Austin, TX (Volusion Inc.) January, 2008- Volusion employees set out to make a difference in the lives of families in need during the 2007 Holiday season. The Volusion team adopted a total of eight families to provide for this Christmas, from locations in both Austin, Texas and Simi Valley, California. For each family, Volusion contributed gift items ranging from toys to clothing, along with a full uncooked Christmas meal.

Each staff member took part in contributing to the charity endeavors, with some team members responsible for purchasing gifts and food, while others delivered those items to the adopted families “It was an incredible experience and opportunity to be bring such joy to the lives of so many young children”, notes Craig H., Volusion Customer Care Representative. Craig was one of the members chosen to deliver items to the homes of those in need. “To hear the children’s screams when we knocked on the door was a great feeling. It was nice to know that our company was able to make a difference in people’s lives this holiday season.”

A member of Volusion’s Tech Support department, Kristina K., was touched personally by the overall experience. “It feels great knowing we are helping families in need. People need to know they are loved and cared for, and I felt like we did a great job to do just that. Giving someone that extra boost to help out their family through the holidays is a great experience. I’ve been on the receiving end of a Share and Care program during a very difficult time for my family, so to be able to help give back now is truly a blessing!”

In California, the families were found through Share and Care, a company that is associated with the Salvation Army and based out of Simi Valley. In Texas, the families needing services were found through The Christmas Bureau of Austin and Travis County. An organization that has been around for 47 years, The Christmas Bureau matches needy families with their sponsors. Donations are always welcome and you can find more information on the organization by visiting their online site at www.CBofAustin.org.

-Stacie Leonard, Ecommerce Marketing/Copywriting

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Most of us have already concluded that come January, we are going to start losing those pesky 15 pounds, quit smoking, do more volunteer work, and reduce our debt. While all of these are certainly all worthy causes, you can also take the potential downtime this January to make improvements to both your store and your business process.

Here are some suggestions from various Volusion staffers:

Jennifer S.
“Solidify your design by making it more consistent through your site. If you already have a consistent design, try taking it a step further into your advertising and just add some little things to make your store feel more like an experience.”

Jeri B.
“Maintain a simplified color palette throughout your entire site. It will add a harmonious look and feel to your site, and make it appear more professional and easy to navigate.”

Jon B.
Get familiar with the many design tools on the web. Here are just a few I suggest:
http://www.modernlifeisrubbish.co.uk Modern Design Tips
http://www.dafont.com Free fonts that won’t lock up Photoshop
http://www.colorschemer.com Give your site color harmony
http://www.resizr.com A free way to resize your photos
http://www.istockphoto.com Stock photos for $1

Sandra N.
“Execute more mini projects. Divide a main project into smaller projects with a smaller scope so that each “mini” project can be easily completed in a shorter amount of time. This leads to a better sense of accomplishment, don’t you think?”

Michelle B.
“Make it more of a point to get feedback from family and friends to evaluate your site regularly. Your goal could be to ask someone for feedback once a week, five times a month, or any schedule that will work for you. Start with a specific area (design, navigation, product descriptions, images, etc.) and ask for comments in that specific area. This will allow you to focus on one area at a time, and create a specific “To-Do” List for that section before moving on to the next.”

Kate P.
“Add to your credibility as an online company in the eyes of potential customers. Have a clear return policy/money back guarantee posted, and make sure that customers can readily find it before they order. There’s nothing worse than feeling like you were duped by a company because they hid their policies or made it nearly impossible for you to return items.”

AmyLynn K.
“Make it a point to improve your on-page SEO. A lot of people just put sizes into their product descriptions, but is that really describing the product? You could describe its various sizes, what it’s for, and so much more about it. This in and of itself will make search engine spiders like your site a whole lot more.”

Stacie L.
“If you haven’t done so already, now’s the time to start running online ads. It’s a great way to gain exposure and possible sales, especially if your site isn’t ranking well in search engines. A few quick tips: direct campaigns to landing pages to better target traffic, monitor campaigns often and write ad text that is relevant to what the searcher is looking for. Always keep in mind that those reaching your site have already searched, so don’t make them search more after clicking on your ad. See the Search Engine Marketing section for more tips on setting up online ad campaigns.”

Adam H.
“Off page SEO is huge for improving your search engine rankings. Create a blog to link back to your store. Write articles or ask bloggers to review your products. Making a point this year to increase your backlinks can pay huge dividends in the end for your business.”

Michelle Greer, Marketing Specialist
“Remember to see your store in the context of the web. When your customers look for your products, they don’t just see your store. They probably found you on Google, a comparison shopping site, or an affiliate link, and they may have heard about you in a forum or other community site. Participating in online communities will help you understand and reach out to your customers to gain their loyalty.”

Volusion wishes all of our merchants and readers a happy and prosperous 2008.

–Michelle Greer, Marketing Specialist
http://www.volusion.com

Technorati Tags: Start Online Business, Start Online Store, Sell Online, Ecommerce Tips, Online Store Tips, Online Business Tips, Volusion

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All that is left under the tree are pine needles. Mom is diligently whipping up her famous post holiday concoction composed of turkey, stuffing, peas, a can of mushroom soup, and whatever else was leftover from dinner. You have already vowed to lose ten pounds (well, after all the holiday cookies are gone). The holidays are over, but do your big sales numbers have to be over as well?

Maintaining momentum after the holidays takes initiative. Hopefully you took advantage of the increase in traffic by gearing your store around gift-giving, and now you will have to push towards either a New Years theme or back to your look before the holiday season took off. Here are some other steps for maintaining momentum after the holidays:

1.) Make it easy to redeem gift cards, and offer gift card users upsell items. How often have you received a gift card and only spent the exact amount on the card? Gift card users will often take out their credit cards to purchase the exact items they want, so take advantage of the upsell opportunities.

2.) Advertise a post holiday sale. This could mean changing up your search engine marketing campaign. Microsoft’s adCenter blog offers some good tips for changing your post-holiday SEM campaigns.

3.) Change the verbage on your site to better address your audience. Very few people are looking for gifts after the holidays. Should your site address these issues, or should you be highlighting your newest and latest sale items? Do you have a year-end closeout? Don’t be lazy–what is your post-holiday angle?

4.) Keep track of what worked for the year. How did your SEM campaigns go? What were your best and worst selling products? How did any split testing pan out?

5.) Take advantage of big holiday traffic. Did you get more email addresses for your newsletter list? Don’t let those holiday customers forget about your great sales, useful advice, or helpful customer service. Sending targeted newsletters in the next few months can mean the difference between having one-time holiday customers and loyal customers for life.

6.) While working on your closeouts, figure out what the next step is for 2008. This could mean asking your customers what they are wanting in the future. Does your site need a new design? Are there new products they are looking for in the upcoming year? Did they have a positive experience this holiday season? Don’t be afraid to ask for feedback.

The 2007 holiday season saw record sales figures, and planning and preparation can bring those great sales numbers well into 2008.

–Michelle Greer, Marketing Specialist
http://www.volusion.com

Technorati Tags: 2007 Holiday Online, 2007 Holiday Sales Record, Holiday Sales Statistics, Online Store Tips, sell online, volusion

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Monday, December 10th marked $881 million in online sales, making it the heaviest online spending day on record! This number was up 33 percent versus the previous year’s high of $666.9 million.

For more information on Cyber Monday, Black Friday and overall ecommerce holiday sales, see the updated version of “Holiday Sales: When Will Your Site See its Peak Day?.”

For more information on this year’s record breaker, view ComScore’s press release “Online Holiday Retail Spending Surpasses $22 Billion, Up 18 Percent Versus Year Ago, As Retailers Prepare for Final Week of Pre-Christmas Shopping.”

-Stacie Leonard, Ecommerce Marketing/Copywriting

Technorati Tags: 2007 ecommerce holiday sales, 2007 ecommerce sales, 2007 Holiday Online, 2007 online holiday sales, 2007 online sales

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For consumers, the holidays mean buying all the items our loved ones have wanted all year, and receiving all those great gifts we’ve wanted but would not buy for ourselves. For online store owners, this can mean record sales year after year.

And just one credit card fraudster can ruin the holiday season for both a consumer and an online store owner.

There are quite a few steps you can take to market your store for the holiday season. As the traffic comes in, what are you doing to protect yourself from the wrong people ordering your goods or services? Here are a few precautions you can take to prevent the headaches associated with online credit card fraud:

1.) Manually check your orders. Fraudsters take advantage of different ship to addresses during the holidays as well as the number of orders that change addresses mid-delivery. If you get an order shipping to an address in an odd location or a large order, be sure to call the customer prior to shipping.

2.) Be sure to check the IP address where the order was placed. If you find that it doesn’t match any city on the order, you should be cautious before shipping. This post on protecting yourself from chargebacks includes a screenshot of what the IP address looks like on each order record in a Volusion Admin Area.

3.) Be aware of countries that tend to harbor internet fraud. High problem areas tend to be China, southeast Asia, India, the former Soviet Union, the Eastern block of Europe, and East Africa. If you see an IP address from one of these countries, shipping the order might not be worth it unless you can contact the customer and verify the card.

4.) Prevent credit card fraud in the first place by hosting data securely. A survey by CyberSource speculates that online credit card fraud has gone up in 2007 by 20 percent already. Be sure to protect credit card data by complying with PCI/CISP standards. This will greatly reduce your risk of getting your servers compromised and your customers’ credit card information stolen by hackers. You can see if your hosting company is compliant by checking Visa’s list of CISP certified hosting companies (don’t worry–Volusion is on the list!).

Enjoy your holiday sales this season, but don’t forget to prevent the post-holiday hangover by taking the steps to prevent chargebacks.

–Michelle Greer, Marketing Specialist
http://www.volusion.com

Technorati Tags: Credit Card Fraud, Holiday Fraud Statistics, Internet Fraud Holidays, Preventing Credit Card Fraud, volusion

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