Setting Up eShop For The 2010 Holiday Season

Want to make the most out your online store this holiday season?

You need to start planning NOW… and have the best Christmas season your store has ever experienced.

On this webinar, I will be taking you step-by-step through my own personal eCommerce holiday preparation process. I’ll not only show you WHAT I do, I’ll explain WHY and HOW it helps bring in more sales each year.

Sunday, August 1st at 7pm Eastern – Register here: http://eComIncubator.com

Each step from the end of August right up through the New Year will be covered. You can see exactly what an online store needs to do to raise it’s holiday presence and profits.

There will be live Q & A with Audrey following the presentation and 2 special BONUS GIFTS for attendees.

This is a totally free event, I hope to see you there!

http://eComIncubator.com

Christmas In July

That’s right store owners, we’ve reached the midway point so now is the time to start planning for Christmas, in July!

You want to get the most out of your store this holiday season, right? You need to start preparing your store now so everything is in order and no customer is left behind.

But what should you do? Where do you start?

Start with my live training Christmas in July webinar, this Thursday July 29th at 8pm Eastern.

Register here: http://www.eComIncubator.com

Watch as I take you through every step of my holiday planning and copy my techniques to have the most profitable holiday season your store has ever had.

Every webinar attendee gets a free downloadable copy of the presentation and a handy Christmas in July Action Plan Calendar to keep you on track from August right up through January.

This is a totally free event, sign up and register now to reserve your seat to celebrate Christmas in July!

Register here: http://www.eComIncubator.com

To your store profits,
Audrey

Whoops, I forgot about Mother’s Day…

It happens. We are all prone to forgetfulness at times, especially when we’ve got multiple plates spinning.

So yeah, I’ve been caught up with the new eCommerce Catayst Community, the eCom iPhone App I’m helping develop, two major site redesigns, plus a few other projects… and I forgot about Mother’s Day.

I’m not saying I forgot and the date has passed – as this writing Mother’s Day is still 5 days away – what I forgot was the marketing I should have done for my stores. Now there is not enough time to guarantee shipment in time for the holiday.

Suck.

Well, if you’re in the same boat or find you’ve missed a holiday marketing opportunity there is a way to salvage some of those lost profits. You’ll likely not make as much but some cash is better than no cash. So what is the answer?

Gift Certificates.

I know there is a certain stigma around gift certificates; they lack the thought that is said to be the real GIFT part of the gift. There are ways around that thinking. Here’s how I positioned my gift certificates for Mother’s Day.

~

Tapestries, whether they be wall hanging, pillow covers, table runners, or any other style make great gifts Mom will be surprised and excited to receive.

But it can be difficult to decide which style you think she would like the best. So instead of making a guess, why not give Mom a gift certificate so she can choose the style she likes best for her home decor.

What’s nice about a Tapestry Standard gift certificate is that it’s not some generic money voucher, it’s very specific and so shows the thought you put into deciding to give the gift of her choice of tapestry. It’s a fantastic way to show you care and give Mom the freedom to choose for herself.

~

I’m providing the “thought” and adding the benefit of Mom getting to choose. You can see the store blog post here: Wall Tapestries For Mother’s Day

So don’t fret if you find yourself behind at the approach of a holiday, salvage what you can and then set up a calendar alert so it doesn’t happen again

Audrey Kerwood’s Net Effect Archive

I can give them away if I want to…

Each one of us – no matter what we sell -
needs a cash injection sometimes.

I wrote about how in a The Net Effect article
I posted to my brand new TNE archive blog!

They’re my articles, and I can give them away, and I want to!

Follow the Money…

My new blog, will be a complete library of my eighteen
The Net Effect articles => http://audreytne.blogspot.com

1st article archived => Make More Money by Selling it Cheap
or Giving It Away is now available on her new blog!

2nd article archived => I Adore Your Store – Turn Casual Visitors
into Red Hot Buyers!

Will you follow my new Blog?

I will post 1 article from my library of 18 TNE article
for every 10 followers… There’s 12 followers presently
so two articles so far.

I already posted two already,  I’ll post the next when I get
to 20 followers!

Wanna help? The faster my new blog gets followers,
the faster you get her whole library for free!

To your profitable reading,

Audrey

Here’s my new blog, a library of The Net Effect articles => http://audreytne.blogspot.com

eCommerce Breakout Session At Live 9

If you’re going to be at Live 9 the end of this month, I want to meet you!

Ben and I are going to be hanging at the bar playing eStoreOpoly, so please come by and say hi. Meeting and talking with entrepreneurs is one of my favorite parts of live events. Ask me questions, show me your site, talk to me about your favorite beer – I love it.

I’ll also be hosting an eCommerce breakout session. I’m not sure yet exactly when it’s going to be – Friday or Saturday afternoon is most likely – here’s what the session will be:

The Anatomy of a High-Converting Store

Audrey Kerwood will dissect the conversion aspects of a highly converting online store, starting with the home page and working all the way through the checkout process. Learn what key elements your store needs to raise usability for your customers and overall conversion for your profits.

This is going to be a great session and I’d like to see as many of you there as will fit in the room.

The presentation will be followed by open Q & A. You can ask me anything, you’re not limited to conversion, so bring your most burning eCommerce questions and let’s work them out together.

I hope to see you at Live 9!

eStoreOpoly Coming March 23 2010

eCommerce Mistakes Over The Years

This is a reprint of an article I wrote for The Net Effect.

We all make mistakes. Whether it’s because we’re beginners who don’t know any better or we’re experienced storeowners having a “dumb moment” – it happens to everyone.

Of course you always learn from your mistakes but isn’t it so much better to learn from others so you don’t have to suffer the stress and/or profit loss to gain the knowledge? Absolutely. So here are my big eCommerce mistakes – we’ll start simple and go from there.

Some of these really are like duh… if you’ve made any of the same you can laugh along with me if you haven’t you can go right ahead and laugh at me while making a mental note not to do it yourself.

Whoops #1

The first order I ever received was paid through PayPal. It was simple; I got the order notification followed almost immediately by the PayPal payment receipt. It was awesome; I was on top of the world! Previous to store ownership I had sold on eBay and everyone paid me through PayPal, it worked the same way.

The second order was paid via credit card and so was authorized for the order amount… but not automatically charged. Since I had never had a merchant account or payment gateway and in all my store building excitement I set them up but didn’t bother to learn anything about them, I didn’t realize I had to charge the card myself.

I lost $200 on that sale and only realized it when I went to look in the backend to figure out how to do a refund.  I noticed it hadn’t been charged and the authorization had run out two days before.

Lesson learned, be sure you know how your gateway works or you may not be charging for your products.

Whoops #2

About eight months into the life of A2 Armory I got an email from one of my vendors about a new Braveheart Replica Sword they just started carrying. The price was low and the sword was hot! I immediately added it to the store, created an eye-catching ad for the home page, sent out a newsletter, and put a banner ad on a bunch of ezine type sites (they were still worth something then) – all without considering how many other stores were doing the same thing or the stock my vendor had.

I was able to fill two orders, the rest turned into irate customers who didn’t want to wait six weeks for the next shipment. Not fun.

Lesson learned, always check stock before running a big promotion.

Whoops #3

Finding a new vendor is exciting… all the new products and sales possibilities always put a smile on my face. But I don’t let myself get caught up and forget to make sure I know the vendor’s policies.

I once found a vendor with an awesome line of daggers and swords. I read all their sales literature and it seemed straightforward and acceptable. I added a bunch of their products to my site and since it was well-established orders for the new products started coming in right away. So far the new product line was performing exactly as planned.

I placed the first few orders and received an email from the vendor saying, “None of the orders placed meet the minimum order requirement for drop shipping and so would all be cancelled.”

Wait, what?

So I get on the phone, fighting to keep my cool, to find out what is going on. Apparently the sales literature was incorrect and the drop ship minimum is $100. Each of the items I’d added cost me less than $40 – I couldn’t sell their products unless I packaged them together. All the yelling was for naught, they wouldn’t budge. So I ended up cancelling the orders and dealing with disappointed customers.

Lesson learned, don’t assume anything about your vendor or their policies. Double check everything – at worst you spend a little extra time on the phone, at best you save yourself hassle and upset customers.

Whoops #4

A customer calls wondering what the charge from A2 Armory is on their credit card. I tell them who we are and what we sell and the customer says okay, he doesn’t remember ordering anything but he would sort it out. I say to please let me know if he has any more questions or needs more info about the order.

A few days later I receive a chargeback in the mail describing the order as fraudulent. I have no record of my phone call to send to the credit card company and the package has already shipped. The best I can do is refute the chargeback with my AVS information and the shipment tracking number, usually not enough for this type of chargeback.

I call the customer and get no response, same when I email. I ask that he please either refuse delivery or send the package back so I at least get the product back. I follow up my original chargeback case with a letter explaining that the product had already shipped and the customer was not responding to my emails for it to be returned, hoping they would see that something was amiss. No good, judgment in his favor and I never heard from him again.

Lesson learned, handle all customer issues yourself. Don’t rely on your customer to fix it, do the right thing, or even understand what’s going on. Once you relinquish control it’s hard to get it back again.

Whoops #5

There are problem customers who argue about restocking fees and return shipping then there are problem customers who threaten and/or waste huge amounts of your time.

I once had a customer who I’ll call Logan who fit into the second group. His first order from me was for a full armor breastplate and spaulders. He wrote me an email to tell me how excited he was to be getting his first real piece of armor and how he couldn’t wait to wear it, etc. It was nice – I like getting customer feedback.

After he received it I got another email. This one extremely hostile in tone saying the armor had cut him and was unsafe and if I didn’t take it back for a full refund I was going to be hearing from his lawyer. Whoa. I wrote back asking how he had put it on. After all the armor wasn’t sharp and if it was worn over something (as it is supposed to be) it would be very hard to cut yourself with. The response was more threats so I refunded him and paid for the armor to be returned.

A month later I got another order from Logan. It was for a sword and it was followed by an email asking if the blade was sharpened. I responded saying, “No, the blade is not sharpened but could still be considered sharp. Was he sure he wanted it.” The answer was yes, he was thrilled about the sword, he went on to say how beautiful it was and he was going to use it for display. Okay… I sent it.

Another nasty email asking if I knew what the word sharp meant. Once again my product was too dangerous and if I didn’t pay for it to be returned I was going to be in big trouble. I sent a semi-terse email back suggesting that Logan was handling the sword incorrectly and I would pay for the return again but he was no longer allowed to order from A2 Armory.

The next month Logan ordered again. This time he didn’t even get the chance to send an email about how excited he was. I cancelled his order immediately. He still tries to place orders from time to time but they are never filled.

Lesson learned, don’t deal with these problem customers – cut them off at the knees, they will only waste your time and money.

Whoops #6

A couple months after the Armory started to produce a steady income I decided to open a second store. I brainstormed, did a bunch of keyword research, and found a few drop shippers. I ultimately decided to open a store selling a line of dishware. I was meticulous about all the demand research I did and went in full force to build the store.

I had gotten everything in place – all my products, the site design, the merchant account, etc and it was ready to go. I started promoting it through paid ads and went to work getting it to rank in the natural search listings. In total I spent about two months dedicated to this store… all without looking closely enough at the supply side of the equation.

That was a major mistake. Ranking for every term related to my product line and bidding on the top spot in all the paid listings was my drop shipper. Their retail prices were too low for me to compete with, in some cases even lower than I could buy the items for.

They were unsympathetic when I called about it, saying their prices would not change. It was suggested that I concentrate on other ways of marketing like mail order or print ads and not try to compete with them. Yeah, okay, that’s ridiculous and I just wasted two months of work for absolutely nothing.

Lesson learned, do not neglect to research supply. Demand can be huge but if you can’t compete with other suppliers it won’t do you any good.

Learn from my mistakes, these are all big time and money wasters that will frustrate you and impede your forward progress.

Testimonials Please

How have I helped you?

Jaunary 31, 2010 I’m launching my first home-study-course… It’s a 12 week eCommerce Incubator designed to get your store up and profitable in 3 months. The image attached shows a game Ben and I are just now finishing creating that will accompany this launch…

Can you help us with a favor?

PLEASE TAKE A COUPLE MINUTES to really help Ben and I out! Your testimonials are what allow us to tell others that I provide valuable teaching.

To thank you for your testimonials, I’ll be choosing a random winner to receive a free replica flintlock pistol. This is one of the pistols I sell at A2 Armory, one of my eCommerce stores.

The winning comment number will be announced this Friday – January 22nd – at Midnight EST here on the blog.

THANK YOU for your testimonials!

3 kinds of testimonials, please pick whichever one resonates with you

1) Specific increase testimonial
“Audrey’s eCommerce Incubator increased my business from ___ to ____ …
This could be dollar amounts, traffic or any specific measurable result you can help us brag with

2) General recommendation testimonial
“I recommend Audrey Kerwood because…

3) Transformative testimonial
“Audrey’s teaching taught me to see X when I was seeing Y… and this helped me to ____
This is usually how I got somebody unstuck or really turned on their profits

Write from the heart… don’t worry about editing or anything. We’re grateful for your willingness to support us in public through your testimonial!

To your continued success,
Audrey

eCommerce After The Holidays

In a way the holidays coming to an end is a relief. It’s an end to the hectic customer calls and emails, an end to extended working hours, an end to the year. Phew, it does feel good to relax.

The tough part is that when the holidays are over all too often the sales and profits plummet. Not a good way to start off the new year. But there’s not much you can do, right? I mean people were buying for Christmas, they’re not in the same buying mode now so it makes sense that sales would drop off… doesn’t it?

It doesn’t have to my friends. People have gotten cash for Christmas, they’re also gotten things they didn’t necessarily want and didn’t get things they did want. And, they ARE still in buying mode – only now it’s for themselves.

So how can you capitalize on the after holiday buying season? You can run after holiday sales and promotions.

Get on the phone with your vendors and find out what they have overstock on, then work out a deal to get you better pricing, and promote the crap out of that product. I’m running a “Get What You Really Wanted For Christmas” Sale in the Armory. As of this writing it is 4 days after Christmas… my sales have not dropped. And I don’t expect them to in any sudden fashion. They will eventually return to normal monthly levels, but not until around the middle of February and the decline will be a slow one instead of the typical drop off the cliff many eCommerce store owners experience.

So use your vendors, they will appreciate the continuing sales. Use your list, make them feel special and get them thinking that they most certainly do deserve to treat themselves. Use your store and your blog to get new customers buying with your super after Christmas discounts.

These tactics work and make the after holiday blow much much softer. If done right you won’t even feel it.

Where I go for SEO I Trust

If you’ve been around SEO very long you must have heard of my friends … Dan Thies and Leslie Rohde … because they have done more to advance and teach SEO than pretty much anyone else out there.

I’ve been following their stuff for a long time myself – even before I started working with them as StomperNet Faculty – and have always gotten great results from their recommendations. They both personally helped me with SEO on two of my eCommerce stores: http://www.a2armory.com and http://www.european-wall-tapestries.com.

Problem is, they have both been “underground” for a couple years so neither of them was making their newest stuff public.

Until now.

About a month ago they finally joined forces and are about to give away some of their newest research and teaching. Here’s a link to an intro video that will tell you what’s coming next.

http://www.seobraintrust.com

And be sure to opt-in so you get the videos just as soon as they go live.

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