#1  Prestashop: View Demo

Prestashop is my absolute choice when recommending a shopping cart to a client. The ease of use is my main reason for the recommendation. Everything you need to run your online store is in the back office.

There a so many features that I love in Prestashop, but a few of the best are the downloadable prdoucts, built in SEO, checkout modules, customer accounts and the huge amount of modules that are free or very low priced to customize a storefront even more. So, if you need a client area, multiple employee logins, different customer groups, great product layouts, zoom on products, downloadable products, great shipping options and modules, multiple payment modules and more! There are too many features to list here, so check them out here http://www.prestashop.com/en/features.

Prestashop really likes our designs!  – Paula & Chlo was featured as a shop of the week with Prestashop and in their newsletter . They’re also featured in their Showcase. http://www.prestashop.com/blog/en/prestashop-powers-successful-ideas-like-paula-chlo-handbags/

#2  Pear Cart: View Demo

If you need a simple cart, no frills, have only a few products and want to take PayPal , Pear Cart  is one option. The drawback is that you need an account with Mal’s. Mal’s is the middle-man between Pear Cart and PayPal to process your transactions. Mal’s has some good features, but shipping options are VERY limited though. You have to log into Mal’s to set certain types of discounts, set shipping and tax, download receipts, etc. It’s still a great way to run your shop though if you just need a simple shop. The downside of Pear Cart is if you want to offer downloadable products or use a credit card processor like Authorize.net, you need to pay for Mal’s Premium.

Conclusion

There are many more shopping carts that can be used, like Magento, OsCommerce, Zen Cart, Volusion (I don’t recommend at all), Big Commerce, etc. It’s personal preference, what fits your budget and what you’re willing to learn to take over your own shop once the design is complete.

You can also create a shop with WordPress, but the results I’ve seen have been not so good. WordPress is a great blogging platform/informational website base, but not so great as a cart.

A lot of people ask me if I can design their site in the shopping cart they already use, like Big Commerce, Magento or Volusion. The answer is YES. I can code and design for any cart.

Request a Quote for your next project - http://sweetboutiquedesign.com/custom-quote-form/

Visit Some Prestashop Sites I’ve Designed/Coded:

• Anjouil’s Boutique - http://www.anjouilsboutique.com
• Paula & Chlo - http://paulaandchlo.com
• The Printable Shoppe - http://theprintableshoppe.com
• Eloquence Custom Cups & Stationery - http://eloquenceonline.com
• Scraptacular Scrapbooking - http://shopscraptacular.com
• In The Loop - http://keepyourneedleshappy.com/shop/

Visit some Pear Cart Sites:

***I like Prestashop so much, I’m designing my other site RougePress.com on it AND re-designing my shop for Sweet Boutique Design with it as well! ***

*Please note, I am in no way being compensated for my opinion. I like what I like….

Launch Site: http://www.anjouilsboutique.com

Have you joined Pinterest yet? Follow me on Pinterest for what inspires me http://pinterest.com/sweetdesigner/.

The Printable Shoppe – Launch Site

Coyer Candle Co. (located in Midland, MI) - Launch Site

Scraptacular Scrapbook Store – Launch Site

Eloquence Custom Cups, Stationery and Gifts -  Launch Site

*Please note that when you click on the above links you are leaving this website.

I’ve had a lot of clients ask me how to get their boutique or informational website noticed and get more traffic. Here are some free (and some low cost) do-it-yourself ways to gain visitors and increase conversions on your site.

You do need to put some work into making sure you have relevant and fresh content on your site continually. From the time you build your website or blog, it can take months before you see a large amount of visitors to your site. Use some of the free resources out to their full advantage, like Facebook and Twitter. If you’re selling items, make a blog post with your new products and add a picture and link directly to those products in your online shop. If your blog is set up to send your posts directly to your business Facebook page, you’ll have reach even more people once that post goes to Facebook.

• Google Ad Words:https://adwords.google.com/
• Facebook Ads:https://www.facebook.com/advertising/
• Twitter Ads:http://business.twitter.com/advertise/start
• LinkedIn:http://www.linkedin.com/
• Manta:http://www.manta.com/
• Duct Tape Marketing – http://www.ducttapemarketing.com (Tons of resources for marketing your site)
• Small business cards left in cafes, on bulletin boards, exchanged at meetings etc.
• Advertise in local newspapers, business brochures, magazines, nationwide publications and mail-drop literature
• Use word of mouth. Tell everyone you know about your website, give out business cards to passers-by in the street, and so on
• Make sure you have a Google Places page for your business – http://www.google.com/places/
• Advertise at Yellow Pages – http://www.yellowpages.com/
• Offer a Groupon Deal – http://www.groupon.com/merchants/welcome
• Offer a free download or product on your site
• Offer a promotion to your visitors that will entice them to shop (Free shipping, % Discount, etc.)
• Do a Google search to find local directories in your city and state to submit your website to
• Use Pr Web to submit a press release – http://www.prweb.com/
• Contact your local newspaper to submit a press release about your business
• Join your local chamber of commerce
• Use an email marketing campaign to send offers the customers you have email addresses for (and to gain more email addresses)

If you need help setting up a marketing campaign, SEO and promoting your site, please contact us

I get a lot of questions from clients about getting their sites ranked with Google. It’s constantly changing what Google requires for you to be ranked and indexed by the keywords and search phrases you want to be found by. Well, they’ve done it again. Google changed the rules by introducing the new Panda algorithm that has had a lot SEO gurus freaking out because so many sites dropped their ranking. Google stated that people are incorrectly assuming that their change in rankings were due to Panda.

Whether you want to maintain or improve your rankings, Google is encouraging you to focus on delivering the best possible experience for users. The site quality algorithms are aimed at helping people find “high-quality” sites by reducing the rankings of low-quality content.

Keeping this in mind, Google has given a list of questions to be asking to assess the quality of a page or article on your website.

• Would you trust the information presented in this article?
• Is this article written by an expert or enthusiast who knows the topic well, or is it more shallow in nature?
• Does the site have duplicate, overlapping, or redundant articles on the same or similar topics with slightly different keyword variations?
• Would you be comfortable giving your credit card information to this site?
• Does this article have spelling, stylistic, or factual errors?
• Are the topics driven by genuine interests of readers of the site, or does the site generate content by attempting to guess what might rank well in search engines?
• Does the article provide original content or information, original reporting, original research, or original analysis?
• Does the page provide substantial value when compared to other pages in search results?
• How much quality control is done on content?
• Does the article describe both sides of a story?
• Is the site a recognized authority on its topic?
• Is the content mass-produced by or outsourced to a large number of creators, or spread across a large network of sites, so that individual pages or sites don’t get as much attention or care?
• Was the article edited well, or does it appear sloppy or hastily produced?
• For a health related query, would you trust information from this site?
• Would you recognize this site as an authoritative source when mentioned by name?
• Does this article provide a complete or comprehensive description of the topic?
• Does this article contain insightful analysis or interesting information that is beyond obvious?
• Is this the sort of page you’d want to bookmark, share with a friend, or recommend?
• Does this article have an excessive amount of ads that distract from or interfere with the main content?
• Would you expect to see this article in a printed magazine, encyclopedia or book?
• Are the articles short, unsubstantial, or otherwise lacking in helpful specifics?
• Are the pages produced with great care and attention to detail vs. less attention to detail?
• Would users complain when they see pages from this site?

If you haven’t implemented any type of quality control for your website, now is a good time to start with the list above. Running your own business requires you to wear many hats (owner, accountant, copywriter, customer service specialist, etc.), one of the new ones you will need to wear is the “Quality Manager” hat.

I’ve been working on In The Loop’s Online Shop and it will be complete VERY soon!  They will be selling exclusive knitting patterns that will be downloaded after purchase and a few very classy yarn and pattern kits. Prestashop is my cart of choice for my clients who need a robust cart with many, many options for their products, customer management, special discounts, downloadable products and more features than I can even list here.

Where have I been? I missed the new version of Project Pier which came out in December of 2010. I use Project Pier for my client project management area and couldn’t be happier!  I will be upgrading very soon and the new features sounds pretty good http://www.projectpier.org/node/1891.

Extensions of You Luxury Hair Extensions is another new boutique website that just recently went live. I had a great time working on this site! There were a lot of features my client needed for her shop to sell custom hair extensions from, so I chose to go with an advanced shopping cart. It has all the features a deluxe ecommerce site should have including a great customer management area, customer referral program and customer rewards. She also needed a business card design, large banner and product tags designed.

Launch Site: http://extensionsofyouonline.com

Platform: PrestaShop