ProStores eCommerce Blog

ProStores at eBay On Location - San Jose, Ca

2010-09-01T08:40:58-07:00

If you plan on attending eBay On Location today or tomorrow, don't forget to drop by the ProStores booth. We're giving away some cool prizes to help you get started with your own web store. See show details

Get an eCommerce Design Makeover

2010-08-30T11:49:11-07:00

After retiring from a career in business administration, Marji Bitterman decided to reinvent herself last year, opening her web store Beads and Dangles, which specializes in Pandora-style beads and charms. Recently she felt the store needed its own reinvention, so she found a designer to give it a new look.

BEFORE AFTER

To present a cohesive business image, Marji started by coordinating the color and style of her web store with her logo and business cards. Her designer Kelly McCormick accomplished this by first changing the colors on the header, footer and sidebars to match.

Next, she added music and a splash page. The two women loved the new look, but they both decided the page was too impractical. “The feedback I was getting was that online shoppers want to get started right away,” says Marji.

“Shoppers don’t want to be bogged down with big animation first,” Kelly adds. “We also had SEO concerns. The home page is now full of keywords, which you can’t have with a splash page. In addition, Flash isn’t compatible with the iPad and iPhone.” Still, they didn’t do away with the entire concept altogether. They added the splash page’s banner, logo and pink-and-white striped background to every page on the web store.

Kelly also featured a rotating gallery of Marji’s major categories, as well as a video that’s linked to Bead & Dangle’s YouTube channel, which incidentally has the same branding as the web store. “The video will also boost SEO since the web store now has incoming and outgoing links connected to YouTube,” explains Kelly. “In addition, they'll give her web store value because people will come back to learn from newly posted videos.”

Finally, Marji added UpFront and 100% Satisfaction Guarantee logos, “so that people would trust my product. If they don’t know me, at least they know that I’ll do whatever I can to make them happy.”

To hear Marji and Kelly’s top tips for creating good, consistent branding, check out our next post.

How to Create a Successful Online Store During a Downturn

2010-08-26T08:59:15-07:00

Some people balk at the idea of creating an online store during an economic downturn, but if you’re providing value to customers with the right product, it could be the perfect time. We told you about how jewelers Patrick and Marga Coughlin stumbled on the perfect product for the current economy in the yellow emerald.

Featured merchant Marji Bitterman also sells jewelry, but she focuses on a completely different market. Her online store Beads and Dangles sells high quality Pandora-style beads at the fraction of the Pandora price. Still she and the Coughlins have something in common—they make if possible for people to enjoy beautiful things at reasonable cost.

“The economy is a double-edged sword because people don’t go all out as they did four or five years ago,” Marji explains. “But it’s a good time for our product. With the European beading system, you can start with a simple chain, put three beads on it, and then budget just $15 each month to add three more beads. You can have the look of an expensive bracelet without anyone ever knowing that it’s not.”

The way Marji accomplishes that is by adding value – she doesn’t only concentrate on keeping her prices low; she also ensures that her product is of the utmost quality. Her sterling silver beads, for instance, have the same composition as Pandora beads but are priced 30 to 50 percent less.

Marji also stresses that being successful requires passion for both what you sell and who you sell to. To help even more people flourish, she has started creating wholesale accounts so others can start their own home-based bead businesses.

“I have always loved to help people, both personally and in business. Offering jewelry to those who want to look good, feel good, and afford to change their look as often as they want makes me feel great!”

ProStores Merchant Creates a Million-Dollar Business the Smart Way

2010-08-25T09:11:19-07:00

Find out why Smart Circle chose ProStores as their preferred ecommerce platform. Go to story.

Finding the Right Supplier for Your eCommerce Storefront

2010-08-23T09:14:06-07:00

Marji Bitterman sells Pandora-style beads and charms. She started her eCommerce storefront Beads and Dangles when she discovered she could find well-made beads in Asia. Quality was important to her, so she did a lot of research before choosing her suppliers. Initially, she got references from business people she met during a trip to China. But ultimately she spent a lot of time researching suppliers online.

Her advice to other eCommerce merchants looking for suppliers: “Buyer beware. You have to spend many hours surfing the Internet to understand the culture of the country you’re dealing with and what a

company manufactures.”

Pay attention to a few important factors:

How long has the supplier been in business?
Who do they do business with?
How big is the company?
What organizations do they belong to?
Do they have a full-functioning website? “Some Chinese companies have a web page on a larger website,” explains Marji. “Having an independent site shows that they’re more engrained in the business.”
Is the company too diversified? “I only wanted a high-end jewelry company that specialized in beads. I didn’t want a supplier that was also exporting, say, shoes and belts.”

With so many vendors online, you don’t have to travel extensively to find and do business with the right supplier. Marji has not been back to China since opening her eCommerce storefront, but she’s been able to manage inventory through email and the Internet. “I still research new companies so I can keep bringing people the highest quality beads possible. Now I can even get beads custom made. It keeps my customers coming back.”

Give an Opinion & Get Your Next Month of ProStores FREE!

2010-08-19T11:35:35-07:00

We at ProStores are interested in what you merchants have to say, and we’re willing to reward you for it.

Send us a video testimonial about why you like ProStores, and you’ll get your monthly subscription fee* waived for a month. It’s simple: Everyone who sends in a video gets one month free for one of their storefronts.

You might also land some free advertising. If we like your video, we’ll post it right here on our blog, as well as on our Facebook fan page, Twitter feed, and YouTube channel.

There are just a few easy rules:

1. Please answer the following questions in the video:

What do you sell?
Why did you choose ProStores and why do you like it?
What ProStores tools and features do you enjoy the most?

2. Each video should be no more than three minutes long.

3. Shoot video in your business surroundings - weather that be in a warehouse where you store your products, a physical store front you also operate, showcase of your product offering or of your employees while they're working.

4. You can send multiple videos.

5. Videos must be sent in by September 30, 2010 to qualify for the one-month subscription fee waiver.

6. Upload your video to YouTube as unlisted, and send the link to marketing@prostores.com.

Not sure about your video skills? Don't worry. We’re not looking for anything professional, so feel free to use whatever video camera you have – iPhone, Flip, web cam, digital camera, HD camera. We’d just like to hear from you.

Thanks, merchants, and we'll see you on camera!

*Successful Transaction Fee on sales will still apply.

Practical eCommerce Take on ProStores Platform Upgrade

2010-08-17T09:00:03-07:00

Read what Practical eCommerce has to say about ProStores newly released product upgrade.

eBay’s ProStores has just issued a new upgrade to its hosted ecommerce platform. ProStores 10 simplifies store design and management, and makes it easier to run automated on-site promotions. According to ProStores, the new upgrade puts more power in the hands of merchants, so the non-technical businessperson can now accomplish more tasks that previously required assistance.

To read the full article, click here.

Unique Product Helps Web Store Succeed

2010-08-14T09:01:05-07:00

In down economic times, providing value helps a business survive. Sometimes luck figures into it too, and for American Diamond Importers, an unexpected discovery couldn't have come at a better time.

“Last year I was in Brazil 400 feet underground searching for emeralds when I saw a yellow band in the wall,” says owner Patrick Coughlin. "It turns out that we had come across emeralds that had turned yellow from the iron in the ground." Yellow emeralds are extremely rare, so Patrick trademarked them, and started selling them at his brick & mortar and on his web store Yellow Emerald. He figured, “In this economy, people are going for deals."

One might wonder what rare gems have to do with a “deal,” but yellow emeralds are actually one-tenth the price of green emeralds. Because of their price, beauty and uniqueness, they’ve become the cornerstone of ADI’s business at a time when people aren’t buying as much jewelry. “In the last six months, we’ve sold more emeralds in our store than all the other gemstones combined. You can get a beautiful three-carat yellow emerald for $500.”

The price has allowed Patrick to market the yellow emerald in creative ways. “You can buy an engagement ring without a center stone for about $1000, but you can add a yellow emerald to it for about the same price. When customers buy a yellow emerald, I promise to buy it back at any time at full price if they want to replace it with a diamond.” He’s also creating a line of $500 promise rings so that men can give one to their girlfriends and then return it for a diamond ring when they’re ready to get engaged. The exchange program is taking off. “One couple didn’t have money for a $5,000 engagement ring, so they spent $1,200 on a diamond and emerald ring. The woman showed it off to her friends, and then they started coming in.”

Having a unique product has also helped ADI drive traffic online. “It’s amazing how many hits we're getting now. We’re at the top of the natural search results. With all the jewelry stores out there, it’s hard to get noticed, but if you find a niche product, it makes a world of difference.”

Update Your Web Store With SSML Editor

2010-08-09T08:58:51-07:00

Paul Byrne owns the web store smartcirclecards.net, where he and his partner Mark Petersen sell Smart Circle Cards. The cards offer discounts on everything from spa treatments to rounds of golf.

Smartcircle.com is now on its third redesign, which Paul is implementing using ProStores add-on tool SSML Editor. “I love that tool,” he says. “It makes it so easy to update and redesign my web store.”

SSML Editor simplifies coding and storefront management so that ProStores merchants can rapidly create and maintain their store templates. For instance, the application has an Auto-fill function that suggests code as you type. And if you hate writing code, SSML Editor’s Builder feature lets you construct a storefront visually without writing any code. The Widgets function lets you drag and drop professional, customizable features into your storefront.

“SSML Editor will even check my code so that I know that I’ve written it properly and don’t have to search pages of code looking for errors," explains Paul. "It has also allowed me to easily create store features which I might not have otherwise taken the time to figure out.

"There’s nothing you could do with SSML Editor that you couldn’t do with the ProStores Template Manager, but it’s so much faster. It’s like comparing creating a spreadsheet to using a calculator.”

ProStores 10 Now Available – With Exciting New Features!

2010-08-04T09:16:59-07:00

ProStores 10 is one of our most exciting releases ever, with new features that help online merchants easily enhance feedback and input from our customers . In ProStores 10, we’ve addressed key customer needs, made a big leap in the ability to easily customize store design with a new Page Builder, and dramatic improvements in order and catalog management.

And to help merchants maximize sales from every shopper, ProStores 10 gives them sophisticated merchandising and promotions automation, bringing powerful big-retailer tools to growing small and mid-tier merchants.

The most exciting development is our new Page Builder – a new design tool that makes customizing key store pages simpler than ever. Merchants can give their store an updated look and feel, drag and drop panels to revamp page layouts, and create and automatically display graphical banners tied to scheduled store promotions. We’ve also added a new store theme with horizontal category navigation – a popular request from our merchants.

For more details and a complete list of features, click here.