Honey Bee Buzz Marketing Blog

Shopping Carts Compared

Lots of our clients want to have shopping carts.  This is a very good approach to business on the internet, regardless of what kind of product or service you offer, even if you are a non-profit organization.  Once you have a visitor on your site, you want to make the most of the opportunity.  Carpe Diem!

There are many ways to go about this, and they are based on your current website structure and whether you want to add to it, or change it completely.

Below is a list of shopping cart software.  We’ll be updating as we go along, so bookmark this post and check back often.

• WP eCommerce – plug-in for WordPress.  Takes unflinching tweaking and research, but is great once you get it going.  Integrates nicely with the look and feel of your current site/blog.  Has many limitations, but is great if you want a simple shopping cart without having to shell out $3000 to $30000.  Yes, the number of zeroes is correct.  Some of these shopping cart softwares are exorbitant.  But worth it as an investment when you are a large company.
• Magento – also OpenSource, but like WP eCommerce, does not handle recurring billing.  Who wants recurring billing?  Wine of the Month clubs, membership sites such as associations, video rentals/exchanges (think Netflix), etc.  Magento has many more features and controls than WP eCommerce, but misses a hot new market – membership sites.
• MemberWing – allows for “teaser” sections, multiple levels of membership, seems to be free.  Landing page is very unsophisticated.  This is either good, because it’s free, or bad, indicating an overall lack of sophistication.  The levels and teaser ability are good signs.
• Marketer’s Choice – similar to Shopping Cart 1.  Some of the major information marketers are using this, including Bob Bly.  Autoresponders, affiliate program, recurring billing (which is good for membership sites or subscriptions).
• Quick Shop – WordPress plugin.  Sounds simple.  Provides sidebar widget shop, products covered in posts or pages.  PayPal or EFT.

……………………………………

Honey Bee Buzz Marketing Consultants

Shopping Cart Checklist

Having an online store is great, but in order for it to bring you money, you must make sure it’s working!

You don’t want to have done a great job starting your company and making your products only to have a messy bottleneck when the orders come rolling in. Or worse, to not have them roll in at all because the shopping cart or online store isn’t working correctly.

Before you set-it-and-forget-it, run through this checklist:

• Buy an item for yourself. Does the process go smoothly?
• Is it easy to find where to add info and where to click to progress?
• Can people find the starting point for shopping easily? Or is it buried on your page?
• Is the discounting system working correctly?
• Are the prices right?
• Are the shipping costs correctly calculated?
• Is the order slated to be shipped to the right place?
• If you’re using an automated delivery system where UPS or FedEx, etc. picks up from you directly through the ordering, is that working correctly?
• Is your contact info easy to find, preferably on every page, in case someone has a question while they’re ordering? Having your phone number, a chat function, or at least your email readily available is important.

How’s your online store? Let us know here at the Honey Bee Buzz Marketing Blog.

Top 5 eCommerce Tips

Selling products and services online is easier and better than ever.

It’s a great way to reach markets that are not locally accessible, or which are very niche and scattered around the world. Selling downloadable products online can be a great source of passive income – like the old RonCo motto: “Set it and forget it!”

How do you go about it, or improve what you’ve already got working?

Check out these Top 5 eCommerce Tips:

1. Save yourself time and hassle and use pre-developed software. Watch this blog for a review of stand-alone options and plug-ins.
2. Test it! Always test your online store. Have friends test for you, too. You can usually give them a coupon, and with it they can shop for pennies, yet still test your shop. Have them actually buy an item and have it shipped. Click here for a checklist.
3. Look at your product lines carefully. Consider what to include, exclude, upsell (package with other products). People are often willing to buy more if the shipping cost doesn’t go up too much.
4. Search Engine Optimize!!!!! The name of the online game is optimization. You must give your products and catalog descriptions good keywords and meta data. Don’t know what those are? Stay tuned to the Honey Bee Buzz Marketing Blog and Newsletters. We’ll be covering SEO in detail. You’ve got to use good SEO and PPC to drive traffic (people) to your site/online store.
5. Use online advertising to your advantage. PPC (Pay Per Click, for instance Google’s AdWords) is especially effective if you list the product price. That way, only people who are willing to pay that amount are going to click on the ad, which you are then charged for.

Leave us some comments about how you run your store, or questions that you’d like answers to. You can also contact us through our handy Chat widget to the right of this post.

Thanks for reading the Honey Bee Buzz Marketing Blog and Newsletter!