Developer Spotlight: Ventura Web Design

Last month, we brought you the first in our ongoing Developer Spotlight series, which highlights developers belonging to the Yahoo! Merchant Solutions Developer Network. Next up, Kevin Richards, CEO of Ventura Web Design, shares a bit about the popular services and enhancements Ventura Web Design provides for Yahoo! Store merchants. He also offers some valuable tips and advice to both new and existing merchants looking to improve their online store.

Tell me a bit about Ventura Web Design. How long have you been specializing in Yahoo! Stores, and what services do you provide?

Since 1997, Ventura Web Design has specialized in the Yahoo! Store platform. Prior to that, we developed many web sites using just basic HTML. It was through Yahoo!’s unique combination of robust features, flexibility, and backend stability that we felt confident moving into the e-commerce arena.

In general, Ventura is known for our commitment to our client’s e-commerce success. Through designing clean, fast, and easy to use web sites (for both customers and store owners), we have been able to help over 1,000 merchants successfully utilize the Yahoo! Store to grow their companies. Our services range from helping startups get online for the first time, to customizing the store of an experienced merchant who is already generating millions of dollars in revenue each quarter.

Overall, one of the biggest things that sets us apart from other web designers is that we provide experienced e-commerce consultation. We own our own Yahoo! store AND bricks-n-mortar retail store. Our web site design team is familiar with reality, not just the theory of design. By allowing our team to make changes to our online retail store, and then speaking directly with customers to evaluate the changes/customer needs, I believe that Ventura provides a very unique value proposition when it comes to our consultation services.

What is the most common design flaw you see with stores that can really hinder their business?

This is a tough one to answer because there are so many things that can go wrong with a web site and cost a store owner money in the form of lost revenue. From failing to test for cross-browser compatibility, to designing something so big that it’s difficult to understand from the customer perspective, we have seen quite a few web sites in need of improvements over our 10+ years in the business.

Store owners should strive for simplicity in both their business model and web site. The web site should be simple for you to maintain, and simple for your customers to understand. Let your web site grow with your customers. All too often, clients come to us with great ideas that would work for an experienced merchant and a loyal customer base, but will be too confusing to new clients or too difficult to boil down into a 10 second "elevator pitch". It is important for merchants to try to establish a niche in their industry. Do one thing, and do it really well. Once you own the market doing that particular niche, then add another facet to the business model. It’s much more profitable, and fun, to be the best.

If you could give one tip to new merchants just opening for business, what would it be?

One tip for new merchants is to stylize their Checkout Manager to match the design of their website. Often times this step goes missed and merchants cannot understand why their conversion rates are low. Web customers are looking for many things in an online merchant, and security is a big one. If a customer thinks they have left your site to check out, they will feel less comfortable. Avoid this by keeping your site design consistent throughout the experience.

What’s the biggest tip you’d give to existing merchants looking to boost their traffic and sales?

This is another one where it’s too hard to put your finger on just one thing that will bring in more sales. So many merchants are in such different places when it comes to their site design, marketing efforts, and customer interaction policies. In fact, I’d make the argument that it’s very rarely just one action item that brings success, but the totality of your actions and their actual implementation that makes a far more significant impact on your bottom line. I like to think of web site success as a pyramid. The base of your pyramid must be a solid foundation that is built upon best practices in site design. The next level would be search engine optimization. Above that would be your ease of interaction between your customers and you.

One thing that all merchants using Google Analytics should check is their Funnel Visualization, by looking at their checkout conversion reports. Long story short, how many people start the checkout process and how many actually complete it? If they didn’t follow through, where did they drop out? We helped one merchant improve conversions from their Shipping & Billing checkout page from 68% to 95% almost immediately, simply by making a small design change.

What are your most popular enhancements or services?

Ventura has some great features to make your site easier to use, better for conversions, and more visually appealing. One of our favorites is the Product Carousel. This feature visually shows your specials rotating on the page. You can see this on the front page of www.ScentsandSprays.com. The speed and movement can be controlled by the web site customer. The store owner simply inputs the Page IDs into our system, and then the store automatically generates the Carousel. This feature is truly plug and play.

[Just a note to add that Amazon.com now uses a similar feature on parts of its site. Using something like a Product Carousel can help your store achieve a similar look to that of some e-commerce giants. –Jennifer]

Tell me a bit about the most exciting feature you’ve designed for a store.

One of the more exciting features we have designed is Express Shop, which can be seen on Organize.com. This merchant has been with Ventura since the beginning, and is now an Internet Retailer Top 500 Store. Kevin Watts, Director of E-commerce at Organize had this to say about Express Shop:

"We’re more than pleased with our recent integration of the Express Shop function. It has truly enhanced speed and interactivity, and offers an improved customer shopping experience in which our customers are able to engage our products easier. With traditional e-commerce sites you can almost get a headache having to click back and forth between products. So when you can make online shopping faster and easier for your customer you create an experience that leads to better conversions and more loyalty."

[For those curious about how the Express Shop feature works, here’s a brief rundown. When a customer places their cursor over an item on a category page, an Express Shop button appears on the item. Clicking on the Express Shop button opens a pop-up window, where the customer can enter a quantity and add the item to their cart, choose to click-through to the item page, or close the window and continue looking at the items on the category page. –Jennifer]

What are some of the biggest changes between ecommerce now and ecommerce even a couple of years ago that merchants should be aware of?

Today’s web customer is getting much smarter about shopping around. If your site doesn’t answer their questions, make them comfortable, and have the right mix of price/service/selection, they will quickly click off of your store and purchase from a competitor.

Thanks, Kevin, for the great information, and for taking part in the series.

Merchants who’d like to find out more about Ventura Web Design and our other developer partners can check out the Yahoo! Merchant Solutions Developer Network. And, remember to watch the blog for more installments in the Developer Spotlight series, coming soon.

Jennifer Farwell
Yahoo! Small Business

Yahoo! Small Business Awards Grants to Women Entrepreneurs

Back in March, Yahoo! Small Business and Carolyn Kepcher (entrepreneur and former star of NBC’s "The Apprentice") announced "Seeds for Success," a new grant program for women entrepreneurs. Out of more than 5,500 submissions, Yahoo! and Kepcher selected three finalists. Each of the finalists will receive $20,000 business grants, $5,000 in web site and online marketing consulting from Yahoo! Small Business partners Exclusive Concepts, Fast Pivot, and EYStudios, and one-on-one mentoring from leading business experts.

The three grant recipients are:

• Karla Duncan, pediatric speech pathologist and founder and president of Head2Toe Publications, a developer of toys and educational materials for special needs children;
• Abby Port, founder and CEO of Red Koala, which will offer customizable art for home décor on its Yahoo! Small Business site;
• Dana Rubinstein, co-founder of Dapple, which will produce earth-friendly and baby-safe cleaning supplies for babies’ hands, toys, and feeding equipment such as bottles and sippy cups.

Earlier this week, Kepcher wrote a blog post for Yahoo! Anecdotal, the Yahoo! corporate blog, where she shared her thoughts on why the Seeds for Success program is important to her. Her post also gives an overview of the program’s fifteen mentors, and the finalists they’ll be working with. Read Carolyn Kepcher’s post to Yahoo! Anecdotal.

And, don’t forget to stop by the Seeds for Success web site, where you can follow along as Duncan, Port, and Rubinstein use their business grants, consulting services, and mentors’ advice to accelerate their businesses. Whoever progresses her business the most over the next six months will win the $10,000 grand prize. What these entrepreneurs learn along the way could help you grow your business, too!

Melissa Chaika Sobel and Jennifer Farwell
Yahoo! Small Business

One-Two Punch Webinar: Web Design and Online Marketing Best Practices to Grow Your Yahoo! Store

Join Scott Smigler (Exclusive Concepts) and Eric Yonge (EYStudios) on Thursday, May 15 at 1 p.m. EDT as they present One-Two Punch, a free webinar that will highlight web design and online marketing best practices used to design and market million-dollar Yahoo! Stores.

Topics will include:

PUNCH 1: Branding and Design for your Yahoo! Store

• Why branding is important
• How you can identify and communicate your brand through your website and collateral
• Helpful tips and tricks for your website

PUNCH 2: Getting traffic to your Yahoo! Store and converting browsers into buyers

• Search engine optimization best-practices
• Viral marketing and social media
• Email marketing
• Analytics and conversions

Sign-up now for free. Limited spaces are available.

Delivering the Complete Package

With Mother’s Day coming up, I was recently browsing the Vermont Teddy Bear and PajamaGram stores for some gift ideas. While looking at the items in each store’s Mother’s Day section, as a potential customer, something caught my eye – messaging about the free gift packaging, gift card, and other special items included with every order. A quick scan of the stores showed me that these free extras weren’t just a Mother’s Day promotion, but a key part of how they do business.

In past posts to the blog, we’ve stressed the importance of providing a good shopping experience to make sales and earn repeat customers, and have suggested sending freebies (like product samples) with orders to win your customers’ love. Vermont Teddy Bear and PajamaGram take this concept a step further, by adding special touches and extras that deliver the complete package – literally.

Over at PajamaGram, all women’s pajamas arrive packaged in a keepsake organza hatbox, with a Do Not Disturb sign, lavender-scented sachet, and gift card included. Pajamas for men, infants, girls and boys also come with their own special packaging and extras. Vermont Teddy Bear sends every bear as a “Bear-Gram,” complete with a gift box, gourmet chocolate, and a gift card. If you’re at a loss for words, both stores give customers the option to choose from a list of suggested gift messages (creative ones, I might add). These added touches are a good example of how merchants can deliver value to their customers, to gain not only their appreciation, but repeat business and word-of-mouth referrals.

So how can you tell what kinds of extras will be a hit with your customers? I asked Irene Steiner, vice president of marketing for Vermont Teddy Bear and PajamaGram, a few questions about the special packaging these stores include with each order, and for some advice to merchants who’d also like to amp up the shopping experience at their stores.

What made you decide to include special packaging with each order?

Since more than 95% of our BearGrams and PajamaGrams are sent as gifts, we feel it’s very important that all of our products be beautifully presented as complete gifts. We added the Do Not Disturb Sign and the lavender sachet along with every PajamaGram to help convey the sentiment of relaxation. We want the recipient to feel like they’ve just received permission to take a mini-vacation. And the free organza hatbox that comes with every pair of pajamas just makes everything look beautiful when it arrives, and is something women tell us they use over and over again. As for Vermont Teddy Bear, people also tell us all the time how much they love the box our bears arrive in, and that they get a kick out of the airhole. The chocolate that comes with our bears is gourmet Lake Champlain chocolate made right here in Vermont, just like our bears. Sometimes the bears do snack on the chocolate on their way to their new homes, however… it’s a bit of a problem.

Was there a time when special packaging wasn’t included with each order?

There was never a time when we didn’t include the special packaging. We have done catalog tests where we test saying “Free Packaging with Every Order” vs some other message and the “free packaging” message pulls best.

How do you decide what “extras” to include?

We have brand meetings every week to talk about how to make our brands even more relevant for our customers, which includes regular discussions about what to offer and when to change the free extras that come with our bears and pajamas. We also survey our customers with our ideas and let them tell us what they prefer.

Does your gift packaging and the extras included change over time, or for different holiday seasons?

We’ve changed the message on our Do Not Disturb Sign a few times and switched from bath salts to a lavender sachet a few years ago after we heard from several customers that they take showers, not baths. We are also talking about offering a holiday packaging option for our PajamaGrams this Christmas. We’ll be launching a survey soon to see what customers think of our new packaging ideas. For Vermont Teddy Bear, every time we try to change from our gourmet chocolate bear head, we hear that nothing tops it, so that’s been a mainstay for years.

I also notice you have suggested card messages, for different occasions. Can you tell me a bit about these?

Our customers use the suggested card messages a lot. We know because we all go help dress bears and pack pjs from time to time, and we proof the cards before they go out the door for delivery. We have an in-house copywriter who writes most of them, but our employees have fun making them up, too. We have a lot in poet-wanna-bes here! We also grab good ones that our customers come up with, too!

Can you offer any advice to merchants who may also be looking to deliver something extra to their customers?

Every business is going to have different customers with different needs. For us it’s critical because we want to stand out in a competitive gift business. Of course it adds cost and takes resources to pull it together correctly, but we’ve found that it’s a major draw in attracting both new and repeat customers. Customers also don’t want to receive free stuff just for the sake of getting something free – they’d rather have lower prices – so what you offer really has to make sense for your product line without throwing off your pricing strategy.

Big thanks to Irene, for sharing these suggestions and experiences.

Almost all stores sell items that could be gifts, whether it’s a gift for another person, or a gift for the shopper who places the order. If it makes good business sense for your store, you may also want to consider including free extras and special touches that deliver the “complete package”.

Smaller merchants that don’t have a large budget for extra items may choose to focus on presentation. For example:

• If you sell bath and spa products, you might want to "wrap" these in a waterproof carrying bag. Not only does the waterproof bag provide extra protection when shipping the order, but it’s something the customer or the recipient of their gift can use time and again. I once received something similar to this, and although the bath products have long since been used, the carrying bag gets pulled out every time I take a trip and need to pack items like shampoo, conditioner, and other bath products that could potentially spill while traveling.

• If you sell jewelry, you may already package this in a small box, or a sealed plastic bag. To give orders that extra touch, you also include a cloth jewelry pouch (something that can be used with the item purchased, or for other purposes), offer free gift wrapping, or both.

You don’t have to be a big store to add extra touches to your orders, just creative, and in-tune with your customers’ needs. Making it your business to go that extra mile can help you earn both new and repeat customers, and encourage them to spread the word about the extra thought and care that went into their order, beyond the point of sale.

Jennifer Farwell
Yahoo! Small Business