Free Webinar on Testing and Optimizing Your Site

Michael Whitaker of Monitus, and Matthew Ledford and Grant Henry of FastPivot are hosting a webinar tomorrow (5/31) between 11-12 (PDT) in which they will discuss how to optimize your website through testing using analytics and Google Website Optimizer.

For more information and to register, please see the FastPivot website.

Paul Boisvert
Yahoo! Small Business

[Update] For merchants that were interested in the session but did not have time to attend, FastPivot has posted the testing and optimization webinar session notes online. The notes contain many useful links related to the topic of testing and optimizing sites.

Updates to Domain Redirect Setting

In our ongoing effort to help you become more successful, we will update the Domain Redirect Setting with our 05/30 release tomorrow to help improve search engine visibility for your store. Once released you can perform a 301 (permanent) redirects for all domains and hostnames pointing to your store to a single store domain of your choice.

What will change?

The existing Domain Redirect Setting allows you to perform a 301 redirect on all Yahoo! created domains (e.g., store.yahoo.com/accountname, shop.yahoo.com/accountname) pointing to your store to the single domain of your choice.

We have now expanded the list of domains for the 301 redirect to include ALL domains and hostnames that are pointing to your store (www.acme.com, http://acme.com, www.myacmestore.com). This means that you will now to able to perform a permanent redirect of all your web traffic to a single domain of your choice. This update will allow you to consolidate all URLs that are pointing to the same page to a single URL.

What are the benefits?

Many merchants believe that by consolidating multiple URLs that are pointing to the same page to a single URL will combine the search engine ranking for those URLs into a single URL. So instead of having two URLs (www.acme.com, http://acme.com) each with some value in terms of ranking in search engine results, you can have one URL with a consolidated value in terms of ranking in search engines.

Since the exact details regarding search engines ranking elements are not communicated by search engines, no guarantee can be made about how this change will impact the ranking of your store in search engines.

Duncan Shen
Yahoo! Small Business

Saying Sorry

I read an interesting article in The New York Times recently about how Southwest Airlines employs one person whose sole purpose is to write apologies to customers for various problems that occur on flights. Of course anyone that has traveled a fair bit probably has some sort of airline horror story to tell. Experienced travelers share those like war stories. But some of those stories have a happy ending if the carrier takes the time to explain the problem and to make things right with the customer.

So what can you learn from this example? I’ve heard various numbers around word of mouth advertising but one truism seem to be that people share their negative experiences far more than they share their positive ones. So how can you be sure to keep your small business reputation untarnished? The truth is you may not be able to do so 100% but you can mitigate the damage.

Here are some tips:

• Try to make things right with the customer: An apology or even an explanation may go a long way to resolving a problem if you explain things calmly and clearly. Saying sorry doesn’t mean you need to give a full refund if something goes wrong.
• Take the long view rather than one off (when possible): Try to consider the overall value of a customer to you. If you provide some form of refund, will this customer likely come back to buy again? If so, then losing some part of your profit from this one order may be a strategic move to secure a long-term customer. This may not be the case for stores that are a one-time purchase. There may be cases though when the value of an order is not worth accommodating a customer—use your best judgment in those cases.
• Know the value of a customer: Is this a repeat customer? Have they placed orders in the past that were profitable? The Order Manager lists order numbers when we are able to tell that a customer has placed orders previously. You can click the order numbers to review a history of those orders. Not all customers provide equal value. Before you refund try to tell if the customer provides value to your business or if they order small quantities of low margin items. While their business may not be worth giving a full refund, you should still offer an apology if you were at fault and try to come to an agreeable resolution.
• Try to learn something with each case: If you need to issue a refund, or even if you lose a customer, the experience can be of value to your business. Examine what went wrong and try to address it. Better a few minutes of fire prevention than hours of fire fighting. Was there confusion around shipping policies or times? If so, add content and make it big and bold so a customer is more likely to see it next time (or at the least you can point it out to them when they call or email). Was an item on back order and could not be shipped right away? Set your product availability status and follow up with customers by phone or email if there will be a delay in shipping.

Losing money on unwarranted refunds is certainly no way to be successful with your business, but your goal should focus on the long-term profitability of your business by building relationships with customers with clear and open communication which will encourage good word of mouth advertising and hopefully repeat buyers.

Paul Boisvert
Yahoo! Small Business

FlyingPeas Adds Featured Customers as well as Featured Products

The following post contains excerpts of an interview I did with Terra Malcom Carmichael regarding her store, FlyingPeas.com. Terra’s store sells “hip” and high-quality baby products, but more than the funny t-shirts or funny bibs (or even the great custom design), what caught my eye and the subject of this post, is her page that features friends and customers—Yummy Mommies. I contacted Terra and asked her some questions about how Yummy Mommies fits in with her store.

Tell me about FlyingPeas? When and why did you start the business?

I love babies and all the fun products that come with them. I’ve done my share of buying baby gifts (as well as for my own little men), and while shopping, I’ve often found that most of the cool products weren’t very high quality, and the high quality products were boring (baby blue, green or pink). On the rare occasion that I found a product that met my “hip and high quality standards,” I was ecstatic. So I started FlyingPeas in an attempt to make it easier for people to find products that fall at the intersection of “hip” and “high quality.”

Where did you get the idea for Yummy Mommies?

Many first time moms have no clue what to get. We don’t know WHAT to get, HOW MANY to get or WHEN to get baby products when we are pregnant for the first time. And even once we are seasoned moms, we sometimes just want to hear what products others like or have had success with. So, I created Yummy Mommies as a place for people to choose and display their favorite products for all the world to see (and buy!).

Also, the fashion industry has realized that women don’t want to wear “moomoos” just because they are pregnant. So, along with this realization, we have more options – and options that help us wear our bellies with pride. I mean, who would have ever guessed 10 years ago that we’d pay $200 for a pair of jeans we’d fit into for 4 months?! Not me. But it’s happening all over – and it’s because we want to look good… particularly when we have a big ol’ belly and people are going to be looking more often! So… my friends and customers are yummy, especially because they are mommies or mommies-to-be.

The Yummy Mommies section at FlyingPeas.com

What has the response been like so far? Tell me how this helps drive traffic and sales for your site?

I can tell you that it’s the number one viewed page on my site but I don’t know how many sales come from this page…. It’s more of a fun page to give my site more personality.

How are you promoting this idea in your store or offline?

I send out a newsletter each month featuring a yummy mommy of the month as well as other new products and specials. I’m to the point now where people are submitting their friends – and even wives – to be yummy mommies.

How are the products chosen that are displayed? Are these the chosen person’s favorites or things they have bought in the past?

These products can be things they’ve purchased in the past, experienced in the past or even just things they like.

Any chance of a Yummy Daddies category coming soon?

Yummy Daddies doesn’t roll off the tongue as well, but I absolutely think there’s something there! Be on the lookout for this very soon!

My thanks to Terra for sharing those insights with other Yahoo! merchants. So the question to ask yourself is “Would this work for my business?” Pet store owners could have featured pooches. A garden product store could post photos of the “garden of the week/month”. Your customers get a chance to show off their passions or interests. You get to build a sense of community and encourage others to pass along your address as a destination. And all of that traffic can hopefully lead to more inbound links to boost your search rankings or hopefully boost your revenue with new customers or repeat sales.

Paul Boisvert
Yahoo! Small Business