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I can’t believe it’s almost over! As they say in television, “there’s another one in the can.”

In just a few short days 2007 will just be a memory. Still, here we are getting ready for the biggest shopping season of the year and I feel as if I’m still recovering from the 4th of July! I know the days got shorter, but do they suddenly have fewer hours as well?

I hope that by the time you read this, you will already be proclaiming what a great holiday season your e-commerce store had. I ignore the talking heads who say “consumer spending is down.” If you have a good business you’re doing well. Everyone is telling me their sales are up and by the looks of parking lots at the local malls, lots of traditional shoppers are out there spending money. Let me be the first to offer hearty congratulations for a holiday season well done (oh, yeah, don’t forget to thank your customers for shopping at your cyber-shop!).

2007 has been a great year for me. In May we rolled out this wonderful little monthly magazine called eBiz Insider. This was an ambitious undertaking and I am delighted to hear that so many of you have already put eBiz on your “must read” list. Month after month our subscriber base has increased and we’ve added several pages since the first issue. We’ve reached out to the most knowledgeable people we know in e-commerce. We have asked them to put pen to paper each month to bring you what I hope you agree is a fantastic resource for running your e-business.

Please help my staff and me to continue to make eBiz Insider YOUR magazine and tailor content to YOUR needs. Please take a moment to fill out our reader survey by clicking here. Your comments, suggestions and candid responses will ensure that we continue to deliver a magazine that you look forward to receiving each month. This survey is extremely important to the success of eBiz Insider so please take a moment to respond. We want to give you what you want in this magazine. So be sure to tell us!

Finally, I would be remiss if I didn’t take this opportunity to thank the entire eBiz Insider staff for the excellent job they all have done. This was our first shot at a magazine and if I may say so, so far I think we’ve hit a home run. Thanks to you for reading eBiz and for supporting our advertisers who make this whole thing possible.

Happy New Year!

Solid Cactus, Inc. has designed or redesigned more than 3,000 e-commerce sites. Solid Cactus is an Inc. 500 company and was named one of the "Best Places to Work in Pennsylvania" in 2006 and 2007.

All posts by Solid Cactus | E-Mail the author

A Knack for Niches

Joe Tantillo of GreekGear.com is a veteran in e-commerce; he opened his first site in 1999. GreekGear.com provides “personalized products for people passionate about their pursuits.” There are more than 4,000 different personalized items, from key rings to mouse pads, baseball caps, custom flip-flops, trailer hitch covers, coffee mugs and formal dinner/dance fluted champagne glasses. If it can identify a fraternity or sorority, GreekGear.com has it.

After GreekGear.com, Tantillo launched GuidoGear.com, MyChristianGear.com and several other sites devoted to niche markets. His 12th site just came online named GearforGoldens.com (a site for retrievers, not retirees…). “I believe in regular redesigns, constant tweaking and expanding the number of niche sites for our customers,” Joe says. “I’m still wrestling with how to increase our real world presence. Our business model presents certain limitations.”

Learning from Traditional Businesses

The “real world” is very real to Joe Tantillo and he has applied the lessons there to his web sites. “My wife’s family has a brick-and-mortar store,” says Joe. “They update every two or three years. More people are shopping online, and they expect us to change, just like conventional stores.” GreekGear.com and the other “Gears” Joe launched have changed constantly, in spite of their success. GreekGear.com just underwent its third major redesign.

“Traffic is good on GreekGear.com,” says Joe. “Our average sales are up per purchase which suggests we’re getting a better brand of customer. Still, we focused our latest efforts with our designers on making a better site experience for our customers and better shopping cart conversions for us.”

The Better Mousetrap

GreekGear.com redesigned its navigation. Formerly the site had numerous categories with endless merchandise available. Now there is a section head with 5 subsections. “Think of it as a highway,” says Joe. “Before, you got to the fork in the road and there were a hundred options. Now you have five general highways and then smaller roads continually branching off based on your interest. It’s less confusing for shoppers.”

They made their shipping policy information more clear to customers. GreekGear.com also instituted a flat rate of $5 for flat ground shipping. “We play with pricing and shipping a lot,” says Tantillo. “Some of these things are risky if you’re playing with tight margins. It’s why we constantly tweak.”

Most of all, GreekGear.com has done countless little things. They’ve put their phone number in more places on the site. They’ve begun publishing customer testimonials. They redesigned the shopping cart to make the “place order” button larger. They’ve included guarantees to improve customer satisfaction. The net result? In 3 months GreekGear.com increased its conversion rate by 70%. “I’m using GreekGear.com as the test site for improvements my designers make on the other sites,” says Joe.

Cyberspace and Real Space

Joe Tantillo believes that just as all brick-and-mortar businesses should have a web presence, Internet companies should, when possible, have a footprint in the real world. GreekGear.com has, predictably, reached out to college bookstores and Italian festivals with success. “We’re branding for Barnes and Noble’s 600 stores and Follett’s 1000 stores,” says Joe. “We do it all and send them a commission. It’s a great way to grow your business.” He says that sometimes re-branding works for larger stores. The key is to strike the right balance between margins and volume.

Tantillo would like his in-laws to have a larger presence online. He believes it is crucial to be able to reach out to the wider market. Still, he understands the reluctance of people to step outside what they know. “I’m thinking of kiosks in bookstores as a good way to get the word out,” says Joe. Each opportunity comes with its challenges. With so many bookstores that could be a huge undertaking. Then there are staffing issues and slow traffic times. “And tell me, how do you display 4,000 items in a kiosk? I’m thinking of wholesaling the products and let the retailers get the word out for us.”

Joe Tantillo is an Internet vet who never stops tweaking. “The web is changing constantly, with improvements and entire brand new product lines emerging. In cyberspace, if you’re not improving, you’re falling behind.”

Solid Cactus, Inc. has designed or redesigned more than 3,000 e-commerce sites. Solid Cactus is an Inc. 500 company and was named one of the "Best Places to Work in Pennsylvania" in 2006 and 2007.

All posts by Solid Cactus | E-Mail the author

Read the About Us page on many e-commerce websites and you may be surprised to learn the business has been open for three generations, perhaps longer. The ‘net hasn’t been around that long. How is it possible?

Family shops are expanding, moving from Main Street, USA to a second location: everywhere. Now, someone’s favorite local boutique can also become the online favorite of someone else living 3000 miles away. In this article we’ll examine how brick-and-mortar stores blend the two channels together for success.

Three Companies That Did It and Did It Well

BlairCandy.com

Pam Macharola and her brothers took their Altoona, Pennsylvania-based Blair Candy Company online in 2001; however, the family business has been open 69 years. In 1938, Macharola’s grandfather opened a small newsstand. After noticing interest in his candy, he increased the selection of sweets. Eventually the retail store branched into wholesale, supplying candy to regional businesses. Since adding dot-com to their name, BlairCandy.com has picked up wholesale accounts and new individual customers across the country.

Macharola suggested trying the Internet simply because she enjoyed buying online herself.

“Why can’t we put this candy online and see what happens?” she pondered with her brothers, neither of whom had experience in computers or the web. Macharola initially figured the website would be more of a hobby with occasional sales.

“(The web) is a major part of business now. It’s amazing!” she said of the wild success. “We were missing a ton of sales.”

Since going online, Macharola discovered other parts of the country aren’t as candy-rich as her home state. Orders have exploded since out-of-state shoppers discovered a place to buy their hard-to-find favorites.

TheTrickShop.com

Sam Blankenship and his wife, Tracy opened their brick-and-mortar magic shop and online store simultaneously. Based in Temecula, Ca., TheTrickShop.com offers magic tricks, magician supplies, balloons, juggling items and lots of gag and novelty products. Blankenship says he first got into magic as a child. Still intrigued with magic as an adult, while traveling across the US for work he’d always make time to visit the local magic shops.

“Magic shops were going out of business all over the globe. There were two reasons for it: one is that their sales were being taken by the new generation of online magic dealers. The second is that the shop was usually run by someone who loved magic, but didn’t have a solid business background. They managed to put themselves out of business,” explained Blankenship.

He always wanted to open his own magic shop, but since there was already one nearby, he didn’t think it would be fair. In 2004 he learned that shop was closing and the couple took the cyber-plunge.

“Basically, we wanted to prove that you could successfully run a magic shop that wouldn’t go out of business. It was really strange the amount of people that bet we wouldn’t be around longer than 12 months. We’ve just started our fourth year in business,” he said.

Initially Blankenship started the online portion of the business just to cover all the bases. Only recently did he decide to really invest in TheTrickShop.com.

“I realize that we would have had much more volume had we spent a bit more time on maintaining our website. We settled for a ‘not so great’ design and didn’t do things like updating our item mix with the newest and hottest items. Sadly, we underestimated the power of our online model and I hate to think about the dollars that we lost over the last few years,” he said.

BedBathStore.com

After putting up an online store for a college project in 2001, Mike Reichman decided his family’s Lynbrook, Long Island, NY retail store should also enter cyberspace. So, he and his father launched BedBathStore.com and while they continue to get a good amount of foot traffic, their primary focus has been the website.

“Revenues have increased and we have grown into more of a warehouse and shipping operation as opposed to a walk-in store,” he said. “The reach that you have by being online is 1000-fold to the walk-in traffic you may or may not receive. You can market to people anywhere in the country; that would never happen with just the walk-in store.”

Reichman says the growth has been tremendous over the past few years and they are looking to branch out into many other home and garden sectors as well.

Learning to Navigate in the New

“We went into this thing with our eyes closed. It was by trial and error at first, but finding the right developer, that took us from ten orders a day to 100 a day,” said Macharola, adding that her first stab online was with a developer that did not “get” the obvious concept of a novelty candy business.

“Candy is silly and the original developer made a corporate-looking site,” she said. “We found a web site developer who made it fun!”

As the Blankenships took TheTrickShop.com more seriously, they went to their web developer to learn.

“I also made a personal commitment to myself to learn more about the strength of the features of the Yahoo! Store so I would be better about keeping the site fresh,” said Sam Blankenship.

While his new site is in development, he’s implemented changes to his current site and is seeing dramatic results.

“In the last eight weeks, our business has skyrocketed. Our customers wanted to see new items and more frequent updates to our website… there have been days when we’ve done more volume online than we’ve done in our store. We think we’ll see an even bigger growth following implementation of the redesign and new features,” he said.

Reichman and his father also continue to learn about the latest trends in e-commerce to help BedBathStore.com.

“We attend conferences, webinars, subscribe to newsletters and periodicals and try to keep up with the Web 2.0 affiliations and social networks,” he said.

Attracting Customers: Smoke & Mirrors Allow Competition with “The Big Dogs”

Macharola explains that one of the coolest things about going online is the amount and caliber of customers who have found her. In addition to picking up numerous new accounts, big names have discovered the online store. A Hollywood producer contacted her for a movie prop. Cooking show goddess Rachel Ray stumbled upon BlairCandy.com and this January, Macharola and her football-shaped candy will be featured in Everyday with Rachel Ray. None of this would have happened if she were not teamed with professional Internet marketers.

“We were wasting a ton of money trying to advertise online (ourselves). We save money now. That’s the truth- that’s why my days are now 14 hour days now,” she joked.

Reichman agrees; he too uses a professional Internet marketing firm for BedBathStore.com.

“Having a successful website involved a lot of hard work. You have to really be savvy and look more in depth into marketing than anything else. PPC campaigns and other marketing campaigns will eat up your budget if you don’t know what you are doing,” he said.

Many online businesses fail because owners assume having a website means instant traffic and sales. They shouldn’t. Considerable traditional advertising accompanies the opening of a brick-and-mortar store. It can include everything from ads to promos to ribbon-cuttings. Successful e-commerce operators understand the marketing efforts (paid) and public relations (free) tactics required to gain and sustain customers.

Blankenship adds that an advantage of being online is that it can be a level playing field. TheTrickShop.com may look small next to a larger store, online they’re all the same size.

“It allows you to compete with ANY size competitor. It’s hard online to tell how ‘big’ you are. We’re a small, family operated business but have converted customers from our online competitors because our item mix is the same as our biggest online competitor, whose sales are gigantic compared to ours, but customer service is more personalized and we offer a better overall experience,” said Blankenship.

Like Blankenship, Reichman says customer service has been the main focus of BedBathStore.com.

“We constantly innovate and are becoming more customer-centric. We enlisted a call center which helps us enhance our customer service, with longer hours and direct contact with employees,” he said.

Since a brick-and-mortar store that’s been part of a community for years is still new to online shoppers, building credibility starts over with the new audience. A solid About Us page can help. When people learn BlairCandy.com has been in business 69 years, BedBathStore.com for 30 and that TheTrickShop.com is run by real magic experts, they are more likely to buy.

Building and sustaining relationships can also be done by communication with clients, which TheTrickShop.com does through blogs and newsletters.

“We use our blog as a way to communicate in between e-mail newsletters and will often try to talk about a subject that is not sales-related. Then, we’ll sneak in a bullet point about something we have for sale. It’s kind of a soft-sell as opposed to our hard-sell that we do with our e-mails. Also, we think the blog is often read by those customers that have not, for one reason or another, given us permission to communicate with them via e-mail yet,” said Blankenship.

Synergy Between Your Brick & Mortar and E-commerce Site

Michigan State University released a study, “Integrating Brick and Mortar Locations with E-Commerce: Understanding Synergy Opportunities,” which examined brick & mortars that went online. The researchers concluded that regardless of the size of the business, having a physical location builds trust for three reasons: Reduced consumer risk, the ability to leverage brand awareness, and also an affiliation with a local social and business network.

Having an online business can also grow the brick-and-mortar business. A physical presence allows business owners to create personal relationships, gain more foot traffic and even become a tourist attraction. Macharola says that several loyal online customers have asked if they had a store they could visit. Of course they do; that’s their roots.

“Picture walking into a grocery store, but its all candy,” said Pam. “People have come from hours away to visit.”

The MSU study also found that having an online presence strengthens relationships with existing physical customers. Even though a customer may have preference in shopping in person, having an e-commerce channel can help business owners stay in touch with customers and encourage them to buy online when they don’t have time to shop. Blankenship says many of his customers research products online, then buy in person. So, the website can also become a tool to improve and/or streamline the in-store shopping experience.

In addition to search engine marketing efforts to reach a wide audience, implementing the e-commerce element with local advertising efforts is seamless: just add the URL to ads and promo products.

E-commerce allows people to virtually find unique products that aren’t available locally, or to continue giving business to companies when they can no longer visit physically. The MSU study looked at a family-owned specialty gift store in a tourist location. Despite being small, the store has become a top online retailer for niche Christmas items. Going online allowed the company to reach the masses, as well as create repeat online customers out of people who shopped in the store on vacation, but may not return in person.

The MSU study mentions some trends common to the companies they studied: online coupons, in-store pick-up/returns and in-store events listed on the website. Blankenship utilizes his blog and e-mail blasts to highlight in-store magic demos, which in turn brings in foot traffic. When there isn’t a live demo, customers are treated to a looped DVD, hosted by the Blankenships’ teenage son Chris. The demos also play online.

Another trend the MSU study reveals is the use of in-store Internet kiosks. This works for brick-and-mortar stores who may sell additional products exclusively online, such as if they use a drop shipper. The kiosk allows in-person shoppers access to those items, too.

Summing Up

There is a new day dawning in the world of commerce, embodied by the stories above. More and more e-commerce operators are turning warehouses to showrooms, while nearly every established brick-and-mortar store is examining the Internet. The reasons are obvious. Each type of commerce complements the other. Only in a real store can you touch it and feel it; only the Internet lets you shop at 3AM in your pajamas without leaving the house. The future is clear. Businesses will not do business in real space or cyberspace. They’ll do both if they want to flourish.

Senior Account Mananger at Solid Cactus

All posts by Donna Talarico | E-Mail the author

If you’re still laughing about last month’s cover of eBiz Insider, you’re not alone. Many people around the office came up to me and said, “I know that’s you, but when did you have hair?” That wonderful cover was actually a Christmas card I had commissioned two years ago by Eric Yonge, a very talented illustrator. The smoking jacket however, has been returned!

Solid Cactus Boot Camp @ HQ
All e-commerce businesses should develop ways of attracting and retaining clients and customers. We learned that when we operated our own web sites and our attitude with our design company Solid Cactus is no different. We want to know our people and we want them to know us. Last month, more than 50 e-commerce store owners from around the country joined the Solid Cactus team here in Wilkes-Barre, PA for something we call “e-commerce Boot Camp.” These three-day events allow attendees to interact with other store owners, take part in educational seminars and explore the nightlife here in Northeastern Pennsylvania. The exploration takes less time than in, say, New York, or Toledo, for that matter. (Hey, we’re not some “big city” and we kinda like it that way!)

The three days went by quickly and everyone had lots of opportunities to pick up valuable tips and tricks to boost their business. The majority of the seminars were put on by Solid Cactus staffers but we were privileged to have guest presenters from Yahoo! Small Business, Google, LivePerson and FedEx.

Google’s presentation was all about their foray into “offline” advertising with print, radio and television. Anyone interested in advertising on the radio, in newspapers, magazines or on television can do it right through their Google AdWords account. These new offerings clearly indicate that Google plans to dominate both the online and offline advertising market. From a marketing standpoint, these services are extremely exciting. From a Solid Cactus standpoint, we’re excited to be a partner in the Google AdCreation Marketplace where we offer creative and production services for radio, print and soon, television.

The Countdown is On
Our local newspaper just started printing the “X Number of Shopping Days Till Christmas” graphic on the front page. When I saw it, I shuddered. The holidays already? It’s hard to believe that the biggest shopping season of the year is about to begin.

If I can offer just one suggestion to help you during the holidays, it is: make sure you’re staffed properly. The biggest mistake people make every year is not having enough staff to handle customer service calls and order fulfillment. If you didn’t start beefing up your staff yet, start now. Hearing “I told you so” is no fun come January.

Thanks!
Finally, this month we celebrate Thanksgiving. The feast aside, I will be giving many thanks this year. Thanks to our 115+ employees who have made our company one of the “Best Places to Work in PA” for two years in a row. Thanks to our clients who have enabled us to grow as rapidly as we have and who trust us to be their partner in e-commerce success. And thanks to so many of you for embracing eBiz Insider and making it part of your monthly reading cycle.

Until next month, give your own thanks in your own way. And remember, falling asleep after dinner isn’t rude, it’s a compliment to the chef. That excuse always works for me!

Co-Founder, President & COO of Solid Cactus

All posts by Scott Sanfilippo | E-Mail the author

I’m suffering e-commerce withdrawal. “How can that be?” you may ask. “You’re in the e-commerce business!” True, but this is the first time in 14 years that I don’t own an e-commerce store. I won’t be putting together a holiday catalog, assembling a special gift section and getting customer service and the warehouse all pumped up for the big deluge of holiday orders. For those of us in e-commerce, this is what the holidays are all about!

Do I feel a little depressed? Sure. But I’m going to change hats here and go from player to coach. This month’s column will be me getting you ready for the holidays, courtesy of my virtual holiday prep session. I encourage you to take notes, think outside the box, drink some egg nog (watch the expiration dates!) play Jingle Bells in the background for atmosphere and join me on this pre-holiday journey.

Customer Service

Now is the time to start thinking about staffing. Look at your current call load and ask: can the folks you have answering phones now adequately handle additional holiday volume? Unless the answer is “yes” you need to do something quickly. You can either hire your own reps and train them, or hire a qualified call center to take all of your customer service calls, handle certain calls such as overflow, and/or work your after-hours calls. I highly recommend extending your hours during the holidays, especially during the last few weeks of the shopping season. This is where a call center can be a real life saver!

No matter which route you take, training is key. Make sure every rep in direct contact with your customers is fully trained on all your policies and procedures. If you have a customer service superstar in your organization, you may want to tap that person to be “level 2″ support or even a product specialist who is available to assist newer reps during their first few weeks of phone time.

The holidays are “make it or break it” time for customer service. You gain many new customers during this period who are taking your store for a test drive. You have one chance to dazzle them. Fail and they probably won’t be back in January. But if your customer service staff makes them feel special and appreciated, you’ve got a customer for life!

Personal Shoppers

The web can be pretty impersonal, but only if you let it! Give your web shoppers something they wouldn’t expect in cyberspace – a personal shopper to help them make gift buying easier. This can be done using a live chat provider such as Live Person.

Put your best CSR’s on the other end, the ones who know your products inside and out and can make suggestions based on the customer’s needs. Personal Shoppers also create many opportunities to up-sell and cross-sell which drives up the average ticket size.

Gift Sections

Most people shopping during the holidays will be looking for gifts for someone other than themselves, so make finding popular gifty items easy by creating a special section for them. Break this section down into important categories like “Gifts for Men” or “Toys for Kids 3 – 7.” Feature your easy-to-shop gift section on your front page and in your navigation so it can be accessed from any page in your site. It is essential that the good ideas not only be present on your site, but that they are also easy to find and access. The easier you make it for your shoppers, the more they’ll like it and the more they’ll buy!

The Look

Don’t forget it’s the jolly season, people – make your site scream “Happy Holidays!” Start working now on a classy, professional holiday “skin” for your website that you can launch on Thanksgiving Day and take down New Year’s Eve. This reinvigorates your regulars and makes a strong first impression on your crucial new business. A nice holiday touch to your site puts people in the mood to buy and also lets them know that you’re ready for holiday business.

Please, don’t just throw a snowman on the home page! Spruce up your logo, get a nice holiday header, but don’t go overboard. People should still see the necessary icons to identify your site easily. Also, blazing lights, bellowing Santas and flashing reindeer noses are turn-offs. Play it safe, make it professional but keep it festive.

Big Holiday Sale!

This one’s up to you. It was always my theory that you don’t need a sale during the holidays to generate business. Shoppers are going to spend whatever they can afford to give a gift. In fact, I never put anything on sale from Thanksgiving through Christmas. Not even holiday merchandise. There is no need to cut profit margins during the busy season. Save your sale for the day after Christmas when shoppers are trained to go out and look for bargains.

Shipping Methods

The holiday season is the impatient season and people want their stuff yesterday. Make sure you are offering next day, second day and three day air options (if feasible). If you can’t offer those methods, explain why not. Also make sure that you post a holiday shipping schedule on your website and at the checkout. This schedule should display your cut-off dates to have orders delivered in time for the holiday.

You do not want disappointed customers, so if your cut-off date is two days before Christmas, make sure that package can leave your warehouse on time. If it can’t, adjust your dates. Customer dissatisfaction grows in the space between what you promise and what you deliver.

Returns

Returns are a fact of doing business, so make it convenient for your customers to return an item. Hassle about a return and they’ll probably just shop elsewhere. Here are some good rules of thumb: 1) Make your policy simple – don’t require 18 steps in order to make a return. 2) Only charge restocking fees if it’s absolutely necessary. 3) Give customers a reasonable amount of time to make the return. You’d like them back, right? Here’s a chance to make a good impression. 4) Don’t demand a letter stating a reason for the return. Frankly, who cares?

Finally, make sure your return policy is clearly defined on your website and a copy of it placed inside every order you ship.

The Holiday Warehouse

It’s the holidays and in e-commerce; it’s game time. Orders don’t leave your warehouse 7 days after they came in. Customers want their gift orders fast – have your people and your space ready. Your warehouse should be clean, organized and well-stocked. If items are out of stock, indicate the information plainly on your website, or use real-time inventory. Stock up on packing supplies. Your staff must be able to handle the increased volume. If you can’t, now is the time to consider bringing in temporary workers to pick and pack orders. Temp workers are a great resource, but ONLY if your warehouse is organized enough to make training simple and easy.

There you have it, my guide to a successful holiday season. While I won’t be decorating a front page of an e-commerce store this year, I will be watching to see what you do with yours! I’m making a list…!

Co-Founder, President & COO of Solid Cactus

All posts by Scott Sanfilippo | E-Mail the author