Nearly 4 billion people worldwide rely on email to get important information about promotions, orders, product updates, and more. Whoa! But what happens when the content being sent changes? Product availability. Order status. Once sent, static email becomes irrelevant faster than an internet cafe in Silicon Valley.

That’s why we’ve collaborated with Gmail to be the first e-commerce platform to launch dynamic email for e-commerce merchants. Built with brand-new AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages) technology, Ecwid emails will now display accurate and up-to-date information at every open, delivering fast and efficient experiences and recovering more sales for Ecwid merchants.

Opening an email more than once finally makes sense! Whether it’s an order status update or an abandoned cart communication, your email automatically syncs with your Ecwid store to keep your content up-to-date.

Scroll down for email examples that are available for free in Ecwid right now.

How Dynamic Emails Win Attention and Save Clicks

For the first time, AMP emails contain always-up-to-date information for users to engage, making your emails actionable, helpful, and fun.

At launch, we’re implementing four email types for Ecwid merchants and their customers.

Interactive abandoned cart email

An abandoned cart email is a message sent to store visitors who didn’t complete their purchases. This email is personalized, allowing your visitors to see their cart contents and a reminder to finish their checkout. Ecwid merchants who use this feature in its automated mode recover an average of 15% of abandoned carts.

AMP for Email makes abandoned cart emails more compelling with live and dynamic product information and a new layout that mimics your store product page to encourage recipients to interact with the content by:

• Clicking through your product carousel
• Zooming product images
• And opening product descriptions right in their email.

Early tests have already confirmed higher engagement and conversion rates for new interactive abandoned cart emails over traditional abandoned cart email content.

Real-time order status email

Tracking order status has always been a tedious process for online shoppers. A Sisyphean dance of saving confirmation numbers, checking emails, and clicking through to one or several pages to (hopefully) get updated status reports on the product in question. Sigh.

Now, customers can get accurate and always up-to-date order status information from a single email. Each time your customer opens their confirmation email, they’ll see the latest updates and information about their order. If you change the status from "Paid" to "Shipped" in the Ecwid Control panel, your customer will see it.

One-click email verification at sign up

Online verification is secure… but annoying. AMP emails improve the experience by keeping new Ecwid merchants in their email without redirecting to third-party services.

If you sign up with Ecwid today, you’ll verify your email address right in your confirmation email with a single click.

Change order status in email (coming soon)

Today, if a customer places an order through an Ecwid store, that Ecwid merchant gets notified via email. Normally, this email would take you to your Ecwid Control Panel → My Sales → Orders to review the order and change its status to "Processing" once it’s been confirmed. You would then need to return to the Control Panel at a later time to change the status to "Shipped" once the order has been sent to the customer.

With AMP for Email, Ecwid merchants will soon be able to manage orders right in their order notification emails. You’ll have the power to quickly and efficiently manage orders from any device without clicking through to a website or mobile app, creating a seamless — and effortless — store management experience. Keep an eye on your order emails for interactive content.

How to See Dynamic Emails in Your Ecwid store

Dynamic emails will be automatically enabled on all Ecwid stores for US merchants — no additional action required. We’ll be rolling all these new features out to our Ecwid merchants in the coming weeks, so keep an eye on your Ecwid store for updates.

For now, dynamic content is only available through Gmail processed emails, with more supported email clients coming soon.

Sell Anywhere — Including Email

With Ecwid, you can sell anywhere — on your website, Instagram, Facebook, Amazon, eBay, mobile apps — and now in your emails too.

Together with Gmail, we’ve built a solution that has the power to truly revolutionize email for e-commerce. AMP for Email is supported on all pricing plans, including our Forever Free plan. Sign up today!

With 267 Million+ active users and an intuitive user experience, PayPal has long been a checkout solution for Ecwid merchants.

Recently, PayPal began enabling select US merchants to send "Store Cash" offers directly to abandoned shopper’s PayPal wallets. And we’re excited to announce that PayPal just made Store Cash available as a standard feature for all qualified Ecwid merchants in the U.S.

If you’re a qualified merchant, PayPal will send Store Cash to eligible PayPal shoppers that visit your website and don’t complete a PayPal purchase. PayPal will send a notification right to their inboxes to incentivize them back to your Ecwid store to complete their purchases.

And don’t worry about shoppers taking your cash and running. Store Cash can only be redeemed on your site, and it’s applied automatically during the PayPal Checkout process.

The best part? You don’t pay a dime for the amount you set in the Store Cash offer until you close the sale, making Store Cash a simple cost-per-acquisition campaign designed to  help drive sales.

How Store Cash Works

Shoppers choose PayPal for a fast checkout experience that helps keep payments secure and protected. The ability to offer Store Cash means that select Ecwid merchants can now incentivize those shoppers when they leave their stores without making a purchase. Store Cash is designed to help recapture sales that might otherwise be lost.

Set up a Store Cash campaign and when a PayPal identified shopper visits a page with PayPal Checkout and doesn’t complete a PayPal purchase, eligible shoppers will receive an email from PayPal containing your chosen Store Cash amount and a link back to your site to redeem their gift if they checkout with PayPal.

If a shopper has Store Cash for your store in their wallet and returns to a page with PayPal Checkout, they’ll be shown a reminder that they have Store Cash to spend. Qualified shoppers will have 7 days to use their Store Cash from the date they receive the offer and can’t receive more than 1 offer in a 30 day period.

How to Create a Store Cash Campaign

Currently, Store Cash is in limited availability for select merchants. To get started with Store Cash, you will need to:

• Operate your business in the United States.
• Have a PayPal account enabled as a payment option in Ecwid Control Panel → Payment (which you can set up after connecting your PayPal account on Ecwid).
• Have PayPal Checkout offered on your cart page.
• Verify your eligibility.
• Agree to the Store Cash Terms and Conditions when creating a campaign.

Once you’ve met these requirements, you can simply create your Store Cash campaign. You’ll select how many abandoned shoppers you’d like to receive Store Cash and the Store Cash amount to send in each Store Cash campaign as an incentive to complete their purchase.

With the campaign created, you can return to your campaign performance dashboard to see how much Store Cash is being redeemed with a Return on Ad Spend (ROAS) report. You’ll only pay for redeemed Store Cash that generates a sale with the sales transaction deposited to your PayPal balance, minus the Store Cash amount and your regular PayPal fees. Note that your PayPal fee is calculated based on the total transaction amount (before Store Cash is applied).

Whether your website traffic is heavy or light, Store Cash can help identify your lost sales and it’s designed to help recover them with a no hassle, couponless experience for shoppers.

Turn Your Abandoned Shoppers into Paying Customers

At Ecwid, we’re dedicated to delivering the best tools to help our merchants be successful and grow their businesses.

Store Cash powered by PayPal Shopping is designed to help simplify abandoned shopper recovery, giving merchants an easy-to-set-up campaign and a rewarding checkout experience for their customers.

You might’ve heard something about the Facebook pixel and its potential to grow your sales through better advertising. Maybe you even tried installing one yourself once upon a time. Whether you’re pixel-ready or riding the fence, we want to arm you with the knowledge to understand how your Facebook pixel works — and four strategies you can use to make it work harder.

But first and foremost… what is it?

What is a Facebook pixel?

The Facebook pixel is a tiny piece of internet sorcery that gets installed on your website to track and record visitors and their behavior — shoppers who were interested in a certain product, shoppers who left your website without making a purchase, you name it. Your pixel then allows you to use that data to create audiences who can be targeted with Facebook ads.

But your advertising won’t just be limited to shoppers who’ve already visited your store. If one person is interested in your products, you’ll want to find 10 more shoppers just like them. Your pixel makes that possible by creating what’s called "lookalikes" — audiences of Facebook users who are similar to your existing customers.

If you advertise on Facebook (or think you might one day), you’ll want to get your Facebook pixel installed as soon as you can. You may not need it now, but when the time comes, the data your pixel has collected will be invaluable to your advertising.

As a Facebook integrated partner, Ecwid is integrated with the Facebook pixel, making install not only easy but also free to all Ecwid merchants. No coding or development experience required — just a couple of clicks is all it takes to install your pixel in your online store.

Now that that’s out of the way, it’s time for the fun stuff — learning how to use it. So here are four actionable strategies you can use right now to better target your advertising using your Facebook pixel.

Strategy 1: Retargeting and Abandoned Cart Recovery

This one’s a no-brainer strategy. Let’s say you’ve set up your store and you have some good traffic coming in, but sales are a little slow. It might be frustrating, but it’s not fatal — especially if you can get things moving with some well-targeted Facebook ads.

Retargeting is a type of campaign that tracks and serves ads to the specific customers who’ve visited your store. There are plenty of great reasons to run retargeting campaigns, but one of the best reasons is cost-per-sale. It’s almost always cheaper to close sales with shoppers who are already familiar with your brand. And more sales for less money sounds like a good deal to us.

Retargeting is even more important if you’re paying a third party (Google, Bing, Facebook, etc.) to drive traffic to your site. You’ll want to recover as much of that cost as possible through converted sales to ensure a profitable online store.

Abandoned cart ads are a special type of retargeting campaign used to target shoppers who’ve visited your store and added products to their carts but didn’t finish the checkout process. Your pixel records the exact products a shopper left in their cart and reminds them about those products using shopper-specific Facebook ads.

The best part about retargeting ads is that they can be fully automated without any extra fees or management thanks to our integration with ROI Hunter in your Control Panel. But if you don’t want the easy button, we’ll still show you how to manage the campaigns yourself as well.

What you need for retargeting:

• The Facebook pixel — to track store visitors and pages they browse.
• Facebook product catalog — to advertise your products on Facebook.

How to launch a retargeting campaign to your store visitors:

1. Create your Facebook Business page for your Facebook Ad account.
2. Connect your Ecwid Store to Facebook.
3. Export your Ecwid product catalog to Facebook. Follow these instructions if you have a Venture or higher-tier plan and want to do this automatically. Or do it manually. After that’s done, you’ll see your catalog in Catalog manager:
   
   
4. Install the Facebook pixel. In just a couple of clicks, your pixel will start tracking your website visitors. (Note: It could take up to 20 minutes for your pixel to activate before it begins tracking.)
5. Go to your Ad Manager → Pixels and check your pixel’s status. The green light means it’s active. You’ll see a graph of the triggered events:
   
   
6. Associate your pixel with your Facebook product catalog in the Catalog Manager (you can also do this while creating an ad).
7. Create your ads. You can start creating ads as soon as you’ve installed the pixel. Click on Create Ad:
   
   
   
   Or go to your Facebook Business page and click on Create Ad:
   
   
8. Choose Catalog sales as your marketing objective:
   
   
9. Сreate an advertising campaign.

While following the instructions for creating an ad, you need to pay close attention to the block Audience to use the pixel:

• Make sure you click Associate Pixel or App With your Catalog:

• Then identify your target audience by selecting the option "Retarget products to people who visited your website or app." The pixel will help with that.

This is what your ad will look like:

To make your ads even more effective, create a discount coupon and add it to your ad copy.

Strategy 2: Get More Repeat Customers

Loyal customers are the backbone of your business. Because they already know and trust your brand enough to transact with you, they’ll be much easier to sell to in the future. So it’s crucial you invest in keeping them active.

Increasing your base of loyal and regularly transacting customers is important, especially if you sell seasonal products, your sales have dropped, or your budget is low. To leverage this group with your pixel, create an audience of people who’ve made a purchase recently and target them with a new collection.

First, follow steps 1-6 from Strategy 1. Then create an audience and target them with your new ad.

To create an audience of your existing customers:

1. Go to your Audiences.
2. Click on Create a Custom Audience:

3. Choose Website Traffic:
   
   
4. Choose your pixel and select the event Purchase. Specify the time frame (from 30 to 180 days). You can target your ads at people who have bought a certain product, e.g. shoes. However, when you’re first starting out, it might be easier to target a broader audience.

5. When you finish creating your audience, follow these instructions to create an ad. During ad set creation, select the audience you just created to reach them with your new ads:

Strategy 3: Strengthen Your Brand Following

People who are already interacting with your business on your website would also make great Facebook followers. You’ll need them to build a strong social media presence, which is important for brand recognition. Beyond that, people who already like your products will be more interested in your news and new collections, which means more sales for you (woot woot).

Use a Custom Audience of your website visitors or a customer list to promote your Facebook Page with ads. Just make sure you exclude people who’ve already liked your Page to avoid serving ads to existing Facebook fans.

To build a strong social media presence, make a video about your products and advertise it to your site’s visitors. People look at videos five times longer than static Facebook content. It helps to feature your product in action while you deliver your message. Check out this Sephora video ad that compels you to subscribe as you watch.

Note: You should use a supported file format and make sure your video meets Facebook video requirements to deliver your ad successfully.

To create a video ad:

1. Follow these instructions.
2. To use your pixel, pay attention to the block Audience: choose Create New and click Custom Audience.

3. Select Website Traffic:

4. Choose All Website Visitors, set the time frame, and give your audience a name. Click Create Audience:

5. Choose "Create an ad using the audience":

Then continue creating your video ad.

This is what your video ad will look like:

Strategy 4: Create Lookalike Audiences

If you’re ready to expand your business, Facebook can help you find people similar to your existing customers. Using your existing ads, you can target "Lookalike" audiences, who are similar to the shoppers who’ve shown interest in or purchased your products. This highly targeted pixel strategy can help you narrow your market and use your ad dollars even more effectively.

To create a Lookalike Audience:

1. Go to your Audiences.
2. Click Create a Lookalike Audience:

3. Choose your pixel as a source:

4. Choose the country/countries where you’d like to find a similar set of people. Use the slider to choose your desired audience. Then click Create Audience:

Note: It can take anywhere from 6 to 24 hours for your Lookalike Audience to be created.

***

Now that you’ve learned how to use Facebook pixel audiences, you’re ready to get the most out of your Facebook ads. For more advice on promotion, check out our blog. And don’t forget about the Ecwid Help Center if you need help building and advertising your store. Happy selling!

Any successful entrepreneur can tell you that passion is the backbone of a good business. And what activities are you more passionate about than your hobbies? Follow that line of thinking a step further and you might just realize those "hobbies" could also be a pretty sweet source of income.

Whether it’s illustrating children’s books or training cats, there’s probably someone out who finds your hobby valuable enough to pay for it. And because anyone can set up an online store with platforms like Ecwid, it’s never been easier to give your passion project a try.

So what are some of the best activities to start earning a side income? Here are 10 money-making hobbies — you might already be doing — that could become your next side hustle.

Handmade Cards

There’s always a good reason to buy a greeting card. A birthday… a wedding… an anniversary… or even just to remind an old friend they’re still cool. Handing out personalized notes on fancy cardstock will never go out of style.

If you love to draw and write puns and have a fairly decent eye for design, creating handmade cards might just be for you. A trip to the local arts and crafts store should be all you need to get started.

Cloud 9 Design store

As a visual medium, cards are a great candidate for selling on Instagram. With Shoppable Instagram posts, followers can easily purchase your products right from your posts by tapping a shopping tag. You don’t even need a website to get started.

Cookies

What’s better than a dozen homemade cookies? If you have a knack for baked goods, try selling a few batches online.

If you do decide to sell your famous double-chocolate chip cookies, some permits and special preparations may be required. And when your operation gets big enough, you might want to consider an industrial kitchen. But hey, that’s for later.

Decadence Delivered cookie shop

With a free e-commerce website optimized for small businesses, you can start accepting your first orders immediately. If you bake at home in your free time, use Ecwid’s In-store Pickup option to let customers pick up their orders right from your front door.

Prints

If you’ve got an eye for aesthetics and know your way around a graphic design program, printmaking could be for you. Create prints of your favorite quotes, artsy maps of your city, a doodle of a kangaroo — the skies the limit. Literally. You could make a print of the sky. And you know what? Someone would probably buy it!

Unique Geeky tees shop

Also check out: Build Your Business with Ecwid Starter Site: 17 Inspiring Niche Examples

And getting your prints on t-shirts, mugs, and posters has never been simpler with Ecwid and Printful. With Ecwid’s integrated print-on-demand model, you can create your design, upload it to Printful, give it a shout out, and let Printful take care of the rest.

When a customer places an order, their request is automatically sent to Printful where your product is then printed and shipped to the customer. No inventory. No packaging boxes. And little-to-no investment. Awesome.

Knitting and Embroidery

It’s no secret that knitting and embroidery are among some of the most popular hobbies. They’re low-impact, easy-to-learn, and at the end of it, you get fancy clothes. Custom-made knitwear like sweaters, scarves, and hats make great, practical gifts.

Embroidery may be a little trickier than knitting since it requires a bit more precision and practice, but if you get good enough, you could be handsomely rewarded. These clever DIY embroidered patches have been popular among the younger crowd for a few years and could make for an easy sale if you know what you’re doing.

Jake’s Patches

Jewelry

It might take a few years to create a jewelry masterpiece, but that doesn’t mean you’ll need to wait years to make your first sale. Start by watching tutorial videos, buying the supplies, and collecting some good inspo on your Pinterest board. Practice, practice, practice. And when you’ve got something you like, give it a go!

Whites Handmade Workshop

In fact, several of Ecwid’s finest make and sell their own jewelry in their free time. Learn how they got started and what they do to keep the sales going.

Candles

Some shoppers look to candles as a way to relax. Others just want an easy way to make their homes smell nicer. But you might be surprised to learn that making scented candles is actually a fairly simple process.

What’s more, candle making supplies are fairly inexpensive and pretty easy to get online or in your local arts and crafts store.

Essential Relaxation

Soap and Bath Bombs

Like with the candles, soaps and bath bombs are an easy, inexpensive hobby. And with an endless array of shapes, scents, and ingredients to experiment with, you can really let your creative juices flow.

Tip: check out our post on packaging ideas to deliver a unique, branded experience for your products.

Ramunes Soaps

Cooking

Imagine selling your grandma’s famous sauce or creating your own raw vegan energy bars. Put ’em in some pretty packaging, set up an online store, and before you know it, you’re in business. If you’ve got a 

Even pets need some cooking done for them. That’s why more and more people have started selling fancy home-cooked treats.

Delish Pet Treats

Also read: Rules and Regulations for Selling Food Online

Vegetable Gardening

If you happen to live on a farm or just have a large backyard, try growing and selling vegetables and herbs. What’s more organic than veggies grown on a small local farm down your street? If you want to try something very contemporary, you might also set up a local organic vegetable subscription service, keeping your customers’ mailboxes filled with fresh fruits and veggies on a recurring basis.

Suzie’s Farm

Sell vegetables online, in-person at fairs and street markets, or both! With Ecwid, managing your inventory is simple as it stays synced automatically across all the available sales channels.

Floral Design

With nothing more than a class or two in floral design, you can make extra money decorating weddings and baby showers with beautiful flowers. You can even start a flower delivery service. You don’t need to be snobby about things — don’t shy away from using faux flowers as you get started. As your business grows, you may be able to sell your arrangements as home decor pieces.

Mission del Flores

If any of these hobbies seem appealing to you, don’t hesitate to look some tutorials up on YouTube, buy supplies, and start creating. When you’re ready, check out our article on how to make your first sale online.

And check out this story of one Ecwid solopreneur who sells handmade cosmetics both online and in-person for a little extra inspiration.

Good luck exploring your interests and seeing which of them can turn into a business!

Business is hard, regardless of size. And small businesses face unique external and financial pressures. That means entrepreneurs generally need to know how to work with what they have. And one thing most every entrepreneur has is a smartphone.

The more time you spend with a customer, the more likely they are to buy something from your store. Using your phone to have real conversations gives you more opportunities to sell, form relationships, and even gather vital feedback about your business.

If only there was a way to share your phone number with customers without all the drawbacks of sharing your phone number with customers… And wouldn’t ya know it… there is! Voice over Internet Protocol is a new technology that’s revolutionizing personal customer communications for small businesses, and we’ve got all the information you need to help you get started.

In this article we’ll cover…

• What VoIP and virtual phone numbers are
• How VoIP makes communicating with customers smoother
• How improved customer communications will help your business.

VoIP, In a Nutshell

It’s easy enough to toss your cell phone number up on your website for your customers. The real concern is what comes after. Phone calls 24/7? A deluge of spam calls plaguing your every waking moment? It’s not a pleasant prospect, to be sure.

But there’s a better way to talk to customers that avoids these problems, and it’s called VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol). If this is the first time you’re hearing about it, VoIP is cloud-based computer software that uses an internet connection to send and handle phone calls at your request.

With VoIP, you receive a new "virtual" business number that isn’t attached to any specific phone, to protect your privacy while simultaneously eliminating the need for a pack mule to transport your phone collection.

Beyond the basics, VoIP synchronizes your phone conversations and business phone with features like call forwarding and an auto-attendant, among dozens of others, to form a foundation for business communications that makes handling, transferring, and taking business calls simple and hassle-free.

Also read: The Art of Positive Communication in Customer Service

The Benefits of VoIP

A few major benefits of VoIP are getting "virtual" business phone numbers and the features those numbers come with. Virtual phone numbers are business numbers that aren’t connected to physical phones, which means you can separate your personal and business numbers to maintain your privacy without buying and carrying around a second phone.

Setting up Caller ID (which takes less than a minute) will show both your business name and the number calling for every business call, making calls super easy to differentiate a business call from a personal one.

Your personal number remains completely safe. If spam does hit your business number, it won’t last long: the black list feature lets you block any number permanently with the click of a button.

A vanity phone number will help people remember your business. Custom greetings, which can be used in a plethora of ways, also help, letting you inject some personality into your company and get important information to customers.

Visual voicemail, voicemail-to-text transcriptions, and unlimited text messaging from your business number are sure to save you time.

You can use business hours to reroute calls to other employees or voicemail during inconvenient times.

Call queues and holding music help save calls while you and your employees tend to other matters. You might roll your eyes and wonder who in the world likes waiting around for someone to take their call, but having those features is the difference between saving some calls versus saving none.

Finally, no matter where you customers call from, toll-free calls are free for them, making it a great way for your site visitors to clear things up or place a custom order.

VoIP has a feature to solve or mitigate nearly any problem businesses encounter when communicating with customers. For as great as websites are, people are much more fickle when browsing and shopping online than they are when talking to real live people.

Related: How to Choose Customer Service Channels for Your Business

How to Get Started With More Effective Calls

If you are using Ecwid and interested in seeing how much VoIP could help you, get 50% off your first 6 months of MightyCall.

If your business is strapped for cash or you simply don’t want to subscribe to another service just yet, there are still ways to use your phone and various channels to increase your direct customer communication.

You’re already using your phone and social media for business, so highlight them. Focus on your website design and hotspots — where are you displaying your phone number and social media accounts? If they aren’t front and center or in attention-drawing areas (Check out how it’s done on Ecwid Starter Sites for a good example), put them there immediately.

From there, what’s the most surefire way to get customers interested? Incentivization. Give people more when they interact with you on social media or call you to finalize an order; offer discounts or extras for things like retweeting a post or leaving a comment.

Related: How to Run a Store from Your Smartphone

The Combo: Website + Phone

Your Ecwid website is a great start that puts you ahead of the nearly half of small businesses in the United States that don’t have a website, per the 2018 Telstra Small Business Intelligence Report.

More people will visit your website than will call you, but combining your website with a virtual business number will ensure that you cater to those customers who need more time or have questions. Being able to talk to customers could be the difference between making 10 sales a day versus 15 sales a day.

Website analytics show that each "one-second delay in website loading time can lead to a 7% loss in conversion." If you’re not an IT expert, you shouldn’t risk sales by only using your website to convert.

In fact, most customers don’t want you to do that either, as it looks detached. 65% of customers said they wanted to be able to see a company’s contact info on the website’s main page, and 88% said shopping with businesses that have cross-channel experiences is better.

Telstra found that 28% of customers wanted at least to chat online with a representative before buying something from a company, and likewise, 74% of small business entrepreneurs preferred talking to their customers face-to-face rather than registering a sale anonymously online.

28% of customers wanted at least to chat online with a representative before buying something from a company.

BlueCorona, a marketing analytics company, discovered in a small business survey that 43% of entrepreneurs wanted to focus on improving their customer experience to increase retention and customer loyalty. No matter how good online algorithms are, small businesses that cater to their customers by knowing who they are and what they want will always be a better answer for most people.

For all the hoopla about telephone conversations being dead, there are still plenty of people who want to talk about products and services before they buy, as evidenced by the stats above. Don’t neglect that gigantic subset of people.

Show your charm, answer any questions or concerns buyers might have, form lasting customer relationships and get invaluable feedback. For every conversation you have with a customer, you get 10 times the wealth of information that you do from them simply clicking around your website.

Whether its word of mouth, direct selling, or a sophisticated automated advertising campaign, every successful sale starts with successful marketing.

Before your customers can take a drink, someone somewhere’s gotta show ’em the well. So if you’re not seeing the kind of sales you want, re-evaluating your marketing is a smart first step.

The key to great marketing lies with two simple questions: who are your customers and why do they buy?

Thousands of e-commerce stores around the world struggle with marketing and product development because they don’t adequately understand their target audience.

To sell better, you have to learn to market better. To do that, you need to dig deep into defining your audience. That’s where customer profiles come in.

71% of companies that exceed revenue and lead goals have documented customer profiles.

Customer profiles identify who your target customers are, what they care about, and where to find them. In this post, we’ll show you why customer profiles matter and how to create your own for your e-commerce store.

What is a Customer Profile?

In marketing speak, a customer profile is a fictional biography of your target customer(s).

Think of it as a brief document explaining the who, what, and why of your ideal customers.

An in-depth customer profile will not only help you define your marketing strategy but will also help you when you’re developing new products or fine-tuning your customer service approach.

In most cases, the bigger your product catalog, the more profiles you’ll have to target. For example, an athletic-wear store selling specialized clothing for powerlifters might only have 2-3 customer profiles.

Where a store like Amazon, on the other hand, might have hundreds, even thousands of targeted profiles.

Broadly speaking, customer profiles are based on two things:

1. Demographic data

Factual information about the customer that defines who your buyers are.

This includes data such as their:

• Age
• Location
• Gender
• Income
• Educational background and career
• Technological use (favorite social media network, phone, laptop-use, etc.)

2. Psychographic data

If demographics explain "who" your buyer is, psychographics explain "why" they buy.

This information might include your buyer’s preferences, hobbies, spending habits, and values.

What’s their lifestyle like? What kind of opinions do they hold? All this information falls under psychographics.

If you dig deeper, psychographic information can also include details like:

• Preferred method of communication
• Motivations for using a product
• Dreams and aspirations.

This is the information you need to understand who’s buying what you’re selling.

That being said, there’s also a limit to what you need to know. Make sure the information you collect is relevant to what you sell.

For example, if you’re selling boxing gloves, you probably don’t need to know what brand dog food your customers prefer. But if you’re selling, let’s say sustainably-sourced dog toys, what brand dog food they prefer would be a relevant question.

Customer profiles help you reach and communicate with the right audience. If your target audience is middle-aged female doctors, where and how you market your products will be very different than if they were teenage male gamers.

Why Develop Customer Profiles?

There’s plenty of evidence to show that using customer profiles can help you make more money and serve your customers better.

According to HubSpot, using marketing profiles makes websites 2-5 times more effective and easier to use for visitors in the target audience.

Another study by Cintell found that businesses with documented profiles frequently exceeded their revenue goals.

Specifically, there are 4 main reasons why you should develop customer profiles.

1. You’ll get better conversions

This one’s pretty straightforward: if you know what your customers like, you can send them content and offers they’ll engage with.

Targeted content and promotions can help you convert more visitors to subscribers, followers, and customers.

For example, Skytap implemented a targeted content marketing strategy and saw a 124% increase in sales leads and a 97% increase in online leads.

You can use information from customer profiles to send more personalised emails and direct messages which will in turn improve your lead quality and generate better customers.

2. You’ll develop and sell better products

Think about all the times you’ve gone out to buy a gift for your friend, mom, great aunt Brenda, etc. If you were close to that person, it was probably a lot easier to pick out the right gift. Customer profiles work the same way.

With the help of profiles, it’s much easier to build and offer the right products because you already know what they want and need.

You can even find real customers that match your profiles to collaborate with on new products and opportunities. They’ll help you identify problems and challenges, then you can beat your competition to the punch with new solutions for your industry.

There’s even a good chance they’ll stay customers longer because your products and services will be tailored to their needs.

Also read: How to Create a Product Prototype

4. It helps you understand where your customers are spending time

When you understand the background of each of your profiles, it will help you understand where your customers spend most of their time online and what online channels do they use.

This, in turn, will help you optimize your marketing spend.

For example, if your data shows that your customers prefer Instagram over Twitter, you can shift your marketing spend to focus more on the former.

Related: How to Figure Out Where to Sell Your Products

How to Develop Customer Profiles?

We’ve established how crucial customer profiles are for any e-commerce store, but how exactly do you go about making one?

Understand that customer profiles can be as basic or as complicated as you want. There are no hard and fast rules.

What’s matters more is how effective they are at creating a clear picture of what drives different types of customers to your services.

To start off, think about modelling profiles based on your available qualitative and quantitative research focusing on:

• Behavioral drivers: Customers’ goals, what they want to accomplish, how did they find you business.
• Obstacles to purchasing: The hesitations and concerns your customers have.
• Mindset: Take into account if the customers want bargains or more refined experience when they land on your website.

If this sounds like a handful, don’t worry, we’ll show you exactly how to get this data for developing your own profiles.

Step #1: Conduct surveys to get customer insight

No one knows your customers better than themselves.

This is why the first step in creating customer profiles is to conduct surveys.

In fact, in one survey of marketers (for B2B companies), surveys ranked as the third most important method for creating buyer profiles.

Your objective here is to get inside the customer’s head to make sure profiles are based on what real people think.

Before you start, it’s a good idea to segment your customers into three groups:

• Group #1: Existing customers. You can divide them further into frequent and one-time customers.
• Group #2: Customers who’ve landed on your site, but haven’t purchased anything yet (especially customers with abandoned carts)
• Group #3: Customers who have never visited your site but fall within your target market

There are multiple ways to reach different customer segments identified above.

For existing customers, the best way to reach them is via email. You likely already have their email address on file. Just send them an email with a link to your survey, like this:

For site visitors, you can use a number of different tools to ask questions.

For example, you can create a pop-up survey using a tool like Qualaroo:

Qualaroo allows you to have a single question pop up on your site at a designated time. It works especially well when you want to find out why your customers are not completing their purchase.

You can also use a "Hello Bar" at the top of your page to link to your survey, like this:

For non-visitors, the best way to reach them is through Facebook.

To find such users, log into Facebook and go to Create Ads.

Here, go to "Audiences".

Next, click on "Create Audience" and select "Lookalike Audience":

On the next pop-up, select your Facebook page and target country. You can drag the audience size slider around to increase/decrease your range.

This will create a new custom audience that matches your existing Facebook fans. If you already got some traffic in your online store, add the Facebook pixel to collect a Lookalike audience that matches people who have made purchases on your site.

You can then send them a link to a survey like this with an incentive to take part:

Fortunately, you have more choice than ever when it comes to creating surveys today. Here are a few options:

• Typeform
• Google forms
• Survey Monkey
• Survey Gizmo

Here comes the meat and potatoes of this section — the actual questions to ask in your survey.

The questions can range anywhere between 7 to 20. Design and categorize them in such a way that you insights based on their behavioural drivers, obstacles to purchasing and mindset.

The exact questions you ask may change from industry to industry, but the end goal remains the same — getting actionable information that serves your needs.

Here are some examples of questions that you may consider including in your survey:

Demographic questions:

These are the most basic questions that you should be asking your target customers, such as:

• Are they married?

• How old are they?
• Where do they live?
• Do they have children? How many? What ages?
• Which country/city did they grow up in?

Education questions:

Our early school and college education help us shape as adults. People usually tend to answer these questions more honestly.

• What level of education did they complete?
• Which schools did they attend? Public or Private?
• What did they study?
• Were they popular at school?
• Which extra-curricular activities (if any) did they take part in?

Career questions:

Questions about the working life of your prospects reveals a lot of interesting details about them.

• What industry do they work in?
• What is their current job level?
• What was their first full-time job?
• How did they end up where they are today?
• Has their career track been traditional or did they switch from another industry?

Financial questions:

Your customers finances will tell you what they can afford and how easily they make their purchasing decisions.

• How often you buy high ticket items?

• How much are they worth?
• Are they responsible for making purchasing decisions in the household?

Keep in mind that people tend to answer financial questions incorrectly, even in anonymous online surveys. Some might even construe this as an invasion of their privacy. Temper your results accordingly (usually by decreasing the stated average income).

Step #2. Interview customers to understand psychographics

Conducting one on one interviews can provide invaluable information into your prospect’s buying habits and what motivates them — information that’s easily missed with surveys.

This could be an expensive affair, but totally worth it. Not only will you develop better customer profiles, but you’ll also get to understand your customers at a fundamental level.

Your existing customer base is the perfect place to start with the interviews because they have already purchased your product and know about your business.

To get better results, narrow down your interviewees into two groups:

• "Good" customers who’ve bought from you multiple times
• "Bad" customers who’ve bought from you once and left poor reviews/feedbacks.

Surprisingly, your "bad" customers will often tell you a lot more about your problems than your "good" customers.

Also, look for prospects, referrals and third party networks to get some interviewees on board.

As you reach out to potential interviewees, here are a few tips to recruit interviewees:

• Offer incentive: It is almost always difficult to say no to a big store discount
• Be clear this isn’t a sales call: No one likes to be bothered with sales calls
• Make it easy for them to say yes: Let them choose a time and place

Here’s an example of an email Quora sent out to a frequent contributor:

Here’s another example of an email to your "bad" customers courtesy of GrooveHQ:

While these examples might be from B2B businesses, you get the idea — be humble, honest and make the process easy to get interviewees onboard. Treat interviews like conversations. Assume the profile of a founder just trying to run a better business. You’ll be surprised to know how many people will be happy to help when you reach out.

Nonetheless, here are a few tips you can follow in your interviews:

• Before the interview: Email the interviewee an outline of 3-5 questions before you meet up.
• Listen: You should be talking ⅙ to ¼ of the time. Understand that you are not there to sell, you are there to understand the problems of your prospects.
• Make notes: The best practice is to have two people interview; first person can listen attentively while second one asks questions.
• Focus on past behaviours: Avoid hypothetical and future problems until you feel there is a need. Keep your questions to actual situations and events.
• Ask for quantities and range: Try to get them to put a number or an estimate range to get better understanding of their needs (say, what they expect product prices to be).
• Don’t overstay: Wrap up the whole interview within time and give a quick feedback.
• Follow up: Thank them for the interview and provide a detailed feedback summary. Ask them if they know someone you should speak to.

If you can do this, you’ll have a treasure trove of subjective data to understand your customers.

Also read: How to Work With Focus Groups to Test Your Niche or Business Idea

Step #3: Back up with analytics data

The final step is also the easiest: find data from your analytics tool to backup the findings from step #1 and #2.

If you have Google Analytics, you can get quite a bit of data about your visitors’ location, age, technology usage, etc.

To find this data, log into Google Analytics. Then go to Audiences.

Here, you can find location, language and technology data. You can also get interests, age and gender data under "Demographics".

For example, here’s what your "Location" data might look like:

Another tool, Quantacast, might not have data on your site, but there’s a good chance it has your competitors’ demographic data.

To find this data, go to Quantacast.com and click on "Explore". Next, type in your competitor’s’ URL in the search box that pops up.

There’s a good chance Quantacast might have not quantified your competitor’s profile. If that happens, just move on to another competitor until you get a positive result.

For example, here’s the demographic data for TMZ.com:

Use this data to corroborate your findings from the earlier steps. For example, if your survey showed that 90% of your customers are married, your demographics data should reflect that your visitors are older (since 18-24 year olds have low marriage rates).

Step #4: Create customer profile

In this final step, you’ll use the data you’ve collected so far to create a rough sketch of 3-4 "ideal" customers.

You don’t have to go fancy with this — a simple Word doc will suffice. However, attaching a name and a personality to each customer profile (such as "Frugal Fred" for a budget customer) makes it easier to remember.

Use the profile creator tool at Xtensio to create a more "visual" profile.

After signing up, click on "User Persona" to get started.

Edit the template based on your data:

Your final result might look something like this:

Congratulations — you just created a customer profile for your e-commerce store!

Your Next Steps

Customer profiles will help you identify your audience and solve their problems.

It is important to remember your profiles will keep evolving and changing as you discover more information about your customers and what motivates them.

Don’t be surprised if you discover entirely new profiles as your business grows.

Here are your next three steps:

1. Create a survey and send it out to your existing customers
2. Select 10 each of your best and worst customers and invite them for an interview
3. Create a rough customer sketch based on findings from your interviews and survey.

Whether you sell in a country with multiple official languages (what up, Canada) or you’re dreaming of owning your own global empire, you’ll need to localize your online store’s content for your target audience. And you’re probably looking for something better than a $5.00 translation.

Ecwid E-commerce stores already detect the customer’s browser language to automatically display quality translations in 51 languages for store labels like text on buttons and email notifications. And we’re taking our translations to the next level.

With Ecwid, now your entire storefront can be multilingual. Set up translations for product names and descriptions, options, category names and descriptions.

On most platforms, multilingual capabilities require installing paid apps or themes, creating a second website, adding tabs, or even custom development. At Ecwid, we want you to have the tools to be successful right out of the box, so we’ve put in the work to become a truly multilingual solution: now your customers can see your store in their native language at the click of a mouse.

How to Prepare for Your Multilingual Online Storefront

To create a multilingual online store, sign up for Ecwid and upgrade to a Business or Unlimited plan.

If you already have an Ecwid store:

1. Make sure you use the Next-Gen storefront in your Control Panel → Settings → What’s New. If you don’t see an option to switch to the Next-Gen Storefront, or if you’ve already enabled this feature, you can skip to the next step.
   
   
2. If your store is registered before April 2019, enable the Multilingual Store feature in Control Panel → Settings → What’s New. Otherwise, no action required, the feature is enabled.
   
   
3. Upgrade to Business or Unlimited plans to use the feature.

How to Translate Your Storefront into Multiple Languages

Activate basic multilingual features:

When you create an online store, Ecwid detects your language automatically and uses it for your store labels and email notifications. You can find this in Ecwid control panel → Settings → General → Regional Settings.

On the same page, you can also choose to add other languages to your store:

When you add languages, your store labels and email notifications are automatically translated into the selected languages. Ecwid then detects the browser language of your customers and displays that language in their translation. If the customer’s browser language is different from your enabled store languages, Ecwid will display the storefront in your main store language. Learn more about supported languages in the Ecwid Help Center.

Activate your full multilingual storefront:

1. Add translations for product titles and descriptions in Control Panel → Catalog → Products:
   
   
2. Translate your product options if you’ve specified them: add your translation under Catalog → Products → Your Product → Options.
   
   
3. Similarly, add translations to your category names and descriptions in your Ecwid control panel → Catalog → Categories.

And you’re done! Your store looks and sounds awesome in two or more languages, and you can get back to growing your business.

More Tips to Convert International Customers

If you’re serious about growing your business internationally, you’ll want to spend some time reviewing your international shopping experience. Translations are a great first step, but here are a few other things you might also consider:

• International customers generally also use international currency. Online shopping should be fun, so don’t make your international customers do the math in their heads. Show them prices in their local currency with Currency Converter.
• Make payments easy for international customers by using a global payment provider like Paypal which is present in 200 countries. And if you want to add a specific local payment option as well that’s popular within a specific country, chances are you’ll find it among Ecwid’s 50+ integrated payment options.
• Pick a reliable international shipping provider. Ecwid is integrated with big companies like UPS, USPS, and FedEx that provide fast international shipping services.
• Set up taxes and comply with local laws. For example, if you have customers from the EU, you may need to set up VAT and comply with GDPR.

How do you turn your Instagram followers into paying customers? Help them find what they want as quickly and easily as possible.

As your Instagram skills evolve and your posting schedule grows, content overload can take its toll. It’s that pivotal moment when your faithful followers would rather exit your page then scroll through endless posts to find the information they want.

A happy follower is a shopping follower. So help your followers find what the want faster with our easy steps to optimize your business profile on Instagram.

Also: Keep Your Customer: How to Fix Your Store’s Navigation

Step 1. Add Text to Your Instagram Pictures

When followers come to your Instagram account, they see a feed full of photos. Pretty standard Instagram stuff. Unfortunately, sometimes it can be hard to guess which of the beautiful photos will offer more than just eye candy, with information about prices, shipping, sales, or new products.

If your post offers important news alongside its visual flair, drop a short title on the photo. You’ll help your audience avoid missing useful information, and new followers will be able to find answers to their questions more quickly.

@cakesafe adds text to a picture to announce a special offer

Use text on a photo to mark posts with FAQ, blog categories, sales announcements, special offers, and new collections.

Texts make posts stand out in the @asos feed

If you are selling products on Instagram in a video, create a thumbnail preview with text to maximize your post.

@sephora puts text on a video preview

Titles quickly tell your audience what the video is about and if that content would be useful to them.

Followers of @dean.schneider won’t miss a video with a giveaway

Step 2. Use Hashtags

Hashtags help amplify your content, but they can also be used to adjust your profile navigation for selling on Instagram as well. Start with the name of your account, then create a short hashtag for each type of post you regularly publish: new arrivals, lifehacks, backstage… whatever best communicates your posts. For example, #yourstorename_reviews, #yourstorename_products, and so on.

When you decide on your branded hashtags, make a post with a list of the names and a short annotation for each of your categories. Don’t forget to add text to the picture.

Read more: How Instagram Hashtags Can Make or Break Your Sale

Step 3. Save Everything in Highlights

You can save your Instagram Stories to special folders — Highlights — under your profile’s bio.

@packagefreeshop uses highlights to tell customers about the store’s policies

By storing all your important information in Highlights, followers will be less likely to need to search through your posts to find what they’re looking for.

A highlight with a list of branded hashtags by categories

Then create several highlights with your most important information, like brand story, shipping, prices, customer reviews, contacts, and special offers.

@cm_cardiff use their branded hashtags as titles for highlights

Instagram is all about the visual, so spend some time making covers for your Highlights. Add a highlight with a list of your branded hashtags and a cover titled "Tags" or "Start here" to clue followers in on where to look first.

Try to use the same color or print on your covers to give your account a polished look.

@freshbeauty uses similar looking icons for highlights’ covers

To create your cover, add a picture with a title to Stories → save that story in Highlights → choose it as a cover.

A cover is an Instagram story that you save as a highlight

Also: How to Write a Great Instagram Bio for Your Business Profile

Step 4. Enable Shoppable Posts

Instagram Shoppable posts allow you to tag your products in photos and sell directly to your followers. A product tag provides customers with pricing, details, and a direct link to buy the item in your online store. Which means your followers can complete a purchase without ever leaving their favorite photo app.

Check out our guide to enabling Shoppable posts to find out just how easy it is.

Write "Tap to shop" in the caption, like @poorlydrawnlines, to let followers know the post is shoppable

Also: Sell on Instagram: How Ecwid Merchants Can Now Reach 1 Billion Shoppers

Step 5. Add a Linktree to Your Instagram Bio

You can only add one link to your Instagram bio, but services like Linktree, Lnk.bio, and Campsite.bio let you make the most of it. Use these tools to create a simple web page with quick access to all the most important information on your site, like email signup, pricing details, and your contact page. You’ll never have to choose!

@livelarq shares links to a blog post, "About us," and their "Sign up" page

Convenient content organization shows your audience that you care about them and their shopping experience, building credibility and helping you look like a social media baller in the process.

How do you organize posts on your Instagram? Share your tips and ideas in the comments.

Opening an Amazon store alongside your existing online shop may be just the thing you need to grow your business.

Imagine this for a moment. You’ve created an online store with Ecwid and things are going pretty well, but you’re ambitious and want a bigger piece of the pie. What do you do?

If you’ve got growth-pie on the brain, it’s time you considered throwing your hat in the ring on Amazon.

Why Sell on Amazon

First, let’s clear up a couple of things on the front end. We’re not talking about replacing your existing shop(s) with an Amazon account. Amazon’s great, but if you’re only playing in Amazon’s sandbox, you’re leaving serious money on the table.

Your Amazon shop acts instead as a complement to your existing online selling operations. And with Ecwid, you can do it all, right from your Ecwid dashboard (more on that later).

Amazon sales channel in the Ecwid control panel

So why Amazon? Selling on Amazon offers a variety of unique benefits, including untapped revenue streams and even increased interest in — and traffic for — your existing shop(s).

The more your business thrives, the more difficult it will be to grow within your existing infrastructure. So if you want to cultivate continued growth, you’ll have to switch things up a bit: selling new products or expanding into new markets. That’s where Amazon comes in.

Amazon is the largest online seller in the market. And with all that size comes some sizable opportunity.

Some shoppers prefer to do their window shopping on certain marketplaces like Amazon as opposed to search engines like Google. Some limit their searches to what’s available in these spaces to capitalize on member benefits like faster shipping or cash-back bonuses. If you’re only selling through a branded store or social channel, you’re likely to miss this market entirely.

By promoting your products on Amazon, you’ll reach an entirely new segment of shoppers and uncover exciting new sales efficiencies for your budding online enterprise. Amazon even offers some additional seller features to give your revenue a nice boost.

How to Integrate Amazon With Your Ecwid Store

Like all the greatest things — peanut butter and jelly, bacon and eggs, a box of tissues and that floating dresser scene in Titanic — your existing store and your new Amazon shop should work together. And when it comes to e-commerce, unity begins with syncing operations.

If you’re on Ecwid’s Business or Unlimited plans, you’ve already got a leg up on the competition. You can easily integrate your existing store and your new Amazon store right from your Ecwid control panel, allowing the two channels to work in tandem while you manage everything from a single dashboard.

Here are a few of the features you can use once you integrate your channels:

• Synced inventory: Sell a product on one channel and its automatically removed from your inventory on your other channels.
• Customization: Wanna change your prices in one store but not the other? Adapt prices for specific stores to remain competitive.
• Automated listings: Product pictures and information can be uploaded automatically from your existing Ecwid product pages. Upload one and done.

These specialized features stop the two stores from operating against one another, preventing confusion and enabling you to operate your Amazon shop as an extension of your brand.

More: Sell Your Products on Amazon With Real-Time Inventory Synchronization

The best way to leverage both your Ecwid and Amazon stores is to establish your branding on Ecwid and use Amazon as a complement to drive sales and generate traffic to your branded Ecwid store. Once you have your branding in place with your Ecwid store, you can display that brand on Amazon to promote it to a larger audience.

Growing Your Brand on Amazon

Amazon has a lot of traffic, so it’s smart to be there, but an Amazon sale will never be as profitable as a sale from your own branded store. You don’t own the platform so you’re subject to fees, and you don’t own the customer so you’re subject to Amazon’s rules.

Using Amazon to promote your brand is critical to maximizing your profits and building a loyal customer base.

Here are a couple of tips to help you get your brand in front of Amazon’s customers.

1. Incorporate branding in your sales communication

Try displaying your branded logo in product inserts and your automated email sequence. Inserts can be branded materials like product instructions, tips, or guides to help your customers use their new products.

Branded product inserts

You can even set up a product warranty that requires customers to register on your Ecwid site to collect customer information for later marketing.

As long as your packaging, inserts, warranty cards, and gifts are exactly the same for both your Ecwid and Amazon stores, you’ll have no issues with Amazon’s terms of service. However, you should still give Amazon’s terms of service a thorough read to make sure you don’t violate one of its many rules, including direct marketing and linking outside of Amazon.

More: Product Packaging: The Secret To Getting Repeat Customers

2. Offer deals for customers who buy direct

Many savvy Amazon shoppers will search the name of your brand to buy direct from your store if they think you’ll have a better deal.

While you can’t promote special offers to direct customers on your Amazon store, you can give offers some prime real-estate on your Ecwid shop.

Offer a lower price or better giveaways for customers who buy on your branded store to maximize the return from your Amazon traffic.

3. Make Amazon’s customer your customer

When you sell on Amazon, you won’t get the customer’s email address like you would from your own Ecwid store. And this customer is really just Amazon’s until you can connect with them in a meaningful way. So you’ll need to engineer a trick or two to get the buyer to share that golden email address.

Giveaways, social media connections, and free warranty cards are all great ways to encourage shoppers to drop by your website or fill out a form. As long as it makes sense and the customer offers the information of their own volition, you’re in the clear.

A lottery that requires an email to participate

Of course, there are companies that can match up customer addresses and all kinds of other fancy-pants tricks to help you outreach customers, but don’t worry about that for now. That time may come. But for now, start small, keep it simple, and grow from there.

4. Get additional support for your Amazon store

Selling on Amazon can lead to a dramatic increase in traffic and even a rise in consumer insights. And those are both great things. But without the right infrastructure, all that new hullabaloo can also create some unique challenges as well.

• Reviews: Good and bad reviews will impact your reputation and help you refine your product. Learning how to harness and improve reviews is critical to your brand.
• Orders: If things go to plan, a rise in traffic will correlate with a rise in orders. And more orders means more communication.
• Feedback: Sometimes you get negative feedback. It happens. And whether it’s merited or not, negative feedback needs to be addressed to protect your brand.
• Insights: Increased activity on your products and pages can deliver all sorts of insights.

Capturing these will help you detect trends and adjust your selling strategy accordingly.

When your Amazon store takes off, keeping on top of things is no easy task. But there are a few tools out there to help you create some order out of the chaos. One popular option is Feedbackwhiz.com.

Feedbackwhiz is an e-commerce tool to manage orders, contact customers, repair bad reviews, and boost your business on Amazon. In the world of Amazon, more five star reviews means more sales: Feedbackwhiz makes that process even easier with specialized email automation. Encourage positive reviews, prevent negative, and create a two-way conversation with your customers. Got a bad review or a competitor trying to hijack your products? Feedbackwhiz will notify you immediately to help you resolve the issue faster.

Operating on Amazon can be daunting, especially for small and medium-sized businesses. You have little control over prices and no control over fees. But those issues are just a blip on the radar when you consider the size and potential reach of Amazon’s marketplace.

By increasing your Amazon profile, you can unlock new customers, build revenue streams, and increase awareness for your existing e-commerce site. Win, win, win, win, win.

The best way to learn something is to learn by example. That is why we gathered 50 online stores built using Ecwid. Get inspired by the design, product photography, ease of navigation and all the ways in which you can customize your store with Ecwid.

Hansen Distillery

Robin Ruth

Corktown Soap

Mamma Miu

Cooking With Tenina

Wylie Beckert

Sealpod

Prosimu

Matchaletic

Original Jerk

The Little Boat House

Cloud 9

Way Of Life Food

Boho Art & Styling

Northbound Coffee

Watan

Cakesafe

Quasi Modi

Sand And Stone Jewelry

Kant

Live Pet Jellyfish

Terrapin

The Persian Trader

Arty Shock

Hit or Miss Clothing

Flow Movement

Puff and Pop

Paleoista

Rita Marries’ Chicken Coops

Helen Olivia Flowers

Woodstock

Chros

Hermanitos

Les Fermes Valens

Karbon Speed

Idavee

Ousiai

Yossi Sassi Band

We Wood

Couteaux Morta

My Swing Evolution

Little Lacey

Older

My Fun Tone

Dopeclvbworld

Shirts And Stones

Buybubble Soccer

Hovborg Kro

Sweet Memories

Beach Towel Clips

Land of Lovely

Oh So Pretty

Cocomat Bike

Would your beautiful store make a great addition to  this collection? Let us know in the comments section below. Got inspired by these awesome stores? Show the world how much you can do with Ecwid!

Ideas are a dime a dozen. They can come from anywhere, at any time. The key is being able to decipher which ideas can make you money, which ones can make you a lot of money, and which ones will leave you a broke laughingstock of the entrepreneurial community.

Keep reading below as we discuss different ways to get your creative juices flowing and to generate viable money-making ideas.

Identify Pain Points in Your Own Life

Train yourself to constantly and productively find happy solutions to everyday problems. If you can solve them reliably and gracefully enough, then you’re sitting on nothing less than a completely worthwhile business idea.

That exactly happened to Donna and Andrea, the founders of Flipzeesglasses, unique glasses for putting on makeup. They figured out what to sell online by creating a solution to their own everyday difficulty:

"We both are ladies of a certain age. And when you get to a certain age, you have to wear reading glasses… But if you like to wear makeup as well, when you’re trying to put your makeup on, you can’t see without your reading glasses. And then when you put your reading glasses on, you can’t put your makeup on, because the glasses are in the way. It is a problem because obviously, we don’t want to give up wearing makeup. So that’s how it (their product) came about really. The initial idea was we need to come up with something that actually works."

Get yourself into the habit of not only noticing when things don’t go as well or smoothly as they ought to, but also immediately following this up with a potentially aggressively priced viable alternative.

A great example of this would be the reCAP mason jars. We all have mason jars lying around that simply serve no purpose because there is no convenient way to repurpose them (other than simply storing and canning). The reCAP allows you to repurpose them for almost anything, on-the-go drinks, decorative dressing containers, the possibilities are almost endless. Someone successfully identified an issue and came up with a creative solution.

This is a great example of someone identifying an issue and coming up with a creative solution.

Look for Ideas from Those Who are Also Looking for Ideas

Follow the specialized media covering the space most relevant to what you sell.

This is where something like Product Hunt comes into play. Every day, Product Hunt publishes dozens of rising or debuting services and applications, with the readers voting for the best and most unique entrants.

Fitness trackers for dogs, new collaboration apps, an app that turns your iPhone into a hidden camera; the products and ideas coming from Product Hunt are nearly endless. It is well worth your time to bookmark Product Hunt and browse through it every day to see what other people are also dreaming up.

You should also look to the real world for inspiration. Magazines like Entrepreneur and Forbes consistently feature compelling products and ideas that may trigger something inspired for you.

Whether an elaborate description of a uniquely 21st-century problem (such as having too much digital information on cancer research) or a profile of someone changing how we look at marketing and selling razor blades, the content of these sites and magazines is diverse. There’s a good chance something will help you in your journey.

Browse Crowdfunding Sites

Crowdfunding sites like Kickstarter and IndieGoGo are great places to go for inspiration. Crowdfunding is the definitive testing ground for modern entrepreneurs and startups that lack seed funding.

There are thousands of products to browse through on these sites; they range from amazing to truly terrible. All of them seeking the funding to become real. Study them, note what works. See what you would do to improve on an idea or its marketing.

Take notes and pay attention to campaigns that reached their goal and ones that didn’t. Try to derive what the successful ones did differently.

Use Social Networks Wisely

Products are easily found wherever people congregate, and people live in the social sphere nowadays. Obviously Facebook and Twitter are great ways to accumulate ideas and see what others are creating, but there are other sources that can tickle your brain even more deeply.

Even niche interests and tastes can probably find what they’re looking for on pinboard link-sharing site Pinterest. Get an account and subscribe to themed boards that jam with your ideas. Interested in selling custom shoes? Follow a board like this that accumulates what others are doing with custom footwear.

Instagram is also a great place to connect with others and see what is hot. Subscribe to a couple of relevant hashtags to see what’s popular on the social medium. Consider ways to make photosharing unique to your business—what can you do differently?

Follow hashtags like this one to get new product ideas

Check Out Public Events

Conferences and other public events are a great way to check in on the present state of given topics and interests. Whether hobbyist gatherings or prestigious professional events, such assemblies will be populated with people situated somewhere on the spectrum of interest in a topic.

By using simple Google searches, or apps like Eventbrite, you can rather easily find lists of such events in your area.

With a list of clubs to join and events to attend, you’re in a much greater position to intermingle with people that can help bring your ideas to life, and even get noticed in the process: investors, experts, and journalists in given spaces can be found at these events.

This is your chance to rub elbows with giants in your field. Take notes on who you meet and Google them later, and make sure to give your card to anyone you find interesting.

Conferences and trade shows are too easily dismissed as boring, stuffy affairs.

While this sometimes holds true, this neglects the wide variety of experts who share your interest that you have the opportunity to learn from.

These are your opportunities to learn from others what works and what doesn’t. Let your ideas intermingle with the ideas of others to make for all kinds of new ideas for everyone.

Inspire from Big Retailers

Amazon, eBay, AliExpress, Etsy — all these websites have a section with bestsellers. By browsing these products, you can find out the latest trends and сustomer needs. Don’t forget wholesale websites like Alibaba или Wholesale Central.

Amazon bestsellers by category

Study the Local Market

Sometimes a good idea is literally just around the corner. Examine local products and services and keep an eye on city mass media. There might be enough bakeries in your area, for example, but what about farm products?

Developing a vacant niche in the local market is a good alternative to being just another business in a competitive industry.

Here are just some benefits of selling locally:

• Simplified delivery
• Eco-friendliness
• Easy to collect feedback and improve service
• More room for testing business strategies.

Check out more tips for selling locally:

• A Local SEO Strategy for Your Online Store
• 15 Practical Ideas for Promoting a Small Business Locally

Ideas are Everywhere

Setting up your online shop is usually the easy part. Gathering ideas, planning your marketing, and generally settling on an idea to sell is the hard part.

Most likely, you’re not going to get as lucky as Sir Isaac Newton and have the idea simply hit you in the head. Good ideas come from a plethora of places, not just from within your mind. Keep your finger on the pulse of industry by using some of these tips listed above.

When your mind is in the practice of generating finely tuned ideas, your Internet storefront is poised to thrive.

Subscribe to the Ecwid blog to get fresh ideas for growing your e-commerce business weekly.

A positive shopping experience can mean the difference between a shopper buying from you or one of your competitors. And how you present your products plays a big part in your customers’ shopping experience.

Take these two products for example:

The first product is cheaper — and you can clearly see it’s water — but at the end of the day, it’s just not that appealing. The second option is more expensive, and there’s no earthly way of knowing if there’s actually any water in that box… but it’s trendy, the text is engaging, and goshdarnit if those photos aren’t cool.

If you’re ordering your H2O online, we’ve got our money on the boxed water.

Two functionally (and molecularly) identical products, and yet, one is inherently more desirable than the other. And that’s the power of presentation.

Read on to learn some of our best presentation tips to make your products more attractive to your customers.

Use a Flattering Storefront Grid

The human brain craves order, and online shopping is no exception. Customers want patterns. Logic. A simple, discernable way to effectively digest information about your products. So help your customers find want they want quickly with a clear, organized online storefront.

A simple square grid can do the job just fine. But what if you adjust it to the size and ratio of your products?

Just like brick-and-mortar stores arrange long coats on hangers and t-shirts on shelves, your Ecwid store has the right display arrangement for your products. Big or small, horizontal or vertical, the right storefront layout can do wonders for your products.

To edit your storefront grid, head over to Settings → Design in your Ecwid Control Panel. If you created your Ecwid store a while ago and don’t see these settings, make sure you’ve switched over to our Next-Gen Ecwid storefront in Settings → What’s New.

Take Good Great Photos

Unless you’re selling actual garbage (and even then, you might want to think twice), product photography should be your top priority.

While it pays to hire a professional photographer in some instances, it’s not the ultimate determinant of success. You can read our article on simple photography tips to get started, but here are a few ideas to keep in mind:

• Make sure your photos reflect how the product looks in real life.
• Have one main image with the best angle of your product, but include at least 3-4 different images for customers to scroll through. When you create a product in your Ecwid store, you’ll see hints on flattering product angles to get you going:
  
  
• Standardize the background color to blend in with your storefront template.

And check out our blog to avoid these common photography mistakes.

Write Soulful Descriptions

Photos are the first thing your customer’s see, but they won’t be the last. Your words matter — especially when it comes to your product descriptions.

At a minimum, a product description should provide customers with a product overview and key features. But we know you can do better.

Here are some tips to keep in mind when writing a product description:

• Don’t say your product is the best — explain why it’s the best.
• Speak like your customers. If you sell to moms, stick to informal, emotional language. If you sell to men who look like aspiring lumberjacks, keep it cool.
• Use words that activate the senses: describe the smell, shape, texture, or color of your product.
• Cut the extra characters and format your descriptions.

And check out our blog to avoid these common photography mistakes.

Put Your Best Products Forward

There are two types of customers who visit your storefront: those who know what they want and those who don’t.

When a customer visits your store for the first time, it might take them a minute to figure out where to start shopping, especially if you have a lot of product categories. Make it easier by showcasing your best-selling products on your homepage.

If you’ve embedded Ecwid on your website, you can add products to your homepage using Buy Now buttons (see picture below).

If you sell on the Ecwid Starter Site, add "Featured" products on the store homepage to call out specific products.

Showcase Your Packaging

Fifty-three percent of customers agree that the packaging material illustrates the quality of the product. So not only does the product packaging have to be good — you want your store visitors to see it too.

You don’t need to invest in platinum bubble wrap to have great packaging — just try to make your packaging neat. Use materials that are pleasant to the touch, like craft paper or textile. And keeping plastic use to a minimum in your wrapping can also add value to your brand.

Educate Your Customers

Sometimes people won’t buy a product because they’re not sure it’s the right solution or how to use it. If you sell something complex (a three-step skin care program), innovative (a wireless endoscopic camera), or multi-purpose (a transformer coat), it’s important to teach your customers how to get the most out of it.

Complex products can be harder to sell, but their features are also an endless source of content. The same way Ecwid offers tips and tricks on our blog, podcasts, and videos to help merchants do more with their online stores, you can teach your customers how to maximize your products too. Shoot a couple YouTube video tutorials, write a blog, and add step-by-step guides to your product descriptions. Anything to help your customers feel confident and empowered when they use your products.

Here’s an example of our educational content:

To sum this all up, your product presentation matters. Presenting your products well with good images, formatting, language, and packaging is the key to delivering a shopping experience that converts. So go on, delight your customers with some great looking products, and score some sales in return. 😉

The rise of podcasting is unmistakable: at this moment, there are roughly 700,000 active podcasts, while an impressive 70% of Americans are familiar with podcast content. Given the popularity of audio shows, you might be asking yourself, "Should I start a podcast?…"

To answer that question, we will share a little bit of our own podcast journey, and help you understand how podcasts can be used to promote your brand.

Why You Should Create a Podcast for Your Business

At home. On the way to work. Bathing a hedgehog. As podcasts are easy to consume in just about any situation, it’s no surprise that the number of podcasts — and people listening to them — continues to grow.

This chart by Statista shows how many Americans listen to podcasts year by year

And the popularity of podcasts makes them a great tool for brand reinforcement: 69% of respondents in a study by Statista said that podcast ads made them aware of new products or services. Podcasts also help develop a strong social media presence. And podcast listeners are not only more likely to follow a brand on social media, but they’re also more active on all social media channels.

And did we mention they’re affordable AND fun?! Well then, read on and see for yourself.

What You Need to Create a Podcast

You don’t need a fancy studio to record a podcast. Get started right in your home with these tools:

• a microphone;
• a laptop/PC;
• a pop filter (to eliminate extra noise — optional);
• headphones (to help hear yourself clearly — also optional);
• audio-editing software like Audacity (free) or GarageBand (free, for Mac only);
• MP3 encoding software to convert your audio to a computer file (for example, a free LAME MP3 encoder);
• a hosting service to broadcast your podcasts like Libsyn, Hipcast, SoundCloud, or Podomatic.

How to Structure Your Podcast

Before you start recording your show, you’ll need to decide what you want to tell your listeners — and how.

1. Know your audience

Who are your listeners? What do they want to learn? To answer these questions, peruse competitor blogs, learn about current trends, and check out other podcasts in your market. Or better still, if you’ve got a great blog or social media following, just ask your audience. Create a poll or start a discussion to learn what your future listeners would like to see from a potential show.

2. Choose your format and topics

Decide on the format of your show: will you do it solo, plan guest interviews, or collaborate with bloggers? Will your podcast be about industry insights, practical advice — entertainment? And how often are you planning to go on air — weekly, monthly, every two weeks?

As for the topics of your show, you can choose anything you find relevant to your market and audience. Here’s a handful of topics you might consider:

• your brand’s story or company insights;
• what inspired you to open a store and create X product;
• hacks and advice to help customers get the most out of your products;
• how to prolong the shelf-life of your products;
• reviews of trends and hot news in your market.

You can invite guests to your shows like we do here at Ecwid

Learn more:

• Sell the Story: How to Get Started with Storytelling for Your Brand
• The Ecwid E-Commerce Show: Content Marketing and Brand Story

3. Prepare your script

If you don’t know how long your show should be, remember that the average podcast listener stays connected for 22 minutes. Here’s an outline to help you plan your episodes:

• intro monologue (30-60 seconds) — who you are and what the podcast is about. Record it well once and you can reuse it in your future episodes.
• intro music (15-30 seconds).
• the topic of the episode — why it’s important and how it’s helpful or relevant to listeners. Don’t try to give away too much information in one episode; you can always create a series to discuss the really big topics.
• closing remarks (1.5-2 minutes) — thank the audience for listening, thank guests if there are any, talk about the next show, and ask them to subscribe.
• outro music (15-30 seconds). If you create longer episodes, you may want to take breaks with short interlude music (10-15 seconds) too to help your audience stay engaged and give their ears a short break.

And if you’ve got a new product, special offer, or other updates that may attract your potential customers, you can mention it in the beginning (or/and the end) of your episode. Here’s an example from the Ecwid E-commerce Show:

How to Use Podcasts to Promote Your Brand

Recording a podcast is just a step on the path to growing your brand awareness. So here are some tips to help you be successful.

1. Build your audience before the launch

It’s better to build your audience before you release your podcasts to make sure there’s actually someone listening on the other end. Discuss topics for podcasts on your social media channels and mention your show in your newsletter to create awareness. Build the anticipation, so that people are interested in your show before the start.

2. Offer show notes

You’ll need a show notes page where you can add all the links and resources you mention in your podcasts. Show notes will also help you rank higher on Google down the road.

3. Transcribe your podcasts

It’s important to make your content as convenient to consume as possible, so having a transcript of your episode is always a good idea. Transcripts are also good for SEO and serve as a place to collect leads if you add links to your show notes or other pages. You can make a full transcript or just excerpts of the show. Also, you don’t have to do it yourself — there are services like Rev and Trint that transcribe audio for you.

4. Repurpose your podcasts

One of the reasons podcasts are great is that you can repurpose them in as many ways as you want. For example, you can turn your podcasts into blog posts and videos. This way you create more content to share with your audience and promote your brand. And it’s great for SEO too.

More: The Ecwid E-Commerce Show: Repurposing Content and Finding Your Tribe

5. Promote on social media in different ways

Don’t limit yourself to just posts with links to your podcasts. Share teasers, extracts, images with quotes from episodes, videos. Make behind-the-scenes posts, talk about podcasts in Instagram Stories. Announce the next episode 24 hours ahead of time, pin Facebook or Twitter posts with a link to the podcast.

For example, here’s one of our teasers:

Examples of Successful Branded Podcasts

A lot of businesses use podcasts to connect with customers, just like we do at Ecwid — and here are some other companies that might inspire you to do the same.

• #LIPSTORIES. Sephora partnered with Girlboss Radio to create a podcast where influential female founders, creators, and thought leaders share their stories.
• Slack Variety Pack. Slack’s podcast is a mix of stories on work culture, teamwork, and innovation in the workplace.
• Pick Me Up. Lyft partnered with Gimlet Creative to create a podcast that gives an inside look into the life of Lyft drivers. Heartwarming stories about people chasing big dreams.
• DTR. This is Tinder’s official show about dating in an internet-obsessed world.
• Keeping You Organized. The name of Smead’s show speaks for itself: it shares tips, advice, and behind-the-scenes stories from the top organizing professionals across the US.

A good show can be an ad that people actually want to listen to. Podcasts help to improve brand awareness, which is essential for growing sales in the long term. So give it a try and stay tuned for more advice on our blog.

You’ve heard it before and you’ll hear it again: free shipping is an effective marketing tactic that benefits both the consumer and the seller.

According to the recent customer behavior study by NRF, free shipping remains one of the most important things online shoppers expect from retailers today. And the businesses that find a way to meet this need can expect an increase in average order value and repeat purchases.

If you’re fulfilling your orders through print-on-demand drop shipper Printful, we have some great news. Ecwid E-commerce and Printful are running a free shipping campaign that will let 10 lucky winners offer free delivery to their customers this July without spending a penny.

8 Ways to Market Free Shipping to Your Audience

Once you decide which free shipping strategy you’ll use to grow your store, it’s time to inform your customers about it. Here are 8 ways you can market free shipping to grow your business.

1. Create time-bounded free shipping campaign

Time-bounded offers can encourage impulse purchases and help reduce shopping cart abandonment. So, if you’ve never offered free shipping on your store, running a campaign with an expiration date can be a good place to start.

You can send a free shipping campaign announcement to your entire mailing list or loyal customers to encourage repeat purchases. Make sure to highlight for how long the campaign is running, and don’t forget to send reminder emails too.

To reduce abandoned carts, use a pop-up that appears only when the visitor tries to leave the shopping cart without finishing the purchase. Let your shoppers know that they can get their products delivered cost-free if they finish their purchase in the next 15 minutes.

If you don’t like the idea of having timer on your pop-up, just mention for how long your free shipping campaign will be running. Here’s how clothing, handbags, and accessories brand Kate Spade used pop-up to inform the visitors about free delivery campaign and a discount on their store:

Original Kate Spade pop-up

If only they defined better when "your next purchase" should be made…

Edited Kate Spade pop-up

That’s better. By giving customers a more precise time frame within which they should take an action, you’re encouraging them to take the plunge.

You can use pop-ups like this on different product pages too, just try not to interrupt customers’ shopping experience. For example, instead of showing the pop-up to every incoming visitor, show it to users who stayed on your site for longer than 30 seconds, or visited at least 2 product pages.

If you want to try pop-ups on your website, head to the Ecwid App Market to get Privy. This free app lets you create customizable pop-ups you can use on your site, social media, mobile, and store to grow your email list.

2. Offer free shipping for first-time shoppers

Studies show that 9 out of 10 customers agree they’re more likely to place an order if the shop promises free delivery. Depending on your marketing goals, you can use free shipping to attract more first-time shoppers.

Here’s how beauty product retailer Cult Beauty uses this tactic to not only encourage new visitors to place the first order, but also grow their mailing list:

Once you sign up for their newsletter, the subscription box is replaced with a thank you message and promo code.

Send an automated welcome email with a promo code to your new subscribers. Set up a flow that is triggered whenever someone joins your mailing list. Tools like MailChimp have this functionality.

3. Use free shipping as a unique selling point

A unique selling point is the reason why customers come shop from you instead of another store.

There are probably quite a few businesses in your niche offering products similar to yours, but how many of these businesses offer free shipping? While delivering products to customers for free isn’t anything new, it’s something that can make you stand out from the competition.

There are probably quite a few businesses in your niche offering products similar to yours, but how many of these businesses offer free shipping? While delivering products to customers for free isn’t anything new, it’s something that can make you stand out from the competition.

Book Depository is a UK-based online bookseller that ships orders to over 160 countries around the world for free. Free delivery isn’t just a campaign with an expiration date—Book Depository makes an effort to highlight this unique point in their marketing copy.

Every other email campaign either has "free delivery" in the subject line, or hints to it in the body of the email:

Their social media updates include a reminder about free shipping too:

The takeaway? Whether you deliver some or all of your products for free, make sure to remind your existing and potential customers about it.

4. Have a free shipping reminder at the checkout

Setting a free shipping threshold is a popular strategy that helps to increase a store’s average order value. But unlike other tactics, this one is more effective for shoppers who are in the purchase stage of their buyer’s journey.

Since customers have already made up their mind to place an order on your store, a friendly free shipping reminder might be the only incentive they need to add an extra product to the cart.

Candian skincare brand Deciem informs its shoppers about free shipping option only when they’re at the checkout page:

Customers see how much they’d be paying for standard shipping. They’re also informed that adding a product that costs a certain amount would make them eligible for free shipping.

Is it worth paying €5 for delivery, or is it better to pay an extra €4 for another product and get everything shipped for free? Well, it’s the shopper’s decision.

Learn how to add custom notices to checkout in the Ecwid Help Center.

5. Mention free shipping on the delivery information page

A delivery information page is a place where you share important details about available shipping options, delivery duration, and cost. It’s also the place where you can speak about free delivery options available on your store.

Here’s how the British clothing brand Whistles incorporates free shipping information on its order delivery page:

Shipping pages are one of the most visited pages on any online store. According to NFR, 65% of shoppers say they look up free shipping thresholds before adding products to their carts. So it’s important to not only disclose regular shipping information, but also inform customers about free options too.

6. Inform all incoming visitors about free shipping

Whether you’re running a free shipping campaign or offering it on all orders always, let all of your incoming visitors know about it. One of the ways to do that is to use header banners. Let’s take a look at a few examples how different brands use them.

Girlfriend Collective offers free shipping on any pair leggings:

Frank Body communicates about their free shipping threshold:

And Pandora advertises free 3-day shipping on all orders:

Once visitors click on these banners, they’re redirected to shipping information landing pages, or product categories where they should take the next step.

Check out Promo Bar in the Ecwid App Market if you want to add a customizable top banner to your storefront.

7. Offer free shipping as a service

Offering free shipping isn’t enough—customers also want it to be fast. But having both options available on your store may not always feasible, especially if you’re just starting off. Luckily, there’s a way you can meet this customer need without hurting your business: create a shipping service.

That’s exactly what Asos did. By subscribing to their Premier Delivery service for €13.76 a year, Asos shoppers can get all of their orders delivered for free the next day.

And then, of course, we have Amazon Prime, a shipping service that include not only free and fast delivery but other perks too.

Creating a shipping service can be a good solution for stores that have regular shoppers, but don’t want to offer free and fast shipping to everyone.

8. Reward loyal customers with free shipping

Online store owners put a lot of effort in getting new customers and sometimes forget that making existing customers happy is just as important. After all, the probability of selling to a new customer is significantly lower than selling to someone who already knows you.

Just think about it, wouldn’t you much rather buy from a company you already trust than one you’ve never shopped from before? I know I would.

Consider running free shipping campaigns exclusively for returning customers or create a loyalty program that gives members free shipping on any order. But remember, if you want people to join your loyalty program you have to make it easy for them.

American retail giant J.Cew has a rewards program that includes free standard shipping as one of the perks:

The best part is that the program is free and easy to join. All you have to do to get started is enter your email address and password.

Now, you don’t have to offer free shipping to all customers who join your loyalty program. Instead, incentivize those who meet a specific spending threshold (say $500 per calendar year).

Start Promoting

Free shipping is a marketing tactic you have to experiment with if you haven’t already. Try different strategies to find what works for you, and don’t forget that for the best possible outcome you need to market it well to your audience.

Test one marketing tactic or combine a few depending on the goal of your free shipping campaign. And if you’re using Printful, don’t forget to enter our giveaway for the chance to give your customers free shipping this July.

Thinking of joining 75 million WordPress users to build your new website, but don’t wanna dirty your hands with the coding?

WordPress version 5 brought the biggest change in the platform in recent years: a new default code-free page editor and publishing tool (formerly known as the Gutenberg editor). Now you can add anything to any webpage just by arranging a content block.

Ecwid E-commerce allows you to build your online store right in the Gutenberg editor. Add a "Buy Now" button, product catalog, cart page, or entire storefront anywhere on your webpage at a moment’s notice. No code can stand in your way.

Other ways to sell with Ecwid → 

10 E-commerce Blocks to Add to Your Site Pages

Now that you’ve got the power to easily create your own beautiful WordPress site, it’s time to think about monetizing. By installing the Ecwid E-commerce plugin for WordPress, you’ll get rich e-commerce blocks right in the block editor (Gutenberg) and be able to add online store functionalities to any site page in minutes.

1. Store homepage

Display your entire storefront on any page, including your homepage. For example, you could link your shop to the "Store" tab of the main site menu.

Manage your storefront appearance in the editor: choose thumbnail size, product info to display on your storefront, navigation elements, and more.

2. The store category page

Add products from a specific category to any site page. Use this block if you want to highlight categories in your site menu.

3. Store categories menu

Remind your customers that there’s more to see: display a store categories menu at the top or bottom of your page to let your customers quickly navigate between them.

4. The large product card

With this block, you can build a page featuring a specific product, like a best seller or a limited-run item, including title, picture, description, options, price, and the CTA to purchase.

5. The small product card

Add one or more products to blog posts, your homepage, and anywhere else your heart desires. This block is also perfect for merchants with just a few products to sell.

6. The "Buy Now" button

Every web page is better with a call-to-action. Insert a CTA button to capture customers in the moment they want to buy.

7. The search and filters page

If you need a web page that can display all your products, stick to this block, where customers can filter products to shop faster.

Learn how to set up product filters in Ecwid.

8. The search input block

Don’t make your visitors search for your search box — add it to all your important pages for better navigation.

Tip: if you want your search box on all your pages, go to Appearance → Widgets and add the Product Search widget to the sidebar.

9. The shopping cart icon block

Given that 50% to 80% of online shopping carts are abandoned (a customer added products to their cart but left without a purchase), it’s important to make that cart bold and findable. Use this customizable block to add a shopping bag icon on the top of your page, the bottom, and anywhere in between.

Tip: if you want a shopping bag icon on all your pages, go to Appearance → Widgets and add the Shopping Cart widget to the sidebar.

10. The cart and checkout block

Make your cart page even more accessible by linking to it in your main site menu. Create your page and add this block to it.

Start Selling on a WordPress Website — And Beyond — With Ecwid

Ecwid and the new WordPress visual editor are a power couple for growing your e-commerce sales on WordPress. Both tools are code-free — developers need not apply. And Ecwid integrates directly into the editor, so you can have a consistent experience, with no hassle.

Our free WordPress plugin is just one piece of the Ecwid omnichannel story. Wherever you want to sell, your Ecwid store goes with you: extend your online presence to Amazon, Instagram, Facebook, and Google, all from a single dashboard.

Happy selling!

Email is hardly considered a "new" technology. For decades, email has been a steady stalwart of the internet experience. And for decades, email has gone virtually unchanged.

Until now.

February 2019 ushered in a new era for email when Google presented it’s new dynamic email powered by AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages) technology.

With AMP, static email content is a thing of the past: emails can update automatically, delivering the most relevant information at every open. And user interactions are getting dynamic too. Zoom pictures, fill out a form, scroll through a photo gallery, and more, all without ever leaving your inbox.

From e-commerce to email marketing, at Ecwid, we recognize the potential. That’s why we collaborated with Google to be the very first e-commerce platform to launch dynamic AMP emails for our merchants.

Dynamic abandoned cart email in Ecwid

And we’re not just talking about better promotional emails either. Soon, buying directly from email will be the new normal. What makes us so confident about it? Read on to find out.

AMP Pages Are Booming

You might have noticed that websites load faster these days. What you’ve probably never asked yourself is why. Enter Accelerated Mobile Pages.

Accelerated Mobile Pages is a website publishing technology that was initially designed by Google to improve the performance of mobile web.

Page speed is a ranking factor for Google’s mobile and desktop indexes, which means it can also affect conversion rates. As Neal Patel states, "if an e-commerce site is making $100,000 per day, a 1-second page delay could potentially cost you $2.5 million in lost sales every year." So decreasing page load time doesn’t just mean a better experience for your visitors — it also means more sales for your store.

AMP is already implemented on over 5 billion web pages. Microsoft, Twitter, Adobe, and WordPress have all supported AMP, raising the number of domains using AMP to 31 million early last year. So AMP growth isn’t stopping any time soon.

Dynamic Email Content Helps to Increase Conversions

But AMP for email does more than simply speeding up the page.

With AMP, your audience can interact with an email like never before. Leave a comment, browse a product page, add a review, scroll a photo gallery, enter an email address — the email becomes a webpage of its own, complete with all the functionality you’d expect. Open new tabs? Nah. Redirects to a website? Who needs "em? AMP for email saves your audience clicks and time, reducing friction and offering a new seamless e-commerce experience right in their inboxes.

And interactive content isn’t just a playground for your customers. It actually converts. According to one study of 244 marketers from enterprise-level companies of $10 million to $1 billion+ in annual revenue, interactive content generated twice as many conversions as traditional email content.

Brands Are Already Testing AMP Emails

Here at Ecwid, we’re in good company, sharing the AMP email integration with brands like Booking.com, Despegar, Doodle, Freshworks, Nexxt, OYO Rooms, Pinterest, and redBus to test the effectiveness of dynamic email content to keep customers up-to-date and improve experiences by making emails more actionable and relevant. For example, Pinterest is using AMP to make it easier for users to discover new ideas and save them to boards.

Software engineer Fangzheng Tian commented on the update on the company’s blog, Pinterest Engineering:

Typically, when a Pinner receives an email from us, they must click a Pin in the email and then are directed to the Pinterest.com or mobile app, potentially log in, and save to a board. The longer the process, the more likely the user won’t take action. With AMP for Gmail, we saw huge opportunities to improve engagement right from email.

Some other popular email clients have also begun supporting AMP emails, including Yahoo Mail, Outlook.com, and Mail.Ru.

Ecwid Makes Dynamic AMP Emails Accessible for E-commerce

Ecwid is the first e-commerce platform to launch dynamic email for online merchants. Ecwid’s AMP emails display up-to-date order information as the email content updates in real time. For example, with our dynamic abandoned cart emails, customers can click through the product carousel, zoom product images, and open product descriptions right in their email.

Dynamic content in order status emails allows our merchants to display the real-time order status whenever a customer opens the email. If the order is being processed, that email will display the most current processing status. On its way? That same email will dynamically update to let the customer know their purchase has left the building.

Real-time order status email in Ecwid

Another example of improved experience is an easier verification process. A single click right in a dynamic email is all it takes to verify emails and new accounts — no redirecting to third-party services necessary.

All the above considered, dynamic emails promise to improve the shopping experience for customers and make it easier for merchants to manage and promote their stores.

Read more: Stand Out in Inbox with Dynamic AMP Emails by Ecwid

Email Isn’t Going Out of Style

Regardless of the rise of social media, the good ol" email remains customers’ preferred mode of communication with brands.

The number of email users is expected to grow to over 4.2 billion by the end of 2022, and Gmail already boasts a staggering 1.5 billion active users worldwide.

Active Gmail users worldwide from January 2012 to October 2018 (by Statista)

It’s not just about email’s large user base either — the engagement on email is also impressive. According to research, 99% of consumers check their personal email every day. Personalized emails generate six times more transaction rates than non-personalized emails.

Email remains an efficient and cost-effective method for companies to reach consumers where they are every day — their inboxes:

• Email generates $44 for every $1 spent.
• 59% of marketers say email is their biggest source of ROI.
• The average order value of an email is three times higher than that of social media.
• Marketing emails influence purchase decisions for 59% of respondents.
• 61% of U.S. consumers prefer to be contacted by brands through email.
• 65% of U.S. marketers cited dynamic content in email marketing as the most influential strategy.

The chart presented in the report Email Marketing & Marketing Automation Excellence 2017

So, email provides a reliable form of communication between your brand and your clients. And AMP emails take this communication to the next level. This dynamic technology makes brand’s interaction with customers even more effective, making the lives of emails longer and their content more actionable.

Implementing AMP emails doesn’t just mean staying up-to-date, it also creates more opportunities for businesses. And if you’re an Ecwid merchant, you don’t have to lift a finger to get it — dynamic emails are supported on all pricing plans, including our Forever Free plan.

It takes a lot of work to launch a successful e-сommerce business. An e-сommerce platform must be chosen, installed, and managed. Images taken and uploaded. To say nothing of the complexities involved in setting up fulfillment and supply chains. Amidst all that, it’s no wonder product-page copy is neglected.

But copy contributes to sales, and ill-considered or poorly written copy repels shoppers. Copy might be at the bottom of your list of priorities, you might be satisfied with good enough, but if you don’t give copy the attention it deserves, you’re leaving money on the table.

I’m a writer, so I’m particularly sensitive to bad copy, but you don’t have to be as picky as I am to be put off by ungrammatical nonsense that looks as if it was typed in a hurry and never looked at again. Low-quality copy communicates carelessness to shoppers, even when they don’t know exactly what’s wrong with it.

In this article, I’m going to look at some of the e-commerce copy mistakes I see most often.

1. Feature, Feature, Feature

This is a copywriters’ cliché, but, like most clichés, there’s truth to it: talk about the benefits of a product more than its features.

A feature is something the product is or has. This is a red pair of shoes. This computer has 32 Gb of RAM. This bucket can hold 3 gallons of water. All useful information, but good product copy focuses on how these features benefit the user.

A computer with 32 GB of RAM offers better performance when many applications are running at the same time. It is ideal for data-intensive tasks like video editing. These are the benefits inherent in the features. Tell shoppers what a product is, but focus on why it should matter to them. How does this product solve their problems or enhance their lives?

2. Taking Copy From Suppliers or Manufacturers

E-commerce retailers often source products from distributors or manufacturers who have their own sales copy. Why not paste it into your product pages? Suppliers may encourage retailers to use their copy, but it’s not a good idea.

• The copy is written to appeal to retailers, not to consumers who have different concerns.
• Many of your competitors use the same copy. Identical product pages aren’t a good look when you’re trying to create a brand to distinguish your store from all the others selling the same product.
• Duplicate copy is bad for SEO. It’s unlikely your store ranks for copy duplicated on other domains.

Write your own copy. It doesn’t have to be Shakespeare, but it does have to be unique. It should embody your brand and talk to your customers.

Learn more: How to Write Product Descriptions That Sell

3. Who Are You Talking To?

Copy is persuasive written communication. The "persuasive" part distinguishes copy from other content like blog articles. The best way to persuade a person is to understand them — to address their concerns and values. The best copy goes right to the heart of a shoppers concerns and desires.

Do they care about the environmental impact of what they buy? Staying on top of the latest trends? Connotations of luxury? Or how a product could save them time? Do they care about getting a bargain, or do they think bargain-basement language is a turn-off?

Why does Costco focuses on low, low prices, while Apple focuses on product quality and experience? Because these companies understand who buys their products. They craft a message that is persuasive to their customers.

4. Airy Nonsense

World-class copy slips into a shopper’s mind, tweaking her neurons with innovative conceptualizations, altering her paradigm while driving her ever onwards in pursuit of that perfect purchase.

Or… it’s just a bunch of nonsense.

Few products are life-changing, paradigm-shifting, or world-beating. It’s inauthentic to claim they are. Unfortunately, e-commerce copy often takes this approach, stringing words together into vaguely sensible-sounding sentences that fall apart if you think too hard.

Sales copy should make products sound good; that’s its job. But not at the expense of overpromising. The best copy emphasizes a product’s positive features and benefits in a way that’s both honest and compelling. Authenticity is key.

5. Lazy Editing

Shoppers don’t come to your store in search of grammatical errors and spelling mistakes. But they’ll find them regardless. Bad editing looks sloppy, and it makes shoppers wonder what else the store is being sloppy about.

• Their’s nothing like a cupcake when your feeling down.
• Smiths Tools: 100% relaible.
• Relax with friends, eat well, and getting a good night’s sleep.

It’s difficult to proofread copy that you’ve written yourself. So, let someone else take a look before it’s uploaded to your store. If you doubt your writing chops, hire a copywriter to write product descriptions for you or use a free tool like Grammarly.

6. Too Much Or Too Little SEO

Product-page copy should appeal first and foremost to shoppers: it is part of an e-commerce store’s machinery for converting them from visitors to buyers. But it also plays an SEO role. Search engines index product-page copy, and it should be optimized to ensure that it appears in relevant results.

But too often I see spammy copy that is unreadable to a human. It is optimized entirely for the search engines. I’m sure you’ve come across copy like this:

Cheap cupcakes. Buy affordable chocolate cupcakes, toffee cupcakes, vanilla cupcakes, specialty cupcakes. Small cupcakes, medium cupcakes. Low-cost custom cupcakes. The best cupcakes you’ve ever eaten. Affordable cupcakes for less.

This gibberish might as well have been written by a machine, and only a machine could appreciate it. SEO like this has been worthless for years, but old habits die hard.

If you’re selling cupcakes, you need to mention cupcakes, but look at this copy from a page randomly chosen from the top-ten Google results for the query "custom cupcakes Chicago."

"Delicious and memorable, beautiful designs, and occasion specific are a few reasons why our desserts stand out. We choose the best raw ingredients to make the best desserts."

Nadiya’a Cupcakes, a first-page result, doesn’t obsessively cram keyword variations into the copy. The copy focuses on the product, the service, and the benefit to customers.

Conclusion

Copy is one component of a product page, alongside images, video, design, and the product itself. But it has an important role to play. The best copywriters command enormous fees for a reason: great sales copy can make a massive difference to the bottom line. But, even if you’d rather not pay for copy, it’s worth spending the time it takes to get it right.

Since late 2018, Instagram has been prepping a treat for its half a million active influencers: the Creator profile.

With enhanced analytics, inbox management, and our personal favorite — shoppable posts from partner brands — the Creator profile is a game-changer for influencers and partners alike.

Partnering with influencers is already a fantastic way to drive results for your brand, with every dollar invested on influencer marketing delivering $5 in revenue. And with shoppable posts for partners through the new Creator profile, that opportunity just got even bigger.

So, how do you benefit from the Creator profile and influencer marketing? Read on to find out.

Who are Instagram Creators?

Although the Creator profile is being rolled out to all users regardless of follower numbers, it’s designed for influencers who are already creating content for large audiences. Creators can identify their specialties by choosing from 40 options, including actors, graphic designers, writers, musicians, and more.

Instagram Creator Profile Features

This new profile type solves three main problems for users with large followerships:

• Filtering options for Direct Messages allow for better communication with brands and followers. Influencers can prioritize messages from brands and friends and rank them by relevance or time to make sure they never miss an opportunity.
• Filtered Contact Methods. Now influencers can choose to show or hide their preferred method of contact to encourage communication when and how they like it.
• Advanced system of statistical data. Daily "follow" and "unfollow" data helps influencers determine what content works best for their audiences.

Сreator Profile vs. Business Profile

If you’re a business or public figure, the personal account definitely leaves something to be desired. Both Business and Creator profiles have extended features to help you drive sales and build engagement. Not sure which profile’s right for you? Check out our comparison below:

Analytics

Both Business and Creator profiles provide statistics about your followers: gender, age, location by city and country, and when your audience is most active. But in the Creator profile, users can track follower growth and engagement more accurately with enhanced data on following spikes and dips to let creators know what content their audience prefers.

Follower stats: gender, age, location, and activity (both business and creator profile)

Growth insights: followed and unfollowed (Creator profile)

Contact Button

Both Creator and Business profiles offer a contact button. With a Business profile, anyone can contact you at any time, which is useful if your goal is gaining new leads. The Creator account, however, offers more privacy, allowing influencers to show or hide a preferred contact method with category labels (musician, artist, director, blogger.)

Profile display options (Creator profile)

Direct Message Management

The Creator profile has filtering options for direct messages. This helps users sift through and locate specific messages (like requests from potential partners) amidst their sea of fan mail. Learn more in the Instagram Help Center. Direct Messages in Business profiles can’t be filtered.

2 inbox tabs in the Creator profile

So, back to the question: should you use a Business, Personal, or Creator profile? Here’s our take:

• If you mostly use your IG account to connect with friends, stay on Personal. No big deal.
• If you want to promote your business and increase sales through Instagram, check out the Business profile.
• If your brand is your name, and people want to watch your every step, Creator’s probably the way to go.

Selling Your Products through Instagram Influencers

Creators can now cooperate with account useful both for merchants and influencers is. With little shoppings tags right in the Instagram pictures, every follower can buy your product without leaving Instagram.

Once upon a time, shoppable posts could only be used to tag products from your own Business account. But thanks to the wonders of the Creator profile, businesses can now partner with influencers to tag and sell products through the influencer’s posts as well. Talk about getting your products in front of the right audience. Using shoppable posts, an influencer’s followers can buy any tagged product from a partner profile.

And there are already 500,000 active influencers on Instagram right now! Influencers make up 39% of all Instagram accounts with over 15,000 followers, so roughly one-in-three popular profiles is also an influencer. In 2018, influencer marketing on Instagram reached $2 billion in annual spend with growth projected to reach $5-$10 billion by 2020.

Instagram is testing shoppable posts for Creators with a limited group of influencers now, but this new feature will hopefully be available to all influencers and businesses in the near future.

How to Enable Shoppable Posts

To allow followers to purchase products from your posts, you’ll need to upload your product catalog to your Facebook Business manager and connect it to your Instagram. With Ecwid E-commerce, you can do this in just a few clicks —- just follow our instructions to get started.

Don’t have an Ecwid store? Sign up to start selling on Instagram, Facebook, Amazon, eBay, in person, and everywhere in between.

Here’s the Wrap-Up

Instagram, as the most popular social platform for photo sharing, has now become the ideal visual platform for showcasing your products as well. With new features like Creator profiles, Instagram has embraced the world of e-commerce marketing, capitalizing on its 1 billion monthly active users. If you’re ready to expand your online business, Instagram might just be your next adventure. And with Ecwid E-commerce, selling on Instagram has never been easier.

Laying awake at night dreaming about new features for your Ecwid website? Well, your dreams are about to come true. Announcing the dramatically revamped Ecwid Instant Site (former Starter Site), now with enhanced design tools and almost endless design options to make creating your ultimate Ecwid storefront fast, easy, and almost too much fun.

It’s the same one-page website you love, but we’ve turned the volume up to 11. Our ultra-fast and ultra-efficient site builder is shined, refined, and up for a good time, with all new ready-made themes and a customizable header layout that’s been optimized for conversion.

And the best part? It’s all completely free. Read on to see all the new design features available for your Ecwid site, and — whenever you’re ready — jump into your control panel to give ’em a try.

New design options make for endless opportunities for customization

How to Use Instant Site’s Design Options

All our new designs have been developed with you (yes, YOU) in mind. Choose the layout, fonts, colors, and more to express your brand style, add a unique design touch, and make your Instant Site your own.

To get started, head to the Website tab in your Ecwid Control Panel (ex. Control Panel → Starter Site) and click "Edit." The new design tools are enabled automatically for all stores, so you can start using them right away.

Select a predesigned theme

If this is your first website or you want to launch it faster, we’ve got you covered. Browse ready-made themes to find something that fits your brand.

These themes are fully customizable, meaning you can change texts, fonts, button CTA, images, colors, and layouts right in the editor. We are adding more themes soon to keep you inspired.

Want to give your website a personal touch? You can modify your theme or start from scratch in the "Headline and Cover" tab. Keep reading to see it in action.

Choose the cover layout

Change the position of your header copy and the layout of your background:

• Full-screen cover image works great when you have high-quality product photography. Avoid images with too many small details that can make the text on your cover image difficult to read.
• Right or left sidebar separates your image and descriptions, emphasizing your text and balancing it with your chosen visuals.
• A shortened cover image allows users to see your products before scrolling.
• No cover image: select this option to show only the top menu for faster launch.

Replace the demo text with your own copy (you can do it in the left sidebar menu of the Instant Site editor) and adjust its position on your cover image: move it left, right, up, and down.

Add your own photo

Already have some great photos? Showcase your best product photography on your cover background: for the best fit, choose images that are at least 1400х1050px. Set it up in the "Background Options" tab.

…Or, choose from thousands of free stock images

No photos yet? Use an integrated stock photography tool to select one of our available professionally-created stock images.

…Or, wow customers with a background video

They say a picture sells like a thousand words, so a video must sell like at least a thousand pictures. Spice up that cover with footage of your new collection, happy customers, your products being created, or — better yet — your products in action.

To add a video to your cover area, simply copy/paste the link from YouTube or Vimeo. If you’re using someone else’s video, be aware of copyrights and make sure to get permission first.

More articles to get you going with video:

• How to Use Video in E-commerce Marketing
• Facebook Video on a Budget: Create and Run Ads in No Time

…Or, fill the cover background with a color or gradient

If you prefer the minimalist life, add a plain color or a gradient to your background. Just be sure to coordinate your text color with your background for easy reading.

Change the font, size, and color of your headings

Text style is an important part of branding. Select the size, color, and font for the main copy on your Instant Site: make it thin and airy, bold and solid, moderate and professional, or anything in between.

Add image filters

Image too bright? Need to make a quick change? Don’t rush to expensive photo editors. Test out some of our new image filters instead. Not seeing what you want? Use the tool to create one of your own!

Design the CTA button

Set your brand color, change the CTA copy and size, and optimize your button for conversions.

More Tools for Designing Your E-commerce Website

Now that you’ve got your fancy new cover image to lure in new customers, take your storefront further with Instant Site tools to:

• Design catalog layouts that flatter your brand and products
• Add quality product images
• Write catchy product descriptions
• Get creative in the "About Us" section
• Add customer testimonials for additional social proof.

Show us how you’re doing — share a link to your Instant Site in the comments! And be sure to check out more ways to sell with Ecwid.

One of the perks of being an entrepreneur is setting your own schedule. You’re the boss after all.

But in reality, one in five small business owners actually feel guilty about taking a vacation and stepping away from their businesses. When everyone else goes offline for the holidays, most entrepreneurs stay put.

But vacations matter. Professionals who regularly take time off work are proven to be more productive than those who spend extra time working. And regular vacations also contribute positively to emotional wellbeing, reducing instances of depression.

You shouldn’t feel guilty about taking time off. In this post, we’ll look at some steps you can take to feel less stressed while you break from your grind for a little R&R.

Announce Your Vacation Early

Will you slow shipping during your vacation? Maybe you want to stop it altogether? Whatever you choose, let your customers know about the changes in advance. Depending on the average shipping time, "in advance" can mean anything from three days to a couple of weeks.

An example of a banner you can put on your website to announce changes to your customers

A banner on your website can do the job. Make it bright and noticeable for everyone to see. Check out Ecwid apps like Easy Popup or Countdown Timer Popup to create popups right in your control panel. And don’t forget to spread the word on your social media pages too.

If you want to sell as much as you can before you go on vacation, try Facebook remarketing to reach out to previous site visitors who left without completing their checkout. People who’ve already been thinking about buying are low-hanging fruit for e-commerce merchants looking to make a quick sale.

Organize Pre-ordering

Offer your customers pre-ordering — they can purchase in advance, and you ship in 2-3 weeks when you come back. Discounts and gifts will make it worth the wait.

Close pre-orders a couple days before your vacation and stock up on materials/products/packaging. Then make sure when you return, you’ve got enough time to prepare, pack, and ship your pre-orders. For example, instead of feeling like you need to ship everything the first day, start shipping orders a week after you come back. It’s better to alert customers about a late start than to be late with delivery.

Ship Only Large Orders

If you’re not going anywhere during your break and you’re ready to take some orders, consider only shipping large orders.

To avoid offending shoppers with smaller orders, just change the delivery terms. For example, offer fast delivery for orders over $60, and send smaller orders in 10-15 days. This way you get some downtime to relax, without shutting down operations completely. Of course, if your customers really love your product, there’s always a risk they’ll just order more to get it sooner. That’s definitely not a bad thing, but you should be ready to deal with it.

Use Fulfillment Options

"Fulfillment" includes a variety of services for online stores, from receiving calls to packaging and delivery. A fulfillment center can even take over working with your suppliers. You can find fulfillment services right in the Ecwid App Market, like eFulfillment Service.

Fulfillment centers sell packages of services, but you needn’t use them all. Pay either by the hour or by the number of processed orders. But pay attention to prices — sometimes it’s cheaper to pay for each delivery separately.

Audit Your Website and Sales Funnel

To really relax and save yourself some headaches while you’re away on vacation, spend some time conducting a thorough audit of your website, sales funnel, and other important processes before you leave. Not only is it a smart move to make sure everything’s chugging along as it should, but it’ll help you spot and fix any major issues before step away.

Here’s what you should pay attention to:

• Check your website performance. For example, enter the domain on GTMetrix to evaluate your site’s speed, mobile responsiveness, and overall performance.
• Place a test order to make sure your customers won’t have problems placing orders while you’re away.
• Double-check that your website and social media pages provide a fast way to contact a customer service representative (you or someone you’ve delegated).
• Verify that all your passwords are strong.

Automate Your Marketing

Thanks to modern automation tools, marketing is simpler than ever before.

Marketing automation allows you to attract new audiences and keep your customers informed during your vacation. Here are a few ways you can use it:

• Email marketing automation. About 70% of online customers who add products to their cart leave without completing their purchase. Recovering abandoned carts can increase sales by up to 20%. And if you upgrade to Ecwid’s Business or Unlimited plans, we’ll do all the work for you: abandoned cart emails are sent automatically to the customers’ inbox.
• Scheduled newsletters. Think over the topics, prepare your email content, and schedule the send. When the time comes, the email will send automatically to your designated email list. This feature is available on all popular mail services.
• Social media automation. Automated scheduling tools allow you to plan and pre-slot social media content that will automatically post on your specified date/time. All you’ll have to supply on the day is your real-time interaction.

With the help of automated marketing tools, you can improve your operation’s efficiency and spend more time enjoying your vacation.

Leverage Your Remote Capabilities

One of the beautiful things about technology is that it enables us to work whenever we want from wherever we want. And if you’re traveling for a vacation, having your smartphone, laptop, or tablet in tow means you can keep tabs on your business wherever you roam.

If your online store is built with Ecwid E-commerce, you can use the Ecwid mobile store management app for iOS and Android to take care of important business from your mobile device. With the app, you can:

• Manage orders
• Get notifications when new orders are placed
• Photograph and list new products
• Share products on social media
• Modify and manage inventory
• Process sales and much more.

So even when you’re away, you can take care of those must-do items on your checklist. The app is included free with all paid Ecwid plans, but even if you’re a free plan user, you can try it free for 14 days.

Keep in mind that even though you can work from wherever, it’s still okay to enjoy your vacation. Schedule a set block of time during the day when you can focus on work, and then get back to relaxing. Having set times for work and set times for rest can help you better manage and focus on both.

Delegate What You Can

Inability to delegate is one of the reasons new businesses fail. Pushing responsibilities down isn’t as easy as it sounds. Sometimes it feels like no one can do your job as well as you do. But you still need to pause and make room for important strategic planning. Here’s what you can do:

Document your processes for your staff or temporary support. This can include customer service policy, guidelines for running social media pages, checklists for packaging, or whatever else seems important.

Having written instructions is crucial to successful delegation. As you manage your store, develop a habit of writing down (or saving links to) instructions for all important operations. For example, why create every social media image from scratch if you could use a template? Begin to develop easily communicable processes, and your vacation will thank you.

From Jamie Oliver’s brandbook

Add staff to your Ecwid Store Team. With administrator access, your team members will be given restricted access to log into your Ecwid store, without the risk of seeing important private information like your billing info or team page. For example, you can delegate work and give Administrator access to:

• store managers — to manage sales and control stock,
• fulfillment operators — to prepare orders for shipping, delivery, or in-store pickup,
• or marketing managers — to run promotions.

If having some additional support while you’re away makes you rest easy, this is a minor investment that will be worth its weight in gold. Feel free to check out live chat apps in the Ecwid App Market to install in your store.

Take a Vacation and Enjoy It!

If your sales already decline in summer, seize that moment and take a rest while customers are inactive. By taking advantage of the tips we’ve outlined here, you can finally take that vacation you’ve been dreaming of… and actually enjoy it!

You’ll spend less time worrying that your business is falling apart, and your travel partners will appreciate you being more present and relaxed. Don’t let your hesitations keep you at home — take a break! You deserve it.

When was your last vacation as a business owner? Let us know in the comments!