This week saw us launch our newest update for all our customers. This update to your eTrader site focuses on both you & your customer’s user experience on an eTrader website.

Our List of Latest Updates Includes:

• Manage Colours in Shops: Create a list of colours for your shops and add a variety of colours for individual products.
• Updated Product Description Box: Brand new box allowing HTML descriptions and much more for each individual product.
• Brand New View Orders Tab: This new feature gives you an accurate break-down of orders carried out on site featuring customer info, product info and much more.
• Export Customer Data: Download your customer’s information in a CSV file with just a simple click. 

Schoolwear Show 2015!

This week, eTrader confirmed confirmation at this year’s Schoolwear Show. Taking part in Solihull between the 11^th -13^th October it will be our first time visiting the show but we cannot wait to get up there and meet lots of garment decorators who may be interested in what we can do for their business.

On top of meeting new customers, we would love to hear off you if you are visiting this year’s schoolwear show, and catch up over a coffee – so don’t hesitate to drop us an email!

For more on the show visit www.theschoolwearshow.co.uk

For more of the latest of what is going on at eTrader don’t forget to check your hints & tips email or get in touch on info@etraderwebsites.co.uk today!

The fight for business in the garment decoration is always well and truly on. Customers have more options than ever before when it comes to buying their personalised clothing and decorating their garments. Give your online business the edge, make retaining them a given with an amazing customer experience; and a reason to say ‘Why would I go elsewhere when I need some personalised clothing? ‘

We have put together our five favourite tips to make sure your potential and current customers keep coming back to your site for a long time to come.

1. Have an Eye-Catching Modern Homepage: So you have done all the hard SEO & Marketing work and the customer lands on your page. For print/embroidery businesses it goes 1 or 2 ways, either customers are faced with an old-fashioned eye sore of a website which they leave as quick as they arrived or they land on a modern attractive homepage (somewhere in the middle is few and far between). Customers facing a modern clean homepage are more likely to stay on site much longer and fish around to see what you offer giving you a chance of winning and importantly retaining their business. Our sites do just this, offering customer sleek professional looking websites – seeing your homepage why would they go elsewhere?

2. Make Shopping as Straight-Forward as Possible: The customer shopping experience should be as simple as possible – click, buy, checkout, deliver. But the nature of the personalised clothing industry makes things a little more complicated, there is always a variable, a personalised aspect to what your customers buying. Most every day punters get confused by the personalisation progress when purchasing from garment decorators. But make it as simple as possible using easy to use layout and design and design tools. We have seen a whole number of different ways garment decorators try conquer this, everyone has their own view, but stick to big picture – you want your customers to buy from you and not elsewhere. Make it simple – our sites use a simple four step ordering process for customer which makes it as simple as possible for the everyday customer to order their personalised garment.

3. Be Social: Customers love a brand they can resonate with. Social Media gives your business the chance to grow its own persona and personality. You do not have to take it too seriously; it is of course just another form of Marketing, but a very fun one of that. The benefits of growing an online personality are huge, not only do current customer’s fall in love with your business, they refer your business (sharing the love and growing the sales). Social Media is a chance to interact with everyone that can be a potential customer and everyone that is a customer from a phone/tablet or PC – and with a high quality product, amazing customer service and interesting business and brand the customers are sure to come flocking in.

4. Mirror How You Work In-Store Online: Give customers an opportunity to see how great your business really is; let your customers know who you are, what you do, why you do it and why you love the garment decoration industry by any means possible – FAQs, images, blogging and so on. Shopping online customers are looking for the go-to guys for their personalised clothing, give them a bit of insight into the wonderful world of print & embroidery and improve your chances against competitors. Show off you and your businesses personality and give your business a bigger chance of winning that all important order.

5. Give Them a Reason to Keep Coming Back: Winning new business is important to print & embroidery businesses but retaining it is vital. You want to combine all these previously discussed points, great service, personality, a high-quality product and make sure that if they need personalised clothing again they are not going to go elsewhere. Offer them a reason to come back – an online mini shop loaded with their products, something your competitors can not. Why would they go anywhere else when they can order their uniforms, kits or whatever they need in just a few moments?

Combining all these tips will put you well on your way to making your customers fall in love with your online business. Beat off the online competition, go one step further and take your online sales and customer retention to the next level.

For more info on how we help garment decorators online email info@etraderwebsites.co.uk or call 029 2075 5733 

Next week we will be joining our good friends Magic Touch GB Ltd on the Lincoln leg of their road trip. We will be joining up with them Thursday 2^nd July showcasing eTrader to a number of customers in the print industry.

The trip promises to be an exciting one - we aim to just chat to lots of people, show off what we do, giving live demonstrations, offer online advice and most importantly spread the eTrader word!

So keep your eyes peeled for us with the team at Magic Touch and be sure to pop in and say hello if you are in or near the area. This may be the first of many road-shows we pop up at this summer, so keep your eyes peeled and watch this space…

It promises to be a good turnout and an eventful time, we hope to see you all there!

It's been a crazy few weeks here at eTrader HQ with all sorts going on - launching several new sites, working away on new projects, working on our latest updates, support for current customers and our latest developments alongside appearing in several publications to top it all off. With all that's going on, we thought we would share our latest news with you.

The past few weeks have seen a large number of our new customers sites go live. Our new customers come from all across the UK and even as far as Jersey and all share our love of our websites and taking the garment decoration industry to the next level. Some of our recently launched sites include TPR Signs Magic Touch Jersey and Key Cross Media and many many more - we could only pick a few from our growing list!

But do not worry existing customers, we have not forgot about you!

We are continuing to work on new ways to work alongside all our existing customers and make sure that you get the most from your eTrader website. Happy customers makes for a happy eTrader, we continue to run with our Hints & Tips email programme offering you all the latest bits of advice to make sure you maximise your sites potential!

But we are going one step further....

One of current projects is bringing our customers more learning facilities than ever before. Due to be completed in the next few weeks we are working on video learning creating our very own series of videos using Our Youtube Channel. 

In the Media....

The past month or so has seen us feature in two of the garment decorations leading industry magazines. We feature one again in this month's Printwear & Promotion and our article offering our insight into Mobilegeddon and how it affects the garment decoration industry has been well received.

But a first for us, we featured in a quarterly trade magazine Director-e which is aimed largely at the workwear and corporate clothing sector. Our full page spread provided some insight into how businesses in the personalised clothing industry achieve online success.

Lastly, we have produced several blogs for Business Wales who offered us the chance to collaborate on providing Online Marketing & Tech advice for SMEs in Wales. All our blogs are geared towards our customers with the main focus being on small to medium size business in the garment decoration industry.

For the latest news & developments get in touch on: info@etraderwebsites.co.uk or call 029 2075 5733

Social Media, where would we be without it?

It has become a necessary Marketing tool for businesses to grow their online presence and more importantly online sales. But with a large number of garment decorators neglecting it, they can only wonder - are they missing out?

Social Media is considered by many business owners (especially in our industry) a bottom of the list priority, something for a Friday afternoon or a quiet day. But if done correctly and more importantly consistently the effects Social Media can have on small businesses lead generation and sales prove the difference between doing OK online and doing very well online.

Social Media does not have to be complicated, a bottom of the pile Friday afternoon job. We will hopefully give you an insight and convince you that it can work for you & your business.

There are lots of Social Media sites out there but stick to the main few to start Facebook, Twitter and maybe LinkedIn and as you become more competent and comfortable branch out experiment with the likes of Vine, Pinterest, Instagram or whatever tickles your fancy.

Pick the platform that best fit your businesses objectives. Ask yourself what do you want to achieve from going online – developing an online brand, growing an online presence, improving your sales or whatever it may be just pick the right platform to achieve social success.

Facebook: Ideal for B2C Facebook is commonly accepted as a tricky one for customers to get right. But with advertising tools Facebook gives your business the chance to not just grow a following/community but to generate new customers through advertising campaigns that target potential customers for a small cost.

Twitter: The popular tool of choice for small businesses - we come across far more garment decoration, print, embroidery businesses here than anywhere else. Twitter allows you to focus on both B2B and B2C customers. 140 Characters does not sound like enough to sell your business but with a good following and product your business can reap the rewards!

LinkedIn: B2B orientated platform for the business more focused on its trade customers. Connecting and referring on here gives your business the chance to meet customers you may never come across normally ‘Online Networking’. Arguably the most credible for garment decorators looking to obtain working relationships & contracts with large trade customers.

Other Ideas: The garment decoration industry relies heavily on visual content so you would thing Instagram and Pinterest are ideal for garment decorators. These two sites give businesses the chance to meet like-minded people who have a similar interest in clothing and act as more of a brand grower than a sales tool in itself but we would definitely recommend you give it a go!

Just to wrap things up in a nice little bow here are a few little tips to make Social Media success easy for the everyday small business:

• Create a realistic action plan: Define what you want to achieve using Social Media
• Grow Your Following: Grow a following of who you think may be interested in your business/what you do
• Create engaging content: Nobody will read sales post after sales post, go for visuals, Blogs, and latest news – anything that catches your audience’s attention. The sales come afterwards!
• Pick the right platform: As discussed pick what you think would work best for your business and its brand.
• Creating Content: Realistically you won't have someone sat at a PC posting on your sites all day every day. Use planning tools such as Hootsuite to schedule a week’s worth of content in half hour.
• Lastly, just be sociable and have fun with it. Don’t take it too seriously spamming sales posts all over Social Media. Being liked and social will sell more than you ever imagined.

We hope we have won you around garment decorators with our guide to making Social Media a success for your business. Remember, if done right ‘Social Sales’ are what separate you from the rest of the crowd and take your online business to the next level!

For more information on how we can help your online business get in touch simply drop us an email us on info@etraderwebsites.co.uk or call 029 2075 5733 today!

Want to find out more?

The global pandemic COVID has shut down the high street and businesses across the UK & Ireland. With a return to work being slowly phased and uncertainty ahead, the online garment decoration industry is not going to be the same again.

Footfall in retail premises will decrease rapidly to the point of being non-existent, customers are looking to be safe and secure in their shopping. Taking your business online gives customers the comfort blank of being able to order their workwear, printed & embroidered from the comfort of their home and so on.

The problem is intensified for those who provide school uniforms, customers will not be able to just pop in-store, try on items and takeaway their uniforms the same day. An ecommerce website is especially pivotal for those who rely on the school uniform rush to build up cashflow.

The demand for creating a website that can take online orders recently has taken off with solutions (such as the one we offer!) providing a popular choice among garment decorators. 

There are pros and cons when it comes to using a solution. Bear in mind they are built for the industry and will cover most bases but maybe not tick 100% of the boxes you want, there is a bit of compromise to be had. But the time, money and resources that can be saved using an ecommerce solution is invaluable.

Covid-19 has had a profound effect on the UK nation as a whole with many industries coming to a grinding halt. The garment decoration industry has not seen anything quite like it and yes it is difficult to see business picking back up, but inevitably it will.

While it is a great challenge for businesses trying to survive the pandemic it also presents a once in a lifetime opportunity to reset, re-charge and prepare for what awaits once this is all over.

From a Marketing perspective it firstly provides a chance to evaluate, analyse and review your existing strategy. Identify what is working and conversely what is not working, areas you would like to target, areas that are not being targeting effectively and work out how to get the maximum return on your Marketing budget. Your purse strings going to be tighter than ever before squeeze every bit of value out of your Marketing and plan accordingly.

With in-store promotions and local advertising grinding to a complete halt this frees up some budget to potentially look at your business’s online strategy

With website traffic being minimal it is the ideal chance to assess your businesses website, review it, work on any maintenance, updates and ensure it is full optimised and ready to go for a ‘re-launch’ when the time comes. 

Programmatic advertising is the use of a software to buy digital ad space, it provides complete autonomy for businesses. In the past few years it has made great strides in its development with a whole heap of tools, platforms and resources available for businesses looking to streamline their online advertising.

This form of advertising uses data science to improve your online conversions, it considers seasonality, user behaviours and much more to model paid search results. It essentially uses predictive analytics to monitor, maintain and enhance your ads based on a number of behaviours namely customer demand.

For this you need the right data sources, this allows you to build models to explore customers behaviours. There is a whole heap of data out there when it comes to Online Marketing and your business (I would argue too much, some useless data which only causes confusion when trying to make decisions). 

Loading speed is how fast your website loads when a user search for it. Customers want their searches to load almost instantly and are not afraid to shop around online if your user experience is not quite up to scratch.

You might think to yourself - why is this important? How can this be helped? Why does it matter?

Well loading speed actually plays a part in Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) and how Google views and ranks your website. Recent studies show that Google considers loading speed as an important ranking factor when considering where to index your businesses website.

Recent Google algorithms focus pre-dominantly on user experience, they consider loading speed an important thing for search users. Pages with a slower loading speed will often have much higher bounce rates plus lower average page view time and lower conversions.

Following on from all things SEO the past few months, our latest blog gives small businesses and overview and insight into the crazy, weird and wonderful world of Digital Marketing. Our SEO, content advice and opinion blogs have helped point your business in the right direction in its online journey. But in our industry, we know it’s all about sales and online performance so we’ve put together a few little practical bits aimed at adding value.

Marketing Your Business Online Doesn’t Have To Be a Chore:

Many small business owners in the garment decorating sector are notorious for downplaying the importance of Marketing for their business, especially online. The industry is traditional, leap years behind other sectors; many businesses see it as simply setting up a site for their business and doing the occasional tweet or post on Facebook or Twitter. But what they don’t see is that everything online works together in a synchronized way. 

It’s all about collaborating… Online marketing brings together all aspects of your businesses online presence. Just put together your online content and keywords and mix that with your Blog & Social Media and the online/SEO world is at your feet. What we recommend for our customers is an integrated online strategy, covering all the bases.

eTrader Top Tips:

• Understand Your Customers/Audience: Treat your online customers like you would treat your in shop customers. Nobody knows your customers like you… Online it shouldn’t be any different. Using demographic tools, such as Hootsuite Analytics or Google Analytics makes identifying your online audience easy. 
• Research your Businesses Online Keywords: Know what your audience are looking for to find you, or what you want them to look for to find you. Plan your content strategy around your keywords and build your online presence from there. Use them in Blogs & Social Media and the rest is magic!
• Develop a Social Media Plan: This doesn’t have to be a strict structure. But Social Media plays a wide role in SEO and developing your online image. We recommend a mix of the planned an unplanned. See our Social Media Blog for more on this.
• Keep Up With The Times & Be Innovative: The internet doesn’t stand still. An amazing strategy one day may be wasted the next. Continuously work on new creative ideas to engage both current and new customers, try new things and keep up with current trends.

We know how difficult small businesses in our sector find operating online – It’s breaking tradition. The aim is to make it as simple as possible for your business to have all the tools required to help them succeed online, that’s where we’re happy to help.

We strive to offer our customers as much as physically possible (we want all our customers to get the best returns possible on their sites). This includes things such as auditing, ‘logmein’ sessions and optional Marketing Packs covering areas such as analytics analysis, social media analysis, content review & advice, keyword help and online marketing strategy advice.

We have all the bases covered when it comes to helping take our customers businesses forward.

For more information on improving your online business, all things Online Marketing, SEO & e-commerce in the garment decoration game don’t hesitate to get in touch!

Following on from our recent blog ‘Blogging & Business: A Match Made in Heaven’ where we looked at the art of writing a good blog and how it benefits your online businesses image. We left one stone unturned...(deliberately so we could write this piece!)

We wrote very (very!) briefly on the SEO benefits of Blogging, but this week we have decided to go one further and examine how exactly it works for you & your businesses.

SEO & Blogging: A Surprising Match….

Googles latest SEO guidance is on all things ‘real & quality content’across everything platform you use. The misconception is SEO is just all things backlinks, your landing page and site content but Googles Latest SEO Update focus on providing your businesses customers the whole experience - that’s where Social Media & Blogging come into things.

Google Loves Real Content from Real People….

 Blogging for SEO is all about communicating, collaborating, sharing you & your businesses views, news and opinions – keeping both current and potential new customers in the know.

Just be yourself, write naturally… nobody knows more about your business than you! Creating quality content is ‘two-fold’. It should generate more traffic to your site for potential newer customers but also keep current customers coming back for more (providing you write some interesting/relevant content).

The key is to be transparent, create interesting and relevant blogs. SEO is all about real sites providing real quality content and it couldn’t be easier than with Blogging!

There Will Be Sceptics Out There….

Some organisations hire fake ‘Guest’ bloggers, some key-word cram, but here at eTrader we promote quality content and ethical SEO practice. We encourage customers to actively create quality content across every medium they use. The results are more fruitful in the long term, both on and offsite. We understand that quality content is king as it plays a heavy part in your businesses Online Marketing & SEO performance.

 Here at eTrader we understand how Blogging benefits your online business. That’s why we have started rolling out our fully integrated blog for customers at very affordable prices. Get in touch to find out more!

This weeks blog is brought to you by none other that eTraders Managing Director, John will be regularly sharing his thoughts and views on all things online for Garment decorators. 

Want to know what all this stuff means?

SEO, SEM, SERP, URL, HTML, SSL, PCI, CRM, CMS, AND, ON, AND, ON, AND, ON.................... 

Or more importantly, what's it got to do with your Embroidery and Printed Clothing business?

I genuinely went to a meeting a few years ago with a web development company and thought it was some sort of elaborate game of Scrabble and that at the end of the meeting I would be asked to make words out of all the letters they'd thrown at me and win a prize or something. Sadly not, what I had experienced was the language I like to call 'Gobbledeegeek'.

Then it was off for a meeting with an online marketing company and SEO specialist (luckily my first meeting prepared me well and I knew what that meant), basically the same confusing language would be spoken but.... dare I say with a little less substance.

B2B, B2C, D2C, CTP, CTR, CPA, CPM, BOUNCE RATE, NEGATIVE KEYWORDS, META DESCRIPTIONS, AND, ON, AND, ON...........

Then I realised of course, like accountants and solicitors before them, these guys had created a new language which roughly translates to - 'You don't understand, you pay!' 

Fair enough, like the bean counters and ambulance chasers, some of them are pretty good and worth the money, but watch out for the ones who use it to show you how clever they are or to make you think you can't do most of this stuff yourself. Don't bother learning it if you're not going to apply it, the good guys tell you this stuff in a way you can understand and you can make your own mind up if it's something you want to pay for then go for it.

Anyway, now that I'm a fully fledged member of the Tech and SEO fraternity, and proud of it, I still keep this type of thing up my sleeve just in case....

http://www.iabuk.net/resources/jargon-buster

OR

http://www.directom.com/resources/internetmarketingtermglossary 

Over the years here at eTrader we have become fully bilingual, we talk both techie and garments. So if you want to talk about EMB, DTG, DST with a bit of the above thrown in get in touch and keep an eye out for our regular hints, tips and features on Social Media.

For many small businesses in our industry, social media presents huge opportunities. However, these are often met with equally huge reservations. In reality, the potential is endless for small businesses like ours. Social media is a free and universal advertising tool that allows our businesses to reach wider audiences than any of our traditional marketing activities. It’s a no brainer right?!

Social Media & Our Sector…

Looking at social media in our sector, some businesses fully immerse themselves while others watch from the side, unwilling to jump in.  Businesses are utilising social media in a wide range of ways; major industry players are being proactive (as they should be!) and truly using social media to their own advantage. At the other end of the spectrum, the everyday print & garment decoration company is mainly inactive; their presence in the social media world is dangerously quiet. In our industry, businesses are predominantly reactive with most merely using social media simply for the sake of it. Many small business owners simply deem it a distraction to core business. However, if used correctly social media represents a fantastic range of potential opportunities for small businesses to reach customers further than ever before.

But the question on every business owner’s mind is: how do we best utilise social media?

Time is precious when you’re managing a small business. There simply isn't time to be sat a computer all day mulling over Twitter Feeds, Facebook Posts & the Latest Pins on Pinterest. The trick to being successful on social media is to be savvy; find a balance between using a successful strategy and being completely spontaneous.

In this technologically shrewd world, there really isn't any excuse for business owners. With free software all over the internet to help any small business out, managing social media has never been easier saving your business time and importantly money! Traditional business owners (especially in our industry!) are reluctant to accept that social media isn’t a chore, a waste of time or a necessity. Social media is standard practice in most current businesses sectors but our industries yet to catch up! Businesses are even going as far as hiring people specifically for all things social. We’re not saying go out and hire a techy graduate who knows all things Social Media, but just embrace it and understand it’s a part of the business landscape for the foreseeable future. 

Our Top Tips for Social Media Success:

1.  Pick Your Platform: Not all platforms will be ideally suited to your business, so select carefully what social sites give your business the best opportunity to stand out.
2. Be Creative & Engaging: Invite customer participation, play around with ideas. Social media doesn’t have to be taken too seriously, just have fun with it!
3. Give Your Business A Personality: Let your customer see you as not just as a service but as a ‘friend’. Build up your online voice; develop an online personality and use your sense of humour to engage with your current and potential customers.
4. Social NOT Sales: Use social media as a subtle sales tool. Don’t overwhelm your customers with constant sales posts. Focus more on building up your businesses image and following.
5. Run Special Promotions: Give your potential customers a reason to follow you; offer unique discounts and special promotions just for followers.
6. Create a Realistic Plan: Use free Social Media planning tools to plan a week’s worth of content at once. Don’t set yourself unrealistic targets, use whatever time you have smartly.

Search Engine Optimization can be a hugely onerous and complex task for most online businesses, let alone the everyday garment decorator. At eTrader we often get enquiries from customers, asking for advice on all things SEO. Performing online is critical for most industries but even more so in the garment decoration game. Despite traditional decorators arguing otherwise, online enquiries, leads & sales can be generated for your business through your website. The rise of web 2.0 and 'Word of Mouse' generates huge amount of potential online traffic waiting to be converted to sales.

Most small garment decorators operating online face similar challenges, often asking themselves: How on earth do I improve my online sales? Or how do I take my website to the next level? I want to get ahead of my competition.

With the current economic climate and tight margins, small businesses are feeling the pinch (especially garment decorators), the need to compete online has become fiercely essential but highly competitive. Most garment decorators find themselves in the ‘catch 22’, the online version of fight or flight: Do you risk spending expensive amounts on SEO experts or do you just stand still online?

But, unlike previously, your online businesses destiny is in your hands. Most business owners previously relied on specialists - understanding and acceptance of SEO has led to more information and help being available than ever before. Whether you use a Moz beginners guide or Googles guidelines for SEO, there’s more knowledge being shared than ever before. As an owner, you have information and tools available to help you direct your traffic, optimise your content and watch your leads & sales progressively increase.

However complex the issue at hand is, simplify it. The essence of SEO is keywords and content. We often say to our customers ‘just put yourself in your customer’s shoes and ask yourself what terms would they have to search to find your website, even go as far as potentially asking your customers’.

But thankfully with eTrader SEO isn’t tricky.  With years of industry experience in garment decoration and extensive online knowledge (we decided to put it to good use!) eTrader websites for garment decorator’s development of an SEO friendly Content Management System (CMS) makes SEO for garment decorators a different ball game. This simple approach to SEO is highly user friendly offering garment decorators alike lower cost SEO for their business. Just ask our customers – they love it!