In the Loupe
In the Loupe
8 To-Dos for Your Administrative Checklist to Manage Your E-Commerce Website Better
The holiday season brings a rush of online shoppers, making it crucial for retail jewelers to ensure their e-commerce sites are in top shape. With a well-prepared website, you can enhance your customer experience, avoid technical hiccups, and maximize sales.
Here’s a quick checklist to help you get your website holiday-ready, from payment setups to product data and marketing strategy.
Adapted from the recent Punchmark blog article: https://www.punchmark.com/blog-post/administrative-checklist-8-tips-to-fortify-your-e-commerce-for-the-holidays
Send feedback or learn more about the podcast: punchmark.com/loupe
Learn about Punchmark's website platform: punchmark.com
Inquire about sponsoring In the Loupe and showcase your business on our next episode: podcast@punchmark.com
Welcome back everybody to In the Loop. What is up everybody? My name is Michael Burpo. Thanks again for listening to In the Loop. This week we're going kind of short and sweet.
Speaker 1:I recently published a blog for the punchmarkcom blog and this one was all about administrative checklist eight tips to fortify your e-commerce for the holidays. It was a article I wanted to get out before Black Friday and Cyber Week and everything and for the holidays, but I felt like it kind of warranted in the loop episode because I kind of want to expound upon a little bit of it. It's pretty short. You can find it on punchmarkcom. It's the most recent article, but I wanted to kind of dive into a couple things a little bit more and hopefully you enjoy listening along. I hope you have a great cyber week and a great holidays. Let us know if we're your website provider, let us know if we can help you reach out info at punchmarkcom, and even if we're not your provider, we have a great sale going on from December 2nd to the 6th, so reach out for that as well. All right, enjoy.
Speaker 2:This episode is brought to you by Punchmark, the jewelry industry's favorite website platform and digital growth agency. Our mission reaches way beyond technology. With decades of experience and long lasting industry relationships, punchmark enables jewelry businesses to flourish in any marketplace. We consider our clients our friends, as many of them have been friends way before becoming clients. Punchmark's own success comes from the fact that we have a much deeper need and obligation to help our friends succeed. Whether you're looking for better e-commerce performance, business growth or campaigns that drive traffic and sales, punchmark's website and marketing services were made just for you. It's never too late to transform your business and stitch together your digital and physical worlds in a way that achieves tremendous growth and results. Schedule a guided demo today at punchmarkcom. Slash go.
Speaker 1:And now back to the show. Okay, so, like I said, this is going to be a little bit shorter, but I try to keep the episodes a little bit shorter at the end of the year because I know you guys are going to be very busy and I want to get these into bite-sized chunks, and also I'm going to be working off of my blog article, so I'm kind of pretty much read what I got and also expound upon it a little bit. So, without further ado, here's eight tips. The first one talk about your payment and security. So payment is pretty straightforward. Almost every single e-commerce website provider, including Punchmark, is going to take the regular payment options, such as, you know, credit card, but there's a couple of other ones, such as PayPal and Amazon Pay, that kind of hit some of the fringe ones. Currently, punchmark websites don't offer Apple Pay. It's something we want to do in the future, but adding PayPal Pay and Amazon Pay is something that, can you know, expand your payment options, but also security. So currently, punchmark has two fraud protection partners, and that's iForFraud and ClearSale, and we work with them very closely. We have an integration with them. If you don't have a Punchmark website, I know that these two companies work very easily with most website providers and the reason why we recommend you have some type of fraud protection company is especially around the busy part of the year. These companies they analyze and scan every e-commerce order that you get and if they say thumbs up, you're good, that means you are cleared and they will pay you. If, like, the payment bounces, they'll cover it and then essentially insure it for you. We recommend that if you are doing more than I'd probably say a thousand dollars in e-commerce a month, then you definitely should be having some type of fraud protection on your website. I don't care who you're doing it with and I don't care if you have us as your website provider. I'm just trying to look out for you. I highly recommend you have some type of fraud protection on your website. Don't get scammed. Nothing worse than shipping something out and the payment bouncing while it's in the mail. That sucks All right.
Speaker 1:Number two financing and buy now and having a buy now, pay later option. So financing in BNPL are slightly different. I don't really have a hard and fast kind of line in the ground about the difference. When I think of financing, I think of like a traditional one through, like a credit card company like Wells Fargo. That's something someone we're working through and we have kind of like a workaround for how it could work.
Speaker 1:But the buy now, pay later options that we have at Punchmark are Sezzle and Affirm. There's some strengths and weaknesses to either. Sezzle, I think, splits the payment into four payments, I believe, and Affirm splits it into up to 12. So it allows the shopper a little bit more flexibility. I believe Sezzle has a lower ceiling and Affirm has a higher floor. I know that is confusing, but basically, affirm is good for the larger purchases and Sezzle is good for the smaller purchases. A lot of our clients actually have both of them. But it's up to you what works for your business. But the reason why we recommend having some type of BNPL right now is because it allows shoppers to, you know, punch above their weight class, so to speak. So offering something where you know an engagement ring or even something less, a diamond, some diamond jewelry, if it's $1,000, being able to break it into four easy payments of $250, that actually does make it a little bit more attainable.
Speaker 1:So quick story for me not to make everything about myself. Story for me not to make everything about myself. But I actually bought a season pass to a ski mountain and it was going to be, you know, just about $1,000 or $600 or whatever it was going to be, and I could have probably paid for it, but I just decided, all right, why don't I break it apart? And a lot of the times these companies are great for the merchant you because it allows them to. They pay you in full and then the consumer is paying them. So they collect a little bit of interest, but you get paid in full, no matter what. So it really doesn't super matter whether you're getting paid via Sezzle or Affirm or if you're getting paid via the customer. Sezzle and Affirm they'll make their little bit of money because I think they charge a small percentage of interest. But having that option really allows you to kind of stretch and have some of those higher price point items actually sell, and we see it all the time.
Speaker 1:One thing I want to mention is that one thing I always tell people about financing and BNPL is that it is the number one forward-looking indicator for stores on how well they'll do. It sounds crazy, but out of our top 10 performing stores e-commerce-wise, I believe six have at least one option and I think four of them have two options on there. So highly recommend it. It's a, it's a great way to kind of just improve a little bit more. All right, number three shipping options.
Speaker 1:So highly recommend that you have an express and a slow shipping option so you can also set your thresholds to make it so that you know if you shop and you have in your cart, you know, free shipping on orders over $250, a lot of the times, no matter the website platform. I say that not just Punchmark, so other website platforms, other website platforms. That way, if someone has an item in their cart for $168 and the free shipping threshold is $200, they're more likely to add another small item on there just to get the free shipping. How much is the shipping going to cost? Probably like $12. But people see it as like a way, an incentive, and I recommend it as well. I'm a sucker for free shipping. I hate having to pay for shipping and I think that it's a great way to do it A lot of the times. I just highly highly recommend you have these dialed in. You just take a look at them leading into the busy part of the year, because sometimes when you don't get that much orders like in May and June, you might set one that's like you know it's cheaper and you have an express shipping option that's, you know, pretty low cost on your website. I highly recommend that you just take a look at them leading up to the busy part of the year and make sure that you're happy with them.
Speaker 1:Okay, number four optimizing customer support. So this could mean a lot of things, but specifically, two of the things I recommend is just having some type of live chat feature on your website. I know that they can be expensive, but Punchmark partners with Podium and ClientBook, so whichever one you choose to go with, we work with them. We have nothing but great things to say about Podium and ClientBook. They kind of are a great vessel for what we're always trying to preach about your online presence, whether that is. We always say you know you need to be more human when you're online and you need to be more digital when you're in your store. So having these kind of human touches for your website you know, an instant response or great response, or even having their AI feature is pretty darn good nowadays. I highly recommend it.
Speaker 1:Punchmark has a chat on our website and we use it all the time, because a lot of times people just ask, you know, regular questions like hey, I'm having issues with my website and that's a great way to kind of help things. We just put them in the right direction of getting tickets or whatever. But sometimes, I mean every every couple of months, we actually make a sale just because we have a chatting option, and I bet it would be probably more often if we had a lower price point. You know target. I mean, we're selling websites, so not as easy to turn over, but I'm sure for a jewelry store, that little bit of type of human touch so important. All right, everybody, we're going to take a quick break and hear a word from our sponsor through and now the moment you've all been waiting for punch marks biggest sale of the year.
Speaker 3:Hi, I'm Hope Belair, punch marks digital marketing manager, and I've got some exciting things to share about this year's cyber week sale. First, if you're an existing punch mark client, our loyalty rewards program will let you take 2% off your new website design for every year you've been with us. So if you've been with us for all 16 years we've been in business, you'll save 32%. Or, in lieu of a new design, you can take advantage of our new website tune-up program to ensure everything is optimized and working perfectly. Now for our digital marketing deal. That includes $500 off your monthly cost of the digital marketing strategist plan for 12 months, where you will still get a full year of monthly calls for free with me.
Speaker 3:If you are an edge user looking to get set up on a new jewelry website, we will pay your edge integration fee on your behalf as well. This is normally $2,500. And because of our partnership, it's only $1,250. But we will pay this entire fee for you. If you sign up during Cyber Week, or if you're not an Edge user, you can save 50% off your base monthly fee for the first year, which will save you $99 per month. Cyber Week runs from December 2nd through the 6th, so be sure to visit punchmarkcom slash save in order to take advantage of these sweet offers.
Speaker 1:And now back to the show. And we're back. All right, let's talk about number five Product presentation and availability. Okay, so the biggest thing just put a homepage banner up that talks about your sales. It doesn't take that long. Just get a nice, you know, turkey one or a candy cane looking one. I'll give you a.
Speaker 1:This is an inside hint, this one's on the article. Go to Pexels, that's P-E-X-E-L-Scom Pexels. It's like iStock, for just good photography and it's free. Don't tell anyone. I told you that one because Punchmark uses that one. If people start using those images all the time, I'll be mad, but that's a great way to do it. Have those banners up there. It dresses up your website a little bit and talk about your sales.
Speaker 1:The other thing is you can do product categories for price ranges, so you can do gifts under $100. And then you can do gifts under $500. And you can do gifts under $1,000. So or do bestsellers. That has to be manually added, but it still works. Those are what we call soft categories, so they don't really mean anything, except they allow shoppers to shop on autopilot as opposed to have to actively be making decisions, and that is just a good thing when you're selling luxury goods, so highly recommend that you consider adding some type of gifts under 500. Just if you want a to-do list right now, after this episode ends, go to your website. Put a banner up on your website that says shop gifts under 500 and then link it to your jewelry page. Go in we have a whole knowledge based article about how to do under $500 and toss it on there. It's super easy and, who knows, maybe it adds to the sale.
Speaker 1:Okay, number six traffic and conversion boosters. So this one is going to be a little bit harder for you to do, like while you're listening to this episode. This might take a little bit of work. So what we're talking about is having your products appear in different places. So that's either on Facebook and Instagram, which is the umbrella of meta, or on Google Shopping. So those two are going to cover about 90% of your bases, or 95% of your bases. Highly recommend them. We have knowledge-based articles all about it. That's helppunchbarkcom. Go check that out. We have instructions on how to link your website feed into these different locations. We also have a digital marketing team that can do it for you, but do it yourself, no problem.
Speaker 1:The other one is doing time to take advantage of the goodwill you've built up over the years. Start posting on your social media right now. Please just throw one out every single week until Christmas or the week after Christmas. It's something someone can do. Just go in, take a great photo of a great piece of jewelry and put it on there and just say we've got deals at our store.
Speaker 1:Now is the time to kind of squeeze the lemon for all it's worth. Get that last little bit of juice out and convert on your traffic. It's important, all right. Number seven this is email marketing. So email marketing strategy is what I call it. But have some type of email marketing Like I was talking about, with just a number six, with traffic and conversion boosters. I recommend now is the time to just cash in on your goodwill. You spent all that time like posting. You know, you know nice things and everything.
Speaker 1:Now's the time to talk about your deals. It really is, and you usually have some type of email list and even if it doesn't involve some type of third party where you have to, you know, pay the, you know whether that's through MailChimp or Cliveo or whatever I recommend that you send at least one, maybe two email blasts during the holiday lead up. Just export that email list, even if you pop it into just a Gmail, and send some emails out or send it to just your VIPs. We 100% recommend it. And all you'd have to do is just create a little coupon code. It takes five seconds to create it in the back end of your website. Create a coupon code that expires at the end of December, send it to all of them for $25 off, have them start shopping and, who knows, it doesn't cost any money to send out an email, it's all free. So if you get one sale boom, you made it Okay.
Speaker 1:And the last one is probably the most important Number eight testing and quality assurance. So we 1000% recommend you just go and look at your website and don't do it from your logged in version. Take it, open up your website, actually punch the URL in to your an incognito browser or what have you, and I want you to do it twice. I want you to do it on your desktop and on your phone and I want you to go through and do the standard QA. I want you to look at every single page. Look at your homepage, all your landing pages, your grid and your color content. So that is like your about us page, our story, meet the staff, those types of pages. I want you to look at every single one of them and just give it a once over, and then I want you to do it again on your phone. Do it on your phone, seriously, it's so important.
Speaker 1:Look at it and take note of things that aren't right. Does the stacking not look weird? Is there a strange overlap with your text? Did you build a landing page and then forget to look at it on mobile back in June and then realize it looks terrible on mobile? It happens to all of us in June and then realize it looks terrible on mobile. It happens to all of us and I promise a little. You know brush through is worth the time and commitment that it takes to do it.
Speaker 1:So that is eight steps for your administrative checklist. You should be able to do all of these today, or just think about them at least, and to run through them again. It's payment and security, financing or buy now, pay later options, shipping options. Optimize your customer support maybe through a web chat if you have time product presentation and availability. So, honestly, I don't expect you to re-photograph all of your products, but just throw a banner up on there and talk about how you have gifts under 500 and link it to a category. Or go to earrings and just link it to your earrings Traffic and conversion boosters. So please just start posting about your jewelry on your Instagram, just for the next couple of weeks. Email marketing.
Speaker 1:So time is now to send out an email blast and then testing and quality assurance. Go through on your desktop and on your phone and just take a look. It's so important. Please, please, please, do that last one. It is so important. And if something is wrong, open up a ticket sooner rather than later, because it takes time for us to fix them as well, or just try to fix it yourself. There you go.
Speaker 1:That is eight administrative checklist items. I hope they helped you. I hope you have a great cyber week. I hope you have a great holiday and a very safe Thanksgiving. Cheers. Thanks so much for listening. We'll be back next week, tuesday, with another episode. Cheers, bye, all right, everybody. That's the end of the show. Thanks so much for listening. This episode was brought to you by Punchmark and produced and hosted by me, michael Burpo. A little bit of a shorter episode this week. This episode was edited by Paul Suarez, with music by Ross Cockrum. Don't forget to rate the podcast on Spotify and Apple Podcasts and leave us feedback on punchmarkcom slash loop. That's L-O-U-P. We'll be back next week Tuesday with another episode. Cheers, bye.
