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

Introducing Developer Spotlight

Here at Yahoo! Merchant Solutions, we’re fortunate to have a substantial partner network devoted to our customers’ success. Our developer partners represent technology professionals with diverse types of expertise ranging from RTML development to custom design, and from backoffice integration to online marketing. Over the coming months we’re going to be inviting our developers to share some of their knowledge with our merchants, passing along lessons learned from years of experience with the Store platform.

Kicking things off, Don Cole from Your Store Wizards offers some helpful tips for new merchants, and answers our questions about Your Store Wizards and the Y Store Forums.

Melissa Chaika Sobel
Yahoo! Small Business

Developer Spotlight: Your Store Wizards

Tell me a bit about Your Store Wizards. How long have you been building stores for merchants?

Your Store Wizards (formerly Y Store Tools) has been part of the Yahoo! Store community for over 8 years now. We started out as store owners when I opened my very first store back in 1999. Your Store Wizards grew out of that business because of two major factors. First, as a store owner and a programmer, I never liked having to do anything twice. So I began to work on tools, programs, and other ways to automate tasks I needed to take care of as a store owner. Second, I found out from many other store owners, through what was then a Yahoo! Store owners club, that they were facing similar challenges and workloads. So once I began to get things automated for myself, I found I could use those same tools and skills to help out other store owners.

This was the very beginning of Your Store Wizards. We are different from other design firms in that we can do full store builds but we specialize in the add-on market. We build additions to stores to expand functionality but also give the store owner tools to modify and adjust how each feature works without having to pay for many common adjustments. We have always had a passion for helping out store owners. We like to make sure they have the tools to do as much as they’d like on their own - whether it’s simply educating them on how to work the store or figuring out how to make all the technology do the things it’s supposedly not able to.

What is the biggest change you see between when you first started and today?

Wow, biggest change. That’s a tough one. There have been so many changes in the Yahoo! platform, technology, and ecommerce in general. From a merchant perspective one of the largest changes has simply been the amount of competition in every retail sector online. We’ve seen not only the growth of sites like Amazon but also just about every major retailer going online along with thousands and thousands of smaller stores. The good part is despite the amount of competition, there are so many more people purchasing online that the pool of potential customers has grown as well. Even with competition there are still many ways to make a profitable store by either finding a good niche or by making yourself stand out to the customers.

One of the other major changes technologically is the depth of new features and capabilities that can be built into a store. Using combinations of Yahoo!’s new capabilities as well as some of the “geeky” programming out there (Ajax, CSS, JavaScript) a ton can be done that previously either wasn’t possible or simply was out of store owners’ price ranges.

What is the biggest tip you would pass along to new merchants?

There are a number of things that a completely new merchant really should know. First, and possibly foremost, is to not expect some kind of immediate retirement plan through monstrous growth. A merchant can grow a profitable, successful, and fulfilling business, but it’s not as simple as so many infomercials will tell you. It requires work, patience, learning, and motivation. It’s not a flip of a switch and you’re rich, but at the same time if you can make it work and are willing to do what needs to be done, it can be very rewarding. Just be ready to learn a lot as you get started. There’s a lot to learn, and you don’t have to be an expert at everything, but as they say, knowledge is power. In the case of ecommerce, that’s very true.

I guess my other “tip” really has to do with what is my passion as a programmer which is automation. Not every store owner can start out with a big budget and every system built and ready to go when they start. A key for long term growth is once you find your business is working, find a way to start automating so you can work on expanding the business rather than just operating it. This can range from using software to process orders, using RTML and the capabilities it has to help make your store more usable, using database uploads to make data entry quicker, or a number of other ways to improve. The point is to take at least some time looking at what you do every day and try to think big picture as to how can you cut down those repetitive tasks. If you cut even one minute a day that could add another 6 hours every year. I know there are plenty of tasks where much more than a minute can be cut.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention joining the Y Store Forums. There are so many helpful store owners, as well as designers and other vendors, who have a wealth of information to share. Tapping into a community that uses the platform, deals with all the various issues on operating a store, and really does a ton to help each other out, can make a huge difference in making a store work or helping it grow.

Do you see any common mistakes or false assumptions merchants make?

One thing I’ve learned over time is merchants should make sure to find their focus and their specific niche. Yes, a store can open up, list every product on the planet they can find to sell, cut prices, and possibly make sales. But realistically, unless you’ve got a lot of finances to put behind making yourself the next Amazon or Target you need to find your niche. Some of the most successful stores are ones who found a particular niche and filled it. It’s amazing, but even a small niche can make a viable business when your market is the entire U.S. or potentially the entire world. Find the right market, and with the right marketing you’ll have the customers.

As a side note most merchants should find a way to make their store stand out through more than price alone. Low prices are great and can even work to get traffic, but you not only have to make sure you’re profitable, you need to find a way to make customers remember you and return. If, as a merchant, you’re only cutting prices to have the lowest, you can pretty much count on someone undercutting you soon. But if you find your market and can provide reasons for customers to return other than price, such as good selection, good customer service, and a well designed and usable site, they’ll come back and you’ll be more profitable.

One other marketing tip I would warn new store owners about has to do with paid advertising. I’ve seen so many times where store owners pay for pay per click advertising through the various providers, and they simply shoot for too broad of terms that they’re trying to market to. Particularly with paid advertising the key is getting the most bang for your buck. For example, if I had a site selling aftermarket car parts, one of the worst things I could do is place an ad for a search term like “Cars”. Yes, this word will have more traffic than just about anything else, but it will be the most expensive and it’s going to convert to sales at an incredibly low rate. When a person is searching for something like “cars” they could be looking for car reviews, car insurance, car pictures, cars to buy, etc. Now on the other side if I bid on something like “2007 Dodge Ram 2500 Air Intake Kit” I’ll probably pay about as low per click as possible and have virtually no competition for the term AND if I sell the item, it’s going to be a pretty well qualified visitor. Of course in reality you can’t bid on every single term you may have, though some tools can really help. You need to find the middle ground that will qualify your shoppers so they’ll buy and get you enough traffic to make it worth your efforts.

What are your most popular design enhancements or services?

We have so many varied items we offer as well as so many custom projects we do that it’s tough to pick out a few. One of our biggest sellers that we’ve had for a while is our Automated Meta Tags generator. We also have a new image popup feature, a new quick shop feature and a new hot links feature that is generating a lot of interest.

We’ve also got our very popular Data Feed Service which provides data feeds for different uses (shopping portals, affiliate feeds, etc.) as well as providing data and image backups and a forum membership too. We currently have over 100 different data formats available (not counting that each one can be customized for each store) and we seem to add a new feed about once a week due to customer requests for other services. This is one of my favorites because we have so many different data formats but also we can hand customize feeds for customers in more ways than you can imagine.

We’ve actually got a number of new projects that will soon be released, including some new cart and shopping features, and we’re always working on ideas that customers bring to us.

You also manage a Yahoo! Store merchant forum. Where can new merchants find that and what do you think merchants can get from reading and participating in that group?

Yes, the Y Store Forums is a great group. I got involved with it back in 1999, soon after it launched as a Yahoo! Store Owner’s Club. It was part of the reason I ended up at Yahoo! with my first store. The community we’ve built there through all the years is amazing. In my very biased opinion there is no better place to learn about ecommerce as well as Yahoo! Store in particular. We have hundreds of users asking questions and providing help on anything from credit card processing, fraud, Store Editor questions, and so many other areas. It’s great to be able to connect with and tap into all the experiences of everyone there. We’ve got members who just opened a new small store to multi million dollar stores, stores that do catalog sales as well as online, and some that have opened retail stores. With the breadth of experiences, knowledge, and abilities, you pretty much can find out just about anything you need to know. There’s nothing better than finding out that the problem or issue you’re dealing with has been dealt with by someone else, and getting to know all the pros and cons of the solutions before you have to overcome those same hurdles.

Thanks Don, for starting off our new series with your helpful information and advice. Remember to keep an eye out for our next Developer Spotlight in the weeks ahead.

CNET blog features Yahoo! merchants

Yahoo! merchants Sarah Headrick and Sarah Rivera of Custom Made for Kids, who sell personalized children’s books, were recently featured in a CNET.com blog article that looked at women and online entrepreneurship. The authors and internet retailers shared their thoughts about the benefits of an online store and the ordering process, and how these are well-suited to their business needs. Check it out to learn more about their experience, and the ways in which they’ve used online tools and information to their advantage.

Taking a moment to stop by the Custom Made for Kids site and checking out their product’s virtual tour is also well worth the time, even if you’re not looking for a children’s book. Here, customers can enter a few custom details and then preview the first three pages of The First Adventures of Incredible You, allowing them to see the quality of the book and how it uses their information. Including a virtual tour for one or more of your store’s key products is a great way to give customers an in-depth look at what they’re ordering and can turn store visitors into buyers, by adding value to the shopping experience that goes beyond what even good product images and detailed descriptions can provide.

Jennifer Farwell
Yahoo! Small Business

Five Merchants Share Their Stories on Video

Just a heads up to merchants that we recently launched Inspiration Video Profiles for our Small Business News & Resources section. In these short videos, five successful Yahoo! merchants provide some insight into their beginnings, their challenges, and some advice for merchants considering starting an online retail venture. I would recommend the videos to any merchant thinking about how to start or even how to take their business to the next level.

Here’s a run-down of the merchants and videos:

• Au-Co Mai of emitations.com, retailer of sterling silver jewelry and celebrity jewelry, talks about her beginnings with internet retailing and the importance of listening to customers. Watch the video.
• Karen McMasters of barebabies.com, retailer of high-end baby strollers and products, chats about getting started and how her sales have grown since she started. Watch the video.
• Maia Haag of I See Me Inc., retailer of personalized children’s books, discusses the benefits and challenges of running a home-based business. Watch the video.
• Diana Nelson of Kazoo & Company, retailer of educational children’s toys, games and puzzles, speaks about how she takes care of customers and also tries to have fun to stave off career burn-out. Watch the video.
• Alan Hutchinson of HTMarket.com, retailer of home theater seating, furniture and equipment, talks about how he got started and to follow your passions. Watch the video.

The videos show that while each merchant really is unique, they all share the same entrepreneurial spirit and commitment to turn their ideas into a reality.

Paul Boisvert
Yahoo! Small Business