How’s Your Availability?

A merchant recently asked about how to insert a custom message between the item price and the add to cart button that would show the availability of the item. With this merchant, he was putting up items in his store for collectible die-cast cars that were not released yet. It makes sense for this merchant to provide notice to his shoppers of new products that will be released shortly—especially with regards to collectibles, though I’d imagine there are other vertical markets where this is true.

So not only does it make sense to do this to capture interest with prospective buyers, but it also makes sense to do this for all stores in terms of setting expectations with customers. I read in a recent white paper about shoppers expectations that seventy-two percent would be less willing to shop with a retailer when sales items are out of stock. That’s a big number and it goes beyond just being able to keep items in stock. Merchants need to set expectations about order fulfillment times in addition to shipping delivery times—especially with the holidays fast approaching. The last thing you want is a customer to buy an item expecting a pre-holiday delivery which you can’t meet because you didn’t specify the item will not be in stock for 8 weeks.

The good thing is the Store Editor templates already include a feature that serves this function—the Availability field. The Availability field for 3.0 Editor templates appears below the price but above the add to cart button—right where shoppers can see it.

Availability field appears in red text with a standard option.

The Availability field can be set in the Variables page with a global variable that applies to all pages (your standard product availability). You can then set this on a per page basis using the Availability field on individual pages. However, for this particular merchant, he wanted to have a value appearing there which wasn’t in the standard list of values. He wanted to notify shoppers of the estimated release date for the item. Database Upload to the rescue.

You can set custom values for Availability on a per product basis in the following way.

1. Make a note of the product IDs for which you wish to set a custom availability. Merchants can download their product database from Catalog Manager to set this for many products.
2. Create a spreadsheet with two columns: ID and Availability (or delete all columns except for ID and add Availability if using your product database from Catalog Manager).
3. Enter text in the availability column which you wish to appear on the product such as “Item is on backorder” or “Estimated release date January 2008″.
4. Save the file as .CSV format with the name data.csv.
5. Upload to the Store Editor using the database upload feature and click the Add button when uploaded. Note: Do not add this file as a Rebuild. This will wipe out your store contents except for the items and information in the spreadsheet. You can use the Revert feature if you make a mistake and Rebuild your store.
6. Publish your changes when ready.

Availability field with custom availability message.

Paul Boisvert
Yahoo! Small Business

Useful Article on Building Trust on the About Us Page

I recently came across a helpful article on Search Engine Guide about ways to improve your About Us page. I had blogged about building trust and showing personality to increase conversions last July after reading a case study on MarketingSherpa, but the article from Stoney deGeyter is a great example.

In the article Stoney shows five elements you may wish to have on your About Us page:

• Company information such as founders and date formed. You can include links to your major product categories in the content or even to your top-sellers, but realize that the point here is to build trust and perhaps provide that last bit of persuasion that turns them from a shopper into a buyer, so don’t go overboard with the links.
• Team biographies: If you have a dedicated staff, you may wish to reinforce your unique selling proposition with these. Here is an example:

  Jimmy—owner. I started this company to provide the best selection of quality widgets found anywhere. We have grown tremendously over the past 5 years and are the #1 seller of specialized widgets. We owe our success to always providing the best selection and quality at a competitive price which has earned us a loyal group of customers. [insert link to your customer testimonials here]

  Favorite product: Super Wonder Wigdet. “I love the flexibility of this widget. It may cost a bit more but it really does the job of three other widgets.”

  Jenn—product buyer: My job is to hunt out the best widgets available so we can offer them to our loyal customers. We buy our widgets in bulk so we can afford to sell them at prices our competitors cannot match.

  Favorite product: Amazing Mini Widget. “I can’t believe how small this widget is. I can take it anywhere with me.”

  Jack—shipping manager: I manage the warehouse and shipping facilities. My job is to ensure we have the latest and most popular widgets in stock, most ready to ship within one business day. I ensure that we carefully inspect each widget before we ship it, and we take great care to pack your order safely but also quickly so you get your orders as soon as possible.

  Favorite product: “I like ‘em all. Don’t make me decide on just one.”

  Laurie—customer care: I manage our team of call center representatives. We are here between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. PST to answer questions. Our checkout is secure and your privacy is guaranteed, but we can also gladly take phone orders at 1 888 555-1212. I also ensure your satisfaction is guaranteed if you have any issues about your order or our return policy.

  Favorite product: Gourmet Widget “I’ll buy almost anything to help in the kitchen but if I could only have one tool to cook with, it would be the Gourmet Widget. No cook should be without one.”

  Now of course if you do not have a large staff for your business as you are just getting started, you can either play to that as a strength (We are not a big company so you will get more personal attention and we can ship your orders quicker) or you can not include specifics about company size and just speak in general terms about your policies, service, and mission.

• Mission statement: This one should be obvious. Sum up your reason for being in business. This is the place to set yourself apart from competitors by emphasizing what you do differently—what your unique advantages are, be it price, selection, speed of shipping, safe shopping, return policy.
• Content: Keep it current. Update your biographies as the team grows if needed. Show a picture of your latest warehouse or package wrapping station—if not a sheet of plywood between two saw horses.
• Related links: This should already be available, likely in your header or footer links, but you may wish to call these out specifically if you have pages or sections on pages with anchor links that address specific concerns shoppers may have, such as contacting you for ordering help, your return policy, your security/privacy information, or general questions.

So get cranking on those changes. With the holiday season already gearing up for merchants, you don’t want almost buyers to bail on your checkout if they are not sure what type of company to which they are getting ready to hand over personal and financial information.

Paul Boisvert
Yahoo! Small Business

Link Building Strategies: Tapping Your Suppliers for a Fresh Supply of In-bound Links

Today’s Y!Store blog is another guest column by long-time Yahoo! Store owner and developer Rob Snell of Snell Brothers, still located in sleepy Starkville, Mississippi. Rob blogs about Yahoo! Store, speaks at search conferences about Yahoo! Store, is the author of a new book on Yahoo! Store: Starting a Yahoo! Business For Dummies, and is about to turn 40 later this month.

Howdy! Just back from speaking at 2007 Search Engine Strategies in San Jose. I did site reviews and we all had a good time! I even got to review a Yahoo! Store or two: Wedding Favors from American Bridal.

In the middle of a site review I was picking on one site that needed some links, so I tossed out Store SEO Tip #79, “How to Get Free Links from your Suppliers.” A little later, Paul asked me to go into a little more detail in a guest blog post, so here goes…

Links are important (well, duh!)

Long story, short? Links are important for Web traffic and for search engines. Every Yahoo! Store owner needs links, and an easy way to get free links is to ask your suppliers to link to you. A really good way to get a list of all your suppliers is to export all your accounts payable from QuickBooks (or whatever accounting software you use), and start shaking these folks down for some link love.

OK. Links are really, really important to your Yahoo! Store because:

• Links get your store some foot traffic. Other Web sites send human visitors (a.k.a potential customers) to your Yahoo! Store.
• Links get your store pages in the search engines’ databases. When your Yahoo! Store gets a link from a page the search engines already know about, a search engine spider follows that link, crawls and indexes your page, and then follows any links on your page to the next page. And it happens over and over again.
• Links count as votes for your store. Search engines count up all the pages that link to your Yahoo! Store. The more relevant, high-quality links you have, the more important you are to the search engines.

Warning: If you don’t have any links, you don’t get traffic from other sites, you don’t get spidered or indexed by the search engines, and you don’t get free traffic from the search engines because your site must not be important if no one links to you…

Nowadays, most of the search engines place more weight on your reputation with others than on what you have to say about what your page is about. Pretty smart, folks…

Okay, so now you know you need links. Even before finishing this post, I know I’ll get an email from Tom from Surf City, CA, asking “Who do you get links from? What kind of links do you want? How can I get these links?” Well, Tom, great questions as always…

You want what some folks call organic or natural links. These links are from Web sites, somehow related to your site, who would link to your store as a resource for their visitors, without taking into consideration search engine benefits of a link.

Vendor links: An easy way to get free links

Almost every Yahoo! Store owner I know knows they need links, but they don’t know how to get them. One of the easiest ways I’ve found to get free, on-topic, relevant links to your Yahoo! Store is to ask all your vendors for back links. Every month you send money to all these folks. They should do you the small favor of linking to your Yahoo! Store.

Like my momma always says, “If you don’t ask, you don’t get,” so let’s start asking!

Looking at QuickBooks, I have 127 different organizations that our retail company sent money to last year that I think I can shake down, I mean, respectfully ask for some links. I chunk these folks into one of four buckets:

• Product Suppliers: Most of our checks went for “purchases” to product-related vendors like wholesale suppliers, manufacturers, distributors, drop-shippers, book publishers, dog experts/authors, etc. If you’re even halfway on your game, you probably have some links from these folks, but you need to make sure you have all the links you can get! See if they’ll link to the product page or section page rather than the home page. Also, see if they’ll use keyword rich anchor text in the link, like “oversized red widgets from YourCompanyNameHere.com” rather than “YourCompanyNameHere.com”
• Marketing Vendors: The next big group of vendors by $$$ was made up of marketing vendors including magazine publishers, Web site owners, advertising networks, email marketing lists, and so on. You’re buying traffic from these folks, but it doesn’t hurt to ask for (more) links.
• Service Providers: The third group was service providers like Web hosting, e-commerce services, e-mail services, online software, and consulting. Most of these folks have thousands of clients and are “too big” to link to you, but there are some other ways to get links! The best way I’ve found is to write testimonials for these folks or participate in case studies (which works wonders). I won’t sell out for a link, but if I truly believe in a vendor, I’ll write a killer testimonial and snag me a good link…
• Other Vendors: The last group of vendors are folks you don’t spend a lot of money on, but you could if you wanted to! On this list are organizations you support through subscriptions, dues, donations, and membership fees. This is probably your best bet for links you don’t already have. These non-profit groups need your support though cash and/or product donations. I have literally gotten hundreds and hundreds of relatively cheap or free back links. Do not underestimate these sponsorship opportunities.

WARNING: The following may be extremely difficult for big, broad brushstroke folks like myself. This is the part that truly makes my head hurt. It’s tedious and can be mind-numbingly boring. If you’re not a details-oriented person, you might need to delegate this to someone who is.

Make an Excel Spreadsheet

I open up Microsoft Excel and create the following columns:Vendor Name, $ Spent, Web Site URL, Links Page URL, Dealers Page URL, Links to Me?, Vendor Contact, Vendor Email, Date of Request, Best Relationship, Notes

First, eliminate folks you know won’t link to you. You probably won’t get a back link from Uncle Sam, or the electric department, or VISA, or Yahoo! Search Marketing, Google Adwords, or your state sales tax collector, but it doesn’t hurt to ask.

Sort by $$$ Spent last year. Especially with product vendors, how much you spend shows how important the product line is to your Yahoo! Store. And the more you spend, the more leverage you have with that vendor.

Organize your vendors by bucket. I use the Notes field to tag all my product vendors first, and then tag the others as Marketing, Services, or Other.

Start with your product suppliers. Product folks are likely to have a Web page, likely to have a “resources” page if not a dealers/buy online page. Since they’re always adding new products, these folks are also more likely to have a Webmaster on staff. The cool thing about getting links because you sell a certain product is that sometimes you can get two links for the same product: a link from the manufacturer’s dealers page and a link from your distributor’s page. Sweet!

Find each vendors’ Web site. Grab the URL, see if they have a links page or a dealers page. Make sure they don’t already link to you! Nothing more embarrassing than asking for a link you already have.

NOTE: You probably know your top 10 manufacturers’ domains by heart, but when you start seeing how many of your vendors and manufacturers don’t have a Web site (or have a site last updated circa 1997), you’ll swear you’re on the cutting edge of Internet marketing.

Once you have all your vendor information, then it’s time to plan your link request attack!

Prioritize your link requests. Start with links that are easier to get. You’ll get so excited about getting your first links, and that will give you the patience to make it though the long slow, agonizing process that is a link building campaign…

Ask yourself these questions: Does the vendor even have a Web site? If so, does the vendor link to dealers (like your competitors)? Does the vendor have a links page? Does it look like the vendor updates their Web site often?

Figure out who SHOULD ask for a link (at your company) and who TO ask for a link (at the vendor). Who in your company has the best relationship with your vendor? Usually it’s the person who deals with them on a day-to-day basis, either the owner or the buyer. Honestly, a vendor’s salesperson is your best friend in motivating the vendor’s Web guy to hurry up and link to you. Be nice, but firm! Put the squeeze on if you have to. You must have that link!

Know what you want and ask for it. Specificity here is a plus. Make life easy for your vendors. Tell them the URL of the page you want a link from, the URL you want the vendor to link to, and provide them with whatever text, logos, or other information they need to make your link look like everyone else’s link. Sometimes phone calls to your sales rep are better than email requests, but email is better for all the gory details.

Sometimes the link will just be your URL or domain name. Sometimes the link will be your business name. Sometimes the link will be some version of your logo. Have multiple sizes available if they ask. Make it easy for the vendor’s Web monkey to link to you:

Frank — Howdy! Thanks for getting that last order out so fast. Quick question: Can we get a link on your dealers page at http://www.vendorsdomain.com/dealers.asp ?

And can y’all link to my page at http://www.mystoredomain/vendor.html? I noticed you use dealer logos and there’s a pretty good version of my logo here:
http://www.mystoredomain/lib/myaccountname/logo.gif — Thanks and hope to see y’all in Vegas for Pubcon! — Rob

Remember to say thank you. Once you get that link, remember to say thank you. A little “happy” in the mail is a great way to show how much you care, too.

Links are important for both free qualified traffic to your online store and for good SEO. SEO is always changing, but it’s a zero sum game: There are only 10 Web pages listed on the first page of search results. Your competition is always chewing on you, and trying to steal your biscuit. One of the best ways you can fight back is by making sure that you have all the links you can possibly have. Asking the folks you pay month in and month out to link you is a pretty easy way to get some good (and free) back links!

Please reply to this post with your link stories and ideas on how to get more links!

Rob Snell–Somewhere in rural Mississippi
guest blogger for Yahoo! Small Business

Screencast for Improving Product Pages

Just a quick note to call your attention to a screencast for optimizing product pages (fancy word for video recording of someone’s monitor) recently posted over at GrokDotCom by Bryan Eisenberg, co-author of Call to Action:Secret Formulas to Improve Online Results and Waiting for Your Cat to Bark, and several other good ebooks. Bryan walks through product pages on FingerHut, BestBuy and TigerDirect, pointing out what can be improved.

His tips center around:

• Readability/scanability of product descriptions
• How many and what type of images are used to help inform buyers
• Placement of add-to-cart buttons.

It’s good to see that even the giants get things wrong at times, and learning from both their missteps and successes can be invaluable for gaining insight into improving your own product pages. I highly recommend checking out the other screencasts on conversion rate tips from Target and Petco and also on reducing cart abandonment.

Paul Boisvert
Yahoo! Small Business