how to ship online efficiently during world cup 2014

Shipments are a key point in E Commerce  as part of the shopping experience of the customer in the Online Store. No use having the store with the best design, the process simpler and more effective, if later, the client can not receive the product at home, or payment does not arrive in a timely manner, generating tension and uncertainty the buyer.

As important are the shipments Internet a study by Invesp reveals that 44% of shopping carts are abandoned because of shipping costs, which is the main reason for cart abandonment.

How ships operating in the E commerce?

Of course you can go yourself to a post office to ship the product, or if your company already has a logistics solution to make use of it. However, many companies now offer specialized mailing services for Ecommerce.

Through this service, after making a sale on your online store, you contact the courier company and this will happen by your local or tank to find the product and send it to the customer's home. It is simple, comfortable and allows you to stay focused on your business.

To have this service email asking companies that des Register your business with them.

If you use Cloud Store can remember having this service at a promotional price with OCA, UPS and Servientrega.

9 Tips for Shipping Your online store

We share 9 tips that you have to know when thinking about sending your product:

1. Hire a courier company

The first step in thinking about shipments for your online store is to hire a company that has postal service said E commerce. It is also essential that the process of purchasing your store customers can see the cost of shipping the product.

Leave the shipping cost to be agreed later as something can cause the client to feel cheated, because after making the purchase is informed of an additional cost.

Cloud Store is integrated with shipping companies such as OCA, UPS and Correo Argentino in Argentina, Colombia and Correios Servientrega in Brazil. This integration saves you from having to enter the shipping costs of these companies manually.

Two. Offers free shipping

With this option the seller bears the cost of shipping. The feasibility of this strategy will depend on the value of your average ticket. For example, if your average ticket is $ 50 you hardly can bear the cost of shipping and you'd lose money on every sale made. Now if your average ticket is $ 1,000, there is a possibility that you can bear the cost of between $ 30 - $ 60 shipping.

Perhaps you are wondering why you would have to assume that cost, thus reducing your profit on each sale. Remember that 44% of shopping carts are abandoned by shipping costs. Free shipping offer will surely decrease the number of abandoned carts and increase your sales volume by a similar amount. Thus increasing your income and profits.

Three. Offers free shipping after a certain amount

If your average ticket does not allow you offer free shipping on all purchases at your store, you can offer for purchases above a certain amount.

This not only diminish the cart abandonment but also you'll be encouraging your customers to make more purchases.

Four. Offers free shipping for certain areas

There is also the possibility that you can afford the cost of shipping for certain geographic areas for which you know you are assuming the cost.

Feel free to reclaim the cost of shipping for regions where you know you can afford the expense.

Five. Offers free shipping for certain products

If you want to position a product or you can increase your sales motivate your clients to take an interest in him reclaiming the submission. As in the case of the average ticket, you should verify that the value of the product allows you to cover the cost of shipping.

This strategy is ideal to offer a discount to your client without devaluing your product.

6. Withdrawal by local

An easy alternative to implement but is huge potential to offer customers the opportunity to withdraw the product from your local show room or warehouse, saving the cost of shipping.

Many clients prefer to approach the local or ask a friend to pick up your purchase in order to save money.

Moreover, knowing that there is a local will give confidence to the client and, once your client is there, you can offer other products.

7. Provide your customers the ability to keep track of your package

The shipment of the product tends to generate anxiety and expectation in the client. This is understandable considering we paid for it but still do not have it in your hands.

Give your customers a tracking code package will provide transparency and quiet during the wait.

Also decrease the calls and emails you receive asking about shipping status.

Note that the tracking code I'll provide the shipping company at the time of making the same.

8. Thinks locally and globally

Surely when mountains think your online shop in a local shipping solution, ie, that allows you to send products to where are your current customers. However, remember that the Internet is a global marketplace. Fortunately from Cloud Store often have seen materialized SMEs and entrepreneurs who sell from regions where they never thought they could sell and needed to ship your product.

Offer a solution for international shipments as UPS allow you to capitalize such sales.Remember to offer a shipping company does not involve additional cost.

9. Communicate your shipping alternatives

From nothing will have the best shipping solution if your customers are not aware of it. Moreover, users think that your store may have queries regarding shipping before reaching the step of the buying process which shows how much they must pay.

Whatever solution you offer shipment, comunícate on your site on how to buy and / or FAQ for your online store.

Additionally, if you hire a shipping company, show your logo in your store . Should offer some type of free shipping, you can promote it with a banner .

Finally, the package fail stop customer loyalty. Send a coupon inside the package to encourage the customer to buy again. If you have a roadside stand or showroom, also include your contact information such as address and phone number.

7 Tips to increase sales of your online store with the World 2014

Image credit courtesy by vector open stock.

All global event creates a sense of belonging and a need to be involved. Your friends and colleagues speak about it in every spare moment, and if you're not on the same page is likely to feel excluded. Besides being a world event, we're talking about a sport that has strong roots in our culture: football. During the World Cup month we all become experts and fans DT's no.1 football. Women who do not watch the sport the names of all the players learn and then let elaborate phrases as impressed men 'Lavezzi is now for change, to see if you put Sabella Palace ...'

Since the World Cup generates this level of identification, it presents a great opportunity for businesses to increase their sales. The client on the world time is passionate and happy customers, what better mood to buy? The Ecommerce can benefit greatly from this, being the fastest and simplest way to make a purchase.

Sporting goods, tickets, t equipment, electronics, and World Cup merchandising product categories will benefit most from the 2014 World Cup. Those traders selling other products can generate more sales with a marketing strategy aimed at generating identification between the viewer / customer and your product, emphasizing the shared sentiment World Cup.

Such is the case of P & G to promote their products (not directly related to the world) launched a campaign of 'Fan trainer' linking everyday products with the fan of the World Cup.

Your online store should be prepared to receive a larger volume of visitors than usual, that's why you then share 7 tips and graphics to increase sales of your online shop taking advantage of the World Cup-Brazil 2014

1. Promotions and coupons

A World Cup is held every 4 years, it is for this reason that we must seize the moment launching aggressive offers. About your products generating customer with World Cup themed promotions and discount coupons valid during the period of the tournament. You can also give World Cup merchandising products and customers above a certain amount on shopping; or those who purchase a given product in your store.

Two. Generates creative email marketing campaigns

The usefulness of email marketing is unquestionable . When generating sales, this tool gets (usually) better than social networking. Tools like MailChimp or sendblaster allow manage your online database and create landing pages (or landing) targeting specific customers.

There are some key points to create a successful email marketing campaign: in general, be sure to get to know your target audience and the message you are sending match what you expect.

Three. Optimize your website for SEO

A well optimized website for SEO (Search Engine Optimization) will appear better positioned in search engines, thereby directing it towards a more qualified traffic. For that, you need to be sure that the public is coming to your ecommerce site through the right keywords. There are many tips regarding SEO, but as the subject matter is the 2014 World Cup, one of the key things to do is create a specific landing page oriented event.

To optimize a page destination puedess use planner Keywords of Google , which is free and is only necessary to generate a free Google Adwords to access it. With this tool it is possible to distinguish which words are those having a higher search volume and from there decide what to put on the landing page.

Overall, a good landing page will contain the following items:

• Clear titles and objectives: include your main keyword in the title. Make a catchy title that clearly communicates what you sell.
• Short texts: a very long text scare customers by boring, try to avoid.
• Simple design: the design should be beautiful but simple; avoid placing other elements that may distract the user and away from a potential purchase.

We recommend you look at these 9 tips for Ecommerce SEO and put some into practice.

April. Remarketing is also a good idea:

To use a remarketing strategy you got to add a remarketing tag to your web site in order to reach people who previously visited. That way you can show relevant and targeted ads when operating internet or when making a search on Google. For example, when users leave your site without completing the purchase, you can use remarketing to bring them back and try to finish the process.

May. Optimize your checkout

According Baymard Institute, 67.91% of potential customers abandon the basket during the online purchase . To avoid this many losses, a good solution is to have a simple process and optimized checkout. If the user must go through many pages before concluding the purchase, you may get bored and abandon the cart (4 pages is the maximum recommended by specialists).

These other tips can also be helpful to optimize your checkout:

• Editable Cart: allows the client to make changes to your cart before completing the purchase.
• It offers payment alternatives and be clear about them: It is essential to inform policies on payment at the beginning of the buying process to avoid customer frustration later.
• Be clear about the delivery: you Manages customer expectations by providing accurate delivery times for products information.
• Be clear about the Security Code Credit Cards: You may seem silly but many people do not know where the source is located and frustrated when it comes to closing the purchase.Therefore, I know teaching: You included a picture showing where this code is located.
• Be clear with Error messages: many times to complete an order form you see a window informing you that an error has occurred, but without explaining where or what has gone wrong. To avoid customer anger, provides examples of possible errors.

6. Creates relevant content on the World Cup

If your ecommerce site has a blog, fail to raise the World Cup related content. That will help your site be better positioned in the search engines and probably boost your sales. It is important to create really relevant to the audience you are aiming content. Avoid abusing promote your products in such content, if you need to promote a product, do it indirectly.

If you have not got a blog for your business but you want to create one, we recommend you read our guide to create a company blog in 3 steps .

7. Abuse the power of social networks

Social networking has a huge power boost your brand. It is for this reason that you need to use them consistently; longer to release your products, invite postings read your blog, or to interact with your followers. It is also important that each page on your site now contains buttons corresponding social networks that enable content sharing. Here you can see an example of this:

The best 9 Tips for Ecommerce SEO in 2014

Search engine optimization can be crucial in generating a potential customer visits your web site or online store. Having a good strategy SEO (Search Engine Optimization) or Search Engine Optimization can help your site to appear well positioned in the various search engines. Here are some basic tips to improve your ranking.

Searchers should be able to "read" your site

This is not only the first tip but it is almost a rule. If search engines are not able to read the content of your website, then it is impossible that your site has a good position regardless of the efforts you make.

Now, what do you do for your site to be interpreted by a search engine? Most importantly, avoid using Flash, as search engines do not interpret it as well as the classic HTML.

If you do not know what Flash is surely not have nothing to worry about as hard as you are using. However, if a designer has made your site, then it is advisable that you check with him if you have used this tool.

Choose your domain thinking in searches

The choice of the domain can also impact the results of your SEO strategy. Surely your first option is to choose the name of your brand for the domain. For example, if your company selling web templates called "My templete", the traditional domain would choose as mytemplate.com.However, that domain is not helpful when it comes to position your online store for searches like "web templates".

The use of exact match domains, ie domains that exactly match the search term for which you want to position can have a big impact. 

After a Google algorithm update called Penguin , abuse of these techniques has been penalized.Avoid excessive use of hyphens in your domain such as the-best-web-templates.com. 

It is also important to note that the benefit of partial matches has not been tested.Continuing the above example, there is evidence that a domain like mywebtemplates.com influence the ranking.

On the other hand, the same study mentioned above shows that short domains tend to have better positioning than long.

Avoid duplicate content:

Duplicate content is content that is contained in more than a web address (URL) and this negatively affects the positioning of your site. Duplicate content is a problem for search engines because they do not know which of the two pages show and in what order.

Unfortunately in ecommerce is very common phenomenon since the products usually have more than one URL. Continuing the example, it is common for the website templates download can be accessed through webtemplates.com / fashion industry-designer template or through its category from webtemplates.com/fashion industry/designer template

However, using the tag rel = "canonical" you can tell search engines to both files are the same and prevent this harm you. 

If you have a store where you sell third-party products, eg in the case of electronics stores,avoid copying the product description of the manufacturer's description and paste it to your store. This will be identified as duplicate content and is harmful. Compose your own product descriptions and includes therein the various search terms that users can use. If you need help in writing your descriptions, you can read our recommendations on how to write good product descriptions.

Get links to your website:

The more links linking to your site the better your positioning. Additionally, the number of linking root domains or across domains that include a link to your website even more impact on the ranking of your site. That is, it is better to have two links to two different two links from the same domain domains.

However, you must be careful when getting links since not all links have a positive impact.Surely you find services that allow buy links to your website, also known as link buildings networks. Google penalizes the use of such services and the positioning of your website will be affected if it detects that you have used these links. Anyway, if you're not familiar with these services do not have to worry.

Optimizes text links:

Search engines do not only see the URL link which directs but also the text chosen for the same.Taking as an example the link: search leader in emirates , the link goes to google.com and the text is "the leading search engine in emirates." Search engines take the text to determine which terms users associated with a page.

Of course you can not control the text that users choose to reference your site. However, you can choose the text of internal links of your store and your blog. For example, avoid links like"buy the best web templates doing here . "texts like" click here "are not good because they give you information on what type of search engine content there. Instead, you could use a text like " buy the best web templates . "

Generates unique content:

The best way to generate links to your site is simply creating good quality unique and high quality content. People will link to your website if you find content you like.

The first step to having good content is to have a good store. A shop with a beautiful design and interesting products with good pictures .

Additionally, having a blog and publish content related to your industry is one of the best SEO strategies you can implement. For example, if you have a fashion brand, you can talk about the latest trends, events, parades and more. These posts are included in search results of search engines and are useful for getting links to your site. If you want to create your blog, we recommend the post where we tell you what you need to know when creating your blog and evaluate different platforms .

Think SEO when naming your products and categories:

The name of your product is a central part of the page and your product is something that search engines use to show in search results. Often a unique and creative name like "awesome" for your templates will make your brand look shirt. However, keep in mind that few people looking for "awesome" is looking for templates, and the number of searches for "awesome" is significantly lower than that of "templates".

Name the products from your online store and their corresponding categories thinking about how users search for what you offer. If you do not know how users search for your products, you can use the Keyword Tool from Google .

In the above example you could name it "awesome web templates'" under the category "web templates". This will indicate clearly seekers your product it's a webdesign template and is a potential result when people search for these kinds of templates.

Compose unique titles and description Meta tags for each page:

One of the most common mistakes in web sites mainly in ecommerce is to use the same title and the same description meta tag on every page of the store. If you click it created a page, either a page of a product or page "about us", it is because you wanted to communicate something in particular that was not in the rest of the site. Sure that the HTML title tag and meta tag description reflect the unique value of every page of your store.

Remember that the description should be written for one person and not be a simple list of keywords for which you want to position your site. We also invite you to read the recommendations of Google to create good titles .

Use Google Webmaster Tools:

Google Webmaster Tools is a free tool provided by the search engine which enables you to view the status of your site in Google's index and optimize your positioning. Among other things, allows you to:

• See how often Google includes your pages to your index.
• See which pages Google ignored.
• Analyze what search terms your site is showing.
• Send and view the status of the sitemap file on your site .

And many other important features.

Create a Business Blog in 3 steps

Today we will tell you why you should create a blog for your company, what aspects should be taken into account when choosing the right solution and the differences between the alternatives.

Why create a blog for your business

Surely you know that a blog is a simple and effective way to communicate news about your company is, but did you know that a blog is a customer acquisition channel?

According to the report State of Hubspot Marketing in 2012 , 70% of companies that publish every 2 or 3 weeks customers generate through your blog. Moreover, 52% of companies have a blog indicated that the prospects (or leads) of this channel have a cost per lead below the average cost.

The reason why a blog for your company is an acquisition channel is because it is a source of generating traffic to your site. First, a blog is one of the best strategies to improve your position in search engines like Google. Not only the search engines include your posts on their search results, but also improves the positioning of your site.

Second, a blog is an effective technique to position your brand in social networks. Publications can be shared on Facebook or Twitter, bringing your brand to new audiences, generating new followers and customers.

Finally, a blog allows you to establish your brand as an authority on a given topic, as could be fashion or electronics.

1. Choose the theme of the blog

For your blog to be an effective acquisition channel the theme should be relevant to the customer segment you are targeting.

A common mistake in business blogs is talking only of the company, its products and offers.Hardly users to share this type of content. Make an offer occasional publication are not necessarily bad, but definitely it can not be the theme of your blog.

It is best to think about the interests of your customers or difficulties. For example, if you have a fashion shop for young adolescents publications can make regarding the best dressed to go to a party of 15 and how to combine them, what things to avoid when getting dressed to go to a party, etc.. But if you have an electronics store with a focus on video game items, you can make posts about the best devices to play a particular game, the best year mouse or keyboard, etc.. In the case of this blog, the main theme are strategies for small and medium businesses who want to sell online.

Remember, the blog should generate interest in your customer segment, not employees of your company.

Two. Choose the platform that suits your needs

Once you have chosen the theme that will guide your publications, you must select which platform you will use for your blog, that is, what software or service is right for you.

Features to consider in choosing the platform

Cost: free and paid solutions exist. Of course the price will vary according to the services and level of support.

Hosting: regarding the hosting of your blog, there are two types of solutions, those that provide the hosting included, and offering the software but you must install it and keep it in a hosting provider (known as self-hosted solutions).

Self-control: not all platforms allow you to set your own domain. If you want the links to your publications help position your site then it is essential that you use your own domain for your blog. Otherwise the value of the bond will be attributed, for example, blogspot.com and not your domain.

Design: the design of your blog will have to choose between three options: choose a free template, buy a template or use a completely custom design. Of course, when using the latter alternative should you or your designer to implement the design.

Buttons to share on social networks: if you want to maximize the reach of your posts you must pave the way for your readers to share. It is important that the buttons to share your posts on the main social networks like Facebook, Twitter and Google Plus are visible and accessible.

Text Editor: There are two types of editors, publishers where you see how it will look when you edit the text (called WYSIWYG or What You See Is What You Get), and the editors of HTML and CSS. If you do not know HTML and CSS and do not have time to learn, with the WYSIWYG editor is sufficient. But if you want to have complete control over the look of your post, then the editor of HTML and CSS is right for you.

SEO (search engine optimization) for your blog to be effective as acquisition channel is essential that it is optimized for search engines. The solution you choose should allow: define URLs friendly ( what are the friendly urls? ) and successfully complete the HTML title tags and meta tags description (meta tag descriptions).

Subscriptions: Subscriptions are a central point of any blog because they allow you to generate a base of readers and those who are with some interesting publication first become loyal readers, and future major customers. There are two types of subscriptions: via RSS or email. To provide greater flexibility to your readers, we recommend offering both.

Authors: blogs in business there is often more than one editor. If you want that each author has their own identity within the blog so that readers can follow along each of them, make sure to choose a platform to manage multiple authors.

Analytics: As we always recommend in this blog, each acquisition strategy must be accompanied by a measurement technique to analyze the success of this. The platform you choose should provide a measurement system, or better yet, allow you to integrate some of the best known solutions Analytics on your blog, such as Google Analytics .

Support: As with any service, inquiries or faults may occur. Each solution offers different levels of service: a help page, a forum, or email support. However, consider that each level of service comes at a price.

Plugins: some platforms allow you to install plugins or widgets. These are very useful for adding some useful features that may be missing in the platform. Consider the difficulty of the process of installing these plugins may vary by solution.

Platforms existing blogs and their characteristics

The most popular platforms are: WordPress.org , WordPress.com , Typepad , Tumblr and Blogger . WordPress is listed twice because it has two solutions radically different .

Please find below the differences between these alternatives:

	WordPress.org	WordPress.com	Typepad	Tumblr	Blogger
Cost	Free (but you must consider the cost of hosting and maintenance)	Free	From $ 8.95/month	Free	Free
Hosting	Not included. You must install it on a hosting service	Included	Included	Included	Included
Own domain	Yes	Yes, but it costs USD 18/year	Yes	Yes	Yes
Free Templates	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Pay Templates	Yes	Yes	Not	Yes	Not
Fully customizable design	Yes	Yes, but it costs $ 30/year	Yes for plans from $ 14.95/month	Yes	Yes
Buttons to share on social networks	Yes, installing plugins	Yes	Yes	Yes, but you must change your template and insert the code for each button	Yes
HTML & CSS Editor	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
WYSIWYG Editor	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Select the URL of the publications	Yes	Yes, but you can modify part of the URL	Yes	Not	Yes, but you can modify part of the URL
RSS Subscription	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Subscribe via email	Yes, through Feedburner	Yes, installing a plugin	Yes, through Feedburner	Yes, through Feedburner	Yes, through Feedburner
Multiple authors	Yes	Yes	Yes for plans from $ 14.95/month	Yes, but only for secondary blogs	Yes
Analytics	You can integrate the solution you want	Includes own solution . But you can integrate Google Analytics NO	Includes own solution and you can integrate Google Analytics	Yes, with Google Analytics	Yes, with Google Analytics
Support	Online Help Center	Help Center online and by email if you purchased some functionality	Help Center online and by email	Online Help Center.Allow contact you by email but do not mention that provide support	Online Help Center
Plugins	Yes, you can install any plugin .There are more than 22,000.	Yes, but they offer a limited set of plugins	Not	Yes (call them widgets)	Yes (call them gadgets)
Methodology installing plugins	You must manually install the plugin.Requires some technical knowledge	Simple installation. No technical knowledge required	Not available	The installation is usually a code and copy paste	The installation is usually a code and copy paste

Our recommendation

To help you make your decision, you share our recommendation for different needs:

• If you want to have a fully customizable solution both from the design and functionality, the platform is WordPress.org for you. However, keep in mind that you or someone with technical knowledge of your team should install and maintain the platform, plugins and updates.
• If you need a complete solution, you do not have technical knowledge, but want to be able to add templates and plugins that have been tested without the need to install them manually, we recommend using WordPress.com.
• If you look for a professional solution, with the ability to access hundreds of templates, you do not have technical knowledge and would like to have a support team for any eventuality, Typepad is for you.
• If you fancy a simple alternative, with the basic features but want a beautiful design, we suggest to use Tumblr. However, note that the documentation for the service is less complete than on other platforms.
• If you want simplicity and are interested in integrating your blog with services like Google Analytics and AdSense in a few clicks, Blogger is your solution.

Three. Create your blog

• Create your blog on WordPress.com .
• Download WordPress to install on your hosting service.
• Create your account in Typepad .
• Create an account on Tumblr .
• Create your account in Blogger .

What solution you tried, and what results have you obtained?