It’s that time again…we’ve been poking around the interwebs to see what folks are buzzing about in the world of e-commerce so we can share our findings with you. We’ve put together this concise collection of articles we found in the last few weeks that could be of particular interest to anyone involved with an e-commerce shop.
Have you read any interesting e-commerce articles lately? Let us know…we’d love to check it out! Leave us a comment below or tweet us @shoppimon.
New Facebook Tool: How To Use It To Convert Comments Into Sales
Jeff Bullas introduces us to a new tool called Heyo Cart which allows authors, experts and influencers to sell their products to their Facebook fans by asking their fans to simply comment “buy” within a thread to purchase. He compared Heyo to Amazon and gave the example of author and info-marketer Sue Zimmerman, who sold 15 copies of her book on Amazon, earning her $106.76 over the first 10 days. Using Heyo Cart, Sue posted on Facebook and sold 95 copies, earning her $591.05 in the first 10 days! This handy tool instantly and easily converts Facebook comments into sales and we see the case studies showing growth in sales using the tool. It will be interesting to see Heyo Cart will eventually be implemented for products other than ebooks. Have you tried Heyo Cart? Did you see an increase in sales? We’d love to hear more about your experience with it!
The folks over at aheadWorks recently published this interesting article about Magento security issues and the need to implement patches as soon as possible. They mention that the “increasingly frequent use of online stores brings security issues to the forefront and makes merchants to plan their business in strict compliance with security rules and recommendations.” We also covered this in a recent post about The Magento Flaw. If you’re a Magento ecommerce shop owner, it’s important to make sure your Magento software is up to date and you’ve installed all the relevant security patches because hackers are out there just waiting to tap into unsecured databases. Protect your information and your customers. Have your shop ever been targeted by hackers? How did you recover? Share your story with us…
How to Set Up Inventory and Fulfillment to Manage Growth
We found this Practical eCommerce article about inventory fulfillment quite useful for new ecommerce businesses. It’s a concise checklist for setting up your inventory and fulfillment for success. If you’re just getting started or if you’ve found that your current fulfillment strategy isn’t working, this article will walk you through the process from organization through to choosing packaging materials. How do you handle your inventory and fulfillment? Have you implemented any of these tips for your own business?
What Adults Can Learn From Teenage Ecommerce Entrepreneurs
Talk about a breath of fresh air! This Kissmetrics article was so much fun to read. Of COURSE kids and teens are more internet savvy than adults. They don’t know of a world that functioned WITHOUT it. Some of the brightest and most successful ecommerce entrepreneurs are actually KIDS…and Kissmetrics gives us a quick run-down of lessons we, as grownups, can learn from them. We could all learn a little something from gems like this one from the teenage founder of IncomeDiary when asked for advice for someone looking to launch an online business: “just do it… plenty of people [will] put you down and things will go wrong, just move on and don’t worry about it. Don’t spend money you don’t have. So many people will rush out and spend their earnings – save it for a rainy day, invest it into your business and make sure to pay your taxes!” Wise wise words. Check out the rest of the list and enjoy the wisdom!
Designing The New Customer Experience: What Happens After Checkout?
We’re all so focused on the conversion and the sale that sometimes we forget that what happens AFTER checkout is equally as important as getting to checkout in the first place. This Shopify post gives solid advice for how to handle your customers so they become repeat customers. Just how important is it? Well, they shared that according to an RjMetrics study, an average online store gets 43% of their revenue from repeat purchases. Forty three percent! Shopify advises on how to customize the Thank You page and the confirmation email, how to design the shipping confirmation and even how to “create a memorable unboxing experience” so you take advantage of every possible way to make the shopping experience with your ecommerce shop memorable. They’ve got a few more tips in the article as well. Check out our other tips for improving your customer experience with email. What are some of YOUR favorite post-checkout traditions?
