Search engine optimisation

Your ePages online shop has been tailored to the requirements of search engines such as Google and Bing to ensure that people find you quickly. Under the “Marketing / Google registration” menu item, you can have an XML site map created, which is then stored on a server. The next time Google visits your shop, the search engine will read out the XML file to obtain an optimal overview of your shop.

Tiny URLs, which are generated by your system automatically, provide “speaking” URLs to search engines and customers. In lieu of a cryptic database number, every category and every product gets a URL consisting of your shop’s domain and a category/product name. Thanks to a URL such as www.jeansshop.com/LEVI501, Google can more precisely associate the page with certain search terms. Your customers also benefit from this feature, since such URLs in Google search results are more persuasive and thus more likely to be clicked. You can modify the Tiny URL of any product or any category by changing settings.

In the “Description” submenu on the same tab, you can also use HTML metatags to present relevant product-related keywords to search engines.

Selling via product portals

Customers gladly use product portals such as Ciao, shopping.com and Google Product Search to find the best prices and to read shop reviews written by fellow customers. To help you address such customers, your ePages shop system has been preconfigured to interact with the most important product portals. Simply access the “Marketing / Product portals” menu item to activate those portals you wish to utilise for advertising.

In the settings for a given product portal, you will see (at the top of the tab which appears) all the information you need to register your shop with a given provider. Click on the registration link to reach the portal page, where you can create a merchant’s account and post your shop’s URL.

During registration, the product portal will issue you a one-of-a-kind access ID, or a user name and a password. Enter this data into the appropriate tab in your back office. Please make sure that you transfer all data correctly.

Now you just have to access the “Products” tab to define which products should be offered via a portal. Using the tray allows you to enter a lot of product numbers in one go. Please consult the first tutorial (“The Back Office”) in this series for more information about the tray.
 

Certificates

In the Marketing menu, you will find several European certification providers such as TrustedShops and SafeBuy. After checking your shop, such a provider will issue a certificate you can integrate into your shop. You can thus demonstrate to customers that they will be in good hands. Your ePages online shop already meets all technical requirements specified by certification providers—which paves the way for quick and easy registration. Following certification, you can access the design menu to insert the corresponding logo as a page element on your website.
 

Cross-selling

Boost the average amount of your customers’ shopping baskets. Suggest products which are appropriately similar to the goods customers select. You can either use the automatic cross-selling function (in the “Products / Product settings” menu), or assign suitable cross-selling products to each product in your settings. In the case of automatic cross-selling, the system supplies appropriate suggestions based on the shopping behaviour of other customers.
 

Newsletters and coupons

Create incentives to buy with promotional coupons, for example, and include them in a newsletter you send to your customers. To do so, access the "Marketing/Coupons” menu. Create a new campaign and give it a name such as “Valentine’s Day discount”. Adapt the settings to suit your needs.

For example, you can specify percentage-based or absolute discounts, stipulate a minimum purchase amount or make your campaign a limited-time offer.

Would you like to use the same coupon for your campaign and, for example, insert it into a flyer? If so, specify that codes are valid for more than one purchase.

Now it is a matter of generating the codes for this campaign. Either enter a code manually in the tab or have a quantity of your choosing generated automatically.

Now you just have to distribute the coupons to your customers. One good way is including them in a newsletter you send to existing customers and/or interested parties. To do so, access the "Marketing/Newsletter” menu.

Create a campaign—“Customer newsletter”, for example. Click on Save and then on the new entry. Enter your sender data in the “General” tab and activate the campaign so that customers can subscribe to your newsletter.

Now write the e-mail itself in the “Newsletter” tab. In e-mail options, you can use an editor to conveniently enter and adapt the content.

Would you like to send each recipient their very own coupon code? If so, just link the newsletter with the corresponding coupon campaign. Insert a placeholder at the position in your e-mail where the coupon code should ultimately appear.

Specify a date for the e-mail to be sent—or send it manually.

Complete control with Google Analytics and etracker

Monitor the effectiveness of your marketing measures by integrating Google Analytics and etracker. Switch to the “Marketing” menu and then choose one of the providers.

The shop system provides you a link to the provider’s registration page as well as all the information regarding your online shop required for registration. Set up an account with the provider of your choosing; then enter in your back office the registration data which they provide.

Done! Effective immediately, you can check how many people visit your shop every day—or leave without making a purchase—as well as analyse your customers' surfing habits. Thanks to your shop system and various integrated analytical tools, you can always rapidly respond to the whims and wishes of your visitors.

Sometimes the inspiration that makes an idea a reality is hard to find. If you are currently playing with the idea of giving your shop a slight makeover or are wrestling with its design, then let the online shops below be a source of inspiration and a feast for your eyes. From now on, we’d like to reawaken your creativity and inspire with 5 regularly occurring, beautiful examples of online shops all based on ePages.

www.acapelle.de
The Arthur Capelle GmbH markets journeyman’s clothing and accessories in their online shop in both German and French. Sale items and special offers like summer clearance sale items motivate customers to stop by the shop and have a look time and again. The hotline number is always positioned in the right-hand column to indicate quality of service and customer proximity. This allows customer questions about the products to be answered directly. In addition, shop visitors can subscribe to the acapelle newsletter to be regularly provided with current information. Detailed product descriptions and highly-zoomable images give the buyer an exact picture of the product on offer.

www.camiisetas.com
In the Spanish caMiisetas shop, customers can have their own personal Nintendo Wii avatars printed onto coffee cups, key chains, t-shirts and other products. The articles in the shop are connected to Ciao, the online shopping community and evaluation portal, which makes them available to a wide audience. The shopping basket status is always visible in the right-hand column. For payment methods, the shop operators selected Paypal, credit card and COD.

www.coiffurebb.fr
Exclusive design and attractive presentation distinguishes this French shop which specialises in the sales of hair care products. The clearly arranged menu on the left side lets customers conveniently click through the entire range of products. Additional information and conditions are easy to get back to and are placed in the upper navigation. And although they are placed in a prominent position, they are not distracting to the product categories on the left-hand side of the page.
 

www.dot-baby.com
DOT is a beautiful, homespun shop for Portuguese and English speaking Internet buyers searching for baby or maternity clothing. The user can learn about the shop’s mission and claim directly on the start page. This ensures trust and a good feeling when making purchases. The colours have been carefully selected and impart an impression of high-quality products. The product images can be zoomed in on and paged through. The use of cross selling is also effective: For every product, additionally matching products are recommended.
 

www.stylediver.de
Stylediver specialises in three things: accessories, accessories and more accessories! This shop really has the hang of it. Visitors can see at a glance how to get to specific products, see what’s new, how to pay and what delivery methods are available, which products are new, how to subscribe to the newsletter, where to find information on product exchange and other topics. The Polaroid look of the initial product images and the lively language gives the shop a humorous note without detracting from its simple elegance. Some of the products have up to 12 high-resolution views which allows the visitor to nearly "feel" the materials.