On Thursday, June 6th IRCE officially came to a close for exhibitors and the main exhibit hall. Even though speakers and presentations lasted through Friday, Beacon had a full day at McCormick Place before shutting down the booth and heading home. After a great breakfast in downtown Chicago and packing up our suitcases we took our last shuttle trip to the convention center to talk Beacon’s SMART Web Solutions. The morning went by incredibly fast and we had wonderful opportunities to speak to some of our clients and partners who attended the event before we went our separate ways.

The Beacon team had a chance to catch up with our partners at 4Tell, Aspdotnetstorefront and Nextopia and even has a meeting with our client’s Total Wine. As the day wore on we had a chance to give away some great Google prizes and a Jambox to attendees who came by during the week and spoke with us. As the day winded down and the closing hours approached the Beacon Team began to break up as we all had our separate flights to catch back home and snap back to reality.

This year’s IRCE was a great success and we showed up with a brand new booth, a brand new look and with experience from last year’s event to draw on. We were able to hear from some of the best thought leaders in the business, talk to some our wonderful clients and partners and get to know brand new people who are interested in growing alongside of us. Thank you once again for everyone we met, spoke to and saw at this year’s conference and have a successful 2013!

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Day 2 at IRCE was extremely busy and full of breakout sessions from notable guests like Al Gore and Beacon clients/partners Bronto & Delta Apparel. The exhibit hall opened at 9:00 a.m. and after a quick breakfast Beacon team members manned the booth and started meeting attendees and giving away prizes. Our team member Annette, was helping out at our partners booth, AspDotNetStorefront, to talk about how Beacon and Aspdotnetstorefront can help businesses succeed through e-commerce.

As the day wore on, we gave away our first set of Google giveaways with some Google backpacks and laptop sleeves. Our last team member arrived in the morning as Brad Henry showed up to talk digital strategy with IRCE attendees. Around lunch time all the exhibitors begin to hit the wall and the food court starts beckoning from afar. But at Beacon, we say “When in Rome…Do As The Romans Do.” So we ordered some wonderful Lou Malnati’s pizza for some excellent local deep dish taste of Chicago. It was huge and wonderful and kept the crew moving all afternoon. Coincidentally, later on that afternoon an attendee from Lou Malnati’s picked up another great Google prize.

Beacon had wonderful opportunities to hang out with some of our wonderful vendors at IRCE. Nextopia members were able to stop by to say hello, along with our wonderful clients Delta Apparel, Superior Play, Burton & Burton and Annette was holding down the Aspdotnetstorefront booth most the day. Our Sales Director, Rick Boccard, had the wonderful opportunity to sit in on a breakout session by Delta Apparel and Bronto that helped give insights into holiday email marketing for eCommerce.

As the day winded down, Beacon was able to award our grand prize of the day, a brand new JAMBOX to our lucky winner, Tabi. After the social hours at the end of the day the Beacon team headed back to the hotel and down to dinner at a wonderful seafood restaurant just a short walk away that helped cap off a wonderful day at IRCE. Thursday is the last day of IRCE for us before we head back home to Greensboro.

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IRCE is a huge event. When I say huge, I mean HUGE. Walking into the conference you have to do a double take to make sure this is where you should be. Massive RV’s, cars, three-story booths and awesome lights are a great welcome to Chicago and McCormick Place. But wait, I am getting ahead of myself…we haven’t arrived yet.

Beacon started off from Greensboro, went through Charlotte and then onto Chicago on Tuesday morning. After a smooth ride and great shuttle service to the hotel, the Beacon team (Rick, Emily & Jordan) picked up the booth and supplies and took the complimentary shuttle to McCormick Place (America’s largest convention center…think airport size). After setting up everything, Beacon was able to unveil the new look of our brand, at booth 545, and approach through SMART Web Solutions with brand new materials and a backdrop to set the booth off.

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The exhibit hall opened at 4:00 p.m. and Beacon started off meeting the huge 9,500-attendee crowd. Shortly after the event kicked off we were welcomed by the rest of our team, Annette and Mark! Beacon is giving away some great prizes over the three-day conference and exhibit and started the contest to see who will take home some Google bags, lava lamps and a Jawbone JAWBOX. We even ran into one of our partners, Nextopia, who are right next to the our booth. The event shut down at 7:00 but the party continued as Beacon took part in a conference kickoff event with great food and entertainment.

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Later on that evening, Beacon took to downtown, a short walk from the hotel, to go watch the Chicago Blackhawks play downtown and enjoy some good food and catch up after a very long day of travel and work. Stay tuned for a recap of day 2 and 3 at the conference and see some of the winners of the contest and meet some of our great partners who are at the event!

Beacon Technologies continues its hectic 2013 conference schedule at the 9th annual Internet Retailer Conference and Exhibition, the world’s largest e-commerce event. This year’s event will be held at Chicago’s McCormick Place West from June 4-7, 2013. This huge event will analyze the social, mobile, global, personal, interactive and managerial changes that e-commerce players are bringing to the new retail economy.

This years conference expects 9,500 attendees that comprise online retailing, from up-and-coming start-ups to long-established retail chains. Beacon will meet with all the other attendees and exhibitors at McCormick Place West for four days to learn, share, grow and exchange information with one another, what ensues is a memorable networking experience.

Beacon has a large team at this years conference and is giving away some great prizes for those who come by the booth and sign up! Not only can you win great Google giveaways this year but we are also giving away three JAMBOX devices which are wonderful speakers that can play through any bluetooth-enabled device. Want to win? Stop by and signup or tweet or post the #beaconIRCE hashtag to Facebook, Google+ or LinkedIn to win!

You can follow the happenings of the conference by following Beacon Technologies and Internet Retailer on Twitter. Check back frequently on both Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn and Facebook to see photos, giveaways and updates from the event. You can tweet with #IRCE or tweet at either one of us with @beacontec and @IR_Conferences. Connect with both accounts below.

Tweets about “#irce”

Tweets by @beacontec

Aspdotnetstorefront offers lots of great search engine optimization opportunities (including the ability to pretty quickly add Google Analytics tracking to the entire site) which is one of the primary reasons that Beacon selected it as our go-to eCommerce platform many years ago.

However, the resources to set up these items are scattered about a bit, so I thought I’d note specific links I find useful when discussing these topics with clients and/or developers. Hope they are helpful and please be sure to include your own suggestions in the comments section below!

Online User Manual

• Google Analytics and eCommerce Tracking– http://manual.aspdotnetstorefront.com/p-441-google-analytics-and-ecommerce-tracking.aspx (Version ML8) and http://manual.aspdotnetstorefront.com/p-1035-google-analytics-and-ecommerce-tracking.aspx (MultiStore)
• Submitting your Site to Google Sitemaps (Versions ML8 and MultiStore)– http://manual.aspdotnetstorefront.com/p-436-submitting-your-site-to-google-sitemaps.aspx
• Submitting your Sitemap to Yahoo! (Versions ML8 and MultiStore)– http://manual.aspdotnetstorefront.com/p-437-submitting-your-sitemap-to-yahoo.aspx
• Search Engine Optimization– http://manual.aspdotnetstorefront.com/p-505-seo.aspx (Version ML8) and http://manual.aspdotnetstorefront.com/p-1029-seo.aspx (MultiStore)
• A/B Testing with Google Checkout– http://manual.aspdotnetstorefront.com/p-747-ab-testing-with-google-checkout.aspx

Forum posts

• SEO in ASPDNSF– http://forums.aspdotnetstorefront.com/showthread.php?t=17028
• Google Analytics Ecommerce tracking– http://forums.aspdotnetstorefront.com/showthread.php?t=16236

Blog posts

• The Token Analytics Article– http://blog.vortx.com/analytics/the-token-analytics-article/

• Analytics: What’s the Deal With All These Numbers? – http://blog.vortx.com/analytics/analytics-what%E2%80%99s-the-deal-with-all-these-numbers/

• Google Analytics and AspDotNetStorefront– http://blog.vortx.com/analytics/google-analytics-aspdotnetstorefront/

There are a lot of e-commerce web solutions and can be hard to choose from.

We prefer aspdotnetstorefront with its ease of use and great customer support. It provides great integration with new and existing sites and is also customizable with its settings to fit your needs.

You can customize things such as your overall site look and feel, desktop or mobile, change back-end settings in an administration panel to work with your product categories and much more.

Another great feature is that it allows the products to be be setup for multichannel selling to reach a larger audience. There is so much you can do and we can help you every step of the way.

8 Ways to Improve Product Detail Pages

1.       Larger Images – Having bigger images is important because the customer wants to be able to see the product. If they can’t see the product because the image is the size of a thumbnail, chances are they won’t convert. It’s important to not only have big images but also have plenty of images for the customer to look at.  (see above picture for example)

 2.       Product videos – Videos are great for eCommerce sites because they give the customer a better look at the product. Not only are videos great for showing off the product but they also provide a chance for you to talk directly to the customer and tell them more about the product then they can read online.  (see above picture for example)

 3.       Make Your Price Stand out – No matter what the product costs, it is still important to make the price visible and easy to see. A price that is hidden can be aggravating for a customer and could lead to many abandoned carts. It’s better to just show the price right away and make it stand out so the customer knows exactly what the item costs.  (see above picture for example)

 4.       Large Colorful Call to Action Buttons – it’s important to also make it easy for the customer to add the product to their cart or wish list. Having large colorful buttons will make it easier for the customer to know exactly what to do if they want to make a purchase. (call to actions such as “add to cart”, “add to wish list” or “add to favorites” etc)

 5.       Engage Customers with Social Media – Whether you think your customers will use it or not, you should always include social media sharing buttons. This is free advertisement for you if the customer shares. Having a “like”, “pin”, or “tweet” button make it easy for customers to share with their friends if they find something they really like.

 6.       In Stock Notification – Let say you want to keep out of stock products on your site for whatever reason. When a customer comes to your site hoping to find the product they are looking for and then get an out of stock message, it can be frustrating for them. Not only are they upset it’s out of stock but chances are they are going to exit the site at that point and not return. Don’t let that happen. Add an In Stock Notification sign up on the page. Not only will you collect an email address but you’ll also keep the customer happy and coming back to the site.

 7.       Add Color Swatches – Telling the customer how many colors a product comes in is great but showing them is even greater! A customer is more likely to convert if they can see all the choices then if they are just told them. Colors can vary so much which is why showing exactly what the color looks like will help seal a sell.

 8.       Include Customer Reviews – Reviews are great for getting people motivated to buy. If a customer is on the fence about buying the product, a good review might be that small push they need to convert. Reviews can be in the form of comments or ratings. Showing both is ideal because you can show the ratings beside the product and comments at the bottom of the page.

Looking for more great tips about eCommerce? Learn how to improve your eCommerce site, find new ways to shake up your site navigation, and display different pricing with ASPDotNetStoreFront.

Recently one of our AspDotNetStorefront clients asked me to come up with a way to modify the display of his products that vary by price.  One of the things I really like about AspDotNetStorefront is that there are often “hidden gems” or functionality that you might not use one day, but come up with a way to incorporate it later.  For this client, I recommended that he investigate either the product attribute features of a simple product or set up the products with separate variants.

Attribute Option

This is the easiest product setup and, in general, requires the least XML package modification/development, but may not be the ideal user experience, depending upon the type of product being sold.

1. Log into ASPDNSF Admin and search for the product to modify
2. Click on the product and then on the Main tab
   • Change “Color Option Prompt” to the appropriate label to indicate why this product has multiple prices (for example “Product Options”).
   • Change the XML package to product.simpleproduct.xml.config
   • Hit the “Update” button.
3. Go to the Product Variant link, click on the default product variant displayed and then click on the Attributes tab
4. Enter text like this in “Colors” field– “Product Option 1[-100.00],Product Option 2[-50.00],Product Option 3″.  In this example, product option 1 will be $100 cheaper and Product Option 2 will be $50 cheaper than product option 3.  Add as many product types and prices as needed; separate all product options by commas.
5. Hit “Update”  and then view the product on the live site.  Selecting “Product Option 1″ from the drop down should  discount the item by $100 when added to the cart
6. See http://manual.aspdotnetstorefront.com/p-967-varying-price-by-sizecolor.aspx for more info on this setup

Variant Option

Depending on the type of product, I think this is the best looking option for the customer, but sometimes requires modification of the XML package by a developer to display correctly.

1. Log into ASPDNSF Admin and search for the product to modify
2. On the Main tab
   • Change the XML package to product.variantsindropdown.xml.config
   • Save the product with the “Update” button
3. Go to the Product Variant link and clone the default/existing variant using the “Clone” link.  Create as many clones as there will be product options for this product.
4. Click on the first variant in the list.
5. Change the variant name to “Product Option 1” (or other applicable label) and change the price field to the correct price for this product option and then save the variant.
6. Click on each subsequent variant in the list and change the variant product name and price for that product option.
7. Save the product and then view the product on the live site.  Each product variant will appear as a separate choice in the drop down box along with the applicable price for that product variant.

I hope that you find this information helpful!

Let me start off by saying, I’m a big fan of AspDotNetstorefront, have written several blogs about its benefits and features, and have been personally involved in over a dozen site launches or enhancements involving the ecommerce shopping cart. However, as with any out-of-the-box software, there are areas where I think it could be improved and therefore have put together this “wish list”.  Also please note that these items pertain to versions 9.2 and older– they could be addressed in future versions (and as a Custom Development partner, we’ve heard that a number of these items are currently “in the works” and we eagerly anticipate sharing the enhancements with our clients when available!):

1. Reports– Though there are a few reports that come out-of-the-box with AspDotNetStorefront, I wish they were more extensive and customizable.  In addition, most of these reports are “on screen” display only and a “download to CSV” option would be ideal for every report.  I’ve tinkered with the “Custom Reports” option myself, to create a few simple reports needed by my clients, but  unless you have extensive knowledge of SQL and AspDotNetStorefront’s product and order tables (which Beacon’s developers do, I assure you!) you’ll want to stick to simple reports.  Finally, I’ll give a shout out to our friends over at Compunix, that offer a nice variety of add-on reports that we use regularly to enhance our client’s sites.
2. “Getting Started” Documentation– I use the online manual and developer forums for AspDotNetStorefront daily and they are excellent, but I find that all the information is a bit daunting for a new AspDotNetStorefront administrator.  Years ago, the developers provided a PDF with basic installation and administration information, but after it reached 500+ pages, they discontinued its maintenance in favor of online documentation.  Since this basic “how to” resource is no longer available from AspDotNetStorefront, Beacon has written a “primer” on site administration, with just the basic info like creating entities and products, editing topic pages, etc.  It would be nice if a small PDF with just the basics like this was provided out-of-the-box.
3. Hyperlink the product name in Admin “Browse by Category”– This is the smallest, nit-pickiest thing, but if you’ve had to do it 1,001 times like I have, you’ll appreciate the issue.  In Admin, when you choose to look for a product by browsing the category (Organization, Manage Categories, click on Category name, click on Products tab).  First, you have to click on “Show Selected Only” (see next bullet) and then, even though a list of the products in the category is there for you, you can’t actually click on any of the products to see their product pages.  You have to copy/paste the product name or SKU into the search box and search for the product and then you can click on the product page.
4. Show Selected Only– Directly related to the item above and similarly nit-picky, when you browse to a list of products via the Category, you have to manually click on the “Show Selected Only” checkbox to filter out the products that are NOT in that category.  Huh?  This is actually a simple customization that we’ve done several times to automatically have this box checked by default, but it should really come this way by default.
5. Hide Seldom Used Topic pages– This is an example where AspDotNetStorefront is giving us TOO much functionality.  By default, there are dozens of topic pages listed in the “Manage Topics” list in Admin, only a small fraction of which will ever be used by a “normal” small business.  While I love to be able to enable these when needed, it makes for an unwieldy list for a new administrator.  Could these be separated into “frequently used” (like hometopintro) and “other pages” so that the initial list is not so daunting?
6. Test Publishing Environment — I’m really reaching here, but it would be so nice to be able to update a product or topic page and publish it to a Test environment first, before releasing it to the public site.  I’ve been known to make ugly HTML errors from time to time, and I just hate to have them shown on the public site, even for a second.  We accomplish this at Beacon by having a totally separate Test installation of AspDotNetStorefront for every site, so that theoretically, a client could go to the Test site first, enter their update in the product/topic page, check how it looks at the Test URL and then copy/paste the HTML version to the Production site.  But this is laborious for a small change.  Being able to view a “test” version of the page before publishing would be ideal.
7. Include “product description” as basic sort field– By default, the basic AspDotNetStorefront search includes the following fields:  Product Name, SKU, Manufacturer’s Part number.  I’ve never had a client that didn’t want the basic search to also include Product Description.  Again, this is a simple customization and we do it frequently, but it doesn’t make sense to me why it isn’t included as search criteria in the first place.  Perhaps there’s a concern that it might cause a performance issue due to additional data, but if your server or database can’t handle an additional value like this, you have other issues going on.

Anybody else have a “wish list” item to include?  Please share… Maybe someone at Vortx is listening/reading!

Never judge a book by its cover… unless that book is a website, and the cover is the home page.

Remember the Tootsie Roll Pop commercial from the 1980s: How many licks does it take to get to the tootsie roll center of a tootsie pop?

Now, ask this question about your website: How many clicks does it take to know what your website is all about? If the visitor starts at your home page, the answer better be zero clicks. It’s safe to assume that your home page is your most popular landing page. Sure, there are other landing pages that are tied to specific marketing campaigns. And there are best practices for those landing pages, as well. But when you look at the Landing Pages report in Google Analytics, I’d bet that your home page is your most popular landing page.

Having established that your home page is the most important page of your website for new (and returning) visitors, there are some questions visitors have that you must answer without them having to click any further:

Who are you?

The answer to this question has everything to do with your brand and purpose, not necessarily your company profile. Do you sell accessories for mobile devices? Better make sure visitors don’t think that you sell the actual iPhones and Androids. By clearly establishing your brand and purpose, you also allow the visitor to begin discovering whether or not they are in your target audience. (Note: I say, “begin discovering,” because you can always refine the audience profile on later pages with criteria such as price point.)

Are you good at what you do?

It’s important for you to introduce your value propositions on the home page. What unique values are a part of your company’s offering that makes it worth doing business with you? You don’t have to lay out all of the value prop details on the home page, which has limited real estate. Subsequent pages along the funnel are great real estate for expanding on and reinforcing your value propositions.

Where do I go from here?

Now that visitors know who you are and why you’re good, they want to know what to do next. This is all about your main conversion goal. If you have a range of products/services, use your home page to segment your audience so that you can have targeted, specific offerings on the following page. Having your visitors self-select their segment removes guesswork and allows you to see the difference in traffic and funnel stats for each segment.

The Irony of the About Us page

The About Us page should supplement the home page message of who you are, not replace it. By answering the above questions on the home page and reinforcing them throughout the funnel, you reduce the need for someone to visit the About Us page. Remember that the About Us page is typically not along a website’s conversion path.

Take the Work out of the Visitor’s Hands

Put yourself in the visitor’s position. They do not want to have to work to find answers to the above questions. Once it begins to feel like work, you run the risk of losing brand appeal and having visitors exit. Do the work of having a succinct, well-stated home page. The easier it is for a visitor to know important facts about your business, the quicker they can make a purchase decision.