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Cinsay Provides 13 Tips for 2013: How to Make eCommerce Successful for Small Business(PR Web Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Austin, TX (PRWEB) January 29, 2013 Cinsay announces 13 tips for small to medium businesses for 2013. New technologies, changing social behavior of consumers and the continued growth of mobile and video will all have strong influences on eCommerce this year. Cinsay has identified these simple tips for businesses to use to increase marketing results and pump up online sales. 1. Go Mobile! – As of 2012, over 29% of U.S. adults owned either a tablet or e-reader and on Cyber Monday, 13% of ecommerce sales came from those and smartphone devices. Having an ecommerce site that is easy to access and navigate for shoppers is imperative. Given those metrics, stores that are user friendly not only for the web but also the tablet and smartphone formats are a must-have for 2013. 2. Don’t Compete Just on Price. – There is always a store that’s cheaper somewhere in the online eCommerce world. To gain new business and keep customers coming back, find ways to improve their experience, create added value for each purchase and provide superior customer service. Goods and services can easily become a commodity, but quality can’t be commoditized. That’s why companies like Neiman Marcus continue to do well during different economic times. 3. Video Killed the JPG. – Video is still the fastest growing search result across the web and mobile. In fact, video appears in over 70% of the top 100 search results. Consumers are viewing those videos on their mobile devices as well. By 2012, over 50% of wireless traffic came from video views. Video is also the best way to showcase and sell products. Some of the most viewed multimedia includes instructional use and recommendations from other users. Video can increase conversions by 2 to 5 times as much depending on the products, audiences and video content. 4. Shipping Options – One of the easiest ways to promote eCommerce is by offering special discounted or free shipping. Some businesses offer a weekly special like, “Free Shipping Tuesday” for all products. If shipping costs impact profitability, retailers may want to offer free shipping only for orders over a certain dollar amount. At the very least, offering shoppers options for UPS, FedEx and USPS so they can tailor their own costs and delivery options is a valuable selling point. Also, staying informed on states sales taxes for products and services will avoid tax problems later. 5. Pinterest Drives Interest – The photo sharing site, Pinterest, is a great place to visually showcase goods, which can link directly back to stores. Since shopping is basically a visual experience, Pinterest fits right into that consumer behavior. This past holiday season, Pinterest accounted for 10% of all social media eCommerce; so the data is in! Setting up an account is easy and once complete, retailers can add various categories or ‘boards’ where ‘pins’ and descriptions link to each store item. Each picture can be directly linked to any store, video or product. Shoppers can comment and re-pin the images for even more promotion. 6. Facebook – The number one destination for individuals and brands alike, Facebook, is the definitive place to promote any business. The site boasts a daily audience of over 150m users. Actually reaching those users, or even followers for a company’s own fan page has become increasingly more difficult. There are several ways to enhance reach for each post as well as increase new friends. Besides ‘promoting’ each post (which can run $10 and up), users can post ‘caption this’ pictures and encourage others to share and comment on posted content. There are many more tips just for Facebook and some are listed at the new Cinsay University technical help page. 7. Twitter – The second most popular site for everything social is Twitter and with over 200M active users worldwide, businesses flock to the site with hashtags, videos and links promoting goods and services. The key to twitter is following, tweeting and interacting. This disciplined, daily action posting interesting, useful or entertaining content can bring new customers into online stores. Some basic rules to tweeting include, never spamming readers, and using a #hashtag to highlight and associate content. Also, the site is a great source for real-time customer service interaction. 8. Google+ - One of the best ways to increase business’ search results is to create a Google Plus account where retailers can share eCommerce links, post links to press and other brand related sites. Since the biggest search engine in the world manages this property, content that is linked here shows up relatively high on searches. As with all social media, success comes from posting quality content, sharing others’ links and following accounts with similar interests. 9. MySpace – Remember MySpace Well, it’s back and more users are returning to the old school social platform. While MySpace is currently in a debate about it’s music labels and musicians regarding content, it is another free site where small businesses can promote. Creating content on the site will further increase search results. 10. Content Marketing – 2013 is the year for Content Marketing. The concept is relatively basic: Businesses create articles on news and information in a specific industry and post it on a third party site they control or on a business blog. The idea is to brand the business’s content as a ‘go to’ knowledgeable resource on a selected topic. It also adds to the search results for business and can be a great place to promote other partners or vendors. Lastly, content marketing is a good way to repurpose video content. 11. Apps and Cloud-based Tools – In order to manage various social media accounts, monitor online mentions and track the effectiveness of both marketing and eCommerce, it is important to have the right technology tools. There are several effective cloud-based platforms available. Hootsuite manages Facebook and twitter and will even post for you on a planned schedule. Bottlenose.com tracks not only social media, but press and blogs as well. Vocus has an integrated PR and social media monitoring tool set that’s fairly robust. For eCommerce needs, look to companies like Cinsay that offer in-depth analytics via a Client Management System (CMS). These technologies will help optimize eCommerce performance, track views, measure conversions, analyze demographics and store shares. 12. Client Testimonials – The best sales person in the world is a happy customer. Creating written and video testimonials from satisfied shoppers has a tremendously positive affect on store sales. Inviting regular customers to tell why they shop and keep coming back to a particular store can be a powerful marketing tool. Brick and mortar shops should encourage buyers to write a Yelp review or simply share a quick comment via email. This also helps increase online search results. . 13. Create Partnerships – The ‘two birds with one stone’ phrase makes great sense in business marketing. Partnering with complimentary businesses can help increase sales for both parties. If a business boards dogs but doesn’t have a grooming option, they can partner with groomer that shares a similar customer base but offers unique products or services. Both businesses can share email lists, marketing costs and most importantly, new profits. Cinsay did this by partnering with the Recording Artists Guild to provide their 25,000-member base with video commerce services. Creating viable partnerships can also lead to new and innovative products and grow each company’s customer base even more. About Cinsay, Inc. Cinsay has created a next generation social eCommerce, viewer interactive, video-based platform for any individual or size businesses. Cinsay’s SaaS based technology enables everyone to sell products, services, capture donations, and generate leads all inside the patented Smart Store™ technology. Additional services available to individuals, SOHO’s, enterprises and nonprofits, are Cinsay’s complete turnkey business solution via exclusive on demand, made to order merchandise featuring hundreds of personal, brandable products like t-shirts, caps, mugs and iPhone covers available at CinsayOnDemand.com. Now, anyone can be in business within minutes with no inventory whatsoever. Merchants benefit from Cinsay’s in-depth reporting tools and real-time statistical data. Cinsay’s embeddable platform is compatible with web and mobile devices and is highly scalable via its enterprise-level hosting and distribution networks. Full video production is available through CinsayProductions.com. Cinsay aggregates and promotes merchant stores via its searchable consumer portal, MyCinsay.com. Notable clients include: GameFly, Neiman Marcus, Wet Seal, decompras, and California Closets. Forbes has named Cinsay as one of “America’s Most Promising Companies” and by eTail Conferences as a “Rising Star” in innovation for 2012. Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2013/1/prweb10371987.htm (c) 2013 PRWEB.COM Newswire |