The Best Ecommerce Articles from July

In case you need something to read on holiday, here are some great articles about what's happening in the world of ecommerce:

• It can be hard to communicate with designers so that you get exactly what you want. This great article outlines how to write an effective design brief. From Quba, here.
• From Ecommerce Masterplan, this great podcast interview gives great insight into growing a multimillion pound business. See here.
• How are you innovating with your delivery options to compete with the biggest stores? Tesco is introducing one hour delivery. From Business Insider, here.
• From Bloomberg Technology, Amazon is joining companies like Stitch Fix and Trunk Club and entering the subscription box market. An interesting view here of how the biggest retailer of them all is getting serious about clothing - here. 
• The real trick to boosting conversion rates is to get your proposition right. This interesting article offers some thoughts on how to position your brand to drive more sales. From Econsultancy, here.

Top Ecommerce Articles from May

With a Bank Holiday Weekend approaching we thought you might like a bit of light reading for when you get bored of ice creams, sunshine and BBQs.

Here's a selection of some of the best ecommerce articles and blogs from around the web.

1. Google is changing their enhanced bid functionality, which may mean your cost per clicks could go up dramatically. Get the low down here: Enhanced CPC - The Latest Changes
2. Great insights into the need for - and the how-to of - international SEO - International SEO 5 Ways to Scale Performance
3. Can placing online orders ever be too easy? This article argues in favour of 'positive friction' - Why Increasingly Efficient UX Might Not Always Be A Good Thing
4. Google Optimize - Google's simple new split test tool - is now available for everyone. Here's a fairly dense but useful article explaining how to decide what to test and how to test: Conversion Optimisation - Research First Then Test
5. Does your current hosting solution mean you're leaving money on the table at Christmas? - 40% of Ecommerce Sites Crash During Seasonal Peaks

Need to know more? Visit our website here or send us an email to discuss your ecommerce needs. 

Top Ecommerce Trends 2016

Now that we've survived the first two weeks back after Christmas, it's starting to feel like 2016 has begun. As usual at this time of year there has been a flurry of emails, blogs and articles about what is going to change in Ecommerce this year.

We've picked out our favourite, most actionable insights -

1. Smart phone revenue may finally overtake desktop revenue. If you don't have a mobile site, you need to get one. (Econsultancy)
2. Listing products on marketplaces - like Amazon - will become even more important as a way of reaching customers (Webretailer).
3. It will become even more important to look after your top customers(Ometria). What are you doing to turn your best customers into your best brand ambassadors?
4. Customers are going to become more security and privacy conscious(Mercurytide). This means you need to upgrade to HTTPS if you haven't already, and make sure you are extra clear about how you use customer data. 
5. Shipping is changing (Ventureburn). Amazon has already rolled out same-day delivery in London. What can your site offer that gives you a competitive edge on that?

Need help transforming your 2015 website into a 2016-ready business? We can help. Drop us a line at info@moneyspyder.co.uk.

Get Your Black Friday Ecommerce Plan Right

Once it was confined to holiday-makers in the USA, but Black Friday and Cyber Monday have become firm fixtures on UK marketing calendars. Black Friday is on 27 November 2015, so you still have plenty of time to create a masterful marketing plan.

What can you do to jump on this American bandwagon and maximise your Christmas revenue? We’ve put together a list of our top tips for Black Friday and Cyber Monday:

1. Cart Abandon & Order Confirmation Emails - Add a juicy promo code to your order confirmation emails to see if you can get customers to buy again or return on Cyber Monday. Change the messaging on your cart abandonment emails to remind users there is a time limit on your Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals. 
2. Stock - People want great discounts and if you get it right, you can shift huge amounts of stock. Pick products where you have lots of stock and good margins. 
3. Servers - If you get your marketing right you can expect a big jump in site traffic. Make sure your servers are ready for the onslaught. 
4. Paid search - Optimise your ad copy and increase your bid prices to ensure you get the biggest share of Black Friday traffic. 
5. Mobile - More than 50% of all email opens occurr on mobiles. Make sure that your email, landing page and checkout are all easy to use on Mobiles. 
6. Christmas Decorations & Messaging - Does your email, site and social media content offer a consistent message? Have you added some 'christmas decoration' to your normal site imagery? 
7. Timing - Don't wait until Friday before sending your first email. Many sites get a head start and start their sales on Thursday. Why not try offering exclusive offers to existing customers on Thursday to make them feel special? 

Got any questions or need a hand with your Christmas ecommerce plan? Drop us a line at info@moneyspyder.co.uk.

Top 5 Christmas Ecommerce Upgrades

With the drowsy summer months finally at an end, it's time to gear up in earnest for Christmas. The festive season is a fantastic time to maximise on your revenue for the year, with most retailers making over 50% of their profit between October and January. However, that means implementing changes to your ecommerce site and processes now in order to make sure you’re 100% ready for the festive season. Here are our top five ecommerce upgrades to maximise Christmas revenue.

1. Generate more revenue with Google Shopping and Google Remarketing. Make sure your products are easy to find as people search for the perfect gift.

2. Maximise on success by inviting customer reviews. A reliable review can be the difference between a sale and an abandoned basket. 

3. Recapture sales through cart and browser abandonment emails. Approximately 2/3 of baskets are abandoned - but they can be recaptured.

4. If you haven't already then now really is the time to make the switch to a responsive mobile site. Over 50% of ecommerce traffic now comes from mobiles, but optimising your site for mobile is not as complicated as you might think. 

5. Upgrade to Universal Analytics and take advantage of the new demographic and ecommerce insights it offers, before acting on them.

Feel inspired? Need help with any of these? Get in touch by email or 'phone on 020 7492 1929.

Moneyspyder Feature In Econsultancy's Ecommerce Platform Buyers Guide

Here at MoneySpyder we are happy to announce that our ecommerce platform has been selected at one of Econsultancy’s Featured Platform Suppliers. This is the fourth year we’ve featured in the guide. You can find more details here: 

http://econsultancy.com/reports/ecommerce-platforms-buyers-guide

 

Platform Developments

MoneySpyder has had a great year and have moved our ecommerce platform technology forward leaps and bounds.

 

Responsive Mobile Templates 

In 2012 mobile commerce really took off. Mobile traffic volumes for our clients increased more than 100% compared to 2011. We’ve started updating our existing clients’ sites to give them responsive mobile templates and from 2013 all our new clients will get responsive mobile design as standard.

Google recommend responsive design as the best way to optimise your site for mobile. Simply put, with responsive design your site looks different for different resolutions. This removes the issues caused by other solutions such as having separate domains for mobile.

This is a good blog post from Google that explains a bit more about responsive design: http://googlemobileads.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/mobile-websites-vs-responsive-design.html

 

Cloud Hosting

In 2012 we have started moving our clients’ onto cloud hosting. Cloud hosting means you only pay for what you use. So instead of paying for dedicated server space all year round, you can save money when your site is quiet and easily expand your capacity at busy times like Christmas.

Not only is this an elegant hosting solution, it has also slashed hosting bills for our clients by 60%.

 

Get in Touch

MoneySpyder’s Bespoke Ecommerce Platform  is a perfect solution for companies wishing to expand in 2013. Email info@moneyspyder.co.uk for more information.