NetSuite Blog by SuiteCommerce

Great Newsletter Subject Lines

2009-11-03T13:16:00.000-02:00

Offer, Offer, Offer

Enjoy this Special Offer at Our New Location

25-40% off - Email-Only Offer – Today Only

Invitation-Only 2 Hour Event Starts 11:30 AM CT

Ends Today! 20% Off Friends & Family

Top 10 under $10

Free shipping - offer ends in 3 days

Free product with purchase of [product name]

[New Product] has arrived. Order now before we run out.

Earn double points for [insert product or action].

Last Chance: Get up to $25 now

Save 10% on your next order

Enjoy [season] with rates from $65

Service Notice: Exciting new changes at [your company]

An Exclusive Offer for You

[Your company] October Specials

Last minute deals, special offers, and new [product name]

Act Now to renew your [subscription name]

Online only: 25% off friends and family

Introducing our latest…[product/feature here]

[Product name] Promotion week. Save 25%

Extended for a day! Get Free shipping through Friday

Stock up and save 15%

Limited Supply: Limit 2 [product name] per customer

Ho-ho-ho: The [your company] holiday catalog is here!

Email subscriber exclusive: [Product name] sale is here

Ends Today: Take 20% off your entire order

Private Sale Ends Today

Your choice of amazing items $50 + under

Great gifts for [Dad, Mom, etc]

Best Sellers every [girl, boy, man, woman, dog, etc.]

Everything you need when the temperatures [rise, fall]

Free Shipping--Limited Time Offer

Catchy & Creative

Sometimes all you need is a little vase lift (retailer selling vase's)

We've got you covered from head to toe (retailer selling hats, shirts, pants and boots)

How La Perla got its name (retailer selling lingerie, telling a story inside the email)

Temperatures Fall, Style Rises (retailer selling coats)

Celebrity Favorites (selling accessories that Hollywood is wearing)

Did you remember to get a gift? It's ok, we did. (retailer wanting to get people to register for gift reminders)

10 Gift Ideas for your little ones (retailer listing top 10 suggestions for kids)

Manhattan View for a Song in the Shower (retailer selling shower curtain with Manhattan skyline on it)

Take your pick: Our 9 Favorite Dresses (retailer suggesting by popularity)

Coolest modern desk on the job...for $149 (retailer including price in the subject line)

Score Great Savings on Game-Time Gear: HDTVs, Furniture & More (retailer selling TV's with a sports slant)

Party Like it's 1999 Aged Cabernet Special (wine retailer)

In our store: Last minute Mother's Day combo ready to go (retailer getting the last minute shoppers with a catch "combo to go".)

Adorn Your Home Now & Through the Holidays (Home decor retailer)

Mind-Blowing Grenache (wine retailer)

Bring this email to a Gap store and win! (retailer trying to get store traffic)

I hope this gets your creative juices flowing. You can also find some great holiday-specific subject lines here. If you've got some great subject lines that have worked for your business, comment and let us know.

The POWER of Social Networks - Oprah and Black Eye Peas

2009-10-12T02:12:00.000-02:00

It turns out the the Black Eyed Peas contacted 800 Oprah fans via Twitter and Facebook and taught them the choreography for the dance by publishing videos online.. Then those 800 fans-turned-dancers taught the rest of the group. Watch the video.

At first it looks like no one is really digging the whole Black Eyed Peas song except for the one over-the-top fan on the front row. And then 10 of her friends start joining in on the dance. And then 50 more. Before you know it the whole crowd is dancing...20,000 fans all dancing in sync.

1984: How critics reviewed Apple Computers

2009-10-07T03:40:00.001-02:00

"The nature of the personal computer is simply not fully understood by companies like Apple (or anyone else for that matter). Apple makes the arrogant assumption of thinking that it knows what you want and need. It, unfortunately, leaves the “why” out of the equation — as in “why would I want this?” The Macintosh uses an experimental pointing device called a “mouse.” There is no evidence that people want to use these things. I don’t want one of these new fangled devices."

Funny!

Source: http://brainstormtech.blogs.fortune.cnn.com/2009/01/12/jan-1984-how-critics-reviewed-the-mac/

Why you shouldn't copy us or anyone else

2009-09-24T00:48:00.002-03:00

We hate copying and everything we have built in the past we developed/desgined it from scratch, and that is exactly why we lead in the NetSuite eCommerce business and companies that copy will always follow.

Here’s the problem with copying: Copying skips understanding. Understanding is how you grow. You have to understand why something works or why something is how it is. When you copy it, you miss that. You just repurpose the last layer instead of understanding all the layers underneath.

Have you seen a NetSuite app that was obviously copied from what we have built in the past? The copy usually lacks depth and detail. They miss the spacing, the proportions, the relationship between colors and objects and buttons and links. It’s usually pretty close, but there’s something not right about it.

Why? Shouldn’t copying something be easier than creating it? Someone else already did the work, right? The problem is that the work on the original is invisible. The copier doesn’t know why it looks the way it looks or feels the way it feels or reads the way it reads. The copied interface is a faux finish.

This is why future iterations of a copied script or solution begin to break down quickly. The copiers don’t understand where to take it next because they don’t understand the original intention. They don’t know the original moves so they don’t understand the next move.

Look around at eCommerce designs that were clearly copied from someone else’s store and you’ll find a lot of inconsistencies and sore thumbs. That’s the new stuff.

I think copying leads to a lack of understanding as well. Be influenced by many, copy none.

So bottom line: Copying hurts you. You miss out on what makes something good. Instead, try to be exposed to a variety of perspectives and points of view. Take whatever you find useful and leave the rest behind. Fill in the gaps with your own ideas. In the end you have make your own way forward.

Again. Stop following. If you don’t know the original move you don’t understand the next move, and that's why you will never lead.

Michael Jordan's induction speech

2009-09-16T02:20:00.002-03:00

A great speech by MJ. One of the quotes I really like from Michael Jordan,

"Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence wins championships."

Enjoy the Video...

NetSuite eCommerce Advanced Analytics Metrics

2009-07-16T16:00:00.002-03:00

Hi readers,

This is a list of all the reports included in the NetSuite Advanced Analytics module.

Based on all these data you can create new ones and customize the current ones. they are very very powerful

The Page Hits

Number of hits the Web site receives by page. This report also shows the number of unique visitors hitting each page. Use this report to see the most often hit pages in the Web site.

Page Hits by Category

The number of hits to the Web store items receive by category. This report also shows the number of unique visitors hitting each category and item..
Page Hits Detail

Number of hits to the Web site pages receive by customer. Also shows the date of each customer's last visit to the Web store.

Hosted Page Hits Summary

Hosted Page Hits Detail
Number of hits the pages hosted in the NetSuite File Cabinet receive. Also shows the number of unique visitors hitting each page.

Page Hits by Customer
The number of hits to the Web store received by customer. Shows the date of each customer's last visit to the Web store.

Hosted Page Hits by Customer
Number of hits the pages hosted in the NetSuite File Cabinet received by customer. Also shows the date of each customer's last visit to Web store.

Web Item Orders
The numbers of items ordered, the number of orders places for each item and the number of unique customers who ordered each item.

Web Item Orders by Category.
This report shows the numbers of items ordered, the number of orders places for each item and the number of unique customers who ordered each item by Web site category.

Web Item Orders Detail
This report shows the number of items ordered by item, the Web site page the item appears on and the date in which the item was last ordered.

Item Page Views and Sales Summary
Number of pages views, orders, items sold and revenue by item.

Shopping Activity Analysis
How many times items have been added to a shopping cart from the item list view and item view, how many items total have been placed in a shopping cart from the item list view and item view, and how many orders received by item.

Shopping Activity Analysis by Category How many times items have been viewed, how many have been placed in shopping carts and how many orders received by category.

Shopping Cart Abandonment
This report shows how many times registered customers placed items in their shopping carts but did not complete checkout.
Referrer Summary

Referrer Detail
This report records where site visitors are coming from and records the URL each visitor used to navigate to site on his or her first visit.

Keyword Summary

Keyword Detail
The Keywords Summary report tracks the search terms visitors used to find the Web site on their initial visits. NetSuite records both the referring URL and the exact search keyword phrases customers used the first time they visited the site.

New Visitor
Distinguishes first time visitors from return visitors and provides separate information for each. This shows the visitor's first visit during a time frame and if it is his or her first visit overall.

Lead Conversion
The calculated ratio of Visitors converted to leads and / or customers. Also the ration of leads converted to customers.

Visitors Activity Summary

Visitors Activity Detail
Distinguishes first time visitors from return visitors, listing the names of registered leads or customers. The date of last visit is given, and the number of visits and page views displays per registered visitor. Unregistered customer data is totaled under -No Customer-.

Internal Search Summary

Internal Search Detail

Ways To Track Phone Sales From PPC / AdWords in NetSuite

2009-07-08T23:42:00.001-03:00

How do you measure the true return on PPC ad spend when phone leads or phone sales are not being taken into account?

If we take a typical e-commerce store as an example, up to 35% of sales can be taken over the telephone. Accurately attributing these sales can make a big difference to how you optimise your PPC campaigns, and have an effect on the overall ROI from paid search marketing.

Most web analytics solutions do a great job of tracking where sales come from, be it from organic search traffic, direct type-in traffic or PPC traffic. However, the source of telephone orders is one area that site owners often choose to ignore because it’s difficult to track.

Here’s a few ways to track PPC traffic that generates orders over the phone.

1. Use Unique Promo Codes On PPC Landing Pages

This can be achieved by tagging your urls with a CGI parameter, such as “?leadsource=adwords”. With a bit of code you can get this code printed on the page, as “Promo:adwords” in the footer will work fine. When customers call and place an order make sure everyone is trained to ask them for their “promo” code, which gets stored with an order placed over the phone.

Furthermore, you could be a little more cryptic with your promo codes if you want to hide what you’re doing from your customers. Using custom promotional codes works well if you are running large PPC campaigns with hundreds of keywords and landing pages.

2. Use A Unique Telephone Number On Landing Pages

This is a very simple but effective technique: switch the telephone number based on the referring site. If you wanted to be thorough you could get a telephone number for MSN, Yahoo or AdWords. This method is more suitable for sites offering a limited product range and bid on a small range of keywords.

3. Use A Pay Per Call Service

Set up a new telephone number and then put that number on your landing page. Pay Per Call services come with powerful stats so you can measure just how many calls you have received. Also using a service such as Ingenio means you only pay for phone call leads from new customers calling your business.

4. Track Sales With Specialist Telephone Call Conversion Software

Choose a solution such as that provided by ClickPath to track all conversions generated from your online advertising, including phone calls, and tie them back to the exact keyword or ad source.
5. Use An IVR Phone System

Harnessing the power of an IVR phone system can take the headaches out of getting your staff to record the lead source. You could add an extra menu on your phone system asking people for a promo code that is unique to the referring site.

All these techniques can be done in your NetSuite Store. So tracking offline sales in NetSuite is a possible now!

Using PayPal and NetSuite

2009-06-11T16:17:00.001-03:00

When the customer completes checkout, a sales order is created
in NetSuite with payment authorized by PayPal. The sales order
status in NetSuite is either pending fulfillment or pending
approval, depending on your accounting settings. When you bill
the order, payment is received from PayPal.

After an order is created, NetSuite initiates an authorization
request to PayPal for the full order amount. When the Web store
shopper approves the authorization, a three day honor period
begins. PayPal places a hold on the shopper’s payment
account for the amount of the order to ensure availability of
the funds for capture.

During the three day honor period, you are guaranteed to capture
the funds as long as the authorization is valid. Please contact
PayPal for more information about their validation process.
You have three days from the time the order is created to
fulfill the order and capture the funds. If you attempt to
capture the funds after the three day honor period, NetSuite
voids the original authorization, initiates a new authorization,
and attempts to capture the funds. By default your PayPal
account is restricted to a single authorization. NetSuite can
initiate only as many authorizations as your paypal account
allows within a 29 day period.

Interesting "Make money Blogging Series"

2009-06-04T01:17:00.003-03:00

Hi,

I know Yaro since 2005, and he always impressed me on his ability to write the best content out there and make money out of it. He was one of the first ones to monetize.

Buy these series and you ll be blown away. Guaranteed.

Click Here!

Hug a Developer!

2009-05-13T01:26:00.003-03:00

NetSuite customer Providing Affordable eOutplacement Services

2009-05-05T02:17:00.001-03:00

CareerMinds.com specializes in providing affordable one-on-one outplacement services. They provide personalized outplacement services featuring one-on-one time with a Career Transition Consultant at a price below many group seminar outplacement packages. Whether you are downsizing 1 or 100 employees, CareerMinds.com can provide your company with the means to offer them effective, affordable outplacement services. Considered one of the best outplacement firms.

The Importance of Having a Clear Vision and Goal for your Web Store

2009-04-11T02:54:00.000-03:00

If you don't know what you are trying to achieve with your web site design then you will probably achieve … nothing!

Just as your company (hopefully) has a clear vision of where it wants to be in the future and what it wants to develop into - your web site design also needs to have a clear vision.

The vision for your web site design should be aligned with your company’s overall vision.

Ask yourself:

* what is the vision for this web site design?
* why are we getting a web site?
* what is the purpose of your web site design?

Next, think, what are the goals for this web site design? Be specific. What do you want to achieve through a web site? Think about the following areas:

* Enquiries
* Sales - eCommerce
* Brand development
* Business efficiency

Put specifics on everything. How many enquiries or sales would you like to generate through your web site? What would make your web site an amazing success? Many people decide to get a web site without defining the reasons behind their decision. Once again, know exactly what you are trying to achieve!

8-Word Search Queries Up 34,000% (5 Years)

2009-02-26T20:24:00.001-02:00

If a picture is worth a thousand words, we might want to start scanning-in images of what we’re trying to find on the search engines. As new data from Hitwise suggests, we’re gradually starting to use more & more keywords when conducting our search engine queries.

Hitwise compared January 2009’s data with last year’s, but I want to take you back farther in time–5 years in fact! Not that my memory goes back that far, but I did remember covering this data for my old blog: Search Engine Lowdown.

Here are the numbers from this year, with Feb 2004’s numbers in parentheses:

1-word searches = 20.29% (19.02%)

2-word searches = 23.65% (32.58%)

3-word searches = 21.92% (25.61%)

4-word searches = 14.89% (12.83%)

5-word searches = 8.68% (5.64%)

6-word searches = 4.65% (2.32%)

7-word searches = 2.49% (0.98%)

8-word searches = 3.43% (no one did 8-word searches in 2004!)

As you can see, there’s been a significant drop in the number of people using 2- and 3-word searches, while those using 5-words and above are becoming more common–likely from those of us that cut-and-paste large quantities of text into Google.

One interesting observation: the number of people using 1-word searches has remained surprisingly similar–in fact, showing a small increase in the past 5 years. This either means that the search engines are getting better at delivering relevant search results, or more “brand” searches are being made, or some of us are just committed to being lazy with our searching. ;-)

All your AdWords Tools in one Place

2009-02-25T19:32:00.000-02:00

Today, Google announced a site that acts as a one-stop shop for all your Google Adwords tools called the Google Agency Tool Kit. Within the site is several tools advertisers use every day to help create and optimize their PPC accounts. Below is a list of the tools on the page with a brief description of each.

Google Agency Tool Kit

Add this to your bookmarks so that you don’t have to go digging around for these tools online anymore - you can simply go to this one page to access all of your most-used tools. Thanks Google! :)

Good times for NetSuite eCommerce customers!

2009-02-13T01:09:00.000-02:00

NetSuite Ecommerce Customers Achieve 30 Percent Increase in Online Revenues and 99.99 Percent Site Uptime in Q4 2008 over Q4 2007

SAN MATEO, Calif., Feb. 12 -- NetSuite Inc. (NYSE: N) , a leading vendor of on-demand, integrated business management software suites for the mid-market enterprise and divisions of large companies, today reported the aggregate revenue and site uptime results achieved by its Ecommerce customers during the recent 2008 holiday season. NetSuite-powered Ecommerce customers beat the national averages across key Ecommerce performance indicators by achieving a 30% increase in revenues and 99.99% site uptime.

The strong performance of NetSuite etailers is in stark contrast with overall industry averages, which included a 3% decline in overall online spending for the 2008 holiday season when compared to the same period in 2007 (source: ComScore: http://www.comscore.com/press/release.asp?press=2659) and 96.81% average site availability among the nation's top 50 Ecommerce sites, according to the US Internet Retailer Benchmark (source: Gomez).

Despite current economic conditions, NetSuite-powered Ecommerce businesses experienced significant growth compared to the record-setting 2007 holiday season.

Collectively, NetSuite-powered Ecommerce businesses in Q4 2008 recorded:

* 30% increase in revenue
* 36% increase in web transactions
* 46% increase in unique visitors
* 80% increase in page hits

NetSuite international customers also did extremely well during the recent holiday season. NetSuite's UK Ecommerce merchants saw a 94% increase in revenue in the fourth quarter of 2008 compared to the fourth quarter in 2007. NetSuite's Australia Ecommerce merchants saw a 73% increase in revenue in the fourth quarter of 2008 compared to the fourth quarter of 2007.

"NetSuite's Ecommerce customers have proven that even in tough times, profits and sales can be increased when using a smart, scalable solution like NetSuite Ecommerce," said Baruch Goldwasser, Ecommerce Subject Matter Expert. "Our Ecommerce customers showed a phenomenal 30 percent gain during the 2008 holiday season - an incredible achievement."

NetSuite's Ecommerce software, which allows companies to deliver an "Amazon.com-like" experience to customers, is garnering rave reviews. NetSuite won the Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA) 2008 CODiE Award in the software category for "Best Ecommerce Solution." In July, Gartner placed NetSuite in the visionary quadrant of the "Magic Quadrant for E-Commerce" report.

Following is a sampling of NetSuite Ecommerce customers' recent success:

DealYard.com (www.dealyard.com), increased sales year over year by 45% and experienced a two-year growth rate of 113%.

DealYard.com is a leading online retailer of brand-name merchandise at discounted prices of up to 70% off retail prices and is committed to offering the best brands at outstanding values to its customers. DealYard.com has generated a year-over-year annual sales growth rate of 45% and two-year growth rate of 113%. Their disciplined focus on growth and profitability, along with their partnership with highly scalable NetSuite, resulted in a ranking of No. 28 in the Inc. 500 fastest-growing private retail companies in America.

"NetSuite's Web-based application allows us to reduce operating costs and thus maximize operational efficiency and scale by providing complete and flexible ERP, CRM and Ecommerce solutions," said Rob Heller, CEO of DealYard.com. "Even in this very difficult and challenging economic climate we were able to gain market share and generate significant revenue and profit growth."

In Casa Gifts (www.incasagifts.com), achieved over 300% growth from 2006 to 2008.

In Casa Gifts is an online boutique that sells occasional favors, gifts and accessories for occasions like weddings, bridal or baby showers.

"NetSuite is our backbone and it continues to prove itself a great investment, bringing together our accounting and reporting, marketing, Ecommerce and product management activities together under one roof," said Mary Maesano, co-founder and president of In Casa Gifts. "We've done a lot of great things since launching in 2006 that helped us achieve over 300 percent growth in the two years since then. No doubt, delivering excellent service in the online space is fundamental, but we wouldn't have had the time to focus on customers nearly as much if we didn't have the right system. In Casa Gifts and NetSuite have a great 'marriage' and we look forward to realizing 100 percent growth in 2009, despite the tougher retail market environment."

Best American Arts (www.bestamericanarts.com), had an increase of 37.6% in the fourth quarter of 2008, compared to the fourth quarter of 2007.

BestAmericanArts.com is the award-winning website that provides easy and convenient access to the work of America's best artisans. According to BestAmericanArts.com, buying American artisan jewelry and home decor items strengthens the U.S. economy.

"With NetSuite's Ecommerce platform we were able to create a completely customized look and feel for our Web store," says Tom Reidy, CEO. "Additionally, we appreciate the real-time inventory control that NetSuite provides so we never disappoint a customer by showing a product that is out of stock. This is particularly important to us because we carry many one-of-a-kind items. Our fourth quarter alone was up 37.6 percent over 2007 and we couldn't have done it without NetSuite."

Neteon Technologies, Inc. (www.neteon.net), increased sales to $4.5 million in 2008 compared to $3.3 million in 2007.

Neteon is a value-added reseller of industrial networking equipment for federal and state governments, Fortune 500 corporations, schools, universities, research facilities and industrial automation system integrators.

"While other businesses were feeling the effects of the economy this year, we grew our sales from $3.3 million in 2007 to $4.5 million in 2008," said Chung Yu, President. "Our Web store is integrated with NetSuite's shopping cart and accounting system and because NetSuite is Web-based, we don't need to spend precious manpower to manage our own internal hardware for this important function, sparing us that headache."

Bluw UK (www.bluw.com), increased online traffic to over 3,000 hits per day in 2008 compared to an average of 300 hits per day in 2007.

Bluw, based in the UK, is a product design, manufacturing and distribution company in the gifting and toy industry. The decision to integrate its US retail site with NetSuite in 2008 allowed the company to have all information - shopping cart, CRM, inventory management and product delivery management through the UPS integration facility - in one place.

"NetSuite has helped us create huge overhead savings in reconciling interfaces from different systems and allowed us to focus on the most important issues of driving traffic and converting it to sales," said Ian Harkin, Financial Director. "While NetSuite helped us increase our traffic from an average of 300 hits to over 3,000 hits per day in 2008, we did not have to worry about software, hardware, system support, and upgrades as all of this was included in the package."

DVA, Inc. (www.dva.com), has experienced an increase of more than 500% in its Ecommerce business.

Distribution Video & Audio, Inc. (DVA) started in 1988 selling used videos for new store openings and video rental chains, such as Hollywood Video and Blockbuster Video. Then they sold 100,000 units a year. Today DVA sells more than 10,000,000 units per year. In 1995, DVA expanded into three separate divisions: Consumer Sales; Library and Government Sales; and Liquidating and Wholesaling. In 2003, they added a Special Markets division.

"Before switching to NetSuite, we tried four or five different Ecommerce platforms without finding one that could truly cater to our needs," says Brad Kugler, Owner. "Since come on board with NetSuite our Ecommerce business has increased by more than 500 percent. The end-to-end integration saves us multiple entries and the real-time inventory has been hugely successful."

For more information about NetSuite, please visit www.netsuite.com.

NOTE: NetSuite, and the NetSuite logo are registered service-marks or trademarks of NetSuite, Inc.

Are you stopping all your PPC? Stop!!!

2009-01-30T18:49:00.002-02:00

Are you Abandoning pay-per-click (PPC) advertising because it’s getting too expensive, and concentrating on search engine optimization (SEO) instead?

By doing this, you’re refusing to acknowledge that your company is getting pushed out of the marketplace.)

PPC makes sense and you have to be there. Optimize, Optimize, Optimize. But the ecommerce market is there. You have to be doing PPC.

Can someone explain this Google Street View Image?

2009-01-25T23:34:00.002-02:00

Hi readers,

Please explain this if you can!

Click here

Meet us at the Internet Retailer 09 Web Design Conference

2009-01-22T15:31:00.002-02:00

Hi Readers,

We are at the Miami Internet Retailer 2009 Web Design Conference. We are meeting some of our customers, and would love to meet you too if you are around.

email us at ir2009@suitecommerce.com to schedule a meeting.

Some pics of yesterday at the workshop rooms and main lobby.

We will publish more about what we learned, and new trends. Exciting!

Drop as an email. See you at IR Web Design Conf!

Web Design Key for Online Shoppers

2009-01-16T18:49:00.001-02:00

Online product offerings require solid visual design to close the deal for many shoppers according to a report released by interactive marketing solutions firm Questus.

Critical to making a decision to purchase goods on a Web site are;
site navigation (37 percent);
the checkout process (32 percent);
and product descriptions (38 percent).

Perspective buyers left e-commerce sites without purchasing for a few key reasons. Twenty-nine percent didn't want to register with the site; 22 percent of online shoppers found it difficult to locate products; and 17 percent left to find other e-tailers because they didn't believe the site they were on was trustworthy or secure.

"We find that Web sites have three seconds to make an impression," said Jeff Rosenblum, co-founder and research and strategy director of Questus. "The actual usability is more important than aesthetics, but at the same time aesthetics are critical."

Clean site design is noted to be a more effective way of getting conversions from online shoppers, according to Rosenblum. "Information overload is a critical and consistent problem, and in this study we found that Web users were more likely to say that a site had too many links as opposed to too few links," he said.

The study reports this past holiday season, online shoppers were twice as likely desire fewer links on each Web page than more. Twelve percent of respondents want fewer links; 4.47 percent thought it would be better to have more links.

The marketing solutions firm advises using the rule of sevens. "The rule of seven for any navigation bar or drop-down list is that seven items is the breaking point," said Rosenblum.

The report was based on an Internet survey of a proprietary Questus panel comprised of 425 employed U.S. residents over the age 18. The survey used online holiday shopping as an example for respondents.

Whats the purpose of each page/section of your store?

2008-12-23T03:14:00.003-02:00

I had a discussion today with one of our customers about what each page meant for their visitors and how should they focus when thinking and providing us feedback for each page.

Let’s get practical here:

* Home Page = Sell yourself in 5 3 seconds with a Unique Value Proposition and Route users to your top selling sections, plus provide a navigation to access to your entire Catalog.
* Category page primary goal = route visitors to sub-category or product page
* Product page primary goal = persuade visitors to purchase
* In the News page primary goal = build brand credibility
* Shopping cart page primary goal = get the cash!
* General content page primary goal = build more momentum

Most web pages should have only one primary goal. If there are alternate options, offers, or next steps, that’s fine. But don’t interrupt the task at hand, and don’t overload your visitors with distractions.

Less is the new More in eCommerce. People rush all day. Simple messages are captured. Long descriptions and text are useless.

Product Descriptions? Just type in what it problem will it solve and have a separate tab for specs (if needed). Videos are perfect!

Hope it helps.

Happy Holidays!

Happy Thanks Giving

2008-11-26T23:09:00.002-02:00

Happy Thanks Giving to all our readers and customers. Hopefully Black Friday is the most amazing sales day.

Have a great long weekend. We are closed Thursday and Friday.

Thank you,

Is there a tech Bubble going on???

2008-11-05T21:02:00.000-02:00

eCommerce business: Is it recession-proof?

2008-10-24T04:51:00.000-02:00

Despite the economic slowdown, e-commerce and online business has remained strong. This prompted an article in the E-commerce Times this morning asking if this is just a fluke and if the e-commerce industry is just lucky.

The conclusion from the article is that since e-commerce businesses focus more on relationship building activities and customer loyalty than brick-and-mortar retailers, the e-commerce model thrives.

I’d have to agree with this. E-commerce businesses have so much more data at their disposal since business happens electronically. They can learn which offers and online marketing channels drive the most business, and testing offers and creative on the web is, well, easy. Not so offline. Try asking a brick-and-mortar retailer how much business their TV or radio ad drove, and you’d get nothing more than an educated guess.

10 Tips for Recession-Proofing Your eCommerce Site

2008-10-24T04:48:00.002-02:00

The economic decline is top-of-mind for everyone – especially retailers – as consumers place an even stronger hold on their wallets. In such a volatile marketplace, retailers must employ creative tactics to gain a competitive edge and remain profitable. With escalating gas prices, now more than ever, shoppers are going online which puts multichannel retailers at an advantage. That considered, simply having an online channel is not enough – it’s how you market your site and engage customers that makes the difference.

Here are 10 tips and tricks you can apply to your e-commerce site to survive the recession and boost website sales.

1. Smart Merchandising - Promote Groups of Low-Cost Offers: Find inexpensive, appealing items and bundle them in a creative way as a special promotion that gives shoppers an incentive to fill their carts with many low-cost items.

2. Instant Couponing for Multiple-Category Purchasing: Drive shoppers to buy more by offering them a reasonable discount on items from other categories if they buy immediately.

3. Minimum Purchase Free Shipping: Look at your margins and offer free shipping at a purchase threshold where it makes financial sense. Shoppers will fill the cart for the reward.

4. Personalized Recommendations on the Shopping Cart Page: Personalized product recommendations (PPRs) are a recession hit: they’re important on the category page, on the product detail page and everywhere else on the site you can afford the real estate. Putting them at the point of purchase—on the shopping cart page—is a highly strategic placement that moves shoppers to buy. PPRs are recession-proof because leading vendors like MyBuys offer them on a pay-for-performance basis.

5. Value Exchange (Gift with Purchase): Offer a small gift with a minimum price purchase to help move more product, increase customer loyalty and motivate customers to sample other products to increase cart size.

6. Use E-mail Creatively: Use e-mail alerts to recommend products that shoppers want and while you’re at it, remind them of abandoned shopping cart items, which have high conversion rates.

7. Ratings and Reviews: Create a sense of community and loyalty by adding ratings and reviews to your site. Shoppers trust one another and this functionality is not expensive to implement. Also, highly rated products tend to convert at better rates.

8. Creative Use of Widgets: Make widgets highly accessible from your webpage and your Facebook page. Offer different size choices and make them easy to download. Turn your fans into advertising affiliates by having them add these widgets to their social networking pages or blogs and give them points toward purchase for click-throughs or conversions.

9. Create Special Membership Clubs: Companies like SKECHERS, Clinique and many others have successful clubs for building loyalty and growing their lists. Get shoppers to sign up, become part of your community and give you permission to market to them. Reward them with free shipping, special coupons and discounts.

10. New Customer Programs: Coupons or other incentives to turn people into first-time buyers aren’t expensive to create or manage and once you bring shoppers to your site, you can employ the rest of the tactics mentioned above to bring them back for more.

All these tips/tecniques are available in your NetSuite account! Start now!

Robert Cell, CEO of MyBuys, contributed the following article to Electronic Retailer Magazine. To learn more about MyBuys Personalized Product Recommendations, visit http://mybuys.com

What is Co-opetition?

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Co-opetition – short for “cooperative competition”, this is a technique by which you sell your competitors’ products from your website (usually via an affiliate program). Co-opetition can teach you a lot about your competitors’ conversion rates. And if your visitors prefer your competitors’ products, this is an easy way to find out! Its a smart way getting to know your competitions metrics better. yes you will loose some sale, but you will win a lot of information. Try it, wont hurt!