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Part two: Focus your website
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| I have to admit that while I would like to think that I am a realist, really I am an optimist. I like to look at the positive side of things. I subscribe to the theory of “Field of Dreams” if you build it they will come. While that worked for Iowa farmer Ray Kinsella (Kevin Costner) that really doesn’t work in real life, especially when it comes to e-commerce. Just because you create a website it is not a given that you will have a successful website. Your online business requires the same investment in time and energy that any other offline business. For the next couple of months I will be sharing from a sales point of view what it take to make a successful site. |
Part two: Focus your website to your target
So last time we talked about determining who your actual customers are BEFORE you begin to design your website and tailoring it to their needs and wants. In this article I want to talk about how to focus your website. One of the biggest issues I see when people start their website is that there is no focus, no call to action, nothing to move the consumer to open their wallet or purse. Your website has to be a representation of your business in a self-serving way. In other words in retail store environment you can direct people to parts of the store you want them to see and products you want them to buy. You have to format your website with the same frame of mind. So let’s look at how we map out a successful website using this idea.
Make it look good
I can’t stress this enough: you have to have your site look good if you want to have people spend time on your site. If your customer base is conservative stay away from loud colors and college humor, if they are corporate keep the skulls and crossbones designs in the closet; if they teens put away the teddy bear logos and turn on the skulls and crossbones. Know your audience and make the products, artwork, backgrounds, text and images speak to them. There is no way you can be all these to all people. It is ok to cast a wide net but even a wide net has boundaries.
Whatever it is that you want to say you better say it fast
It is estimated that you have between 5-10 seconds to capture your visitor’s attention. This is a stark contrast to a retail store where if someone walks into your store chances are they will browse around or talk to an employee. They do this because they had to invest something to get to your store, their time and gas. So they very likely to spend at least a few minutes in your store. Your webstore is very different, with search engines like Google they can very quickly find what they are looking for so their investment is marginal. That is why you have to capture their attention quickly and give them reason to stay on your site.
Keep it above the Fold
The question then becomes “If I only have 5-10 seconds to capture my audience’s attention how do I best do that?” Great question! From my experience the most successful sites have good content above the fold that capture the audience’s attention and drive them to want to see more. The “fold” is considered the top portion of the website that the user sees before he or she has to scroll down. This is a great location to have a banner or promotion code or a saying that sparks the users interest and makes them want to scroll down to see more. In most cases a visitor to a website decides to hang around purely based on what they see on the first page they visit and above the fold. When a user leaves on this first page it’s called a bounce and can be reported in your Google Analytics as the “Bounce rate”.”
Leave gimmicks to the used car salesmen
Stay away from the gimmicky animations or the huge SALE! SALE! SALE! buttons, they are gimmicky and only distract the user. Keep your message sharp and focused, don’t overwhelm them with 50 products above the fold, keep it simple. I suggest using images that are high quality and possibly a coupon code for say Free Shipping on order over $25 (very easy to do in DecoNetwork).
Give your site a custom look
While there is no silver bullet in having a successful store there are several things you can do to attract potential clients and reduce your bounce rate. One of the most important in my opinion is have your site look unique. It has been my experience that those people that use cookie cutter templates from some of those other web hosting companies have marginal if any success with their site. The reason can be summed up in the following question “If your site looks exactly like a hundred other sites why would I buy from you?” As you know with DecoNetwork you have access to the CSS and HTML, use it! Create a masterpiece, something you are proud of, something that you will have a tear in your eye each time you talk about (it should give you the same feeling you had when you first laid eyes on your firstborn). Make it look special but above all make it unique and designed to appeal to your target market. If you are saying to yourself I like that idea but I don’t know where to begin doing this, not a problem we can help www.deconetwork.com/decocoach.
What can I expect in the weeks to come?
Stay tuned, I’ve got some very interesting topics I want to cover such as “I get a lot of visits to my site but not a lot of conversions. Why?” and “How do I drive better quality traffic to my site?”
Building A Successful Online Business: Part One
| I have to admit that while I would like to think that I am a realist, really I am an optimist. I like to look at the positive side of things. I subscribe to the theory of “Field of Dreams” if you build it they will come. While that worked for Iowa farmer Ray Kinsella (Kevin Costner) that really doesn’t work in real life, especially when it comes to e-commerce. Just because you create a website it is not a given that you will have a successful website. Your online business requires the same investment in time and energy that any other offline business. For the next couple of months I will be sharing from a sales point of view what it take to make a successful site. |
Part one: Who is your customer?
Too often people THINK they know who their customer is and will build their site around that type of customer only to realize later that this type of customer really isn’t a customer at all. Let me explain, most businesses have four types of customers:
(1) Loyal customer - The loyal customer is someone that buys mostly from you and if presented a different option will talk with you to see if you can work with them accomplish their goal.
(2) Fickle customer - The Fickle customer is someone that normally price shops and will call around for the best deal.
(3) Renewing customer - The renewing customer is the customer that used to be a loyal customer but reduced or stopped all together purchasing from you.
(4) New customer - The new customer is well… a new customer.
These four types of customers have different needs and different trigger points. You cannot be all things to all people, but you can do things to attract a larger segment of these four types. To do this take out a piece of paper and create five columns:
Customer: The customer’s name or company.
What do they buy from me: i.e. t-shirts, caps, bags.
Average order size: How many units would they buy from you on average per order?
Strength of Connection: How close of a relationship do you have with this client?:
- Strong – you have a strong connection with this customer. They are very likely to use your services often and work well with you. You most often meet their needs with your products and prices. You speak with this customer 2-4 times a month.
- Moderate – You often meet their needs and you have many of the products that they need/want. You speak with this client 1-2 times a month.
- Weak – The client is constantly asking for products that you may have a limited supply of or always have to order just for them. There are often issues with their order(s) and it often take a considerable amount of time to resolve the issues. You speak with this customer only when they need something.
How likely they are to purchase on my website: 1-5, with 1 being unlikely and 5 being most likely) and consider the other four columns when rating them.
Take a sampling of say 25 randomly selected customers and fill in each column next to the customer. For example:
From the above examples we would see that while I have strong connections with Clamy’s restaurant they would not be an ideal fit for my webstore. Also Washington Elementary seems to be a great prospect but due to their high order size they too may not be a good fit to buy on my webstore and more than likely will require a quote from Business Hub before purchasing. They could, however be great candidates for an affiliate store to encourage their students and teachers to self-serve.
So now I am left with either a sports themed website or a trendy bag and apparel website. Here is where you look at the rest of your list and see which of these groups have the move number of potential clients. If you have much more sports clients then consider building your primary site to appeal to the sport enthusiast. Does that mean you cannot sell to the Sassy Cassie type client? Of course not, sell to them but sell to them using an affiliate store that is trendy and marketed for that audience, do not try to lump sports and trendy together. Trust me those two do not go well together. The great thing about DecoNetwork is that you have the ability to create an unlimited amount of affiliate store to target certain marketplaces. Oh and by the way it is free and unlimited.
Are you getting your share of the online buying frenzy?
I recently read an article on TechCrunch about the explosion of online sales this holiday season. I wanted to share this with you because if you are not out there promoting your business and taking advantage of the fact that so many people are happy to spend their hard earned cash this time of year you are doing yourself a disservice. Check out this excerpt.
We’ve been wowed by the record breaking Black Friday and Cyber Monday spending data, but it looks like consumers are continuing to spend online for holiday shopping. comScore says that retail e-commerce spending for the first 30 days of the November–December 2012 holiday season amounts to $20.4 billion, which is a 15 percent increase versus the corresponding days last year.
The most recent week, which included Cyber Monday, saw three individual days surpass $1 billion in spending, led by Cyber Monday, which became the heaviest online spending day on record at $1.46 billion. Tuesday, November 27 reached $1.26 billion, while Wednesday, November 28 reached $1.1 billion. Monday and Tuesday of this past week currently rank as the two heaviest online spending days in history, with the Tuesday total slightly outpacing that of Cyber Monday 2011.
comScore chairman Gian Fulgoni says that growth rates actually decreased following the “peak demand” of the Thanksgiving, Black Friday and Cyber Monday promotional period. Interestingly, comScore says that the warmer weather throughout some parts of the country could be pushing people towards in-store shopping vs. online.
Despite these conditions, clearly people are still spending online. In fact, more than half of e-commerce transactions during each of the past three weeks of the holiday season have included free shipping, with a peak of 57 percent during the week ending Sunday, November 25. During the first five weeks of the holiday season, consumers spent an average of 42 percent more on free shipping transactions than on paid shipping transactions, including a 51-percent higher average order value during the week ending November 25. Free shipping is a good incentive for retailers, says comScore, because consumers tend to spend more on free shipping transactions.
The great news is that consumers are continuing to spend online. We hear from our clients everyday how many of them are having a hard time managing all their orders and I congratulate them on this “problem”. If you are not getting your share of the online buying frenzy I would strongly encourage you to review some of my last newsletter articles on how to build a better online business. In the coming weeks I will add those articles to the blog so that you can find them here.
11 tips that you need to know about affiliate stores in Deconetwork
1. Enable Affiliate Network
You can enable functionality to create affiliate stores in your Premium DecoNetwork plan in Manage Fulfillment > Settings > Affiliate Network
2. Cloning Store
In DecoNetwork you can clone one of the existing stores into a new one. This can be done in Manage Fulfillment > Websites > Manage (next to the store you want to clone)
On the next page select tab General Settings & Permissions
Click on Clone store
3. Save existing store as a store template
You can also save your store as a store template which you can choose while creating a new affiliate site.
This can be done in Manage Fulfillment > Websites > Manage > General Settings & Permissions > Clone Store Settings
Next, you can enable this option in Manage Fulfillment > Websites > Store Options
On the next page select Allow store sign up templates option (you can also force new signups to select one of your templates).
In this example, the name of the newly created template is “School Template” which you can now see during the process of creating a new affiliate store as shown below
4. Default Commission
In DecoNetwork all of the prices that you define in Fulfillment Center are Recommended Retail Prices. When you enable Affiliate Network functionality, you may also want to setup the default commission that your affiliate stores will receive from each transaction. This will automatically make you a wholesale seller to those affiliate stores as you will pay them the predefined percentage from each transaction. Here is the graphic that visualizes this process:
You can define default commission in Manage Fulfillment > Websites > Default Store Commission
5. Custom Commission per Store
You can have a special affiliate site, where the commission level is higher or lower than the default one. In DecoNetwork you can override the default commission per store in Manage Fulfillment > Websites > Manage > General Settings & Permissions > Commissions > and then uncheck an option Keep default commission rate
6. Referral Commission Rate
In Tip 3 and 5 you have probably noticed an option called Referral Commission Rate. Referral Commission is paid to the middle store if a new affiliate store was created not directly through your primary site but through one of your existing affiliate stores. In that way you can “thank” that affiliate site owner that they spread the word about you. The referral commission rate is taken out of your wholesale price.
The default Referral commission rate is defined in Manage Fulfillment > Websites > Store Options
You can also override this setting per store in Manage Fulfillment > Websites > Manage > General Settings & Permissions > Commissions
7. Set Privacy
In DecoNetwork you can protect your stores with the password. You can also limit your products per store. Please see this video for more info: http://blog.deconetwork.com/2012/10/08/limiting-products-and-access-to-a-deconetwork-website/
8. Batch Production
You can filter your incoming orders per store in Manage Fulfillment > Production > Advance Search > Batch Site
You will find step by step instruction on how this can be done in this article: http://blog.deconetwork.com/2012/12/04/batch-production-functionality-filter-your-incoming-orders-on-the-production-page-by-store-name/
9. Store Markup
You can adjust the markup on top of your wholesale prices in each store. This can be done in Manage Fulfillment > Websites > Manage > Price Settings
On the next page you can increase or decrease the markup set globally for all of your blank items. This can be done either by percentage or fixed amount.
10 Decorated Products
Decorated items can be created for each store in Manage Fulfillment > Websites > Manage Decorated Products > Create Decorated Products
Please see this video which explains that process in details: http://blog.deconetwork.com/2012/08/23/version-5-preview-new-decorated-product-wizard/
11. Custom Markup for Decorated Products
You can override default store markup for each decorated item in Manage Fulfillment > Websites > Manage Decorated Products
On that page click configure above the product you want to modify
This will open a new page where you can turn off the default markup and define custom retail price just for that one item (Note: Retail price can not be lower than the wholesale price that is determined based on the commission level as explained in Tip 4).
Batch Production Functionality – Filter Your Incoming Orders On The Production Page By Store Name
Whether you are using your affiliate network to create stores for schools, fundraiser organizations, or local artists you may want to filter your incoming orders on the production page by store name. In DecoNetwork version 5 that functionality is available to you and is called “batch production.” You can apply this option to each one of your stores by following these steps:
- Log into your DecoNetwork website and browse to Websites > Manage
- On the next page select tab General Settings & Permissions
- On the left navigation bar click Options and then under “Production Options” select checkbox This site does batch production
- Save the changes.
- Once this is done you can go to Manage Fulfillment > Production and click on advance search tab This will let you to filter your incoming orders by store which has batch production functionality enabled (as per steps 1 to 4).
Are you ready for Cyber Monday?
Cyber Monday is the Monday immediately following Black Friday, the Friday following Thanksgiving Day in the United States and has become a mega sale day for online retailers. This year it is November 26.
Shop.org/BizRate claim that 77% of retailers experience substantially increased sales of up to 30% on the Monday after Thanksgiving.
So how and should you get involved? Well you can sure that buyers will be looking for a deal so if you don’t have a Cyber Monday special then your buyer may go else where.
And to get involved is simple! I recommend you create a coupon code promoting Cyber Monday and display that clearly on your website for your potential customers to see. However, don’t forget to also promote this special to your existing customers. Send an email blast promoting you special and encourage them to come visit you on Cyber Monday. You may also want to consider running a Google AdWord or two to drive additional traffic. Remember, crickets don’t buy so a steady flow of traffic to you site is critical for any online success.
Consider that most people who are out cyber shopping on Monday are gift shopping for Christmas. Therefore focus on custom gift ideas to maximize the potential of a sale.
Good luck and Happy Cyber Monday!
7 Tips to controlling display of your products in DecoNetwork
1. Sort Products
You can sort your products on your home page in Manage Fulfillment > Products > click listing tab > use sort option to change the order of products.
2. Sales Images
You can upload your own sales images for each product in Manage Fulfillment > Products > then click configure for a product you want to manage > Images
3. Default Thumbnail Image
In DecoNetwork you can choose the default picture on the front page between an actual product template or a sales image (as per tip number 2)
This can be done in: Manage Fulfillment > Products > Configure Blank Product Behavior
4. Decorated Products
You can decorate your products in Manage Fulfillment > Website > Decorated Products, and sell them as the decorated items. Please see this video for more info: Decorated Product Wizard
5. Display Type: Regular Mode vs Catalog Mode
The display of your products is controlled in Manage Fulfillment > Website > Website Pages. You can then click configure next to the blank products widget and change the display mode to regular mode or catalog mode.
6. Product List Display On The Site
You can also change the position where your products are located on your site by simply dragging (blank products) widget in Website pages.
7. Decorated product display image.
Similar as for blank products, you can upload a separate display image for the decorated item. This can be done in Manage Fulfillment > Website > Manage Decorated Products > then click configure above the decorated item you want to modify:
Next, click on Listing Image tab and browse for the image you want to use as a thumbnail for your decorated item
I hope this helps, and as always if you have any comments or questions please let me know, and I will do my best to help 
Visualizing printing bleeds in a DecoNetwork product
It’s not uncommon that you need a bleed on the printing file you use in production. Problems arise when consumers are creating their own designs and upload a design that does not account for the bleed. As a result nasty little white sections can creep onto the product disappointing your customer.
It’s quite easy to accommodate for this in DecoNetwork to ensure your production file includes a bleed area and that the consumer using the designer knows there is a bleed and can design ensuring they don’t have any nasty little white bits.
The trick is in the custom mask that you upload for your decoration area. The normal mask is a .PNG file that contains a black shape that represents your mask. i.e.:
When a consumer uploads their image they may stretch or align to image to just touch the boundary of the product.
Visually to your consumer it looks great!
But if in the printing production process the print could shift only 1-2mm and cause a nasty little white bit to appear:
The only way to prevent this is to include a bleed and make your consumer aware of it. i.e.:
So how do you create a bleed in DecoNetwork?
The trick is in the mask. In CoreDRAW make the mask the exact shape and size of your printable area. Make it 100% black (RGB 0,0,0) i.e.:
If there are holes makes sure they are all combined so it makes just one object that includes the holes.
Now create the bleed by using the Contour tool of the offset or bleed size that you want. i.e. 1-2mm. i.e.:
This will create an additional object in the background that is the exact bleed size you want.
Separate this object from the main object by using Arrange > Break Contour Group Apart.
Now select that new object and also make it 100% black (RGB 0,0,0) but also apply transparency using the CorelDRAW Transparency tool. Set the transparency to Uniform and 50%. i.e.:
The 50% transparency will be used within the designer. Where the solid 100% black is the image will be bright and vibrant indicating the main or real shape of the product. The bleed area which is 50% transparent will show a duller “50% transparent” print indicating to the consumer this is reserve print area to compensate for the bleed. i.e.:
This is your new mask for your product. You should also make a new product image that assists the consumer to know what is the product and what is the mask. i.e.:
The production file will not come out semi transparent. It will be the full size of the whole mask (100% back part PLUS the bleed) and will be 100% solid. Perfect to print and compensate for your bleed.
You can see a working demo of this bleed product here: https://decodemo.secure-decoration.com/designer/customize/956283?bc%5Bc%5D=32448&bt=3&dp=2
