Delegate your Domain to BigCommerce

July 23, 2012 By

When you have completed your domain registration you will need to ‘point’ it to the BigCommerce servers. This will allow customers to find your store on BigCommerce’s platform, but using your own custom Domain Name.

‘Pointing’ your customers in the right direction means logging into your own domain Registrar and changing a minimum of 2 nameservers – the primary and secondary – so that BigCommerce is established as the delegated destination.

In this article, we have provided two sets of instructions – one for GoDaddy and one for Webcity. If you would like instructions created for your particular registrar, please email us, and we’ll include it in the next version, and provide you with a copy.

 

How to delegate your domain name from GoDaddy to BigCommerce

 

Step 1: Assuming that you have registered your domain name with GoDaddy go to www.godaddy.com

Step 2: Login using the details sent to you in the Welcome email from GoDaddy.

Step 3: Next to Domains, click LAUNCH.

Step 4: Select the Domain Name you want to modify.

Step 5: From Namesavers, select SET NAMESAVERS.

Step 6: You’re given 4 choices, but select ‘I HAVE SPECIFIC NAMESERVERS FOR MY DOMAINS’. Enter 2 namesavers in the format, ns1.bigcommerce.com and ns2.bigcommerce.com.

Step 7: Now you’re set, so just click OK.

 

How to delegate your domain name from Webcity to BigCommerce

This tutorial applies if you have registered a domain name with Webcity.com.au. When you registered your domain name you would have received an email Welcome letter. It will have contained your domain login information.

Step 1. Go to https://www.webcity.com.au/secure/domains/man.cgi

Step 2. Login using the details sent to you in the Welcome email from Webcity.

Step 3. On the page that loads, click the Nameservers tab:

 

Step 4. This will load the Nameservers management page. After you purchase your domain, it will be pointed to Webicty’s own nameservers; you will have to remove them. To do that, tick every check box to the left of each nameserver listed and then click the Remove selected nameservers button:

 

Step 5. The page will reload and confirm that nameservers have been updated. Now, you have to enter BigCommerce nameservers – ns1.bigcommerce.com and ns2.bigcommerce.com and click the Add Nameservers button:

Step 6. Once complete, you will see a confirmation page with BigCommerce nameservers listed. In a few minutes (in some rare cases – hours), your domain will be ready to load your BigCommerce store

Small Revolution

Katrina McKinnon is a Founder of SmallRevolution, and AusCommerce. Katrina is eCommerce Webmaster of Camping Central and Gazebos Australia. If you'd like to connect, head over to @smallrevolution

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How to install a BigCommerce Template & Upload Your Logo

July 9, 2012 By 1 Comment

Each eCommerce store requires a template. A template, in this case, can be defined as a set of files that make your store look the way it does. It is the template controls where the logo sits on the screen, what colour the background is, what font is used for the headings, where the products are placed on the screen and more. Quite simply, a template governs the aesthetic layout of the store.

BigCommerce provides 101 templates as part of your account purchase, so finding one that matches your ‘vision’ of your store is not a problem. But there are more advantages to them than that. Having access to pre-built templates from BigCommerce means that you can be confident the template, when installed, will ‘just work’. Also, BigCommerce are good at making templates for their own software, and this represents a considerable saving in time and money.

The fact is that sticking to a pre-designed template is the safe and reliable option, and is ideal for novices. BigCommerce will keep maintaining these templates, ensuring they are always compatible with the main BigCommerce engine. As soon as you deviate from the default template, some problems can occur. Layouts break up. Functionality breaks down. Buy Buttons stop working. But, by using the default templates, you’re almost guaranteed to have a trouble-free store, from a technical perspective at least.

A disadvantage of using a BigCommerce template is the quality of the design. The templates are simple and functional, at best. None of them could be recommended as the ultimate example of eCommerce design, and perhaps none of the templates on offer truly represent the branding in your own business.

Either way, some simple customisation of the templates is required in order for you to integrate your logo, and possibly even branding colours. But, as a starting point for your own BigCommerce store, just choose one of the available templates that you feel best fits your store.

How to install a BigCommerce template

Step 1: Login to your BigCommerce account.

Step 2: Click on the Design navigation in the top of the screen.

Step 3: You’ll now be looking at the Store Design page.

Step 4: You’ll notice the Default Blue store design set as ‘Current Store Design’. Beside it are four buttons – ignore them.

Step 5: Scroll down through the ‘Choose a Store Design’ section to find the design template you like. Click ‘Apply This Template’.

Step 6: A box will pop up clarifying the technical consequences of changing template. Just the boxes and press the large ‘Apply’ button.

Step 7: When this is done, click ‘View Your Store’ button at the top of the page to see your store up close.

Step 8:  All that is needed next it customize it – like choosing your own Logo.

How To Upload Your Own Logo

Step 1: Click ‘Upload Logo’ in the ‘Logo Settings’ section.

Step 2: At the bottom of the screen, click ‘Choose file’ and browse for the file you want to use.

Step 3: When you’ve selected your file, click ‘Upload Logo Image’.

Step 4: Your logo will  appear in the ‘Current Site Logo’ section.

Step 5: Click on ‘View Store’ at the top bar of the page, and your own logo heads your store.

Small Revolution

Aleksandar is a photo retouching, editing and color correction specialist. He has twelve years of experience processing photographs for both web and print. Follow the link below to visit his contractor profile at oDesk.

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How to Setup a New BigCommerce Account

July 4, 2012 By

Setting up a BigCommerce Account is a very quick, easy and straightforward process – quite the opposite to what many people have experienced before when setting up an online eCommerce solution. As soon as you have finished the setup process you will essentially have a ‘complete’ store that is nearly ready to push live. 

To complete this activity you will need:

  • Preferred contact details such as business address, email address, phone number to provide to BigCommerce.
  • Access to the email address you use, so you can retrieve further setup instructions.
  • Secure, reliable method or process for storing the username and password that BigCommerce provide. Don’t think you can just ‘remember’ the details!

14 Day Free Trial Gives You a Head Start

Perhaps the best feature BigCommerce offer is a free trial to newcomers, meaning you can use the software for 14 days before having to enter your credit card details. With our own stores, we use the 14 day trial period to set up the store so that once we start paying BigCommerce, we are able to push it live and start making money from it straight away. This gives you a good timeline to work within.

Start The Registration Process

Step 1:

Go to www.bigcommerce.com

Click on the TRY BIGCOMMERCE FREE button.

 

Step 2:

Enter your details as requested.

Use an email address that is easy for you to regularly access. BigCommerce will use this email address as the primary Administrative contact. You will receive their marketing promotions (which you can unsubscribe from) and also store orders. So, don’t use an email address that you don’t want anyone else seeing, if possible.

Choose a Shop Address name that is similar to your domain name. This will just be a temporary address that you can use before you have attached your own domain name (companyname.com) to the BigCommerce store.

Choose a password that is not used for any of your other tools or online services. For example, don’t use the same password as you need for your online banking. You will need to be able to share this password with other people such as web developers. Pick something sensible, not “password123″.

 

Step 3:

BigCommerce will automatically start setting up your store. Magic!

If Magic! doesn’t happen and your computer freezes, wait a few minutes and then check your email account to see if the store was created and it was just a glitch with your computer, before you try to make another trial account.

 

This is your first view of your BigCommerce Administration panel.

 

Step 4:

You will receive a Welcome letter to your email address. Keep this Welcome letter in a safe place, for future reference.

Write down your password in a safe place as you will need to refer to this every time you login to your store.

You have now completed the first, albeit very easy, step on your way to building your own online store. Well done!

 

Small Revolution

Katrina McKinnon is a Founder of SmallRevolution, and AusCommerce. Katrina is eCommerce Webmaster of Camping Central and Gazebos Australia. If you'd like to connect, head over to @smallrevolution

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BigCommerce is not perfect

July 3, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Like most things in life the BigCommerce software is not a perfect product. Mitchell Harper, owner of BigCommerce, has a vision to create a software tool that is easy to use, accessible and works for nearly everyone. His vision results in a good tool for sellers and merchants to run a simple, reasonably straightforward online business.

BigCommerce operates under a Software-as-a-Service model. This means that BigCommerce has a team of top-notch web developers continually improving the software. Every. Single. Day. Improvements, enhancement and security fixes are pushed into your online store on a regular basis. In return, you pay a relatively small fee of a few dollars each month to be at the receiving end of this powerhouse of talent. Instead of downloading and installing shopping cart software on your own server, you instead ‘rent’ the cart software and run it from BigCommerce’s servers. This is popularly called software as a service.

Gone are the days where you need to manage a team of web developers to build a custom eCommerce solution, or even to install an eCommerce store. If your intention is to run a simple eCommerce store you can now leverage the new generation Software-as-a-Service eCommerce solutions such as BigCommerce.

Whilst BigCommerce is seemingly shiny and new it does have a few glitches every now and then; it isn’t perfect. It doesn’t always run smoothly when a new software version is released and occasionally the software won’t behave exactly as you might expect it to. This is normal for all software. Software is not perfect but is instead a never-ending cycle of iterations and improvements.

Should you find a different eCommerce software that fits your needs perfectly? In most cases the answer to finding perfect software ends up being a custom-built eCommerce solution. You do not want to go down this road unless you have a seriously healthy cash account, and plans for world domination to continually replenish said cash account. Building a completely customised, good quality eCommerce solution that perfectly matches your requirements will usually cost in excess of US$10,000, plus running costs of at least US$5,000 per month.

BigCommerce offers a good option for merchants to build a store and start selling product for a low start up cost.

Embrace Uncertainty and Imperfection

BigCommerce is a constantly evolving tool, made by imperfect human beings. Sometimes the software might change. Perhaps a new button is introduced in the Administration panel, or perhaps the colours change, or perhaps something you were using disappears. Keep in mind that you are paying a small fee each month to tap into an incredibly complex piece of software. It will change sometimes when you least expect it.

Some people don’t like change, and feel threatened when the software tool is not entirely within their control. Try to appreciate that behind the scenes there are numbers of engineers working to evolve the BigCommerce product for you. If you are able to embrace the notion that you can’t control the software, but instead are benefiting (sometimes) from the changes that are made in the background, then you’ll be more intrigued and less anxious when you next login to the store administration panel and find changes that you weren’t expecting.

What To Do If Catastrophe Falls on Your Store?

Don’t panic. And don’t shout at anyone. You might need their help later on. Because BigCommerce is a constantly evolving software product change occurs when you least expect it.

A few common issues:

Your store has disappeared

1) Check that your account with BigCommerce is in good standing. Is your credit card still valid? Login to http://account.bigcommerce.com

2) Check that your domain name is still registered and valid. Sometimes a domain name (for example: yourcompany.com) will expire without you knowing, and this makes it look like your store has disappeared. You can work out if it might an issue with your domain name by checking the original URL given to you by BigCommerce. Your welcome email from BigCommerce, when you first signed up, contains a temporary URL such as mystorename.bigcommerce.com. If this temporary URL is still valid then the problem may instead be with your domain name.

3) Perhaps there is a network outage. BigCommerce provide constant status updates on their network and software issues at http://status.bigcommerce.com. Check this page to see if the engineers already know there is a problem and they are working to resolve it as you start your panic.

4) If all else fails then ask their support team at http://support.bigcommerce.com/

Something is broken

1) If your website looks “funny” you need to contact your web developer. Sometimes BigCommerce will do a major upgrade of their software and this can create a conflict between your custom design templates and the new software upgrades. Keeping your website templates compliant with the core BigCommerce software is a normal part of maintaining your store. The Internet never stops evolving so your website and its templates must always keep evolving as well.

2) If you can’t buy a product in your store perhaps you have listed that product to no longer be for sale? Check that the product is correctly listed for sale in the BigCommerce Admin.

Shoulder the Responsibility for your Store

A common problem for merchants is that because they don’t understand software development, or because they haven’t built an online business before, they feel out of control. If you have chosen to run an online business you need to understand the implications of this and the responsibility that you are shouldering.

A few tips:

  • Learn a little bit about how software development works. Ask developers to break down the steps of their work for you, to explain what they are doing and the possible implications.
  • Keep backup copies of all development and design work that you pay for. If you pay for designers or developers to work on your store then ensure there is a process for them to follow so they can provide you with original copies of their work.
  • Don’t be afraid to ask silly questions. You are paying for the help and service of others. The more you understand their point of view the more empowered you will be to run your store profitably and effectively.

Small Revolution

Katrina McKinnon is a Founder of SmallRevolution, and AusCommerce. Katrina is eCommerce Webmaster of Camping Central and Gazebos Australia. If you'd like to connect, head over to @smallrevolution

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Find experienced eCommerce Professionals

June 27, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Well folks, it’s finally here. We are proud to announce the launch of our eCommerce Professionals showcase.

We’ve seen a huge demand from store owners to find reliable, competent, eCommerce developers who create a successful online store.

Store owners will often rely on word-of-mouth to find a web developer. The problem being that they often end up paying for the services on a non-eCommerce specialist, because they don’t know who else to turn to.

We highly recommend that if you need to build an online store you work with a web development firm that specialises, and has a substantial history, in building online stores. eCommerce technology has its own quirks and peculiarities and an experienced eCommerce provider can help you work through the problems with ease.

The companies and individuals listed in the showcase have usually been endorsed by a shopping cart maker, or have proven their eCommerce expertise through many years of hard work.

Browse through the showcase, searching on location, budget and shopping cart expertise to find a web developer who matches your requirements.

The showcase is continually being monitored to remove low-grade eCommerce developers, or web developers who have no actual experience in eCommerce construction.

Search the showcase now

PRO TIP: Look through a developer’s websites and decide if their design style suits your own preferences. It is difficult for designers to change styles. For example, if you’re looking for an edgy design for your new outdoor sports store, and the designer predominantly uses soft colours and rounded corners, then they’re not the contractor for you. Skip them, and move onto another designer whose portfolio includes designs more in line with your own requirements.

Small Revolution

Katrina McKinnon is a Founder of SmallRevolution, and AusCommerce. Katrina is eCommerce Webmaster of Camping Central and Gazebos Australia. If you'd like to connect, head over to @smallrevolution

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Choosing BigCommerce for selling online

June 6, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Over the last 15 years we have worked with Shopify, WP-eCommerce, X-cart, Magento, Adobe Business Catalyst, BigCommerce, Paypal Carts, V-ASP Cart, Websphere and have even built our own in-house eCommerce software.

We’ve switched eCommerce solutions many times. Why? Because you don’t really know how the software works until you actually try to work with it and the technology has been maturing very slowly, until more recently.

In all this time I have only found two eCommerce solutions that I would personally use for my own online stores – BigCommerce and Shopify.

As a small business owner running online stores I just want software that works, straight out of the gate. Both Shopify and BigCommerce offer excellent small business solutions and are both worth a closer look. They are easy to use, inexpensive and have a well supported development base.

My final choice however has been BigCommerce, mainly for two reasons:

Reason 1 – Funding and Development Momentum

They have both have received considerable venture funding. Shopify received $7 million in late 2010 and BigCommerce has received $15 million in early 2011. However, I personally get the feeling that BigCommerce has considerable momentum in their business and therefore I want to use software that has a promise of ongoing development. My own online stores need cutting edge technology to stay ahead of my competition. BigCommerce appears to be in th best position to offer this consistent improvement to their software.

Reason 2 – Complexity that I don’t need, yet.

BigCommerce, last time I looked, has a more complete set of additional solutions built onto its core eCommerce solution than Shopify. Straight out of the box BigCommerce has exceptional Search Engine Optimisation built into the software. I can also manage 301 redirect from the Admin panel; I can control banner advertising; I can run email marketing campaigns; and I can automatically hook in Australia Post delivery. BigCommerce has exceptional customer service support.

Even now I am still discovering more components that BigCommerce offers that I can make use of, as I learn more about running my online store. So while I don’t need all of the complex functions offered by BigCommerce it’s nice to know that I can grow into them.

Why not build your own eCommerce software?

Building your own eCommerce software is difficult, expensive and requires ongoing maintenance/money.

It’s Difficult

It’s difficult because you need to ensure that the software and databases are totally secure. You are fiddling around with people’s credit card details and you don’t want to stuff that up (Like Aesop recently did!). Using a pre-built eCommerce software means you’ve outsourced tricky compliance issues such as website security, database integrity, PCI compliance and ensuring a hacker proof server. These become your headaches if you build your own eCommerce software.

It’s Expensive

Building your own eCommerce software can be expensive as there are many, many complex technical requirements. Not only do you have to cope with customer information but also product information and then marketing aspects.

Building custom eCommerce software for even just a simple online business can start at $10,000. You might get a lower quote from your developer but the software will be so simplistic that it won’t be able to adapt to your changing needs.

You might put your initial cost down to being an “investment”, but the problem is that this “investment” then needs more “investment” as software changes and breaks. Browsers and servers get updated constantly and this causes problems with software that doesn’t evolve. Your custom eCommerce store might break because the web host upgrades from PHP 4 to PHP 5. You then have to re-engage the web developers to rebuild parts of your software. Your initial “investment” doesn’t end up being a one-off cost.

If you build your own eCommerce software then you also need to manage your own hosting environment. Engaging a server technician to maintain a server is an additional cost and technical process that most small business owners could do without.

Ongoing Maintenance

eCommerce software is either offered as custom (see above why you don’t want to do this), one off purchase or leased.

If you buy the software outright it means you need to maintain the software upgrades and the server. Often a company will sell you a new software patch each year which fixes many technical issues. You still need to pay someone to install the patch for you, update the server and ensure that nothing breaks in your store as a result of the patch.

Making a one-off purchase is simpler and less expensive than devleoping your own solution, but it still requires technical, proficient maintenance and is best left to a web developer to handle.

If you lease the software then the provider will take care of software upgrades and server hosting for you. Leasing is usually constructed as a monthly payment and commonly referred to as Software as a Service. This type of software payment is getting more and more popular.

With a monthly payment from hundreds event thousands of customers the eCommerce developer is able to receive a guaranteed, reliable income that then allows them to continually improve their software. And you pay a low monthly amount for the eCommerce developer to take away a lot of worries and pain associated with maintaining software.

***

I have switched eCommerce software many times because I was never able to find one piece of software that I thought was easy to use for running a small online store.

A small online business needs software that gets out of the way and just allows you to service your customers and sell more product. In future a better eCommerce solution will no doubt come along but I believe that BigCommerce is an excellent solution for right now.

Small Revolution

Katrina McKinnon is a Founder of SmallRevolution, and AusCommerce. Katrina is eCommerce Webmaster of Camping Central and Gazebos Australia. If you'd like to connect, head over to @smallrevolution

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Getting Started Building Your First Online Store

June 1, 2012 By

Sometimes the biggest struggle for a project is just getting started. Where to start, when you’re building an eCommerce site for the first time?

First you need to make a choice as to whether you are going to truly go solo and build an online store completely by yourself, commando DIY style, or whether you’d like to get a bit of help along the way from professional service providers. I would suggest the latter course of action. You wouldn’t expect to build your own physical retail store from start to finish; I’m sure you’d be happy to pay a professional electrician to wire up your lights, a plumber to install the kitchenette and a carpenter for specialist joinery. A little bit of help will make your online journey easier.

It is technically possible now, more than ever before, for a novice to build their own online store. Fantastic DIY eCommerce software and freelance eCommerce expertise are now readily available and at a cost effective price.

So with the above in mind I’ll lay out a course of action which involves some professional help along the way.

The below list is by no means comprehensive. It is an overview of the steps you can take, as a novice, to get an online store started. Each step requires considerable time and investigation and learning. There are quite a few steps, but with anything worthwhile, if you work through each step you’ll end up at …. well, the end …. with a shiny new online store.

Step 1) Choose your eCommerce software

If you are a beginner I would suggest either BigCommerce or Shopify. Get along to their websites and spend some time reading through their Help sections and trying out the software. Both offer a free trial. BigCommerce has a more comprehensive feature list and has recently had considerable financial investment. They’re a good choice. Shopify however is also excellent, user-friendly software. They’ve been around for a while and their software is particularly easy to use.

Step 2) Design your Store Branding

Do you have a logo for your business? If not, head on over to 99Designs to run a logo competition. If you’re not feeling particularly confident in 99Design’s results then you can run a competition without guaranteeing payment. This is then, essentially, a risk-free experiment. However, once you guarantee payment you’ll find that more graphic designers enter the competition. This will give you more logos from which to choose.

A logo will then govern the main colours that you’ll use in your store design.

Step 3) Choose your Store Design Template

Because this is eCommerce for Beginners I’m not expecting that you, or someone you hire, will create a store design from scratch. You can certainly do this if the design of your store is integral to attracting a particular audience or creating a unique experience. Keep in mind that design and then the conversion of the design into customised HTML/CSS will add considerably to your setup costs. You should budget around 1/3 to 1/2 of your development costs to the creation of a customised design.

Instead of a customised design, BigCommerce and Shopify have plenty of high quality templates to choose from. You can then modify your chosen template to match the colours of your logo. I would suggest that you get help from a freelancer who is experienced with this software.

Depending on the complexity of your request I would expect a good quality web developer to take between 2 and 4 hours to customise a pre-built store template with colours that match your logo. Search for ‘Shopify’ or ‘BigCommerce’ on oDesk and you’ll find someone with previous experience who can assist you with this step.

Step 4) Create Store Categories

Choose your store category names wisely. The words that you choose will be used by search engines, somewhat, to decide on what type of product you sell. If you sell baby clothes and your category is for little girls, then label the category ‘girls-baby-clothes’, not ‘girls’. The few additional words give the search engines some context and allow them to position your site correctly.

Step 5) Add your products

Adding your products to your online store will be one of the most time consuming aspects of your entire build process. Ideally you would choose a product name with a few good keywords in the title, write a custom description and then bang on about the features. Upload lots of great photos, videos and anything else that will help your customer decide whether to buy that particular product from your right now.

Step 6) Create ancillary pages

Each store needs a set of good quality About, Store Policies, Returns and Refunds, Privacy and Contact pages. Your About page will be one of the most visited pages in your website so make sure it does a good job of selling your benefits to the customer.

Step 7) Customise email notification templates

Each online store generates generic email notifications to customers telling them that their order has been placed, or is on back-order, or just a simple welcome to the store. Depending on which eCommerce software you use will depend on whether you can customise these email notifications with not only your branding but also personalised messages.

Step 8) Setup shipping methods and costs

Various research (which I will need to cite later) has shown that customers prefer free shipping or single cost shipping (pre-calculated) over true cost of shipping. Some store owners build their ‘free’ shipping into the cost of the goods, if they know that they will usually be sending product to major metropolitan areas in their own country. Other online business owners will set a single price for shipping all goods. Again, the store owner absorbs some of the actual shipping cost. The point being that customers like to know upfront what their shipping cost will be. Consider this point when you come to setting up your shipping methods and costs.

Step 9) Setup your payment method

Paypal is a great way to get started with accepting credit card payments online. However, once you build your store to a substantial monthly revenue then you’ll need to look at other payment gateway options such as eWay or your bank.

Step 10) Install Google Analytics

Google Analytics is free software that allows you to see who is visiting your store, how long they stick around for, and what pages and products they visit. At a basic level this can tell you what are your most popular products that don’t get many purchases. Google Analytics can help you nail down which pages and products in your website need improving. You can get a free account by setting up a Gmail address and/or visiting www.google.com/analytics

Step 11) Test and Launch your Store

Launch your store online but then be your first customer. Run through the entire process and buy one of your own products, even adding it to your credit card and shipping it to your home address. This will show up any problems that your customers might encounter along the way. Better for you to fix them now than have them pointed out to you by a customer.

Step 12) Submit your URL to the Search Engines

If you already have a Google Analytics or Gmail account you can use the same login for adding your site to Google Webmaster Tools. This tool allows you to add a sitemap to Google’s directories. Don’t forget about Bing as well however. Go to Bing.com and register your site.

Small Revolution

Katrina McKinnon is a Founder of SmallRevolution, and AusCommerce. Katrina is eCommerce Webmaster of Camping Central and Gazebos Australia. If you'd like to connect, head over to @smallrevolution

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Why BigCommerce?

January 29, 2012 By

BigCommerce is a relatively new, but very promising do-it-yourself eCommerce platform. Since the McKinnon Group first started developing eCommerce software in the late 1990s the industry has evolved and matured considerably. In the beginning an eCommerce license from IBM’s WebSphere would set you back US$100,000 per year, and that was just the license, not the completed store!

The software industry has now evolved to a point where there are many reliable and accessible eCommerce solutions available to web developers (experts) and DIY-types (novices). BigCommerce is the first of a new breed of eCommerce solutions using Software-as-a-Service mechanisms to enable DIY-types to truly do-it-themselves.

BigCommerce is easy to use and if you do get stuck with a technical glitch the company has good customer service support and a free Knowledge Base with detailed instructions.

BigCommerce can be used to sell physical products (eg: t-shirts, tents, shoes) or digital products (eg: music, ebooks, digital downloads). It can be used to sell from any country in the world to virtually any other country, using many different currencies and delivery services.

For most online store owners running typical product-based businesses with less than US$5,000,000 in annual turnover BigCommerce will be just fine.

We use BigCommerce for our own online stores Camping Central (www.campingcentral.com.au) and Gazebos Australia (www.gazebosaustralia.com.au) and can confidently recommend the platform to others also wanting to sell online.

BigCommerce is available from www.bigcommerce.com

Small Revolution

Katrina McKinnon is a Founder of SmallRevolution, and AusCommerce. Katrina is eCommerce Webmaster of Camping Central and Gazebos Australia. If you'd like to connect, head over to @smallrevolution

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Who should design your store logo

October 3, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Web designers are everywhere these days. It seems that everyone has a niece, nephew or third cousin twice removed who is a web designer or web developer. Just because your relative or best friend says they can design you a logo for peanuts doesn’t mean that is a commercially sensible option for your online business.

I like my own little story to illustrate this point. I was once asked by a client why he should choose me to develop his website over his nephew. I was flabbergasted as I had 10 years web development experiences over his nephew who had just graduated from high school! The answer seemed rather obvious to me, but instead I replied, “When you die you get to choose who buries you. Both a dog and undertaker can dig holes in the ground. It just depends on the level of service you would prefer. Your choice will affect the outcome.”

With this in mind choose a designer who has been trained to design logos. You can still find a good designer to create a logo at a very cost effective price, and with the correct choice you’ll receive a logo that meets minimum quality criteria.

If you choose a relative or friend to design your logo then the relationship can get complicated if you aren’t satisfied with the work, or need to make many changes. If your friend isn’t trained to dig holes then avoid them like a poke in the eye with a stick. (I don’t care if you have no money and your friend can do it for $10 and a case of beer. Don’t do it. Seriously.)

How complex is it to create a logo?

Wherever you live there will be a local web development or design agency down the road. They will charge you from a few hundred to a few thousand dollars to create a logo, depending on their level of involvement.

They’ll either walk you through a complete brand development exercise or ask a few questions and just get started. The former option obviously has more complexity and research attached to it, and can sometimes lead to a better result.

Branding Exercise vs Getting On With It

Many online marketing and web agencies can walk you through a brand development exercise. They’ll ask you about your audience, do some market research and then provide a brief on how you can approach your market and the possible designs that should be created from this. Their involvement in thinking through the issues and market research will end up costing you a few thousand dollars.

Alternatively, they might ask you a few questions and then simply give you a handful of logo designs to choose from. This will cost you a couple of hundred dollars. Given basic information such as your target market, preferred colours and how you intend to use the logo a well trained graphic designer will usually create a decent looking logo.

Branding and marketing research has its place, but I personally don’t think it’s required for developing a logo for a small business online store. This is my personal opinion based on what I think is required for a small to mid-size online store.

Logos can change and iterate over time if you do get bigger and you require more marketing research and advice.

How to get started?

If you’re an absolute novice in the area of eCommerce and websites generally then I would suggest that you run a design contest with an outsourcing service. These sites are geared towards novice online store owners, just like you. Get a design you love, or 100% of your money back at 99designs.com

 

Small Revolution

Katrina McKinnon is a Founder of SmallRevolution, and AusCommerce. Katrina is eCommerce Webmaster of Camping Central and Gazebos Australia. If you'd like to connect, head over to @smallrevolution

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Easy way to get more visitors to your site, for free.

August 6, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Short answer: Write a story that will appeal to your customers and add it to your news or content section.

I’d like to talk to you about how to get visitors to your website reasonably quickly and easily. Again, to be fair, I’m not talking about bazillions of people suddenly rushing your little site. I’m just talking about small gains. But if you repeat the ‘small gains’ often enough it builds into its own tidal wave, and brings its own momentum. To be sure, to be sure!

Your product descriptions will naturally bring visitors to your site over time. People looking to buy an 8-ball belt buckle might just end up finding you through a search engine. But this will be quite slow as there’s not a huge amount you can write about a belt buckle, and whatever you do write tends to be 80% the same as all the other belt buckles for sale on the Internet. Your competition for selling belt buckles is vast in that it is too similar between sellers.

So you need to differentiate yourself from the rest of the sellers and one way to do that is to write some unique content.

Often mentioned online marketing advice is that ‘great content’ will bring visitors to your site. But what exactly is ‘great content’ and how do you get it or create it?

Don’t be daunted by the word ‘great’. Great is obviously better than average, but average is better than nothing. Having said that nothing is better than a kick in the head! So it’s all about balance.

To give you an example we recently wrote an article called “Market Stall Display Ideas” and added it to our Gazebos Australia store. I collected a bunch of market stall photos from Google and then wrote up a quick description about what I thought on each market stall owner’s ability to display their products.

I picked a topic that would interest one segment of our customer base. We sell gazebos, and many of these are sold to market stall holders. These people need a gazebo to cover their heads and products and protect themselves against sun and rain. So it would be a natural conclusion that these buyers might also be interested in ideas for displaying their products in their market stall. I mean, if they’re in the business of selling, you’d think they’d want some new ideas on just how to do that.

We added the content just using the built-in content editor that comes with BigCommerce. You’ll have the same sort of function available in Magento, or any other eCommerce tool you use. Even if it’s not specifically designed for adding content, there’s always somewhere you can add a story or news article of your own making.

Now, as you know Gazebos Australia has only been running for 2 months (August 2011) so it is interesting to note that the Market Stall Ideas page is already the second most visited page on the website, just after the home page.

The majority of visitors are arriving via Google searches. If just a few of these new arrivals end up buying a Gazebo then the article will have been a worthwhile use of time.

Do you need help writing the content for your online store?

There are some excellent freelance writers available on oDesk. Mark, a freelancer on oDesk, is an Irish man now living and working in the Philippines. I haven’t worked with him yet (as of writing this article) but he comes highly recommended from a friend. Once you’ve signed up to oDesk, let me know and I’ll send you his profile.

Find Virtual Assistants on oDesk

Small Revolution

Katrina McKinnon is a Founder of SmallRevolution, and AusCommerce. Katrina is eCommerce Webmaster of Camping Central and Gazebos Australia. If you'd like to connect, head over to @smallrevolution

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Filed Under: Public Relations (PR), Search Engine Compliance, Store Content Tagged With: , , ,

Gazebos are everywhere, nearly.

July 21, 2011 By Leave a Comment

You’ve probably never had cause to think of how many gazebos there are in Australia, nor how many are sold each week.

I personally would never have really thought about it until I met Shahin, but once you see one then you see them everywhere. (Bit like Alsco trucks!) Go to any weekend market, dog show, exhibition, athletics carnival, fair, show or camping ground and you’ll see that the majority of the portable shade shelters are gazebos. And not only are there more gazebos than you ever thought but the majority of them are the OZtrail Deluxe Gazebo. Truly. The things are everywhere. Triffid-like, but less sinister.

Shahin owns Camping Central one of the largest online camping suppliers in Australia. Within his range of camping gear he stocks OZtrail gazebos. Because gazebos are such a popular seller this presented as a good opportunity to spin this product out separately and create a website dedicated just to that particular product range.

By creating a separate site we are able to tailor content and online marketing specifically to an audience interested in purchasing just a gazebo. We can buy search keywords at a better price with a more targeted campaign, focus on keyword density in content, create highly detailed product content, run promotions highly targeted to the audience and more. The customer focuses just on the product rather than getting distracted by tents, in this case.

To keep development costs low and give us a boost on search engine indexing we use BigCommerce software to run the online store. It’s a fantastic, new breed of eCommerce software with just enough grunt for a small online retailer. It has all the functions and good security a store like Gazebos Australia needs in order to run quickly, efficiently and cost effectively. One of the functions we enjoy most in BigCommerce is its ‘instant’ search engine results. We found that stores created with BigCommerce had an almost instant effect in search engine indexing.

My theory is that there are plenty of Amazon style big retailers who will sell you everything and anything, but not many truly great specialists. There is even a growing number of Catch Of The Day style sites. These businesses, in my mind, are essentially just shifting massive volume of products at hugely discounted prices further cannibalising existing online channels. Both business models threaten smaller online retailers just like Woolworths threatens the income of a local grocer in the offline world.

I strongly believe however that there still has to be room for smaller niche etailers who are able to provide superior product knowledge and faster customer service than the behemoths. There’s space for everyone on the Internet. It’s just a matter of using your elbows to make a little bit of your own room, and that’s what we did for Gazebos Australia.

Particulars That Make Us Proud

  • The site design, created by Natalia looks particularly fantastic. It’s fresh, vibrant, colourful and friendly looking. A good quality design helps customers feel confident in the quality of the business and it’s ability to supply the products, as well as casting a ‘good quality’ light on the actual products.
  • Melanie has created customised video, photo and content reviews of the products. This really sets Gazebos Australia apart from competitors by having unique content on the website. We are able to backlink the videos and photos from YouTube and Flickr respectively, creating a pseudo social channel. This one, simple addition increased daily visitors x 2 on the day we launched.
  • Ivy is continually improving the product content by accepting customer testimonials, requesting feedback from customers, answering pre-sales product questions, finding new photos of the gazebos in use and generally working on creating more detailed specifications for customers. Creating a sense of new content and live customer support gives customers even more confidence in Gazebos Australia’s ability to ship the product on time and to spec.

Small Revolution

Katrina McKinnon is a Founder of SmallRevolution, and AusCommerce. Katrina is eCommerce Webmaster of Camping Central and Gazebos Australia. If you'd like to connect, head over to @smallrevolution

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