The Nexternal Nexus - E-Commerce Ezine

Making the Most of Order Confirmation and Ship Notification Emails

Nexternal Solutions, Inc. — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 00:00:00 GMT

As the internet has evolved over time, marketing to customers via email has become more challenging. People and companies have implemented SPAM filters resulting in fewer messages being delivered to inboxes. When marketing emails are delivered, the messages still need to be opened. Email is obviously a cost effective way to market to existing customers. This begs the question, "How can I get more existing customers to see my email marketing messages?" One way is to put marketing material into order confirmation emails and shipped notification emails (emails that are sent when orders are placed and shipped).

Article by Nexternal Solutions - setting the standard for ecommerce software

Google Conversion Optimizer – Worth a Try?

Nexternal Solutions, Inc. — Tue, 3 Jun 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Google recently released a new feature in AdWords called Conversion Optimizer. This new tool simply allows advertisers to specify the maximum they would like to pay for an acquisition or conversion. With that value and by looking at previous conversion history, Google then controls the CPC (cost per click) values for the advertiser.

Article by Nexternal Solutions - setting the standard for ecommerce software

Boost Organic Traffic with Optimized Title Tags and Meta Descriptions

Nexternal Solutions, Inc. — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 00:00:00 GMT

It is widely believed in the search engine optimization community that the title tag is the most important on-page element for obtaining good search engine rankings. Despite this belief, it is amazing how many websites do not include title tags at all on their pages or use non-descriptive title tags such as TheirDomain.com or just the word “Homepage”. Although not thought to be as important, the meta description also plays in important role in obtaining organic traffic. Not surprisingly, many websites fail to include meta descriptions on many or all of their pages.

Article by Nexternal Solutions - setting the standard for ecommerce software

Check Your Site on Multiple Browsers and Platforms

Nexternal Solutions, Inc. — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Have you ever been on a website only to ask yourself, "I wonder if the owner of this site has ever visited the site himself?" Obviously this is a question you don’t want your prospective customers asking. In the "old days" of the web, people primarily used two internet browsers, Netscape and Internet Explorer. Many web developers wished that everyone used the same browser, since they often rendered pages differently.

Article by Nexternal Solutions - setting the standard for ecommerce software

Successfully Transitioning Your Website Using 301 Redirects

Nexternal Solutions, Inc. — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 00:00:00 GMT

When online merchants evaluate new content management or ecommerce software for their websites, they are often concerned about transitioning from their old website format to a new one. This concern is legitimate for multiple reasons. First and foremost, online merchants don’t want prospective customers that have bookmarked a page or linked from another site to end up at a dead end. The preferable result is to have the customer land on the new page. The second concern relates to the search engines. If a page on the merchant’s existing site ranks well on the search engines, they do not want to switch platforms and lose that page’s ranking. Fortunately there is a way to redirect those potential customers to a new page while still maintaining page rank. The solution is a 301 redirect.

Article by Nexternal Solutions - setting the standard for ecommerce software

Using Hard Data when Managing PPC Campaigns

Nexternal Solutions, Inc. — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Often times we will talk to online merchants that are not actively marketing through pay per click channels. When asked why, they will often state that they are not getting a positive return on investment. However, we also find that often those same people do not have a mechanism in place to track the success of their pay per click campaigns. In reality, they do not know if their campaigns are successful or not as they rely more on a hunch than on hard data. In fact, there is a good chance that some of their campaigns are very successful while others are not. The purpose of this article is to encourage you to implement a tool to track your return so that you make educated marketing decisions. In this article, we are going to focus exclusively on Google AdWords because it has the potential to drive the most amount of traffic to your site at this time. There are other pay per click engines with their own tracking features in place which we also encourage you to use.

Article by Nexternal Solutions - setting the standard for ecommerce software

Display Expected Delivery Dates – Extend the Holiday Season

Nexternal Solutions, Inc. — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 00:00:00 GMT

After the middle of December online shoppers start to worry if their orders will arrive in time for December 25th. While the resulting drop in sales will be disappointing for some online merchants, it is an opportunity for others. The key is open communication with customers. If a customer visits your online store and feels comfortable that their package will arrive by the 24th, they are more likely to order from you than a competitor that mentions nothing about delivery dates. There are two important steps that merchants should take in making customers feel comfortable about ordering online in the middle of December:

Article by Nexternal Solutions - setting the standard for ecommerce software

Make Shipping Costs Work to Your Advantage

Nexternal Solutions, Inc. — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 00:00:00 GMT

Many online shoppers will tell you that the biggest disadvantage of online shopping is shipping costs. Of course, many of these people have never compared shipping cost to the true expense of going to a store and picking up an item (especially with soaring gas prices). Regardless, perception is reality. There are many things that online retailers can learn from the largest online retailer, Amazon.com. One of the most profound things Amazon is able to do is use shipping costs to get customer to buy more products from them!

Article by Nexternal Solutions - setting the standard for ecommerce software

Selling Online Internationally

Nexternal Solutions, Inc. — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 00:00:00 GMT

Despite the huge potential, many online merchants based in the United States are only selling domestically. If you are not selling internationally but have thought about it, now is the time to give it a try. With the U.S. dollar at an all time low against the Euro and a 31 year low against the Canadian dollar, the purchasing power of international online shoppers is the best it has ever been. Suddenly that jacket you have been selling online for $80 doesn't look so expensive from abroad. If you are going to sell internationally, there are several things you should consider. Put yourself if the shoes of the buyer.

Article by Nexternal Solutions - setting the standard for ecommerce software

Helping Search Engines Find Your XML Sitemap

Nexternal Solutions, Inc. — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 00:00:00 GMT

In May of 2006, Google announced that it was supporting a type of file that they named a Google Sitemap. Like a traditional sitemap for website visitors, this file is a complete (or partial) listing of pages within a website. However, unlike a traditional sitemap, the Google Sitemap is not intended for humans to read, but rather for Google to scan. Because XML (Extensible Markup Language) is easily parsed, it was chosen as the format for this new sitemap. Therefore an XML Sitemap is essentially a file that lists the URLs of a given website using the XML language. Shortly thereafter, all the major search engines agreed to use this standard. The file is now referred to as an XML Sitemap as opposed to a Google Sitemap. An XML Sitemap is one of the best ways to make sure that a Search Engine is aware of all of your URLs.

Article by Nexternal Solutions - setting the standard for ecommerce software

Working More Effectively With Google Content Advertisements

Nexternal Solutions, Inc. — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 00:00:00 GMT

There is no question that Google AdWords is one of the best ways to market an online store. Google offers three different options for displaying AdWords:

Article by Nexternal Solutions - setting the standard for ecommerce software

Common Problems with Online Retail Sites

Nexternal Solutions, Inc. — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 00:00:00 GMT

Although online retail sites have come a long way in the last 10 years, many merchants still make common sense usability mistakes. Following is a list of problems that are prevalent on many retail websites today:

1. Placing the "Add to Cart" button is below the fold.
Why should a user need to scroll down in order to add something to the cart? If a customer lands on a product detail page, make it immediately obvious that he can order that product.

2. Not having quantity box next to the "Add to Cart" button.
Some merchants don't allow customers to select a quantity when adding a product to the cart. If a customer wants 5 of something, don't make her click the "Add to Cart" button 5 times! Make it easy for people to place larger orders.

3. Using small "Add to Cart" and "Checkout Buttons."
Merchants should draw attention to the "Add to Cart" and "Checkout" buttons. These are buttons that a merchant wants a customer to click and hence should be large and noticeable.

4. Getting cute with standard terminology.
There is no reason to change standard ecommerce terminology - especially just to be different or cute. Stick with the basics like "Add to Cart" or "Add to Shopping Cart." These are terms that people are comfortable with and terms that people will look for when placing an order.

5. Not displaying a response after adding an item to the cart.
If a customer adds something to the cart, she should immediately know that it worked. Displaying the contents of the cart is the best way to achieve this. Some merchants do this by taking a customer to a separate shopping cart screen. Better yet is having an always on screen shopping cart.

6. Not quoting shipping or sales tax.
It is now 2007 and ecommerce systems have come a long way in being able to quote accurate shipping and sales tax costs. If a customer is ready to place an order and sees a "To Be Determined" next to any price specific line items, there's a darn good chance that he will abandon the order. By all means, an ecommerce system should quote a final order total, eliminating any doubt about what the customer will be charged.

7. Putting too many images on one page.
Although one could argue it would be nice to allow a customer to simply scroll down and see a hundreds of product images for a specific category, the truth is that such pages can take forever to load. People generally are not patient. Some merchants display products lists screens with tons of nice looking images. The problem is that many people will leave while waiting for those pages to load. Keep the number of products on a page to a reasonable level. What is reasonable depends on the physical size of the product thumbnails.

8. Not including a search feature.
Web surfers love to search – just ask Google. Unless an online store has just a few products, it should include a search. It is often buyers that use a search. They know what they want, they want to find it quickly, and then checkout.

9. Hiding the merchant's phone number.
Although most people shopping online will eventually checkout online, there are those who want to pick up the phone and call the merchant. Perhaps these people have specific questions or special requests that they would rather talk with someone about. The merchant's phone number should be prevalent in the online store. This also adds confidence to people that do place orders online.

10. Improperly referencing images when going secure.
Too many times merchants will look at their storefront, click on some categories and products and assume their store is ready to launch. It is imperative that merchants also place test orders before going live. Often times a customer will click on a checkout button to be greeted with a security warning message. This message is usually the result of the online store going secure (https) but referencing images in a non-secure manner (http). Even though there is a good chance that the transaction would be safe in this scenario, the last thing an online shopper wants to see is any kind of security warning message prior to entering a credit number.

Article by Nexternal Solutions - setting the standard for ecommerce software

Building Links as an Online Retailer

Nexternal Solutions, Inc. — Fri, 18 May 2007 00:00:00 GMT

Building backlinks (links to a website from another website) is the best way to generate free traffic. Merchants that excel in this facet of marketing are quietly reaping the benefits. These merchants have more channels leading to their website and experience better search engine rankings as result of increased PageRank. Although websites can attract backlinks with little or no work, there are many ways merchants can consciously increase traffic.

Article by Nexternal Solutions - setting the standard for ecommerce software

When Would You Like Those Products Delivered?

Nexternal Solutions, Inc. — Mon, 23 Apr 2007 00:00:00 GMT

When a gift can not be given in person, ordering online provides the next best alternative. If one considers the time it takes to drive to a store, pick out an item, drive it home, wrap it, and take it to the post office compared to shopping online, it's a real no-brainer. How can online merchants differentiate themselves from the competition when it comes to becoming a gift buyer's destination? There are the obvious things such as allowing for gift cards, gift wrapping, and multiple-ship-to locations. There is also one more way which many merchants aren't yet taking advantage of. Why not allow customers to specify the date on which they would like to have the product delivered? If presented the option, it seems that many customer's would like to have their gift delivered on the recipients birthday or as close to mother's day as possible.

Article by Nexternal Solutions - setting the standard for ecommerce software

Design Contests - A Creative Alternative to Traditional Website Design

Nexternal Solutions, Inc. — Wed, 21 Mar 2007 00:00:00 GMT

As a business owner, it can be easy to overlook website design updates. However, a company's web presence is more important today than ever before. Unfortunately many websites haven't changed much since their debut. There are a number of factors why this business element commonly takes a back seat. The most common are time, cost, and process. Traditionally when a website redesign is needed, a company enters a closed ended process with very few parties. This scenario creates increased designer competition during the solicitation process and decreased competition during the design process. As a result business owners are first overwhelmed with designers then underwhelmed with designs.

Article by Nexternal Solutions - setting the standard for ecommerce software