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Sunday, March 23, 2008
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A lot of people contact me with questions about Netsuite ecommerce, Netsuite web design, Netsuite SEO or just ecommerce in general! Are you having trouble setting up your ecommerce web store or just not making as much money as you think you should be. Maybe you need recommendations for a developer to help you with custom ecommerce business processes. There are no stupid questions! This site was created to help you with your ecommerce setup, design / user experience or even Internet marketing. So go ahead and ask ANY question you want and I will answer it. Ask a question now - click here.Ask a good question - get a real solution!
If you ask a good question, I may even write a post about your topic and review your site to find a solution. So when you post a question, provide a link to your Netsuite or general ecommerce website. Also, please do not post a question with your name "ANONYMOUS". This is like FREE Netsuite eCommerce consulting. Most consultants would charge to answer these questions, but after building a ton of ecommerce websites I just really want to see your business be successful. Of course, I will also link to your website. So it will be a nice external link for you too. Ask a question now - click here.Your eCommerce friend,
Alex Harris
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Hi Alex, Good work... Even though I've entered meta tags in the meta tag area netsuite provides... some seo checking tools have said they are missing. I check the page source and I can see them and they seem to be in the right place but they aren't registering, Thanks, Dave, http://www.deepsurplus.com/
Hi
It is a very good post and I really like it.I think it is a very nice and good work.
It is a very good post and I really like it.I think it is a very nice and good work.
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Here is a quick tip for anyone (web developer or non-techie) just starting an eCommerce website built on web based applications. It is a basic rule that you should follow to avoid breaking your website when updating the code of a Netsuite web store theme.
Ecommerce applications like Netsuite, Volusion and even Yahoo stores have text area form fields in their apps to enter HTML/JS code for the templates. Because these input fields are very small, it is very easy to delete or change this code. I was asked to fix this unintentional problem several times, but it could have been avoided. The solution is simple, copy all the code out of the text area fields and into .html files every time. Then you have a backup of this files, plus edit them using a WYSIWYG like Dreamweaver or a text editor.
Here is an example of an item template from a Netsuite web store theme. The code is moved from the text area field into a txt file. Simple, until you forget to do it.
Have any questions? Post them here...
Ecommerce applications like Netsuite, Volusion and even Yahoo stores have text area form fields in their apps to enter HTML/JS code for the templates. Because these input fields are very small, it is very easy to delete or change this code. I was asked to fix this unintentional problem several times, but it could have been avoided. The solution is simple, copy all the code out of the text area fields and into .html files every time. Then you have a backup of this files, plus edit them using a WYSIWYG like Dreamweaver or a text editor.
Here is an example of an item template from a Netsuite web store theme. The code is moved from the text area field into a txt file. Simple, until you forget to do it.
Have any questions? Post them here...
Labels: netsuite, shopping cart, tips
Are you understanding the NetSuite Theme better now? In this post I will show you examples of using "Custom Web Site Tags" in your NetSuite Theme.
What are Custom Web Site Tags?
You can define custom tags to customize specific aspects of your store. You create custom tags to define information for each individual tab in your Web store. Then, you insert these tags into your HTML templates. You define your tag substitutions on tab and category records.
Here is an illustration of how I set up my Custom Web Site Tags in the NetSuite Theme. Initially this may look complex, but really it is basic HTML/CSS. NetSuite still uses TABLES, so the Custom Web Site Tags are added to each TABLE cell (TD). This is a little tricky so if you have questions, post a comment.
Are you using web site tags? Post a comment or ask a question.
What are Custom Web Site Tags?
You can define custom tags to customize specific aspects of your store. You create custom tags to define information for each individual tab in your Web store. Then, you insert these tags into your HTML templates. You define your tag substitutions on tab and category records.
They are NetSuite's version of "INCLUDE" files.
Tips when creating tags:- Use all CAPITAL LETTERS with no spaces, but you can use underscores
- Add a default value (if needed) but add a DIV with an ID around HTML, like below
Here is an illustration of how I set up my Custom Web Site Tags in the NetSuite Theme. Initially this may look complex, but really it is basic HTML/CSS. NetSuite still uses TABLES, so the Custom Web Site Tags are added to each TABLE cell (TD). This is a little tricky so if you have questions, post a comment.
So why do I want to use these?
Here are a few reasons.- You have a non-secure image or tracking pixel and need to switch it between HTTP and HTTPS
- You want to change a marketing banner between different categories
- You want to completely remove a right or left column on certain pages
- You want to host HTML pages and use "INCLUDE" files to make updates easier
Are you using web site tags? Post a comment or ask a question.
I receive a lot of NetSuite questions, but the most popular NetSuite web design question is "How does the web site theme work?" It's pretty easy once you understand how each of the templates and layouts are grouped together. So I have created a diagram to be used as a cheat sheet.
The theme is broken up into the standard Header (Logo and Tabs Template), Left Side Navigation, Content Area Template, Right Side Navigation and Footer. Each section can be removed or changed in size to totally customize your NetSuite Web Design.
The main area I want to point out is the "Content Area Template". This area changes based on the website section you are on. For example, when clicking a category link, the content area will then use the Category Level Layouts and Templates. A "layout" is simply a wrapper of two templates. The two custom templates are known as "list" and "list cell". In HTML terms that means, the "layout" is a TABLE tag, the "list" is the HTML contained inside that TABLE, and finally the "list cell" is the actual TD for each item that is displayed. This is also known as nested HTML tables.
TIP: Use NetSuite Help, really, it works well. Do a search for "Web Site Tags" in the NetSuite Help to get the full list of all the tags that can be used in each of the Theme sections and different custom templates.
Please let me know if this was helpful (or confusing) in anyway. Post Your Feedback - Click Here!
The theme is broken up into the standard Header (Logo and Tabs Template), Left Side Navigation, Content Area Template, Right Side Navigation and Footer. Each section can be removed or changed in size to totally customize your NetSuite Web Design.
The main area I want to point out is the "Content Area Template". This area changes based on the website section you are on. For example, when clicking a category link, the content area will then use the Category Level Layouts and Templates. A "layout" is simply a wrapper of two templates. The two custom templates are known as "list" and "list cell". In HTML terms that means, the "layout" is a TABLE tag, the "list" is the HTML contained inside that TABLE, and finally the "list cell" is the actual TD for each item that is displayed. This is also known as nested HTML tables.
TIP: Use NetSuite Help, really, it works well. Do a search for "Web Site Tags" in the NetSuite Help to get the full list of all the tags that can be used in each of the Theme sections and different custom templates.
Please let me know if this was helpful (or confusing) in anyway. Post Your Feedback - Click Here!
Thank you. There is so little help around aimed to beginners that everything basic you post is welcomed.
thank you so much for posting this. It's a point reference for me now.
Do you think you'll be adding more helpful stuff like this on a regular basis?
Yes, I will be adding more tips and insight into NetSuite advance site customization. If there is something specific you would like to see, please leave a comment.
How do you detect if a user is logged in so you can switch content?
I believe you would need to create pages or information items that are only accessible to logged in members. Currently you can't switch a small page section/widget based on if they are logged in unless you use SuiteScript.
Summer time for an ecommerce web designer should be preparing web site for the holiday season. This includes A/B testing, SEO and making any final design changes. Here's an interesting article that can when redoing your site for the upcoming holiday season...
Top 10 Tips to Boost Holiday Sales
Reprinted from Offermatica Blog
The holiday sales season is drawing near, complete with dramatic increases in sales -- and the accompanying fear among online marketers of doing any testing that might jeopardize those increased numbers.
Giving in to fear and avoiding such a smash-hit tactic as testing, however, can be far more risky during the holidays than continuing to test. After all, the testing of promotions and content during off-peak times results in significant increases in ROI. Imagine, then, now much more you can bring in by testing during the busiest time of year.
Testing technology, too, has changed in recent years, so that web operators no longer need to fear that making changes, testing those changes and optimizing for the best results will put any real restriction on their daily traffic or run the risk of a system-wide failure.
So rather than avoiding testing because of fear, take control of your site and your traffic by testing any or all of the following things:
1. Landing page merchandising
There is nothing more important on a retail landing page than the way the merchandise is displayed. What products you show, how many items are displayed, whether photographs are large or small, the quality and quantity of copy all benefit from aggressive testing and optimization.
You might also consider testing how products are grouped: Try listing best-selling items versus most popular items versus most-often-recommended items to see which is most effective in prompting visitors to buy.
2. Percentage off versus dollar savings, and other promotions
Customers often respond differently to promotions, depending upon how it is framed, even when the ultimate price is the same (e.g., 10% off a $100 purchase versus $10 off a $100 purchase).
You can also test free shipping -- the most popular form of holiday promotion last season -- along with the threshold for free shipping, to see if the resulting boost in sales makes up for the loss in shipping fees.
Test, too, how long you offer free shipping. The promotion matters a lot in, say, early December, but it ceases to matter later in the month. Last-minute shoppers tend to make purchases no matter the cost. So at what point do you stop offering free shipping? On December 15th? December 18th? There's no guessing.
Divide your traffic and show visitors two offers: 90 percent of them get free shipping, while 10 percent do not. The branch of the test receiving free shipping will most likely show increased sales over the non-free shipping branch.
As the holiday approaches, you'll reach a point when free shipping stops having an effect, when the two branches begin to converge. At that point you can change the promotion, stop the free shipping, and save yourself a bundle without sacrificing sales.
3. Encouraging customers to "act now"
You can often improve conversions by generating a sense of urgency among visitors. Test different scarcity messaging like "Limited Time Only" vs. "While Supplies Last" vs. "Offer expires November 31st."
4. Reflecting paid search content
Create customized landing pages for your 5 top-performing keywords. Then, make sure that the landing page content obviously relates to the search terms. You might repeat the search phrase verbatim, or reorganize your content to narrow the focus of the page.
It helps to consider the intention of visitors who arrive using those top 5 keywords. For brand-specific keywords, you might test an offer-based landing page more focused on selling, as brand-specific words sometimes indicate a higher level of intent.
Category words can indicate that a visitor is in a browsing mode. They might need more trust statements and branding elements.
5. Reinforcing your affiliates
Reminding customers where they came from can also increase conversion, especially if a visitor stands to gain by spending money with you (e.g. Upromise).
Try showing the logo of the affiliate to those who arrive from affiliate sites. Test size and placement of logo, as well as reinforcement copy.
6. Promotions in email marketing campaigns
You don't have to limit yourself to testing a promotion within the email itself. You can also carry the promotion forward onto the website, customizing it so that only the people who received the offer will see the offer, and so that they will see only the specific offer that they received in the email.
If you plan to run a free shipping promotion in an email campaign, for example, you might test various thresholds to see which brings optimum results. Offer A might be, "Spend $100 dollars and get free shipping," while Offer B would be, "Spend $150 and get free shipping."
On the website itself, those who saw Offer A would see it reinforced on the site, while those who saw Offer B would see that offer.
7. Call-to-action
On paid search and email campaigns, test "Learn More" or "Start Now" versus "Buy." When writing your call-to-action copy, finish the "I would like to..." sentence.
8. Gift suggestions
Test whether gift suggestions affect sales in your particular environment. If so, you might begin testing what you yourself think will be a great gift idea. Is it really something people want to give? Keep back-up ideas on hand in the event that what you think they want to give turns out to be wrong.
The sooner you can move to what people actually want to buy and to give, the better.
9. Increasing trust during checkout
Test placing confidence information (return policy, privacy policy, customer service number, recent awards, etc.) and security trustmarks (TrustE, VeriSign, HackerSafe, etc.) above the fold and in combination with each other to see if you can reduce abandonment rates.
10. Radical simplification
Yes, cross-sells and other content may increase your visitors' average order value, but there may be a downside -- in some cases, superfluous content distracts customers from completing their purchase.
Lost revenue from abandoned shopping carts may exceed revenue gained from cross-selling. Test it and find out!
As the holidays approach, of course, it makes no sense to rewrite the entire holiday shopping experience by fiddling with the checkout process or offering a slew of new products. But by making certain assumptions about merchandising, categorization and promotion, and then being willing to test those assumptions with customers, you can improve revenue far beyond your expectations.
Top 10 Tips to Boost Holiday Sales
Reprinted from Offermatica Blog
The holiday sales season is drawing near, complete with dramatic increases in sales -- and the accompanying fear among online marketers of doing any testing that might jeopardize those increased numbers.
Giving in to fear and avoiding such a smash-hit tactic as testing, however, can be far more risky during the holidays than continuing to test. After all, the testing of promotions and content during off-peak times results in significant increases in ROI. Imagine, then, now much more you can bring in by testing during the busiest time of year.
Testing technology, too, has changed in recent years, so that web operators no longer need to fear that making changes, testing those changes and optimizing for the best results will put any real restriction on their daily traffic or run the risk of a system-wide failure.
So rather than avoiding testing because of fear, take control of your site and your traffic by testing any or all of the following things:
1. Landing page merchandising
There is nothing more important on a retail landing page than the way the merchandise is displayed. What products you show, how many items are displayed, whether photographs are large or small, the quality and quantity of copy all benefit from aggressive testing and optimization.
You might also consider testing how products are grouped: Try listing best-selling items versus most popular items versus most-often-recommended items to see which is most effective in prompting visitors to buy.
2. Percentage off versus dollar savings, and other promotions
Customers often respond differently to promotions, depending upon how it is framed, even when the ultimate price is the same (e.g., 10% off a $100 purchase versus $10 off a $100 purchase).
You can also test free shipping -- the most popular form of holiday promotion last season -- along with the threshold for free shipping, to see if the resulting boost in sales makes up for the loss in shipping fees.
Test, too, how long you offer free shipping. The promotion matters a lot in, say, early December, but it ceases to matter later in the month. Last-minute shoppers tend to make purchases no matter the cost. So at what point do you stop offering free shipping? On December 15th? December 18th? There's no guessing.
Divide your traffic and show visitors two offers: 90 percent of them get free shipping, while 10 percent do not. The branch of the test receiving free shipping will most likely show increased sales over the non-free shipping branch.
As the holiday approaches, you'll reach a point when free shipping stops having an effect, when the two branches begin to converge. At that point you can change the promotion, stop the free shipping, and save yourself a bundle without sacrificing sales.
3. Encouraging customers to "act now"
You can often improve conversions by generating a sense of urgency among visitors. Test different scarcity messaging like "Limited Time Only" vs. "While Supplies Last" vs. "Offer expires November 31st."
4. Reflecting paid search content
Create customized landing pages for your 5 top-performing keywords. Then, make sure that the landing page content obviously relates to the search terms. You might repeat the search phrase verbatim, or reorganize your content to narrow the focus of the page.
It helps to consider the intention of visitors who arrive using those top 5 keywords. For brand-specific keywords, you might test an offer-based landing page more focused on selling, as brand-specific words sometimes indicate a higher level of intent.
Category words can indicate that a visitor is in a browsing mode. They might need more trust statements and branding elements.
5. Reinforcing your affiliates
Reminding customers where they came from can also increase conversion, especially if a visitor stands to gain by spending money with you (e.g. Upromise).
Try showing the logo of the affiliate to those who arrive from affiliate sites. Test size and placement of logo, as well as reinforcement copy.
6. Promotions in email marketing campaigns
You don't have to limit yourself to testing a promotion within the email itself. You can also carry the promotion forward onto the website, customizing it so that only the people who received the offer will see the offer, and so that they will see only the specific offer that they received in the email.
If you plan to run a free shipping promotion in an email campaign, for example, you might test various thresholds to see which brings optimum results. Offer A might be, "Spend $100 dollars and get free shipping," while Offer B would be, "Spend $150 and get free shipping."
On the website itself, those who saw Offer A would see it reinforced on the site, while those who saw Offer B would see that offer.
7. Call-to-action
On paid search and email campaigns, test "Learn More" or "Start Now" versus "Buy." When writing your call-to-action copy, finish the "I would like to..." sentence.
8. Gift suggestions
Test whether gift suggestions affect sales in your particular environment. If so, you might begin testing what you yourself think will be a great gift idea. Is it really something people want to give? Keep back-up ideas on hand in the event that what you think they want to give turns out to be wrong.
The sooner you can move to what people actually want to buy and to give, the better.
9. Increasing trust during checkout
Test placing confidence information (return policy, privacy policy, customer service number, recent awards, etc.) and security trustmarks (TrustE, VeriSign, HackerSafe, etc.) above the fold and in combination with each other to see if you can reduce abandonment rates.
10. Radical simplification
Yes, cross-sells and other content may increase your visitors' average order value, but there may be a downside -- in some cases, superfluous content distracts customers from completing their purchase.
Lost revenue from abandoned shopping carts may exceed revenue gained from cross-selling. Test it and find out!
As the holidays approach, of course, it makes no sense to rewrite the entire holiday shopping experience by fiddling with the checkout process or offering a slew of new products. But by making certain assumptions about merchandising, categorization and promotion, and then being willing to test those assumptions with customers, you can improve revenue far beyond your expectations.
Labels: conversion-rates, tips
Target.com is one of the best ecommerce websites, no doubt. Here is a great screencast from Future Now, making suggestions to their usability to help improve conversion rates.
Original article is located here:
Conversion Boosting Tips from Target.com
Original article is located here:
Conversion Boosting Tips from Target.com
Labels: conversion-rates, tips
Here is a useful way to open multiple NetSuite browser windows in several Firefox tabs. Basically, using your LINK area Bookmarks in Firefox, just add the shortcuts to one folder, then after you login to NetSuite click the "Open in all tabs" link like below.
The result is the multiple NetSuite browser windows loading like this...
Pretty simple, but very useful when you are developing or designing NetSuite websites.
The result is the multiple NetSuite browser windows loading like this...
Pretty simple, but very useful when you are developing or designing NetSuite websites.
Labels: tips
What a great idea! Thanks for this tip. When using NetSuite to design sites its pedantic doing all this manually.
- don
- don
NetSuite web site design is really no different than any other type of ecommerce development, so the SEO - Search Engine Optimization, is really not different either. Here is an example of how to set up your Netsuite web site item template for SEO...
NetSuite SEO Tips for Item Template basic example:
How is your NetSuite Item Template set up for SEO?
NetSuite SEO Tips for Item Template basic example:
- Need an H1 tag - basic HTML tag that defines the header of your page. In this case it is the title of the product. Example code (code changed for demo):
h1<%=getCurrentAttribute('item','storedisplayname')%>/h1 - Main keyword should be used 3 times with the live text of the page - hidden text is not acceptable. In this example, it is used:
A. in the h1 tag
B. in the (P) description text - preferably with a (B) or (STRONG) around it
c. in the left column - Better use of internal links. Breadcrumbs, parent categories links and related items are great to make search engine spiders move broadly across your site.
- The title tag need to include the keyword(s) you are targeting
- Since most search engines ignore meta tags, you really do not need to do individual meta tags for each item. But it doesnt hurt to have them and there are work-arounds to make all your meta tags dynamic so they are not manually entered.
How is your NetSuite Item Template set up for SEO?
Labels: netsuite, NetSuite-SEO, tips
Great demo! How do you add the H1 title tage to Netsuite? Sorry if this is a dumb questions but this one has me stumped. Thx. - JG
With advanced site builder, the entire item template code is open source to change. So you can just add the h1 tag wrapper in that HTML code.
These templates can be found at (Admin) Set Up > Web Site > Item/Category Templates. They are usually referred to ad "item drilldown".
Direct link to that seciton is https://system.netsuite.com/app/site/setup/siteitemtemplates.nl?whence=
These templates can be found at (Admin) Set Up > Web Site > Item/Category Templates. They are usually referred to ad "item drilldown".
Direct link to that seciton is https://system.netsuite.com/app/site/setup/siteitemtemplates.nl?whence=
Are you thinking about how your visitors are viewing your eCommerce site? Do you make it easy to understand that you are a credible company? Is your Netsuite or eCommerce web store secure? Placing trust in your customer's mindset is key to improving your conversion rates! Here is an interesting article on the subject.
Here are some examples of Netsuite web designs showing credibility and helping the customer SHOP WITH CONFIDENCE.
"I think there are two levels to what we are seeing. Our own research shows shoppers resorting to a hunt-and-peck approach due to their time constraints. And most retailers are not doing enough to meet buyers' needs, forcing them to take more time," Eisenberg (Future Now) told the E-Commerce Times.
Here are some examples of Netsuite web designs showing credibility and helping the customer SHOP WITH CONFIDENCE.
Web Design Example #1:
Web Design Example #2:
Web Design Example #3:
Labels: conversion-rates, netsuite, tips
Using PR on the web is a powerful way to build traffic and create external links to your site. External links are the most important thing for Natural Search (NSEO). Basics: The more external links you have, the more ways SEO spiders can come to your site. Here is an example of the using PR for Netsuite SEO:
Take a look at the new NetSuite Web Design:
Glamajama.com Gets a Glam Makeover with NetSuite
Glamajama.com gets a website makeover to celebrate its 4th year anniversary. Owner and designer, Heather Nolte, is utilizing NetSuite to integrate its e-commerce, CRM, and accounting platforms to sustain consistent sales growth of 100%.
Read the press release
Take a look at the new NetSuite Web Design:
Labels: NetSuite-SEO, PR, tips
The first of many random Netsuite Tips. This is for a Netsuite Desktop Shortcut.
You can add a shortcut to Netsuite on your desktop that bypasses the login screen by adding your username and password to the shortcut properties:
https://system.netsuite.com/app/login/nllogin.nl?
email=user.name@domain.com&password=example_password
Tip was originally found here.
Do you have a good Netsuite Tip, submit it here.
You can add a shortcut to Netsuite on your desktop that bypasses the login screen by adding your username and password to the shortcut properties:
https://system.netsuite.com/app/login/nllogin.nl?
email=user.name@domain.com&password=example_password
Tip was originally found here.
Do you have a good Netsuite Tip, submit it here.
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