Showing posts with label eSellution. Show all posts
Showing posts with label eSellution. Show all posts

Thursday, 8 November 2012

The best and worst examples of QR codes

QR codes have become a great marketing tool for an ecommerce store in allowing them to provide people on the go with various information about their business as well as the products and services they have available. 

In case you are unfamiliar what QR codes exactly are, they are a matrix barcode which people can scan using QR scanner applications on their smartphone. Once they have scanned the code, they are then given some information either through a SMS message or a redirection to a specific website.

The benefit of this marketing tool is that not only does it reduce the amount of marketing space you need, the customer doesn't have to spend time standing around reading large amounts of text, they can simply use the scanner and instantly get all the information sent to their phone.

In an attempt to increase their brand awareness, some business have taken to using QR codes with some performing well and others being just down right stupid. We at eSellution have looked at some of the most memorable QR campaigns for both the right and wrong reasons.


Subway fail



A QR code that clearly wasn't thought about it was placed in this underground station. In order for the a user to scan the QR code and receive the added information, they first had to risk life and death by getting across busy train tracks in order to get into a position where they are able to scan the code. 


Tesco virtual shopping



In order to try and improve their sales within Korea, Tesco decided to place a virtual shopping experience into various subway and train stations. Users could then view a number of products that the store offers and then scan the QR code of the various products they are interested in. Once the code for the product has been scanned, the product will then appear in their online shopping basket, allowing the user to purchase these scanned goods online. This idea has been repeated in a number of stations across the world. 


Taking QR codes to the skies



A company decided that the best way to make users aware of their business was to create a huge QR code, tie it to the back of a plane and have it flown thousands of feet in the air. While this was eye catching in the sense that people could see it in the sky, the fact that it was so high  up meant that it was absolutely impossible for anyone to scan the code on their smartphones.

Footballers using their heads



Online gambling site Betfair, approached non-league club Bromley FC before their FA cup clash with Leyton Orient and proposed the idea of the players having QR codes shaved into the back of their heads. After the club agreed, stylists spent a number of hours precisely shaving QR codes into the back of players heads. Surprising enough, when the work had been completed and the back of their heads scanned with a QR code scanner, it worked like a charm with the application redirecting the user to the Betfair online site. 


The QR scanner loop



In order to teach people how to use a QR code scanner correctly, a company decided to create a QR code for users to scan in order to download a free QR code scanner. The ironic aspect of this is that to learn how to use a QR scanner and download a free application, the user must already know how to use a QR scanner and already have a QR scanner on their phone in order to scan the QR code and get another QR scanner for free. Yet another example of a pointless QR code.


Coca Cola Euro 2012



During the Euro 2012 competition, Coca Cola decided to place QR codes on all of their cans which users could scan to be redirected to their "SmileWorld" application where they would be able to download games, enter competitions and view exclusive videos produced by the company. While this isn't the most exciting or innovative QR code in the list, it's an example of how a QR code can be simple but effective. This achieved great levels success and drastically increased the traffic numbers and interaction for the SmileWorld site.


A great idea for traffic accidents



As roads have a continual amount of traffic throughout the day as countless people going to and from work every day, a company decided that they would try and take advantage of this traffic by placing a QR code for people to see on a traffic sign. While this would result in many people becoming aware of the QR code, having countless drivers attempt to pull out their smartphones and scan a QR code, when they should be concentrating on the busy traffic ahead of them, is most likely going to result in more accidents than scans. The code was quickly removed due to the safety risk it caused.


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Monday, 5 November 2012

The strangest things sold on eBay and lessons to be learnt

As eBay is one of the biggest shopping marketplaces on the web with literally millions of transactions being carried out on a regular basis, there are bound to be a few of those exchanges that are stranger others. We at eSellution have looked at some of the strangest transactions ever to grace eBay's online platform and what lessons ecommerce stores learn from them.

Michael Jackson's Underwear - A pair of Michael Jackson's Calvin Klein underwear that were seized in 2003 during his child molestation case were placed on eBay with a reserve of $1 million. Unsurprisingly, with the number of followers "M"J has around the world, the boxers were soon sold.

Rhino Dung - In an attempt to try and raise some much needs the International Rhino Foundation decided that they would try their hand at selling rhino dung online. As you would have guessed, the initiative didn't raise the funds they expected.

Hi-Tech Toilet - Originally bought by the city of Seattle for $5 million, the toilets were placed on eBay after becoming a popular hang out for drug users. Sadly, they came no where near getting their money back as the toilets sold for a mere $12,549, resulting in a $4,987,451 loss. 

A Texas Town - The small Texas town of Albert was listed for sale on eBay, boasting "German heritage and a laid-back attitude." The listing also came with the Mayor of Albert title for the recipient. 

An Australian Man's Life - Yup, exactly what it says on the tin. After becoming f A man in Australia sold his life on eBay for a total of   £192,000. This included his home, all the possessions it contained, all of his vehicles and everything else he had to his name. It also included his job meaning his boss probably got a big surprise Monday morning with someone else showed up.

Brussel Sprouts - Getting into the Christmas spirit, a man in England placed brussel sprouts cooked on Christmas day onto the online marketplace. They managed to fetch £99.50 and the proceeds went to charity. 

Ghost In A Jar - A seller decided to place what he claimed was a ghost in a jar after stating that it was terrorising the owner. The item was eventually sold for $50,922 but it seemed the buyer came to their senses and decided not to pay. 

Grandma - A 10 year old girl fed up with her Grandma decided that she would place the 61 year old up for sale on eBay. Despite having a few bids on the listing, described as "annoying but cuddly" eBay stepped in and shut down the listing as it violated their policy on human trafficking. 

As this is an article looking at sales made on eBay, we will end with the first ever sale made on the marketplace, previously titled "AuctionWeb" creator Pierre Omidyar decided to test the listing service by placing a broken laser pointer. To Pierre's surprise, the listing received a bid of $14.83 and was subsequently sold. 

Lessons to be learnt


While pretty much all of these listings are strange in the extreme, they do show any business that no matter what it is they sell, there are people out there who will be interested in their products. For an ecommerce store, success comes in being able to identify which specific type of people will be interested in what you have to sell and marketing your products to this demographic accordingly to achieve the best best level of sales you can.

If all else fails you can follow in the footsteps of some of the more eccentric sellers listed above and literally try and sell the strangest thing you can possibly think of. 

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Tuesday, 30 October 2012

Top tips to improving your store's text and images

When selling online, it's not only what you're selling that's important, but also how you show those products in your store. In recent weeks we at eSellution have produced articles for you on how to improve your products by including images and detailed descriptions. However, it isn't just about adding them to your products, how you display the images and the description text also plays a major role in determining how successful your store will be in achieving sales.

Product Images

Whenever you take a product picture from your ecommerce store, there are a number of different things you should do:

  • Make sure the image isn't blurry - A clear image allows the customer to see the product in greater detail. If the image is blurry they aren't really going to be able to see it properly. Not only that, having a blurry image for your product makes your business look unprofessional.
  • Photograph the products against a white background - When you photograph your products, you need to make sure that the product is against a white background. Having all of your images appear on a white background improves the look of your website, as all the images are the same colour. Not only that, having a white background makes it much easier to edit the image as you don't have to worry about having to take a coloured background into account when cropping or cutting the image. Creating a white background for your images is simple enough to do. If your products are small, it could simply mean placing them on top of a white sheet of paper when you take the picture. 
  • Try to avoid using watermarks - Especially on sites like eBay, people want to protect their product images from other people using them so they put big bold images on top of them or have thick borders around the image. While this stops other sellers from using your product images, it makes the product images look less tasteful. If you can help it, you should look to avoid using borders or images over your product photograph. If you do decide to use an image to protect your photo, just use a subtle watermark across the image. That way it doesn't damage the overall look of your image and people still know that the image belongs to your store. 
Product Description

Now that you've taken care of your product images, the next thing to focus on is your product description. Having followed our previous article: Ecommerce success starts with the basics and written a product description that provides all the information your customers need, the next step is presenting that information in the correct way. 

  • Use the right font - With so many different fonts to choose from, it's often tempting to have the wildest font you can find to help your product descriptions start out. However, you need to remember that the wilder it is, the more difficult it is going to be for your customers to read. When selecting a font, you should select one that is professional in appearance and easy to read. Once you have selected a font, you should use that font on every single one of the products you have in your store.
  • Keep the text the same size - Now that you've selected your font, you need to choose a size to display the text at. You don't want the text to be that small that the customer can't read it, but you also don't want it to be too big that it takes up majority of the page. Usually the standard font size of around 12 will be big enough to make it easily readable and not too big on the page. Just like the type of font you use, you want to keep the font size the same across all of your products. A mistake a lot of online sellers make is that they have different products which have descriptions containing different fonts at different sizes. All this does is damage the look of your online store. The cleaner your website is, the more professional your public image will be. 
  • Highlight important information - While all of the information in your product description is important, some bits of it are more important than others. For example if a product is only available in a particular size at the moment or you don't offer refunds on it, you might want to make sure the customer doesn't skim over and miss this information by making it appear bold so that it stands out from the rest. 
  • Check the HTML - If you have both an eBay store and an ecommerce store, you may look to save yourself some time by copying over the product description from eBay and placing it into your ecommerce store. However, when you do this you need to make sure that it is only the text you are copying over. If you copy over text that has HTML in it, it will alter the way your description looks, making it appear unprofessional and harming the look of your store. 

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Tuesday, 23 October 2012

Top 10 factors that put customers off your store

A survey recently carried out has discovered the top 10 turn offs for customers when visiting an ecommerce store. They were as follows:

  • Site doesn't look secure - Having a website that not only looks secure but actually is as secure as is possibly can be, is vitally important in the long term success of your business. This means having secure servers to protect your customers information and having a secure payment gateway for them to purchase products for you. If any of these aspects aren't secure, it's going to make customers very reluctant to purchase for your store.

  • Bugs and technical issues with the site - Whatever it is, whether it's an ecommerce store or some other website, if a customer comes across a number of bugs when attempting to purchase from your online store, it is going to harm your perception of being a professional business. Again, this will result in you getting less long term and short term sales. 

  • Insufficient images and product information - When a customer looks to purchase a product, before they decide whether to buy it or not, they want to have as much information as they can about the product, allowing them to make a more informed decision. No matter what the product is, it should have a number of images showing the product from different angles as well as displaying all the information they may require such as specification, warranty, delivery options and anything else they may require. Like having an website that doesn't look secure, insufficient details for each product makes your site much less trustworthy.

  • Difficult to use shopping cart - Whether a customer visits your mobile store or ecommerce store, the simpler and easier it is for a customer to buy from your store, the happier they are going to be. If you find that customers are finding your shopping cart difficult to use, why not sign up to our ecommerce software and get a free ecommerce store today. We have developed our shopping cart to ensure it provides not only the best shopping experience possible, but is also easy to use for buyer and seller alike. 

  • Checkout form too long and time consuming - Again, as stated in the last section you need to try and make it as quick as possible for customers to purchase products. As you need their personal details to send out the products or to get in touch with them in the future, you have to have some form of contact information. However, to make it as simple as possible you could choose to have the most basic information such as name, email address, delivery address and credit card details. 

  • Poorly-designed website - Like an unsecured site or one with bugs or a poor shopping cart, the look of your site is an essential part to your business's overall brand image. If your website doesn't look good, it's going to harm your brand image. Again using eSellution as an example, when working with a number of clients every day, we also ensure that their website is of the highest possible standard in all aspects, to maximise the success they can achieve.

  • Slow website - On average, if a customer has to wait more than 3 seconds for a website to load, they are going to grow frustrated and leave the site altogether. You can imagine how many sales this will result in you missing out on if you have a slow loading website. While you want your online store to be appealing to the naked eye, the more images and content you have, the longer it is going to take to load. However, this problem is a lot more prominent in mobile stores as a mobile phone's 3G capabilities aren't as fast as a standard Internet connect. To improve the speed of your site, there are a number of things you can do such as having a cache system the first time a user visits your store, reducing the amount of images you have on your site or changing the format of your images to ones that are smaller in size. 

  • Lack of customer reviews and feedback - The opinions of customers have a huge weighting on whether or not someone decides to purchase from your store, as those using eBay will know all too well. If you have a product on your store which has a number of negative reviews, the likelihood is that your sales for this product will be pretty much non-existent. If you do find that certain products in your store are receiving many negative views, you may want to think about removing that product from your store altogether as it clearly isn't of the standard you want for your business. 

  • Retailer based outside of the UK - As they say, you always feel most comfortable when at home and online shopping is no different. If you are based outside of the UK, customers are going to be more hesitant to purchase from you because of a number of different factors such as time it will take to get to them, added cost in shipping and an added price they would have to pay in terms of the conversion rate. If you find that you are a successful ecommerce store looking to achieve success within the UK, you may need to think about creating a branch within the UK, allowing you to overcome all of these concerns that customers have.

  • Insufficient delivery options - Like all aspects of ecommerce shopping, the more options you provide your customers with, the happier they are going to be. As time is as much a crucial factor as price and quality, customers want the option to receive their goods as soon as possible but at an affordable price. When a customer purchases from your store they should be able to have standard delivery within 5 working day, express delivery within 2-3 working days and next day delivery. If you have all of these delivery options covered then you will find that the majority of your customers will be happy.
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Friday, 19 October 2012

eBay on the rise and mobile could be the key

Although many eBay sellers are concerned about how the new Cassini search engine will affect their ability to generate traffic and sales, it would seem that the marketplace is going from strength to strength as sales in the US they have seen their year on year Q3 sales rise 16% to $6.48 billion from $5.59 billion. 

John Donahoe, eBay's President and CEO, has put this Q3 increase largely down to the growth in mobile commerce: "Mobile continues to be a game changer for us, and we continue to be a clear leader in mobile commerce and payments." 

The growth that eBay has seen in their sales figures, particularly through their mobile platform was emphasised last month through the announcement that the total number of eBay apps downloaded and the number of products listed through mobile devices has surpassed the 100 million figure. The growth of mobile commerce over the last year was summed up nicely on eBay's Ink Blog, who stated:

"Mobile commerce is exploding...connecting people to the things they need and love and helping sellers of all sizes in today's rapidly changing world."

As we here a eSellution tell not only our customers, but our reads too, the future of ecommerce store success lies very much in having a mobile friendly store. With many people now shopping not only on smartphones, but also tablet devices, having various stores that appear correctly on various platforms is going to be key to you achieving any future success. 

Most ecommerce software package, such as the one we provide here at eSellution, provide users with a number of different platforms for you to sell online, giving you the best possible chance of making your store successful.


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Thursday, 18 October 2012

Keep your customers coming back for more

When selling online, you may think the hardest part of any ecommerce store is bringing customers to your store and encouraging them to make a purchase. However, while this is an incredibly important factor in your business's success, the real success comes in the ability to turn these first time buyers into repeat customers. It is these repeat customers that are going to help your business not only see long term success, but grow into a real brand identity. 

The easiest way to bring customers back to your store is by sending them various emails through your ecommerce software package, informing the customer about the latest goings-on in your store such as new products you have added and any offers you are currently running. You can then include a promotional code within the email that entices the customer to return to your store in order to make a purchase. However, when sending out emails to your previous customers, you don't want to send out too many emails as you will simply annoy the customers with spam.

An easier, but less personal method of keeping in contact with your previous customers is through your social media pages. When a customer purchases from your store, if they find the experience enjoyable, they will most likely follow your social media pages to find out about any future offers or promotions you are running. As with the email marketing, you can use this platform to provide your customers with all the information they require, as well as links on how they can access the various sections of your store. The great thing about social media is that you can interact with your customers on a more regular basis than you would be able to do through email. For more information on how to run your social media pages effectively, read a post from eSellution titled: "Beginners guide to social media success." 

Another method of encouraging customers to return to your store is through retargeting. Retargeting works by storing the product information as cookies on their computer when they visit your store. When the user then views different websites, advertisements for the products in your store will then appear, encouraging past customers to return to your store in order to make another purchase. This is not only a great way for you to keep customers returning to your store, it also allows you to increase your ROI by ensuring that you are specifically targeting people who you know will have an interest in your store. 

There are also a number of other extra ways you can encourage customers to keep coming back to your store such as offering a referral system, where they will receive an added bonus for any friends they bring to purchase from your store and any other incentives such as a free product or free delivery when the customer spends over a certain amount.


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Wednesday, 17 October 2012

How to stop your business being the victim of a buyer scam

When running an an online business there are a number of different issues you must address such as choosing the right ecommerce software, setting up the correct website and logo, having the right products in your store as well as also ensuring you have the best delivery service for your store. 

As your ecommerce store gets up and running, your aim is to provide your customers with the best possible shopping experience you can. While all of your efforts may be good natured, you will find that some of your customers will look to take advantage of this good nature for their own gain. Due to this reason, we here at eSellution, advise any business we work with to make sure that they have some sort of tracked delivery method for all of their orders.  

While not having some form of recorded delivery will mean that it will cost you less to deliver a product to the customer, the problems begin to arise when one of the customers claims that they haven't received their order. Although some of these may not have actually received their order, a lot will have got their order and will simply be doing this to try and take advantage of the fact you have no tracked delivery method in place. What would then happen is that if for example the payment was made through Paypal on your eBay or ecommerce store, the customer would say to Paypal that they have not received their order and as you have no way to prove that your product was delivered to the customer's address, Paypal would give the customer his money back. This will leave you with one less product in your inventory and no money for it.

If you did have a tracked delivery service, when the customer made the claim that they never received their order, you would have proof that their product reached the customer at their address at a specific date or time. This essentially leaves the customer's claim without a leg to stand on, preventing Paypal from returning their payment to them. As you can see, while it will cost you more to use tracked delivery as opposed to a standard delivery method, it will save you a lot of money in the long run. 

Having this method ensures you are not wasting time having a great ecommerce or eBay templates, fantastic products and a great service, only for someone to come along and essentially try and steal money from you.

Another scam you should also look for is customers selecting a domestic shipping service despite having a delivery address that is abroad. What they are essentially trying to do is avoid paying International shipping charges. Unlike the previous scam, there is nothing you can do to protect yourself. It is just a case of being vigilant and checking that the delivery method is correct before shipping the product out. Once the product has been sent out there is nothing you can do and it  

Get your free ecommerce store now: http://www.esellution.co.uk/pricing.html

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Friday, 14 September 2012

Men now love to shop more than women?

The general stereotype we see these days is that women love to shop and men don't. Well information produced by online market research company, uSamp, has seemingly destroyed this idea.

According to their research, they found that more men make an online purchase through mobile devices than women. The main reason for this is most likely due to the ease in which someone can purchase a product from their phone. They do not have to travel to the highstreet, they don't even have to be sat at a computer. No matter where they may be, or what they may be doing, they can still purchase products online using their mobile phone. 

With 45% of men and 34% of women surveyed using their mobile to complete an online transaction, it is further evidence as to the importance for all online store owners to have a mobile friendly store for customers to visit. 

The research also found that women are more likely than men to take advantage of an ecommerce store's offer through the use of mobile customers, while men are more likely to improve your businesses social commerce by telling their friends about a purchase they have made via their social media platforms.

One of the most popular type of product purchased by males is electronic goods, accounting for 27% of all mobile purchases. So if you run an online store that sells electronic goods, has specific offers and allows customers to share content via social media sites, you need to make sure you have a mobile version of your store to take advantage of this popular shopping platform.

If you currently don't have a mobile version of your ecommerce store, you can get some from eSellution for free.

(http://blog.usamp.com/blog/2012/09/12/retailers-meet-mans-new-best-friend-mobile/)
Get your free ecommerce store now: http://www.esellution.co.uk/pricing.html

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Friday, 7 September 2012

The hows and whys of mobile commerce

As we constantly tell our readers and clients here at eSellution, mobile commerce is ever growing, becoming one of the biggest online sales platform out there. While eBay is the world's biggest shopping site with many online buyers and sellers alike using the marketplace to carry out a substantial amount of transactions every day, over 10% of all these transactions are carried out of via mobile devices. This figure is constantly on the rise, underpinned by eBay's CEO, John Donahoe predicting at the start of the year that eBay's mobile gross merchandise volume would reach $8 billion in 2012.

Why you need a mobile store


Currently eBay receives over 17 million users to the site a day through mobile devices and while these figures are mainly due to the traffic that eBay's brand generates, it demonstrates the importance mobile commerce plays in not just selling on eBay, but selling across all ecommerce platforms. As we stated last week, by Christmas this year it is expected that mobile commerce will make up 20% of all online retail transactions. So if you are running an online business that sells across any online platform, there has never been a better time to take the plunge and setup an mobile version on your online store.

How to get a mobile store


Now, you may want to set up a mobile version of your online store but are unsure how to go about it. Well it is actually easier than you think. There are a number of ecommerce companies that are reasonably priced to instantly provide you with a mobile platform and yes, we at eSellution do offer this service absolutely for free: http://www.esellution.co.uk/pricing.html.  When you sign up with eSellution for example, you receive an ecommerce store which already has a mobile platform, meaning customers can instantly access your online store via their mobile devices.

How to make your mobile store effective


However it isn't just good enough to create a mobile platform and then leave it for your customers to use. The key to mobile commerce comes in the ability to make your platform as efficient and easy to use as possible. The quicker customers can visit your store on their mobile device, find the product they want and complete the purchase, the happier they are going to be and the more likely they will return for future purchases.

When deciding to set up a mobile platform for their ecommerce store many people wonder "is my business ready?" The truth is every business whether big or small should be using mobile commerce as part of their sales platforms. The more opportunities you give people to access your store, the more sales you are going to make. You are going to see much less traffic if you only have an online website, meaning the majority of customers need to be stationary at a desk to make a purchase. Mobile commerce allows users to access your store wherever they may be, whether stationary or constantly on the go.


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Friday, 24 August 2012

Stock control issues and how to overcome them

When running an online store, the more places you sell your products, the more money you are going to generate for your business. However, managing your business across a number of different platforms can bring about a number of different issues which will affect the ability for your store to run efficiently. The major problem that people find when running a bricks and mortar business, as well as an online store across multiple channels, comes in the ability to effectively manage your stock levels.

As you are selling products in many places simultaneously, you can often find it difficult to keep track of where each product is being sold and how much of each product you have left. If you lose track of how many items you have left in stock, you may end up selling a product online when you don't actually have it is stock to be able to deliver to the customer. This is known as overselling and is one of the major problems in stock management. 

Problems of overselling

While you don't actually lose any products from overselling, you are not making any money either as you are unable to complete an order. Taking someone's money and being unable to then provide them with a product is could possibly give the impression that you are trying to scam the customer out of their money. This will seriously damage your brand image and gain a public perception as being untrustworthy. 

Not only that, if you are unable to fulfil an order, it will force the the customer to visit a rival competitor in order to purchase the product. In future when comparing the quality of service between you and your rival, that customer will then decide to make all future purchases from that competitor.

Solutions to overselling

If you do have a business that is selling across multiple channels and sometimes find managing stock levels difficult, there two solutions you can look to carry out in order to fix this. The first option is to simply hire more people whose sole job is to monitor stock levels. This will mean that they keep track of how much stock is left for each product and order more stock before you run out. This will mean that overselling will never be a problem as your inventory levels will never get low enough for this to be an issue. However, employing someone full time to carry out this task can cost you more than you may be willing to pay to solve this issue. 

The other option would be to purchase some ecommerce software that has a built in stock synchronisation feature. What this feature does is monitor your stock across all of your online platforms and when one product is sold on a particular platform, it updates the total remaining inventory across all of the other platforms. If you run a bricks and mortar store in addition to online platforms, you can also include the inventory in your shop into the software but you may have to enter these numbers manually if you do not have an automated system in your store. 

As we at eSellution have worked with many clients in helping them set up an ecommerce store, we have found that if you are a small business, using ecommerce software to solve this issue going to be the best way to go. It is easy to implement and requires no effort on your part. What's more, it costs substantially less than it would do if you were to employ someone to carry out this task on your behalf.  

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Wednesday, 22 August 2012

Why your business needs a Facebook store

 When setting up on online business, many people tend to overlook the need for a Facebook store as they don't believe that customers will be willing to purchase through social media. While this stance was correct a number of years ago, many customers have now opened up to the idea of buying through Facebook.

While many businesses have a Facebook fan page, telling users about products, sales and containing external links to access their online store, many people can often be hesitant to leave Facebook. Another benefit of having a Facebook store for your business is the ability to take advantage of a customers buying impulse. If a customer comes across a great deal for a product in your store, it perks their interest and makes them want to buy it. The longer the customers goes from coming across the offer to making the purchase, the more this buying impulse fades until eventually they don't want it anymore. Running a Facebook store is similar to having a mobile store in the sense that you need to make the checkout process for both platforms as quick as possible. Allowing customers to buy products through Facebook means that they don't have to spend time travelling from Facebook to your store, they can purchase through Facebook, taking advantage of a customers buying impulse.

With over two-thirds of all Facebook fans, following a business to find out about the latest products and sales, it makes sense to give these customers the option to purchase products instantly through Facebook. 

However, one thing you need to take care of when setting up a Facebook store is that you do not use Facebook credits as the currency customers use when purchasing products. If your Facebook uses Facebook credits it is going to make customers very hesitant to purchase from your store. Essentially how Facebook credits work is that the customer uses their money to purchase Facebook credits and then uses those credits to purchase things across the social media site. Like I said earlier, the key to making your Facebook store a success is a quick checkout process. Using Facebook credits not only delays this process, but also makes your store seem slightly less trustworthy in the eyes of visiting customers.

The more places you sell your products, the more customers and always you are going to generate for your ecommerce store. If you are worried about the added effort that running a Facebook store could entail, there are a number of multichannel shopping cart software platforms that can help you do this with ease. We at eSellution can help you achieve this with our multichannel ecommerce software, enabling you to sell products across Facebook, eBay, through your own ecommerce site and across mobile devices. What's more, you can easily list and manage your products as well as monitor your stock levels with our stock synchronisation features. For more information about how we at eSellution can transform your online business CLICK HERE 

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Thursday, 16 August 2012

Breaking down the barriers of social commerce

While many people use social media on a daily basis both for social interaction and to promote their business, many online stores do not feel that social commerce is a worthwhile endeavour unless you are a large brand with a huge social following. However, with almost a third of all online users, purchasing products over the Internet, social commerce is a great platform for any business, big or small, to attract a wider customer base. 

Within the next five years, it is believed that the total sales made through social commerce will reach over $30 billion. While the vast majority of this amount will go to large brands and corporations, it underlines the potential success any small business can achieve by tapping into this ever growing channel. 

When many businesses have been asked why they do not spend time fully exploring the potential social commerce can give them, many tend to state the belief that customers would be hesitant in using the credit card details to purchase a product over a social media site. This view is in fact unfounded with 45% of all social media users stating that they would be comfortable in providing their credit card details in order to purchase a product.

It's not only the willingness to purchase products that makes social commerce a profitable seller platform, but also the ease in which customers could then inform other people about the product they have purchased, with 35% stating that they would be more likely to share their purchased product when purchased through a social media channel as opposed to through an ecommerce store. What this means is that not only would you be able to gain a number of sales, you would also increase the reach that your store can gain, possibly resulting in you being able to gain additional sales through the sharing of that original purchased product. 

However, while there is a willingness for customers to purchase products through social media sites, many people are hesitant about using social media currency such as Facebook credits in order to purchase products. If you do decide that you wish to set up a social commerce store, you should look to set it up so customers are able to pay instantly with real currency, as opposed to first having to purchase currency specific to that social media channel. 

It is believed that by the year 2015, 50% of all online transactions by large brands will be made through either social media sites or mobile devices. This huge figure demonstrates the need for you to look at a social commerce platform for your small business in more detail.

If you do decide that you wish to expand your business across social media platforms, we at eSellution can help you get it underway: Click here for more information

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Wednesday, 15 August 2012

The biggest misconceptions of ecommerce software

When people look to set up their own online store, they explore different directions they can take their business down. One of the paths you can go down is to purchase some ecommerce software to help set up and manage your online store. However, many people tend to be put off by ecommerce software for a number of reasons, some of which are unfounded. 

The general gripe that many people have about all ecommerce software products are very expensive to use, with you having to first pay a large set up fee to create your website and then pay a monthly subscription to actually run the software. While there are a number of ecommerce software providers that do charge a substantial amount to implement the software into your online store, there are also a number of reasonably priced software companies who are looking to help those who have a lot to spend and those who may not have much money to put towards setting up their business. 

We at eSellution are the perfect example of this. We offer affordable ecommerce software that allows you to run your online store across a number of different platforms and synchronise your stock, while still being able to easily manage all aspects of your store. We do all this without charging any set up or add on fees, all we charge is a monthly fee of £49.99. When compared against other ecommerce software companies out there, we are very cheap, while still being able to provide all online stores with a fantastic service that will transform their online store, increasing traffic and sales substantially. 

Now the second myth I'm aiming to bust this afternoon is the myth that all ecommerce software programs require you to know everything there is to know about HTML and coding. Yes it's true, there are a number of packages out there that require you to have some level of coding knowledge to be able to use the software to its fullest potential, but this isn't the case for all ecommerce software packages. Again I am going to use us at eSellution as the perfect example. What we have aimed to do is create a dashboard interface that can be used by anyone no matter what your own personal level of experience may be. The simpler the interface is, the easier it is to use and therefore the more you yourself are going to be able to use it. There is no point spending a large amount of money on a complex ecommerce package which you find difficult to use. You're not only going to struggle to get value for money, but you will most likely have to pay someone to use the software on your behalf. This will mean that you will be spending a lot of money to actually use the product even though there are much cheaper and easier to use alternatives that provide you with the best possibly result for your online store, like us here at eSellution.

When purchasing ecommerce software for your online store, what you need to bear in mind is that expensive software doesn't necessarily mean better software.. What you should be looking to do is find the best software for you and your business by taking into account all of the different factors. The software provide value for money, be easy to use and provide you with all the features you require. 

If you are looking for a great piece of ecommerce software at an affordable piece, you should look at the great benefits eSellution can provide your store with: Click here for more information

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