Ecommerce Blog

Click to View Volusion Newswire - April 2007.
Bookmark to:

Original post by blogadmin

Wholesale directories are listings that have products in bulk at up to 80% off the retail price. Learn how to search for ones without being ripped off.

Wholesale directories also double up as goldmin…

Original post by default@goarticles.com (Matthew Bredel)

Internet use is growing year to year, and as more and more people have access, more and more companies are recognising the importance of integrating some form of ecommerce as part of their marketing p…

Original post by default@goarticles.com (Carolyn Clayton)

DM News published an article titled ‘Copywriting for better online retail SEO‘ by Elastic Path’s VP Marketing (and search enthusiast) Jason Billingsley in their March 30 2007 online edition.

Anyone who has chatted with Jason at a trade show or other event quickly learns that he is passionate about search engine optimization and enhancing usability to increase conversions. Show him your site and, after a quick and calculated look, he’ll rattle off a dozen tips and tricks which will increase your site visibility resulting in more (cheap) organic hits allowing you to reduce spend on (often expensive) Pay Per Click ads while maintaining or increasing your traffic levels.

No, Google is not too worried ;-), but your competition will be worried if you study Jason’s tips and follow them.

Anyhow, the article hands out a big concept which is basically a new way of looking at something you are already doing for your site - writing words. The gist of Jason persuasive case is ‘write how your customers search.’

People search similarly to how they speak. The content created should match closely to the content sought and, therefore, will rank toward the top of the search engine results page.

I find watching people use search engines remarkable due to the words they use to search - more often than not, casual phrases and conversational snippets are the norm rather than one-off, specific word strings like found in a products’ technical specifications.

Jason sets up an example of this:

For example, a typical description of a sheet set may read as follows: ‘100 percent cotton, 300-thread count, cross-woven machine washable.’ However, the product will be much more findable, and will rank higher in organic searches, if the name and description contained the same language searchers are using.

The shopper would respond much better to this: ‘These winter white soft bedsheets will whisk you off to a comfortable dreamland every night. No other luxury bedding will make your bedroom as regal as the Queen Collection’s 300-thread count, 100 percent cotton sheet set. The only trouble with a luxurious, warm and comfortable set of sheets like this is having to get out of your dream bed each morning.’

As you see, these words are more persuasive and contain sets of phrases shoppers are actually looking for: white soft bedsheets, luxury bedding, cotton sheet set, comfortable set of sheets, dream bed.

So when writing your descriptions, commit the time and energy to doing it right. Think ti through and write a little story for each product. This seems like a lot of work and it is. Writing isn’t necessarily easy and writing well takes practice and well, … time.

As such, seek advice from experienced writers (freelance if needed) and absolutely talk to people outside of your vertical universe. Talk to your nieces, grandmothers and neighbors to find out how they talk about your type of goods (ergo: a ‘couch’ to one person is a ’sofa’ to another and a ‘chesterfield’ to someone else). Make sure to get out of your company echo chamber where everyone uses and understands the same industry jargon and parlance. By doing so, you’ll find fresh insight into the ways customers search for what you have. By doing so, you’ll attract more qualified buyers, more cheaply.

Make more + Spend less = Great Success! Start by reading Jason’s tips.

Original post by Dave Olson

Regular readers know that we pay close attention to what the analysts are talking about when it comes to ecommerce. Reports from Marketing Sherpa’s 300 page marketing tome to Forrester’s enlightening ecommerce treatises are thoroughly digested as we examine industry trends and memes to improve our flavor of ecommerce software.

Besides the benefits of learning, we are also cognizant of the value of positive analyst comments. To get this invaluable ’stamp of approval,’ we must at least try to get noticed since analysts’ opinions are a key piece of the puzzle for many decision-makers - indeed good reviews are as valuable to software vendors as they are to local restaurateurs.

Alas, as a small-ish company - despite our noteworthy software and innovative efforts – it’s not always easy to get noticed by the high-end analysts. As a result, in these reports, we are often reading about our competitors rather than ourselves.

Frustrating? Maybe a bit but it is all part of growing as a company and carving out a seat at the table with the big players.

Since the BEA announcement (Elastic Path eCommerce is now also BEA AquaLogic Commerce Services AKA ALCS), analysts are a fair bit more, shall we say, ‘chatty’ with us. This increased interest in EP is partially a sign of BEA’s great reputation cultivated over the years (thanks eh) and also indicative of our marketing outreach efforts.

Forrester, maven of all things e-commerce, addresses both of these drivers in Tamara Mendelsohn’s April 5, 2007 blog post “BEA is back in eBusiness.”

“It’s a good match - BEA saw a chance for a quick solution to re-enter the market, and Elastic Path saw a quick solution to moving up market. Or the alternative might be that after attending Internet Retailer last year, BEA was hypnotized by the contortionists in sparkly blue body suits. Whatever the truth, I think it’s a smart match.”

Well, it is nice to be noticed, and the contortionists were really there to reinforce our brand message of ‘flexibility,’ which wasn’t lost on Mendelsohn, “This makes it a good fit for BEA’s AquaLogic platform, also built on standards and touting flexibility.”

While the contortionist show at Internet Retailer last year did get attention, the real show is behind the scenes at the Vancouver HQ where the collaboration, innovation and hardcore coding happen (even when the Canucks playoff hockey game is on).

In my just-about-one-year here, Elastic Path has more than doubled in size, added over 60 new customers, released 2 new versions of the core software and added a few new components to the inventory, appeared in dozens of press clipping, released 30+ podcasts, 3+ white papers and traveled to a dozen countries meeting with customers and systems integrators. In other words … while we are small-ish, we are doing some big-ish things.

Tamara did manage to stir up a bit of uhhh … discussion … around here with a snippet of acquisition speculation, saying, “If successful, I wouldn’t be surprised if Elastic Path goes the Fuego route and ends up as a BEA company.” I think half the company was Googlin’ up Fuego at the same time!

Really, we’re happy being “just friends” with BEA and are enjoying finding more and more ways to help their customers with a seamless integrated environment. And yes, we are enjoying being noticed.

Bonus:

For more on BEA’s ALCS announcement, check out Josh Lannin’s blog and his comments on Tamara’s article. Some of the EP crew met up with Josh at the kick-off event in Las Vegas (note to self: make a podcast about this) and his blog has become a great source of info for us.

Forrester’s Charlene Li wrote a great report called “The Real ROI of Blogging” which came out around the same time as my “Blogging for Retailers” paper – they make a great duo if I say so myself – one is free, the other is $379 – both are worth the price ;-).

Original post by Dave Olson

Regular readers know that we pay close attention to what the analysts are talking about when it comes to ecommerce. Reports from Marketing Sherpa’s 300 page marketing tome to Forrester’s enlightening ecommerce treatises are thoroughly digested as we examine industry trends and memes to improve our flavor of ecommerce software.

Besides the benefits of learning, we are also cognizant of the value of positive analyst comments. To get this invaluable ’stamp of approval,’ we must at least try to get noticed since analysts’ opinions are a key piece of the puzzle for many decision-makers - indeed good reviews are as valuable to software vendors as they are to local restaurateurs.

Alas, as a small-ish company - despite our noteworthy software and innovative efforts – it’s not always easy to get noticed by the high-end analysts. As a result, in these reports, we are often reading about our competitors rather than ourselves.

Frustrating? Maybe a bit but it is all part of growing as a company and carving out a seat at the table with the big players.

Since the BEA announcement (Elastic Path eCommerce is now also BEA Aqua Logic Commerce Services AKA ALCS), analysts are a fair bit more, shall we say, ‘chatty’ with us. This increased interest in EP is partially a sign of BEA’s great reputation cultivated over the years (thanks eh) and also indicative of our marketing outreach efforts.

Forrester, maven of all things e-commerce, addresses both of these drivers in Tamara Mendelsohn’s April 5, 2007 blog post “BEA is back in eBusiness.”

“It’s a good match - BEA saw a chance for a quick solution to re-enter the market, and Elastic Path saw a quick solution to moving up market. Or the alternative might be that after attending Internet Retailer last year, BEA was hypnotized by the contortionists in sparkly blue body suits. Whatever the truth, I think it’s a smart match.”

Well, it is nice to be noticed, and the contortionists were really there to reinforce our brand message of ‘flexibility,’ which wasn’t lost on Mendelsohn, “This makes it a good fit for BEA’s AquaLogic platform, also built on standards and touting flexibility.”

While the contortionist show at Internet Retailer last year did get attention, the real show is behind the scenes at the Vancouver HQ where the collaboration, innovation and hardcore coding happen (even when the Canucks playoff hockey game is on).

In my just-about-one-year here, Elastic Path has more than doubled in size, added over 60 new customers, released 2 new versions of the core software and added a few new components to the inventory, appeared in dozens of press clipping, released 30+ podcasts, 3+ white papers and traveled to a dozen countries meeting with customers and systems integrators. In other words … while we are small-ish, we are doing some big-ish things.

Tamara did manage to stir up a bit of uhhh … discussion … around here with a snippet of acquisition speculation, saying, “If successful, I wouldn’t be surprised if Elastic Path goes the Fuego route and ends up as a BEA company.” I think half the company was Googlin’ up Fuego at the same time!

Really, we’re happy being “just friends” with BEA and are enjoying finding more and more ways to help their customers with a seamless integrated environment. And yes, we are enjoying being noticed.

Bonus:

For more on BEA’s ALCS announcement, check out Josh Lannin’s blog and his comments on Tamara’s article. Some of the EP crew met up with Josh at the kick-off event in Las Vegas (note to self: make a podcast about this) and his blog has become a great source of info for us.

Forrester’s Charlene Li wrote a great report called “The Real ROI of Blogging” which came out around the same time as my “Blogging for Retailers” paper – they make a great duo if I say so myself – one is free, the other is $379 – both are worth the price ;-).

Original post by Dave Olson

Regular readers know that we pay close attention to what the analysts are talking about when it comes to ecommerce. Reports from Marketing Sherpa’s 300 page marketing tome to Forrester’s enlightening ecommerce treatises are thoroughly digested as we examine industry trends and memes to improve our flavor of ecommerce software.

Besides the benefits of learning, we are also cognizant of the value of positive analyst comments. To get this invaluable ’stamp of approval,’ we must at least try to get noticed since analysts’ opinions are a key piece of the puzzle for many decision-makers - indeed good reviews are as valuable to software vendors as they are to local restaurateurs.

Alas, as a small-ish company - despite our noteworthy software and innovative efforts – it’s not always easy to get noticed by the high-end analysts. As a result, in these reports, we are often reading about our competitors rather than ourselves.

Frustrating? Maybe a bit but it is all part of growing as a company and carving out a seat at the table with the big players.

Since the BEA announcement (Elastic Path eCommerce is now also BEA Aqua Logic Commerce Services AKA ALCS), analysts are a fair bit more, shall we say, ‘chatty’ with us. This increased interest in EP is partially a sign of BEA’s great reputation cultivated over the years (thanks eh) and also indicative of our marketing outreach efforts.

Forrester, maven of all things e-commerce, addresses both of these drivers in Tamara Mendelsohn’s April 5, 2007 blog post “BEA is back in eBusiness.”

“It’s a good match - BEA saw a chance for a quick solution to re-enter the market, and Elastic Path saw a quick solution to moving up market. Or the alternative might be that after attending Internet Retailer last year, BEA was hypnotized by the contortionists in sparkly blue body suits. Whatever the truth, I think it’s a smart match.”

Well, it is nice to be noticed, and the contortionists were really there to reinforce our brand message of ‘flexibility,’ which wasn’t lost on Mendelsohn, “This makes it a good fit for BEA’s AquaLogic platform, also built on standards and touting flexibility.”

While the contortionist show at Internet Retailer last year did get attention, the real show is behind the scenes at the Vancouver HQ where the collaboration, innovation and hardcore coding happen (even when the Canucks playoff hockey game is on).

In my just-about-one-year here, Elastic Path has more than doubled in size, added over 60 new customers, released 2 new versions of the core software and added a few new components to the inventory, appeared in dozens of press clipping, released 30+ podcasts, 3+ white papers and traveled to a dozen countries meeting with customers and systems integrators. In other words … while we are small-ish, we are doing some big-ish things.

Tamara did manage to stir up a bit of uhhh … discussion … around here with a snippet of acquisition speculation, saying, “If successful, I wouldn’t be surprised if Elastic Path goes the Fuego route and ends up as a BEA company.” I think half the company was Googlin’ up Fuego at the same time!

Really, we’re happy being “just friends” with BEA and are enjoying finding more and more ways to help their customers with a seamless integrated environment. And yes, we are enjoying being noticed.

Bonus:

For more on BEA’s ALCS announcement, check out Josh Lannin’s blog and his comments on Tamara’s article. Some of the EP crew met up with Josh at the kick-off event in Las Vegas (note to self: make a podcast about this) and his blog has become a great source of info for us.

Forrester’s Charlene Li wrote a great report called “The Real ROI of Blogging” which came out around the same time as my “Blogging for Retailers” paper – they make a great duo if I say so myself – one is free, the other is $379 – both are worth the price ;-).

Original post by Dave Olson

ICANN's Application for Temporary Restraining Order Against RegisterFly Has Been Granted

After what must seem an eon of pain to damaged registrants using RegisterFly, action is finally underway to migrate mismanaged domains away from problem registrar RegisterFly.

read more

Original post by admin

Problems arise as the United States Government makes advances to retain .com domains that "resemble" those of U.S. Agencies (IRS, FCC, FTC, HUD). Could Consumer Education correct the problem?…

read more

Original post by admin

When e-shoppers find your online store, there’s a good chance they’re looking to buy what you offer. And that’s wonderful news, because you opened your online store to sell what you offer. So if you make it difficult for these potential customers to buy what they came for, you have only yourself to blame when they leave-empty handed. Regardless of how they found you, you’re one of dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of options readily available to them. And unlike in the

Original post by blogadmin

I am currently in San Francisco at the Web 2.0 Expo. The first session I attended was on the New Hybrid Designer. Some well known panelists were on stage including Kelly Goto. They essentially chatted about how the typical ‘web designer’ is no longer just a designer, but must also have a command of development as well - okay maybe not command, but they should be versed and know what a variable, loop and array is. The one nugget I grabbed from this session is particularly relevant to Elastic Path…

We have recently been on the hunt for a User Experience Designer (the job is now filled). We had a high bar as we desired a workflow and experience/front end coding/visual experience person. Quite a lofty expectation. Like in any project, you can usually only have 2 out of the 3. The panel discussed not pigeon holing employees into vertical roles, but educating and enabling cross functionality.

The most successful hybrid designers/developers are often the knowledge seeking ones. They subscribe to both design and programming feeds. Often send emails to other staff about new things they have found or have developed. They are rare, and we need to start molding more of them within our organizations in order to become more agile. Agility seemed to be a key factor in the shift to a hybrid designer.

The last thing that was quite relevant was regarding workflow. The old way was to start with a sitemap. A very “book” centric approach. The new way is to start with user intent. This is a huge shift in thinking for a user experience designer on the web. Users enter a workflow from so many different ways nowadays. The system should be more open and less linear.

Original post by Jason Billingsley

EP’s marketing dude Jason B and product guru (and resident Scotsman) Peter are at the Web 2.0 pow wow laden with industry bigwigs and schoomers. I am following along here in Vancouver via Jeremiah Owyang’s and Robert Scoble’s live Ustream feeds.

The notorious Scobelizer is sporting a head cam and Jeremiah is set up with a tripod and just talked to Tris Hussey from Pender Island here in BC. Right now, they are both chatting with people over ham and cheeses sandwiches in a crowded cafeteria area but this is not lightweight chatting - big topics and heavy memes as the geeks congregate on camera - not the best dressed crew but smart indeed.

At each Ustream live feed, there is a chat room and the interactivity is basically real-time with technical tips as well as general banter coming across the wire as these Podtech guys tweak this new technology.

I’m keeping an eye out for Jason and Peter but no spotting them yet. Also, the Twitter is going wild with the back-channel ephemeral goings-on of the tech-set.

Original post by Dave Olson

One of our most endearing customers is I Want One of Those - a gift and gadget retailer in the UK (see Harry’s visit in Harry Wants One of These vidcast). They sell a crazy variety of products and experiences in a site with a sense of humour.

While riding the SeaBus passenger ferry home last night, I noticed iWoot was named the “Geek of the Week” in the April 5, 2007 edition of Vancouver arts and entertainment paper, The Georgia Straight.

Dave Watson writes a column on tech topics called Dot Comment and had this to say in the “Geek of the Week” sidebar,

Yes, the Net is stuffed with stores that sell weird crap but even so, British retailer I Want One of Those (iwantoneofthose.com) deserves special mention. Whether it’s a kit of decorative plastic pieces that turn a potato into R2-ʪ or Darth Vader, a radio-controlled pirate ship, a USB-powered humping dog toy, or an inflatable sumo-wrestler suit, it’s likely that your shopping cart remains “disappointingly empty” for long.

Personally, I think their Experiences and Adventures are top-notch and I’d be pleased with doing any of them from driving a rally car to flying a glider. Yup, I definitely Want One of Those.

Original post by Dave Olson

UK etailers and online shoppers now have another means to complete purchases as Google launched its “Checkout” payment system Thursday (April 12th). Hitherto available just to US customers, Google aims to expand its reach and offer some serious competition to eBay’s PayPal which is well established as a market leader in this integrated payment space.

Despite entering the fray relatively late and having a batch of technical foibles to overcome in early days, Google Checkout stands a great chance of keeping even more consumer traffic within the Google sphere of influence. Ergo, shoppers might click on an etailer’s Google AdWord (making Google money in the process) then make payments through the Google check out (again benefiting Google) while also contributing to Google’s ability to cross-reference and aggregate consumer patterns and tastes.

Don’t get me wrong, this baked-in process can certainly build conveniences and efficiencies into the shopping process and, with Google massive corps of engineers, I suspect problems will be sorted out in due process. Further, Google’s deep pockets and cross-market clout will help build confidence against the biggest problem, fraud.

Indeed, many auction users have been approached with all sorts of schemes requiring payments by money order, wire transfer or one-off e-payments via PP or others. By being the pioneer, PayPal caught the brunt of the scammer’s most clever trickery and according to BBC article ” Google unveils UK payments system” PayPal’s challenge could be an advantage for Google,

Google is also trying to take advantage of what could be Paypal’s biggest reputational risk.

As market leader and provider of a fully-integrated payments system - running transactions and transferring money directly between buyers’ and sellers’ bank accounts - Paypal is by far the biggest target for fraudsters and abuse of its service.

Google Checkout, in contrast, works solely as a wrapper for regular credit and debit card transactions, offering to simplify the process by storing card data and shipping information centrally.

Its staff promise that they will “make buyers whole” if they suffer fraud, as well as representing retailers when they face the risk of losing money when a deal goes wrong.

My major concern is how closely Google is looking at purchasing habits and comparing them against your other online activities and profiles. Sure this could result in more relevant ad placements but also a bit of uneasiness from simply too much information floating around Google’s massive databases. What have you purchased that you’d prefer not to be marketed about?

But I like choice (and you probably do too) and Google Checkout is designed to be an option, not an absolute. Again from BBC:

Google’s Obi Felton is also at pains to stress that Google Checkout buttons tend to sit alongside retailers’ other payment methods when it comes time for the customer to pay, rather than trying to supplant them.

Google’s soft-sell means shoppers can choose whichever method they prefer to pay and that ability to choose pleases me.

Original post by Dave Olson

I was driving home from work a few days ago, and I saw one of those Best Buy geek squad cars. They are really noticeable as they are a VW beetle, and they are painted black and white, like an old police car (SEE PICTURE HERE).

Now this may seem like a fairly smart branding practice. They are definitely noticeable, and they probably appeal to a fairly wide audience. The car itself is a representation of simplicity and clean lines something that Geek Squad would definitely want people to associate them with.

Best Buy’s Poor Brand Image?
The car that I saw happened to be flying down the road, at what I would estimate to be about 120 MPH. He was weaving in and out of traffic, twice he crossed four lanes while merging, he probably cut ten people off nearly causing an accident in in two cases, and was driving extremely recklessly. If he would have been pulled over, there would have been no ticket. This was one of those ‘go directly to jail’ performances. The driver looked like they were about 17, but it was hard to tell for sure since the car was pretty much a blur. If he would have hit another car, there would most likely have been fatalities in the accident. I’ve raced cars before (legally), and his driving was absolutely horrifying.

It’s obviously not possible to control some-one’s personal actions, but I would be pretty damn careful who I let behind the wheel of a car with my company banner on it.

Best Buy can be pretty sure that they wont find me in one of their stores any time soon.

Here’s some other poor branding from the Squad.

Original post by jestep