Spotlight Stories

Q&A: Owner comes clean with ecommerce insights you can use.

2016-03-30T15:26:00-05:00

Maggie Hanus along with Mike and Jory can be found just outside Austin, Texas tending bars –all natural soap bars. This family owned business has been running since 1995 and they are focused on eco-friendly business practices and making the finest organic soap that’s good for you and the earth.

Serving retail customers online and via distribution agreements as a wholesaler, A Wild Soap Bar is a great example of homemade success. And when it comes to ecommerce and selling online, Maggie calls it like she sees it.

We asked Maggie to share her thoughts on running her AmeriCommerce store and this is what she had to say.

How do you describe A Wild Soap Bar and what kind of customers do you serve?

A Wild Soap Bar's mission is to provide truly natural body care products handmade with real ingredients that are safe for all living things and a joy to use while raising awareness of the many benefits of using wild-crafted and organically grown botanicals. We serve both retail and wholesale customers who are looking for natural and organic products.

What success did you experience in 2012 and what made that happen?

We had a 22% sales increase over 2011 which we attributed to an improved economy in general, to increased holiday sales at Whole Foods Market, and also to our new Americommerce website.

How did you first get started selling online and what about it surprised you?

I built our first website in 2000 and was surprised to learn that no one actually visited it for months! I'd eagerly check for sales every day. It was a huge let down.

What do you feel has made your site successful?

We're on the first page of Google for our targeted phrases which is great. The site is visually pleasing and customers tell us all the time that it's very easy to navigate. They get in there, find what they need, and then use the one page checkout system. Anything that saves time is valuable to today's shoppers.

How are you addressing web marketing challenges like SEO, Social Media, Email Marketing, and Paid Search?

Having relevant content and writing good copy is essential for SEO. But I initially used a piece of software called Internet Business Promoter that helped land us on the first page of Google for 3 important keyword phrases. I haven't had to use it much since moving to AmeriCommerce because I think AC has good SEO practices built right into its platform. We continue to rank highly so I'm pleased. I was worried about how the changeover from our previous site builder would affect our ratings, but I was very happy to find that we had little to no loss of search engine ranking during the transition to AmeriCommerce. That was a big relief! We use Constant Contact for our email marketing with a sign up button on our site which works well for us. We're also active on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest. You pretty much have to be these days. We use the social share buttons that AC provides and those help create a buzz for our products.

What are some of your most effective parts of your online store or shopping experience and why?

We have the shopping cart set up to give free product whenever their total reaches $25 and again at $50 (which we advertise on the home page) and this definitely bumps up sales and builds customer loyalty. We also offer free shipping whenever their total reaches $75, but we make them work a little for that one, they have to enter the discount code that's also found on our home page. I think the product picture's zoom feature helps to close sales too. People like to see something up close and personal before making a purchase.

What have you done on a regular basis to promote your site?

Our monthly newsletter always contains an exclusive discount code and that drives sales. We also run a Rafflecopter giveaway every month on Facebook and we post to Facebook and Twitter and Pinterest on a daily basis. Yes, it's time consuming, but worth the extra effort. We send free product to qualified bloggers in return for reviews and giveaways. And we post about once a week on our own blog which is linked to our website and to our social media sites.

What advice do you have for beginners who are interested in getting started selling over the Web?

Find your niche and offer a high quality product. Without that you have nothing. Then get your website up sooner rather than later so that search engines can find it. Start off with a good quality full featured site builder such as AmeriCommerce. Just because you don't need a particular feature now, doesn't mean you won't need it in the future. And having to switch later is a major pain in the you know what! If you're not proficient in design, marketing, writing copy, or photography...pay someone to help you! Believe me, it will be money well spent. You only get one brief moment to make a good impression online. Be sure your website is uncluttered, easy to navigate, well written and eye catching. AmeriCommerce has some nice new standard themes now. Use one of them and you'll be off to a good start.

What developments do you foresee over the next year that will have an impact on the world of e-commerce?

It's all about the smart phone these days, so the continued growth of the mobile platform will have a big impact. AmeriCommerce makes it easy to offer a responsive site that actually converts visitors to sales.

What are some of the challenges AmeriCommerce has helped you overcome?

AmeriCommerce provides a reliable, easy to use site builder with stellar customer support and unlimited opportunity for growth. That's real peace of mind.

To learn more about A Wild Soap Bar go to https://www.awildsoapbar.com/

Q&A: A fine paper connoisseur talks online wholesale and retail sales.

2013-03-24T13:11:00-05:00

Carol Mackin and her husband John have a heart for paper.

With three decades in the fine paper business, the Mackin’s have the sort of love for paper that embraces all the senses and reveals papermakers as craftsman and artisans. OrangeArt Wholesale is a bricks and mortar B2B wholesaler located in Woodstock, Connecticut with an office and warehouse operating within two large red dairy barns sitting on 8 acres of pasture.

As a wholesale business-to-business website, OrangeArt Wholesale started in 2005. When Carol’s custom website was jeopardized by their hosting company going out of business, Carol set out to find a reliable and stable platform. The solution was AmeriCommerce.

We reached out to Carol for a round of questions and answers and this is what she had to share.

What is OrangeArt and what kind of customers do you serve?

OrangeArt is a manufacturer of American made letterpress social stationery and exclusive agents of fine social papers and accessories from Europe. Our customers are retail stores, fine printers and in 2012 we added a limited consumer site.

What success did you experience in 2012 and what made that happen?

We had significant growth. We have been a reliable wholesale source of these papers since 1993 and in 2012 we expanded our product lines significantly. We are placing our products in non-traditional retail outlets such a bookstores, markets, etc. and listening to the retailer’s requirements more than ever.

How did you first get started selling online and what about it surprised you?

We have had a B2B site since 2005. It is a challenge to introduce creative products and do business on the same site. What surprised us is once a customer uses our online service, that is generally the way they communicate with us from that point on. This alleviates pressure on our bricks and mortar customer service.

What do you feel has made your site successful?

We focus on good images and content which makes the wholesale ordering experience for our retailer dealers closer to a consumer experience. Our customers tend to be creative design people and need a visual approach. We did this without sacrificing ordering efficiency.

How are you addressing web marketing challenges like SEO, Social Media, Email Marketing, and Paid Search?

Along with our AmeriCommerce wholesale website, we have opened an additional, limited retail store with AmeriCommerce last year and are working on these challenges for the first time because social media has not been as important on the larger, wholesale site. We already know most of our current and potential wholesale customers and they know us because we have been around for a long time. Better content is a goal this year on our wholesale site and perhaps a blog as this helps our retailers understand our products. Mobile apps for the retail site would be helpful.

What are some of your most effective parts of your online store or shopping experience and why?

Combining related products. It is a service to the retailer, fine printer or consumer to remind them to buy the envelopes for the paper!

What have you done on a regular basis to promote your site?

Every communication we have offline (phone, fax, mail) is followed up by a personal email with links to the pages that would be of interest to our customer. We are a “bricks and mortar” company with excellent customer service. They train our customers to use the “store” for their own benefit. Order history, for example is very important. Our “old” site combined offline and online history which is ideal and we hope to find a solution that re-institutes this on our AmeriCommerce B2B site soon.

What advice do you have for beginners who are interested in getting started selling over the Web?

Think like your visitor

What developments do you foresee over the next year that will have an impact on the world of e-commerce?

Small businesses will have to contract outside e-commerce expertise to remain competitive. Two way data integration (web to accounting/inventory software and back to web) will be a standard offering rather than a custom integration.

What are some of the challenges AmeriCommerce has helped you overcome?

They have allowed us a way to manage both our wholesale and retail e-commerce business’ which have very different customers and needs. Access to shared site design features and images makes maintenance much, much easier.

I could never have done our online stores without AmeriCommerce tech support. They have been great. That is my favorite AmeriCommerce feature. They want to get to the bottom of the problem just as fast as you do.

To learn more about OrangeArt go to their wholesale site https://www.orangeart.com or their retail site https://www.orangeartstore.com/