Colorado Web Solutions

Sale on Yahoo Customer Registration

Posted on September 7th, 2012 by Brent Carey

Two years ago Yahoo launched their much anticipated Customer Registration module. It was a long overdue addition to Yahoo’s web store platform. Initially their registration module was viewed with mild skepticism as the account creation procedure was somewhat unique in that it used pre-existing social media or email login’s to create a user’s profile. At the time, many customer registration modules forced users to create unique user-names/passwords. Realizing that there was a growing consumer trend in which customers were being turned away by having to create unique registration logins, Yahoo took a different route. The Yahoo development team launched a registration module with some forward thinking giving customers the ability to checkout as a guest or – use their preexisting login details from Yahoo, AOL, Google or Facebook to create their account.

The response to the new Customer Registration module has been nothing short of stellar. Not only is the module solid in the back end functions it presents, customers are not being turned away at the point of registration. While Yahoo allows store owners to manually turn on their registration modules; if the store is designed using custom templates an authorized Yahoo developer like Colorado Web Solutions will be needed in order to give the feature a professional and integrated look. As much as possible, the registration should mimic the overall look and feel of the store and checkout.

The vast majority of Colorado Web Solutions client sites using the Registration module, have been delighted with their own customer’s response to this feature. While there are a lot of Yahoo stores already using this – there are still many in need of a developer integration. With that in mind, we’ve decided to offer a 20% discount on our Premier Customer Registration install for a limited time. For more detailed information on our various integration levels, please have a look at:
http://www.coloradowebsolutions.com/rtml-my-account.html

If you’re interested in the advantages gained by installing Customer Registration in your Yahoo store, please fill out the following form and we’ll be in touch shortly.

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Leading by example – This is Customer Service!

Posted on August 28th, 2012 by Matt Sampson - Colorado Web Solutions

It takes a lot to impress me when it comes to customer service. As the owner of Colorado Web Solutions, I have strived to build our company on high quality products and design, but the foundation of it all is great customer service.

As a business owner, I know that customers are the most important aspect of our success and providing great customer service is critical.

I recently had a small issue with a purchase I made with Apple and after contacting them and receiving their replies, I felt compelled to write about it.

Apple is arguably the most successful company in the world right now, they could very simply provide mediocre customer service and probably get away with it, but they don’t. They provide stellar service, even as the monstrous company that they are. I am so very impressed.

I believe that all businesses can learn from examples like this one.

Here are 5 the factors that stood out to me during this interaction with the iTunes Store team.

1) I received a fast reply. It was the same day.

2) The reply was written by (or at least sounded like it was written by) a human.

3) The reply was clear and explained the action they were taking to resolve my issue.

4) The reply was more than an answer, they acknowledged me as a customer and as a person that experienced an issue.

5) When I replied again to them thanking them and praising their service, they took the time to respond to that as well.

I think we can all learn from Apple. If every company could provide service like this in the world, people would be so much more satisfied with their spending.

Here is the interaction:

3 PM Monday I wrote:

Somehow my iphone was having issues purchasing this book previously and it appears to have been purchased either 2 or 3 times. I only wanted it once :)

Can you check to see that it’s only been purchased one time? Thanks so much in advance for your help! Matt Sampson

6:45 PM Monday Apple wrote:

Dear Matt,

I understand that you are concerned about being charged more than once for “###### (Name omitted by CWS)”. I know you would like to have this taken care of as soon as possible. My name is John from the iTunes Store and I will do my best to help you.

After taking a peek into your iTunes Store account, it does look like it was purchased a second time.

I went ahead and I have reversed the charge for the purchase. In five to seven business days, a credit of $23.95 should be posted to the credit card that appears on your receipt for that purchase.

I really hope this will resolve your concern. If you still have any problems please message me. Thanks for being a great iTunes Store customer.

Have a great day, Matt.

Sincerely,
John

7:30 am Tuesday I wrote:

Thank you so very much, that’s perfect.

I must say that I am blown away by the level of support you provide. Considering you are the largest company in the world, I am absolutely shocked at how amazing you all are. Thank you so much for your service and support. I’m extremely impressed.

Have a great one.

Matt

7:45 am Tuesday Apple wrote:

Hi Matt,

John here again from the iTunes Store. Thank you for your kind words. I was more than happy to take care of this for you.

Nothing makes Apple happier than to hear that we have pleased our customers. I wish you the best and hope that you continue to enjoy the iTunes Store.

Take care.

Bravo Apple. You’ve got a customer for life now. Are you getting customers for life with your Yahoo Store? This was a great example of one way to do that.

Have a great week everyone –

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Yahoo Store Product Reviews

Posted on August 1st, 2012 by Brent Carey

Product Reviews are a key feature for any Yahoo store. Here at Colorado Web Solutions, we’re big proponents of adding reviews.  A product review is a powerful tool that not only gives customers the ability to understand more about their possible purchase, but also demonstrates to your site’s visitors that your products/site are attracting other customers. Many studies have shown that there is a direct correlation between reviews and higher conversion rates.

Having reviews inside your Yahoo store will help do the following:

Educate customers – While a Product Description is essential in educating your customers about your product, reviews offer another tool in which to help people understand why they need to purchase what you’re offering.  Reviews offer the ability to provide customers with an unbiased opinion. Simply put, they help customers make a decision. Reviews, both good and bad add validity to a store.

Give customers a voice – In general, customers love to offer their opinions. If you give customers the ability to write up their opinions for all to see, they are in essence becoming part of your growing community. Having a community of buyers is essential to a site’s success. Remember, if no review is present on a product’s page, the customer may possibly look for a review on another site before purchasing. The more clicks away from the “Buy Now” means your chances drop for that conversion.

Increase your site’s SEO relevance – Reviews give real SEO value to a site. Content is king – and adding reviews to a product page instantly gives value. Having several reviews on product page will only add organic richness to the content. Each review is likely to contain valuable keywords. Each new review is a unique piece of content. Every time a review is posted it will add significantly to the overall organic value of the page.

Reviews are so important, there really isn’t any time to waste making them a part of your Yahoo store. The more reviews you have, the better the chance you’ll get that conversion. Think of it this way – the more people talking about your product, the more people will buy that product. If one person reviews your product – that’s one person’s opinion may sway your customer to buy. If one hundred people have reviewed that product, chances are the customer will be more inclined to make the purchase.

For more information please visit:
http://www.coloradowebsolutions.com/rtml-product-reviews.html

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Yahoo Stores – the Perfect Solution

Posted on July 30th, 2012 by Brent Carey

The Yahoo store platform is in many ways the prefect solution for first time web store owners. Granted there are many competing platforms out there, but it’s been our experience at Colorado Web Solutions that Yahoo offers one of the better user interfaces, a web store platform full of quality features and with their basic plan starting at just $29.96 – a price that won’t break the bank.

Nowadays, most small businesses are looking to have an online presence. Many of those business owners have little to no experience managing an online store. They also seldom have the available budget to bring in a dedicated employee with the skills necessary to create/manage their new online initiatives. We thought we’d list three key reasons we feel the Yahoo store platform is one of the premier choices for first time web store owners.

Highly Functional Dashboard

Often times a store owner’s first exposure to a new web store or web platform causes a state of shock. There is a bewildering amount of data and processes that a new store owner needs to become familiar with and use effectively in order to make their store a success. Yahoo has helped mitigate some of the stress by creating a very comprehensive User Dashboard that provides quick access to every key function within the store.

From shipping procedures to coupon management, site statistics to order processing – everything can be found via their dashboard. First time store owners are very impressed with the logical arrangement the Yahoo dashboard offers. If you’ve ever been involved with managing sites that don’t offer a detailed dashboard, you’ll have to agree that having one available makes it so much easier to understand how to effectively manage a store. Also, we feel it important to mention that Yahoo provides an extremely comprehensive online library accessed via the dashboard which provides store owners quick solutions and detailed information concerning all store-related questions.

Easy to Upload Content

The sheer amount of content that a new store owner will need to upload can be intimidating. If you’ve ever created/uploaded hundreds of products to a store, you’ll know how time consuming this can be. While a Yahoo developer such as Colorado Web Solutions will create an attractive store, owners are responsible for content uploads including all product information and related images.

While this process is a major undertaking regardless of the functions present to facilitate it, Yahoo offers a fairly easy interface to assist the store owner. Product content can either be uploaded one product at a time via the Store Manager back-end or in bulk using an Excel file. While the product upload interface Yahoo has created is pretty seamless – using an Excel file is even more efficient. A new store owner gets to choose which method they want to use. Images, another time consuming process can be added in a similar fashion – either one at a time or in bulk. The bulk image upload can really save a lot of time.

Scalable Feature Set beyond Basic Offering

Yahoo stores – out of the box, provide a decent feature set that is competitive with any basic web store platform. Yahoo provides a way for non-developers to create their own sites via a “Design Wizard”. For more advanced features, most store owners consult with a dedicated Yahoo developer. Yahoo designed its store platform in such a way to allow relatively easy integration of more advanced features at any time – from any authorized developer. From Advanced Pagination to Advanced Shipping procedures to Product Reviews, Yahoo gives store owners the ability to build the store to fit their specific business model. As the store grows, so too can the feature set the site offers. We’re proponents of enhancing a store as it grows rather than starting with all the bells and whistles that a store may or may not need. Having the ability to add more features as the need arises is a major benefit when deciding which platform to choose.

For more information on creating a Yahoo store, please see: http://www.coloradowebsolutions.com/yahoo-dev-build-new-yahoo-store.html

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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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Yahoo Store Customer Registration Installation $150 and up

Posted on August 30th, 2010 by Matt Sampson - Colorado Web Solutions

As you have probably seen by now, Yahoo! released an extremely anticipated update to Yahoo Store’s this month, Customer Registration. We have been waiting for this feature for a LONG time and we are extremely excited to see that it is officially out. We are also excited to see that it is working perfectly! If you are a Yahoo Store Merchant with any sort of design customization on your store you may have also noticed that it is not super easy to install without some basic RTML knowledge.

We have spent some time researching, testing and playing with the Customer Registration functionality and today we are happy to release our pricing for installation. Many other companies are charging one fee to install Customer Registration, but we have decided to offer three different installation options based on your needs and budget.

Customer Registration Installation Only: $150

Installation Only: With this option we will code your custom templates to allow for the new Customer Registration and give you the opportunity to enable the registration and customize your colors on your own. [More Details] [Order Installation]

Customer Registration Installation & Color Optimization: $250

Installation & Color Optimization: We will install the Customer Registration on your custom templates and adjust the colors to match the look and feel of your site. [More Details] [Order Installation]

Customer Registration Install, Color Optimization & Custom Buttons: $500

Installation, Color Optimization & Custom Buttons: This is the best option for conversions. We will install the Customer Registration, modify the colors to match the look and feel of your site and also design all of the custom buttons necessary to create a perfectly seamless experience for your customers. [More Details] [Order Installation]

As an Additional Bonus we are also offering a 50% discount on Floating Cart Installations ($100) if you add a floating cart install to your Customer Registration Install order! ORDER NOW

Ready to get started? SIGN UP NOW for your installation!

Some details on the Customer Registration Installations:

Location: We will install your Customer Registration directly above the header of your site. We can align the content to the right or to the left (we suggest left).

Time Frame: Customer Registration typically takes just a few days, but that will be based on the number of pending installations when you order. If you are in a hurry to get this installed, please sign up asap.

More details:

Here’s the Official Yahoo! Blog post about the new Customer Registration Feature and here are the Help pages as well.

As always, if you have any questions please let us know. We are excited to start installing Customer Registration for Yahoo Stores on your store today!

Have a great week everyone.

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