Jul 201814

Where do I begin with e-commerce?

ecommerce, etrader, latest news, web design

E-commerce is considered an online minefield for many small business owners, where do you begin when it comes to taking online payments.

It’s complicated, not quite as easy as installing a ‘plug-in’ or purchasing a piece of software – but with our simple tips we hope to make it as straight forward as possible to understand how to best understand use and implement e-commerce successfully online. 

We guide all our through the ecommerce journey making their application and integration as simple and straightforward as possible. Customers simply apply, we provide a test site and once this is approved by their provider they receive the details and the ability to accept payments online (Of course this is the simplified version!)

Here is our little guide and five top tips for making e-commerce successful for you and your business:

1. E-Commerce Takes Time

Having an e-commerce site takes time to develop. It is not just a case of developing your site, adding a plugin and watch the money come flowing in. An internet merchant account and payment processor are required, which can take anything from 2-4 weeks.

2. Pick Your Web Developer Very Carefully

Building an e-commerce shopping experience is required for your site to trade successfully online. Expertise is required when it comes to dealing with e-commerce, payment providers, creating an online shopping journey and most importantly making sure it is secure. The development team for eTrader are Sage accredited and work closely to ensure that we provide the easiest but most secure shopping experience.

3. Pick The Best Payment Processor For The Job

An issue that hugely affects many small businesses across the UK, many opt for the cheapest option not quite understanding what is on offer. But often end up having the hardest time when it comes to integrating on site, a hard time with their service and more often than not end up paying huge additional fees as they reach their transaction limit. We stick with the UK leaders Sagepay, who offer their customers high levels of support, service and advice in this grey area.

4. Play By The Rules

There is no shortcut - It is not as simple as signing up to take online payments and your business is good to go. Sites have to comply with UK E-commerce Law and be PCI compliant. Providers need to see that what your site offers is a full shopping experience, securing your checkout, undergoing a test transaction and meet all the requirements onsite regarding e-commerce law including things such as T&Cs, refund policies, cancellation policies, company registered address, company details, clear product and services description and much more. Only once all these have been checked out by a payment processor/bank will the process speed up. Only once secure on-site and secure for your customers will your online business get the green light to accept online transactions.

5. It's all about ROI...

The potential rewards for having an e-commerce website is vast but requires significantly mode capital, dealing with the bank and payment providers and much more. Look for the ROI for your business, measure will you make enough to justify the addition against the cost. 

Here at eTrader we take care of the development work and make it as easy as possible for our customers to have a full e-commerce website taking care of the shopping experience and meeting E-Commerce Law with our Sagepay accredited designers. Our team offers customers advice and guidance when it comes to setting up online payments making it as simple as possible.

For more information on e-commerce and online trading visit Sagepay's Guide To Online Payment.

If you are looking for an e-commerce website for your garment decoration business get in touch with our team on info@etraderwebsites.co.uk or call 029 2075 5733!

Jul 201813

Top Ten Tips For Online Success

< etrader News | Garment Decoration | Ecommerce Solutions





Aug 201824

How Rich Search Results Can Help Your Business

ecommerce, etrader, hints and tips, latest news, marketing, seo

Google snippets give you instant answers to your queries. Snippets and cards are images, ratings, reviews and so on that enhance a search engine result page (SERPs). 

Rich search results highlight key information and help search engines gain an understanding the page and its purpose. Implementing rich search results such as cards and snippets can help your website stand out from your competitors.

It requires a more astute developer to tag things such as corporate logo, contact details, social media profiles, carousels and breadcrumb navigation. Pretty much anything can be tagged to potentially appear as a rich search result, from blogs & news articles to events, business details and product information.


So why consider this?

It is a lot more difficult technically behind the scenes, but the results are huge. Rich searches appear right at the top of a SERP, in the coveted ZERO position above organic results. So even if you are not ranking organically, it gives you a fighting chance to get seen on Google.

The answers are detailed, displayed in a box and often more eye catching than a traditional search result and due to their eye-catching nature often have a higher click thru rate (which Google can only consider a good thing!)

Voice Command Searches

The benefit of rich results is also evident as the results work seamlessly with devices such as Google Home & Siri, so if a consumer is searching on the move and asks relevant questions searching for goods, rich snippets are played rather than a whole page of results. With an increase in voice search this can only be an advantage for businesses.

How to get the most from rich snippets?

Building and optimising your site around keyword snippets will increase your organic ranking, increase your websites traffic and decrease your websites bounce rate.

To get your business going with rich searches, here are a few basic tips:

  • Provide partial answers and encourage click through. Ranking for a rich result is one thing but making sure it does not display everything is another. Ensure it displays just enough to encourage users to visit your website.
  • Make sure users get an awesome user-experience (UX). Ensure your website is optimised, up to date with information, details and provides customers a user-friendly experience on-site.
  • Embrace organic practices. To rank well and for rich results a website first and foremost must follow Googles SEO guidelines and best practices.
  • Write in a natural style. Snippets rely on quality well written content, not content focused purely on ranking. Write in a conversational style, almost like you are talking to a customer. Once this is done keep on top of it and always freshen it up every few months.
  • Work with a credible company. Web design companies often promise the world, do your research and work with the right company for your business. Outline why you want your site built in such a way to get found for rich snippets and many will be excited to work on such an interesting project!
Aug 201816

Taking your business online - where do you begin?

ecommerce, latest news, marketing, web design
Feb 201810

eTrader in Printwear & Promotion

ecommerce, etrader, latest news
For more information on eTrader or to find out how we can help your garment decoration business don't hesitate to get in touch on info@etraderwebsites.co.uk or call 029 2074 1663 to book an online demo.
Jan 201822

New Year, New Article...

ecommerce, etrader, hints and tips, latest news, marketing, seo, social media, web design
First things first, lets kick this blog of by wishing everyone a Happy New Year, lets make it a great one! In our first blog of 2018 we will take a look at this months feature in Images Magazine 

The January issue features our top ten tips for online success, we provide some pointers that we hope can make your website better than the year just gone.

To view this months article online simply visit www.images-magazine.com

For more information on this piece or to find out how we can help your garment decoration business don't hesitate to get in touch on info@etraderwebsites.co.uk or call 029 2074 1663

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LinkedIn is the largest online professional Social Media with a global audience of over 450m. A grown-up version of Social Media, professional, slick, modern and you should be part of it too! The ideal social sales tool for you and your business… if you are not on there; you and your business are missing out on the largest B2B networking and one of the largest sales opportunities to high-value customers.

Of course it is a bit different from your conventional day to day Social Media, your Facebook, Twitter and so on so you have to be a bit cuter on how you communicate on there. Its professional socialising, something you do day to day as a business owner but online. Just sell your business, your brand and personality and reap the rewards.

The potential for LinkedIn in the garment decoration is huge. Put simply, creating branded clothing you are always looking for the large value order or the next big contract. The large business clients more often than not account for a large chunk of most garment decorator’s turnover. So it is a bit of a no brainer - LinkedIn gives you a unique chance to create and win these larger orders and opportunities for your business.

Let’s of course not forget the existing customers, connect with these and ‘Network’, give yourself more of a chance of winning the repeat order. Existing customers also have the power to endorse you and refer you to their connections, another potential way of winning business with LinkedIn.

And as if it sounds too good to be true, it just keeps getting better…

In a nutshell, LinkedIn is used by both professionals individually (Managing Directors, Marketing Executives, Business Owners and so on) and businesses themselves. LinkedIn gives you two shots at selling on their site essentially, whether you register as an individual and interact with like-minded people who you think could be your next big potential customers or whether you set up a LinkedIn company page to interact directly with other businesses.

It could not be easier! Set up your profile, write about you, your business and how good you are at what you do and how your products are high-quality then start connecting. LinkedIn allows you to search for both businesses and their workers by location – so get chatting today! Introduce yourself, build up a professional online connection and hopefully when these businesses need branded clothing or similar they know where to go, your business will be the first port of call.


Here are a few little hints & tips to help you on your way to LinkedIn success:

  • Optimise Your Profile: Complete every aspect of your profile. Sell your business, your skills, your quality products and everything about how you can help other businesses. Create engaging pictures, infographics and so on to force someone to want to find out more and connect with you.
  • Find Your Audience: The search function allows you to search by both job title and location. Think to yourself garment decorators, what’s the title of the person I’m going to sell X amount of goods too? Marketing workers, brand workers, managing directors, human resource workers, target as many as possible and aim to build a connection.
  • Join LinkedIn Groups: There are a whole host of groups for business owners to join, industry specific, location specific, interest specific, just general business groups and much more. Join these and interact with people who may be interested in what your garment decorating business has to offer and give yourself more chance of winning that large B2B order.
  • Earn Referrals: Earn some LinkedIn kudos with referrals. This is where existing connections can endorse you your skills and leave reviews giving your profile a little extra touch. Of course the more endorsements and quality reviews you have, the better – why would people who see your page go elsewhere when they see how good a job your business does for others.

With these little bits of advice, your business should reap the rewards of using LinkedIn. Now you have won the order – the next step is retaining them! 

Offer them a USP and high quality experience, the eTrader sites allow customers to have their own public or private shop full of their goods. Professional and simple to use, customers can be checked out in just a few clicks and in a matter of moments.

For more information on how we are helping the garment decoration industry online don’t hesitate to email info@etraderwebsites.co.uk or give us a call on 029 20741 633 today.

Jul 201820

Blog your way to a greater online presence!

ecommerce, etrader, hints and tips, latest news, marketing

Blogging is a great way to raise awareness of your business, your product, it services and develop an online presence. It is simple, effective and importantly anyone can do it, you do not have to be a marketing expert!

The advantage of Blogging is it is all about you. There is only so much you can say in a Facebook post, or 140 characters on Twitter but Blogging allows you to give much more details insight into your business, yourselves and write about what makes you great at what you do.

Blogging & Your Business….

Blogging gives your business a personality, a voice and gives your customers an insight into the business and its values. It encourages collaboration and discussion not just with customers but with other people associated with the industry and helps develop your businesses reputation in the garment decoration industry.

What makes blogging great is the fact it is all about you and your business, you can write about anything. Common things wrote about by garment decorators includes latest news, product reviews, latest offers, promotions, thoughts and opinions on what is affecting the business.


Creating Engaging Content…

Write about your business, simply write about its strengths and why it is great is and why you love print, embroidery, the industry and your customers.

But the key is to make the content interesting and stand out from your competitors, here are some simple tips to help:

  • Create an eye catching title for your Blog (N.B. Just think what would you click and read plus what would you ignore).
  • Use images, just a few pictures to support the blog you are writing. Using an image increases the likelihood of catching a reader’s attention.
  • Tag your blog, this categorizes your blog. Readers can filter through and find your thoughts on a specific topic.

·       Do not make your blog too long! There is a fine line between engaging and boring a reader. Make your blog concise and to a point, many readers will not read essays. Your blog can be any length but be wary of boring the reader.

·       Blogging is fun, customers love honesty, your views and thoughts are much more likely to create engagement then writing something with no personality. (You want to give your business some character after all).

Blogging & SEO….

Using a Blog is also a great way to improve your businesses performance in Search Engines. It is a simple way of writing about your keywords and gaining some links back to your site from people who love your content sharing it!

One Last Thought…

You can of course integrate a blog into your website using a bespoke web design company. But, there are a wide range of FREE blogs out there for your business including Wordpress, Tumblr, Blogger, Medium, Weebly and 100s more. Blogging is a cost effective way of growing your online presence, developing an online personality and increasing traffic to your website. 

So what are you waiting for…. Get Blogging! 

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