Word of Mouth Marketing is a part of everyday life; a basic part a human interaction that has always been around, and is only getting more prevalent as technology advances. But why is it so effective? What is the real appeal of WOMM? A big part of the answer is the lack of bias that comes with it. A friend telling you about an amazing new automotive eCommerce website they did business with is immeasurably more credible than an advertisement produced by the corporation itself, because obviously the company is going to tell you they’re the best, but peers have the capability of being objective. Word of Mouth Marketing in eCommerce manifests itself in a variety of ways; it is undoubtedly the most diverse and broad form of advertisement available to small business owners today. Here are the most common forms seen on a daily basis:
We’ve said it many times before: eCommerce and online marketing in general is very much like a giant puzzle. There is no one thing you can excel at that will provide you with all of the tools to sell online, you must instead be well versed in numerous pieces of the eCommerce puzzle. In a world where instant gratification has become the norm, waiting for all of the pieces to come together and show you results is quite common. Taking all of these small steps and letting it all come together is beneficial to your growing eCommerce website. Through Word of Mouth Marketing you can take some of the pressure off of your online marketing and advertising efforts, and let the quality of service your business offers go to work for you.
What is Reader's Rides?
It is a comprehensive profile that can be built by registered users of a website, and allows them to keep track of cars they are building and show them off to other users. Complete with pictures, descriptions, and lists of parts used in each project, the Reader’s Rides section functions like a kind of online community. The overall idea for this feature has been requested periodically by numerous clients in the automotive eCommerce industry, with the idea being an easier way for registered users to manage and keep track of their favorite hobby. While this idea has existed in various forms, integrating it into the back end of our CMS to be used so easily is groundbreaking. In our never ending quest to provide our clients with dynamic and powerful features presented in a fresh and easy to use fashion, we are now offering Reader’s Rides as a standard feature for automotive eCommerce websites.
Offer Your Users Something More with Reader's Rides
The idea behind the Reader’s Rides section is to offer a whole new layer of interactivity to your automotive eCommerce store. Essentially, it’s a feature that allows registered users to create their own personalized profile page that displays their individual custom car projects. Users can even browse through other users’ profiles to check out what other people are doing and find inspiration for their projects! This profile will include creative names, pictures, and a section for more advanced specs in regards to how you’ve customized your ride. This isn’t just a feature to show off what you’ve built though; there is also a “My Wishlist” section so you can plan what parts are needed in order to finish your project and assemble them in one place. That way, once a customer has the time and money necessary to add the next part; it can be easily located and added to the cart without the hassle of looking through hundreds of items.
In the world of e-business, keeping people on your website can do nothing but good for the success of your company. Giving car enthusiasts a place to engage in and satisfy their hobby is a great way to do this. Our Reader’s Rides feature will allow users to virtually build an entire automotive project and tag desired items through your inventory. Parts & accessories placed in the wishlist section can be added to the cart and purchased with a few clicks of the mouse, giving people incentive to remain on your website and use you as their primary supplier. Progress can be shared with others who have an automotive ride profile, and there’s a comment section where you can give or receive constructive feedback on projects. Whenever a car has been completed, there is even an option to mark it as “for sale,” and options to place an offer or communicate privately with the seller.
Build a Custom Reader's Rides Profile
Building a profile within our Reader’s Rides feature is a quick and easy process. The front page of the profile will display all of the user’s cars and a thumbnail of said car if they choose to provide one. From here all it takes to create an entirely new page for a separate project is a click of the “add new” button. In each individual page there is a slew of detail fields that can be filled out, some of which include:
Not only can a personal profile be built with relative ease, but browsing through what others have built is no sweat either. Sort the list by make and model in order to find similar projects to your own, and maybe some inspiration as well. If you see something you like on someone else’s page, adding that automotive part or accessory to your wishlist is as simple as a click of the mouse.
The Reader’s Rides feature will increase traffic and sales on your automotive parts & accessories website. Creating a sense of community for your user base gives people a reason to frequent your site instead of others, and offers your users a genuinely engaging online shopping experience. For more information on how Reader’s Rides can do great things for your automotive website, feel free to contact us!
Every year, the amount of people that choose to enjoy their shopping from the comfort of their own home increases. The ease of use is the major factor here, quite often they need something but don’t have the time to run to the store. This increase creates a huge market for those looking to start a web presence, so it’s very important to offer the highest quality online shopping experience possible. But it takes some effort; there’s an inherent level of mistrust when it comes to shopping online. This is mostly due to the fact that the customer isn’t actually there and they can’t physically touch whatever it is they’re thinking about buying. As an eCommerce retailer, it’s in your best interest to alleviate as much of this uncertainty as you can.
The simple solution to this obstacle is creating quality eCommerce product pages. There are general guidelines to follow when it comes to making these pages the best that you can, and some of them vary from industry to industry. When it comes to Automotive eCommerce, the products being offered are generally quite expensive, so the way you prioritize your product pages is especially crucial. Below are 5 things you can’t afford to leave out while designing your Automotive Aftermarket Parts product pages:
At Web Design Solutions, we have excelled at cultivating eCommerce success in the Automotive Aftermarket industry for over 10 years. Through firsthand experience, we have accrued the knowledge necessary to label ourselves as experts in the field, and we’d be happy to use this experience to take your eCommerce website to the next level. Contact us for more information on becoming business partners in the Automotive eCommerce industry.
Running an eCommerce website, or any online presence for that matter, requires quite a bit of attention. Don’t make the mistake of thinking that you can just launch a website and it will do all the work for you; e-business is still business and the more effort you put into it, the more successful you will be! The “set it and forget it” mentality won’t get you very far in an e-business. The web is a constant competition for supremacy; similar companies are always vying for the top spots in search results in order to be found, but there’s only so much you can do when it comes to maintaining and perfecting your site’s content. In the world of eCommerce the struggle is even more apparent, since you’re not just competing with local businesses, but competitors all over the world. Inbound links are a part of what you get when you invest some time into using online directories, and they are extremely valuable to your SEO efforts. So what can you do to increase chances of being found by potential customers?
Remember the Yellow Pages before they turned into extremely informative wastes of paper? They were pretty useful, right? You could find whatever it was you were looking for, and often times discover a business that ended up being important to you in the long run. Think of online directories as the Yellow Pages of the digital age- but even easier to use. Here’s a quick rundown of the advantages associated with using online business directories:
Online Business Directories can be a huge advantage when it comes to your SEO efforts! Every directory you get listed on puts your company’s name out there and generates an inbound link. Inbound links are very valuable because search engines, such as Google, will see your website as more relevant and credible if other sites are linking to yours. Of course, the quality of the directory will determine just how valuable the link is, so be careful in choosing which ones you advertise on. Most online directories have an option to pay extra in order to get your site listed before others, imagine having an inexpensive advertisement on the front page of numerous websites; the possibilities for traffic increases are endless!
For the most part, online business directories are extremely easy to deal with and get listed on. Usually you will need to navigate through the different categories (restaurants, computers, etc) until you end up on one that is relevant to your company. Whenever you get to this point, find the submit site or suggest link button, and you’re on your way! At some point in this process it will become apparent whether or not you will have to pay for that specific listing, and it will be up to you if you want to continue or not. If you have any trouble finding the best directories, feel free to contact us for more information and a list of possible choices.
It’s no secret that Social Media in general has become a huge part of not only our social interactions, but the world’s business interactions as well. The age of Social Media is here to stay, so what else is there to do but embrace it? Sure, you don’t need your own personal account to get by, but as a growing business it could be quite foolish not to take advantage of some of these websites.
Interested in Pinterest?
Pinterest is a relatively new Social Networking site that offers a fresh take on the ways in which we use Social Media. Essentially, the site is a giant community scrapbook; users find pictures or information they like on the web and “pin it,” which subsequently attaches it to their Pinterest account and shares it with friends and followers. Obviously they have uncovered something special over there, since Pinterest recently became the fastest site to hit 10 million unique users in history. Just in case you didn’t fully absorb that information, allow me to repeat it; No website has ever reached the 10 million user mark as fast as Pinterest did (yes, that includes Facebook and Twitter). This kind of growth doesn’t happen on accident, the ease of use and connectivity that the site provides has proven to be exactly what people were looking for.
How Can Pinterest Help eCommerce Efforts?
When it comes to online shopping, the go to method has remained relatively unchanged over the past few years. Think about what it is you want to buy, come up with a name for it, and type it into a search engine. The problem here is that this method requires that you already know what it is you’re looking for; you’re only being presented with exactly what you searched for, not things that fit your “style.” With Pinterest, users are befriending and interacting with others who have similar interests. The result: An online shopping experience that presents you with relevant items or services that you might not have come across after doing a quick Google search. In ecommerce this is invaluable because it can be frustratingly difficult to get your brand’s name out there if you’re only relying on Google searches. Larger, better known companies always dominate the top pages (and we all know people rarely venture past page 2). Simply put, Pinterest presents an opportunity for exposure to smaller businesses that otherwise wouldn’t be able to get it. This is an opportunity that growing eCommerce businesses can’t afford to pass up.
Sounds Great! How Do I Get Started?
Initially, Pinterest operated on a strict “invite only” policy, much like the way in which Facebook got started at Harvard. While the website is still technically operating under these same guidelines, you can now actually request an invite from the homepage menu. If you don’t want to wait to get approved, it shouldn’t be too hard to get in touch with someone who already has an account and ask for an invitation (especially considering how quickly the site is growing). In fact, we have access to a few accounts over here at Web Design Solutions, so if you are really interested in getting started give us a call!
Once you get your account up and running, it doesn’t mean that you have free reign to bombard the community with sales pitches and advertisements. Just like any successful Social Media website there are specific rules, or an established etiquette that is in place to ensure the integrity of the site stays intact. Make your e-business a valued member of the community; give feedback, contribute to relevant discussions, and post interesting content that isn’t solely related to the service you are trying to promote. This doesn’t mean that you can’t devote any substantial amount of attention to your company, the beauty of Pinterest is if you’re offering a quality product or service, you won’t have to for long. Users who are fans of your company can choose to “pin” content from your website, and it will instantly be shared with their friends with similar interests. It is this style of browse shopping (instead of targeted Google shopping searches) that allows growing eCommerce businesses to be seen.
What Can I Do To Get My Website Pinned?
Bandwidth Explained
Whether you’re in the web hosting business or in the market for a new website, bandwidth is a term that will be thrown around quite a bit, and it’s important to understand exactly why it’s such a huge factor. The simple explanation of bandwidth is the amount of traffic that passes between your website and other computers connected to the internet. Depending on the quality of the network provided by your hosting company, you will have higher or lower bandwidth limitations.
A basic conceptualization of bandwidth is a great start in understanding what it is, but in order to grasp the importance of it, a more in depth explanation is necessary. The internet, on a basic level, is millions of computers that are interconnected via different networks. The connections between these networks vary in size, and this is what determines the bandwidth of a particular website. “Bits” are the individual measurements that begin to make up the total bandwidth of a page, and represent individual characters. Bits are then grouped together to form words, images, or any other important information that needs to be relayed. Groups of bits are called “Bytes.”
Basically, you have a set amount of data that can be transferred between your website and the internet before your specific bandwidth plan is exceeded. For example, let’s say your website is a grocery store checkout line. In this analogy, bandwidth would be the amount of lines you have opened at any given time, and as a result, the amount of checkers needed to manage said lines. If only one line is open and there happens to be a lot of customers in the store, you would need to hire more checkers in order to allow customers to move through your store quickly. This is why it is important to understand what kind of traffic your site will be getting, and plan your bandwidth specifications accordingly, because if you aren’t paying for high enough bandwidth your costs will go up significantly when you exceed your limit. Generally, a site that is purely content will need much less bandwidth than one that is a fully operational online store.
What Uses Bandwidth?
How Can a Great Web Design Team Help?
An experienced web design team will have the ability to build a lightweight and extremely functional website for you. "Lightweight" in this case doesn't mean lacking in features or exceptionally bare, it means there is no extraneous or unnecessary code built in. This ensures that each page on your website will download quickly and consume the least amount of bandwidth possible. When bandwidth is close to being exceeded by a client of Web Shop Manager, they will be notified before any action is taken on their monthly plan. In order to prevent any unwanted charges, we will discuss the possibility of increasing the amount of bandwidth being paid for.
As with anything that grows and evolves at a rapid pace, the internet and the way it affects marketing has changed quite a bit in the past few years. The web has become a much more in depth experience to its users, and its potential for successful marketing has become inarguably clear. In terms of gaining visibility and support from the public, there are few tools at your disposal as powerful as Social Media. Websites such as Facebook and Twitter have given business owners the opportunity to spread their message to the masses with unbelievable efficiency, and the kicker? All it costs is a little time. 30 minutes to an hour a day spent liking things and communicating with your client base can prove to be invaluable in the long run.
Since the Social Media marketing process consumes such a small amount of resources, you can focus less on pushing your product or service onto potential buyers and devote some effort to building a sense of community. People have developed a general mistrust of formal marketing ploys and advertisements; not without good reason either, for every honest company with good intentions, there’s two trying to sell you a subpar product. Putting forth a Social Media marketing effort is the first step in establishing yourself as a trustworthy and personable company. This also gives people a place to discuss your product and give reviews, which are much easier for people to put faith into. So as long as the product or service is of high quality, a Social Media Website will gradually generate buzz for you.
But how will this affect my SEO efforts?
First of all, you need to acknowledge the fact that the mindset of the average search engine user has changed recently. Search engines are no longer used for the sole purpose of finding what you were looking for, getting a quick answer, and leaving. People have come to expect a certain level of interaction on websites they arrive at through a search. This can even be something simple; like Twitter’s clickable “re-tweet” button or a “like this” Facebook feature. People will share a solid product or good information with people they know, and making this easy for them can give your website a huge boost in traffic. Buzz travels quickly through the web, which will in turn drive search tendencies towards your site. Promoting interesting and relevant updates to your website via your Social Media accounts will allow people to see the content that might not have otherwise.
Don't forget to blog!
Ah, blogging. It is one of the first, and most effective, forms of Social Media. We’ve advocated the importance of a quality blog before, but it cannot be said enough. Try to add a couple of fresh and interesting blogs to your business’s website every week, and let your Social Media followers know! A quick tweet about a new blog has the potential to generate traffic that you wouldn’t have seen, and would only take about 30 seconds. It’s not likely that there’s a ton of people checking your website daily for updates, however it’s very likely that those people are spending some time on their Social Media accounts every day. Give them a reason to visit your site, and promote it in a way in which you know it will be seen.
Wireframes
The team at Web Design Solutions firmly believes in the power of planning and strategizing concepts in order to produce a final product of the highest quality. Too often web design companies will put all of their effort into the aesthetics of a website, and worry about functionality after the fact. That’s not how we operate; at WDS we will begin your process by building a Website Wireframe. This ensures that your site will be built efficiently and work properly when it’s time for launch.
Conceptually, a wireframe is like the blueprint by which your website will be designed and built. We work with you, take the creative visions you have for your e-business, and make sure that every page layout used on your site is exactly what you want. Taking the time to wire frame your website allows us to frequently address numerous structural questions and concerns that more than likely would have been overlooked otherwise.
While it’s always possible to use a website wireframe template in order to make sure your website is put together properly, why bother with a template when you can make your vision a reality with our custom wireframes? Created specifically for you and your online business, a custom eCommerce package with WSM will include a wireframe put together specifically for your business plan. This wireframe will include:
Before your website is built you will have the opportunity to give us feedback on the wireframes we have presented to you, and discuss any alterations or tweaks that you’d like to see. After all, our goal is to give you the site you envisioned at the start of the project.
Okay, but what's a sitemap?
A sitemap is an outline of all the pages on a website and the ways in which they are interconnected. It is useful to both users and your SEO value, because search engine bots will crawl the pages and a sitemap makes finding them easier. If your website is relatively new and doesn’t have much interlinking, a sitemap will allow Google to find and crawl pages that otherwise would have gone unnoticed. The reasoning behind this is actually pretty simple; since a sitemap is technically a single page that contains all the links on your entire website, a search engine will hit it and index every single page on your site! Without a sitemap it is very common for certain pages to get skipped over, which will hurt your page rank in the long run.
Building a robust and detailed sitemap prior to launching your website will ensure that your entire site is set up exactly the way you want, from top to bottom. This will guarantee that the layout is as functional and immersive for users as possible. When the time comes to expand your website and add new pages, a sitemap will be a lifesaver. Since it offers a bird’s eye view of the entire site, you will be able to find the most relevant and effective place to insert your new web page. A detailed sitemap is included in the package purchased with Web Shop Manager and includes the following:
Our team at WDS will work with you every step of the way leading up to launch to make sure that your website is laid out the right way, and represents the vision you have for your online business.
Search Engine Optimization is a complex and intricate process that takes time to perfect. It’s safe to assume that every web page has certain SEO aspects that can be improved upon. Optimizing your site is a marathon, not a hundred yard dash; it’s important to constantly be on the lookout for improvements you can make. Below is a list of a few do’s and don’ts that can instantly increase the SEO value of your website.
Getting your online eCommerce website up and running is a huge step for you and your growing e-business, but it’s not the only step that needs to be taken. The work isn’t done just because you have some sort of online presence. Just like a brick and mortar store, your site needs to be constantly growing and evolving with the flow of business in your industry. There are so many different options nowadays for people who are browsing the web that a kind of “browsing impatience” has become the norm. If your website doesn’t deliver something relevant and important right off the bat, people will simply move on to the next one. Here are some tips for keeping your eCommerce website fresh and interesting:
For any kind of business, it is much easier and more cost effective to maintain returning customers than it is to bring in new ones. For an eCommerce website, it is especially crucial. Marketing, ad campaigns, and the numerous other advertisement strategies that are necessary to bring in more business consume a massive amount of resources. Even after spending all this time on generating more clients, it is entirely dependent on timing. A new prospective customer will only bring their business to you if it’s something they happen to need at that moment. Not only is it cost effective to you and your growing e-business, but a repeat customer is like your own personal promoter. If someone is bringing their business back to you, they obviously liked what they got the first time around. Chances are they will spread the word to anyone they know that might be looking for a similar service. Here are a few tips to maintaining a solid foundation with your clientele:
The Stop Online Piracy Act, or SOPA, is one of those things that sound like a great idea, an idea that will do nothing but good. Piracy is illegal, right? People who make their living in the entertainment industry lose a ridiculous amount of money each year to websites dedicated to pirating and torrents, so it's easy to take a step back and feel sympathetic for them. But is SOPA the way to fix this issue? This is the question a number of online industry leaders have been asking, including Google, Yahoo, Facebook, and Twitter. These companies didn't waste any time taking a stance against the bill and it's easy to see why; user generated content plays an important role in their success. With users having free reign to post whatever they want, they could easily be targeted as violators of SOPA.
Despite some of its questionable applications, the internet is responsible for an almost overwhelming amount of good. It has connected people in a way that never could have happened otherwise, and has been a stepping stone for many positive movements. Speaking out against SOPA, Al Gore recently called the internet the incubator of change movements in our modern society. This statement in and of itself is the primary reason that we need to do whatever we can to protect the freedom of the internet. With the bill, could there have been a revolution in Egypt, or in Russia right now? Would Occupy Wall Street have come to fruition? These are extreme examples, but they all show the kind of power the internet offers to people all over the world.
SOPA was introduced in the House of Representatives on October 26, 2011 by Texan rep Lamar Smith and a group of initial supporters. The idea is to expand the ability of law enforcement to fight online trafficking of intellectual property and counterfeit goods, a noble cause. The issue that many major online players (Google, Yahoo, etc.) have with it lies in the broad and sweeping nature of the language in the bill, which is the same reason some eCommerce websites might be feeling a little nervous right about now. Technically, if your site has any image or video protected under copyright law, posted by either you or a user, it can be targeted and the DNS address blocked. While the intentions behind the bill are good, it’s this possible collateral damage to innocent businesses that is causing many web based corporations to protest.
Here at Web Design Solutions our primary goal is to help you be successful in your online ventures. Whether this is through industry tips, superior customer service, or quality website management, your satisfaction is of the utmost importance. Recently we posted an article explaining the importance of a Google Analytics account, and some basic information to get yours up and running.
One of the most crucial steps in properly using your Google Analytics account is adding your tracking code into the template section of your site. The format for this widget code is {{google_tracker id='UA-XXXXXX-X'}}, with the X's being replaced with your unique UA number. With Web Shop Manager this is extremely easy, as you only need to enter it once instead of on each and every page. Previously we had instructed you to enter the code towards the bottom of the text on the page, right before the </body> tag. A recent article on Google, however, informs us that the most effective place to put it is near the top of the JavaScript code, in the <head> section.
Further information on the topic can be found here, in the Google help article itself. If you find any of this hard to understand, or have any questions at all, please feel free to give us a call. We are always more than happy to assist you in any way we can!
The holidays are over and now existing and aspiring eCommerce business owners are thinking ‘what can I do to different in 2012?’ A new website can be just what is needed to take advantage of the booming eCommerce web sales. The US census bureau reported that in the 3rd quarter alone, e Commerce sales hit $48.2 billion dollars! A new web site design or a brand new website could be just what you need to get your part of the pie. With the economy on an upward trend and eCommerce showing greater growth than retail sales, new websites have an amazing chance of being profitable in 2012. What type of new website are you looking to launch this year? 
As you can see no matter what business you are in a new wed design can help promote sales and make you more successful in 2012! But how hard is it to get a new website up and running? So easy! Most of our new websites are built and live on the internet in only 60 days. After the new site is up and running you are in complete control of your site. If you can write a word document and attach it to an email, you have all the skills you need to control and maintain your new website. This is so amazing because this means that you do not need to pay anyone to make small edits to your website, add new products, or write a new news article.
While there are a lot of companies out there that can design you a new website, we have found that our customers are so happy with the speed that their new site is done and the amount of customer support that is available to them after their site goes live. See some Web Shop Manager reviews and learn how others felt about their new website design! Want to learn more about getting a new website? Contact us and someone will be in touch with you within hours.
Web Shop Manager offers a cost effective solution capable of 100% PCI compliance to anyone looking to start up an online business. Most small business are left to figure out how to be PCI compliant on their own, but here are Web Shop Manager (WSM) we can guide you to operate a successful PCI compliant ecommerce store. Shopping online should be easy, fun and productive. When consumers have to worry about their personal information, it takes away the allure of shopping online. This the basic premise of why you should choose a ecommerce platform that is 100% PCI compliant.
If you are running an online business it is crucial that you have your shopping cart PCI compliant to ensure that you are helping promote a safe and secure outlet for shoppers. When shoppers feel safe to check out online, the entire e-commerce industry benefits!
Payment Card Industry (PCI) mandates that any ecommerce transaction is completed over a PCI compliant server in addition to all credit card numbers being stored on a different server. Web Shop Manager works with Authorize.net and Sage payment gateways to allow credit card numbers to be store on a different server, making sure your ecommerce website is PCI compliant. Two of the major rules of being PCI compliant is that you 1) do not store CID numbers and 2) you do not store the full credit card number anywhere. WSM ensures that these rules are followed!
PCI online rules and principles are set in place to provide a standard of safety for online consumers. It is beneficial for the ecommerce community to follow and participate in the rules set forth by the governing body to help encourage shoppers to trust online PCI compliant shopping carts.
With Web Shop Manager you not only get our established software that is PCI compliance ready, you also get the knowledge and support of our team that is well versed in how to be PCI compliant. We continue to strive to become experts in complianing with PCI online standards. So what exactly do you have to do to be PCI compliant with us? Make sure to get a free quote from our PCI compliant expert business development team. Once your site is hosted with us, all it takes is your unique Authorize.net or Sage account pin inputted into our system, and bam! you have an e-commerce store that is PCI compliant!
Information is power, and with the astonishing amount of information that you can get from a Google Analytics account you will start making better decisions for your company’s website. The purpose of using Google Analytics is to observe your website’s traffic, monitor your site’s goals as well as your shopping funnel, track your email campaigns, banner ads and social media efforts, create customized reports and dashboards and so much more!
If all of this sounds way over your head, do not get discouraged. Utilizing your Google Analytics account to its fullest potential should be an ongoing project. You do not need to try and figure out how to use all of its features in one day. The purpose of this article is to provide you instructions on how to set up your account, add the tracking widget to your WSM site and create site ‘Goals’ to be tracked.
First, you will need to set up your Google Analytics account. When entering your URL, make sure that you select HTTP or HTTPS depending on your site. Web Shop Manager eCommerce sites are HTTP sites.
 | Now that your account is created and your profile is set up, it is time to start tracking! For all of our Web Shop Manager (WSM) website design clients, we have made tracking conversions with Google Analytics so easy. Typically you would need to add a tracking code onto every page of your site, but with WSM simply log into your site and edit the Template section of your site. You can find this page in the backend of WSM within the Content section. For most WSM accounts you will have one template titled Default, click edit template and paste this widget code {{google_tracker id='UA-XXXXXX-X'}} just before the </body> tag in your template. (see left image)
You will now need to replace the Xs with your UA number. To get your UA number from your newly created Google Analytics account go to your Analytics Settings page and click on Edit under the Actions column. (see below image) |
Then click on Check Status on the top right hand side of the page. Your tracking code can be found and copied from that page.
Once you have added this code to your template page make sure to Save Changes. Now Google will begin tracking information from your website. Even though tracking has started, I would recommend allowing at least two weeks for it to gather data before you start making decisions based on these statistics.
Get the most out of your reports by updating your Website Profile correctly. Since your home page can sometimes get linked to as two different URLs you should add www.website.com/index.html to your default site so that Google does not track www.website.com and above as two different pages. You can learn more about Google Analytics default url on Google’s Analytics help page. If you are an e-commerce site, then make sure to select YES to e-commerce reporting. These seemingly minor changes will help you analyze more accurate data from your new analytics account.
Since the Goal of almost all eCommerce websites is to create conversions, we will need to set up analytics Goals to track your conversions. Conversions vary for different website owners. Most often they are a sale, but they can also be a request for more information, a Contact Us form fill or a sign up for your monthly eNewsletter.
Whatever your goal may be, you will need to determine what URL will equate a conversion for you. Examples of URLs triggered by conversions are a Confirmation Page, an order Thank You page, or any other page that can only be seen by those who have completed a conversion.
Now, go back to your profile page, click on your account name and then click Edit under the action column (you should be on a different page than where you retrieved your UA number).
Select one of the four goal slots available and select Edit. Enter your goal URL and goal name, (purchase, eNewsletter, Contact, etc) and then turn the goal ON.
Since you have already added your tracking code and now you have created a goal, you will not only be tracking visitors but conversions as well. There are a couple ways to see if you set this up correctly. If you typically get at least a few orders a day you can simply wait for an order to come in and see if your account tracked it. If you want more instant gratification, you can place a test order (or test eNewsletter sign up, etc) through your site and check to see if it got tracked.
Here at Web Shop Manager, your success is our success. We strive to stay on top of all eCommerce trends and to relay this information to our users. Follow us on Twitter at twitter.com/webshopmanager to get updated when we post more guides and tips for using your website to its fullest potential. We will continue our ‘Help With Google Analytics’ blog series next month were we will cover Funnel Tracking!
Over the last six months Web Shop ManagerTM (WSM) has received some serious improvements. We believe that you will find that our Content Management System (eCommerce CMS) is the most comprehensive, easy to use CMS out there. We are continuously working on adding more features, and fine tuning WSM to help our clients run their shopping carts more efficiently, and to make more money.
Order processing and shipping are major component of an eCommerce website's effectiveness. In a continuing effort to help our eCommerce thrive, we spend a considerable amount of time listening to our clients, and responding to their comments and suggestions. Just one example is how we have streamlined the eCommerce order processing function even more. Now you will find that when 'Will Call' is selected as the shipping method for your local customers, tax is added and the cost of shipping is eliminated.
For those shopping cart items that must be shipped via LTL or truck freight, business owners can choose their own custom message to convey how those special circumstances will be handled. This eliminates customer confusion, and will ensure them that they will be contacted, and by whom.
Within the integrated basic shipping configuration you can specify which areas of the world you are willing to ship to, including the choice to ship to the continental US only.
Using the WSM FAQ module you can create a clean looking, content filled, question and answer style page for all your checkout and shipping policies. Effective use of these pages will help minimize customer confusion, customer service inquiries, and can be easily accessed throughout the checkout process.
eCommerce business owners have more control than ever over order processing. They can capture payments or issue refunds for an entire charge from within WSM using Authorize.net. In addition, for special circumstances, charges can be applied to more than one credit card, or, when adjustments need to be made to the order after the checkout process, products can be added, or deleted from the order with a push of a button.
Insight into your customers buying habits, including first and last products purchased, can be incredibly helpful when you are organizing up-sell/ cross-sell product promotions, and in developing targeted marketing campaigns. Using the CSV Data Import/Export, customer statistics, orders, and inquiries can be easily exported for further examination.
From your CMS dashboard you can now have the ability to not only see a list of inquiries, but to mark them with their appropriate status. The status column will help you to see at a glance what action needs to be taken next.
Our new custom form builder allows business owners to create their own inquiry forms to meet their specific business needs. Each submitted inquiry automatically generates an email, which can be sent to any email address, and can include cc and bcc email addresses.
Email order notifications are more detailed than ever with the inclusion of Product Option information. These product options may include size, color, finish, etc. to ensure that any mistakes within the order can be amended quickly.
Take advantage of the brand new, advanced Year Make Model Attribute System. Attributes can be utilized in any instance where selecting the correct part or product is critical. They are used heavily in the automotive aftermarket industry to help site visitors find the correct part for their vehicle by first selecting the item they are interested in, and then specifying the year, make, and model for the search query. When the information has been entered to their satisfaction they will click 'shop' and will be redirected to a dedicated landing page for the products that match their search.
The customer entered search criteria selected will be remembered throughout their shopping session even if the customer clicks away from the landing page. This will reduce customer frustration, and will allow your customer to easily modify their search criteria, or easily clear it and continue shopping.
From a business owner's perspective, the attribute system is easy to manage. With one action you can add a range of years for a specific product. In addition, if brand or manufacturer implements a price increase, business owners have the ability to issue a mass price change for that brand or manufacturer.
Our e-commerce CMS modules were designed to be multi-functional and an alternative to labor intensive web development. Our CMS modules are not only easy to customize, but are now even more feature packed, including a field for topic descriptions in modules where topics are assigned. The Resources/ Links module has been updated with the inclusion of assigned topics, and the ability to upload files, and images.
Helping to keep WSM organized we have developed expanding/collapsing folders within the content management system which operate very much like they do in your desktop keeping content neatly bundled for quicker navigation.
On the occasion that you need to delete a file, blog post or image, utilize the new 'quick delete' icon. Another time saving feature is the Multi-Image Uploader. This fabulous CMS feature is now available in the product section of the eCommerce CMS. Putting multiple images to good use, the product image view allows images to be swapped without the need for a slide show.
Over the last 6 months we have increased the opportunities for eCommerce business owners to combine their SEO efforts with our automated SEO. We have made SEO improvement to Categories & Brands by including an extended description field for you to load up with search engine optimized copy.
Part of a good SEO strategy is to use Blog/News articles to further your efforts and optimize your site with relevant content enriched with even more keywords and phrases. Because of this, WSM has added customized SEO fields. Your eCommerce blog isn't the only thing to benefit from these additions, now your content pages can be assigned topics for categorization, and SEO flexibility.
If you are currently using the WSM Content Management System you know how powerful, and intuitive it is to use. If you have yet to experience its power, and flexibility we encourage you to take a look at a few of our satisfied customers in our eCommerce Portfolio.
Our goal is to provide amazing eCommerce sites with customized hosting solutions that matches your goals, and budget. Contact WSM today to find out how we can become your e-Commerce partner for the life of your current project, and the next one.
We may begin to see the sun peaking through the recession clouds, but we are not of its shadow quite yet. However, the quickest companies to rebound will be those that are willing to invest in the technologies that allow them to increase market share. And where has the market turned? The Internet.
“When the recovery fully takes hold, the growth will be driven by the web, and retailers that want to survive and grow need to fish where the fish are. eCommerce Merchants with worn-out old systems won’t be the ones getting the business online. The ones that will are making a sound investment in better e-commerce technology now.” Kasey Lobaugh, retail analyst and principal with Deloitte Consulting LLP
As business owners we need to ask ourselves what our customers want and need. Listening to our market, Web Design Solutions developed an ideal solution, Web Shop Manager™ (WSM™).
Recently, an article was published in Internet Retailer entitled “Internet Retailer Survey: E-retailers are ready to buy new technology, and they have long shopping lists.” Reading this article reminded us just how big the need is for an all-encompassing eCommerce platform. We provide many of the mentioned features in the article as part of our standard product offering, and we couple all of that with custom eCommerce web design.
Built in response to our clients ever evolving needs, WSM™ offers a feature packed arsenal including – but not limited to:
Automatic SEO - WSM™ optimizes every page of content for you by generating your Google XML sitemap, URL list and robots.txt file every night.
Target Marketing - Using customer statistics gathered by WSM™’s Content Management System (CMS), site owners can pinpoint exactly what customers are interested in, in order to develop highly targeted marketing campaigns. Imagine knowing exactly which customers would be most likely to take advantage of an offer and exclusively providing them with an enticing coupon code.
Robust Content Management System - The WSM™ CMS is every bit as powerful as it is easy to use. From first time eCommerce site owners to veterans, there is something for everyone. There are a myriad of eCommerce features, but here are just a few that are included in your WSM™ site:
Web design and eCommerce platforms have come a long way from their inception years ago. Web Design Solutions/ Web Shop Manager™ are continually adding more eCommerce features and modules to provide flexible technology for our discerning clients.
eCommerce platforms may vary in size and prices, but as far as we are concerned WSM™ provides the best answer for those that require customized web design with an incredible CMS.
After a lot of fussing we are finally able to show the world our new site. Along with all the new eCommerce features we have been launching we felt the need to our website to the next level as well.
Please let us know what you think!
