Most ecommerce stores have some season trending. This is very unique to both the store and the product line. So a store selling green widgets can be expected to trend sales in a similar manner to another shop selling green widgets... But not exactly, as they are many additional metrics that influence one's sales.

So you should be planning for your spring and early summer products, marketing and trends now... So that you are prepared for this period in your business. Even especially if traditionally spring is a low volume period for sales.

Here is a checklist of sorts to help you get started for planning any marketing period, including this spring.

Trending: Unless you site is brand new, you should have some sales and traffic data that you can use to trend or predict the data for the upcoming period. I tend to concentrate on sales and traffic. I use both as they can be very unrelated for some websites. There are clearly some periods where even if the traffic is there, conversions are down... So to properly trend our potential for this upcoming period we should use both. You may even have other metrics such as, bounce, average order or similar that are specifically a target for your store.

Gathering the data is the easiest part, as you should be using a proper analytical stat program to record your data. We will use Google Anayltics for our example, as it is very popular.

When gathering your data, we are looking for specific trends within the matching period from previous years to predict, affect and produce a proper marketing plan for the upcoming period. So login to Google Analytics and lets get to work.

So we will pull data for all of March, April, May and June to cover our bases and provide some overlap. You will want to pull at least on year, more if you have them. I would not be concerned with using more than 3 years as things in your business and on the web change very quickly and it's not likely to be very relevant any longer.

The example store I am using had a 2009 average daily visits of 279 uniques a day. There conversion rate for the year was 3.87%. You can see by the graph that holiday traffic is a crucial part of this store's success and that spring is rather soft by comparison. You can also see that our spring period it right at or just a bit above average for them.

2009 Unique Visits

We can clearly see from this data, that traffic could be improved for this period.... Especially because they have a genuine promotable product line for spring sales. Now let's have a look at conversions in relationship with this traffic... Do they convert well in this period?

2009 Conversions

We can see that last year, while traffic was average, they converted pretty well the end part of spring. looks very much like March should be our focus area.

Next you will determine your trend. You can use data from previous tears to do this... But if you lack that data no worries, this old restaurant manager has the equation to get you close.

Obviously, any data you do have is clearly relevant... But let's say you have little or none. To determine your current rate of growth in both of these metrics we will poll the last 4 months. This is a weighted process with the greatest weight on the most recent data.

This applies to any metric. Gather the data for these metrics for Nov 2009, Dec 2009, Jan 2010 and Feb 2010.

We will start with March's data from last year 8,043 unique visits and a conversion rate of 3.13%.

• Nov 2009 8,789 & 4.85%
• Dec 2009 14634 & 4.5%
• Jan 2010 7,604 & 3.67%
• Feb 2010 6,395 & 3.52%

For this purpose, with holiday data so much higher we will exclude Nov & Dec, unless we have 2008 numbers... Which we do. Nov 2008 7,419 & 3.18%, Dec 2008 8,861 & 4.00%, Jan 2009 6,146 & 2.99% and Feb 2009 5,742 & 3.22%.

Here is the math:

The math is easier than it looks....

Step 1: YOY growth, which is simply current year minus previous year.

Step 2: Trend. Like I said we will weight this for the most current monthly data. So 100% being the whole, we will use 12.5% from Nov & Dec, 25% from Jan and the remaining 50% from most current Feb. Something like this:

• 1 part : Nov. 18.49% plus Dec. 65.15% = 83.64 divided by 2 = 41.82%
• 1 part: Jan. = 23.72%
• 1 part: Feb. =11.37%
• 1 part: Feb. =11.37%

= The whole (88.28) divided by 4 = (22.07%) Current Trend

Last year March (8043) apply trend 22.07% = (1775 growth) This year March forecast (9818) unique visits... Into 318 average daily visits.

Check our math:

Last year average daily visits March = 260

This year forecast = 318

% of predicted growth = 22.3%

**Note that rounding changes these just a hair, but not to worry this should be pretty reliable data.

So this "math" can be applied to the entire period as a whole, or each month individually computed. The point here is to have an idea of what to expect, AND and basis to measure the effectiveness of your marketing this spring. For example if you did nothing last spring, and you know (above) what to expect if you do nothing this spring... Then you have a pretty good benchmark to measure the effectiveness of a marketing campaign this spring.

Ecommerce Blogging

The need for "fresh" content has sent many shop owners looking for a blog. We have built many WordPress Blogs for shop owners in the last few months.... shop owners who realize the need to deliver content in a more effective manner. So today I want to give you some tips for looking at your planned or existing ecommerce blog.

First off, no offense meant to other blogging software... But I highly recommend WordPress. The features, speed and ease of use is the perfect match for most shop owner's needs. Add the awesome widgets and other tools to take full advantage of your content for social media, and you have the perfect application for your online store's blog.

Caution number 1.... I do NOT recommend that you host your blog anywhere else except your OWN DOMAIN. Something store.com/blog is perfect! Subdomains are redundant and unnecessary as well... They are in fact viewed as folders by Google and not a separate site anyhow. Host your own blog as the content is far more valuable to your business than any link from it hosted elsewhere.

Caution number 2.... I do NOT recommend using a module to integrate your WordPress within Zen Cart. Fact is you lose a bunch of WordPress ability and worse the issues caused by the integrations.

I agree that you want your blog consistently branded to look like your shop's pages, but the level of skill needed to create a good looking, branded WordPress theme is pretty low as far a templating software applications goes.

Here is an example we did recently for a Zen Cart owner to port his offsite blog content in to his own site http://www.horseprerace.com/blog/. Notice that while it's a blog the navigation on both the store and blog are linked to each other and it's consistently branded (styled).

Caution number 3.... Do not build a blog unless you have something useful to post. Things like articles about your products alone will not fit the bill. You have to create content that is useful and searchable. A great example is another customer we built a branded blog for, Silver and Pewter Gifts. This Valentine's Day post is excellent, and EXACTLY the type of content you will need to attract readers, searches and backlinks!

Creating valuable and unique content for your website is a big commitment.... with big rewards. The most effective thing you can do it create 1-5 brand new pages with great content on your site weekly. Google especially respects the frequency of the content and rewards you in rank and crawl rate increase.

But how will you write all of that content? Well, to be honest... you don't have to write it all.

You can hire a writer to create content on the topics you supply. Make sure to check their copy here so you know it is unique and not copied. Content that has been duplicated... just doesn't rank well.

You can solicit guest bloggers... Employees, distributors, high school kids... you name it. Find people who are passionate about your website's theme and let them express themselves. You will find that many more are interested than you think.... AND guest bloggers are a great way to help to promote your blog as well.

You can buy private label articles related to your content needs.... BUT these articles, unless unique will need to be rewritten to remove the duplicate content. However, they are excellent inspiration for the new writer and provide a nice framework for the post.

You can write great blog posts yourself. Just jump in. There are ton's of great resources availiable to help you get started. Check some of these out:

• Writing great content http://www.problogger.net/how-to-write-great-blog-content/
• What makes great blog writing http://writetodone.com/2008/01/10/what-makes-great-blogwriting/
• One of my all time favorites... Writing great blog headlines/titles http://www.copyblogger.com/10-sure-fire-headline-formulas-that-work/

Some things I would like to add....

Blog with your own voice, words from you with your passion and emotion will be the most effective content and serve to build your readership as well.

Write your posts in 2 steps... If you are like me the ideas are just swimming around in my head and I can't even type fast enough to get them all down. So when I finish fishing my head for ideas... I have to reorder, restructure and polish the gibberish I have pounded out on my keyboard. I am am really so bad that I will generally have 3 to 4 sloppy copies before I am done... My brain is much faster than my fingers. Read every post in preview view all the way through at least twice before you embarrass yourself by publishing poorly written or unprofessional content.

Lastly... NEVER leave a user comment unanswered. NEVER

First and foremost, using natural text helps to grab customers more and high school report researchers less. For example, I was speaking with a customer today who sells engraved silver and pewter gifts. We were making a plan of attack for next year. The primary concern for this plan is to better target his Jefferson cups. While he is on page one for Jefferson cups, he is number 10.

So if you search Google for Jefferson cups, you will see that these very historical cups have many informational pages indexed and presented for this query. My point is, that the search rank for Jefferson cups matters little as these are not shoppers.... So if I was looking to buy one of these I would and most other searchers would use longer and more targeted queries.

• Buy Jefferson Cup
• Engraved Jefferson Cup
• Jefferson cups for gifts
• Pewter Jefferson cup

These are just a few examples of how one may search when the target is a purchase and not just information searching.

These longtail searches are more easily converted and easily targeted by using the naturally related words associated with the products and services in the product's page copy. Not spam, just high usability and proper search-ability.

Traffic is traffic you may say.... But it doesn't make it true. Fact is that ecommerce stores are designed to sell, therefore attracting customers is clearly the first order of business. Most information seekers will not be converted in to a sale... They just found the wrong site for the information they were seeking... Additionally, the likelihood that they will return someday to purchase because they remembered the site is store address is slim to none.

Why do you suppose users are searching with longer queries than say 5 years ago?

It's really not that complicated. The many millions of unsuccessful searches have trained searchers to use longer queries to better target their search results. This isn't the only thing searchers have been trained to do either. Another huge change is that searchers will read scan the text at the top of the page's main content container for about 15 seconds upon arriving on a site. Not images... Not videos.... TEXT.

Searchers do this for a very clear and understandable reason... They are trying to very quickly determine if this page is relative to their search. Makes perfect sense... who wants to spend 10 minutes on a page that isn't what we were searching for?

If I told you that less than 48% of all Google US searches were 2 words or less, would you believe me?

It's true, fact is that the majority of Google searchers use 3 words or more in their query. In fact I would bet anyone that repeat searches are double and about 80% or better.

Longer Search Query User Data

Source: Experian Hitwise

The need for helpful, descriptive and natural text on your store's page cannot be understated. Your shoppers need this text to help them find you, identify your page as a good result and better navigate your site.

This page contains both secure and nonsecure items. Do you want to display the nonsecure items?

This error is an error referring to an unsecured element within your store's secured pages.... This is generally going to be most damaging in Internet Explorer which presents the pop up warning shown below.

This page contains both secure and nonsecure items. Do you want to display the nonsecure items

While FireFox and other browsers indeed note this same error... The delivery method is far less daunting. Most recently W3SCHOOLS presented browser usage stats indicating that while FireFox usage is clearly on the rise, over 39% of users still use a version of Internet Explorer.

The greatest issue with this checkout error is that many webmasters miss it. I would comfortably say that most site owners will be using FireFox or another more capable web browser.... So many times this error goes completely unnoticed. Add the fact that shoppers using other browsers will likely miss the very subtle errors delivered by FireFox and similar and still checkout.... Essentially making this the "hidden" error so to speak. It's tough to see the error in your stats and such as many other shoppers will checkout completely oblivious of the error.

This error is really a simple matter of a unsecured element attempting to be displayed on a SSL/secured page. In truth the problem is that the unsecured element causes the connection to be only partially encrypted with your SSL.

The easiest way to check if your online store has this error is to open it up in IE and go to a checkout or other secured page. Note that checking your main page or other page which is not intended to be secure will likely present a false positive for the error... If for no other reason than the base url being http:

Commonly we see this error caused by images. Images displayed from another website (hot linked) must be either using a secured https: url or you must download them and display them from your own site. Even your own images can present this error if the are using an absolute link which is not secured (http://domain.com/images/image.jpg). These image issues are quickly remedied by changing the link to a relative path (images/image.jpg). If for some reason your web hosting or you have issues with being able to code your image sources in this way you can also try the fix below.

<img src="//www.domain.com/images/image.jpg" alt="" />

The second most common time we see this error is running scripts. Let me start by noting that *most scripts have no place on your checkout pages... Checkout pages should be designed "in a tunnel", most effectively they should be quite simple and completely without distractions which prevent checkout.

For example, we see shop owners with this error caused by a social media button.. Honestly, do you really want anyone to bookmark your checkout? In any case, we also see this in shopping feed button image scripts and even the Google Analytics script as well.

To fix this, any script which is calling out to display an element in the secured pages must also be secured. Scripts for buttons and such will need to have these elements provided from a secured site or removed from checkout. While many of these third party scripts will not outright offer you a secured script, they may have one which you can use by altering the http:// links to be https://... If no SSL is present then you will have to remove these scripts from checkout pages.

<script type="text/javascript" src="https://somescript.com/js/widget.js>

Google Analytics is a much simpler fix, as Google provides a properly secured script. To fix this you have only to grab the correct version of the script from Google and replace it.

The hardest part is determining which or what element is causing the issue. Most commonly it will be an image, so searching the source of the page for something like src="http:// will grab image source and some scripts and other elements as well. Note that you will want to check the <head> of the page as well.... CSS stylesheets and scripts in the head must be secured as well.

Avoid this bit of checkout suicide and check your cart... It only takes a moment and can change your business dramatically. While it may be on your tongue begging to be said that IE is a pain... Realize that for your shoppers unsecured items on these page's endanger their privacy and security of their online transaction.

Yahoo Product Feed Submission

Yahoo has recently announced its new support for Google Base structured feeds for SearchMonkey. You can now supply your Google Base structured data feed to Yahoo for display in Yahoo enhanced results.

The program is not displaying a ton of shopping results yet, but will certainly grow. Submitting your existing Google Base formatted feed is very fast, simple and automatic. To get started verify and setup your store in Yahoo Site Explorer. After you verify your shop with a Meta tag or html file, you will see a menu option on the left for "Feeds". Upon selecting this option the following screen will be displayed...

Submit Google Shopping Feed to Yahoo

Very simply you add the "relative" path to your product feed to the feed field, then click the drop down to "Structured data feed". Add feed button saves the submission. Your product feed can be in any format that Google is currently accepting such as xml and txt. If you've never used Yahoo Site Explorer before, be certain to add your search engine sitemap & rss feeds as well. Both RSS and sitemap.xml files will be added as a "Web site feed".

This can really turn out to be a great asset to online store owners, you see Yahoo has traditionally always been a very strong search engine for ecommerce stores. Yahoo products a paid feed submission has been around for quite some time, but submitting your Google feed in Site Explorer is free and will display in regular search results.

There was a time when homework and other questions were referred to the encyclopedia or even the public library. That process has come to pass why teenagers search for homework answers on the Internet and parents search for the things they need like recipes, product information and more.

We have more access to information than we ever have and to more knowledge than we ever thought we would even seek out. This is exactly why ecommerce stores should never shy away from informational content on their sites.

The growth of the Internet is driven in many ways by a unquenchable thirst for information. It's very interesting that customers are initially less interested in where they find the information and instead focus on the quality of the information.

In actuality the useful information on your website and the search engines that find it will bring someone to your site initially and thus deliver you the opportunity to impress this potential customer. Fact is, this useful information is appreciated by surfers and they begin to trust you based on your information. Trust being the first step in any sale, then you are on to something.

Ecommerce follows in the footsteps of its brick and mortar predecessor and must cater to an on demand crowd to be successful. No one likes to wait and they want what they want when they want it. Got it?

This may all seem a little bit selfish on the part of the consumer, but the ecommerce business that insists on being centered on the needs of the customers will certainly garner the most business. Remember, they hold the commodity you seek $$$

Consumers very clearly understand that the money they have at their disposal is a commodity YOU must earn from them. You have to earn their trust, provide exemplary customer service and provide the useful information they need or they will move on.

Furthermore, because brand loyalty is diminished in the 21st century you have to continually earn the trust and support of your customer base. This is where marketing tools such as ezines, email marketing and ebooks can make a real difference for customers that want not just a product, but also seek knowledge they need to make the best use of that product.... Your product.

There are many ecommerce businesses that do not share this service orientated point of view. They insist on operating their online store in a way that fails to capitalize on something they have clearly failed to comprehend. The Internet opens the possibility to provide value added materials and information in a cost effective environment. Customers do not have to choose your store so make sure they have ample reason to place your site at the top of their list.

I think right out of the box ecommerce owners will have to compete with better and more user friendly options. Additional shipping options, checkout options including checking out without and account and navigation strategy will be very key elements.

Many Americans have been burned on sneaky eBay style shipping tricks. Online shoppers are very cautious and un-trusting regarding shipping issues. This will be a major player in the success of any online store in 2009. I have some suggestions to improve your current shipping processes...

• Clearly post your shipping... At the very least shoppers MUST be able to get a shipping quote from the cart page. If you can manage flat rate or free shipping, you will find great success. NEVER, have any shipping disclaimers where you intend to recalculate shipping after the sale... This will send most of your shoppers running for the hills.
• Offer a small selection of relevant shipping options. Shoppers want options, but too many shipping options will send them packing packing as well.
• Your shipping rules must be clear and easily located. I strongly suggest you include a shipping summary in your checkout, as shoppers will rarely navigate to the shipping page to find the information.
• Your shipping should contain and estimated delivery time... Without it, shoppers can be easily convinced to pay more elsewhere for a promised shipping date.
• Post your phone number. If you are not making your businesses phone number clearly available on your site... You are just screwing yourself in too many ways to count.

US and other shoppers worldwide are sick and tired of spam... They have been tricked, spammed and basically misled by so many websites. Convincing a shopper to trust your site is a very substantial challenge. Checkout options and other related store functions will help to build trust and convert sales very effectively.

• Your shoppers need the opportunity to checkout without creating a store account. They are sick of all the store accounts and lost usernames and passwords. If your software cannot be made to allow checking out without an account then look in to PayPal Express or Google Checkout for these leery shoppers.
• Remove ALL login and account creation type language from your checkout. Many software platforms can be made to appear like there is no account being created just by changing the language to reflect a transaction rather than and account creation. Dump that login box and grow your sales in 2009.
• Get an SSL to encrypt your transactions and tell folks you have it to protect their online transactions with your store. Again, make your phone number readily available to build trust and let shoppers know you are a "real" business.
• Shorten up your checkout and remove distractions preventing your shoppers from purchasing. This one is just a simple and logical step to increase the revenue you are getting from your existing level of visits and prevent checkout abandonment. Shorten up your checkout as much as you can... Lets face it, if your shoppers had a bunch of time to waste they would shop at Wal Mart. Remove unnecessary menus and click able things to get your shopper off track and not checking out. Once they decide to give you money... LET THEM!
• Clearly post on your site and checkout the payment options your shoppers have. I cannot tell you how many times I have went all the way through someones checkout to find a credit card field and I have NO CLUE which cards they accept and have to then search for their policy regarding payment... Which of course causes me to LEAVE CHECKOUT.
• Make certain your shoppers can track their orders... Even if they checkout without an account.

Navigation and flow control are so crucial to your website... Likely the most important factor of all. Many shop owners haven't even a clue as to how their site is navigated... OR NOT. I have some simple tips to help you to improve your site's navigation and thus improve the average time on your site, making a sale far more likely.

• You know your products, sure, but do your shoppers?  Nothing irritates me more than a menu I cannot navigate. When planning your categories and menu use real language... Stuff even I can understand.
• Categorize your products logically and in a few different ways. Shopper A knows he is looking for a "Gadget B", but has no clue that it is a child category under "Gadgets"... But he know this gadget is what he needs to complete the work on his RC car, and that its a "part". So he will likely navigate more effectively to this gadget using a menu group called "RC Car Parts". While Shopper B knows full well that that part will be located under "Gadgets" as he is no novice RC builder.
• Do usability studies... I tell shop owners this ALL THE TIME, and usually they fail miserably. Pay, beg, ask or bait regular people to shop in your store and report what they find back to you. Use a logical collection of test shoppers and include a kid, like 13 to 17 years old... As they will really tell you how it is. Now, when your reports come in, DO NOT GET DEFENSIVE, this is about improvement... A defensive reaction will accomplish nothing but no improvement. So if you HAVE TO always be right... Just skip this, because you are of course right... Right?
• Have a good long look at your use of page real estate... How much information is above the fold (the point where a visitor must scroll). Are you using this space wisely? Did you know that you have about 15 seconds to engage a new visitor... and that they are 80% more likely to read text in this 15 seconds?
• Colors have many psychological properties and can be used to assist a shopper in finding your products and then in making the proper buying and checkout decisions without having to flounder around. Green is a perfect color for action links and buttons. Red really is a stop color, use it to draw attention to a product or attribute very effectively. However, if your checkout button is red... You screwed up.
• Have a good long look at your product page layout. Is it effective, fast and easy to navigate. What if I purchased this product before.... Going to make me hunt down your add to cart button?
• Cross selling related products within your product and category pages is not only effective marketing, but effective navigation as well. For 25 plus years I was a restaurant manager and one thing I learned is that when you suggestive sell a product properly it is helpful to the patron... Not a bother or inconvenience. Shoppers and patrons alike have this in common... They pay little or no attention to the details of much of anything collectively and genuinely require your assistance.

So I have to say if you are looking to grow your online store in 2009 then these items above will have the best and fastest return on your time or money investment. Another restaurant managers lesson is to get the most dollars and purchases out of your existing customers first. Build your check average and grow your sales.