Shopster's Dropshippers, eCommerce, and Selling Online Blog

How to Give Your Man a Makeover

Face it. Most men do not have a clue about what is sexy and what is pure in the sexy looks department. In particular, the undies they wear almost always leave something to be desired.

Guys who served in the armed forces seem to be stuck, forever wearing those boxer shorts with drawstrings. Other guys never outgrew the plain white briefs, the kind that they had when they first started wearing underwear.

Then there are those guys who may not be geeks, but who still wear loose boxers with such themes as super heroes, Star Wars or Star Trek, or – gasp! – Cartoon characters like Mickey Mouse or Donald Duck.

Besides the inappropriate undies, some men still insist on wearing white socks. This can get particularly bad when he has stripped naked save for the silly socks.

Sometimes it is so bad that the woman would rather they keep their clothes on, even during sex.

There is a plus side to the sad state of men who wear awful undies. Most men also like receiving unexpected gifts, underwear included. In addition, since undies are affordable, we women do not need a special occasion to give the hapless men in our lives the kind of gifts that they will appreciate.

You can even make a special occasion out of the gift. Tell him a few hours before that you just bought him some sexy underwear, but since you do not know if they will fit, you have to be the one to put them on him. Just to try them out, you understand.

One the two of you are alone, then you have to do the honours of pulling down his pants, then his blah undies. Then you put on the new pair of men’s thongs, or whatever it is that you want to see him in. If you bought several pairs, then he has to try them out one by one.

Of course, they fit. All you had to do before ordering them was to get his belt size. Or peek at any of his old briefs or shorts, which will usually state the size.

If you bought him three pairs, then you have to strip him three times. On the last try, tell him to show his appreciation for the terrific gift you just gave him. He should have a neat woodier after all the fittings. Now prepare to be rewarded for your kindness.

 

Who Knew Selling Adult Toys Was a Growth Industry

You might have heard that the world is having a economic recession and stress levels are rising!  Well looks like that is helping the adult toy market, it is suggested that the sex toy market place is around $15 billion industry.  So as the rest of the economy has dipped this industry has been growing and growing no pun intended. In the past sex toys were sold mainly in land based stores that could be a little uncomfortable and seedy in many cases but there has been a major switch to online selling of sex toys.  The big key is selection and discreet shopping.  “ People can shop on our store in the privacy of there own homes and offices and they can do it when they want and how they want, online stores like ours have much larger selections then most brick and mortar stores and better pricing.  Customers want selection and they want the private and discreet shopping site like www.purePASSIONATE.com offers.” Ryan Wuest, the Executive VP of Marketing of purePASSIONATE told me.

So setting up your online store and selling adult toys and product could be and seems to be a great way to beat the recession blues!

I know, it’s still months away before the Christmas season, but given the craziness that comes with the gift-buying period, don’t you think it’s a smart idea to start shopping for presents now? Why not save yourself from the stress of last-minute shopping by putting these beautiful toys in your list? You won’t regret buying these toys and I’m sure your girls will surely thank you to death for giving these pleasure tools at their disposal.

Nexus Vibro

This is the perfect gift for a woman who already has extensive sex toy experience. The Nexus Vibro is clearly not made for the beginner. The size of the toy may prove overwhelming for the neophyte. This works great as a perineum massager as well, which makes this baby a great present for men as well.

Gigi and Liv

You can’t go wrong with LeLo toys, and these babies are no exception. These beautiful toys called Gigi and Liv sports an elegant design totally light years away from the common sex toys. These toys look very sexy and the minimalist design is ideal for the women who want their toys discreet. Gigi is great for g-spot stimulation while Liv is perfect for vaginal and anal penetration.  

Tryst

Wooden toys may not be on the top of your list, but one look at the Tryst can change your mind. This wooden dildo is nature-inspired and multi-functional, which means you can use it for g-spot stimulation and anal penetration. It is perfectly safe for use because of its non-porous and hypoallergenic material.

Personalizing your Online Store

Like most consumers, you probably have a favourite mom and pop store or two selling all sorts of knickknacks and gift items. These stores do not belong to any nationwide chain but are owned and run by the owners themselves. Some of the items they sell may be homemade products made by friends and neighbours.

Such stores have a homey feel that that large chains try to emulate with little success. It is the personal touch of the owners that makes all the difference in the world.

This is just as true with that online store that you keep going back to, not always to buy but simply to browse.

For would-be entrepreneurs, there is no reason why they cannot create an online store that has the same feel as a friendly, neighbourhood gift shop.

One simple way to get this special feel is for the owner to place his or her photo in the site. He or she may even push a bargain or bargains of the day or week.

Care should be taken to avoid seeming those high-pressure used car salesmen as seen on television. An over-the-top approach could have the negative effect of turning off instead of appealing to potential customers.

Most of the time, the soft sell approach beats the hard sell method by a mile. There may, however, be instances when the owner of the online store is truly excited about the bargain of the week being offered. In such cases, it’s perfectly all right to be more excited than usual.

Needless to say, a highly personalized online store can become a highly profitable enterprise. A little originality can go a long, long way.

Understanding What Landing Pages Are

In online marketing, a landing page is a single web page where your campaigns, promotional banners or ads “land”. This is the first thing that your visitors see that should encourage them to perform a certain action. It could be leaving their contact information, buying a product, booking in a hotel or any conversion goal set for the page.  

Landing pages are often used in email campaigns, pay per click ads and in newer platforms like social network advertising. There are two basic types of landing pages. First, are the ones that are meant to generate leads or present relevant information to the visitor. They are usually called reference landing pages. Then, we have the transactional landing pages. These are the ones that are designed to finish a sale from beginning to end. Here, the goal is to turn the visitors into buyers.

Landing pages are usually composed of images such as a hero shot or a gallery, direct sales copy, and a clear call-to-action. Images are a great way to keep your audience hooked and to curb your page’s bounce rate. However, when using it, be cautious that it doesn’t distract the your audience from the actual goal of your website.

Your copy is also critical. There are several parts to consider, first among those is your headline. As much as possible, your headline should match the ads where your visitors came from. You can also use a sub-headline to support your headline.   The body copy, on the other hand, should be your sales pitch for your product. When writing copy for landing pages, the rule of thumb abides: Keep It Short and Simple. Try using bullets or numbered lists to break long lines of text. Be direct to the point of what you are selling and talk about the benefits of your product or service.

Last, but not the least, you have your call-to-action. This is the final element in your website that funnels your visitors towards the desired action. These are buttons that say “Submit” for lead-generation landing pages or “Buy Now” for retail pages. The key to an effective call to action is to make it stand out – it could be colorful, loud or surrounded with whitespace.

 

 

 

Create a Loyal Customer Base with Good Service

In retail, people keep coming back to a store that they like, not just because they offer amazing products but also because of the kind of customer service provided to them. This is how you create a loyal customer base, by impressing them with your response time, your service quality and your overall ability to support their needs.

With so many suppliers of the same brand of products, your real defining factor as an online store are your prices and how you serve your customer. The world of online purchasing is lightning fast, a potential customer can be out of your website in just one click.

If you think you already provide good customer service, stop and think some more. Here are some tips to improve what you already have:

• Faster response rate  - If you’re running a traditional land-based store, a 24 to 48 hour response time was good enough. Online, things are different. Strive to respond to a customer concern within the same day, particularly within the first 4 to 8 hours of email receipt.
• Flexible returns policy – This is where most merchants fail the supreme customer service test. Any product return would almost certainly cost a merchant. But if you want to be really customer-centric, go beyond the usual policy and aim for a no-questions-asked returns policy.
• Reward loyalty – While it may be difficult to have a rewards program in place if you’re a relatively small company, keeping track of who frequently buys from you should not be a big problem. Once you have that handful of loyal customers, tread them exceptionally well. Maybe even go the distance by offering special discounts.
• Get out of your comfort zone – You won’t succeed online by trying to imitate what others are already doing. Push the boundaries of customer service and you’ll soon be reaping the rewards via customer goodwill – they tell their friends of the great service you’ve provided, who will then tell their friends, who will tell their friends …and it goes on and on.

Customer service can make a big difference even for a small company. You may feel like your company’s size is limiting at time, but it’s really a matter of understanding the value of what you do for them. Offering amazing customer service means good reviews and return customers.

Happy selling!

 

Improving Website Conversions

One of the biggest mistakes an online merchant can make is to focus solely on initiatives to attract potential buyers. You may be paying enough attention to your SEO and paid campaigns to bring in hundreds of visitors to your online store, but if they don’t convert properly, it would have all been in vain.

First things first, you need to set the conversion goal for your online store as well as for your major pages. For the store, it’s usually for the visitor to complete a sale and become a buyer. For your index page, the goal could be to move from the index page into a category page. From a category page, it should be to move into a product page. And from the product page, your goal should be to have your visitor drop the item into the shopping cart. The shopping cart itself should have a separate conversion funnel, tracing the performance of individual pages within the cart.

Here are some general tips to help you start making changes that make sense for your conversion funnel:

• Assess if your layout and navigation are easy to understand
• Create content that is compelling and talks about what your store really is all about
• Add enticing images to your index page, ones that are more likely to sell
• Offer an incentive – whether it be packaged shipping, discounted prices for first time buyers or even a surprise gift, these are magnets for sales.
• Ask only for the bare essentials in your shopping cart forms. The more fields you have there, the higher the friction, the less likely the customer will finish the process.
• Offer contact information prominently as this communicates that you are a reliable source of products and that the customer can get in touch with you in case the transaction is not as smooth as expected.
• Build trust with seals from third parties such as VeriSign, TRUSTe or the Better Business Bureau.

Improving your conversions really is all about testing what works for your market. While these minor changes can help, focus on making the changes that matter to your specific targeted customer segment.

Happy selling!

 

 

 

Designing Your Online Store Homepage

The most important page of any site is the homepage. This is the first thing your customers see and you only have about three seconds to grab their attention and keep them from leaving. As such, a lot of thought should really go into the way you design your homepage.

While most templates you’ll find online today look great and are professionally rendered, it is important to check for elements that, 1) attract attention and 2) convince your visitors to go to the next step. Let’s deal with the first issue.

Your design should, first and foremost, reflect what your brand wants to communicate. If you’re a store that sells high-ticket items like jewelry, it should be evident in your logo, your graphics, your copy and even down to your color choices. Think luxurious and elegant, colors like burgundy and silver, black and royal blue or purple and white are great choices that really jump out at the potential customer.

Next, work with a good designer to choose the product images that best talk about your store. Go with items that move fast and are in demand. Put the popular products front and center. The last element that could capture attention in your home page are sales, promotions or special discounts. Everyone, no matter how expensive the item they are buying, is always on the lookout for a way to save. This is where you can get creative with the way you showcase that special something that only your online store can offer.

Second, we need to get in elements that don’t just convince your potential buyers to stay in your site but to move towards the next step in the buying process (ie to buy whatever item you have on the homepage or to look for their specific needs within your categories). For this, you need to give your visitors access to the next step. It can be in the form of a search box where they can type in the product they are searching for or a good listing of your categories.

It is also important to build trust at this stage. You can easily achieve this by having your phone number prominently displayed on your homepage. This acts as reassurance for your customers that in case anything goes wrong, they can easily get in touch with you. A link to your About Us page where you detail your commitment to customer service is also a good idea to have.

The most important thing to consider when designing your home page is to think like a customer. This will help you figure out what they need aside from those we’ve identified.

Happy selling!

 

Creating a Coming Soon Page

Not quite ready to let the world see your new online store?  The best interim to have before you launch your actual site is to have a coming soon page. This is a good way to introduce your product, create buzz about it and find out just how interested your audience will be in your offering.

There are no set rules to what the coming soon page should have. We’ve come a long way from ten or so years ago where the only thing you’ll see is a “Page Under Construction” sign with either a cone or a some semblance of a street sign for on-going work.

Today, companies have become more creative with their coming soon pages. Some attracting more attention than others simply by shrouding what they plan to offer in much mystery. Both copy and design plays a good role in this aspect. Have a crazy character on standby that says a lot about your product without a single word. Or get a preview video to play.

People who visit the page for the first time should have a clue as to what they will be coming back for. This is especially important if you are asking them to sign up. If you want to increase the number of emails you can capture, you should give them more incentives for doing so. For instance, it can be their ticket to your private beta launch or you’ll be raffling off some products during your launch or it entitles them to a discount.

It’s difficult to keep the mystery while keeping your audience engaged. One way to do this is via a count down. You can also use social media to get them to visit your site often, like through weekly or even daily tweets.

Just remember, your Coming Soon page should indicate that you will indeed arrive soon. Don’t let it sit there too long, people just aren’t that patient for a product they’ve never even seen before.

Auditing Your Online Store

Your online store is still basically a website and requires necessary upkeep. As such, we urge you to conduct periodic audits to check on its quality. This would ensure that you continue to rank well for your target keywords and that site usability is not degraded. In turn, achieving these two things would mean more visitors, better conversions and better sales.

These are some things that you need to look for or do for our website:

• Research on your keywords again. Keyword research is not a one-time deal. In fact, if you look at Google Trends, you’ll see that the way people search and what they search for constantly change. To stay on top of the search game, it would be best to schedule keyword research at least every six months and to update what is mapped in your current pages.
• Check on the sites linking to your own website. If someone is attempting to damage your reputation online or to get you to rank lower, they can easily do black hat SEO by linking your online store to bad neighborhood sites such as porn or link farms. Make sure that you don’t have any of these in your back links. If you do, contact the site administrator and ask to be removed.
• Check for broken links and non-working pages. While we did advice you before of customizing your error handlers such that your 404 can also lead to a sale, it would be best not to have those errors in the first place.
• Create new content for your site. Whether it’s updating your product descriptions or adding more blog entries, these will be seen as fresh and unique content that will help your ranking still.
• Diagnose your site using webmaster tools – Yahoo has Site Explorer and both Google and Bing have their own branded webmaster tools. Make sure you enable this (it’s pretty easy to do, just follow the instructions on the sites) as they will help you discover some problems that maybe affecting your status in these particular search engines.

Online Store: Redesign versus Testing

One of the biggest mistakes an online merchant can make is to haphazardly decide to redesign his or her online store if something seems like it’s not working. First of all, you may be missing out on a lot of potential revenue for your website by not testing what works and what doesn’t. You may be surprised to find out that even the smallest tweak in your online store can generate a lot of sales.

Before you even think about redesigning your website, make sure you have clear goals. The main purpose of any website redesign is to make it easier for your customers to use your site and eventually to increase conversions

Second, a sitewide revamp is costly. Just like it would be to hire a designer or a web developer to do a custom website for you, it will cost you money to deploy a supposedly better version of your existing website.

Third, a major redesign is a big gamble if you already have customer following or a known brand. Customers who are already used to the way your site looks and functions and often come back for return purchases may not be too happy to find a big change in your website. Your customers will most likely associate the look of your website to your brand, as such it will be a big adjustment for them to see the difference for the first time.

What we suggest is to take things one step at a time. Test the elements that have a big effect on conversions. You can start with your call to action. Followed by your navigation. You can even test page layout. There are a lot of tools on the internet to help you conduct A/B split tests or multi-variate tests. A popular tool is Google’s Website Optimizer, which is free and easy to use.

If you’ve already taken the leap and hired a web developer to do your new online store, then your best recourse is to measure its impact on your conversion. If the site has already been launched, do a historical analysis of data from the time you made the change. If you see a drastic drop in conversions, then you should consider reverting back to the old version of your online store.

A redesign can make your site look fresh, but it can have dangerous effects to your bottom line. So decide carefully.

 

 

Top 5 Cost-Cutting Tips for eCommerce

In our last blog post, we talked about how stopping revenue leakage can help increase your bottom line. Another strategy to take is to cut costs where you can. These money-saving tips for ecommerce merchants can help you reduce your overall costs to run operations. By nature, ecommerce should not be an expensive enterprise. Especially compared to traditional retail, there is much room for reducing your business spending. There is no need for office space or even a physical store to run an ecommerce business. Manpower hiring is also not an immediate must-have for thrifty merchants. What you do have to invest on are your marketing efforts, order fulfillment, your online storefront and your inventory of items to sell. But even those can be shaved down to the bare minimum.  

Here are some tips you can follow to save money on running your online store:

• Start with a ready-made website for your online store. Whether it’s your first or your third online store, testing the waters for a new product is a must. To save you money on customizing a store that may not even work in the long run, we suggest you start selling via a free web store. There are hundreds of templates available on the internet and some (like those available in Shopster) even come with free hosting and a subdomain.
• Do things yourself. As a beginner online merchant, it is tempting to start hiring people or outsourcing some tasks, but hold yourself back and you’ll see that you’re saving a bundle on labor costs by doing it yourself. One example would be managing your website’s inventory. Since you’re starting out small, it would be best to be hands-on with this task. It may seem trivial, but the more time you spend on different aspects of running your own store, the more you’d understand everything about the business.
• Use your connections to market your online store. Marketing can easily become the most expensive aspect of running your ecommerce business. While paid options like PPC campaigns definitely have a good showing of return on investment, you can try alternative means to get the word out about your site. Social media marketing has started to gain good footing in the field of online advertising, and it’s relatively easy to use and is free.
• Consider dropshipping for your order fulfillment. One of today’s most useful innovations in online retail is dropshipping. This supply chain management method does not only save on upfront costs for inventory (no need to have products physically on-hand to sell), it also saves you big on shipping and handling as the items you order from dropshippers are sent directly to your end-buyer.
• Focus on retaining old customers. Customer retention is always the cheaper way to go versus acquiring new customers. Marketing to existing customers is less expensive as they do not need to be reoriented about your site or the products you sell. One way to achieve this goal is to provide a product that has a recurring demand and of course, to offer world-class customer service that your customers would not soon forget.

Paring down the cost is not easy, but if you’re really determined to do it, you’ll soon find yourself saving more and more each passing month.

Happy selling!

Preventing Revenue Loss for Online Stores

Does it feel like you’ve been running your online store for ages and have yet to break even? Preventing and recovering lost revenue can put a stop to that money leakage and help you ultimately achieve your goal. But to get there, you need to know where and how the loss occurs.

1. Make sure your site is secure to prevent attacks. Attacks will cause your site to become inaccessible. The first to do is to try to stop it from happening in the first place. Site security should be your number one concern. Get a good system administrator to build good firewalls that block out malicious scripts, yet allow quality visitors to browse your website.
2. Streamline your processes. Any business inefficiency is money down the drain. Investing in systems that automate parts of your process or make it easier to do a task is well-worth it. This means that the manpower you’ve hired can focus their time and effort on other things that could push your online store to perform better. Do a quality check on all of your processes from order taking to fulfillment, the less human involvement in a process, the better.
3. Have stricter measures in place for fraud prevention. Preventing fraud will help you keep your chargebacks in check (which in turn means you won’t have problems dealing with your payment gateway and merchant account provider in the future). Billions of dollars a year also become lost revenue due to fraud. A simple SSL certificate to encrypt your secure transaction can do the trick. But you can also go to the extreme with address verification systems and other BIN checks.
4. Have a Plan B to prevent downtime. Aside from maximizing your site security to prevent your website from being attacked, there are also other ways to ensure you don’t have downtime. Using a CDN or a content distribution network won’t just speed up your online store, it can also help prevent DDOS and other attacks that may cause your site to go down. Even better, it replicates your content throughout data centers in the world, so when one goes down, you still have the data somewhere in the world alive and kicking. Always have a failover in place, being dependent on just one physical server can get you in trouble. Some online retailers swear by collocation to ensure that whatever happens to one data center, they still have the ability to be back up in a jiffy. Last, but not the least, employ good technical people that can get you back online when you need it. The money you spend on your tech guys and web developers will be so worth it when an emergency comes around.

It may seem like preventing revenue loss is a big technical investment, but do consider that you are running an online store. Controlling those vulnerabilities will only mean good things for you in the future.

Happy selling!

Transparency can Prevent Abandoned Shopping Carts

At one time or another, you may have experienced dealing with the problem of abandoned shopping carts. You are not alone in this challenge. In fact, shopping cart abandonment has plagued so many merchants that the total rings up to about $21 billion. The main reason consumers abandon carts is fear of identity theft in online shopping. On average, abandoned carts have goods amounting to about $109.

It really is a big loss if compiled on a daily basis. Some have given up on the issue and have resigned to the fact that not all sales will close. But you could actually do something about it. Transparency is the key. Letting your potential buyers know more about what you offer can lead to a more trusting relationship.

Let’s start with the basics. Put yourself in the shoes of your shopper. When you reach your online store, do you feel confident about buying there? Does it look like it’s a real retail store? Something as simple as good, professional-design can clearly communicate reliability. It may cost you a few dollars to get a well-designed store, but for the recovery of those abandoned cart losses, you will more than break even.

Contact information is another must-have on your website. Prominently display ways for the customer to get in touch with you. If you have a hotline they can call, we even suggest you place this on the first virtual fold. It gives buyers confidence to know that they have someone to talk to in case things don’t turn out so well.

Another important thing for you to do is to actually provide a safe and secure environment for your potential customers to shop in. It takes more than a few encouraging words to get your buyers to trust you. You actually have to earn it. If you are processing payments online (like getting credit card details and charging the card), you will need an SSL certificate. SSL or Secure Sockets Layer encrypts the data that is passed on the internet on to the banking institutions that make the charge possible.

For our last tip, you need to show your customers you can be trusted. One very effective way to do this is via trust seals. According to one of the most popular providers of security seals today, 86% of shoppers feel more confident about shopping on website using security indicators such as trust marks.

One service we highly recommend is KikScore. It offers a suite of services to help online stores build trust. With KikScore, online merchants get a Confidence Badge as well as a Trust Score to show shoppers they can be trusted. For those that seek to find out more, they can look over the KikReport, where pertinent details about the business can be reviewed.

We believe in the importance of being transparent and building trust so much that we’re giving you access to KikScore right from your Shopster account. With it, you’ll get the following benefits:

• Ability to leverage your Shopster track record to show your store is reliable and trustworthy
• Your website visitors see multiple trust factors about your business like security, traffic, management and customer feedback
• Interactive features that allow Shopster customers to include an introduction video for shoppers and interact with customers
• Dynamic trust scoring that updates your website trust and reliability score on a daily basis

You can try KikScore free for the first 90 days. To find out more, visit: http://www.kikscore.com/

What NOT to Do for Your Online Store

So you’ve done a lot of things for your online store that are actually working for you. That’s great news. However, you may have also done a couple of things that are actually not working right for your store. This is a list of what NOT to do for your online store.

• Having an obscure call to action button – This is the key to getting your customers place items in your shopping cart and have them actually buy from your online store. By not placing your Add to Cart or Buy Now button in a prominent position that captures the attention of your target audience, you may be losing out on big sales.
• Having a slow-loading site – This is a big turn off for today’s modern shoppers. Most internet users today expect your entire site to load in less than 10 seconds. Any more than that and you’re risking an increase in bounce and exit rates.
• Lacking product photos or have limited descriptions – The first thing a buyer looks for in your website is information. If it is already obvious that you are selling the item they need, they would look for pictures, descriptions or anything that lets them know more about the product. It would be a big plus factor if you could also add actual testimonials or even video reviews of the product.
• Having misspellings or errors – This may seem like a simple mistake here and there, but in bulk it can really annoy your target audience. They way your write and the way you present things in your website reflects on how professional you are as a business. Do a simple check to avoid having potential customer question your credibility.
• Having anything that instantly plays – Whether it’s a video about your company or background music, anything that plays without being prompted by the user is not a good idea. Even more so if it already plays and the user can’t easily find a way to stop it. Be careful with putting any media that does this unless you intend to purposely annoy your online store visitors.
• Broken links and broken images – Broken images are usually signified by a transparent box with a little red x mark while broken links just don’t lead your users anywhere when they click. Both degrade the value of your site in terms of usability so do your periodic checks and clean ups for these.
• Pop-up Windows – Today’s technology can give you so many options to render your advertisements. Please don’t be tempted to use pop-ups as one of these. Pop-ups are associated with spam and it really does not contribute to the users buying experience so it’s best to avoid.

The best way for you to really veer away from things that are not helping your site or your conversions is to put yourself in the shoes of your potential buyers. When you visit other websites to buy anything, try to assess what things annoy you that the store could really do without. You might discover that you are doing some of these things yourself.

Happy selling!

What You Need to Know About Cross-Selling

We’ve mentioned in numerous posts here in ShopTalk that cross-selling can help you increase sales. As a refresher, cross-selling is the art of promoting products related to what the potential buyer is currently looking at. For instance, if your buyer is searching for a mobile phone, displaying accessories along with it is always a good idea.

Here are some tips to help you improve your cross-selling abilities:

• Cross-sell products that are related and have the same attributes. For instance, do not cross sell leather shoes with an arm band, when dress socks would be a better fit.
• The products you cross-sell should be priced no more than 20% of the product they are looking at. While varying the price points sounds ideal, in your customer’s head seeing numbers that are too big being displayed as a cross-sell will get them to start adding up totals, which is not a good idea while they’re still in the product page.
• If you possible, allow your customers to view the cross-sell items without leaving the current page. Here, a lightbox preview or the use of an Ajax script would be a good idea.
• If you don’t have related products to offer, one tactic is to offer varieties of the same product – such as ones with different sizes or colors.
• Add-ons are another great cross-sell products. These are items not related to the specific product but are applicable to all items like gift cards and warranties.
• Limit the number of products you cross-sell with the main item. The more choices you give the customer, the less likely they are to purchase anything. There is no rule of thumb with regards to the number you can display, but a maximum of 5 items is a good starting point.
• Test your cross-sell placement. Some cross-selling can happen right on the product page, others do it right before check-out. Even in terms of layout, you could also test displaying cross-sell items beside the product or below the product page.

Last but not the least, there are different ways to word your cross-sell strategy. It could be as a referral: “Experts Recommend” or “Other Customers Also Like”. You could use a more casual, personal approach: “You Might Also Like…”. A popular one is the use of emotion-laden words like in fast food chains they say: “Do You Want Fries with That?”. It focuses on the wants and needs of the customer.

Happy selling!

 

 

The Art of Search

Search is a very important feature for any ecommerce site. It allows your users to quickly find a particular item they are looking for among the hundreds of items you may have for sale. This is called site search.

Here are some guidelines for designing your search box:

• Make your search box prominent, place it in a obvious area where you users will instinctively look for it – usually the upper right corner of your website or above any sidebar navigation.
• Aside from prominence, also give your search box more real estate. A short search box, no matter if well-placed, will not create as big an impact as one that allows users to enter up to 30 characters.
• Auto-complete is a good to have for usability. This is most beneficial to mobile ecommerce users as it is difficult to input search terms using mobile devices.
• Your tool should be able to handle misspelling.
• If you’re out of options, you can use the search tool available from Google. But make sure to limit the results to your site only.

Search results are just as important as the search functionality itself. Instead of displaying zero results, try an upsell. A cross-selling feature within your results can also generate more sales. A good thing to add as well are choices in size and color. Don’t forget your “Add to Cart” or “Buy Now” call to action when displaying results. It is likely that users who type products in a search box aren’t just looking for information, there is a high probability that they are ready to buy.

As an added tip, you should also spend time finding out what your customers are searching for. If you have access to logs or analytics for your search box, you may want to create filters for those in the future. For instance, if your customers are searching colors, sizes or prices, the you may want to add a dropdown filter to Search by Color, Search by Size or Display from lowest to highest price. Even better than that, you can use the data you gather from your search statistics to help you with your next merchandising effort. Information on brands and products that are often searched for but you don’t carry yet can come from your own search statistics.

Happy selling!

What to Include in Your Privacy Policy

Here’s another must-have policy for online store owners. The privacy policy is the first thing your potential clients will look for when you ask for anything related to contact details, particularly for their email address. In the early days of the Internet, spam was so rampant that this became a tool for protecting consumer rights. This is especially important if you’ve been online long enough to secure trust seals like that of the Better Business Bureau, Truste or Verisign.

The essence of the privacy policy is to let your website users know what you intend to do with their private information. Some websites have their lawyers draft up the privacy policy, but the truth is, it doesn’t even have to be that iron-clad legal nor too technical. Do a quick preview of what the other big box stores have (check out Amazon or eBay for good examples), but be honest with your clients and how you deal with their information.

You will need to indicate whether or not you collect information from your site visitors, what kind of information you collect and what the purpose of that is. More importantly, you will need to address what you do with the information once you’ve collected it. Here, it would be a good idea to indicate all the types of information you collect – such as the browser, operating system, location and IP address and if your site uses cookies.

Next, indicate whether or not you share this information with other parties. For instance, in ecommerce, transmitting information to the payment gateway on to the merchant account may be considered sharing it with a third-party provider. In the case of online stores that use dropship suppliers, it’s the same thing. You are also sharing it with a third party.

Now on to the legal jargon. The next important thing to ensure is that you include which country or state the policy is legally actionable in. This is usually the country or state where your business is registered or located.

Additionally, you will need to reserve the right to change your privacy policy at any time.

If the battle goes to court or at least reaches the authority, it would be in your best interest to add in your privacy policy that should you be required to divulge the information to authorities, you intend to do so.

Last, but not the least, your privacy policy is meant to communicate what you intend to do with your users’ information, not to confuse them. While the legal mumbo-jumbo will always be there, try to be as straightforward and simple with your communication as possible.

Happy selling!

What to Include in Your Returns Policy

Returns policies are rather sensitive in the context of dropshipping. First, youhave very little control over the quality of the product that goes out to your consumers. Second, whatever returns policy you publish on your online store will have to match that of your supplier, otherwise, you take on the cost of the returned product. Despite these difficulties, there is a very real need to have one in your online store.

Like most other policies, the returns policy gives your buyers confidence in your brand. It gives them security to know that if something goes wrong, there’s a policy in place to cover them. The key here is to identify what you can realistically commit to and to really detail these out in your policy.

A good policy that protects both you and your clients is time-sensitive and documented. So, first things first, define the timeline from the date of purchase that you will accept returns – some limit it to two weeks, others as much as 90 days. Indicate if you require a receipt for the return (or in the case of an online purchase, any document confirming purchase). Let your clients know as well if you require them to return the item in its original packaging and any other return shipping instructions you may have. Pay special attention to this detail as the buyers may need to address it to the dropshipper instead of sending it to you. Include in the instructions any pieces of information you may require such as name of the sender, address, return authorization code, etc.

Tell your clients upfront if there are any pre-requisites to accepting returns. For instance, you may opt to accept only items that are defective or are shipped in error. Some may find this too stringent though, so be careful how you word it. If you conduct inspections and have conditions for accepting, make sure that this is noted in your returns policy. For example, you may say that items showing obvious signs of misuse will be declared ineligible and will be shipped back to the customer at their expense.

Define your exceptions and limitations. You’ll find that some companies and manufacturers do not accept returns on electronics, lingerie or any form of undergarment, jewelry or regulated items. If you offer other options instead of a return indicate this as well – it may be a cash refund, a gift card or you may accept exchange of items of equal or lesser value.

Is there a restocking fee? What percentage of the purchase price is it? Do you refund for shipping? Are there exceptions to this (ie if the error is on your part or on the dropshipper’s part).

When creating your returns policy, be clear about what you want to communicate, be as detailed as possible, try to protect your interest but keep the customer’s needs in mind. Finding a balance in the latter will result in a fair policy that your customers will appreciate.

What to Include in your Shipping Policy

When creating content for your online store, policies should always be top of mind. While your index page should definitely spell welcoming, your  category page copy should be informative and your product page content should be compelling, your policies should be straightforward and easy to understand.

Sadly, most merchants don’t even have their policies written down on their online stores. Just put yourself in the shoes of your buyers, wouldn’t it add confidence if you knew how to handle a return situation even before something goes wrong? Wouldn’t you appreciate knowing how long it would take before a product gets to your doorstep? Policies make it clear to potential buyers how you handle certain situations. It manages their expectations which may avoid problems for you in the future.

Let s start by discussing one of the most important policies you should have on your online store: the shipping policy. This is particularly important in the context of dropshipping as the delivery dates may vary and in some instances, may even be difficult for you to control. Having a shipping policy in place will communicate those problems to your clients clearly.

It is a good idea to include information on how the products are shipped in your shipping policy. This includes the average number of days it takes for the product to get to them from the time they place the order. If you are able to get the information from your dropshipping supplier, you should also include which carriers you use in your shipping policy. If you have limitations, do communicate these as well. For example, let customers know if you are unable to ship to post office boxes or APO and FPO addresses.

Be detailed about the charges you may have for shipping including local and international rates (although this is really detailed out in the check out), do inform your clients if there is a difference between the two.  Give them information regarding which places you can and cannot support for shipping. If you offer insurance for the items shipped, specify this and note down if you charge separately for it.

Add information regarding combined shipping for bulk orders if this applies to you and if you offer free shipping for a specific amount or number of products purchases. These are extras that we’re sure your customers will appreciate and can increase your total sales amount.

Finally, be sure to include a notification process in case the item goes missing or does not get to them within X days.

Happy selling!

301, 302 and Other Server Responses

When you often do changes to your site – whether as a result of testing or redesign – an important thing to learn is having your server respond to search engines with the proper messages. This will avoid problems of indexing and may be even getting banned in the future.

The web server status code is a three-digit integer result code to classify the request to the server. There are five types. The 1XX codes are informational such as continue request or switch protocol. The 2XX code indicate that the request was successful, understood or is accepted. The 3XX are codes for redirection. The 4XX are indicative of an error and that the request could not be completed on the client side. The 5XX codes are server errors for a valid request.

Of these, the most commonly used are the redirections. 301 is used for permanent redirection. It means that this and all future requests are to be pointed to the new location. This is used when changing domains, implement a URL rewrite or renaming categories. 302 is for temporary redirects. This type of redirection is typically not recommended as search engines react to them in different ways. It may be used if you have a destination URL that is shorter that your actual URL, but a 301 may just be as effective if character limit in display is not a big issue.

Another useful one is the 404 or the Page Not Found error, this is usually displayed when you have a broken link on your site or your visitors try to access a page that is no longer there. First off, resolve the issue immediately. This is an error that will reduce your ability to convert visitors into buyers. Second, try to customize your error handler such that it if your visitors encounter this, they have a way to get back to the last page that they visited or to your home page instead of being led to a dead end.

The last server error that we’d like to discuss today is the 503 response which tells search engines that the network is unavailable. Though not popularly used, this great little code can tell instruct search engine bots and spiders to ignore your site for now as it is down for maintenance. They will try the page at a later time.

There are a lot of other server response messages out there. Do try to look them up and see how you can use them for your own online stores for different situations that warrant it.