Online sales are expected to continue to grow even though
retail brick and mortar stores are taking a hit.
In a recent article written by
Internet Retailer, they explain that online stores have an advantage when it
comes to consumers buying online.
As Patti Freeman Evans, research director and senior retail
analyst at Jupiter Research explains, “Consumer perception is you can get things
cheaper online.”
Internet Retailer conducted a survey with online retailers
and this is what they learned.
37.6% of retailers are including more lower-priced items in
their assortments
36.7% are beginning holiday promotions early than last year
29.4% are reducing prices
21.6% are offering free gifts with purchases
The article offers by far the best advice for Yahoo Store
Owners:
“Retailers and other experts also urge caution when it
comes to promotions. Just as lowering prices to combat economic conditions can
eat into margins, promotions during a time when consumers are looking to get the
most bang for their buck can hurt the bottom line.”
I found a couple of other noteworthy facts in the article:
Are you taking measures to improve your web site
performance for this holiday shopping season?
72% said YES. Ok so how do you improve your site
performance? If you had your website designed over a year ago, you can have the
programming changed over to use more browser friendly CSS instead of tables.
This makes your pages load faster and also helps cut down the total weight of
your website pages. This will greatly help your site performance! We can also
take a look at other things on your website and see if there are any problem
areas causing the site to lag. Give us a call at 888-312-7839 if you need us to
take a look at your website. Don’t worry, we will not charge you to take a look :)
Ok next bit of information we found interesting!
What percent of your holiday sales occur from Thanksgiving
through and including the Monday after Thanksgiving?
10% or less – 51.8%
More than 30% - 10.1%
Why is that? Black Friday and Cyber Monday are not the best
days known for shopping online.
In fact, as Jimmy Duvall from Yahoo Small
Business pointed out at a recent conference… last year the biggest shopping day
online was December 10th, 2 weeks before Christmas. Going back to
previous year’s also showed that the biggest shopping day online is 2 weeks
before Christmas. So be ready!
When asked if retailers will offer free shipping, 61.5%
said yes. Of those, 80% said it would be conditional and 28.4% said that
customers had to spend $51-$75. Another 25.7% stated customers had to spend more
than $100.
The point of all this is, if sales have been down you need to look
ahead to the future and put your head up high and be prepared. Make sure your
site is ready and be ready with bells on for your customers. Focus on customer
service, focus on email marketing, and focus on doing what you do best.
Plus make sure to check out the entire
article. It is a great read!
Sincerely,
Shawna Fennell
P.S.
Need help? Give us a call at 888-312-7839 and
schedule an appointment to have a website review. It costs you NOTHING,
but your time and will increase your conversion rates!
New Services
At 1 Choice 4 Your Store we are constantly brainstorming to come up with
useful services to give your Yahoo online store the best advantages on the
market. We are proud to offer you two new services that will help you
maintain your monthly maintenance, build your online business, organize your
time and increase your profits. Our Monthly
Maintenance Packages and SEO Copywriting/SEO
Editing Packages will give
your Yahoo online store the boost it needs before the holiday season arrives.
You have asked for these helpful tools and now we have them available for you
during this critical time of year.
Our Monthly Maintenance Packages will
put your Yahoo online store on a VIP status that it deserves. From special
attention from our professional account managers, to supreme discounts on premium
1 Choice features, these packages give your Yahoo online store a new level of
care. You have asked for SEO copywriting and we now have finished the research
to give your Web site the quality, relevant content that it craves. Our
professional writing staff will make sure your content is SEO friendly and tasty
for those search engine crawlers. Do you have time to write your own content?
That is perfectly fine. Our knowledgeable staff can edit your pages to make them
professional in every way possible.
We have said time and time again that fresh, relevant content is crucial to your
Yahoo online store. If you have not done so already, please take advantage of
our Blog and Article Copywriting.
Our educated, professional writers will give your blog and article pages the
most researched and relevant attention on the Web. If you do not have a blog,
our account managers will walk you through the process of having 1 Choice
build a wonderful blog for your Yahoo online store. Folks, the holiday season is
quickly approaching. Give your Yahoo online store special attention during this
time of year. Let 1 Choice 4 Your Store help you defeat your competition and
take your Yahoo online store to the top of the search engine rankings.
Meta tag questions seem to
come up quite a bit when we talk to our customers. So we decided it was time to
write an e-book about them. Don’t worry; in true 1 Choice fashion… we have made
it really easy! Download your free copy of Meta Tags Made Easy E-book
We are so excited about the launch of Yahoo! Web Analytics. In Yahoo! Web Analytics E-book Part 1, we help you to enable analytics into your Yahoo Store. Download your free copy of Yahoo Web Analytics E-book Part 1
It also contains great secrets I use for getting TOP rankings!
Recent Blog Tips
Make sure you are subscribed to our blog! Over the next few weeks we are going to expand on each aspect we discussed above in more detail. We have lots of choices to keep up with our blog. You can subscribe to our
RSS feed or get email updates. If you use Twitter, you can get to know me
and get updates on new blog posts too.
1 Choice 4 Your Store is proud and honored to host the first and only
radio show for Yahoo Store owners. You can catch us live each and every Monday
6:00 PM - 7:00 PM Eastern (3:00 PM - 4:00 PM Pacific) on
WSRadio.com
If you have missed any of our shows, you can
click on the links below (Our Top 5 is listed with RED Stars):
Episode 20 -
Reducing Overhead & Recession Busting Tips
America's current economic status has dented the majority of industries big and small. Many companies are reducing their overhead to deflect the current economic downfall. Jay Blazensky, of RingCentral, stopped by to speak with us about how RingCentral can help you cut costs, yet keep, if not increase, productivity. RingCentral recently conducted a survey and found that an amazing 75 percent of respondents have been negatively effected by the economy. Let Jay tell you how RingCentral can help.
www.ringcentral.com
Cathy Siciliano, Senior Director of Marketing at Elance.com dropped by the show to share some recession-busting tips for small businesses. Cathy also told us about how online freelancers can help you maintain or boost your sales on this exciting edition of Power Hour.
Elance
Episode
19 - Increase Retention w/Video and Making Affiliate Programs Work
Dave Toole, from Media Mobz, stopped by the show to talk about the
importance of video in reaching out to your customers. Video is able to
increase retention levels by over 300 percent. Dave spoke to us about
ways to market and promote with the use of video. Did you know that
video is an important part of Search Engine Optimization? It is and we
tell you why.
www.mediamobz.com
J.P. Diaz, of Superior Affiliate Management, broke down exactly what
affiliate marketing is and how it can is important to your business.
Your small niche products can be a perfect fit for affiliate networks.
Do you want to become an affiliate? J.P. will tell you how on this
exciting new edition of Power Hour.
Affiliate Marketing Part 2 E-Book
****Episode
18 - Automate Your Yahoo Store, Neuroeconomics, & 3 R's of Merchant Accounts****
Mailware is a backoffice system for mail order companies. Bruce
Kowkabany, from Mailware, stopped by the show to talk about the services
the company offers and Bruce talked about how Mailware has specific
features built in for the Yahoo Store. Mailware is a backoffice system
for mail order companies. It can take the order from creation to
completion and then follow up with reports (ad tracking, RFM,
profitability) and back end solicitations (emails, mailings etc.). Learn
more about this great program for Yahoo Store owners by listening now!
www.mailware.com
Why are colors important to your Web site? Neuroeconomics would be the
answer. Rene Barnett stopped by the show to tell us how Neuroeconomics
works with your Yahoo Store and how you can increase sales by paying
attention to how the brain works. Plus our friend Bill Dumont, from
E-Merchant Discount, told us about the 3 Rʼs when selecting a merchant
account provider.
www.emerchantdiscount.com
****Episode
17 - Comparison Shopping and Wholesale Tips****
Dan Clarke, former CEO of VCommerce and present CEO of Specialty Retail
Shop, stopped by the show to talk about how multiple checkout pages can hurt
your online business. Did you know that online retails sales will increase
14.3 percent this year? Dan told us how smaller retail sites have a unique
opportunity to market their sites and explained how comparison-shopping
might be an ideal way to drive revenue.
partners.winbuyer.com
Colette Marshall, Marketing Director at Worldwide Brands, ended the October
13 show with some great wholesale tips that are definitely worth the listen.
Learn why it is important to develop a strong relationship with your
suppliers for lasting success!
www.worldwidebrands.com
Episode 15 - Overcoming Cart Abandonment & Social Networking
In a recent survey conducted by Harris Interactive and Elance.com, 70% of the people surveyed said that hiring a virtual assistant would give them more time and reduce stress in their lives. Store owners could certainly use a lot less stress and more time for yourself,Are you losing too many sales from cart abandonment? www.upsellit.com
Everyday we hear more and more about social networking. How much do you understand about the new tools available that can help you increase your sales and get to know your customers? Michael Vorel discusses social networking tools such as Twitter, Facebook, Friendfeed, and more PLUS show you how you can use social networking to build your brand. One more bit of great news, all these tools are FREE! www.vastplanet.com
****Episode
9 - Keyword Research - The life blood of SEO*** Ken McGafin explains why keywords are so important for Yahoo Store Owner to
understand. Although you may know how customers are finding you, you may be
surprised to find out they are finding your products many different ways.
Are you optimizing your website for all the different keyword phrases your
customers are using? If not, you are losing sales. Click below to use
Wordtracker's free keyword research tool.
Wordtracker Free Keyword Research Tool
Ken also discusses the many opportunities that keyword research presents. By
understanding lateral keywords and long tail keywords, you can increase your
sales and increase your rankings. By creating keyword specific content
pages, you are getting a ROI that lasts a lifetime and will continue to
bring you additional income if done correctly. Click below to visit the
Wordtracker Academy and learn more.
Wordtracker Academy
***Episode
6 - Product Sourcing w/ Worldwide Brands*** Worldwide Brands provides excellent information about the importance of
having the right products for your business and how to find those products
as well. Collette also shares information about the phenomenal new video
series that Worldwide Brands has just released on Beating the Recession
which can be found at:
http://blog.worldwidebrands.com/
PLUS Worldwide Brands is offering up great tools and amazing discounts! Make
sure to check out their blog for more details. You will not be disappointed!
I was honored to be a part of the video series that is guaranteed to help
many new and old store owners.
***Episode 5 - Increasing Conversion Rates w/ Rob Snell*** Rob Snell, author of Yahoo Business for Dummies, provides real life tips and
information on increasing conversion rats for Yahoo Store. Tips include how
to find your conversion rate, how to track your conversion rates, and using
the new Checkout Manager. Rob discusses how to increase conversion rates by
building confidence, providing contact information, and trust symbols. Rob
Snell gives away a free copy of Chapter 21 of his book which discusses in
more detail how to increase your conversion rates. Send an email to
info@powerhourradioshow.com to get your copy today!
1 Choice 4 Your Store is an authorized Yahoo Store Partner. However, its products are not
associated with or endorsed by Yahoo! Inc. Yahoo!, and Yahoo! Store are registered trademarks of Yahoo! Inc. Click here for more copyright information.
Level 1 - Overnight Success
In a recent article written by
Internet Retailer, they explain that online stores have an advantage when it
comes to consumers buying online. 
What percent of your holiday sales occur from Thanksgiving
through and including the Monday after Thanksgiving?
FREE eBook Meta Tags Made Easy
Make sure you are subscribed to our blog! Over the next few weeks we are going to expand on each aspect we discussed above in more detail. We have lots of choices to keep up with our blog. You can subscribe to our
RSS feed or get email updates. If you use Twitter, you can get to know me
and get updates on new blog posts too.
