It is essential that internet retailers focus much of their marketing efforts on methods such as social media marketing, email campaigns, search engine optimization and banner/ad strategies. It is also important that basic, traditional (yet creative) marketing strategies are not overlooked. One of these simple techniques is something that I like to call “in the box” marketing.

In the Box Marketing: refers to the  materials that are shipped with a product.

Here are three methods of “in the box” marketing that can be used to increase future orders and customer loyalty.

1. Upgrade Customer Receipts:  Most internet retailers include a receipt in all packages shipped. These receipts can easily be converted into much more than receipts. By including a paragraph about the company and a large logo, the receipt now becomes a branding tool. Also, with a simple modification in wording an ordinary receipt can become a thank you for shopping with us card. Coupons and an invite to join social media groups can add to overall customer loyalty as well. The white space on receipts should be utilized fully and not neglected. A receipt, unlike an email campaign , is read over 80% of the time. Compare that to the average of  5-7% open rate for customer email campaigns.

2. Use Green Shipping Methods: the number of environmentally conscious consumers is growing at a rapid rate. While most consumers will not shop based primarily on shipping methods of an internet retailer, they are more likely to continue to shop with a retailer that shares their same environmental views. Many retailers are making the change from styrofoam packing peanuts to cornstarch. To learn more about the biodegradable cornstarch peanuts see: http://tips.green-trust.org/2007/01/cornstarch-packing-peanuts.html

Tip: Be sure to add some text describing your green shipping methods on the customer receipt and website.

3. The Cracker Jack Effect: The surprise in the box is a timeless tactic perfected by the food industry (cereal boxes, fast food kid meals).  The excitement experienced as a child, can be recreated when a package arrives with a small trinket of appreciation. For internet retailers selling professional products the “prize” in the box could be as simple as a pen or a notepad. For larger purchases a nicer “prize” could be a branded bpa free stainless steel  water bottle such as: stainless steel water bottle

One shining example of the Cracker Jack Effect is the finger monster placed in the box of products shipped out by Perpetual Kid.com, a webstore that specialized in novelty gifts. The finger monster is low cost, congruent with items sold and memorable to consumers.

Marissa Nichols Infopia, Merchandising, Social Media

Big box retail companies that offer a great overall customer experience, such as Starbucks and Nordstrom Department Stores, have been the leaders in creating noteworthy customer experiences for years.  Books, essays and business plans have been written using  methods of  creating a customer experience in the form of these retailers. While the methods of creating a successful customer experience change in variation from year to year in a retail location, the  basic  and fundamental methods have been tested and built upon for decades.

Internet retailers are still part of a relatively new and ever changing business model.  Creating an overall good online customer experience can be more difficult than that of a traditional retail location. The friendly greeter, the power of scent (think the overwhelming scent drifting from an Abercrombie and Fitch store) and other conventional methods of creating the retail customer experience are not possible in an online environment. There are, however, basic fundamentals that can be built upon to create an exceptional customer experience.

It is extremely important for an internet retailer to create a positive customer experience. This will  increase conversions, boost the amount of the average sale and impact customer loyalty. See Forrester for more specific details

Two basic elements for creating a sufficient  customer experience are:

Online Reviews

Would you buy from an unknown online retailer without a friend’s recommendation or online review? With fraud running rampant online, most people won’t. The presence of online reviews on your website increases conversions. Products that have received  reviews will also give a retailer insight on what their customers like and don’t like. The presence of specific product reviews will also decrease the amount of online returns.

Quality Images

Quality images will, put simply, sell products. If a picture is worth a thousand words, 10 pictures are worth as much product as they will sell.  At Infopia, we offer our clients the ability to upload large, multiple images for each product. We host these images and it only necessary to upload once. An example of how one of our clients uses these quality images can be seen at  redtruckflyfishing.com

To learn more about the value of the online customer experience and how to create it for your online retail business sign up for our free webinar hosted by Practical Ecommerce January 26.

How to improve the Online Customer Experience: Webinar Registration

Marissa Nichols Infopia online customer experience

Expand your Online Business by Expanding your Technical Know-how

To become a successful internet retail business owner one must be many things; intelligent, organized, a consistent leader and a diligent worker.

Did you notice that technical guru was not mentioned? The amount of instructional and educational materials available online is unbelievable.  A savvy business owner can learn skills and strategies from various articles and authors easily online for low to no cost.

There are of course, highly technical tasks that internet retail owners do not have time to effectively execute themselves. The simple ability to know the tasks needed and to efficiently scrutinize proposals from contractual professionals is of course a required knowledge for adept business owners.

Take full advantage of the information that the internet has to offer.

Some popular sites to locate helpful information are: Lynda.com, Practical Ecommerce (Resources for Online Business Owners), Get Elastic

Marissa Nichols Uncategorized

The economic slump of 2008-09 has taught internet retailers valuable lessons to take into 2010.

When resources became slim, business owners learned how to make much more out of much less.

This all reminds me of a story: A wise high school teacher once told her class about her days of a poor new college graduate starting out her new life on her own.  She beamed as she told her students stories of painting cinder blocks to use as side tables, pleating sheets for drapes in her new apartment and creating over 20 recipes to make with ramen noodles. She told her students that the creativity and ingenuity she gained with the experience was invaluable.  A student raised his hand to ask, “Would you want to go back and live that way again?” She replied, “No way! But, I’d never want to take that past experience back.”

Many internet retailers may one day feel the same way about 2009 and the economic slow down that preceded. Here are a few lessons to take with you into 2010.

1. Low Shipping Fees are Imperative to Staying Competitive

The recent economy has changed the way that online shoppers buy. Even as the economy recovers,  online shopping will still trend this way. Online retailers have become leaders in the battle against traditional brick and mortar stores. One of the factors that contributes to the success is the ability for shoppers to compare rates. Shipping cost has become a large factor in this comparison. Many online retailers have implemented lower cost shipping methods to stay competitive.

2. Cost Control

What business expenses can be cut? What costs can be negotiated? Retail rent space, packaging materials, contractor fees, etc. can all be negotiated. Many internet retailers had to negotiate costs out of necessity. If you don’t ask, you don’t know if you are getting the best cost. Now that retailers have been forced to make these types of requests, they are able to be sure that they are getting the best price in the future.

3. Customer service is priceless

We have all heard the age old saying, ” the customer is key.”  Many internet retailers have learned how to retain their customers with email marketing and loyalty programs. Converting new customers has been more difficult in the recession. Competition has driven many retailers to use excellent prices and promotions for hot items. Benefit descriptions and promotional banners also helped internet retailers in 2009 to beat their competitors.

Marissa Nichols Uncategorized

Quick, No Cost & Easy to Implement Best Practices to Improve SEO and Conversions

1.       Verify with Google WebMaster Tools!
2.       Custom Google WebMaster Settings to Improve SEO by Reducing Duplicate Pages
3.       Submit your Site Map & Yahoo URL List
4.       Turn on the Traveling Mini-Cart to improve conversions

1. Time to become Google WebMaster Verified!
On Page 5 of the training guide, you will find information on how to have your site Google WebMaster verified. Simply follow the brief instructions: http://app.infopia.com/training/Advanced/GoogleAnalyticsSetup.pdf
Then, place your verification key in the appropriate field in Settings >> Storefront >> Manage your Home Page and Body HTML content.

2. Custom Google WebMaster Settings to Improve SEO by Reducing Duplicate Pages
Google WebMaster Tools has added new advanced settings that include the ability to add custom parameters:
Dynamic parameters (for example, session IDs, source, or language) in your URLs can result in many different URLs all pointing to essentially the same content. For example, http://www.example.com/dresses?sid=12395923 might point to the same content as http://www.example.com/dresses. You can specify whether you want Google to ignore up to 15 specific parameters in your URL. This can result in more efficient crawling and fewer duplicate URLs, while helping to ensure that the information you need is preserved. (Note: While Google takes suggestions into account, they don’t guarantee that they’ll follow them in every case.)
In two instances, we found that setting the following parameters (set to Ignore) and duplicate page titles and duplicate meta info pages were significantly lessened. Dupe page titles decreased 60%. Specific “How To” details at the bottom.

3. Submit your Site Map & Yahoo URL List
If you haven’t already created a Site Map/Yahoo URL List, here is a straight forward way to do it. When you have the content, submit to Tech Support and they will work with our Hosted Operations Team to upload for your site.

What to do:
Download and install GSiteCrawler

Add the following filters:
changeDisplayMode
checkForLanding
checkforlanding
displayMainOnly
page_num
seo/1
Shop/Control
vpid

Let it run… It will take about an hour. It will create a Google Sitemap and a Yahoo URL LIst

4. Turn on the Hovering Mini-Cart to improve conversions
Our release of perpetual cart (traveling mini-cart) occurred in July. If you haven’t turned it on for your storefront, now is a great time to do so.
Go To Settings>> Storefront>> Cart & Checkout>> Set “Hovering Mini Cart on Cart Link” to Display

Why turn it on? Marketing Sherpa 2009 eCommerce Benchmark Guide says: “Perpetual Shopping Cart” - these come in a variety of ‘flavors and not all are created equal. The data is limited, but it appears that carts which ‘ride along’ with the shopper as they move through the site have a significant impact on conversion. This varies by the type of perpetual cart. Some simply show a dollar total that change dynamically with purchases, while others may show some or all of the following: product details, thumbnail images, estimated shipping costs and recommended accessories/related products. While 38% of their sample employ some version of the perpetual cart, the vast majority fall into the simpler category, which has a positive but lesser effect than the enhanced versions. Perpetual carts keep the purchase in the mind of the consumer, and at their best, can increase shopping cart size while decreasing attrition.

Our perpetual cart is higher end and shows the consumer total number of items in the cart, total $, thumbnails of all items, price for each product and the product name. This is premium mid/enterprise market functionality, all to drive conversions and increase cart size. It is a standard part of our offering (enterprise sites desiring custom styling work can engage with Infopia Professional Services).

The How To for #2:
Custom Google WebMaster Settings to Improve SEO by Reducing Duplicate Pages -
Once the site is Google WebMaster Verified click on Site Configuration>Settings
Under Parameter Handling click on Adjust parameter settings
Click Add Parameter (leave the dropdown on “Ignore”) and add these fields:

-1-2.html
viewcart
changeDisplayMode
displayMode
checkForLanding
viewCart
displayMainOnly

Your saved settings should look like this:

More Rich Functionality from Infopia

eBay Product Catalogue Support via standard product identifiers
Infopia allows you to be able to directly link items to the eBay product catalog using only the UPC, or other standard identifier. Use of the eBay Product Catalogue improves rankings for those products which are in the catalogue.

From the Edit Product Page you may:
Turn on the eBay Product Catalogue at a global level, or specify at a product level
We will use your Gallery image, however if you don’t have an image, it will use eBay’s stock photo.
List and include additional eBay-provided information about the product
eBay recommends you list with product details whenever they are available.
http://pages.ebay.com/help/sell/prefilled-information.html

Of course, you will automatically continue to list when products are not found in eBay’s catalogue
Here’s an example of how a product in the catalogue will be presented on eBay.
Click Here to view the example

Marissa Nichols Uncategorized

We have recently released two new features.

eBay Product Catalogue Support via standard product identifiers

Infopia allows you to be able to directly link items to the eBay product catalog using only the UPC, or other standard identifier. Use of the eBay Product Catalogue improves rankings for those products which are in the catalogue.

From the Edit Product Page you may:

Turn on the eBay Product Catalogue at a global level, or specify at a product level

We will use your Gallery image, however if you don’t have an image, it will use eBay’s stock photo.

List and include additional eBay-provided information about the product

eBay recommends you list with product details whenever they are available.

http://pages.ebay.com/help/sell/prefilled-information.html

Of course, you will automatically continue to list when products are not found in eBay’s catalogue

Here’s an example of how a product in the catalogue will be presented on eBay.

http://shop.ebay.com/i.html?_nkw=dvd+%22quantum+of+solace%22&_sacat=0&_trksid=p3286.m270.l1313&_odkw=dvd+a+quantum+of+solace&_osacat=0

Billings Report

Infopia retailers have requested a new report that presents transaction details that correlate to Infopia’s monthly billing. We have created report which is accessed by by going to the reports menu – you’ll find it at the bottom of the list.

This report takes a snapshot of transactions for the previous month at month end. This information is static. That is, it will not change over time as reversals, returns etc. are processed and represents a structured accounting-oriented approach to data.

In comparison, you will find that all operational reports are not static and will adjust dynamically based on reversals, returns etc.

Marissa Nichols Uncategorized

Take full advantage of this year’s holiday shopping season by participating in the second annual Free Shipping Day.

Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, can be traced back to the 1960’s as one of the largest shopping days of the year.

Cyber Monday, the Monday following Thanksgiving, was created by Shop.org in 2005 as the online retailer’s version of Black Friday.

Free Shipping Day, December 17, was created just last year and could soon be as popular as Cyber Monday.

Online shoppers are savvy. In the current economy, these online shoppers will compare prices and shipping options of desired items. Don’t make the mistake of underestimating the value of your storefront this season. Include free shipping announcements and banners on your website to discourage shoppers from seeking out your competitors.

Including free shipping should not equate to taking an exponential loss in profit. Go to http://www.freeshipping.org to see how other retailers are participating in Free Shipping Day using various shipping offers such as flat fee shipping on items, free shipping on X amount of dollars spent, and free shipping on select items.

Marissa Nichols Merchandising

Social media has quickly become the community/grassroots marketing of the online marketplace.

Banner ads and promotional ads are important elements of online advertising, but the necessity of word of mouth advertising should not be overlooked.

More consistent time and effort often need to be given to social media than traditional advertising, but the good news is that it is usually at a much lower cost.

5 steps for creating successful social media efforts are explained below to assure that your time and effort are used most efficiently.

1. Every Facebook and Twitter post should be valuable to your audience.

Examples: Promotions, industry information in relation to the products you sell, simply entertaining posts (you must know your target

audience well to determine what they will find amusing.)

2. Post regularly, not excessively.

If you are a well-rounded Facebook user, you are aware of the ability to “hide” posts of friends and fanpages. If a friend or fanpage has posted

bland, useless information or posts several times per day, chances are they have been hidden by many of their followers.  Avoid having your

posts hidden from your  fans by following posting regularly, but not excessively.

3.    Create a conversation with your audience.

Create a conversation with your audience on Twitter and Facebook. Simple survey questions will not only promote interaction with your

followers, but also give you insight into the needs of your customers.  Some examples of these types of questions are:

We are running a special next month on XX item. Would you prefer free shipping or a discount on accessories to this item?

What item from our season catalog (in your industry) can you not live without  and why?

4.  Change your communication style for social media.

Your communications in the social media forum should be less formal than that of your regular business communications. Speak with your

audience as you would your peers. The goal of social media is to create better relationships and trust with your audience.

Marissa Nichols Social Media

We’ve just deployed a PayPal Express integration into our certified 3rd party checkout (3PXO) for eBay.

Why is this a significant improvement for shoppers and for you?

It’s an improved AND streamlined workflow, which will eliminate some of the confusion that the more complicated PayPal Standard workflow was causing. PayPal’s Express Checkout is proving to be more stable than PayPal’s standard product, and PayPal was very supportive of our effort to make PayPal Express the default PayPal offering in our 3PXO solution. PayPal Express was added because:

· It will save your shoppers’ time.

· It eliminates the shopper’s ability to change addresses at PayPal (so there is less chance of an order mismatch i.e. fewer orders will be stuck in pending because the shopper changed something on the PayPal side). Note: This is a requirement eBay has imposed.

· It acts more like a payment gateway, which results in payments being faster to you.

· There is improved visibility inside of Transact, as well as management of the payments – credits, refunds and charging for eBay can now be done in bulk.

THIRD PARTY CHECKOUT users:

If you accept PayPal Express for marketplace transactions, and are using 3PXO, then this IS now working for you & you need to do nothing further.

If you are using PayPal Standard and want to take advantage of the dramatically better Express workflow, give Tech Support a call (888-337-3210) and they can help you set it up. A few minutes doing this will increase your sales for the holidays.

eBay Standard Checkout users:

You’ve always enjoyed the benefits of PayPal Express.

Marissa Nichols Uncategorized

Online promotional and coupon codes can help internet retailers achieve better site traffic and conversion rates. The presence of the savvy internet shopper and retail coupon sites have grown tremendously in the past year.

Consumers are making the shift from shopping at traditional brick and mortar stores to shopping online. With this shift, the traditional Sunday newspaper ads have been left in the brick and mortar parking lot. Replacing traditional ads are online ads and specials emailed to subscribers, promotional online banners and the fast growing coupon and promo sites.

Most of these coupon and promo sites have search capabilities to look for specific items, regional areas, dates and stores. (Something that does not exist in traditional newspaper ads)

Large etailers have been taking advantage of their presence on these sites. Coupon codes  that link directly to their site have been beneficial in creating better traffic and conversion rates. Some of the most popular of these coupon sites are:

http://www.mycoupons.com/

http://www.retailmenot.com/

http://www.couponcabin.com/

Small businesses that cater to a local region can also be found on similar localized sites such as:

http://www.citydeals.com

In the past, some traditional retailers have viewed customers that frequently use coupons as primarily low income and budget conscious. While, consumers that use coupons do prove to be budget conscious, they are not by large low income. A recent study by Mintel found that the highest usage of online coupons from consumers that earn over $100,000 per year and only 30% of low income users that earn under $25,000 per year use online coupons. (For more study results http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?R=1007332)

Better traffic and conversion rates can be achieved by creating promo and coupon codes for your internet retail site that can be sent to email subscribers, advertised on online banners and endorsed through online coupon sites.

Tip: Be sure that you have a server capable of the increased traffic that these methods will create. If you use an ecommerce platform provider, communicate your promotions to them ahead of time.

Marissa Nichols Merchandising