ePages blog https://blog.epages.com/en/ Thu, 22 Feb 2024 15:03:58 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.4.3 Winter Release 2024: What’s new at ePages https://blog.epages.com/en/winter-release-2024/ Thu, 22 Feb 2024 14:50:46 +0000 https://blog.epages.com/?p=58665 AI features for products, FAQs, design enhancements and more: In a new video format, Efe von Thenen, Chief Marketing Officer at ePages, presents all the new features of the ePages platform and gives an exciting preview of upcoming features such as the mobile app for merchants. A summary of some of the key live features:

Social Shopping: Seamlessly synchronise your shop with Instagram and Facebook. Tag products in your posts and simplify the buying process through social channels.

AI-powered shopping ads: To help you get started with shopping ads, you can use our Performance-Max integration from Google. With just a few clicks, you can create effective ads that are automatically powered using AI.

New design templates: Whether you run a cosy café, a sports club or a wellness spa, you can now find a look that perfectly suits your business.

FAQs: The new Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) content element makes questions and answers easy for your customers to understand. By answering your customers’ questions in advance, you support the search function in the shop and reduce manual customer enquiries.

Customisable products: Particularly popular is the new product personalisation feature. This allows your customers to add their own personal touch via a text box. You can easily adjust the maximum length of the word or text in the administration area.

New product labelling: Want to showcase your new products? Simply mark products as “NEW” in the “Product Label” section and the label will automatically be activated for the first product image and all pages.

 

Want to see all new features? Watch the full video on YouTube:

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State of AI-supported ecommerce for SMBs in 2024 https://blog.epages.com/en/ecommerce-trends-2024/ Fri, 16 Feb 2024 15:13:06 +0000 https://blog.epages.com/?p=58609

How can SMBs leverage from AI and other ecommerce trends to start selling online and run their business in 2024?

Last year marked a disruptive shift in the digital industry: AI tools such as ChatGPT, which were made available to the mass market, multiplied at a rapid pace and became a helpful tool for retailers to create digital content and sell their products online. However, this is creating new challenges for smaller companies and startups: It is simply not enough to stand in the shop and pack parcels, even the smallest retailer needs to take time to learn about market developments and understand new tools and processes.

Together with Efe von Thenen, CMO of ePages, we take a look at the future and the present: How can business founders start selling online and compete with the larger players in the market? How can SMBs run their business profitably in the digital world in 2024 leveraging from AI and other trends?

With generative AI tools like ChatGPT being introduced in 2023, we have learned a lot about how merchants can use AI to produce content for their day-to-day digital business. How do you see AI influencing ecommerce operations this year?

Efe von Thenen: AI is going to streamline various business aspects. The rise of embedded AI experiences in products, such as Microsoft 365 Copilot, will transform ecommerce applications. This includes facilitating content creation, automating translations and deploying more efficient ad campaigns. This will boost business operations and enhance consumer engagement significantly.

Looking ahead, what do you think will be the biggest trend in ecommerce for 2024?

Efe von Thenen: The biggest trend, I believe, will be the deeper integration of AI into everyday business operations. The democratization of AI tools, like ChatGPT last year, is a game-changer, especially for smaller businesses. It’s leveling the playing field, enabling them to compete more effectively against bigger players. We have already started to provide ePages customers with deeper AI integrations for product descriptions, automatic meta descriptions and automatic translations. This will continue to be our focus in the coming year, to help merchants in their day-to-day business with powerful and automated tools.

What impact do you foresee AI having on these consumer-brand relationships in the ecommerce industry?

Efe von Thenen: AI’s impact on the ecommerce industry will be evident in the evolving relationship between consumers and brands. Shopping journeys will become more personalized and intuitive, altering the ecommerce experience. This will make interactions more engaging and tailored, fundamentally changing how consumers relate to brands.

Talking beyond AI: There have been other factors in 2023 that massively influenced how SMBs interact with their customers and build their brand. Can you tell us about the significant learnings for the ecommerce industry?

Efe von Thenen: Absolutely. Besides AI, the ecommerce industry in 2023 learned the importance of sustainability as a key success factor, especially for niche players and ‘love brands’. Despite economic headwinds and competition from giants like Temu, niche players and ‘love brands’ really stood out. They resonated with consumers, particularly Gen-Z, who favored sustainability over brand recognition, indicating a shift towards more responsible consumerism. Brands like Picture Organic Clothing and Jack Wolfskin, known for sustainable outdoor apparel and repair services, exemplify this trend. Similarly, smaller ‘love brands’ like mioboards.com, despite limited marketing resources, successfully leveraged this this eco-conscious approach to differentiate themselves and build customer loyalty.

Talking about all these disruptive changes in the market, that have been sped up by AI: How can retailers be supported with new topics and trends to stay ahead in the game?

Efe von Thenen: At ePages we understand that starting an online business can be characterised by a lot of different tasks and obstacles, especially among smaller companies. All-in-one ecommerce solutions like ePages equip retailers with all the important verticals of an online business at their fingertips, bundled with a low threshold offering and maximum support that anyone can use to easily start selling products online. The intuitive administration and pre-installed integrations for Payment, Shipping, Marketing and more ensure that merchants don’t require prior technical knowledge.

To provide an all-around support and facilitate the start, we have partnered with our strategic payment partner Mollie to launch campaigns like “Start & Grow”. Building up on this, we are excited to announce that we will be joining this year’s E-Commerce Berlin EXPO with our SMB alliance. We joined forces with our partner and shipping service provider Sendcloud, payment service provider Mollie and Händlerbund for legal questions as the SMB Alliance to provide personalised advice to retailers and support anyone to get started in ecommerce.

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October Feature News: Social media integrations, editor enhancements and more https://blog.epages.com/en/feature-news-october-2023/ Mon, 02 Oct 2023 13:19:35 +0000 https://blog.epages.com/?p=58338 October marks the beginning of the most important sales period for retailers, with highlights such as Black Friday and Cyber Monday generating huge demand from shoppers. To help you perform at your best during this time, this article highlights new features in ePages Now, including enhanced social media functionality, improved content management and new design options.

Automatic product loading on category pages

Optimising the ordering process for as many purchases as possible often starts with the smallest details. To make it as easy as possible for your customers to view your products, they now only have to press the “Show more” button once. With the optimisation, customers can now see all the products in a category with just one click. Additional products will then load automatically. This is particularly useful for retailers with a wide range of products, as more products are automatically presented to customers at once. The user experience, and potentially conversion rates, can be significantly improved for retailers with a wide and varied product range.

Scrolling animations for content elements

With new scrolling animations, you can create dynamic and engaging content without any development effort. Make individual elements stand out visually with a single click. You can also use animation to make the user experience more interactive, modern and attention-grabbing.

How does it work?
You can add animations directly in the live preview of your store. To do this, click on Editor in the main menu and select the page and content element you want to animate. By hovering the mouse over the desired content element, you can select the animation on the right-hand side of the action banner – you can choose from different animation types (e.g. a fade in from the left or from below).

New header menu types

Independent of the design template, you can decide how your header menu should behave. The new cascading menu and mega menu offer a variety of options for presenting subcategories and pages. This can be particularly useful for merchants with many sub-pages and a wide range of products to ensure clear and user-friendly navigation.

You can select the new menu types in the editor at the bottom of the live preview. Click on the header icon to see the menu type choices.

Gradient background for content elements

Thanks to the new colour feature, merchants can now make their web presence even more individual and appealing. With variable colour gradients, you can use two or three colours of your choice to highlight each area of your store.

You can set colour gradients for all content elements in the editor. Click on a content element in the live preview and select the colour bucket icon. This will give you a range of options to create the right gradient.

Sync products with Facebook Store and Instagram

Maximise your presence on social media! This feature makes it easy to synchronise products with your Meta Business account. This is particularly useful for promoting products on Instagram and increasing the likelihood of sales through tagging: Your products can be displayed as product tags and lead directly to your online shop. This allows you to provide your customers with a smoother and more efficient customer journey.

How does it work?

To create product tags, you first need to export your products to Instagram and Facebook. In the main menu, under the Marketing tab, you will find the “Instagram & Facebook” menu item. Here you can export your product catalogue to your social media profile with one click, either via the meta pixel or a simple data feed. Detailed instructions can be found in the administration area. Once successfully exported, you can easily select the product tags for your next posts from your account.

These new features not only increase the visibility of your products and improve the usability of your website, but also strengthen your online and social media presence. We at ePages are excited to introduce these innovative features and look forward to seeing how they will help you revolutionise your online business. As always, we welcome your feedback and look forward to helping you on your e-commerce journey. Stay tuned for more exciting updates and subscribe to our feature updates on our website!

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AI tools and tips for Black Friday and Cyber Monday 2023 https://blog.epages.com/en/black-friday-cyber-monday-2023/ https://blog.epages.com/en/black-friday-cyber-monday-2023/#respond Mon, 02 Oct 2023 09:05:46 +0000 http://dev-epblog.epages.systems/?p=52443 Did you know that one in five Germans starts thinking about Christmas presents as early as late summer? Around the holidays, two days in particular are dominated by the desire to buy: Black Friday and Cyber Monday, or BFCM for short. Consumers know that these days offer the best deals. As a retailer, these days offer great sales potential. However, thousands of online stores compete for the attention of potential customers with voucher codes, discounts and other individual promotions. With the growing importance of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and advanced integrations in the ePages Now shop system, merchants now have the opportunity to prepare for these days. What does BFCM mean and what tools can you use to best encourage your customers to buy and inspire them to find the right gift ideas? In this article you will find 5 tips.

What is Black Friday?

In the US, Black Friday is not just a popular bridging day after Thanksgiving. It is also often seen as the start of the Christmas shopping season, with many Americans buying their first Christmas gifts online and offline. Black Friday 2023 will take place on 24 November. This day has only become popular in Germany in recent years. Many shops extend their special offers to a whole week, the so-called “Black Week” or “Black Friday Week”.

In 2021, it was established for the first time that the term “Black Friday” is not legally a word mark and can, in principle, be used by retailers for advertising purposes. This will allow many retailers to breathe a sigh of relief as they will now be able to benefit from this search volume.

What is Cyber Monday?

After bricks-and-mortar retailers initiated the sales-heavy Black Friday, American online retailers launched Cyber Monday. On this Monday, which immediately follows the long Thanksgiving weekend, online retailers attract visitors with deep discounts. Cyber Monday 2023 will take place on 27 November.

Thanks to American companies like Amazon, this trend has also arrived in Germany. Amazon even kicks off a whole week of bargains called “Cyber Monday Week”.

Tips on how to best prepare your online sales

1. Define your product range
Black Friday and Cyber Monday are mostly about special offers on individual products. So one of the most important steps you can take is to choose the right products for your promotions. Your current bestsellers are particularly suitable, as well as potential Christmas gifts that customers often ask for. Also, look at what products have sold particularly well in the run-up to Christmas in recent years and see if you can sell these as special offers. Selling leftover stock on Black Friday and Cyber Monday is also a good idea to get less popular products in front of a wider audience.

2. Update content pages
The best sales promotion is useless if no one can find it in your store. Therefore, you should aggressively promote Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals in your store. For example, you can include an image slider or gallery on your home page or other sub-pages of your shop to promote some of the special offers:

You can create a separate sub-page for your special offers and direct your customers to it. This will give you the opportunity to promote your offers even more. Remember to show your customers the availability and delivery details of your special offers.

3. Plan logistics in advance
For the busy weeks before Christmas, make sure you have enough support to handle all orders and returns. To avoid frustrating your customers, let them know the latest date they can order to ensure delivery in time for Christmas Eve.

In online retail, the Christmas holidays are just a brief respite before the volume of orders and returns increases. After giving presents, many customers spend the money they received as gifts and unloved presents are returned.

Apps like Billbee are a great way to automate order processing or shipping labels. Try Billbee with ePages free for 3 months until 31 October, more information on our website.

4. Target your Marketing to new and existing customers

To attract new customers to your offers, Shopping Ads from Google are an easy way to optimise advertising campaigns. With the Shopversion Now connection, you can place ads for your products directly from your shop on all major Google Ads platforms. Upgrading your Christmas marketing with Google now pays off twice: invest €400 of your advertising budget within 60 days and receive a further €400 of advertising budget from Google. This means you can save 50% on your advertising spend for your entire Christmas marketing campaign. For more information and to learn how to enable Google Shopping ads for your shop, read our blog post.

For existing customers, it is worth sending out newsletters in the run-up to the promotion days to let them know what to expect. This will build excitement and anticipation. You can use applications such as CleverReach to send newsletters.

5. Check the legal requirements 

In order not to risk a warning in competition with other shops, you should check your discounts in advance. Since May 2022, there has been a new ordinance on the correct presentation of price reductions, in part to prevent consumers from being misled. Especially on Black Friday and Cyber Monday, there is a risk that companies will advertise fake discounts. Among other things, the new regulation stipulates that base prices must refer to the lowest total price of the last 30 days. Read our blog article for more information on how to correctly display discounts in your store.

3 AI tools for your BFCM

Optimise product copy: With tools such as ChatGPT, product texts for the BFCM can be adapted in a matter of seconds and even optimised for search engines. So that you can optimise your product texts even faster and directly in the shop software in the future, AI-supported functions for creating product texts and meta descriptions will be integrated in ePages Now at the end of 2023.

Optimise marketing with AI analytics: Instead of guessing what type of ad will work best for Black Friday, AdOptimizer can analyse data in real time and make recommendations to optimise your ad campaigns. This maximises the ROI of your advertising spend.

Prepare copy and graphics with DesignAI & Copy.ai: Consistent and engaging branding is critical to any advertising campaign. DesignAI lets you create professional-looking graphics in minutes, while Copy.ai helps you create compelling sales copy that engages prospects.
Want to try more AI-powered tools? Check out our blog post for more free programs. Subscribe to our Shop Updates for ePages Now to stay on top of new AI features!

This article was updated in October 2023.

Note: This article contains initial legal advice but does not claim to be complete or accurate. It can in no way replace legal advice in individual cases.

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AI-assisted tools to optimize your online shop: 7 unbeatable helpers https://blog.epages.com/en/ai-tools/ Mon, 03 Jul 2023 11:46:31 +0000 https://blog.epages.com/?p=58040 Digitization is advancing in leaps and bounds, incorporating more aspects of everyday life. The use of artificial intelligence (AI) in e-commerce is particularly undeniable. But fear not, even small online retailers can benefit from AI technology. We present seven free AI tools that can assist you with content creation and optimization.

Jasper: Product texts at the push of a button

Creating meaningful product texts is time-consuming and requires creativity. With Jasper, this task becomes a breeze. Just input the relevant keywords and the AI generates engaging product descriptions, blog posts, and much more. This way, you save valuable time and can focus on other aspects of your business.

Ubersuggest: SEO optimization made easy

Good placement in search engines is essential for any online shop. Ubersuggest offers optimal support here. The tool provides you with keyword ideas and shows which pages rank best for a particular keyword. This way, you can tailor your content to the search queries of your target group and optimize your online shop.

Canva: Professional image editing for everyone

An appealing image can make a big difference. With Canva, you can professionally edit and enhance your product images – without any prior knowledge. Remove backgrounds, add filters, or adjust the brightness – all with just a few clicks.

Slogan Generator: Impress with powerful slogans

A good slogan sticks in the mind and can significantly shape the perception of your brand. Slogan Generator assists you in finding the perfect slogan. Simply enter a keyword and the AI generates a range of suggestions. This way, you quickly and easily find the right slogan for your business.

Looka: Easy logo design

A professional logo is the flagship of your brand. With Looka, you can create your own logo in just a few minutes. Simply choose your industry and style, and the AI provides you with a selection of suitable logos. This way, you not only save time but also the cost of a graphic designer.

SEO Minion: Keep an eye on your SEO

For a successful SEO strategy, continuous monitoring and optimization are necessary. SEO Minion helps you analyse your on-page SEO, find broken links, and compare the appearance of your website in different countries. This way, you can ensure that your online shop is always up-to-date.

Buffer: Social media management with a system

Social media is an important part of online marketing. With Buffer, you can efficiently plan and optimize your social media activities. The tool offers you analysis tools and recommends the best times to post on different platforms. This way, you can maximize your reach and attract more potential customers.

New AI features for ePages Now

As you can see, AI can already support you in many areas to optimise your online shop and use your resources more efficiently. To be able to use tools like these even more seamlessly for your online shop in the future, new AI-supported features will be available for ePages Now. These include functions such as automatically generated meta descriptions for search engines or AI-generated product descriptions that support you in content creation and performance. Subscribe to our announcements on the website to not miss out on any new features!

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Feature News June 2023: Product image enhancements, menu tweaks and more https://blog.epages.com/en/feature-news-june-2023/ Mon, 26 Jun 2023 09:51:05 +0000 https://blog.epages.com/?p=57973 During the slower summer months, you as an online retailer have the opportunity to fine-tune the shopping experience and usability of your store. As part of our ongoing improvements, we are proud to introduce a number of new features that will make running your online store even easier and more effective.


NEW product image labelling

As an online retailer with many products, you are constantly adding new products to your shop and want to present them to your customers in the best possible way. The “NEW” label for product images is the right feature to showcase new products by highlighting them with one click.
The “NEW” label appears prominently on the product image and helps draw your customers’ attention to new items. You can manually set the label on a per product basis, giving you the flexibility to choose which products to mark as “new”. An effective tool to increase visibility of new products and drive sales. The label can be enabled individually in the product settings.

Fixed product images

A detailed product description is important to convince your customers of your products. But it can be annoying for customers to lose sight of product images while scrolling. With our new feature, product images remain fixed next to the product description. This way, customers can always see the product and its details while reading the description. This improves the customer experience as they can see details and descriptions at the same time without having to scroll up and down.

Visibility of categories in the menu

A clear menu is essential for a good customer experience. It helps customers navigate and find what they are looking for more quickly. With the menu visibility option, you can now better control which categories your customers see first.
You can choose to show or hide individual categories in the main menu. To do this, go to Products > Manage Categories. This gives you control over how your products are displayed and allows you to direct your customers to specific product categories. This makes your shop not only more personalised, but also easier to navigate.

ℹ Hidden categories can still be found by search engines and linked to in your content pages.

Subscribe to new features

We are constantly working to provide you with the best tools for your success. To make it easier for you to keep up with the enhancements and adjustments, you can find all new features on our website https://features.epages.com/.
On this platform we summarise all the features and make sure that you never miss a new feature. As soon as we add a new feature to ePages Now, it is presented on the website so that you are always up to date. This way, you can be sure to take advantage of each new feature as soon as it becomes available. Features can also be filtered by different categories and packages. Subscribe to new features and stay ahead of the game.

 

The combination of all these new features gives you even more tools to optimise your online store and give your customers an even better shopping experience. Stay tuned for more updates and expand your e-commerce success with ePages!

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From Universal to Google Analytics 4: How to switch to the new tracking tool now https://blog.epages.com/en/google-analytics-4-migration/ Wed, 21 Jun 2023 11:18:42 +0000 https://blog.epages.com/?p=57831 For online retailers in any industry, it is vital to continuously analyse the success of your online shop. An important part of this is tracking and analysing user behaviour. Google Analytics, a popular analysis tool, can provide you with valuable insights. In this blog post, we’ll look at the differences between the old version, Google Universal Analytics, and the new version, Google Analytics 4. According to Google, Universal Analytics will no longer receive data from 1 July 2023. Learn what steps you should take to successfully transition to the new version, Google Analytics 4, and secure your tracking.

What the new Google Analytics 4 can do

Switching to Google Analytics 4 offers a number of benefits, including deeper analysis of user behaviour on your website. Let’s take a closer look at the five key differences between Google Universal Analytics and Google Analytics 4:

Event-based data collection: In Google Analytics 4, data collection is based on events, as opposed to page views in the old version. This change gives you more detailed information about user behaviour on your website. You can now track events such as clicks, scrolls, video views and more. This gives you a better idea of how people are interacting with your site.

Improved data modelling: Google Analytics 4 uses machine learning to model data and fill in gaps in your data collection. In the old version, certain data may not have been captured, leaving gaps in your analysis. With the new version, you can get more complete insights into user behaviour, even if some data was not captured. Machine learning helps identify patterns and trends to give you a more complete picture.

New reporting structure: Google Analytics 4 offers a redesigned reporting structure that focuses on events and actions. You get pre-built reports that focus on your users’ behaviour, such as engagement, conversion and user flow. This new reporting structure allows you to quickly find relevant information and gain insight into your users’ behaviour.

Cross-platform analytics: In today’s digital world, users access websites across multiple platforms and devices. With Google Analytics 4, you can analyse across platforms, including websites, mobile apps and other digital platforms. This gives you a holistic view of user behaviour across channels. For example, you can see how users move from a mobile app to your online store and vice versa.

Privacy features: Privacy is an important factor, especially when it comes to processing user data. Google Analytics 4 has privacy features built in by default. These include automatic data deletion and the ability to make user data anonymous. These features help you comply with privacy regulations and gain the trust of your users.

How to upgrade to Google Analytics 4

In order to successfully transition to the new Google Analytics 4 by 1 July 2023, you should ensure that the migration is done correctly. The entire transition is done through the Google admin interface. Please follow the steps below:

  1. Create a new property:

Set up a new property for your online store in Google Analytics 4. This will allow you to collect data according to the features and improved reporting structure of Google Analytics 4.

2. Configure events and goals:

Define the events and goals you want to track in Google Analytics 4. By setting the events and goals you want, you can perform detailed analysis of user behaviour and track important interactions on your website.

3. Monitor and analyse the data:

Start tracking data in Google Analytics 4 and analyse the reports to gain valuable insights into your users’ behaviour. Compare results with data from the old version to identify differences and areas for improvement.

In addition, familiarise yourself with the features and capabilities of Google Analytics 4 to take full advantage of its potential. Use the Google Analytics resources and help for more information and assistance with your transition.

Information for ePages Now merchants

If you have not yet integrated Google Analytics, you can do so in ePages Now via the Google Tag Manager in the editor of your admin area. You can find the “Google Tag Manager” section via the settings icon at the bottom of the editor area:

Follow the instructions in Google Analytics to correctly copy the code snippets you enter in the head and body and activate the Google Tag Manager:

For more information and help on integrating Google Analytics 4 via the Google Tag Manager in ePages Now, please visit our Help Centre.

Switching to Google Analytics 4 can provide you with valuable insights and help you optimise your online presence. Start planning and implementing today to take advantage of the improved features and enhanced analytics. Take this opportunity to take your business to the next level and better understand the behaviour of your users.

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How to boost shop sales through clever online marketing tools: Merchant interview with Harry Woodman from Depot2U https://blog.epages.com/en/merchant-story-depot2u/ Mon, 03 Apr 2023 09:43:12 +0000 https://blog.epages.com/?p=57658 How can smaller businesses build a sustainable online marketing strategy with almost no prior knowledge? Depot2U launched as an online business in 2017. We had the chance to interview Harry Woodman from Depot2U to talk about success factors of their online store and online marketing insights on AI-driven tools for merchants who are just starting to sell online.

When did you start your online business and how did it develop over time?
Depot2U started as an online only business in 2017 as a clearance platform on eBay for surplus agricultural machinery and trade returns. This quickly evolved when we started introducing a specific range of products and spotted a demand for our primary ranges, Electric Bikes and Livestock Shelters. As E-Bikes tend not to perform so well in the winter which is why we introduced Outdoor Shelters. This balance allows us to keep going year-round. We now offer 12 different E-Bikes, 10 different shelters and a range of accompanying products.

Shelters on-site at Depot2U

It was crucial for us to develop an online presence to build a brand, reputation and trust on multiple channels such as eBay, Amazon, social media and our own website. Our premises in Shrewsbury, Shropshire allows customers to see the products we sell in person and try out any of our Electric Bikes. Our entire operation from product testing, troubleshooting, picking, packing and warehousing takes place here.

We started our German branch Depot2U.de in November 2021. The office in Renchen handles product testing, customer care, warehousing and order fulfilment – very similar to how we do things in the UK.

In contrast, we use the in-built eBay integration provided by ePages, and this helps us to manage incoming orders effectively and forms the start of our multi-channel approach. This was incredibly easy to set up as this was a brand-new eBay account. This is also useful as we can integrate our parcel courier (DPD) with eBay, so order fulfilment for eBay orders is streamlined and efficient.

How big is your team?
At our headquarters in UK, we have a surprisingly small team of 5 with all of us involved in both online and onsite functions including picking and packing, answering the phone, customer support, repairs, graphics, marketing and social media. We all chip in!

The UK team of Depot2U in Shrewsbury

How did you start your journey with ePages?
ePages was originally meant to be the webshop solution for Germany only, however after using the online shop for a short while, we realised that this solution ticked all the boxes we desperately needed to expand and grow across the markets we operate in. This heavily influenced our decision to migrate our UK webshop solution to ePages. We previously used our own bespoke ecommerce website which was useful for backend features such as an integration with eBay. This foundation allowed us to efficiently handle the demand but stunted our growth due to a poor user experience, particularly on mobile devices. ePages costs compared work much better for us, as we can spend more time working on content without having to worry about software bugs and further web development to handle the changing dynamics of customer behaviour.

How much time did it take for you to set your ePages shop live?
Getting the ePages shop live took very little time, maybe 2 weeks at maximum. We could have done this much faster by importing a csv file of our products, but decided to take advantage of the additional features and data fields of ePages and re-wrote some of our listings so this took a little time and planning.

Where do you see benefits as a smaller company competing with bigger companies in the ecommerce business?
We have an extensive personal knowledge of the products in our ranges and our small team have all used or experienced all our products firsthand. Being able to quickly respond to questions with accurate and helpful advice is a fundamental part of our core values as web traders.
We also fulfil all our orders ourselves from stock we keep in our own premises which aids in keeping fulfilment quick and efficient.

What are the most important shop features for your business?
Customer experience and accessibility is crucial, so having a responsive website that is easy to use on any device is a must. With website traffic primarily being served on mobile devices and Google fronting a Mobile-First approach, having a website that isn’t responsive or mobile friendly will certainly inhibit growth.

We have seen a significant improvement in our organic search traffic thanks to the well-structured layout and backend function of ePages. This, combined with the responsive layout and mobile friendly user interface has made it much easier to implement multiple Search Engine Optimisation techniques which are showing results.

How did you kick-off your online marketing and paid ads for Depot2U?
Online marketing experience was basic when we first started out, a lot of trial and error was involved. We have utilized the in-built integration to Google Merchant Centre, Analytics and Ads to provide us with accurate data to help make informed business decisions.

We eventually developed a more robust marketing plan once we started seeing measurable success and went heavy on social media marketing. This evolved to better understanding SEO and the benefits of a multi-channel approach. With tools available to us now, we can better understand customer behavior and use more targeted methods.
What ads do you run to boost your visibility and how is your experience with these tools?
We use a mix of Google Performance Max and Facebook ads currently. These have been relatively easy to setup – the integration aspects from ePages being able to produce a list of products directly to Google and Facebook have made this process much easier to setup and maintain. The results of the campaign are inconclusive currently as our ads having been running long enough to give an accurate return on ad spend. Today, we have a rough average daily spend of £10 on each ads platform (Google & Facebook).

What are your plans with your online shop for this year?
We will continue to improve our visibility on search engines and increase our organic traffic by identifying areas of improvement for Search Engine Optimisation (SEO).
We will also explore utilizing the ePages integration with Amazon to further increase our visibility on other sales channels. We would also like to introduce a blog, add more detailed and informative content for our customers to provide enhanced product support and we hope to make our ePages shop the best performing sales channel in our mix.

What four tips can you recommend to everyone who wants to start selling online now?

  1. Understand the products you sell, use them, play with them, take them apart and put them back together again. Good product knowledge is essential to providing accurate information to existing and potential customers.
  2. Go above and beyond to make sure your first few customers are happy and satisfied – every customer is important, but your first few customers are especially important as they have put their trust in you as a new player on the scene. Communicate with your customers at the earliest possible convenience if they have an issue. Satisfaction is often judged on how quickly you engage with their query. Good feedback (especially if public facing) is crucial in showing others that you are worth taking a chance on.
  3. Do some keyword research before writing out your product descriptions and find out what terminology people use. The difference in how likely your page appears in a search engine result can be as simple as naming a product an ‘E-Bike’, ‘Ebike’ or an ‘Electric Bike’ – all mean the same thing, but one significantly outperforms the others in search volume.
  4. Last but not least: Start with the best foundations by choosing a mobile friendly e-commerce platform and provide as much detail as you can about the products you want to sell.
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Low effort, maximum performance: boost your online marketing with AI tools https://blog.epages.com/en/ai-tool-performance-max/ Thu, 09 Mar 2023 16:21:25 +0000 https://blog.epages.com/?p=57587 These days, everyone is talking about tools like ChatGPT, that are based on artificial intelligence (AI). Many of them have already been determining our lives for a long time: What we wear, what news we consume, who we are dating online.

The consequences which can be drawn from AI are immense. This also applies to challenges in the ecommerce ecosystem: online marketing tools equipped with artificial intelligence bring great potential for small and medium-sized businesses. For example, through automatically controlled Performance Max campaigns, merchants can maximise their success on Google without much prior knowledge. We’ll show you how to connect relevant Google ads features to your online shop and take your sales to the next level with the help of AI.

What makes Performance Max so effective?

With recent tracking challenges such as significant limitations with iOS 14, online retailers need to find new ways to monitor their campaigns for better success. With shopping ads on Google powered by Performance Max, your ads become simple, affordable and flexible. The AI-driven technology focuses on conversions to improve your online presence and generates more purchases with minimal effort on your end.

One campaign for all channels.

Performance Max includes multiple campaign types to help you get started efficiently with online marketing. The campaigns are set up once and then distributed on all channels: As a shopping ad, search ad (the search within google.com), display ad (outside google.com) and more. The innovative algorithm based on AI automatically tests and optimises the campaign for best results.

If you have linked the campaigns to your online shop for maximum performance, the shop data is automatically imported and tracked to achieve even better results. For example, retargeting campaigns (i.e. advertising to potential buyers who have already been in contact with your products) can be generated automatically.

Real-time performance monitoring.

In order to control your performance, campaigns with Performance Max provide real-time insight so that you can track your data even better. Of course, you can also launch several campaigns at once and divide them according to project and target group.

Always keep an eye on your budget.

With Performance Max you can start successfully with a low double-digit daily budget. By setting a daily budget, you have full control over your spending and can adjust your activities at any time.

How to use Performance Max for your online shop

To use Performance Max for your online business, you can set your campaigns live in just a few steps. To maximise the performance of your online shop, first connect your Google Ads account to your online shop.

After you have linked your Google Ads account with your online shop, you can start your first campaign with Performance Max. To do this, select the campaign type “maximum performance”.

Next, select the conversion target: In the case of an online shop, this is usually purchases.

To create campaigns from your online shop, link your Ads account in the administration area. Online shops based on ePages Now already have all connections to Performance Max pre-installed, and the remaining settings are done in no time. So you don’t need programming skills or an expensive agency to do the linking for you.

How do I start a campaign?

As a beginner in online marketing, you have the option of choosing a simple setup for your campaign. There are some basic rules they can already follow as for better performance of your campaign:

Define target group. If you only ship your products within UK, you don’t need to extend your ads throughout the European region. For a clean setup, you should therefore specify your exact location and the language for your campaign.

Schedule advertising times. In order to better reach your target group, you can define advantageous times (days of the week and times of day) at which your advertising will be sent out. Tools such as Google Analytics allow you to see the time of day your online shop is mostly accessed to have a rough orientation of your target group. Alternatively, you can also analyse the times of your most recent purchases to increase the chance of sales.

Exclude pages. Legal pages or content-focused pages like a blog rarely lead to a direct purchase. Therefore, you should manually exclude them in your Performance Max settings.

Optimise material for campaigns. The so-called assets, i.e. image or video material for campaigns, are automatically imported from your online shop by Performance Max. The AI always keeps the focus on your products. If you don’t have your own product videos yet, Google automatically creates an animated slideshow from your images. To optimise videos for your online marketing, we recommend as the next step producing your own videos for the campaigns. That enables you to position your products to your target group in an even more focused way.

How the Raiffeisen online shop successfully switched to Performance Max for its online marketing

Jannek Arends from the German online shop Raiffeisenshop knows what advantages Performance Max brings to smaller online retailers in their daily business. The shop uses the direct connection of Performance Max via their ePages shop. We talked to Jannek about his start in online marketing and experiences with the AI-supported campaigns.

Your business began as a physical retail shop in Nordhorn, northwestern Germany. When did you start with your online shop and what was particularly important to you?

“Our traditional business in the home and gardens markets has existed since several years. To expand this into online markets, we built up an ePages online shop from scratch. Our webshop team currently consists of 4 people. For us, simple and clear handling was particularly important to be able to set up and manage the shop without external resources. This was especially advantageous for tapping into online business.”

Which tools have you used so far for your online marketing?

For a long time, we used most of the integrated tools of Google (Google Ads, Google Analytics, etc.) for our online marketing. For Google Ads we focus on search engine advertising (SEA). For this, we run campaigns via the web shop and also place ads in price comparison portals.

How did you start with campaigns for shopping ads on Google?

In the beginning, we didn’t have a complete online marketing team and just a basic ads knowledge. The approach with our small team was to test different campaigns, including Performance Max. The setup of the campaigns was very easy, as most of the important information is automatically imported from the online shop. As additional tools, we are now using Google Trends for research and the keyword planner via Google.

How successful are your campaigns with Performance Max?

Compared to self-created campaigns via Google we have created in the past, we are very satisfied with the success of our campaigns with Performance Max. In the future, we would even like to have the possibility to create different campaigns on different articles and assortment segments, as we offer a broad and, above all, somewhat seasonal assortment.

To whom would you recommend the Performance Max integration through ePages?

I would definitely recommend Performance Max to companies that are just starting their online business. In my opinion, the integration especially pays off for ecommerce experts who want to achieve initial success with a relatively small budget.

Sell products online now with AI-based support and secure £400 free advertising budget!

As a new Google Ads customer, you can now secure an additional £400 advertising budget for your campaigns. The prerequisite for this is a new Google Ads account. To receive the credit, start with at least £400 (excluding taxes and fees) of advertising budget via Shopping Ads on Google within the first 60 days. A further £400 of advertising budget will be credited to you automatically by Google, no voucher code is required. Learn more about Performance Max on Google’s website and sign up directly.

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Fine-tune marketing for your shop with FAQs, design templates, tracking and other features https://blog.epages.com/en/feature-news-february-2023/ Tue, 21 Feb 2023 16:04:24 +0000 https://blog.epages.com/?p=57541 With the New Year have you resolved to really get started with your online business? Do you want to offer your customers an even better shopping experience? Then you can look forward to many enhancements for online shops based on ePages Now that give your shop design and marketing a boost with new functions and integrations. Find the latest features in this blog article.

FAQ element: Structure your frequently asked questions

How informed are your customers before they make a purchase? If you get the same customer queries over and over again before or during the ordering process, your customers may be unsure. If they don’t find answers to their questions quickly enough, they will cancel the purchase. Especially shoppers who buy at night or on weekends and have difficulty reaching personal customer service.

A FAQ element in the shop provides general information and frequently asked questions that are unsuitable for including in product descriptions. These can be further information about products, gift vouchers, orders or complaints. Each line of the content element can be filled with content as desired. The answers can be unfolded individually, which is also called a “dropdown”:

FAQ questions

FAQ content elements are particularly user-friendly and customers find what they are looking for even faster. This way, you sustainably prevent purchase cancellations and reduce customer enquiries at the same time. FAQs also have a positive effect on your ranking, as pages with expert content are rated by Google with a high quality standard. The content is considered fundamentally valuable and helpful for shop visitors. The German online shop gartendekoparadies.de additionally sorts its detailed FAQs according to topics, such as Payment, Personal Data or Other Questions.

New designs for your shop

New design templates

Ready-to-use design templates are integrated for your online shop and free of charge, so you can start immediately with a professional online presence without having to book additional design services from expensive agencies.

The three new design templates are particularly modern due to their three-dimensional character. Individual content elements are backed with shadows that are ideally matched to your shop colours. The templates are particularly suitable for the following sectors:

  • Café: Local coffee stores, roastery, …
  • Club: Sports club, team wear, book club, …
  • Body care: Treatments, spa, …

Checkout tracking for successful monitoring

A long time ago, Google announced the final change of its tracking tool from Universal Analytics to the new version Google Analytics 4. From 1 July 2023, data will no longer be processed via Universal. With the shop tracking of Google Analytics 4, you can measure individual steps in the checkout process and see exactly at which points during the checkout customers cancel the purchase, for example when it comes to choosing a payment option.

This data is particularly important for measuring the effectiveness of your campaigns. One factor is return on investment (ROI), i.e. the added value of your ad spends. Through tracking, you can see exactly which marketing channels or advertising campaigns deliver the highest ROI and are therefore most successful for you. This allows you to allocate your online marketing budget in an even more targeted way to improve the overall success of your campaigns in the long term.

Hide delivery cost indications

To provide customers with an additional incentive to buy, when possible, free shipping on products should be offered. This can reduce purchase abandonment among customers who either have not reached a certain amount by the time they receive free shipping or find the shipping costs (in relation to the basket value) disproportionate. If you have set free shipping, the note “plus shipping” (displayed by default below the price) can now be hidden.

How does it work?

To hide the text, click on any product in the administration area under Products. Under the section “More options” > “Display indication of delivery costs”, select “No” to hide the note:

hide shipping indications

Outlook: These are the features you can look forward to

In the coming weeks you can look forward to further features for your product range as well as their presentation in the shop. We are already introducing two of them to you here.

Personalisable products

Clothes, mugs, jewellery, mobile phone covers, candles, furnishings: for many products, personalisable options are a good incentive for customers. The German online shop MeinGriff.de, for example, personalises children’s clothes hangers:

Kleiderbügel für Kinder vom Onlineshop MeinGriff.de

To make the shopping experience even better for customers, you can include a free text field on product detail pages. Customers can then enter free text in this field such as names. You can also determine the character length in the administration area.

Product label

Soon, labels for new products can be activated with one click. You can activate the “New” label for certain products, which is then automatically displayed as a small text on product images.

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Performance Max campaigns, product numbers, accounting apps and more: New features for ePages Now https://blog.epages.com/en/feature-news-november-2022/ Thu, 17 Nov 2022 14:01:56 +0000 https://blog.epages.com/?p=57325 At the end of the year, many online shops ramp up their marketing to maximise sales. At the end of November, Black Friday and Cyber Monday are among the most popular shopping days of the year, offering enormous potential to increase revenue. With new marketing tools for ePages Now as well as practical enhancements for even better user-friendliness and processing, you are prepared for the year-end business. In this article, we report on all new features and give an outlook for the beginning of the year. Please note that the availability of features and apps may vary depending on your reseller and shop package.

Shopping ads on Google

Whether you’re a newcomer to online marketing or a long-time Google Ads user, the new campaign type based on Performance Max allows merchants to access all of Google’s channels with just one campaign. This makes advertising easier and more efficient than ever. With the integration of product feed & Shopping ads on Google, campaigns can be set up even faster: you upload your products directly from the shop. Once you have defined the campaigns’ goals, Google’s algorithm ensures that the ads are displayed to potential customers across all relevant channels (including Google Search, YouTube, Gmail or Maps).

To help  ramp up your year-end sales with the latest Shopping Ads technology, Google is proposing to top-up your advertising budget: if you place ads on Google Ads for at least  €400 within 60 days as a new customer, Google will automatically credit an additional €400 into your ads account.

For more information on the year-end campaign and how to set up your product feed & shopping ads on Google, visit our blog article.

Filter for themes

The selection of templates for your shop design has already been extended by several options. To help you find the ideal design for your shop even faster, themes can now be filtered according to certain criteria: Industry, product range (small/large), design (classic/elegant/modern) or layout (minimalist/rich in content):

Product numbers on category pages

For some customers, it can be helpful to see the product numbers in the online shop. If your existing customers for instance want to buy certain products again, a quick check of the item number will give them immediate assurance. Especially when there are many variations or similar-looking products, differentiation via the item number is the most reliable method.

Activating product numbers in the shop can be done with one click: In the main menu of your shop , go to Settings > Product display. Select with one click that you want to display the product numbers and save. This will automatically display all product numbers on the product detail pages:

Outlook: These features await you from January

At the beginning of the year, you can look forward to more new features for your Now shop. Here is a snapshot of two of them:

New content element: FAQ

Frequently asked questions or FAQs are particularly suitable for content pages where you want to provide customers with a range of helpful information.

The practical layout allows you to present a range of content in an overview. Especially for FAQs it is particularly advantageous that individual sections open with a click. This way, your customers will have a much better overview of the content and can find answers to their questions even faster.

New theme: Coffee Shop

In January, a new theme will be activated that stands out by its minimalist layout. The rounded elements are emphasised by the shading, so that the template looks modern and young. Due to its simplicity, the design is suitable for many industries and brands with a small product range.

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How to create your online payment portfolio with Mollie https://blog.epages.com/en/mollie/ Thu, 08 Sep 2022 13:51:35 +0000 https://blog.epages.com/?p=56768 Besides the products you offer, the payment portfolio is an important success factor in ecommerce. If customers don’t find their preferred payment method, they are more likely to cancel the purchase. In this blog article, learn more about smooth checkout processes and other key factors for generating higher revenue whilst saving time and effort through payment service providers like Mollie.

Payment methods: The more, the better?

As an experienced merchant, you certainly know the most popular payment methods of your shop. For most customers, these are PayPal, purchase on account, credit card and payment by direct debit. But new payment methods such as Apple Pay and “Pay Later” options are catching up significantly. Which payment method provides the greatest incentive to buy still varies per individual buyer. That is why you can increase your customer satisfaction easily by offering suitable options for them.

ePages Now has several integrations with which you can offer payment methods for your online shop. These can either be integrated individually into your online shop or even faster with payment service providers. With integrations like Mollie, you can build up your payment portfolio by connecting several payment options at once.

What advantages do payment service providers offer?

Payment service providers (PSPs) are third-party services that offer several payment methods at once. This saves time and effort since you don’t have to sign individual contracts and create multiple accounts. In most cases, they also take on the risk of non-payment, so you can focus on the rest of the processing. With Mollie as your payment solution, you cover a comprehensive payment portfolio while benefiting from advantageous conditions.

The Mollie portfolio at a glance

The new shop payment methods provided by Mollie offer a convenient all-in-one portfolio with which you can offer the most popular payment methods, local payment methods, debit cards such as Apple Pay and more with just one solution.

Through Klarna, “Pay Later” options are also available for your customers. This increases the chance of purchase completion, especially for expensive purchases, as customers can benefit from maximum flexibility and worry-free processing.

Convenient centralisation

Integrating your entire portfolio through Mollie not only saves you the hassle of registering with individual providers, but you also have access to all data in one central dashboard to manage your payments and any refunds. With the Mollie app, you can manage your payments conveniently from anywhere: Track your transactions, keep an eye on your sales and be notified of new payments immediately. In addition, QR codes can be generated with which merchants with a stationary presence can also accept payments selling locally. This way, customers can also pay with their smartphone if they don’t have a wallet at hand.

Drei Smartphones mit der App von Mollie

All payments at a glance with the dashboard in the Mollie app.

Furthermore, there are standardised conditions that you pay to Mollie instead of concluding multiple contracts. These charges differ depending on the payment method. For all conditions and payment methods of ePages Now visit the website of Mollie.

Seamless payment experience

By integrating Mollie into your online shop, you can offer your customers all popular local and international payment methods. Once activated, these will then be displayed in the checkout. This allows you to choose the methods that suit your customers and adapt them at any time.

How to connect Mollie to your shop

Mollie’s payment methods can be activated in just a few steps:

  1. Create a Mollie account
  2. Go to your shop administration. Under Settings > Payment you can connect your online shop to Mollie.
  3. Configure all important basic settings in the shop’s administration area:

4. Go back to the payment methods overview. Click on “Add Mollie payment methods” to add further payment methods (you can also activate all available methods in your Mollie account):

5. Select the desired methods and switch on the visibility. Now, all selected payment methods will be seamlessly integrated into the shop’s checkout:

Once your Mollie account has been authorised, you can accept payments and are ready to start selling online! Interested in more tips for your start in ecommerce? Read our checklist on how to get started with your online shop or learn how to collect even more ideas for new products you could be selling.

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