Robert Blaise

5 Burning Questions About E-Commerce Search Solutions

So, you can thank Google for raising your online  customers’ search expectations through the roof. The 900-lb. gorilla of Internet search  delivers such quality results — in just tenths of a second, as the results page tells you –  that online shoppers won’t settle for anything less than blindingly fast search results from the  e-commerce sites they visit.
1.Are the results relevant?
2.Does your company have the resources required to run and maintain the site search?
3.Does the vendor give you control over the site search?
4. Will the vendor enable you to repurpose data from search?
5. Will the search solution constantly improve?

You may be working hard at SEO and paid search listings to draw visitors to your site, but if your site search function falls apart when they get there, they’ll waste no time in shopping elsewhere. One of our own surveys found that 73 percent of visitors will leave an e-commerce site within one to two minutes when they don’t find the products they’re looking for — and 36 percent would never bother returning to that site. As we move into the holidays, and the biggest shopping season of the year, you don’t want three-quarters of your shoppers leaving your site in 60 seconds because they can’t find the gifts they want.

Tags: Google

The myth of tax free internet sales

Frequently in my conversations with our clients the question of taxes for online purchase is brought up. The most common questions are; should I collect sales tax? do I collect based on the State?  Am I required to pay taxes for online sales?  I am not an internet sales tax expert however in my research what I discovered was that whether you need to collect sales tax depends on where both you and your customers are located. If your customers are in the same state as the physical location of your business, they owe sales tax on items they purchase from you.

For an excellent resource for information on state tax rates and rules, check The Sales Tax Clearinghouse, www.thestc.com. Click on the link to “state tax rates and DoR Web pages” to find a link to your state’s sales tax authority. You can also click on “LOOKUP RATES” to find the sales tax — state, county, local, etc. — for any address.

Tags: Guidelines

7 Online Blunders That Threaten Your Identity

These common mistakes can ruin your computer or invite identity theft

1. Assuming Your Security Software Is Protecting You
2. Accessing an Account Through an Email Link
3. Using a Single Password for All Online Accounts
4. Downloading Free Software
5. Thinking Your Mac Shields You From All Risks
6. Clicking on a Pop-up Ad That Says Your PC Is Insecure
7. Shopping Online the Same Way You Do in Stores

Now find out what you can do to prevent these pitfalls

Tags: Security

What is Magento Commerce?

If you are asking this question, you must have heard of the magnificent open source ecommerce platform that makes it easy for manufacturers and buyers to meet each other’s requirements.  Magento platform offers flexibility and control.  Flexibility and control benefits both the products source and the consumer in many ways.

How is Magento eCommerce Platform beneficial to the storeowner?

Magento ecommerce platform offers an advanced catalog and shopping cart price rule system.  It allows the storeowners to customize the storefront and all other features including pricing, colors options, and offers right in one screen.

The storeowner may likewise manage the storefront to meet international markets.  Changing the storefront into different languages, and customizing it to cater to different nationalities is done in only a few clicks.

The catalog is designable in whatever way the storeowner pleases.

Magento eCommerce Platform likewise offer SEO features that will help storeowners to edit metadata and search engine optimization easily.  Social shopping tools including reviews and product-related contents are easy to create with the built-in features of Magento.

To top it all, Magento offers an easy to navigate Admin Dashboard to help you check reports with ease.  You control how the storefront will look, how it will be easy for customers to navigate and ensure social marketing is in place.

Creativity is your only limit, but of course, if you do not feel creative, you can always take advantage of the templates available in the Magento system.

How is Magento platform beneficial to the customer?

Magento platform offers a single page checkout that enables customers to view and edit their orders easily.

There is also a multiple shipping address option where the customer need not make other transaction for shipment to different addresses.  Simply click the multiple address option and type in the address and you are ready to ship the products you need.

Navigation is easy and therefore purchasing products will be less tedious.  Customers can make use of their time in other more important tasks, rather than for multiple transactions as compare with other open source platforms.

Pricing is easily changeable to meet currency requirement with just a few clicks of the mouse.

Catalog browsing is likewise a breeze in this system.  Consumers do not see products alone, or products and price alone, they will be able to see it complete with reviews and contents that will help them compare products.  They can therefore buy the best easily.

Magento is an open source ecommerce platform that promises to revolutionize the industry.  They are delivering this promise and more.  Thus, if you have products to sell in the World Wide Web, Magento eCommerce is for you.

Tags: Shopping Cart, Solutions

The order fulfillment plight

Okay so you finally made the leap of faith and invested in your online store. After a few weeks of tweaks on your Google Ad campaign you finally have your first sale, awesome. From this point forward How your business handles orders will have a major impact on your customer experience, from encouraging initial interest to prompting repeat business.  While several factors - price, quality of product or service, range of goods, stock availability - are vital to achieving sales in the first place, a responsive, fully automated order fulfillment procedure plays a key part in overall customer satisfaction.

Having a rock solid plan on how you will logistically manage orders will save you lots of headaches once you are up and running at full steam.  The key here is to understand the order flow and have a plan to address all possible issues that may arise during a sales transaction. Since at one point or another we are all consumers I like to start just by jotting down a few notes from good and bad personal experiences that I have had while shopping online. Next let’s evaluate your product is it a physical product like a phone or is it a digital product like software? How will your customers receive their product? Who will be responsible for the shipping charges? In either case there must be a process that is initiated when a purchase is made on your site. Remember not all customers will be happy with the quality of products purchased via the Internet and there will undoubtedly be a certain percentage of defective or damaged products, irrespective of the quality or type of product being sold.  You should have a plan on how to address an unhappy buyer as there is still an opportunity to salvage the relationship. I have found that a good well thought out FAQ can go a long way and actually help to increase sales.

So remember, invest some time in planning your overall customer experience and how their products will be delivered to them. This is a critical process in the entire transaction and should not be overlooked. Brows a few sites, purchase a few products, write down your likes and dislikes and soon you will be on your way to a better sales fulfillment process.