To succeed in the competitive ecommerce marketplace, merchandisers have to fill their own shopping carts from time to time. To help you do just that, we've highlighted some of the recently released professional tools, software solutions and discount deals that caught our collective eye here at Website Magazine:
The Endeca Commerce Suite
From search applications company Endeca Technologies, Inc., this new platform includes over 50 enhancements designed to help ecommerce teams more easily integrate rich content and third-party technologies into the customer experience. The Endeca Commerce Suite of software delivers improved data integration, merchandiser usability and partner extensibility for greater control over how content is displayed to customers.
Built on the Endeca Information Access Platform, the Endeca Commerce suite is designed to present customers with a variety of content such as product data, videos, articles and reviews in one integrated view. The Merchandising Workbench tools suite makes it easier for marketers to control how site content is presented through Page Builder cartridge editors built with the new Software Development Kit. Simplified data integration enables point-and-click configuration of partner data sources, and extension point expansion allows customers and Endeca Extend technology partners to seamlessly integrate data from site analytics packages, user reviews and profiles, and any other source into Page Builder and Endeca's Content Acquisitions System. To learn more about the Endeca Commerce suite, visit www.endeca.com/products-endeca-commerce-suite.htm.
AnswerBox by PowerReviews
AnswerBox is a question-and-answer solution that has been proven to enhance customer satisfaction by enabling ecommerce shoppers to post questions on the site to be answered by staff members, experts or other customers. Designed to resolve purchase-blocking questions at the critical time of decision, AnswerBox improves sales conversions by shortening the length of customer-response time.
From customer-review and social commerce solutions provider PowerReviews, AnswerBox was recently adopted by multichannel retailer Sierra Trading Post. Within one month of implementing AnswerBox, more than 1,000 answers to questions submitted by the public were posted to the website for other visitors to see. As soon as a question is answered, the person who submitted the question is notified via E-mail. In these emails, Sierra Trading Post experienced a 300-percent higher click-through rate and a 50 percent increase in conversion over traditional email campaigns. Visit www.stp.me/answers for more information on Sierra Trading Post's AnswerBox service.
The Gate2Shop Ecommerce Suite
The highlight of this new software package is the One Click Up-Sale feature that allows end-users to add another product to their shopping carts with a single click of the button, using the information that was previously entered. One Click Up-Sale is supported by all of Gate2Shop's payment options and can be deployed to any payment page. The One Click Up-Sale feature enables vendors to sell a supplementary product at no additional cost and without having to undergo an extensive integration procedure.
Ecommerce solutions provider Gate2Shop monitored sales results upon the software's release the first part of this year and has found that the One Click Up-Sale led to a 10-percent increase in revenues. The case study also noted an upward trend between the length of time that the feature stays switched on and the sharp increase in sales. In addition, customers who have used the feature while shopping online once have continued to use it for their subsequent purchases. You can obtain more information on the Gate2Shop Ecommerce Suite at www.G2S.com.
Codero Offering 50-percent Savings
As companies feel the pinch from the approaching Tax Day on April 15, dedicated hosting and managed services company Codero is taking measures to assist small- to medium-sized businesses who need more powerful dedicated servers. The company is reducing prices on its entire server inventory by 50 percent in order to help organizations purchase the computing infrastructure their businesses need most to remain competitive.
The price-cutting campaign is being offered for a limited time in an effort to give something back to businesses as they make their tax payments. All new servers purchased are included in the price-break. The company recently expanded its server portfolio to include Webmaster Class, Professional Class, Enterprise Class models and Dell. For more information, visit www.codero.com.
Device Identification From ThreatMetrix
The ThreatMetrix Fraud Network enables ecommerce companies to customize a collection of fraud rules to instantly review and analyze transactions. Based on criteria set forth by the company, every transaction is given a fraud score every time an online order is entered into the processing system. When an order hits a pre-determined score, it will automatically go into a fraud review queue. It is then up to the company to review it and gather additional data by contacting the customer. If upon closer examination it is determined to be fraudulent, the order is manually rejected. The ThreatMetrix Fraud Network can then automatically add transaction and device identifiers to blacklists. If the order is determined to be legitimate, it is released from the fraud review queue for order processing and added to a whitelist for future reference. ThreatMetrix device profiling goes beyond browser fingerprinting to identify the device, bypass proxies and detect the use of botnets. For more information, visit www.threatmetrix.com