It’s a pet peeve of mine: visiting an e-commerce web site and their copyright date is from last year – or even worse, it’s from 4 or 5 years ago. To me, that’s the sign of a web site that is not ‘fresh’ or updated. Certainly Google and the other search engines are paying attention as well.
Some software platforms will automatically update the copyright date on your website for you at the stroke of midnight on 12/31 each year, but there are still many others that it is a manual task. However, just because it’s a manual task doesn’t mean that it should be overlooked. Take a second now and look at the bottom of your web site in the footer. What does it say? If it doesn’t say Copyright 2012 – it’s time to change it.
Written by Pat
January 26th, 2012
submitted by: Pat – West Florida Components
The Internet Merchants Association and its sponsors recently presented eight educational sessions to the ASD trade show attendees. The bi-annual sourcing show was held at the Las Vegas Convention Center with over 30.000 visitors in attendance.
Platinum and Diamond level sponsors including Vendio, Alibaba and MIVA Merchant were among the featured speakers on topics ranging from integrating social media to building effective web sites and search engine optimization.
Most of the speakers have provided their slide decks so that session attendees can review them and download them. The slide presentations are available at slideshare: http://www.slideshare.net/imamerchants
The Internet Merchants Association is now accepting applications for the March, 2011 educational sessions. Speaking preference is given to all IMA Platinum and Diamond level sponsors. Interested parties can learn more about the speaking and membership opportunities by contacting Pat Pepe. She can be reached by email at pat@imamerchants.org.
August 30th, 2010
E-commerce moves so swiftly. Seems like just the other day we were talking about Google Checkout, and now we’ve got to figure out whether or not we’re going to use Facebook’s social plugins. And the list goes on, doesn’t it?
Because we at IMA are serious about the benefits we provide to ecommerce practitioners, we’re now offering etailers a unique opportunity to join the association and reap the full benefits of being a member—including access to the IMA’s private member forum, where you can engage with and learn from other members, gaining insight into e-commerce best practices you won’t find anywhere else.
Silver, Gold, Platinum and Diamond members can also avail additional amenities depending on their membership level, including a dedicated company platform within IMA’s member-only forum, speaking opportunities, and discounted rates to the IMA’s annual conference held every March in conjunction with the annual ASD/AMD trade show.
Effective immediately etailers can join the IMA at the Bronze level (a US $99 value) for one year. Just select the “Bronze Plan” on our registration page here, and you’ll be in.
Go ahead, do it. Join now.
May 21st, 2010
Those were the days
Growing up in the retail world, I was always taught that the most important decision in your business was location, location, location… remember those days?
When you run an Internet-based business, your “location” is nowhere… and everywhere. So what, then, becomes most important with this new “location”? In my opinion, branding. Part of that (not all of it) is having a logo that works for your business.
I personally am not artistic so needed design help.
Have you ever googled “logo”? The results: About 2,430,000,000.
Wow. That didn’t really help me.
My next step was to find logos that I like and find out who designed them. Well, what I found was that logos can cost anywhere from $25 to $5,000. Over the years, I’ve spent quite a bit of money on logos, and was consistently disappointed. I should have just burned my money!
Crowdsourcing
Then I read about Internet sites that specifically offer a bid process for logo design and other creative needs. I was intrigued! So I did my homework and found many sites that offer this service. I ended up using a site called crowdSpring (there are several others like Logo Design Team, 99designs and Hatchwise) and found the process fairly simple and painless:
I explain what colors I was looking for, font choices, pictures, etc. Throughout the process I could even change my mind on colors, etc… and then designers submitted their designs. I had the opportunity to rate the logos and even send a designer a request to tweak this or that.
After the deadline, I had 7 days to decide on the winner, and transfer the money to the designer.
My decision was based on how easy it was to read, if the graphic itself explained my business and how the logo looked in black & white. I also asked the designer I selected to make a few tweaks for me and they obliged after being awarded the money. All communication was done on the site and no names were used, only user IDs, which is great from a privacy point of view.
Cost?
CrowdSpring sets a minimum of $200 for a logo design project, but let me determine the time period for the bid – I chose 10 days. The company suggested that with a $200 bid, I could expect around 30 designs, but because of my past experience with logos, I wanted more to choose from, so I offered $325 for the winning designer (fees for the company are not included). I ended up with 77 logo designs to choose from for my company, SnorkelingOnline.
I found this a great way to crowdsource professional services, and especially perfect for an e-commerce company. I’ll be going back to CrowdSpring when I need to.
May 13th, 2010
Ecommerce Merchants: So You’re Thinking About Drop Shipping?
Continue Reading April 30th, 2010
Written by Pat
It’s a cost of doing business and a headache for a lot of online sellers: accepting merchandise returns.
There are valid reasons that we get returned merchandise from our online customers, but there are some times that costly returns can be avoided or prevented.
According to a recent Distribution Center Operations Report from The Supply Chain Consortium and Reverse Logistics: Returns, Refunds and Recalls Hot Topic Report, the top six reasons for customer returns were:
1. The customer ordered incorrect product or size
2. The customer decided the product was not needed or wanted
3. No reason for return given
4. The product did not match the description on the Website or in the catalog
5. The product did not fit the customer’s expectations
6. The company shipped the incorrect product or size
So, as an e-commerce company, how can you stem the tide of product returns?
At first glance, it would seem that the merchant might be responsible for only #6:
The company shipped the incorrect product or size
This, of course, is generally a clerical error that might be avoided with improved systems and procedures and employee training.
However, there are quite a few steps an e-commerce seller can take to prevent returns based on some of the other reasons that were cited.
How about these reasons?
1. The customer ordered incorrect product or size
4. The product did not match the description on the Website or in the catalog
The number one reason is incorrect product or size and the fourth most popular reason is that the description was not accurate. How can you as an online seller prevent this?
Ask yourself:
How clear and accurate is my description?
How many pictures do I have for each product?
Do the pictures show the product from various angles?
Do the pictures show relative size with a ruler or other measurement of scale?
For clothing items, are there sizing charts available?
Do I link to the sizing charts from the respective product page?
Do I provide measurements?
Another way to avoid having customer returns is to allow customers to leave product reviews.
Besides providing descriptive language that will help the search engines better index your products, reviews left by past customers can help shoppers make the best decision based on their experience. Who better to know that a pair of shoes runs small and to order a half-size up? Or that the orange shown in the picture is just a little bit brighter than the actual color of the purse?
As an e-commerce website, we will always be susceptible to returns, but it is possible to greatly improve your company’s return rate by improvements to your site and product descriptions. These changes will not only lower your merchandise return rate, but provide a boost to your customer satisfaction rate as well.
January 25th, 2010
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