2021 eCommerce Holiday Checklist

2021 Holiday Checklist

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Who doesn’t want a successful, stress-free holiday season? You, us and shoppers alike!

To set yourself up for the best holiday season yet to come, we’ve put together a checklist so that you can be on top of all things business and eCommerce this holiday season.

 

Monitor your Online Tactics & Strategies

Continuously monitor your Website, Advertisements, Social Media profiles, SEO, Marketing Promotions, and Sales to make adjustments as they may be needed.

 

Update and Test NOW

If your website needs fixes, improvements and/or updates, the time to make those changes was yesterday. Wait no longer because the holiday rush is already upon us. This includes making changes to design, too to get visitors in the holiday spirit!

Your website will see a significant increase in traffic in the next few weeks, so your website needs to be able to support that. Tell us…would you wait for more than 8 seconds for a website to load? Images can slow your website down quite a bit, so you want to make sure they’re all optimized to yield the fastest loading time. Don’t delay Santa’s shopping by making him wait for slow images to load on your website.

You should be testing things like: the checkout process, shipping calculators, mobile displays, site navigation, all payment methods, coupon and discount codes, any CTA’s, and all outbound and internal links.

 

Create Marketing Campaigns

Consider promotions like free shipping, seasonal add-ons, free gifts with a certain purchase, or discounts on orders over a certain amount as part of your Holiday Marketing Campaign. Incentivize early shopping as much as you can in your marketing collateral.

 

Know your Top Sellers

You should have a good idea about which products are most popular and sell out quickly. Use this information to ensure your inventory is what it needs to be for all the goods to be purchased. Furthermore, think about making these top sellers a priority in your holiday marketing and promotions.

Consider adding gift cards as an option for buyers! Also, use your top selling insight to upsell and bundle products.

 

Prioritize Security

Cybercriminals create mischievous ways to access customer information and that could lead to a lot of harm for your business. Take the time to assess your website security to ensure the best security for your business and customers alike.

 

Manage Expectations with Communication

Its cliche, but communication is key. Make things as easy as possible for your customers. Be proactive and advertise shipping dates so they can get their purchases on time, send email reminders as the holidays approach, and speak up about returns. Clear communication will give your customers the confidence they need to become a repeat customer.

TIP: The best place on your website to place important information would be on the homepage, landing pages, product pages, and shopping cart pages.

 

Provide Tracking Information 

As much as your business may be obsessing over delivery dates, your customers are too. Provide your customers with tracking numbers so that they can easily track their orders via UPS, FedEx, etc..

 

Save yourself the stress and check these items off of your to-list now! If you’re thinking you may need some help with some of these items, go ahead and schedule your FREE consultation with us, today!

Ventura Web Design & Marketing Among Top B2B Service Providers on UpCity!

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Ventura Web Design & Marketing is thrilled to officially announce that we are a part of the UpCity community of top B2B service providers!

How did we earn this title?

At Ventura Web Design & Marketing, we’re proud to offer services such as website and eCommerce site design, digital marketing, search engine optimization, graphic design, and more. This makes us the trusted advisors that business owners need to develop their brands and grow their businesses online. We have helped our clients generate over one billion dollars, and counting, in revenue with our wide array of services and dedication to quality.

 

UpCity is a resource that helps connect businesses to service providers they can trust. With more than 70,000 listed providers—from marketing agencies to accounting firms to HR consultants to IT specialists, and many more—2 million businesses (and counting) have visited UpCity to research and identify the best partner for their needs. 

 

UpCity’s proprietary algorithm utilizes a variety of digital signals to measure the credibility, trustworthiness, and recommendability of B2B service providers across the U.S. and Canada. These digital data points like reviews (both on UpCity and other third-party review sites), presence in relevant search results, domain authority, website speed, and experience help UpCity connect businesses with outstanding service providers like Ventura Web Design & Marketing. 

 

We are proud to be listed in this vibrant and growing community and want to thank our clients for all of the love and support you have shown our business. 

 

Stop spending your time and effort working endlessly on your website & marketing. Let us handle the heavy lifting for you!

Get your FREE Consultation, NOW!

eCommerce Design Terms for Website Building

Design Terms to know when building your eCommerce Website

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Whether you’re building your eCommerce website yourself or you’ve hired a company like Ventura Web Design & Marketing to do it for you, it’s always a good idea to understand the most commonly used web design terms so that you can be on the right page.

Let’s jump right in!

ALT-TEXT

This is also sometimes referred to as an alt-tag. This is the descriptive text attached to an image file. You may see this text pop up while the photo loads. Alt-text helps with SEO and it also helps the search engines understand the keywords that describe the photo.

 

ASPECT RATIO

This ratio defines the proportion of an image’s width and height. Square images are 1:1 for example, while widescreen images are 16:9.

 

CODE

These are commands that tell websites how to appear and function. There are a few different types of code to note:

  • HTML (Hypertext Markup Language): communicates with the web browser how to display images, text, and other multi-media on a webpage.
  • CSS (Cascading Style Sheets): describe how HTML elements should be presented.
  • Javascript: Used to create interactive elements and effects on a webpage. Think about a countdown timer for a product launch, for example.

 

COLOR CODE

These are alphanumerical codes that specify exact colors. There are a few different formats like:

  • RGB: This color profile is specifically used for screens, making colors consisting of red, green, and blue.
  • HEX: This code consists of 6 digits representing the intensity of red, green, and blue.

 

FAVICON

This is the small icon that shows in your browser that is specific to your website. You’ll also see this appear in your browsing history and other places in the internet.

 

FILE FORMAT

Here are the best basic file formats for images on your website:

  • JPG: This is maybe the most common file type. Jpegs have a fairly small file size, which will result in faster loading times, but your image may lose quality.
  • PNG: Typically, this is a larger file size than a jpeg. It allows a transparent background and does not lose image quality.
  • GIF: These are those short video animations you see sometimes as “memes”.

 

FONT

Try not to interchange this term with “typeface”–that’s something different. There are two main types of font families:

  • Serif: have small ticks or “serifs” on the endpoints of letters. Think of Times New Roman.
  • Sans Serif: have NO ticks or serifs. Look at the font this post is typed in for reference.

There are TONS of typography terms, but we’re sticking to the basics. There are also a few more font terms to know.

  • Times New Roman is a font family.
  • 12pt or 12px is a font size.
  • Italic is a font style.

 

METADATA

This is the information about your content–post titles, headings, publication dates, authors, categories, and tags.

 

RESPONSIVE

This term refers to web design that adapts to fit the size of screen it’s being viewed on appropriately.

 

THUMBNAIL

This is the icon-like image that appears to represent a blog post, for example.

 

WIREFRAME

This is a mock-up that shows a basic outline and structure of what your website will look like. This is more-so used for WHERE content will go, NOT what the content will look like.

 

Need an expert to help with your eCommerce Website & Marketing?

Get a FREE consultation with us to get started!

4 Mistakes that are KILLING your eCommerce Website

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First Things First:

These mistakes are costing you money.

Second Things Second:

Ventura Web Design & Marketing is here to help!

The main point of your eCommerce website is to generate sales, yes?

Yes.

That means that your website is your most valuable employee. Your website doesn’t go to sleep or clock out. It is constantly working to showcase your brand & products to your ideal audience. In other words…your website is a big deal.

 

If you find yourself making any of these mistakes, Get your FREE Consultation with us NOW!

 

MISTAKE #1: LONG LOADING TIME

People leave websites if they take too long to load. Make sure things like your server, images, web design, and plugins are optimized.

 

MISTAKE #2: LACK OF TRUST

Most times when you’re selling products, your website is the only impression you may get to make on your audience. You don’t get the chance to welcome them, ask their name and shake their hand. This means you have to gain their trust and make yourself credible in other ways. Your audience may not be as trusting when they visit a site with outdated web design, confusing navigation, and a complicated check-out process. Your website should be clean, optimized, and attracting your ideal customers. People buy things from people they trust.

 

MISTAKE #3: OVERWHELMING NAVIGATION

Having too many options or not describing in depth what’s being displayed is a huge mistake. If your viewers can’t find what they need, quickly…they’re going to leave your website. Your menu and navigation options should get viewers to where they want to be in the LEAST amount of clicks as possible.

 

MISTAKE #4: NOT MOBILE FRIENDLY

Your website should work for mobile users just as well as it does for desktop users. 54.8% of global website traffic happens on a mobile device. Not sure if your website is mobile friendly? Find out here!

 

If you’re new to the eCommerce world, or you’re looking to improve what you’re already working with, make sure to avoid these mistakes! Get your FREE Consultation if you’re wanting to extend your team to help with these mistakes.

Need Help Making a Website “Mobile Friendly” & Faster?

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So you own an eCommerce store and your website feels slow. Who do you contact to make your website faster? Can you call Shopify? How about Miva? Both of those companies will likely refer you to a web developer like us, Ventura Web Design & Marketing. We will run the site speed audits and then provide guidance on how to enhance your website.

Speeding up your website is very important for your website’s success. Those few extra seconds your site takes to load will result in a negative impact on your ability to engage visitors and make sales. Research shows that a delay in page load time can result in:

  • 11% fewer page views
  • 16% decrease in customer satisfaction
  • 7% loss in conversions

Two main things a slow loading website can affect are conversion rates and visibility. 40% of users will abandon a page if it takes more than a few seconds to load, and 79% of customers will not return to a site that has poor performance. These two statistics alone show how a slow site can have a poor impact on your site’s conversion rates. As far as visibility, load times can influence how easy it is for visitors to find your site in the first place because google takes speed into consideration when ranking sites. Google ranks all search results on mobile versions of pages. With that being said, it’s important for both mobile and desktop versions of your site to be fast.

Are you ready to make your website faster? We would be glad to help you. Here’s how to get started:

Step 1) Contact us to schedule an initial appointment.

Step 2) We will reach out to you to learn about your website and your goals.

Step 3) After our call, we will perform an off-line site audit and then schedule a followup call. During the followup we will present our findings and recommendations, along with a few options for you to move forward with at that time.

Contact Us Today!

10 Components Slowing Down Your Website

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47% of users expect a maximum loading time of two seconds for an average website. In the day and age where everything is instantaneous, it’s unlikely users will wait for a slow website to load. They will go back to a search engine to find a faster one. This blog will cover the 10 factors that could be slowing down your website loading speed. 

 

Unoptimized photos

This is usually the top culprit of a slow loading web page. When uploading a high-resolution image (which is always advised) and then scaling it down it causes your web page to be large and thus take longer to load. 

To combat this use JPEG images as opposed to PNG or GIF, as JPEGs have a smaller file size. Never use files that have a file size of 1 MB or more. 

If you have a slow website or are just curious to test your site’s speed there are websites that will analyze any link and tell you where slowdowns may be coming from.

 

JavaScript issues

JavaScript is a great program for plugins, but if you’re not careful your JavaScript plugin can actually be hurting your website loading speed. 

To combat this potential problem audit your JavaScript. 

In case you’re not a tech guru we have multiple staff members that know how to perform these functions. Contact us or visit us online to learn more about our web design services. 

 

Flash content

Everyone remembers or knows Adobe Flash because it was that popup that used to came frequently in the past when you were trying to surf the web. Flash always seemed like it had to be updated, didn’t it? Well, that’s likely because it did. As websites advanced the Flash version had to be updated and now it could be the culprit of your own slow website.

Flash is somewhat outdated now and can be causing your website to slow down. You can either perform an audit of your Flash content to see what you can eliminate or simply start using HTML5 to speed up your site. 

 

HTTP requests

If your website has many JavaScript, CSS, and images. That can be a lot of processes to request from the browser causing a slower load time.

To reduce these requests try using Sprites to reduce HTTP requests

Also consider pairing down the files on your page including images, JavaScript, and CSS.

 

Not Caching 

Caching is the process of storing data so at a later request they load faster. This takes the burden off the server so it doesn’t have to process the same information multiple times.

Using browser/HTTP caching and server-side caching will improve your site speed tremendously. 

 

Cluttered code

When your website has excessive styling or white space these things can cause unclean code. Removing these unnecessary things can compress the code, and thus reduce load time. 

 

Not zipping files

gZIP compression allows you to compress the file size of the objects that commonly slow down your site speed like images, CSS, and JavaScript. This means when a user requests these things from your server they are smaller so they load faster on their end. 

If you haven’t already, enable gZIP on your website. 

 

Too many ads

Ads are great for extra revenue for many sites, but it’s not worth compromising site load speed. More ads mean more HTTP requests, especially for media-rich display ads. 

To reduce clutter and improve site speed reduce the number of ads.

Not using a CDN service

A CDN service is a network of independent servers deployed in different geographic locations. They are designed to deploy information from the closest server from the requesting user. These can dramatically improve site speed. 

 

Bad hosting

If all of the above options have been exhausted. It could be that you are using a bad hosting service. A bad host can cause your website to load slow. 

Try switching hosts to a company that provides site speed support or optimized speed within their hosting bundle. 

 

Contact Us

If you would like to outsource your web design and mobile web design contact us online or by phone. We have two locations to serve you with those specializing in web design in Las Vegas and Tampa. 

5 Things Website Viewers Want To See

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Your website home page should entice viewers to buy from you or work with you. People make very quick judgments when viewing a site…about a two-second judgment to be exact. So, implement the five things covered in this blog to convert web traffic into revenue.

 

Clear and concise messaging

People spend 5.94 seconds looking at the main page of a website so its important to have a clear and concise messaging to get your point across. 

It’s best to have one main focal point on the page with easily digestible text…chunky paragraphs are a major no-no. 

Every website main page should contain:

  • What you do
  • Why you do it
  • Benefits of your business/product
  • Hours of operation
  • Contact section
  • Call to action

 

Reduced options

Some may think its better to give people 20 options as opposed to a handful of options. While it may feel contradictory, it’s actually better to give people just a few choices. 

Hicks Law states that the more choices a person has the longer they will take to make a decision. 

This is not what you want when someone visits your site. You want to convert that visitor into a customer, therefore, giving them fewer options to pick from is better since the longer it takes them to choose an item the more likely they will be to second guess the purchase altogether and leave the site. 

 

Easy navigation

How many clicks it takes to complete a task and how easy options are to find are two factors people look for when browsing sites. 

Make your site easy to browse and buy from. Minimal things to click on the homepage is usually best. Here’s an example of CarMax’s homepage.

The page tells you what they do, has a large call to action button, and quality photos.

Use photos to enhance your page

As shown in the example above good photos are crucial to people’s perception of your business and what you do. Avoid using stock images, as it seems impersonal and makes a customer less likely to trust you. 

Your images should be high quality and compressed or zipped files to prevent the page from lagging when loading.

 

Provide proof for your claims

Provide reviews of past customers on your website. As people, we are more likely to follow the crowd so posting other satisfied reviews will make people more likely to choose your business. Providing reviews shows you can back up claims or provide a quality product or service. Let’s use our website as an example. We have put reviews on our website to back up our claims.

Contact Us

After reading this do you think your website could be spruced up? Contact us and we can handle redesigning, rewriting, and reworking your website so it can effectively grab the attention of potential customers. We have two locations to serve you. Contact us by phone in Tampa at (813) 556-7990 or in Las Vegas at (702) 515-2057. You can also contact us online.

Oil Worker

Client Success Story: AbForm Workwear

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Abform Workwear is the leading supplier of OSHA approved safety gear, fire and flame-resistant workwear, uniforms, and more. They’ve been in business since the early 80’s and continue to serve as many industries as possible. They offer a wide variety of products for shoppers and need to make sure their customers are satisfied during every step of the online experience.

Before Abform Workwear’s Design Overhaul

Abform Workwear wasn’t able to easily maintain their website and online store because of proprietary software. Proprietary software can be expensive, typically there isn’t a lot of room for customization, and developer support can be difficult to reach or even disappear should the developer go out of business.

Updates were challenging as they didn’t have access to contemporary and updated editing tools. They didn’t have the support or dedicated team they needed to give their customers the experience they deserve.

This is why they decided to work with Ventura Web Design & Marketing for their website needs. As a premier web design company in Tampa Bay, we went to work on the aesthetic, functionality, and ease of use of their website. We aimed to improve the site’s navigation and make it easier for customers to find the products they’re looking for. We also wanted to curate a bright, open style while also staying true to their brand and look professionally sleek.

After Abform Workwear’s Redesign with Ventura Web Design & Marketing

With our VIP support, team of specialists, and experience, they get the assistance they need with Ventura Web Design & Marketing as an active extension of their team.

Their website now features a brighter color scheme using a non-proprietary platform. Abform Workwear and our team is able to maintain their site easily and frequently. We worked on their navigation and homepage, graphic design, and updated their product categories. The before (left) and after (right) transitions can be seen below.

Abform Workwear’s Home Page

Category Page

Product Page

We rebuilt their site keeping in mind standards for mobile website design and desktop capability. Their site was also analyzed pre-launch for SEO, and optimized accordingly.

We continue to provide them with top-level assistance including regular SEO updates to keep their site visible to their valued customers. As a Tampa Bay web design company, we are dedicated to transforming and improving every aspect of your website and digital presence. With locations in Las Vegas, Nevada and Tampa, Florida, we have you covered regardless of where you’re located. Contact us today for a consultation.

Operating Your Business Online

Las Vegas Mobile Web Design

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Competitive Advantage In Las Vegas With Smart Mobile Web Design

Las Vegas is a competitive, wonderful place for business. Marketing and advertising trends never stop evolving and it’s imperative businesses keep up to stay in the game. More and more people are transitioning to mobile devices as their primary source of finding information online – this includes finding products and services to purchase. If your business isn’t adapting to the mobile wave, it’s time you seriously consider bringing your brand to the smaller screens.

Mobile Web Design

Your customers use iPhones, Androids, and other smart devices to find what they’re looking for online. Whether they’re at home on a tablet or walking the Las Vegas Strip with a smart phone, your business needs to accommodate your mobile customer base. By designing for a mobile audience, you increase online visibility and get your brand on more screens, in front of more people.

A high-quality Las Vegas web design agency can help you develop a clean and easy to read mobile website. Your web design team should ensure your mobile site is put together in a linear and top-to-bottom format with fewer images to speed up your loading times. Mobile web design tells your story in a logical way that’s easy for your customers to quickly understand.

The more your Las Vegas web design team considers your user’s mobile experience, the easier it will be for customers to navigate your mobile site, which increases your chances of generating leads and revenue. Don’t give your competitors the advantage by ignoring mobile web design as a crucial piece of the larger marketing puzzle.

Benefits of Mobile Web Design Agencies

A Las Vegas mobile web design agency like Ventura Web Design & Marketing has the expertise you need to get your mobile site running. Our in-house designers and developers specialize in mobile web design, considering your target customer every step of the way. We aim to increase your conversions, generate leads, and grow revenue through the most important platform of the digital age, mobile devices.

Your website is likely visited by customers through their mobile device. You should absolutely invest in a Las Vegas web design agency and schedule a strategy session today. Since your’e already here, why not give us a call or contact us online for a consultation to make sure we’re the right fit to help you with your mobile project.

Match your Mobile and Desktop Yahoo Store Designs

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Yahoo! Small Business stores make it very easy to make a mobile version of your site available to customers. There is a big downside to this: it won’t automatically match your desktop site. This can sometimes make it confusing for customers, especially if they’re used to your desktop site! Even if their first exposure to your store is through mobile, doesn’t it make sense to style your adaptive mobile template to match your desktop experience?
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Las Vegas, NV Location
1980 Festival Plaza Drive, Suite 300
Las Vegas, NV 89135
702-515-2057

Tampa, FL Location
5201 W Kennedy Blvd, Suite 720
Tampa, FL 33609
813-556-7990

Support@VenturaWebDesign.com