Twenty-seven per cent of all business received orders via the Internet. This equated to 193,000 businesses in Australia, an increase of approximately 25,000 businesses over twelve months.

Businesses reporting a web presence increased from 36% to 42%. The majority of all large businesses had a web presence (95%), compared to almost one-third of micro businesses (31%). The report also reported a drop in innovation Australian business. Australian businesses reduced their innovative activity by 11% in 2008-09, including the development or introduction of new or significantly improved goods, services, processes or methods. New marketing methods was the only broad type of innovation to record a noticeable increase compared to the previous year.

If you are looking to build an ecommerce site or wish to enhance a pre-existing site, don’t hesitate to contact Shifted Pixels on 1300 144 367.

Further information is available in Summary of IT Use and Innovation in Australian Business (cat. no. 8166.0) available for free download

A website redesign isn’t just making your website look better, its much deeper than that, its creating action points, its increasing trust in your brand, it leveraging marking techniques to drive sales.

I have been looking over creativebriefing.com and seeing what happened to them after a website redesign.

You can see an exponential increase in subscribes with a direct correlation to the website redesign, with there website re-design it wasn’t just making there website look better, they created big call to actions to subscribe to their website via RSS and email which was the aim of the re-design. Doing so has quadrupled the number of subscribers they have.

Benefits of a website re-design:

• Increase Brand Trust
  People will base a lot of there thoughts on a company trustworthiness on the quality of the website they are viewing, if it looks cheap, they will assume the company is cheap, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but if you want to sell premier products at a premium price, your website must reflect this.
• Increase sales leads and conversions
  Before you being a website design you need to understand the goal for your website, what your trying to achieve, if its getting more sales leads through an online form, then the design must reflect this and direct users to this point of the website and every opportunity possible, correctly using call to actions, design flow and action points can increase conversions exponentially.
• Increase website page views allowing for more potential customers to view the website.
  Website re-designs will encourage people to tell there friends about the website, re-design can incorporate increased search engine optimisation which in turn leads to higher search rankings and more website hits as a describe below in more detail.
• Increase Search Engine Friendliness
  Search engines are changing daily, actually to be honest, google changes its algorithm which ranks websites approximately every 16 hours, and there is about 200 different check points google is looking for to rank your website all deciding factors if it ranks your website either 1 or 100.
• To communicate in a better way with your customers using web 2.0 standards.
  Does your website support RSS feeds? Have you got facebook integration? What about twitter, are to contributing online? These small additions can create huge viral support for your business.
  
• To make your website load fast.
  Everyone has broadband connections now, why does it really matter? Firstly, google pays close attention to how fast your website loads and ranks websites accordingly, and peoples expectations of load times for websites has also increased, people are not willing to wait 10 seconds for that flash animation to load anymore.
• To make your website more appealing and use an easy navigation system.
  Has your website been designed with information architecture standards? Directing your users to the most important elements of your website is critical if you want to increase your conversion rate.

What could a website re-design do for your business? Why not contact Shifted Pixels Web Design today by simple calling 1300 144 367 and talk to our team about generating your business increased sales leads online.

The main guidelines for writing for the web are:

• Write for how people search – Write up all your keywords before putting pen to paper
• Heading Heading Headings! – This are the most important copy you will write.
• Keep your copy short, realistically do you read every word on website?
• Be Scannable, people scan the web, make sure they read the important information.
• Make sure content is easy to read, simplicity is the key to understanding.
• Write from me to you, a personal conversion is much more trustworthy.
• Drive actions with content and keep the reader’s attention and drive your customers actions
• Write keyword-rich title tags, for the best search engine optimisation results
• Provide links and connections, link to other related information for seo rewards
• Write effective summaries, sentences and paragraphs, and keep the intro engaging
• Sell Benefits not Features, and empower your reader
• Edit. Edit. Edit. Then edit again, are you sure you have found all the spelling mistakes?
• Be Personal, write in a relaxed nature, and use simple easy to read words
• Use Language Anyone Can Understand, confusing your readers with fancy words achieves nothing
• Draw on Common Metaphors or Experiences, relate to your reader through shared experiances.
• Use Pictures That Compliment Your Composition. Remember they tell a thousand words!
• Read It Out Loud, you will be surprised the errors you pick up and it makes your writing more personal
• Don’t Edit Until The End, you don’t want to remove great content until you have read it all.
• Remember That Sarcasm is Hard to Pull Off.
• Tidy Up Your Speech, using slang and colloquial language is a no no.
• AND REMEMBER SEO is King, we can’t say this enough your copy one of the best keys of great seo!

If you would like to find out more about this, of you would like us to send you a copy of the document just contact our Sydney Office

Check out the more over at behance.net

JESS3 designed and animated this infographic for there lecture at Stevenson University for AIGA Baltimore in Feb 2010.

Red: The colour draws attention and keen use of red as an accent can immediately focus attention on a particular element. Passionate, Firery, Strong Confident and can represent both love and anger, the colour can effect people both mentally and physically, through increased enthusiasm, entourages actions and confidence and can stimulate energy.

Orange: With the combination of both Red and Yellow they share similar attributes, and is associated with energy, warmth, its calmer than red and much more cheerful. This fun and flamboyant colour radiates warmth and energy, it has been said to stimulate activity, appetite and encourage socialisation.

Yellow: A warm and happy colour, Can represent both joy, optimism and enlightenment. Shades of the golden yellow carry promises of a positive future, and is said to spark creative thought.It is said that yellow stimulates the nervous system, activates memory and encourages communication.

Green: Signifies nature, growth, eco-friendlyness, and renewal. It can occasionally mean inexperience, but can also be associated with envy or jealousy. Green can be a pervasive colour in the natural world, and an ideal use as a backdrop as we are used to seeing this colour everywhere in nature. Natural greens from forest to lime are seen as tranquil and refreshing colours, they can also be seen as colours of peace and ecology. However the ‘institutional’ side to green has often been associated with illness or government issues. The colour green is said to alleviate depression nervousness and anxiety as well as offer a sense of renewal self control and harmony.

Blue: Cool and calming, strong connection with corporate images and business. This is a very popular colour by many people, as has it has such a influence on our lives being the colour of the sky and sea, it involves feelings of rest and relaxation, the colour blue has been proven to work with the body producing calming chemicals, however not all blues are calming, electric or brilliant blues can become more dramatic and dynamic an engaging colour that expresses exhilaration.

Purple: Long associations with wealth and royalty, its also a spiritual colour and is thought to be very creative. The colour has embodied the balance of both stimulation from red and the calm from blue, This dichotomy can cause unrest unless the undertone has been clearly defined and then at which point the purple takes on the characteristics of its undertone. Purple is able to be uplifting as well as calming.

Brown: A earthly colour, representing stability and reliability. It has links to nature and all things organic, the colour allows for approachability and has connections to the earth, and gives feelings of wholesomeness.

Grey: Not so much a colour as a tone, grey is a neutral and balanced stance, which can be both conservative and sophisticated. This timeless shade is practical and solid, although has links with loss and depression.

Black: It has many meaning and is very dependent on usage, it can be conservative or edgy, traditional or modern, it can be mysterious as well as sexy. This authoritative and powerful colour can evoke strong emotions and overuse can be overwhelming, its a classic colour and doesn’t change with time, the colour effects people with a mysterious ability to evoke a sense of potential and possibility.

White: Associated closely with innocence and purity. This very clean colour often represented through doctor coats, bridal dresses and the white picket fence surrounding a happy and safe home, the colour aids mental clarity, and invokes purification.

Start accepting cash and card payments with Square. No contracts, monthly fees, or hidden costs. Effortlessly manage the money you take with an easy and intuitive interface. Accept payment cards on any device with an audio input jack, including your mobile phone. After signing up for Square, provide your address on the web and we’ll send your free card reader and Square sticker.

The best part about this service is that it doesn’t have any monthly fees are the transaction fees are a reasonable 2.75 – 3.5% + 15c per transaction.

They offer three different accommodation options from budget student accommodation to luxury private chalets the perfect On Snow Accommodation for any winter holiday. As we are coming right into the snow season and we just received our first snow for the season. It’s easy to book your ski accommodation right now on the phone. Simply call Deane’s on (02) 9979 7955 or visit there snow accommodation perisher website and leave your winter holiday accommodation bookings up to Deane’s so you can enjoy your ski holiday relaxing.

In a special industry report – Industries to Fly and Fall in 2010 – IBISWorld revealed online shopping as one of the top ten sectors that are set to fly this year.

While 2009 proved to be a tough year, characterised by rising unemployment and economic gloom, the new year may well bring good tidings for some Australian businesses, with projected GDP growth of 2.2%.

As access to technology improves, and Australia’s overall skill in using it grows, time-poor bargain hunters will continue to flock to e-tailers to meet their shopping needs. Improvements in online-store efficiency, reliability and security are expected to drive industry growth of 4.7% in 2010 to reach $20 billion — resulting in a 2.9% growth in employment.

Within Australia, online sales currently represent just 5.5% of all retail sales, well below levels in the United States and Britain. Current lower levels are partly due to the fact that Australian retailers have been slow to offer online sales, using the internet solely as a marketing tool. If Australian retailers do not embrace online sales, they could lose billions of dollars in potential sales to specialist stores and foreign competitors.

Source: Online Shopping Australia & IBISWorld Australia

Shifted Pixels understands online customer behaviours and specialises in optimising customer experiences in ecommerce.  Call us today to discuss moving your retail business online to seize upon unrealised and untapped revenues.