Google Products has undergone a redesign, and not just on the front end.

For years Google has not changed the data it allows in your data feed: Title, Description, Link, Image, Price, Category… there wasn’t a lot of other information you could provide that would help your listings appear more relevant to users (other than being a powerhouse like Amazon).

But now Google is asking more of its advertisers, and being quick to comply with new standards can give your listings a leg up.  First, Google now wants categorization in two ways… your category (i.e. how the product is categorized on your site, i.e. the breadcrumb) and Google’s category (find out where your products fit into Google’s categorization).  Also,  gender, size, color, age group, and material are all attributes you can now supply to give users a better idea of what your product is like while they’re comparison shopping.  And if you are not already submitting tax and shipping data, you are missing out on a great way to set your listings apart from the competition.

If HEROweb manages your Google feed for you, your feed is already upgraded to Google’s highest standards!  If not, explore Google’s new feed requirements and upgrade your feed to get your listings as much exposure as possible.  Your competitors are already getting to work on this… don’t be far behind!

In HEROweb’s new article about F-Commerce we discuss the benefits of implementing a Facebook Shop on your Facebook page. HEROweb even offers a Facebook shopping cart solution.

F-Commerce is part of Social Commerce, which is the use of social networks to increase user interaction and drive purchases.

To learn more about F-Commerce and whether or not you should implement a Facebook shop click here.

One of the strongest pieces of advice I have for small business ecommerce siteowners is to make sure they have given their website the human element.

Doing business online is about building trust. There are many tactics for building trust on an Ecommerce website, including security call-outs, customer reviews, and visible contact information. But at the top of the list is giving your website the human element.

People respond positively to seeing other people who they can connect with. You can build a human connection on your website in a variety of ways:

• Include your own photo.
• Include an audio or video introduction.
• Weave your story into your website which, hopefully, will convey your passion for your business.
• Include photos of other people using your product and possibly talking about your product. (I don’t recommend using generic stock photos.)
• Create characters (people or animals) and weave them throughout your site. Clever characters will help make your site standout and create an image that visitors will want to come back to later.

If your goal is to build a loyal following of customers, the place to start is to meet them with a warm, personal greeting when they first come to your site. The rectangular browser window is not an inherently personal place, but with a little creativity, you can bring the browser window to life for your customers and help them feel great about doing business with you.

It’s a Friday afternoon in early November. You have all your holiday implementations in place on your website. (Ok. Maybe that is wishful thinking.) It’s time for a short breather, and here is a fun and constructive exercise for you to do.

Why don’t you take a moment to look at your web site with fresh eyes. Put yourself in the mind of a customer coming upon your site for the first time. They have just come from Google to your site and are deciding whether to keep on clicking through to place an order or hit the back button and visit one of your competitors. What could you offer on your site that your customer absolutely couldn’t do without? How could you encourage that customer to stay on your site and win them over for life?

As competition increases across the Internet, and there are so many venues for purchasing identical products, you really need to figure out how to add some value to set you apart. Here are a few ideas, just for starters:

• Preferred customer support forum or hotline
• An easy-to-access custom quote or consulting offer
• A downloadable planning guide
• Very rich and detailed product information
• A loyalty program that rewards repeat ordering
• A meaningful gift offer for the first order
• A new and unique add-on product offering
• A clearly stated commitment to care about the customer and what their needs are
• An assurance that the shopping experience is going to be simple (backed up by a simple shopping that is, indeed, simple.)

Perhaps you have already implemented some or all of these features on your Ecommerce website. If not, you could have a real opportunity to punch up your message, add functionality, and provide value to your customers.

If all you have on your site is pages of products with Add to Cart buttons, you are probably selling yourself short. A little brainstorming can be a great way to spark some new ideas. Be sure to write all those great ideas down and when 2010 comes around, you will be ready to take your site to the next level.

I expected to wake on this post-Halloween Monday to the sight of ecommerce websites, plastered with holiday splendor. Surprisingly, the holiday spirit seems quite subdued.

Many of the big-boxers – Amazon, BestBuy, and the like – seem to have sparse holiday messaging and specials. They are taking the scattered snowflake approach. Target.com is pushing their Christmas message more strongly.

I can’t believe it won’t be long before we are hammered with the holiday sales blitz -  uh, I mean, spirit.

If you are a “little box” retailer it is time to get on your game. In the words of GaryVee it is time to Crush It!

We won’t repeat all of our past holiday strategical offerings, but in this year of high unemployment and frosty revenue forecasts, do your best to make some low-cost, high impact moves and dress up your website with your best holiday cheer.

We have two quick suggestions.

Task #1: Make sure you do in fact have a holiday strategy.

If you just passively sit on the sidelines and hope that holiday shopping is just going to happen, you are likely to be in for a few lumps of coal and not much else.

Task #2: Start to tune  your site with some up-beat holiday cheer. Make it clear, when your shoppers arrive, that you are ready for them with the best you have to offer.

If you want some feedback on your site and your plans, let us know. We would be happy to talk.

I had a great conversation with a new Ecommerce customer, Ann Marie, yesterday. She was jazzed about launching into our new website project. And the first thing Ann Marie did was go out and buy a little notebook. Smart move!

Whether you opt for the virtual/electronic notebook or the good old-fashioned spiral bound, you need to put some organizational tools in place before you plunge into the Ecommerce world.

To put it a little more sternly, unless you can keep a handle on your various accounts, web presences, administrative pages, and key business relationships, you will be sunk.

Ecommerce has evolved over the past decade. Success doesn’t hinge on just having a simple website. You need to also do some or all of these tasks: incorporate a merchant account, interface with shipping vendors, be on top of your domain registration, possibly manage social media accounts, and keep up with PCI security scanning.

A first step is to keep a list of all the mission critical accounts, usernames, and access urls that make up your Ecommerce business. You will also need to devise a system for tracking your passwords without actually writing down the complete passwords in a non-secure location.

I don’t mean to over-state the importance of good record-keeping, but we have seen too many horror stories of site owners who can’t get on top of the basics of managing their business.

The classic example is when site owners set up a new email address and neglect to change their original email address associated with their domain registration. The next steps in this saga: they don’t get their domain renewal notification, their site is off-line, and then they end up going through some heartache to get the situation resolved.

Get your Ecommerce house in order. You will be glad you did.

Those of you who know me know that I am pretty much of a Twitter fanatic. Our business is in the thick of the social media marketing world and it is a no-brainer for me to be fully wrapped up in the Twitter universe.

But a recurring question we get from our small business ecommerce customers these days is whether it makes sense for them to invest the time and effort in being engaged in online social communities such as Twitter.

I am going to put aside the direct ROI benefits that a small ecommerce business can realize from Social Media – which is a whole discussion unto itself -  and look at some of the other benefits, or, as I like to think of them, opportunities.

These are some of the opportunities that Twitter presents for you:

Take your conversations public. If you have expertise in your field, Twitter can give you a platform to share it. It takes a bit of a mind shift to move private conversations that you previously might have had with an individual customer into a public space, but when thousands of people can see you demonstrate your expertise, the payoff can be huge.

Interact and engage new people. Twitter now has tens of millions of users. Dang, that is a lot of people. A healthy percentage of those users are on Twitter specifically because they want to interact  and connect with like-minded people. You would be amazed at the connections you can make: potential customers, suppliers, or employees. There is a universe of people tweeting away. It would make sense to take a look and see if your target audience is using social media tools.

Interact with your users. Putting aside the untold masses for a moment, your current customer base could very well be on Twitter. And one thing can be said about Twitter (and Facebook) users. They tend to be die-hards. By jumping on Twitter yourself, you can meet with your customers, on their terms, and build a strong bond with them.

Listen and monitor. Twitter has a powerful real-time search functionality built into it. Getting a read on what people might be saying about you or what is happening in your industry couldn’t be easier. Of course, if you don’t have the popularity/notoriety of a Paris Hilton, there is not going to be much chatter about you. But Twitter Search is a boon to those wanting to tap into the public discussion on a large scale. You can actively seek others who are searching for the information and products that you possess and reach out to them. And, if by chance, someone is conveying a positive (or negative) experience they had with your company, you can respond to it.

Use as a tool to learn. Any new, cutting edge information is going to show up right away on Twitter. Whether you are talking about World news events, technology rollouts, ecommerce tools, or virtually any other kind of information on a local, regional, or national level, you will hear about it on Twitter. Although the potential exists to fritter away a lot of time on Twitter, the opportunity also exists to efficiently monitor the flow of information that is critical to your business.

My advice to any small ecommerce owner is to, at the very least, try Twitter, in earnest for a month. (I will define “earnest” by saying that you will follow 50 people and do at least the same number of posts.) It is free and easy and takes very little effort to get going. Twitter is not for everyone and is not necessarily going to help every small business owner out there make more profit. But once you get the hang of it, you might find it to be a powerful avenue of communication that will help you build relationships with current and potential customers and generate business.

More on getting started with Twitter in a later post.

I am working on a longer article right now about the successful characteristics of an ecommerce micro-business. I am talking about businesses with 1-3 employees that are deriving their entire income from their website.

In the past year – which will go down as an ugly one – we have seen some of these micro-businesses in our customer base flourish and some stagnate or fail. What separates the success stories from the horror stories?

Without giving away the whole article, one of the big factors is a simple one. Take a look at your site – from the perspective of a new user – and ask this question: Do I see anything useful?

If all you have on your website is your products, your odds of being successful start to plummet. At the point, you have articles, seasonal tips, instructions, product reviews, suggestions, and easily accessible help, your site has a chance of standing out.

It takes work to create good content. But as the level of sophistication and expectation of the average Internet shopper rises, your site also needs to rise to the occasion.

Even if you are not ready to take the full social media plunge, it is crucial that you use your site to build a relationship with your customers. By providing useful and interesting information, related to your product line, you stand a good chance of beginning that relationship in a positive way.

Recently, Microsoft unveiled their new search engine – Bing.com.  Actually, they prefer to call Bing a “decision engine.”  It’s designed to help visitors weed through all the search overload that other engines give you, and help you make real decisions about what your searching for.  They have designed Bing with three goals in mind, to “deliver great results; deliver a more organized experience; and simplify tasks and provide insight, leading to faster, more confident decisions.”

Early indications show that most people are having positive experiences with Bing, and Microsoft is using an almost $100 million advertising campaign to promote it’s rebranded search engine as well.  So how can you, as an ecommerce professional, take advantage of this new source of visitors and potential sales?

First, test out Bing for yourself.  And don’t just do a one-time search for some random item like shoes or your name.  Instead, make it your default search engine for a while.  Get accustomed to some of the useful features like refined categories and related topics on the left-hand navigation plain.  Bing also does a great job with integrating shopping results and local retailers in your area.  The idea is to get used to how people will use it and hopefully find your website.

Next, make sure your website is listed using their Webmaster Central tools.  If you have a physical location for your business, get your information listed on their Local Listing Center.  And if you want even more exposure, directly upload your products for free with Product Upload.  Microsoft also has a pay-per-click program called adCenter, which they have also made improvements to.

Bing’s initial rise to #2 was probably from the hype and introduction, so only time will tell if they can sustain any growth.  They may not take down the all-powerful Google, but they could certainly lower it’s market share.  With a good redesign and early positive experiences, it looks like Microsoft has finally found a worthy competitor.

Whether to offer free shipping on an ecommerce site is a key question and one with no right answer. Armando Roggio of Practical Ecommerce, in his article: The Free Shipping Equation, makes a case for the ecommerce vendor to treat shipping as a profit center.

Certainly, free shipping incentives on larger orders can help convince a customer to purchase. But if you cut your margins to nothing or shift the cost to the product, you could be shooting yourself in the foot.

Do you have any experiences with offering free shipping that you would like to share?