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Category: Education

Website eCommerce Conversion Rates: I’m becoming obsessed and learn more and more all the time.

Friday, 04 November 2011 04:19 Written by admin 1 Comment

conversion-rate-for-e-commerceThe conversion rate isn't only about the user experience on the page. The price is also a factor as well as page load times, email marketing as well how well the consumer trusts and likes your brand.

So when people come to your site organically looking for a site to service them and collect their order via Google you might get a an order. Across the board retail on the internet is around 2.5% conversion rate. Meaning 2.5 people, out of 100 who came to your site bought something. BUT when it comes to an email marketing, your conversion SHOULD be higher. If it's not, you're doing something wrong.

So I wanted to point you two an online floral services you might know called..... proflowers and FTD. :) These guys, I bet, not only send emails out, but targeted one, all florists should be doing this too.

Look what PF and FTD was converting at almost 3 years ago:
[url]http://www.grokdotcom.com/2009/02/20/top-10-online-retailers-by-conversion-rate-january-2009/[/url]

I remember discussing with some on florists about Proflowers a few years back. They said Proflowers would slowly go out of business, I said no, pay attention because they're going to get bigger.

Speaking of conversion rates.... what is your store conversion? How many people buy that come into your store? I bet it's A LOT higher than your online business.  I still believe if florists want to get serious online you HAVE to think of your online site as a second business model that is a service that collects orders that funnels them to your B&M retail shop.

 

 

 

Things to do when it’s slow around the shop. – Guest Blogger

Thursday, 06 October 2011 16:24 Written by admin 0 Comments

Our guest blogger is Connie Chandler of The Treehouse Florist, 22 W. Main St - New Freedom, PA 17349 717-235-6540

As florists, we all have "down times" when we need to keep ourselves busy with things we won't be able to do when we're really busy. So here are a few things we call "Busy Work", or things we do when we're not really busy at The Treehouse Florist.

 

Bow boardHere's a picture of things we do with ribbon in the shop. We call these "speed bows" - satin bows wired with an extra length of ribbon attached to wrap around a cello-wrapped bouquet. We keep them handy, hanging on a styro wreath on the side of the cooler. And curly ribbon blips, picked, taped, and ready to use in baby arrangements, birthday arrangements, etc.

 These slow times are perfect for giving those tired baskets a fresh coat of paint, sprucing up your shop displays, creating silk arrangements for any occasion or season and planning out some new marketing ideas.

 

 

 

ribbonsOf course, there are always things we do seasonally to fill in time not spent designing or on other important tasks. Tracey from Twigs in Yerington, NV - tells us that they wire pine cones brought in by friends or from a tree in their yard. Also for the holidays, you can make ahead velvet bows for wreaths, green-up centerpiece trays with holiday greens, and put together "kits" of lights, garland, mm balls etc for decorating those boxwood trees.

 

 

 

See other blog articles from The Treehouse Florist.

Google+ Circles Explained Floral Style

Wednesday, 20 July 2011 18:48 Written by admin 0 Comments

I want to thanks my awesome tech geek friend Josh for helping me with G+.

Here's what I love about Google+ and is also why I like G+ over FB.

Instead of saying, "I'm going to write a blog post now," or "I'm going to send an e-mail" or "I think I'll tweet something" you simply say what you have to say, then decide who you're going to say it to.

If you address it to "Public," it's a blog post to everyone you're friends with.

If you address it to "Your Circles" the message goes to those in that circle.
For example:
If you address it to your "My Customers" Circle it's a business newsletter. (assuming you created a circle called My Customers  and placed them in this circle)

If you address it to a single person, it can be a private message.

Since I have created a circle and put all of you in it, when I post something and point it towards you, only you see it. On FB when you post something, everyone sees it.

Another example: I created a Circle called epicFlorists. Any time I want to communicate with them, I simply make a post. Before I had to open Outlook and add the email list and then write the email and send. This is a keen example of how email will POSSIBLY be bye bye in the future.

We at EpicFlowers have started testing the SEO possibilities, but so far haven't found any. The reason for Google now indexing the G+ pages yet is it's still in the early stages. There was an announcement about Business G+ pages coming this fall, maybe that's when they'll start indexing pages. I did notice the +1 buttons with links get pasted onto your G+ page, which is a link back to your page. So my recommendation is to get the +1 button on your site.  Facebook doesn't put a link on your page when you "Like" something, which doesn't help your SEO at all if someone clicks the "Like" button on your website.

 

 

 

Why it’s important to know about your website’s conversion rate

Monday, 11 July 2011 17:44 Written by admin 0 Comments
First let's define conversion rates:  The percentage of how many people visited your site versus how many of them bought something. For example, 100 people came to your site today, 10 people bought something, your conversion today was 10%. There are some important factors your site must have to help with conversion rates such as a one page check out, guest log-in, accept Paypal, the over all look and feel of your site. It basically boils down to, how easy is it for your potential customer to shop and buy. Do they feel confident buying from your website? Does it look inviting? Does it look up to date? Is it easy to navigate? Are you giving them what they need? These are questions you should be asking about your website. One of the awesome unique features our BigCommerce Software  allows us to do for our clients is a quarterly audit report with suggested changes to help your conversion rate. For example, we notice that your site visitors are search a lot for Gerbers and shop directions, but your shop doesn't have either of these, we know we need to add these two pages. Here's a question for you, a florist website ranks first in Google your area and you rank fifth. Who makes more money? Well you can't answer that. Most would assume the florist ranking first, but what is there conversion rate? If they convert 1 out of every 500 hits, their conversion rate is pretty darn sad. So what do you think your conversion rate is? 20%? 40%? 50%? - If you're doing REALLY good it's 5%. That's right 5% and that's doing REALLY well. Just imagine if you could double your conversion rate. Look over your website and make some changes that I mentioned above and try to push your conversion rate up to make more money and happier customers.  

Why Set up a Business PayPal Account?

Monday, 20 June 2011 05:48 Written by admin 0 Comments
Why set up a Business PayPal Account? It's free and the amount of sales you'll receive online because you have PayPal will surprise you. If you like money, we HIGHLY suggest you sign up for PayPal.
How much does PayPal take from the money I receive? 2.9% plus 30 cents.  Is PayPal safe? Absolutely. -It's the number one electronic payment processor and money transfer service worldwide for years. In the U.S. -PayPal is the 2nd most preferred online payment method, right after Visa. -PayPal has now more than 150 million user accounts all over the world. -According to the results of Paypal's 2008 Holiday Survey, conducted by market research company Ipsos, a third of internet shoppers use Paypal for their online purchases.
Things You'll Need to Sign up for PayPal:
  • Your business banking account and routing numbers (so money can be put in your bank)
  • Business Email address (this will become your PayPal ID How to Set up a PayPal FREE Business Account:
  1. Click HERE to visit PayPal's website and click the "Sign Up" link at the top of the page. Select your country, language and then the 'Business' account button GET STARTED. (If you already have a personal account you want to upgrade to your business account, log in and click the upgrade link. Upgrade your account to business, it's free)
  2. In the drop, on the Select Payment Solution, choose Website Payments Standard and go on to the next page.
  3. Fill out the form, read/agree to the terms and press continue.
  4. Watch your email for a confirmation message from PayPal. When you receive it, click on the provided confirmation link which should bring you to the PayPal homepage. Enter your password on this page and click the "Confirm" button.
  5. Once you're in, ignore the two boxes that say "Pay with my bank account" and "Pay with my credit card". Click on the link below that says: "Go to my Account". Once in, under "Profile" up top, click on "Add or edit a bank account". Follow those steps and you're done!
  6. You're now set up. Once someone pays your business with their PayPal account, it'll set in PayPal till you withdraw it to your account, it's not automatic, The way you do this is, log in, under the "Withdraw" link, click the "Transfer to bank account" link. - Here you can see how much money you have in PayPal and you can easily transfer that to your bank account by filling in the amount and clicking the bottom. If you have any questions, comments or feedback, click the "Feedback" tab on the left side of this page or leave a comment at the bottom of the page.

New Webinar Series: eCommerce Tips for Displaying Trust, Effective Store Design and Better SEO

Tuesday, 26 April 2011 21:31 Written by admin 1 Comment
Overview: New advanced webinar series Title: eCommerce Tips for Displaying Trust, Effective Store Design and Better SEO When? 1pm CST on April 27th (See this in your time zone) Register: Click here to register (limited spots available)
We already run regular webinars that teach the basics of e-commerce and BigCommerce, but today I’m happy to announce that we’re adding a second series to our already popular webinars. Lead by certified BigCommerce design partner and e-commerce experts Madwire Media, eCommerce Tips for Displaying Trust, Effective Store Design and Better SEO is our latest webinar series and the first webinar kicks off at 1pm CST on April 27th (see this in your time zone). I’ve been lucky enough to watch a test-run of this webinar and the content is excellent, so this is definitely one webinar you don’t want to miss. We were very selective in choosing the right partner to run our new webinars, and JB and his team at Madwire have done a phenomenal job of organizing the webinar based around their real world experience and customer case studies. So, what will you learn? Here’s a taste:
  • Easy SEO strategies to dominate your competition on Google
  • How and why to display trust and credibility indicators
  • Effective store design and layout principles and examples
  • How to choose an effective domain name that increases sales
  • The effects a professional logo can have on your conversion rate
  • The importance of product reviews and how they factor into the sales process
  • How to design an effective home page layout for maximum conversions
  • Real world strategies to lower your visitor bounce rate
  • Tools to increase your search engine ranking and traffic
Click here to register (limited spots available)  

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Real Time Flowers Inc
1411 Lithia Way
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