Looking for a catch all solution for your e-commerce presence is challenging. Did you realize that there are over 500 solutions out there? It’s enough to drive a business owner crazy. Today, I’d like to focus on two well-loved companies: Volusion and Shopify . I’d like to describe what they have in common and what makes them stand out. Hopefully this can help you make a decision when trying to decide which one to work with. Both are excellent, solid solutions that can help you increase your online sales.

First, let’s look at the similar features of the hosted solutions:

*Both companies have a base price starting at $29.99 monthly

*They both offer hosted solutions. Unlike other e-commerce solutions, both companies host the actual e-commerce stores and transactions and offer support through email and phone. They both upgrade and repair their software, handle bandwidth and security as well.

*They both offer to help you build a store with your own domain.

*Both work and integrate with most shipping providers (UPS, USPS, Fedex)

Here’s a look at some of the major differences:

Volusion:

*Provides extras features SSL certificates,  merchant accounts, live chat software, and integrating with social networking options.

*Their Shopping cart features real-time inventory management, batch order processing, and an integrated editor to make creating content pages simple.

*RSS feeds can be added to the dashboard and include free customizable, free website templates.

*They offer security alerts, step-by-step training videos

*Allows your customers to create wish lists, or email item information to a friend or even post customer reviews.

Shopify:

*Default theme includes easy-to-use product management tools to help business owners manage and track inventory and online orders.

*Ability to tag keywords for Search Engine Optimization and flexible layout of dynamic content.

*A wide variety of design, product management, online ordering, admin interface, and marketing tools. From the backend, you can have complete control over the HTML and CSS.

*Drag and drop ordering of product images

I’ve spoked with different businesses about which solution they preferred and the answers is usually “it depends”. I think it boils down to what features you are looking for, what’s important to you, how you run your current business (do you only have an online presence or are you only a brick and mortar store?) and many other factors. I hope this review can help you make that decision and help you move closer to using the best solution for your business.

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Who knew ten years ago that we would be reading books electronically?  Access to E-books sales are increasing. Just late last year, Google opened up their eBookstore that sells e-books that accessible from any web-enabled computer or mobile phone. The next day Amazon announced that they expanded the Kindle for the web to enable anyone with access to a web browser to buy and read full Kindle books without requiring a download or installation of the Kindle reader application.

What if you wanted to sell e-books on your own or other electronic products?

E-junkie.com is one of the major e-commerce provider that specializes in helping bloggers and other sell products online.

Here’s a list why it’s a good option:

1) Affordable – You can sign up for their free 7 day trial, they don’t require billing details or money up front. Their monthly plans start at $5 if you are only selling 10 items or less, so that’s a nice price break.

2) Secure – It’s important that people can’t access your products without purchasing them.

One feature you can use for e-books is the PDF stamping security. Each buyer of an e-book receives a copy stamped with their purchase information and transaction ID so you can identify who is giving away the product without your consent.

3) Easy to Use – they provide code you can copy and paste

Here’s a run down of how E-junkie works:

• Customer clicks to buy/download your product
• E-Junkie sends them to Paypal or another payment processor to pay (skip this step for free products)
• Once they’ve paid they are automatically re-directed to E-Junkie
• Your customer goes to your E-Junkie thank you page where there is a link to download the product
• E-Junkie also sends your customer an email with the download link for their purchase, this link can be set by you to expire after a certain number of hours
• You receive an email from E-Junkie letting them know you have made a sale

You can set it up to have different sales taxes for different states and a shipping and packaging calculator as well! You can also manage inventory and apply discounts based on order quantity or coupon codes.

4) Email Building List – Customers are placed in a “buyers” email group so you can send them newsletters or product information. There is an additional charge to send emails and you can’t  integrate an existing email list into their system so that’s somewhat limiting.

Supported Payment Processors

• PayPal Website Payments
• PayPal Website Payments Pro
• PayPal Payflow Pro
• Google Checkout
• Authorize.NET
• TrialPay
• 2CheckOut
• ClickBank

One more perk:

If you use Wordpress for your website, there is a plugin (WP e-junkie) that allows you to easily copy and paste their code.

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Need a good reason to try and sell products online? More and more folks are finding innovative ways to reach a variety of customers. I’d like to share some predictions on trends and habits of consumers that will make 2011 an amazing year to shop online!

1) Random Acts of Kindness

Following the path made by Zappos (randomly sending flowers to customers or giving them free shipping) has established performing random acts of kindness online as hip. It also satisfies a need or craving for human contact and to make the world a better place.

One example of this is a flower delivery service Interflora. They launched a social media campaign in the UK designed to brighten up the lives of Twitter users by sending them flowers. Interflora simply monitored Twitter,  looking for users that they can cheer up. Once found, the users are contacted via a tweet, and sent a bouquet of flowers as a surprise.

2) Group buying and more…

Groupon has changed how we look at discounts and purchasing a “deal”.  This movement has started a large trend toward collective buying with social networking expanding the reach of information.

Expect to see similar Groupon websites pop up this year, along with a focus on member sales: exclusive membership to receive discounts. Some of these sites might be by invite-only. This is happening in mostly fashion focused businesses but expanding to travel and furniture as well.

3) Flash sales

Flash sales use both time-limiting and frequency offers to encourage impulse buying.

Threadless has done a great job on demonstrating this type of sale over the last year, offering a special t-shirt sale every so often. This sale is limited to certain sizes/styles of t-shirt and must be purchased with a 24 hour timeframe. Threadless blasts the sale over Facebook, Twitter, and email newsletters and it’s proven successful!

4) Local discounts

Location based services are really taking off! With the help of mobile apps using geo-location such as Foursquare and other technologies, it gives businesses the ability to focus on regions. One aspect is having small businesses offer special deals to locals. The use of social media to hype/promote has made a huge impact and keeps spreading the word.

A good example of this is how Starbucks was one of the first to extend the “local store mayor” specials to all it’s stores with a single $1 Frappuchino coupon for any Starbucks mayor at any Starbucks. Read more about how it was executed.

5) Social-lites

Social-lites is a label for those folks who want to try new things, are  very curious about new products & services and will actively promote and share what they discover. They are all over Twitter and Facebook. Some might have their own blog, but they can be one of your biggest allies if they rave about your product. Once you’ve won them over with your business, what they announce can worth 10x more than a paid advertisement!

Both Yelp and Amazon are great examples of where the social-lites hang out. Yelp allows members to post about their experience at different restaurants and other establishments and that post can also be broadcast onto the Facebook platform, even spreading the review even further.

Amazon reviews of products have literally changed how we shop online. How often do many of us visit amazon.com before purchasing something, if only to read the reviews and overall rating for a product? It’s become a very powerful, entertaining, and persuasive way to share knowledge about an experience with a product, including the good, the bad, and the ugly!

6) Netflix treatment

Consumers are realizing they are enjoying ‘renting’ some items instead of buying them. It’s the overall new wave of Access vs. Ownership. We are seeing this huge trend through movie rentals, video games, cars, and other so-called luxury items. It has the power to make people feel more eco-conscious and less wasteful. As a business, it’s an opportunity to provide a more sustainable way to rent instead of offering purchased items.

A great example is the streaming content Netflix is offering. Recently, they began allowing a select group of movies and TV shows to be streamed onto your TV via the internet and through a game console such as the PS3 or a similar device. For a small fee, you can access this content at any time, on your TV. Articles have been written in Wired magazine and other places how Netflix is beginning to replace cable with the streaming option. Talk about a powerful way to make an impression.

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2010 is ending and 2011 is just around the corner. I’d love to share a review of some of the more popular posts Blue Deer Designs had in 2010. Wishing you a prosperous and wonderful beginning to your business New Year!

1) Top 3 Wordpress Shopping Cart / e commerce Plugins

(a great review of the pros & cons of plugins such as Shopp, WP Ecommerce, and PHPurchase)

2) Selling on Facebook: Core Commerce vs. Payvment

(selling your products on Facebook is the next big thing, learn a few ways to approach it!)

3) Best Business Apps for Smart Phones

(some time saving and business solutions, let your phone work for you!)

4) 7 Ways to making a WordPress Website Secure

(Making sure your Wordpress website is safe and secure can ease your mind and prevent a lot of frustration)

5) Why you should never eat alone!

Have you read “Never Eat Alone” by Keith Ferazzi? If not, this post might influence you to do it.

Happy New Year! See you in 2011!

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Sales results for 2010 are impressive! Black Friday saw $648 million in online sales, making it the heaviest online spending day so far, a 9% increase from last year. You know how it happened? Social networking, email, mobile marketing, websites, blogs, video and more!

Let’s take a moment to focusing on one of the ways stores achieved these numbers: Shopping on Facebook!  How easy is it to list your products on Facebook and create sales?

Some e-commerce solutions offer Facebook integration. It’s important to evaluate if Facebook is a good market for your services and products. For example, this could reflect how many fans you’ve grown in the past year through marketing on your Facebook business page. It’s also important to see what options you have with your current e-commerce platform. Do they make it easy to sell on Facebook?  In this article, I’d like to explore how two companies are helping businesses sell on Facebook.

One of the opportunities of having your products within Facebook’s framework is

• using the “Like” button for specific products
• getting comments on products and services
• customers can easily share the product’s info amongst friends
• get more exposure, leading to more online sales!

Core Commerce offers a Social Commerce application, a Facebook application, that allows you sell your products directly on your Facebook profile or page. An example of this is setting up a tab within your Facebook’s business page called “my store”. Inside this tab, the Social Commerce application is installed and customers can view specific products the business allows to be displayed. Customers can add these items directly to their cart and checkout through Core Commerce.

One example of a business using Core Commerce’s Social Commerce is Petandkennelsupply.com. If you visit their Facebook page, you can see that they set up a “My Store” that displays certain products. This is a very simple version of the application because as soon as you click a link to an item within the Facebook store, it immediately takes you to their main website to purchase the product.

Payvment is also offering a solution for business owners to sell on Facebook. Payvment allows you to build your Facebook storefront by uploading photos, setting prices, and more. It is TRUSTe certified, ensuring you with online privacy and safety. It works to allow customers to stay with Facebook’s comfort Zone, never having to leave the site. As a business owner, you can also add special discounts and “Like” to products, which contributes to a higher visibility.

An example of a store using Payvment’s Facebook feature is Grayce by Molly Sims. If you go to the Facebook page, you can see the list of products and if you click on one, you are taken to a page that pulls up Payvment E-Commerce Storefront Application which asks you to allow to share info. Once that is authorized, you are able to purchase the item. A nice feature of Payvment is that you never leave  Facebook’s website to make the purchase. You are also able to “share” and talk about the product.

Have any of you tried using these services or have found alternatives? Facebook is one of the most visited websites on the internet at this moment. Keeping in mind, it’s really about sharing and community building can help you keep perspective on if it would work as an outlet for your business.

Right now, using Payvment is free. You can manage inventory and storefront sales. No merchant account required, just use Paypal or Google Checkout.

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