Alaa Hassan

The Most Passionate eCommerce Coach & Advisor

Online Business

How Ugg Australia Can Increase Online Sales in Montreal

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Ugg Australia Marketing Mistake

I was on my way back from speaking in Atlanta at IceRetailer, an eCommerce conference hosted by my good friend John Lawson, when I noticed this new marketing campaign.

Ugg Australia, a company that sells men’s and women’s boots, displayed its products in some very cool transparent plastic cubes.  They caught my attention as soon as I arrived at the baggage claims area in Montreal’s airport.

3 Positive Things I Noticed About the Boots

  • Good quality (they didn’t look cheap)
  • Perfect for our cold winter in Montreal
  • Many styles to choose from for both men and women

One thing you’ll notice in the baggage claim area is how many people are using their phones while waiting for the carousel to start moving.  I was one of them.

I did see a pair of boots that my wife would like to have but Ugg Australia forgot to make it easy for me to order them.

3 Things Ugg Australia Can Improve in This Campaign

  1. Add a product name or model #
  2. Display your website URL & how easy it is to ship to Montreal (is it free?)
  3. Which store carries them or Do you ship to store?

Those small tactics aren’t really hard to implement but can truly improve the campaign.

You’ll notice that even big companies such as Ugg Australia can make marketing mistakes.  Learn from them and make sure you avoid them within your own business.

 

5 Best Project Management Tools for Online Business

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5 Best Project Management Tools for Online Business

While it’s necessary to have someone in charge of planning what things need to be done, setting goals, and delegating tasks, it is also important to have software that makes this easier and all in one place.  Having an organized, user-friendly tool can free up more time to focus on marketing and design for you brand. Below are five tools that will help make your projects easier to manage and keep them organized.

1. Basecamp (my favorite)

Basecamp is a great place for communicating tasks to be accomplished, by using the to-do feature, as well as for uploading files and messaging. Through this online management tool, items can get checked off of the list once tasks are completed, and all final drafts of work can be compiled into one organized area. Whether you have one or twenty employees, everyone can come together and see what personnel are assigned to which tasks and when they are completed.

Visit website: http://www.Basecamp.com

2. StrikeBase

Keeping deadlines and tracking time is made easier through StrikeBase, which provides users with a virtual project board and cloud collaboration. This tool also allows you to chat among team members from a desktop or mobile device. Staying connected with your business’s team and managing tasks is just as important as staying connect with social media and your followers.

Visit website: http://www.Strikebase.com

3. Trello

The ultimate organization tool is offered by Trello, in a glance you are able to see what projects are in progress and who is working on them.  Using this task as more than just an online management tool is what Trello hopes for its users. The system is designed for it to be used as a community bulletin as well. While it may not be practical to give public access to your plans and documents, taking photos or captions of the work in progress helps keep your followers and customers in the loop. It shows that you are keeping up with what people want and makes things more personal.

Visit website: http://www.Trello.com

4. Zoho

Zoho can help your business from idea inception to project completion. It has Dropbox features, forums for chatting about project progress and other business management tasks, and can be used on mobile devices. Another feature is its compatibility with Google Apps, whether it’s documents or Gmail messages, all of it can be downloaded for your brand’s use.

Visit website: http://www.Zoho.com

5. Wrike

This management tool also allows for syncing work in progress from various locations such as Apple Mail, IBM Connections, Google App, Gmail, and many others. Offering real-time updates and project management, Wrike also provides online document collaboration. This means that files are compiled all in one place based on the content and can be edited online without have to re-download files…which will definitely come in handy when sorting out the newest products, documents, and data management.

Visit website: http://www.Wrike.com

Why You Should Observe Your Customers

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Importance of Observing Your Customers

 

Today I spent over 6 hours watching videos!

Some of you might believe I’m one lucky person but guess what, those weren’t Hollywood movies or Youtube videos.  They are recordings of users actually shopping around a website.

Whenever I do any conversion research for a client’s website, I provide them with 10 videos (approx. 20 minutes each) of actual people who are getting paid to browse the site and perform specific tasks I’ve setup for them.

Users tasks include:

  • Describe your first impression
  • Try searching for a product
  • Find out how much is shipping
  • Buy something

and so on.

When I gather 10 tests, I start watching each one while taking notes of all that is being said and whatever I see worthy of noting when observing how they’re using the site.

Why is it important to watch customers?

The ultimate goal is to eliminate bottlenecks (friction).

Some benefits include:

  • Figure out what’s stopping people from doing what you want them to do on your site
  • Improve how they use the website by updating some design or processes
  • Remove any distractions

User testings are very important and must be carefully planned out using the right tools &asking the right questions to testers.

Gather all the results, analyze and start tweaking changes & most never forget to test!

Who Are the Experts in Conversion Rate Optimization?

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Who is a CRO expert?

One of the best ways to learn about a new topic, an industry or a specific trade is to learn from the top experts living it day by day.

I decided to search for those experts out there using one of the most powerful tools available to all mankind…..Google.

Here’s what I found on page 1 of search results:
(I searched “Conversion Rate Experts”) & found a great post by Crazy Egg

List of CRO Experts

To make it easy for everyone, I created a list of the top CRO to follow on Twitter from that blog post.

Enjoy!

How to Become a Conversion Rate Optimization Expert

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How to become a CRO expert

Even with 13+ years of eCommerce experience, over 6 yearly speaking engagements & helping dozens of clients through my agency, I still feel it’s not enough in order to be considered an expert.

I decided to pursue the world of conversion rate optimization because it involves all sorts of knowledge I’ve acquired over the years in eCommerce — it’s also fun & challenging!

I’m committed in learning everything there is to know about CRO in order to teach it to others & sell my services to businesses that request it.

But today, I felt a little intimidated by all the CRO experts already out there doing their thing.

Then I stumbled on this blog post:
How to Become An Expert on Nearly Any Subject

So happy I did because I am more motivated now.

Key points:

  • Make it Easy
  • In order to Learn, teach
  • Begin with the end in mind

CRO world, here I come!

The Best eCommerce Blogging Platforms for Fashion

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Best blogging platforms for fashion

Blogs play a key part in the pushing an online business over to the next level. Not only are blogs used by businesses as a means of updating users with their latest news, blogs are also started and managed by people who are obsessed with any particular niche or market. It is absolutely necessary to make connections with the crazed individuals behind these blogs. Not only can they do product reviews with images from your brand, they can also reach a larger following of people who may read their site everyday and know very little about what you have to offer. Here is a compiled list of the best blogging platforms for you to rave about your latest products and make connections.

WordPress

No worries if this is your first blog, WordPress offers free support in getting started and operating your blog. Many in the eCommerce realm and online businesses use WordPress because of its professional design appearance and ease of use. Many companies in every market use the platform for their blogging needs, as well as some who utilize it as their complete eCommerce site.

Visit website: http://wordpress.org/

Blogger

Google’s blog platform, Blogger has a variety of different themes and designs that allows you to choose the one that best suits your brand. It also has a dashboard for easy access to all of the blogs that you keep up with, in addition to a small excerpt from their latest posts. See what other established bloggers are talking about and how their followers are interacting with their content.

Visit website: http://blogger.com/start

Ghost

The goal of Ghost’s blogging platform is to get the blogger away from formatting and layout, freeing up more time for actual blog writing. They offer formats for a variety of different electronic devices, including its mobile friendliness. What this means for your brand is the ability to publish a new blog post, then copy the link and insert it into Facebook and Twitter, or Instagram the images within the post to generate a response from your followers and to keep them updated.

Visit website: https://ghost.org/

Typepad

Ever heard of that company named Amazon? Well, they use Typepad for their blog. This platform offers one-on-one support from their team of experts as well as a variety of different pricing options. It provides the option of publishing posts via mobile, desktop, and email as well as a collaborationg with Google Analytics to keep up with traffic and stats.

Visit website: http://www.typepad.com/

Tumblr

Tumblr is considered a microblogging platform and social networking site. What does this mean? Tumblr will allow you to post images and videos and other short content to your blog. Whether you want to talk about or post images of your products, Tumblr allows it.  Others can follow what you are doing on Tumblr, and with the rollout of their new @Mention feature…find out who’s talking about your business and merchandise!

Visit website: https://www.tumblr.com/