Archive for the ‘selling online’ Category
Monday, July 29th, 2013
Yotpo, the free social networking review plugin for ecommerce sites, is now available for WooCommerce sites.
Yotpo sends automatic emails to your customers a certain number of days after their purchase and prompts them to review the product. On average, Yotpo claims to convert 8% of customers into reviewers, which may not sound like much, but is a ot higher than the industry average of just 1.2%.
Yotpo also makes it easy for reviewers to share their reviews on their social networking accounts, which in turn drives traffic to the sites using Yotpo.
Unlike other plugins that promise to drive traffic to your site but don’t actually prove it, Yotpo has its Campaigns feature, which lets you keep track of exactly how what Yotpo has done for your site.
To read more on this story, click here.
Tags: Australia, business, customer reviews, reviews, woocommerce, woothemes, Yotpo
Posted in Australia, business, online business, Online Sales, online shopping, online stores, selling online, social networking, Woo extensions, Woo Plugins, WooCommerce, WooCommerce Extensions | No Comments »
Friday, July 26th, 2013
Online retailers with extensive experience have proclaimed that it is the delivery system and not the fanciest new technology or the flashiest website that will lure Australian customers to shop at Australian online businesses.
Paul Greenberg, a pioneer in Australia’s online retail sector as co-founder of the DealsDirect Group in 2004, has said that customers want their orders delivered in a timely manner and if Australian businesses can that, they will likely prosper.
“The battleground has shifted to the supply chain,” he says.
This seems to be the philosophy of online fashion retail giant The Iconic, which placed a tremendous amount of importance on getting people their orders as quickly as possible, regardless of the cost. The Iconic has recently been in the spotlight for having to jettison a number of jobs and also for taking big losses in its first two years of operations. But all that is now said to have been a planned growth strategy. Investors ploughed a further $28 million into the business late last week.
As it becomes increasingly more difficult to keep fickle online shoppers happy, fast and reliable delivery is where many online retailers are hoping to set their businesses apart. However, Greenburg notes, that is not easily done, as a distribution network that hums like a well-oiled machine also tends to drive up costs and online retailers will have to make sure that they generate enough revenue to cover those costs.
To read more about this story, click here.
Tags: Australia, business, delivery, online, supply chain
Posted in Australia, business, internet usage, online business, Online Sales, online shopping, online stores, selling online | No Comments »
Tuesday, July 23rd, 2013
Small and medium sized businesses in Australia or from overseas can now adopt a sub-domain name under www.businesses.com.au.
Australian domain name rules outlined by the .au Domain Administration prevent anyone but Australian businesses or companies from owning .com.au or .net.au domains.
But the opening up of business.com.au to subdomain names means that overseas businesses who want to do business in Australia can now have a local domain name.
Local private people, contractors, business owners and incorporated or unincorporated businesses can also have an online presence on the premium domain for a low weekly rental.
Greg Rogers, from Faxts Media which runs Businesses.com.au, said that applications are now open anyone in Australia or overseas to apply for a Businesses.com.au domain.
“AuDA rules are strict. An Australian business name or ABN is an essential requirement to own a .com.au domain name,” Rogers said. “I checked with AuDA myself and there are no restrictions on sub domains if the main site is owned by Australians”
“Netregistry owns a .com domain www.au.com. They have been selling and hosting websites as www.sample.au.com which are sub domains of .au.com, for years. There are 1000′s of them. Businesses.com.au is Australian and perfect for any business.”
“Businesses.com.au will allocate sub domains on a first come first served basis. We will not allow trademarks to be used unless the applicant has permission or is the holder of the trademark.”
To apply for a domain name with businesses.com.au, email ceo@businesses.com.au.
To read more on this story, click here.
Tags: Australia, business, business.com.au, domain name, online, subdomain name, website
Posted in Australia, business, domain names, Expansion to Australia, internet usage, online business, Online Sales, online shopping, online stores, selling online | No Comments »
Monday, July 22nd, 2013
WooCommerce has recently introduced another seven exciting extensions for everybody’s favourite online store creator.
They are:
- Hipay.com Payment Gateway – This is a plugin to extend Woocommerce, allowing you to take payments via the Hipay payment service.
- US Export Compliance – Makes your shop compliant with the US Export regulations.
- Group Coupons – Allows you to link coupon validity to WordPress users.
- ConstantContact Integration – Allows you to build Your Constant Contact email list with WooCommerce.
- Recommendation Engine – Allows you to offer Netflix/Amazon style product suggestions to your customers.
- InterFax Integration – Integrates your WooCommerce site with InterFax, which enables you to fax the order details to your customers and yourself on every completed purchase.
- Composite Products – With “Composite Products”, WooCommerce allows you to create sophisticated, dynamic product kits by compositing existing products.
To read more about this story, click here.
Tags: Australia, business, extensions, woocommerce
Posted in Australia, business, Exporting, online business, Online Sales, online shopping, online stores, selling online, technology, Woo extensions, Woo Plugins, WooCommerce, WooCommerce Extensions | No Comments »
Tuesday, July 16th, 2013
Australian businesses owners are turning a hopeful eye toward the falling Australian dollar.
The Australian currency has dropped by 15% against the US dollar since April and looks like it will continue to fall. This has Australian businesses hopeful that Australians will start spending their Australian dollars in Australia, whether at bricks and mortar shops in the country, or at Australian websites.
When the Australian dollar was at parity with the American dollar earlier this year, it meant that buying online at offshore websites was a lot cheaper for Australians, as the prices from overseas were typically much lower than in Australia. But now that the dollar has fallen, it should, in theory, close the price gap between Australian retailers and websites from overseas.
However, shopping online at foreign websites has to do with more than just price alone, analysts have noted.
Commonwealth Bank of Australia retail analyst Andrew McLennan said shoppers also like to have more options.
”There is no doubt that one of the key factors that gets consumers spending online internationally is the relative pricing, but it’s also the great range available, which is most often far broader internationally than is available in Australia,” McLennan said.
”There are brands you just can’t get in Australia, there are ranges you simply can’t get in Australia.”
In addition to that, Australians can often end up receiving purchases from overseas faster than they can when they buy them right in their own back yard.
”A lot of these overseas online players have far better developed online capabilities,” McLennan said. ”So you end up getting products that you purchased overseas quicker than you can get it from domestic online retailers.”
And the last rotten cherry on top for Australian businesses is that according to recent research from Ernst & Young, many Australians simply don’t care where they make their purchases from, saying it doesn’t matter to them where a website is based, as long as they get their money’s worth.
To read more on this story, click here.
Tags: Australia, business, online
Posted in Australia, business, internet usage, online business, Online Sales, online shopping, online stores, selling online | No Comments »
Monday, July 15th, 2013
There are a slew of free WooCommerce extensions available for people who use the software.
Some of the free extensions include:
- Product Archives Customiser – Allows you to customise WooCommerce product archives. Change the number of product columns and the number of products displayed per page and more.
- Sold Out Product Widget – It enhances the built-in WooCommerce functionality by adding a Widget and Shortcode for displaying sold out products.
- Smart Sale Badge – It enhances the built-in sale badge by displaying the total saving amount a customer will receive.
- Bundle Coupons – Enables store owners to make a coupon only apply when all products required for it are in the cart.
- Product Details Customiser – Allows you to customise WooCommerce product details pages.
- Email Validation – It adds a “confirm email address” field to the checkout page as a required field.
- Menu Cart – This plugin installs a customizable shopping cart button in the navigation bar.
- Bitcoin Payments – This is a WordPress plugin that allows acceptance of bitcoins at WooCommerce-powered online stores.
- Improvely – Allows store owners to see the specific website link customers clicked, search they typed into Google, or ad they clicked to get to your site.
- New Product Badge – Displays a “new” badge on products that were published in the last x days (as determined by you in the settings).
To read more about this story, click here.
Tags: Australia, business, extensions, woocommerce
Posted in Australia, business, online business, Online Sales, online shopping, online stores, selling online, technology, Woo extensions, Woo Plugins, WooCommerce, WooCommerce Extensions | 1 Comment »
Saturday, July 13th, 2013
Australian online businesses that think of their cyber stores as automatic vending machines need to start rethinking how they conduct business over the internet, a new survey has found.
Customers now expect to be able to get help immediately when they need it and will abandon an online transaction if that help isn’t timely.
The survey, conducted by marketing group Loudhouse on behalf of LivePerson, a provider of customer management software, found 87% of shoppers said they need some form of help during an online shopping transaction and 25% of Australian respondents to the survey expect help immediately when requested.
The main reasons for abandoning a purchase include:
- unexpected costs at 69%
- lack of information at 59%
- navigation difficulties at 52%
- not being able to find answers to questions at 44%.
- difficulty in getting help on a website at 36%.
Out of the 1000 respondents, 79% said they prioritise getting their issue resolved quickly, and 55% want that done in a single interaction — 62% want a problem resolved within a five-minute timeframe, and 54% would give up immediately or only seek help once.
Dustin Dean, vice president of Asia-Pacific at LivePerson, said Australian online businesses should start offering the same type of service that is offered in more traditional retail stores, which includes investing in Live Chat options where customers can get instant access to staff to help with questions and resolve issues.
“I think you have to offer the richness and the depth of the experience of the storefront — especially given access to information now is just so rapid,” Dean says. “This is not simply about making a one-time purchase. You need to create relationships with customers and create an experience that enhances the shopping.”
To read more on this story, click here.
Tags: Australia, business, online, website
Posted in Australia, business, online business, Online Sales, online shopping, online stores, selling online, technology | No Comments »
Friday, July 12th, 2013
Diamond Emporium is now an online retailer of handmade engagement rings, but it didn’t start out that way.
Currently run by Gus Hashem, the store originated as a small jeweler in Lebanon in 1977 run by Hashem’s father, Simon. The family immigrated to Australia in 1988 where Simon continued the business and Gus joined in 2006 with the intention of taking it online. That has proven to be a highly successful endeavour.
“We didn’t have a succession plan, it was just a small business. When I joined I worked on developing the web site and moved the business into the [Sydney] CBD. We rebranded as Diamond Emporium and launched the site in 2010,” says Gus.
Gus also changed the focus of the business to selling diamond engagement rings as opposed to selling handmade chains, which was a dwindling market.
He says Diamond Emporium has experienced double digit growth since 2010 and anticipates further growth in the future. “People think retail is tough but there are great opportunities for businesses willing to make changes. But businesses like ours that are based on technology have to run like a well-oiled machine.”
Diamond Emporium moved away from its traditional bricks and mortar operation to a more online centered offering, in part to keep overhead costs low.
Although the company still has office space in downtown Sydney where it meets clients, the operation is now mostly online.
“Our main focus is now online. We launched with a search marketing campaign and calls started coming in straight away. I think we were one of the first fully functional web sites where you could view and select diamonds and engagement rings,”says Gus. “The key has been providing transparency around pricing. All our prices are available online and discounted from the full retail price.”
To read more on this story, click
here.
Tags: Australia, Diamond Emporium
Posted in Australia, business, online business, Online Sales, online shopping, online stores, selling online, Success story | No Comments »
Friday, July 12th, 2013
Coupon site CatchoftheDay has sold its wine-based acquisition Vinomofo to a small group of anonymous Adelaide investors just over a year after acquiring the wine website, saying it was a business incubator project through its Sketchbook Ventures program and it had reached the point where the business could thrive with new investors.
Vinomofo co-founder Andre Eikmeier recently told SmartCompany that the Vinomofo founders also missed their independence, and saw an opportunity to grow beyond the CatchoftheDay model.
“Catch was pretty hands-off and encouraging, it wasn’t like a dictatorship or anything. But we started to get a feeling that…as our appetite grew, we looked at moving on from the group. It was a change in focus.
“It wasn’t the original plan,” he says, although places a caveat on this by saying the sale process has been amicable. “It’s beyond amicable.”
Vinomofo’s founders have kept a majority stake in the company, while CatchoftheDay has sold its entire interest in the company.
To read more on this story, click here.
Tags: Australia, business, CatchoftheDay, Vinomofo
Posted in Australia, business, online business, Online Sales, online shopping, online stores, selling online | No Comments »
Thursday, July 11th, 2013
OPMC wishes the team at WooThemes a Happy 5th Birthday!
The WooThemes team is just hitting their stride at the moment, having recently celebrated the milestone of 1 million downloads.
As WooTheme’s Mark Forrester said himself; “To be an online business and to make it to 5 years is an achievement in itself. To be 5 years old and to be experiencing our best growth month-on-month yet is testament to the team that powers our product offering.”
They are celebrating their fifth birthday with the release of the new ‘Memorable’ theme.
Again, Happy Birthday to WooThemes!
To read more about this story, click here and here.
Tags: Australia, memorable, woothemes
Posted in Australia, business, online business, online stores, OPMC, selling online, Woo extensions, Woo Plugins, WooCommerce, WooCommerce Themes | No Comments »
