Hosted Ecommerce

Posts Tagged ‘hosted ecommerce’

The Power Of A Facebook Store

April 8th, 2012

It’s a big announcement, and though you’re reading this here and now, it was first announced on our Facebook page.. Why you may ask? Well this announcement has to do with the power of SHARING and the persuasiveness and advocacy in brand marketing. It was only fair to divulge this first on Facebook.. For those of you who haven’t heard..

Our newly designed and SOCIALLY loaded Facebook store is now out!

The New Design
With the new Timeline for business pages, the area allows for more space, so we had to take advantage of this, and allow for more categories per page view. Add the search ability for easier browsing, as well as a clear layout for custom pages so you’re sure your offerings are clearly visible to help you sell on Facebook. We’re pretty proud of this new look, but this is just a little taste..

The Shopping Experience
In line with our mission to keep customers engaged within your website and brand, the new Facebook store, allows your customers to browse products for sale, share their favorites with friends, and complete a purchase within the Facebook shopping cart. Yes the entire process can be completed without leaving your Facebook page! Using payment gateways like PayPal Payments Pro and Authorize.net, the customer pays and is never directed elsewhere. And now the payment gateway PayPal Express, brings them back to your Facebook page to confirm the transaction. We hope this decreases the number of abandoned carts and gives you a boost in sales.. But wait that’s not all…

The Capitalization of Sharing
Facebook is all about sharing, and now your customer can become your advocate. After a purchase is made, customers can share their excitement with a single click and post their purchase to their own Timeline and share with friends. This is done without authorizing an app, just a simple share button that we’re all used to. Your customers can now become your own marketing tool. Yes this is all about REACH.. If you like the sound of reach and fcommerce advocacy, we’ve got more for you..

More features with the Facebook store include the ability to preview audio before purchase, allowing musicians and artists to showcase their tunes and sell music directly to fans within Facebook. They can sell songs, sell CD’s or even autographed prints! Looking for more? Well how about multiple language support, zoomed picture view, sharing to social platforms like Twitter and Want, and include related products for cross selling.

We mentioned it’s a big release, and we must say, we’re not finished yet! Stay tuned for more exciting releases from Wazala coming very soon!

Promoting Your New Product

March 14th, 2012

Got a new product in your online store? Hooray! New things are always exciting, but the tough part is getting your customers excited as you are. There are many steps you can take to ensure that your product launch is a successful one, and we hope these would help.

Have a Goal in Mind
What are you trying to accomplish? Coming up with a promotional directive is a great way to lay the foundation for your promotional campaign. Do you have a set inventory and wish to reach a certain amount of sales? Maybe your new product open doors to attract a new customer base? Or are you trying to up-sell, or get previous customers to come back for more. Setting an ambitious but realistic goal will help you to hone your promotional tactics and measure the campaign’s success more efficiently. If your goals are usually similar from launch to launch, the results of these campaign can be A/B tested against one another to hopefully give insight on which tactics work best for your products.

Get a Good Mix
Every product launch should involve a familiar mix of tools, such as newsletters, press releases, social media marketing, and even paid advertisements. Making sure to utilize all these venues can help increase your sales. In addition to using your go-to means of communication, you should also try to add something new into the marketing mix, be it a guest blog, a YouTube video, or even a Pinterest post. Try as many new avenues as you can. It can’t hurt, and might prove to be extremely rewarding if utilized effectively.

A Fresh Product Description
No one wants to buy something that sounds boring. So make sure to add some spice to your descriptions, and add cool images that really make the product pop. Checkout our earlier posts on writing killer product descriptions, and showcasing your product pictures well.

Facebook Contests
Facebook contests are a great way to get people involved and excited about a new product. Have people upload photos, videos, or post on your wall. Get creative! The prize doesn’t have to be huge; maybe the winner will get your new product for free. In order to enter the contest, each person should have to like your page, which will gain you fans and raise awareness about your brand and the contest. Offer everyone who enters the contest a discount on your new product, which will in turn give them more incentive to buy.

Feature It
A simple tweak to your website home page to feature your new product can definitely help. Place it on top and make sure to state that it is available for sale. You can also create a new category in your store as “NEW ARRIVALS” and add it there. New and returning customers like to see that you’re constantly adding new goods for sale. This tweak can also help in attracting a new audience, especially if you’re product is unlike anything you usually sell.

These are just a few of the many options available to you when promoting a new product. Just find out what works for you, and run with it!

Happy Selling!

Monitoring Your Ecommerce Business

March 7th, 2012

In order to have a successful business, one must constantly reflect and measure certain key factors. Here are 3 components worth evaluating on a consistent basis.

The Budget
If you don’t keep track of your cash flow, your business will likely fail. Keep your finances in order. You need to be aware of how much money you have coming in, and how much you’re allocating for different aspects of your business. Spending with abandon, and without keeping accurate records is a recipe for disaster.Asses your budget, and see which purchases and investments you can make now, and which ones you should hold off on until you have more free cash. Keep this up and you will increase profit.

Online Presence
Keeping track of online store web traffic is pivotal to any ecommerce business success. To do this, you need to have a way to monitor and analyze how many people are visiting your site. Google Analytics is a free tool that can help you in this respect. It also paints a detailed picture of your customers behaviors and inclinations as they browse your page, and gives you detailed reports on conversion rates that will allow you to make informed decisions about what is working and what is not. Wazala integrates with Google Analytics, and if you’re new to this, Google provides a good starting guide here.

Customer Satisfaction
This one is obvious, customers satisfaction is paramount to a healthy business, so keep tabs. Are you using a support desk to communicate? Many email solutions like Zendesk offer the ability to engage and ask customers for a satisfaction rating this will help automate your communication as well as report satisfaction. Engaging customers via social media is another effective way to keep a finger on the pulse of their contentment. This will allow you to address any complaints or concerns your customers might have before they evolve into a bigger issue. Also you may consider sending out a brief survey after each purchase is delivered. Knowing your positive and negative attributes will help you build a better service.

Just like you have to continually exercise to keep in shape, you must regularly monitor these elements in order to keep your business in tip-top condition. It’s an ongoing process, but if you follow through, you will find yourself reaping the rewards that accompany knowing where your business stands.

Tips on Packaging Your Order

February 29th, 2012

You’ve made a sale, congrats! Somebody wants your product and has paid good money for it. Now the only thing left to do is get it to them. Though this seems like a simple task, there are a things you should consider when packaging your product to get it to your customer safe and on time.

What to Protect?
Think about how the package is going to be sent and what elements you should prepare it for. Postal and carrier workers have a nasty habit of throwing light packages during the sorting process (sometimes even heavy ones). Packages go through a lot in the process of being shipped, be it shoots, conveyor belts, or a fall of a truck. Therefore, as a rule of thumb you should pack your parcel so that it can withstand about a 3 foot/1 meter drop onto hard concrete. You should also take precautions against elements such as weather and friction.

What to Use?
There are variety of materials that you can use to package your product. You need to find the one that best suits what you are shipping. Different materials suit different products better, and doing your research on available boxes and shipping envelopes helps. How the product needs to be presented may also have an effect on the material. For instance, you could use a clear plastic material if the customer needed to be able to clearly see the product, the magazine industry does it, and it helps spread the word about you as it’s making its’ way to your customer.

Is It Fragile?
We’ve all had fragile items break on us. It’s tragic, but inevitable. But what causes fragile items to break, and how can you decrease the chances of this happening to your product en-route to your customer? Fragile items can break by hitting the ground too hard, or by getting twisted or crushed. To combat this, your package should not only cushion against impact, but should also have a rigid structure. Make sure that nothing can move within the package. This is especially true with glass items, where even if you have an extremely strong outer package, if it is loosely packed, it will most certainly break.

Hope these tips help and have a wonderful day!

What’s Your Plan B?

February 14th, 2012

It can happen to any business at any time. It will more than likely happen to your business at some point. Something will go wrong. It could be your servers crashing, your power going out, or your even your supplier’s fault. In any case, it pays (literally) to be prepared. Here are a few tips on making sure your business is ready for whatever storm may come its way.

Keep A Key Under The Rug
Backup everything important, including customer lists, employee data, and inventory. Keep it someplace safe that is not your primary location. You may also want to take a look at backing up your data online for a reasonable fee.

Make Sure Your Covered
If you don’t have insurance for your property, it would probably be a good idea to look into what policies would suit your business. Property insurance reimburses you for the cost of any damages to your equipment or buildings. You should also check out business interruption insurance, which will help you in case your business has to shut down temporarily due to unforeseen events.

Have More Sources
What if one of your main vendors shuts down? Do you have a plan to keep your business up and running in that event? Look into other possible places to get the supplies you need in case of a shortage. Make sure they can also deliver on time and set up your action plan.

A good source is the US Small Business Administration, they have a few tools that may assist you in creating a disaster plan that is right for you.

New Orders Are Now Simpler To Deal With!

February 6th, 2012

Our team has been working on a new Order tab design, that not only allows you to sift through your orders with ease, but helps making your order fulfillment faster. It’s out, it’s colorful and we hope you like it as much as we do.

The latest release of the Order Page allows you to clearly mark orders that require your attention with different statuses and colors. The hover-over preview allows you to take a quick look at the order without loading a new page, and of course, searching for a specific order is now even easier!