How Magento Meets the Unique Needs of Nutraceuticals

How Magento Meets the Unique Needs of Nutraceuticals

by | Jul 27, 2020 | Adobe/Magento, eCommerce

When it comes to powering online nutraceutical sales, choosing a great eCommerce platform is vital — but it also can be daunting. There are so many platforms — Magento, BigCommerce, Shopify, Demandware and more. How do you know which one will best suit your needs? For many companies, Magento is the clear answer.

As a certified Magento partner with a rich history of nutraceutical work, we are in a unique position to speak to the distinct Magento benefits that support a nutraceutical company. Keep reading to learn all about the features and functionalities that set Magento apart from the competition.

What is Magento?

Magento is the world’s number-one eCommerce platform for open commerce innovation. Magento is part of Adobe Experience Cloud; offers industry-leading Cloud solutions; works hand-in-hand with the world’s biggest retailers, brands and branded manufacturers across B2C and B2B eCommerce industries; and is recognized as a global power. Every year, Magento handles more than $100 billion in gross merchandise volume.

What are the benefits of using Magento?

Magento offers a host of incredible features for selling nutraceuticals online.

  • Multi-store, multi-site: Magento allows users to create and power many sites from one dashboard, controlled from one admin user interface. This is a huge advantage when it comes to multi-national and multi-site selling. Many nutraceutical companies that use Magento gain major efficiencies by leveraging the multi-store / multi-site feature to control their site(s) from one admin panel and instance while selling on websites for many different brands or countries. Many of Magento’s top competitors don’t offer this feature. These other platforms  force their merchants to create separate sites for selling in different countries or brand segments.

  • Page Builder application: Magento eCommerce provides a Page Builder application that allows users to create content by using drag-and-drop pre-built controls. For eCommerce site managers, this means that there is no coding required. For developers, it means they will use content types to customize Page Builder in order to meet the end user’s needs. With a tool like Page Builder, the cost (and time required) to create new product pages and maintain existing content can be dramatically reduced because code no longer needs to be written.

  • Segmentation: Creating customer segments allows users to target shoppers with unique, personalized marketing and promotions. When used properly, these customer segments can be very powerful tools for increasing engagement and brand loyalty. Magento provides a rules engine that gives administrators the ability to write conditions based on customer purchase history and profile data. For example, a rule could be written to display banner ads featuring the benefits of “subscribe and save” options for customers who purchased something more than three times in a six month period. Using  segmentation, nutraceutical websites can be more effective at building recurring orders.

  • Promotion / content staging and scheduling: Promotions and content changes on the Magento eCommerce platform can be staged for review and testing by site administrators before they are scheduled for public display. This is an extremely useful feature when preparing for large holiday events that entail multiple content changes and promotional rules. For example: Using this tool, users can work to create all of the content and promotions needed for a Black Friday event and then provide links to co-workers and stakeholders that allow for a full preview of how the site will look and function on Black Friday. Then, users can schedule the go-live time for all of the promotions and content changes — so they don’t need to be up at midnight on Black Friday to “flip the switch” and push content changes live.

  • Product bundling: The Magento eCommerce platform offers several product bundling features that provide great flexibility for offering kitted or bundled items with options and discounts. By using the product bundle feature, users can offer supplements with different options for sizes and flavors. This is a unique and powerful feature, as it allows shoppers to choose all of the varieties they need to put together an assorted bundle of products from one page.

  • B2B features: For nutraceutical manufacturers and distributors, Magento offers a full suite of functionality for commonly-required B2B features. Some of these features include companies (organize users, credit limits and catalog by company), credit limits, catalog permissions, pricing by customer group or company, requisition lists, quote requests and user hierarchy / account permissions. These out-of-the-box B2B features dramatically lower customization costs, decrease the time to market for new Magento Commerce B2B websites and lower the total cost of ownership.

Conclusion

When it comes to choosing an eCommerce platform for online nutraceutical sales, Magento stands out. When used properly, this feature-rich platform gives a great deal of competitive advantages over other platforms for nutraceutical websites.

InteractOne is a longstanding, certified Magento partner. To learn more about the power of Magento and how it can power your digital presence, contact us today.

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Communication Channels Fashion Brands Must Embrace

Communication Channels Fashion Brands Must Embrace

by | Jul 24, 2020 | Apparel, Digital Marketing, eCommerce

These days consumers are online like never before, which means that now is the time for brands to hone their internet-based communications. This requires going beyond traditional email marketing to embrace newer channels that consumers are using, such as video chat and social media. Engagement and availability is key; if your fashion, apparel or accessories brand isn’t utilizing new tools for talking to your customers, you’re probably missing out. 

Brands need to meet consumers where they already are. For some, this can seem intimidating, but it doesn’t have to be. First, you need to consider the tools at your disposal. Read on for five often-underutilized communication channels your brand should be using to engage customers.

Text Message

Many fashion brands have been slow to adopt text messages as a form of communication with their customers, with concerns about being perceived as too pushy. But now that 96% of American adults own a cell phone (according to Pew Research), text messages are increasingly being seen as an excellent way to engage customers. Texts have an average open rate of 93%, compared to emails, which have an average open rate of 25% (according to Inc). With most of us receiving a glut of marketing emails from brands every day, it can be easy to see why texts might be more easily noticed.

The key is to be tactful: provide clear opt-out information from the beginning, and don’t bombard your customers with multiple texts all at once. Try using texts to inform customers about restocks of specific products they’ve expressed interest in, or already purchased, via your website. Send them promotions such as personalized, limited-time discount codes and offers. Brands that are really concerned about coming off as too pushy could try the same approach that Toronto-based jewellery brand Mejuri uses: they don’t initiate any conversations with customers. Instead, they allow consumers to text them with any questions about products, and they respond in a timely manner, so the focus is on the customer’s convenience.

Web Chat

Whether powered by artificial intelligence or human employees, web chat can be another powerful tool for fashion brands. Allowing customers to engage with sales associates or stylists via chat and ask questions about your products in real-time while they browse can be a simple but effective way to drive both engagement and sales. Research from Forrester found that customers who interacted with web chat were 2.8 times more likely to make a purchase.

While AI-powered chatbots can be useful for simple questions and issues, sometimes these services can suffer from their lack of humanity. Web chats with real staff members offer that human element where nuances in language are perhaps more able to be understood, and the personal element of retail shopping is retained. Fashion brands like Modcloth, Nordstrom and Warby Parker all benefit from their live chat services, which provide personalized service that retains the brand’s voice in a way that’s natural and conversational.

One-On-One Video Calls

Styling and wardrobe consulting has always been a huge part of the fashion world—one that will never simply go away overnight, no matter how many apps or algorithms are created. Consumers value the personal human element of fashion retail customer service, which is why it translates so well to the web. Department stores like Nordstrom and independent fashion stylists such as Allison Bornstein and Julia von Boehm are providing styling services via video calls, and now more brands of all sizes are getting on board—and yours should too.

It’s really just about extending your retail experience into your online offering, minus the physical interaction of clothes (or shoes or jewelry) exchanging hands. Video calling is a great way to introduce customers to a collection either pre- or post-purchase. The same demonstrations that are given in-store can now be done online. This allows for more dynamic product demonstrations than simply viewing static product shots on-screen, and enables questions and answers to be delivered in real-time, satisfying customers just as quickly.

Social Media

Its constantly evolving nature may feel burdensome to learn and incorporate, but social media can be extremely rewarding for fashion brands seeking to engage more with their customers. Apps like Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok enable brands to tell stories in entertaining and exciting ways and bring their products to life in animated videos, slideshows, GIFs, memes and more.

Fashion brands such as Guess and PrettyLittleThing are utilizing TikTok by creating interactive “challenges” where customers interact with and customize their clothing, and by sharing engaging behind-the-scenes content. Instagram is also being embraced in unorthodox ways by brands—even legacy fashion houses such as Chanel, who recently hosted a live-streamed music performance on their Instagram Stories.

Brands who succeed on these channels do so by using them to build community and inspire creativity, not simply push their products. It’s these memorable moments that brands create that make them stand out and gain loyal followers.

Digital Seminars

Social media and video conferencing services like Zoom are also increasingly being utilized by savvy online fashion brands eager to engage their audiences in real-time conversation. This can mean brands inviting consumers into conversation with them on Instagram Live, or doing live-streamed video conferences with industry peers and collaborators. They can facilitate conversations on everything from brand-specific matters, to broader issues facing the fashion industry.

New York designer Mara Hoffman has hosted some informative conversations about sustainability and new projects and products with her collaborators and partner organizations on her Instagram Live in recent weeks. French luxury brand Chloé has also been hosting discussions with a curated selection of creative women (or “#ChloeGirls”). These kinds of web-based discussions can help to establish your brand as more approachable, engaged and expert in its field. It can also help to introduce your brand to a wider audience.

Conclusion

Whether or not your fashion brand is already using the communication channels above, there’s a good chance your customers already are. Join them and build your community together. If you’d like some guidance on how to effectively build out your communications offering, please reach out to our team today.

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Poor FAQ Pages Are Costing You Sales. Here’s What You Must Include

Poor FAQ Pages Are Costing You Sales. Here’s What You Must Include

by | Jul 24, 2020 | Digital Marketing, eCommerce

A Frequently Asked Question (FAQ) page is an important part of any fashion eCommerce website for a multitude of reasons. (By the way, when we refer to a “fashion” webstore, we’re really including anything a consumer might put on their body, including clothes, shoes, jewelry and other accessories. These techniques apply to all of these.) Beyond addressing common customer queries, a well-written FAQ page will have a positive effect on your Search Engine Optimization (SEO) results, while making your web store more searchable. It can also reduce some of the burden on your customer service employees and be a proactive way to prevent customer complaints, by spelling out everything your shoppers need to know. A great FAQ page can even make your brand come across as more transparent and trustworthy, as it can help you share your knowledge and expertise in the industry. 

Each brand needs to use their judgement as to what is appropriate for them and their customer, but there are common topics and tactics when it comes to fashion brands’ FAQ pages. 

Here are some tips for how to create your fashion eCommerce website’s FAQ page, followed by a list of common questions it should include, and some key takeaways.

Reinforce your brand

Often the FAQ page is seen as a place to simply share questions and answers, but it’s also an excellent place to reinforce the brand story or mission that you’ve established on your homepage and About page. Shoppers click on your brand’s FAQ page because they have specific questions about your brand or the products or services you provide. A good FAQ page will help them get to know and understand your brand better.

For example, sustainable fashion brand Vetta’s core brand offering is a capsule collection, which allows shoppers to get 30 outfits out of five dynamic pieces. They answer the question “Can the five pieces really make 30 outfits?” to alleviate any customer concerns about the veracity of this claim. Similarly, outdoor brand North Face includes questions about their Company Background on the meaning behind their name and what their logo represents, to reinforce their brand’s narrative.

Categorize your Q&A

Brands that want to cover many questions and answers on their FAQ page might want to consider implementing a FAQ database so that topics can be easily searched and categorized. Adding drop-down folders and/or a search bar also makes for easier navigation. Search bars tend to be favored by larger brands that are asked many varied questions, but most fashion brands will find a handful of categories sufficient for their needs. Footwear retailer Zappos is one such example: they divide their FAQ into sections including “Returns”, “Shoes/Brands,” and “Payment Information.” They also include broader categories like “Across the Board,” which encompasses fabric care, gift cards and more.

Another large fashion retailer that does this is Levi’s, who combine their FAQ and Help information on one page with sections dividing common queries about accounts, orders and shipping. They also don’t format their FAQ as questions, even though the page is labelled as such. Instead they position the queries as statements, with headings and body copy. Either questions and answers or statements work, depending on the tone your brand wants to convey.

Showcase your expertise

Your FAQ page is also a great opportunity to boast about your unique materials, products, design techniques and other innovations. You can go into more detail here than on a product page, where minimal copy is key.

Sustainable brand Christy Dawn showcases their unique offering well on their FAQ page, explaining how their use of deadstock fabrics contributes to the differing sizes of their products, and why some of their items that are dyed with plant-based pigments can bleed dye when they’re washed. In their trademark friendly, down-to-earth language, they gently reinforce the special care that some of their items require due to these idiosyncrasies, which are also outlined on the individual product pages for full transparency.

Make it SEO friendly

The importance of clarity in your FAQ page cannot be overstated, as this is a crucial page for your brand in terms of SEO. So while you are taking pains to continue to speak in your brand’s language and sing all of its fine, unique qualities, you also need to ensure there is straightforward, simple information on the page that will answer your customers’ common queries.

Remember, it’s not just humans that are finding and reading your FAQs. With the rise of voice search and AI-driven personal assistants, many people are finding your FAQs with the help of artificial intelligence. So be sure to share your information in simple terms that can be easily parsed, and link to other pages on your website where applicable.

Have fun with it

While your FAQ page does need to be clear enough to be parsed by search engines, it shouldn’t be so simple that it loses all personality. Your FAQ needs to reflect your brand and its voice, so be sure that everything you write here is given the same attention to detail in terms of tone, even if you are basing it off of the mostly generic list below.

Youthful online retailer Dolls Kill includes questions about things like fees and student discounts in the same witty, rebellious tone of voice that you see all over their website and social media. For example, they start the answer to the question “Can I work or intern at Dolls Kill?” with another question: “Are you a bad ass?” Before getting into more practical issues of location and qualifications, and linking to their careers page.

Where to start

We’ve provided a number of specific suggestions and IRL examples of best practice FAQ page tactics, but you still may be asking: “where do I start on an FAQ page project”. Well here are some common questions to include in your FAQ page:

  • What are your shipping options? 
  • What is your return policy? 
  • Where is my order? 
  • Can I change my order after it’s been placed? 
  • How do I know what size to order? 
  • What do I do if I receive a defective order? 
  • Where are you based? 
  • Who started this brand? 
  • Is this brand sustainable? 
  • Where do your materials come from? 
  • How can I contact you?
  • Can I work for you?

Get these developed for your site and you’ll likely think of a few others that are specific to your business.

Key takeaways:

These days many fashion retailers are selling face masks for shoppers to wear to help stop the spread of COVID. It should be noted that no medical or legal claims should be made in your FAQs unless they have been shared or expressed by professionals from these fields. Link to any reputable sources where appropriate.

It’s impossible to answer every person’s potential question, so provide a link or means to contact you or your team with any questions that are not listed on your FAQ page. This could come in the form of a message form on the page, listed contact information, or a link to a separate contact page.

As your brand, the industry and the world evolves, so should your FAQ page. It may be helpful to keep note of customer queries as they come in through your various communication channels, and take time to regularly assess and add to your FAQ page to keep it relevant. An up-to-date FAQ page is essential to ensuring your customers remain satisfied and consistent shoppers with your brand.

For help with FAQ’s or any other site maintenance or optimization efforts, please feel free to reach out to us via our contact form.

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July Orange Report: The Best Amazon Extensions

July Orange Report: The Best Amazon Extensions

by | Jul 14, 2020 | Past Newsletters

July Orange Report: The Best Amazon Extensions

For this month’s Orange Report, we’re covering the best and most used Amazon Extensions our Dev team is working with.

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The Art of Upselling Apparel & Accessories

The Art of Upselling Apparel & Accessories

by | Jul 14, 2020 | Apparel, eCommerce

Upselling is one of the most important things an eCommerce store can do. Whether it’s presenting customers with a more expensive or “upgraded” alternative of the item they’re looking at, or simply showing them more options before they purchase, it’s a great way to increase revenue. But many small eCommerce businesses don’t do it, either because they feel upselling is too aggressive, or they’re not sure how to go about it. 

However, as we’ve said in a previous blog, no apparel eCommerce webstore should ever miss an opportunity to upsell. You don’t let customers walk out the door of your brick and mortar retail store with a pair of pants without first making sure they’ve seen your other styles of pants and complementary shirts. So why should your online store be any different? 

There are various approaches and things to consider when trying to upsell on your eCommerce platform. Here are our tips for upselling.

Choose which products to promote and upsell wisely

First of all, featuring just any product probably won’t work in driving more sales. Think carefully about how the product you’re choosing will appeal to your customer—you want to make their lives easier by showing them something that’s likely to meet their needs and appeal to their interests. Choose items that either sell well, are reviewed well (on review pages, your own product pages, or social media), or are most relevant to the product you’re selling.

For example, if your brand sells lingerie, you’ll want to show a customer who’s viewing one pair of underwear other pairs that are more high-end or in different styles that cost more. You’ll also want to present items that pair well with that underwear, that ideally are at a higher price point. Savage x Fenty does this well with a section on their product page titled “Xtra items you may like,” which includes a number of higher priced, complementary bras the customer is likely to be interested in.

Categorize your inventory to find upselling opportunities

In order to do the above, it’s a good idea to go through your inventory and categorize all of your products in a spreadsheet by type, price, and whether they’re priced at a “regular” or higher, “luxury” level. You will then be able to see your upselling opportunities by looking at which “luxury” products could be promoted alongside “regular” products. Start with your best-selling, most popular (or positively reviewed) products, if you have a lot of merchandise, and go from there.

Promote recommended accessories or pairings on product pages

Once you’ve identified which items work well together for upselling opportunities, you can add them to individual product pages. Add these higher priced items at the bottom of the page under a headline such as  “You might like” (as Reformation does), “Similar items” (as Asos suggests) or “Customers also bought” (as Levi’s does).

You should also include other items in your modelled product photos to show styling options, and call these out in product description copy. Another tactic is to include a section lower down the product page that offers these other products, under a headline like “Buy the look” (as Asos does) or “Model is also wearing” (as Everlane does), or even something as simple as “Check these out too” (as Dollskill does).

Group complementary products on your homepage

Don’t limit these complementary product pairings to specific product pages. You’ve gone to the effort to find what works best together and presented these options to your customers as they click through and consider individual items. Make it easier for them (and for you) by featuring a selection of items that work well together on your homepage.

This could be in the form of seasonal or timely promotions or campaigns that feature the items together in one photo, or that group different product photos together to create a look or style. Anthropologie pairs a number of “casual” items together on their homepage under the headline “Take it easy,” for shoppers who may have gone to the website with one of these items in mind (like relaxed-fit pants), but who are then inspired to explore other similar-style products like loose-fitting dresses or camisoles.

Personalize your recommendations to your customer

One surefire way to create a powerful shopping experience is to personalize the content you’re showing your customers. Nosto reports that 66% of consumers will not purchase from a brand whose content is not tailored to their interests. By segmenting your audience and targeting your different groups of shoppers with content that matches what they’re looking for, you’re in a much better position to increase your conversion rates.

Pay attention to where your customers are coming to you from and use this information to offer them products that they’re likely to be interested in. For example, if a customer clicks on an ad you’ve placed in a marketing email or on social media that’s showcasing your winter line, take them to a page with these or similar products. They’ll be more likely to purchase if you show them what they’re interested in straight away. Don’t make them search for it!

Install pop-ups in cart and on checkout page

Take advantage of upselling opportunities at every step of the sales process, right up until the purchase is finalized. You can display product upgrades and complementary items in the cart and on the checkout page, before your customer completes their purchase.

Adding a deal here can provide a good incentive, such as providing a threshold to get free shipping (with a customized tagline like “add $x to get free shipping,” or more generic messaging that doesn’t need to be calculated for each customer, like “free shipping on orders over $x”). Bundle deals on more basic apparel items like T-shirts (for example “buy two get one free”) can also be great upselling opportunities.

Present these items in your follow-up marketing emails

Whether the customer completed the purchase or abandoned their cart, send them follow-up emails that once again present the upsell options you provided earlier. If it’s an order confirmation email, this could mean a simple thumbnail or two with a photo and link to the item along with a tagline such as “keep shopping,” “need something extra?” or “get it on your next order!” This will keep your offer in your customer’s mind, and give them an easy way to revisit it.

As you can see, there are multiple ways to upsell on your fashion or apparel eCommerce website. The most important thing is to implement a strategy and follow through with it, otherwise you risk missing out on a lot of extra revenue. We’d be happy to help you devise and execute an upselling strategy that suits your business. Get in touch with our team today.

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