The Meta Blog

Coffee – seems to me that it’s truly the powering force behind almost every graphic designer, web designer and web developer I’ve ever met.. We drink gallons of the stuff in our small studio – and there’s just 3 of us!

This morning, my tribute is to my love of coffee – real coffee – it can’t be instant – and absolutely not decaf!

This mornings brew is a large takeaway Soy Latte from The Coffee Smiths www.thecoffeesmiths.co.nz – and I give this a 5 out of 5! Great friendly service too.

NewZealandStories.com is the official website for the iconic New Zealand book Whitebaiters Never Lie by photographers Anita Peters and Murray Hedwig.

The book Whitebaiters Never Lie documents and celebrates the characters who catch that most-prized Kiwi food – the whitebait. Whitebaiters are a breed apart, and photographers Anita Peters and Murray Hedwig spent over three years travelling the country talking to and photographing New Zealanders about their passion, and documenting the uniquely Kiwi lifestyle that surround it.

We were privileged to be invited by Murray and Anita to develop an eCommerce store where people can buy iconic New Zealand photos and prints from the book Whitebaiters Never Lie.

Built using the powerful Magento eCommerce platform, NewZealandStories.com is an online New Zealand Photo Library which currently features over 2,000 individual whitebaiting photos and images from many of New Zealand’s major whitebaiting rivers. Photos have been categorised by region and river name and can be purchased via a secure payment gateway.

The website offers a number of purchasing options with photographic prints up to 760mm x 480mm. Larger panoramic canvass are also available.

NewZealandStories.com is intended to become a library of New Zealand photos and images featuring classic Kiwi pastimes including whitebaiting, hunting, living in the wild, Kiwi characters and other images that capture our unique New Zealand culture.

Client: Whitebaiters Never Lie (Anita Peters and Murray Hedwig)
Website: NewZealandStories.com

Continuing our series of posts for eCommerce preparedness. What is needed to accept credit cards payments online? Unless you choose to use PayPal or Google Checkout, you will need a Merchant Account with your bank and a Payment Gateway.

Let’s look at a couple of your options for secure payments.

The PayPal Option

You can interface your eCommerce store with PayPal (however this is really not recommended for serious online stores). Consider this option only if your are on a low budget.

The primary reason is the way PayPal directs your customers to their secure payments screen. By default PayPal sends your customers to a login screen with the option to sign up to PayPal which has often resulted in ‘cart abandonment’ where a customer doesn’t complete the sale.

You actually don’t need a PayPal Account. You can just click ‘Continue’ in the section:

Don’t have a PayPal account?
Use your credit card or bank account (where available). Continue

The advantage of PayPal is no setup or monthly fees with a nominal % per transaction. However the abandoned carts show this is not the most effective payment gateway in our opinion.

A More Professional Option – Setup a Merchant Account and Payment Gateway.

This is the most professional setup and will promote confidence in your store.

If you already have an existing Merchant Account, setup a secure Payment Gateway (DPS, Paystation, authorize.net etc.) that will interface with your Merchant Account through your cart.

This means you never see the actual credit card details of your customers and payment transactions are completed in real time.

There are setup and monthly fees plus additional handling fees with 3rd party payment gateways (generally somewhere between 2% – 4%).

Many banks now require a 3rd party payment provider to be in place before issuing a Merchant ID for your ecommerce store..

Merchant Account Requirements

Merchant Account providers typically want to review an ecommerce website to make sure it is a safe and secure shopping experience for your customers. By doing so they are protecting themselves as well as your business by reducing you potential for chargebacks.

So what are Merchant Account providers looking for when you apply?

• Merchant’s Name Appears Prominently On The Web Site
• Customer Service Phone Number Is Clearly Posted
• Return/Refund Policy Is Clearly Posted
• Delivery Methods And Timing Are Clearly Posted
• Privacy Statement Is Outlined
• Product Offered Is Clearly Described
• Page Where Credit Card Info Is Entered Is Secure

We last discussed a few issues around being prepared to embark on an eCommerce project. Today We will look at a basic checklist for organising your product inventory.

Being organised before you begin not only simplifies the entire project, but can ultimately save you time and money – and your ecommerce website developer will love you for it!

Right.. Let’s get organised..

Product Categories

Determine how many product categories you are going to need and which categories your products will appear in.

You will need to name your product categories, prepare a description of 160 – 200 words to introduce the products in for each category and create an image to visually describe the category. Finally, choose 10 to 50 keyword phrases which relate to your product category.

Checklist for each Product Category:

• Category Name
• Category Description
• Category Image
• Keywords associated with Product Category

Product Details

Product Attributes & Variations

Product Attributes are the configurable characteristics of your product or its components. For example, you sell a product in three colors. As part of creating this product, you would define an attribute called ‘Color’ and assign it the three colors. Other common products attributes or variations include ‘size’, ‘colour’, ‘gem type’, ‘materials’, ‘weight’ and so on..

What attributes, variations or options are relevant to your products?

Product Descriptions

For each product, you will need a Short description (one sentence) and a Long description (paragraph or more).

You want to attract and intrigue potential shoppers so be sure to use interesting copy that is full of adjectives and possibly a bullet list of features in the long description.

Product Images

You will need product images to sell you products. Ideally we recommend a professional photographer. It is essential that your photos be of high quality. In some cases you may be able to get them from the manufacturer. Poor quality photos can look unprofessional and may create a barrier to selling your products.

(Ideally product images should be no less than 640 pixels at the longest edge).

Checklist for Product Details:

• Product Name
• Short Description
• Long Description
• SKU or product #
• Shipping Weight
• Price
• Product Image(s)
• Keywords associated with product
• Attributes / Options: (colour / size etc.)
• Category(s)
• (optional) Related Products

If you are thinking about selling your product online there are a few things you will need to think about before and during the process of setting up your eCommerce Website. Prepare for eCommerce.

This article serves as a very simple introductory guide to help you determine are you ready to build a secure and customer-friendly ecommerce website. This is essential to providing your future customers with an informative, easy-to-shop, and safe online web store.

Considerations for Selling Online

Before you start there are many questions to be realistically and honestly answered. Failing to do any of the following can have serious implications in the future success of your online store.

1. Do you have experience of selling products through mail order?
2. Have you the skills and capacity to fulfil sales orders?
3. How will you manage sales orders? You? An office assistant? Or outsourced via 3PL services (such as Online Distribution)?
4. How easy is it for you to deliver products to your customers?
   - Have you considered the weight and cost of shipping?
   - Can you ship using standard sized packaging?
   - Are your products perishable?
5. Are your goods available worldwide and have you considered;
   - Currency conversion?
   - Import /export regulations?
   - Additional shipping costs or complex shipping rules?
6. Do your products have variations or options, such as size or colour etc?
7. How easy is it for customers to make a buying decision based on only text and images where they can’t touch, taste or smell your products?
8. Will customers really buy your product online? (I’m serious – you must realistically consider the implications of trying to sell an item which people will only buy if they can touch it).
9. Can you handle customer complaints and returns?
10. Do you have staff to answer customer questions in real time?
11. To what extent do you expect repeat customers? Will you your shopping cart require an “Account” feature for your customers?

If you can answer all of the about questions and feel you can meet the challenge of running an effective online store then congratulations! The effort of establishing and managing your online store is not to be underestimated – but the reward (and pay-off) can be well worth it.

Budget Considerations

You must determine what you are willing to spend for the options and functionality you need from your shopping cart. What about professional photography and content creation (copy-writing) who will supply this?

Have you considered how you will promote your online store? How will customers find out about you? If you are serious about building an online store which is effective and is an investment you will need to market and promote it.

You will need to budget for search engine optimisation, link building and Google AdWords.

Blogging is a proven effective method to build organic ranking in Google. If you are not a writer have you considered contracting a copywriter for professional blogging?

Don’t overlook the importance of ‘off-line’ advertising channels such as magazine, newspapers, television and radio etc.

A rule of thumb is you will need to budget at least 30% of your investment to build your eCommerce store for ongoing marketing.