eCommerce blogs provide an incredibly effective, online extension of your brand. Blogs can also increase online sales, aid in customer service,grow brand recognition, and develop meaningful relationships if handled well. There are no stamps to buy, no cold calls to make, and you will be connecting with people that are ready and willing to listen to what you have to say in a casual, interactive atmosphere. Now that you are curious about blogs and whether one might be a good fit for your company, take a few minutes to contemplate the following questions.
Who should blog? The candidate (blogger) does not need to be an established writer, but should be someone who is knowledgeable and able to convey your brand's message in a relatable voice. Appoint one point person to make sure that the editorial calendar is adhered to, although several people could share in creating the content. Choose individuals that can provide at least two (2) hours every two (2) weeks to write a thoughtful, well researched article. There is another option, which is to hire a 'ghost blogger' (a copywriter to post on your company's behalf) to help fill the gap. It is most desirable if the ghost blogger has a knowledge base of the industry or topic at hand.
What should I blog about? Take advantage of an interested audience by focusing on industry events, offering opinions, and sharing research on emerging technologies. In order to relay trends and news worthy information, read industry publications, subscribe to RSS feeds for inspiration, then relay the researched information in an informative, interesting way. Provide content that will help the audience perform their job functions, and this will keep them returning for insight and guidance, furthering your company's image as a trusted and reliable source.
When do I have to post content to my eCommerce blog? Quality over quantity is the most important thing to keep in the back of your mind for your eCommerce blog. In the beginning, frequency is more important to establish relationships and momentum. I recommend developing an editorial calendar to avoid lack luster posts and maintain consistency so that posts will build on one another.
Where do I promote my eCommerce blog posts? There are three (3) areas I suggest looking at to promote your eCommerce blog, depending on how much time is available. Do not get overwhelmed by the sheer number of sites! Not all will be a good fit. Take a few minutes to scope out the community, to see if there are competitors participating (not a bad thing), and to where your potential audience hangs out. The objective is to become active and add value to each network. Then carry your relationships from network to network. What I mean by that is, once you become social on Twitter, for instance, ask your friends if they prefer digg, or StumbleUpon and ask for their user id's so you can link up there too.
Here are the three areas to consider:
Why should I blog? Three quick and simple reasons as to why you should blog:
By now it should seem clear that almost any type of eCommerce site could benefit from a blog, and I hope that you do take advantage of blogging as a tool to reach your target audience. If you are interested in learning how eCommerce Web Development could benefit your company please contact Web Shop Manager today.
If you are looking to build a website and are unsure how or where to get started...you've found your starting point. Web Design Solutions (WDS) has everything you need. Whether you are looking to develop an informational site or sell Hundreds, Thousands, or Millions of products online, WDS is your new best friend.
Developing an eCommerce site has many factors to consider from deciding what your pages will look like to thanking your customer for their purchase. One of the greatest benefits to working with WDS is Web Shop Manager (WSMTM), an unbelievably easy tool you will use to manage your site, list hundreds of products, organize thousands of items, import millions of parts, and communicate with your customers.
First you must have the features all eCommerce sites require which are menus for organizing your products. Of course WSMTM has a feature for that, Categories. The employees at Web Design Solutions know how important it is for the consumer to easily 'shop' your site, no matter what industry. Consumers demand quick and easy ways to find the products they need. WSMTM's categories will dynamically build your menus and list the assigned products. Change the category name or easily hide them if you sell seasonal products. So easy! So fast!
Do you have products that come in different size, color, or fragrance and you want your customers to customize the product to fit their need. Then WSMTM has a feature for that, Product Options. Assigning Product Options to your product allows your customers to add customization during the shopping process. These Product Options give your customer the power to buy the right product for them. Create Product Options with the greatest of ease using WSMTM.
Have you ever wanted to find a part for your car? With Automotive Aftermarket shopping sites there are thousands of products to sort through. Customers want to find the part they need quickly and easily. WSMTM has a feature for that, Brands & Attributes. This feature allows you to easily organize your Automotive Aftermarket parts based on the year, make, and model. Then WSMTM will display a straight forward search tool for the customer to narrow the products listed base on Year, Make, and/or Model they select. Consider your products SOLD when customers use this tool!
Selling products from several manufactures is exciting and offers your customers several options. However, you may find that customers will want to shop by Brand. You can use WSMTM's Brands & Attributes eCommerce features for this function as well. Easily create your brand, add a logo for brand recognition, specify the order you want them listed, and dynamically display them on all your site pages. Once you've specified which products belong with which brand your customers can click on the brand they love and browse all of their products.
Do you have Millions of products? Do you think if will take forever to get them on your new site? Are you worried that you do not have the proper staffing to do all the data input? No worries,Product Data Importing is easy with our platform than any other one out there with custom profiles and scheduling you can keep your website data up to date with minimal effort.
For those of you that are in the automotive industry we understand the importance of managing your orders rather than managing products which is why we created a turn key solution with DCI / CatalogRack live integration. Web Shop Manager also comes with import tools for Network Solutions Monster Commerce, Yahoo! Stores, Volusion, osCommerce, Magento, Miva Merchant, Zen Cart, and more....
Any questions or concerns...do not worry WSMTM has you covered, contact WSMTM today about your eCommerce needs.
Deciding that you want to sell your products or services online is exciting. Trying to figure out what you need to make it happen can be exhausting. Finding the right eCommerce solutions company and Content Management System (eCommerce CMS) for developing your site can be frustrating and expensive. I experienced all of these feelings and more when assigned the task to create an eCommerce website for my employer.
If you sell a product or service developing an eCommerce site may be critical to the continued success of your business. Businesses today can no longer afford to think locally. Instead, businesses must think globally, and an eCommerce site expands your business into the global marketplace like no brick and mortar business ever could.
After researching eCommerce solutions providers, get fresh, found Web Design Solutions and their program Web Shop Manager! Not only did their program have all the eCommerce features we needed to easily create our site, but they also have a team with exceptional customer service. Web Design Solutions guided us through every phase of web development and ensured we were ready for our launch. Our site and the tools available to create all the features exceeded our original expectations. Without Web Design Solutions and Web Shop Manager, our site may not have been as dynamic, easy to maintain, and user-friendly. They provided web design, hosting, eCommerce solutions, and Content Management System to let us control as much of the website as we desired whether it's managing our products, the checkout process, or informational pages.
We found that eCommerce website development is quite simple when using the right tools. You can see the results for yourself. Check us out at www.getfresh.net, and then visit Web Design Solutions at www.webdesignsolutions.com to get started on your site today!
Paulette Palladino, get fresh
In an effort to make Web Shop Manager more Manufacturer friendly we have added the following features to the Dealer package (some are applicable to all packages)...
In addition to our feature packed Google Maps integrated Dealer Locator, we make all fields optional so you can fill in anything or only fill in certain fields.
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