August 10, 2009
By the ZippyCart Shopping Carts Content Team

Last week, Target announced that it will not renew its contract with Amazon to power its online store. The plan is for Target to take control of their own ecommerce operations by 2011 with a new Target.com in time for the holiday shopping season. Losing this partnership that began in 2001 will hurt Amazon and may be the beginning of more big retailers leaving to run operations internally. This situation is unique in that these Internet retail giants compete for sales online so it makes sense for Target to bring everything in house.

“We believe it is in Target’s best interest going forward to assume full control over the design and management of Target’s e-commerce technology platform, fulfillment and guest services operations,” Steve Eastman, president of Target.com, said in a statement. As more and more consumers turn to online for their shopping, it is critical that big Internet retailers have as much control as possible over the look and feel of their online storefront as well as the profits.

In the last few years, Amazon has also lost other big Internet retail partners like Toys”R”Us and book seller Boarders. This trend also indicates that Amazon is not as reliant on these relationships for their business as they continue to diversify and gain new customers daily. While it makes perfect sense for a big Internet retailer like Target to run their own ecommerce operations it does not make much sense if you are a small or medium size company. Unless you have the proper resources and funding it is best to use a third party to power your ecommerce store and shopping cart experience.

August 07, 2009
By the ZippyCart Shopping Carts Content Team

With the US unemployment rate skyrocketing to 9.7% in June, more and more people are turning to the Internet in search of quick cash. Those feeling the pain in their wallet have opened up a whole new market for sites that offer less than traditional methods of earning an income. In this story, we’ll cover 3 such sites that can help you take the first step into the space of online entrepreneurship or improve your already growing ecommerce portfolio.

MakeMoneyStudio – This website offers a unique way to make money online with a small amount of elbow grease and a flare for creativity. The premise of the company’s offer is pretty simple: you sign up (there’s always free sign up periods and there’s one right now), they help you build a website, and then they help you add their affiliate offers to the site. Every time you sell something, you get a commission of that sale and so do they. It works for them and for the merchant. So what’s the catch? While they say that there isn’t one, it’s likely that the catch is visibility. When you launch a new website, it will take quite some time for users to find your site and start making purchases through it. Typically, customers will visit your site at least 3 times before making a major purchase. As such, the first few months you will probably only make a few bucks here and there, while six months in you should start seeing the cash flow.

Freelance Writing Sites – There are so many of these sites springing up, that it’s hard to narrow it down to just a few. These sites have gained considerable popularity over the past year as many journalists have become victims of budget cuts. On the Internet, content is king, so it’s only logical that these sites have become such a high demand workforce for many small to large Internet companies. Writers can expect to make anywhere from $2 – $20 per article and could quickly make a living if they join the right sites. To see a list of the top sites, checkout this Examiner.com article.

Affiliate Programs – Affiliate networks have always been a popular driving force of the online economy, but as the offline economy worsens, affiliates are seeing an upswing in webmasters wanting to join their lucrative programs. If you own a website, consider signing up for a program like ShareASale or FlexOffers. As a member, you will be able to choose various merchants that you wish to promote on your site and will get paid everytime one of your users becomes a sale, lead, or click (traffic source) for that merchant.

Unfortunately, the programs listed above are not a cure all for the current economy. While they definitely offer great opportunities, they still rely on many brick and mortar businesses that might be hurting as well. As such, it’s important not to put all hope into one of these growing online spaces. Instead, job searchers should consider these methods as a way to improve their current situation while looking for a long term solution either offline or online.

August 06, 2009
By the ZippyCart Shopping Carts Content Team

Yesterday, Pinnacle Cart and GoDaddy announced a new partnership that would provide Pinnacle’s PHP shopping cart solution to GoDaddy users through GoDaddy’s Hosting Connection. Both companies have carved out market share in their respective industries, and this partnership will only further their reach.

Pinnacle cart has been offering a PHP based shopping cart solution to tens of thousands of customers for over six years. GoDaddy is one of the leading hosting companies on the Internet and the top domain registrar. As GoDaddy has grown, they have expanded their product offerings from simple domain registration, to a suite of online tools including web design, templates, hosting, and now an ecommerce shopping cart through Pinnacle.

In a recent press release on the topic, Pinnacle explains this merger by stating “Pinnacle Cart will offer the same robust features and functionality that have already been deployed to tens of thousands of users worldwide. Their powerful PHP shopping cart and website builder has over 400 features designed to increase sales and web site traffic.”

A partnership like this could lead to a growth in Pinnacle users, making it easier for prospective merchants to quickly deploy their online storefront and enter into the ecommerce world. Other changes might include Pinnacle’s hosting service moving to the GoDaddy server farm, which could decrease monthly hosting fees across the board.
It’s also good to try checking out various php hosting services from other providers.

August 06, 2009
By the ZippyCart Shopping Carts Content Team

Yesterday, Pinnacle Cart and GoDaddy announced a new partnership that would provide Pinnacle’s PHP shopping cart solution to GoDaddy users through GoDaddy’s Hosting Connection. Both companies have carved out market share in their respective industries, and this partnership will only further their reach.

Pinnacle cart has been offering a PHP based shopping cart solution to tens of thousands of customers for over six years. GoDaddy is one of the leading hosting companies on the Internet and the top domain registrar. As GoDaddy has grown, they have expanded their product offerings from simple domain registration, to a suite of online tools including web design, templates, hosting, and now an ecommerce shopping cart through Pinnacle.

In a recent press release on the topic, Pinnacle explains this merger by stating “Pinnacle Cart will offer the same robust features and functionality that have already been deployed to tens of thousands of users worldwide. Their powerful PHP shopping cart and website builder has over 400 features designed to increase sales and web site traffic.”

A partnership like this could lead to a growth in Pinnacle users, making it easier for prospective merchants to quickly deploy their online storefront and enter into the ecommerce world. Other changes might include Pinnacle’s hosting service moving to the GoDaddy server farm, which could decrease monthly hosting fees across the board.
It’s also good to try checking out various php hosting services from other providers.

August 04, 2009
By the ZippyCart Shopping Carts Content Team

As the economy continues to shake, etailers are not taking the fight sitting down. A recent survey issued by Forrester Research Inc. says that 79% of online merchants hope to enhance their checkout process to improve online sales and encourage more spending. Other improvements include image enhancements on product pages and a focus on site search in 2009.

For the most part, retailers plan on adding more transparency to shipping charges and taxes, which will help decrease cart abandonment. Other options to improve the checkout process include making it faster by using Express Checkout and 1 Page Checkout shopping carts, include totals for shoppers before they begin the checkout process, and using an always on-screen shopping cart. The “always on-screen cart” is a unique feature that allows shoppers to continually see their shopping cart, shipping costs, and tax on every page of a merchant’s site. Typically, shopping carts with this feature have a higher conversion rate than those without.

The survey is the 2nd of 3 installments from Forrester in a report they are dubbing the “State of Online Retailing 2009.” We covered the first installment in mid-July here.

August 03, 2009
By the ZippyCart Shopping Carts Content Team

To finish out July, Sigma Micro launched a new discount ecommerce site called LastAndFinal.com. The site boasts “merchandise at deep discounts below original retail prices” and could be a future competitor for the clearance mogul Overstock.com. According to the recent press release:

“LastandFinal.com merchandise is supplied by niche retailers with unsold and overstocked inventory. Liquidating these products through LastandFinal.com minimizes retailers’ valuable occupied warehouse space. Sigma Micro offers LastandFinal.com as a merchandise liquidation channel for all interested direct retailers of quality products, including over 100 current client companies. LastandFinal.com is powered by Sigma’s flagship product, SigmaCommerce”

The website is an interesting new move for Sigma, a company known for its ecommerce solutions offered to other online etailers. This places Sigma directly into the shoes of the many customers they have served in the past, and lives on their own ecommerce shopping cart platform. As a startup site, they set the bar pretty high with a low-price guarantee and offer an eye-catching “Deal of the Day” widget to encourage impulsive spending. They also match the low $2.95 shipping rate of Overstock.com, showing that Overstock was at least an inspiration to this new venture.

It will be interesting to keep an eye on LastAndFinal.com. According to Compete.com, it’s too soon to tell how this site is doing in terms of traffic, but if it picks up, it could turn into a worthy competitor for Overstock.com

July 31, 2009
By the ZippyCart Shopping Carts Content Team

Every Friday, SEOmoz hosts a video blog entitled Whiteboard Friday in which the famous Rand Fishkin gives insider tips and tricks related to SEO. SEOmoz is a highly acclaimed search engine marketing firm located in Seattle, Washington. Its members consist of various experts in the field of online marketing, led by Rand Fishkin, a highly sought after SEO consultant and presenter. Today’s Whiteboard Friday featured Dr. Pete Meyers of UserEffect as he discussed optimizing your ecommerce storefront for Google.

Those who run an ecommerce storefront, likely have thousands of product pages to manage. With each new product, comes multiple pages that will need to be found by users and search engines. Fishkin and Meyers discuss this need and offer a detailed plan of attack for merchants to focus their traffic and rankings for top products and pages.

The Whiteboard session covers important aspects of site architecture and ecommerce optimization including how to ask the right questions, how to properly prioritize and structure your pages, and how to sculpt page rank on your site. To stay up-to-date with all things SEO, regularly reading SEOMoz and checking in on the Whiteboard Friday videos will take you a long way.

July 29, 2009
By the ZippyCart Shopping Carts Content Team

A little over a month since the launch of Bing, Microsoft’s latest search engine, Yahoo has bent to the whims of their Microsoft suiter and agreed to a new partnership. If this new partnership prevails (anti-trust laws could halt it), Yahoo will adopt Microsoft’s search algorithm in exchange for 88% of all ad revenue from the combined engines. Critics are seemingly “underwhelmed” about this new deal because it will take about 2 years to implement and provides no up-front monetary benefit for Yahoo. This skepticism also shows through in Yahoo’s stocks as they took an 11% hit shortly after the announcement while Microsoft increased by only .7%

In the wake of this announcement, many look to Google wondering what will happen next. Google remains strong with 65% market share while Yahoo and Bing combined makeup less than 30%. Some believe that Google will use their lobbying resources to halt the deal entirely, just as Microsoft did in 2008 when Yahoo and Google tried to establish an advertising partnership. In the end, if this partnership achieves success, Google still has 2 years to implement necessary changes and innovations that will keep it on top.

July 29, 2009
By the ZippyCart Shopping Carts Content Team

A little over a month since the launch of Bing, Microsoft’s latest search engine, Yahoo has bent to the whims of their Microsoft suiter and agreed to a new partnership. If this new partnership prevails (anti-trust laws could halt it), Yahoo will adopt Microsoft’s search algorithm in exchange for 88% of all ad revenue from the combined engines. Critics are seemingly “underwhelmed” about this new deal because it will take about 2 years to implement and provides no up-front monetary benefit for Yahoo. This skepticism also shows through in Yahoo’s stocks as they took an 11% hit shortly after the announcement while Microsoft increased by only .7%

In the wake of this announcement, many look to Google wondering what will happen next. Google remains strong with 65% market share while Yahoo and Bing combined makeup less than 30%. Some believe that Google will use their lobbying resources to halt the deal entirely, just as Microsoft did in 2008 when Yahoo and Google tried to establish an advertising partnership. In the end, if this partnership achieves success, Google still has 2 years to implement necessary changes and innovations that will keep it on top.

By the ZippyCart Shopping Carts Content Team

It may sound funny to think that online retailers would start to prepare now for the holiday shopping season, but it is crucial to get a head start if merchants want to be ready for the rush. If online retailers begin efforts now and have a solid plan of attack for the holidays, then they can fix and prevent potential problems with online storefronts or shopping carts before it’s too late. Web traffic has a huge spike when the fourth quarter approaches as so many people choose to do their holiday shopping online. This is why it is vital to capitalize on the influx of visitors by offering them an easy and secure shopping experience with smart marketing tactics to get them excited about purchasing from your online store.

One of the first things you need to do is make sure your online store and shopping cart can support your marketing plans. If you do not have the right capacity to quickly and accurately process large quantities of orders then you could miss out on a lot of sales. Another key thing you can do now is work on your SEO strategy which could help increase your traffic in 3-4 months when the holiday season is in full effect. The first thing most visitors see when they visit your site is the homepage so you want to prepare the promotions you want to push and graphics to go with them now so that you can have a better shot to turn those visitors into paying customers. You will also want to look into adding wish lists soon so that visitors can start to save their finds they want and buy later in the year. One last tip is to research your shipping set up and make sure you offer free shipping when possible and a variety of shipping options so you can secure more customers.

July 27, 2009
By the ZippyCart Shopping Carts Content Team

A recently released report from The E-tailing Group which was sponsored by the Acquity Group indicated that 70% of online retailers surveyed plan to invest the same or more into their e-commerce as they did last year. The economy has had a rough year and this is a very positive sign that indicates long term confidence in online retailing. The study of 25 retailers indicated that, 8% plan no change in how they spend on e-commerce, 36% plan to invest more, and 26% plan to spend about the same amount of money as they did in 2008. On the downside 22% of retailers plan to spend less than they did in 2008 and 8% plan to invest significantly less which is not too bad considering current economic conditions.

One of the most surprising finds on the study was that engaging shoppers via the mobile channel was reported as a low priority for online retailers. An astounding 89% of retailers surveyed say they are not marketing to shoppers via the mobile phone. With the popularity of the iPhone and other smart phones it is interesting that more online retailers are not including mobile devices as part of their overall marketing strategy.

One very positive statistic from the report was that 46% of online retailers are selling and shipping internationally this year, compared with 40% in 2008. International expansion is key to taking your business to the next level and a tactic merchants should look into for their online storefront.

July 23, 2009
By the ZippyCart Shopping Carts Content Team

Yesterday, many publicly traded eCommerce stores announced their 2009 Q2 earnings. While the majority of e-tailers are not large enough to be a publicly traded company, it’s helpful to compare other eCommerce stores to the ones that set the bar. Amazon.com and Overstock.com are two such bar setters, having taken the online storefront from infancy to the popularity it holds today. Yesterday, we released a summary of Overstock.com’s Q2 earnings. Today, Amazon.com released their earnings which show exactly why and how Amazon remains at the top of the eCommerce industry.

Amazon.com has become a household name in the US. The Seattle based company entered the market through the sale of books online and quickly became a competitor to box stores like Borders and Barnes & Noble. Over the years, Amazon has expanded their offerings to electronics, credit cards, an online shopping cart, grocery delivery, and much more. They break these up into three groups: Media (books, movies, music & games, and digital downloads), Electronics & General Merchandise – EGM – (computers & office, home & garden, grocery, health & beauty, toys, kids & baby, apparel, shoes & jewelry, sports & outdoor, tools, auto, and electronics), and finally Other (Amazon enterprise solutions, web services, credit cards, & miscellaneous marketing). Overall, Amazon did not see a revenue loss in any of these three categories year over year. In fact, besides Media which remained flat year over year, Amazon saw a significant growth in a down economy. EGM rose 29% year over year in the US and 45% internationally. Another win was in the market of “Other” which rose 16% year over year in the US.

Amazon’s success comes from many contributing factors including ease of checkout, a thorough search and browse function, and a highly successful upsell and cross sell tool. Their “Customers who purchased A also purchased X” cross sell tool, set the bar for the industry. Ultimately, Amazon is an innovator when it comes to the online shopping experience, which explains its overall revenue of $4.6 Billion in Q2.

To view the full earnings report, click here.

July 22, 2009
By the ZippyCart Shopping Carts Content Team

Today is the day that publicly traded companies around the US announced their earnings from Q2 of 2009 to their investors. While the majority of e-tailers are not large enough to be a publicly traded company, it’s helpful to compare other eCommerce stores to the ones that set the bar. Amazon.com and Overstock.com are two such bar setters, having taken the online storefront from infancy to the popularity it holds today. Because Amazon will not make their phone conference public until tomorrow (July 23rd 2009), this story will be split into two segments. This segment will focus on Overstock.com.

Overstock.com is an online storefront with a focus on selling a company’s excess products at whole sale, or clearance level prices. In an economy where finding a deal is a necessity, Overstock seems to be benefiting. While revenue was down 6.7% year over year, profits rose by 8.1% in Q2 of 2009 in comparison to Q2 of 2008. Gross margin improved by 3% which explains the upswing in profit even though revenue sank. Another win for Overstock was a 22% year over year decrease in marketing dollars. Finally, Overstock brought in $4 million in adjusted EBITDA (Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortization) and has a trailing twelve month EBITDA of $18.1 million.

Overstock’s success comes from many contributing factors including ease of checkout, a thorough search and browse function, and customer memberships to name just a few. The company also puts a great deal of focus into email marketing by sending loyal customers special coupons and notices about weekend sales. A majority of these emails are personalized based on what that customer previously purchased, giving customers a sense of importance. The user interface of the store is simple with a general ease of navigation, which also helps a user move from just browsing to buying. Consider these factors when optimizing your own online storefront.

To view the full earnings report, click here.

See Part 2 Here

July 21, 2009
By the ZippyCart Shopping Carts Content Team

Creating an online store can seem like an intimidating task, but luckily most eCommerce shopping cart solutions make it easy for you to get started and go live. Having a plan can ensure you do not waste time so you can begin selling as quick as possible so we created a simplified four step process for you to follow when setting up your site.

1. Do Your Research and Create Your Strategy

You want to make sure you research your competition, your products and industry, and figure out everything you can about your customers. Targeting the right customers with the right message will help your eCommerce store be successful. If you just jump into things you may lose precious time or money which will hinder your business efforts.

2. Formulate Your Game Plan

This is a step you should spend a lot of time on so you do not have to come back to your plans while trying to design and launch your store. Figure out your content plan and your niche so you can focus your efforts on getting the right customers. You need to figure out the right type of information you want to present so it can generate sales. Driving a specific kind of visitor to your site will provide you a much better chance to convert them to a paying customer.

3. Design Your eCommerce Brand and Store Experience
Now that you have your content and customer plan figured out, you will need to design a brand that everyone will see when they come to your eCommerce store. You will also need to create a smooth navigation experience so visitors can browse through the site and find the right products.

4. Migrate the Site and Launch the Site

Now that you have done all of the hard work the final step involves moving the site from a development server toward live launch. Be prepared to run your business as orders could come in as early as the first day you go live.

July 20, 2009
By the ZippyCart Shopping Carts Content Team

As the wedding season takes way, online identity theft is on the rise in both the US and Canada. E-commerce stores continue to tighten online security in hopes of mitigating the risk for their customers, but e-tailers most vulnerable remain to be those using open source or free shopping cart software. With closed source (paid) shopping cart solutions, merchants take comfort in knowing that their store is secure and constantly updated with new security patches by the cart provider. Free carts, on the other hand, require the merchant to make all of these updates and sometimes even code the updates on their own. This begs the question: As identity theft continues to grow online, are free shopping carts the wave of the past?

A similar question was posed to a group of eCommerce gurus on the WebProWorld Forum earlier this year. Overwhelmingly, while users agreed that open source shopping carts provide more flexibility for customization, they also agreed that what you gain in flexibility, you lose in security. In addition to this, open source platforms require an intermediate to expert level of development knowledge to truly make use of that flexibility. An X-cart spokesperson on the forum stated, “Important advantage of paid shopping carts is your confidence – confidence in the software future, in professional support. You can be sure that you will get assistance from the people who actually created the software.” So, while paid shopping carts provide a stable and secure future, there is still question in regards to the future of free shopping carts in a virtual world riddled with hackers hoping to steal the identity of the customers e-merchants are vying for.

July 17, 2009
By the ZippyCart Shopping Carts Content Team

The shopping cart checkout process is one of the most important elements of your eCommerce store and online retailers are reported to look to improve the experience for the remainder of 2009. As the economy has struggled, it has become extremely vital that online merchants try and convert as many visitors as possible to paying customers. The “State of Online Retailing 2009” report from Forrester Research and the National Retail Federation’s Shop.org, stated that 79% of retailers they surveyed look to enhance their checkout processes. This was the number one reason and proves how critical it is to the success of any eCommerce store. People can abandon their shopping cart for many reasons and continually testing to decrease this experience from occurring will result in more sales and happy customers

Another hot topic in the report were clearance and sale pages which many online retailers will look to implement in 2009. Calling out these sections on your site makes your store more attractive to the online shopper on a budget or the customer who always wants a deal. Many major online retailers have effectively used these sale and clearance sections for years. With their popular outlet section, REI has set a great example for eCommerce store owners to study. If a retailer is not already doing this, then they are missing out on sales and potentially customers. Not all customers are created equal therefore eCommerce stores need to utilize a variety of techniques to ensure that they effectively monetize the traffic they work so hard to generate.