Driving Traffic but No Sales? Here’s How to Diagnose and Improve Your Store November 30, 2019 bizadmin In an online store’s early days, it’s not uncommon to draw hundreds, even thousands of visitors, but for some reason… no sales. Assuming you’re driving the right traffic, figuring out exactly what is stopping these potential customers from making a purchase can feel like solving a mystery with few clues. There are a number of factors that play a part in a customer’s decision to make a purchase, from details as small as the color of your “Buy Now” button to choices as big as the way you weave your brand story. Like any diagnosis, you need to objectively evaluate every potential cause in order to root out the actual problems before you can fix them. So take a step back from the online store you’ve poured hours into building, look at it with fresh eyes, and ask yourself the following questions: Navigate your store like a new customer Your website won’t be the first experience your potential customers have with online shopping. Much in the way you expect the fitting rooms in a brick-and-mortar clothing store to be located at the back of the shop, there are certain conventions that users have come to expect from a website. While some may seem obvious, a misstep can easily result in lost sales. Is your main navigation menu easy to use? In most cases, users find their way from your homepage to your product page to your checkout by using your navigation menus. These are typically found at the top (the header navigation) and bottom (the footer navigation) of your website. You can see the priorities for first-time shoppers clearly reflected in the header and footer navigation menus of glasses retailer Bailey Nelson. Look at examples from large online retailers like Bailey Nelson, Knixwear, and Kylie Cosmetics, and you will quickly spot the common elements that customers are used to. Header navigation menus often feature a Shop button, which usually either leads to a collection page featuring all of a brand’s products or a drop-down menu to sort products into further categories, like sweaters, t-shirts, and shorts. Cosmetics company Morphe keeps its main navigation clean and simple, with a Shop button opening up to a more detailed menu of categories. Depending on your business, you can also include links to other pages customers might want to visit before making a purchase, such as: About Us, for customers who want to learn more about your business or your founder story Contact Us, so customers can reach out to you with any questions or concerns FAQ, to answer some of the most common questions customers have about your products Shipping, so customers know how much they’ll have to pay on top of the price of their purchase Size Guide, to help shoppers confidently order the right size and reduce returns for yourself Bombas includes key pages like About and Size Guide in its main navigation to help customers get to know the brand. Can you move any non-essential pages to the footer navigation? Even though it’s tucked away at the bottom of your website, visitors frequently consult the footer navigation to find out more information about a company. Footer navigation menus are another best practice for online stores. The links found here are different than those found in your header. Links to secondary information, like your returns and exchange policy, customer reviews, privacy, and terms and conditions, all belong in the footer of your website, and not the header. Shoe brand Allbirds keeps its header menu simple with only a few key items and puts all of its secondary pages in the footer. Make sure both your header and footer links are working correctly. Test each one to make sure the title matches the page it links to. A broken or incorrect link is an easily fixed mistake that could be hurting your sales. Be honest about your homepage Your store’s homepage is like the display window of a physical store. It needs to simultaneously reflect your brand in the best light, while also encouraging customers to enter and start shopping. While the Shopify theme you choose will play a big role in the look and feel of your store, there are many other factors to consider as well. Does your visual brand look professional? Your brand is on display on your website homepage—everything from the font you choose to your color palette is used by shoppers to understand who you are as a company and whether they should become your customer. Ask yourself: Do you have a professional logo? Do you build a strong visual brand identity with consistent colors and fonts? Are your images high quality and clear (avoid blurry or pixelated pictures)? Is your text easy to read and, more importantly, scan? Luckily, piecing together these visual elements of a brand doesn’t need to be complicated. Even if you already have a logo, you can use Hatchful, Shopify’s free logo maker, to generate a visual guideline you can apply to the rest of your website. Hatchful provides more than just a logo—you also get access to a color palette and icon ideas you can use to brand your online store. Take the professionally chosen complementary colors of your Hatchful logo and, when in doubt, use them in your store template to create a seamless branded look that will instill trust in prospective customers. The same can be done with product photography. Your photos will be used by shoppers to judge the quality of your products, which shoppers won’t be able to see in person. Invest in them accordingly. For lifestyle photos, you can shoot your own or use the free professional stock images available on Burst. Most of the images on Burst have been curated for ecommerce, so you’re likely to find something that can reflect your brand. Stock photos are organized into collections on Burst according to different e-commerce markets and niches. When it comes to creating your own high-quality product photos, use simple and affordable tools like: A homemade photo studio Remove.bg, which can easily remove the background on your product photos if needed Free photo editing software If your current website doesn’t use professional and clean-looking photography, it could be turning customers away. Does your homepage have a compelling call to action? Just like a navigation menu, having the right calls to action on your homepage can help orient customers and direct them from the front of your store to the checkout page. A call to action is a strong line of copy supported by a clickable button. They work together to draw attention and encourage action from a website visitor. Ecommerce stores typically feature their main call to action through their homepage banner. The main banner typically catches a customer’s eye first and is used to promote your best-selling product or most compelling collection. Beauty brand Vanity Planet has all the necessary elements of a strong homepage banner on its website: Vanity Planet’s homepage features a strong call to action and a single message promoted on its website banner. Its homepage banner takes center stage and contains a single clear message that speaks directly to their target audience, compelling them to click through to shop. If your own homepage doesn’t have a strong banner image, or if it contains too many competing messages upon first glance, you could be confusing customers and losing them as a result. If you have a secondary message to promote, like free shipping or a discount on certain items, the best place to surface that call to action is often with an announcement bar. Announcement bars typically show up at the very top of your website page in small text, so as not to compete with your main banner. Outdoor Voices promotes a secondary message on its homepage through a subtle announcement bar. The announcement bar used by Outdoor Voices on its website doesn’t distract from its banner image. It does, however, tell customers about an important chance to get free shipping and returns when they spend a certain amount. Integrating special promotions like this into your homepage through an announcement bar can help you surface a secondary call to action, such as an offer that caters to price-conscious shoppers. Does your website copy speak to your target audience? Another important element of any good homepage is the copy—the text that persuades and directs visitors to shop with you. Copy should be persuasive and to the point. Unnecessarily long sentences or big paragraphs can make users lose interest in what you’re trying to sell. Most big online retailers tend to keep their homepage copy to a minimum. The shortened version of an About Us page on jewelry brand Mejuri’s homepage. Even when telling its brand story, Mejuri keeps its homepage copy tight, with only one to two sentences. Users who want to learn more are encouraged to click through to read its About Us page, but the company is mindful not to clog up its homepage with an entire origin story. One of the most common copywriting mistakes is not having an ideal audience in mind. Your target customer should be able to land on your homepage and say, “This site is for me.” If your homepage copy tries to speak to everyone, then it speaks to no one. Selling online is all about trust, and nothing looks as unprofessional as a glaring typo on a website’s homepage. Even if you’ve proofread your own website, it’s worth borrowing a friend’s fresh eyes or even hiring a copywriter or editor from Upwork to elevate your copy. Does your website look just as good on your mobile phone? The problem with troubleshooting your own website is that you’re likely not seeing it on the same screen as your potential customers. The majority of ecommerce website traffic now comes from mobile devices, where your website can look very different than it does on a desktop. Load your homepage on your own mobile phone, as well as any other devices you have access to, in order to make sure it looks good and functions properly on each one. If you don’t have access to popular devices like Androids or iPhones, you can use the Inspect tool on your browser to view your website as it would look on different devices: Right-click on your store and chose “Inspect”. This lets you view the code behind your store. Here, you can toggle between different views. You may need to enable developer tools on some browsers. Does your business seem trustworthy? Building customer trust when you have zero sales can be challenging, but it’s a necessary step in converting website visitors into customers. Since your visitors can’t get to know you in person, you’ll need to make sure your website is inviting and makes every visitor feel secure. There are a number of ways you can do this. 1. Chat with customers live Even though you can’t be physically present in your store, you can still introduce yourself and build a one-on-one connection with every visitor through live chat. A live chat function can be added to your website using apps like Shopify Chat and Tidio, or through Facebook Messenger. Live chat can let you greet visitors while they’re still looking around and answer any questions they might have about your products. Some live chat apps can even be programmed with automated messages and responses. This lets you stay available even during off-hours, so visitors can ask questions 24/7. 2. Use social media to build relationships Social media accounts are a key component of a brand’s online presence. If your website visitors didn’t discover you on Instagram, it’s likely they’ll check out your brand’s social profiles at some point in their decision-making journey. While you don’t need to be on every social platform, you should maintain a presence on the ones your customers use. This requires you to regularly update your social profiles with content to show that your business is active, and engaging with customers in comments or even direct messages. Bulletproof coffee regularly shares customer photos on its Instagram account, which has over 1,000 posts and 300,000 followers. If you have a thriving Instagram account, for example, consider embedding an Instagram gallery on your site to incorporate your social media presence into your online store. 3. Source and feature user-generated content If you don’t have any customer photos or reviews to leverage on your store or in your marketing, consider giving your product to friends, family, or influencers in exchange for user photos or reviews. You can also run a contest or giveaway where entries are based on creating content that you can share. These images can be used in paid ads, on your website, or on your social media profiles, making them valuable assets in building consumer trust. 4. Craft your story and share it with customers People like to buy from people. That’s one edge you have over big-box retailers. If your brand is missing that personal element, consider incorporating your story or mission into your homepage or on an About Us page to connect with new visitors and encourage them to give you a shot. Look at your data to see where you’re losing shoppers Once you’ve made sure your website is following the best practices most shoppers look for when evaluating a brand online, take a closer look at your website data. Each store is different, and reviewing your analytics can point out specific areas where your users are struggling. This data can be found in your Shopify dashboard or through Google Analytics. Shopify’s analytics dashboard shows important metrics, like your online store conversion rate. The percentage of website visitors who make it to the purchasing stage is referred to as your conversion rate. While your overall conversion rate is important, breaking it down into purchasing milestones like “added to cart” and “reached checkout” will help you pinpoint specific drop-off points from the first visit to checkout. Are shoppers adding products to their cart? Looking at how many of your website visitors are adding products to their cart is a good way to evaluate changes you might need to make to your store. Look at your online store conversion rate in your Shopify analytics dashboard to see how many visitors are adding your products to their cart. If visitors are not adding products to their cart, you might want to consider doing the following: Offering a variety of multiple photos to browse through Increasing the size or changing the color of your Add to Cart button Make sure your Add to Cart button is easy to find on both the desktop and mobile versions of your site Removing unnecessary or long product copy pushing your Add to Cart button too far down the page Using bullet points, bolding, and other formatting options to make your product page easier to scan Applying these best practices to your product page Notice how the Add to Cart button on the Wristology Watches product page is large, colorful, and immediately visible even on a mobile page load. Are shoppers abandoning their cart? One area where conversion rates most frequently struggle is abandoned carts. You can see if you have any abandoned carts under Abandoned Checkouts in Shopify. Luckily, there are several ways to recover abandoned carts and bring users back to your website to complete their purchase. Here are some of the top ways to reduce abandoned carts: Customize your abandoned cart email, either within Shopify or through an email marketing platform like Klaviyo Consider adding a discount code to your abandoned cart emails to help recover lost sales and improve your conversion rate Send multiple abandoned cart emails, set up in an automated sequence, giving you more chances to persuade customers to complete their purchase Consider removing the Review Your Cart page and have a slideout cart with a button that takes customers immediately to checkout after adding products to their cart Add a Buy Now button to your product page using dynamic checkout, which lets customers skip ahead to checkout if they are ready to purchase Eliminating any unnecessary steps in the checkout process can help improve your conversion rate and turn more website browsers into shoppers. Is price or payment options stopping them from checking out? If your conversion rate is strong from product page to checkout, but you are losing people at the final point in their purchasing journey, you may need to do the following: Revaluate some of your pricing and shipping costs to be more attractive to shoppers Create a free shipping threshold to encourage shoppers to buy more Provide a wider choice of shipping rates, from inexpensive standard shipping to a more costly express post Give customers more options for paying at checkout by adding mobile payment options like PayPal, Apple Pay, or Google Pay Offer new customers a first-purchase discount code through a pop-up app such as Privy that they can apply at checkout Play with Pieces offers a discount code that can be applied at checkout to those who sign up for its newsletter. The easier you can make the checkout process, the higher your chances of increasing your conversion rate. If customers make it to this final step in their shopping journey, it is up to you to make the checkout experience frictionless. Are you remarketing to your website visitors? It’s important to keep in mind that not all consumers are ready to make a purchase on their first visit to a store. Depending on your product and price point, their decision might require multiple trips back to your store, more time, and further consideration. Remarketing targets previous website visitors based on the actions they took, like abandoning a cart or browsing a certain product page. It’s an effective strategy to keep your brand top of mind for website visitors who aren’t yet ready to buy yet. Remarketing usually takes the form of email marketing (such as sending out a discount code to shoppers who abandoned their carts) or retargeting visitors with paid ads. It may take some setting up, but retargeting is a powerful form of advertising because it can dynamically show ads to visitors for the products they viewed on your website. One of the most popular ways to retarget shoppers, if you’re willing to learn how to create campaigns yourself, is with Facebook ads. How are visitors scrolling, clicking, and searching your website? If it isn’t immediately clear where customers are struggling to understand your brand or product, consider watching a few recorded sessions of actual users. This can be done using Hotjar or Lucky Orange, two apps that create recordings of sessions on your website that you can watch as videos. Hotjar offers the ability to watch recorded videos of users shopping on your website. Seeing someone struggle to find what they’re looking for or unable to navigate through your website is a humbling lesson on user experience. Hotjar also creates “heat maps” that show you where most customers are clicking and dropping off, and allow you to map out and improve their journey to checkout. To understand where your users might be getting lost, and what your own main navigation is lacking, it’s a good idea to enable the search function on your site. Once you have a search bar on your homepage, you can check out your Shopify reports for top online store searches. This report will give you a glimpse into the minds of your shoppers and an idea of what they’re struggling to find on your website. The top online store searches report, found under the Behaviors category of your Shopify reports, can show you what your customers are looking for. Adding popular search terms to your main menu can aid your store navigation and improve your conversion rate. What else could be stopping you from making sales? Looking at your website data can quickly reveal the holes that potential sales are leaking through, while paying attention to best practices used by most ecommerce brands can help elevate your overall store experience. If you’re confident in your business idea, these small changes are often what you need to start earning your first sales. However, if your efforts to drive traffic still aren’t converting, ask yourself: Are you selling the right products to the right audience? Have you tried focusing on a niche? Are you driving high-quality traffic? Are you capturing emails to nurture into customers? Have you asked for feedback from others (such as the Shopify community)? Keep in mind that your store will always be a work in progress. By doing a regular audit of your performance, you can make it better over time. Illustration by Rose Wong About the author Mary-Rose Sutton Mary-Rose Sutton is a Digital Marketing Consultant who enjoys helping Shopify merchants grow their business.
Charlie’s Angels – 2019 Movie November 28, 2019 bizadmin A team of Angels, led by senior operative John Bosley, capture international smuggler Jonny Smith in Rio de Janeiro and turn him over to American authorities. A year later, the European division of the Townsend Agency is informed that Elena Houghlin, a programmer employed by tech entrepreneur Alexander Brock, wants to expose her superior and Peter Fleming, Brock’s head of development, for covering up a potentially dangerous flaw in Calisto, an energy conservation device she helped invent that can trigger fatal seizures when used. She meets with operative Edgar Bosley to turn over evidence of Fleming’s wrongdoing, but the meeting is ambushed by an assassin named Hodak, who manages to kill Edgar and leaves Elena to drown. Edgar’s protégé, Jane Kano, rescues her and brings her to operative Rebekah Bosley with the help of her partner, Sabina Wilson. John, who has since retired from the agency, discovers that Rebekah has tagged him with the agency’s specialized subdermal implant without his knowledge. Rebekah tasks the Angels with breaking into Brock’s corporate headquarters to steal the remaining Calisto prototypes before they can be duplicated and Elena joins them. She finds one of the devices but is forced to use it to escape, killing a security guard in the process. The other prototypes are already gone, and Fleming is identified as the thief. Rebekah tracks him to Istanbul, where Jane utilizes one of her old intelligence contacts to locate Fleming. They track him to a remote rock quarry, where the supposedly-imprisoned Jonny is revealed to be Fleming’s intermediary for selling Calisto. Hodak is also present and kills Fleming before the Angels break up the sale. Rebekah suddenly disappears, allowing Jonny and Hodak to escape with the prototypes. Returning to their safehouse, Sabina shares her growing belief that Rebekah is secretly working against the agency and has been manipulating them to steal Calisto for her own benefit. The safehouse is bombed, and when Rebekah shows up, John shoots her and rescues Elena, believing Sabina and Jane are dead. The two are still alive, however, and when Rebekah reappears, she explains everything: John is the real traitor, having spent the last few decades secretly building his own network within the agency after he was passed over to succeed the late Charlie Townsend. John takes Elena to a party hosted by Brock, who is also in league with him but is unaware that John intends to weaponize Callisto. Using Elena’s colleague Langston as a hostage, he forces her to program a Calisto device to kill them both before leaving. The Angels, having deduced his plan due to the information provided by Smith (Rebekah’s informant), show up and rescue Elena and Langston. Jane exacts revenge by impaling Hodak on a spike, while Rebekah catches up with John and his men. Outnumbered, she has other Angels posing as guests subdue the men, while Sabina knocks out John with a punch. Brock is arrested for conspiracy, and Jane and Langston start a relationship. Elena is accepted into the Angels after passing a series of rigorous training exercises and receives an official Angels tattoo.
The Procrastinator’s Guide to Black Friday Cyber Monday November 26, 2019 bizadmin For many merchants, Black Friday Cyber Monday planning started months ago. While you don’t need to let the rush pressure you into a bad decision—BFCM is just the start of the rest of the holiday shopping season, after all—you can still participate as an independent merchant by employing a little creativity. From one last-minute junkie to another, a tight deadline is a great motivator. Here’s your 3-step guide to planning and executing a last-minute Black Friday Cyber Monday promotion. 1. Plan Are you ready? Is your store in a good state to handle a surge in sales? Shopify has your back when your store floods with traffic, but the rest is up to you. Do you have the inventory? Do you have the infrastructure in place to handle an uptick in customer service inquiries? Can you ship everything on time? If you answered “yes”, let’s get rolling! What’s your offer? While customers expect steep deals, you are not Wal-Mart. Drastically slashing prices just isn’t feasible for most small businesses. There are other meaningful ways to participate in BFCM and still reward your customers without making a huge dent in your bottom line. Win-win. How much will your discount be? Will it apply to everything or specific collections or products? Are there other ways to reward your customers without killing your margin? There are several options, including: Unique coupon codes for specific customer groups Site-wide sale with a universal coupon code Sale products or collections (no code required) Gift or gift card with minimum purchase Free shipping Implementation You can implement and communicate your plan in a number of ways. If your offer itself isn’t a “door crasher”, your approach can still create some buzz. Make it creative and interactive, inspire urgency or anticipation, and consider exclusive loyalty offers. Here are some ideas (with real examples from other retailers) to inspire your own campaign: Gift guide or gift-giving themes: Remind your customers of the impending holiday season, and the urgency to start shopping. Link to holiday-themed or gift-giving collections. Studies show that consumers are eager for holiday content as early as Halloween. Timed deals: Create excitement with new deals released every hour or at different intervals throughout the weekend. Sneak peek or pre-sale: Allow social followers and email subscribers early access to view or apply the deal. “Door crasher”, early access, or limited-quantity promotions: Reward early birds and create a sense of urgency, exclusivity, or scarcity. Extend your sale: Catch the procrastinators or anyone who missed the buying frenzy, and extend your deals through or past the weekend. Release a new or seasonal product or collection: Give current customers a reason to come back for new products that are also on sale. Gift with purchase: Add the element of suspense by offering a “mystery gift” with minimum purchase. image: Ulta Gift cards as gifts-with-purchase: Give a $10 gift card (valid only after January 1st) to customers who purchase over $100, for example, to extend the relationship with the customer through the holidays. 💡 TIP: Now might be the right time to update the look of your gift cards with seasonal themes. Run a contest or giveaway: Use Shopify’s integration with Gleam to generate anticipation for your promotion and build your email list Establish terms What are the terms and conditions of your offer? How will you communicate terms clearly to your customers to avoid disappointment or customer service nightmares? 💡 TIPS: Establish clear start and end dates and times for each offer. What is the discount? Is there a minimum order value to be eligible for the deal? Set conditions on the Discounts page. Are there any excluded products? Clearly identify these terms in your fine print. Is the offer exclusive to certain customers or regions? Targeted email communication is best for this type of deal. If you’re offering free shipping, are any countries excluded? This is also a good time to set up your shipping calendar with order-by dates to receive products in time for Christmas. Schedule Create a content calendar for your campaign that accounts for every step. When will social posts and emails deploy? What will be scheduled automatically and what tasks will be implemented manually. Do you have a team? Who is responsible for what? Set up your sale collections to launch on time using Future Publishing. Be sure to schedule email and social communication throughout the campaign—teasers, reminders, and “last chance” notifications. 2. Execute Assets and copy Create and schedule all of your emails, blog posts, and social content upfront to free up your time to manage the influx of sales and customer service inquiries during the busiest shopping season of the year. What assets do you need to create? Consider: Website: home page, landing page, banners, pop-ups, collection headers Email: template and banners Social: network-specific posts If you’re not a designer (or don’t have the budget to hire one), there are plenty of free, beautiful graphics and photos, plus tools to quickly put them all together. Layer type over free stock images from Burst using a tool like Canva, and create graphics from scratch using a free Photoshop alternative like Gimp. 💡 TIP: Keep your imagery and messaging consistent across all channels, but optimize copy to suit each social audience or customer group. Free stock photos by Burst Create social graphics with Canva Set up your store To discount only certain products in your shop (with no code required), set sale prices by adjusting the regular and “compare at prices” of those products, then create a Black Friday Cyber Monday collection with automatic conditions. Alternately, you can use an app like Bold Discounts to easily apply deals to products by brand, type, or collection. For a site-wide discount, you can opt to create discount codes that customers apply at checkout. If your deal is free shipping, either add a free shipping rate or create a shipping discount code. What other apps can you integrate with your store to help your campaign? Check out 11 Shopify Apps to Help You Sell Your Best This Black Friday Cyber Monday. Install a live chat app to help alleviate the customer service crush, and respond to support issues in real-time. Free Reading List: How to Brand Your Business A great brand can help your products stand out from the crowd. Get a crash course in small business branding with our free, curated list of high-impact articles. Set up your email marketing campaign Email marketing has the highest conversion rate during BFCM weekend. As a small business competing for sales on Black Friday and Cyber Monday, email is a powerful tool. It can get expensive to stand out in the noise of BFCM. Why not focus instead on repeat business from a captive audience: your customers and subscribers? Use BFCM as an opportunity to reward existing customers, maintain relationships, and improve loyalty. 💡 TIPS: Install an email marketing platform and Bulk Discounts to send unique codes to each customer Segment your list to send exclusive gifts to repeat/loyal customers or re-engagement deals to lapsed customers Schedule emails by timezone to reach your customers at optimal times Simplify the design process by using predesigned or drag-and-drop templates Get inspired by other successful email marketing campaigns Subject lines on an average day are critical to email marketing. They’re even more so as email volume hits its holiday apex. Take a minute to remember your own inbox last year. 💡 TIPS: Use keywords like “Black Friday” and “Cyber Monday” to appeal to customers looking for deals in their inboxes, but remember that these terms are saturated, so you’ll need to be creative to stand out Use segmenting to make subject lines more personal/relevant to each specific customer group Personalize subject lines with customer names, location, etc. Split test your subject lines throughout your campaign and tweak as you go Promote it on social media Consider both organic (loyalty offers for existing fans) and paid content. Remember that the paid space is competitive on Black Friday Cyber Monday, so be sure to target your campaigns wisely to get the biggest bang for your buck. 💡 TIPS: Ask customers to share or tag friends. As with email efforts, schedule posts throughout the campaign. Remember: customers use social media as a customer service channel. Stay on top of your mentions and DMs throughout the weekend. Design catchy but on-brand graphics that don’t cheapen your profile—especially important for lifestyle brands. Additional reading: The Beginner’s Guide to Marketing on Instagram Facebook Ads: The Beginner’s Guide to the Facebook Pixel 5 Powerful Tools for Growing Your Business on Pinterest Deploy Even if you’ve automated everything from go-live sale prices to social posts and emails, make sure you’re on hand to check that everything deploys smoothly and on time. Shopify 24/7 Support is ready to help you through the busy weekend. 💡 TIP: Submit your offer to deal aggregator sites like SlickDeals or RetailMeNot. 3. Reflect Before executing your campaign, be sure you understand how you will track its success. Results will help inform future marketing efforts. Split test email subject lines, track the success of discount codes, understand Shopify Analytics, and use UTMs to track referral sources to your sale collection or landing page. When your deal expires, look at the results. Was it worth it? What worked? What didn’t? Additional reading: Google Analytics for Ecommerce: A Beginner’s Guide 32 Key Performance Indicators for Ecommerce 💡 TIP: Have a follow-up strategy to keep existing and new customers engaged beyond BFCM. Anti-Black Friday campaigns Many merchants elect to not participate in Black Friday or Cyber Monday in a traditional way or even at all. When we visited merchants across North America, we discovered that small businesses approached the weekend much differently than their massive chain counterparts. Here are a few ways to (not) participate: Small Business Saturday This Saturday focuses on supporting small businesses—almost the antithesis to the winding lineups outside of Best Buy. Appeal to consumers looking to support small and local businesses for their holiday shopping. Tell your brand’s story in your campaigns. Giving Tuesday While everyone’s suffering buyer’s remorse, this is the time to draw customers to your store with the promise of regaining a little good karma. Typically on Giving Tuesday, “offers” are in fact in the form of donations to charity or 1-for-1 campaigns. Charity partnerships Outside of Giving Tuesday, extend the good-deed-doing through the entire weekend by partnering with a charity in line with your business or values. During a past BFCM weekend, Goods Shop found that their customers embraced the donation-over-deals approach and “no one left empty-handed”. Opting out Probably the most famous example of Black Friday Cyber Monday push-back is Cards Against Humanity’s annual stunts—in 2015, they sold “nothing” at $5 a pop. Outdoor gear retailer Rei gained massive press attention with their #OptOutside campaign, in which they close their stores and encourage their employees and customers to spend the day, err, not spending. While the chain may not be generating a cent that day, the hashtag yields 1.8 million Instagram results—valuable brand reach that keeps on giving beyond BFCM. Planning ahead You may have been late to the game this year, but there’s still time to change your feet-dragging ways. Use your learnings from your 2019 efforts to start planning for next year. Don’t let it creep up again! Another year will pass quickly for a busy entrepreneur. About the author Dayna Winter Dayna Winter is a Storyteller at Shopify, curious about the humans behind the brands and the moments that motivate them to create. She follows more dogs than humans on Instagram and isn’t a real redhead.
For many merchants, Black Friday Cyber Monday planning started months ago. While you don’t need to let the rush pressure you into a bad decision—BFCM is just the start of the rest of the holiday shopping season, after all—you can still participate as an independent merchant by employing a little creativity. From one last-minute junkie to another, a tight deadline is a great motivator. Here’s your 3-step guide to planning and executing a last-minute Black Friday Cyber Monday promotion. 1. Plan Are you ready? Is your store in a good state to handle a surge in sales? Shopify has your back when your store floods with traffic, but the rest is up to you. Do you have the inventory? Do you have the infrastructure in place to handle an uptick in customer service inquiries? Can you ship everything on time? If you answered “yes”, let’s get rolling! What’s your offer? While customers expect steep deals, you are not Wal-Mart. Drastically slashing prices just isn’t feasible for most small businesses. There are other meaningful ways to participate in BFCM and still reward your customers without making a huge dent in your bottom line. Win-win. How much will your discount be? Will it apply to everything or specific collections or products? Are there other ways to reward your customers without killing your margin? There are several options, including: Unique coupon codes for specific customer groups Site-wide sale with a universal coupon code Sale products or collections (no code required) Gift or gift card with minimum purchase Free shipping Implementation You can implement and communicate your plan in a number of ways. If your offer itself isn’t a “door crasher”, your approach can still create some buzz. Make it creative and interactive, inspire urgency or anticipation, and consider exclusive loyalty offers. Here are some ideas (with real examples from other retailers) to inspire your own campaign: Gift guide or gift-giving themes: Remind your customers of the impending holiday season, and the urgency to start shopping. Link to holiday-themed or gift-giving collections. Studies show that consumers are eager for holiday content as early as Halloween. Timed deals: Create excitement with new deals released every hour or at different intervals throughout the weekend. Sneak peek or pre-sale: Allow social followers and email subscribers early access to view or apply the deal. “Door crasher”, early access, or limited-quantity promotions: Reward early birds and create a sense of urgency, exclusivity, or scarcity. Extend your sale: Catch the procrastinators or anyone who missed the buying frenzy, and extend your deals through or past the weekend. Release a new or seasonal product or collection: Give current customers a reason to come back for new products that are also on sale. Gift with purchase: Add the element of suspense by offering a “mystery gift” with minimum purchase. image: Ulta Gift cards as gifts-with-purchase: Give a $10 gift card (valid only after January 1st) to customers who purchase over $100, for example, to extend the relationship with the customer through the holidays. 💡 TIP: Now might be the right time to update the look of your gift cards with seasonal themes. Run a contest or giveaway: Use Shopify’s integration with Gleam to generate anticipation for your promotion and build your email list Establish terms What are the terms and conditions of your offer? How will you communicate terms clearly to your customers to avoid disappointment or customer service nightmares? 💡 TIPS: Establish clear start and end dates and times for each offer. What is the discount? Is there a minimum order value to be eligible for the deal? Set conditions on the Discounts page. Are there any excluded products? Clearly identify these terms in your fine print. Is the offer exclusive to certain customers or regions? Targeted email communication is best for this type of deal. If you’re offering free shipping, are any countries excluded? This is also a good time to set up your shipping calendar with order-by dates to receive products in time for Christmas. Schedule Create a content calendar for your campaign that accounts for every step. When will social posts and emails deploy? What will be scheduled automatically and what tasks will be implemented manually. Do you have a team? Who is responsible for what? Set up your sale collections to launch on time using Future Publishing. Be sure to schedule email and social communication throughout the campaign—teasers, reminders, and “last chance” notifications. 2. Execute Assets and copy Create and schedule all of your emails, blog posts, and social content upfront to free up your time to manage the influx of sales and customer service inquiries during the busiest shopping season of the year. What assets do you need to create? Consider: Website: home page, landing page, banners, pop-ups, collection headers Email: template and banners Social: network-specific posts If you’re not a designer (or don’t have the budget to hire one), there are plenty of free, beautiful graphics and photos, plus tools to quickly put them all together. Layer type over free stock images from Burst using a tool like Canva, and create graphics from scratch using a free Photoshop alternative like Gimp. 💡 TIP: Keep your imagery and messaging consistent across all channels, but optimize copy to suit each social audience or customer group. Free stock photos by Burst Create social graphics with Canva Set up your store To discount only certain products in your shop (with no code required), set sale prices by adjusting the regular and “compare at prices” of those products, then create a Black Friday Cyber Monday collection with automatic conditions. Alternately, you can use an app like Bold Discounts to easily apply deals to products by brand, type, or collection. For a site-wide discount, you can opt to create discount codes that customers apply at checkout. If your deal is free shipping, either add a free shipping rate or create a shipping discount code. What other apps can you integrate with your store to help your campaign? Check out 11 Shopify Apps to Help You Sell Your Best This Black Friday Cyber Monday. Install a live chat app to help alleviate the customer service crush, and respond to support issues in real-time. Free Reading List: How to Brand Your Business A great brand can help your products stand out from the crowd. Get a crash course in small business branding with our free, curated list of high-impact articles.
Frozen II – 2019 Movie November 24, 2019 bizadmin King Agnarr of Arendelle tells a story to his young children Elsa and Anna, that their grandfather King Runeard, established a treaty with the tribe of Northuldra by building a dam in the Northuldra’s homeland, the Enchanted Forest. However, a fight occurs, resulting in Runeard’s death. The battle enrages the elemental spirits of water, fire, earth, and air of the forest. The spirits disappear and a wall of mist encases everyone in the forest. Runeard’s son Prince Agnarr barely escapes with the help of an unknown savior. Three years after her coronation, Queen Elsa of Arendelle celebrates autumn in the kingdom with her younger sister Princess Anna, Olaf the snowman, Kristoff the kingdom’s ice harvester, and Kristoff’s reindeer Sven. When Elsa hears a mysterious voice calling out to her, she follows it and unintentionally awakens the elemental spirits, which forces everyone in the kingdom to evacuate. Grand Pabbie and the Trolls colony, aware of the situation, arrive at Arendelle and Pabbie informs them that they must set things right by discovering the truth about the kingdom’s past. Elsa, Anna, Olaf, Kristoff, and Sven embark on the Enchanted Forest, following the mysterious voice. After the mist parts at Elsa’s touch, the air spirit, in the form of a tornado, appears and sweeps everyone in its vortex. Elsa stops it by firing streams of snow, forming a set of ice sculptures. They discover the sculptures are images from their father’s past and that their mother, Queen Iduna, was a Northuldra who saved Agnarr. They encounter the Northuldra and a troop of Arendellian soldiers who are still in conflict with one another. The fire spirit appears Elsa discovers it to be an agitated magical salamander and calms it down. Elsa and Anna form a truce between the soldiers and the Northuldra by explaining that their mother was Northuldran and their father was Arendellian. Elsa later learns the existence of a fifth spirit who will unite people and the magic of nature. Elsa continues to head north with Anna and Olaf. They find their parents’ shipwreck and a map with a route to Ahtohallan, a mythical river told by their mother to contain all explanations of the past. Feeling guilty that her parents were lost at sea in search of answers to her magical powers, Elsa decides to travel alone and sends Anna and Olaf away to safety. Elsa encounters and tames Nokk, the water spirit who guards the sea to Ahtohallan. Reaching Ahtohallan, Elsa discovers that the voice was the call of Iduna, and that her powers were a gift from the magic of nature because of Iduna’s selfless act of saving Agnarr, making Elsa the fifth spirit who unites differences. Elsa wields her mother’s mantle and also learns that the dam was built as a ruse to reduce the Northuldra’s resources because of Runeard’s dislike of the tribe’s connection with magic and that Runeard was the one who initiated the conflict by killing the unarmed leader of the Northuldra. Elsa sends this information to Anna before becoming frozen, having ventured into the most dangerous part of Ahtohallan, which in turn causes Olaf to fade away. Anna receives Elsa’s message and concludes that the dam must be destroyed for peace to be restored. Anna finds and awakens the sleeping gigantic earth spirits, and lures them towards the dam, which is destroyed by boulders hurled by the giants. Elsa thaws out and returns to Arendelle, stopping a flood from the destroyed dam. As the wall of mist disappears, Elsa reunites with Anna and revives Olaf. Kristoff proposes marriage to Anna, who happily accepts. Elsa explains that she and Anna are now the bridge between the people and the magical spirits. Anna becomes the Queen of Arendelle, while Elsa becomes the protector of the Enchanted Forest who regularly visits Arendelle as peace is restored in all the lands.
Use Your Double Portion of Speaking Power November 23, 2019 bizadmin But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people… 1 Peter 2:9 USE YOUR DOUBLE PORTION OF SPEAKING POWER God calls us “a royal priesthood.” This means that we are kings as well as priests under the king-priesthood of Jesus Christ. This has never happened before in the history of God’s people. In the Old Testament, kings and priests were two distinct groups of people. You were either a king or priest, but not both at the same time. Today, because we are in Christ, we are king-priests—a royal priesthood. This means that we have a double portion of speaking power because as kings, “Where the word of a king is, there is power” (Ecclesiastes 8:4), and as priests, “by their word every controversy and every assault shall be settled” (Deuteronomy 21:5). So if you are a Christian businessman, you will have an edge over worldly businessmen. What you say about your business deals will come to pass. And if you are falsely accused, know that by your every word, every controversy and every assault will be settled! And as a king-priest parent, when you bless your children, your words have the power to set in motion supernatural events which will bring them into God’s abundance and superabounding grace. And there will be such an act of courage and resilience about them that it will empower them to win the fights of life! When the devil comes to you and says that you will die young because your father and grandfather died young, or that you will never be successful because you are not well-educated, you must remember that the devil is neither a king nor a priest. There is no power in his words. But there is power in yours because you are a king-priest in Christ! So instead of agreeing with him, believe and declare, “I will not die young. With long life, He will satisfy me and show me His salvation!” Say, “The Lord will make my way prosperous and give me good success!” Use your double portion of speaking power and see these blessings come to pass! -Joseph Prince
Rose Quartz Roller November 20, 2019 bizadmin Because of continuous contact with pollution, airborne dust, and dangerous sun rays, our skin develops wrinkles, brown spots, blackheads, acne and pigmentation. There are lots of surgical and non-surgical skin enhancement treatments open to help make your skin look rejuvenated, spotless and youthful. Among the non-surgical category, facial remedies are the most typical and popular treatment. For more information on rose quartz roller, visit our store today. Facials are often offered at salons and health spa centers. They are very relaxing, rejuvenating and advantageous for that skin. There are lots of kinds of facial treatments available, which utilize different techniques and facial kits with respect to the skin types preferred finish results and also the maturity when the skin. There are two fundamental techniques employed for facials: On the job and Electrotherapy. The ‘hands-on’ technique uses special stimulating hand movements and massage movements, that remove the dead skin in the face, reduces wrinkles, stimulates the generation of recent cells and removes blackheads. The electrotherapy electronic hands-held products are used and no hands movements are utilized. Both their very own specified benefits and advantages. Hands-On Facial Treatment: During these treatments, the counselor or beautician uses her hands for massaging the face. No electronics, except a steam machine, are utilized within this process. Facial kits utilized in these treatments are oil or cream-based. Essential oils, gels or moisturizing creams may be used, based upon the kind of skin, the maturity of skin, and also the treatment. Gels are mainly employed for oily, and acne-prone skins and oils or moisturizing creams can be used for dry to normalcy and matured skin types. Clay or dirt based face pack can be used following the cleansing process and the steam process (optional) has ended to shut outdoors pores and also to provide diet towards the skin. Sometimes for sensitive skins, a removable face mask can also be used. These masks are lightly taken off in the face once they dry out. This remove mask also works being an uplifting treatment because it tightens the skin. Electrotherapy Facial treatment: These treatments use machines, mostly hands held, for facials. You will find essentially three kinds of most generally used electrotherapy treatments, based upon the skin types. High-Frequency Treatments: Gauze is positioned around the face along with a glass electrode that has ignored the face. Laser hair removal is most effective for shiny and acne-prone skin because it works well for becoming dry spots and it has antibacterial effects. For Dry to normalcy skin types, indirect frequency treatment methods are used. Galvanic Treatments: An energetic component is introduced deep into the facial skin by metal rollers massaging the skin. Appropriate for those skin types. Microcurrent Treatments: this facial can be used for uplifting the facial skin as well as for improving the skin texture and color. Looking for the best facial roller massager? Visit us for the best deals on quality supplements. All of the above pointed out facial treatments work well for increasing the texture, quality and search from the facial skin and imparts a youthful and spotless look.
Photo to Oil Painting November 20, 2019 bizadmin Painting your dog portrait from a photo may be the preferred approach to portraying the personality of the favorite pet. Their never-ending reserves of one allow it to be challenging to color them. A video camera can also be in a position to capture every nuance of the dog’s expression and playful antics, which could then be used in your canvas. Good Lighting to take Photos Sunlight is the greatest for dog photos to prevent red or “demon” eye appearance from the flash. Whenever your pet is outdoors, they pose more naturally and provide lots of possibilities for doing things shots. If being outdoors isn’t feasible, make use of a room having a large window. Pose Carefully and Take Multiple Shots Recording your pet in various poses enables you to choose which one defines his personality the very best. Vary the shots by including close-ups. Individuals frequently take advantage of dramatic portraits. Most breeds of dogs look better using their mouths open when posing for any picture. To do this, possess the dog play just a little to encourage them to pant. Transforming an image right into a Painting After you have a personality defining photograph, you are prepared to paint. Gather all your materials and begin mixing colors. If free-hands sketching is tough, you could transfer the outline using tracing paper. You should use 1 of 2 means of this, glue the tracing paper straight to the canvas having a spray adhesive, or make use of a marker which will “bleed” with the tracing paper. Looking for a photo to oil painting ? Visit our website today! Take notice of the Eyes Just like people, a dog’s eyes would be the window to the soul. Read the photo for technical detail in addition to expression. Make sure to squeeze highlight properly, therefore, the eyes have a natural expression. For the best portrait painting visit, us today! Painting Fur This is actually the most difficult facet of painting your dog portrait from a photo. Spend some time with this particular because the dog’s coat is its leading physical characteristic. Older dogs have a tendency to turn grey in the muzzle as well as solid color dogs may have variations of hue inside their jackets. Fur not just varies colored but additionally in texture and growth direction too. Some artists discover that glazes provide a natural appearance when adding highlights. Practice on the spare canvas until you’re certain of the technique. Your persistence is going to be rewarded by producing a direct result which you’ll be proud!
God is Raining Blessings on You November 20, 2019 bizadmin The Lord will open to you His good treasure, the heavens, to give the rain to your land in its season, and to bless all the work of your hand. You shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow. Deuteronomy 28:12 GOD IS RAINING BLESSINGS ON YOU In the Bible, rain usually speaks of blessings. Even today, Israelis thank God when it rains because they know that when He gives them rain, their blessings will be plentiful. Their cattle will feed in large green pastures and eat cured, winnowed fodder. And when they see rivers and streams of water flowing from their mountains and hills (see Isaiah 30:23–25), they know that times of refreshing have come. Likewise, you can expect God to rain His blessings on you and bless the work of your hands. Then, you will come to a place where you will “lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow.” In fact, Jesus wants you to know that this is a blessing that He died to give you because when He died, He did not even have a tomb of His own. He was laid in a borrowed tomb so that you can have the power to lend. Indeed, our church bears testimony to this blessing. When I first joined the church full-time, it was very small—about 100-odd members. The Lord has, however, rained His blessings on us and blessed the work of our hands. Today, we have a congregation of more than 30,000 members and we are still growing. In fact, our church is lending its support to many ministries, both locally and overseas. We continue to see God pouring His blessings of provision and increase on us, and we thank Him for all the good things that are happening to us. My friend, there is nothing you can do about the rain but to let it fall. So just expect God to rain His blessings on you! Let them fall! And you will be blessed with more than enough, so that with your needs and your family’s needs more than met, you can be a blessing to others too! -Joseph Prince