Results for 'ecommerce websites'

Shopify and Boagworld have joined forces once again to provide you with some really valuable tips on getting the most out of your Shopify store.

As you know, Boagworld podcasts are like catnip for those who design, develop, and run websites. Their current podcast season, entitled “Building Websites for Return on Investment” is focused on turning your ecommerce website into an efficient money making machine. There will be six episodes this season that will cover everything from identifying your business objectives, measuring your success, creating calls to action, and marketing.

“Episode 2” of Boagworld’s podcast is out today and is entitled, Measuring Your Successes And Failures. As Paul Boag says “What is the point of making changes to your website if you have no real way to tell whether it is an improvement or not? Stop guessing. Start measuring.” It’s a free listen and could help you make some serious ROI improvements.

Subscribe to the Boagworld podcast and enjoy all episodes for free (under “The Podcast” section).

Happy St. Paddy’s! It’s been a while since you’ve seen one of these.. blame conferences and holidays! Here’s all the interesting ecommerce tidbits the Internet came up with for the last couple of weeks.

• At Vunet, "interesting survey results" highlight a big missed opportunity for small businesses to reach into the ecommerce market – thus leading to a great marketing opportunity for ecommerce providers and designers. In a survey conducted in 2007, “The company discovered that 23 per cent of websites looked at had not been updated since their launch, making much of their content inaccurate or obsolete. The average age of a website was four years.

  But perhaps the most revealing figure, given the huge growth in consumers using the internet to buy goods and services, was that a mere eight per cent of respondents had an ecommerce element on their sites.

  “We were completely staggered by the tiny percentage of small business owners who were actively using their websites to generate sales,” said Jon Beal, managing director of Netflare.”

• eMarketer has an interesting article on the current percentage of internet users who buy online, and where the increase in ecommerce sales will come from: ””Most analysts including eMarketer say that online sales growth has more to do with incumbent online buyers increasing their ecommerce spending rather than increasing new online buyers,” said Jeffrey Grau, senior analyst at eMarketer.” They also talk about the shift in attitude by online purchasers: “buying without a human became an asset rather than a liability.”
• Check out the recap of the Effective Merchandising: What sells? webinar put on by Get Elastic ecommerce. I missed this session, so I’m particularly grateful for the chance to see the recap online. Read about Merchandising based on Intent, Smart Cross-Sell and Up-Sell Strategies, SEOandizing and more.
• Reuters’ article Indie Labels take ecommerce into their own hands shows an example of a new market opportunity for musicians: Selling their music directly to the consumer. Not only does this take the middle man out of the equation, it also gives the band the opportunity to give their fans access to music as well as merchandise. Designers, looking for clients? Try approaching your local indie rock band and see if they’re up for selling online.
• Over at Ecommerce Times, they’re talking about the increasing fickleness of online consumers, and how to increase customer loyalty by using personalized services.
• Fiinally, MSNBC posted an interesting article on "Transforming your website into a sales powerhouse". It’s full of tips on design, traffic conversion and using tools such as video and blogging. Check it out!

  Got any interesting ecommerce tips? We’ll blog about ‘em.. just email me at shannon [at] jadedpixel [dot] com.

Shoppers often evaluate credibility based on appearance alone - which is why your logo is vitally important.

This is a guest post by Dylan Mazeika. It's crucial for ecommerce store owners to distance themselves from the cookie-cutter online stores. This process begins with a quality brand image and more specifically, a professional logo. 

Here are 5 ecommerce logo design tips to keep in mind while you're building your online store. 

1. Keep It Simple

When you look at some very well known online retailers and their logo design, you'll notice one common thread: simplicity. Largely text-based, both of the following brands have taken the name of their organization and formatted it to be easily read and identified, whether it appears on their site, in a list of search results or on an affiliate site. 

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This stripped-down format makes them easy to remember and also provides everything the customer needs to find them on the web since the logo itself doubles for the web address in each case.

2. Optimize for Mobile

Legibility for mobile shoppers is really important these days. With the growing level of shopping people are conducting on the go, it’s important to make sure the text you include in your logo isn’t too small. Always keep an eye on the scalability of your design, ensuring the logo that appears on your ecommerce site or email receipt is easily read on the miniature screen of a cell phone or similar web-enabled device.

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3. Reveal Your USP Through Images or Tagline

Position yourself by clearly defining the specific aspects of your product or service that are superior to the competition. If you are the only, the biggest, the oldest or the best, consider reflecting that distinction through a catchy slogan or quality art that lets your customers know you’re in the lead. Shopify store Cookbook Village does this really well by including "Vintage and used cookbooks for chefs, collectors and foodies" right in their logo. They have another logo without the bottom text that scales better on mobile devices and that they use on Facebook and Twitter. 

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4. Maximize Your Web Pages with a Horizontal Design

When designing your logo, you might consider keeping the design primarily horizontal. By minimizing the vertical space and stretching graphics and text across the horizontal plane, you have a larger amount of real estate to showcase your products, preventing shoppers from having to scroll down when browsing. Shopify store A Book Apart has a beautiful logo (not surprisingly) that does a great job of using a horizontal design to increase the number of products above the fold. 

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5. Use Images Wisely

It’s almost impossible not to think about Amazon without the image of their upward-arced arrow coming to mind. Plus, as you can see in the other online retailers mentioned above, the use of art is fairly minimal, making it that much more important to select images that are unquestionably tied to your offering. Shopify store So Worth Loving incorporates a clean and minimalist image that will stick in a customer's mind. The half diamond, half heart conveys quality and value with one half and love with the other.

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Where to Start

Start by getting inspired. There are a number of resources available on the web that can provide an endless catalog of art and inspirational ideas for making an ecommerce store logo. Also check out Shopify's guide on How to Design an Online Store Logo.