This is my journey as an E-commerce Consultant
Archive for July, 2007
Favourite eBay Shop Design of the moment…
MIK Fun shopping by createyourtemplate
Still not sure I subscribe to splash pages for an eBay shop front as it might put off some buyers. But the creative is fantastic. I just watched it in awe!
Royal mail saved by ebay – ebay destroyed by royal mail….
The afternoon update on the industrial action is bad news for ebayers. I always found on bank holidays and strike days the post went ‘missing’ more often than not. I hope sellers and buyers alike are going to be patient as the ebaying public can be very vicious at times!
With the floods and strikes I half expect ebay.co.uk will go into meltdown. Or the postage prices will go up and we shall all be using fedex!
We are hugely disappointed to report that the CWU has announced a series of strikes over the two-week period beginning at 7pm on Wednesday 25th July 2007 and ending at 12 noon on Wednesday 8th August. The action will not take place on a national basis but at different Royal Mail sites, at different times, across the country.
Keyword Research for New Project based around Gothic Clothing
1753 days
by Liz
in Consultancy
Keywords with high search volume and low advertiser competition to begin with:goth clothing uk
gothic lolita clothes
cyber gothic clothing
gothic clothing websites
gothic alternative clothing
gothic and punk clothing
only 4,860 listings for her company name, in which she is at the top of the listings, but join her company name with clothing and she is nowhere to be seen.
E-commerce forces shops to shut – what can a business do now?
1753 days
Walking around the rag market in Birmingham this weekend, I spotted a familiar face on one of the stalls. Internet trading has taken her out of her shop and studio (she make alternative fashion) and she is now back on the market where she started 10 years ago. She has decided to go internet ready as her last attempts at a website failed. I suggested Shopify which would be a very simple system to use and design, but she has already brought a template which uses a frame to hold the site it seems. I do wish I had seen her earlier as I would have advised against it.
This is what Google says about frames:
Your page uses frames. Google supports frames to the extent that it can. Frames tend to cause problems with search engines, bookmarks, emailing links and so on, because frames don’t fit the conceptual model of the web (every page corresponds to a single URL). If a user’s query matches the site as a whole, Google returns the frame set. If a user’s query matches an individual page on the site, Google returns that page. That individual page is not displayed in a frame — because there may be no frame set corresponding to that page.
This site : http://www.webmarketingplus.co.uk/ has some useful information about optimsation of a site with frames, but looking at the source code of her website, all you see the the frame. Sticking a load of keywords in that frame (providing I can get access to that section) won’t do any good and probably harm her website ranking. It is going to be a tough one cracking a very template based system ( like cracking the Channeladvisor and Marketworks storefronts I imagine, and I can bet they have more flexibility and options) but I will chart my progress as always!
This ones open for comments in case any one has any bright ideas on SEO for frames!
ChannelAdvisor Supports Paypal Express in the UK – But it keeps conking out?
Paypal express is getting great conversions for sellers, with a speedy checkout and better rate. ChannelAdvisor, my favourite (and also probably the best) bulk eBay selling tool available in the UK have announced support for paypal express but I have had numerous tales and personal experiences that this is not quite working yet. Their integration for Google checkout was seamless, no problems, but the UK version of paypal payments pro seems to be a bit of a problem. Paypal themselves admitted to one of my clients that it was best not to use it for 6 months as they were still ironing out the creases in the UK version. So did Paypal rush to stave off Google checkout resulting in a shoddy job, with a temperamental API? Hoping that all major sellers and carts would be busy integrating with express over Google checkout?
My sources tell me that Paypal Pro UK has a problem with UK addresses, with respect to integration.
Get your finger out Paypal!
