Will you ‘socialise’ your online store?
By Tamara Caddy
Online purchasing is growing while Aussies have a more ferocious appetite for social networking than most of the world.
So it makes sense that there’s infinite plugins and extensions to help e-commerce shack up with social networks. Get it right and your social media output can be used to add value to your online store continuing the conversation and building relationships and loyalty – way beyond single transactions.
Our preferred e-commerce solution, Magento, can easily be integrated with Twitter feeds and Facebook fanpages using Magento default APIs. Similarly e-Newsletter sign-up options include features that allow recipients to share the newsletter invite across social channels.
Beyond share or like buttons, social commerce can be built across communities through all sorts of user engagement platforms, reviews, mobile apps, newsfeeds, coupons, discount and deals.
Social referrals can aid the purchasing process by spreading the word amongst shoppers’ friends and offering rewards and incentives to do so.
“Peer referrals allows consumers to gauge the product relative to their personal preferences,” explains SocialTwist CEO Vijay Pullar. ”A key trend brands can leverage is that friends know what other friends like and they know what their other friends are looking for,” said Pullar.
There’s seemingly no end to the plugins and extensions that can be integrated with your Magento online store, here‘s a handful:
ShareThis, Socialable Allows users to share specific sites, pages or products and distribute information via Facebook, Bebo, Twitter and tell friends.
Beetailer, Storeya, Facebook Store App Integrates some or all of products from your Magento store into social networks and fanpages.
Curebit, Social Twist Get your customers to refer their friends via Twitter, Facebook or email, with useful tracking features
Groupon, Zizio Social Deals Launch social deals campaigns and coupons offering rebates for referrals for your customers to tell their friends. This is a flooded category of social commerce to be weary of but it can occasionally still be appropriate for certain markets.
Facebook Referrals, Open Graph and Comments Allowing your customers to invite people and get automatic discounts, share what they ‘want’ and ‘own’ or leave comments your webstore’s product page by logging into their Facebook accounts.
Shopalize Purchase Sharing Widget After purchase, customers can share their purchases or offers with friends in social platforms.
Tailor your social strategy to your market, capabilities and objectives as running consumables out the door at bargain prices needs a different approach to a premium product looking to create brand longevity and a loyal fan base.
While Facebook and Twitter will give you wide reach, more niche and specialised social platforms are being used by brands to supplement their broader social strategy.
These communities geared to a specific interest may give you a more targeted reach. For example, sharing photos of your clothing range and inspirational images via Instagram may help gain the attention of fashionistas or you may establish credibility with foodies by posting info on Foodspotting. These niche audiences may be the trendsetters within your category of commerce.
We recommend staggering the implementation of your social elements unless you have internal resources in place or the budget to outsource its management. Social needs to be monitored carefully and providing rapid response times or risk alienating users.
Our advice: get your store working, then plan and implement one or two social extensions or plugins at a time.
Access their effectiveness and reach through services such as Facebook Insights and Google Analytics, which includes analysis of your site and e-sales across multiples channels including social.
Socialising your online store will be an evolving process as technologies and communities change, yet it is a necessary and worthwhile investment in today’s e-commerce mediascape.
Need an expert at Magento integrations including in social extensions and plugins?
Design Industries offer tailored web solutions. Click here for more info about Magento e-commerce integrations or contact us.
Read more
Getcha Mitts On This Handbook
By Tamara CaddyIn the words of famed graphic designer, Petrula Vrontikis, ”Practice safe design – use a concept”.
Indeed, the seed of great solutions to the design conundrums of any business is a well thought-out, immaculately planned and precisely executed vision.
Enter the Design & Branding Directory. Produced by the folks at Desktop & Marketing magazines, it is THE handbook for perusing approaches that have worked for different brands across mediums for everything from mini start-ups to multi-national mega-giants.
It is bursting with case studies with problems (and solutions) just like yours by innovative creative service providers just like us, Design Industries.
On pages 44 and 45, we are proud to detail our digital solution for the soon-to-be-launched site, meemeep.com.
Sadly, each provider could only choose one case study to showcase. We’d love to show off more examples of our tailored web solutions from eCommerce to e-Newsletters that we’ve created for all sorts of retailers, start-ups, not-for-profits – big and small. To hear more, contact us.
Get The Design & Branding Directory for $15.95 through retailers or through Desktop Magazine.
Read moreClient Focus: Baby Bunting
By Sam PascuaIt has launched, after some late night work, Baby Bunting new website finally went live this week.
Using the wonderful open source eCommerce solution Magento, the new Baby Bunting website is streamlined and simplified.
Magento, with has an integrated Content Management System, eNewsletter system, integration with a Payment Gateway and seamless integration with Minder Stock Control system the new Baby Bunting website will act like a hub for prospective and current customers allowing easy access to a larger product range, helpful tips for future and new mothers plus a range of other helpful features.
You can visit the website here or visit our case study here.
If you have an iPhone handy check out how well the site works with the standard Safari browser.
Perform Your Own Deliverability Audit
By Sam PascuaI thought it would be helpful for email marketers to know what it takes to do a comprehensive deliverability audit. Even an email marketer with satisfactory sending results should take an hour or so per month to make sure all the checks and balances are in place. If an email marketer is finding their open rates declining and bounce rates increasing, a thorough audit can almost certainly right the ship.
Check the delivery report
Delivery reports should be closely monitored for blocks and deferrals. All deliverability problems should be handled promptly by first correcting the mailing practice that caused the problem, and then contacting the ISP or blocking organization to get the block lifted. More times than not the contact method is included in the bounce reason.
DI Newsletter campaign system will no longer support IE6
By Sam PascuaOn September 1, 2009 we will begin phasing out support for Internet Explorer 6 (IE6) in regards to the DI enewsletter campaign system.
Although you will still be able to access your account with IE6, we won’t be able to guarantee things will look or function as well.
Why are we doing this?
IE6 is nearly eight years old — a lifetime in the rapidly evolving world of web technology and standards. In order to continue to provide you with the best email marketing experience around, we need to take advantage of all the tools at our disposal, tools that IE6 just doesn’t provide.
Therefore if you’re currently using IE6, we strongly recommend that you upgrade to any of these newer browsers:
Is Your Company Ready for an E-Newsletter?
By Sam PascuaOne of the best ways for a business to increase sales and profitability is to strengthen its relationship with customers. For an online business, this means increasing the frequency and relevancy of electronic communications. Blogs and interactive content like product reviews are helpful, but they only work if customers visit your site. In contrast, an e-newsletter lets you reach out to your customers wherever they may be, directing them back to your site to learn more.
A successful e-newsletter requires careful planning and commitment. Poorly crafted e-newsletters run the risk of boring or annoying customers and can actually hurt your business’s reputation and decrease sales. In contrast, a well-planned e-newsletter can be an invaluable tool for communication and sales.
Read moreIs Your Company Ready for an E-Newsletter?
By Sam PascuaOne of the best ways for a business to increase sales and profitability is to strengthen its relationship with customers. For an online business, this means increasing the frequency and relevancy of electronic communications. Blogs and interactive content like product reviews are helpful, but they only work if customers visit your site. In contrast, an e-newsletter lets you reach out to your customers wherever they may be, directing them back to your site to learn more.
A successful e-newsletter requires careful planning and commitment. Poorly crafted e-newsletters run the risk of boring or annoying customers and can actually hurt your business’s reputation and decrease sales. In contrast, a well-planned e-newsletter can be an invaluable tool for communication and sales.
DI eNewsletter Campaign System – Improvements under the hood
By Sam PascuaHTML Editor Improvements
We’ve recently made some under-the-hood enhancements to our HTML WYSIWYG editor within our eNewsletter Campaign System offering much more stability and compatibility for the popular browsers available today. One major improvement is our new “Paste from Word” feature which allows you to safely paste content from Microsoft Word. Our editor will strip out any unnecessary HTLM tags generated by Word. Just click on the 
icon in the editor to get started.
Recent comments