Web Shop Manager News

Interested in a fashion (or fashion planning) website?

There are many reasons why someone may be interested in starting a fashion website, and all reasons are relevant.  Since the Internet is the fastest way to share information, you may be someone who is interested in following trends, keeping up with celebrity fashion, or looking for new ideas for your own wardrobe.  You may be a fashion designer or stylist yourself and need a website to easily show your design portfolio to employers, photographers, models, or potential clients. Or, you may already be established in the fashion industry and need an online presence or website.  Perhaps you own a retail fashion boutique and you would like to develop a way for your customers to be able to take a second look at what they saw featured in your store.  They may look online, find a piece they like, and then come to the store to try it on.  In any situation, having a fashion website is crucial to the development of your brand, and reaching a global audience.

How do I start my own fashion website (fashion website development)?

Before you begin your fashion website development, you should consider drafting a business plan that includes goals for the website.  Once you have established goals, you want to think about what content or site features that will be necessary to differentiate your brand.  In the fashion industry, some of the most important features to consider are a photo gallery, a fashion blog, event calendar, and quite possibly a Shopping Cart website to sell retail fashion items.  The photo gallery could be used to share photos of fashion events that you attended, highlights of seasons’ trends, photo shoots, and wardrobe ideas. 

Utilize your fashion blog to create an online journal of your experiences in the fashion world, to provide insights into your fashion business, show examples of mixing and matching looks, or as a roundup of area fashion events.

An event calendar can pinpoint fashion industry special events happening in your area, around the world, on television, or events where you will be in attendance.  You can list fashion shows, fashion design contests, the upcoming “Project Runway” episode, or new fashion related movies coming out in the theaters. 

How do I design my fashion website (fashion website design)?

Once you have a clear understanding of the goals of the website, and what features are essential to reach those goals, you can begin to think about website design.  Web design is as important as the content you fill the site pages with.  Website design is the first thing that your customers will notice and may be the determining factor in capturing their attention.  Keep in mind that too much clutter (too much text, too many pictures, etc) on your home page will drive a person away from your web site.  Develop a site that is simple, clean, and interesting to look at.  At the same time you will need a website that uniquely represents your brands vision and aesthetic.

If you don’t have a web design background, it is wise to consult an outside source to help you in developing your fashion website.  While most people in the fashion industry have a great eye, understanding, and appreciation for art, this does not mean that they have the ability to develop a tasteful fashion website.  There are people who design websites for a living and know what works and what doesn’t.  All web designers should have worked with both successful and failed websites and will be able to provide feedback about what appeals to the general population based on their previous experience.  So the saying goes “do what you do best, outsource the rest”. 

One of the best ways to find a qualified web design company is doing research on well established website design and development solutions companies who have received positive reviews from clients.  Web Design Solutions which developed Web Shop Manager™ (WSM) has a team of very creative web designers with a vast portfolio of work, who have designed a number of successful fashion websites.  With over 10 years of web design experience, and great reviews from clients, Web Design Solutions and WSM are the perfect solution for your fashion industry website. 

How can I create a successful fashion website (fashion website marketing)?

Once your fashion website is up and running, the most important thing to do is keep it fresh and updated.  Customers will become discouraged when they visit a website and find the same product, and content.  Customers may stop frequenting your website altogether.  Even if you are using your website as a design portfolio, but haven’t created any new work, you may want to change other elements.  This is why a blog is crucial for a fashion website - when you have a fashion blog on your site, you not only have the opportunity to talk about your own work, but you can also talk about related industries or topics that your audience may be interested in.  New blog posts will keep your audience coming back and exploring your website.  Another benefit of having an integrated blog is that you can create an online experience for your audience.  You can cultivate a social network of people who have similar passions, tastes, and styles to you. 

A fashion website will only be as successful as the tools it has to work with.  Make sure you are utilizing the very best web design, development, and web hosting company to handle your dreams and aspirations.  WSM our Content Management System (eCommerce CMS), are the ideal choice for fashion websites.  Eliminate the barriers that are hindering your success, and call WSM today to speak with an industry expert about your fashion website.

Brooke Nevins
Bcat Threads

When I first heard that Web Shop Manager was upgrading to a one page checkout, adding to an already awesome eCommerce web software, I thought to myself, why? What is a 1 page eCommerce checkout? What does it do for my eCommerce business? What does a one page checkout mean to my customers? What makes it a revolutionary one page checkout? What the heck is AJAX, besides a cleaner for my house!? So I completed some research to find my answers and discovered why Web Shop Manger's one page eCommerce checkout using AJAX is a must have for anyone who wants to sell products online!

What is AJAX Single-Page Checkout Software?

We all know that you have to go through a checkout in order to purchase products. Whether you are in a brick and mortar store or online, this process is required. Can you imagine being at the grocery store and having to go to 3 different stations to checkout? The first station, to inform the sales clerk what type of customer you are (existing shopper, new, or a guest). The second station, to provide them with your billing/shipping information and to decide if you need help carrying your products to your car. Then, finally the third station, where you would provide them with the payment for your goods. If this was the case we would probably get fed up and not continue to shop there and see several shopping carts full of food that had been abandoned!

So why do we put up with all those stops when shopping online? Why do we go from page to page providing a little information at a time to get what we want? Well, not everyone does. In fact I found that abandoned shopping carts is a common problem for eCommerce sites. Several independent studies have corroborated cart abandonment rates of up to 75%, while it’s been noted that about half of all prospective customers bail out of their purchases sometime between selecting products and clicking the buy button. Also, research has shown that the longer it takes for a customer to complete a sale, the higher the shopping cart abandonment rate.

Well the great news is with Web Shop Manager’s revolutionary one page, one step checkout your customer’s no longer have to make all those stops. They will go from cart, to checkout/purchased in one step! Web Shop Manager’s one page checkout process allows you to close your sales quickly and easily.

What makes AJAX One Step Shopping Cart work?

You may think to yourself why is this one page checkout such a big deal…I’ve see other one page eCommerce checkouts! But believe me you’ve never seen one as dynamic as this one-page eCommerce checkout! What makes Web Shop Manager truly one page is AJAX!

To help understand AJAX I turned to Wikipedia. Ajax, sometimes written as AJAX (shorthand for asynchronous JavaScript and XML), is a group of interrelated web development techniques used on the client-side to create interactive web applications or rich Internet applications. With Ajax, web applications can retrieve data from the server asynchronously in the background without interfering with the display and behavior of the existing page. The use of Ajax has led to an increase in interactive animation on web pages and better quality of Web services due to the asynchronous mode. Data is usually retrieved using the XMLHttpRequest object. Despite the name, the use of JavaScript and XML is not actually required, nor do the requests need to be asynchronous.

AJAX’s use on the one page checkout enables the checkout to function so your customers do not have to wait for a new page to load or the existing page to reload. The information is evaluated and processed behind the scenes, creating this seamless checkout process. This provides immediate customer feedback and error detection. Allowing your customer to quickly complete the checkout and their eCommerce purchase without stress or frustration.

Why do I want a One Step Checkout?

As an eCommerce site owner you will see a drastic increase in your sales and cart conversions with this enhancement. Effectively and significantly reducing your cart abandonment rates. Existing Web shop manager customers are already experiencing an increase in sales, decrease in shopping cart abandonment and more returning customers.

This revolutionary one page checkout is included when you use Web Shop Manager to maintain your eCommerce site at no additional cost. Also included are several eCommerce features for eBusiness owners. Offering you more tools to manage your orders, see additional information by customer, and advanced searching tools. You decide, based on the products, which fields you don't need. For example, if the product does not require shipping then the customer will not be asked for shipping information.

Combine all this with an already extensive list of eCommerce feature and you will never want to use anything else to manage your eCommerce websites. If there was ever a checkout system that was fun to use, this is it!

Would you like to see for yourself how easy Web Shop Manager's eCommerce CMS is to use? Sign up now for a personal CMS live demonstration.

The ultimate goal of an eCommerce blog is to make money.  It may be a simple goal of paying your eCommerce hosting fees or perhaps you have grander visions in mind.  Whatever the goals are for your eCommerce site you will need to get consistent traffic in order to make any of the following revenue generating suggestions profitable. 

In order to drive traffic to your site I suggest you take a look at a previous post in the series “Developing an eCommerce Blog” entitled "How to Title an eCommerce Website Blog Post and Promote it too!".

Now let’s explore a few options for monetizing your eCommerce website blog:

SELL PRODUCTS ONLINE

• Sell Your Own - WSM’s eCommerce Modules makes it easy to post your own product and make money online.  The new 1-step checkout system should make it even easier to convert ‘lookey-loos’ into paying customers. 
• Create Branded Items - You can create products with your own logo or designs to sell using sites like Zazzle, or Café Press to further your brands reach with promotional items.  Both sites use your designs, and when a customer orders an item they print the item and drop ship for you.  You can create a separate site, if the look doesn’t suit your current site, or integrate it directly into your existing offering. 
• Affiliate Sales – The apparel and fashion website designed by WSM, Bcat Threads is a great example of combining several designers into one site.  This not only makes the site look full of unique products, but allows the individual designers great exposure to a larger audience. 

AD NETWORKS

• Pay per Click (PPC) – This means that you, the host, only get paid when an ad is clicked.  There are many ad networks that work this way and several include: Google Adsense, Chitika, and Commission Junction.
• Pay by Impressions (CPM) – (stands for cost per thousand) – These networks pay you for each 1000 page views rather than actual clicks.  The cost is usually $1 or so per 1000 page views.  Consider these services as examples of this method: Tribal Fusion, and ValueClick Media.

DIRECT AD SALES

• Individual Vendors - If you are interested in vendors buying ad space on your site, prepare a media sheet with analytical data including how many visitors, page views, average time on site, etc, so they can see the value in their advertising dollars.  You should make it clear on your homepage that you are happy to entertain more ads. 
• Trading Spaces - Consider trading ad space with another complimentary but not competitive site which can attract other companies to buy direct ad sales or at least generate more traffic.  This will benefit sales of your products and earnings from ad networks affiliation. 

Which ever method(s) you explore for your particular tastes and efforts I encourage you to read the fine print and don’t commit until you’ve explored a substantial amount of opportunities.

Next month I’ll explore attracting and "retaining loyal RSS subscribers", and how to keep them happy and commenting members of your community.

Emily Dunn

Brown Bag Agency

Before you begin thinking of a strategy for eCommerce blog post promotion you must first think of a riveting title to get your audience searching, thinking, moving, and of course buying more products.  There are many ways to create an attention grabbing title, here are (4) of my favorites:

1. Ask a question – This is a great tactic for engaging an audience.  Provide an answer to the question in your post and then ask for comments that will add value, and perhaps a few ideas you hadn’t thought of yet.  Here is an example from the previous post in the series “Developing an eCommerce Blog” entitled "How do I Develop Innovative Content for my eCommerce Blog? "  Form the question in terms of what someone may type into a search engine as a keyword search.
2. List – If you take a look at the title "5 Important Questions to Ask before Starting an eCommerce Blog" you will see that a list exhibits your thoughts in an organized, succinct, and manageable way.  If the title were “Starting an eCommerce Blog” the reader might think the post was all encompassing and may pass it up because of time constraints. 
3. Use searchable phrases – If the terms you use are different than what people are looking for, you could be missing the boat.  Take a look at Google’s Insights for Search tool, which should be incredibly helpful when looking for searchable phrases to inspire a post title.  For instance, when writing this post I noticed that “eCommerce Website” was trending higher than “eCommerce Site”. 
4. Say what you need to say - Perhaps John Mayer was on to something.  A blog post title is no place to be short and sweet.  Take for instance,  "List Hundreds of Products, Organize Thousands of Items, Import Millions of Parts". The title could have been something like “Products, Items, and Parts” which wouldn’t have been as effective or attention grabbing.  Sometimes an adjective can go a long way to get your point across and engage a reader. 

Now that you have an informative, engaging title it is time for creative blog promotion.  It is not necessary; in fact, it wouldn’t be a good thing to use all of the following ideas for every single post.  It may seem cumbersome at first but once you get in the flow of things it will become second nature.  I promise!  Here are (8) eCommerce blog post promotion ideas to get you thinking:

1. Bookmarking sites - sites like StumbleUpon, digg, or delicious are a small sampling of the bookmarking sites available for eCommerce website blog promotion.  I find it beneficial to link up with users on sites like Twitter to take those contacts over to a social bookmarking site.  Then you can bookmark each others posts and see the visits increase. 
2. Social media sites – It should seem pretty obvious to share a link with your followers on sites like Twitter when you have a new post.  Do keep in mind that only about 1 in 10 posts should be a shameless promotion of your site.  However, sites like LinkedIn allow you the chance to add your post to the “news” section of the groups you are a member of.  This can be an incredible place to post valuable material to a targeted audience.  Do not post to every group, every time.
3. Forums/ participation on other blogs – There are forums for everything now.  There are also blogs for just about every collection or hobby too.  Seek out related forums or blogs to the items you sell and on occasion leave an insightful comment that brings the viewer back to a specific post on your site.  Never leave a link to your home page, leave a link to a related article that helps further your insightful comment.
4. Send a link to bloggers for a possible link back - If done correctly this tactic can be very effective.  Let’s say you find a site that has a related article to something you have written about.  Your article may expand on what they were saying, or offer another opinion, etc.  Send a thoughtful email to the website owner and provide a link to the specific article you have in mind for them.  If they like the post or believe their audience will gain something from reading it they may link back to it.  Don’t expect hand outs, but if you get one, fabulous!  You may also want to provide a few link backs for other people and they may return the favor. Web Shop Manager™'s resources/links module is an easy way to list other websites or blogs as a resource for your eCommerce site visitors.
5. Interlinking in ones website – The content on your site will naturally build upon itself, and it will make sense to hyperlink to previous posts, and relevant pages on your eCommerce site.  This will keep visitors on your site longer, and make their visit a meaningful one.  Also, consider going back to old posts and linking them to relevant newer posts you have written. 
6. Photo submission sites – Photography is a great way to get the attention of browsers.  Sites like Craftgawker.com, and flickr can be used to upload great photos of your wares and drive traffic back to your site. Web Shop Manager has a Photo Gallery Module to help reel in the buyers hook, line, and sinker.
7. Newsletters – Use newsletters to feed your subscribers with great content that provides insight and will lead them back to your site and eCommerce store.  Link to specific items in your store and talk about the benefits, or perhaps a widget vs. acme widget style piece.  See “How do I Develop Innovative Content for my eCommerce Blog” for greater detail on developing content.
8. Feedburner and other blog syndication sites – These basically work like a syndicated TV show and will help you get exposure for all your hard work!

There are certainly more options for blog promotion that haven’t been included in this list.  What are some of your favorites? 

In the next blog post we will cover some ideas to monetize your eCommerce blog now that you have traffic and momentum building. 

Click here for more of the “Developing an eCommerce Blog” series to further your brand identity and grow readership.

Emily Dunn, Brown Bag Agency

Building on what we discussed previously in "5 Important Questions to Ask Before Starting an eCommerce Blog" I would like to offer some suggestions for developing news worthy blog topics for your eCommerce site.

The most important thing to consider when formulating your eCommerce blog posts is your audience.  Ask yourself who am I writing this for?  It should be the same people that visit your eCommerce website to make purchases.  Not everyone that stops by your eCommerce site is an expert, so don’t alienate anyone.  Speak with a clear, easy to understand voice, and keep it concise.  I know it’s hard to believe, but people don’t want to hear ramblings about your kid’s lemonade stand, they just want the facts about the products or services you offer.

Grab a pen and paper and begin to brainstorm about possible topics.  You certainly don’t need a glamorous product to come up with resonating blog topics.  Whether you sell products, or services there are people in need of the information you can provide.  This will establish you as the calm in the storm, the voice of reason, but don’t get a big head now.  From those topics you can spider web out your ideas to include more subject areas and then put them into a logical order so you can link back to previous posts (please see example of link in first paragraph – clever aren’t I?), allowing your audience to read through easily as each eCommerce blog post builds.

Here are a few ways to generate topics for your eCommerce blog:

• Customer feedback/ questions:  If several people ask the same questions over and over, you should address it formally in a post.  There are many people that simply won’t raise their hand to ask.  A great example of utilizing this technique is Laptop Parts Expert’s blog, where Jeremy uses customer calls to formulate responses via blog posts.  He takes questions from consumers and turns the responses into short and sweet blog posts that are easy to read, and understand. If you want to know what your audience wants, ask them. Use the eCommerce feature Interactive Survey module available to you through Web Shop Manager^TM.
• Nuggets of Knowledge: Think about the things you have learned that have furthered your understanding or enjoyment of a product.  For instance, imagine that you are an antique dealer and recently obtained a painting from an 18^th century American artist.  People that visit your eCommerce site would love to know a bit more about the artist’s life and circumstances surrounding the painting which would potentially increase your chances of selling that piece.  You know what you are selling, and it is your job to communicate your knowledge with your customers so they can make wise purchases. 
• Products Defined: Perhaps if people knew how a certain product or service benefits them, they would be more inclined to purchase it.  See for instance Web Shop Manager’s blog post "List Hundreds of Products, Organize Thousands of Items, Import Millions of Parts".  A post like this helps potential customers clearly understand how they could benefit from using Web Shop Manager’s eCommerce Modules.
• Industry Trends: Keep tabs on what is happening in your industry by subscribing to RSS feeds of trade organizations, and by setting up Google Alerts to deliver news worthy information.  By reading articles from others you will find valuable inspiration to spur ideas of your own, and generate current, insightful articles. 

In closing, let’s review: when posting an entry, above all else keep your audience in mind.  The minute you lose focus, they will too.  If you own an auto parts store, don’t review a local restaurant.  Become the expert and share your knowledge.  People will return to you for your sage wisdom over and over, and when the time is right they will purchase from you, the trusted source. 

Next month we will explore methods to drive traffic to your eCommerce blogs, including an attention grabbing title structure.  Until then, happy blogging!

Click here for more of the “Developing an eCommerce Blog” series to further your brand identity and grow readership.

Emily Dunn, Brown Bag Agency