Good Afternoon,
We’ve got another big round-up of connections that made it to the ePortal this week! Below are the new and updated integration connections that were deployed to the ePortal during the week of April 26th, 2010:
Here at eBridge, we are always striving to find new, innovative ways to offer more value to our clients. We have recently come up with a new integration idea and we would love to hear your thoughts on it.
Payment Gateway Integration
This new integration solution would potentially eliminate the manual process of reconciling your sales orders with your payment records. Typically, an eCommerce merchant using PayPal for example would receive a report of all payments processed each month. Then, the merchant would have to compare each payment to ensure the dollar value matches what is displayed on the corresponding sales order. We figure that even with a moderate volume of sales, this could be quite the cumbersome task.
Mother’s Day is just around the corner. With the economy recovering and consumer confidence increasing, it is anticipated Mother’s Day sales will increase by 4.2% in 2010 to $14.88 billion. Not only is it expected that overall sales will increase, but that more consumers will turn to the internet to purchase their mother’s day gifts this year.
Market research found that:
People often use the internet to gather information about products online. They visit several websites to “window shop”. They often get an idea of what’s available and at what cost, log off and head directly for nearest brick and mortar store to make their actual purchase. Here are some tips to encourage customers to make their purchases online:
Offer online-only specials
This may be enough to encourage someone to take the next step to complete their purchase online instead of heading to a store. Offering exclusive items or online-only discounts will help to encourage buyers to stay within your eCommerce storefront.
Encourage impulse buys
Have limited-time offers online. This encourages your customers to act fast to get a great deal. Also suggest related products. If a customer purchases a digital camera, suggest accessories such as memory cards. If they purchase a book, suggest other books they may enjoy. Many shopping carts offer this functionality as a value-added feature or plugin.
Good Afternoon,
While we’re already missing our team that headed out to Atlanta, GA today for the Microsoft Convergence 2010 Conference, our development team is still hard at work! Below are the new and updated integration connections that were deployed to the ePortal during the week of April 19th, 2010:
That wraps up another week of integration innovation! Be sure to contact us if you have any questions or need a connection we haven’t deployed yet.
Also, for anyone that is attending Convergence, be sure to visit the guys at booth #235!
Kevin Martin
Assistant Marketing Professional
EDI Integration, General EDI, Integration, Integration as a Service
Today is Earth Day. Why not celebrate by taking initiates to green your office? Here are a few tips:
As of 9am EST today, eBridge clients have helped save 1,392 trees by processing their documents electronically on ePortal
Happy Earth Day everyone!
Nazma
Team Leader, Support Services
Good Afternoon,
As always, I’m proud to share with you this week’s roundup of new and updated integration connections. Below are the new and updated integration connections that were deployed to the ePortal during the week of April 12th, 2010:
That’s all we have got for you this week. Be sure to contact us if you have any questions or need a connection we haven’t deployed yet!
See you next week – same eBridge time, same eBridge Blog.
Kevin Martin
Assistant Marketing Professional
EDI Integration, General EDI, Integration, Integration as a Service
I heard an ad on the radio last week during the morning drive to work that caught my attention. However, it didn’t stick with me the way in which the marketer likely would have hoped. It was the call to action and way that the company’s website was positioned that got me thinking.
The ad was for Sheridan College and at the tail end of the spot, the gentleman encouraged listeners to “Google Sheridan College”. Right away I started weighing the benefits and risks of this approach versus the traditional mention of a direct URL (which in this case would be www.sheridanc.on.ca).
There are indeed arguments for both methods. Here are some of my thoughts on the matter, both for and against:
Easier to Remember: If your URL is not clear or short, urging listeners to Google your business name or keywords you know that you rank first on is a good idea. In the case of Sheridan, it makes sense. The “c” added onto Sheridan to represent “college” would likely missed, as well as the somewhat uncommon use of “*.on.ca”.
Familiar Territory: I can’t be the only one that has seen another person actually type a full web address such as www.ebridgeconnections.com into Google to find the site they are after. They are not doing this because they forget the URL – they’re doing this because its comfortable. It’s likely where the majority of the average user’s internet forays begin, so guiding your prospects from this starting point seems like a good idea.
Check Your SERPs: If you’re going to use Google as the middleman, you need be aware of how they are representing your website. You can start by looking at what content Google has pulled from your site to generate the SERP (Search Engine Results Page). Is it displaying what you want it to, with correct formatting and dates? For a great article explaining how to control your SERPs with meta tags, click here.
Ranking: This is a bit of a no-brainer, but if you’re not ranking number one for the search term you provide, you are asking for trouble. Many users may still successfully reach your site, but there will be some that get confused or lost on the way. A quick check on this point can easily save you from these missed opportunities.
Bad Press : The internet is an open forum where anyone and everyone can speak their mind. If a prominent enough person or enough people are saying anything negative about your company or products, there is a good chance it might show up on page one of the search results. By actively monitoring the web for mentions of your company – good or bad – you can strive to make better decisions surrounding internet marketing.
In conclusion, it really depends on the unique circumstances surrounding your business and online reputation. Whatever method of communicating your website you decide on, just be sure to do your homework.
This is by no means a complete list, but it does provide some food-for-thought for business owners. Can you think of anything else to be mindful of, or perhaps a benefit to this method that I may have overlooked? Let us know!
Kevin Martin
Assistant Marketing Professional
Google Chrome is a great little browser that many of us here in Support have recently started using. So far the only challenge we have found while using Chrome is when viewing XML data. Chrome on its own consolidates the data as opposed to Internet Explorer and Mozilla, who display the data in an XML Tree format.
The good news is there is a neat little add on that can be installed on your Chrome browser to correct this. To get this add on open Google Chrome and search for XML Tree v1.2. Once you have found the download and installed it, you will be able to view your data in a much easier format and even be able to click and element to see the XPath expression.
Andrea
Application Support Specialist
(Don’t forget to make your ePortal Inbox colour theme match your Google Chrome with our new customization options!)
Good Afternoon,
Winter seems to be attempting a come-back, as we saw hail over the lunch hour! However, our trusty team of developers weathered the storm and churned out another quality list of updates. Below are the new and updated integration connections that were deployed to the ePortal during the week of April 5th, 2010:
That’s all we have got for you this week. As always, be sure to contact us if you have any questions or need a connection we haven’t deployed yet!
See you next week.
Kevin Martin
Assistant Marketing Professional
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