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Archive for the ‘Ecommerce’ Category

Cross-Sells and Upsells Explained

We often get asked the difference between a cross-sell and an upsell in Magento. Linda Bustos of Get Elastic posted an excellent article explaining the difference. This is well worth a read.

As a footnote, Magento also supports “Related Products” in addition to cross-sells and upsells. They are typically cross-sells however they can be positioned on the product page as opposed to the cart page. In most of our sites we omit this feature, as we feel you can sometimes go overboard with cross-selling which detracts from overall usability. However on some occasions cross-sells on a product page may be beneficial, or even preferential to having them on the cart page.

Should your business be taking advantage of social media sites?

The answer is YES.

According to a survey carried out by American company Cone “93 percent of social media users believe a company should have a presence in social media, while an overwhelming 85 percent believe a company should not only be present but also interact with its consumers via social media. In fact, 56 percent of users feel both a stronger connection with and better served by companies when they can interact with them in a social media environment.”

Whilst social media sites have been around for quite some time now, it’s only recently businesses have started to see what benefits they hold. Initially seen as a fad, social media sites are evolving and showing no signs of going away.  How can a business make good use of this though? (more…)

Top 10 Traits of Successful Ecommerce Websites

I have been thinking a lot lately as to what it is that separates online stores that do OK, from online stores that do extremely well. In my 10 years of designing ecommerce websites I have noticed some very clear differences between the sites that seem to do well, and those that don’t. Most of this stuff isn’t rocket science, yet many businesses seem to be getting it wrong. This post is designed to be a little push in the right direction for businesses who feel they could be getting a little more out of their ecommerce website. (more…)

Our Magento Wish List

After the great response to our post “10 Things We Love About Magento” we thought we’d follow up with a post about the features and functionality we’d like to see added to Magento in 2009. We’re sure many of these things are already on the teams to-do list but it can’t hurt to give them a little nudge! (more…)

Ecommerce vs The High Street - A Few Statistics

In my inbox today I received an email from a North East business news website called bdaily.info. It has some rather staggering facts on ecommerce that I thought I would share with you all, as it certainly makes for an interesting read.

Last Christmas over 42% of consumers from the North East chose to do half or more of their shopping online.

Fast forward to December 2008 and online shopping looks to be hitting record levels all over the country and the world. On Monday 1st December industry analysts estimated that a whopping 4.6 million online shopping transactions were made. With customers spending roughly £300 million on the 1st this averages to just under £65 per transaction. (more…)