Overview: An overview of how the iPad is predicted to change ecommerce and how we’ll prepare you for the increase in mobile buying.
Description: In this, episode 4 of my podcast, I talk about Apple’s all mighty iPad. I’ve found some interesting statistics regarding the growth of mobile and I’ve put these into an ecommerce context, specifically discussing how they relate to the iPad. Basically if the iPad can become the iPod of mobile browsing then everyone wins – ecommerce merchants get more sales, social network sites get better engagement and more ad dollars and consumers adopt the “online anywhere” mentality which many of them already have.
Earlier this week we released BigCommerce 5.6 and the most popular feature is SocialShop, our new (free) Facebook application which lets you get your products in front of Facebook’s 400 million active users by adding a “Shop” tab to your fan page. Here’s a quick video I put together if you haven’t see it yet:
We’re big believers that Facebook has become the first true social platform, and we’re doing everything we can to help you take advantage of that – both to attract new customers to your BigCommerce store and also to build relationships with your existing customers.
In this post I’ll demonstrate how you can use Google Analytics to track visitors and sales from Facebook, and more specifically from your BigCommerce SocialShop.
The first thing you’ll want to do is signup for a free Google Analytics account, which you can do here. Google Analytics is a simple service that allows you to track visitors to your website. You can also setup goals to track certain actions on your website such as newsletter signups, orders, etc, but I’ll save that for another post.
The process of signing up for Google Analytics is very straight forward but if you’d like step-by-step videos then take a look at the Google Analytics YouTube channel here.
After setting up your Google Analytics account you’ll be given some tracking code to add to your website. To add the tracking code to your BigCommerce store, login and click the Settings -> Analytics Settings menu. You’ll see this screen:
Tick the “Google Analytics” option and hit save. You’ll see a new tab next to the “General Settings” tab. Click on it and paste your Google Analytics tracking code into the text box then hit save:
Google Analytics tracking is now integrated into your BigCommerce store. All traffic to your website will now be tracked and can be viewed and filtered through Google Analytics.
Please note: If you want to track the dollar value of orders (highly recommended), then make sure you turn on ecommerce tracking in Google Analytics. BigCommerce will then automatically pass order data back so it can be tracked.
That’s all it takes to setting up Google Analytics tracking. To see traffic and orders from Facebook, login to Google Analytics, click “View Report” next to your website and then click “Traffic Sources” on the left:
Under “Top Traffic Sources” click the “view full report” link and type “facebook” into the search box at the bottom of the screen and click go:
You’ll now be able to see the number of visitors who arrived at your store from Facebook. You can filter traffic by all sorts of metrics, but again, I’ll save that for another post.
To track orders, click the ecommerce tab on the left menu and again, type “facebook” into the search box under the “Top Revenue Sources” section. If you find you’re attracting a significant portion of new customers from Facebook, you might want to think about experimenting with Facebook Ads to drive traffic to your BigCommerce SocialShop on Facebook. Here’s a great article about Facebook Ads if you want to learn more.
Two weeks ago I posted a video in which I demonstrated the new features coming in BigCommerce 5.6. Well, we’ve finished our development, testing, documenting and marketing collateral and BigCommerce 5.6 is now ready to go!
All new stores created as of right now will be running on version 5.6 straight away. For existing customers, if you’re running BigCommerce 5.5 (check the bottom of the screen in your BigCommerce control panel) then you will automatically be upgraded to BigCommerce 5.6 some time in the next 24 hours. If you’re running BigCommerce 5.0 you will see the option to schedule an upgrade shortly. Any template customizations you’ve made wont be affected by the 5.6 release because there are no changes to templates.
So, what’s in version 5.6 I hear you ask? Well, it’s a minor update based almost exclusively on features you requested and voted for in our community. We also snuck in a secret marketing feature which I’ll detail below.
Here’s the complete list of features available right now in BigCommerce 5.6:
Take your store down for maintenance – You as an admin still have full access to your store so you can make and preview design changes, add/remove products, etc all without your customers seeing. You can specify your own custom message which will be shown to store visitors. .
Set the starting order number – Let’s face it, no one wants to receive an email saying “Your order ID is 1″. In BigCommerce 5.6 the default starting order number is 100 but you can change it to whatever you like from Settings -> Miscellaneous. .
Block the shipping dimensions message – When you add/edit a product with no shipping dimensons you see an alert message telling you that you didn’t enter them. You can now tick “Don’t show this message again” and it will be gone forever. This is a per-user setting. .
Tracking numbers and links in emails – This was the most popular feature request on our community page. If an order has a tracking number and you change its status to shipped or completed, your customer will get an email automatically with their tracking number and a link to track their order on the shipping provider’s website. .
Import and export formats are now synched – We’ve created a new “Bulk Edit” template which you can use to export and then re-import products. No more missing out on editing certain fields or mapping fields manually – everything is included and automatic. .
301 redirects – If you’ve switched to BigCommerce (which over 25% of you have) and want to maintain your search engine rankings then you can easily create your own 301 redirects from your store’s control panel – no more emailing us a spreadsheet manually. You can also bulk import in a variety of formats too, including CSV and Google sitemap. .
Update your own DNS settings – Right from the Tools menu you can add, edit and delete your own DNS records. .
Sell on Facebook With BigCommerce SocialShop
As well as the features listed above, BigCommerce 5.6 includes the ability to sell your products on Facebook. Facebook has over 400 million active users and BigCommerce SocialShop is a Facebook application which lets you add a “Shop” tab to your Facebook fan page. Your fans can click a link to buy a product in your BigCommerce store and more importantly they can post your products to their wall.
Here’s a video showing how it works:
… and here’s a few screenshots:
BigCommerce SocialShop is a Facebook application that allows BigCommerce merchants to reach more customers and sell their products through Facebook – reaching Facebook’s enormous 400 million active users in the process.
By displaying a “Shop” tab on your Facebook fan page, BigCommerce SocialShop lets your fans, prospects and customers click on a product to purchase it from your BigCommerce store. They can also share your products directly through Facebook as part of their news stream.
BigCommerce SocialShop is the ultimate way to leverage social commerce to grow your ecommerce business, and it’s available exclusively for BigCommerce merchants at no charge.
BigCommerce SocialShop Benefits
Add a “Shop” tab to your Facebook fan page – harness the power of social commerce to reach new customers and encourage repeat purchasing from existing customers .
Connect with customers and prospects in a social context instead of a transactional one to build trust and loyalty .
Anyone can click on a product to see photos, learn more and buy directly through your BigCommerce store .
Anyone can share their favorite products with friends via their news stream with just one click .
The BigCommerce SocialShop application takes just seconds to add to your Facebook page and requires no technical knowledge
Over 40,000 clients rely on Interspire solutions to start online stores, launch content-driven web sites, and profit from email marketing. We’re a global leader in the ecommerce space and are currently looking for an exceptional product manager to help set the strategy, direction and drive the execution of our SaaS ecommerce offering, BigCommerce.
We’re looking for a self-motivated “A” player who wants to work with other smart people to get things done. You love technology and pride yourself on your achievements in regards to product management and leadership. You have a proven ability to balance business requirements with customer needs and you’re 100% committed to everything you do.
Your responsibilities:
* Define the overall product vision and strategy for our ecommerce platform
* Gather requirements, build UI wireframes and define specs based on input from customers, partners and other business units
* Contribute to the product management lifecycle including development of functional specifications and release planning
* Manage and evangelize the day-to-day execution of the product roadmap, including execution of new features as well as appropriately prioritizing enhancements and bug fixes for existing features
* Meet daily with development team (agile scrum) to ensure continual progress towards release targets and milestones
Requirements:
* 3+ years software product management experience
* Multiple product cycles delivered on time and on budget
* Market research/target market analysis experience
* “Street smarts” and willingness to roll up your sleeves and do what’s necessary
* Fast learner with passion for technology and design
* Strong oral/written communication and presentation skills
* Ability to juggle multiple priorities and make things happen in a fast-paced, dynamic, agile (scrum) environment; strong bias for action
* Ability to lead through influence
* Strong analytical and quantitative skills; ability to use hard data and metrics to back up assumptions and feature concepts
* Understands software development best practices and the product management lifecycle
* Previous experience in the ecommerce and/or SaaS space is preferable
* Software development background with LAMP stack is preferable
Personal traits common to all Interspire leaders:
* Exhibits excellent judgment
* Uses clear communication to positively influence his/her team
* Hires and develops great people
* Has high standards and always strives for the best outcome
* Expects and requires innovation of her/his team
* Is passionate about technology/ecommerce
* Thinks big and takes action to move forward at all times
Why you’ll like working here:
* Work with the latest technology every day
* Be part of something BIG: we grew 300% last year and our BigCommerce is the fastest growing ecommerce platform in the world
* Unlimited access to our kitchens, stocked full of sodas, candy and snacks
* Work with other smart people who are on their way to the top
* Excellent career progression opportunities
Here’s a dead simple way to attract up to 4 times more traffic to your e-commerce store – and best of all it’s completely free and just takes a few hours. All you need is Google, a phone and some instincts. If you use our ecommerce software, BigCommerce, then it’s even easier.
Follow the steps below to implement this strategy:
Grab a pen and write a list of 4 products that can be purchased online that are complimentary to what you sell. For example, if you sell iPods then your list might look like this: trainers, arm bands, custom iPod skins, workout towels .
Jump on Google and find a few different stores that sell the products you listed in step 1 – but make sure they don’t sell the same products as you. .
Create a spreadsheet with these headers: Product, Website – and list the websites from step 2 alongside the complimentary products they sell, such as: .
Product, Website
Trainers, http://www.trainers1.com
Trainers, http://www.trainers2.com
Arm Bands, http://www.armbands1.com
etc… .
Go through each website in your list and fill in the contact form on their web site or send them an email with this message: . Hi there, .
This is [your name] from [your company]. We sell [what you sell] through our online store at [your website link] and would like to discuss a mutually beneficial partnership opportunity. Would you be so kind as to provide me with the name and phone number of the person in charge of your marketing? .
Thank you,
[Your name]
[Your phone number]
[Your website link] .
When they email you back, add their name and phone number to your spreadsheet. Your goal is to get at least one person to reply for each complimentary product you’ve listed. If you don’t get an email back with contact information after a few days, find another website which sells the same complimentary product and repeat step 4. .
When your list is full of names and phone numbers, call each company and tell them that you’d like to recommend them to your customers at the bottom of every invoice you send, and ask if they’d do the same for you.
This is a simple yet VERY effective form of cross-promotional marketing and can drive enormous amounts of traffic to your website if implemented.
The basic idea is simple. Let’s say you get in contact with 4 companies who sell complimentary products to yours. Including your company, that’s 5 companies in total who all sell similar products.
At the end of every company’s invoice email, they would each add something like this:
Thank you for your business. If you’re looking for products to compliment your order, we recommend:
http://www.trainers1.com for discount trainers in all styles and colors
http://www.armbands1.com for arm bands which can hold your iPod steady while running
http://www.ipodskins1.com for custom designed iPod skins
http://www.workouttowels1.com for embroided workout towels
Obviously each store wouldn’t include their own website in the list.
That’s the entire strategy. It takes nothing more than 20 minutes on Google and a few hours on the phone but the increase in qualified, free visitors to your online store will be enormous. Just make sure you choose complimentary online stores which have a decent amount of traffic. A good way to check the traffic of a website is to use Compete.com.
Good luck and happy partnering!
P.S. You can edit your invoice email in BigCommerce by clicking the “Store Design” at the top right in your store’s control panel. Then click the “Email Templates” and click “Edit” next to the invoice_email.html template.
I talk to dozens of ecommerce merchants every week and while they have no problem setting up their online store using our ecommerce software, if they simply spent a few hours to add some credibility to their online store then they would see a significant boost in their conversion rate.
In this video I discuss seven simple strategies you can use to enhance your conversion rate by anywhere between 10% and 200%. Simple strategies like adding a short welcome video to your store’s home page or making sure you display security and payment seals on your website can really make the difference when it comes to someone deciding whether or not they will buy from you.
Selling online is all about building trust and communicating that you’re a well established company, and if you follow the steps outlined in these videos I’m confident you’ll get a higher return from your online store than your competitors will.
This video is the fourteenth of many which I’ll be publishing on our new YouTube guru channel, BigCommerceDotCom. Check it out and make sure you subscribe so you don’t miss future videos.
Hi everyone. Fresh off our last hiring spree we’ve just announced 14 new roles in both our Austin office and Sydney office as we continue to expand our team so we can maintain BigCommerce’s astronomical growth (over 5,200%) since it launched last September – it’s now the fastest growing SaaS ecommerce platform in the world.
We operate in small yet nimble teams and we’re a company that’s driven by ambition, vision and passion. Everyone (including the management team) loves technology and especially e-commerce. If this sounds like you then keep reading.
Why you’ll like working here:
Fridges and cupboards stuffed full of free food and drink
Great work atmosphere surrounded by like-minded individuals
Free Friday lunches at local bars, pubs and restaurants
The ability to work with a team yet take control of your own project
Regular company outings to celebrate new releases (bowling, laser tag, etc)
The latest equipment and software tailored to how you like it
Your choice of computer setup, Windows/Mac/Linux, etc
You get more than a “job” – you get a career within a fast growing company
The knowledge that you’re working with us to build something great
We only employ “A players” – that is, people who are self-motivated leaders. If this sounds like you then take a look at our open positions:
Product manager (Sydney, Australia) – We’re looking for a self-motivated “A” player who wants to work with other smart people to get things done. You love technology and pride yourself on your achievements in regards to product management and leadership. You have a proven ability to balance business requirements with customer needs and you’re 100% committed to everything you do. Learn more or apply. .
Internal recruitment manager (Austin, TX) – We’re growing (fast) and are looking for an experienced recruitment manager to assist our middle management team in recruiting, interviewing, hiring and on-boarding new staff in our sales and support departments. You should have a passion for technology and a proven track record of making excellent hires in a fast-paced environment. The ability to poach top talent is a bonus. Learn more or apply. .
Linux systems administrator (Austin, TX) – If you love working with NFS, MemCache, redis, Nagios, puppet and the LAMP stack. If you shudder when you hear the words “down time” and you deploy high availability server farms in your spare time. If you want to work with a team of hardcore sys admins and you’d love nothing more than to manage hundreds or even thousands of servers a few years down the track then this role is for you. Learn more or apply. .
E-commerce sales associate x 4 (Austin, TX) – If you have a passion for e-commerce and love selling a product that practically sells itself then this role is for you. You take pride in sales and go over and above to understand both the product you’re selling and the needs of your customers. You love working in a team environment but also like a friendly challenge to see who can come out on top at the end of a busy sales week. Learn more or apply. .
Level 1 technical support engineer x 4 (Austin, TX) – If you love people, technology and have a passion for e-commerce then we need you. Using your excellent communication and problem solving skills, you’ll be the first point of call when a BigCommerce customer needs assistance. You can get to the root cause of a problem quickly and you’re a team player who loves a challenge. You’ll learn all sorts of cool stuff (like PHP), but you’ll already have an excellent working knowledge of HTML, CSS and e-commerce. Learn more or apply. .
Level 2 technical support engineer x 3 (Austin, TX) – You love solving challenging problems and you think outside the box. You’re a self-appointed PHP guru and you’ve got a track record of building or supporting enterprise-grade software built on the LAMP stack. You like the interaction a support role brings but you also like liaising with a hardcore development team to find, diagnose and fix software bugs. Learn more or apply. .
Senior software engineer (Sydney, Australia) – You’ve been building enterprise-grade software applications on the LAMP stack for years. You code in PHP5, can optimize the hell out of a MySQL database and are familiar with templating frameworks like Twig and Smarty. You take time to think about architecture and you’ve even worked on some large-scale projects in the past which required you to think outside the box. You want to work with a team of the best PHP engineers in Sydney and don’t want any office politics. Learn more or apply.
Length: 14:43 Overview: A step-by-step guide to using social media tools to build relationships with customers that offer value to both you and them.
Description: In this, episode 3 of my podcast, I talk about our over-arching social media strategy which we use to keep in constant communication with our customers. Topics include using Twitter as a support intermediary, using Facebook as a feedback loop, building a community with a focus on continual improvement and idea generation and how to turn negative feedback into a motivation tool. I also touch on the upcoming BigCommerce 5.6 and 6 releases at the end of the podcast.
Update: WordPress likes to mess up double quotes so when you copy the HTML snippet in this post, make sure you delete the double quotes and re-add them using your keyboard.
What is Disqus?
Disqus is a free commenting platform which can be integrated into BigCommerce to make your product reviews truly social. Unlike a typical commenting or review system, Disqus is smart enough to pick up conversations happening about the products you sell from around the web. It brings them together and displays a threaded commenting platform on product pages in your BigCommerce store.
As well as rounding up comments and reviews on your products from around the web, shoppers can post comments by logging into their Facebook or Twitter accounts, meaning they can also share their comments and reviews with their friends automatically – meaning more people who know about your online store.
People with Disqus accounts can use the same profile to comment across multiple sites and as a Disqus administrator you can get excellent statistics regarding number of comments, frequency and more. You can see the entire feature list on the Disqus website.
If Disqus sounds good then keep reading – it’s very easy to integrate thanks to BigCommerce’s Design Mode feature.
How to integrate Disqus into your product reviews
Follow the simple steps below to switch out BigCommerce’s default product reviews/commenting system to Disqus. We’re going to be using Design Mode to make some small HTML changes but don’t worry, it’s easy to do and BigCommerce’s QuickEdit HTML editor has a built-in revert button if you mess things up.
Login to your store and click the “Store Design” link at the top right of the page
Click the “Design Mode” tab then click the “Open My Store in Design Mode” button
You should now see your store with the Design Mode toolbar at the top. Click on the “Toggle” button on the blue Design Mode bar to disable design mode then click on any product in the “Featured Products” or “Top Sellers” section on your home page
You should now be on one of your product pages – it doesn’t matter which one. Click the “Toggle” button on the blue Design Mode bar to re-enable design mode. The button should change to orange to show it’s enabled
Scroll down the page where you see the “Product Reviews” section where customer reviews would typically appear. Right click over the top of the “Product Reviews” heading and choose the “Edit Panel” option from the popup menu
The QuickEdit HTML editor window will open with the ProductReviews.html panel code loaded in the right pane
Select all of the HTML code in the QuickEdit editor and delete it. Paste the following HTML in its place (but don’t click the “Save” button yet): -
<div id=”ProductReviews”>
<h3 id=”reviews”>%%LNG_ProductReviews%%</h3>
</div>
Now it’s time to sign up for Disqus. On the step where you’re asked which options you want to enable, you can just skip that for now – you can go back and enable logins from Twitter and Facebook as well as nifty features like video comments later. On the final step make sure you choose the “Universal Code” option which should show you a page with two lots of JavaScript code, like so: -
Copy the HTML from the top box (the “embed code” box) and go back to your BigCommerce QuickEdit window. Paste the code after the <h3>…</h3> tag, like so: -
<div id=”ProductReviews”>
<h3 id=”reviews”>%%LNG_ProductReviews%%</h3>
— Paste the code here —
</div>
We’re now done editing the ProductReviews.html panel so click the “Save” button in the blue toolbar at the top of the QuickEdit window but don’t close the window – we’re now going to edit another file
On the left side of the QuickEdit window you’ll see a list of files. Scroll down until you find the “product.html” file and click on it to load its contents into the editor
Just above the </body> tag near the very end of the product.html file, add the JavaScript from the second Disqus text box (the “comment count code” box in the screenshot above) like so:
-
— Paste the code here —
</body>
Click the “Save” button in the blue toolbar at the top of the QuickEdit window and close the window – we’re finished editing our HTML (I told you it would be easy!)
So just to recap, we’ve pasted the JavaScript from the first textbox on Disqus into our ProductReviews.html panel after the <h3> tag and we’ve pasted the JavaScript from the second textbox on Disqus into our product.html layout file, just before the </body> tag.
To see the Disqus comments in action, just click the “View Store” link in your control panel and go to a product page. Here’s a screenshot of my integration which you can see in my test store here (feel free to leave a comment too!):
If you integrate Disqus then instead of moderating comments through your BigCommerce control panel, you’d instead login to Disqus.com and moderate them there. Don’t forget to log back into Disqus so you can enable all of the extra features you saw in step two when signing up.
Well, that’s all there is to it! Disqus is a fantastic commenting system and if you do integrate it with your store feel free to leave a comment below with a link so other BigCommerce merchants can take a look!
“BigCommerce offered EVERYTHING that I wanted for my online store. It’s so easy to track purchases, offer coupon codes and create sales. And there’s even a rating system for products!”
Introduction
A few weeks back we sent an email to existing BigCommerce merchants asking why they decided to switched to BigCommerce (if they weren’t launching a new store). The email campaign generated close to 500 testimonials and was a HUGE success. We’ve posted a lot of the testimonials on our switch buzz page and so many came in that we couldn’t keep up, so a big thanks to everyone who took the time to complete our survey!
As part of the survey we announced we would be selecting one random participant to win an Apple iPad when they’re available for sale in April. Well, we’ve randomly selected a winner – Carrie Michael from Seventh Door which is a beautiful BigCommerce store where Carrie sells female apparel including tops, shoes, handbags and more.
Carrie switched to BigCommerce from a custom PayPal shopping cart and noted she’s had a significant improvement in customer satisfaction, day-to-day stress levels and store design/functionality since she made the switch. Her previous solution lacked features and was hard to customize. You can see below that Carrie obviously hasn’t had a problem customizing BigCommerce to meet her needs.
Carrie has customized one of BigCommerce’s built in ecommerce templates and her store looks fantastic:
Carrie, congratulations and if you’re reading please check your email for details on how to claim your Apple iPad!
The Bigcommerce blog brings you company news and feature updates from the world's leading e-commerce platform, along with proven tips, tricks and strategies to help you sell more.
Here’s a dead simple way to attract up to 4 times more traffic to your e-commerce store – and best of all it’s completely free and just takes a few hours. All you need is Google, a phone and some instincts. If you use our 
Hi everyone. Fresh off our last hiring spree we’ve just announced 14 new roles in both our 
Winner: Carrie Michael
