E-business Coach Commerce

Streamlined cart checkout process debuts: new or returning customer?

To be a guest, or not to be a guest? That is the question that's no longer going to confront shoppers attempting to checkout. Since 2005 shoppers debated their answer to that question when using E-business Coach Commerce powered web stores. As of the System Update on 13 April for some client sites (and then 20 April for remaining sites), that question goes away on the cart items page leading to the checkout.

Fundamentally, requiring an email address need not deter a shopper in 2009. Making an email address optional was at the heart of the reason for offering a guest checkout years ago. But today's merchants tell us they don't want to fulfill orders without an email address; asking for it doesn't deter sales if it's presented in an appropriate context. So long as there's no cumbersome "create an account, choose your password,  date of birth, mother's maiden name, how did you hear about us, what did you have for dinner last night..." -- okay, we got carried away there. But you understand examples of unnecessary questions being barriers to checkout. They ought be minimal.

Now when ready to checkout, the shopper clicks one of the two large "Checkout" buttons on the cart items page. No longer are they confronted with a three-way, sign-in, register-as-new or checkout-as-guest decision.

The next page presents the customer with two options for continuing.

1. One is for new customers who are asked to provide their email address.
2. The other is for returning customers to log in.
   
   Either action results in the display of the checkout address page. What happens behind the scenes is that for the new customer, an account has been created.

While on the surface these changes appear slight, we believe they significantly reduce friction in the checkout process. No longer is a new customer required to make a decision on the nature of the relationship they want to establish. They simply identify themselves as new, provide an email address, and then they move quickly through the buying process.

• Note: this changes the "goal funnel" for Google Analytics. As part of your Priority Support program, we'll update your site's profile with the new goal URL's to keep your tracking of conversion rates accurate. Then we'll measure results and learn what can be further improved.

Publish customer product reviews faster, easier

Web shoppers want to hear from un-biased reviewers with similar needs before making a purchase decision. Publishing product reviews on your web site can provide powerful incentives for prospective buyers. To facilitate management of product reviews, in a recent update to the Admin Area of Total Blue System we added two new features:

You now have the capability to search product reviews by item number. Enter an item number and you will be presented with a list of all reviews associated with that item. And the auto-complete feature on the item number means you only need to know a few of the characters of the item number to quickly find the product you are seeking.

• Planning on sending out an email marketing message featuring certain products? Look up these products by item # to ensure you've published the latest, best product reviews on their product detail page. Then link to that product detail page from your email message.

When you read a review in the Admin Area and decide it is not valuable to you or your customers, you can now delete the review directly from the review's edit page. Previously you had to back up to the review list and delete from there. This is a small enhancement but a convenience that will save you time when managing many product reviews.

Honest, numerous and up-to-date product reviews are often the difference between a looker and a buyer. We will continue to update Total Blue to allow you to move effectively manage and leverage these valuable resources.

Read more >>  Options >> 

Paypal payment option soon to be available during cart checkout

Paypal will soon be a payment option available to merchants powering their e-commerce site with Total Blue System. We are incorporating the Paypal Express Checkout feature into the shopping cart checkout process. This feature will give customers the option of using a Paypal account to pay for their order instead of a credit card.

• By providing Paypal as a payment option, you will offer an alternative for customers who are not comfortable entering their credit card information on what, for them, may be an unfamiliar web site if it's their first purchase or if they're from another country.
• Other customers may simply prefer the convenience of using Paypal, as their payment information and shipping address are already provided in their Paypal account. Note: your customers who do not currently have a Paypal account will have the opportunity to create one as part of the Paypal Express Checkout process.

By providing Paypal as a payment option on your site, you have the potential to improve shopping cart conversation rates and make a significant impact on your bottom line.

If you want to know more about adding Paypal as a payment option on your Total Blue System site, you can learn about Getting Started with PayPal. This page your will walk you through the three steps for becoming a Paypal merchant. Step three is "Implement your preferred payment solution".

That's where we come in. Contact us at E-Business Coach to discuss integration steps for your Total Blue System site and back-office fulfillment database if you'd like to take advantage of this new feature.

Configure e-commerce software in ways friendly to UK merchants

Total Blue System was designed originally to serve mail-order, catalog companies, and direct merchants operating in the US. Now that e-commerce merchants in the United Kingdom are adopting this turn-key e-commerce package, the software is evolving to suit the UK market. 

A UK merchant that's recently chosen Total Blue System to host and power it's site is http://www.nauteco.co.uk, a leader in environmentally-sensitive marine paints.

One example of what's changing is that country selection lists, made use of during the shopping cart checkout process, no longer always display the United States as the first option. This was a convenience for the vast majority of customers, only requiring the occasional non-US customer to scroll down the list to find their country.

However, as UK catalogue merchants become clients, it became clear this would not do. To remedy this we created a page in the admin area to allow site administrators to specify the order in which countries are displayed in country selection lists. This page can be found at https://[your site domain]/admin/countries/sort.

Now shoppers browsing the ecommerce catalogues our UK clients will find the United Kingdom first in the list while US client customers retain the convenience of having the United States at the top. This is a small example of the ways in which we are extending Total Blue System to better serve our international clientele.

Quick example of another "configuration" that's well suited to a UK merchant: the name of the shopping cart can be configured. In the UK, studies done by direct marketing organisations showed that the UK shopper is more inclined to call it a "basket" than a "cart." So Total Blue System can be configured to call the shopping cart a "basket" or a "shopping bag" or whatever you'd like it to be called.

Read more >>  Options >> 

Set shopper's expectations of when a product will ship

On every product detail page of your e-commerce catalog there is a short phrase indicating the product's current status, such as "in stock", "back ordered" or "drop shipped". This phrase is a link to the inventory pop-up window, which provides additional information to the customer about a product's availability.The pop-up window contains standard information clarifying the status, such as "This product is currently available in our inventory" for in stock items.

However, in some circumstances an e-commerce merchant using Total Blue System to power their site might want to more clearly communicate to the customer when their desired product will ship. For example, you might might wish to explain that all back ordered items are typically shipped within xx days of order receipt. To allow you to provide this customized messaging, we recently added a Teaser Spot to the inventory pop-up window. (Note: A Teaser Spot is like a picture frame on a page or pages of your site, where you can insert one or many "teasers" to communicate a useful message / promotion / visual graphic.)

For clients that desire to take advantage of this functionality, the Teaser Spot is named "Product Inventory Teaser" and, as with all teasers, can be configured from the teaser section of the admin area: https://[your site domain]/admin/teasers.

By better managing your customer's expectations, you increase the likelihood that he or she will complete the order.

Flexible product template shows more image details, upon request

Embracing the idea of progressive disclosure, the latest System Update to the 'tabbed' product detail page no longer shows all additional photos that may be available for a product. Now the 5th photo (you can sort their priority) will not display without what might be called "extra user input." In other words, the site visitor needs to now click a "more" link to show all additional photos beyond 4. The text of the "more" link is configurable by you the site owner, and only displays if there are more than 4 photos for a given product. The behavior is similar to the "more info" or "more details" link that can show the full product description, if you so configure it to hold some details back. The key word is progressive disclosure.

A couple other refinements have been introduced that amend what was described in the 'view larger' post here. The changes may best be observed rather than described. Suffice to say they are subtle and all manifest the idea that the template ought not waste space without feeling tight, and ought adapt to the fact that some products have lots of descriptive data (photos, text, links, relations to articles, etc.) while other products have very little.

• In either case, the page template ought exhibit enough intelligence to display information in a way that's appropriate to the product, while appearing consistent in lay-out for the sake of making it easy to comprehend by the site visitor. Feedback so far says we're hitting that target.

Consolidate product option choices to one page

The new product detail page template with tabs for progressive disclosure and minimal scrolling can help you consolidate the product option choices presented to the web shopper. When a product comes in multiple sizes and colors (to use the two most common options for a product), the optimal way to present those choices is on one page. Known as the "product detail page" to Total Blue System users, this page now gracefully handles a product matrix with two, three, or more dimensions.

Here are some highlights:

• Create a product with item ordering options, as many sets as necessary. Examples include color, size, fabric all for one product.
• The Catalog module will perceive which option determines the price variance. The price for each option will then appear in the drop-down select menu that presents that option set. So if the price varies by size, then only the size drop down menu will show the price, separated by white space at the far right of the menu option.
• The price range will be automatically calculated and displayed in place of the product's "Our Price" field value, which is used if there is no price variance among options.
• Each option's select menu will be preceded by a label that you configure. It could be as simple as "Size," for example" or more explanatory as you choose.
• If there are no options for a product, then the drop-down select menus do not appear, of course.

This kind of product arrangement has positive benefits for search engine optimization efforts, as it can eliminate what would otherwise be deemed "duplicate content" from your site as perceived by a search engine spider.

By implementing this kind of product arrangement, you ought also consolidate product reviews into one product detail page. In short, reduce the number of "products" in your website catalog and increase the depth of descriptive content about each product.

The timing of this release matches the release of the new product detail page template in an upcoming System Update that will be coordinated specifically for you and your e-commerce site.

Contact our technical support team for input on how this may interact with your internal order management system. Mail Order Manager users may find there are adjustments necessary to how you store items in MOM, or in how you construct the item # or SKU.

Gain attention and interest in your product, then deliver the details

Feed the appetite of the web shopper who is hungry for information about your products. That's become something of a mantra in our clients' ears this summer, repeated by SEO and merchandising expert Howard Gray. But how much info is too much? And how do you make it all easily digestable in bite-size chunks?

The answer begins with understanding the concept of progressive disclosure, employed by successful sales people down through the ages. But now you have the ability to make immediate use of this concept with the release of a new product detail page template. It's distinguished by it's use of tabs to reveal or hide detailed information about a product or related content on your site. Available now as part of a System Update, the timing of the actual release will be coordinated with you given the need to configure this template in advance and the importance of having given consideration to how best to optimize your catalog.

You can see what's configurable about the product detail page template by going into the Configure section of the Admin Area. Choose the Catalog tab on the left side, and then find the Product Detail configuration options. Here's a few highlights:

• You define the name given to all "tabs" on the page. Default values are presented, but whether or how you use the tabs is up to what's most useful to your website customers. If there's no data associated with that "tab," then the tab won't appear.
• You decide how many tabs appear on your page. Make use of the Description 1 field of course, but you can also use the Description 2 and Description 3 fields as you think best, including HTML code for special formatting.
• Related content now gets more space on the page, adding an incremental boost to search engine optimization efforts. Pick related articles, frequently asked questions, and related product categories, plus upload data files, spec sheets, schematic, or audio files as "supporting content."

Overall, this product detail page template ought give your shopper the opportunity to quickly assess your product's appeal with a minimum of vertical scrolling of the browser window. Then, once attention and interest are present, the page discloses more information as they approach the buying decision.

Look for our contacting you individually to schedule the release of this System Update.

Easy upload of banner and promotional graphics

Within the Total Blue System we have the concept of Teasers, which are simply rectangular spaces tucked into various places on your website where you can communicate to site visitors about the latest promotional offer, customer service message, or announce whatever's new.

Teasers are often graphic files, in .jpg, .gif, .png, or .swf (flash) format. Sometimes they're a combination of grahpics and text, with HTML to stitch it all together.

Now it's easier than ever to create a new Teaser because you can easily upload graphic files through a web browser, within the Admin Area of your website. Click the upload button, select the file on your desktop computer, and upload it to a special folder on the web server with another click of the mouse.

Choose the "Upload Teaser Content" menu item in the Teasers section of your e-commerce site's Admin Area.

Accelerate Add to Cart action when browsing

Your site's "sortable product" page templates now make it easier for website shoppers to add an item to their cart or basket. This is specifically for the one product per row (1 column) sortable template.

The "add to basket" or "add to cart" button now appears on the Category Gallery page. Before this, it required a shopper to click through the category page template to the product detail page template before an Add to Cart action could be taken.

Note: this feature respects whether the product has ordering options, and if present, the page will display them as a select menu on the Category Gallery page right above the Add to Cart button.

See an example of how this works for browsing and buying products.