eCommerce

Can online reviews be better for business than word-of-mouth?

Can online reviews be better for business than word-of-mouth?

79% of consumers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations, 70% of consumers consult online reviews before they make a purchase, and 71% of consumers say that online reviews make them feel more comfortable that they are buying the right product for them. So why is it that online reviews now have so much selling power?... read the rest »
Find your eCommerce niche

Find your eCommerce niche

A niche is the provision of goods and/or services that fit a specific part of the market that may not be covered by ‘mainstream’ providers. If you’ve found a niche then you can target all parts of your communication, marketing and product development to fit this... read the rest »
Sweet Pea Fashion website goes live!

Sweet Pea Fashion website goes live!

We’re very excited to announce the launch of our latest project: a new website and POS system for Bristol based Sweet Pea Fashion. Sweet Pea Fashion is a lovely boutique store based in Westbury-On-Trym, ran by best friends Gemma and Emma... read the rest »
How to get more referrals for your small business

How to get more referrals for your small business

There are some statistics that you really cannot afford to ignore if you’re trying to run a successful business; 84% of people trust recommendations from friends and family more than all other forms of marketing, 77% of customers are more likely to buy a new product after a recommendation from friends and family, and 80% of businesses say that their customers find out about them through word of mouth marketing. Word of mouth marketing is powerful, and that is the word.... read the rest »
Get a list of installed Magento patches single SSH command

Get a list of installed Magento patches single SSH command

All Magento patches that have been installed successfully are logged into app/etc/applied.patches.list file. You can just open this file in your favourite text editor to find out all installed patches and changed files or change directory via SSH to your Magento root and run the following command: grep -F '|' app/etc/applied.patches.list|cut -f 2 -d'|'      ... read the rest »
Can not install Magento Patch 6788 due to .htaccess inconsistency

Can not install Magento Patch 6788 due to .htaccess inconsistency

This is well known issue, Magento need to patch .htaccess file as well as its sample file (.htaccess.sample). If you use a modified .htaccess file you have to run something like this:   mv .htaccess .htaccess_original wget -qO .htaccess http://svn.magentocommerce.com/source/branches/1.7/.htaccess wget -qO .htaccess.sample http://svn.magentocommerce.com/source/branches/1.7/.htaccess.sample sh PATCH_SUPEE-6788_CE_1.9.1.0_v1-2015-10-27-09-06-11.sh mv .htaccess .htaccess_patched mv .htaccess_original .htaccess Do not forget to use the correct patch filename.... read the rest »
Benefits of live chat on your website

Benefits of live chat on your website

And no, that’s not the x-rated Live Chat that might have sprung to the not-so-innocent mind. Live chat systems are instant messaging tools that lets your website browsers ‘chat’ to a customer services advisor whilst browsing your site.... read the rest »
How to turn seasonal shoppers into loyal customers

How to turn seasonal shoppers into loyal customers

With the American traditions of Black Friday and Cyber Monday’s popularity spreading through the UK, as well as Christmas countdown promotions, Boxing Day sales and January sales, this time of year is full of promotions and special offers. So how do you turn a purely seasonal (opportunistic) shopper into a loyal customer?... read the rest »
Use gift guides to boost sales this Christmas

Use gift guides to boost sales this Christmas

With Christmas fast approaching, and the American import of Black Friday, you might have noticed Gift Guides popping up in marketing material – online, in newsletters, in magazines and newspapers. They’re usually a collation of gift ideas for people with specific hobbies, gender, age etc... read the rest »
Top 7 online payment systems

Top 7 online payment systems

If you’re running any form of ecommerce platform, there’s a high chance that you want to take payments online. There are so many payment systems available, where do you start? Read on as we run through our top 7 (in no order of preference)... read the rest »
How to run a successful social media campaign

How to run a successful social media campaign

A campaign is defined by the Oxford dictionary as “an organised course of action to achieve a goal”. Rather than talking about social media as a general marketing tool, we’re now talking about it as a specific channel to use to achieve a defined goal for your business... read the rest »
Social media: “buy it” buttons

Social media: “buy it” buttons

Social media can be a great and cheap (or free-ish) tool to market your business, but converting your followers to customers can be trickier. Now two of the image-based platforms have introduced much clearer call-to-actions to help you convert your social media followers to customers much easier... read the rest »
Off-The-Shelf vs. Bespoke Solutions

Off-The-Shelf vs. Bespoke Solutions

Is there a specific system that would help you to manage your business better, or solution to your lengthy eCommerce fulfilment? Or anything else you think needs help automating to make your business more efficient? There’s always something that we could be improving on, but would you choose an off-the-shelf system or have something bespoke designed to exactly suit your requirements? Read on to work through the decision-making process. ... read the rest »
How to make your first eCommerce sale

How to make your first eCommerce sale

Your first sale as a business is exciting and what you dreamed of when you started the long journey to launch. But it’s definitely not easy, that first sale can seem like a pretty long way off when you’re tied down in business paperwork, business plans, website building, bank account sorting... read the rest »
Why upselling and cross-selling is important

Why upselling and cross-selling is important

As a company you’re probably (hopefully) selling a product or service in order to make money to cover your costs and potentially make a profit. So how do you increase the amount that each customer spends to increase the revenue per sale? Amazon reported that cross-selling is responsible for more than 1/3 of its sales... read the rest »
Customer reviews: how to make them work for your business

Customer reviews: how to make them work for your business

You can’t avoid it, everyone and everything is online. And that means that your customers aren’t writing you letters or sending you faxes (although they might be, I know I’ve had some), they’re contacting you online where the whole world can easily see what they have to say about you... read the rest »