July 15, 2009
By the ZippyCart Shopping Carts Content Team

The recently published Top 500 Guide by Internet Retailer ranked Blue Nile and Bidz as the leaders in sales among online jewelry retailers. According to the list, Seattle based Blue Nile generated $295.3 million in sales in 2008, ranking them 56th on Internet Retailer’s Top 500 list. The second highest-ranking seller on the list in the jewelry category was Bidz.com, which ranked 71st with $207.4 million in sales in 2008. Online jewelry sales might be on the uptick as early today Citigroup raised its rating on the Blue Nile stock from Hold to Buy. This is a positive sign to see since so many companies have been struggling with the downturn in the economy over the past year.

The two companies have very different strategies with Bidz focusing on offering a wide array of jewelry from a variety of companies and Blue Nile focusing on their own line of jewelry similar to that of Tiffany as well as sales of polished diamonds. Selling jewelry online has a variety of key benefits in comparison to selling from a brick and mortar storefront. Offering a wide selection of product, minimal operating costs, and no need to stress about a jewelry being stolen by someone coming into your store are all reasons why it pays to sell jewelry online. If you make your own jewelry and are looking to sell online you might start off small with a hand craft site like Etsy. If you want to take it to the next level or sell other companies’ jewelry online you should create your own ecommerce store and shopping cart experience.

July 14, 2009
By the ZippyCart Shopping Carts Content Team

Owning and operating an ecommerce store has a variety of moving pieces that you need to pay attention to if you want to be successful. First you need to build a brand, storefront, and shopping cart experience. Once you are up and running you need to get the right visitors to your site that will want to make a purchase. Not all customers are created equal and therefore many of them will need a little help to make it through the buying process. Designing a “cool looking” store does not mean that it is easy to navigate or to make a purchase. If you do not have a strong and visible “Add to Cart” button, then you may be missing out on sales from the people you worked so hard on getting to your store.

Vancouver-based firm WiderFunnel Marketing was hired by SAP Business Objects to improve the performance of a free-trial software download page. The redesigned landing page they created used direct marketing tactics like a strong call to action and highlighted the benefits. The real game changer in the redesign was the “BOB,” otherwise known as the big orange button that boldly stated “Download Now.” In comparison to a subtle blue text link that the control group had the BOB out shined it by a mile. In the A/B split test, that was documented in a Marketing Sherpa case study, the redesign generated an amazing 32.5% more downloads than the control group. This goes to show that constant testing and designing from a user perspective can make a huge difference in your sales. So if you have not been testing different buttons on your site now is the time to give it a shot. Go with bold colors, big 3d style buttons, with a clear call to action so that customers know how to buy your product. You might not see a 32.5% increase, as was reported in the previous study, but every small gain you make will result in more revenue for your bottom line.

July 14, 2009
By the ZippyCart Shopping Carts Content Team

Owning and operating an ecommerce store has a variety of moving pieces that you need to pay attention to if you want to be successful. First you need to build a brand, storefront, and shopping cart experience. Once you are up and running you need to get the right visitors to your site that will want to make a purchase. Not all customers are created equal and therefore many of them will need a little help to make it through the buying process. Designing a “cool looking” store does not mean that it is easy to navigate or to make a purchase. If you do not have a strong and visible “Add to Cart” button, then you may be missing out on sales from the people you worked so hard on getting to your store.

Vancouver-based firm WiderFunnel Marketing was hired by SAP Business Objects to improve the performance of a free-trial software download page. The redesigned landing page they created used direct marketing tactics like a strong call to action and highlighted the benefits. The real game changer in the redesign was the “BOB,” otherwise known as the big orange button that boldly stated “Download Now.” In comparison to a subtle blue text link that the control group had the BOB out shined it by a mile. In the A/B split test, that was documented in a Marketing Sherpa case study, the redesign generated an amazing 32.5% more downloads than the control group. This goes to show that constant testing and designing from a user perspective can make a huge difference in your sales. So if you have not been testing different buttons on your site now is the time to give it a shot. Go with bold colors, big 3d style buttons, with a clear call to action so that customers know how to buy your product. You might not see a 32.5% increase, as was reported in the previous study, but every small gain you make will result in more revenue for your bottom line.

July 13, 2009
Op Ed By the ZippyCart Shopping Carts Content Team

As the debate rages over whether Yahoo or YouTube is the 2nd largest search engine online, Microsoft’s Bing continues to fight for a chance to even contend. With an ad campaign approaching $100 million in marketing dollars, Microsoft has re-branded their 3rd tier search engine (with a market share of 6-7%) by creating a “decision engine” and suggesting that the days of using search engines are over. In the end, Bing still works just as a search engine would but doesn’t fail to entertain with humorous commercials about “search overload” and the catchy slogan “Bing and Decide.” Unfortunately, with a continuous focus on obtaining more market share in search they negate their goal of being something other than a search engine.

After many years of competing with Yahoo, Ask, AOL, Google, and now YouTube, Microsoft has remained steady with a 6-7% market share. After the launch of Bing, they spent a week hovering around 20% market share and are now back down to 9%. Regardless, gaining 2% market share in only a month is an accomplishment worth noting. It still begs the question: Why remain in the ring in the first place? If they are truly a decision engine, then they should own the market because no other company exists in that market. Apparently this idea is lost on Microsoft as they continue to compare themselves to everything under the sun in an attempt to show shareholders that the $100 million spend is not a total loss. A prime example is the latest report, showing that Bing had higher search volume in June in comparison to Twitter, CNN, and Digg. Blogger Jared Newman, of GadgetCrave.com, notes the irony of this by simply stating “…Bing is more popular than a few high-profile but completely unrelated websites.”

So while Microsoft’s ad dollars continue to deplete, many predict that their ramp in search traffic will as well. E-tailers should not jump the gun and spend a lot of time tweaking their SEO efforts in hopes of ranking on Bing quite yet. The best thing to do in this situation is wait until Bing has been around through the end of Q3. If Bing proves itself, then etailers should consider putting some Q4 revenue into futher analysis and optimization for it then. For now, most websites ranking in Google have similar rankings in Bing, which shows that optimizing for Google should still be number one priority.

July 13, 2009
Op Ed By the ZippyCart Shopping Carts Content Team

Twitter is the new buzzword, but while its popularity continues to grow, many remain baffled about what can be gained financially from it. The CEO and co-founder of Twitter, Evan Williams, has even admitted to some confusion regarding how he will monetize the site. Considering this, it’s no wonder so many eCommerce gurus are still learning how to best use this impactful tool for their own gain. So, to shed some light on the subject, the ZippyCart Op Ed team has gathered 3 helpful tips that allow you to use Twitter to better manage your eCommerce storefront.

1. Use Twitter as an Extended Affiliate Communications Tool

Not all shopping cart providers feature affiliate management tools, but if you’re lucky enough to have an affiliate management tool, then you should utilize Twitter. The first step is to set up a unique account just for your affiliates. Now you can easily communicate with them via another channel in addition to email or instant messaging. If your affiliates follow you and you follow them, then you can send them quick direct messages to answer their questions or publicly message them. If you have an iPhone, Blackberry or other smart phone, you can download great Twitter apps to help you manage your affiliates wherever you are.

2. Use Twitter as an Easy Way To Manage Your Online Reputation

Twitter is a tool that allows anyone to say anything in 140 characters or less. You have a business and a brand that you want to protect so having a presence on Twitter allows you to reply to anyone who has negative or positive feedback about your online store. In addition your Twitter profile will typically display very high in Google search results when someone is searching for your business online. This will give users another way to learn about you and see that you are a credible online store that they will feel comfortable shopping at.

3. Use Twitter as a Direct Customer Service Tool

Customers are what makes an eCommerce store successful, but with customers comes questions about your products and their orders. Having a Twitter account allows you to easily give them instant responses when they have a quick question. This will help build customer loyalty because it allows you to be attentive to your customers needs. In a sense, it’s similar to Live Chat on your site, but free. A happy customer typically tells other customers about their experience and if they give you a positive mention on Twitter they could have an audience of 10,000, 100,000 or even 1,000,000 people who will see their message.

July 06, 2009
By the ZippyCart Shopping Carts Content Team

A PayPal survey released last month indicated that roughly half (45%) of online shoppers have abandoned their shopping carts multiple times over a recent three week period due to high shipping costs, security concerns and lack of convenience. The average cost of abandoned goods in carts among U.S. was an average of $109. This survey was conducted for PayPal by comScore and they focused on the shoppers most recent abandoned session, regardless of the site involved, to determine the key reasons people do not complete their transaction.

The biggest reason cited by users was high shipping costs as the reason they abandoned their shopping cart. One of the best ways to get around this is to make shoppers aware of the shipping costs early on in the shopping process before they go to checkout of their shopping cart. While researching cart providers you will find that they offer varying levels of support to combat cart abandonment. Getting users to your ecommerce storefront is only the first step and you need to make sure you pick the right cart solution that will give you the tools for customers to convert.

Another big reason that users indicated as to why they abandoned their shopping cart purchase was that they wanted to look for a coupon. Coupons are a great way to help your customers get excited about making their purchases because they feel like they are getting a deal. Not all ecommerce shopping cart solutions allow coupon support but most do provide this for you. Not being able to find their preferred payment option was also reported as a reason for abandoning their cart. Shopping cart solution providers are aware of this and increasingly are offering more and more options. At least make sure you have the major players covered like Google Checkout and PayPal in addition to major credit card options.