Metakinetic identified the need for the solution, which replaces the previous 3rd party search software, as part of the ongoing strategic ecommerce consultancy that it provides to Andertons, advising on all aspects of ecommerce to help drive online sales growth for the business.

The solution from EasyAsk has been rapidly deployed as a Software as a Service (SaaS) solution and empowers Andertons to take control of a single solution for their on-site search, navigation and merchandising functions. Using natural language processing, the solution allows Andertons to give its website visitors an easy and intuitive way to navigate the site, helping them to easily find the product for which they are searching.

By tapping into the unstructured data used within the Andertons ecommerce website, the EasyAsk solution releases the potential of product data held within product descriptions and names, to provide visitors with highly relevant results that not only use word, phrase and attribute matching, but that have a real understanding of what the user is searching for. This means that visitors to the site searching who are searching for a blue guitar are not going to miss out on the beautiful Fender Eric Johnson Stratocaster in Tropical Turquoise and visitors can specify constraints such as a budget limit or exclusions such as colour or brand.

Lee Anderton, Managing Director of Andertons commented; “We’re very pleased to have found EasyAsk. It is a solution that helps us to improve our product findability to this extent. We now have faceted navigation, which is essential when working with such a large product catalogue.”

Darren Bull, Director at Metakinetic and leading the EasyAsk project on behalf of Andertons, added; “It has been refreshing to work with the EasyAsk team – they have listened carefully to Metakinetic’s recommendations and ensured that they are implemented quickly, accurately and efficiently. I’m looking forward to seeing the inevitable uplift in sales following launch.”

Simon Persse, VP Sales, Europe, EasyAsk concurred; “The speed of deployment and low upfront investment required to deploy EasyAsk Ecommerce Edition, coupled with the many unique capabilities such as our new autocomplete search as you type capability means we will deliver a step change in usability for Andertons customers, helping them find the right product more easily as well as giving effective control over the search and navigation experience to the Andertons in-house team. We are looking forward to working in partnership with Metakinetic and the Andertons team to support the growth and development of their online channel."

One of the most popular events in the CatEx calendar, the Annual Summit is eagerly awaited by retailers and industry specialists alike and is always guaranteed to be a great day.

This year, we are delighted to be presenting alongside some great speakers. Mike Weatherley, one of our company Directors will be taking the stage at 14:30 to share insight and inspire the audience with a presentation entitled "The Changing Face of Today's Retail Consumer".

The current mind blowing speed of technological change means that today’s consumer is evolving at a rate previously unknown to retailers. Consumers are becoming increasingly empowered and now often demand when and how they buy from retail businesses. Mike’s presentation will examine exactly how the face of today’s retail consumer is changing, what that means to retailers both on and offline and how retailers can embrace these changes to the advantage of their business.

Darren Bull, one of our Founders and a company Director will also be hosting a roundtable in the afternoon. With the topic "Increasing your Ecommerce Sales" on the agenda for our roundtable session, Darren will lead a discussionon how retailers today can capitalise on the a range of opportunities to make their website work harder, without necessarily meaning big changes and big bucks.

To find out more about the Annual Summit, or to book tickets, please go to the CatEx Annual Summit information page.

Lillian Squires joins Metakinetic as the newest Graphic Designer to join the Design team after successfully completing a three month Graphic Design internship at the company, where her passion and natural flair for design quickly became clear. The company has experienced a rise in demand for its creative services after recently acquiring several new clients who include Daily Mail Shop, Fairway Furniture and WTS Broadcast, along with increasing demand from retained clients such as ABC Golf, Towels R Us and award-winning online retailers Hingstons and Less Bounce. Lillian is a BA (Hons) Graphic Design graduate from Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London. Following a position at audio conference company Premiere Global and a creative role at retailer Flying Horse Jeans, Lillian made the decision to move back into Graphic Design where her passion lies. She says “My internship has been very hands-on, and I am so pleased that Metakinetic has asked me to stay on.”

Libby Richfield has joined the team as the Sales and Marketing Assistant for the Marketing department. This is a new role created to support Metakinetic in growing its ecommerce website design & build, marketing, and price tracking & optimisation teams, which provide creative, technical and marketing services to a wide range of online retailers. Libby joins the team fresh from completing her BA (Hons) English Literature degree at Royal Holloway, University of London, and is very excited to be a part of this fast-growing digital business.

Darren Bull, Director of Metakinetic, remarked “We are extremely pleased to welcome both Lillian and Libby to Metakinetic. We recognised some rare qualities in them both and are very much looking forward to their growth and development within the business. The company is dedicated to ensuring we have the best possible team working to deliver our outstanding service to clients, and the addition of these new members will support our plans for the continual growth of the business.”

Libby Richfield

Sales and Marketing Assistant
Google +

Loyalty, along with customer interaction is a brand opportunity; not only does it help build a relationship between your brand and the consumer but it also has the potential to improve your brand development. Activating a loyalty program to include social media incorporates the channels that your customers use frequently. Creating loyalty in a platform where your customers are comfortable can promote some promising insights, acquisition and retention.

Entertain

Firstly, it is important to think about the why people turn to social media; recognising the use, purpose and what people want from the channel then incorporate it into your business strategy to assist the success of your social media presence. By identifying and delivering what your consumers want from the particular platform they are more likely to follow, like or more importantly interact with your brand. 

 

Figure 1. Example of Red Bull’s Facebook posts & Tweets

Aside from communicating with friends and family, the majority of social media platforms are used to entertain, whether it is reading an article published through LinkedIn or watching a cat dressed up as shark, chasing a duckling (trust me it’s a must see), we turn to social media to be entertained. Additionally we want to be perceived as entertaining ourselves therefore the majority of consumers  will share the content that has made us chuckle or been of interest to us. Entertaining your target customers with content they will not only read but share will encourage them to seek your posts out as a source of entertainment.

Red Bull has cracked the cryptic code that is social media by posting content (mainly visual content) that promotes engagement amongst their fans and followers. The content differs depending on the social media platform you are interacting with them through. Their use of social media is not just about the products they sell; instead, they portray a lifestyle they affiliate with the brand (fig. 1). 

Engage

For long term loyalty a brand requires true consumer engagement. Social media across the appropriate platforms gives brands the opportunity to offer their consumers exclusivity into the brand and therefore the consumer gets a sense of importance.

 Figure 2. Cadbury UK's Google + post launching Pots of Joy

For instance, Cadbury UK launched their new Pots of Joy yogurts on their Google + profile (fig.2) with the question ‘which flavour would you like to pick out of the fridge first?’ This post gives the consumer exclusivity but also the chance to offer their opinion on the new product. Although this is a casual instance of customer interaction it allows Cadbury to get instant feedback on the product; enabling this feedback to influence promotions and stock management.

Give Consumers a Say

Consumers love the idea of power and when a campaign enables them to have some input into the outcome of the campaign it encourages strong instances of interaction with the brand. Look at Nestle Kit Kat Chunky’s recent ‘Chunky Champion’ campaign when they handed the power over to their customers giving them the chance to keep their favourite variation of Kit Kat Chunky available to buy in store. On the Nestle Kit Kat Facebook page their fans liked a post (fig.3) 841 times, commented 1,177 times and even shared the post 101 times, illustrating true engagement with the Kit Kat brand. 

Figure 3. Nestle Kit Kat's Facebook post encouraging fans to vote

Feedback

Part of the appeal for consumers to buy online is the access to opinion rating and feedback (fig.4). Social media offers the opportunity for instant feedback whether consumers get this through posting a product they are interested in buying or by following a retailer on the relevant social media platform. 

Figure 4. ‘The Reasons For or Not Purchasing Over the Internet 2010’ (ONS.gov.uk)

This process of feedback, especially that of the negative sort, was demonstrated in 2012 when O2, the mobile network, went down for a period of time preventing customers from making calls, texts or accessing the internet. O2 received numerous insulting tweets from their angry customer-base yet rather than staying quiet, the O2 social media team used this as opportunity to engage consumers and gain coverage by providing amusing but polite responses (fig. 5).  These entertaining tweets were re-tweeted and marked as favourites by followers several hundred times, turning a potentially damaging situation into a PR campaign with many reporting it in news articles and blogs.
 

Figure 5. O2’s Twitter Campaign against Mass Negative Feedback

The movement towards digital, in particular social media will soon result in call centres becoming obsolete in a B2C environment. Social networks provide the opportunity for consumers to publically give feedback on a company or a brand. Customers have favoured this approach due to the fast response rate on the company’s behalf.

Social media assists largely in the research stage of the buying decision. For instance, often an undecided consumer is likely to share a product to gain the opinion of their friends or followers over the relevant social media platform. Additionally, if they require a review on an item they will simply ask the opinion of their network on the product. It is this digital development of word-and-mouth that holds weight in influencing a customer’s buying decision. Alternatively, if new products are promoted over the appropriate social media platform, those who would like to buy the product share the image to their network as a type of wish list either hinting to their friends what they can buy them or as a way of sharing content of interest to their circles. For this reason when having an ecommerce integration it is important to include social media share buttons to encourage word-and-mouth.

Incentivise

Often you have to encourage consumer interaction with rewards, for instance an incentivised loyalty program makes the customer more receptive to being contacted by the retailer.

American Express has used social media to promote their most recent loyalty scheme rewards referrals to LinkedIn members. Understanding the audience found on LinkedIn, American Express India has used this platform to encourage business personnel to become a card holder by getting LinkedIn members to refer their contacts. Not only does this provide a database of potential leads it also provides the brand with an opportunity to interact with new customers.

 
Figure 6. Bourjois UK’s Facebook Incentivised loyalty campaign

Incentivised interaction could also include competitions, for example Bourjois UK have a regular ‘Monday Funday’ competition to encourage consumer engagement. However it must be noted that depending on this as a sole technique to engage with your target customers can produce disappointing results as entrants aren’t guaranteed to be the target audience. Although for brand reputation an incentivised like, follow or pin will promote the quantity of fans or followers to give your page a credible appearance, generally the quality of the personal data acquired might not be the calibre of customer you desired.

At Metakinetic our Digital Marketing team is able to assist ecommerce retailers in their efforts to conquer the social media world enabling you to entertain, engage and interact with your target audience. For more information and to see what our friendly digital marketing team can do for your business please visit Digital Marketing or contact us.

Emily Ridley
Search Marketing Specialist

@EmilyRidley1

Google +

We worked closely with Hingstons to put together an entry for the awards and having only soft-launched the online business in August of last year, were certain they were well-deserving of the shortlisting in the Best Garden & Outdoors category.

Up against some pretty tough competition, we were absolutely thrilled when Hingstons were announced as the winner of the Best Garden & Outdoors category! With results such as 500% increase in ecommerce conversion rates and 660% increase in revenue from the site in such a short space of time, perhaps it sounds as if a win is not that surprising afterall. However, with winners of other categories including Argos and Littlewoods, you can imagine that all involved were rather elated!

If you'd like to find out more about an award-winning ecommerce solution from Metakinetic, please give us a call on 0118 324 9000.

Pictured above from left to right: Darren Bull, Metakinetic; Susie Cullen, Hingstons; John Cullen, Hingstons; Mike Weatherley, Metakinetic

The ECMOD Awards have spearheaded the recognition of business excellence for organisations engaged in direct-to-customer retailing across traditional and newly emerging channels. With categories designed for those targeting sales to businesses as well as for those selling to consumers, these unique awards also seek to celebrate the achievements of businesses of all scales and at all stages of development.

Hingstons, the home of home made, is a relatively new ecommerce business, having only soft-launched in August of last year, but has already made very impressive progress, boasting an enviable and growing range of products and an active and engaged customer base.

Driven by the ambitious and dynamic team responsible for founding children's wear brand, Muddy Puddles, Hingstons is an exciting ecommerce business that, whilst only at the outset of its journey, is well-deserving of the recognition afforded by its shortlisting in the awards.

Working closely with Hingstons, Metakinetic quietly beavered away to produce the entries that resulted in the nomination. With the ECMOD Awards evening being held on Thursday 18th April, Hingstons wil be joined by Metakinetic for a black tie evening of suspense, when the winners will be announced!

We, for one, are definitely looking forward to hearing the results!

hibu-owned Znode, headquartered in Columbus, OH U.S.A. is one of the fastest growing ecommerce software companies in the world. Znode’s Multifront® ecommerce platform solutions are flexible, simple to manage, and focus on the company’s vision of ‘Relevant Ecommerce’ – allowing businesses to create relevant and personalized experiences online that increase customer engagement and conversions.

Award-winning ecommerce agency, Metakinetic, was appointed by Znode following an appraisal process to assess its skills and technical expertise. As a current Microsoft Gold Partner and award-winning ecommerce agency, Znode was confident that Metakinetic had the perfect technical expertise to join its partner program as a Gold Implementation Partner. Metakinetic’s strong ecommerce marketing team will provide a range of added value services to Znode ecommerce clients, which vary in size above £2m and require advanced ecommerce capabilities.

Metakinetic’s Founder & CEO, Darren Bull, commented:

“We are delighted to become a gold implementation partner of Znode – this now allows us to serve a very wide range of online retailers, from smaller retailers with a team of four or five, through to retailers requiring an advanced enterprise level solution.”

Znode’s Vice President of Sales and Marketing, Douglas Myers, added:

”With Metakinetic becoming a Znode Gold Partner, we believe that there is a true synergy between both companies that will benefit customers in getting the best experience for their ecommerce solution and strategy”

With branches located throughout Devon and Cornwall, Fairway Furniture, a sixth generation family-run business, prides itself on offering great quality products at unbeatable prices, backed by a reliable, friendly and informed customer service. The company retails a variety of products, both brand name and their own exclusive designs, and has been in business for an impressive 157 years.

Berkshire-based full service ecommerce agency Metakinetic was appointed following a competitive pitch process, in which Metakinetic impressed Fairway Furniture’s management team with its ecommerce knowledge, technical capability and tailored, caring approach to its customers. Metakinetic works with retail clients that include River Island, Hingstons, Specialized, 118 Golf, Andertons Music Group and SanDisk.

The project, which will be split into two key phases, will see phase one focusing on moving Fairway Furniture from its current ecommerce agency, to Metakinetic’s ecommerce solution, MetaCommerce, creating a fresh new look and feel and allowing Fairway Furniture to more easily update its website, have a more stable platform and facilitating the future development of the website to meet the specific needs of the company. Phase two will immediately follow the initial launch and will involve an in-depth integration with Fairway Furniture’s current back office solution.

Fairway Furniture, which is arguably the most successful retailer of its kind in the South West, will use its new ecommerce solution to allow it to compete directly and successfully with the country’s largest home furnishing retailers. The website project will provide Fairway Furniture with a number of features essential in achieving its ambitious goals, including; a user friendly and time efficient administration system to allow quick and easy updates to the site and products; flexibility to develop additional features and functionality as required; intuitive navigation and product discovery; ability for the site to manage large number of product variables; and a deep integration with its current back office solution; whilst also requiring an attentive and quality service from its ecommerce agency.  

Peter Harding, the sixth generation Harding to take the Fairway Furniture helm commented;

“Metakinetic are a company that we feel has a very good fit to our business. They understand the needs of a retailer in our market sector, have a dedicated team to deliver our requirements and in MetaCommerce a platform that is robust, constantly developing and fully featured. We are confident that working together we can grow our online presence rapidly to provide both our online and offline customers a web experience to rival the very best. ”

Darren Bull, Metakinetic’s Founder and CEO added;

“We are delighted to be working with an independent retailer that recognises and shares our values and hard-work ethic; we are looking forward to playing an instrumental part in significantly improving the performance of Fairway Furniture’s ecommerce operation.”

The RAR Awards are different to most, because rather than being judged by a panel, we are judged by the people that know us best - our clients!

Agencies are rated by their clients on different areas of their service including creativity, value for money, ability to deliver on time and more. Each rating is given out of 100 and average weightings are applied so that agencies with more good ratings are scored higher than those with fewer ratings. The top ten scores in each category (ours being for digital agency with under 30 staff) are then shortlisted as the finalists for the awards.

The overall winners of each category are announced at the awards ceremony near Marble Arch on Thursday 18th April.

We'd like to take this opportunity to thank each and every one of our clients for helping us to become a multi-award winning digital and ecommerce agency! We work very hard to ensure we deliver great projects that are on time, on budget and deliver amazing results for each and every one of our clients.

Our efforts were also recognised recently when we were presented with an ECMOD Ecommerce Supplier of the Year Award.

Banners are a great way of keeping your homepage looking current and dynamic, giving repeat visitors something a little different each time they come back. Banners are also a brilliant way of communicating your latest ecommerce offers, new-in products, seasonal promotions and aiding the user experience, driving visitors to key or most popular areas of your ecommerce website.

For March 2013 only, we are giving you the chance to give your ecommerce website a quick makeover, by offering half price banner design - get 20 hours' banner design work for the price of 10!

To take advantage of this offer, please give us a call on 0118 324 9000 or contact us using the form below and we'll get right back to you. 

Your ecommerce product copy is your salesperson; it’s your chance to tell your potential buyer just how good your product is and why they should buy it. Investing in really good ecommerce product descriptions is like employing a great salesperson. “It’s just good, innit” probably isn’t how you would want your store staff to sell your products and I’m sure, equally, you’d rather your website said a little more than the same manufacturer-blurb supplied to every other online retailer that is stocking the same product.

Great ecommerce product copy has more than one advantage for your business. Not only does it help to sell your products, creating understanding and desirability, but it also supports your Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) efforts. In addition, it’s a great way to weave your brand personality throughout your ecommerce website, without needing to rely on design alone. Having product copy that speaks your customers’ language will make them feel an affinity with your brand and strengthens the image you work so hard to build.

Here are just a few tips on how to make your ecommerce product descriptions the best in town:

Be Descriptive

This may sound really rather obvious, however, it doesn’t always go without saying. Your ecommerce product descriptions should not be merely a few lines long. With high and increasing levels of online competition, ‘that’ll do’ just doesn’t cut it. Describe everything you can think of including colour, texture, style, how it looks, where it would look good – you never know what may swing it for a potential buyer. You’ll also be creating a nice chunk of keyword rich content for Google to get its teeth into.

Be Detailed

You can never give too much information, providing you lay out your product detail in an organised and easily readable way. Include technical data, information about materials used, colours available, textures, awards or celebrities that have been spotted using it. Including that little bit of extra detail will mean that your potential customer has no reason not to buy from you. Neglect to include something that could be critical to the decision-making process, and that customer may just go elsewhere. By including every detail you can about the product, you are reducing the unknowns for the buyer.

Invoke Emotion

Purchases are very often influenced by emotions and as much as we’d like to think they are made solely by the rational sides of our brains, that is rarely the case. By engineering your copy to invoke emotions ‘perfect for getting cosy by an open fire on a cold winter’s day’ or ‘the beauty of a warm summer’s day and fresh sea air’ – by creating copy that triggers imagination and visualisations that are linked to emotions, you can link your products to the desired feeling that will help to encourage purchase. In some cases, this may not always be a positive emotion, but may be linked to helping to stop a negative emotion such as fear, dissatisfaction or jealousy. Emotions are powerful and play a very large part in our decision-making processes.

Create Desire

It is rare that we purchase something we don’t want, and so by understanding what it is that makes your potential customers want your products will help you write great product descriptions that stimulate strong feelings of desire. This is often done by making the product feel aspirational and that it will help us achieve a state that we aim for, whether that be social status, beauty, riches or intelligence.

Ensure Reality Prevails

Most importantly of all, your ecommerce product copy must be realistic. Aside from ensuring you stay on the right side of the law, an accurate product description will ensure your customer has a realistic expectation of the product they are going to receive, keeping your returns rate to a minimum and customer satisfaction levels good. By providing accurate product descriptions, customers will also learn that you can be trusted, something that is highly sought after when buying online.

There are plenty of other ways in which you can ensure your product copy is not just good, but great. But the above gives you a good starting point. It may be a time-consuming process and require investment on your part, but the results are often pleasantly surprising. Just because it is a big job, don’t try and rush it. The quality of your copy is essential to ensure credibility – typos are not acceptable so make sure you proof read, or even better, employ a professional product copywriter to do the work for you.

Once you have decided on your ideal structure, product listing ads can be set up in either the AdWords or Google Merchant Centre interfaces depending on your personal preference. For the purposes of this blog we’ll focus on the Adwords interface as it offers the most flexibility. We will also follow up with an additional blog on setting up product ads in Merchant Centre for those of you who prefer to work that way.

If you currently use AdWords you’re one step ahead of the game; you can setup and managed your new product listing ads directly from your existing Adwords account. For retailers who have never dabbles in the world of paid search you will need to register for a Google Adwords account – simply click here and follow the instructions on screen.

You will also need to ensure that your merchant centre and adwords accounts are linked. 


Once you’ve registered or logged into your account start by creating a new campaign, ensuring you select ‘search network only’.

Select the campaign type as ‘Product Listing Ads’, enter your campaign name and continue down the page, completing your preferred devices, locations and bidding options.

TIP – Check the box before naming your campaign otherwise you’ll need to enter your name again.

 When you get to the ‘ad extensions’ section, select your merchant centre campaign from the drop down list (you may have multiple if you have filters set up in which case select the most appropriate).

Click ‘save’ and continue.

Complete your ad group name, a promotional message if you would like one to appear (such as Free Shipping) and your default bid.

Note: It’s a good idea to leave the all products box checked within the first ad group as this will become your ‘catch all’ but should have a lower bid than your specific ad groups (depending on your specific strategy).

Click ‘save’ and continue.

You will now have an ad group targeting all of your products with product ads. As we have discussed in our last post, in order to make the most of your product ads and to be able to control your spend you should set up a more targeted structure. You can do this by following the next few steps below.

Start by creating a new ad group, in most cases this can be under the same campaign, however if you wish to control the budget to the ad group independently it will need to be in its own campaign.

Once your ad group has been created navigate to the ‘auto target’ tab within the ad group.

Click on the ‘add product target’ button.

From the drop down menu select the option that best describes how you want to filter your product target and enter the value you wish to target in the adjacent free text box.

Note – You can add more than one target per ad group, for example you can list all the products that you want to target by ID independently.

Click the ‘Validate’ button and then ‘Save’.

Note – if your data fails to validate check that it exactly matches the data specified in your feed including spaces and punctuation.

If you want to add a promotional message to your new ad group, simply click the ‘ad’ tab within your ad group, click ‘create a new ad’ and enter the promotional message that you want to appear. Click Save.

Create as many ad groups as you need to ensure that your structure is as granular as possible.

If you require help or support in setting up you product listing ads or want to discuss the best strategy for your business please contact a member of a search team here.

Missed the first half of this series? Catch up on Part 1 and 2 to get all the insights into setting up Google Shopping Paid Ads.

Watch this space for How to Set Up Google Shopping Paid Ads: Part 4, where we give you a step-by-step guide on how to set up Google Shopping paid ads in Google Merchant Centre.

We’ve all heard the saying that it’s never a good idea to put all of your eggs in one basket; essentially if you switch on product ads, set to target all of your products in one ad group you are doing exactly that. The most basic setup is to simply switch on product ads for all products, which means that you will have one campaign containing a single ad group targeting all products; it may do the job, but not very well.

In order to set up product ads and get the most from them, it’s important to firstly understand how they work and secondly why the above approach can result in poor performance.

Within AdWords you can set how much you are willing to spend per day and also per click, however these are set at different levels.  As product ads do not rely on keyword targeting, bids are set at the ad group level and therefore all products contained within the target will have the same maximum bid applied. Daily budget is set at campaign level and therefore all ad groups within the same campaign will be subject to the same daily budget.

Going back to the ‘having all of your eggs in one basket’ scenario, if you only have one product target set to all products, you will only be able to bid one amount regardless of how much money you make from each product.

By default you can group your products by the product type, condition, brand or ID all of which are required Google Merchant centre fields and therefore if you are using Google Shopping already you will have them. The problem with grouping using these attributes is the inflexibility, for example if you group by brand you may have one model of product that retails for £10 and another for £1,000 meaning that they will both be subject to the same bid regardless of the fact you make more profit from one than the other. The ID target does allow you to manage this more effectively but requires a considerable amount of time.

Whilst the fields, adwords_grouping, adwords_labels and adwords_publish  are not required for your ads to show, implementing them within your feed gives you more flexibility to group products in a way that suits your business model.

Consider how much you are prepared to pay per sale and also the lifetime value of acquiring a new customer. Consider the margins on each product as well as the likely conversion rate and potential for repeat purchases. As each retailer is different, as are their products; a structure that is best for one is not necessarily right for another.

If you would like more information, help or advice simply get in touch with us here

Note: If you are MetaCommerce customer you will already benefit from the additional fields, simply navigate to the ‘merchant centre’ tab to make use of them.

Missed the first part to this blog? Catch up on How to Set Up Google Shopping Paid Ads: Part 1

Get the next installment of the series with How to Set Up Google Shopping Paid Ads: Part 3

Sell, Sell, Sell!

You’re not on a social network to sell; you’re there to socially interact with your customers. The purpose isn’t to achieve sales via social media, but to create a community that is interested in your brand and what you have to say. It is also a great way to hear what they say about your products, potentially discover gaps in your product lines and develop brand advocates, a valuable and sought after resource for brands.

Sharing is Caring.

If people want to share your content, great! If they don’t, leave them alone. Social media is something that has to grow organically though time and effort. There is nothing worse than being bombarded with “PLZ RT” and “Like, Like, Like”. Competitions are great ways of boosting people’s desire to share when there’s a chance to win a great prize!

S#*T.

It seems obvious, but many fall into the trap and “accidentally” post something inappropriate, rude, or even offensive. Just watch your P’s and Q’s and be positive! When posting on behalf of your business, make sure you keep it on topic, on brand, and with the correct tone of voice.

Sounds Like You!

Remember to keep your key messages at the forefront of your social media posts. Although each post for individual networks needs to be different, your ‘voice’ needs to stay consistent.  Make sure that your accounts all match your businesses attributes. Remember social media is an important asset to your business, so keep it looking presentable and tidy!

Sign Up.

Remember, quality over quantity. It’s obviously important to keep up with different trends but you don’t need to have an account on every single social network! Make sure that you do your research before signing up. How are other businesses using it? Is it going to add your online presence?  Social media management is a fine art, and you have to make sure that you can juggle the different outlets. It’s best to use a dashboard such as Hootsuite or TweetDeck as a minimum to do this.

Singular Strategies.

Each social network has different purposes and therefore requires different strategies. Some companies tend to use the same strategy across all platforms which simply doesn’t cut it as people are becoming more social media savvy with different platforms often attracting a different audience.  It’s important to acknowledge that each network requires different types of posts to engage followers. There’s nothing wrong with telling each social network the same thing, you just need to tailor the information.

Social Media – VIP.

Never underestimate the power of your social media! The messages and posts can be seen by everyone. You never know who is reading your latest tweet, or searching for your company. Investing in your social media presence in the long term can have a very positive effect on your brand and sales, and whilst we mentioned the big sales faux pas earlier, if you’ve spent time investing in your audience, the odd ‘exclusive’ deal or promotion could be well received and provide an extra boost to sales.

In the series we’ll cover the complexities of creating an effective Product Ad structure, setting up your ads in both Adwords and Merchant Centre for retailers that have previously used Adwords and those who are completely new to the platform.

Taking it one step further we’ll guide you through the basics of tracking, measuring and optimising as well as reviewing other comparison shopping engines that offer potential to drive revenue.

If you’re keen to get things moving and don’t have the time, resource or knowledge to make the changes in house, our team of search specialists are always on hand to help. Whether you are looking for someone to set up and manage your ads from start to finish or purely require ad hoc consultancy in order to give you the power to make your ads a success, simply get in touch.

Get the next installation of How to Set Up Google Shopping Paid Ads with Part 2

Samuel Boswell has joined the Metakinetic Development team as a Junior Developer to assist in the continued development of their of Price Tracking & Optimisation software, Insite Track. The software and its team were recently acquired by Metakinetic as the company continues its driveto provide its clients with products and services that will help their ecommerce businesses flourish.  Samuel recently graduated from the University of Reading with a degree in Robotics.

Steven Noble is the newest member of the Graphic Design team at Metakinetic. Metakinetic has seen a rise in demand for its creative services, with the recent acquisition of quite a number of new clients, including airline network APG, film and television broadcast solution providers, WTS Broadcast, Daily Mail Group and long-running client and global IT solutions provider, LANdesk. Steven moved to Metakinetic after working at Kapang Digital in Henley.

Darren Bull, Director of Metakinetic commented “We are really very pleased to welcome both Samuel and Steven to the team. We are committed to building our team to facilitate the ambitious growth plans we have in place for 2013. These new additions place us in an excellent position to achieve our goals and provide our clients with on-going improvements to our quality of service we provide.”

A vast percentage of online retailers list their products on Google Shopping; many of which rely on the service as a valuable source of income. With the migration from Google Shopping’s free inclusion model to its paid business model being rolled out internationally in just a couple of months’ time, we thought we’d put together a few of our top tips for ensuring you get the bang for your buck.

1. Set up your account to be as granular as possible

The biggest mistake that retailers make is to bundle too many products together in one ad group. In an extreme situation this could mean that you bid the same to advertise a 10p product as you do a £1,000 product, which is disappointingly likely to have a much higher margin.  You’ll also want to consider potential conversion rates and how these may impact the way that you want to bid.

It is important to take time in planning how to group your products together to ensure maximum ROI and to reduce the risk of having to re-structure your account at a later date.

The more granular you make your structure, the more control you will have on your account performance. Consider that daily budget is set at campaign level and at ad group level, bid and product targets are defined.

2. Make use of additional attributes

By default you can only group your products by ‘product type’, ‘brand’ or ‘condition’ as defined within the feed that is submitted to your Google Merchant Centre account. Given that you could make £1,000 from one model of product and £100 for a different model by the same brand you are likely to need to segment your account further to make paid ads work for you; this is where additional attributes come in.

In order to take advantage of these additional attributes, you will need to include three new fields in the feed that you submit to Google Merchant Centre:

Adwords Grouping:

Groups products in an arbitrary way but can only hold one value.

Adwords Labels:

Very similar to adwords_grouping, but can hold multiple values, allowing a product to be tagged with multiple labels (only works when using CPC bidding).

Adwords Publish:

Used to exclude certain products from being displayed.

For MetaCommerce clients, we have built in the functionality to specify ‘adwords labels’ and ‘adwords grouping’ in the product interface. Take a look at our guide to find out how. 

3. Start by adverting all products

Often what may seem like the least likely product to be successful can outperform all expectations.  Optimisation decisions should be made based on statistically significant data and therefore it is best to initially advertise all products to gain intelligence about performance.

Poor performing ad groups can be paused or, at a more granular level, specific products can be excluded. This can be done by changing the adwords publish value within your Merchant Centre feed to false for each product you want to exclude. For MetaCommerce clients, you can un-check the publish box in the Google Merchant tab.

4. Track activity by linking your accounts

Being able to track how much revenue your ads are generating is vital, after all you don’t want to be spending money advertising products that add nothing to your bottom line.

Detailed performance data will only be visible in your analytics account if you have linked it with Adwords. This needs to be done even if you use the same login to access both. 

The following link gives you details on how to do it:

http://support.google.com/adwords/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=1704341

You can also benefit from more in-depth tracking by using url parameters. 

5. Know your product margins & value your customers

Knowing how much profit you make on your products will allow you to decide how much you are willing to pay to advertise them. 

It's common sense that paying £10 to obtain a sale that makes you £5 profit is not cost effective marketing – that said sometimes common sense needs to be taken with a pinch of salt as there could be a greater long term value to the sale. What if that one customer comes back each month and makes a repeat purchase? That £10 advertising cost could have generated you £60 profit over a year.

It is also worth considering your average basket value and what products are often brought together as what on the surface looks like a negative ROI may in fact be a valid marketing strategy.

Knowing the lifetime value of your customers will allow you to make the most beneficial optimisation decisions for the long term performance of your business.

6. Ensure your product titles and descriptions are relevant

The more relevant your product is the more chance you have of your ad appearing, the lower your cost per click will be and the more clicks it will yield.

Think about what searchers are likely to type in when looking for a product and include those words within your product title and description. For full shopping listings, keywords that exactly match the users search query will be bolded thus increasing your visibility and making your listing stand out over and above your competitors.

Use the description field to present information that may encourage searchers to click your listing on the separate Google shopping page and avoid using scripted generic product descriptions.

If you are a MetaCommerce customer, you can quickly and easily override product titles and descriptions submitted to merchant centre without them effecting the information currently displayed on your site by using the merchant centre tab.

7. Ensure data is kept up to date

We’ve all done it; clicked on a product in Google Shopping only to find that the price displayed in the results isn’t actually the price of the item, or the item is out of stock resulting in us immediately navigating away. From a customer perspective, this is annoying and means that often you won’t visit that retailer again and from a retailer perspective it means that you will be paying for a click that has little chance of generating any revenue.

Lesson: Make sure your stock levels are up to date and ensure pricing is correctly fed into merchant centre on a regular basis.

8. Actively manage your account – don’t set it and forget it

Actively managing and optimising your account will result in it flourishing; leaving it to its own devices will likely cost you money. In a best case scenario you will simply be paying more for each sale and making less profit, in a worst case you’ll be losing money and putting your account in a position that it is hard to recover from.

If not actively maintained quality score can decrease resulting in you having to pay more per click, which in turn means if your bids aren’t increased your position will slip, your click through rate will drop as a result and your quality score will decrease further starting the cycle all over again.

9. Use negative keywords

Funnel searches to the right product targets and minimise irrelevant clicks by controlling the keywords that you appear for. Whilst you cannot specify keywords that you want each product to be shown for you can exclude those that you don’t.

Terms that you’ll want to exclude will depend on your offering and how your targets are set up but, as an example, if you sell expensive designer dresses you may not want to appear for terms containing ‘cheap’ or if you specialise in plus size clothing you may not want to appear when someone searches for ‘size 10 dress’.

10. Consider your pricing strategy

OK, so being the most expensive may not cost you money in clicks as the price is clearly displayed within your product advert; however it will mean that you are potentially missing out on revenue. It is worth remembering that Goggle Shopping is predominantly a comparison engine and shoppers mainly use it to compare products and pricing.

You can track your pricing against that of competitors and even set up detailed automatic rules to alter your pricing to ensure you remain competitive using tools such as InSite Track.

Haven’t got the time to setup or manage your products ads or simply have some questions? Get in touch to see how we can help.

by Kay Harding
Head of Search Marketing
Email: kay.harding@metakinetic.com

Alternatively complete the form below, and we'll get back to you as soon as possible!

With Christmas fast approaching once again, we at Metakinetic are providing you with an advent calendar with a difference. We have substituted the naff chocolate vaguely resembling nativity folk for some tasty content marketing tips for ecommerce that you’d be baubles to ignore.

1. Know Your Audience

Before writing any content, whether it be on your blog, social media or even product descriptions, make sure you know exactly who your audience is. Ask yourself who will be reading this content and put yourself in their shoes. Work out what they want and expect from you and where they spend most their time online.

2. Know Your Goals

Before you write any content make sure you know what you want to achieve from it. Ask yourself why not what. Whether you’re promoting your amazing products or offereing your customers tips and advice its important that your constantly focused on what you want to achieve whilst you’re writing. Make sure your content keeps to the point and doesn’t distract from this.

3. Speak the Right Lingo

Now you know your audience it’s important to tailor your tweeting, blogging or sharing to suit them. Make sure you’re speaking their language making your content easy to follow, understand and of interest to your beautiful readers.

4. Tell a Story

Tell a story about your product or business that taps into your audience’s emotions. Give people a story that makes them feel warmth and happiness, show that you’re human and care. A great example of a powerful story is the “True Stories” campaign by American car giant Chevrolet and their advert entitled “My Dad’s Car”. We are told the story of Herb Younger and his two sons: Jared and Derek. Poor old Herb was forced to sell his dream Chevy Impala to support his family, and now some 20 years later the boys have tracked down and reunited him with the very same Chevy. Although this heart-warming story is an advert,, it gives us a great example of how a clever narrative can trigger emotion in your audience and help them relate to you.

5. Emotions Provoke Shares

Warmth and happiness aren’t the only emotions that your content could be to aiming incite. Why not be a little more controversial and tap into the emotions such as fear, disgust and anger.

Use emotion to make people take action. Take a look at Dollar Shave Club’s advertising campaign “Our Blades Are F***ing Great”. In this advert Dollar Shave Club addresses the outrageously expensive price of razor blades that to be honest, have features we could live without. This provokes anger in its viewers leaving them asking “why am I spending all this money on razors when Roger Federer and Thierry Henry are getting them for free” and sending them straight to Dollarshave.com to buy their “f**cking great” razors and saving “stacks of dollar bills” in the process.

6. Get your Audience to tell their story

Everyone likes to tell stories and I bet at some point you have all been sat eagerly waiting for a friend or colleague to stop gassing on so you can share your similar experience. Why not incorporate this into you campaigns, tell a story and invite your customers to share their experiences too. Not only does this help you interact with your audience it gives you precious content improving your SEO ranking.

To download the full whitepaper with all 24 of our fantastic content marketing tips for ecommerce please fill in the form below for an instant download:

Mobile is Pivotal
With many mobile statistics, Google proved their point of mobile, in particular mobile commerce, being the future with 51% of mobile phone owners having a love for their smartphone already, this is only going to increase. It is predicted that in 2013 more people will access the internet via their mobile device, whether it is their smartphone or tablet, than any other device. If that is not enough to grab your attention, in 2015 it is estimated that there will be a mobile device for each and every person on the earth. Just think to yourself, how many mobile devices do you have yourself? A personal smart phone, a work smart phone and a tablet too? That is three to yourself, soon you’ll have a personal tablet and a work tablet and many even a hybrid of the two like the Samsung Galaxy Note; a merge of the tablet and the phone.

So what does this mean for online businesses, in particular online retailers? Google recommend going mobile, and despite user demand, only 10% of advertisers have a mobile site. We were shocked too; mobile technology is changing our customer journey. 64% of us admit to using mobile devices whilst in store in the UK to compare prices and to see what else is out there.  Therefore can you afford to not only not have an online presence, but not have a mobile presence either?

Google+ to Benefit Positioning
Google+ is described as a ‘social spine that underpins and strengthens all of Google’. So as Google expands into the Social Media sector, it is important to look at what Google+ can do for your business.

The Search Engine Giant holds the majority of the cards when it comes to search marketing due to the sheer dominance in the market share, so the theory is what they say goes if you wish to succeed online. However it isn’t as simple as surrendering to Google, instead Google’s mission is to organise the world’s information and make it universally accessible to you, improving the user’s experience. When you think about it, don’t we all want to improve the customer experience? It is definitely a hot topic in retail, both in store and online; so instead, think of Google as an advisor with their algorithms.

Although many were distraught at the effects of the infamous Panda and Penguin updates, what the user is left with is high quality, relevant results to their search query, removing those awful spam sites.  Let’s just say those agencies using black hat practices are now seeing white as the new black after many hours, days, weeks and possibly months of rectifying. Luckily, we at Metakinetic can say we only believe in ethical and natural SEO strategies to give our clients high ranking and genuine positions.

With the introduction of Google+ a little over a year ago, the service has now achieved over 40 million members and 1 million brands. These impressive stats transfer to daily active users spending an average of 60 minute on Google+ per day. Within Google+ users can search queries and keywords as they would in Google. However, brands with a Google+ account which are relevant to the search query will be favoured with the displaying of their company profile on the right hand side (where PPC adverts would usually be seen on Google). When discussing the benefits of Google+, Google also stated the user is more likely to click on your company’s result if they can see their connections have endorsed your brand through the social extension g+1. They have found it has given brands whose G+ profile appears as part of search results a Click through Rate (CTR) increase of 5 to 10%.

Google Shopping to Change
Google Shopping UK has been announced to change to the US model. However, with it comes the paid advert option for Google shopping, where paid adverts will display a sponsored tag. Google Shopping’s paid adverts work in the same way as PPC (Pay per click) works; simply contact your search marketing agency to see if they can incorporate a Google Shopping campaign to your search marketing. This expands brands being able to advertise their products when certain keywords are searched in shopping, increasing reach.

Like PPC, the paid section of Google shopping will be displayed above the organic results, however still being sectioned off using a sponsored tag. This way the users can still determine which type of results they want to choose from. The combination of both paid and organic results can optimise any Google shopping campaigns to ensure you reach your customers.

The Importance of Remarketing
Remarketing is the use of cookies to track the journey of your users, presenting them with your adverts in Google’s Domain Network. This enables you to target users that have accessed your website and left it without carrying out the desired action, such as a purchase, giving you a second chance to re-engage with a large proportion of your traffic; 96% of visits have undesired results.

Within your traffic you will have a variety of audiences; you need to create different remarketing campaigns for each specific audience to increase your chances of conversion. For instance, around Christmas time, new traffic may be those looking for a Christmas gift for a loved one.  Your remarketing campaign can be tailored to reach someone a certain number of times in a selected period to make your remarketing as effective as possible.

Analytics to Go Universal
For those who use Google Analytics to measure the performance of your website, we have good news for you. At the Google Analytics Summit in California October 2012, Universal Analytics was announced, a new way to measure the performance of not only your website and online presence but also your business.

Using a different type of cookie, it tracks your customer journey from online to in the store, by integrating all aspects of your data, whatever your device. For example, this new data platform is able to integrate the data from laptops, tablets and mobile devices to create a better understanding of how your customer’s decision journey is carried out. As a result you can streamline your online campaign to increase conversions. This cross-channel measurement allows online businesses to discover the correlation between the channels to optimise conversions, developing a customer-centric campaign.

So what does this mean for ecommerce? With the use of loyalty cards the customer’s journey is measured, for instance signing in to your online site to research a product they are looking at buying. Often, if the customer does not buy on your site it is measured as an opportunity missed. However, if the customer then goes into store to buy the product they were looking at, with Google’s Universal Analytics it is reported as a conversion with the true customer’s journey measured, making your metrics more accurate.

Final Note:
After an afternoon of insightful information our search marketing sponges returned back twice the size that they arrived at Google Engaged in; it is still questionable whether it was the sheer amount of information, the cocktails afterwards, or the food!

If you would like more of an online presence for your business, why not contact one of our Search Marketing Specialists, whether for SEO or PPC, our team of experts can identify and advise the most effective way for your business to achieve reach and conversions whilst getting a fast Return on Investment (ROI). Give one of our friendly search lot a call; we’d love to hear from you.

Emily Ridley
Search Marketing Specialist
@EmilyRidley1

Google +

Full service ecommerce agency Metakinetic was awarded a coveted ECMOD Supplier of the Year 2012 Award last week.

This year saw the 9^th anniversary of the ECMOD Direct Commerce Show. The exhibition played host to retail businesses wanting to expand, and created a platform for these retailers to meet suppliers of solutions and services which could help fuel the companies’ growth.

The ECMOD awards evening, held on the first night of the exhibition at the stunning Business Design Centre, Islington, featured some of the top suppliers to direct commerce retailers. The awards are a way for suppliers of direct commerce solutions to gain recognition for their influence on the direct commerce world by awarding them for their great work with retailers  with coveted much sought after “Supplier of the Year” Award. The businesses that were nominated for the awards were done so by recommendations from their clients, meaning that only those wholly committed to providing their clients with a great service are shortlisted. This year’s awards received a record number of nominations with over 130 companies being put forward for eleven categories.

Metakinetic’s Supplier of the Year 2012 award pays testimony to the commitment and hard work of the Metakinetic Ecommerce team. The team of 18 e-commerce experts were delighted to be recognised by their clients and judges to win Supplier of the Year 2012. Metakinetic Founder & CEO Darren Bull commented: “We are so pleased that our commitment and hard work for our ecommerce clients has been recognised in these prestigious awards. We are proud to be working in such a great industry and that our passion and dedication has been rewarded. We are looking forward to next year’s awards!”

16th November 2012

This month’s Berkshire Digital event was my first and luckily just around the corner from me in the quaint and beautiful village of Cookham. Growing up quite close to the village I know a thing or two about Cookham; it was the birth place of modernist painter Stanley Spencer and that the high street was used in the great British comedy Fawlty Towers. What I didn’t know was that tucked away in a quiet corner was the fantastic Moor Hall Conference Centre. The venue is the official home of the Chartered Institute of Marketing and what better host for this month’s Berkshire Digital Event.

For those of you who couldn’t make it, you missed out on a very eye opening and thought-provoking talk by dataholic and linguistic perfectionist Matt Rhodes.

So what is social media listening and how can it be influential to your business?

Social media listening is simply how you process and deal with the mass of data that people post, share, blog or tweet about you or your business. Data littered all over the web can give you priceless information about a person’s habits, lifestyle, likes, dislikes or even favourite brand of baked beans. It’s the way you process this information that can make the big difference to your business. It’s not all about sifting through data and pigeon-holing positives and negatives. Instead analysing what is actually being said about you, Matt’s great example was the following Tweet about Waitrose: “Waitrose I love you, but your meat counter today! I’m disappointed” At first glance you may think this is a negative comment although when reading again the customer clearly states that they love Waitrose but on this particular occasion they were disappointed. This kind of feedback gives you the opportunity to put wrongs to right, helping you live up to the expectations of your customers.

Walmart vs Lady Gaga

Probably not a comparison you might expect but these two giants in their respective fields have both used social media to ensure success.

American superstore colossus, Walmart has taken social media listening to a new extreme. They analyse the data trails of customers visiting their online store to give them a shopping experience that suites this particular customer. Instead of just matching items in relation to searched terms, Walmart’s site uses collected data to order results placing products best suited to the customer first.

Pop sensation Lady Gaga uses social listening quite literally when it comes to choosing set lists for her tours. Her clever team of datafanatics scour music streaming, platform, Spotify, to find Gaga’s most listened-to tracks in the area she’s about to perform in. This ensures all her devoted “Monsters” get the show of a lifetime featuring all their favourite tracks.

Final Thought

It’s not all about how many people like your page or follow your tweets but instead the quality of them. It’s important to find those who love what you do and keep them coming back again and again. Add a more human element to the way you process things to make sure you are engaging with the people that really matter in the right way.

So there we have it another successful night for the Berkshire Digital legacy and a night thoroughly enjoyed by all. Matt’s brilliant chat provoked much discussion amongst Berkshire’s elite and we do hope to see more of him soon.

We look forward to seeing all of you at next month’s Pecha Kucha night: Berkshire Digital celebrates Christmas by getting YOU to provide the entertainment!

James Emmanuel
Marketing Intern
@JamesAMEmmanuel

The Stars Underlines awards are for small to medium sized businesses that are making a valuable contribution to the sectors of lingerie, swimwear and legware. The awards are now in their fourth year, and are the only awards of their kind in the UK and Ireland. 

Stocking the widest range of sports bras in the world, LessBounce helps women make an informed choice, simplifying the buying decision and providing valuable advice on how to choose the right sports bra. With emphasis on quality, choice and with an unquestionably sporty feel, LessBounce is fronted by sports fanatic, aerobics instructor and personal trainer, Selaine Saxby, who hand picks only the best the sports bra world has to offer, for the LessBounce range.

The LessBounce ecommerce solution, which was designed and implemented by full service ecommerce agency, Metakinetic, has been going from strength to strength since its launch in January this year, having been awarded the Design Types E-Commerce award in July, and now more recently winning the “E-tailer of the Year” category at the Stars Underlines Awards ceremony that took place last week.

LessBounce.com was nominated for the award last year, but narrowly missed out. After identifying that technology was playing a key role in limiting the growth and success of the business, LessBounce opted for a new tailored ecommerce solution from Metakinetic to support the business’ evolution and continual improvement. The website development was focused on building trust with new & existing customers, along with creating an intuitive navigation system to promote easy product discovery and including the latest ecommerce technologies and payment systems.

The site boasts an average conversion rate in excess of 8% and a basket conversion rate of 50%, making it a thoroughly deserving winner of the “E-tailer of the Year” award category.

Darren Bull, Founder and CEO at Metakinetic commented: ”We are delighted that all of both Metakinetic’s and LessBounce’s many hours of hard work have been rewarded at these prestigious industry awards. Since launch in January, we have worked tirelessly with Selaine and the LessBounce team to make small incremental improvements to the site which has together resulted in a truly successful and multi-award winning ecommerce business.”

Selaine Saxby, Founder & Director at LessBounce added: “2012 was always an important year for us with the new website going live ahead of the London Olympics.  To finish the year with our second "gold medal" equivalent is fantastic.”

To see the LessBounce website, please visit - http://www.lessbounce.com/

Emily Ridley, who joined the team full time at the beginning of November, first started at Metakinetic in June as a Marketing Intern after graduating from Kingston University with a first class honours degree in English Language, Communication and Creative Writing. Through the tailored internship programme, guided by Head of Marketing Jocelyn Kirby, Emily covered many aspects of traditional and digital marketing, where she developed a passion and obvious talent for Search Marketing, working on both Pay Per Click (PPC) and Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) projects. Emily said that she enjoyed her internship “it has enabled me to ease into the role by meeting some of the clients whilst learning what it takes to succeed in the digital world”.

Emily fitted in so fantastically at Metakinetic that the Search Marketing team quickly snapped her up. Metakinetic is extremely pleased to announce that she will now become a full time member staff in our Search Marketing department working on both PPC and SEO projects for our ecommerce clients. Kay Harding, Head of Search Marketing commented “I’m excited to have such a talented writer join our search marketing team. I believe that the internship has prepared Emily for the challenges that a role in modern marketing throws at her; her strong work ethic and commitment to looking after our clients aligns perfectly with Metakinetic’s values and culture of high quality customer care. We’re pleased she chose to stay with us!”

To find out more about Metakinetic’s SEO and PPC services, please call 0118 324 9000 or email Kay.Harding@metakinetic.com

Every year ECMOD recognise those who have had influence on the direct commerce world; awarding them for their contribution with a much coveted Supplier of the Year Award. Those shortlisted are nominated by their clients and the winners are those who receive the most votes overall. This year the awards received a record number of nominations with over 130 companies being put forward. Metakinetic is one of just 33 that have been shortlisted to battle it out to win one of the 11 awards categories.

Metakinetic’s nomination for an ecommerce award pays testimony to the commitment and hard work of the Metakinetic Ecommerce team, which has been recognised by its clients as the agency continues to help its ecommerce clients grow and develop their ecommerce businesses.

The ECMOD Supplier of the Year Awards winners will be announced on the 27^thNovember at an evening that promises to be full of all of the glitz and glamour that you would expect from a prestigious awards ceremony. The eleven awards categories include;

3rd Party Order Fulfilment

Creative & Design Service

Mail Delivery Solution

Mobile Commerce Solution Service  

Home Delivery Service/Solution

Web & Digital Development Services

Print Production Service 

Media Planning Service

Technology Solution

Best Data Services

Best Payment Solutions

Metakinetic Founder & CEO Darren Bull commented: “I am delighted that we have been shortlisted for these excellent awards. Not only does it demonstrate our clients’ appreciation for our commitment to making their businesses a success, but it also confirms our value as a specialist and award winning ecommerce agency. Both I and the team are just so pleased to be nominated; we are looking forward to attending the awards evening.”

To meet with some of Metakinetic’s ecommerce specialists at ECMOD, please visit the team on Stand 9 at the show – there’s even a chance to win a fantastic prize worth £2,500. If you can’t wait until the show, please get in touch with the Metakinetic team by calling 0118 324 9000.  

Exhibiting at the Direct Commerce show for the first time this year, Metakinetic will be offering visitors to the show the chance to win a prize that could transform their ecommerce business. The winning retailer will receive £2,500 worth of consultancy from Metakinetic’s team of ecommerce experts that include search marketing specialists, ecommerce strategists and technical website consultants.

To be in with a chance of winning this fantastic prize, simply visit Metakinetic on Stand 9 at the exhibition, where you can also treat yourself to a box of popcorn and some ecommerce advice from Metakinetic’s experts, who will be on hand over the two-day show to answer your most burning online retail questions.

Exhibiting alongside Metakinetic will be its sister company, competitor price tracking software provider, InsiteTrack. InsiteTrack is a web-based tool that allows retailers to monitor their competitors and optimise their pricing in order to create competitive advantage.

Both Metakinetic and InsiteTrack will be providing live demonstrations of their technology throughout the exhibition. Advance appointments are also available if preferred.

To find out more about Metakinetic or InsiteTrack please call Jocelyn Kirby on 0118 324 9000. If you'd like to arrange an appointment to talk to Metakinetic's experts at the show, please book a time slot here.

Metakinetic can't wait to meet you there!

Movember was founded in Melbourne, Australia in 2003 and has since spread worldwide.  Thousands of men grow moustaches for the month of November every year to show their support, raising money and awareness for men’s health, specifically prostate cancer and testicular cancer. In 2011, nearly 900,000 people took part around the world raising £79.3 million.

This year the Metakinetic Movember Team, aptly named Metakinetic MoCommerce, will be doing their bit for this fantastic, fun charity by growing and grooming some weird and wonderful whiskers. You can keep up with our Mo-gress on the Movember site where we will be posting daily pictures and moustache related updates. Please stop by and make a donation to this very worthy cause.

Our ecommerce experts will be on hand to give you advice and guidance on both days. We’ll be there speaking with visitors about ecommerce website design & build, ecommerce search marketing and price optimisation; so don’t been shy, ‘POP’ by and see us on stand 9 for a chat and a very special Metakinetic snack!

We’re also going to be running a fantastic competition, exclusively open to ECMOD attendees, so don’t miss your opportunity to win a fantastic prize that could transform your ecommerce business from zero to HERO!

To keep up to date with all our ECMOD news and announcements follow us on twitter or check our Facebook page for updates. We’re likely to have plenty of visitors at the show, so if you’d like to guarantee some face time with our ecommerce specialists, you can book an appointment in advance of the show and at a time that suits you by filling out the form below.

We look forward to seeing you there for a great ECMOD show.

Each business covers a different section of the retail market, but each now has a successful, fully implemented, user friendly solution in which to sell their products online effectively. Each retailer has launched with a tailored ecommerce solution, designed and built by full service ecommerce agency, Metakinetic, using their in-house developed ecommerce platform, MetaCommerce.

Hingstons.net is known as the ‘home of homemade’ and is a new ecommerce business, that sells multiple gadgets, tools, and kits to kick start the adventure of creating homemade products. The site is energetic and easy to use. It has a simple, clean layout to allow easy navigation and the ability to quickly update content, enabling fresh and up to date products and promotions to work within a highly seasonal industry.

Working with The Ring’s retained design agency, it was important to merge the quality and heritage of the brand with a modern ecommerce solution. The sports fashion business, TheRing1910.com, has strong links with the heritage of The Ring’s Boxing venue. Therefore it was key to create a seamlessly designed site that led shoppers from discovering the club’s history, to making a purchase from the online store.

Themometersdirect.co.uk is an online-based business that sells to shoppers, as well as to government bodies such as NHS & Police. Thus the website had to meet the needs of a diverse customer base. Upgrading from a legacy Actinic system, the newly re-designed and re-developed site is now helping the company to continue to build sales, with an increased focus on the great potential of its consumer audience. 

Darren Bull, Metakinetic’s Founder and Ecommerce specialist, shared his thoughts on this month’s exciting developments: “We’ve launched three very diverse ecommerce sites, all of which are significant players within their niche. All have very different styles, but the same focus and drive – to continue to invest in ecommerce in order to drive the growth of their successful businesses. We’re delighted to have been involved in these projects and look forward to continuing to work with these clients on their search & email marketing.”

The new sites can be viewed at:

www.hingstons.net

www.thering1910.com

www.thermometersdirect.co.uk

I attended my first Berkshire Digital Event last week. Thankfully I was luckily enough to get a ticket as it was a sell-out event! The topic on the agenda was ‘Mobile’. The term is creating quite a buzz within the digital world, so it came as no surprise that the event was such a huge success.

Rolling up to South Hill Park, a regular Berkshire Digital venue, I was blown away by the impressive building – I was expecting a dingy conference room. I instantly knew Berkshire Digital is definitely a community I wanted to be part of!

When someone is passionate about what they do, you can tell immediately. Steve Furminger (@furminger) of Sands Digital, the speaker, commanded the attention of the room with his enthusiasm as he shared his knowledge and expertise on the topic of mobile. Firstly, we went through a history of mobile communications, and the progression of the technology through the last few decades. He led us quickly through the history of the very first mobiles, which were called 1G (the G standing for generation), all the way to what is now being branded as 4G. He made it clear that these technological terms are really just a product of some very clever advertising, as we’ve actually had about 7 different generations. Luckily the companies like to keep it simple!

The majority of the talk was based on the latest technology, 4G. Steve showed us a connection speed test from his almost 4G phone; I couldn’t believe that a mobile was faster than my home broadband! However, don’t be fooled. Whilst 4G will be super speedy when it launches shortly, this will be because there will only a few people using the cell signal from the towers. Once everyone else jumps on the bandwagon, it won’t be the same. Interestingly, he also informed us all why it took 4G so long to hit the UK, and thanked the introduction of Freeview! The ‘switch off’ meant there has now been enough ‘space’ freed up on the waves for the bandwidth to be rolled out over the country.

It’s very clear that the UK is seriously lagging behind many other countries in terms of this technology. America, mainland Europe and Asia have been taking advantage of this technology in both the business and consumer world. This topic seemed to drive the group discussion at the end of the evening, with many attendees concerned about the future landscape of British business.

After the official event had wrapped up, we all headed off to the bar! We were all pleased to welcome this month’s sponsor, Callmaster Mobile(@callmastermob). With everyone congregated in the bar, it created a great atmosphere, and there was extensive discussion about the topic in hand. I personally can’t wait for the next event. Next month’s topic is ‘The Business of Apps’, with Keith Varty, Head of Content and Developer Marketing at Nokia.

If you missed the event or just want to remind yourself of the amazing points made, take a look Steve's presentation its now on slideshare.

Natasha Hyde

Marketing Intern

@MissNHyde

Make your cake the talk of the town!

Ignore those who have ever told you “If you build it, they will come”… without marketing your site the right way nobody will even know it exists. Creating awareness of your online presence is crucial in driving customers to your site and building a reputation. Here are a few must-have marketing options that your ecommerce site shouldn’t go without at least considering:

Content Marketing and Social Media- is all about how you create and share useful/interesting content, and interact and engage with your audience in order to drive traffic to your ecommerce store, support your SEO efforts and ultimately, increase awareness of your business. Think of it like pinning your bake sale flyer to a church notice board for all churchgoers to see. Explore the internet’s multiple “notice boards” and use them to help share your content and drive traffic to your site:

• Create a Facebook fan page and Twitter account and start interacting with your customers. Consider Pinterest if your product range is strong visually and your audience are users.

• Upload interesting videos about your products or offering related advice on sites like Youtube and Vimeo.

• Get blogging and contributing articles to bookmark sites such as Delicious, Reddit and Stumble Upon.

These are just a few of the options out there, and of course it’s all about finding out where your target audience plays, so explore different avenues and find the best approach for your business. Creating Digital Personas to help you better understand your audience is a great place to start.

Channel Marketing- is a great way for customers to find your products and discover your business. By increasing your presence across multiple channels and marketplaces such as Google shopping, Amazon and Ebay, you will find yourself opening up your product range to new potential customers and ultimately, selling more products. At Metakinetic, we integrate with Lengow for effective channel marketing management. It is a great solution definitely worth checking out! Get in touch for preferential rates.

Pay Per Click- is a very powerful way to advertise your products across the net. Google’s AdSense is one of the big names in PPC; posting your adverts not only in Google search results, but also on affiliated websites, and giving you the ability to target specific audiences.

SEO- is often considered the Holy Grail for anyone who wants to sit high and mighty at the top of search engine results. Make sure you are clever with your site’s written content; include keywords for which your potential customers will be searching. For the best results you’re probably going to want to look into hiring an agency to manage your SEO, it can be a time consuming process, and with rapidly moving goal posts, is best left to the professionals.

Now your cake is an A-list celebrity of the baked goods world, it’s important that you can turn this fame into sales. Remember my wise words in part 1 KEEP IT SIMPLE!

Don’t overdress your cake:

Make it obvious what it is that you’re selling at a first glance. Your customers are here to shop, not to play a round of Guess Who! The search bar, site navigation and shopping cart should all be unmistakably prominent on the page. Use their functionality to make the shopping experience as stress-free and intuitive as possible;

• Take spelling mistakes & product name variants into consideration in your intelligent search bar and use auto-fill to make suggestions as they type.

• Be clever when categorising your products; if a product’s category is ambiguous, set products to appear under more than one category. This will make them easier to find and providing you have a decent ecommerce solution, it will allow you to do this without creating duplicate content – a big no-no in the eye’s of Google.

• Add related item suggestions throughout the shopping experience; this encourages customers to continue shopping, help you to increase average order values. Give your ecommerce cake a bit of character: remember your customers can’t physically touch your products so use detailed descriptions and high quality images to give them the confidence to buy.

Product descriptions should be informative but give them some feeling and personality too. Write descriptions that customers just can’t resist and don’t forget to pipe them full of delicious keywords.

Page content should feature words that reassure your customers, making it easier for them to part with their hard-earned cash. Use words such as “secure”, “best price” and “easy returns”.

Product images need to be of good size and quality showing off your product in the best possible light. Try to photograph them using a background that isn’t distracting, offer multiple angles as well as options to zoom in and out, but also don’t be afraid to include lifestyle images too; all too often shoppers just need a little help with the imagination! For more great photography advice, check out Improving Ecommerce Sales with Great Product Photography.

So…How did it taste?

Last but most certainly not least, you should allow your customers to leave merchant reviews and product feedback. Positive feedback about a product can often be the deciding factor in a sale. And don’t be afraid of negative comments, this can give you important feedback on what’s wrong with your products or service, allowing you to put it right. It’s also a chance for you to publicly demonstrate your commitment to customer service. Feefo offers a great solution if you’re looking to integrate a review system into your site, giving your honest feedback from actual customers.

With National Bakery Week drawing to a close and with the whole office sick of my cake analogies, I now conclude this exceedingly good recipe for the best ecommerce website. I hope you have found our advice useful and I wish you the very best of luck in conquering the world of online retail! If you’re not willing to leave it to chance, then do get in touch. We really quite like to chat, and we’d be happy to offer advice on your current retail challenges.

James Emmanuel
Marketing Intern
@JamesAMEmmanuel

It’s all very well having your ecommerce website’s ingredients prepped and ready to go, but without taking into consideration its operational functionality, your ecommerce cake could sink in the middle.

Think of it like putting your cake into the oven: Once it’s in there, the less you keep opening the door, moving it around and changing the temperature, the better the outcome. An ecommerce site should operate in very much the same way: the less human processing involved, the fewer mistakes and slip-ups there will be.

Ensure your cake rises evenly

Streamlining your ecommerce ‘cake’ is crucial to make sure your site runs efficiently and with as few hiccups as possible if you are to become a profit pudding. The best way to ensure this is to embrace technology and implement integrations between your retail systems wherever possible; this will help to eliminate the risk of human error wherever possible. After all, what you’re aiming for is a beautiful Victoria sponge, not an Eton Mess.  Not only will minimising human processing reduce mistakes, it also reduces costs and allows you to concentrate more time on other areas of your business, such as increasing sales

Don’t run out of ingredients

Stock management, very much like baking, is all about keeping your measurements accurate and staying on top of your stock.  You don’t want to find yourself short of a product that’s high in demand or over stocking items that just aren’t selling.

Managing your stock manually can be a time consuming and risky practice, much like with order processing, . The integration of a stock management system with your ecommerce website will not only ensure accurate stock levels, but can also help you kill multiple birds with just one stone. A clever system will (amongst many other things);

• Monitor your stock levels across multi platforms, replenishing stock that is low automatically;
• Process invoices and purchase orders;
• Create an audit trail, that will speed up your processing, recording and shipping processes and allow customers to track their orders online;
• Produce and send automated order confirmation and item dispatched emails to your customers;
• Allow you to communicate real-time stock information to your customers via your ecommerce website – increasing the likelihood of making a sale.

These are just a few of the many features that you need to take into consideration when it comes to stock management and retail systems, but these, amongst a plethora of other automation features can have huge benefits when well integrated with your ecommerce solution: saving you time, giving you accurate figures & reporting, improving your service to your customers and helping you increase your profit margins.

Now your cake is in the oven and you’re confident that you’ve got the temperature and baking time right; you can put the kettle on and plan how you’re going to make your cake the one of which everybody wants a slice of.

Coming soon ‘Best ecommerce recipe part 3: ‘A cake that everyone wants a piece of’.

James Emmanuel
Marketing Intern
@JamesAMEmmanuel

Don’t over-complicate your cake mixture

Too many ingredients can make it difficult to enjoy your cake’s flavour

Try not to be too clever with your site, you don’t need hundreds of pages with thousands of categories, this often confuses and frustrates shoppers. Keep it simple, the biggest reason people leave an online store is because they can’t find what they’re looking for quickly enough. Put yourself in the customer’s shoes and remember why they are visiting your site…to buy your product; this process needs to be as easy as possible.

Allow your customers to browse through your products with ease, making sure you cater for both the tortoise and the hare: some shoppers know exactly what they want and just need to find it quick and get out of there; whereas others like to browse through your products at their own speed, making discoveries and buying on impulse. A search bar is a must have for all ecommerce stores, make sure it’s palpable and use an auto complete feature to suggest products as the customer is typing.

Make your price and shipping information clear without the need for lots of clicking and scrolling through pages. Price is one of the deciding factors in whether a shopper makes a purchase or not, so don’t hide away the details, make it prominent and unmistakable.

Your “Add to Cart” button should stand out and allow customers to see items being added without leaving the product page. If you do need to send them to a basket page, make sure there is plenty to tempt them to continue shopping, thus increasing their basket value. At the same time, ensure there’s plenty to encourage them to checkout – reassure them with messages that instil confidence – free returns, secure checkout, price guarantees – whatever is most relevant to your audience.

It’s crucial that your checkout process is a piece of cake and gives your shoppers a few simple options that they are familiar with. Your priority is to ensure they checkout, so don’t try to get your new customers to register at this point. Make the checkout process really simple, and give them plenty of payment options. Paypal is a great way of cutting out the tedious process of entering payment details and allows your customers to make fast, safe transaction, eliminating the need for debit cards, expiry dates and card verifications. Sage Pay offers you a fantastic solution for fast, secure and effortless payments both online and over the phone. It can be easily integrated into your site and allows you to accept most major credit and debit cards. Finally make sure your returns policy and customer service information is easy to find and very clear. Remember your customers can’t actually touch, feel or try on your product until it’s been delivered. Give them the confidence they need to hit that all important “place order” button. Add your customer service number to the header of each page; this gives your shoppers the comfort that you are just a phone call away if they have any problems. Follow up your orders with an email reminding customers of your returns policy and how they can get in touch with you if need be. For more advice on customer service have a read of our fantastic article: Top Tips For Great Ecommerce Customer Service Part 1 and Part 2

That’s just a few tips on getting your ecommerce cake just right, but hopefully, it’s now ready for baking; and just before you start licking the spoon, you need to ensure your oven is just right for cooking your cake efficiently and effectively…….no one likes a burnt Battenberg!

Part two, ‘Best ecommerce recipe part 2: Don’t burn your Battenberg’ coming very soon, watch this space.

James Emmanuel
Marketing Intern
@JamesAMEmmanuel

Marmite’s “Early Christmas Adverts” campaign

To launch their limited edition gold Christmas jar, Marmite released a very clever outdoor campaign addressing people’s feelings towards early Christmas advertising (love it or hate it if you haven’t already guessed). These posters popped up on a warm summer’s day in September around London’s retail epicentre; Oxford Street, turning a few very confused heads. Could it be campaigns like Marmite’s that are responsible for September’s rise in figures?

What has caused what has been the largest rise in retail sales since May 2009?

End of the ‘Olympic Lull’?

During the Olympics internet sales suffered significantly compared to this time last year as people were glued to their TVs cheering on Team GB instead of shopping online. However September did see both online and mobile sales grow 32.5% from August’s performance, with online sales now accountable for around 15% of all sales in each category. (Source: Direct Commerce Magazine) Perhaps with the distraction of the Olympics over people now have more time for a shoptathlon?

The Chill Factor?

It seems the recent chilly weather has prompted people to splash out on new winter wardrobes, opting to order online from the warmth of their homes or daring to wrap up and hit the high streets. John Lewis reported Womenswear sales were up 49% from last year, with women's boots grossing sales 165% higher. (Source: BBC News)

The Evolution of Mankind???

Perhaps these rises are down to a new breed of Christmas shopper focused on budgeting and spreading costs in order to meet this Christmas’ demands? A shopper with more caution who has learnt valuable lessons from last January’s bank balance, a 21st century hunter gatherer who knows where to find the best deals and beat the dreaded Christmas rush.

There is no doubt that with the current financial climate, Christmas can be a very daunting time for both retailers and customers, but with a well-timed and directed campaign you could be feeling the Christmas cheer from as early as September. Why not embrace the ever-expanding Christmas period; use your website to remind customers Christmas is on its way and that they should get their hands on your fantastic products early, before they sell out. Read more about how you can ensure your ecommerce business’ Christmas is a cracker in this article by our Head of Marketing on the Fourth Source website under the ecommerce column - Online Retailers: Have you got Christmas all wrapped up?

James Emmanuel
Marketing Intern
@JamesAMEmmanuel

This event took place in the spectacular Easthampstead Park, one that Berkshire Digital hadn't been to before. Driving up the long entrance the building just appeared in all its glory. We knew that this venue was a sign of good things to come.

For those who could not make it, we should say tough, you should have been there, you missed it. However, luckily for you, the information Joe Edwards gave was too good not to share. So content marketers, we will give you an insight into what you missed.

Each day we are bombarded with 1000s of adverts, can you remember them all? No? We didn't think so. Your content is the same, Google's CEO Larry Page announced; 'every two days we create as much information as we did from the dawn of civilization up until 2003'. The competition to get someone, anyone to read your stuff is high, let alone it actually reaching your target audience.

So how do you cut through the masses of information to reach your audience? It's not all about keywords and other SEO tactics to get Google to see you. It's about making your audience see you. Know your audience inside out, build a persona for the exact person you are targeting and simply write to that one person. What you write will be personal and engaging, appealing to their interests, increasing the likelihood of your audience not only reading your content but, perhaps, sharing it with others that it may interest. Word of mouth still is the most powerful form of advertising; the medium might have changed but the concept is still there.

Have you done that already and your content is still not being seen or shared? It's quite simply because you are writing content. Now before you click away at the audacity of that statement, read on, it's not a case of quitting your profession. Rather than focusing on content you have to focus on a cause, your audience's cause. Writing for a cause is more engaging than writing content for the sheer hell of it. Now I'm not necessarily saying everyone has to pick out charities that your audience supports. It's more intimate than that. Your cause is that you missed out on Joe Edwards' Killer Content talk at Berkshire Digital, we are quite simply appealing to that; you want to know what you missed.

Right, so far we have an audience, a cause and now we need a reaction. Look at the numerous emotive charity adverts that pull at the audience's heart strings, making them feel guilty for having not done enough, if anything to help an abandoned dog or a starving child in Africa. They all use emotion to drive their call to action; sadness, guilt. As content marketers we can use this to drive our campaigns, but it doesn't have to be based on guilt; you can draw upon anger, humour or fear, to name a few. By drawing out an emotion you are likely to draw out a reaction, maybe to share your content or even take action.

Before you think getting your content shared is the be-all and end-all, I'm afraid it isn't; in fact, it's only the beginning. Content is a form of conversation, your piece of content acts as only one turn in that conversation. You need to listen, or in this case look out for response from your audience; once they have had their say you can have another turn, which means you need to take on board what they are saying and react accordingly. Of course, in a busy world, listening and responding to your audience gains you credit, your audience notices and rewards you. So rather than lecturing your audience with everything you know, have conversations and of course make it interesting.

So, that's what you missed. Regretting not going now? You should be :). Joe's slides are now available at Slideshare too. We expect to see you all at our 4G mobile insight on 18th Oct 2012.

Next event: Emerging Mobile Trends - How 4G will change the way we interact with brands? On 18th Oct 2012. Register now at berkshiredigitaloctober2012.eventbrite.com or visit www.berkshiredigital.org to find out more.

Emily Ridley
Marketing Intern
@EmilyRidley1

Google +

Following our story in July; Bucking the Trend: the success story of four propeller-heads it would be an understatement to say that we were very pleased with the news of being ranked 25^th digital agency in the South as part of Wirehive100 - and there's a lot more growth still to come! Starting in 2005, we have evolved with the rapid changes of the digital world, adapting accordingly. As our team has grown, we have increased our areas of specialism as a full service ecommerce agency and a dedicated Search Marketing department, helping your online campaign succeed with measurable results.

So with our expertise in ecommerce and search marketing; whether it is SEO or PPC or other digital marketing elements such as email campaigns or a complete ecommerce solution, Metakinetic is able to not only understand your business needs but develop a strategy to create a solution for them.

To see what Metakinetic can do for your online business, take a look at what we do or enquire today by emailing hello@metakinetic.com.

You can read the full article on the Fourth Source website under the ecommerce column - Online Retailers: Have you got Christmas all wrapped up?

The full template is available to download from the Econsultancy website, it's part of a set of digital marketing templates that are very useful. Please note - you will need Econsultancy membership in order to download these files. Our template includes:

• The fundamentals of HTML email
• Design & layout
  • Quality control of content
  • Clear calls to action
• HTML construction
• Images & links
• Content sharing
• Email structure & HTML checklist

If you'd rather we took the pain away and provided email marketing for you, please get in touch! We have a great range of services and options to suit, from just coding, through to design and full email management.

Gift Wrapping Option & Message

It may seem obvious around the Christmas period but for birthdays, Valentines and anniversaries this option can be a great help to a number of your customers, especially if it is a last minute gift or they have difficulty wrapping themselves (think guys here!). We've all been there, buying a gift last minute and the sales assistant asks if we would like it gift wrapped, I for one wanted to jump over the counter and bear hug the poor girl. It's a luxury that shows your business is there to help.

Delivery

Nobody likes to be stuck indoors for five days on the trot to then find out that their delivery has been delayed and won't arrive for another week. It will make your customers go insane and certainly won't have them coming back for more. When it comes to the delivery of your products, do not just opt for the cheapest courier company purely because of their price, they are often not able to cater for your business' needs. You cannot just assume that once you've given the package to another company that your job is done. The courier company is representing your business; if they don't care, it will seem as if you don't care either, so make sure it's a high quality service. Take the extra time to shop around and see what options are available with your courier company. Being able to give your customer choice is seen favourably.

The online shopping from Supermarkets allows customers to choose a day they want their groceries to be delivered and they can even select a timeslot. This is the level of choice that we all would want when shopping online. If you can afford to invest in the delivery side of your business, this amount of options will reflect in the feedback you receive. If this is too costly, the very minimum your customers expect is being able to leave it with a neighbour or leave instructions for the package to be left in a safe place.

It's the little things that count; it doesn't take much to email or text your customers to say your delivery is on its way. But it is that reassurance that puts the customer's mind at ease. Amazon, for example, will always email when they have dispatched your purchase. This is becoming increasingly common and will soon become an expectation, rather than just a nice touch. Differentiate yourself with this now, and by the time it is considered essential, you'll already have it nailed.

Thank Your Customer

You've got your conversion; a customer has purchased some of your products, you've reached your goal right? Wrong! After-care is where the customer service can make or break you. Start off the relationship with your customer with a great order confirmation page. It's not just about saying thank you, you need to sound sincere. An automated, mundane thank you page or email is often skimmed or ignored which means you have missed a valuable opportunity to engage with your customer.

Know your target audience and base your confirmation email around them. Try and make it sound personal as if you are taking to a friend or at least someone you know and like. From that they will remember your customer service and potentially return to shop with you again. You can also take this as a great opportunity to encourage re-purchases by offering future discounts and offers on the confirmation page. And don't forget your social media links - let them engage with you on their terms. Remember, every point of contact with your customer is an opportunity for you to convert them to a fan of your brand, make the most of each and every one. Take a look at what we thought of Firebox's beautifully written ecommerce order confirmation email.

Returns

Returns often have negative connotations because many of us have experienced a time when a business has made it extremely difficult to return an item. Well, we have simply answered what you need to do just there. Make your returns process easy to follow and clearly displayed. Free returns are often a great selling point particularly in clothing ecommerce sites, it allows your customers to try on the clothes and send them back if dissatisfied with the fit. If your return policy is complicated and strict customers are going to be more resistant to making a purchase. By giving freedom of returns it allows your customers to impulse-buy on your ecommerce site. It's the equivalent of giving your product an interview with your customer they cannot determine whether or not it is appropriate for them solely on the product 'CV' you have created.

It's understandable that with certain products, such as make up, there is a difficulty with managing a successful returns policy, but as long as you are up front about these policies in the product description and make sure they are fair, it will not affect your customer service rating.

Reviews

Reviews can be fearful; you cannot guarantee that they are going to be positive all the time and more than likely there will be at least one case of negative feedback. The key is to always respond regardless; it's a chance to interact with your customer and demonstrate your proactivity. When it comes to negative reviews do not get defensive, instead see it as an opportunity to tell your side of the story and to make amends. In some cases, a customer can have an issue with the product purchased and depending on the customer service when dealing with the problem, may end up writing a very positive review, as seen in this review for John Lewis.

Put things right immediately
I had an issue with some products I ordered which hadn't arrived. John Lewis responded immediately to my email, telling me there had been delivery issues (these were never clarified). My delivery charge was refunded that day and I was asked that if I re-ordered to please choose named delivery (more expensive) and then contact customer services who would refund the delivery charge for this new order too. I followed instructions and my goods arrived, my delivery charge was refunded and my faith is restored in this company. They never let you down - getting things right is great but it is how companies deal with things that go wrong that makes them truly stand out. Well done John Lewis and thank you for treating me as a customer.

No need to say any more on this matter.

Social Media

This is where you can build a rapport with your customers, keeping them informed with up-to-date information on the newest products and offers to your business. It's also the place where poor customer service can do the most damage. When someone moans about a company's bad service to their friends over a coffee, you may lose a handful of potential customers. When someone moans about bad service on Facebook or Twitter, the ramifications can be far-reaching and depending on how badly you've treated this customer, it's almost the kiss of death for your online business. Take social media seriously. Hang out with your customers, whether it is Facebook, Twitter or Pinterest. Make sure you monitor, respond and engage. Not only do you protect your brand by knowing exactly what's being said. It also promotes awareness of your brand.

So that's it for our Top Tips - we wish you good luck with giving great ecommerce customer service. We're sure your customers will appreciate the positive customer service changes you make to your ecommerce site and beyond. For more tips and trends follow us on Twitter and Facebook.

Emily Ridley
Marketing Intern

Google +

We have all experienced bad customer service in a store or online, from that we've shared our story telling a loved one, a friend or even tweeted about it. That's the thing, it is critical to provide great customer service, not only to prevent bad connotations to your brand but to encourage your customers to positively spread the word about your business. In the same way that we spread our less than satisfactory shopping experiences, many will leave positive reviews on websites, tell their loved ones and from there twitter is also often featured if you impress them that much. A delighted customer is just as likely to share their experience as an unhappy one.

Don't simply see customer service as an effort and an added expensive. See it as an opportunity and investment that is essential to encourage your business to grow.

If your customer service is up to scratch you'll receive genuine feedback like that of one of our clients, OXX Digital Radio:

"This really is a great radio and if you're considering buying one, I wouldn't hesitate. The first thing to mention is the customer service, they make John Lewis look like Laurel and Hardy!"

It has to be noted that this review is not a one off, all their reviews mention the high level of customer service and many customers even say the reviews swayed their decision to buy the OXX Digital Radio products.

To help you achieve your customer service goals we have a few top tips to push you in the right direction.

Display Telephone Number

It is important on a website that you display a form of contact for your customers. By showing your telephone number it gives your customers a feeling of trust. They can contact you if something goes wrong or they need help with something on your website. If this point of contact is not clearly displayed or worse, not present at all, then you imply that you do not want to talk to your customers and possibly you have something to hide. As there is not a physical means of contact, you are not interacting face to face like in a store, a telephone number is the next best thing to provide advice or deal with any customer service queries.

Consider Live Chat

This strongly depends on your business type, the size of your business and avaialable human resources; however, if it's feasible it allows instant interaction with your customers. This allows your staff to aid your customers whilst on your website and in particular on selecting products. For this your staff have to be organised to cater for this need, so, as well as being available, they need to have extensive knowledge of your products so that correct and detailed advice can be passed on to your customers. There's little point in the blind leading the blind.

Help with product choice

With ecommerce the customer doesn't get the same experience as going into a store, therefore, it is down to you to supply the customer with all the information they need. For fashion businesses, you need to supply a detailed, but easy to comprehend size guide to which your customer can refer to if unsure. Likewise, with all products the item description needs to convey the information required by the customer. This cannot just be focused for SEO and PPC, and although it will contain good quality keyword-rich content, the primary cause for this section of information is to help the customer with choosing a product. By giving detailed accurate information it reduces the return rates as the customer knows exactly what they are buying.

Adding value to your products

What is the use of a customer buying something if they do not know how to use it? If you can provide guides and tips then the customer will interact with your material and hopefully invest in the product. For instance men's suits; many men will own a suit at some stage of their life, but with the finer details such as a tie or a bow tie, there is often complication over how to tie them correctly. By providing "How To…" guides or videos you customer will watch and trust that firstly, you know about the product and secondly, are providing information that is useful and trustworthy. It demonstrates that you are not just about box-shifting, but that you are an expert in what you are selling.

Love Thy Customer

There is a common misconception that the customer is against you; they are not your enemy. You are offering products or services that they want, by seeing them as your friend, supporter and key to your business success, you're getting rid of the mind-set that often is the cause of awful customer service. Word of mouth is still the most valuable source of referral; you customers can promote your business as well as encourage traffic and improved conversion rates.

Payment Options

Customers do not want restrictions especially when it comes to giving you money. It is just like waiting in a restaurant after you've finished your meal for the bill that takes twenty minutes to arrive. Why make it difficult for your customers to give you their money? If the payment options they require are not available you could end up with a high rate of basket abandonment and low ecommerce conversion rate. Provide variety; include options such as PayPal, Google Checkout, Visa, MasterCard and American Express. Out of all of the credit cards American Express is one that seems to be the least likely to be accepted by retailers both online and in-store. If you are able, allowing your customers to pay by American Express if that's what they want - it's an added option for them and may just swing the sale in your favour.

So that's it for this article, but there'll be lots more great tips for great ecommerce customer service to follow very soon, so keep an eye out for Part 2.

Emily Ridley
Marketing Intern

Google +

As you can imagine, we were very pleased indeed to receive a lovely handwritten note from one of our ecommerce clients, accompanied by a box of goodies for our team, prompted only by her happiness at our efforts and the positive impact we have had upon the success of their ecommerce business.

Our goal is always to make our clients successful by increasing their ecommerce sales, improving conversion rates and streamlining their internal processes, allowing them to achieve better scalability of their ecommerce businesses.

Whilst the numbers we measure provide us with the definitive proof that we are achieving this goal, there is nothing nicer than an unprompted and generous gesture from a client. Thank you ABC Golf :)

Here's a copy of what the note said in case you are interested...

"To Metakinetic Support Team

Please find enclosed a small token from ABC Golf Team for all the support and hard work you guys have provided us with to make us successful.

Many thanks

ABC Golf"

We like this kind of letter! Please browse our site or give us a call on 0118 324 9000 to find out more about our ecommerce solutions and how we can help you grow your ecommerce business.

We know what we want them to do - make a purchase. So how can we maximise our chances of success? We've highlighted five tips for increasing your ecommerce website conversion rates, and the best thing is, lots of these you will be able to do yourself, without the need to invest heavily in agency time to make it work.

1. Make it relevant

This might sound a little obvious, but if you've managed to capture a potential customer's attention with a specific campaign, offering or promotion, make sure they land on a relevant page when they arrive at your website. Don't give them rings when they came from an ad about necklaces, and don't give them a selection of bargain basement offers if they came from an ad promoting your premium range. Ensure when they land on your website from a specific campaign, they see what they expected to see. There's no harm in cross-selling; include related products, top products, special offers etc.; but make sure the first thing they see relates to how they reached your website.

This may mean that you need to create additional pages to support specific campaigns, or you may need to use a different URL for every ad you promote, but it's worth the time and effort and will increase your conversion rate almost instantly.

2. Get them excited

You've got them there, they haven't bounced, great job! Now let's get them excited! Include high quality, high resolution product imagery that nestles itself comfortably within the page - there's nothing worse than poor quality product imagery to unsell a product. If your ecommerce solution includes the feature, make use of a product zoom tool to help them get up close and see detail. Include product reviews, ratings and customer testimonials - if your ecommerce software doesn't allow this, you could add it in manually. Include as much technical and descriptive information as you can - the more information you provide, the less likely they are to need to go elsewhere to find out more. Give them all they need, and make it sexy. Use emotive words and take the decision to purchase from an objective decision, to one that is impulsive and based upon desire.

3. Don't make them think

This may sound a little counter-intuitive, but it makes sense when you think about it. As humans, we have a tendency to over-think our purchase decisions. We analyse, compare, review, investigate and then sometimes, we don't make a decision at all. After all, not making a decision is easier than making one AND committing our hard-earned money to it.

When a potential customer arrives on your website, you need to make it easy for them to do what you want them to do. Keep the page design clean and uncluttered, include clear calls to action in prominent positions and clearly signpost any other actions they need to take.

4. Tackle their objections

You know your products and you probably know your target audience very well too. Work out what their objections may be at this stage, what may stop them clicking 'add to basket'? Does it meet their technical requirements? Is the price competitive? Is it in stock? Does it come with a guarantee? Once you understand their potential objections, tackle them. Face them head on and deal with them; if you can, offer a price guarantee - they won't need to go off to price comparison sites to check out the competition; include any awards or accolades the product has received such as 'Awarded Which Magazine's best product in its category' to give the product quality more weighting; if you offer free shipping, shout about it; if you don't, make shipping costs clear. It's amazing how many potential buyers won't proceed if they don't have visibility of the shipping rates.

Tackle as many of their objections as reasonably possible; don't give them any reason not to 'add to basket'!

5. Optimise the checkout

You're nearly there. They've added products to the basket and they've hit checkout. Now let's make sure they make it through this last and crucial stage.

The most important thing is to keep the checkout process really simple. Minimise distractions. Ask for the information you need, but not more. Don't get greedy. The primary goal is for them to checkout, so make it as easy as possible. Don't show endless fields that are compulsory, make it really clear what is compulsory and what is optional. Give them the option of a quick checkout, so if they don't want to register and create account, they don't need to. You can always give them the option to create an account after they've completed checkout. Include prominent messaging relating to your security standards and use signposts to mark their progress during the checkout process - they're a lot more likely to complete if they can see what stages they have left in the process. Finally, make sure you use high quality copy throughout the checkout stage, it's as important, if not more so, than the product information itself. Clearly and concisely communicate what each field requires, what they need to do next and why an error has appeared, if they haven't completed a field correctly.

So there you have it, five tips for increasing your ecommerce website landing page conversion rates. Lots there to be getting on with, and thankfully, plenty that can be done without needing to spend a penny, just some time investment from you and your ecommerce team.

Jocelyn Kirby
Head of Marketing
Twitter @JocelynKirby
Twitter @Metakinetic

About Metakinetic
We're an ecommerce specialist, providing a full service from design and build of your ecommerce website through to the online marketing and ongoing strategy of your website. If you'd like to find out more about how we can help you grow your ecommerce business, please give us a call on 01256 763050.

It is always fun to work on websites, but there is something particularly special about designing and developing your own. With so many more services being offered, our site map was obviously far more complicated than before; and then there was all that new content to be written. The design itself had to reflect our move into other areas of retail, such as fashion, with style and photography being key.

As an agency, we are very excited about our ability to offer more than just ecommerce expertise; our SEM department, now offering SEO and PPC, is a thriving hub of activity with keywords being bandied around with joy and metrics liberally sprinkling every conversation. Our designers live and breathe beauty, clarity and simplicity; our developers devour labyrinthian puzzles for breakfast. Our Marketing Department can offer up a full banquet of a Digital Marketing Plan, or just rustle up some email templates, whatever you desire.

We hope that you like our new style - and the substance beneath it.

Emma Donald | Marketing Intern

Life was calm and serene last Monday morning at Metakinetic

The ecommerce agency in Wokingham fufills a community role whenceby it takes on all manner of interns to keep them off the streets. I was settling down into my new role as the Oldest Intern in Town rather well, I thought. Plenty to do, keeping my head down, trying to be as unobtrusive as my Great Frog skull ring and my tastefully highlighted-blonde-to-mask-the-grey punk hair would allow me to be, when The Boss powered into the Marketing room with the force of a small tornado.

A potential client had just been informed by a respected journalist that there was going to be a review of one of his products in the National Papers at the weekend. The client needed a new website - by Friday.

What was interesting about this was the way the Metakinetic staff handled the news

Someone sent out for more bananas and some Krispy Creme doughnuts and the coffee pot went magically into continuous flow.

The web designer, thick with cold that this British Summer had inflicted upon the entire workforce, sat with the client and listened, ideas and visions whirring through his head - we'll never know whether it was the Night Nurse or just pure inspiration, but whatever it was, the designs came cascading out as perfectly formed as the products we were working on.

The Project Manager was due to go on holiday mid-week, so he quietly absorbed the designs at his desk, didn't really say much for the following 48 hours and then calmly sent out web-pages for proof-reading and editing before mysteriously evaporating, leaving only a faint imprint in his chair.

The Head of Marketing continued her merry way of multi-tasking: brainstorming a Direct Marketing Campaign; writing several blogs for both our own and other websites; organising a Digital Networking Event for later in the week; creating a few templates for a client; AND held several hours of Important Meetings with the New Client to give him direction, design advice, TLC, and eek out of him every last bit of knowledge about his products that she needed for the content and a Social Media strategy.

Not to be outdone

The Head of Search wrote three or four new pitches for SEO leads; pulled in another new client; created several PPC campaigns; and seamlessly devised a site map complete with meta data for every single page on the new website, without even breaking into a sweat.

Pressure was on for us Interns

The Proper Intern, English and Creative Writing Graduate Emily, wrote page after page of content; I was happy being a typo-spotting nit-picker, trawling through every single word, line, paragraph being an irritating pedant - my favourite role in life, if truth be known!

And so, 24 hours before the website went live, we launched the client on Facebook with a product competition and by D-Day had over 800 followers, all clamouring for the prize. Friday at 5 pm, there wasn't a glitch to be seen and the website glided into the waters of the World Wide Web with dignity and pride. Yellow medallions on string awarded all round.

Emma Donald | Marketing Intern

Not only did they say thank you for the order, they also paid me a compliment within the first line of the email. Everyone likes a compliment, so first brownies point earned there.

The email then goes on to confirm the order details - product, quantity, order number, delivery address etc. What you would expect from a confirmation order, but worded so brilliantly. Bang on brand and demonstrating that Firebox not only understands its customers, but it cares about them too.

My only disappointment was that it was plain text rather than HTML - I quite like things that look pretty too. Maybe that's something for them to work on next - no-one's perfect!

In case you're interested in reading the full content of this email, I've included it below, I think you'll agree their copywriter did a good job...

Hi, Mrs Jocelyn Kirby

Thanks very much for your order. You really are rather nice.

This exciting email is to confirm a few things you probably already know.

1. Your online shopping skills are truly exceptional.

2. Firebox has strong feelings for you.

3. See 1 & 2.

Just in case you were possessed by aliens/malevolent spirits intent on a high quality impulse buying spree, here's a confirmation of what you/they bought.

Order number 3187958, placed on the 13th July 2012.

Your box of goodies will contain:

It's top secret so I've removed what it is :) @ 3.99 GBP = 99.75 GBP

=======================================================================

Next Day Postage & Packing: 5.95 GBP

=======================================================================

Total: 105.70 GBP

Amount paid using cards: 105.70 GBP

Our crack warehouse team will slip it (carefully) in our hand-folded packaging and have it on its way to the address below shortly.

Metakinetic Ltd., Rubra 1

Mulberry Business Park,

Fishponds Road

Wokingham

RG41 2GY

UNITED KINGDOM

We'll even drop you another email to let you know once it's out the door.

Help the anticipation build a little. Get the juices flowing.

Until we meet again, stay out of trouble.

Cheerio,

Firebox

P.S.

We stand by our products, and that's why we offer a 30 day Return Policy; so if there are any issues just let us know. Or follow this link for more

info: http://www.firebox.com/admin/help#refunds

P.P.S.

If you want to chat, hit us up on 0800 044 5010 (UK Free phone) or 0044 20

33683410 (International call rates). Alternatively, you can reply to this email or collar us at info@firebox.com.

Jocelyn Kirby
Head of Marketing
@JocelynKirby

As you probably already know, we are pretty big fans of Direct Commerce Magazine here at Metakinetic, having published an article for them back in April covering the growing pains of ecommerce technology and how to compare prospective ecommerce solutions. So we were more than excited when they contacted us about writing for them again. This time they were planning a feature relating to customer acquisition, an important subject and one that we were perfectly positioned to tackle given my recent descent on the company.

Making online marketing decisions, especially where budget is concerned, is always a challenge. Most of the challenge revolves around education; knowing what your business goals are and which online marketing medium or media have the greatest potential to achieve those goals.

In our Direct Commerce article, we cover 'The Big Debate for Retailers: SEO vs. PPC and why it's not just about being number 1.' Predominantly focusing on pay per click marketing and search engine optimisation, the article discusses the differences in application and benefits of each singularly and in unison.

Take a look and let us know what you think; you can read the full article on the Direct Commerce Magazine website (subscription required). Full of insightful information, quality news, and - our personal favourite - interesting feature articles, reading Direct Commerce Magazine is a worthwhile way to spend some time.

by Kay Harding

Started in 2005 with just four computer geniuses, Metakinetic has motored its way through the first recession, into the second, and is now a thriving Ecommerce Agency with 16 specialists working from its Mulberry Business Park base.

And Metakinetic isn't stopping there. The vibrant company, which has doubled its turnover since the start of the recession, has just joined the ProudtobeHiring campaign, a celebration of British companies who are thriving despite the economic gloom.

No surprise really, given its location; Wokingham has the third lowest total insolvency rate in 2011 at 11.3 per 10,000 adult population, just behind St Albans at 11.1, with London in the lead with a rate of just 4.3.

Not only has Metakinetic just taken on two Interns (one a 22 year old Graduate in English Language & Communication and Creative Writing, the other a 47 year old Graduate in Economics & Accounting) and a Head of Search Marketing, but they are also looking for a Web Developer / .NET developer.

To find out more about Metakinetic's story, please visit Our Heritage.

Stocking the widest range of sports bras in the world, LessBounce helps women make an informed choice, simplifying the buying decision and providing valuable advice on how to choose the right sports bra. With emphasis on quality, choice and with an unquestionably sporty feel, LessBounce is fronted by sports fanatic, aerobics instructor and personal trainer, Selaine Saxby, who hand picks only the best the sports bra world has to offer, for the LessBounce range.

The LessBounce website, which was designed and developed by Metakinetic, was launched in late January this year, with the judge's comments paying testimony to the hard work from both Metakinetic and LessBounce, that went into the launch, commenting;

"LessBounce have won this award because of the superb changes and massive improvements they've made over the last few years.

They've really now got their website sorted. They've introduced a superb customer interface for on-line buying, they've improved their payment software and they're really up to date with what people actually want.

We were not only entertained by their website but loved its informative appeal. It's smart, it's modern, it's bang up to date and basically, we couldn't fault it .... LessBounce are brilliant!"

Darren Bull, Ecommerce Specialist at Metakinetic added;

"Selaine, the LessBounce team and the Metakinetic team worked together tirelessly to ensure the new LessBounce ecommerce website was a vast improvement on its previous incarnation. We are so pleased that these efforts have been recognised and rewarded."

Selaine Saxby, Founder & Director at LessBounce concurred;

"There was a lot of work involved in launching our new website in January, which also coincided with the implementation of our new back office system, and we were lucky to be fully supported throughout the whole process. I am absolutely delighted that the hard work we have put into improving our ecommerce business has been recognised through the presentation of the E-Commerce Award."

To find out more about the South Wiltshire Business of the Year Awards, please visit - http://www.swboyawards.co.uk/index.html

To see the LessBounce website, please visit - http://www.lessbounce.com/

In reality, there's no simple 'yes' or 'no' answer. However, in the interest of actually answering the question that we pose here, I say that YES, your ecommerce website should offer free shipping to its customers. (A small caveat to include as an after note is that you should; as long as it is commercially viable. It would be rather silly to offer free shipping for an item for which a customer pays £10, but that costs you £10 to ship, that doesn't make good business sense... at all, not unless you know that customer will go on to generate significant profits for you over their lifetime as a customer.)

Now onto a little more detail... there's a level of psychology behind the free shipping offering that triggers the 'bargain-hunter' in all of us. Let's face it, there's a big part of ecommerce that is about finding the best price for a specific product that you have decided to purchase. And in many cases, we're not too worried about the shipping cost itself, it's the overall cost that makes the difference, particularly on larger (say £70+) purchases, where the shipping fee is usually a much smaller proportion of the order value.

But if we look more closely at a typical smaller (sub £70) purchase, the psychology of the shipping fee really comes into play. There's something about the shipping fee that makes buyers feel like they are wasting their money. After all, what do they get for their £3, £4 or £5? Why should they pay retailers to have the privilege of selling to them? Now we know there are valid and justified answers to these questions, but rightly or wrongly, that doesn't change the fact that this is how a large majority of consumers feel. In offering free shipping, buyers feel like you are giving them value, showing them that you value their business. I would be very interested to see any research on the subject that studies this in more depth - for example, all else being equal, would buyers opt for the online shop that offers a cheaper product price but charges shipping, or would they choose the online shop that gives free shipping but a slightly higher product price. Both ultimately cost the buyer the same, but would the psychology of free shipping come into play here? I'd like to see.

Research published by Econsultancy in April in the Ecommerce Statistics Compendium demonstrate just how important free shipping is to online shoppers. One particular study looked at website features which make shoppers more of less likely to use an online store. 82% of shoppers were reported to be more likely to use a store that offered free shipping. 82%!! That number is pretty epic. Second to this was a price promise, resulting in 72% of buyers more likely to use the store. Clearly, regardless of why a buyer chooses to shop online in the first place (convenience, lifestyle, choice & variety etc.), it appears that the online shopper is still ultimately price sensitive. It does make sense - knowledge is power and the internet and comparison sites give the online buyer a wealth of knowledge within a couple of clicks.

So what can we take from this discussion? Give free shipping a try! I'm not saying it's the answer to all your ecommerce questions, but take a look at how you can use free shipping to increase your ecommerce sales. At what basket value can you afford to offer free shipping? Avon does a great job of getting shoppers to part with more of their hard-earned ££ per purchase by setting a threshold basket value to qualify for free shipping. If you're a high volume, low product value business, this could be a delightfully simple way of improving your average order values.

Jocelyn Kirby
Twitter @JocelynKirby
Twitter @Metakinetic

• your credibility and reliability - are you real, can they pick up the phone to speak with you if they have a problem?
• your returns policy - what happens if it doesn't fit, they don't like it or it is faulty?
• security - is your checkout process secure and do you use reputable & recognised payment providers?
• product information - can they get all of the information on your website that they need or do they have to go elsewhere?
• and much more...

But all of the above (and more) whilst essential for any ecommerce site, don't get your potential customer any closer to your products. These important considerations if present will satisfy their logical left brain that is searching for evidence that it is safe to buy, but what about creating desire and invoking an emotional decision?

That's where great product photography can set your ecommerce website apart from the competition.

A snapshot taken in a DIY studio with your friend as the model is not going to be good enough - your visitors might not be able to articulate what is wrong with it, but they won't get the impression that you are a professional retailer and it certainly won't show off your products favourably.

Professional photography using a specialist product photographer, a proper studio set up with good quality lighting and high resolution images will look good and will allow your site visitors to get up close to your product images, hopefully through the use of an easy-to-use product zoom tool. You can also use your ecommerce product photography to extend your website's brand experience by ensuring your product images are consistent with the style of your website, giving a really slick and professional impression.

Your product photography is almost, if not AS, important as your website design itself. See it as an investment, not as a cost. Online retail is competitive and achieving stand-out is essential.

For a free review of your ecommerce website, get in touch with the team at Metakinetic.

But when the complexity of SEO meets the challenges and nuances of ecommerce and online retail, then you start looking at a whole other ball game. Ecommerce, whilst using the same medium (the internet) is very different from other types of businesses such as service providers, news sites or B2B companies. Ecommerce websites by their very nature should (in theory) have an abundance of keyword rich, quality content, (which search engines are quite fond of) thanks to a large product catalogue, product & category descriptions and informational pages. However, sadly, this content is not always as well-written as the search engines may like, and often is hidden behind poor code and a badly organised site architecture, making it hard work for search engines to find your valuable content (search engines don't seem too keen on working hard too hard).

Whether you're already doing SEO, currently work with an SEO agency or don't do any SEO at all, take a look at the three key considerations below:

1. Get your 'technical SEO' in shape

Many website owners just don't realise the importance of their website technology when it comes to Search Engine Optimisation success. Things like poor product category structure, the use of iframes or the lack of a proper site map & robots.txt file will all mean you suffer heavy penalties when it comes to search engines ranking your website. SEO is not just about words, it's about making sure it's really easy for search engines to find those words. For ecommerce, where the potential for your product catalogue to reach into many 1000's means that the structure is even more important, not just for search engines, but to aid product discovery for your living, breathing site visitors.

2. Find an ecommerce SEO specialist

There are SEO specialists, there are ecommerce specialists and there are ecommerce SEO specialists. That's the one you need. Ecommerce works differently to other websites with huge volumes of product specific data, images and rich media. Your in-house SEO person may struggle to understand how best to tackle such an apparently enormous task. If you can find someone who understands both ecommerce and SEO, they can think strategically about what you want to achieve and then form a plan to help you do that, which doesn't have to involve spending £1000's each month to target a plethora of keywords. An ecommerce SEO specialist will look at what is important for you and will build up an SEO campaign based upon your objectives thinking about your most profitable products, and will work to achieve great success with a smaller range of keywords, rather than poor or at best, mediocre, performance with a large range of untargeted keywords.

3. Measure, measure, measure!

Whether you opt for an external SEO agency or an internal resource to work on your SEO, the most important thing you need to do is measure your campaign. Benchmark where you are now (before you start) and then insist on regular (monthly) reports on your SEO performance, including best traffic drivers, highest converting keywords, ranking positions, inbound links etc. If it can be measured, then measure it. If you can see what is and isn't working, you know where to focus future resource - on-going refinement of your SEO campaign is so important. Do, then measure. Religiously.

Whilst the above is in no way a comprehensive summary of how to be successful at ecommerce SEO, it's a great starting point to get you thinking about how to do it right from the start.

I hope it's been useful - if you'd like a free review of your ecommerce website to see if it's in good shape, or if you'd like a free review of your current SEO performance, please get in touch by emailing hello@metakinetic.com or calling 0118 324 9000.

Jocelyn Kirby
@jocelynkirby
@metakinetic