Back Office Facelift

Changes to the back office are mainly cosmetic, but we managed to squeeze in a few improvements to contrast and visibility in the navigation. Essentially, we gave it a facelift. It still resembles the back office you’re used to – it’s just better. Changes include new logos, images, colors, and a few other design elements.

Better, faster, stronger!

Borrowing from Daft Punk, we’ve made significant improvements to software performance by targeting SQL queries. We’ve made one optimization after another to ensure that your store works lightning fast! How fast you ask? Up to 200% faster at carrying out back office operations – talk about saving time!

This also means your website will be better equipped for traffic peaks. Great news for high traffic sale days! Get the details about our tests and results on our developer blog.

New Coding Standards

We’ve reached a new chapter in PrestaShop’s coding history. To optimize the software, we adopted a new coding architecture. Moving forward, all new code contributed on GitHub should follow the PSR-2 Coding Style Guide. Implementing these new rules will help keep code integrity. This will also be instrumental in the unit testing process.

“Advanced EU Compliance” Module

The European Union took almost a decade to form. This new union comes with a complex set of rules and regulations that can be very challenging for online merchants with international stores. Many of you have asked for features that help you meet local EU regulations, and we’ve responded! We’ve added 15 options into the “Advanced EU Compliance module” that you can use to achieve better legal compliance, faster.

Taxes and price calculations

No one loves taxes, but it’s at the heart of the check-out process so we spent time working on your taxes! Specifically, we refined the rounding of prices and tax management.

But that’s not all!

In addition to our major fixes, we’ve refined the installation, the update process, the search function and back office controls. All bug updates can be reviewed in our changelog.

With this new release, we’re adopting another new practice: an updated Semantic Versioning Scheme. This helps to clarify each software release and lets you see all changes faster.

Last but not least…

We’d like to thank the community for all their contributions on the Forge, GitHub, Crowdin and more. We wouldn’t have gotten this far without your continued help and support! A very special shout-out to:

Adonis Karavokyros, Alessandro Corbelli, alexsimple, Antonino Di Bella, Arnaud Lemercier, Benjamin, PONGY, bercik999, Bruno Desprez, Cédric Fontaine, Dan Hlavenka, Danoosh Mir, David-Julian BUCH, Denver Prophit Jr., Desbouche Christophe, Dimitrios Karvounaris, doekia, Dvir-Julius, el-tenkova, eleazar, Eric Rouvier, Etienne Samson, fird, Francis Ramirez, Frédéric BENOIST, Germain Tenthorey, Gordon Coubrough, Guillaume Leseur, Gytis Škėma, indesign47, Jocelyn Fournier, joseantgv, Julien Deniau, Krystian Podemski, Ladel, Léo, MaX3315, natrim, Nicolas Sorosac, nodexpl, oleacorner, Pan P., pbirnzain, Pedro J. Parra, PhpMadman, PrestaEdit, Richard LT, Roland Schütz, Samy Rabih, Sébastien Monterisi, SebSept, Shagshag, Steven Sulley, Tomáš Votruba, tucoinfo, unlocomqx, vitekj, zimmi1, ZiZuu.com

Download the latest version of PrestaShop or create your PrestaShop Cloud store today to enjoy this new version!

The post Delivering a new and improved v1.6.1.0 appeared first on EN - Ecommerce blog by PrestaShop.

3. Match your message appeal to your social media kit

Message appeal refers to how you connect with customers to make your message resonate. Will you choose an approach based on logical reasoning or emotional pull? There are three categories of message appeal:

• Ethos : establish credibility using testimonials, work samples and other concrete proof
• Logos : focus on logical reasoning using facts and statistics
• Pathos : focus on emotional or motivational appeals using personal experiences, social events, etc.

Choose your message appeal based on the segment you want to target and the communication tools you have to encourage customers complete a specific action (for example, order a product or arrange an appointment). A careful selection is key at this stage. A recent study by HubSpot confirms that message appeal has an impact on whether viewers interact with a post or not.

Each message appeal links to a set of Social Media tools, guided by your communication focus:

* personal relevance, based on individual experiences, social or current events, is key to making your audience want to share your content with their business contacts, colleagues, friends and family. Example: Buzzfeed success story across social channels.

The key question you should ask yourself is whether a message is relevant for your target segment: What value does my post offer to them? Why should they WANT to engage?).

Here’s an extra tip: don’t get stuck in the ‘90s–using flashing colors, music and standardized slogans to grab attention was yesterday, online or off. Instead, carefully craft a trigger to reach your intended audience and stand out for the value you provide, not your neon font.

In a nutshell

Let´s drop the theory for a minute and take a look at an e-commerce business that combines all three steps effectively: Zalando. Its global social media presence focuses on emotional and motivational appeals. The company adapts its strategy to local taste as well as to current events, which affect their narrowly defined target segments on a personal level. Zalando offers different approaches for each segment on a constant basis, as can be seen on their website. The images below reflect current accounts focused on the upcoming spring season and related emotional trigger associated with it across Facebook and Instagram:

In addition to focusing on up-to-date and coherent social interaction with potential customers, Zalando uses complementary social ads based on cookies and online video advertising. As a result, the company has managed to become a leading global online shop representing over 1,500 brands since it was founded in 2008.

So how can you, as an e-commerce merchant, achieve this constant level of interaction with your target group on selected social networks?

The answer is, once again, focus: integrate all your social media networks on one platform!

Hootsuite gives you the opportunity to manage all your social media channels simultaneously via a single dashboard, making it easy for you to communicate coherently and constantly across channels, including through your e-commerce site. As shown earlier, a narrow search function allows you to follow and interact with your audience in real time, giving you a competitive edge that can make all the difference in fast-paced virtual marketspaces.

Not convinced yet? Start your free 30-day trial now and see for yourself if Hootsuite is the tool for you:http://ow.ly/L7QJr

Written by

Hanna Oeljeschläger (@HootHanna)
Social Media Coach for DACH & UK at Hootsuite

The post Support your ecommerce business with social media (Part 2 of 2) appeared first on EN - Ecommerce blog by PrestaShop.

Online stores

Design & User-Friendliness

This category rewards sites with original, elegant or innovative design that encourages browsers to dive into the product offer, as well as sites that facilitate the shopping experience.

The nominees: 

Vicomte A.            Jolis mômes             Easy Peasy          Ma P’tite Culotte     Cook and Joy

And the winner is…   Vicomte A.  

Originality

Winners of this category represent online stores with the most innovative or original product offer.

The nominees: 

My Jolie Candle       Kiezkaufhaus          Ah la vache                 Bloom’s                 Sosav

And the winner is… Ah la vache

Marketing & Communication

This category rewards the best marketing actions carried out on a PrestaShop store site or blog, or via social media networks.

The nominees: 

Faguo                      Suncoo                Planet Sushi         Bonne Gueule     Coussin Germain

And the winner is…   Bonne Gueule 

Technical Skill & Development

This category rewards the best developments carried out with the PrestaShop solution. The nominees: 

Zippo                     Tealer                   Artisan Coutelier            Rotring           SelfPackaging

And the winner is…   Artisan Coutelier 

Community Favorite

The nominees:

My Candle           Book n Bike            Todo Bonito          Miraherba          La Folle Adresse

And the winner is…  La Folle Adresse

Most promising ecommerce idea

This category rewards the winner of our e-business plan contest, which took place earlier this year. Le Franc Marché

Contributors

Core Contributors

• Most lines of code edited: PrestaEdit
• Highest quality contributor (norms, PHPDoc): GSkema
• Highest number of code improvement PR: PHPMadMan

Addons Contributors

This category includes the winners of the Addons Awards contest held in December 2014.

• Customer Retention:  All-in-one rewards Module, Yann BONNAILLIE 
• Traffic: Professional Blog Module, Benoit PERRIER
• Innovation: Product Customization Module, Mohamed JEBALI
• Time Savings: Advanced sales, tax, profit and profit margin reports Module, Business Tech 
• Conversion: Display dynamic shipping lead-time and fees Module, Codeworks

Contributors Forum

• Most active contributor forum: vekia
• Most upvoted contributor forum: nadie

The post Meet the winners of the PrestaShop Awards ! appeared first on EN - Ecommerce blog by PrestaShop.

The enhanced ecommerce plug-in for analytics enables the measurement of user interactions with products on ecommerce websites across the user shopping experience including: product impressions, product clicks, viewing product details, adding a product to a shopping cart, flowing through the checkout process, transactions and refunds.

A. Migration and Compatibility with Ecommerce Plug-In

First, you should enable ecommerce tracking and enhanced ecommerce reporting in the View settings, along with defined funnel steps, as described in the “Getting Started Guide.”

Then, you should enable the use of the enhanced ecommerce plug-in (“ec” in short). The enhanced ecommerce plug-in requires analytics.js library; that means the property must be updated to Universal Analytics. For even more detailed instructions on setting this up, refer to the Google Developers Page for Enhanced Ecommerce.

To check that Universal Analytics is enabled the following code snippet must be implemented:

To load the ec.js plug-in, the code above must be updated with a specific command
‘ga (‘require’, ‘ec’)’:

As shown above, the enhanced ecommerce plug-in should be loaded after creating a tracking object but before sending a hit to Google Analytics. The enhanced ecommerce plug-in should not be used alongside the ecommerce plug-in (‘ecommerce.js’) for the same property. If you have already set up ecommerce tracking but want to use enhanced ecommerce tracking, you have two options:

1. Create a new property and enable enhanced ecommerce. In this case you should enable sending data from a single page to multiple properties.
2. Migrate from the ecommerce plug-in to the enhanced ecommerce plug-in. In this case current analytics.js users should remove and replace references with enhanced ecommerce code. Transaction and item data previously collected using the ecommerce.js plug-in will not be affected by the migration and will remain available in the properties and profiles to which they were originally sent.

B. Measuring Ecommerce Activities

Now we are going to cover enhanced ecommerce tracking implementation by providing information as to how to go about measuring each stage of the product life cycle on a page-by-page and action-by-action basis. Enhanced ecommerce tracking can measure:

1. Product impressions
2. Clicks on product link
3. Product detail views
4. Addition and removals of products from shopping carts

This feature can also track the following activities:

• Initiating the checkout process for a product group
• Purchases and refunds
• Impressions and clicks on internal promotions

1. Product Impression

To measure product impressions use the ‘ec:addImpression’ command. Details of the product viewed refer to the Impression Data type and is stored in ‘impressionFieldObject’.
For example, the code snippet below measures search result impressions on a product from users with first views of the product:

Only one of the variables (either ‘id’ or ‘name’) must be set, the others are optional.

2. Product Click

In a purchase funnel, a user may express interest in the particular product by clicking through to the product link from a list or category page. Product clicks are measured with the ‘ec:addProduct’ command and with a ‘ec:setAction’ to specify the type of action that has been performed. The data of the product clicked is stored in productFieldObject.
As an example, the following code measures a click on a product link displayed on a search result listing:

A productFieldObject must have a name or id value; all other values are optional.

3. Product Details View

In addition to product list impressions Enhanced Ecommerce supports product details page impressions. Which allows you to answer the following questions:

• What percentage of visitors purchase after viewing product detail pages?
• On average, how many products do users view before cart adds?

If a user views a product details page, a command ‘ec:addProduct’ is used alongside ‘ec:setAction’ to specify a ‘detail’ action. Here’s an example of tracking code that includes commands for creating a tracking object and loading ‘ec.js’ plug-in.

4. Shopping Cart Additions and Removals

After viewing a product page, a user may express her/his intent to buy the item(s) by adding it to a shopping cart. The data measured allows you answer the following question:

• What percentage of visitors add products to their cart after viewing product pages?

To measure the addition or removal of a product from a shopping cart, a ‘ec:addProduct’ command is used alongside ‘ec:setAction’ and the type of action is set as ‘add’ or ‘remove’.
Bear in mind that the product information and add action must be sent alongside a Google Analytics Event (the action of removal is measured similarly):

You should tie the function ‘addToCart (product)’ via a JavaScript event handler onClick to the shopping cart add/remove button on each product detail page and the checkout page.

C. Measuring Checkout Process

Now that the user is ready to begin the checkout process, in order to measure each step in the checkout process you should:

• Add tracking code that will measure each step of the checkout process
• If applicable, add tracking code to measure checkout options
• Optionally, set user-friendly step names for the checkout funnel report by configuring the ecommerce settings page in admin.

For each step in your checkout process, you’ll need to implement the corresponding tracking code that sends data to Google Analytics.

For each checkout step that you measure you should include a ‘step’ value. This value is used to map your checkout actions to the labels you configured at each step in the ecommerce settings page.

Ensure you have properly configured a checkout funnel on the ecommerce settings page. If you have additional information about the given checkout step at the time the step is measured, you can set the ‘option’ field with a ‘checkout’ action to capture this information. For example, the default payment type for users (e.g. ‘Visa’).

For measuring a checkout step a ‘ec:addProduct’ command is used for every product and the command ‘ec:setAction’ to indicate a checkout. On measuring, an event should be sent to Google Analytics containing product and checkout step information. This should be implemented on the link that proceeds each checkout step, to indicate the initiation of each step. ‘ec:setAction’ takes an ‘actionFieldObject’ to describe the checkout step with a number and additional information (about the default payment type for this user).

The following example shows how to measure the first step of a checkout process, with a single product, and some additional information about the payment type:

Checkout options allow you to measure additional information about the state of the checkout. This is particularly useful in cases where you have measured a checkout step during the initial pageview but additional information about the same checkout step is available after a user-selected option has been set. For example, the user selects a shipping method. To measure a checkout option, use ‘ec:setAction’ to indicate a ‘checkout_option’ and include the step number, and the option description.

You’ll likely want to measure this action once the user has clicked to move on to the next step in the checkout process. For example:

It is possible to track user flow through each step of the checkout process. When setting the action to checkout, you will need to pass the step number and label of each step. The steps and label will appear in the GA report. Note that multiple checkout steps cannot be sent in a single hit. If multiple steps appear on a single page, each will need to be sent with a separate pageview or event.

Measuring the checkout process allows you to answer the following questions:

• Where are users dropping off in the checkout funnel?
• How do shipping options affect checkout rates?

D. Measuring Transactions

A user completes the checkout process by making a purchase. In order to measure transactions, use ‘ec:addProduct’ for each product and the ‘ec:setAction’ command with the action type set to ‘purchase’. Transaction level information like total revenue, tax, etc. can be specified via an ‘actionFieldObject’.

The following tracking code can be used on the order confirmation page:

Measuring transactions enable you track Revenue, Transactions, Average Value per Transaction, and Average Items per Transaction.

E. Measuring Refunds

In a scenario where a customer asks for a refund, refunds may either be full (refunding the entire order) or partial (refunding a part of the order) e.g. refunding a single product. To refund an entire transaction, set a ‘refund’ action and provide the transaction ID:

If a matching transaction is not found, the ‘refund’ hit will not be processed. Transactions may only be refunded in Google Analytics within 6 months of the original reported transaction date.

In order to measure partial refund use the ‘ec:setAction’ and ‘ec:addProduct’ commands, set the action type to ‘refund’, then provide the transaction ID, product ID(s) and product quantities to be refunded:

F. Measuring Internal Promotions

Google Analytics Enhanced Ecommerce supports the measurement of impressions and clicks on internal promotions such as banners, exit pop-ups, sales announcements, temporary offers and seasonal promotions typically displayed alongside related products or the home page.
Measuring internal promotions allows you answer the following questions:

• Do seasonal homepage promotions drive sales to specific product categories?
• Are users clicking through promotional offers and making purchases?

1. Promotion Impressions

Internal promotion impressions are generally measured at page load and are sent with the initial pageview using the ‘ec:addPromo’ command. Promotion details are added in ‘promoFieldObject’.

A ‘promoFieldObject’ must have a name or id value; all other values are optional. For example:

2. Promotion Clicks

In order to measure clicks on an internal promotion campaign, use the ‘ec:addPromo’ command, ‘ec:setAction’ command and set the action type to ‘promo_click’:

There are two things to note about this method:

1. Do not send product data with promo clicks. Product data should be set with a separate hit.
2. Internal promotion campaign clicks should be sent as a separate hit after internal promotion impressions data has been passed.

For example, to measure a product detail page with an impression and a promo click, first send product and impression data with the initial pageview, then send promo click data in a separate event:

Conclusion

Ecommerce tracking can either be sent with a Google Analytics pageview or event. It is generally recommended to send impression information with a pageview, and click actions with an event.

Additionally:

1. If ecommerce information may delay the initial pageview of a page, the data can be sent with an event. For impressions, it is recommended to set events to non-interactive.
2. When sending events for Ecommerce actions, use a data model for easier analysis. For example, the category for all ecommerce events can be set to ‘ecommerce’.
3. If ecommerce information will never be sent with the initial pageview, then the plug-in call may be moved after the pageview.
4. Google Analytics includes a limit of 500 hits per session. When sending ecommerce tracking information, ensure that the total number of pageviews and events do not exceed 500 hits in a typical user visit.
5. In addition, there is a 8192 byte limit per hit – if the total number of product impressions (and promotions, transactions, etc.) exceeds this limit, use Product ID Dimension Widening to send optional product parameters.

In order to indicate how product information should be interpreted, all ‘ec:addProduct’ calls need to be followed by ‘ec:setAction’.

Enhanced Ecommerce enables the measurement of users’ interactions with products during the product life cycle. It provides a comprehensive overview visitor behavior patterns in the shopping process.

Understanding behavioral trends of potential customers is vital to running an ecommerce business to scale. That is why enhanced ecommerce should be thoroughly configured and its data correctly interpreted.

Let me know how you progress with configuring enhanced ecommerce in your store.

The post Intermediate Guide to Enhanced Ecommerce appeared first on EN - Ecommerce blog by PrestaShop.

Make, manufacture, wholesale, dropship–or a combination?

The four main sourcing methods each have their pros and cons, and offer advantages and disadvantages that you’ll have to weigh for your own business. Broadly speaking, making and manufacturing offers the most control over brand, quality and price. Choosing wholesale or dropshipping implies less risk, but also means you’re a reseller with less control. Neither is a better option; everything depends on how you envision your business.

While it’s probably easier to start out with one sourcing method, don’t feel obligated to stick to a single product source. In fact, diversifying sourcing partners and methods gives you a certain level of protection against out-of-stock products and unforeseen difficulties on the supplier side–remember the old adage “don’t put all your eggs in one basket?” It’s a good one to keep in mind when you’re building a sourcing strategy.

Keeping things under control: make or manufacture

Let’s take a look at making and manufacturing products: these are great sourcing options for merchants who have a unique idea or design and for whom retaining creative control is essential to building a solid brand.

Make a product

Why it might be right for you

If you have the talent and resources to make your own products, this is one of the lowest-risk ways to get started online. The initial financial investment is low, as there’s no minimum inventory to order.Depending on your product, you might be able to fill orders as they come, allowing you to assess demand and refine your process.

Making your own products gives you ultimate control over quality, brand image and pricing, with the added advantage of agility that comes with controlling the production process from A to Z. Best of all, making your product gives you high potential for great margins, since there are no middlemen to eat away at profit.

Why it might be wrong for you

The potential downside to making your products is that you’re only human and depending on demand, you may come up against the basic limits of time and energy–you need to sleep at some point, after all. Making your products might cost little in terms of material, but don’t forget to factor in how much time it consumes. When you get ready to scale, you’ll need to carefully consider how you intend to grow in order to avoid disappointing customers who have come to love your handmade products.

Pros

• Control over quality, brand and pricing
• Ability to test products
• Low start-up costs
• High profit potential

Cons

• Time consuming
• Growth will be limited by own resources

Manufacture your products

Why it might be right for you

Manufacturing is the highest-risk sourcing option, as it demands a greater initial financial investment, but it also has the strong{highest potential for great rewards}. If you have an original idea that you’ve tested and identified a market for, manufacturing might be right for you. With this sourcing model, you design your product and then find a manufacturer to make it for you. This typically implies placing a minimum order, which explains the high startup costs (inventory can easily soar into the thousands or tens of thousands of dollars) but also the high potential for margins, as you are playing on volume. Manufacturing can also take more time to get up and running because you’ll need to go through a sampling and prototyping process with your supplier before you can order.

Why it might be wrong for you

The biggest challenge with manufacturing is finding trusted suppliers and maintaining healthy relationships with them. You’ll want to put a lot of time and effort into this step; quality issues and late shipments or all-out fraud can be disastrous for your business, especially if you invested heavily in initial inventory. Suppliers can be sourced domestically or internationally, and depending on where you’re located, this can significantly impact price: US or European manufacturers tend to be more expensive than those based in Asia, for example. But there may be tradeoffs in terms of delivery time, ease of communication and quality that are worth it for your business.

Our best advice is to research suppliers at home and abroad, request quotes, compare costs, set up Skype dates or meet in person–heavily invest in research!

Pros

• Lowest cost per unit
• Control over price

Cons

• High start up costs
• Risk of supplier fraud
• Challenges of managing international suppliers from abroad

Playing it safe(r): wholesale or dropshipping

Not everyone goes into ecommerce to sell their own products, which is just fine. Wholesale and dropshipping are great options for merchants who want to curate a specific product selection in a sector of their choice.

Wholesale

Why it might be right for you

Buying wholesale involves purchasing products directly from a manufacturer or wholesaler (usually existing brands) and then reselling them at a markup. It’s less risky than manufacturing because you have the advantage of choosing from known products that have an established reputation. You can typically expect a 50% margin on wholesale goods at retail pricing. Put time into developing good relationships with suppliers and you should be able to negotiate favorable prices.

Why it might be wrong for you

Keep in mind that selling established brands can work against you if you don’t have a well-defined business plan. What makes you different from the competition? You’ll have limited control over prices, as the brands you sell typically set price constraints that conform to their own business models.

Pros

• Quick start-up
• Variety of products
• Product brand recognition

Cons

• Little price control
• Large inventory

Dropshipping

Why it might be right for you

Dropshipping can be a great way for merchants to get up and running quickly, with little financial risk, but it can also be tricky to make a good profit. When you work with a dropshipper, your customers place their order via your online store, and then you transfer this information to your dropshipping partner, who fills and ships the order. The big advantage is not having to stock and manage inventory, or deal with shipping. It means you can work from anywhere and get started with minimal investment. Many businesses use dropshipping to test the addition of a new product to their offer.

Why it might be wrong for you

The downside, or the opportunity if you look at it that way, is that dropshipping’s relatively low risk nature means there are a lot of people doing it, even big names. Competing on price will be a losing game, so you’ll want to focus on where you can add value. Maybe you’re curating a selection of niche products, or you develop in-depth editorial content around your offer. Combine that with great customer service and you have a chance of standing out from the competition.

It’s important to develop good relationships with several different dropshippers to avoid running into out-of-stock issues and disappointing customers. If this does happen–and inevitably it will–use it as an opportunity to gain a loyal customer by providing replacement or upgrade free of charge.

Another thing to consider is that you don’t typically get to see the products you’re selling when you work with a dropshipper. You might consider ordering a few products yourself to see what you’re getting; you can always resell them as refurbished or gently used.

Pros

• Low financial investment
• Ability to work anywhere in the world
• Trusted model
• No inventory costs

Cons

• Large competition
• Can’t see product before purchase
• Long distance relationships with dropshippers

We hope this has been useful to you as you evaluate sourcing options. How do you source your products? What’s been most challenging? Let us know in the comments. Not familiar with PrestaShop? Check out our shopping cart software today.

The post Straight to the source: where should I get my ecommerce products? appeared first on EN - Ecommerce blog by PrestaShop.

PrestaShop Keynote: WeCommerce is better Ecommerce

It was a memorable day filled with networking and discussions about a topic that unites us – eCommerce. A PrestaShop Keynote was kicked off by Bruno Leveque (PrestaShop CoFounder and CEO), Octave Klaba (Founder of OVH), Nicolas Ferrary (Country Manager France of Airbnb) and Charles Wells (PrestaShop Chief Product Officer).

It featured major announcements, the launch of the Integration Fund, our new visual identity, Ambassadors Program, product updates, and much more! With the Integration Fund, over $1,000,000 has been dedicated to funding localized module development all over the world.

PrestaShop Keynote “WeCommerce is better e-commerce” By Bruno Lévêque

Photo album

Official figures from PrestaShopDay

Thank you!

The post #PrestaShopDay: Recapping an amazing event! appeared first on EN - Ecommerce blog by PrestaShop.

It can be tricky to go about pricing a product that the market has never seen before. There are many concerns that go through a merchant’s mind, such as: will consumers find this useful? Will they think it’s priced fairly? Here are a few suggestions to help price it correctly the first time and every time after that.

1. How are your other products priced?

The new product you’re adding needs to make sense with your current assortment and overall pricing strategy. Unless of course, the idea is to test a new direction that you’re thinking about taking your store and brand in. But in general, if you have built your brand around being stylish and affordable, then your product should be priced in-line with your existing inventory. That will help it appeal to the customer base you’ve built up and reach new potential audiences.

2. What are the substitutes for this new product?

This is often a good starting place for many merchants because it provides them with an idea of the prices shoppers are already willing to pay. If you’re introducing a high-end water bottle made with a new and sustainable material that keeps beverages cold for 20 hours, see how other insulated bottles are priced. The idea here is to do a bit of competitive monitoring to find your product’s place in the market.

Competitor data will be especially important as other merchants begin selling the item. Even if you have an exclusive relationship with the manufacturer, copy cats could pop up once your new product proves to be successful. Keeping up with the prices for the same and similar products as they become available should give you the information you need to keep prices competitive.

3. How much does the item cost to produce?

The cost of production should influence your minimum price you’re willing to sell the product for. It’s important to know the cost of your product because selling below that amount means you’re losing money. Your minimum price should always be at or above cost.

4. How elastic is the price?

In other words, how much does the price of your product vary? Products that can sustain demand at a variety of prices are considered elastic. On the other hand, products with small price differences are considered inelastic. Inelastic products are easier to price because their prices don’t fluctuate much. Elastic products, however, can have prices that vary greatly based on the supplier and market conditions.

Because the perfect price isn’t stagnant, figuring out the “perfect price” for your new item can be difficult. It’s important to monitor how the market responds to your item at different prices. Although you can monitor your competitors’ prices manually, you can also choose to automate this process by working with a repricer.

Repricers come in the form of software that aggregates sales history, market and competitive intelligence, and minimum and maximum prices. They make it possible to make informed price changes in real-time. Repricers can help you efficiently price a new product by continuously updating the price to keep up with the market’s reaction to it.

5. Is your product seasonal?

Back to the example of the water bottle. Introducing it during the spring when sporty shoppers are likely to be looking for new gear for their upcoming trips could result in a higher price than if it was introduced in the middle of winter. But once seasons change, keeping the price the same probably isn’t a good call.

That’s where a repricer comes in again; it can reprice based on all the metrics that matter most, like traffic and conversions. If conversions drop when autumn rolls around, drop prices to bump conversions back up.

6. How much inventory do you have?

Based on how much inventory you have in stock, use pricing to prevent depleting your levels or having an overflowing warehouse. To avoid the former, increase prices when you’re low. In case of the latter, lower prices to make room for new merchandise.

In Summary

By this point you might be wondering if there is a clear-cut way to price new products. I don’t mean to disappoint, but there really isn’t. There are so many factors at play and there’s no right way to do it. I would argue that not having a concrete method is actually a good thing: it leaves the strategy up to you and gives you the ability to customize it to fit your existing brand and pricing strategy.

What strategies have you used to price new products in your shop? Share your experience and techniques in the comments below.

About the Author

Angelica Valentine is the Content Marketing Manager at Wiser, the leading pricing intelligence suite. Wiser helps online retailers reprice their new and established products in real-time to optimize for revenue and profit.

Top Wiser features include:

• Easily develop an optimized pricing strategy that can keep up with the market
• Seamlessly integrate with PrestaShop carts
• Gain access to in-depth analytics to prove ROI

The post Top 6 Questions to Ask When Pricing a New Product appeared first on EN - Ecommerce blog by PrestaShop.

In less than a decade, social media has gone from being a “fancy add-on” for a Business Plan to offering an actual set of practical tools which helps ecommerce businesses connect with potential customers. Social media enables marketers to conduct in-depth research within identified target segments, create personalized messages, interact with audiences directly and react to changing market conditions in real-time. So the question is no longer whether to include social media in a business plan but how to include it.

Cutting through the noise

Your ecommerce marketspace is based on one or more virtual platforms surrounded by noise from a large number of competitors, opinion leaders and other market participants, such as bloggers, who can all influence your online image by sharing positive or negative experiences with your brand. Having a clear voice will allow you to raise brand awareness and establish a lasting positive online reputation, ensuring coherence between your corporate identity and online image.

But how can you achieve these goals without wasting time and resources that should focus on supporting your core business? In this post, I outline a 3-step strategy to identify the most profitable networks for your business and develop a proactive communication strategy around only the most appropriate social media outlets.

1. Divide your target group into narrowly focused target segments using “Personas”

First, you need a clear image of the online audience you intend to reach. Given the anonymity of the virtual marketspace, a good understanding of target group characteristics gives your message a better chance of cutting through the noise to reach the segments that interest you. Developing “personas” is a proven way to illustrate characteristics, which simplifies the process of identifying specific segments within your broader target group. So how can you develop these for your business?

One way is to use the Twitter “search” tab of our Hootsuite dashboard, which provides an easy and effective function to set up search streams. These streams help you identify characteristics of your target group and divide it into clear-cut segments along identified demographics and psychographics. For more detailed information feel free to ask our Social Media Coaches here.

Quick guide to setting up your search streams

To give you an example of how search streams can support the segmentation process, let’s look at Sutter Home. The vineyard recently started an online business in addition to their local stores. As a first step towards this online expansion, management had to narrow its existing offline target group into smaller segments specific to their online shop.

In-depth research along industry keywords, including polls and monitoring of online conversations, allowed them to develop a specific persona. Research results were bundled into sections and framed by an avatar image and name within the age range of 21- 30, which corresponded to the majority of prospects within the target segment. The persona, illustrated below, focused on the most lucrative target segment within the broader target group.

Personas provide the basis for the next two steps: matching target segment characteristics with the most effective communication tools and message appeal. These choices determine which social media networks are most effective for your ecommerce business.

2. Match your core product or service with your social media kit

Once you’ve identified your key target, it’s time to identify which communication tools your ecommerce business needs, based on your product or service’s core offer. The table below illustrates several different kinds of businesses and their core offer, with a suggested communication focus and the most effective social media channel for transmitting that message.

This selection is based on the largest global networks (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, Pinterest, Instagram and Youtube), so you can use it as a guideline and adapt it to your local market. For example, are there any additional local social networks which you have to consider? E.g. Viadeo for France, Xing for Germany.

The ranking indicates the three most suitable social media networks for promoting your core product or service on a global scale. With the Hootsuite dashboard, you can connect your social media networks to communicate coherently and simultaneously across channels, as well as monitor all activities and react to changes in the market in real time.

Got it so far? Great!
Let’s take a break to set up your Social Communication Strategy, while we wait for the crucial last step in the following blog post. The next post will show you how to stand out against your competitors using the right set of social media tools.
Get ready by starting your free 30-day trial: http://ow.ly/L7QJr

Written by Hanna Oeljeschläger (@HootHanna)
Social Media Coach for DACH & UK at Hootsuite

The post Support your ecommerce business with social media (Part 1 of 2) appeared first on EN - Ecommerce blog by PrestaShop.

Each innovation is inspired by our desire to simplify ecommerce and make it accessible to everyone across the world. The 800,000 members of our incredible community and our shared passion for ecommerce are what make it all possible. Our success is driven by our community via the PrestaShop Addons Marketplace. This year our contributors will earn over $5,000,000 selling their modules and themes on our marketplace!

We want every developer to be able to give the emerchants in his or her country the power to easily achieve ecommerce success. That’s why we’re thrilled to announce the launch of a $1,000,000 Integration Fund dedicated to our community and intended to reinforce the positive relationships with developers that have contributed to our shared success.

$1,000,000 to invest in our global community

Using this Fund, we hope to build a catalog of local modules so that every merchant, no matter where they are, has access to the basic features necessary to run a successful eCommerce activity in his or her country (payment modules, shipping modules, modules for local marketplace connection and modules to simplify administrative procedures).

How can you get involved?

It’s simple. Whether you’re a new contributor or you’ve been with us for a while, just send us your idea for a local module.

If your idea and skills convince us to select your project, you’ll be eligible to receive funding to cover your development costs (this amount is determined on a case-by-case basis). Once your module is developed and online on PrestaShop Addons, you’ll receive this personalized funding, as well as 30% of the revenues on your module’s sales (until the PrestaShop’s total commission on your module reaches the amount of the awarded funding), then 70% on all following sales.

“I first developed a shipping solution for my uncle’s e-shop that I now sell on Addons Marketplace. I ended up selling it almost 2,000 times”, says Emmanuel M, Addons contributor. Instead of taking on the costs of a custom-made development, merchants can buy modules on Addons Marketplace and benefit from high-volume availability, reducing costs by a factor of more than 20. For developers, the Addons Marketplace offers an incredible opportunity to significantly increase revenues. The Integration Fund was created to drive module development and foster positive relationships between community members and PrestaShop.

Do you have an idea for your local market?

Pitch your idea and apply for the PrestaShop Integration Fund

Stay tuned on the Integration Fund thanks to the hashtag #1million4devs

The post PrestaShop launches a $1,000,000 Integration Fund for the Community appeared first on EN - Ecommerce blog by PrestaShop.

Did you know that for every $92 spent on acquiring visitors, less than $1 is spent on converting them into customers?

The truth is, in the ecommerce world, we tend to think of anything above a 3% conversion rate as something to be happy about, but in a brick and mortar store this would be seen as catastrophic.

On average retailers are now spending 90% of their marketing budgets driving traffic to their stores, whether through SEO, PPC, affiliate marketing or social media channels. But what happens when the visitors you’ve spent so much of your precious budget acquiring get to your store? For most online shops – nothing. All visitors see exactly the same items regardless of their location, preferences or previous shopping behavior. They’re not treated as individuals with unique wants and needs.

Imagine this in the real world -it’s one thing to not want a pushy salesperson breathing down your neck while you browse, but what if that salesperson ignored you completely? The answer, quite rightly, is that you’re going to take your business elsewhere.

But this needn’t be the case. The ability to gather and utilize increasing amounts of data on customer behavior has allowed brands to start strengthening relationships with customers in a number of ways, with one of the most exciting and successful being personalization, a technology that has only recently become accessible to SME retailers.

And there are already a number of success stories. Planet Fitness, market leader for professionals in the fitness industry, is just one example of an innovative company that has turned to personalization to boost sales.

And boost sales it did! Since introducing personalized recommendations to their online store they have seen a whopping 68% increase in conversion, a 12% increase in average order value, and 70% more time spent on their site — all while keeping the end customer at the heart of the business.

So, how can you emulate this success in your business?

• Add a top list to your front page to display the items from your store which were most popular in the previous week. Not only does this allow you to showcase the hottest items in your selection right now (capitalizing on current trends) but it also inspires your customers to browse further in your store and buy more of your fantastic stock! When Planet Fitness added this feature it started generating a impressive 6.1% conversion rate…
• It’s an understatement to say that we lead busy lives, and the same is true for your customers. Save them the arduous task of trawling through page after page of items by putting best-seller lists on your site’s category pages as well; this enhances their browsing experience by showcasing a glimpse of the selection in each category. For Fitness Planet adding this feature and then some has increased the time spent on the site by 70% and the number of items browsed by 96%.
• A customer’s browsing history is a great indicator of what they might be looking for. Add browsing history recommendations to your category pages to allow easy and visualized back and forth browsing. Not only will this tempt customers with relevant items but it will also allow them to reconsider pieces before heading for the checkout. Add this feature to the search page as well and they will have no excuse to forget what they were looking for!
• Don’t trip on the last hurdle – just because someone is on the cart page doesn’t mean they aren’t open to buying more great stuff if you have it. Add cart recommendations to the cart page to encourage a last-minute purchase. This works by displaying items with the highest relevancy to the ones in already in the cart. Planet Fitness saw this feature work to great effect, generating a conversion rate of 7.3%

In short, personalization allows retailers to meet each customer’s needs and wants faster and more efficiently than ever before. Offering customers the most relevant content at all points throughout the buying journey increases customer satisfaction and loyalty as well as increasing conversion and boosting sales. What’s not to like?

The Nosto module ‘Personalization for PrestaShop’ is already pre-installed and ready for use in the PrestaShop solution.

If you want to see personalization in practice why not have a more in-depth look at how PrestaShop’s partner Nosto worked with Planet Fitness?

The post [Case Study] How to Easily Boost Conversion Rates with Personalization appeared first on EN - Ecommerce blog by PrestaShop.