Before You Market Your Site
Marketing an e-commerce site requires an all angles approach to bringing in traffic and converting traffic to sales. Marketing efforts must be balanced with site usability to ensure that traffic translates to sales conversions. There are a number of tools that can be used to provide statistical data monitor any marketing campaigns. These tools should be put in place prior to the launch of any marketing efforts to ensure an accurate ROI data. The difference between these solutions and the solutions of the past is that some of the newer solutions due more than telling you how many hits and page views your site has received. These solutions allow E-commmerce tracking by the use of Goal based funnel data to track each step throughout your site's checkout process. This allows you to see where customers are abandoning the checkout process. The funnel shows the most data at the widest position of the top of the funnel with a narrowing of the funnel with the least data at the bottom. Every shopping cart loses customer along the way to the receipt page. The goal is to minimize the number the fallout rate to maximize sales.
Options for Site Analytics
When you look at incorporating solutions to monitor site performance there a number of options to consider.
Google Analytics
Google Analytics formerly Urchin offers a free solution for garnering web statistics. This is a good solution considering the cost, but you will have 24 hours to see Sunday's data on Monday.
ClickTracks
ClickTracks offers a different approach to analyzing analytic data. ClickTracks uses a client/server approach which allows you to use a desktop based application instead of a web solution. The advantage here is that the desktop app allows you to easily segement your visitor traffic by any criteria you determine. For instance you can tag visitors that have entered the site via Google and searched by a certain keyword who only made it to the cart page but did not check out of the site. This is just one example of how the system can be configured.
Comments (0) 11.18.2006. 22:11
Why Use Source Control
We utilize a source code management system (Subversion) that tracks the changes made to our source code. This solution involves a repository built to keep a revision database of file changes. This allows multiple developers to work on the same project by keeping a history of all changes that have been made to the development source code. If at any time the code changes need to be reverted back to an earlier version of the code we can do so. This repository of code is accessible for our development staff to allow changes to be viewed directly from within each developer’s set of development tools. There is a learning curve to utilize a source control solution such as Subversion but the benefits far out way the time involved in becoming familiar with using the solution. You can certainly take advantage of a source code control system without learning every aspect of the system.
What if I don't use source control
By not using source control you have to resort to making copies of any file you make changes to or commenting each line of code change within the files you are editing. If you do misplace the backup copies you lose any ability to revert to an older version of the files you are editing.
Ever worked on the same file as another developer. By using a source control system you can merge your version of the file with your coworker's version. Every developer/designer working on your project can have access to the revision history of your project. Have you ever forgotten what changes you have made to a set of files 3 months ago? This is a common problem for developers and designers. By using a source control system like subversion you are required to add a code comment when adding changed files to your source code repository. This gives you a method to go back and review change changes made over the life of the project.
About Subversion
Subversion is the next generation of source control management systems that was initially developed as a replacement for CVS. Subversion is a big step up from other tools due to its cost (free) and its tight integration with a number of development tools. In addition the install and setup process relatively simple. It is an open source solution that is supported by a number of committed developers. The source control system integrates nicely into the Eclipse development environment. In addition subversion will integrate nicely with MS Visual Studio 2003 and up. If you have been burned by Visual Source Safe subversion is an option for Microsoft .NET developers.
Subversion Resources
Subversion Hosting
If you are not inclined to set up your own subversion repository you may utilize a hosted service. I have listed a few subversion hosting resources below
Google Code
Google offers code hosting along with a subversion repository. Note: This is designed to allow you to share your code with the open source community. So if you are not keen on sharing your code with the public you may want to consider an alternative.
Comments (0) 11.18.2006. 22:04
The Importance of Web Standards
The use of web standards is now more important then ever. Recently Target Corporate was sued for acessibility issues with their web site. The lawsuit sets a precedent for additional lawsuits to be filed against other online b2b and b2c retailers.A web standards based site uses html code is standards compliant. The term "web standards" was coined by the Web Standards Project which was Founded in 1998 The Web Standards Project (WaSP) fights for standards that reduce the cost and complexity of development while increasing the accessibility and long-term viability of any site published on the Web.
Since the inception of WaSP a number of sites have been developed using these standards. Some
Why would I want to use webstandards?
Faster Loading of pages
An XHTML based page requires less html than a typical nonstandards compliant page does.Your site will consume less bandwidth
if your pages are smaller so will your bill for bandwidth usage. In addition your server will be able to serve handle additional traffic.Search Engines may start indexing your site
Less code makes it easier for the search engines to index your pages. Creating compliant code that is semantically correct will inform the search engine that certain content on the page should be indexed.Skilled web developers like standards
The web developer of 2007 understands that web standards are the only choice for site development. Code that is smaller and easier to read can be more easliy maintained by developers. Your current web developer may understand your site, but what about the developer you hire next year.The future of the web
By using today's standards the site will be ensured that the next generation of web browser software will display your pages correctly.See detailed article on the Target case at Computer Week
Comments (0) 11.18.2006. 21:40
Content Publishing Systems for everyone
Content publishing allows non-technical staff to maintain and develop sophisticated web sites that can be updated without the need for an IT department. The problem with most content based web sites is that they are often difficult to maintain which typically results in outdated content. There are however a number of solutions that can easily be maintained with minimal or no training necessary. For any designer or content author that is already familar with creating basic html pages the right CMS will enable these individuals to go beyond static html pages. These systems offer a number of benefits including:
Separation of design from content
The use of a good CMS will allow the design of the site to be completely separated from site content using cascading stylesheets and a XHTML based layout. This will allow entire site design changes to be made without affecting content. Multiple stylesheets can be created to allow the colors, grpahics and other site elements to be changed without reprogramming.
Search Functionallity
Content entered into a CMS can easily be searched directly on the site. This enables you to add to content to your site that is fully indexable by both eternal search engines and through an internal search.
Stay tuned for examples of various Content Management Systems
Comments (0) 11.15.2006. 19:32
Hosted E-Commerce search Add major impact to any e-commerce site
Hosted Search adds major impact to e-commerce sites by providing an improved e-commerce search to any e-commerce site. Companies looking to make a transition to another e-commerce system such look first at adding this solution.Hosted Search brings a number of features including:
Error tolerant fuzzy matching
Hosted search forgives both user error and errors in products names. For example, a search for a product with a particular model number (DVD-5303) will return accurate results even if the search terms are incorrect (DVD 5303 or DVD5303). There is no need for the retailer to re-input and/or rename the products in their database as eComm|Search works with existing data…good or bad.
"Did you mean " suggestions
Customers don’t have to be spelling bee champions. eComm|Search presents users with suggestions based on correct spelling, synonym mapping and even actual sales data.
Related product suggestions
When a customer performs a search for a "glue gun" , for example, eComm|Search will also present the user with related product suggestions such as "glue sticks" .
Advanced search refinements
eComm|Search presents searchers with search refinement options. Searchers can effectively narrow their search results by any field such as size, color or brand for example.
Sorting based on any field
Users can sort by any field you wish for to sort on such as price and brand.
Custom thesaurus/synonym mapping
You may be a retailer of kitchen appliances but if your product database is full of "ranges" and your customers are looking for "ovens" you might have a problem. Not to worry, eComm|Search has allows you to customize and maintain a synonym map.
Keyword stemming
With eComm|Search, customers searching for "televisions" will be presented with products containing or related to "television" and "televisions" .
Search analytics
eComm|Search search provides comprehensive reporting of user search engine behavior. It incluses powerful statistics collection and reporting tools which allow for detailed analysis of customer behavior. The value of the extracted information and data from each customer is immeasurable.
Comments (1) 11.15.2006. 18:29