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Choosing the Best eCommerce Loyalty Program for Your Online Store

Posted on September 5, 2018 by Hosting

The post Choosing the Best eCommerce Loyalty Program for Your Online Store appeared first on HostGator Blog . eCommerce Loyalty Programs: Why Your Online Store Needs One E-commerce is an easy way for small businesses to reach more customers, as long as you don’t lose them to big players like Amazon and Walmart. Amazon alone took in 44% of the e-commerce in the US in 2017. To compete with major retailers’ selection and price, you probably already know that your online business needs to stand out by offering unique items, expertise in product selection, and excellent service. Another way to appeal to new customers and keep current ones coming back is with an e-commerce loyalty program.     What Can an E-commerce Loyalty Program Do for Your Online Store? We often think of loyalty programs as tools to get customers to come back, but that’s not all a loyalty plan can do. Here are five more benefits to e-commerce loyalty programs.   1. Get new customers on board. Don’t make your customers wait until they’ve spent a certain dollar amount or placed several orders to start getting the benefits of loyalty program membership. Offer your customers an immediate discount or bonus item for joining your loyalty program and they’re more likely to sign on and make a purchase.   2. Collect marketing data. A good loyalty program will provide analytics on your members so you can see which products they prefer, when they buy, how much they spend, and other information you can use to refine your marketing efforts. Smarter offers can lead to more sales and higher order values.   3. Increase the lifetime value of your current customers. With your loyalty program marketing data and targeted offers, your business should be able to not only retain customers but earn more from them. Exclusive product offers, previews, and upsells of related items are easier when you have accurate information and your customers’ trust. That trust is valuable—Invesp found that established customers are 50% more likely to buy a new product from a business than new customers are, and those existing customers spend about 30% more when they buy. 4. Keep your customer acquisition costs in check. By using your digital loyalty program to target offers to your existing customers, you can boost revenue from those shoppers and reduce the amount you need to spend on new-customer acquisition to keep your revenue stream flowing. And when you do look for new customers, your loyalty program data can help you identify target audiences similar to your most loyal and lucrative customers.   5. Win back customers. Sometimes an existing customer just stops shopping with you, and you don’t know why. Rather than write off that customer, you can use your e-commerce loyalty program to craft a custom email offer to bring them back to your store. Think about which of these goals is most important to your business, and take stock of the channels that you use most often to reach current customers and new customers. Depending on your goals and customer habits, you may be able to do well with a straightforward points-for-purchase loyalty program, or you may need a program that includes social media reward options, tiered reward levels, and other advanced features.   Setting Up Your E-commerce Loyalty Program There are several tools you can use to add an e-commerce loyalty program to your online store. Your options will depend on the e-commerce hosting platform you use and your budget as well as your goals and customer habits. Here are a few options to show you what’s available and what you can expect to spend.   WordPress E-commerce Loyalty Program Plugins If you have a WordPress-based store that uses the WooCommerce e-commerce plugin , there are several loyalty program extensions you can choose from.   1. WooCommerce Points and Rewards WooCommerce Points and Rewards lets you set up a points-per-purchase loyalty program with customizable settings for point values and maximum discount amounts. You can make points retroactive for past purchases, use points as incentives for sign-ups and reviews, and more. One one-year subscription for a single site is $129.   2. SUMO SUMO is another option for WordPress/WooCommerce stores. In addition to points for purchases and reviews, SUMO gives you the option to award points for referring new customers, sharing on social media, blogging, commenting, using coupons, and making charitable donations. You can also set points to expire after a certain amount of time. A regular license for a single store costs $49.   3. Beans Beans is a WooCommerce extension that offers more than twenty reward options, including rewards on customer birthdays, social media likes and shares, referrals, and reviews in addition to shopping. Beans also makes it easy to set up time-limited offers for loyalty program members, create custom rewards, and set automatic point balance reminders to encourage customers to visit your store. Unlike SUMO and WooCommerce Points and Rewards, Beans has a tiered pricing structure with five levels ranging from free to customized enterprise plans. The free plan offers rewards for purchases and signups, point redemption for discounts, a welcome email to new members, and a rewards widget and program page. Prices for the other plans range from $348 to $4,788 per year, and each comes with an increased number of reward options and a higher monthly transaction limit.   Magento E-commerce Loyalty Program Extensions Magento has several extensions that work with it, including Loyalty Program by Amasty and programs for Magento 1 and Magento 2 by Aheadworks.   1. Amasty Amasty ‘s program for stores on Magento 1’s Community platform makes it easy to create multiple levels of benefits for your loyalty program members based on their purchase histories, to award free shipping to VIP members, and to create customized promotions. The Community edition is $129.   2. Aheadworks Aheadworks’ Points & Rewards for Magento 1 lets you adjust the rate at which customers earn points for certain actions. It also offers options to award points for uploading user-created videos, answering product questions from other shoppers, and answering polls, along with other reward features for shopping and referrals. Auto-reminders are part of this extension, too. The price for this version is $299. Reward Points for Magento 2 includes pre- and post-sales tax point settings and analytics on spend rates by segment and individual customer. This edition integrates with ConnectPOS to sync customer rewards across your online and in-store channels. The price tag for this Aheadworks extension is $349.   Choosing Your E-commerce Loyalty Program Before you invest in an extension or a loyalty platform subscription, take the time to read the reviews, and double-check that it offers the features you want for your marketing program. Decide if you’ll want to purchase extended customer support as you set up and refine your loyalty program. The better you get at rewarding your customers, the more rewarding your loyalty program will be for your business. Find the post on the HostGator Blog Continue reading →

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Are HTML Email Coding Issues Killing Your Conversions?

Posted on September 5, 2018 by Hosting

The post Are HTML Email Coding Issues Killing Your Conversions? appeared first on HostGator Blog . What’s the Key to More Email Conversions? It Might Be Your HTML How’s email marketing going for your small business? If hardly anyone on your list is opening your emails and even fewer are clicking through, you’re probably wondering if your subject lines, copy, and images need work . They might. But there’s another possibility: You may need to improve the code that makes your emails work. Without the right code, your emails can show up in your subscribers’ inboxes as a jumbled, hard-to-read mess or a blank page, even if you’re using an email template. Of course, most small businesses don’t have an email code expert in-house to fix their issues. So I reached out to one to learn more. Anne Tomlin is the founder of Austin, TX-based  Emails Y’all and a self-described email geek whose enthusiasm for her work is contagious. She shared her knowledge about what happens when code goes wrong, why off-the-shelf templates work until they don’t, and how small businesses can diagnose, fix, and avoid some common email coding issues.   Look Good or Get Deleted The first thing to know is that email marketing is challenging because not everyone receives your emails in the same way. Different people use different devices to read their mail, and they may be using a variety of email clients that all have different rules about things like downloading email images. Most businesses know they need to use responsive templates for proper display on mobile devices, but the range of email client rules can trip them up. “A lot of email clients don’t download images automatically,” Tomlin said, giving Outlook as one example. “You can work around that, but a lot of businesses send emails that feature one big image. When those emails are opened with those clients, they’re just blank.” Consumers won’t tolerate that. Tomlin said she recently heard a conference presenter say that about 30% of Millennials immediately delete emails that don’t render properly. Those recipients won’t follow a link to “view this email in a browser,” wait to see if images load, or try to figure out how to read it on their screen. They just delete your carefully crafted message or decide they don’t want to hear from your business again. This is high-stakes stuff in terms of conversions and subscriber retention, but Tomlin says “even major retailers make this mistake.” One clothing retailer sends her emails that are blank, because “the email content is one big image with no live or alternative text” and Outlook doesn’t show it. Another apparel chain sent an email with lots of images that didn’t display, “and the alt text for every image was ‘turn on your images.’” What’s the workaround when you’re sending image-heavy emails? “A good coder can style alternative text to match your brand. Stitch Fix uses alternative text really well, and it’s stylized to fill the image space if the images don’t load. With proper coding, using live text or well-designed alternative text… maybe the recipients will download the images.”   Pros and Cons of Off-the-Shelf Email Templates If major retailers are tripped up by email coding, you can bet smaller businesses are, too. I asked Tomlin whether pre-made HTML templates from email marketing services can help SMBs avoid these email rendering pitfalls. “Most off-the-shelf templates work just fine” for businesses that are starting out with an email program, “but they might not work for every audience.” Tomlin mentions accessibility for customers with disabilities as an example. “Most templates were developed a while back” before accessibility for people with low vision, hearing loss, and other issues was given a lot of attention, and many “aren’t up to date yet with accessible code.” Another potential issue with pre-fab templates is simply the pace of change in the email industry. “Things change weekly, sometimes without any notice. Say Gmail decides to change something on their end, and that may totally screw up the rendering of your emails on, say, a certain type of phone,” but senders don’t realize that’s now a problem. “ Any good developer will keep tabs on the latest changes, notify clients, and update the code” as quickly as possible.   Best Practices to Avoid Email Coding Issues I asked Tomlin what steps small businesses can take to avoid code-related email issues. The first is to format your emails to look good with or without images. “Using one big image with text” in your marketing emails “is not good practice. A properly coded email will have live text that shows up whether the image loads or not.” Other best practices include: Test your emails before you hit send. Most email marketing service providers will show you how your emails will look on a variety of devices. Know your audience’s email habits and clients. “Use those analytics that your email marketing service provider collects. For example, if people aren’t opening your emails in Outlook, you can code some crazy awesome stuff to reach them” or hire someone to do that for you. Know when it’s time for professional coding services. Tomlin cites three scenarios. “When your conversions plateau or drop” or if your email program just isn’t hitting the targets you set, it’s time to look under the hood to see if rendering issues are part of the problem. “When you gain a larger, more diverse audience, say, new customers from other countries,” an email code expert can ensure your new audience sticks around and opens your emails, regardless of the many devices and clients they use. “When your emails don’t look right” even when you’re using a template. For example, Tomlin sometimes sees text-heavy emails with badly aligned columns or copy that gets truncated because it’s too long for the template. When you decide to hire a professional, Tomlin suggests careful vetting. Look for developers who ask lots of questions about your audience and who share information to help you reach your goals. Email coding isn’t just using off-the-shelf templates. “A good coder will build your emails from the ground up and tailor them to your needs.” Find the post on the HostGator Blog Continue reading →

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The #1 Way to Prepare Your Website for Holiday Traffic: Upgrade Your Hosting

Posted on September 4, 2018 by Hosting

The post The #1 Way to Prepare Your Website for Holiday Traffic: Upgrade Your Hosting appeared first on HostGator Blog . Is Your Site Prepared For Holiday Traffic? Time To Upgrade Your Hosting When you’re getting your online store ready for the holiday shopping season , there’s a lot to plan, like Black Friday deals, seasonal products, and marketing campaigns. Remember to include the store itself in your holiday prep, too. For customers to find and buy your holiday deals, your site has to stay up and running—no matter how many shoppers show up. It also has to stand up to hackers who try to sneak in with the holiday crowd. Here’s how to prepare your site to handle heavier than normal traffic, give your shoppers a great experience, and keep your store secure.   Can Your Site Handle the Traffic Numbers You Expect? Black Friday isn’t just crowded in brick-and-mortar stores. More than half of US shoppers made at least one purchase on Black Friday in 2017, and the total haul for online Black Friday sales last year was more than $5 billion. That’s a lot of people going online. If your hosting plan includes monthly limits on how many visits your site can have, you could find your site hitting its traffic limit on the biggest shopping weekend of the year. And if you can’t quickly scale up your site’s capacity to serve a throng of shoppers, your site could slow to a crawl or even crash. What to do now: Look for real-time scalability that you can activate with a click to keep your site online and running smoothly even when goods are flying off your virtual shelves. Or look for an upgraded hosting plan that doesn’t cap monthly site visits so you can turn all your attention to your sales over the holidays. Are You Protected Against Downtime? If your site does go offline during holiday sales, shoppers may only come back later if you have products they want and can’t get anywhere else. We’ve blogged about the importance of creating exclusive deals for Black Friday , and we just discussed why hosting scalability matters. But there’s another thing that can lead to site crashes—hardware failure on the host’s end. It’s not common, because web hosts work hard to maintain their equipment, but it can happen. If it happens during peak shopping times, your business could suffer unless your host has a seamless Plan B. What to do now: Find out if your hosting plan includes failover capability . Failover means your host is ready and able to switch your site to another server if there are any issues with your current one so your site doesn’t go offline due to issues on their end. Failover switches from one server to another are usually seamless, but some include a brief downtime during the transition. If your plan doesn’t include failover protection, it may be time to upgrade.   How Fast Do Your Store Pages Load? Page load times are now a real factor in search results , so if you want your store to get found, it needs to get fast. When shoppers arrive, fast page loads can keep them in your store. The Financial Times found that just a one-second increase in page speed boosted engagement by 5% , showing that any improvement in load time is worth the effort. Some page-speed improvements you can do yourself, like optimizing the images on your WordPress-powered site . When you’re planning page-speed improvements, keep in mind that your product pages will be the first place shoppers land in your store if they find you through product search results. But images and videos—the centerpieces of product pages—are often the slowest elements to load, and 40% of shoppers will simply leave if your page takes more than 3 seconds to load. After you optimize your images, you can use Google’s PageSpeed Insights tool to check your pages’ performance and get more suggestions for improvements. Your site may need more improvements that can only come from upgraded hosting, like proper cache configuration, top-of-the-line hardware, and optimal server density. What to do now: Check your site’s performance on PageSpeed Insights . Use the recommendations Google generates to talk to your hosting service about upgrading for load time improvements.   Does You Have Site Security for Your Online Store? Shoppers aren’t the only ones who flock to online stores during the holidays. Data thieves and other malicious actors know that during the holidays, merchants are so busy filling orders that they don’t notice or don’t have the resources to deal with data theft attempts and malware attacks. The last thing you need during peak sales season is a data breach or denial of service attack that throws your business into chaos when it should be racking up sales. As with page speed, some site security practices are up to you, like ensuring that you’re running the most up-to-date versions of your store platform, plugins, and related software. The devices you use to work on your store should be updated and fully secured, too. And we all know that it’s important to use secure, unique passwords . But there are ways your hosting service can help, too. What to look for: Does your current hosting plan include regular scans to detect and remove malware from your site? Is there an upgrade option that protects your store even further by guarding against DoS attacks that could crash your site?   Does Your Host Provide Website Analytics? Maybe the only thing more important for retailers than strong holiday sales is a serious post-season analysis of holiday sales activity. Much of this will draw on your Google, email, and social media analytics, but some of it should come from your site itself. Is it easy for you to find and monitor your site’s traffic trends, uptime, page load speed, and other performance data? You’ll need it to see what works during this year’s holidays and to plan how you can improve for next year. What to do now: Check your dashboard to see what kind of site data is available to you. If you’re not seeing the type of performance data you’ll need to refine your site, talk to your host about upgrade options. Be Prepared with Upgraded Hosting Make sure your hard work on holiday products and promotions pays off. Get ready now to welcome holiday season shoppers, give them what they want fast, keep your site safe, and gather valuable data. Give yourself the gift of an upgraded hosting plan now, before the holiday rush begins. Learn more about HostGator’s cloud hosting and dedicated server plans . Find the post on the HostGator Blog Continue reading →

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Why Should You Use a Website Builder?

Posted on August 29, 2018 by Hosting

The post Why Should You Use a Website Builder? appeared first on HostGator Blog . Why Should You Use a Website Builder? Building a website doesn’t have to be intimidating. In the past, if you wanted a website you’d have to pay upfront for a website developer. Although this still might be the case for some kinds of projects, it’s not true for most website owner’s needs. Luckily, with the introduction of website builders , the process of getting your site online couldn’t be easier, not to mention speedy. Below you’ll learn what a website builder is and why you’ll want to use one for your next website. What is a Website Builder? A website builder is a tool that lets you build a beautiful and functional website without any coding or design knowledge. The only skill you need to have is the ability to click and move a mouse around a screen. Instead of having to code a website from scratch, or construct a template from a prebuilt design you’re relying on the pre-existing features of the website builder. The templates that website builders use have been designed and coded by web design experts, so the site you create will be up to the latest web design standards. If you want to create a professional-looking website, but don’t have any existing web design knowledge, then a website builder is the tool you need.   Why Website Builders Are Awesome Web builders make building a website as simple as possible. Below we cover some of the biggest reasons you’ll want to consider using a website builder for your next, or first, website.   1. No Development Experience Required If you’ve thought about building a website in the past, but got held up with all the technical steps, then using a website builder is the solution you’ve been looking for. Website builders not only get rid of the need to know how to code, but you can also avoid other technical tasks too. For instance, most website builders also take care of your hosting , nameservers, and domain name registration for you.   2. Drag and Drop Building One of the most useful features of a website builder is the drag and drop functionality. With this, all you have to do is literally drag and drop elements of your site until you’re satisfied with the final product. This gives you complete control over the design and layout of your site. Plus, this way of building a site lets you create a site incredibly quickly too.   3. Easy to Make Changes Beyond building out your site making changes is also a breeze. Instead of having to change the CSS or HTML files to adjust how things look you can simply tweak the settings to your liking. You’ll be able to change things like your color scheme, font choice, insert images, delete sections, and a lot more, all at the click of a button.   4. Bundled Website Management Tools Simply building out your site and publishing it online isn’t enough. Luckily, a website builder won’t leave you high and dry at this stage of your online journey. Most website builders are also equipped with tools like site statistics and reporting integration, a website email address, eCommerce integration, along with marketing tools to help you get the most out of your new site.   5. Very Speedy Website Building Process Finally, website builders are lean and mean. Imagine going from not having a website to having a finished site live on the internet in a handful of hours, maybe even sooner. With a website builder, this can be a reality. It’ll be hard for you to find an easier and faster way to get your first website online, all with zero development skills or technical know-how required. Hopefully, you have a better understanding of how a website builder can make it dead simple to build out your new website.   Time to Use a Website Builder If you’re looking for a website builder that makes building a website almost too easy, then check out the HostGator  web builder . With hundreds of themes and an intuitive drag and drop builder, it couldn’t be simpler. Find the post on the HostGator Blog Continue reading →

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How to Make a Website Quickly: Your Easy 6-Step Guide

Posted on August 27, 2018 by Hosting

The post How to Make a Website Quickly: Your Easy 6-Step Guide appeared first on HostGator Blog . How to Make a Website Quickly You’re here because you want to build a website, and you want to do it fast. Building a website used to require immense technical and development skills. But today, with the introduction of intuitive website builders you can create a website from scratch, in record time. If you don’t know where to start, or, you’re worried that building a site will be expensive, or time-consuming, then this post is for you. Below you’ll learn the exact steps you need to take to make a website in as little time as possible, even if you have no previous experience.   1. Choose the Right Website Builder More and more people are turning to website builders to help them quickly and easily build websites. From personal blogs to eCommerce stores, niche sites, and business sites . The opportunities are endless. With a website builder, you’ll be able to drag and drop your site to completion. You can move around blocks of text, add images and videos, change the font and color scheme, and a lot more. You don’t need any existing knowledge of HTML, CSS, or design best practices. Just select a theme, customize it to your liking, and press publish. However, the website builder you choose will end up making your life easier, or much more difficult. With the dozens of available website builders, it can be overwhelming to choose the right one. If you’re just getting started in your search, all HostGator packages come with a website builder you can use as an option. Not only is it low cost, but it’ll also provide you with a selection of hundreds of free themes and all the customization options you require. 2. Pick a Domain Name In order to have a website online, you’ll need a domain name. Your domain name is what your visitors will type in to access your site. For HostGator, it’s hostgator.com . You’ll have the option to purchase a domain name through the builder itself, or you can purchase it through a third-party domain name registrar. The easiest option will probably be purchasing your domain name through the website builder itself, as you’ll avoid the complex tasks of dealing with nameservers. When choosing a domain name , make sure that it’s short, memorable, and preferably uses the .com extension.   3. Select Your Theme With your account created with your website builder and your domain name purchased it’s time to start building your site. Building a website that looks good, functions properly, and is in alignment with the latest web design standards is a very difficult task. Especially if you’ve never built a website before. Luckily, by using a website builder you can choose from one of hundreds of professionally designed themes. The theme you choose will make up the foundation of your website’s design . With a drag and drop builder, you’ll be able to customize this however you see fit. Still, you’ll want to choose a theme that makes sense for your industry.   4. Customize Your Theme Once you’ve chosen your theme its time to start customizing. After all, you want a unique website, not one that looks like a stock template. It’s important to customize all of the stock elements of your builder’s theme. This is a surefire way to get a unique look, while still retaining the original functionality of the theme. For example, you can make customizations like: Adding more pages to your site Changing the stock images to your own professional photos Changing the theme’s color palette Rearranging the text elements and general layout Changing the font sizes or font style Once you start customizing your site you’ll be amazed at all the changes you can actually make.   5. Preview and Make Any Final Tweaks It can be tempting to hit publish right away and make your site live on the internet. Although you’re excited it’s important to go through a final review process. Your builder will have a preview function that lets you see what your site will look like without pushing the changes live. This will allow you to make any last minute edits and avoid any embarrassing mistakes. As you look over your site, ask yourself the following questions: Are there any glaring spelling or grammar mistakes? Are there any strange formatting errors? Do my images or videos make sense in the existing design? Do all of the buttons and links work? Can my visitors intuitively navigate my website?   6. Publish Your Site! With your final run through complete, it’s time to publish your site. Congratulations! Once you’ve published your site online, you can still make quick and easy changes from the back-end of the editor. Have family, friends, and colleagues look over your site to see if there are any changes you might have missed. It’s now time to start generating traffic, marketing your site, and making your online dreams come true. Depending on the website builder you chose, you might have additional marketing tools available that’ll help you grow your website.   Now Over to You As you can see building a website doesn’t have to be difficult—it can even be fun! By using a website builder you’ll greatly speed up the website building process while giving you full control over the end result. Get started building your site today! Find the post on the HostGator Blog Continue reading →

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