Small Business Blog

In the past decade or so, the ecommerce industry has taken leaps and bounds to get to where it is today. It is well on its way to becoming the favorite shopping destination of shoppers around the world. We have been part of the industry for more than a decade, and have seen all kinds of highs it has experienced. We continue to provide high standards of complete ecommerce store services to our clients at amazing prices. The secret to our continued success in the business is that we have continued to grow with the industry and innovations in technology. As with every New Year in the past, 2015 has brought its own predictions of the ecommerce trends that are likely to be popular this year and the years to come. We thought it prudent to look at some of these trends and share it on our blog. So, here we go; these are the ecommerce trends that you will likely have to incorporate in your web store soon enough:

Customized Products

This trend has been picking up steam for the past couple of years, with retail giants like Nike offering customers the option to customize their apparel. This trend will only become more popular in the future, because more and more customers will prefer unique products.

Preference will Matter

Offering customers similar products, to the one they purchase, is present in every online store in some form. But this small aspect will take on a life of its own in the future; online stores will offer up tailored item lists to customers, so they can have a more convenient shopping experience.

Geo Targeting

Personalized marketing will reach a new level with the help of smartphones. Geo targeting will allow web store owners to send relevant information about products, shipping costs, taxes etc. It would make shopping online a whole lot easier especially when customers can receive all this information about their purchases without having to navigate through 3 or 4 different web pages.

Image Based Marketing

The recent surge in the popularity of sites like Pinterest and Instagram is a telltale sign of this quickly growing trend. More online stores will rely on image based advertisements, because they will help them generate more traffic for their store. As you may have probably realized, some of these trends have already picked up steam and become quite common. We can help you market your business using the latest marketing techniques including image based social media sites. All the rest of the trends have a lot of catching up to do, and we will make sure to keep all our clients well-informed about them. For more detail visit : http://www.earthskater.com/

One of the most effective ways to attract more traffic to your online store is to personalize it on different levels. Starting with the design of the web store, which we can help you with, and ending with how your products are represented on the store. You have to offer your customers a unique online shopping experience and adding a personal touch to it can do the trick.

1.     Segmented Customers

Everyone visiting your site is different; depending on what the audiences are searching for, you can add a unique message for them on your website. This personal message or a visual can help raise the appeal of your website to the visitors.

2.     Personalized Information

This doesn’t mean that you have to tweak your web content for each segment of your target market; it actually means adding the extra bits of information about each product, which can be extremely useful for your customers. For example, you can tell the customer looking at a particular product about when the product will be out of stock or how long it will be out of stock for.

3.     Call to Action Approach

Every web store on the internet has the same old calls to action; buy now, click here, download now etc. Although these clear calls to action are useful, but adding more creative calls action will help you capture the attention of the audiences in a better way. For example, rather than using “call now” you can use “we are just a phone call away”. With the help of our marketing services, you can generate a lot of traffic, but it’s on you to convert that traffic into customers.

4.     Focus on the 3 Ws

Content writing is all about who, what, where, when, why and whatever else, but you just need to focus on the 3 Ws; who, what and where. Who the visitor is, what are they looking for and where they are accessing the store from?

5.     The Visuals

The images or videos that you place on your online store need to speak to your audiences on a personal level. For example, if you are trying to attract female customers to a sale you are having, you should use visuals and imagery that appeals to them. The 5 approaches above will help you to personalize your ecommerce store to a certain extent, and you will be able to increase the traffic on your online store. If you require any of our design or marketing services, then feel free to contact us (877-627-2492) and we will find the solution you need to achieve success with your online store.

It’s no secret that the majority of online stores don’t achieve success because they cannot secure the type of traffic needed to pull in steady traffic. But you need not worry about this; we are here to save the day! First of all, you need the kind of services we offer to launch a successful online store. Second, here are a few trade secrets that we have learnt from successful online store owners over the years. These secrets to online store success are exactly what new online store owners need, so fret not and read on:

Promote before Launching

You will require a solid social media presence to achieve this task or really good quality and persuasive content. All new store owners’ start marketing their stores after they have set it up, which we realize is very easy to do. But you have to hold off the launch until you have started marketing your soon-to-launch online store. This practice will help you secure a loyal audience, even before your store goes live. Use creative marketing techniques, like offering discounts for signing up, and you will have a list of potential customer in your hand when your store is launched.

Listen to the People

When you start the promotion of your store before it is launched, it will give you an opportunity to test the market without any of the risk involved. Give people a sneak peek into your products and gauge the response and it will help you create a better online store. Afterwards, you can visit our site and start the process of creating a store. We provide online store hosting as well as custom web design services.

The Competition

Learn everything there is to know about your competitors, barring corporate espionage. Observe how their online store works, the offers, the deals, the mechanisms and the processes; this will give you the information you require to deliver the right experience to your customers and be different from the competitors.

Launch Day Deals

The pre-promotions we mentioned above can also play another part in the success of your store; you can include launch day deals and offers in the promotional material that you produce for your new online store. This will ensure that people visit your site on launch day to make purchases so you can start your business on a high note.

Continued Success

If you want to keep the initial momentum, you will require some excellent marketing techniques, which we can help you with. And you will also require a special dedication to your customer service so the customers keep returning. Remember the secrets and get ready to launch a successful online store. If you require information about the services we offer, explore our site or call us  1-877-627-2492 and a representative will help you with any questions.

As we have discussed previously, setting up an online store is relatively simple, with a little help from Earth Skater, of course. But, promoting your online store is a long process and can be extremely difficult, if you don’t have the right people working on it. We offer our clients promotional and marketing services for their online stores, so they can start turning over a profit, as soon as possible. Promotion of your online venture depends on generating the maximum amounts of traffic for your store and many different ways are used to achieve that result. Following are some of the common methods that are utilized for effective promotion of online stores:

1.     Article Marketing

Article marketing is all about spreading the word about your store, and the products you are selling, on the World Wide Web. Articles are written on different topics that relate to your e-commerce store, to promote it, and then they are posted on different article publishing sites. These articles help you  create a more ‘visible’ online presence for your store and can help generate valuable traffic.

2.     Social Marketing

Social media sites, like Facebook, Twitter, Google+ etc, make for the best virtual locations to promote your business. With timely posts and the right promotional material, you can have thousands of people following your pages and sharing your posts.

3.     Email Marketing

Create a newsletter signup form on your website, this will allow you to gather valuable email addresses   that you can use to send promotional material and exclusive offers to clients. Be careful to walk the fine line between spamming someone’s inbox and sending useful promotional materials to them.

4.     Online Ads

By paying a nominal fee, you can get Google Adwords to place your online store’s advertisements on many different websites. This can be instrumental in attracting potential customers to your online store.

5.     Blogging

Unique content on your blog and the right link building techniques can be helpful in promoting your online store on Google and other popular search engines value sites, which are being updated with unique content on a daily basis. All the promotional techniques can help you successfully promote your business online and they can also help raise your profits. But, managing all of them at the same time can be difficult for the site owner, because you also have to worry about the business side of the store. This is why you should leave the promotion of the website to the pros. We offer a complete advertising and marketing package to our clients, on top of our excellent online store hosting and designing services. Contact us (877-627-2492) to learn about ways in which our team can help you promote your business and increase your revenues.

Has your online store been struggling to turn a profit? Then you have to give our affiliate tracking program a try. Affiliate tracking or marketing programs have been getting a lot attention in recent years. They are being utilized by many online store owners to increase the revenues of their stores, without paying for or employing any brilliant marketing or advertising strategy.

Commission Based

After joining an affiliate program, you can essentially become a vendor of your own products. You no longer have to ‘sell’ your products yourself; the affiliate program allows other site owners to sell the products for you. You will of course need to negotiate the terms of their commission. After agreeing on a number for the commission, your products will be sold by the many different site owners involved in the affiliate program. This will cause a definite increase in the sales of your online store, without any actual sales on the store itself.

Advertisements

Another way to get some cash rolling into your online store is by placing advertisements of affiliates on your online store or have your store’s ads placed on their sites. After a customer clicks on the banners and makes a purchase from the corresponding store, the site hosting the ads will get a small percentage of the sale. Our affiliate tracking programs also allows you to easily keep track of all the clicks and sales made, via the program.

The Right Niche

One thing that you have to be certain about, when you are advertising products on your online store is that the products should complement your online store. This right affiliate program will allow you to find the products that belong to your niche market, or at least suit your online store in some way. You will have to spend some time researching the vendors and the products they sell, to find the product which is right for your store. For example, if you are selling smoothie machines, then advertising fresh fruits would be ideal for your online store. Once you have, you can enjoy the extra influx of cash and increased revenues; all thanks to the affiliate tracking program. Call our sales team today (877627-2492) to learn about the ways our affiliate tracking program can help you increase your profits and you ROI.

Once you decide to start an online store and research the “how to’s” of the process, you are bound to come across many different online store builders. These sites offer online store hosting, design and a myriad of other features to clients. Our site, Earth Skater, is among the very best of such sites and offers a long list of features to clients. In this post, we will discuss some of the highlights from that list of features.

Starting with the Domain

Every online store is born when the right, creative and catchy domain name is found and registered. Our site has a nifty little feature, which allows clients to search for and register the domain name they think would be perfect for their e-commerce store.

Web Design

After you have selected the domain name and the right monthly payment plan, you can get introduced to our custom web design feature. We offer completely unique designs for your online store; you can select the one that complements your overall idea for your online store.

Payment and Shipping

Two things that concern online store owners the most. We offer multiple payment options and an easy checkout process for your customers. As far as shipping is concerned, sites hosted on Earth Skater support UPS/USPS/FEDEX and international shipping. So, you will no face worries if you want to expand your business to international markets.

Marketing

Our most valuable services and also the most important, once your store has been launched, are the marketing, advertising and SEO services. We can help you optimize your site, so you receive the benefit of its presence on all the popular search engines.

Mobile Compatibility

Responsive designs are crucial in the success of any online store. Our web designs are handheld device friendly, and automatically resize to accommodate any screen size. So, you store can be more accessible for your customers.

Simple and Easy

The best feature we offer is the simple usability of the site. You can perform all the necessary day to day tasks, without acquiring any special knowledge about web development or management. We haven’t even begun to scratch the surface of the value that our site can offer you. So, what are you waiting for? Iron out your business plans and give our sales people a call (877627-2492) and they can guide you towards setting up and launching your online store.

At Earth Skater, we pride ourselves on having one of the best affiliate tracking programs in the industry; a sentiment that is regularly expressed to us by our customers about our affiliate tracking program. The affiliate program concept is gaining popularity because of the value it brings website owners. Here are the benefits of using an affiliate tracking program on your website / online store.

Promotional Value

An affiliate program brings exceptional promotional value for your store; in fact an affiliate program can successfully help you maximize your business and bring more traffic to your site.  Each affiliate will refer traffic to your website and help to brand your business.  This cycle will repeat and grow over time.

Report and Monitor

With the aid of an affiliate program, you can keep an eye on which affiliates are sending you traffic and sales.  You can keep track of the numbers and work with affiliates to improve your affiliate conversions.

Easy Management

The best thing about using an affiliate program is that it requires very little effort to use.  The program tracks all statistics and sales, and you simply pay commissions to affiliates as needed.

Traffic Improvements

The major function of an affiliate program is to maximize your online store exposure.  Affiliates will employ different techniques like posting your link on their website, in their social media, and newsletters to ensure that your site receives more traffic, which will have a direct impact on sales.

Valuable Data

An important thing to remember about affiliate programs is that, you have to find the right program from the right provider, to achieve all the benefits that are mentioned above. Our affiliate tracking program has been praised by clients over and over again, for the convenience and value it offers to them.  If you have any questions regarding the program, then give us a call (877) 627-2492 and we will be happy to answer your questions.