver on your promise. This applies to both the quality of the product you advertised and the actual buying experience. Fulfill the order in the terms you’ve outlined. Such that, if you say they can expect delivery of the item in 3 days, make sure you have the manpower, process and supplies to do so. Remember, this is a business that thrives on customer trust and loyalty.

5 Tips to Increase Online Sales

Online retail store owners achieve success mainly due to their product offerings. With that, most sellers believe that what works offline (in the brick and mortar stores) also work when they build an online store. But the truth is far from it. The internet offers retailers much more in terms of potential profit, simply because overhead cost is less. But to really use the internet to your advantage, here are some tips to help you out:

1. Offer unique product information. Unlike in real stores, online shoppers won’t be able to touch and feel the products you are selling. They will rely on pictures and the information you provide to help them decide. Manufacturers often provide the basic product descriptions. But you have to remember, these descriptions are also being used by other retailers. If you have the time, create your own descriptions using your familiarity with the product. 
2. Encourage consumer reviews. You can do this by adding a feedback form, an application that allows product star ratings, or simply by putting up a page that highlights customer testimonials. Aside from adding content to your website, this can also increase your conversions. Today’s consumers usually look for reviews first before they make any purchase decision. Keep it honest and real to establish credibility.
3. Don’t discount the power of search engine optimization. Add the right keywords and build links to your site to improve your visibility in search engines like Google, Yahoo and Bing. Doing so can increase the number of visitors to your online store. The more visitors to your site, the higher the potential for sales.
4. Cross-sell and upsell. Improve your product page such that it features related products you sell online. This can reduce the bounce rate and exit rate of your site. During the shopping stage, if your potential buyer realizes that the product they are currently looking at is not the one he or she wants to buy right away, then at least offer other options.
5. After-sales service and customer support matter.   Improving your online store is only the first step to increasing sales. The real reason people would come back and want to buy from your site is how you treat your customers. Be transparent about your policies (delivery, return, etc), any guarantees and all fees. Have staff on-hand to answer calls and to help resolve issues.

Increasing your online sales is about bringing in quality visitors to your site, encouraging them to purchase and ensuring they have a good buying experience. Hopefully, they’ll put a good word out about your site and become loyal customers.

Tips for Holding a Spring Sale

Sales and bargains can help draw in a lot of visitors to your online store. If you’re tired of the usual sales based on holidays, then how about setting up one for a season? Try putting together your first Spring Sale for a change.

 Here are some tips for your online store’s Spring Sale:

1. Spring starts between February and April. So prepare at least a month before this period.
2. Consider selling items with a Spring  or Summer theme.These have a better chance of selling out quick as they are for immediate need and can be used right away.
3. Create banners for your website’s home page or find other ways to highlight your potential top selling items. If your sale is going to last long, change your highlighted items weekly to keep it fresh.
4. Notify people about the event ahead of time. If you have a loyal customer base, start communicating with them via emails – don’t spam them though.
5. Separate the items that are on sale from those that are priced at the regular rate. Just like in a brick-and-mortar store, you can add tags to your sale items. Keep the virtual “tags” consistent. You can even color code based the percentage of the discount. (ie Red tags for 50% or more, orange tags for 30% off, green tags for 20%, etc.)
6. Refine your pricing strategy. For consumers, a sale is about getting the best price for a product.  For retailers, you can use a sale to rid yourself of extra inventory. You can also move items that are in regular stock faster. To do this efficiently and effectively, make sure you set your inventory’s price point just enough that you still make profit on top of the cost of the goods.
7. Keep proper inventory of what was sold and at what price. Proper records can help you plot out your marketing events for the future. It can help you keep track of your most effective sales.

Good luck with your sale! Don't forget to stock up on inventory for your online store from Shopster.com

Online Sales: Finding Your Platform

The most basic thing anyone planning to enter online retail can ask is this: where do I sell my products? In most cases, entrepreneurs exploring this arena for the first time already know what product they want to sell online. What sets them back from implementing their business case full force is the knowing which selling platform to use.

In this post, we’re discussing the different selling platforms available online. We’re also providing you with the top players in each category.

1. Auctions: Ever heard of eBay? I bet you have. It is one of the most recognizable brands today. eBay is a selling site that lets buyers bid for the item they want. The seller can determine the start price of the bidding, the number of days the item is live and can even add a “Buy Now” option. 
2. Classified Ads Sites: Craigslist is the prime example for this. Before the peak of the internet, selling items via classified ads was the best way to do it without incurring a lot of overhead cost. Today, online classified sites are still very much alive. They not only offer the same cheap/free listing advantage as their traditional counterpart, they also have a wider and more global reach now. 
3. Social Network Sites: Multiply is user-friendly social networking site that can easily be transformed into a site that sells products online. It has a blog module, an area for photos and pages that can be customized for practically anything. People using this site for sales often take advantage of the photo album functionality. They use it such that one album is one product category. We’ve also seen some people use Facebook to sell stuff online. They usually create pages, add fans then use the photo section for product display. Social network sites are the easiest to break into when selling online because you already have existing contacts you can trust – your online friends.
4. Membership Sales Sites and Shopping Communities: Amazon, Kaboodle and Overstock are examples of shopping and sales sites that allow individuals to become members and build out their own channels. Then, there are also selling sites catering to niche markets, such as Etsy.com, which is a network for handmade items.  
5. CMS Plugins and Templates: A Content Management System, like Joomla, has available plugins and templates that easily renders the site into a eCommerce platform. This is something you can do yourself with a little bit of html knowledge and good graphic layout skills. Other CMS to check out include WordPress, Drupal and Mambo.  
6. Custom-built Online Store: Your final option is to build an online store and customize it for your needs. This may entail cost, especially if you want to host it in your own domain name (www.YourDomainNameHere.com). You can contract a web designer to do this for you and pay him or her maintenance for future updates. Some companies will offer a free web store as part of a package for their other services.

Selling online line can be a productive and financially beneficial endeavor, if you know how to do it correctly. Watch out for more tips on selling online, setting up your virtual store front and marketing your own brand here at ShopTalk.

Power Merchant Tips: Selling Books Online

Starting an online store today can be as easy as one-two-three. As a case in point, Shopster can help you set up your virtual storefront in just thirty minutes.  However, it is essential for you to remember that making money via an online store is not that simple.

So today, we’ve decided to star t our Power Merchant Tips series. We will tackle tips for selling specific products online at least once a month to help you get started on the right foot. After all, the key to successful selling online is finding the right niche for you.

Online bookstores are among the most popular niches to target for your first store. It has a wide market base and the level of entry is not that difficult. Of course, you have your usual competitions: Amazon and local bookstores with online presences. But people are always out to find the best deal online, so online booksellers still have a fighting chance in the market.

When starting your own online store for books, here are some tips you can follow:

1. Do proper categorization.  Start with the major categories, these can include the following: biography, business books, cook books, education, award winners, fiction, health, history, comics and graphic novels, Children’s books, magazines, technology, language, reference, music, religion, travel, science, sports and more.
2. Make sure all your books are tagged properly, this should include the title, the author, the date of publication, the publisher, the ISBN and a short description of the book.
3. Photos make a difference. Of course everyone knows that books are bought for their content, but give your sales a little push by making sure all your inventory have pictures of the book’s cover.
4. Add a book review section. Today’s savvy shoppers always look for reviews for any item they purchase and book’s are no exception. A book review section encourages visitor interaction and adds valuable content to your website.
5. Make book suggestions by posting your top sellers list as well as those known in the industry like the New York Times Best Sellers List. Display inventory that you have for items in the best sellers lists to take advantage of the particular item’s popularity.
6. Add a section featuring your newest products. This is a good technique to keep your return visitors interested. These are the people who may already be familiar with your site but have come back to it to check if you have anything fresh to offer.
7. Make sure popular items are always in stock. Even if you are working with dropship suppliers, order your items ahead of time before they run out.
8. Consider adding special services like a book buy back program. This a is useful tactic for reselling used books. If you notice that school books or text books are a taking up a huge chunk of your sales, you may be able to capitalize on this some more by offering to buy back old books from your customers at a fraction of their cost.
9. Add deals and promos.  Book buyers are always on the hunt for best prices, if you can offer this, the next best thing is offering bundle promos.  Put together your own set and price it for less than individual books.  Also works well for book series, for instance, you can sell all 7 Harry Potter books for a set price.
10.  Cross promote your items.  A subtle way of hinting more sales is to add a related items functionality to your product section. If your potential buyer is looking at a particular book, your product page can also suggest books by the same author or those that deal with a similar topic. Use encouraging words like: “You may also want to look at…” as the header of your related items feature.

There you have it, ten great tips to help you start your very own online bookstore.

Happy Selling!

Why Dropshipping Works

Business owners who aren’t familiar with drop shipping are missing out big time. Basically, this is a supply chain management technique that allows retailers to focus on more important aspects of their business.

If you’re thinking about building an online store an selling products online but don’t have the capital to start big, then consider this your best option.  First off, you don’t have to purchase any inventory upfront.  This also means saving a huge amount on the cost of storage. Second, it removes the hassles of shipping and handling from your end.

Dropshipping entails selling goods on behalf of a supplier. All the backend work involved in order fulfillment are handled by the said dropship supplier – this includes filling the order and shipping it out to the customer.

The trick to making money via a dropship business is finding a supplier with good pricing. Remember, dropship suppliers are not necessarily wholesalers. While there are those that offer items in bulk, some dropshippers are willing to supply to sellers looking for only a small amount of items.  You can make profit off the dropshipped items with the difference between the supplier’s price and yours – this is called the profit margin.

Essentially, dropshipping is a good way to enter the retail business because it removes overhead cost while still offering you profit.  Here’s a tip: choose items that are popular among young, internet savvy buyers. Plus points if the product is difficult to find in local stores. 

One of the most successful dropship items last year was the Nintendo WII.  Stocks were depleted in most local stores and the market – the younger audience – had no qualms about making purchases online. This combination made the Nintendo WII a huge seller in the dropship world.

So, whether you’re starting your own online store or using popular sales channels like eBay or Multiply, dropshipping can work for you.

Valentine’s Day Gifts: A Potential Big Seller

As the season of love rolls in, it would be a great idea for online sellers to jump in the everything-red-and-roses bandwagon by adding products that are just right for Valentine’s season.  Beef up your online store’s inventory by adding dropship items such as sweets, flowers and gift items for both men and women.

Cupcakes, chocolates and candy hearts are big seller in February.  You can also target high-ticket and bulk buyers with pre-packaged gift and food baskets. These are ideal for companies looking for corporate giveaways.

If you’re planning to make more money out of Valentine gifts, don’t forget the classic dropship ebay item:  flowers. Yes, business can definitely bloom this month (pun intended) with our collection of bouquets and flower arrangements that are ready for you to sell.  

Don’t forget to stock up on gifts like perfume, bath sets and lingerie for women.  Gifts for men like watches, shirts, ties should also be visible in your inventory.

The key to successfully using seasonal sales to your advantage is positioning.  Try a different tactic, such as highlighting the new products in your advertisements. You can also make a “gift ideas” section in your online store.

Happy selling!

10 Tips to Increase Sales via Twitter

Over the years, social networks have evolved from being a personal communication platform to a business tool. These have helped companies reach an untapped global market. The key to a successful social media marketing campaign is knowing how to use it properly.

In this blog post, we will be exploring the use of Twitter to help you increase sales. Here are our top 10 tips:

1. Use it to share useful content everyday. The character limitation -- in this case a max of 140 -- will teach you the art of saying more with less. Stick with what’s relevant to your market and be direct to the point about what you want to say to them.
2. Participate in conversations about your brand. With social media, managing your brand/product’s reputation online has become infinitely easier. Use the search functionality to find your brand name and see what people are saying about it. Be proactive and thank those that promote your brand. This is also a good venue to hear and interact with your detractors as well.
3. Conduct live Q&A sessions. Take the interaction further by scheduling tweet sessions to answer any questions your followers may have.  Creating buzz about the scheduled event beforehand is an additional way to get your brand noticed. 
4. Link your Twitter profile from your contact page. Twitter is a great way to communicate with a market that no longer believes in opt-in email newsletters. Give them other options by providing updates via twitter.
5. Post exclusive promos and special deals via Twitter. Give your followers a reason to continue following you. Having some unique tweets will encourage more people to keep checking back on your profile. “Exclusive” is the keyword for this tactic.
6. Reuse and repurpose testimonials on Twitter. Getting lots of love from customers lately? Give it more mileage by re-tweeting it on your profile. You could also ask permission from the owner to use it on your site’s testimonial page.
7. Announce your Facebook page. The fun part about social media marketing is synergy. Create an integrated approach to online advertising by linking and cross-marketing your social media profiles with each other. Tweet about your new Facebook page and tell people about your Twitter profile in Facebook.
8. Let the world know about your new products. There are no rules about direct advertising on Twitter. We don’t mean you should spam your followers on a daily basis, rather, use this tool to announce anything new about your company – including new products.
9. Use the direct messages function for a proper introduction. You can set up your account such that you receive an email every time you have a new follower. Engage them right away by sending a direct message that tells them who you, what your business is about and encouraging them to visit your website for more information.
10. Add a dash of personal touch. Let’s face it, being all about business can get boring. Post twitpics and make your tweets more engaging. This doesn’t only keep your followers interested, it also humanizes your brand.

That’s it folks. For more tips and tricks for increasing sales and advertising online, please stay tuned to ShopTalk.

Creating an effective eBay Listing with Shopster's Listing Manager for eBay

Hi everyone, today's blog is going to be a bit different. Previously we've talked about building your online store and some things you can do to get it going. But once your online store is firing on all cylinders, you may want to consider getting into dropshipping and selling on eBay.

Listing on eBay is a very lucrative revenue stream for those that are selling online. If you already have a presence in an online store and want to expand your sales through dropshipping, eBay is the perfect place to go. Although there are several advantages to listing onto eBay, one of the biggest ones, in my opinion, is that eBay already has the traffic and market penetration you're after. Hundreds of thousands of people are going to eBay daily to see if they can score a deal on an item they've been looking for. But how can you catch their eye?

The first important piece is the price. I know that when I go to eBay and take a look at products, I'm usually sorting by the price. When using the Listing Manager for eBay in your Shopster account you can set your starting price of your auction to whatever you want it to be. To play on the safe side though you should set your starting price at the Network Price of the product - this is what you'll be paying the supplying merchant for the product. This way any bid that you receive on the item is profit. Once you have your pricing set, you need to make sure your listing's title is clear and attractive enough to catch your customer's eye.

Having an effective title that catches your customer's eye and lets them know what you're selling will make their job as a buyer a lot easier. There are a number of things that you can do to make sure that your eBay listing title is descriptive enough to catch your customer's eye. Here are just a few things that eBay recommends you do:

• Include the item's brand name
• State the condition of them item - New? Used? Reconditioned?
• Include any specific attributes of the item - color, size, etc.

Once you have an effective title for your eBay listing and your customer's clicked to view the auction, they'll want to read over the description. Another advantage of using Shopster' Listing Manager for eBay is that this already included in your listing when you make it! That's right, whatever is in the description for the product you're listing is already included, no work needed on your end. eBay has a full help page on how to write a good title and description and includes some examples of a good title and description. Click here. Make sure to read that over as well. Once you've drawn the customer in with your listing, they'll make their bid and you're on your way to a sale.

Happy Selling!

Search engine optimize your online store (Part 3 of 3)

Anybody who has done any SEO work will know that link building can be painfully time consuming and at times very unrewarding. Links are the foundation to any search engine optimization strategy. If you don’t have them, you don’t stand a chance getting your website to appear in most search results. However if you are consistent with building links, it will eventually pay off with free traffic and sales.

There’s a laundry list of different things you can do to get links back to your website, however for the purposes of this post I’ll go through some of my favorites. If you’re in search of more ideas there is a fabulous post on seobook.com that goes through 101 do’s and don’t of link building. You can read the post here: http://www.seobook.com/archives/001792.shtml.

The first thing I always like to do when starting an SEO project is to do a simple Google search on the keywords I am targeting. You’ll often find a handful of websites that offer information and links about your topic. Dig into these websites and see if there is somewhere you can request a link, and if there isn’t, you may want to contact the webmaster and request a link through an email. The goal is to get your website on as many relevant websites as possible so don’t be shy.

Secondly, get listed in free directories. You’ll need to sift through a few directories that claim to be free and are not, but it’s worth the time. To get started try dmoz.org – they are free and a relatively powerful link but be warned you may not always get on. Whatever you do, try and avoid paying for any directory listings unless you know they are relevant and can drive quality traffic.

Find out where your competitors are getting their links and copy them. Anyone doing SEO work should know and use the following technique, it will help you find a lot of links over time. To do a reverse link look-up in Yahoo or Google just enter the following code in the search box of that search engine:

For Yahoo
linkdomain:www.anysite.com

For Google
link:www.anysite.com

Go through all the sites that have links to your competitor’s website and search for ways to get your website listed too. There are several free backward link checking tools out there, so be sure to take advantage of them.

Start a blog and create good content. Depending on the person this tactic can either be the easiest or most difficult to do. If you’re passionate about your products and like to write, then a blog is the right thing for you. Write about your products, share what you know, and then share your blog with others. You’ll be surprised how quickly you can get links and more importantly traffic to your site with a few good articles. 

My last tip for you is to think local! If you have a business, then there are several directories and community websites out there that help to promote their local businesses. Spend some time to find these sites and get your business listed. Not only will this help build links, you may get a few customers out of it too.

Remember that the most important part of link building is to be consistent. Always try new things and look for ways to get links back to your website. If you do the work and put in the time, then you’ll soon be rewarded with a solid foundation for an online business.

Happy Selling!

Search engine optimize your online store (Part 2 of 3)

Now that you have chosen some keywords for your online store, let’s discuss some of the tools Shopster provides to help you in your search engine optimization efforts. It’s important to remember that SEO is a combination of picking the right keywords, good content, placing your content in the right areas, and links from the right sites. These tools will help you on your way but they are just a piece of the SEO puzzle. Let’s get started.

I’m sure many of you have heard the term meta tags before. Meta tags have been around for a very long time, and they are used to help search engines determine what keywords to look out for. Even though they do not have the authority they used to, you should use unique meta tags whenever possible in your pages.

If you are optimizing your Shopster store, you should start by adding meta content on your store pages. Each page you create has the option for you to enter your own unique meta content, which includes both meta keywords and a meta description. To see how to add meta content on a store page, follow this example:

1. Click the “Store” tab
2. Click the “Store Pages” link
3. Click on the “Edit Homepage” link
4. Click the “Customizations” tab which appears in the body of the page
5. Click the “Customize this setting” box under the Meta Tags header on this page

Once the grey boxes appear white you will be able to add your meta content. For keywords you will need to separate each phrase with a comma, where as the description should be a paragraph of content.

A powerful feature of Shopster is that unique meta tags can be set for every page of your online store. I recommend that you start by targeting the top level pages and then working your way down to each individual product page. Here’s where you can go to customize meta content on category and product pages:

Category pages:

1. Click on the “Inventory” tab
2. Click on “Categories”
3. Add or edit a category
4. Click the “Customizations” tab

Product pages:

1. Click on the “Inventory” tab
2. Click on “Manage” link
3. Click on the name of the product to edit
4. Click on the far right tab labeled “Customizations”

Within each page where you add meta content, you’ll notice an area below it to add a “Title”. This is where you can customize the title for each page of your site. Strategically include SEO keywords into the title of each page, this will help with your rankings on search results. If you’re unsure of where the title is displayed on your webpage, it is what appears on the top of the browser. For example if you use Internet Explorer you will see the title on the top blue bar. Give it a try.

Changing the “URL Name” is the final step in this week’s post. The url name is the url that a page is hosted on, and much like the page title and meta content, by including keywords into your url it can help with your search engine rankings.

When you are creating a url name there are a couple things to keep in mind, the first is to keep it relatively short, and the second is to not change your url too often. The reason you want to keep the url relatively static is in the case where a page is getting traffic from a search engine and you suddenly change the url. Anyone clicking on that link will be driven to a non-existent webpage and you instantly lose all that traffic until the search engine re-crawls your website. My recommendation is to change your urls early in the process of optimizing your site, but once you have changed them do your best to avoid changing them again.

Changing your url names can be done in the same general area as where you would add your meta content. The only difference is that you will need to switch out of the “customizations” tab to the “general” tab. You should see an area labeled “URL Name”.

Happy selling!

Search engine optimize your online store (Part 1 of 3)

With the New Year now upon us and the holiday madness behind us, this is a great time to start thinking about how to drive more traffic to your store. So for the next 3 weeks I will be posting some tips on how you can help drive more traffic to your store by optimizing your site for natural search engine traffic. We’ll start by discussing how to find the right keywords and fitting them into your site. In the following weeks we will detail using the Shopster tools for SEO and link building strategies.

Choosing the right keywords for search engine optimization is critical to any successful online business. If you pick keywords that customers don’t use, then it will likely result in little traffic. On the flip side, if you choose keywords which are too broad and highly competitive, your website may never appear in search results, thus resulting in little traffic. So when you are choosing your keywords, be sure to spend the time to do your research and to create a strategy before doing any optimization. It will save you a lot of time and grief in the long run.

If you’re just starting off with your SEO efforts for your online store, picking keywords may seem like a daunting task but it’s really not that bad. Here are some tips to help you get going:

Create a list with the following:

1. Your top selling products 
2. The categories of the different products you sell (eg. Electronics, fragrances)
3. Other keywords that may be associated to your products (eg. Wii accessories, anything pink, rock music, Davidoff perfume store)

Take your list and insert them into a keyword research tool for additional keyword ideas. I like using Google’s tool but there are several free ones out there.

1. Google’s keyword research tool: https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal
2. This tool will provide you with search volume and the amount of competition for that keyword. Assume that if the “advertiser competition” is high then the natural search competition will be high as well.

Now you should have a long list of keywords to choose from. So the next step is to decide on what keywords to focus on. I normally recommend that you start by focusing on 3-5 keywords that you will optimize for your ENTIRE site. You should also have 10 additional keywords that you optimize for intermittently on different pages. As an example, if I had a laptop store here’s a possible list of keywords:

Top 5 keywords

1. cheap laptops online
2. laptop parts and accessories
3. buy laptops online
4. laptop deals
5. cool laptop bags

10 additional keywords

1. Asus laptop deals
2. Acer laptop deals
3. Laptop store California
4. Ladies laptop bags
5. Laptop backpacks
6. Discount laptops
7. 17 inch laptop bags
8. notebook computer deals
9. cheapest laptops
10. 15 inch Samsung laptop

When you review the list above you’ll notice that the top 5 keywords I chose are relatively broad but they are keyword phrases that could have a significant amount of traffic. My list of 10 other keywords is much more specific and even though they may not have the search volume as my top 5, in return they will likely be easier to get my store to appear in search results.

Once you have finalized your list it’s time to start optimizing your site with your keywords. With your top 5 keywords you want to ensure that they are in as many pages as possible. The other key is to get those keywords into “header tags” whenever possible, as this will indicate to the search engine that the keyword is truly relevant.

With your 10 additional keywords, focus these keywords in a few pages within your site. Here’s a hint; a great place to insert content is within your product descriptions and titles, however be careful to avoid spamming and distorting your core message.

I won’t go into a lot of detail on SEO copywriting since there are hundreds of sites out there with great articles and tips. It’s highly recommended that you understand the fundamentals but more importantly just give it a try and you may realize that it’s really not that hard. Check out some of my favorite SEO reference webites:

1. http://searchenginewatch.com/
2. http://www.webmasterworld.com/  
3. http://www.bruceclay.com/blog/category/search-engine-optimization/

That’s it for now. Stay tuned for part 2 where we will discuss the different Shopster search engine optimization tools for your online store.

  

Shopster Holiday Season Support Hours

We had a busy and successful holiday season at Shopster supporting you and your online businesses, and we will be working throughout the holidays to support you further, on the schedule below.

If you have questions that arise on days we are closed, you may want to try the community or help wiki. You can always email us too and we'll get back to you as soon as we're back in the office.

We want to wish you all a happy and safe holiday season. We're looking forward to working with you all in the New Year.

Holiday support hours:

December 24th - 8am to 12pm MST
December 25th - closed
December 26th - closed
December 27th - closed
December 28th - 8am to 5pm MST
December 29th - 8am to 5pm MST
December 30th - 8am to 5pm MST
December 31st - 8am to 12pm MST
January 1st   - closed
January 2nd   - closed
January 3rd   - closed

Creating and Editing Graphics/Photos to Add to Your Store

Adding graphics or photos to your Shopster store is a great way to communicate your store brand and the products that you sell. Using Adobe Photoshop and the linked tutorials below, you can add visual interest and a unique presence to your store.

Here are some basic tips to help you get started adding your own images to your site.

How to Create a Drop Shadow for Text and Images
A drop shadow can add depth and dimension to an image, because it creates the appearance that it (the image) is overlaid on the page.

Tutorial - Drop Shadow

How to Re-size and Crop Images
Cropping and resizing images are required when you would like to focus on one part of a photo, discard the rest, and change its size to make it suitable for its intended area.

Tutorial -  Photoshop How-To for Online Photos

How to Compress a GIF or a JPEG Graphic in Photoshop
Images for the web need to be saved in the correct file format so they can be viewed properly, and should be compressed to reduce file size and download times.
 
Tutorial - How do I... Compress a GIF or a JPEG graphic in Photoshop CS3?

Once you’ve added photos/graphics to a page, you can see how imagery affects the overall look and feel of your site, and how it can help create a positive perception of your store.

Happy Selling!

January & Beyond with Shopster

While Shopster usually has its eyes on the horizon and is focused on staying on top new tips, tricks, & trends (so we can share them with you), we wanted to take a few moments to focus on the now, and give credit where credit is due.  So here it goes: A huge congratulations to all of our Merchants – you are knocking it out of the park this holiday season! Sales are strong, and we’re seeing more connections and business relationships being built than ever before.

But, while sales are still booming this holiday season, it’s already time to start planning for the New Year and the sales it will bring.  The good news is that eBay and other major sales channels do not see a significant drop in consumer spending in January.  This means you can continue promoting your business without having to worry that your sales will take a nosedive come January 1.  In fact, though the holiday sales season is touted as the be all end all in the world of retailing; many merchants do not experience highs and lows typical of the traditional bricks and mortar retail sales cycle.  Rather they rather enjoy consistent sales volumes year round.

Experienced eBay sellers often suggest that a Merchant’s niche and choice of sales channels are better indicators of personal sales trends than seasonality.  Take Myattic2u of advertising collectibles for instance, her take on the matter is: "While I can't speak for everyone, I don't think there is anytime that is better than another to sell on eBay….It just depends on the item and if there is more than one interested bidder out there when the item is up for auction."

So what’s this mean for you?  Sales will continue well into the New Year.  Not feeling your sales are where they should be? Remember, different niches follow different trends, so don’t rest on your laurels and wait for the next big wave to hit.  Think of products that sell in the less traditional retail months (office supplies, winter products, books).  Take stock of your business and your sales approach. Search the network for hot products to sell, scour the web for the next big trend, and spend some time testing out new marketing and merchandising ideas for your site.  This way you’ll be prepared to double or triple your offerings when your selling season picks up.

As a Shopster Member, you are a part of a growing number of Merchants looking to move beyond traditional seller and supplier relationships, an entrepreneur looking to take your sales to the next level. At 24,000 Merchants & counting, 2010 is your year, so lets keep the momentum going and make it the best one yet!

Happy Holidays,

The Shopster Team

References:

Online Sales Trends: When's the Best Time to Sell Online?

Shipping Deadlines for the Holidays

Hi Everyone

With the holiday season in full stride it’s important that you keep in mind the last shipping dates to ensure orders get to your customers before Christmas. We have listed our recommended last shipping dates below, however please keep in mind that each supplier and carrier company are different.

As part of your marketing efforts, we highly recommend that you place holiday shipping dates onto your stores as it ensures that expectations are met and it has also been shown to help increase conversions.

Recommended holiday shipping dates to ensure Christmas delivery:

1. Recommended last day for standard shipping:  December 16th, 2009
2. Recommended last day for expedited shipping:  December 20th, 2009

(Please note:  These dates do not represent a guarantee.  They present the timeframe for a reasonable expectation of delivery only.)

All dates are based on shipping to the continental United States (excluding Alaska).  For shipping to Canada:  Expect delays on all cross-border shipments.  Be sure to give yourself enough time.

Happy Selling.

Creating policies for your online Shopster store

We have another how-to blog post for you today.  Our theme: Policies.  More specifically the policies you’ll want to include on your store for customers to reference when making a purchase – a shipping policy, a returns policy, and a privacy policy.

Shipping:
Let's start with shipping. When writing out this policy, you’ll want to consider your business model and then answer the questions below. These are just a few main points to touch on. If you can think of more, or if there are special circumstances related to your store that need to be addressed, make sure you include them.  Another important piece of information to include on this page is your contact information so that if a customer has questions, comments, or concerns they can easily open a line of communication with you.

1. How long does it take to ship?
2. What carriers are used to ship the store's orders?
3. What if there's a problem with the customer's shipment? i.e. It’s been lost or is delivered to the wrong address. What do you do?
4. Where does your store ship to?

There are several ways to write a shipping policy.  You can use a paragraph format, a question and answer format (think FAQ’s), or bullet points. All formats work equally well provided they adequately convey your terms. The style you decide on is simply a matter of personal preference and what you feel will most clearly display your policies to customers. Remember: None of your policies need to be overly complex, or full of legal jargon.  In fact, it’s best to keep things as concise as possible while still covering the key points mentioned above.  This makes it easy for customers to understand. Here's an example of a Shipping Policy for you to look at. Feel free to use it as a reference when building your own shipping policy, however, do not copy it verbatum.  Your shipping policy must be specific to your site, your business, and must adhere to your shipping rules.

Returns:
A returns policy lets your customers know that they can (possibly) return an item that they've ordered from your store should it be defective or ordered in error. It outlines a time-frame as well as any exclusions and potential fees associated with the process. It's important that your customers know your returns policy so they are aware of your store's rules prior to making a purchase.

Here are a few points you'll want to include when writing this policy:

1. How long does the customer have to request a return?
2. Do you charge restocking fees if the product was ordered in error or has been used by the customer?
3. How does the customer have to initiate a return? (Check out our previous blog post on Creating a Contact-Us Form so your customers can contact you to initiate a return!)
4. What does the customer have to do after they want to return the product?
   • Does the item have to been in the original packaging?
   • Must they include the original receipt?
   • Do you accept returns on products that show signs of misuse?
   • Do they have to wait for specific shipping instructions prior to sending the product back to the Merchant?
5. Who pays return shipping?
   • Does a customer have to send in a receipt to be reimbursed for shipping  
   • Do you reimburse for shipping all the time, or are there very specific circumstance (i.e. damaged delivery only)

Again, these are just a few points you'll want to touch on in your returns policy, there are many more to consider especially if you’re using multiple suppliers. When using multiple suppliers, as most Shopster members do, you will need consider and account for their policies when building out yours.

Like your Shipping Policy you can write your returns policy in a paragraph format, in a question and answer format or with bullet points.

Important: If your products have any exclusions (i.e. certain products you carry that cannot be returned at all), you'll want to make sure that you've highlighted those in your returns policy as well.

Creating a well fleshed-out shipping and returns policy page lets your customer know what to expect when they order a product from you. It's important to make sure that you cover both the basics of your shipping and returns policies, and any exceptions your store may have. Potential exceptions include products that are crafted at the time of ordering, or products that can only be returned for a refund and cannot be exchanged (like certain clothing items).

If you're looking for a returns policy that you can use as a template, take a look at Shopster's Storefront Returns Policy.  While we designed this policy for a previous iteration of our service and it’s no longer applicable today, it’s still a great reference.  Please note: While we have no issue with individuals referencing this policy, do not link to it on your storefront. Your returns policy must be specific to your site, and the one above does not account for all the Merchants you can connect with in the Network.

Privacy Policy:
A Privacy Policy is important to include in your site polices as it acts as a trust mark to let shoppers know that you’re a real business (and not a scam). You will need to let people know what you will be doing with their private information, for example do you use it to fulfill their orders and then forget about it, or do you sell it to third parties? You’ll also want to let customers know why you're requesting that they provide their personal information (answer: to fulfill their order).

Some questions you'll want to answer and address in your Privacy Policy include:

1. Why are you taking your customer's information?
2. Who sees the customer's information?
3. Will you be doing anything with the customer's information?
4. Will any of the customer's information be shared/sold to any third parties?

If you're unsure of how to write a privacy policy, look at what other online retail sites such as eBay, Best Buy, and Amazon are doing. By getting an idea from a few different sources on how their policies are written, you'll gain a better understanding of the things you should include in yours.  The most important thing I can stress about a privacy policy, is that it is not something you can “borrow” from someone else. The people who buy from your site, are your customers and you must tell them how you will be using their information. This is not something that Shopster or anyone else but you can determine.

Good luck and happy selling,

 

Just Released - New profile page, badges, and a help community

It’s an exciting day for us because we’ve taken a big step towards adding more value to our merchant community. The features included in today’s release will assist those in the Merchant Network, and add more value to the entire Shopster platform. Be sure to share your feedback using the comments feature below or by dropping us an email at support@shopster.com.  We love hearing from you.

New Profile Page

If you’re familiar with the previous profile page you’ll probably think that this new page is a huge improvement. Your profile page has always been your first point of contact with other Merchants in the Network; your first chance to share your story and brand with others and show them you’re serious about your business. Our new profile page features allow you to do this much better.  They give you the chance to show-off your business to the Network and put your best foot forward.

Here’s what’s new on the profile page:

• Completely new look and feel
• Displays your recent Network activity
• Your own profile picture
• Profile banner space (max size of 678x200)
• Shopster badges (read details below)
• Feature up to 3 of your own products
• Payment types accepted

Shopster Badges

Profile badges have two main purposes in the Shopster system. First off, they are a way for you to set yourself apart from the competition. Add more badges or move up in badge ranking so that those who cruise your profile can instantly gauge your credibility.

Secondly, the badges are there to help you gauge other merchants you may want to do business with. Be sure you check and see which badges they have before you make a connection.

Green Badges are handed out to emerging, up & coming Merchants, Blue to established Members and Orange to a select few Merchants, the best of the best, our ShopStars.

Here are the badges we’ve just introduced:

• Time in system badge
• Supplier badge
• PowerMerchant package badge
• Email verified badge

Shopster Community

The experience level of Shopster retailers ranges anywhere from someone brand new to e-Commerce to those who have been selling online for years. We wanted to take advantage of our diverse member base and allow our community to interact and learn from each other.  Our community allows our Merchants to share tips and tricks, provide suggestions and feedback, and offer help and support to newer members. It’s also a great place to discuss marketing and promotional ideas, and chat about all things eCommerce.

Don’t worry, our technical support team is still available to answer questions directly, but sometimes it’s nice to get a different opinion. The other advantage to using the Shopster community is that it has a built in knowledge base that stores all past questions asked by other members. If you have a question, try searching the knowledge base, chances are, it’s already been asked and answered, so rather than having to wait for a response, you’ll have an answer waiting for you. Give it a shot; we’re excited to see what you think.

Creating Your Shopster Online Store Homepage

Like many of our customers, I have very limited design experience and minimal technical knowledge. My goal today is to build a Shopster homepage that is both professional in appearance but simple enough that anyone can replicate the steps. I will also be using the functionality provided with a free account, which means no access to the css and frame file, so we will be limited to making all changes directly on the page. Let’s get started.

Creating your logo

1. Go to page: http://service.shopster.com/retailer/templates/templatesettings.aspx
2. There are several paid logo services listed on this page which can help you easily create a professional logo for as low as $49. However for the purposes of this exercise I will be using a free service: http://cooltext.com/Logos
3. Here’s the logo I created. It can obviously use some work but it’s a good placeholder for now.

Choose a template

1. Go to the “design library” tab and choose the template that you feel best fits your brand and your business
2. Go to the “customize” tab and select the color scheme for your template

Editing the homepage

1. Go to the “Store Pages” link within the Store tab, and click on the “Edit Homepage” button
2. Scroll down to the page’s content editor, as that’s where we’ll be working today:
3. The first thing on the agenda is creating a nice banner to catch new visitors’ attention.
4. I went to www.iStock.com and purchased a photo, which cost me approximately $5. While there are also several free stock photography sites out there, I’ve found that istock has a wide selection of great quality photos that can be purchased at a minimal cost so it’s a personal favorite.
5. I then downloaded a free photo-editing tool called paint.net at http://www.getpaint.net/. It takes a little time to familiarize yourself with the software, but it’s also the closest photoshop equivalent that I’ve been able to track down that’s free to use.
6. With paint.net I cropped my image to 640x210, (with a little experimentation it was the size I found best suited my template). I also added the text “Your Source for Laptop Deals!”
7. I then added the image to my homepage by Clicking on the tree icon at the top of the content editor.
8. Clicking browse icon (you’ll find it next to the image URL text box)
9. Uploading my image file to my account

Laying out content

I found that the easiest way to layout content on the homepage is to use tables. In my case, I wanted to have a 2 column layout with my left column being text and my right column having buttons that linked to my Facebook and Twitter accounts. Here’s how I did this:

1. I created a header for the section “About Us”. Just type in the text and highlight it with your mouse. Click on the dropdown menu above and choose “heading 2” this will automatically format the text to be a headline.
2. Next, I created the table. To do this I clicked on the “html” button in the top right hand corner of the content editor. I then added the code listed below to the source code editor. Feel free to copy and paste this exact code into your own source code editor to recreate this table. Just remember to insert your text where I’ve indicated. If you’re feeling ambitious, you can also try building your own table. Here’s a great website that will walk you through some of the basics: http://www.w3schools.com/html/default.asp

Copy this code if you want to layout your site like mine - insert this after any existing code on the page.

<table cellspacing="4">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td valign="top">
<p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia;font-size: 1.25em;">Your homepage content here</span></p>
</td>
<td>
<p style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://twitter.com"><img width="120" src="http://www.twitterbuttons.com/images/lbn/twitterbutton-0203.png" height="90" title="By: TwitterButtons.com" /></a><br />Get <a href="http://www.socialmediabuttons.com/">Twitter Buttons</a>
<br /><br />
<a href="http://facebook.com/YourLink"><img border="0" src="http://www.socialmediabuttons.com/images/facebook3.gif" title="By SocialMediaButtons.com" /></a>
<br />Get <a href="http://www.socialmediabuttons.com/">Facebook Buttons</a></p>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>

The buttons to Facebook and Twitter are free and can be found on www.socialmediabuttons.com

The extras

The final step to building my homepage is to add some “Suggested Products”. By adding suggested products, I can highlight those products that will make me the most profit or those products that I think visitors are most interested in buying. Here’s how you do it:

1. Click on the “customize” link under the “Store” tab
2. Towards the bottom of the page click “Select Products” under the Suggested Products header. Note that you will need to have products added to your “Manage Inventory” before doing this
3. Choose the products you would like to feature and click on “Select Products”.
4. Note: if you don’t see your suggested products appear on your homepage click on the “store pages” and click the “Edit Homepage” button. Here click the “Customizations” tab and uncheck the “customize this setting” box, then click the “Save Homepage” button.

That’s it. If you followed these steps you should now have a homepage that look similar to mine. You can view my store here: http://sweetlaptops.secure2cart.com.  If you have any comments or suggestions on this post, be sure you add them below. You can also contact our customer support department at support@shopster.com.

Happy Selling

Creating a Contact Us form for your Shopster Store

Good day everyone! Today, we’re trying something a bit different with our blog. Instead of offering up our regular tips, tricks, and personal opinions, I'll be walking you through how to implement your own Contact Us form on your store.

Something kinda like this:

 

 
  

Having a Contact Us form is a great advantage to your site because it allows your customers to easily send questions, comments and concerns your way.

As an aside, if you ever have any questions on how to use our system or want to add a fun feature to your store, but you’re not sure how to tackle it, drop us an email at support@shopster.comusing the subject line “BLOG Question". We’ll see if we can put together a bit of a blog walkthrough for you. Remember to be specific with your questions as we only have a page or so to reply.

 

Right then back to our little walkthrough:
Before we get to the actual implementation of the form, there are a few things you need to get sorted first:

1. If you don’t already have one, create a “Contact Us" page -This is where you'll be pasting in the code for your form. Follow these steps to create a contact us page:

1. Log into your Shopster account
2. Click the "Store" tab
3. Click "Store Pages"
4. Click "Add a Page"
5. For the Title field enter "Contact Us" (or something similar – it’s up to you)
6. For the URL Name field enter "contact-us". This is how your customers can get to your Contact Us page. So for example: http://storename.secure2cart.com/contact-us.htmlwould take you to the contact us page on your store.
7. Leave the content blank for now. 
8. Click "Create Page"

2. You'll also need to create a second page that lets your customers know that their question has been submitted.  Follow the steps above, but for the page title enter "Contact Form Submitted", and use the URL Name "email-submitted".  In space provided for content, you will want to enter a brief but polite message letting your customers know that you appreciate their email. Remember to provide them with a timeframe for your response. "Thank you for your inquiry. We will respond within 1 business day" always works.

3. Make sure you have a professional email address to attach to your contact form. If you have your own custom domain name, you can create an email that uses this domain, for example support@mystore.com. You’ll want to contact your domain registrar to get help setting this piece up.
Once you have these three things setup, it's time to get to the good stuff: Creating your form! EmailMeForm is a great free service that lets you easily create a professional looking Contact Form without any HTML/Programming knowledge. While there are some upgrade options available, the free account is perfect for what you’re looking to do.

Create an EmailMeForm account, login, and click the "Create a New Form" link to flow through the easy form creation wizard. The first and most important step in the wizard asks you to provide the URL for the Thank you page you created in Step 2. Enter in the full URL as you see it in the address bar of your browser window.  For example, http://storename.secure2cart.com/email-submitted.html. The rest of the steps in the EmailMeForm wizard revolve around how you wish to design the look and feel of your form, so play around to find out what works for you.  Once you’ve worked your way through the wizard, you will be presented with the HTML code of the form. Copy it (right click on your mouse and select copy) and go to your Shopster account.

Back in your Shopster account, click the "Store" tab and select the "Store Pages" link. Go the Contact Us page you created in Step 1 - This is where you'll be putting in the HTML code for your form. Within the Content editor (the space provided for your content) click the "HTML" button.

 

  
  

This will pop up the HTML source editor screen. Paste in the HTML code you got from the EmailMeForm site. Click the "Update" button to close this window and then click "Save Page".

Now that you have the page properly created, you'll need to put it in your menu structure so it shows up on your store.
In your Shopster account click the "Store" tab and then click "Store Menus". Choose the menu you wish to have your contact page live in, for example the "Footer Menu" (note: you may find it valuable to display your contact us page in more that one menu – it’s more visible to visitors that way).

1. Under the Add Item heading, enter "Contact Us" in the Name text box
2. In the Link To dropdown box select "Page"
3. In the Select Page dropdown box select your "Contact Us" page
4. Click "Add Item".
5. If you want to change the order of your menu items, click and drag  the [+] on any of the items to rearrange them.
6. Once you've added your Contact Us page to your Menu and positioned it appropriately, click "Save Menu".

TADA! You now have a Contact form for customers.

Before you get too excited, go to your store and test your newly created form to make sure everything looks just right and is working correctly. You can go back to your EmailMeForm account any time to edit the form in case you need to make any adjustments.

 

Sell Online with Shopster for the Holiday Season

We’ve mentioned this a couple times now and we’ll probably mention it a couple more in the coming weeks: Christmas is just around the corner.  As we've already discussed changes you should address on the policy side of things, we thought now might be a good time to throw out some sales tips.

 

One of the easiest things to do this holiday season is to add some seasonal touches to your store's design. By changing the aesthetic of your store to reflect the holiday season, you let your customers know that you’re ready for Christmas. Customers doing their holiday shopping want to be surrounded by the sights and sounds of the season. It keeps them in the giving mood and adds a little falala to their experience (please note that we’re using “the sounds of the season” metaphorically in this instance- music on a storefront is never a good idea!). Some things to try are: changing your stores logo's text to red and green, adding seasonal graphics to the top of your home page and spicing up your site content to match the mood of the season.

 

We also recommend that you scour the Hot Holiday Products List we’ve got available for members in the warehouse (we update it regularly). Find products that match your niche and then add them to your store as feature "Holiday Specials". Chances are buyers are already looking for these products, so highlighting these top sellers and placing them front and center on your site makes it easier for store visitors to buy them. Remember, the easier you make it for someone to buy, the less time they have to convince themselves that they don’t reaaallly need to pickup that Wii Resort for their little nephew Billy.

 

The closer you get to Christmas and holiday shipping deadlines, consider offering coupons to aggressively push for last minute sales. People are looking for deals and being able to use a coupon to further their savings will help draw in those last minute shoppers and make you more money.  Wal-Mart and Amazon do it, why can’t you?

 

Finally, if you are selling on eBay or using eBay as a secondary sales channel, make sure your regularly check our Hot Holiday Products List for top seasonal sellers. It’s very common for local bricks and mortar stores to sell out of key products early on in the shopping season.  This doesn’t mean that shoppers are going to give up on finding these products, it just means they’re going to look online.  And eBay is usually the first place people turn. So jump on this bandwagon and make sure you’re listing these products. You’ll up your sales volumes make harried Christmas Shoppers very happy.

 

Happy Selling!

Managing Holiday Shipping Deadlines

Hello everyone, Johnny here again with another holiday related tip for all you eTailers out there.

Last week I discussed having a returns policy in place for the orders made over the holiday season. This week I'm going to touch on holiday order deadlines and the importance of making sure your customers are aware of the last possible day they can make an order and have it arrive in time for Christmas morning. 

Every year the major carriers - UPS, FedEx and USPS, post their holiday shipping deadlines. This date is the last possible day an individual can ship a package and still have it arrive in time for Christmas. For example UPS Ground's deadline may be December 18, while UPS 3-Day Server may be December 21 (These aren't actual dates for this year, just examples). So what do these dates mean to you? Well, if it takes you two days to process, package, and walk your order down to the UPS office, you better make sure that your customers are aware that the last day you accept orders for arrival in time for Christmas is 2 days before UPS holiday shipping deadline. 

Since the big carriers typically post their holiday shipping deadlines mid November-ish you’ll want to check their website around that time. Once you have these dates, adjust them to account for your order processing time (maybe tack on an extra day just in case) and then make a note in a highly visible place on your website that lets site visitors know the last day you will be able to accept an order and have it arrive in time for Christmas. For example, if the holiday shipping deadline for UPS Ground is December 18, and it takes you two days to process your order, you may want to say, "Any orders received before December 16 can be guaranteed delivery for Christmas using UPS Ground".

By informing your customers about your holiday order deadlines, they won't be disappointed or angry if they order something after the deadline and have it arrive after Christmas. Instead, they'll know ahead of time when to order so they ensure their gift arrives on time. Your customers will appreciate the level of service provided and will be more likely to become return customers.

Happy selling everyone!

Johnny

2009 Holiday Hot Product Predictions

With the holiday season soon approaching (take a look at the photo below - taken today at our Calgary, Canada headquarters this morning...feeling a lot like xmas here!), it's time to start thinking about what products will help your sales flourish during this time of year. So with this in mind, here's a list of in-stock and ready to sell hot products you surely want to consider carrying in your store this holiday season. As with most of our products, there's some nice profit potential too!

It's Snowing Already in Calgary!

Top Selling Products for the 2009 Holiday Season

Knights Tower Toy Tent
Shopster Warehouse Price: $42.61
MSRP: $57.99

PLAYSTATION 3 - PLAYSTATION 2 WarBeast Wireless Guitar
Shopster Warehouse Price: $74.98
MSRP: $84.99

 

Guitar Hero 5 Bundle for Wii
Shopster Warehouse Price: $90.10
MSRP: $99.99

Seagate FreeAgent Go 320 GB Hard Drive
Shopster Warehouse Price: $90.10
MSRP: $119.99

Applica Juiceman Jr 2 Speed Juicer
Shopster Warehouse Price: $65.72
MSRP: $79.99

Jarden FoodSaver Vertical Black
Shopster Warehouse Price: $120.84
MSRP: $139.50

Oster 6307 Toaster Red
Shopster Warehouse Price: $25.16
MSRP: $39.99

Sharp Aquos Blu-Ray Disc Player (re-conditioned)
Shopster Warehouse Price: $135.93
MSRP: $249.99

Nintendo Wii 17 Game Resort Bundle and 4 controllers
Shopster Warehouse Price: $322.22
MSRP: $499.99

Sony PSP Go 16GB - Black or White
Shopster Warehouse Price: $246.70
MSRP: $279.99

RockBand Beatles Special Value Edition (xbox, Wii, PS3)
Shopster Warehouse Price: $143.10
MSRP: $159.99

COOL WATER by Davidoff - EDT SPRAY 3.4 OZ Women's
Shopster Warehouse Price: $24.91
MSRP: $59.50

LIGHT BLUE by Dolce & Gabbana - EDT SPRAY 2.5 OZ Men's
Shopster Warehouse Price: $35.51
MSRP: $52.50

Juicy Couture - EAU DE PARFUM SPRAY 3.4 OZ Women's
Shopster Warehouse price: $48.76
MSRP: $85.00

If you're new to the Shopster program and would like access to these products and more, you can join here for free.

Happy Selling!

Customer Service Tips for the Holidays

Hello again everyone, it's Johnny from the Shopster Customer Support team.

If you read my last blog post, I touched on general Customer Service tips. Today, I have another tip for you, this time with a Seasonal twist -making sure your Returns Policy fits the needs of a Christmas Shopper.

It may still seem far off, but Christmas is only 80 days away! What does this mean? It means you're going to have a lot more business coming to your storefront. It also means you’re going to have to modify how you support these customers over the Holiday Season. Adjusting your Returns Policy is just one thing you can do to get ready for Christmas, but it’s something I highly recommend.

With a typical Returns Policy, customers only have a certain amount of time available to request a return on a product (usually 7 or 14 days).  The trick with holiday gift shopping, is that people buy start buying early (late October is usually when sales start to pick up), but don’t actually open and use the gift until Christmas morning (well after the 7-14 day window). Without a Holiday Returns Policy, you’re certain to upset customers by not accepting returns on products bought as Christmas gifts.

My suggestion is to post a revised Holiday Returns Policy on your storefront. Make sure that you announce the change on your home page (or even show the Holiday Returns Policy there so everyone is aware of it) and make the appropriate change to your Return Policy page.

When creating a holiday returns policy, you will want to give your customers a start date - meaning that any order made after that date until Christmas will apply to your Holiday Returns Policy. Any orders made after Christmas should adhere to your regular return request deadlines.

You then need to set a cutoff date. In other words, for those orders that fall within your Christmas Return Policy start date, you will need to decide how long after Christmas these customers have to request a return should anything be wrong with the order. An extra 7-10 days should be more than enough.

Hopefully, you will not have to do many returns, however an extended Returns Policy provides customers with additional peace of mind, as they know that they can return a product after it's been opened.  A Holiday Returns Policy can also benefit your Christmas sales, because customers are more likely to purchase from a store that makes allowances for the holiday shopping season.

For any Canadians out there have a Happy Thanksgiving!

Johnny

Coming Soon – Twitter Lists

For everyone who isn’t up to date on the latest Twitter buzz, the company made a huge announcement on their blog yesterday.  Twitter is getting ready to launch a major new feature: the ability for members to create sharable lists of twitter users/accounts.  Twitter members will be able to organize their lists however they want- by theme, idea, or subject etc, and then have them displayed on their account (members will also be able to make lists private). 

In a nutshell, this feature will let you organize and manage all of your incoming tweets so you have a better idea of who you're following. This of course, allows you to categorize your tweets of interest. As an added social networking bonus, followers can search your public lists for accounts that they might be interested in following themselves.

From a Shopster member standpoint, this is a great feature because you can determine the types of people you follow, as well as indirectly, those who follow you.  You can then send out targeted tweets to particular groups - messages that capture interest and keep followers engaged. Should be great.

References:
http://blog.twitter.com/2009/09/soon-to-launch-lists.html - Soon to Launch: Lists

Writing Product Descriptions that Sell

Buying online as a rule is an impersonal exercise. While very efficient, it’s essentially, a no-touch experience i.e. the consumer and the seller do not need to make contact for a sale to occur.  Because online business owners don’t have any live salespeople to fall back on, they need to guarantee that their site answers any questions a customer might have - hence, why great product descriptions are so critical. A product description is your salesperson, your chance to engage a customer and get them to buy, buy, buy.

3 Tips for writing engaging product descriptions:

Know your audience and write to them
Ensure that your writing style aligns with the audience you’re writing to.  If it’s a highly technical audience use the appropriate jargon.  Likewise, if you’re writing for a group of grade 6 children – write at a grade 6 level.  When writing product descriptions, imagine your target audience and let that guide your language. 
 
Get your customer’s attention
Use attention-grabbing phrases to grab shoppers’ interest quickly and keep it.  Don’t be afraid to use strong words, questions, and phrases to do so.  Pierotucci does a great job with opening sentences like: “Walk into a room and make an impression”, “Looking hip and cool is easily achieved when you are wearing this fabulous short fitted jacket”.

Tell a story & appeal to emotions to encourage buying behaviour
Once you have a potential customer’s attention, appeal to their emotions to encourage buying behaviour.  Then offer logical support to help them rationalize their desire to purchase.  Use each product description to paint a picture in your shopper’s mind, tell them a story, and let them insert themselves in the lead role.  Use descriptive language and specific examples to get the best results.

Back to our Pierotucci example “Walk into a room and make an impression. Buttery-soft leather adds distinctive class and undeniable comfort to this sleek blazer perfect for work, weekend, and travel." This product description lets me visualize myself wearing this jacket - I can almost feel the leather on my skin, hear the whispers as I walk into a room.  This product description doesn’t just make me want this jacket, it makes me feel like I need it.

The moral of the story:
Write to your audience, grab their attention, and then engage their emotions to keep it.  By keeping these three tips in the forefront of your mind when writing your product descriptions, you stand a much better chance of turning your site browsers into paying customers.

References:

Ecommerce Know-How: Writing Product Descriptions that Sell - Armando Roggio

 

Starting an e Commerce Website

In this economy, finding alternate sources of income is one of those niggling thoughts on many people’s mind.  While you may currently enjoy gainful employment, job security feels like a luxury of the past.  It’s hard for even the most invaluable worker to feel entirely comfortable with his or her employment situation.  Too much can change too quickly for that to be the case these days - hence the thinking about other ways to bring in supplementary income into the fold.   

Right then, supplementary income.  What are your options? While I can’t speak for the world at large, the last thing I want to do after getting home from my day job, is run off to another one.  Be it a shift at the local Starbucks, or grocery store down the street.  I’m tired, I want to curl up in my p.j.’s, eat dinner, maybe watch some TV, and unwind.  I want something I can do from the comfort of my own home, something I can spend a couple hours a night on, and still have some time left over for me.  Something flexible, something rewarding, something that I don’t need to take out a second mortgage on to get going.

This brings us to starting your own eCommerce business. An inexpensive, low risk way of adding to your income – it’s a viable solution for many.  Don’t get me wrong, as with any job there’s a lot of effort, frustration and teeth gnashing involved. However, there’s also a sense of accomplishment and belief in one’s self once goals are met and success is reached. It’s rewarding. You are a business owner, an entrepreneur.  And that’s pretty cool.

Shopster is an eCommerce solution that can help both new and seasoned entrepreneurs start a viable online business.  With the largest Merchant network around, Shopster helps suppliers and sellers come together, network and sell each other’s products.  Members get a fully hosted online store, the ability to sell network inventory (and add their own if they have it).  Shopster provides members with datafeeds so they can also sell on places like eBay and much more.  Best of all, the intro package is FREE.  That way, members can learn how the system works, and then when they’re ready, they can upgrade to a package that meets their unique business needs.  Check it out, try it out, and start your online business today!

Now Available - PowerMerchant Starter!

Hey everyone, we wanted our blog followers to be the first to know that we’ve just released our latest Shopster package, PowerMerchant Starter.

Over the last couple of months or so, many Shopster Merchants have made great strides in building their new Networked eCommerce businesses.  We’ve received lots of member emails sharing successes, challenges and valuable feature requests.

One of the most notable requests, was that while many Shopster Members enjoyed the enhanced functionality and perks of the PowerMerchant account, 1000 products was a bit much for someone just starting out.  A 100-200 product limit with the ability to add more products or upgrade when needed would be ideal for the new member. 

Taking this advice to heart, we created the new PowerMerchant Starter Account. We're still offering both our FREE and PowerMerchant (now PowerMerchant Pro) packages, we’ve just added a starter package in between. A big thanks to all the feedback provided by our many Merchants.  You asked, we listened!

The New PowerMerchant Starter Package includes:

• The ability to manage up to 200 products in your inventory
• Complete access to all PowerMerchant store templates
• Free custom domain hosting
• 2.3% transaction fees

And a whole bunch more. The best thing about this package is that it’s only $19.95 a month.

If you want full details on our different packages and what’s included, check out our pricing page.

Happy Selling!

Tips on Providing Customer Service

Hey everyone, this is Johnny from Customer Service at Shopster.

With any online site, customer service is an absolute must. Here are some tips on how to make sure you're providing a level of service your customers should expect.

Make it clear where they can contact you and how

• Have a "Contact Us" Page that's easy to find and lets your customers know how they can contact you. 

Try and answer their question before they have to contact you

• Make sure that you have pages in your store dedicates to frequently asked questions (FAQs). With an FAQ page, your customer can read through it and see if their question has already been answered. If you're still getting the same question that isn't on the FAQ page, keep it up to date and add it.
• Pages for your stores shipping and returns policies must be included, and again they will help answer any questions before contacting you. Make sure that the policies are clearly defined and easy to find.

Set expectations for your customers

• Let your customers know when you will get back to them. If they're sending an email, let them know that you'll respond (for example) within one business day. Or if they've called and left a message, make sure your phone message states how long it will be before you return their call. 

Under promise, over deliver

• Whenever you have to tell a customer that you'll have to follow up with them later on, allow yourself some extra padding. This goes along with setting expectations. For example: under promise by telling your customer that you'll follow up with them by the end of the next business day, but over deliver by getting back to them by the end of the same business day. Doing this shows your customers that you're going the extra step to make sure that any issue they're having is resolved in a timely manner. 

These are just some tips on how to provide good customer service for your storefront. Always make sure that you're listening to your customers and helping to improve their online shopping experience, by doing this you’ll benefit by making more sales!

3 Tips for Creating a Productive Home Office

As an entrepreneur, odds are you have a home office.  You may have a formal “office” in a spare room of your house, you may have some space set aside in the family den, or perhaps your home office is a nook in the basement where you have a computer set up. Regardless, you have a spot where you hunker down to do work.  What you need to ask yourself is have you set up your personal workspace to maximize your productivity and minimize your distractions?

Use these tips to increase your productivity when working at home:

• Keep all of your “work” in your workspace to maximize efficiency.  It’s important that all of your business materials are close at hand.  Having to scour the house every time you can’t find something is a sure time killer.  Plus, keeping your work items in one space promotes a healthier work/life balance because you’re not stuck staring at work materials during your down time.
• Establish set work hours so you can balance your home life with your work schedule. Not only does it enhance your own productivity, but it also helps minimize outside distractions because your family/roommates are aware that certain times of the day are dedicated to work and interruptions are to be kept to a minimum.
• Ensure that your workspace is relatively private. No one can work effectively surrounded by noise and subject to constant interruptions. If a door to the office area is not practical or available, consider adding a sign (ex. "No interruptions" or "Quiet please") to remind others in the space that this is "work time."

References:
Design the Ideal Home Office - Eve Gumpel

The Benefits of a Sitemap

Many customers always ask the questions “What is a site map?” and “Why do I need a site map?” These are both great questions and it’s important that anyone with a website understands the importance of sitemaps.

Let’s start with the question of “what is a sitemap?” Well to put it simply, a sitemap is a map for search engines like Google and Yahoo to help navigate through your site. Typically a sitemap lists all the pages that are hosted on your store; this includes pages that are not linked from other pages on your site. Now having non linked pages in your sitemap can be both a good thing and a bad thing, depending on whether you want that page to be visible for people to see. So be sure you review your sitemap before submitting them to the search engines.

Now this leads to the question of why you need a sitemap. For anyone who has done any type of search engine marketing in the past, they have likely read that submitting your homepage to a search engine is as far as you need to take it. Well this isn’t true! Search engine crawlers often get lost and don’t always find every page on a website. This is especially true if you have a site with hundreds of pages, such as an online store. So why risk not getting all your pages indexed by Google and potentially losing out on sales, submitting a site map guarantees that this doesn’t happen.

The other reason you want a sitemap is to get your site pages indexed faster. Google and all the major search engines have free tools available, which allow you to easily upload your sitemaps. By using these tools to upload your sitemap, you will typically find your site indexed within hours of your submission. (Google’s is called Webmaster Tools) If you decide not to use the webmaster tools provided by the search engines, expect to wait weeks and in certain cases months for all your pages to get indexed properly.

If you’re a Shopster customer and looking to create your first site map, we’ve made this process as simple as possible. Once your store is built and ready to be marketed, go to the “Marketing” tab and click on the “Sitemap” link. There are some easy directions listed to guide you through creating and submitting a sitemap. But if you’re just looking to create your sitemap, it’s a matter of simply clicking on the “Create Sitemap” button and downloading your file.

Remember that the key to any successful online business is to get your store in front of as many qualified customers as possible. Be sure to take advantage of the free traffic from search engines by developing a thorough strategy and updating your sitemap regularly.

Happy Selling.

A Little Bit Of Realism

Lately I’ve been doing a fair amount of self reflection, I’ve been thinking a lot about goals, how to make them, what to target, and what’s a reasonable timeframe to accomplish them in.  This of course led me to think about realism, and the setting realistic goals and expectations.

It’s funny because most people I’ve run across have this rather healthy sense of self-belief, which is great. But is it really realistic? Is it practical for me to say to myself: “My goal is to be a rock star”? Well seeing as I’m just an average joe, i.e. my singing is nothing to write home about, I can’t play an instrument, and my rock knowledge is fair a best, this might be a touch unrealistic.  Why? Well, I haven’t taken any steps to get me there.  I haven’t signed up for drum lessons, I haven’t joined the local choir, in fact I haven’t really done anything to put me on the path to rock stardom aside from watching the occasional American Idol episode. Don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing wrong with dreams of glory, just remember the old adage: You must crawl before you can walk, walk before you can run, and run before you can fly.

Now let’s apply this to your small business for a second. If you’ve started your own business, you’re obviously fairly ambitious, you’ve got a plan and you’re implementing it (which is great).  Most likely you’ve also set some business goals for yourself too (another great idea).  My advice is to make these goals incremental, manageable, and obtainable. Baby steps if you will. Rather than saying that by Christmas your brand spanking new store is going to be averaging 100K in sales a month, try starting small.  Having some basic marketing activities set up and getting a couple unique site visitors a day by December is probably a lot more achievable. Then once you’ve achieved that goal, set another small one for yourself.  Just remember, more often than not, if your expectations are too high for one person-or one business-to meet, you may inadvertently hijack your efforts and your goals will do a better job at holding you back rather than pushing you forward.

Here are a few tips for you to chew on:

• Pace yourself - Set high enough expectations and goals that you’re motivated but not so high that you’re setting your self up for failure.
• Don’t promise more than you can deliver – There are only 24 useable hours in every day, be reasonable when setting expectations with customers, every will be much happier if you set a reasonable expectation and over deliver (as opposed to making unreasonable promises and failingly to live up to them).
• Take disappointments in stride and learn from them – the occasional disappointment is inevitable, so rather than thinking of these little hiccups as gross failures, use them as learning opportunities and grow from them.

References: Keeping It Real by Max Berry

Writing for International Audiences

I read a great article the other day called “Writing for an International Audience, part II” by Emily Thrush. It’s an old article but it still rings true today; especially for people with online businesses and eCommerce sites.
 
The fact is, if you own a website, you’re probably getting international traffic, whether you plan to or not. This article addresses some different strategies for writing clearly and effectively so that non-native English speakers have an easier time understanding your website. Who knows, maybe they’ll become repeat buyers. 

A few tips:

• Avoid using idioms and slang- Idioms are expressions particular to a specific language that mean something different that what the words actually say. Ex. It’s raining cats and dogs. A non-native english speaker would most likely struggle to understand that the writer means it’s raining heavily.
• Avoid using tricky words – Many words in the english language have multiple meaning and can be hard to decipher if the context isn’t clear.  A few examples are words like since and while. 
• Use consistent vocabulary – Reduce reader confusion by using one term consistently throughout your site copy rather than using multiple synonyms for the word.  An international reader might not understand the meaning of each synonym and will not necessarily grasp that you’re referring to the same concept or thing.

These are just a few ideas.  I highly recommend reading the full article, as Emily Thrush does a great job of effectively communicating her point to us.

References:
Writing for an International Audience, part II - Emily Thrush

Build a site that sells

The funny thing about e-commerce and selling online is that it looks fairly simple at a glance. Build a store, put some products in it - done! The sales are going to pour in, and in a couple weeks you’re rolling in cash.  Right?

‘Fraid not.  It’s usually around this time that you discover that the store design was just the tip of the iceberg, and your “little business that could” has unwittingly morphed into a behemoth of a project. It’s a little daunting.  Where do you start, how much should you spend on marketing, and how on earth do you drive traffic? 

Well, there are several things you need to come to grips with, first and foremost, flinging money around will do you no favours -as a start-up you don’t want to waste your money on efforts that aren’t going to give you the most bang for your buck.  Secondly, the very, very, first thing you need to do is make sure your sales process is airtight.  After all, what good does it do to attract a bunch of visitors to your site if no one buys anything?

Optimize your sales process with these simple tips:

1. Perfect your sales copy: Grab visitors’ attention with compelling headlines and then entice them to buy by indentifying with their needs and explaining how your products can meet those needs. Don’t forget your “close” with a call to action that drives your visitors to make a purchase.
2. Collect Customer Recommendations: Ask satisfied customers to offer testimonials.  Positive feedback adds creditability to your site, and if you’re just starting out in the world of e-Commerce (read: haven’t had a chance to make a name for yourself), this is invaluable.
3. Make it easy for people to buy: Give people more than one payment option (multiple credit cards, PayPal, etc.) and keep your navigation simple so they can get to the checkout easily.  Plus, consider including your business number somewhere on your site, so people can call if they have questions.

Good luck & happy selling!

References:
http://www.entrepreneur.com/websmarts/article196480.html

Enter Shopster’s “Get Connected” Contest!

For those of you not yet aware of everything that’s been happening at Shopster, we’ve made some HUGE and EXCITING changes! Our latest release, which introduces the Shopster Merchant Network and the Shopster FREE account, is something we're sure you will love. An exclusive network for resellers and suppliers, members can now increase their selling power by easily connecting, communicating and transacting with other merchants in the system. Best of all, we’re offering our starter account for FREE!

To share with the world at large how Shopster is tackling eCommerce these days, we made a great little video that explains the concept of the network.  In true Shopster spirit we decided to take a slightly different tack with it, and had a lot fun of playing around with claymation.  

Which brings us to our contest, because we were feeling so creative we wrote several cultural references and quotes into the script and hid a bunch of dollar signs throughout the frames for viewers to find.  Find the stuff, answer the questions, and you can win a $500.00 credit for all things Shopster.  Choose from extended services, amazing products from the Shopster Network, you can put the credit towards what ever you want!  Visit http://www.shopster.com/videocontest.aspx. to learn all the details and test your skills!

How to get your customers to promote you - Ask???

For all our regular readers out there, you’ll remember that last week I offered an explanation as to how viral marketing works and discussed important strategies to consider when creating a viral campaign (Read: “Can you tell me what Viral Marketing is?” for a quick update).  Continuing in the same vein, this week I’m going to chat more specifically about getting your target audience to pass along your key marketing message and having them promote your business to others.  After all, the key to a successful viral campaign is to have your audience spread the word.

 In his article “6 Non-Salesy Ways To Ask Your Customers To Promote You” Rohit Bhargava offers some insight into why customers don’t recommend businesses to their friends and then makes some suggestions on how you can remedy this.

Interestingly enough, Bhargava, proposes that reason why clients don’t recommend you to others isn’t for the reasons that we’d initially assume. It’s not that they didn’t like your store, service, or product. It’s not that they’re too busy or they don’t care.  It’s that you don’t ask them to or make it easy for them to do so.  I’m going to take this one step further and say the reason why most people don’t offer recommendations is that they don’t think to. 

Chew on this for a second:  Let’s say you went out shopping last Saturday and stumbled upon a little store tucked away on a side street somewhere. You go into this store and buy a t-shirt, it’s a lovely t-shirt, you’ve being looking for something like it for ages, it fits well, it’s fun and best of all it’s pretty inexpensive. More-over the sales lady, who for the sake of this example will be the owner, is great. She’s polite, friendly, and helpful while not being overbearing; she’s exceptional really.  All and all you could say it’s a perfect shopping experience. So you’re immediately going to go out and tell all your friends about it right? Probably not.  Life is busy, you’re busy and there are a lot of distractions out there. Maybe traffic’s bad on the way home, maybe you have to pick up your children, or dry cleaning, we all know that the list goes on and on.  And then guess what, for most people, this amazing little shop that you found in the middle of nowhere falls off your radar. Not intentionally of course, but when would you bring up this shopping experience? Probably the only time it crosses your mind is when you’re wearing your new shirt and someone pays you a compliment.  Then you stop, think and say something like “Thanks, I got it from this great little shop just down the road, you know, just off of Sifton blvd. You should check it out.” And that’s about it folks.  You probably don’t think to go into any more detail than that.   And they probably don’t visit the store. 

Now how do you think this story would change if the store owner nicely mentioned on your way out the door that it was a new business and she was really trying to build her client base.  “Would you please be able to tell all your friends about me?” hmmm….well, that’s not so easy to forget now is it?  In fact, it's probably a fairly easy strategy to implement in your own business.  All you’ve got to do is make sure you ask in the right way.

Bhargava has several suggestions on how you can do this and I’ve included a few of them:

• Let them be a fan: Offer some way for your customers, friends, family etc. to show that they support your brand.  If you’ve got design skills, creating a badge for them to put on their blog, is always a great idea (text links work too).  As an added bonus, because this badge will link back to your site, there are SEO benefits to be reaped too.  Or get customers to join your Linked-in or Facebook group, Twitter too.  Sweeten the deal by posting/tweeting out promotions that are only available through these networking sites.
• Encourage online reviews: Encourage your customers to go to prominent online sites or social networks, (if they blog that’s another fabulous channel) and ask them to discuss their shopping experiences at your store.  Because these positive opinions are public and searchable, they’re far more valuable to you than something you just post on your own site.
• Refer a friend: Find ways to get your customers materials so they can pass on information about your store to their friends.  “Tell a friend” buttons work if you’re tech savvy, as does having friends and family pass along your business cards to their personal networks. Even getting your customers to forward on newsletters if they’ve found the subject matter particularly interesting that month can be effective (Just remember to offer a link back to your site in it so that friend can easily get to it).
• Pass along an offer:  To build on the concept above, create promotional offers that your customers can share (encourage them to do this) with their friends and families.  This is a great enticement for them to forward your details to others and get people to visit your store.

So what’s the moral of this little story?
There are lots of ways to encourage people to promote your store, get creative.  I’ve listed off a few ideas, but don’t let these limit you. There are plenty out there that I haven’t touched on.  The point here is to get as many people as possible telling others about you and your business.  Do what it takes and get them what they need to do this. 

Finally and most importantly, all these suggestions are great, but remember the key to everything is one magic little word (and no it’s not “please” for once): ASK.  You can set up all the Facebook groups and Twitter pages that you want, spend days coming up with clever promotional offers, but if you don’t ask people to join and encourage them to get their friends to do so, you’ll only have done half the job.  And you won’t reap any of the rewards.  Always remember to ask.

References:

“6 Non-Salesy Ways To Ask Your Customers To Promote You”, Rohit Bhargava  

Can you tell me what Viral Marketing is?

You know those buzz-words that people toss around in meetings and day-to day-life?  Those little phrases that get a very serious reaction from the world at large (read: lots of head nodding).  The ones that if you actually stop and think for a minute, you quickly realize you can’t really pin-point a clear definition for them (or for that matter be a 100% certain that you’re using them in the correct context).  I’m talking about terms like “Actionable”, “Leveraging Knowledge Capital”, “Information Touch-Point”, so on, so forth (FYI –“Actionable” is an adjective). Let’s be honest with each other here, if someone asked you for the definition of the word “Self-Liquidating”, do you really think you’d be able to offer up a concrete definition within 10 seconds or less? Exactly!

I find that the concept of viral marketing is a lot like this.  For the most part, anyone who does anything online has a broad understanding of what viral marketing is. They can definitely name a few examples of how to do it: blogging, viral videos-Susan Boyle anyone?  They can easily state a few companies who have made it work for them: PayPal, One Red Paper Clip, Hotmail (the classic). BUT they struggle to clearly and concisely define the concept itself, or more importantly turn this ambiguous idea into a usable business strategy.

In my most recent web-browsing adventures I came across an interesting (and very well-known) article on viral marketing.  In “The Six Simple Principles of Viral Marketing”, Dr. Ralph F. Wilson does a fabulous job of explaining viral marketing, with real-world examples.  Admittedly this article is a lot older than my usual picks, but I like to think of it as an oldie, but a goodie. 

Getting into the meat of the subject, Dr. Wilson describes Viral marketing as:
“…Any strategy that encourages individuals to pass on a marketing message to others, creating the potential for exponential growth in the message's exposure and influence”.

Okay fair enough, but how does one encourage this growth? Because the one caveat to viral marketing is that much like a real virus, a campaign that’s gone truly viral takes on a life of its own.  The marketer/business owner no longer drives the push to the target audience. Rather the target audience takes the reins and passes your message on to everyone else. The implications of these types of campaigns is that while you, the business owner, can take certain actions to make something more likely to turn into a viral campaign, the audience (who you do not control) makes the final call on whether the campaign will fly or flop.

The point I’m trying to get across is that while you can’t truly drive a viral campaign the same way you can a normal marketing effort, you can consider several strategies to ensure your ads/marketing efforts are more likely to be picked up by your audience and passed on.

According to Dr. Wilson an effective Viral Marketing Strategy:

• Gives away products or services – people like free stuff, it’s noticeable, it’s attention grabbing and you can get them in the door (at which point you sell them stuff)
• Provides for effortless transfer to others – Your message should be simple so it transmits easily from person to person without losing its meaning.  
• Scales easily from very small to very large-if your campaign takes off make sure you can manage the influx of customers, you’ll do more harm than good to your brand if you make a promise and can’t deliver on it
• Exploits common motivations and behaviours – People as a rule want to be cool, make money, fit in - design a marketing strategy that targets these behaviours and you’re more likely to have people pass it on to others.
• Utilizes existing communication networks – Find a place where your target audience goes to socialize (chat rooms, Facebook, MySpace, favourite websites) and make sure your message can be found there.
• Takes advantage of others’ resources – Get other people to spread your word, give away free links to your content or copy so other people will do the work for you.  It’s a heck of a lot easier to have 1 million people each send out a single message, than to have 1 person send out 1 million messages (if they can even find 1 million people to send it to).

(Wilson also mentions that while you don’t need to include all of these elements to have a successful campaign, the more elements one can include the more powerful it is likely to be.)

So what can we learn from this:

1. When trying to create a viral strategy be sure to consider your target audience, the media you can use to best reach this audience (twitter, Facebook, news releases articles etc), your marketing message and how you’ll measures your success.  Then go crazy! Try it out and see what sticks!
2. If you follow our Shoptalk blog regularly you’ll remember a post called “It's Free!”. Viral marketing harnesses the idea of Free, and if effective, capitalizes on it to bring in revenue. Read the post and see how it can work for you.

P.S. -A self liquidating expense is an expense that also carries with it the means to its own repayment.

Read “The Six Simple Principles of Viral Marketing” by Dr. Ralph F. Wilson, E-Commerce Consultant

Shopster's 5 years old!

Five years ago in a galaxy far far away an idea was being conceived over the course of several happy hours in some of the most pocket book friendly taverns in Calgary.  It was exciting, it was new, it was such a simple idea...shhh...don’t tell anyone or they might steal it.  The best part was, that after each beer the idea became easier, better and more brilliant.  Make retailing easy by solving the supply chain issue, make building stores simple so our users could focus on the part of retailing they were best at.

I am of course talking about Shopster.com

Looking back on 2004, when an idea became a company, I see the delusion in all its glory, the delusion of entrepreneurs about to start a bold adventure. 

Delusion?  Sure!  We thought it was going to be easy.  We thought we had all the problems thought out.  We thought this would be quick and successful and like the conquering heroes, three young(ish?) men would shake up the retailing world.

Over the next few months Shopster is going to undergo a massive transition.  I will be sharing the goings on here on this blog, if for no one else, than my mom. 

(As always, with each major new release, our existing customers get to move onto the new product with bonuses.  We don’t forget where we came from.)

The next release of Shopster is the culmination of 5 years of tireless effort to create a retail business system that transforms the entire industry.  Many facets of retailing haven’t been sustainable.  The recent crash and upheaval in the industry has been a catalyst for Shopster, driving both our customers and us faster towards the Shopster Power Merchant Network.

Today I want to talk about delusion and those first days.

Our first real (lots of test orders before) sale didn’t occur till October 29, 2005.  One of our websites – gamingforless.com – sold an iPod – yes an apple iPod – the classic, the first and already a global phenomenon.

The website went live and magically out of the internet forest someone found us and went shopping.  In 12 not so easy steps...

1. They looked around and added an iPod to cart.  Check
2. They hit checkout. Check
3. They entered their personal info.  Check
4. They entered their credit card.  Check

All done… nope, not yet

5. Order came to Shopster.  Check
6. Order passed fraud review.  Check

All done… nope, not yet

7. Order was sent to supplier.  Check

All done. Nope.

8. Order cancelled by supplier – out of stock.

When will supplier get next shipment of iPods – 2 - 4 weeks…? Oh crap.
Now what?  Cancel the order?  Not our first one!!

9. So, pull out personal credit card.  Check
10. Go to Amazon.com.  Check
11. Buy more expensive iPod.  Check
12. Ship it to the customer.  Check

That was our first order.

The heady rush of going live, of watching our first customer buy something, followed quickly by anger and dejection of being out of stock, followed by a rueful acceptance of having to pay more for an iPod than your customer paid you just so you don’t let the customer down.  Followed 42 months later by regret at realizing that the company never did re-pay you for buying an iPod on your personal credit card.

That wouldn’t be the first time or the last we lost money on a sale... but there were some valuable lessons learnt along the way. Today we have a custom fraud detection system to protect our customers, real time integrated ordering with suppliers, and detailed reporting on supplier performance, which allows us to identify potential problems before they become serious.

Getting into business isn’t for those that can’t deal with emotional ups and downs. Even when you try to do the right thing, customers can get mad, but many times, sometimes quite unexpectedly customers shower you with praise.

Can Twitter help my small business?

Twitter (www.twitter.com) is a deceptively simple application that asks users to answer one question: 
What are you doing? 

Membership to Twitter is free, and membership has exploded to include bloggers and companies alike, all entering micro blogs sent to their “followers”. 

We have been asked frequently by Shopster Merchants whether Twitter is a good avenue to drive sales, and whether it’s worth investing the effort to create a following.  Shopster has recently started its own Twitter profile, and we’ll share with you what we’ve found.  

Companies who attract a large amount of followers have a tremendous opportunity to get real time promotional messages and drive new traffic to their sites, which is what most businesses are hoping for from their Twitter participation.  However, customers don’t want to follow companies that are just blasting out promotional material – and brands can turn people off by projecting all sales all the time. 

Alternately, if the primary Twitter goal is to create a sense of community and keep in touch with your customer base, offering topics of mutual interest will keep your business top of mind with your customers.  When they finally do need to make a purchase, your business is in a good position to make the sale.

Keeping your customers interested in following your “tweets” requires great content.  When determining your content, consider the following questions:

• What is your customer’s compelling reason to follow your tweets?
  • Example:  Great information, new, unique and different insights to common interests or issues
• What information can you provide about your product(s) that will reinforce and validate your customer’s buying decision?
  • Examples:  Comparison studies, product information, customer survey results that support your product’s claims
• How can you create a profile that gives customers a sense of community? 
  • Examples:  Common sentiments, and reinforcing shared values creates trust bonds and lends these characteristics to your brand 
• How is following your profile going to improve your customer’s day?    

So, now you have some ideas for content, but how do you create a following?  The best way to attract your own customers to follow is to add a Follow Me link to the bottom of all customer pages on your site and any customer communications.  Instructions on how to do this are available through Twitter’s help or through free online resources you can find by searching Google for “Twitter Buttons”.

Attracting new customers through the Twitter channel requires more creativity.  One way to make sure you are found is to put words your customers may search on right in your name.  For example, our name is listed as Shopster eCommerce.  So, anyone searching for eCommerce will find Shopster.   It’s also important to fill out your profile so that anyone who finds you during a search can see exactly what you offer.  Another technique is to search out groups or individuals that you want following you, and start to follow them.   Many Twitter followers will follow you back.  However, be aware that Twitter discourages “aggressive following”, and may shut you down temporarily if you try to follow too many people at once.  

At Shopster, we have embraced the tool as a way to keep our community in touch with eCommerce trends (as well as to communicate the odd promotion, of course!).  Our Twitter posts will be balanced to provide education/information on running your business, keep you up to date on what’s happening in the eCommerce world, and to communicate changes at Shopster or promotions exclusive to our Twitter following.  

Click the button below to follow Shopster on Twitter. If you haven’t already done so, get started on your own Twitter campaign today to help grow your business.   

PowerMerchant is now available to the public!

So it’s been a little while since we last updated our blog but there’s a good reason for that. We’ve been a little busy working on the latest Shopster product PowerMerchant, which was just released yesterday. As we say in Calgary - Yahooooooooooooo!

For those who are familiar with the Shopster e-Commerce product you may be asking different about this latest release? Well even though many of the features may seem similar there is a huge fundamental difference. PowerMerchant is about giving retailers full control of running their e-Commerce business.

So what does this mean? I won’t go into all the details of the product, you can read that here: http://www.shopster.com/e-commerce.aspx but here are some highlights:

• A brand new store designer. The templates can be fully customized to make the store look exactly the way you like. And we have a bunch of new stylish templates to start with.
• You can now sell your own products along with Shopster dropship warehouse products. In the past you could only sell our products in your store through the e-Commerce package. And you now have full control over how much you sell each product for.
• A fully integrated order management system so you can easily handle mixed orders. This may seem a little confusing but what it means is that if a customer orders a Shopster product and one of your own products, we’ve made it super simple to order the Shopster product and manage your part of the order.

There’s so much more than what I’ve highlighted here but hopefully this gives you an idea of what PowerMerchant can do for your online business. Be sure to check it out and give it a test drive. We’ve extended the free trial to 14 days so you have a bit more time to get to comfortable with it before making a decision.

Happy Selling!