eCommerce Blog

If you’ve come to our site this year looking for advice, tips, and experiences from some of the amazing eCommerce initiatives we’ve been working on lately – you’ve been greeted with the sound of crickets chirping. We’ve surpassed the longest period of time ever without a single blog post, and some have even asked “are you guys still in business”? We’ve all heard the tale of the shoemaker, but I’ll be honest – I’m sick of that story. At the end of the day, every person, company, or group prioritizes what they do and what they don’t do. Shame on the shoemaker for not making his son his #1 priority – he should have had the best shoes in town! In that same vein, we too have priorities and there’s a point at which you need to make tough decisions about what may not make the cut when looking at the supply vs. demand curve.

From the earliest days of e-commerce, user privacy has been a paramount concern, on both sides of the transaction. Buyers are skittish about sharing their financial and personal data, and sellers are leery of violating regulations that could result in steep fees or even the demise of their business.

In response to the recent Internet privacy breaches at AT&T, Google, Apple Inc., and Facebook, Senator John Kerry is spearheading legislation that will seek to better protect online shoppers’ private information. He hopes to pass some form of an online privacy bill by early next year—which seems like a rather lofty goal.

For years now, there’s been a steady growth of online marketing and eCommerce businesses, leading many to wonder if brick and mortar stores will eventually become obsolete. After all, web-based stores can engage people from the comfort of their own homes, theoretically fulfilling all of their consumer needs with the click of a button. And with advancements in online ads and SEO/SEM, Internet marketing campaigns can target and cater to the specific needs and wants of each individual customer.

In just a few short years, Facebook has revolutionized the way people socialize. The website has quickly become a household name, giving hundreds of millions of people a free and easy way to stay connected with friends, family, and colleagues across the world. But something much bigger could be on the horizon for the dot-com giant, as recent efforts could standardize a currency for ecommerce throughout the World Wide Web.

We commonly use analytics data as a means to determine how to better speak to our customers in encouraging them to complete the purchase. While there are a plethora of eCommerce KPIs and metrics that are commonly referenced, at Blue Acorn we like to dig a little below the surface at metrics that probably don’t exist on your Analytics dashboard (and thus are probably overlooked). One of those metrics is “visits to purchase” – which is defined as the number of sessions from the first interaction with the website to complete a purchase. This metric is loosely related to days to purchase, another metric worth detailing (separately).

Whether you’re planning a new website for a start-up business or recreating an existing corporate site, now is the perfect time to take a closer look at your hosting company and determine whether there might be more environmentally friendly options. Green or “carbon-neutral” web hosting is an increasingly popular choice… but what qualifies a hosting company as green, and how can you find one?

For most small business owners, common marketing strategies include taking out ads in trade magazines and newspapers, buying advertising space online, or handing out fliers. Then there are the plethora of “guerilla marketing” tools that can be used to generate a buzz in the community about your product or service. But did you know that modifying the look and feel of your website can dramatically boost customer satisfaction and retention, as well as increasing the number of customers who buy after visiting your site?

According to Paul Boag of boagworld.com, it’s possible to boost website sales by as much as 10,000% with a few design and customer service changes – many of which involve improvements to the site’s visual marketing. There are a number of ways that any e-commerce website can achieve this:

• Simplify the page and get rid of any distracting clutter
• Make shopping carts more visible and easier to access
• Increase the size, clarity, and detail of images
• Make links, buttons, and actions bigger and simpler

In theory, coupons are a win/win: they’re a great way for smart shoppers to stretch their dollar to the max, and an effective way for businesses to attract new customers and build the loyalty of the ones they already have. But online discounts work differently than the print coupons found in newspapers and brick-and-mortar stores. If used incorrectly, they can actually discourage customers from buying. It’s important to fully understand the ins and outs of online coupons before offering them in your eCommerce store.

According to a recent report from Interpublic Group, online searches for coupons have increased by 58 percent in the last year alone, a spike that’s most likely spurred by the current economy. But not all of these coupons are being used – and those that are may actually be hurting the businesses that offer them.

For online businesses, there is a serious downside to coupons: they remind customers that better offers may exist, and can result in cart abandonment, wasted marketing efforts, lower customer and order values, and a loss of income on discounted products. To prevent lost sales and protect your bottom line, web coupons must be promoted in a whole new way.

What do Nestle, Domino’s, Taco Bell, Honda, Asus, Time Warner, Pfizer, and Belkin have in common? Thanks to the Internet, they’ve all found out the hard way that there’s truth to the old adage, “You can’t un-ring a bell.” While social media can be a fantastic tool for making real connections with customers, it’s also a bit of a Catch 22—just one misstep can lead to a PR nightmare.

So, what can be learned from the social media disasters these companies have experienced? Here’s a short list of lessons to apply to your business:

At Blue Acorn we’ve worked with a number of different eCommerce platforms – too many to count.  And while we certainly do a lot of work with the Magento Commerce platform, the reality is that we are platform-agnostic, and we’re always on the lookout for new, innovative solutions in the marketplace that present significant advantages and benefits for our clients.  In the end, we want to work with best-of-breed software to ensure our clients’ interests are aligned with the technology.  Given that, we’ve been following the ShopIgniter platform over the past few months in anticipation of some of the “next generation” of eCommerce software.  Today we attended a live demo of the platform to learn more about the platform and its potential benefits.  What follows is an overview of the platform and our initial thoughts from what we’ve seen so far.  Keep in mind that we have not had the opportunity to use it in a real-world scenario, which is where many of its benefits, as well as its flaws, will expose themselves.

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