So we are making the move to Saasu and have joined their referral programme (that is our referral link).

There were some big reasons for moving.

Like a lot of businesses we don’t just operate out of one office - our book keeper and accountant both need access to our accounting system. Saasu is online, and it is very easy for us operate in our mixed environment. We can raise invoices and record purchases ourselves when and where we need to, and book keeping / accounting access is taken care of as well. We’ve already streamlined our record keeping using GetDropBox to make sure we can all access electronic copies of important documents.

Saasu has a comprehensive application programming interface (API). Once we have the accounting bedded down we will update our website to process sales online, collecting payments, creating / updating customer records and issuing invoices/receipts directly to Saasu. No more double entry.

Saasu have also enabled multi-currency support. As we transact in multiple currencies, this is also a big one. To process multi-currency payments online and orchestrate ’straight through’ payments (one off and recurring), customer records and invoicing (add inventory if products are involved, not just services) has more than a few moving parts - banks, merchant accounts, payment gateways and of course the accounting system. Without an accounting system like Saasu this was out of reach for companies like us. But not now.

Those factors were the big ones. But now I’m starting to explore more of the detailed Saasu functions I’m struck by how well the software has been put together. It is easy to understand, and that makes it easy to use. And it has the right level of help - short, sharp and to the point, and they are in tune with how our business works - an example is this help note on using Saasu with PayPal - right on the money. Impressive.

We’re going to look carefully at the Inventory module. For an SME who sells products online, there would be a lot of value in having a shopping cart that integrates directly with Saasu for sales and inventory.

When you are running a business online you can’t ignore the back office requirements. Saasu has raised the bar for SME accounting systems, and I’m very pleased that OM4 is joining them as a customer as well as referral partner and development partner.

Planet Saasu

I’m an advocate of free shipping. Or more correctly, shipping included.

By that I really mean the vendor needs to sort out the complexity of shipping costs and include them in the product cost to make it easy for the buyer.

Free shipping isn’t really free, it just means that shipping has been included in the base pricing. Just like other components of cost have been included, like customer service, returns and warranty.

Evidence? Ok, I wish I had some hard evidence to back up my theory. It isn’t that easy to test the impact of alternative shipping policies. When you are launching a product online, you set the price and after that price variations need to obey the laws of the market - you can’t just change them as easily as you might change the wording or images that present your product.

You can probably see the immediate disadvantage of including shipping in your standard prices - your prices need to be higher than they would otherwise be. I’m not trying to pretend this isn’t an issue. But it might just be *less* of an issue than the alternatives.

And you can do things to counteract this. For example, sell small items in minimum quantities, or set a minimum order value.

But why is free shipping so important?

Firstly, selling a product online works better when it is simple. Easy to say, hard to do. And shipping fees get complicated real quick. When things get too complicated, some of your potential customers leave.

Sure it might be complex for you, the business owner, to figure out how to sort out the complexities of including shipping in your standard pricing. But better you sweat over it once than every one of your customers sweats over it every time they think about buying (or get close to buying). If you look at it that way, your pain doesn’t count. Sorry.

Secondly, every time you introduce someone to the cost of doing business with you, you invite them to make a choice to leave.

“Look at these widgets … beautiful red ones, just what I’ve been looking for … wonder how much they are?”
$10
“$10? Hmm, are these red widgets worth it? Maybe I’ll go have a look elsewhere …”

Every time you introduce a new cost, you create the circumstances in which a customer is likely to consider their choice.

Lets try that again with shipping costs.

“Look at these widgets … beautiful green ones, just what I’ve been looking for … wonder how much they are?”
$10
“$10? Hmm, are these green widgets worth it? Well, they are real shiny, and I can get them right here. Sure, I’ll buy them. …”

(a short time later)

“Ok, looking good, just got to complete this boring checkout. Wait, what’s this! (Sirens, searchlights activate). OMG, I’ve got to pay shipping costs! How much will that set me back?
$2
“$2? Ouch, more costs, they’re already hitting me up for $10. Hmm, are these green widgets worth it? Maybe I’ll go have a look elsewhere …”

You get the idea.

The first time you introduce the price, you better have established enough value or your prospective customer might leave.

Each time you add another cost, you ask them to roll the ‘make a decision to stay or go’ wheel once more. I don’t think it even really matters how much more money is involved. Any additional amount is just that - more money! As soon as you introduce an additional price element, you run the risk of the prospect leaving.

Instead, present your product, let your prospective customer understand the benefits so they can see its value, and then let them know the cost. Once. If they like it, let them buy. Don’t trickle feed uncomfortable bits of information to them in the lead up to them buying. Just focus on removing any remaining barriers to the sale.

So there you have my rationale for including shipping in your product price. If you need to, perhaps include domestic shipping in the price and have a one off fee to add on for international shipping. Anywhere.

When you sell enough in to a new country for this to be a problem, hey, you’ll have a great problem to solve. But it will fun to solve that sort of problem, a lot more fun than staring a a low conversion rate and wondering what to do next.

Launch your product without including shipping prices and maybe one day you’ll find yourself wanting to compete with the compelling power of sites that offer the magic of free shipping. How do they do it?

Ok, so I mentioned I don’t have any evidence for this theory, but at the very least you can read what others have to say on this topic.

From a PayPal survey on the topic of Why Online Shoppers Abandon Purchases:

A PayPal (NASDAQ:EBAY) survey released today revealed that nearly half (45 percent) of online shoppers have abandoned their carts multiple times in the past three weeks due to high shipping costs, security concerns and lack of convenience. High shipping costs was cited as the largest single reason for cart abandonment.

Surprise, surprise, about 12 months earlier an eMarketer article Shopping Cart Abandonment Rises quoted:

Online shoppers surveyed by PayPal and comScore were also concerned about costs. High shipping fees were the main reason for online shopping carts to be abandoned by survey respondents. The companies estimated that two-thirds of consumers who put items into shopping carts did not end up buying the items.

Commenting on that eMarketer article and other sources Linda Bustos notes:

… e-Tailing Group’s research in late 2006 reported … 84% cited free shipping as “very to most influential” when buying gifts online. It could very well be a dealbreaker between buying from you or a competitor.

An old school article on Understanding the Causes of Shopping Cart Abandonment says that:

… according to Forrester Research, the top reasons sited for cart abandonment are as follows: [1st] 57% - Didn’t want to pay shipping costs
… How can you as a merchant prevent these reasons from getting in the way of a sale? Here are a few suggestions: Offer and advertise free or discounted shipping: Although this is perhaps easier said than done, it really is a great closing tool.”

I like this article because of the insight into what is important to online retailers - you guessed it, free shipping happens to be on their mind:

The debate about whether free shipping is a short course to ruin, or an important driver of sales, rages on. .. over three-quarters (78%) of retailers surveyed for Shop.org’s annual pre-holiday eHoliday report plan to plow ahead with popular free shipping promotions, although many will offer the service with conditions attached such as a minimum order value or product-based promotions.

And finally, because I find it consistently one of the most useful sources of information on conversion rate optimization, I’ll quote Khalid on free shipping:

.. you can claim your chunk of the growing numbers [ordering online] by offering free shipping and competing with other retailers who use it as the ultimate shopping lure.” (my emphasis)

So there you have it, my 10c worth on the topic of shipping. If you are planning on launching a new product, have a think about whether including shipping fees in your pricing might work.

Reducing Shopping Cart Abandonment Rates through Free Shipping

It does go Bing

I get to see analytics for quite a few different websites. I’ve noticed that for a lot of sites, Bing seemed to have either caught up to Yahoo or overtaken it. A check of about 70 sites revealed Bing equalled or exceeded Yahoo in terms of traffic sent 48% of the time (according to Google Analytics).

When I had a look at Bing’s search results, they were fast and correlated closely to stable rankings I knew from Google.

By co-incidence, Google just started running a regional one box (map with 3 pack of related sites) on a moderately competitive search term that I monitor. Google has got it utterly wrong, and is displaying a map from a totally different place. On exactly the same search term, Bing is displaying accurate, relevant results.

This is a micoscopic sample, of course. But from my perspective, Bing is off to a much better start than anticipated.

Bing off to a good start

That is the message from Johnathan Fields over on the Small Business Trends website in his post When Luxury Becomes a Four Letter Word.

The SmallBizTrends website is run by Anita Campbell, and is a constant source of relevant information for those interested in marketing a small business online.

Never Mind the Luxury, Feel the Quality

Sebastiano's Outdoor Kitchens - Get a Lifestyle!

The concept of a pizza oven, wine and a backyard got my immediate and enthusiastic support! We enlisted the aid of Tracy Graffin to do the branding and design. She came up with an elegant and simple concept for Seb and Tash’s logo, based on a spatula element. The website design also came up beautifully.

The launch evening was an excellent concept, and I can vouch for the tastiness of Fabio’s pizza. Going by the quality of the pizza and the kitchens Seb and Tash deliver, I think they have a really successful business on their hands.

Launching Sebastiano’s

Joint Pain Relief website

This is a site that shares a lot of information that we have come to learn while on life’s journey. And we certainly hope it will be a lot of use to other parents.

New website on Joint Pain Relief

It is an easy way to manage email, but you have to get used to the concepts first.

To assist the familiarisation process, I’ve just published a new article in the How To section that describes Google Mail setup within Google Apps.

Getting started with Google Mail

Ever since I read Seth Godin’s Big Red Fez I’ve paid a lot of attention to what he says about websites and web design (I paid attention to what he was saying about marketing well before that).

This post from Seth is short and sweet. And worth absorbing.

The First Question Every Web Site Designer Must Ask

Questions for Web Designers

With our new Image Rotator facility you can use a simple shortcode to put a group of images into a rotator set that will gently rotate in any page or post.

Too much movement on a web page can distract a visitor, so I recommend you use rotators wisely. We’ve provided an easy way to set the display time and transition time for the images so you can have a nice gentle rotation.

How To Article: Adding an Image Rotator

James has built the image rotator using WordPress (which has jQuery libraries incorporated) and definitely no Flash.

New Image Rotator Feature

Sidebar Shopping Cart

All OM4 websites now include PayPal based eCommerce support as a standard feature. You can manage online payments using:

• Add to Cart buttons with a shopping cart
• Recurring Subscriptions
• Donations

The shopping cart builds on the excellent work started by ZackDesign.

Here are some examples of the shopping cart in use:

• Moombaki sells wine online: Moombaki Online Cellar
• Sarah Wiin accepts payments for courses: Feldenkrais Perth
• Ningaloo Holiday Homes accept deposits and booking payments online: Ningaloo Holiday Homes
• Riverfly sells alluring flies (for Trout anyway) and books: Riverfly Online Shop

There are new articles covering initial setup, and then use of the Shopping Cart/Add to Cart options, Subscriptions and Donations.

New eCommerce Facilities