Need Stats? Mobile Commerce and Holiday Shopping Research

I’ve recently compiled a couple ecommerce research articles on Ecommerce-Guide.com. These are excellent resources for small business ecommerce site owners – and also for journalists looking for fast ecommerce facts.

• 2011 Holiday Shopping Research and Trends: highlights from 28 research reports, industry predictions and expert ecommerce guides to help you get ready for this year’s online holiday shopping season.
• Mobile Commerce Research for Online Retailers: highlights from 27 research reports to help you plan your mobile commerce strategy.

Online Banking Purchases Lower Merchants’ Transaction Fees

Consumers topping up mobile wallets and shopping online with a bank account instead of cards can save retailers hefty credit card transaction processing fees.  Mazooma makes this connection for retailers.  Many consumers are comfortable  using online banking, but the missing piece of the puzzle for merchants is how to connect consumers with their bank accounts during the checkout process.

Online Banking Purchases Lower Merchants’ Transaction Fees
By Vangie Beal, June 23, 2011

Small Business CRM Apps

Until recently, CRM software was something only the larger enterprise market would typically invest in. Most CRM systems you read about are enterprise applications – e.g., a platform that is just too large and complex for individual or small business use.

Now, a new breed of CRM software and solutions are available to small business owners. These CRM solutions are designed for small business and provide only the features that are most relevant to SMB owners, such as calendar and event notifications, contact management, lead management, email marketing and similar options.

On E-commerce Guide I take a look at three hosted (SaaS) small business CRM applications ecommerce site owner can use to better manage its customer relations.

3 Small Business CRM Apps for Ecommerce
By Vangie Beal, October 29, 2010

Tweet Away With These Fine Twitter Tools

It is virtually impossible to stay on top of Twitter Tools and apps. For small business ecommerce site owners, one thing you should do is invest in a Twitter tool that will help you automate the tweeting process. Recently I looked at 3 very useful and functional Twitter applications — TwtQpon, FutureTweets, and HootSuite. Any small ecommerce business could use these tools to leverage Twitter as a marketing tool.

Read the Story: Twitter Tools for Small Business Ecommerce Sites
By Vangie Beal, September 15, 2010

Tips for Writing an Ecommerce Website FAQ

I have to say it — many online site FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions) tend to annoy me. In most cases I think this is because the site owner doesn’t have a good understanding of what a FAQ should be — they just know they want to have a FAQ page. I had the opportunity to write about FAQs and how to build a relevant FAQ for your website customers who prefer ‘self-service’ support. While this is written primarily as a guide for publishing a FAQ on an ecommerce website, I think you’ll find the tips useful for any type of website.

Read the Story: 10 Tips for Writing an Ecommerce Website FAQ
By Vangie Beal, September 8, 2010

How to Add Facebook Like To Your Website

Facebook is building another ‘index’ of the Web, based on people’s likes and preferences. We show you how to put the Facebook Like Button on your small business ecommerce website.

Facebook Like is one of the social plugins offered by Facebook that lets people share your content with their friends. When you add the Facebook Like button to your own small business ecommerce website anyone who clicks it will have a story appear in their News Feed with a link back to your website.

“Facebook is building another index of the Web,” said Charles Nicholls, Founder and Chief Strategy Officer of SeeWhy. “Only this index it isn’t based on Google’s arbitrary algorithms, it is built based upon people’s likes and preferences.”

When it comes to having Facebook Like on your ecommerce website, Nicholls says this is really a bit of a no brainer because it is a single line of code that you add to point Facebook users to your ecommerce site. By adding Facebook like to your own website, you encourage Facebook visitors to share your site and link back to you in their social network profile, in turn exposing your site to their friends.

How to Add Facebook Like to Your Ecommerce Site
By Vangie Beal, August 24, 2010

All Things Bonanzle: An Interview with CEO Bill Harding

Bonanzle CEO, Bill Harding talks about recent developments at the Bonanzle marketplace and what the company’s future plans hold for its online buyers and sellers.

As Bonanzle continues to move forward, Harding said that the plan is to keep the same momentum and core values that the marketplace was initially built upon.  In the coming year Bonanzle sellers can expect to see continued platform developments and lots of new features, big and small, added on a frequent basis.

In terms of further fueling growth and revenues for the company, Harding said that the company realizes that it has sellers covered, but more work is needed in terms of buyers.  To extend its reach, the company is turning attention to goals that will improve sales for sellers in the coming year.

A new focus will be put on increasing sales and seller growth by fifty percent — allowing more online sellers to use fewer selling channels and earn better profits just from the Bonanzle marketplace.  While remaining tight-lipped on specific details to increase sales of those who are already successfully selling on Bonanzle,  Harding suggested that Bonanzle could increase seller profits while ensuring it wouldn’t cost those sellers an ‘arm and a leg’  to sell online.

Read the Full “All Things Bonanzle” Interview on EcommerceGuide.com
By Vangie Beal, July 7, 2010

Customer Service Options for Small Web Shops

Customer service is an important part of any business; regardless of how big or small your operation is. Smaller home-based businesses and entrepreneurs may have less of a budget than bigger Web-based stores, but you can practice good customer service tactics on a shoestring budget.

“Live customer support technology (also called live chat or live help), lets a business offer immediate, real-time assistance to website visitors through text-based chat. There are a number of vendors that offer live chat solutions, and while exact features of each solution will vary, the end result is similar. When you use Live Chat, your website visitors can click a ‘Live Chat’ button if they need assistance. You would receive a notification of a customer inquiry and could begin an online chat session to provide assistance. Some solutions may also let you track your customers and initiate the chat conversation if you see they may be having a problem on your site.   These solutions are a good choice for SOHOs and entrepreneurs as you can ‘hide’ the chat button on the site if you are not available.”

Customer Service Options for Small Web Shops
By Vangie Beal, May 19, 2010

Feeling Confused by Ecommerce Lingo?

From launching an e-commerce website to understanding industry regulations, this Ecommerce Dictionary — with 20 definitions and links to helpful tips and how-to articles on Ecommerce-Guide.com — will make your transition from retailer to e-tailer easier a much easier task to understand.

E-commerce Dictionary: 20 Words to Know
By Vangie Beal, May 26, 2010

Building an Online Store with CoreCommerce

In this review we look at how to use CoreCommerce, an all-in-one online hosted ecommerce platform to build an online store that offers mobile and social commerce options.

CoreCommerce 7.9 is an all-in-one online hosted ecommerce platform by provider Sum Effect Software.  This platform offers everything a merchant needs to launch an online store,  including design tools to build the webshop, secure ecommerce web hosting, the shopping cart and invoice system, plus a nice selection of online marketing tools.

One thing we like about CoreCommerce is its pricing structure. Many hosted online store providers charge a monthly subscription plan in addition to a per-transaction fee when you sell from your webshop.  CoreCommerce offers six different monthly fee-based plans with no extra transaction fees charged.

Building an Online Store with CoreCommerce
By Vangie Beal, May 13, 2010