NetSource Technologies, central Florida’s premier web design and hosting company, is pleased to announce the launch of www.atlanticcoralenterprise.com, an e-commerce website that specializes in wholesale sea shells and beach supplies.

www.atlanticcoralenterprise.com

Atlantic Coral Enterprise, Inc. has been selling wholesale seashells for beach decor and collectors since 1971. They are a ‘go to’ source for wholesalers and decorators who are looking for large decorative seashells, bulk craft shells, wholesale seashell jewelry, wholesale seashell ornaments, wholesale seashell wind chimes, or other seashell novelties. They also sell wholesale beach supplies and nautical gifts, such as wholesale alligator heads, bulk starfish, and wholesale sand dollars.

Atlanticcoralenterprise.com is designed and hosted by NetSource Technologies and is powered by ProductCart, a state-of-the-art e-commerce engine from Early Impact. The site is currently open to orders only from wholesale and bulk sales customers.

NetSource Technologies is an award-winning web design, hosting, e-commerce and consulting company that has been serving Ocala and clients nationwide  since 1995. Visit their web site at www.netsourceinc.com for more information on their services and to view additional client web sites.

One of the most common problems that trips up aspiring e-commerce store owners is the issue of shipping. When I’m helping a client plan their e-commerce project, one of the first questions I like to ask is: “How do you plan on getting your products into the hands of your customers?”

About half the time, I discover that they haven’t given the subject any thought at all. It doesn’t surprise me. There are so many things to consider and so many issues to address with the start-up of a new online store, that I can’t really blame folks for not going into too much detail in planning for something that may initially appear “automatic” to them.

The e-commerce engine that NetSource uses for the majority of our online storefronts is Early Impact’s ProductCart. It’s a very robust, full-featured system that includes integration capable of acquiring accurate, ‘live’ shipping cost quotes from the major carriers in North America (UPS, FedEx, US Postal Service and Canada Post).

The process of generating those live shipping quotes is an automated process — but in order to achieve that automation, some critical information has to be provided to the system by the store owner.

What’s the single, most critical piece of information the automated shipping modules require? Product weights. All of the shipping calculations are weight-based, with some modifications available for over-sized packages and for orders that require multiple packages in the same shipment. E-commerce owners who either don’t have, or cannot acquire, product weights simply can’t take advantage of the various automated shipping calculators.

In addition, the store owner will need to acquire a shippers’ account AND an online account with the shipping provider involved. Is the website an extension of a bricks-and-mortar business that already uses a standard carrier for shipping? That helps to an extent, but a specialized ‘online tools’ account generally still has to be established.

As developers, in order to integrate the shipping tools into your website, we’ll need your shipping account information from the carrier(s) you intend to use. If you plan on using either the US Postal Service or Canada Post, you’ll have to set up online shipping accounts with those services and forward the information to us.

And remember: The most important piece of information the shipping services need is the weight of all the products in the store. Without those product weights, automated shipping quotes won’t work.

E-commerce stores that either will use a drop-shipping service or will require freight shipping for heavier items are a bit more complicated and usually require some sort of custom shipping solution. That doesn’t necessarily mean the shipping setup will cost an arm and leg — but it does mean some detailed planning is required while the website project is still in its earliest stages.

Here are some questions to ask yourself in order to get started. If you’re not sure of the answers, that’s OK. Your project consultant can help you out.

• Do you currently ship products? If so, do you already have an online account with your shipping provider? You can use one or more carriers to ship products to your online customers, but your developers will need your shipping account information in order to automate shipping calculations.
• Do you have (or can you get) weight information for your products? Online shipping costs are typically calculated based on total weight.  In order to get an accurate cost from the USPS (or other carrier), and then pass that charge along to your customer, you’ll need accurate weights. Otherwise you’re likely to charge too much or too little for shipping costs.
• If you don’t plan to ship by weight, do you have a shipping table? For instance, some online retailers charge a flat rate for the first item and an additional flat rate for each additional item.  Or some retailers charge by total purchase so that shipping might be $6.95 for purchases up to $75, $7.95 for purchases between $75 and $100, and so on. This approach tends to work the best for retailers who sell products that are mostly the same size and weight.
• Does it make sense to offer free shipping? Many retailers encourage large orders by offering free shipping over a certain purchase amount like $100.
• Do you have over-sized products that will require special handling and charges?
• Do you have products that require multiple packages? For instance, perhaps you always package and mail fragile teacups separately, no matter what else a customer has ordered with it.
• Will your online shop be using drop-ship services? Will you be using more than one drop-ship location?
• Will you be shipping products that require freight shipping?

NetSource Technologies, central Florida’s premier web design and hosting company, is pleased to announce the launch of www.darvex.com, an e-commerce website that specializes in car audio, installation and wiring products.

www.darvex.com

The new website features a wide range of products for the automotive audio enthusiast, including amplifier wiring kits, battery terminals, distribution blocks, damping material, installation parts, fuses, circuit breakers and batteries. Darvex.com carries items from top manufacturers such as Stinger, Kicker, Peripheral, PAC, Best Kits, XScorpion, Sound Quest, Optima and Powermaster.

Darvex.com is designed by NetSource Technologies and is powered by ProductCart, a state-of-the-art e-commerce engine from Early Impact. The site features a powerful search engine that allows the car audio buff to quickly find what they need, both for custom projects and OEM integrations.

NetSource Technologies is an award-winning web design, hosting, e-commerce and consulting company that has been serving Ocala and clients nationwide  since 1995. Visit their web site at www.netsourceinc.com for more information on their services and to view additional client web sites.

NetSource Technologies, central Florida’s premier web design and hosting company, is pleased to announce the launch of www.mypetmarketplace.com, an e-commerce website that specializes in dog training supplies and other unique products for pet owners.

www.mypetmarketplace.com

The new website features underground and wireless dog fences, bark control products, dog training collars, pet doors, and a number of other pet lifestyle products and accessories. My Pet Marketplace is an authorized PetSafe, SportDog, and Innotek retailer. Their team brings over 13 years of experience selling PetSafe, Innotek, SportDog, and many other pet related products.

MyPetMarketplace.com is designed and hosted by NetSource Technologies and is powered by ProductCart, a state-of-the-art e-commerce engine from Early Impact. The site offers low flat-rate shipping on orders under $50, and free shipping on all orders over $50.

NetSource Technologies is an award-winning web design, hosting, e-commerce and consulting company that has been serving Ocala and clients nationwide  since 1995. Visit their web site at www.netsourceinc.com for more information on their services and to view additional client web sites.

In this article we will take a look at creating some great looking product photos on a budget. We will outline how to shoot a basic product shot. The emphasis will be on background, lighting, and the positioning of the product itself. You can use any small object to shoot that offers a great example to highlight the basics of lighting and shooting an isolated product photo. I have chosen a small friendly shaped incense burner.

Lets take a look at our final photo (unedited):

Our final photo (unedited).

Equipment rundown:

In both set ups I am using single lights – one diffused, one bare. Keep in mind that multiple light set ups can really increase your quality of lighting, and your budget. So for the sake of this article we are using one light, per example.

Example 1: Basic Lighting – single ‘bare’ light:

These are basic non-diffused light set ups. You can get some great quality lighting from these, and also use them as a platform to start your lighting set up. You can later add soft-boxes or umbrellas to these lights.

My single 'bare' light

You can purchase a set from amazon for around $40.

In action:

single 'bare' light set up

Example 2: Advanced Lighting:

There are so many more lighting options as your budget increases… you can use soft-box lighting or umbrella lighting, Continuous or flash. The list goes on. I used our in-house soft-box set up. Typically an umbrella setup is a bit cheaper with similar results.

Soft-box

Umbrellas around $80 to $100 on amazon

In action:

Single soft-box set up

Reflecting light:

You can find many things to use to reflect light, but hardly any will be as easy to use or as versatile as an actual reflector. And for about $30 on amazon you can get some great ‘5 sided’ reflectors. These will make a huge difference no matter how you shoot. If you purchase nothing else for your photos, purchase a reflector.

'5 sided' reflector

Location:

For our backdrop I used white paper on a roll. Very inexpensive and very reusable. There are many “portable” photo studios or “product booths” but those are pretty limited in size of product and a bit overpriced if you ask me. Our clean white paper will do just fine.

Our backdrop

Set Up Breakdowns:

Set Up 1 – Bare light:

Lets take a look at shooting our ‘product’ with our single bare light set up.

Bare light

I have left this image a bit underexposed to show how harsh your shadows can be with the bare light set up. But hard shadows aside, we don’t have a bad start to a great product photo. Let’s add a reflector to this set up.

No Reflector

With Reflector

You can see in these images with no other change than the reflector being added opposite of our light source, what a huge difference reflected light can make. There is still a somewhat harsh shadow on the paper from our single light. This is a great single bare light set up and a perfect one on a budget. Those shadows will disappear with our next set up, but so will some of your cash. So while there is a bit of shadow, this is still a very professional set up for some great shots.

Set Up 2 – Diffused Lighting:

Single soft-box

Compare this to our ‘bare’ light shot and you can see a huge difference in the lighting quality. I placed the soft box above and to the left of our product for this shot. You will first notice the wonderful soft shadows and great even lighting that we have with this set up. But it can get better.

With gold foil reflector

Notice in the image above I am using the gold side of the reflector, this helps to “warm” the lighting of our product. It also washes out the softer but still somewhat visible shadows on the white paper.

Once you have experimented around a little bit and have your set up adjusted to your liking, you should be taking some great product photos.

Final

After putting in place a well-developed marketing plan and generating traffic to your landing page or website, the next step is to turn your online prospects into customers. Improving your online conversion rate is a two-part process.

Improve targeted traffic

Before you make changes to the conversion tools on your website or landing page, it’s important to improve the quality and/or relevance of your in-bound traffic. Attracting the right people to your website is critical to increasing conversions at a lower cost. Begin by evaluating your lead sources and determine the alignment of your prospects with your product.

You can determine what traffic is best aligned with your products and services by carefully analyzing your Google Adwords campaigns. With the proper conversion tracking in place, it’s easy to determine which keywords are generating sales (as opposed to generating clicks alone). Focus on expanding your top converting keywords and driving truly interested prospects to your landing pages.

Take advantage of conversion tools

Once you’ve begun to attract the right prospects, you need to focus on converting them. The fastest way to improve conversion is through testing various landing pages. If you have the technology to rotate landing pages (a process we call “split testing”), then you can learn quickly what page has the highest conversion rate. If you are limited to testing one page at a time, run each landing page for a week and measure the results. Your data won’t be as accurate but it can certainly point you in the right direction.

Another method for improving on-site conversions is to use an automated touch program. With this technique, you can use an auto-responder that gives site visitors an opportunity to reconnect with your business.

One example would be an abandoned shopping cart campaign. If users begin the purchase process (and have given you their email) but fail to complete the process, an auto-responder can be used to send an email message within minutes or hours, inviting them back to complete the purchase – perhaps with a discount or other incentive. You can use email best practices to enhance conversion, and touch visitors numerous times to move them through the purchase decision process.

In addition to targeting visitors who have started a purchase, you can also use an auto-responder for visitors who sign up to receive valuable information from your website. Perhaps they sign up for your newsletter, free lessons, or a whitepaper. Once a person has registered, the auto responder goes to work, sending appropriate emails at set intervals. The result is a communications channel that was previously unavailable to you. Work on improving conversion of your automated touch program by testing both the content and the timing of messages.

By using the techniques of better targeting, improving landing page conversion rates, and using auto-responders you can significantly enhance the performance of your online marketing campaigns. Plan your programs carefully, measure performance and make appropriate adjustments. Over time, your results just might surprise you.

Really the title of this blurb should be ‘How can a shopping cart help your business?’ – but since ProductCart is our e-commerce solution of choice here at NetSource, we’ll stick with that title.  For any business with any kind of product base, whether retail, manufacturing or wholesale, a listing of those products on the web should be a must.  After all, as a business you want – strike that, you need - customers to be able to find your products.

How does ProductCart help? Well, ProductCart is the door to exposure of your products to the web and consequently to people.  The makers of ProductCart, EarlyImpact, have included many features to help get your products in front of potential customers.  Here is a quick rundown:

• SEO Optimized Pages – ProductCart allows for keyword rich pages as well as optimized URL links for each product (for instance, instead of seeing “product_display.asp?id=134” you may see “Samsung-21B-LCD-Monitor-p134”)
• Google Integration
  • Google Sitemaps – Creates a file structured for use in the Google Webmaster Tools program.  This will help your products get indexed in Google.
  • Google Base – ProductCart can generate a file to be submitted to Google Base so your individual products will be searchable there and get returned as “Shopping” results.
  • Google Analytics – Is now fully integrated into ProductCart.  Google Analytics helps you understand what customers are doing on your site and how they got there.
  • Widget for Blogs – You may include products from your store automatically into your blog or social networking account.

There are many other features available in ProductCart that can help your business succeed.  (For more articles, click on the ProductCart tag to the right) If you would like more information, please get in touch with a NetSource consultant.

As you gear up into the most exciting and stressful time of year for online retailers, you may be wondering if you’ve done everything you can to get the most out of this year’s Holiday shopping season.  This close to “Black Friday” there isn’t time to completely overhaul your e-Commerce site, and even search engine optimization efforts take a few weeks before you will see results.  Those things should typically be planned in late Summer.

Right now, you should be concentrating on updating your product photos and descriptions and beginning your online marketing push that might include a Pay-Per-Click campaign, email marketing, print mailers to existing customers, and more. You should also consider implementing the features outlined below that come standard in all versions of ProductCart released since 2007.  Each of them offers a big return on investment for you and is easily and quickly set up.

1. Product Reviews
One barrier to sales online can often be the physical distance between the shopper and the product they want to buy – they can’t touch it, try it on, test it out, or even see if the shelves are clearing fast.  Mega-sites like Amazon and Barnes and Noble have overcome that barrier successfully by using Customer Reviews.  When Amazon first started letting customers post reviews of their products, other retailers thought they were nuts, but shoppers quickly came to rely on product reviews to tip the scale and help them make a decision.  Furthermore, sites that use product reviews have learned two things that run counter to most assumptions:

• The average grade for reviewed products is 4.3 out of 5 stars, according to this article by Geoffrey Fowler and Joseph De Avila of The Wall Street Journal. Consumers are overwhelmingly positive when it comes to online reviews.
• Even negative reviews can boost sales. Only a month after installing product review software, Alpacadirect.com saw sales climb 23%, even on items that received “bad” reviews. (See full article here.)

Shoppers appreciate reading reviews, and including even negative reviews adds to the level of trust you have built with them as a retailer.  According to a recent study by Forrester Research, online shoppers list product reviews as the most desired feature of a website.  So what’s stopping you from adding this feature to your website today?

ProductCart shopping sites include a system that allows you to enable customer reviews quickly and easily – either store wide or for individual products.  You can also manage, check, approve and reject reviews.  Reviews can post immediately, or you can require approvals before they show up in your catalog.

Simply go to the Products menu and choose Manage Product Reviews > Product Reviews Setting.  Everything you need to start including product reviews on your website today can be managed from there.

2. Coupons
Shoppers love coupons. And with more than 70% of the American population now online, online coupons are becoming more and more popular. According to Simmons/Experian Research and Coupons Inc., online coupon usage has grown 39% since 2005.

Planned skillfully, coupons can do more than just attract bargain shoppers. You can design your coupons to:

• Generate buzz for a new product – Create a coupon for your new or featured product and distribute it widely online through your customer email list and online coupon sites.
• Attract new and first-time customers - Create a coupon code for first-time buyers; for instance 15% off of a shopper’s first purchase online. Encourage customers to share this coupon code with their friends.
  
• Increase average transaction size – Encourage larger purchases by creating a coupon that rewards customers for spending more, i.e. Free Shipping on orders over $100.
• Encourage customer loyalty – Follow up all of your purchases (both online and off) by providing your customer with a special coupon code for further discounts or promotions. Or reward “preferred customers” with periodic, exclusive discount codes sent to them via email.

ProductCart lets you set up your coupons in many different ways. Discount codes can be based on purchase level, be associated with specific products (or all of them), have a set dollar value ($10) or a set percentage off (10%), be activated by a specific quantity level, and even be assigned to specific customers only (you can also use the Pricing Category feature for this). You can assign free shipping. You can base coupons on a customer’s shipping location. You can set the discounts to be applied to an order automatically if it meets specific criteria, or require that the customer enter a code during checkout.  Coupon codes can be set up for one-time use or designed to be shared and re-used.  You can even decide if customers can use multiple discount codes in a single order.  To create and manage coupons in the latest version of ProductCart , select Discount by Code from the Marketing menu.

Once your coupons are created, you have several options for delivering them to new and existing customers:

Online Coupon Distribution:

• Email campaign to existing customers and/or newsletter subscribers
• Encourage email recipients to “Forward to a Friend”
• Include a special coupon code for their next purchase  in the Auto-response email that confirms order shipment
• Display special coupons on your Home page
• Link a coupon code to banner ads displayed on other websites
• Advertise coupon promotions on Social Networking sites – Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn
• Add your coupons for free to online coupon directories like RetailMeNot.com, UltimateCoupons.com, Coupon Cabin, Coupon Chief, Coupon Sherpa, Dealio, GOdeals.com, and more

Offline Coupon Distribution:

• Add a special coupon code to Yellow Pages, magazine, newspaper, and other print ads so you can track sales conversions
• Include a special code in radio and television ads
• Print out stacks of online-only coupons to distribute at your retail location, encouraging offline customers to visit and shop online
• Swap promotions with a complimentary retailer (like a pet groomer, if you sell themed pet apparel), so that customer to their store will get a coupon for your website at checkout, and vice versa.
• Include coupons with all of your shipped orders
• Print a special coupon code on the back of your business cards, brochures, and promotional mailers

When you launch a new E-commerce web site above all else there is one thing you need to be ready to face: Customers.

That might sound like a “Duh-uh” comment, but not every E-commerce operator is as prepared as they should be when their new store goes online and the first order (or ten or fifty orders) appears in their control panel. Turning those early orders into happy customers sometimes proves an unexpected challenge for even experienced retail business people.

Preparing a new online store for operation demands a lot of attention. If you’re not organized in advance, small details can be left undone. And it only takes a couple of small details to add up to a bigger problem.

Orders aren’t secrets

Does everyone in your organization who you plan to have ‘in the loop’ have the appropriate access to your store’s control panel? For single-person operations it’s not a big deal, but in a larger business all of the people involved need to be able to see their part of the puzzle. For general site security, it’s not a good idea to distribute the main administrative login credentials to everybody – so the people who will be responsible for processing and fulfilling orders (and any other store-related functions) need to have separate login accounts that allow them access only to the functions they need.

A quick note: If third-party sources like drop-shippers or fulfillment services are critical to your operation, DO NOT depend entirely upon store-generated e-mails to deliver order information to them. If possible, they should have their own console access to the information they need and a protocol in place for regular account service. If that can’t be arranged, you should at the very least follow up by phone call to check on a summary of all orders placed each day.

Plan for the best

Are the items you have for sale actually ready to be sold? Do you (or your fulfillment partner) have your products in stock and do you have procedures in place for shipping? You and your staff need to be prepared for orders, just like a retail business has to be ready when the first customer walks through the door.

Take a moment to think about what would happen if you got 100 orders on your first day online. You’re tempted to think “that would be a great problem to have” – but I’ll point out that it IS a problem if you’re not prepared. If you can’t process orders accurately and ship products quickly, customer enthusiasm (and orders) might drain away before you know it – and then you’ll have a long haul to regain their confidence.

Get coordinated

Ideally, your site’s E-commerce engine will have features designed to interact with the systems you use for inventory management and customer care. Very expensive solutions may have some of these systems built in, but that’s atypical. E-commerce programmers tend to concentrate on E-commerce, and build in the common data interfaces that you need to exchange information with ‘off line’ programs dedicated to inventory, bookkeeping and marketing.

If you run a retail business in addition to an E-commerce site, then coordinating customer information becomes a more critical process. Centralizing contact information and purchase histories can be very helpful in the development of successful online marketing campaigns.

If your business has been avoiding E-commerce because you think your target market doesn’t buy things online, you may be making an expensive mistake.

According to the report Generations Online released earlier this year by the Pew Internet & American Life Project, an amazing 71 percent of all online adults use the Internet to make purchases.

Even more interesting, older Americans are turning to the Internet in greater numbers than ever – and a large number of them are now using the Internet to research products and make purchases. Over the past few years the greatest growth (by percentage) in online users was for the age 70-74 group. In 2005, just 26 percent of this age group used the Internet. By 2008 (the survey’s end date), 45 percent of Americans age 70-74 were online.

For detailed survey results, you can check out the resources available at the links I gave above. But it’s also worth noting not just how many people are online, but also what they’re doing once they get connected.

There is plenty of good news in the report for E-commerce providers. According to the survey, 71 percent of online adults used the Internet to make a purchase. While it’s no surprise that purchasing activity is dominated by the age groups between 18 – 44, ‘Boomers’ and older Americans are no strangers to shopping online.

68 percent of younger Boomers (age 45-54) bought something online in 2008, as did 72 percent of older Boomers (age 55-63). Also note that the purchasing trend is fairly strong for the 64-and-older groups – around half of the Internet users in those age groups report buying something online.

Now, note that the report concerns percentages of the various demographic groups that use the Internet – and not the percentage of that group’s total population. It’s an important distinction, of course, because not everyone uses the Internet – especially among members of the older age groups. But the bright side to that – pointed out in the first part of the Pew study – is that the strongest growth in Internet use over the past three years has been among older Americans.