Five Article Friday

February 24, 2012

Posted by Steve Deckert

• Every Friday we'll post the best five articles related to loyalty, customer experience, and eCommerce from that week. Have a suggestion? Contact us here!

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  1. Tom Robertshaw's 2012 eCommerce Survey

  This is quite simply brilliant. Tom has built a tool to scrape Alexa's top 1 Million sites & determine what eCommerce platform they are running, if any. He publishes the results every few months, giving us insight into the growth & popularity of different platforms. The most popular eCommerce platform: Magento.

  2. Is eCommerce Approaching a Tipping Point?

  21st Century Consumers are driving eCommerce towards a tipping point. What's a 21st Century Consumer? According to this article, they are a "...new type of advanced shopper, who is leading the revolution in eCommerce, is well-connected to society at large and sufficiently persuasive to attract a band of followers." Got it?

  3. 10 Low-Budget Ways to Sell Internationally

  If you've read #2, then you'll know that eCommerce is approaching a tipping point. Which means that we, as eCommerce merchants, have a huge opportunity that we need to take advantage of while we can. Here is one way that you can stop being a small, local eShop, and start being the giant that you are. Go for it!

  4. Retailers Improve Brand Value But Stumble on Customer Satisfaction

  This article analyzes the 50 most valuable US retailers on two aspects: brand value as well as customer satisfaction. Their findings: retailers have done well for creating overall value for themselves, but not very well with creating satisfied happy customers.

  Only one of the retailers analyzed was an eCommerce retailer; Amazon. What does this mean to you? Offline retailers suck at creating satisfied customers, don't let yourself become like them! Take a proactive approach in making your customers happy!

  5. How to Optimize a Magento Product Detail Page (SEO)

  Okay, okay, another SEO post. Product pages are notoriously hard to deal with in terms of SEO, but they're extremely important. Think about how many of your customers find you via organic SEO. And of those customers, how many search directly for the product? So grab your laptop (or your developer), a large cup of coffee (other 'beverages' are acceptable) and get to it!

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  Thanks for reading, join us next Friday for another selection of the week's best articles. Thanks to everyone who submitted articles last week, topic and article suggestions can be submitted here!

  
  

  This post was posted in Sweet Tooth

EnterBio - Small Business and Customer Loyalty

February 21, 2012

Posted by Rami

• Looking for a one-stop-hub to help you lead a healthier, more active lifestyle? Meet the experts over at EnterBio. From fresh produce to gourmet salads and beverages, this virtual supermarket allows you to order ingredients directly to your door step, even going so far as to reward healthy eating habits! Built by Sweet Tooth partners Interactiv4, EnterBio’s site shows how merchants can leverage customer loyalty to enhance their brand equity.

  

  

  Powered by Sweet Tooth, EnterBio’s loyalty program reinforces your love for all things fresh by allowing you to collect BioPoints on your weekly orders. The idea is quite simple, if you love staying fit and maintaining a healthy life-balance EnterBio will reward these habits with greater discounts and ongoing support from fellow health enthusiasts. Consumers also get a chance to fill up their BioPoints purse by spreading the positive message to friends and family. Expanding the rewards program to sponsors and community influencers has also allowed EnterBio to gain credibility in an overly competitive Spanish market.

  Whether rewarding customers for Facebook sharing or referring others, EnterBio is linking loyalty directly into their core value proposition, and their consumers are quickly buying into their brand’s message. With their continued growth, look to see EnterBio expand far beyond the Spanish market into Europe and North America very shortly!

  

  If you're looking to set up your own loyalty program using EnterBio's example simply fill out the Sweet Tooth Consultation Tool and our loyalty experts will help you fine tune your program, free of charge.

  
  

  
  

  This post was posted in Sweet Tooth

Five Article Friday

February 17, 2012

Posted by Steve Deckert

• Every Friday we'll post the best five articles related to loyalty, customer experience, and eCommerce from that week. Have a suggestion? Contact us here!

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  1. Retailers Can't Ignore the Importance of Product Page Details

  Comments from Young Lee of Backcountry.com (the #8 online retailer in the Internet Retailer's Top 500 Guide) give us clarity on what really matters to consumers, and how it relates to product pages:

  “This is the key to the whole thing,” he said. “If you think about why people buy, there’s an emotional connection that occurs at that point when you touch a product.”

  2. 10 Ways to Increase Sales in 2012 (infographic)

  If you're an eCommerce retailer, you probably aren't even reading this sentence because you've already clicked. Increasing sales + infographic...what's not to like? (Take a note of suggestion #3)

  3. The Golden Master List of Magento Performance Enhancements

  Alright this one is for all the Magento people out there: it's a great article by Mark Shust (twitter @MarkShust), a well respected Magento ninja. It's a great cheat sheet of simple tweaks & configurations that you should probably use if you want to use your Magento installation to its fullest.

  4. Content Gains in Importance Following a Google Change

  I'm afraid to put the acronym SEO here because if you're like me, you're probably bored to death of SEO emails and posts. But it is extremely important to any etailer. Even more so if we can show you how Mitchell Lieberman of OneWayFurniture.com increased his conversion rate by 31%. Not so boring now...

  5. The Psychology Behind Consumer Spend (infographic)

  This is a great infographic by truaxis that delves into how consumers behave in response to discounts and sales. There is some great insight here: 40% of purchases in the US are impulse buys, of which 88% happen just because the item said it is on sale.

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  Thanks for reading, join us next Friday for another selection of the week's best articles. Thanks to everyone who submitted articles last week, topic and article suggestions can be submitted here!

  
  

  This post was posted in Sweet Tooth

Five Article Friday

February 10, 2012

Posted by Steve Deckert

• Every Friday we'll post the best five articles related to loyalty, customer experience, and eCommerce from that week. Have a suggestion? Contact us here!

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  1. The Questions I Would Ask if I Were Marketing your Business

  Although a bit dry, this blog post asks some very good, specific questions that business people should be asking themselves. This is a great read for any eCommerce agencies.

  2. Analyzing Magento Community Edition

  A great article by Louis Camassa that outlines the benefits & strengths of Magento Community Edition. New merchants: look here to see why Magento is one of the strongest eCommerce solutions. Existing Magento merchants: read this, and further develop Magento's strengths to put your business above and beyond the competition.

  3. Loyalty: More Than Just Customer Retention

  A great webinar, hosted by Points.com and co-hosted by Magento, that really delves into how customers perceive loyalty programs and offers some great insight into how customers think and behave.

  4. Customer Loyalty: What it is and Why it's Important (Infographic)

  I didn't think that you could pack this much information into one infographic, but the great minds over at NBRI have done it. Make sure that you read it all, there are some great stats here!

  5. Magento's eCommerce Platform Surpasses 4 Million Downloads

  Okay, so this one doesn't really contain a best practice, tip, or trick. But, it does include some pretty awesome news! Congratulations Magento!

  
  

  This post was posted in Sweet Tooth, Tutorials & Tips

Get to Know the Sweet Tooth Team: Rami Andari

February 7, 2012

Posted by Steve Deckert

• Welcome to the second post on our new blog series: Get to Know the Sweet Tooth Team! If you missed our last post on our CFO, Walter Huber, check it out here!

  In this series, we'll open up and answer the question: "Who is it that makes Sweet Tooth so awesome?"

  We'll be posting a feature on one of our team members every week, be sure to come back next week to see who we cover next!

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  Rami Andari

  Senior Account Manager & Advisor

  Q: What are your nicknames?

  Rami: Rombom, Ramram, Ramidi

  Q: What’s your story?

  Rami: Born in Lebanon, moved to Canada a few years back for school, and it’s been a great experience ever since! Some highlights since I’ve been here? I’ve become an expert skier…okay that’s a bit of an exaggeration. But now I can make it down a double black diamond without falling at least 60 times.

  

  Rami & friends on a ski trip.

  Rami: I’ve lived in Toronto, which in itself is a highlight. I mean, where else can you have 4am shawarmas after running into members of the Toronto Raptors!?! I have worked at some amazing places. I’m a proud Laurier grad, and now I’m trying to leave my mark as a member of the Sweet Tooth team. So that’s a really summarized version of my story; send me a message if you ever want to chat about eCommerce, startups, basketball…or anything!
  

  Q: What are your top three ________ (anything)?

  Rami: My top three places to visit:

  

  #3 - London, England

  

  #2 - Cottage country along the Ottawa River, Canada.

  

  #1 - Rami's home in beautiful Lebanon.

  Q: What is your favourite Youtube clip?

  Rami: For any die hard NBA fan, this season’s lockout was rough. This video clip stuck in my head because:
  1) it is about basketball, and 2) Macklemore is an amazing rapper

  Q: What do you like about working with Sweet Tooth?

  Rami: With Waterloo becoming the tech hub of Canada there’s never a lack of driven entrepreneurs and tech enthusiasts around. Sweet Tooth has become my home away from home, literally, because we spend more time here than we do anywhere else. It’s rare to be part of such a young and ambitious team, but it’s impossible to not enjoy working hard then relaxing with a game of FIFA!
  Q:What is your favourite food?

  Rami: Greek, Korean, Lebanese (please, no more pizza!)

  Q: Draw or write something on a piece of paper:

  

  Rami started this picture trying to draw a sheep.

  
  

  
  

  This post was posted in Sweet Tooth

Loyalty: More Than Just Customer Retention | Points.com for Magento

February 2, 2012

Posted by Steve Deckert

• Our partners at Points.com hosted a great webinar that completely covered the various consolidated loyalty programs that merchants can use to drive sales sky high. The statistics that they include are absolutely amazing; if you want to be an expert in miles & points, this is a must watch.

  
  

  This post was posted in Sweet Tooth, General