Colorado Web Solutions

Should you add Cascading Menu’s to your Yahoo Store?

Posted on June 29th, 2010 by Matt Sampson - Colorado Web Solutions

At Colorado Web Solutions, one of our most sought after add-on features for Yahoo! Stores is the Cascading Menu’s RTML enhancement. While expanding category navigation features can be nice and in some cases a must-have for client’s sites – not all stores need or should have them.

Cascading Menu’s or Navigation Drop-down Menu’s essentially allow customers to drill deep within a site’s category structure simply by hovering over a main category on the navigation. The Cascading Menu then reveals what’s “underneath” that category without the customer manually clicking through. As the category list expands the customer can click on any of the exposed links which will take them directly to that page. (look at the navigation on the Colorado Web Solutions site for an example)

The ideal Yahoo store candidate for Cascading Menu’s would be a store that is high in product selection, having deep category/sub-category structures. While there are arguments to be made for having customers click through sub-category pages, esecially if you have an extensive product line, generally the less number of clicks to get to a Product Detail page, the better chance your site will have for capturing the conversion.

An important consideration when choosing to have Cascading Menu’s or not – is whether or not your product line will be intuitively recognizable to your customers or if they’ll need detailed information on a category level which will help steer them to the correct product. For example – let’s say your Yahoo store is offering complex or technically challenging products which aren’t easily understood by the average customer. If that is your case, you might consider forgoing Cascading Menus and instead focus on detailed category page descriptions which if clicked through in succession from the homepage end up “informing” the customer as they move through the sub-category structure. The category page descriptions in essence can help the customer make an informed purchase and help drive the customer to the correct detail page.

For most clients however their product lines aren’t nearly so complex and customers will already know what category/product they’re looking for, or at least have a general idea. In that case, having expanding menus will make their search for the right product that much faster – and effective. If your store has over 100 products or at least one level of hierarchical categories underneath your top level categories, then considering this add-on feature would be highly recommended.

If you would like to see a few examples of Yahoo! Merchant Solutions Stores with Cascading Menu’s installed, here are a few to enjoy:

Left Side Navigation Examples:
http://diethighprotein.com/
http://alarmresource.com/
http://store.organicdivas.com/

Top Navigation Examples:
http://www.candlesandsuch.com/
http://www.popdeluxe.net/
http://www.coffeecakes.com

If you would like to learn more about our Cascading Menu’s for Yahoo Stores, please visit:
http://www.coloradowebsolutions.com/rtml-cascading-menus.html

Have a great week everyone.

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eWish Gift Registry Offers New Features for Yahoo Stores

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

Colorado Web Solutions and eWish have been partners for quite some time now. We often have clients expressing interest in finding a reliable, functional and economical Gift Registry. To date we’ve always steered clients towards eWish as we feel it’s a great fit for Yahoo store owners. Across the board – our clients have been extremely satisfied with the eWish platform.

( Request more info now about eWish.com and Yahoo Stores )

What is eWish?

eWish is an affordable Gift Registry platform for online and offline merchants looking to increase revenue and customer satisfaction using another vertical channel. The registry will allow customers to inform their friends as to what types of products they are interested in. The tool is powerful and best of all – it’s easy to use and relatively easy for Colorado Web Solutions to install. eWish is a web-based service and once installed, the system takes care of itself.

New Changes to eWish

eWish will be introducing some great upgrades/enhancements this year. For those Colorado Web Solutions clients already using eWish – you’ll love this addition:

eWish customers can now have their registries appear on Knot sites. Now eWish merchants can opt to have their registries appear in “Find Registry” results on Knot owned sites like TheKnot.com, WeddingChannel.com and TheBump.com.

There’s more to come from eWish this year – so stay tuned! If you’re not currently using a registry, you might consider the eWish application as it can be a critical tool in taking your store and sales to the next level. Lean more about eWish here.

How much does eWish cost?

eWish is entirely commission based. The current commission is 5% per transaction plus a one-time refundable application fee of $399. If within one year of purchase the client is not satisfied with their service, the application fee will be refunded.

Colorado Web Solutions will also need to install eWish on your Yahoo store. The current cost for development fees is $225.00. We can have the application installed on your store in generally one business day.

Ready to get more information about eWish integration with Yahoo! Stores?

Click Here to get started.

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How to Import Yahoo Store Customers to Constant Contact

Posted on June 25th, 2010 by Matt Sampson - Colorado Web Solutions

The majority of our clients are using the Constant Contact email service for their stores, and one of the most common questions we receive is “How do I import my Yahoo Store Customers into Constant Contact?” It’s a great question, and one that we would love to answer for you.

First of all, something to consider – I highly suggest that you keep your paying customers and your email list members in individual groups. For example, I would suggest a GLOBAL mailing list for everyone that is on ANY of your mailing lists and then I would suggest adding a new mailing list called “Yahoo Store Customers” or something like that to import your paying customer info into. These customers are extremely important to you and should be kept in their own list as well as in the global list.

We have created an online video training tutorial about how to import your Yahoo Store customers into Constant Contact as well if you would prefer to watch and listen vs read these simple instructions. The written instructions are directly below the video presentation. Here is the training video on how to import your Yahoo Store Customer Data into your Constant Contact Account:

VIDEO: How to Import from Yahoo Store to Constant Contact

Non Flash Link

In order to perform these steps you will need to be able to log into your Yahoo Store and your Constant Contact Account. If you need to sign up for a Constant Contact account, please click here to start your free trial (will open in new window) and then you can come back here to import your customer data.

Step One: Exporting your Yahoo! Store’s Customer Data

• Log Into your Yahoo! Store’s Manager Section and click the ORDERS button
• In the SUMMARIZE section, enter the order number range you would like to export. It is not a problem at all to export customers that have already been imported to Constant Contact so you can export all of your orders, or, if you are keeping track, you can export the next batch of orders you want to export. Larger batches will take a little longer for Constant Contact to process, but it’s not a big deal at all.
• Once you’ve entered the order number range, click SUMMARIZE
• On the next page you will see a summary of the orders. At the very bottom of this page click EXPORT TO EXCEL.
• The next page will give you a list of downloads, please select the DOWNLOAD link next to ORDERS.csv.
• This will prompt you to save the file, I would suggest your desktop or someplace easy for you to find it.
• The export process is now complete.

Step Two: Editing the Data for Import

• This step is optional, but we highly suggest doing it to save time in the end.
• Open the file you just exported in either Excel, Numbers or even Google Docs.
• I’m going to suggest that you delete a bunch of the columns in the file so that you don’t have to tell Constant Contact to ignore all the unused columns. While this is not a required step, we do suggest that you edit your file to same enormous amounts of time while importing.
• Once the file is opened, delete the first few columns (order ID, Date, Numeric Time) so that your file’s first column is Ship Name. Continue to delete columns so that you are left with only Ship Name, Ship State, Ship Country and Email. Be sure to continue to scroll to the right of the spreadsheet, there are a lot of fields.
• Once you only have the few remaining fields, you can save the file (override the original) and close the window.
• The Editing Phase is now complete.

Step Three: Importing Into Constant Contact

• Now that we have the edited file ready to go, log into your Constant Contact Account (link).
• From the home page, click on CONTACTS in the top navigation bar.
• On the Contacts screen, click Add / Import under My Contacts
• The first screen will ask you to select the List(s) you would like to add your contacts to. If you have not yet set up any lists, you will see one list (General Interest) as the only option. As I mentioned before, I would highly suggest keeping a second list with only your Yahoo Store Customers on it, so let’s create a second list.
• If you want to create a new list, click CREATE A NEW LIST
• Enter the new Lists Name (for example: Yahoo Store Customers) and click SAVE
• You now see that your new list is check marked for you. If you would like to add these names to additional steps either check the lists you want to use or create additional lists.
• Once your Lists are selected, click NEXT
• On the “How would you like to add your list” page, select IMPORT CONTACTS FROM A FILE and click NEXT
• On the next screen, click BROWSE and find the file you downloaded and/or edited in excel. It might be called Orders.csv if you didn’t change it.
• Click SUBMIT DATA
• You may see a few warnings and confirmations. Read through those and accept terms, etc.
• The next screen will present you with a selection of your data and ask you to map it to the Constant Contact fields. This is the part that makes you glad you edited the file in excel before importing…
• You will see a drop down menu above each column asking you to either “Select Label” or guessing for you. Select the correct items for Name (we suggest using First Name since Constant Contact does not support Full name), State and Country. Email may already be detected for you, but if not, be sure to specify the email column as well.
• Once you have mapped your fields, click START IMPORT
• The entire process is now complete.

We go into more details and explanations as to “why” on the video if you would like to get some more information. The steps are exactly the same as above. If you have any questions about this process, let us know.

We have a Free Constant Contact Templates Program as well! If you are interested in learning more, please visit:
http://www.coloradowebsolutions.com/contact-email-free-template.html

We offer a number of additional Constant Contact services that are described in detail on our website at:
http://www.coloradowebsolutions.com/yahoo-store-email-marketing.html

Have a great day everyone.

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Thoughts on Yahoo Store Automatic Order Processing

Posted on June 24th, 2010 by Matt Sampson - Colorado Web Solutions

Lately we’ve had a few clients interested in Yahoo’s automatic ordering processing. Each client has expressed concern that reviewing each order will end up being very time consuming. In all but one case we convinced the client that manual order review is the better way to go.

Yahoo does have the ability allow for automatic order processing. On the surface this seems like a no-brainer as this feature would dramatically cut down on the time spent managing your site. However on closer inspection, manually reviewing each order is time well spent.

The biggest drawback to auto-processing is the increased likelihood of receiving fraudulent orders. If you chose to use auto-processing, Yahoo’s Risk Tools can’t be applied. The Risk Tools module is invaluable as it will allow you to configure various rules which will verify AVS and CVV rules for each transaction. Sure, you’ll need to review each order manually as a result, however you’ll likely end up saving yourself money and inventory.

For a number of years I ran a fairly successful Yahoo store. We did have Risk Tools enabled and the result was on a weekly basis we stopped fraudulent orders from shipping. The fraudulent orders came in many different formats; some with correct addresses, but incorrect cards. Others would have the correct card and address but the CVV wouldn’t match.

We always had a dedicated customer service representative contact the appropriate bank in all such cases and saved ourselves thousands of dollars as a result. In your case, you might not have a CS representative to do the checking for you, but you’ll be glad when you’ve stopped an order that could cost you hundreds of dollars in lost merchandise.

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Use Google Alerts to help understand your Yahoo! Store

Posted on June 22nd, 2010 by Matt Sampson - Colorado Web Solutions

If you’re not using Google Alerts yet – you should be.

Google Alerts is a content monitoring service offered by Google. If you’re a Yahoo store owner – this service can be invaluable for keeping track of your competitors, your site’s performance and any related content that you feel would be helpful in tracking your products and your industry. Track product lines, track your competitions newest pages that have been indexed, and follow your own indexing. If you are actively blogging – Google Alerts can also be a great way to determine how quickly your posts are being picked up by google and indexed. Once you’ve signed up and selected  your various alert matches and preferences, you’ll be notified automatically, once a day or once a week if those terms are served via web content, blogs or video’s.

Currently the following alert types are available:

• Comprehensive
• News
• Web
• Blogs
• Video
• Groups

It’s very easy to sign up. Here’s what you’ll do:

Be sure you are logged into your google account. Head to: http://www.google.com/alerts . You will see a text box where you can enter various terms you’re interested in. You’ll then need to enter in the following:

Search Terms
Type of Alert you Want
When you would like to be Alerted (Daily, Weekly or Automatically)
Your Email Address

To start off with we would suggest the following search:

Search term: YourDomainName.com (change it to your Yahoo Stores domain)
Type: Everything
How Often: As It Happens
Number: Up to you
Email: Up to you

This will provide you with an email every single time google indexes a new page within your site. An invaluable resource to understand and see.

Once you’ve completed those steps you’re finished. You can set up as many alerts as like. Get Creative, you can always delete them if the content isn’t what you were expecting. It’s worth the time and effort to track terms related to your industry. Knowing is half the battle and Google Alerts is a great step in gathering detailed information pertaining directly to your site and products.

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