Joe Palko, gearing up for the Solid Cactus Cyber Monday programming marathon.

This morning the store development team at Solid Cactus was greeted with a Christmas tree, garland, and a paper Santa Claus — Joe Palko and I went a little overboard at our local party supply store. But, it’s all to get everyone in the spirit for our clients’ biggest time of the year: The holiday shopping season.

Solid Cactus today is hosting a 24-hour programming marathon to ready its eCommerce retailer clients for Cyber Monday, the official start of the online holiday shopping season. Solid Cactus promoted the Cyber Monday programming marathon through an offbeat video starring Scott Sanfilippo and a slew of team members (view the video here: http://bit.ly/scmarathon).

“We wanted to provide a way for our customers to have their eCommerce websites improved upon before Cyber Monday. It’s a tough holiday season for everyone – we all know what the economic climate is- and a lot of retailers may feel like there’s not a lot left they can do in time to get ready for the holidays, but we wanted to give them a chance,” said Gregory Davis, director of corporate marketing and product development for Solid Cactus.

Online retailers who signed up for a new store feature or store redesign before Wednesday’s deadline will have their projects completed for Cyber Monday. The design team put finishing touches on mock-ups to get ready for the start of marathon which officially kicked off about an hour ago, and will conclude at 9:00 a.m. tomorrow morning.

Shopping for the programming marathon

Other members of the Solid Cactus volunteered to attend the marathon to provide support, coffee runs, food delivery, and entertainment during the marathon. Solid Cactus staff will also be blogging, posting video footage, and making updates on Twitter and Facebook about the progress of the programming event.

For more details on the Solid Cactus Cyber Monday Programming Marathon, contact Donna Talarico at (570) 706-7116 or by e-mail at donna.talarico@solidcactus.com

What is Cyber Monday?

Cyber Monday is the kick-off of the online holiday shopping season, the sister to Black Friday. Cyber Monday was first used in 2005, and coined by Shop.org after it was noted in the eCommerce industry that 77% of online retailers saw a significant spike in sales on the Monday following Thanksgiving in 2004.

The tradition continued, an unofficial eCommerce holiday was born, and now Cyber Monday 2009 is right around the corner. Are you ready?

Best eCommerce Tweets of the Week – November 2, 2006

This has been a busy week for Twitter. The microblogging website no sooner launched its list feature when a national tragedy (Fort Hood) happened. News organizations jumped on using Twitter lists. So, this week’s Best eCommerce Tweets of the Week column is a little Twitter heavy.

I personally think the best find this week is a great tweet linking to a blog post for The Biggest eCommerce Lies and How to Avoid Them.

General eCommerce Tweets

MikeLizun 46% of Local Searchers Visit Businesses In-Store http://bit.ly/2a7zbc

architela The biggest #ecommerce lies and how to avoid them http://bit.ly/1JUWHY RT @boagworld business

Internet Marketing

WebsiteMagazine Email marketing benchmarks for 2010 – http://bit.ly/wDc00 – solid lessons to be learned from this MarketingSherpa study #email

Social Media

KaylieJones RT @alizasherman: Compiled 10 ways to use Twitter for your biz & life http://twurl.nl/zinm1i How do YOU use it well? http://myloc.me/1mGl2

NathanBransford Fabulous post by @debbiestier at @harperstudio re: whether Twitter sells books (spoiler: YES) http://bit.ly/1PoFFk

mashable Twitter Lists: Frequently Asked Questions and Strategies – http://bit.ly/2Rkmge

mashable The 50 Hottest Brands on Twitter Right Now – http://bit.ly/sbHih

(This is from the Solid Cactus blog archives from a past Halloween. The information is still pertinent today.)

This is my favorite time of year. I love crunchy leaves under my boots. (Oh, I love boots, too.) I love orange. I love pumpkins. I love apple cider. I love Halloween. And, I love, love, love to be scared!

But you know what? As an online consumer, I do not want to be scared away from an eCommerce website.  Here’s a look at spooky e-commerce practices.

Scary eCommerce Practice #1: Your Contact Information is The Invisible Man

No toll-free number in the header. A P.O. Box as the address. These are tell-tale signs that you are hiding from your customers– or it at least appears that way. Customers are the life-blood of your business. Why would you want to make it a hassle to reach you? Having your contact information prominently displayed creates peace of mind.

Scary eCommerce Practice #2: Your Site is Frankenstein’ed together

A stitch here. A stitch there. A bolt over here. Online consumers can tell if a site is piece-mealed together. If a site looks uniform in some aspects, but then there are big boxes of text here, cheesy clip are over there, etc. things can really look cluttered. That’s a turn-off to me. Branding is important to build trust and customer confidence and really make for an enjoyable online shopping experience. If your homepage is busy and looks like an undone jigsaw (Saw reference right there, kids!) puzzle it could spook online shoppers away.

Scary eCommerce Practice #3: Wrong Turn and The Descent– Where are people going?

Navigation. I get lost every time I go to New Jersey. I can’t really follow the Garden State highway signs too well. They just aren’t clear. Same can be said about eCommerce website design and navigation. I don’t like when I land on a site that has menus here, menus there, menus, menus everywhere.

People can make a wrong turn, get lost, get frustrated and leave. Worse yet, I’ve been on eCommerce sites that have so many subcategories that it takes five to six clicks just to get to an item page– like you are making a descent deep into a scary, scary cave. This is a highly confusing process that makes me want to shout, “Just take me to where I can BUY something!” Ease of navigation is crucial to a good online shopping experience.

Scary eCommerce Practice #4: The Shining

Animated GIFs. There’s a memory. I remember my first Geocities page- I had the banjo-playing frog, an e-mail graphic of a letter turning into an envelope, and plopping in a mailbox and I even had a blinking “welcome” message. None of this is eCcommerce friendly. Some flash is okay- that’s professional and tasteful. However, those animated GIFs look amateur and definitely look out of place on an eCommerce site. This is my biggest pet peeve so I had to add it to my scary list.

There are more things that give me the eCommerce heebie jeebies, but these four are a good start. Take a look at your own eCommerce website design. Is there anything that would spook you away? Scare you from shopping? October is a fun month- lots of scary things out there- haunted houses, great horror flicks and talk of all those superstitions– but don’t make the scares last yearround on your eCommerce site. Leave that to the Cravens and the Carpenters of the world!

It’s almost Halloween. Can’t believe how time is flying.

Before I delve this week’s eCommerce Twitter posts of the week, I want to briefly fill you in on some things that I’ve been tweeting about this week:  This week at Solid Cactus, we introduced six new features for Yahoo! Stores:  Advanced Search for Yahoo! Stores, Simple Text Information Pop-up, Fly Out Assistant, Rotating Graphics, Tabbed Information Display, and Sequence Banners. You can learn more, plus see video demos, at fallfeatures.solidcactus.com.

Best eCommerce Tweets of the Week:

General eCommerce Tweets

reymondin 2009 holiday online shopping survey results http://ow.ly/w8k2 #ecommerce - This one links to an article talking about how users will be shopping and spending online this holiday season, and is based on a recent study.

Roxyyo 6 ways to Humanize Your Online Store http://bit.ly/2J0FUO -this one discusses how to be sure your eCommerce store still has that human touch

DesignExtend Pamela’s Latest Column – Spelling Your Way to Disaster #ecommerce http://ow.ly/vVZA – This one talks about the importance of using proper spelling on your eCommerce site
Website Design & Development Tweets

ideaLaunch Here are 5 tips to Halloween-ify your web content: http://bit.ly/2zDi8U - this one is just in time for Halloween and is self explanatory.

madmagz User Testing Toolbox http://bit.ly/2JmnlN #usability #ecommerce -this article will show you how to tell if your site is usable.

Social Media Tweets

mashable Monitoring Your Industry With Social Media [Video] – http://bit.ly/377D5c

And, as always, we think the tweets from Solid Cactus are pretty useful, too. You can follow me at @cactus_donna.

This week, it’s Solid Cactus Boot Camp week; so, I’ve been busy blogging about that. Had a nice compliment on Twitter from @eve_c that she enjoyed these eCommerce Tweets of the Week features, so here are a few enjoyable industry tweets I found this week. These link to some really great articles, especially some about how people plan to use social media this holiday season!

Marketing Tweets

fspereira Study points that Consumers will seek holiday deals via social media http://bit.ly/19tMhg #ecommerce #holiday

Social Media Oriented Tweets

Twitter_Tips 3 Twitter keys: Tell your story, connect w/ the best, measure the results: http://j.mp/3sv9qD –Share: http://bit.ly/s2zWR

MikeLizun top 20% of social media users visit social media sites 2.4 times per day and spend 31 minutes http://bit.ly/Hpy5O (MarketingMag)

Customer Service Tweets

virtualmarketer #Retail Customer Survey: 37% shoppers use live chat, 21% use click to call: http://bit.ly/3K70i #ecommerce #customerservice

Kurt, Marc & Lou, ready to rock and roll.

by Donna Talarico, Interactive Marketing Specialist

Day two of Solid Cactus Boot Camp kicked off with the ever-popular site deconstruction session. This morning, four Solid Cactus staff members dissected three sites. (Thanks to our clients you volunteered and for being so open to suggestion. We also had more clients volunteer than we had time for, so thanks to all!) Moderated by John Tomkoski, manager of sales engineering, the panel also included designer Marc Manfre, our marketing analyst Kurt Illian and senior director of sales, Lou Pagnotti. Each panelist is well-seasoned in all areas of e-commerce, but today they each specialized in their own areas. John looked at things overall. Marc considered the design elements and usability. Kurt looked at on-site SEO strategies. Lou commented on general usability and conversions. Some key points discussed today were:

Kurt points out some SEO tips

–If you are going to have a special of the day, make sure it changes daily. Otherwise, don’t put so much emphasis on it. Perhaps, while still keeping that special area, have that homepage area features other things too, such as with a rotating graphic or sequence banner.

–Get users to items with less clicks. This could mean restructuring your navigation to include more subcategories, or utilizing cascading or expanding navigation, or even something like the new Mega Drop Down that Solid Cactus offers.
If you have products, such as a book or something that would be searched by a part number, that your customers are going to buy anyway and do not need info, you may want to consider putting an add-to-cart  button on the section page, too.

–Branding is important, and can be fun. One of the sites we looked at this morning had an illustrated design which was carried from the header throughout much of the site. This particular site did this very well, but as an idea to other store owners, it was suggested to take elements from the logo or header and use them in add-to-cart- buttons, headers, and more.

–Over the years, best practices in design can change. eCommerce sites today are made a little wider (not full screen, though). This can add more room to add in right navigation or just have more space to work with for featured items.
We say this all the time. Phone number in the header! Also, live chat in header can be effective, especially upon check-out. Some store, it was noted by John, utilize live chat only on the check-out.

John moderates this highly informative session.

–One site we looked at, John joked that he ran out of room on the podium to scroll down. While it got a chuckle from the crowd, it does become an issue when there are hundreds and hundreds of item on one page. Consider dynamic paging if you have this issue, even if it is only on one category. That was the case with this store; most categories were fine and it was just one that was this extensive.

–Consider a segmented navigation. This is not so much functionality, but design. Include some separation in the left navigation bar to distinguish some major categories. One of the sites we dissected did something like this with a “Shop by Brand,” “Shop by Animal,” etc.

–If you have a product reviews feature but do not have a lot of items that have reviews, you may want to consider doing a contest or something to generate reviews through your e-mail marketing.

–About Us page- put a picture of yourself! If you specialize in something, show that in your picture.

–Beef up product descriptions

–Use more targeted keywords with your category and/or item names. This will help with SEO, but also help with browsing.

There’s a lot more, and this will be covered in the next issue of the eBiz Insider!

Directly after the Site Deconstruction session, Greg Paone and I presented on the new features we’re releasing for Yahoo! Store. What are they? You will find out soon! That’s one of the best parts about coming to Boot Camp: Attendees are that first to hear about the latest innovations from the Solid Cactus Development Laboratory.

The Solid Cactus Training Center - all ready to go for the troops!

Hard to believe it’s already after 4:00. The final Solid Cactus Boot Camp session is wrapping up, and soon the attendees will be whisked back to the Woodlands Inn & Resort to get ready for tonight’s festivities: dinner at The Cafe.

Today’s sessions focused on Internet marketing. Our team of PPC and SEO experts conducted five informative, interactive sessions filled with tips clients can implement immediately to plan for the busy 2009 shopping season, as well as discussed long-term strategies and everyday things online retailers can do to keep up with today’s changing landscape.

The sessions today were: Blogging for Brand Building, Buzz and Bucks; SMO- Facebook, Twitter, Link Building & Beyond; E-mail Marketing- Analyzing the Results; Using the Web for Reputation and Relationship Management and finally, Holiday Marketing in a Recession.

Mike Rowland presenting Holiday Marketing in a Recession on Day One of Solid Cactus Boot Camp

Tomorrow, the focus switches to store development for Yahoo! Store, as well as more Internet marketing. One of our partners, PowerPay, will also be “on campus” to discuss their services.  I’m excited to co-present New Features for Your Store from Solid Cactus in the morning. And, I’ll be reporting from our ever-popular site deconstruction session. Stay tuned for more news from this week’s event.

For more pictures, you can view Scott’s Picasa album here. More will certainly be added to this album as the week progresses.

-Donna

Boot Camp attendees during a tour of Solid Cactus HQ

At just after 9:00 a.m. this morning, Scott Sanfilippo brought the new recruits into the corporate marketing department for a tour. I was putting the finishing touches on some Boot Camp material as he introduced the team. I couldn’t help but get a little more excited. It’s one thing planning for Boot Camp, but when the 30+ clients from all over the country (and Canada, too!) actually arrive, I really get pumped!

More updates to come! The Internet Marketing team is ruling the roost right now in our training center. Pictures and more to come all week on the blog!

Also, follow us on Twitter for updates all week:  @cactus_donna, @scottsanfilippo and also follow the hashtag #scbootcamp — Check out our social media page see everyone to follow!

-Donna

Lots of great tweets this week! So many, I forgot to bookmark them all. Here’s a look at what was happening in the Twittersphere this week as it relates to eCommerce. Don’t forget to comment at the end to share your favorite eCommerce Twitterers. Always looking for more great people to follow.

General eCommerce Tweets

ecommerce Asking Customers to Go Steady: Tips for Repeat Orders http://ow.ly/pY8p

andyblount Six Success Factors for Small Ecommerce Businesses http://bit.ly/11y2Wm

Social Media & Internet Marketing Tweets

shaunryan 9 Tasty Tips for Ecommerce SEOs http://bit.ly/fzXs from @audette

PublicityHound: 17 ways search engines judge the value of a link http://ow.ly/s5Iq

Capitaine The 27 varieties of tweet used by retailers http://bit.ly/IOKdQ from @econsultancy

Web Design & Usability Tweets

sarahkinney How To Respond Effectively To Design Criticism http://tinyurl.com/yejlh7h

Quotes, Advice & Observations — and some fun

The 46 Stages of Twitter http://is.gd/3R2Ie (via @webster107) – this was just a fun look at the progression of a Twitter user.

by Donna Talarico, Interactive Marketing Specialist

I don’t know about you, but I find a heck of a lot fascinating tweets about eCommerce. Every day I am presented with interesting links to articles and blog posts from people I follow in the industry. I can’t keep up with them all, so I started to favorite them so I can come back later. Then, it hit me.

The Idea

I borrowed this idea from a writing site I frequent. The editor of a popular writer’s magazine posts on the company blog the best writing-related tweets of the week. I follow some really informative eCommerce, Internet marketing, and general business experts on Twitter and find some really helpful nuggets. So, this new Solid Cactus blog feature will be like that. Roughly each week I’ll repost some of my favorite tweets of the week which will usually contain links to a great article.

Best eCommerce Tweets of the week I’ve Saved Up to Now

Okay, so I’m going back a few weeks for this intial post. I’ve been wanting to start this up for a while now so I don’t want these good ones I’ve saved to go unseen. (Note: tweets are not edited for grammar, spelling, etc. They are posted as is because that was the tweet!)

• GENERAL eCOMMERCE TWEETS

howzyat 37 things I want to see on a product page http://bit.ly/gGm2n

NMessier – Why we buy, online – a look at emotion and its role in online buying decisions; http://bit.ly/VXeEb

JBillingsley – Sign up 4 ur competitors emails. Monitor offers, frequency, strategy, etc. Adapt accordingly

• SOCIAL MEDIA & INTERNET MARKETING TWEETS

davidrwilson Reading Social Media’s Direct Influence on Search Engine Ranking http://is.gd/3FGh0

MikeLizun- Study: Twitter Breeds Brand Engagers (media post via paidcontent) http://bit.ly/O0jJB

ArikHanson – USA Today:Twitter users spend 66% more $ on Internet than nonTwitter users http://bit.ly/buAwC

DigitalWoman – Twitter Style Guide http://bit.ly/3MxuGu

DonnaAntoniadis – Social technographics help categorize social media consumers – http://shar.es/Zi0T

GetElastic - before you hit send…email checklist http://bit.ly/dy7Bx

• WEB DESIGN & USABILITY TWEETS
  

SarahKinney – 10 Useful Usability Findings and Guidelines – http://tinyurl.com/yedejdm

• QUOTES, ADVICE & OBSERVATIONS

MattyCurry - Universal eCommerce truth. If you answer the questions your visitors have, with answers that appeal, then they will buy. If not, they won’t

Sitemarkers Include a blog on your ecommerce site. It helps add personality and currency to the site, and can assist SEO.

Finally, then there’s the retweeting. You can follow me on Twitter (@cactus_donna) as I always RT the posts I find most interesting. Please share any great tweets with me, too and I will credit you on this blog.