GO PINK !!!

October, fondly described as “Pink October” is celebrated all over the world as the breast cancer awareness month. The pink looped ribbon is an internationally recognized symbol for breast cancer. The color “Pink” signifies that with early detection, every woman has a chance of returning to the “pink of health”.

We believe and support work carried out by Sahayta - a cancer support group that provides financial, emotional and social support to people afflicted with cancer.

Wear a ribbon - show your support!

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Google Chrome

Google chrome, a new open source browser is ready to be launched. Promising to be clean and fast Google chrome can run web applications faster and better. Chrome borrows some components from Apple’s WebKit and Mozilla’s Firefox, to provide an open source code. By rendering separate tabs through separate processes in the browser window, crashes would prevent the loss of all tabs giving you better crash control. Even with display of bookmarks and the most visited sites on the browser window, the clean look remains.

If you want to get more faimiliar with the chrome check out the comic book or get a feel of how chrome performs - check the beta version of chrome.

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Cuil Searches

Cuil(pronounced cool), a new search engine, boasts an index of 120 billion Web pages claiming “three times more than any other search engine.

Why another search? - when Google seems to offer relevant information. Cuil claims to rank the relevance of search results by content analysis rather than by popularity. In addition it actually promises privacy. Cuil’s privacy policy states: “When you search with Cuil, we do not collect any personally identifiable information, period. We have no idea who sends queries: not by name, not by IP address, and not by cookies. Your search history is your business, not ours.”

Interesting though it is yet to be seen whether privacy matters enough for users to change their search behaviour .

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Comparing features of some online shopping carts

A comparison chart of some of the features offered by some ecommerce shopping carts.

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Finding the right online shopping cart solution

A shopping cart serves as the frontend that transfers information through a secure connection to a payment gateway. The payment gateway interacts with your merchant bank account to process the information. It then sends back a confirmation or denial back to the shopping cart software.

Building your own customized shopping cart may not give you as many features as available in third party shopping carts. There are a number of online shopping carts available. Before purchasing a cart keep a small checklist handy so that you can pick the right one.

Script compatibility with the hosting

Shopping cart scripts are written in many different coding formats - PERL, PHP, ASP etc. check compatibility with your host before purchasing.

Installation and code modification

How easy is a cart to install on your server? Can the code be modified to give the same look and feel as your website? These are some areas you would need to check before making a purchase.

Back-up files support

Check on the support for backing up files and allowing for export into a variety of formats.

Payment gateway services supported

Most carts support multiple gateway services. Before purchasing your cart, review the gateway services supported as well as the compatibility of the payment gateway with your merchant account.

Order completion details

Ensure that the shopping cart has an option to send an email confirmation when a customer completes an order as well as a reminder to print the order details.

Provide a choice of shipping carriers

For confirmed orders the customer should be able to link directly to the carrier site so as to track the progress of shipment. The shipping should be able to offer a choice of carriers. In addition the cart should be able to calculate shipping and tax in real time from USPS, USP, FEDEX etc. as well as provide an option to include or keep shipping costs separate.

Multiple product upload

The cart should give you the option of bulk uploading of products. The product pages should be SEO friendly. While uploading product images do you have to put in one large image and one small image of every product or can you just put in one image and auto generate thumbnails? If you auto generate thumbnails you save time, web space and bandwidth. In addition you should also be able to create and manage your product attributes.

Content management tool

Check if the store has the option to add new content pages. This is important as you need to serve content pages for the crawlers to pick up and display your web pages.

Newsletter functions

This should not be a critical feature but having a newsletter option would help in an online website promotion.

Gift certificates, promotions and discounts

Having auto responders to gauge customer satisfaction as well as to inform about special offers and promotions would help with the online marketing

Search engine friendly features

Some shopping carts provide a number of search engine friendly parameters that can be customized for all the uploaded products. Check if the cart supports addition of title tags, meta tags, alt tags, breadcrumbs for optimization. This would be an important aspect as you want your products to be reachable to a wider audience.

Most product pages are displayed with query strings and hamper indexing of the site product pages. Since the main purpose of selling products is for the product pages to be “found” it is important that the cart provides an option to change query strings to static urls. This will ensure that the site is accessible to search engines and may contribute to improved search engine rankings

Also check if the cart provides the option of a sitemap or an XML sitemap generation.

Affiliate modules and Banner advertising controls

Some carts support affiliate modules. If your website has a requirement then check to see that affiliate module should be able to handle the signing up process, track statistics, provide payment details made to affiliates.

Keep the checklist in mind, however base your choice on the type of products you sell and the catalog of products.

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Tracking Web statistics

Design a website that gets visitors to take action. See if visitors are actually reaching the desired goal. Today, website ROI is measured by conversions - how frequently visitors reach your goals. No marketing campaign is complete without measuring the effects of online marketing.

Monitoring stats gives you an option to Collect information and put that information to work by using it to achieve your goals. Studying website data lets you identify if the path to achieve the goal is smooth or if there are clicks that can be eliminated, or more need to be added to complete the process.

Have a small checklist to track daily stats:

1. Vistors

This would be the most important area to track. Where do the vistors come from, the path followed - the pages that maximum exits are lets you know which pages need further tweaking. Ideally the exit pages should be the thank you page and if a number of visitors are abaondoning the path midway then you need to relook the path, the keywords and the call for action placed and maybe the offer.Look at returning visitors - does the number increase or is there a drop.

2. Stickiness

Checking on the time spent on the site indicates the “stickiness” of a site. Overall site and page stickiness is important to understand if the site is retaining visitors.

3. Navigation

Check the navigation path - are the visitors following the path that is expected or is there a deviation. Is a particular page getting too many exits.

4. Traffic

Check different sources of traffic - a lot of traffic may be coming from referrals and sources you may be unaware of. Tap these resources for better conversions and traffic.

5. Funnels

Check the funnel path to reach the goal are all the steps being followed or can some be eliminated.

Identifying what is happening on your site and taking appropriate action to maximize returns based on user behavior goes a long way in keeping satisfied customers and good returns.

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Making your website work

What drives traffic to one website and none to another? What makes one brand popular and another gets lost in the crowd?

The look and feel, the layout, the emotions associated with the offering, the presentation of the offering and most important – how well are all these elements integrated together to make a complete picture - all add to making a user’s experience worthwhile.

Understanding and knowing more about the users who will use your service and diverting your resources to a niche segment will tap potential and drive in more sales. Providing information that helps the user make a more informed decision establishes trust and credibility and at the same time puts you on a higher platform.

A key contributor in understanding your niche market can be achieved by a better monitoring of your website statistics. Traffic location, keywords, Search engines etc. would all be sources of traffic. Knowing which ones bring in revenue helps understands which areas need to be focused on and can make a difference in getting better returns.

Here the catch is not to just focus on getting potential customers but to look at potential customers that have a use for your service or product. Where by using your offering they add value to their lives. If your users can identify with your product then you have a better chance of making a sale and making your business grow.

Adapting to change and adopting new technologies keeps you abreast and gives your customers the confidence to stay with you. Actively engaging and being a part of a conversation makes it easier to introduce your services and products and build confidence and trust - that results in a more concrete sale.

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Be Different - Stand out!!

In a world where technology is moving at a very rapid pace and so are the competitors – what sets you apart from the rest? Do you do things differently or just follow the pack?

Add to this - Commitment, Value added service, Quality and Sincerity towards your customers and you reap productive benefits. To understand what your customers really want and not what you “can” or “want” to provide can make a big difference in cutting through the competition and to get “noticed”.

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