Colorado Web Solutions

Yahoo Launches New Marketing Dashboard

Posted on May 9th, 2012 by Brent Carey

Yahoo recently launched their new Marketing Dashboard. The release of this new tool allows Yahoo Small Business owners the ability to:

• Review new online marketing opportunities
• Get a comprehensive snapshot of marketing results, website statics and more.
• Assist with overall marketing management

The Dashboard has been created in such a way that it offers Yahoo small business owners a comprehensive overview of their entire marketing program, while at the same time delivering those metrics in an easy to understand format. Key Features of the Dashboard, which are free to all users, include:

• Monitoring of Search Engine and Directory Listings
• Analysis of site performance metrics
• Detailed Campaign Tracking
• 24 hour Support for the tool
• Online “reputation” management – allowing store owners the ability to review social media and more

If Yahoo Small Business owners are looking for greater marketing assitance they can also opt into a paid services extension of this program which offers:

1. Local Visibility Pro – providing data submission into over 100 search engines
2. Reputation Management Pro – Owners will be given more detailed data and the ability to track competition
3. Integrated Campaign Tracking – 3rd party marketing vendors can be integrated into the Dashboard for even more control of additional marketing initiatives.

We highly recommend that Yahoo Small Business owners take some time to review this exciting new tool:
http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/marketing-dashboard

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Incremental Publishing now Available for all Yahoo Stores

Posted on April 27th, 2012 by Brent Carey

In early April Yahoo released a new feature, Incremental Publishing. They have been releasing this feature in phases. At this point it should be available to all merchants within their Yahoo Toolbar in Store Editor.
If you haven’t yet used this feature, it’s a great way to increase the publish speed by decreasing the total page generation. This feature works great for larger sites that require small regular updates. Rather than publishing the entire site using the Publish All link, merchants can now use the Publish Changes link and only push recent updates live. Pages and content with no updates will not publish.

If you haven’t yet used the feature, a full site publish will be required the first time. With the first full publish, you may experience a later publish time. This is to be expected and the slower publish period should only happen once.

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Improved Yahoo Site Search

Posted on November 3rd, 2011 by Brent Carey

Yahoo recently launched a beta release of their new and improved Site Search. It has been a long time coming and everyone at Colorado Web Solutions is very excited this tool is now available to Yahoo merchants. As all Yahoo store owners know, Yahoo’s default search queries have needed improvement. This has changed with the release of a more advanced site search that allows customers to refine their search results based on a number of criteria. Here’s a few of the new features available:

• Add items to the cart directly from the search results page
• View search results using a grid or a list format
• Choose the number of results shown per page
• Refine search results using filters such as brand, price and category
• Sort by relevance or price

Yahoo’s new site search also allows store owners to customize the search settings to some degree. Owners can choose to show the “Add to Cart”, hide non-orderable items and define how the filters appear on the results page.

If your Yahoo store is using default templates – you can simply enable the feature from the Site Search Settings Tool in Store Manager and then perform a full store publish. If your store is using Custom templates, you will need an authorized Yahoo developer to integrate the search within your custom template.

We feel this feature will greatly enhance your ability to convert customers from search queries. We are really excited Yahoo managed to launch this feature pre-holiday. There’s no doubt the new site search will enhance the overall experience of any Yahoo store.

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Google Datafeed Submission Changes

Posted on August 29th, 2011 by Brent Carey

For any of our client’s that are currently submitting feeds to Google – there will be some important changes happening on September 1^st of this year. Our feed partner, Godatafeed.com strongly suggests updating feeds, as a failure to do so could result in account suspension from Google Product Search. Please take note of the following 3 key changes to Google datafeed submissions:

1. Unique Identifier Requirement: Merchants will need to provide 2 out of 3 data points: accurate Brand/Manufacturer, MPNs or UPC codes (or ISBNs for books).

2. Google’s Newest Requirements: The following data will now be required: Google Product Category, Product Type (recommended), Availability Fields, Images (300×300).

It’s important for any apparel merchant to provide variant information for size, color, gender and age by the 22^nd of September.

3. Shipping and Tax Information Requirements: Include tax and shipping information by September 1^st. The pricing data can be set through your Google Merchant Center or by item-level in your datafeed.

It’s important to have accurate tax and shipping information. Exclusion of this information may cause your feed to be disapproved.

For more detailed information please visit our partner’s page related to this topic: http://godatafeed.blogspot.com/2011/08/googles-top-3-feed-changes-to-review-by.html

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Start Using Yahoo Web Analytics

Posted on August 17th, 2011 by Brent Carey

Very often upon completion of a new store design our clients will ask us to install Google Analytics (GA). While GA is likely the most popular analytics tool available – and it can certainly assist store owners with detailed reporting, many Yahoo store owners don’t realize or utilize one of the more functional tools available through their Store Manager.
Yahoo Web Analytics is a powerful data collection tool that all Yahoo store owners with a Standard or Professional store automatically have at their disposal. A few years ago Yahoo made an incredibly astute move by acquiring an advanced analytic tool from a company called Index Tools. Yahoo then integrated that tool into their store platform and made the tool available to virtually the entire Yahoo store community. What we find interesting is that even now, a few years after the tool was launched, many of our clients don’t take advantage of a built-in tool that exceeds or at least rivals GA in features and functionality. 
A very important component to successful online marketing and sales is knowing how you customer base thinks and what tactics they respond to. Without detailed knowledge of your customers buying habits, selling products without analytical justification is like shooting in the dark. That’s where Yahoo Web Analytics comes in. With literally hundreds of reporting options, visitor segmentation and advanced tracking features, Yahoo store owners can be assured of a gaining a better understanding of their customers and how they can better relate to them.
Yahoo Web Analytics is somewhat unique in that it provides real-time reporting. Many analytic tools rely on historical data, which is certainly better than nothing. However Yahoo Web Analytics takes data collection one step further and delivers reports instantly giving store owners real-time information. This is extremely beneficial in that owners can see if a particular coupon just implemented is having the desired effect or if that new item is really generating the buzz they were hoping for. If not, changes can be made right then – rather then after a critical buying cycle has ended. 
Owners will also have the ability to filter and segment customer data via a uniquely customizable dashboard. Based on an owners specific business needs – that store owner can create dashboards that show only what they need or want to see. Metrics can be displayed which show specific visitor patterns, precise geographical locations, important referrers or results of that latest marketing effort.
While we would be the first to admit that the feature set available within Yahoo Web Analytics is so vast that it will take some time to become comfortable with its usage – the tremendous benefit gained from using this tool far outweigh the somewhat extensive learning curve. We highly recommend that every Yahoo store owner takes advantage of this powerful feature, in the end you’ll be thankful for taking the time getting to know this great analytic tool.

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Segment Yahoo Store Customers with Customer Manager

Posted on June 29th, 2011 by Matt Sampson - Colorado Web Solutions

While many of our clients have already integrated Yahoo’s Customer Registration, we’ve been getting a lot of questions regarding the Customer Manager and how this can be used to more effectively manage your existing customer base. I thought it would be a good idea to briefly cover some of the major features and benefits available via the Customer Manager link found in Store Manager.

Yahoo! Store Customer Manager

Customer Manager at its most basic level is designed to generate reports that store owners can use to more effectively understand and target their customer base. The reports allow owners to sort and filter relevant customer information and past order data. Prior to this important release, there was not a way to access or use any of the customer information collected via the Customer Registration module. Now, store owners can filter customers into specific groups or segments, gaining a better understanding of who their customers are – which translates to better marketing strategies.

The filtering and sorting allows store owners to find out what products customers are buying and when. Owners can use this information to create unique “single-use” coupons designed as an advanced method of up-selling or cross-selling. Owners can use email marketing, showcasing new or sale items targeted to specific customers who have purchased similar items in the past. The filters are quite powerful and can be used to show order values, order histories, total number of orders and much more.

If used properly, the Customer Manager can be a powerful tool to understand your customer buying habits. If you’re currently using Customer Registration and you haven’t taken a look at the Customer Manager, we strongly suggest you take some time to review what this feature can do.

For more information on Customer Registration installs, please click here:
http://www.coloradowebsolutions.com/blog/general-news/yahoo-store-customer-registration-installation-starting-at-150/

Matt Sampson | CEO | Colorado Web Solutions
http//www.ColoradoWebSolutions.com

Sign up for your Free Yahoo! Store SEO Report today at: www.15seo.com!

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Add Sizzle to your Yahoo! Store this Summer

Posted on June 20th, 2011 by Matt Sampson - Colorado Web Solutions

Here at Colorado Web Solutions we offer quite a number of great features as part of our Standard Design packages. While the feature set we offer for our Standard packages covers the “basics” one should expect from a quality ecommerce site, there are several add-on features we offer that can really take your store to the next level. We often have current or new clients ask us what’s the latest feature that we’d recommend based on what other stores are adding. So, here is our “Summer Sizzle” add-on list for Yahoo Stores:

Java Rotational Banner

Many sites these days have some type of promotional banner on the homepage. Often the display will rotate every few seconds showing several banners in a relatively short span of time. A rotational banner serves to not only educate potential customers regarding products and promotions but also creates a visually appealing area on a homepage to further accentuate a sites aesthetic appearance. Here at CWS we prefer to use Java Script banners rather than Flash for this purpose. The reason is clients can then easily switch out for new banners without the need for continued developer involvement. Our Java banners are Variable based and quite easy to maintain.

http://www.coloradowebsolutions.com/rtml-home-flash-center.html

Cascading Menus

Cascading Menus, Fly-out Menus, Accordion Menus – are all names for the same feature. Rather then having the main categories listed on your homepage navigation and if clicked, the customer is taken to a sub-category page, a Cascading Menu allows for the sub-categories under a given Parent Category to be displayed directly on the homepage. This is achieved by hovering over a parent category and the sub-categories are then shown. There are many different options for how the “fly-out” can be displayed. If you’re interested in exploring how Cascading Menus can benefit your site, please speak with one of our Project Managers.

http://www.coloradowebsolutions.com/rtml-cascading-menus.html

Floating Cart

We’ll be honest – in the initial days after Yahoo released their Floating Cart, there were a few issues with the functionality and cross-browser compatibility concerning this feature. However, Yahoo has worked very hard at eliminating most of the bugs. We’re now comfortable installing this feature on clients’ sites – and it can be a tremendous feature for up-sells. The reason being, customers can add items to their cart – without actually going into the cart. Customers can continue to browse a stores product line or check the contents of their cart from any page!

http://www.coloradowebsolutions.com/rtml-floating-cart.html

Social Media Add-on

Social Media is all the rage and it’s likely that this vertical channel for sales will continue to increase and improve in the years ahead. To date the most popular of the social media links has been Facebook, Twitter and Blogs. While this will likely remain for the foreseeable future, there are other companies and services that will inevitably be added to the list. Yahoo offers their own version of a social media add-on which Colorado Web Solutions can add to any Yahoo store on the Merchant Solutions platform. For older stores, we’ve also come up with our own social media script that offers similar functionality to what Yahoo provides.

Contact us for pricing

Advanced Product Reviews

There is likely no better reason for customers to buy from a store – then other customer’s opinions. Having Product Reviews on a Product page can greatly increase conversions. Customers can review what others are saying about a product or even about a store’s service and if the review is positive, the chances are high the customer will purchase. Product Reviews can also greatly enhance the overall look and feel of a product page. Having Reviews, a well laid out Product Table and some form of Cross-sell, can really help round out the overall appearance of a product page, likely leading to more conversions!

There are certainly many more features that can add excitement to your store, however I feel the above features are probably the most sought after – at this time. As more features are created, refined or become popular, we’ll be sure to let you know!

http://www.coloradowebsolutions.com/rtml-product-reviews.html

Matt Sampson | CEO | Colorado Web Solutions
http//www.ColoradoWebSolutions.com

Sign up for your Free Yahoo! Store SEO Report today at: www.15seo.com!

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Holiday Prep Tip: Include a Coupon with your Shipments

Posted on October 12th, 2010 by Matt Sampson - Colorado Web Solutions

Greetings everyone! Last year we did a “Countdown to Cyber Monday” series for our Yahoo Store Merchants and while we plan to do the same thing this year, we also feel that there are some elements of preparation that can and should be done further ahead of time. Thus was born the Holiday Prep Tips. We hope you will find these articles useful and we always welcome your comments and thoughts.

This week, we are going to focus on your outgoing packages.

First of all, let’s look at what is in your box. I assume you at least have the product(s) and a packing slip of some kind. Have you customized your Yahoo Store packing slip? It’s not something you can do within your store, but you certainly can outside of it. Here’s an article I wrote a while back about customizing your packing slip if you’re interested.

Do you have anything else in your package? A company sticker? Generic Thank You note? How about Return Instructions? I know that all of these items take time and some require cash, but there is a simple thing you can do with very little effort that can bring huge returns. Coupons. If your store has repeat customers at all (some don’t!) then you should really consider taking this article to heart. It can do wonders for your holiday and post-holiday orders.

Assuming you have a product line that is allowed to be discounted to some extent, I would highly suggest adding a coupon to every single package you ship that is valid for a limited period of time (maybe one to two months) that provides the customer with some sort of “VIP Discount”. It could be for Free Shipping if you don’t typically offer that, or for a percentage discount or even for a specific product you may have too many of. The choice is up to you. We have seen the greatest success with a flat rate discount on their next order (10% to 15% is the sweet spot) or for Free Shipping if the store typically charges for shipping.

The coupons are really easy to create and print on your own. I would suggest trying to print at least four on a page so that you are not wasting paper and toner/ink. A program like Microsoft Word can create a two column and two row table for you to work with. If you are more advanced Photoshop and Fireworks are great tools too for coupon creation.

Why an I suggesting Coupons in your Shipments?

People LOVE coupons and rewards. Just look at a service like Groupon that actually has people sign up to receive ads and coupons daily in their email box. In a realistic setting, you’re not going to get a 100% return on your coupons, but for those customers you have that are considering another item that you might carry or have a holiday shopping list that includes items you sell, that coupon may just be the ticket to get them back into your site and keep them from ordering from a competitor. I would start immediately. Get your coupons in packages this week so that you can capture your customers again for the holidays. We’ve also seen a number of stores that have experienced a jump in sales during a traditionally slow January because of all of the coupons that went out over the holidays. Start using coupons in your packages and don’t stop.

A Few Tips on your Shipping Box Coupons

I’ve included an example of an old coupon we created about a decade ago for you to look at. Remember, this was just one of 4 on a page.

Include an Expiration and Make it Short: Adding an expiration date doesn’t mean you have to print new coupons every few week or months. While not quite as effective as a physical date, we typically suggest adding verbiage like “Valid for the next 45 Days” or something like that to avoid paper waste. Even though you may not actually have an expiration on the code in your Yahoo Store, you will at least have the ability to not honor coupons that are “expired” and invalid.

One Time Use or Multiple Times: Do you want to tell your customers that your coupon is a one time use coupon? We suggest this although once again, you will not be able to actually enforce the one time status if you use a global coupon code. At least you said it though!

Include your Domain Name: We would HIGHLY suggest adding your domain to anything you create. Once the coupon goes into a “coupon pile” your customers need to remember that it was your site offering the discount.

You can print on the front and back: Remember, if you want to you can print on both sides of the sheet to include more information or your logo, etc. Simply print the first batch of coupons, put them back in the printer upside down and run the second page.

I hope that you found this small tip helpful, we will continue to post new tips as we approach the holidays so be sure to subscribe to our blog, follow us on twitter or become a fan on facebook with the links below!

Have a great week everyone.

Matt Sampson | CEO | Colorado Web Solutions
http//www.ColoradoWebSolutions.com

Sign up for your Free Yahoo! Store SEO Report today at: www.15seo.com!

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Yahoo! Stores Business Solution Extends Reach

Posted on September 28th, 2010 by Matt Sampson - Colorado Web Solutions

Colorado Web Solutions was recently Featured In Internet Retailer. A copy of the article is below.

Bridgeport, CT, September 27, 2010

Colorado Web Solutions, a design solution that enables online businesses to improve performance, announced today a partnership with Bongo International that provides international shipping for online retail customers, effectively opening up the global marketplace. Colorado Web Solution’s customers (U.S. Yahoo! stores) can now access Bongo’s international shipping capabilities almost immediately, thus allowing shoppers to view real-time international shipping costs, local currency, language translation, and an expected delivery date.

“We don’t just design website’s, we design businesses. That’s what makes us such a great company to work with. We understand online business,” says Matt Sampson, CEO of Colorado Web Solutions. Matt specializes in taking an idea and making it into a productive reality. The business model is simple; design a solution that allows online businesses to do better business through improved efficiency allowing increased profits. “It’s not about our success, ” says Sampson, “We’re only successful if our clients are successful. We remain steadfast and focused on the clients themselves and their businesses. The proof of their success is determined by the success of their clients. This is a time tested equation, service levels are often the defining lines between companies who make it and those who don’t. This is even more critical in a tough economy when the customer ‘experience’ weighs in more heavily than usual in the final purchasing decision.

Colorado Web Solutions is not just writing code and selecting a color theme for the client site. Rather, they perform as business analyst and virtual architect. These are the guys who do the behind the scenes work ensuring the customer has a positive experience, and continues through the checkout process to return again. Brent Carey, Lead Project Manager of CWS continues, “The most important thing to consider is creating a website that accurately reflects your business culture and clientele. It’s very important to understand your expected customer base and to create a site that caters to their expectations.”

This is also where Bongo International’s area of expertise in overcoming international eCommerce obstacles is applied, and is paramount due to the significant growth occurring in eCommerce. Very often in the international checkout process, the steep estimated duties and taxes shock a potential conversion into a definite shopping cart rolling down the virtual aisle unattended, or abandoned, as it were. Bongo counters this by offering competitive and accurate shipping costs, including duties and taxes, delivery date, insurance, and language translation. Bongo is able to provide significant shipping discounts to U.S. merchants because of the product volume they ship out of the United States. Through Bongo, U.S. Merchants are able to access untapped international demographics with a simple software implementation that is almost immediate. In brief, Bongo offers a simple solution to the complex process of transitioning into international eCommerce.

Meagan Jump, Account Executive with Bongo first came across Colorado Web Solutions when another merchant mentioned that they utilize CWS to complete all web developing within their site. “This merchant suggested I contact CWS because they are always looking for value-added solutions to offer all of their merchants. When I contacted Colorado Web Solutions they were excited about offering their merchants a solution to open the doors to the international market without taking on any of the risks or challenges that are involved when shipping internationally.” Bongo International also screens international shoppers to prevent fraudulent orders, resulting in an impressive 0.00 percent fraud rate throughout company history. For international buyers, Bongo offers a one-off purchase plan or a subscription plan that provides additional shipping savings. For additional information on Bongo visit the website at http://www.bongous.com/.

Colorado Web Solutions (http://www.ColoradoWebSolutions.com ) has been designing Yahoo! Stores since 1997 and is one of a select group of official “Yahoo! Merchant Solutions Developers”. Colorado Web Solutions specializes in designing and re-designing Yahoo! Stores and focuses on helping train merchants to use and understand their stores in addition to crafting user friendly and custom store designs. Colorado Web Solutions has an additional service called 15SEO.com designed to assist all Yahoo Store owners with SEO reporting and training. Colorado Web Solutions is a full service provider for any small to medium sized business working within or moving to the Yahoo! Merchant Solutions platform.

Source: http://www.internetretailer.com/2010/09/28/yahoo-stores-business-solution-extends-reach

Matt Sampson | CEO | Colorado Web Solutions
http//www.ColoradoWebSolutions.com

Sign up for your Free Yahoo! Store SEO Report today at: www.15seo.com!

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Add International Shipping to your Yahoo! Store today

Posted on September 27th, 2010 by Matt Sampson - Colorado Web Solutions

Colorado Web Solutions is pleased to announce our newest partnership with Bongo International to provide International Shipping Services to Yahoo! Store Owners.

Colorado Web Solutions has partnered with Bongo, a leader in International Shipping and is now able to offer Yahoo store owners quick and easy access to international shipping services. Aside from a one time set up fee that we are offering up to 50% on, there is absolutely no cost to you as a merchant! We have also been able to negotiate a one year commitment for our clients vs the standard two year commitment normally required by Bongo.

If you are not familiar with how Bongo works, let me explain it to you. It’s quite amazing.

As a merchant you will sign up for the Bongo service and we will install the technology on your site for you. There is a $500 fee for this set up process. For the rest of the month and all of next month, we are offering a 50% discount on installation and set up bringing the total price down to only $250! This is the last fee you will have to pay for international shipping!

Once your website is set up and the code is installed, your international clients will have the option to join Bongo for their international shipping. Your customers will join Bongo and create an account directly on-top of your site so you will not be sending anyone away from your domain. International clients have the option to pay a per-use rate or they can sign up for a monthly membership and get substantial discounts on shipping.

After your international customer has created their account, Bongo will provide them with a US based shipping address and they will enter this address into your yahoo store. Once the order has been placed you will ship the item to the Bongo facility and they will take care of the rest for you!

You will never have to fill out another customs form or wonder if you are shipping to a “real address” ever again.

Speaking from experience when I used to manage a Yahoo Store, we were hesitant to start international shipping due to the fraud, customs and headache of offering the service. We did end up offering international shipping and it became a good portion of our business. If we had had access to a service like Bongo back then, it sure would have made life quite a bit easier.

My advice to you is: if you have considered offering international shipping from your yahoo store, I would highly suggest you give this service a good look.

If you would like to read more about International shipping for Yahoo Stores, please click this link to explore the service further.

If you would like us to have a bongo Representative contact you asap about International Shipping Options, please click this link to fill out our interest form.

Thanks so much everyone and have a great week.

Matt Sampson | CEO | Colorado Web Solutions
http//www.ColoradoWebSolutions.com

Sign up for your Free Yahoo! Store SEO Report today at: www.15seo.com!

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