When it seems like all of the marketing ploys have already been played, it can be tough to come up with a new trick that will attract new customers and bring old ones back for seconds. Today’s wary consumers are watching their wallets closely – but that doesn’t mean you can’t succeed in turning browsers into buyers. It may take an innovative approach to send them from product to cart to confirmation, but you can do it – and your existing customers can help.
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Blue Acorn is an eCommerce Consulting firm specializing in helping online retailers increase sales, profitability and ROI through eCommerce Optimization Services.About blue acorn
eCommerce Blog
1Selling Without Borders: What to Consider When Going GlobalAuthor: Melissa - Posted on May 21st, 2009
One of the most appealing benefits of selling online is unlimited reach. While a brick-and-mortar running shoe store is likely to draw consumers from a 20- or 30-mile radius, an online seller can gain instant exposure to athletes across the world. Whether your target e-market is two miles down the road or three continents away, anyone with an Internet connection can browse and buy your products.
But before you grab your passport and head into the world of cross-continental selling, take the time to do a little homework. Jumping on the international bandwagon entails more than just adding a currency conversion tool to your site. Below are some tips for enhancing your eCommerce store’s global shopping experience and increasing the chances of converting buyers from around the world.
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2Does Your eCommerce Site Suffer from Confusability?Author: Robyn - Posted on May 18th, 2009
In the Twitterverse last week, the fine folks at MarketingProfs talked about “confusability,” which they defined as “the direct opposite of usability in terms of web site or application design. This is achieved either intentionally or unintentionally.”
Around the same time, Blue Acorn CEO & President Kevin Eichelberger tweeted that he didn’t like Kmart’s new website. I checked out the site – talk about confusability! It looks as if someone vomited random text and pictures on the page, with no thought whatsoever about placement. The navigation wasn’t much better. Your eyes don’t know where to focus because there’s so much to focus on – and I’m just talking above the fold. Scroll down, and you’ll find even more confusability.
Now, this post isn’t going to be a case study on Kmart. Instead, I’d like to offer some strategies for avoiding confusability–many of which will seem like common sense, yet they obviously bear repeating, given the state of Kmart’s site.
Read more3Advertorial 101: An Advertising Medium E-Commerce Companies Should ConsiderAuthor: Robyn - Posted on May 11th, 2009
There’s a type of advertising that you might not know much about, but it’s one that can work well with a wide variety of products and services that are sold online. It’s called an advertorial.
What is an advertorial?
The word itself–advertorial–is a portmanteau, combining the words “advertisement” and “editorial.” It’s essentially an ad dressed to look like an editorial or news article. All advertorials have a disclaimer–usually located right above it–saying that it’s a paid advertisement.
Why are advertorials effective?
Despite the disclaimer, they’re incredibly effective because of the layout and content. In terms of design, they look just like the other articles in the publication. In terms of content, they’re written with a journalistic style using quotes, facts, and statistics. This combination proves persuasive since someone casually reading the publication might assume it’s another news article.
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10Where the Highest Converting Online Retailers Calculate Tax and ShippingAuthor: Kevin - Posted on May 6th, 2009
On a current client project that we are building on Magento Commerce – the client brought up a great question – should we provide shipping and tax calculators on the shopping cart page – or on the checkout page? By default, Magento Commerce has widgets that do both on the cart page itself, but to answer this question, we wanted to do a little research.
Magento Commerce Shopping Cart Page with Shipping and Tax Calculators
We actually posed this question on our twitter account and just as we expected, most of the respondants indicated that they felt it was better on the shopping cart page itself. And traditional logic would lead us to believe that this is the case, we’ve been told for years that “surprise costs” late in the checkout process can lead to higher rates of shopping cart abandonment. The theory was, provide as much cost information to the customer as early in the process as possible to provide transparency of final costs. So many of us have been practicing this technique for years.
But, we wanted to see how some of the top converting online retailers handle this very question. And I’ll preface this study by clarifying that just because something works for them, doesn’t necessarily mean it will produce the best results for you. Every market, every site, and every product is unique, so by no means are we necessarily advocating any particular method simply because the best converting sites do it.
Read more0Wanted – eCommerce ConsultantAuthor: Kevin - Posted on April 28th, 2009
Blue Acorn is looking for a talented individual to join our team. If you’re in the market, or if you know of anyone that might be interested, feel free to spread the word. Now on to the posting…
eCommerce Consultant
Blue Acorn, a growing eCommerce consulting firm, is looking for an experienced eCommerce Consultant tasked with managing, and more importantly, growing several eCommerce websites. This full time position allows motivated individuals to make a direct impact on the success of several important clients. If you enjoy working in a competitive environment where your expertise and decisions will directly impact its success, this position will keep you challenged.
The primary role for the eCommerce Consultant position is to increase the traffic, conversions, and revenue for multiple online retailers. These are not one-time contracts, they are ongoing engagements and as such the relationship maintained with our clients is of utmost importance.
Responsibilities:
- SEO
- PPC Management (SEM & Comparison Shopping sites)
- Conversion Optimization
- Analytics
- Online Marketing
- email Marketing
Requirements:
- Proven history of managing and executing several SEO campaigns. Experience in all facets of SEO both onsite and offsite.
- Experience in managing marketing budgets with PPC/CPC online marketing campaigns and optimizing those campaigns for maximum ROI.
- Experience with email marketing services such as MailChimp, iContact, Constant Contact, etc. Managing the entire life cycle of the email campaign – from inception, to planning, design, coding, execution, and tracking.
- Familiarity with Google Website Optimizer in creating, executing, and managing conversion optimization tests – A/B Split tests and multivariate testing.
- Strong understanding of web analytics data and KPIs, and specifically, how to drive strategic decisions based on this data.
- Web development capabilities utilizing html, CSS, and graphics
- Social Media management skills (Facebook, Twitter, etc)
Bonus:
- Advanced Web Development skill set (PHP, .NET, JS)
- Marketing / PR background
- eCommerce management experience
- Copywriting / Writing / Blogging
- Preference for local candidates, but will consider remote applicants
About Blue Acorn:
Blue Acorn is an eCommerce consulting firm located in Charleston, SC that works with online retailers to improve the revenue, and profitability through online retail sites. We accomplish this through an array of services from design, development, SEO, conversion optimization, marketing, analytics, and more. We work primarily with small businesses looking to take their site “to the next level” and focus on establishing long-term relationships with our clients. Candidates interested in working at Blue Acorn can expect an innovative and collaborative work environment, with a work-hard, play-hard attitude (not to mention we’re 10 minutes from the beach)
To apply, please email your resume, portfolio, and salary requirements to jobs [at] blueacorn.com
Read more0Blue Acorn State of the Union – April 2009Author: Kevin - Posted on April 28th, 2009
Well, for those of you that are reading this on our site, you may have noticed our new and improved design (if you’re reading this through your feed, come on over and check it out). Hopefully, you enjoy it as much as we do. But really, this redesign was just a part of an overall re-branding effort we’ve been undertaking for the past six months. We decided to partake in these efforts not only to have a cool-looking new logo and website, but also to define who Blue Acorn is as a company.
As we’ve matured as a company, we’ve maintained a focus around our core values that we deliver through all of our services – quality of results, relationships built on trust, and success through diligence. As we continue to grow, we felt it was important to develop a brand that reinforced those values, and complemented our messaging. The Blue Acorn name certainly has significance that we’ve detailed previously, and we wanted to improve that to reflect the nature of the work that we do here.
You may have noticed some areas of the site are still a WIP – of which we’ll be addressing in the next few days. As well, you may notice some new areas to the site altogether. Primarily around our improved eCommerce services, and in particular our Magento Commerce services. We’ve had the pleasure to work quite extensively with Magento Commerce, as it continues to impress us with its capabilities. We’ve also decided to dedicate a Magento-specific blog on the site. It may be fairly empty now, but it will soon be filled with all kinds of juicy “Magento bits” that can help anyone from seasoned developers to Magento administrators. We also plan on developing enhanced functionality in a phase 2 enhancement to the site, so there’s still more to look forward to.
In addition to many of these changes to our brand and the site, the company itself went through some major changes, with a relocation from Atlanta, GA to beautiful, historic, Charleston SC. Technically speaking, our offices are located in Mt. Pleasant, right across the bridge (and closer to the beach) but we enjoy the amenities of both cities.
I’d also like to take this opportunity to officially announce that we’re on the lookout for an experienced eCommerce Consultant to join our team. I’ll update this post with links to the job postings when available, but if you know of anyone that might be interested, or if you yourself are interested, please get in touch.
We realize that over the past month or two the blogging has slowed due in part to our focus on getting this new design rolled out, but you can expect to resume our typical pace of about one entry a week for the eCommerce blog. We’ve also recently introduced ourselves to the twitter community and we encourage you to follow us on the Blue Acorn twitter account. If anyone has plans on attending IRCE this June in Boston, feel free to drop us a line and we’d love to connect at the conference. And of course, we love hearing feedback from any visitor to our site, be it a colleague, client, or if you just enjoy reading the articles – so don’t hesitate to chime in.
Read more59 Questions to Ask a Drop ShipperAuthor: Melissa - Posted on April 10th, 2009
So you’ve found the perfect product — or products — to start selling. You’ve got a solid marketing plan, a good grasp on your target consumer, and a professional, user-friendly interface that gives you an edge over the competition. But wait — how are you going to store and ship all of that inventory?
For many savvy online sellers, the answer is simple: “I’m not.”
Even if you’re new to the eCommerce game, we probably don’t need to sell you on the benefits of drop-shipping. Having the manufacturer ship the product directly from their facility to the customer makes a whole lot of sense, especially if you plan to sell oversized or bulky items, products with multiple options, or a diverse array of merchandise. You won’t have to come up with upfront payments for inventory, and you’ll also avoid paying potentially significant fees for warehousing and distribution.
Choosing drop-shipping as a fulfillment method may seem like a no-brainer, but selecting a dependable, accountable vendor requires some foresight. Below are some critical questions to ask a prospective drop-shipper before signing on the dotted line:
Read more2At What Point Do You Let Customers Go? Do the “Checkout” ExerciseAuthor: Robyn - Posted on March 23rd, 2009
Here’s an “educational” exercise that I sometimes do: I’ll start to buy a product online, but exit before checkout. In other words, I’ll complete everything on the online order form, right up until I have to enter a credit card, and then I’ll bail, just to see what happens.
Why? Well, you can learn many lessons from this exercise, and I encourage you to do it–for competing products as well as for products that are outside your industry or niche.
I usually choose products that have a heavy online advertising presence or that I’ve seen in infomercials. The reason? Well, these eCommerce sites tend to pour a ton of marketing dollars in 1) keeping people from exiting their site and 2) attempting to woo them back once they’ve left.
Read more0eCommerce Success Story: Tres AmigosAuthor: Kevin - Posted on March 11th, 2009
Tres Amigos World Imports is a multi-channel retailer of Mexican and Rustic Furniture and Accessories. They came to Blue Acorn in mid 2008 with the desire to improve the sales of their BV Commerce website. Previous to contacting us, they had been working with a provider that had handled their needs adequately, but just weren’t able to deliver the results that Tres Amigos desired. Keith Kramer, President at Tres Amigos, was looking for an eCommerce partner that had the expertise, and the desire to work with them on growing the revenue generated from the website.
Having already worked with three other marketing and development groups we knew the importance of experience. We did not have the time or resources to waste on yet another “learning curve”. Blue Acorn was well versed with the BV software and equally important already had the SEO background we required to “hit the ground running!”Keith Kramer – President, Tres Amigos
Blue Acorn and Tres Amigos set course to develop and execute a plan for growth. And by combining their knowledge and skillsets, they launched the newly improved website in July of 2008. Almost immediately, the impact was felt.
Kevin, owner of Blue Acorn, insisted that the ground work was done right the first time. We whined about the initial time and participation it took, for everyone, to get the foundation laid correctly but once it was done the new sales quickly shut us up!Keith Kramer – President, Tres Amigos
To date, Blue Acorn has continued in growing the revenue generated from Tres Amgios through design, custom development, SEO, Conversion Optimization, Video, and eMail Marketing to the point that we continue to realize almost 100% gains over the previous year. Through our continued cooperation, Blue Acorn and Tres Amigos strive to continue that growth trend despite the current macro-economic climate. So what’s next for Tres Amigos? An even better design based on a re-architecture, more incorporation of product videos, and enhanced features to BV Commerce to enable a better shopping experience for their users. When asked about how successful this partnership has been for Tres Amigos, Keith had this to say
Blue Acorn started off as a necessary business service. We knew that we were not going to reach our potential without an e-commerce expert. We needed someone who understood the whole picture not just part of it. Designing a website without SEO comprehension is a waste of time. SEO comprehension without e-commerce marketing savvy will not maximize your potential. Blue Acorn has all the pieces and has helped us put it together. It’s a work in progress that requires change as the market demands. Blue Acorn is now our internet “partner”.Keith Kramer – President, Tres Amigos
We’ve enjoyed working with Tres Amigos, value their business as a client, and look forward to continued growth with them going forward. [flickr-gallery mode="photoset" photoset="72157616517180307"]
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