Building an online store using an out of the box package is easy enough nowadays. But the daily management like editing images, adding features and editing html cannot be done without these essential tools. As a developer for one of the largest e-commerce software houses I do not go a day without using these applications.

1. Image Editors

Now I use Adobe Photoshop to edit, crop and resize images. There are so many online tutorials available for Photoshop that it makes it the ideal application to start learning with. One of the best features is the select tool and the ability to select fixed aspet ratio boxes. From this you can create thumbnails easily without losing the aspect of the original image.

Now I know this package is expensive so you could purchase the lighter version Adobe Elements. Or you could use the following free to use graphics editors GIMP and paint .net.



2. CSV editor

Those of you that have used the CSV import features may have run across problems with creating valid CSV files using Microsoft Excel. Most users of EROL do not understand the difference between a spreadsheet in Excel format and a CSV file. When you open a CSV file in Excel this is really Excel interpreting the CSV file and showing CSV data in spreadsheet format. So like most people you would expect Excel accept your changes and write this back to the CSV file.

Wrong, Excel makes some naughty mistakes and will allow special characters such as return carriages and the wrong number of cells to be written in CSV format. In this case I also run the csv through CSVed a free application written by Sam Francke. This checks the file for invalid columns numbers on each row. I then use simeple notepad to perform a global replace on the carriage return character to remove these from the file. This usually allows a clean import into EROL.



3. Web Site Tracking

I use a combination of two online applications for tracking and website stats. The first is AWstats which usually comes with your hosting package. It is provided free with EROL hosting and is much better than webalizer as it tells you when the search engine robots came round to index your website file. If you do not get this application with your hosting then you can download it from the Sourceforge website.

The second essential online website tracking application is Googles free Analytics. It shows you everything you need to now about your visitors and where they came from, what pages they click and what keywords they used to get to your site. I also trust these stats more than a weblog analyser such as AWstats, as the changing way in web pages are accessed by robots and different programming techniques weblog analysers show an unrealistic view of hits.

You should also be looking at how long people stay on your site and how many pages they click and not just the absolute visitors. This is exactly what Google Analytics does visitor stats by themselves are not exact.



I also recommend reading Piers Parkers guide on implementing Google Analytics in and EROL store. Do not bother with Googles own instructions.

4. HTML Editor

My two favourite html editors are Notepad++ and Editplus. Both are light in size and memory usage and load just as fast as Windows Notepad. However, they both have there benefits. Editplus requires you to purchase it after 60 days use but it has better colours for the syntax checking. This makes a big difference to me.

If you are going to be building your own application using PHP and Perl I receommend a larger application such as Komodo IDE. This is also free to use. It has built in syntax checking and allows you to manage your files easily. I do not recommend Dreamweaver as it just takes too long to load on my laptop. When it has loaded it then creates ugly code when design your pages visually. I would even use the trusted notepad over Dreamweaver.



5. FTP Client

There is only one application I use here and that is Filezilla. EROL does have its own built FTP client for uploading to your webserver. However, you still need to have an FTP client installed to upload your bespoke code, images and large attachment files like PDFs. I usually let EROL upload all files except for those in sub directories. I then use Filezilla to upload images as you can set it to connect to your file server using multiple connections. This is set to 6 on my machine. So it’s like having 6 ftp connections at once for uploading and downloading. You will find that your files will transfer a lot faster as you do not have to wait for each file to upload before the next one is sent.



6. Web Page Explorers

When ever you make changes to your site locally in EROL and then upload your changes you will find that the webserver does not reflect your changes. In most cases the files on the web server have uploaded, its just that your web browsers local cache and isp cache need to be overrided/cleared to get the real copy of the server. In this case I use the following application from Softnik technologies. Good Keywords has a feature to request a file and show you it in html format. You can even see the page headers. Once requested you can see if the server really has been updated or if it is your browser that keeps showing you a cached page. The ability to see the page headers is also useful as this will tell you if the page has been redirected using a 301 or 302 redirect and what the status code is incase the file is missing.

An online version of this application is www.seo-browser.com which shows you what it thinks search engines look at on your page. Again you can see the page headers, meta tag density etc.



7. HTML/CSS reference Websites

With all the different programming languages in my head I can never remember the syntax exactly. There is no need to buy program refernce manuals anymore as there are so many sites that do this job for you. So if you can’t remember the attributes for a specific CSS class then goto HTMLdog. This site has really good internal linking to follow one commands that you only use the search box once on your visit.



8. Remote Desktop Control

EROL developer allows you to edit and manage an EROL store across two machines. However, in most cases your EROL software is installed on your office machine and access it using Developer Edition over a broadband connection is just not going to work. In this cases it is better to use remote desktop software. The easiest and again free is logmein.com which allows you to connect to your home computer using any web browser. There is no router or firewall configuration and usually works with no technical expertise.

Otherwise you can use UltraVNC which gives you more control and power but does require you to set up port forwarding on each of your routers and usually works best when you have a static IP. If you do not have a static IP then make sure you buy a router which allows you to configure a dynamic DNS service like no-ip.com



9. XML Sitemap Creator

It is essential to tell search engines what pages they need to index on your website and how your site is structured. Most search engines require a sitemap in XML format. You don’t really need to understand what XML is just use an online sitemap generator like xml-sitemaps.com. Just goto this site and tell them wher your site is and it will create the XML file for you. You can then download it and keep it in the same directory as your EROL files locally. Then let EROL upload the file on your next publish

This alone is not enough for Google, you then need to give this file to Google using their webmaster tools and then add the sitemap to your robots.txt file on your server. This tells Google and other search engines where your sitemap is.

10. Firefox Addons

Most web developers will have a number of browsers installed on their machines. However, Firefox is my choice for testing, debugging sites when your HTML coding goes funny. Firefox has a large number of add-ons and the most essential is the web-developer add-on. It allows you to outline tables and cells (essential for EROL). You can also view CSS information which make it easier to work out why the wring colour is being assigned to the text on your page.

Having EROL, Photoshop, Firefox and Internet Explorer open at the same time can slow your ultra fast computer down. So reducing the need to have two different browser open can help. Try out the IE Tab add-on which allows you to switch from firefox rendering to Internet explorer rendoring without having to start IE.

SEOQuake allows you to see page ranks in Google, Yahoo, Live, Delicious and others everytime you load a webpage. The Google search results are also amended to show the same information.

Hope this list is useful

We are delighted to announce the appointment of Matthew Terry who has joined us this week as Account Development Executive within the EROL Sales Team. Matthew will be focusing on developing our EROL:training business, as well as providing extra focus for EROL:cover customers from an Account Management perspective.

Matthew joins us with many years experience in Account Management and Service-Delivery, gained from working in both the ‘Blue-chip’ and SME market-places. Matthew also brings a great deal of experience in e-commerce business having worked with and developed e-business-strategies for the likes of Carluccios, Smart and Cook, and Farrow Furniture to name but a few.

We look forward to having Matthew on the team, and to continuing to add-value to our customers.

Matthew can be contacted on the usual office telephone number 0845 072 6061 or matthew.terry@erol.co.uk.

Increasing numbers of consumers are buying their Christmas gifts online.

According to figures from IMRG, British consumers spent £7.66 billion online in the ten-week run-up to Christmas 2006, 54% more than the £5 billion spent online during the same period in 2005, and more than double the £3.33 billion recorded in the approach to Christmas 2004.

However, despite the potential these figures suggest, some retailers are still missing a trick. Justin Opie, Event Director for E Commerce Expo highlights the top ten common mistakes that companies make and offers advice on how to overcome these in order to get the most of their website in the run up to Christmas:

1. Forgetting to load test -

Every year we hear of a site that has failed to cope with consumer demand in the build up to Christmas or during the all important Boxing Day sales, resulting in customer dissatisfaction and severe financial loss. Failure to ensure your website is robust enough to cope with sudden spikes in activity and large numbers of concurrent shoppers is unforgivable. To prevent your site from crashing and consumers being lost to your competitors, choose a trusted hosting partner that will guarantee your site is operational 365/24/7 and test it prior to the Christmas rush.

2. Promising what you can’t deliver -

It’s common sense really, yet some organisations still process orders that they cannot then fulfil. Failure to make sure that you have the capacity to achieve and maintain the stated delivery timescales will significantly impact on repeat business; customers that fail to receive goods on time as a result of bad fulfilment processes are less likely to make repeat purchases. To maximise the returns of your e commerce strategy this year ensure customer loyalty through effective and timely delivery, service and warranty management.

3. Failing to tune the site to customer needs -

Whilst organisations routinely decorate their site to reflect the Christmas season, very few actually customise the layout of their site to display the items most likely to sell at Christmas. By making the layout user friendly and making it clear to the user which are the Christmas items, sales will typically increase. And, if you make sure that product pages are structured and that you have a good free search text tool customers are less likely to abandon the purchase.

4. Making payment unnecessarily complex -

With customers abandoning up to 80% of shopping baskets on some sites before payment, there is something going wrong with the online transaction. In order to minimise the number of abandoned baskets simplify the process - keep the checkout process as quick and simple as possible and avoid asking for too many details and complicated password requirements. By making the payment process quick, robust and secure you can keep your customers coming back for more; find the best site you would purchase from and emulate it.

5. Failing to theme the site -

By failing to make your visitors feel like its Christmas you risk putting them in the wrong mood to spend - buy into the festive spirit and reflect this on your site and you’ll be surprised at the impact it has.

6. Not helping the purchaser -

The success of the Internet is primarily based on the ease and speed of service it delivers, especially at Christmas, and yet, many sites still complicate the browsing process by failing to provide any guidance for consumers. Creating easy Christmas categories such as ‘presents for dad’, ‘presents for mum’, ‘presents for grandma’, ‘presents under £5′, ‘presents under £10′ and so on, streamlines the browsing process, making a purchase far more likely.

7. Neglecting existing customers -

Failing to mail all of your existing customers to inform them of all your Christmas offers is one of the most commonly committed crimes of the festive season, and possibly the worst in terms of potential revenue generation as it undoes all of the hard work put into making them a customer originally. Once a consumer has become a customer maintaining regular dialogue through an enewsletter and offering incentives based on previous purchases often leads to a repeat visit. In the crucial final weeks before Christmas, remind your customers about that last-minute item that you have on offer that they can purchase from you.

8. Failing to pay attention to customer behaviour -

Failing to take the time to understand what your customers are doing on your site, where you are losing them and where you are winning them and why is a common issue, particularly for smaller organisations. However, this is possibly the most costly mistake you can make. Invest in discovering where your customers are abandoning a transaction, whether they are creating baskets solely as a price comparison exercise or if they are unimpressed by a limited number of payment options, and you will be able to respond accordingly.

9. Resting on your laurels -

Many organisations still see websites in the same black and white terms that they view a traditional bricks and mortar shop in, but your site is not a static shop front environment - you can regularly update it! Indeed, it should be changed on a daily basis all the way up to Christmas day.

10. Failing to believe -

The most commonly made mistake of them all is failing to believe that you can change your site in time to make this Christmas a profitable one. In reality, the necessary changes can be made easily, quickly and in time for the season ahead. Getting the right advice and partners to help need not be a daunting process. And remember, it is criminal to expend energy getting a potential customer to your site and then not concentrate on making them spend money when they get there!

For more information on E Commerce Expo which takes place on 30/31 October at Olympia, London follow the link

Source : theretailbulletin.com

The banking association reports that 28.3m people shopped online in 2006, making an average of 24 purchases each (an increase of 186% since 2001).

The APACS figures show that people who use online banking typically make more purchases per year on average than non-internet bankers. Online banking customers make 29.2 purchases while non-users make 16.4 per year. Those who use both telephone and online banking make the most purchases, buying goods or services online on average 31.7 times a year.

Likewise, internet shoppers are more likely to use the full functionality of their online banking service than those who don’t shop online.

# People shopping online - 2006 28.3m, 2001 11m (+157%)

# Purchases per online shopper - 2006 24, 2001 8.4 (+186%)

# People using online banking - 2006 17m, 2001 6.2m (+174%)

The largest age group banking online are the 45-54 year olds with 4.2m of them going online. The fastest growing group banking online though since 2001 is the 55-64 year olds (+425%) whose confidence in the internet and e-commerce has grown over this time.

Sandra Quinn, director of communications at APACS, said: “Our research shows that more and more people are turning to the internet rather than the phone to manage their finances. While younger people continue to make up the majority of online banking users, the greatest proportion of new internet bankers are the over 55s. As a group they have come to embrace the ease and efficiency that online banking offers.”
Emma Herrod

Source: Internet Retailing

Internet sales rose to £4.2bn in July, up from £2.3bn in the same month in 2006.

Apart from the incentive if wet weather, online sales are also picking up because more retailers are improving their websites and consumers are getting faster internet connections.

Analysts have been worried that higher interest rates would deter consumer as the Bank of England raised its main borrowing cost five times in the past year to their current level of 5.75%.

Earlier this month UK retail sales increased by more than many analysts had expected in July but the increase was mainly driven by discounting as shops and companies tried to tempt consumers into spending their money.

IMRG said that the fastest growing sector of online sales was electrical goods, which almost doubled from a year earlier but sales of clothing and accessories also increased by nearly 60%.

Source: Brighton Business