July 28, 2011

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Top 50 Shopping Cart Platforms

July 15, 2011 By Iain Bundy

When building an ecommerce store a lot of consideration must be given in which shopping cart platform to use. The platform needs to perform to the expectations of both the buyer and the site administrator. With that being said the merchant needs to feel confident that the shopping platform and ecommerce software they invest in are going to meet both of these expectations for their specific store.

Here’s a list of the top 50 Shopping Cart platforms as ranked by Website Magazine

  1. prostores.com
  2. 1shoppingcart.com
  3. bigcommerce.com
  4. zen-cart.com
  5. romancart.com
  6. shopify.com
  7. oscommerce.com
  8. ultracart.com [Read more...]

Filed Under: Business Strategy, Web Design and Development Tagged With: , , , ,

The 5 Decision Every Customer Makes Before they Buy

June 30, 2011 By Sarah V Bundy Leave a Comment

A few years ago I took a course from a professional sales trainer, Howard Olsen, on how to be an effective sales agent and close bigger deals. I never ended up going into professional sales, however there was one thing I took away from that class that I will never forget, and still applies to online sales completely.

The 5 Decisions Every Customer Makes before they Buy (in this order!) are:

[Read more...]

Filed Under: Business Strategy, Website Usability and Analytics Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Blog World and New Media Expo 2011 Overview

May 31, 2011 By Sarah V Bundy


We had the pleasure of attending our first Blog World East in New York City last week. There were several hundred attendees and dozens of great speakers. Topics varied from Developing a Digital Crisis Communications Plan to writing Business Plans for Blogger to a variety of different angles on Mobile Marketing and Social Media.

I personally enjoyed the session on SocialCommerce (what is it and how is it different from ecommerce – and is it?) but the one I found most useful was called “Do More with Less – 36 Tools, Tips and Sites for Digital Efficiency” by Jeremy Caplan (@jeremycaplan). Here’s a link to his slides if you’d like to go through the whole presentation.

However, here are the top tools / tips / tricks I took away from this presentation:

Top Tools:

1. Rescue Time - helps you maintain an efficient and productive work day, telling you when to take breaks, how long you’ve been working on something etc.

2. Evernote - capture anything and everything, access [Read more...]

Filed Under: Business Strategy, Industry Events, Social Media Marketing Tagged With: , , , , ,

Does Direct Mail still work in a Digital World?

March 18, 2011 By Usha Sliva Leave a Comment

Fans of direct mail campaigns continue to pour hundreds of thousands of dollars each year into mailing out customized pieces to their client base. Those who indulge in digital media scoff at what they believe is an old-fashioned approach to enticing the modern customer. So, does direct mail (DM) really work? And if so, how can you leverage it for your own business?

The answer to the first question, is yes and no. If you believe DM to be a cheap way to target the masses, then you are far better off going digital. The number of times I have thrown away DM pieces without even looking at the content is innumerable. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Business Strategy, Web Copywriting Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

What shopping channel is the best for my client? – Part 1

March 16, 2011 By Mario Leave a Comment

One of the first questions every shopping channel manager should ask when analyzing a product’s potential is: what is the best shopping channel for this specific product? There is no right or wrong answer of course, but here are a few tips on how to choose the correct shopping channel for your clients. In part 1 I will give an overview of all the different kinds of channels and the largest ones within each category, and in part 2 I will describe the search criteria for each channel, how that impacts your product’s performance.

The free Shopping Channels – the four big ones [Read more...]

Filed Under: Business Strategy, Shopping Channel Management Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

How to strategically chose keyword phrases for your business

February 25, 2011 By Sarah V Bundy 1 Comment

I spent some time today going through our internal positioning and business strategy. Ironically, for a Vancouver Internet Marketing company, we don’t rank very highly in the search engines yet. Why? Well, because of the saying “the shoemaker always has the worst shoes”. But, we’re about to fix that.

If you do a search for “keyword tool”, you will find Google’s free keyword tool with Google adwords. What this does is allow you to search various keyword phrases related to your business in order to get an understanding of the search volume, monthly searches and competition for a particular keyword.

Google keyword Tool

Google's Free Keyword Tool Screenshot

When searching for keywords, be sure [Read more...]

Filed Under: Business Strategy, Search Engine Optimization Tagged With: , , , ,

How to Make Your Online Customers Happy

January 12, 2011 By Cristina Pagnucco 1 Comment

It’s pretty simple.

When we purchase an item in a clothing store and the salesperson is helpful, you leave with something you wanted- you’re happy. Happy enough to tell friends about this great experience, maybe even before you’ve tried out the product. Crazy right.

So when it comes to online, it’s not really the same process because you have to minus the human experience.

Online business owners can’t shake your hand, smile at you and give you that warm fuzzy satisfied feeling. So how do we create that similar affect through a computer?

Look at it this way: What makes us feel satisfied about a purchase online? (in no particular order)

  • If it comes on time or early
  • It is exactly what we want
  • If it’s not exactly what we want, then it’s easy to return
  • CSR’s are easy to get ahold of, online chat room is 24hrs [Read more...]

Filed Under: Business Strategy Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , ,

How to Have a Relationship with Your Consumer

December 15, 2010 By Cristina Pagnucco Leave a Comment

When it comes to online marketing there are specific ways to show the client the ROI, Return on Investment. How many clicks throughs, visits to the site, purchases and SEO are all a part of this analysis. But how do you really know your consumer is spreading the word? Are you going to call up every single person that has purchased your product and ask them for a review? Yes, an interrogation process would definitely be affective.

To help a business grow, there has to be a purpose to the product, coming from the CEO to the salespeople and finally to you, the consumer. Being an entrepreneur is not enough if you don’t believe in the purpose of your product. We have all seen it a million times when shopping in a store where the salespeople aren’t helpful or engaging. When we work for a company whose owner exudes the money hungry obsession that clouds his purpose. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Business Strategy Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

The Thank You Economy

December 9, 2010 By Cristina Pagnucco Leave a Comment

In Gary Vaynerchuck’s new book, ‘The Thank You Economy‘, he talks about the subject of caring about your customers. No, we mean, actually giving a you-know-what about who is buying your product or using your services.

It’s a change in  big business customer care verses small business. The way the mom and pop shop connected with their customers, conversing directly to the customer, asking how their kids are and dealing with any issues directly with the customer. No matter how small the business, they connected with the customer on a more emotional level and the customer respected the business and brand for it. Social media gives big businesses or online businesses the chance to connect in a similar way with Facebook, Twitter and location-based media like Foursquare. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Business Strategy Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

mCommerce is on the rise

August 14, 2010 By Sarah V Bundy Leave a Comment

With smartphone usage on the rise, it’s no surprise that mobile shopping is too. According to a survey conducted by eDigitalResearch and PortalTech, out of the UK, 25% of the 1,205 consumers polled had used their mobile device to browse a shopping website or app in the week preceding the survey. 20% of those consumers went on to complete a purchase. This indicates a fundamental shift in the way consumers are shopping.

20% of consumers will make more mobile purchases in the future

20% of consumers will make more mobile purchases in the future

[Read more...]

Filed Under: Business Strategy Tagged With: , ,
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