ecommerce

Three Pre-Holiday E-Commerce Tips That Work

October 12, 2018 By John

Is your e-commerce website ready? If you sell online, the holiday season is nearly upon you. Here are three items you should review and act on if necessary. Each of them will help you convert visits to sales.

You know what your customers bought or didn’t buy in the past. Take a good look at how you are currently presenting your products. It is a good bet that focusing on these three tips will make a considerable difference in your holiday sales.

1. Meaningful Product Descriptions — Do not copy and paste product descriptions from your vendor. Create unique descriptions for each item you sell. Do not shortcut this. Write them for your customer. More, but concise, information means more conversions. Explain what your product is or does and why they should buy it. Help your website visitor visualize using your product.

2. Professional-Quality Photos — It is simple. If you have professional quality products to sell, you need professional-quality photos. iPhones and many Android phones have great cameras, but the person taking your photos needs some photography skills. You do not necessarily have to hire a professional photographer, but you do need photos taken by someone who knows about and will incorporate lighting, simplifying the scene, framing the subject properly, aspect ratio, balancing elements, symmetry, viewpoint, using backgrounds, depth, and colors. The necessity for high-quality photos cannot be overstated.

3. Easy-to-find, Complete Contact Information — Your telephone number should be large enough to see and touch (for mobile users) easily. Provide your visitors with options: phone number(s), contact form, email address, mailing address, office hours. Include prominent links to shipping and return information as well as your privacy policy.

Today’s consumers want more and relevant information about what they buy online. The time you spend on these recommendations will serve you well.

- Meaningful Product Descriptions
- Professional-Quality Photos
- Easy-to-find Contact Information

Make it a happy holiday season by improving these three areas of your ecommerce website!

3 Summer Estore Tips To Increase Sales

August 7, 2014 By John

Summer sales lead quickly to the beginning of the holiday season. Now is the time to make some changes to your estore that will help improve your holiday sales. Here are 3 tips for your ecommerce website that will increase sales.

Fine-tune Your Product Descriptions — Search Engine Optimized, yet engaging and inviting product descriptions. Your descriptions are your sales pitch for each of your products.
High-Quality Product Photos — Great photos sell products! Money spent on professional-quality photos will translate into sales. It is that simple. Photos snapped with your phone are not high enough quality to be used in your estore.
Auto-responder “Thank You” 15 Days after sale — Schedule an email follow-up with a “Thank You again for your order” message with the order summary and customer service contact info. When possible include, “Customers who purchased this (these) item(s) also purchased (or viewed) these items.” Please don’t make it one big sales pitch. The message should focus on appreciation for their business, ending with a “Thank you” and “Hope you are enjoying your new ____________,” or “Hope your ____________ is __________. “

Doing those three things, will take some time but will, without a doubt, increase your estore sales.

As always, we are happy to help. Please call us at 800-281-9993 or 608-822-3750.

Five Tips for a Merry Ecommerce Season

September 9, 2013 By John

1. Photo Quality — High-Quality, Background, Lighting, Composition

Professional-Quality Photos sell! Do not use quick shots from your camera phone.

2. Detailed Product Descriptions — Engaging, Interesting, Complete

Truly describe your product. Don’t make them guess. Full descriptions sell.

3. Shipping – Upfront, Transparent, Full Disclosure

This is a deal breaker/maker for many. Don’t make your shopper login to find the cost. Price as low as possible. Free Shipping Sells.

4. Discounts and Specials – We all like a bargain

Introductory prices, close outs, use your imagination

5. Know Your Customer – This honestly should not have to be on this list, but is too important to omit.

New, Returning, Gender, Age, as well as you can ascertain.

Bonus: Tips for Empowering your Thank You page

Questions Online Shoppers Want Answered Before They Buy

June 13, 2013 By John

Ecommerce Questions Most online shoppers are wary the first time they are visiting an estore. If you have an ecommerce website, building trust should be one of your priorities. Does your ecommerce website have the answers to these questions? If not, you have some work to do.

Who is this company?
How long have they been in business?
Where are they located, and where do they ship from?
What does shipping cost? (Don’t ask for anything but my zip code before telling me.)
Is my credit card safe?
Is this product description accurate? Where are the details?
What happens if something goes wrong?
Where is the phone number (and business hours) and other contact information?
My Privacy. Do they respect it?

It all comes down to building trust. If your website doesn’t have the answers to the questions above, it doesn’t matter how great your products and/or prices may be. No trust. No sale!

Congratulations Wisconsin Artisan Cheesemakers!

August 8, 2012 By John

Congratulations to everyone in the Artisan Cheese industry for their outstanding 2012 American Cheese Society competition held last week in Raleigh NC! We are pleased to tell you how well some of our clients placed.

Carr Valley Cheese, LaValle, Wisconsin won a total of 14 ribbons including four 1st place awards for Billy Blue Goat Cheese, Canaria Sheep Cheese, Sharp Cheddar Spread and Horseradish Spread. Carr Valley also received seven 2nd place awards and three 3rd place awards.

Uplands Cheese won 2 ribbons including a 1st place award for their Pleasant Ridge Reserve and a 3rd place award for their Extra-Aged Pleasant Ridge Reserve.

Edelweiss Creamery, Monroe, brought home two 2nd place ribbons for their Muenster and for their Vegetable Havarti.

The 2012 competition was the largest ACS contest ever. The judges graded 1,711 different products from 254 companies. What a remarkable accomplishment for these master artisan cheesemakers!

We are privileged and proud to work with several of Wisconsin’s finest cheesemakers providing them an online presence that befits their status. Congratulations to Sid Cook and his team at Carr Valley Cheese, Mike Gingrich and Andy Hatch at Uplands Cheese, and Bruce Workman and his team at Edelweiss Creamery.

Rural Ecommerce: WebWise Design & Carr Valley Cheese

October 13, 2011 By John

As a part of the UW-Extension-led “Building Community Capacity through Broadband” program, and their efforts to demonstrate the importance of affordable, high-speed, rural broadband access, WebWise Design & Marketing and Carr Valley Cheese were recently featured in this video.

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