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Let’s face it, no one likes criticism, even constructive criticism intended to help us.  Ecommerce store owners are no exception to this rule, and it can often seem like online criticism is the hardest to ignore and combat.  You can’t talk to the disgruntled customer in person, after all, and they are free to post negative comments and reviews about your business and products online at will. Just how important are customer-generated reviews? According to a recent survey conducted by Minacs Marketing Solutions, 52% of consumers said that positive reviews make them more likely to choose one business over another. 

You may be wondering, how is navigating an ecommerce site like driving a car?  The answer is simple: both processes are designed to get people (whether they are customers or drivers) from point A to point B.  Ecommerce site owners, the ones responsible for making sure that their ecommerce sites achieve this goal, are busy people, and often wear many hats as part of running and maintaining their businesses. When people become busy, we tend to look for shortcuts. Usually, this is a time-saving measure that works, but in some cases, cutting corners can really hurt your bottom line.  Many of the most common ecommerce site mistakes result from the desire to take a shortcut and accomplish things quickly. Think that your site is exempt from these mistakes? Don’t be so sure.  Common mistakes are common for one reason: many people make them. No Direction How can you get from one place to another quickly without any direction? Unless you have the route memorized, you probably can’t.  When potential customers come to your ecommerce site, they expect clear directional signs, in the form of prominent and functional site navigation, to help them figure out where they need to go. Without proper navigation, your potential ecommerce customers, like so many hapless motorists relying on faulty directions, will get hopelessly lost. Traffic Jams Is your site’s load time slow? When customers attempt to place an order, does your site move at a speed equal to a rush hour traffic jam? There are many potential reasons for this, including: Outdated software Faulty or broken links Poorly Optimized Images Whatever the reasons for the sluggish load times, (and likely correspondingly sluggish site traffic) the good news is that the right web developer/web programmer can help you to correct them and improve the flow of information and traffic on your site. If you haven’t had your site professionally audited, it is in your best interests to do so as soon as possible, before the factors that are slowing you down become permanent roadblocks. These are just some of the most common types of ecommerce road hazards that online merchants should go out of their way (literally and figuratively) to avoid at all costs.  Failure to do so could result in accidents and delays.  

Valentine’s Day is just around the corner, and for some retailers, the holiday that is synonymous with love and romance is also one of the biggest sales days of the year.  Unfortunately, as we all know, with more sales comes the possibility of more returns. In a perfect world, no one would ever want to return anything that they purchased, or anything that was given to them, especially not something that they were given as a Valentine’s Day present.  In the real world, when someone does want to return an item, for whatever reason, here are three ways that you as an ecommerce store owner can help to make sure that this process goes as smoothly as possible. Be Upfront And Easy To Understand No one wants to have to wade through complicated legal jargon to find out what they really want to know: how can they quickly return or exchange items that they purchase from you.  While complex legal jargon is essential, and should be included on your site, you should always make sure that they most frequently asked questions (and answers) associated with your shipping and return policies are clearly displayed, easy to find, and easy for all of your customers to understand. Avoid Bad Surprises There are two kinds of surprises: the happy kind that we get when someone we love surprises us with the perfect present on Valentine’s Day, and the unhappy kind that we get when we get bad news.  Here’s an example: Good Surprise: Receiving a free gift item along with your order.

We all know the saying “you only get one chance to make a first impression,” but have you ever stopped to think about how this applies to your ecommerce site? Brick and mortar store owners know that window shoppers are a dime a dozen and that it is the shopping experience inside of the store that determines whether or not a sale will take place.

For ecommerce store owners, who don’t interact with their customers face-to-face, however, it is easy to focus more on the day-to-day tasks of running a business and less on the messages that shape the impressions that online shoppers form of an ecommerce business.

If your ecommerce site. . .

Is Outdated

Either in terms of layout, design, or any other aspect, your customers will automatically assume that your business practices are too. Yes, that’s right AUTOMATICALLY ASSUME.  The New Year is coming, and if you’ve been putting off that redesign, necessary site maintenance, or other task that is holding your ecommerce store back, there’s no time like the present to remedy this problem.

Doesn’t Recreate The Physical Shopping Experience

If your customers don’t feel as though they are able to examine products from all angles, obtain accurate size and weight estimates, and have their questions answered in a timely fashion before, during, and after purchase, they won’t feel very confident about purchasing products from you.

Are your product photos professional? Do they show your products from a variety of angles? Don’t assume that any old photo is good enough.  You can read more about this subject here in one of my previous posts.

Are your product descriptions generic and impersonal, or do they, like the product descriptions on

A few years ago, while working as a freelance writer, I wrote some blog posts about the importance of having a blog for your business.  Nowadays, the majority of business owners have heard this message-they know that their business needs a blog, and most businesses have one.

What many business owners (and bloggers) still struggle with, however, is how to make their blog compelling and relevant to their readers, and to encourage interaction and feedback. 

Define Your Niche

Can you describe the intended audience of your blog? Since we’re an ecommerce software and hosting company, our blog is designed to appeal to ecommerce storeowners and developers. As such, we post everything from ecommerce news to troubleshooting updates and tips, as well as marketing-related tips. 

What are you posting on your blog? Are you staying on topic, or does your blog look like a house where every room has a different “theme” because the owners couldn’t decide on one principle color scheme? Take a deep breath, and some time to decide on an overall theme for your blog before your readers become confused by your lack of focus and stop coming back.

Don’t Blog For Blogging’s Sake

In other words, if you really don’t have anything to say, don’t say anything.  You may have decided that your goal is to blog everyday (or more than once a day) but if you occasionally find yourself at a loss for words, don’t have any company news to announce, and simply can’t find anything to blog about, don’t waste your reader’s time (and yours) by foisting 250-plus words of gibberish on your blog “just because.”

While it is important to develop a consistent blogging routine and stick to it, it is also just as important to allow for some flexibility.  Any writer will tell you that some of their best ideas come to them when the pressure is off and they aren’t feeling the pressure to produce. 

Without meaning, a bunch of words is just that—a big bunch of letters and words.

Beat Writer’s Block

Some people swear that writer’s block is a real affliction. Others say that it is a combination of laziness, procrastination, and lack of motivation.  Whatever the case, you can reduce your chances of developing it by researching and planning blog topics in advance. 

Personally, I find that research and deciding what to blog about are the hard parts. Actually blogging is the easy part, but I have to do the hard stuff first, and if I haven’t decided what I am going to blog about in advance, I become more and more frustrated the longer that it takes me to decide on a topic and do any necessary research.

One tip that I highly recommend (and follow) is to create Google Alerts for keywords related to topics that interest your readers. This is free, easy to do, and can save you lots of time in the long run.

List Your Blog

There’s no point in creating great content in a vacuum.  Make sure that you (or someone within your organization) take the time to submit your blog to relevant directories, and to Google News.

The types of directories that you submit to will vary depending on the niche of your business and your blog, but the good thing is that nowadays, there are online directories for nearly every type of blog, and most are free.

Ask For Feedback

If you want more feedback and comments on your blog posts, try asking for them.  Engaging your readers by soliciting their opinions and inviting them to share is a great way to interact with them, and learn from their expertise at the same time.

If you find that your requests for feedback are falling on deaf ears, why not offer an incentive? A free item or a discount on a product or a service that you offer for the 10th person to leave a comment, or the 20th person, or the person who comes up with the best idea for a new product name, etc. The possibilities are endless. 

Do you have a great blogging tip that YOU would like to share?  Leave your comment below. Next week, I’ll choose the best comment and the author will receive a FREE physical copy of Miva Merchant 5.5: The Official Guide Second Edition!

 

 

Right now, your customers are visiting your ecommerce site, searching for special deals and savings. They’re also scouring your social media profiles for the same, and we all know that when it comes to social media, the more fans and followers a company has, the more exposure their social media profiles receive.

How can you develop a social media strategy that will set you apart from the crowd in 2012? Here are three quick and easy tips to help you get started.

Set Your Goals Wisely

We’d all love to have a million Facebook fans, Twitter and LinkedIn followers, and people in our circles on Google+ wouldn’t we? Of course, actually increasing social media fans and followers takes time and hard work, so before you decide that your goal is x number of new fans, take the time to reflect on how your goals mesh with the overall strategy of your online business.

For example, say that you have an ecommerce store that sells aquarium supplies and rare aquarium fish online. You know that your main demographic consists of professional hobbyists, some of whom have their own online businesses. 

While focusing on Facebook and Twitter is almost always a smart social media move, in this case, it also makes sense to focus just as much on LinkedIn and Google+, since you know that your customers are mainly professionals looking to network with other professionals.

Identify Your Impact Days

What is an impact day? Simply put, it is a day (or series of days) that presents a unique opportunity to market to your target demographic. 
Does your store sell Halloween costumes? Your impact days are most likely in late September to mid to late October.  Does your store sell greeting cards? Your impact days are the days leading up to major holidays. 

Once you identify your impact day or days, you can develop your social media marketing strategy around it.  You may choose to increase your ad spend on Facebook during a key period, or tailor your social media updates to coordinate with sales and promotions going on in your ecommerce store.

Focus On Engagement

Social media is all about interaction and engagement.  Are people interacting with your ecommerce store on social media sites? Are they reposting, retweeting and sharing your comments? 

Whatever your current level of social media engagement, your social media strategy should include plans for improving it.
Think about the types of content that you are sharing via social media.  Contests, fun facts, tips, marketing videos, and asking for other’s opinions are all types of content that naturally encourage interaction. 

Once someone comments, shares, or promotes the content that you have shared, be sure to engage with them. Thank them for sharing your content, respond to any questions that they have, and if they have decided to follow, friend, or otherwise add you to their social media sphere, be sure to return the favor whenever possible.

Have any more social media strategy tips for ecommerce merchants that you’d like to share? Feel free to leave a comment below or email me directly. (atalbott@mivamerchant.com)

Right now, and for the next month or so, (counting after Christmas and New Year’s Day sales) ‘tis the season for holiday shopping and sales.  Your customers are visiting your ecommerce site, searching for special deals and savings. They’re also scouring your social media profiles for the same, and we all know that when it comes to social media, the more fans and followers a company has, the more exposure their social media profiles receive.

How can you develop a social media strategy that will set you apart from the crowd in 2012? Here are three quick and easy tips to help you get started.

Set Your Goals Wisely

We’d all love to have a million Facebook fans, Twitter and LinkedIn followers, and people in our circles on Google+ wouldn’t we? Of course, actually increasing social media fans and followers takes time and hard work, so before you decide that your goal is x number of new fans, take the time to reflect on how your goals mesh with the overall strategy of your online business.

For example, say that you have an ecommerce store that sells aquarium supplies and rare aquarium fish online. You know that your main demographic consists of professional hobbyists, some of whom have their own online businesses. 

While focusing on Facebook and Twitter is almost always a smart social media move, in this case, it also makes sense to focus just as much on LinkedIn and Google+, since you know that your customers are mainly professionals looking to network with other professionals.

Identify Your Impact Days

What is an impact day? Simply put, it is a day (or series of days) that presents a unique opportunity to market to your target demographic. 
Does your store sell Halloween costumes? Your impact days are most likely in late September to mid to late October.  Does your store sell greeting cards? Your impact days are the days leading up to major holidays. 

Once you identify your impact day or days, you can develop your social media marketing strategy around it.  You may choose to increase your ad spend on Facebook during a key period, or tailor your social media updates to coordinate with sales and promotions going on in your ecommerce store.

Focus On Engagement

Social media is all about interaction and engagement.  Are people interacting with your ecommerce store on social media sites? Are they reposting, retweeting and sharing your comments? 

Whatever your current level of social media engagement, your social media strategy should include plans for improving it.
Think about the types of content that you are sharing via social media.  Contests, fun facts, tips, marketing videos, and asking for other’s opinions are all types of content that naturally encourage interaction. 

Once someone comments, shares, or promotes the content that you have shared, be sure to engage with them. Thank them for sharing your content, respond to any questions that they have, and if they have decided to follow, friend, or otherwise add you to their social media sphere, be sure to return the favor whenever possible.

Have any more social media strategy tips for ecommerce merchants that you’d like to share? Feel free to leave a comment below or email me directly. (atalbott@mivamerchant.com)

If you’re an ecommerce storeowner, you don’t need me to tell you that Black Friday, and the official start of the holiday shopping season, is a week away.  Most merchants are probably promoting their Black Friday sales and specials as I write this. 

According to Research Firm iProspect, 57% of all shoppers in the US who plan to visit brick-and-mortar stores to do their holiday shopping also plan on checking the Facebook pages and Twitter profiles of their favorite retailers for holiday coupons and promotions. 

Although the report didn’t mention which percentage of online shoppers plan to consult Facebook, I think it is safe to assume that the percentage of people who choose to shop online and plan on consulting Facebook is probably even higher than 57%. They’re already online, after all.

When shoppers visit your Facebook page and the front page of your website on the days leading up to (and during) Black Friday, what will they see? Next Friday marks the start of a season when online shoppers don’t just visit your website and social media profiles looking for deals and coupons—-they expect them.  If they don’t see them, your potential customers will click away to one of your competitors who is offering deals and specials, and displaying them prominently.

One easy way to make sure that shoppers scanning your Facebook page for deals and coupons is to integrate your page with your ecommerce store. This allows you to advertise products and include a link back to your site where they can be purchased. Miva Merchant store owners can take advantage of our Social Commerce Integration service.

Don’t assume that now until the day after Thanksgiving is a dead time for sales and promotions on your store, though. Some retailers are already holding their “Black Friday” sales online and in stores, and USA Today reports that for many retailers, Thanksgiving evening is the new Black Friday. In other words, many retailers are making their sales available online and opening their doors at midnight or sooner, in order to give loyal shoppers a jump on seasonal savings.

In summary, make sure that your sales are easy to find-prominently displayed on your homepage and on your social media profiles, and are easy to find.  Make use of social commerce, and if you have any Black Friday sales and promotions you’d like to share with the Miva Merchant community, leave a comment in the box below.