Having a home based or online business means you need a way to process payments from your customers. Accepting credit cards is absolutely necessary if you want to accept payment online. Imagine what would happen if you allowed customers to place orders on your website, but then required them to mail a check or money order before they could finish their purchase? Chances are, you'd lose every customer to your competitor's website where they could finish their purchase immediately by entering their credit card details for payment.
Choosing a payment processor or merchant account for your business can be overwhelming - you want to choose the one with the features you need and that will charge you the lowest fees. Luckily, you have many options and a variety of payment processors that offer different features that should accommodate whatever industry your business is in.
Merchant Account Options for Internet and Home-based Businesses
Home-based and internet businesses have a number of options for accepting credit cards from their clients. Where as retailers use a card reader to accept credit cards face-to-face, an internet business needs an online method for securely accepting cards as payment. Internet business owners can choose between a merchant account with a banking institution, independent sales organization or third party payment processor. Many merchant account providers have high approval rates, even with less than perfect credit ratings of applicants, and offer a variety of special features and options for an internet-based or home-based business.
Third Party Providers
When you use a third party provider to accept credit card payments, the customers payment gets deposited into a merchant account that works with the third party provider. Then you can transfer the funds to your bank account. This process can take several days from the time the customer pays and the time you can access the money and if you choose a fraudulent business as the third party provider, you may not see the funds from your transactions. Do your research carefully if working with a third party provider rather than a merchant account directly, to ensure they are a reputable business.
Merchant Accounts with Banks
When you open a merchant account with a bank, you have the confidence that the banking institution is secure and dependable. Online businesses may have a harder time opening a merchant account with a traditional banking institution however, as they are seen as a higher risk than a retailer with a physical location. You're also more likely to find yourself with a closed merchant account if you have charge backs from your internet business.
Independent Sales Organizations
For new businesses or business owners with less than perfect credit, using an independent sales organization is a good option for accepting online payments. Most of the time this type of organization is going to charge higher fees than other methods of accepting credit cards, but it's a good option for businesses who need to establish their credit before they can get other forms of merchant accounts.
Getting Paid from Credit Card Payments
When your customers pay for their purchases with credit cards, the funds are automatically moved from the merchant account to your business bank account. Fees are charged by the bank, third party processor or independent sales organization. The higher your sales volume, the lower the fees you'll be charged.
You have a number of choices for accepting credit card payments. Make sure to weigh your options and the fees each option charges before making a decision for which company to use as your payment processor.
I recently became affiliated with an organization whose goal in a teeny-tiny nutshell is to help others. It is the lifelong brain child of a long lost friend of mine. Through "divine timing" as he calls it, our paths crossed and here we are. Since I'm the Internet guy, I decided to help out by buying the domains he will need to progress. I find out that he lost his primary domain by changing his email address and the domain expired. He didn't get the renewal notices and the domain expired and was picked up by someone else. This is the golden domain. The big one. The primo domain for his organization. In the hands of someone else. My thoughts were a domain broker with a Mercedes.
We consulted back and forth for a while and decided to contact the domain owner and see if they were willing to sell. It was a private registration and not listed as available to buy so I was not very hopeful. I've bought domains before. I've had clients pay over $100,000 for a domain and I recently acquired one for just over $14,000. I think the cheapest I've ever paid for a domain from someone was $500. My friend and I decided we could spend about $100 for the domain. Remember, this is a new organization with little to no actual money but a line of people wanting some.
I sent an email to the domain owner on Thursday morning. Two hours later I get a reply stating the domain wasn't really for sale, but what am I willing to give for it. That was it. No way could we afford to buy it. I told my friend we might as well give up. I'll reply with our offer but we better start working on an alternate plan.
He tells me to just reply with the truth and let it roll. So Friday morning I reply;
"....The previous owner of the domain didn't update his new email address and didn't realize the domain had expired. It is being set up for a charity website that does job training and job placement. It's been in the works for over 15 years now and we are now incorporated and in the final stages of approval and getting this started. We realize this is not your concern but wanted to let you know we aren't deep pockets. We'd like to offer $100 to acquire the domain...."
Yeah, right. I barely wanted to even sign my name to that. No way would I get a response now. The domain owner probably fell out of their chair laughing. Friday afternoon comes and goes. No two hour response time anymore.
Later Monday morning I received an email from the domain owner. A reply! A spark of hope! I open an email which reads:
"Hi Michael, I'm sorry for the delayed response. After considering everything that is going on in my life and in the life of the citizens of Haiti, I would like to offer it to you for the price that you listed ($100) but please donate the money to an organization that will send the money for relief. I will honor your word if you are willing to donate it. Let me know what the process will be in order for you to obtain the domain name. Many Blessings to you, ~ Mabel ~ "
The Angels started circling and singing in my office. I started thinking about how my family adopted our last child. We try to help an orphanage in Mexico and sponsor a girl in Africa. Both my brother and sister have adopted children and do charitable things, my sister-in-law is heavy into Habitat for Humanity, my Dad has his own list of donations and the list goes on. Maybe she is for real and just wants to do her thing to help out a little bit. We all do our good deeds but still focus on the negatives in people. Mabel is the spark of hope that we all need sometimes!
It's now Wednesday night and the domain has been transferred to my registry account and the organization has it's domain. The children of Haiti have $100 and I have a new friend; Mabel.
And Everyone else should have a renewed Faith in Humanity!
Is your website up and working properly? I received a call from my sister over the weekend who stated she published her Yahoo Store website and since the publish, could not add any items to the shopping cart.
This type of thing rarely happens at 11:00am on a Wednesday when everyone is in the office. No, Whenever Yahoo or Google have a meltdown for whatever reason or wants to reject an ad, it occurs at 10:00pm on a Friday or Saturday night. My sister called me around 2:00pm on Saturday afternoon as I was driving in the country looking at property with one of my kids. Over 30 minutes from home and an Internet connection (There is only so much one can do with an iPhone!)
Yahoo stated in an email sent to customers today that it had a power outage...
"Dear Yahoo! Merchant Solutions customer, We experienced short service interruptions that were noted on our system status page. These affected, at different intervals, page-serving and add-to-cart functionality for some visitors to Yahoo! Merchant Solutions and Yahoo! Store sites. As a result of this short service interruption, some merchants were also unable to access their Store Manager for a period of time. We would like to take this opportunity to apologize for these interruptions, and to provide you with information on their root cause."
The letter further goes on to explain what happened and the safety precautions in place to prevent further disruptions and so forth. It was a nice, informative letter and I'm sure much appreciated by the customers.
I believe my sisters problem was an affect of this power outage. I went home and her website was performing fine. I published a few times and all seemed to be in working order. Only my Saturday afternoon activities were cut short. Maybe Yahoo should send my son a t-shirt or something to make up for his lost afternoon.
Anyway, things happen and sites go down periodically. It's a fact of life. But you should know exactly when and for how long these events take place. Don't just assume you had a bad sales day when in reality your Google PPC was turned off for reaching it's budget or you accidentally password protected your entire website (Yes, this happened to a client once! See below)
All Web Promotion monitors several clients' websites roughly every 10 minutes. Meaning if there site ever goes down, I'm paged within 20 minutes of the failure. I monitor pages within the website as well as the secure shopping cart. I'm working on a program that will actually add an item to the shopping cart to ensure all aspects of the site are operational.
We also monitor Google Pay Per Click accounts. Meaning if your Google account is ever shut off due to reaching it's budget limit or some other reason, we are paged as well.
Along with monitoring, I have systems in place that automatically read email and if an email is received that contains a pre-programmed actionable trigger, I get paged and the email forwarded to my phone.
I do all these things not because I like to ruin my nights and weekends but I feel you need to know when something isn't working right. Some clients pay me money to ensure there site is monitored and all systems are a go. (Yes, I charge my sister. It's payback for her picking on me while growing up)
Why I started Monitoring Websites: One Saturday afternoon I was having lunch with my wife and her family at a restaurant (Pappa's in Spring Valley) when I received a phone call from a major client stating his website was not working. I went home and it turned out the client had password protected his entire website. Yahoo Stores have the ability to set up an account access which basically password protects the entire site. He accidentally activated this feature the day before and didn't know how. Because his sales stopped, he figured his website had a problem. He lost 2 days worth of sales because of this. Fortunately, it wasn't my error!
Pay Per Click Monitoring Scenario Client had a product that was mentioned on nationally syndicated TV show. The TV show drew so much click traffic that they exceeded daily budget and was shut off. Since sales were justified, we increased budget and client continued to receive sales.
In short, be prepared. Knowledge is Power. Know when your site is up and when and why it may be down! Contact me if you have any questions.
Google and Microsoft have both inked deals with Twitter, and Microsoft has also inked one with Facebook to integrate Twitter and Facebook updates into Bing search results. Google will be adding tweets to search results.
How cool is that? You need to be sure your accounts facilitate discussions and good keyword rich content. If you don't have a Twitter or Facebook account yet, now might be a good time to get one!
Yahoo has recently launched a new Access Manager. Now you have more options for the types of access you grant to others, so you can make sure your developers, order processors, and anyone else working on your store have only the access you want. With the new administrator role, for example, you can provide a user with access to both your Store Control Panel and your Web Hosting Control Panel. Other new roles are more focused to specific sections of your account. A store editor can work only with your site building tools, but won't see your site statistics, while a order processor can only see orders but can't modify store pages or catalog.
I have taken most of the different access levels and placed them on a spreadsheet for easier referencing. Please let me know if you want a copy of the spreadsheet.
This is a nice new feature and I encourage you all to reset your users to the best access levels. Certain people don't need access to store statistics, customer credit card data, etc.
If you have any questions or need help understanding this new feature, please let me know.
On July 29, 2009, Yahoo! and Microsoft announced an agreement that will improve the Web search experience for users and advertisers, and deliver sustained innovation to the industry.
After reading several posts and news articles full of opinions and forecasts, I decided to post a few facts that were mentioned on one site that was written in plain English meant something to me:
Microsoft's Bing will be the exclusive algorithmic search and paid search platform for Yahoo! sites.
Self-serve advertising for both companies will be fulfilled by Microsoft's AdCenter platform, and prices for all search ads will continue to be set by AdCenter's automated auction process.
The companies are hopeful that closing can occur in early 2010.
The companies have established a website at http://www.choicevalueinnovation.com to provide consumers, advertisers and publishers with additional information about the benefits of the agreement.
The transaction will be subject to regulatory review. (Insert my opinion here: Didn't Google try to get in bed with Yahoo and then back out after regulators said it would be a monopoly or something like that? I'm sure Google will try to block this somehow, won't they?)
Continuing with my opinion... Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz states, "With Microsoft powering Yahoo! Search, we'll be able to focus on the things we do best -- being the center of people's lives online with properties like our homepage, mail, finance, news, sports, entertainment, mobile, etc."
I live behind a corn field in Illinois. My idea of a traffic jam is a school bus or a tractor and I like it that way. I also have 5 kids, two of which are currently in High School.
We all know about the Columbine High School Massacre. That was all the way in Colorado. Must have been a big city, right? In the year 2000, my nearest town (Ottawa, Illinois) had a population of 18,307. Columbine, Colorado has a population of 24,095. But that crazy shooting stuff doesn't happen around me. We are safe.
I also live an hour away from Northern Illinois University and personally know 3 families that had kids directly affected by the shooting that ended with 21 people shot and 5 killed in February, 2008. My oldest starts College in 2 years.
Remember the Virginia Tech Massacre in 2007 that killed 32 people? The deadliest peacetime shooting incident by a single gunman in United States history, on or off a school campus. Both my brother and sister went to Virginia Tech. (Fortunately, not at that time)
I graduated Virginia Wesleyan College in 2004. In October, 2006 one of the security guards was killed by a knife-wielding attacker while making nighttime rounds on campus.
Still think I'm safe? My kids? Think you are safe? Your kids? What the heck is going on nowadays?
I predict you will either be on one side of the fence or another. Obviously these are extreme ends but one stating that we shouldn't glorify these deaths and create panic or the other side of arming your kids with bullet proof vests and possibly weapons of there own.
Being Web Designers, we do all kinds of work for all kinds of people. Imagine my surprise when I see information come across my desk about someone that sold bullet proof backpacks. Emotions ranged from interesting to rage. Interesting in the fact that it was a unique idea. Rage followed when I thought someone was trying to take advantage of today's violence in schools and instill fear in people.
After reviewing the website, BulletBlocker, I find the products were developed by a father who had 2 kids of his own. He saw a problem and reacted to it. He wasn't trying to capitalize on people's fear but provide some protection in a crazy time. I did pick up on the fact that these school killings are recent. Nothing bad happened when I went to school. Not to minimize Kent State or others but as far as I can remember, school shootings weren't really in the public eye. It just didn't happen. Now metal detectors and armed guards are commonplace.
As a Sociology major, I'd love to write about my thoughts pertaining to why these are crazy times, but let's focus on the BulletBlocker products. Regardless of what your personal beliefs are, this product is here and I'm willing to bet here to stay.
BulletBlocker products claim to be 100% Legal and state they are stylish Bulletproof Protection that you can afford. All BulletBlocker vests and backpacks are certified at NIJ Threat Level IIIA protection - the same quality of bullet proof protection that has saved over 3,000 police officer's lives.
My first question is, "What the heck is NIJ Threat Level IIIA protection and what does that mean to me?" After searching the web for a while, because I wanted my own opinion, not that of the vendor, I found:
Level IIIA offers the highest protection (most handgun calibers)
There's no such thing as a 'bullet-proof' vest. Any vest hit enough times, or by a high-velocity penetrating round, can fail. To help you determine how much stopping power you need against various weapons and bullets, the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) developed its Threat Level Matrix. NIJ Certification tests are performed at approved independent labs like H.P.White Laboratories, Inc. in Maryland.
...Level IIIA body armor provides the highest level of protection currently available from concealable body armor and is generally suitable for routine wear in many situations. However, departments located in hot, humid climates may need to evaluate the use of Level IIIA armor carefully.
I'm not a gun person and I'm still not sure exactly what it means, but everyone seems to agree that NIJ Threat Level IIIA protection is the best.
Does it work? When in doubt, search YouTube. Someone, somewhere had to shoot one of these things:
OK. So they actually do stop bullets. What about the style? Am I now carrying a 50 pound rucksack in addition to my 50 pounds of books? NO! I bought the Blue Executive Bullet Proof Backpack. It weighs a little more than a regular backpack, but the website does state the protection panel adds about 20 ounces. Note the protection panel does not seem to be accessible and I presume it can not be removed. The backpack is great and has pockets for everything.
I also bought the BulletProof Notebook. The original plan was to shoot at this one, but I feel enough people already did. I like the fact this notebook zips closed. It will most likely replace my current notebook that doesn't zip closed. I usually stuff it with client papers and don't always look the greatest at meetings. It also has many pockets and sleeves for notes, papers and pens. The 3-Ring binder capability is an added plus because it will allow me to add a few extra folders for even more client junk. It is not heavy and I believe the protective panel is behind the pad of paper and can be removed.
Both items arrived securely packaged and in good condition. They also came with a letter that I'm sure was written by the lawyers. It basically reads the items are sold "As Is" and the company is not liable for anything. The letter also includes a manufacture date and further states the items have a 5 year lifespan. I guess after 5 years, materials can break down and the bulletproof panels are not as good as when newer.
The only confusing part was the return policy. The website states two different policies:
If at any time, within 10 days of receiving your order, you are not satisfied with the fit, style, quality or design of a product(s), return the item(s) to us in like-new condition and we will refund your purchase price 100% or exchange the item. It's your choice.
Return Policy: Due to the nature of the products, under no circumstances will any returns be allowed, other than for defective manufacture.
BulletBlocker Warranty: BulletBlocker warranties all BulletBlocker products against defects in workmanship for 1 year from purchase date. and on and on....
In summary, the items were as advertised and seem to perform they way they were meant to perform. Would I buy all my kids one? I'm not sure. At $195 per backpack the price is very steep when you have 5 kids. Buying bulletproof inserts or bulletproof binders would be a cheaper alternative but the covered protection is less. When it comes to my kids, I'd rather them have more protection but you get what you can afford.
For smaller families, I would say a no brainer. Buy the backpack and hope it never has to be put to the test. Don't think that nothing can happen to you. The new school year is coming. Start saving now!
As for the backpack I bought. I will hand it down to my oldest son. He's currently taking the EMT class this summer at the local college and his current backpack has seen much better days. With only one more year of high school left, he can take it to college and hopefully never need to use it!
Please note this article is my own personal thoughts. I have not consulted with BulletBlocker nor there lawyers and I have written this solely because of BulletBlocker being such a unique product. I neither endorse this product nor not endorse it. However, if given the opportunity, I'll start selling them! How could you not? It's a great product for today's crazy times. Be sure you check out there website for more information, statistics and news stories: www.bulletblocker.com
If you receive copies of your Yahoo orders via fax, then you know that the fax feature has been "temporarily" disabled. Yahoo has posted an Outlook workaround for those of you who use Outlook as an email client. If you haven't read it, please go here: Yahoo Email Orders Help Article.
For those of you that don't use Outlook, or are Merchant Starters and don't have the order fax ability, here is your solution: Automatic Print Email
Here's how it works in a nutshell:
Set up a separate email address for orders only. (This is totally optional. But if you receive hundreds of orders daily, or don't want anyone accessing your email, it may be convenient.)
Set your Yahoo Manager to email your orders immediately and as an Adobe PDF attachment.
Load Automatic Print Email on a computer that will remain on. Set it up to read your email and set a filter to only print the order attachment. (My bigger accounts are set to check every 2 minutes.)
Watch the orders print automatically.
Once set up correctly, the Automatic Print Email software will log into your email account at pre-determined intervals set by you. It will scan your emails and print those that trigger the filters you set, such as orders. Instead of checking the fax for new orders, you simply check your printer.
Automatic Print Email comes with a fully functional 30 day trial period so you aren't out any cash while you check it out. If you do like it, the cost is only $49.90 so it's not very expensive either.
NOTE: The orders you print out will look just like the downloaded orders EXCEPT they will NOT have credit card data. Remember, Yahoo will NOT email credit card data on orders because it isn't secure. If you want credit card data, use the Yahoo solution as previously listed here: Yahoo Email Orders Help Article.
Here's how to set it up:
Determine an email address to send orders and Download and run the Automatic Print Email program. The rest of the rules pertain to the software program.
Set up a POP 3 Email account. If using a Yahoo Business Email account, remember to check the secure connection box and change the Server Port Number to 995.
When you hit Next, Be sure to select "Print Only Attachments"
Select "Advanced Options" and be sure to select "Yes" to print all pages of the documents.
Click "OK" to finish setting up the email account.
You are almost done now. You have set up the email address to check, now you just need to set up the filter to tell the software what emails to print.
Click on the "Filters List" button and "Create New Filter."
When setting up rules, because you only want to print orders, it's easier to set a rule stating what NOT to print. Therefore, I set my rule to state that if the subject doesn't contain "Yahoo! Orders as PDF" then don't print. Note that this screen gives you a check box providing the ability to delete mail from your mailbox. This is nice if you get lots of orders.
Next, select "More Actions." Here, you only want to print the attachment.
Click OK. You are basically done now. One last item to do is tell the software how often to check for email. To do this, click, "File" - "Options" - "Visual Appearance and Usage"
Under the left nav bar of "Visual Appearance and Usage" you'll see where you can select minutes and seconds to check your email.
Finally, after everything is set, you will see a little countdown timer on the bottom left corner of the main screen. This will tell you when it will check your email again. Other columns are pretty self explanatory.
That's it! I hope this helps you with receiving your orders. If you have any questions or need any help, please be sure to contact me.
By default, order numbers displayed to your store customers are prefixed with your store ID. For example, if a customer's order number is 792, and your store ID is yhst-12345678911011, the order number is displayed to the customer as yhst-12345678911011-792 on order confirmation and order status pages in checkout, in order and shipment confirmation emails, and on printed order materials (order invoice and packing slip).
Now, you can customize what comes before the order number, using the new "Order Number Prefix" field in the Shipment and Order Status section of Store Manager. If your store name is "Widget World" and you want to replace the store ID in the order number with "widget-world," you can now go right ahead. Your customized order number prefix will be shown in the buyer-facing locations noted above. (Merchants should note that for printed order materials, the custom order number prefix will appear on materials printed to PDF, but not on materials printed to HTML.)
Replace your store ID in order numbers using the "Order Number Prefix" field.
Custom order number prefix displayed in checkout.
Specify a sender name for order and shipment status emails
Order and shipment status emails use a default sender name in the "From" field, pulled from the "Title" variable in your Store Manager. Should you wish to customize the "From" field, you may do so using the "Catalog Name for Confirmation/Update Emails" field in the Shipment and Order Status section of Store Manager. So if your "Title" variable was "All Paws Up - Pet Supplies for the Pampered Puppy," and you wanted your email sender name to simply be "All Paws Up," you can change this using the "Catalog Name for Confirmation/Update Emails" field.
Customize the sender name used for order and shipment confirmation emails using the "Catalog Name for Confirmation/Update Emails" field.
If you haven't yet enabled order and shipment status emails and want to learn more about setting these up, please see the "Configuring shipping and order confirmation emails" help page.
Hope this helps customize your Yahoo! Store a little bit more! As always, contact us with any questions or if you need help implementing these updates.
The official description of StuffBak is: "StuffBak is a service that makes it easy for consumers and businesses to confidentially link important mobile assets to an international 24/7/365 recovery network. When a StuffBak-labeled item is found, the registered owner is immediately contacted by phone and email. StuffBak facilitates a speedy recovery and always thanks the finder."
In laymans terms, you place a sticker on your items. The sticker reads "Reward if Found" and has a phone number to call or a website to view if the item is found. Pretty basic. I'm normally not a fan of these types of services. I have my reasons. However, I bought something back in 2007 that had a StuffBak label included trying to get me to try the service. I tried the service and bought the "Mobile Professional Pack" for my keys, laptop, laptop bag, etc. I must have been feeling really generous that day. Then I forgot about it.
Last year, my son bought an iPhone and I found my folder of stickers and gave him one. He could barely afford the iPhone to begin with and certainly couldn't afford to replace it. We then forgot about the stickers.
My son also volunteers on the local ambulance. Last Saturday, he was on an ambulance call in a park where he proceeded to drop his iPhone somewhere. Before he could come home and tell me about it, the phone was found and whoever found it had called StuffBak who then called the house and spoke to my wife. The finder had already left town and was traveling to Chicago or else someone could have gone and picked it up. Regardless, a few days later my son received his phone in the mail. It cost me $20 reward money which I'm sure my son will happily reimburse.
Moral of the story? I have dug out my folder of StuffBak labels and have now labeled many more items that I carry around. Looking at the StuffBak website, The Mobile Professional Pack contains 16 labels for $60.00 and includes 2 years of return service. I volunteer on the Fire Department and have an iPhone myself. I'd gladly pay $60 every 2 years for it to be returned to me if I loose it!
The stickers come in a variety of sizes and are relatively small and out of the way.
Visit the StuffBak website for more information. I wasn't a very solid believer, but I am now!
Last month, Yahoo! upgraded the Coupon Code ability by releasing new features that give you greater flexibility when extending coupon offers to your customers.
You are now able to:
Create single use coupon codes
Easily exclude products from offers
Sort and filter your coupon data to provide greater insight into the performance of your promotions
From the feedback I've received, I don't think many of you fully understand what these changes mean to you. In today's tough economy, people are still shopping, but now they use coupons. Report after report all state the increase in coupon usage:
According to various ComScore reports:
11/06/08: "The number of users visiting these coupon sites, with an annual salary of $100,000 or more, increased by 37 percent in the third quarter, compared with the same time last year."
1/09: "According to a January 2009 ComScore survey, over 50% of consumers are using coupons more often as a way to cut back on their shopping expenses."
2/20/09: "Searches on the term "coupon" have more than tripled, and more than half (53%) of the online population is using coupons more often."
And this is what I found in 10 minutes of searching. I barely scratched the surface of reports published.
So, What's the big deal with the new changes? Let's discuss 2 of the big changes:
1) Creating single use coupon codes. A single use coupon can only be used once. Once it has been used, it will no longer work. Single use coupon codes are great when you don't want your coupon code published on everyone's website and emailed to everyone's friends. I understand that most of your coupon codes you may want to go viral. But here are a few options you may not have thought about:
You screw up on an order and want to give the customer a large apology with an expiration date.
You work a deal with a specific supplier who will reimburse you the money given on a discount. You can email all your customers giving each one a unique coupon code for $X off there next "brand y" product. (Yes, All Web can merge coupon codes into an email)
Refer a friend and either the referrer or both receive a coupon.
Sign up for your newsletter and receive a coupon.
You can print out these coupons and include with each order as a re-order incentive.
Use your imagination! Change it around a bit. Coupons are so easy to create and use that you can test different strategies to determine what works best for you. Single use coupons can be created in blocks of up to 50,000 coupons per code series.
tip: You no longer have to begin each coupon with a letter. You can now use numbers or letters in the beginning of the coupon code!
2) Easily exclude products from offers. Remember the old way? You had to list the item codes of items valid for that code. Meaning, if you created a coupon but didn't want a few items included, you had to list every item on the site except those few that were excluded. What a pain that was! Now, you can simply add the few items not included and set the code to either "include selected items" or "exclude selected items."
Being able to exclude items should allow you to be more creative as well. Let's face it, it was a royal pain to get item codes, especially when you are dealing with options! I would try to avoid coupons at all costs because of that. Now, we can test coupons that are brand specific very easily. Also, Yahoo added a handy little chart that shows the website in outline form. I can simply select a section and all items within that section are automatically selected.
In Summary....
The coupon code feature has been improved to a much easier user interface. If you haven't used coupon codes in a while, I highly suggest you at least take a look at them again. We know that people are looking for coupons and this is one more tool you may be able to use to capture that initial or repeat order with a lower cost per acquisition than Pay Per Click or some other marketing methods.
Give me a call and we can see how coupon codes may be useful for your company!
After reading this article, be sure to read my previous initial blog post announcing and explaining some more details regarding the new Coupon Features. The article can be found here: New Coupon Code Features - 3/5/09.
In an effort to help merchants out in this current economy, Yahoo has started a campaign to push the Cross Sell feature and has drafted a letter for us developers to help get the word out. The cross sell feature is basically a way for you to ask the customer; "Do you want fries with that?" Many of my clients currently use it successfully and I would agree with Yahoo that if you aren't using it now, you really should give it a try. Below is some information as provided by Yahoo. Please review and give us a call if you have any questions.
In this tough economy, we are all learning how to do more with less. We want to help you get more sales from the customers who are already visiting your site. As an authorized Yahoo! Small Business developer partner, we are working with Yahoo! to help you easily and inexpensively increase conversions and order volume simply by making the most of features already included within your Merchant Solutions or Store account. As such, we'd like to call attention to Yahoo!'s Cross-Sell features, including Auto-Suggest and Product Page Cross-Sell.
Auto-Suggest is based on Yahoo! Behavioral Targeting technology, utilizing past purchase combinations and navigation history to automatically suggest items to your shoppers. Merchants using this feature have reported up to a 30% increase in average order values (AOV). In addition, 80% of revenue generated by cross-sell rules is generated by the Auto-Suggest feature, while only 20% is generated by manually created cross-sell rules. In short, the data proves that if you are only using manual cross-sell rules, you are likely leaving money on the table.
Product Page Cross-Sell is also included as a new feature, allowing cross-sell merchandising on both product pages and within the shopping cart. These options can use auto-suggestions, manually created rules or any combination thereof.
Cross-Sell placement is customizable through CSS and can be self-installed or installed in partnership with us. Please give us a call to discuss options for your company. With a 30% higher average order value, a custom installation of product page cross-sell in your templates will pay for itself in little time.
For more information on this feature, check out the Yahoo! Store blog posts on the topic:
As many of you know, Karl Ribas is getting married in a couple weeks. Congratulations to him and his lovely new bride. I heard through the "Twitter" vine that Karl recently had his bachelor party. That's nice. But why wasn't I invited?? I'll tell you why, Karl kept this day quiet because he knew he would be in for it. Let me explain....
Karl likes to play the occasional joke. Well, we all like the occasional joke. Take the following pictures:
For my birthday one year, my office was neatly packaged:
My iconic bobbing head doll was modified and outed my drag days:
My Therapy Buddy committed suicide:
And the list goes on. And on. And on.
With Karl being one of the masterminds behind all my troubles, My wife and I were looking forward to his bachelor party. We were looking forward to seeing Karl enjoy one of his last weekends of singlehood. We wouldn't be mean about it, oh no. We wouldn't have let him get arrested for peeing in public or anything juvenile like that. We had better things in mind: Like having him wake up in another state. And if we could swing it, fly him to that different state.
I have even heard rumors of local dancing establishments that put on quite a show for bachelors soon to loose there single title.
Was Karl scared to let us know he was having his bachelor party? From the pictures he's posted on Twitter, I'd say he didn't sit around the house with his friends playing Go Fish!
I say he was scared that he would be led around stage with a dog collar while dancing girls sat on his back. He was scared that another establishment would whip him with a steel studded belt and write good luck messages about him in places he couldn't reach with a sharpie. I say he was scared that he would have such a good time that he would forget what happened until the pictures were posted on this very blog! Ah ha! That's it! He knew Carrie and I would be there with cameras in hand waiting for the perfect picture that would immortalize him forever. Does such a picture exist?
Well, Karl. Let me tell you something. You don't cheat Carrie and I out of potential well thought out plans. You ain't married yet!
Yahoo! released new features with there coupon codes that give you greater flexibility when extending coupon offers to your customers.
You will now be able to:
Create single use coupon codes
Easily exclude products from offers
Sort and filter your coupon data to provide greater insight into the performance of your promotions
You will be able to create two types of coupons in Coupon Manager: standard (the coupons you've always had), and new single-use coupons, which are created in series. Single-use coupons can be redeemed one time only, giving you the freedom to create offers tailored for specific customers without the worry of coupons being shared.
The following are some promotional ideas for you to consider:
Include a printed single-use coupon offer in outgoing shipments
Have multiple stores? Cross-Sell coupon offers in outgoing shipments
Offer single-use coupons via Live Chat agents where abandonment may be likely
Offer single-use coupons as incentives to increase customer satisfaction
Merge single-use coupon codes into email marketing campaigns
All Web Promotion already has the email capabilities to merge these single use coupon codes, one per email. Contact us for details!
Whether you're creating a single-use or standard coupon, you can now choose to exclude specific store items from your offer. Previously, you could choose which individual items to include in a coupon offer, or to include all store items. Being able to exclude items makes coupon creation a faster and easier process. This can be especially helpful if you carry a large number of products and wish to exclude only one or a few from a special promotion.
Enhancements to Coupon Manager give you new ways to sort and filter your coupon data. Coupons can now be sorted by number of orders, revenue, coupon code, type, expiration date, and conversion rate. New coupon filters also allow you to apply coupon status and time-period filters, and to download filtered coupon lists. You can even sort by offer conversion rate to quickly identify top performing offers and further build on that success.
No changes are required on your part to use these great new Coupon Manager features. Simply click the "Coupon Manager" link in the "Promote" section of Store Manager to get started.
Do you have an analytics program? You know, something that tracks your revenue generated from an E-mail, Pay Per Click, or some other kind of marketing campaign? If you are using Yahoo Merchant Solutions you do. Well, kind of.
Log into your store manager and look at your "create links" and "track links" options on the lower left hand corner under the the "Promote" heading.
This is actually a type of affiliate program Yahoo! offers but we use it to track revenue for various marketing campaigns. It's easy to use as well. Simply "create" a link and then use the link that Yahoo! generates as your destination URL for your marketing campaign.
You can even change the last part of the URL, or page to be any page on your site. Simply replace "index.html" with your landing page such as "specialpage.html".
For example, the Yahoo! generated link will look something like: http://store.yahoo.com/cgi-bin/clink?yhst-1234567+AWP5cr+index.html You can modify the landing page by altering to look like: http://store.yahoo.com/cgi-bin/clink?yhst-1234567+AWP5cr+specialpage.html
Don't want to use the store.yahoo.com domain? You can customize the link further by using your domain name that is attached to your store. The link will then look something like: http://mydomainname.com/cgi-bin/clink?yhst-1234567+AWP5cr+specialpage.html
Remember, the track link will only work on the domain registered with the Yahoo store.
When creating the link in the Yahoo! Store manager, you can also use basic html functions to make the link bold or different colors. This is nice to help differentiate various campaigns.
BE CAREFUL! Yahoo error page (404), by default, redirects to the index page if a URL is not found. Try using tracking links with a specific page to ensure that specific page shows up. Otherwise, you won't know if the tracking link worked correctly or you were redirected to index page because of error 404.
To view the results of the track link, view the "track links" section.
A few uses of the track link function include Email Campaigns, Pay Per Click campaigns, Banner ads or links from other websites, testing link placement usability on your own site, and on and on. Anywhere you want to view revenue or traffic generated from a static link.
I wrote about this back in 2006, but it is still an important tool in your toolbox! My previous post can be read here: Yahoo! "Track Links" Feature
Come with me into the realm of the Search Engine Optimizer and Yahoo! Web Designer as I try to solve the worlds mysteries and problems. No problem too big, No issue too small.
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