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ShopVisible's Wish Lists Turn Prospects into Customers

DannieB — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 13:47:00 GMT

With ShopVisible’s wish list capabilities, consumers can set aside all the items that peak their interest, and then transform those shopping dreams into reality thanks to enticing promotions and an easy checkout process. ShopVisible’s wish list feature is just one of many tools offered by the all-in-one ecommerce solution that continues to effectively turn online browsers into buyers.

Much like the Amazon.com feature, when a visitor enters a site powered by ShopVisible and chooses to add an item to his wish list, he will be directed to an area to login or create and account. Once the visitor logs in to his account, he can set up multiple custom wish lists (i.e. home, work, holiday gifts). When he clicks the buy button on a wish list item, all his information is automatically pre-filled for checkout, making the process both quick and convenient.

ShopVisible offers a special promotional section connected to the wish lists, which allows online merchants to cross-sell and up-sell potential customers. For instance, when a visitor returns to a site powered by ShopVisible, he can be prompted with a special offer or discount – “Take 10 percent off any purchase today that comes from your wish list.” Often times, customers just need that extra encouragement to buy an item they have on their mind.

ShopVisible can turn the wish list function into a gift registry simply by making it public. Once a customer creates a public wish list, he can choose to send an announcement to his friends and family, who then can link back to the site and purchase items directly from the list. ShopVisible also offers the option of gift-wrapping items purchased from a storefront, as well as an option to write a personal message to the recipient. The owner of the gift registry can return to view how many of a particular item was bought, but in some cases, such as weddings, the function can be customized so that the owner cannot view who purchased the items.

The holidays are just around the corner, and New Years will be here before we know it. If you are unhappy with your current ecommerce solution, you may want to add switching to a provider like ShopVisible to your wish list for 2009.

ShopVisible is an ecommerce solution headquartered in Atlanta, GA.

Shipping Made Easy This Holiday Season

DannieB — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 14:50:00 GMT

This holiday season is especially busy for our clients. While online merchants gladly welcome the surge of orders, handling shipping complications during a chaotic time of year is an e-tailer’s worst nightmare.

At ShopVisible, we’ve created the most robust shipping engine available. With our easy-to-use, reliable tools, clients can put their shipping frustrations aside and focus on growing their business. In addition, customers can track their packages with ease and get those gifts in before its too late. ShopVisible’s shipping tools are just one more way we’re helping to save Christmas for business owners (and consumers) one online storefront at a time.

With ShopVisible, you can choose to offer three types of shipping.

1.   Multiple carriers, including FedEx, UPS, DHL, and USPS. Our handy shipping calculator formulates costs against real time rates.
2.   Freight shipping including Yellow Freight, Conway, Etes, and FedEx Freight, also calculated against real time rates. Clients can program special freight options into the site manager to help determine the appropriate cost for their customers (i.e. does the customer need a lift gate?).
3.   Custom shipping just for you.   Create your own business model around shipping. Offer free shipping as a holiday promotion or an extra “white glove” cost to customers with special delivery requests.

With ShopVisible, drop shipping is easy. We’ve completely automated the process to eliminate communication mishaps between the drop-shipper, retailer, and consumer. Anytime a package is shipped, a record with all order data is sent to the client and drop-shipper. Tracking numbers are emailed directly to the customer. In addition, if a customer purchases multiple products that ship from different locations, he will receive all tracking numbers accordingly.

However, we don’t just service retailers with drop-shippers. We service manufacturers, wholesalers, and franchises using fulfillment houses, in store inventory and more.

So if your business could benefit from a sophisticated, user-friendly shipping engine like ours, you may want to consider changing platforms. Online shopping is in full swing, and with the ShopVisible ecommerce solution, our clients can celebrate the holidays without the added stress.

Idbids launching an exciting holiday promotion!

Mindy Dawn — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 10:07:00 GMT

For the growing number of fans of the eco-friendly plush characters, Idbids is launching an exciting holiday promotion. Vote for which of the cute, cuddly, and environmentally progressive characters you love the most and you will get FREE shipping on your order AND $5 off for each Idbids kit!

Not to skew the polls, but my favorite character is Lola. Waverly gets all the attention with his cute waterdrop-like shape. And Scout is quite the charmer with his cuddly cloud charisma. But, I find Lola's pink flowery perfection tops in my book!

My niece loves her Idbid. And, it makes me proud to take my iddy biddy steps to help the environment by spreading the word.

Make Black Friday Green

DannieB — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 10:47:00 GMT

The Friday after Thanksgiving has become known as Black Friday, formerly, because of the madness of holiday shopping rained down upon retailers. This year, Atlanta ecommerce solution provider, ShopVisible, is helping to turn Black Friday Green.

Several new environmentally friendly retailers have chosen the ShopVisible ecommerce solution to drive the growth of their eco-friendly businesses online. Ecomeme is a retailer providing the finest in home furnishings, toys and clothing, made from sustainable or renewable materials. With trendy and ethical companies like Ecomeme, green living and great taste don’t have to be mutually exclusive.

Idbids are a hot new toy with a message. Made from organic materials, Idbid’s three plush characters, Scout, Waverly, and Lola teach children the importance of environmental sustainability and provide parents with a gift that they can feel good about. Idbids’ “iddy bitty steps for a greener world” have lead to big strides for the online business. Idbids founders have won numerous awards for their eco-friendly toys including being named one of Time Magazine’s Top Toys of 2008.

The Beehive Co-op is a local designer cooperative in multiple cities that encourages the development of emerging designers and artisans in the community. Complimenting their brick and mortar store, the online storefront showcases lovingly handcrafted gems from clothing to jewelry to home accents. The Beehive-Co-op also supports green designers including ShopVisible client, Felted Heart, offering sustainable wool fashions to eco-friendly adults and kids.

Leiberts provides the best in energy efficient and energy star products to help you improve your home, while minimizing your impact on the environment and reducing that costly energy bill. Between kitchen appliances, air conditioning units, and backyard living, with Leiberts, you can easily transform your home into a green haven.

ShopVisible’s ecommerce solution integrates all of these clients website storefront management, with their order processing, inventory and administrative tools, so these clients can grow their business with the convenience of an all-in-one solution. Even more, with email receipts, online transactions, and online communication, eco-friendly businesses powered by ShopVisible can reduce their carbon footprint by eliminating the need waste paper on printing.

So help make this Black Friday Green, and consider all the amazing products offered by online eco-businesses this holiday season. Gift giving has never been as stylish, practical, and meaningful as this.

Photos of the ShopVisible Team

DannieB — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 14:18:00 GMT

Take a look at pictures of some of our friendly SV team members. They're working hard to help our clients' businesses grow!

ShopVisible's Enhanced Email Marketing System

DannieB — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 12:20:00 GMT

Email marketing remains one the most effective ways for online businesses to up-sell and cross-sell customers. ShopVisible just made their clients email marketing campaigns better than ever before.

Studies show that testing is key to maximizing ROI with emails. Online merchants should aim to figure out what kinds of emails should be sent out to which customers, and when. Generally, when an online merchant pushes out an email blast to their clientele, they have no way of distinguishing between the customers who deleted the message, those who opened the email, and those who opened the email and came back to their site to buy. Knowing this information is integral to adjusting the way a campaign is structured and executed throughout the year.

ShopVisible’s new email tracking capabilities let clients see exactly how their campaign is playing out, with the kind of information that online merchants only dream of accessing. The SV site manager can now,

•   Summarize the request date, scheduled date and completion date of a newsletter blast
•   Show the total number of emails in the batch, broken down by success to reach inbox, failure to reach inbox, duplicates and opt outs
•   Show how many emails were opened and how many visitors came to the site from these opened emails

And last, but certainly not least,

•   Reveal the total number of orders and the dollar value of those orders from customers who came to the site because of an email

This last capability gives a huge strategic advantage to ShopVisible clients. Since ShopVisible is an all-in-one integrated solution with an analytics package included, we are one of the few ecommerce sites out there that can generate this vital information for online merchants. Pinpointing visitors who are spending the most amount of money on products can help business owners focus on a plan to keep those valuable customers as repeat customers. On the other hand, learning what customers are not being persuaded by the newsletter blast can help merchants come up with new email ideas or layouts that may attract more visitors to their site.

All in all, ShopVisible’s email marketing enhancements are just another worthy addition to the world-class platform that continues to help online businesses grow.

Upsell with ShopVisible's Recommendation Features

DannieB — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 12:47:00 GMT

Recommendation features have proven to be an integral part of the cross-sell and up-sell process of ecommerce. ShopVisible continues to conjure up new, creative, and effective methods for maximizing customer spending. With ShopVisible’s successful tools, clients give their site visitors incentive to add more products to their carts.

Create a related items database.
The traditional recommendation function brought to life by Amazon.com, continues to spread to every area of ecommerce. Famous for the slogan “if you bought Product X, you might also like Product Y and Product Z,” the related items feature presents customers with products that, based on a previous purchase, are likely to peak their interest. ShopVisible clients can create their own database of closely related items for import into the site manager. Related items can appear prior to or after client checkouts. They can also be sent as part of an e-mail marketing campaign.

Automatic Replenishment E-mails
Automatic replenishment e-mails are typically used for businesses that either follow a subscription model or sell products with a “shelf-life.” Clients program e-mails to be sent automatically to customers when its time to refill a prescription, or when its time to replace a part of an appliance. For retailers in the fashion industry, they can be used to inform clients when new seasonal clothing has arrived.

Taking the Pain out of 404 Error Pages.
404 Error Pages can be a huge turnoff to a visitor on a site. As a counteractive measure, clients can add a fun message to 404 Error Pages that says, “We’re sorry this page could not be found. For your inconvenience, take five percent off your purchase in the store today.” Adding a promotional code to 404 Error pages will pleasantly surprise any visitor who happens to stumble upon one (in theory, there shouldn’t be Errors, but no site is perfect). Clients can turn small site mishaps into a positive reason for a customer to stay on a site.

Live Chat with Perks.
Clients can offer a discount or promotion to a visitor who Live Chats with a sales associate. In theory, once both parties are engaged in a dialogue, the associate will persuade the visitor to purchase more items than he would have on his own. With ShopVisible’s order data system, business owners can compare the order totals of customers who chat with those that do not. Often, online merchants motivate employees by offering commission to those who land extra sales.

Member Rewards.
Similar to credit card rewards programs, clients can offer store credit to loyal customers who spend a considerable amount of money on their site. ShopVisible can create a member portal for special customers who opt-in or send electronic gift cards automatically to those who surpass a fixed dollar amount.

“No Shopping Cart Left Behind."
“No shopping cart left behind” alleviates the problem of abandoned carts. ShopVisible’s tracking devices record when shoppers place items in a cart, but leave the store before making a purchase. If the visitor returns to the site in the future, he receives a prompt: “last time you were on the site, you left some items in your cart. Here’s 5 percent off your purchase today to encourage you to checkout.” The message hopes to reform the noncommittal shopper.

URL Clarity: ShopVisible making Life Easier for the Online Customer

JVM — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 10:48:00 GMT

Have you ever sought out an item online, successfully located it, planned on purchasing it, and then forgotten where you originally found it?

The other day my mother had a birthday. She had recently finished renovating her living room so I thought that it would be a great idea to buy her a new lounge chair. I checked out Rooms To Go online. This furniture purveyor had a lot to offer...including URL confusion.

I browsed the website and found a Beachside Khaki Chair. I liked the look but was unsure if my mom would approve of the color scheme's matching coordination with her new paint job. I jotted down the URL to pass along to her:

www.roomstogo.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=showitem&ipac_id=12738

(Please keep in my mind that my 60 year old mother is no Bill Gates when it comes to web navigation...)

Since there is a Rooms To Go present here in Atlanta, I decided that maybe mom would be able to visit the store to view the chair. I then thought: "What if I want to save her a trip to the brick and mortar store? Wouldn't it be easier for her to remain home and browse selections?"

After giving her the above confusing URL and waiting on the phone while she slowly yet gracefully sojourned to her destination site, she said: "you know, I cannot find this chair you speak of... Some 404 error page keeps popping up. I hate computers!"

"Mom. Don't blame the computer; blame the URL. Blame Rooms to Go," I replied. I then rehtought the birthday gift buying process which I was attempting to enable my mother with. I recalled seeing another site on the web while I looked for "Atlanta teak (one of ma's favorites types) furniture." AuthenTeak, a ShopVisible powered Atlanta furniture provider, utilized clean and simple URLs. This online storefront popped up at the top on Google's listing.

For a chair similar to that from Rooms To Go, AuthenTeak showed a listing for a "Gloster Plantation Deep Seating Spring Rocker." The neat and tidy URL was:

http://www.authenteak.com/swivel-rocking-and-spring-rocking-chairs/gloster-plantation-deep-seating-spring-rocker.asp

As both you and my mother can see, the URL states the name, style, and brand all in one place. Let us again try and see what Rooms To Go offered up:

www.roomstogo.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=showitem&ipac_id=12738

The latter URL was complicated and jumbled, filled with caps, letters and numbers. When I sent my mother the AuthenTeak link, she almost already knew what she was looking for going off the URL alone. She exclaimed, "I love it already. Deep seating, swivel rocking, and located here in Atlanta. How easy!"

Shopvisible's seamless integration and user-friendly SEO content construction made for an overall agreeable shopping venture. For a glimpse into SEO powered retailers, look at all of the ShopVisible merchants.

They have been making URLs and mothers seeking easy web navigation happy for years.

ShopVisible is an Atlanta based ecommerce solution provider. Equipped with Google Checkout Integration and more, ShopVisible utilizes ecommerce state of the line technology, SEO tactics and SEM in order to incorporate efficiently fluid ecommerce processes.

For more ShopVisible blog entries:

www.shopvisible.blogspot.com
www.shopvisible.wordpress.com

ShopVisible Certified for Google Checkout Integration

DannieB — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 13:40:00 GMT

ShopVisible is proud to announce its certification for Google Checkout integration. Soon, customers purchasing items from storefronts powered by ShopVisible will have access to a quick, easy, and secure checkout alternative.

For the ecommerce solution headquartered in Atlanta, Google Checkout comes as another worthy addition to a variety of integration tools already offered with the software. Boasting an all-in-one solution that covers everything from analytics to shipping tools to features galore, ShopVisible continues to impress clients with unbeatable capabilities that almost magically function together in an easy to use platform.

Google Checkout integration helps both online consumers and online merchants. Users who sign up have the ability to purchase items across multiple channels with only one username and password. Online shoppers don’t have to prolong the checkout process on a site by retyping and reentering transactional information, because Google keeps that information securely stored.

For e-retailers, the addition of Google Checkout adds credibility to storefronts and gives otherwise weary consumers an alternative to a merchant system for transactions. As a dependable, widely used vehicle for navigating the web, Google has become a name that people recognize and trust. Therefore, displaying the Google Checkout badge provides another way for retailers to get customers to trust them.

Google Checkout integration offers a speedy safe way for customers to get what they want on the web. That means higher conversion rates and fewer abandoned carts for online merchants.

ShopVisible clients have already achieved great success selling products through the platform integrated with Amazon, eBay, Craigslist and PayPal Checkout. However, the addition of Google Checkout will help further boost sales for business owners in every industry ranging from fashion to automotive to manufacturing.

For a closer look at Google Checkout Integration with ShopVisible, click here.

ShopVisible is an ecommerce solution in Atlanta, GA. For a list of ShopVisible clients, click here.

From Economic Recession to Automotive Transformation

JVM — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 07:47:00 GMT

Breaking news: Economic crisis and exorbitant gas prices drive down auto dealer sales.

Significant drops are abundant, yet for many, double-digit losses are the new norm. In a recent national survey sponsored by Autobytel, “56% of surveyed dealers reported sales declines over 2007.” The economy is clearly in a state of flux; dealer survival methods must also adapt to this downturn in order to rejuvenate sales and revamp marketing strategies.

•77% of dealers claim to now invest more effort into lead-conversion
•69% are intent on greater internet marketing
•lucidly addressing the importance online marketing, 91% of dealers polled planned to implement better usage of web marketing tools

Breaking News: ShopVisible powers independent automotive dealers to the forefront of e-commerce arena.

In June 2008, Don L Leasing’s online hit traffic was far from flattering for an auto dealer. After going live with ShopVisible, however, a dynamic shift occurred elevating Don L’s June hit count of 1263 to 58,401 for July. In just one month, total hits grew by 4624%. Further illustrating another auspicious transition is the late summer increase to 91,798 in August and a remarkable 125,328 for September. From June to September, while driven by ShopVisible, Don L Leasing’s total hits have risen nearly one hundred fold. As an extension of this transformation, Don L’s eBay hits also had a burgeoning summer. While the month of June elicited solely 29 eBay-generated hits, August and September brought with them over 17,000 possible leads respectively. Thanks to ShopVisible, Don L Leasing is reaching more customers and those same customers can now more easily access Don L Leasing.

How did ShopVisible do it? What SV added features benefited Don L Leasing?

For Auto Dealers:

Express Online Credit Application
    * Provides customers quick and easy access to detailed a credit application.
    * Customers can enter personal information in order to seek credit approval for auto lease or purchase.
Auto Financing Payment Calculator
    * Equips dealers with the power to offer customers an easy to use lease calculator
    * Customers can enter automotive specifications, monetary information, and preferred lease term duration to calculate estimated monthly payments
Request a Vehicle
    * Customers have the opportunity to search for other vehicles not listed or not present in "virtual showroom"
    * If a customer cannot find what they are looking for, they can enter the make, model, mileage, transmission type, color, price range and time constraints; all while providing personal information and a message to send to a sales associate
eBay Motors, Autotrader, DuPont Registry
    * Automatically have inventory listed on the most visited automotive channels.
    * Generate new leads from around the web, expanding your showroom beyond your website.
Inventory Auto-Population
    * Inventory information is auto-populated once a VIN is entered.
Enhanced Aesthetic Appeal: Use of Video Marketing Tools
    * Check out music phenom, Sean Kingston, as he ambles through Don L.’s showroom…

ShopVisible has not only revitalized the online auto-purchasing arena but has also simplified and reinvigorated sellers’ abilities to find buyers. For the independent car dealer wanting to sell, rent or lease vehicles over the Internet and drive leads to his sales staff, ShopVisible offers a platform linked to expediency, usability and content management. By providing its clients with the latest technology online (site specific) traffic reports, web design and keyword search friendly content, dealers can now better access their customer base while maintaining full control over their site’s appearance and content. Auto dealers can conveniently work with ShopVisible’s automated integration with eBay automotives, Craigslist, and Autotrader to expedite leads and sales. ShopVisible’s robust platform offers dealers freedom concerning their up-to-date inventory needs while relinquishing the constraints of needed IT support. Dealers can have ready and easy access to complete analytics in order to view where their cars are selling and where they are not, who is buying and where the best leads are coming from. We’ve done the work so you don’t have to. Stop worrying about technology and just sell cars.