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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Pagination for Yahoo Stores

Posted on August 14th, 2012 by Brent Carey

Colorado Web Solutions is often asked by Yahoo store owners what features will help take their web store to the next level. As every site presents its own unique complexities, that is somewhat of a difficult question to answer, at least in a general sense. What that next upgrade should or could be will depend on a multitude of factors. However, if a client’s site is very product-intensive one feature the client should always consider is Advanced Pagination.

It’s amazing how often we encounter client sites or just sites in general, that have a large number of products displayed on a Product Listing page and yet the site is not utilizing Pagination. Without Pagination, customers not only have a bewildering number of products to browse through, they also end up having less control over how the page content is displayed. While there is a current fad for allowing more scrolling in order to serve content/ads as the page is browsed, for many smaller web stores this type of technology is out of reach and wouldn’t necessarily translate to more sales.

Pagination can deliver a more positive experience for a user due to the page loading faster. Having ten or twenty products per page will decrease page rendering times as compared to a hundred or more products. The faster the load time, the better the experience. Having less products per page also means that much less information to digest. Again, less products to look at per page can make it easier for a customer to make a choice.

A good product listing page not only breaks down large numbers of products into manageable sections, but also gives the user options. Customers like having choices when it comes to surfing. Today’s shopper can quickly decipher a page’s pagination feature and sort by 10, 20, 50 items per page or by popularity, name, price and more. Some customers may be inclined to purchase by sorting via price, while others may want to shop by name. Giving people more browsing options can translate to additional sales. We feel that the benefits of Pagination, both aesthetically and functionally make this feature upgrade an important consideration for any Yahoo store.

For more information please see:

http://www.coloradowebsolutions.com/rtml-advanced-pagination.html

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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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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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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

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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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Conversion Boosting for Yahoo! Stores

Posted on March 9th, 2009 by Matt Sampson - Colorado Web Solutions

During these turbulent and downright nasty economic times we have all found ourselves in, I wanted to let you know that we offer a few features and services that can really help increase sales for your Yahoo! Store – and turn casual visits into conversions.

I realize that to some of you, investing in new features during this current economic climate might seem like the last thing you should be doing. However, we do have some enhancements that can quickly lead to increases in sales and revenue.

I have gone ahead and selected my top three Conversion Boosting Enhancements, but we offer over 100 additional add-on’s for Yahoo! Stores, so if these three features do not spark your interest, head on over to see the full list of offerings here.

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