Orthodox Biz Blog

Web stores should be redesigned in order to keep up with current technology in order to achieve sale growth.  With more people using smart phone and Ipods and the ever changing standards of code language, you periodically need to “remodel your website.”  What worked last year will be obsolete next year.   

E-retailers must meet the needs of its customers who are using an ever-changing array of computers equipment to access the web.   With the rise of Facebook and Twitter web designers are rearranging the look, feel and functionality of their sites. And the growing use of video has had a similar impact on web designs.

As time goes on technology get better. If you run an online store your top priority is managing your business. Like most business owners you would fine little time to keep up on the latest improvements to keep your site current. Why not find a "Technology Partner"?

A technology partner can ease the burden by integrating some new features, letting you focus on what you do best.

"Ecommerce is a mature market now and retailers need to think about technologies that will help them service the customer better." says Glen Chancy CIO of Corfun Inc ., provider of components, modules, and plugins for Joomla Content Management System.

Content Management is a prime example of a technology that takes on added importance as retailers acquire more inventory to meet consumer demand. Store owners want to organize inventory category pages so that the product they are promoting will appear prominently. Some category may be new arrivals, close outs and seasonal items.

E-commerce is about selling but retailers don't think about tying content management to marketing and merchandising. effective retail sites need to put the right information in front of shoppers quickly. Delivering content that helps consumers answer questions they have with just a few clicks.

Retailers can't afford to be saddled with infrastructure management if they are to growing their business. What retailers need is a technology partner that not only can manage their infrastructure, but also provides them with the tools to excel in their marketing and merchandising.

Corfun Inc would be the partner for you if you are using the Joomla platform. Not only do they offer custom and standard website, they also have a team of professional coder who have developed some twenty eight components , modules, and plugins for Joomla CMS. Corfun has the capability to build their own applications allowing them to create marketing and merchandising strategies that keep them out in front of the competition. For a low monthly fee, CorFun can also provide Website management services. Corfun even offer training to assist clients in learning the ropes of the Joomla system.

Because technology vendors are increasingly crucial to e-commerce, retailers must do their due diligence before partnering with vendors. The basic steps would include testing or getting a demo of the application and talking to existing clients.

When potential customers come to your site and they do not see any product reviews and or ratings, the thought come. “Maybe it’s not a very popular item.” “If no one leaves reviews, maybe I shouldn’t be shopping here.” There are risk in the lack of reviews. If customers see no reviews for product after product , they may go to another site where they can read reviews. You may have just lost that sale. Experts say that 59% of consumers use product reviews to help them make a decision on their purchase.

Successful Strategy



It is common to see a retail site with a larger number of products and not a single review. So how does one get customers to write a review? Run a contest. “Write a review and win a chance for a $100 gift card.” Everybody loves a contest.  You must ask customers to write reviews in order to get the process going. To kick off your customer review program email every customer who has made a purchase in the past year and ask them to write a review. After the review start coming in place the products with the highest rating in a highly visible area on your web site.

Following Up

Three weeks after your order has been shipped is a good time to send your customer an email asking them to write a review. This give your customer a voice in influencing other shoppers and helping you determine the quality of your products.

Sample follow up letter

Greetings --------
We would like to thank you for your recent purchase from www.corshops.com
We also would like to know your thoughts on our products and or service.
By submitting a product review you help us decide which products are best, giving you a forum to influence our product selection.

Kindest Regards

The explosion of web content has led the major search engines to change the way they present search results. Revisions of how search results appear now include news, images, video, blogs, and other content besides the standard web site. One can take advantage of the blended search and to gain prominence in their ranking.

Sixty-four percent of retailers have made investments in social networking, according to a study from "Forrester Research". Social network presences will perform better as a marketing vehicle than paid search, according to "Internet Reailers" recent survey.

Many experts say if merchants want to connect with customers, and is not on a social network they are missing out. Online customers are spending more time on social network sites than any other type site.

How links from other sites can improve a web site’s ranking in search listings is one of the least understood aspects of search engine optimization.

One of the new and exciting advantages to the computer age is the ability for people to join, meet and share common interest online. This has lead to the phenomenal growth in online forums.

To have a successful business, it is very important that you have quality business relationships. You may have a great marketing plan, but one of the most important things you can do is to work on building up relationships with people you meet.

It can take some time for you to begin to see results when you use these techniques, but the results for building business relationships are excellent. So, here are a few tips that will help you build better business relationships.

 1: Work One Relationship At a Time. You don't have to work on meeting hundreds of people each week. However, you should work on meeting at lease one person each day.

Before you know it you'll have more than 100 people who you have built relationships with. The number of relationships are not important, but you do want quality relationships. Take the time to work on building quality relationships on a consistent basis for the best results.
Remember it’s not what you know but whom you know.

 2: Join Organizations. Joining organizations in your area is a wonderful idea and it can help you  work to build up business relationships. When you join clubs or groups in your area that have similar interests, you'll find that this is a wonderful way that you can build up relationships. Take the time to get active in the community around you, start a club or group, or volunteer in order to meet new contacts.
To quote the bible “As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another”. ... Proverbs 27:17 and so it will be with business relationships.

3: Stay In Touch. Once you make a contact it is important to stay in touch with them. Just meeting them one time may not bring results, but if you stay in touch with them every couple weeks, you can build up a solid relationship.

4: Make Sure Your Personable on the Web. If you are trying to build up business relationships online in forums, social networking sites, or blog directories, then you need to be very personable. Leaving comments and personalized messages is important. The last thing you want to do is just send out a bunch of cookie cutter messages to everyone. So, make sure you act in a personable manner.

 5: Show Pride in Your Business. Showing pride in your business is imperative if you are going to build business relationships. Make sure that all the people you meet know about your business. Make sure you add your business website to your business cards, add a signature line to all emails, and talk about your business with pride. This is an excellent way to build up top quality relationships.

When you a stranger, you are planting tiny seeds of possible business relationship with each person you meet. There's no guarantee that you'll doing business right away but over time you'll harvest a large crop!

I've noticed a few common mistakes that most people make when meeting others. I made them too until I realized how to properly grow in a relationship.

This past election we the people voted for change or a fresh start. What can they do different with this administration and economic condition. I have a few ideas that might help you get a little more out of your web site in the next year ahead of us.

Summer is here and its time to get busy! Here are some tips to getting your home ready for Summer.

What is Joomla? Joomla is an award-winning Content Management System (CMS) that is used world wide to generate everything from simple personal home pages to complex corporate web sites. Joomla has been developed and is maintained by a world-wide community of programmers. Their individual effort and collaboration includes the availability of thousands of ready-made additional features (known as extensions) which can be added to your website as your needs grow.

The economy is down, unemployment is through the roof, we’re in the worst financial crisis since the great depression. Sounds like the worst time to start an online business right? Wrong! The year 2009 could be the perfect time to start an online business because of all the turmoil going on in the business world. Let me explain…

Let me tell you something Google and the other Search Engines don't want you to know.

Several studies have shown that web surfers' eyes jump over paid results and go directly to the natural results. One study on Google showed surfers preferring natural results 3 to1. So instead of shopping for Google Adwords, consider the natural method for getting more traffic.

When it comes to search engine placement, content is king. One way to get content on your site is to have a blog component installed. The other day I was checking out how people were getting to www.freebeerbuddy.com. One of the keywords that people had typed in was Mark Dallmeyer.

When it comes to web site design, e-tailers today face many choices. They have more technology than ever at their fingertips to create a site full of bells and whistles, but at the same time, they want to deliver a quick and seamless shopping experience so consumers can get in, get their product, and get out.

The following is checklist designed to help you gauge the search engine friendliness of your website. If you are planning a website this checklist will help you avoid the common pitfalls of unfriendly designs.

The popularity of search engine optimization may have slipped with some retailers in favor of paid search, but is still a critical component of any retailer’s search marketing strategy.

Word of mouth is a proven way of driving sales. When product buyers give a thumbs-up, the endorsement car­ries powerful credibility that retailers and manufacturers cannot duplicate in product descriptions. Little wonder, then, that customer reviews can pack the same punch online. Maybe more, because of the Internet's power to distribute consumer comments more widely and rapidly than word of mouth.

What do “Hits” mean?

Hits would be any request to the server which is logged. This could be both human, as in visitors or other computers, such as search engine spiders or bots. The request can be for anything. It could be for HTML pages, graphics, audio files and more.

What are “Visits” then?

Well if “Hits" are times the files are accessed by man or machine, then visits are when a request is made to the server from a given IP address.

Content writing for the Web might not look too tough, but I promise you it is harder than it looks. Anybody and everybody can write - you learn how to do that in grade school. The problem is not everybody can write well. To hopefully put you back on the right track I thought I would share with you a handful of tips that pros use when doing any sort of web site content writing.

Last month, I was asked for advice on choosing the right payment gateway, specifically for the pros and cons of working with PayPal over the other more expensive options. I’m keeping this list of pros and cons quite short, hopefully this will help you decide if PayPal is the best solution for your online e-commerce website.

Retailers are creating a presences on social networks to make a minimal investment in an attempt to gain maximum exposure.

Roxy, a retail clothing store, posted a video on the social network and video site You Tube to get potential customers interested in its brand.

As gas prices continue to increase, Congress continues to blame others while ignoring practical steps to stop the pain Americans are feeling at the pump. To lower gasoline prices and reduce our dependence on foreign oil, we need real solutions to our energy challenges. http://www.americansolutions.com/ is a site that is petitioning the government

I wanted to reconnect with the seasonal store shopping experience to understand first hand why stores are getting so hammered by online merchants at Christmastime. The stores I visited were nicely decorated and neatly stocked-and hauntingly empty. Parking was easy and checkout was a breeze. I got suitable gifts and prices were good.

Here is a letter I wrote to hopefully make people aware of what is going on in the public school system. I called the superintendent of schools office, the school and school board. As of yet no one has called me back as is the case whenever I have a concern.

James Carville, the political campaign strategist, hung a sign at Clinton’s Little Rock campaign headquarters that read: “It’s the Economy, Stupid” became ensconced in American political folklore—and helped get Bill Clinton elected President in 1992.

Customer reviews and other user generated content is becoming a "must have" for retailers to compete online. 50% of merchants surveyed have adopted the technology, according to a new report from The E-Trailing Group Inc. Of the merchants who have adopted customer reviews, 58% said improving customer experience was the most important reason for adding the program to there site. We find that