PayPal’s Intelligent Wallet Is Coming

March 11, 2012 By Leave a Comment

PayPal has never completely redesigned its architecture. To be more specific, the PayPal wallet we see now is pretty much the same system PayPal has launched when it started 13 years ago. Pretty soon, a new Intelligent Wallet will be unveiled and the folks at SXSW 2012 will be the first people to get a glimpse of the future of PayPal.

Sam Shrauger, PayPal’s VP of Global Product & Experience, will be presenting a demo on this new intelligent wallet and he promises to show attendees that this new system will give users the ability to free, personalize, and share their digital money. Basically, users will have the ability to make their digital money work for them the way they want to. There’s not a lot of concrete imagery here obviously but it does sound pretty exciting. Fortunately, Shrauger has told us via the PayPal blog what we can expect from this seemingly revolutionary development in digital money.

Separating Purchase From Payment

One of the most exciting new features that will be included in the new PayPal wallet is the option to switch funding sources, change installment plans, and apply different sources of value after the actual purchase has occurred. This means within 5-7 days, you can still change your mind in terms of which funding source you will use to pay for your purchase, installment options, and sources of value like gift cards, loyalty points, airline miles, and more. If it’s still not clear to you what this feature can actually do, you can think about the fact that you can buy something from a store using your PayPal account, take what you bought home, use it, and have the luxury of having 5-7 days to change your mind about how you are actually going to pay for it.

Spending Rules

Splitting your digital money in groups, setting rules by purchase amount, and tying specific payment instruments to specific merchants are now possible with the new PayPal wallet. This level of control over your money is like opening different bank accounts and signing up for different credit or debit cards but without all the time and effort required to do it. You can do all of it with one account once the new intelligent wallet drops.

Personal Lists

PayPal is not just a tool to manage your money anymore. Personal lists now make it a tool for managing your entire shopping experience as it lets you create lists you want to purchase, compare prices, and of course, search for items. These lists will then have a second function as the PayPal wallet will alert you of the special deals and coupons for the items in your personal lists.

The Bottom Line

PayPal’s new intelligent wallet is not about replacing existing ways of payment, but it’s offering a more efficient way of managing digital money. The flexibility that this new intelligent wallet offers seems too good to be true. We can’t really say for now as the new features will only be rolled out in a couple of months, but we can all agree that it all feels like big change is coming in the world of commerce and digital life.

Filed Under: ecommerce Tagged With: ,

Stop Being A Click Zombie With Qazzoo

March 11, 2012 By Leave a Comment

How many hours do you spend online looking for that awesome pair of shoes you saw on TV the other day? How about when you’re looking for your dream house in your dream neighborhood? How about when you’re searching for that new sick action figure of your favorite supervillain? These days, consumer search takes a lot of time and energy just to find exactly what you are looking for and you can find yourself easily lost in endless ads and other distractions. The same can be said if you are a business. It can take a lot of money and effort in reaching your target market. A new consumer search engine called Qazzoo aims to eliminate the need for endless searching for both consumers and business owners.

How Does Qazzoo Work?

Qazzoo essentially just asks you, the consumer, what you need, where you are, and other helpful information about yourself. Then it lets businesses respond with offers that meet the consumers’ needs. Basically, Qazzoo makes it quicker and easier for consumers and businesses to find each other online.

That Doesn’t Sound Like A Search Engine To Me

It’s not your traditional search engine where you input a search term and you go through hundreds of search results. Qazzoo just asks you to fill out your profile with as much information as you are comfortable with and that would be the basis of how businesses find you. This service is not meant to replace the good old fashioned search engines, though. It is meant to complement it. While you search actively for the products, properties, or services that you want, your Qazzoo profile is there to attract different offers from businesses who think that they can offer you what you are looking for.

What’s A Click Zombie Anyway?

A click zombie is you when you are spending endless hours rummaging through social media posts from your favorite brands and companies, advertisements found on different websites, and other traditional ways of how businesses promote their products and services. These strategies, while effective most of the time, come with different distractions that may bring you to an endless parade of links to click, making you forget what you’re looking for in the first place.

How Secure Is It?

Since consumers are required to give as much information about their lives and preferences as possible to make it easy for businesses to determine what they can offer buyers, there is surely a question of security. Qazzoo makes sure that the consumer is totally in charge of their profiles so they can add or omit certain details at any time.

What Can It Do For Businesses Exactly?

Qazzoo lets business owners search, select, and connect with consumers who are looking for products and services that they are offering. This means on top of placing expensive ads and implementing elaborate social media campaigns to spread the word about their services and products, they can also reach the exact people that are actually interested in what they are offering.

The Bottom Line

Qazzoo offers benefits for both consumers and businesses as it makes the connection between the two entities easier to establish. However, it may not be welcomed with open arms by people who are not comfortable putting a lot of their personal information in a profile that is openly searchable by businesses even if it is secure.

Filed Under: ecommerce Tagged With: ,

MOO Business Cards Review

February 19, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Business cards is the best way to tell people who you are and what you do in an efficient and effortless manner. You simply hand them out and just like that, you get the chance to introduce yourself to people. However, not any kind of business card will do. If you want to make an impression on people using your business card, you need a service like MOO to produce elegant and visually interesting business cards. MOO business cards are printed in a quality that tells people that you mean business and you’re not just there to simply hand out pieces of printed paper.

What can I do with MOO?

You can create MOO business cards using pre-made MOO designs or you can use your own to add a personal touch to your business cards. MOO designs range from simple and elegant designs to dynamic and unconventional ones. It’s all up to you to choose what design your business cards will use.

MOO offers an intuitive web interface that makes designing and ordering your business cards as effortless as possible without sacrificing quality and creativity. If you want to try out the service first without shelling out some cash or if you simply want to find out if you will like the quality of paper that MOO uses, you can order a free sample pack which will also be shipped for free.

How do I create and order MOO business cards?

You can create and order your own set of MOO business cards in three easy steps:

1. Choose your design. You can either pick from the large library of MOO designs or you can upload your own images or designs. How your business cards will look depends entirely on you.

2. Personalize your design. Personalizing your business cards involve providing your personal or professional details and picking the type of paper stock you want. You will have the chance to review your design and details before you order so you can be sure that your MOO business cards will turn out the way you wanted.

3. Purchase. Once you have finalized your design and details, you can now make your order. Your business cards will then be printed, packed and shipped by the fine folks at MOO.

What can I do with MOO business cards?

Aside from leaving a lasting impression, not to mention your contact details, you can also use MOO business cards as a form of a portfolio or a simple and elegant way to start conversations. Because you can use your own images like photographs, you can turn your business cards into a mini-portfolio if you’re a photographer or graphic artist. Your business cards can help you show off your work while also providing your contact information that will increase the chances of people hiring you.

Using your own design and images is also a great way to show people your personality along with your profession. This means you’ll always have a great conversation starter during parties, meetings and other types of gatherings.

Does MOO offer other printed products?

Aside from MOO business cards, you can also create and order postcards card holders, stickers, labels, and more. All of these products are printed on high quality paper and you can customize all of them creatively to reflect your personality and profession just like business cards.

MOO’s website also gives you design inspirations to you can get ideas if you are running out of good ones. It is designed to not only let you create and purchase business cards, but also to inspire you to explore other possibilities in terms of print, design and using both to display your personality and profession for all the world to see.

What are the paper stock options available?

You can have MOO business cards printed on either MOO Classic, which is 16pt thick stock with a smooth satin feel, or MOO Green, which 15.5pt thick paper that is perfect for color reproduction, not to mention it’s very eco-friendly.

What are the dimensions available?

MOO business cards come in final trimmed size, which is 3.30” x 2.16” or 84mm x 55mm, and full bleed size, which is 1039×697 pixels or 3.46” x 2.32” or 88mm x 59mm. The full bleed size is perfect for finished artwork.

How much are MOO business cards?

The rates for MOO business cards depend on how many business cards you want to order and the paper stock you want them printed on.

50 cards – Classic = $19.99, Green = $22.99
100 cards – Classic = $39.98, Green = $45.98
150 cards – Classic = $59.97, Green = $68.97
200 cards – Classic = $69.99, Green = $79.99

The Bottom Line

MOO business cards are created out of MOO’s quality paper stock and printing technology, and users’ creativity. The range of designs and types of business cards from MOO make the service an ideal place for people who need business cards whether they are regular businessmen or dynamic artists.

Filed Under: ecommerce Tagged With: ,

Budget Prints Review

January 19, 2012 By Leave a Comment

It’s true that almost everything can be done digitally these days especially when it comes to magazines, books and other printed material. It is often said that print is dead but we all know that’s not entirely true. Print, specifically the actual printing process, still has a lot of applications in our daily lives. There is still demand for print in our homes and our offices. It doesn’t always come cheap, though, so being smart about your printing services is the right thing to do. You can do it with online printing services with people with a budget in mind such as Budget Prints.

How does it work?

It is as simple as uploading your designs or picking any of the pre-designed templates available and submitting your order. There’s nothing else to it. Budget Prints is a straightforward online printing service that makes all the steps of applying a design to different formats as easy as pie.

What kind of print formats are available?

Formats are divided into two categories: For Your Life and For Your Business. The For Your Business category includes business cards, letterheads, envelopes, postcards, rack cards, magnets and other items you can use in the office or in conducting business in general. These items are printed in great quality material with great print quality as well so you are assured that your business paraphernalia are as professional as you are.

The For Your Life category includes items that you can use at home or anywhere in your daily life such as invitations, note cards, bookmarks, thank you cards and others. Even though they are not meant to be used in a professional manner, you can still count on the material and print quality that Budget Prints basically offers all of its customers.

What can I do with the pre-designed templates?

Just in case you don’t have a design of your own, you can pick from any of the available pre-designed templates available. Once you have picked a design, you can then customize it through the Online Designer feature. This tool lets you input the text that you want to include in your design. You don’t even have to sweat it if you made a mistake because you can always preview your design before committing to it.

I want to upload my own design. What are the formats accepted?

You can upload any design in the following formats:

  • PSD
  • JPG
  • GIF
  • PNG

You have to make sure that your design is in any of these formats or else you need to convert it before you upload it to Budget Prints.

What types of paper are available?

In general, Budget Prints offers 12pt and 14pt paper stocks with rounded or standard square corners and matte or glossy finish. Depending on the product, the type of paper available may vary. All of these options will be available to you before you commit to your order.

Do I need to register an account to do all of these?

You don’t have to register an account to pick or upload a design. However, if you want to save your design for later, you will need an account to do so. This is standard practice and it is quite easy to register an account so this should be no problem at all for you.

Registering an account also gives you the benefit of having your shipping information already stored in Budget Prints’ system, making your future orders faster and easier to process. The stored billing and shipping information in your account can be easily edited whenever the need arises.

Is it secure?

Budget Prints uses a secure Internet certificate that ensure all transactions are secure. More than a million customers have already purchased products from this service and all of them can attest to the level of security that is present in the website whether you are simply creating a design or you are already making a purchase.

How are items shipped?

Budget Prints offers four different shipping methods:

  • Economy – 21 days
  • Standard – 14 days
  • Expedited – 7 days
  • Rush – 3 business days

Shipping is free for orders equal or more than $30. This deal is a daily promotion so you can take advantage of it any day. However, there are additional fees for handling, multiple shipping destinations and expedited shipping. Also, do take note that Budget Prints only ships within the United States for now.

How are items priced?

Pricing depends on the type of printed item and the quantity to be ordered. Prices for business cards start at $1.59 for 25 pieces, envelopes start at $45.99 for 100 pieces and magnets start at $12.95 for 25 pieces. You can visit BudgetPrints.com for their complete pricing details.

The Bottom Line

Budget Prints is a service designed to make designing and ordering printed items fast and easy. Yes, you can save more money if you print stuff at home if you only need a handful of them. However, if you want to print by bulk, your best option is to get an assist from online printing services like Budget Prints.

Filed Under: ecommerce Tagged With: ,

Volusion Shopping Cart Software Review

January 19, 2012 By Leave a Comment

If you’re planning on putting up an online store, your first consideration should be which platform will you use to reach your customers and sell your goods. There is the usual auction sites and social networking sites that offer you a built-in audience of thousands or even millions, but you will basically be on equal ground with hundreds of other online sellers. You don’t want this kind of business. You want to stand out and you can do that by putting up your online store the way you want it. Ecommerce software is your answer. One of the standout leaders in the ecommerce and shopping cart software field is Volusion.

What is Volusion?

Volusion does not just offer a piece of software. Its service is a combination of marketing tools, business management tools, shopping cart tools, customer support tools, web hosting and web design. These elements combine into one product that gives you the ability to put up an online store that is safe and efficient for both you and your customers. You may not have the advantage of a built-in customer base, but Volusion offers you total control over your online store and the customization features to make it all your own.

What will the online store look like?

It depends on your taste, actually. You will be able to customize the look of your online store by picking any of the more than 120 free high quality ecommerce templates available. If the free templates don’t do it for you, there are also premium templates available.

If you are a web designer or you simply are the type of person who wants to customize their website on the code level, you will find that Volusion may be a little frustrating for you since you can’t directly modify the code behind the software. You are also limited to picking templates and not modifying them further. The good news is that if you’re the type of person who does not want to get their hands dirty in styling their website, Volusion makes things easy and comfortable for you. When you pick a new template, whether free or premium, the Volusion staff will be the ones to install it for you for no extra charge.

What are the features of Volusion that make it stand out?

You can let your customers pick any color of any item on your store thanks to the Color Swatch feature. This feature is supported by the Smart Match feature that gives customers the ability to keep different combinations of product options as they are shopping in your store. This efficient system makes the shopping experience a pleasant one for shoppers as they can navigate through the store without losing any of the items and their product options that they have previously picked.

That sounds great for shoppers but what can it offer me as a business owner?

As your customers shop comfortably in your visually stimulating online store, you can also experience a leisurely experience in processing orders, dealing with customer concerns and tracking the overall progress of your business. Volusion has a robust set of reporting features,an intuitive order processing section and an innovative inventory system that make managing your only store as easy as it could be.

Marketing your online store is also an easy task with the help of Volusion as it includes an SEO toolbox, the Deal of the Day feature, customer reviews, email and newsletter management, a wish list feature and a tool for offering coupons and special discounts. It is basically a complete tool set for keeping your customers happy and attracting new ones from all over the Internet.

Is it Social Media and Mobile-friendly?

Yes it is. Volusion includes the Social Store feature that lets you easily integrate your online store with your Facebook page. Managing your YouTube videos and sharing news and announcements via Twitter and Facebook are made easy as you can do all of it from your Volusion administration panel. Your online store also comes with a mobile version so people on their mobile devices can still browse and shop in your store comfortably even if they’re not in front of their desktop or laptop computer.

Is Volusion secure?

Volusion is fully PCI certified so you are assured that your online store is protected and safe. You are also guaranteed of a 99.99% uptime, as well as fast load times thanks to Volusion CDN (content delivery network) which can improve your site’s speed by up to 60%.

What are the pricing options?

Volusion is offered through 5 different pricing plans:

Steel – 100 products, 1GB data transfer, $19 per month

Bronze – 500 products, 3GB data transfer, $39 per month

Silver – 1000 products, 5GB data transfer, $59 per month

Gold – 5000 products, 15GB data transfer, $99 per month

Platinum – Unlimited products, 20GB data transfer, $149 per month

All plans do not have setup and transaction fees. They all include the standard features of Volusion such as free templates, mobile commerce, social media tools and the Social Store feature. The Gold and Platinum plans include additional features and services: onboarding coach, account manager and API access.

If none of these plans fit your needs, you can schedule a consultation for enterprise-level solutions.

The Bottom Line

Volusion is a complete ecommerce solution designed for people who want to offer a comfortable online shopping experience for both their customers and themselves. People who want deep customization in terms of design, however, will find a better solution somewhere else.

Filed Under: ecommerce Tagged With: ,

ClickTale Review

January 11, 2012 By Leave a Comment

ClickTale is a customer experience analytics solution comprised of a suite of analytics tools for measuring the clicks, mouse movements and keystrokes of website users. It is used by more than 70,000 companies and individuals who want to always be on top of what customers are actually doing on their websites.

How is it any different from other analytics solutions?

Aside from being the most trusted analytics solutions around, ClickTale offers you the capability to see user activity on your site through the eyes of the users themselves. This is possible thanks to the visitor recordings feature which records every mouse movement, mouse click and mouse scroll of the user and compiles it into a neat video. Instead of just analyzing how hundreds of users navigate through your site, you will get to pick a single user and see how they actually move around your site, giving you valuable insight on how effective your site’s design is.

Can I see user activity in real time?

Yes you can. The Real Time Monitor feature lets you view live updates of recorded users, which means you don’t have to wait days for an analysis of visitor activities. This feature is ideal for usability testing and improving marketing campaigns.

What can it offer in terms of traditional analytics features?

One of the most popular features in analytics is the heatmap. ClickTale offers four different heatmaps for mouse move, mouse click, attention and scroll reach. The Mouse Move and Mouse Click heatmaps, as the names suggest, track mouse movements and clicks and present the data in visually appealing heatmaps. These heatmaps show you where users’ mouse pointers linger the most and where they usually end up clicking.

As for the other two heatmaps, they measure which areas of your web pages get the most attention from users and how far those users scroll down your page. The knowledge provided by these two heatmaps are extremely valuable in placing advertisements and optimizing the location of content. Knowing which area of your web page gets the most attention increases your ability to effectively place content and ads where their exposure is maximized.

Of course, other regulars in analytics solutions are also here, including visitor language, browser version, country of origin, screen size and operating system. These demographics are all presented with clean and elegant graphics that are easy to view.

What then can it offer outside of the traditional analytics features?

Aside from the visitor recordings, ClickTale also offers form analytics, campaign tracking and advanced filtering. These features provide valuable insight into customer behavior in such a way that it’s almost as if you were right there with the customer when they were navigating through your site. The Advance Filtering feature for one offers a deeper analysis of customer behavior than the usual filtering features of other analytics solutions. It shows you every step the customer took from landing on your page to whether they converted or not.

What does “Form Analytics” mean?

While you can use heatmaps and recordings to see what your customers are doing on your pages with forms, Form Analytics can give you a more in-depth look at the conversion rates of your forms. This feature will help you determine which form fields are effective and which ones cause your visitors to actually leave. This feature includes five different reports: Conversion, Drop, Time, Blank Field and Refill. Each report gives you insight on how customers interact with your forms, giving you a better chance in modifying and optimizing your forms to improve their conversion rates.

How detailed can ClickTale’s reports be?

If the recordings, drill-down of demographics and the pinpoint accuracy of Form Analytics have not convinced you yet of ClickTale’s attention to details, consider that its Link Analytics involves a report on user hesitation. That’s right, the Hesitation report exists and it tracks the amount of time between the actual mouse hover action and the moment when a link is actually clicked. Other reports in the Link Analytics suite are Clicks, Hovers, Hover Conversion, Time to Click, Hover Time, Hover Order and Clicking Visitors.

What are the available pricing options?

For small to medium businesses, ClickTale offers three pricing plans:

Bronze ($99 a month): This basic plan includes 3 out of the 4 heatmaps, Form Analytics for 1 page and 20,000 pageviews recorded per month.

Silver ($290 a month): This is the most popular plan and it include unlimited heatmaps, unlimited access to Form Analytics and 80,000 pageviews recorded per month.

Gold ($990 a month): This plan includes everything in the Silver plan except this one allows for 300,000 pageviews recorded per month.

If none of these plans fit your needs and you need more out of ClickTale, you can try the Enterprise solution which includes a dedicated account manager, training and education, a flexible platform and proactive consultation. Rates depend on your customized needs.

The Bottom Line

ClickTale is not your typical analytics solution so if you are serious about improving and optimizing your company’s conversion rates, this is definitely worth a shot.

Filed Under: ecommerce Tagged With: , ,

aMember Pro Review

January 11, 2012 By Leave a Comment

If you are running a website and you are offering items for sale or you simply want to send out opt-in newsletters to your site members, you can do yourself a favor by not doing it manually. Accepting subscriptions payments or running an affiliate program involving a few people can be manageable if you are doing it without the help of special software, but if the number of members on your site is considerable, it’s best if you put your trust in applications like aMember Pro. This software is flexible enough to be used with most of the popular platforms for blogs and forums and other types of content management systems.

How easy is it to install?

Even if you’re not familiar with technical terms and coding, you can still have aMember Pro running with your existing website or new one in no time. You actually don’t have to do anything in the installation process because professionasl from aMember Pro will install the software in your website for you. They will of course inform you of the important details about the installation and they will walk you through the initial process of running aMember Pro so you will be managing your members with this software unaided in no time.

How can this software help me when I’m running an affiliate program?

Tracking recurring commissions is made possible and in an efficient manner with aMember Pro as it includes a built-in affiliate module. This full-featured affiliate module offers the Review/Pay Affiliate Commission feature, the Affiliate Clicks/Sales Statistics feature and the Manage Banners and text Links feature. All of these tools come together to provide users with a seamless and effortless experience in managing affiliates.

Can aMember Pro help me out with support?

Yes. aMember Pro has a built-in customer support module that makes customer responses, queries and requests organized. Instead of switching back and fort between your email account and your website administration panel, you can do everything in your aMember Pro integrated Helpdesk section. Each inquiry also has a unique tracking code for easier tracking and management.

Is it secure?

aMember Pro has a built-in security feature that lets you manage the permissions of your folders and files. That means in addition to your existing security measures for your blog, website or forum board, you can have extra protection in a straightforward and clean administration panel.

Do I need to download anything?

No. Everything is located in your web server so whenever you want to use aMember Pro, you simply need a web browser to access your administration panel. Everything you need to manage and organize your website can be accessed through aMember Pro.

Which payment systems are supported by this software?

aMember Pro supports the most popular payment systems around like PayPal, 2Checkout, Wordpay, ClickBank and more. In fact, it can be integrated with more than 100 payment systems soon. There’s no need to pay developers to create integration between your website and payment systems as it can easily be established through aMember Pro.

How flexible is it?

aMember Pro is designed to support different types of plugins. It can be easily integrated with different platforms such as blogging platforms, forum board software and good old fashioned PHP websites built from scratch. If you want a certain function for your website, chances are you can find a plugin for it. All you need to do is install it via the aMember Pro administration panel and you’re good to go.

What are its main features?

Aside from multiple payment system support, different modules and integration to various existing platforms, aMember Pro offers a core set of features that focus on making the management of members fast and easy. These features include unlimited membership levels, unlimited items, incremental content delivery, automated signup and expiration, multiple language support and general member management tools. Anything from processing payments to handling coupons, aMember Pro has a tool for it.

Can I tamper with the source code in case I want to change or add a feature or functionality?

Yes you can. Purchasing aMember Pro gives you full access to the source code which is written in PHP. This means whether you or your web developer needs something customized for your unique needs, you can easily do so by diving into the code. It uses standard libraries so if you or your developer is already familiar with writing PHP code, you don’t have to learn new technologies to customize aMember Pro. The same goes with designing your aMember Pro site.

The Bottom Line

With a one-time payment of $179.95, you get all of these plus the flexibility to customize it according to your needs. aMember Pro is an ideal software for websites with a large number of members. Out of the box, it is already a complete solution for websites that require an extensive amount of member management. However, it is flexible enough to only cater to a specific set of needs.

Filed Under: ecommerce Tagged With: ,

Ondango: How to Sell Products Directly From Your Company’s Facebook Page

October 7, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Ondango recently launched a new service that allows any business to integrate a full e-commerce site into their Facebook page. If your business sells clothing, for example, and you use your Facebook page to garner fans and make announcements, you can now sell your clothing items directly within your Facebook page with Ondango. Users never have to leave your Facebook page, they manage their shopping cart and checkout directly on Facebook.

Your online store appears as a tab on your Facebook page:

 

Checkout process happens on Facebook:

Ondango’s CEO Jose Matias del Pino says that an additional advantage with their platform is that the user never has to accept a Facebook data request. We’re all familiar with the annoying popups that ask us whether we grant the application to access our personal information from Facebook – del Pino says that they saw an 80% dropoff rate in their testing at that popup. This is a significant stat for any business to be aware of – when integrating Facebook into your applications, be aware that that dropoffs can be sky high and you could be alienating a large percentage of your user base.

While selling products on your Facebook page will never likely be your core business – it is a nice feature to offer to your customers, especially those who are highly active on Facebook. Many customers are not accustomed to making purchases on Facebook, however, so its best to have a separate e-commerce platform as well.

Filed Under: ecommerce, facebook, ondango, social commerce, startups