Conversion Engineering Webinar Now Live on Magentocommerce.com

Conversion Engineering Webinar Now Live on Magentocommerce.com

For anyone who missed our Magento webinar titled, “Conversion Engineering: Tiny Tweaks Can Bring in Huge Rewards,” it’s now live (free of charge of course) over on Magentocommerce.com. This webinar gives you insight into many of the areas of scrutiy that us professionals review when maximizing conversions.  Check it out below!

https://www.magentocommerce.com/media/webinars/conversion-engineering-tiny-tweaks-huge-reward/

Originally Aired: Dec 5, 2012

Join Adam Morris, Co-Founder and CEO of Redstage Networks, as he dives through top site optimizations that increase sales. Adam and his team are seasoned professionals in internet marketing, and he’ll be sharing some valuable tools in their toolbox.

He’ll educate you on many of the conversion optimizations that commonly have the biggest impact, showing you areas of focus that will maximize your efforts. In the process, you’ll also get a vocabulary lesson on the proper terminology used by the pros.

Takeaways:

  • See the top tweaks that increase sales
  • Learn the terminology that the pros use
  • Understand the next steps to increase your conversion rate
Google Analytics: Intelligence Events

Google Analytics: Intelligence Events

With Intelligence Events, Google Analytics allows you to quickly view and define big events in your website’s traffic. Pair this service with Custom Alerts which let you receive timely notifications whenever these events occur, and you’ve got a very efficient virtual assistant that’s on the job 24 hours a day 7 days a week.

The Google Analytics blog defined the services as:

Analytics Intelligence: We’re launching the initial phase of an algorithmic driven Intelligence engine to Google Analytics. Analytics Intelligence will provide automatic alerts of significant changes in the data patterns of your site metrics and dimensions over daily, weekly and monthly periods. For instance, Intelligence could call out a 300% surge in visits from YouTube referrals last Tuesday or let you know bounce rates of visitors from Virginia dropped by 70% two weeks ago. Instead of you having to monitor reports and comb through data, Analytics Intelligence alerts you to the most significant information to pay attention to, saving you time and surfacing traffic insights that could affect your business. Now, you can spend your time actually taking action, instead of trying to figure out what needs to be done.

Custom Alerts make it possible for you to tell Google Analytics what to watch for. You can set daily, weekly, and monthly triggers on different dimensions & metrics, and be notified by email or right in the user interface when the changes actually occur.

Intelligence Events

In other words, Intelligence Events has two very important functions: it analyzes the data for you and calls your attention to the most relevant ones. Although we haven’t found much information on how the Intelligence Events algorithm works, it’s clear that the system takes a lot of variables into consideration, which really isn’t surprising when you consider that the system was made by Google. What’s more is that the system’s design and user interface, also sticks to what Google does best: simplicity and intuitiveness.

Custom Alerts

Custom Alerts is also a very useful service. In the age of information, speed and accuracy are everything. Custom Alerts keeps you informed of anomalies in your websites traffic all day, every day. This means that you’ll be able to take quick action whenever you might experience a sharp rise or drop in traffic.

If you use Google Analytics, you should really try giving both Intelligence Events and Custom Alerts a shot!

Redstage and Magento Donate New eCommerce Site to Boost Hurricane Sandy Relief Efforts for Hoboken, NJ

Redstage and Magento Donate New eCommerce Site to Boost Hurricane Sandy Relief Efforts for Hoboken, NJ

In a wonderful collaboration between Magento, Redstage, and members of the NJ Tech Meetup community, a new eCommerce site launched yesterday at HealHoboken.org.  We had all hands on deck to help launch this site as quickly as possible to maximize our ability to help fund-raise.  Read the full press release below:

Organization’s Goal to Raise $100,000 Underpinned by New Marketplace Functionality that Showcases Products and Services from Hoboken Businesses Offered at Significant Savings
Hoboken, New Jersey – November 29, 2012 – HealHoboken.org, a campaign by the NJ Tech Meetup community aiming to raise $100,000 to help rebuild the city of Hoboken in the wake of Hurricane Sandy, today announced the launch of its new website that adds marketplace functionality and now showcases products and services from local businesses.

On October 29, Hurricane Sandy devastated the city of Hoboken, flooding over 50 percent of the city, leaving schools, homes, and hospitals damaged or destroyed. Within a few days, Aaron Price, founder of NJ Tech Meetup, in conjunction with members of the local technology community launched /www.healhoboken.org, a website that has already raised over $25,000 by selling specially designed t-shirts and sweatshirts.

Powered by Magento, a division of X.commerce, (an eBay Inc. company), and implemented by Hoboken-based Redstage Networks, a leading eCommerce solutions agency, the new healhoboken.org website takes advantage of enterprise features and a marketplace that allows the organization to accept donations from businesses and offer them at significant discounts. All of the proceeds from each transaction will directly benefit the Hoboken Relief Fund. In addition to t-shirts and sweatshirts, the website now offers gift cards, hotel rooms, and restaurant specials; other products and services from Hoboken businesses are being added every day.

“We’re honored to support HealHoboken.org and their work to rebuild the lives of those affected by Hurricane Sandy. Our hearts go out to those affected and we wish a fast and speedy recovery,” said Roy Rubin, Chief Operating Officer of X.commerce and Magento.

“This is a win-win-win for Hoboken, the technology community and local businesses,” explained Price. “With the holiday shopping season upon us, people who want to support Hoboken can do so through the site. They will not only find great deals and gift ideas, but also support Hoboken’s participating retail shops, restaurants and businesses, essentially helping the local economy which is of vital importance as we rebuild from the storm.”

W Hotel, Village Pourhouse, East LA, EatDrinkNJ, StearClear, Adameaus Designs, and Clean Popo are a few of the businesses who have already pledged products, services and gift cards for the website. Business interested in donating can contact Christine Curatolo at christine.curatolo@gmail.com.

As part of the implementation, Redstage Networks was instrumental in working with Magento to donate a license of the Magento Enterprise eCommerce platform. Additionally, HealHoboken.org integrated PayPal for payment processing, which reduced transaction costs by more than 30% compared to the previous provider.

For more information on Hoboken Relief Fund and to make a donation, please visit www.healhoboken.org.

About Redstage

Based in Hoboken, NJ, Redstage is a leading eCommerce solutions agency. We create solutions with high sales conversion through elegant technology while promoting brand experience. Our unmatched industry expertise coupled with the Magento eCommerce technology produces more sales from your digital channel. Having worked on over 200 Magento projects, Redstage is the most advanced and experienced agency in the industry. For more information, visit: https://redstage.com.

About Heal Hoboken and NJ Tech Meetup

Heal Hoboken was launched in less than 24 hours after Hurricane Sandy by members of the NJ Tech Meetup community and is a collaboration between members of the group, including Jack Zerby, Danny Duran, Adam Saynuk, Scott Molski, Heather Ryan, Eden Golomb, Christine Curatolo, Domenick Cilea and Aaron Price. Positive Internet, RedStage, eBay, Paypal, and Magento have also offered their services to the effort. The team met via the NJ Tech Meetup, NJ’s largest technology community, based in Hoboken. The group meets monthly at Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken and hosts speakers on subjects related to entrepreneurship and technology. For more information, visit: www.njtechmeetup.com.

October Partner of the Month – Avalara

October Partner of the Month – Avalara

Dealing with the new, complex eCommerce tax world…

Each month we feature a partner company that has produced great results for our clients. This month we’ll be discussing the leader in transactional Sales Tax Automation and Compliance, Avalara.

States are becoming more aggressive in defining requirements for eCommerce stores to collect sales and use taxes.  California and Pennsylvania have become the latest states to not only redefine which businesses must collect, but are increasing enforcement efforts to ensure compliance.

A Simple Solution to Complex Sales Tax Compliance Challenges

Avalara’s AvaTax provides a simple solution to a very complex problem, minimizing your compliance risk in an environment where state and local governments are looking for every dollar they can find, and are even hiring more auditors for enforcement efforts as they tighten and change sales tax rules.

The rules and regulations around who needs to collect sales tax, where they need to collect it, what products, services or customers are exempt, when to report and remit payment, and how to stay current are ever-changing. States expect you to be responsible to keep up with these   changes, no matter how you may have been notified.

Avalara’s services eliminate your need to take on the management of your sales tax systems.  The AvaTax Calc service includes:

  • Secure web-accessible dashboard for access to store data and settings in AvaTax system
  • Accurate sales tax calculation to roof-top with address validation and reports
  • Managing Updates to Rules and Regulations

Accurate and Correct Sales Tax Calculation

AvaTax uses geospatial technology to map and identify sales tax jurisdictional information, which provides a much more accurate result than zip code tables can provide.  Avalara is constantly updating their service with the latest jurisdictional and product taxability information, and is automatically up-to-date in the store shopping cart.  No more need to manage a server for sales tax, or download, update or manage monthly rate table changes. Avalara also includes as part of the service Address Validation, which ensures proper tax treatment specific to that address and a verified shipping address.

Rich Reporting Capabilities

AvaTax provides access to all of the store(s) sales tax information that has been run through it broken down by state, county, city, special taxes, product, and other different scenarios. You can even export that data to a spreadsheet or xml file.  This makes it simple to hand off the necessary information you need for filing your required tax returns or for use in an audit situation.

Webinar – October 25th

We will be doing a webinar to show you how to conquer your tax challenges with Avalara on October 25th.  Stay tuned for details.

August Partner of the Month – Emailvision

August Partner of the Month – Emailvision

Each month we feature a partner company that has produced great results for our clients.  This month we’ll be discussing a leader in email marketing and customer intelligence  technologies, Emailvision.

Emailvision powers smart email, mobile and social marketing with built-in customer intelligence. The Emailvision mission is to provide excellence in software and services for online relationship marketing. With offices and client service teams in 22 countries, Emailvision delivers 500,000 marketing campaigns every month on behalf of 3,300 clients worldwide. This unprecedented quality of service is driven by 12 years of research and development and by Emailvision’s 700 passionate employees.

Emailvision offers The New Way to Automate your Relationship Marketing  – powered by Customer Intelligence:

 Campaign Commander Enterprise Edition enables marketing professionals to reach audiences with targeted messages that significantly improve campaign conversion rates and profitability. Key product features allow marketers to take control of their customer data to execute relevant marketing campaigns across email, mobile and social channels.

The new way to discover business opportunities in your customer data

Customer Intelligence

Customer Intelligence enables marketers to rapidly explore detailed profile data including purchase behavior and responsiveness to past marketing campaigns. Millions of records can be analyzed in seconds with drag and drop features that make data analysis easy-to-use and highly accessible for online marketing teams.

The new way to manage and deliver your email and mobile campaigns

Email and Mobile Campaign Management

The intuitive features in Email and Mobile Marketing move marketers from the basics of campaign execution to more advanced tactics in online relationship marketing. Now fully integrated with Customer Intelligence, campaigns can be executed with targeted ‘smart segments’ that generate higher response rates with every campaign.

The new way to generate business with social marketing

Social Campaign Management

Social Marketing in Campaign Commander allows marketers to execute synchronized marketing campaigns across all of the major social media channels. Marketers can accelerate their social activities, manage highly dynamic communities and measure the business impact from social campaigns.

For more information, see www.emailvision.com