Tips for Creating an Online Store

Archive for the ‘Help & Support’ Category

Pages FAQ

Thursday, October 7th, 2010

Homepage

What makes a good welcome message?

A good welcome message should be short and sweet (think 140-characters, like a Tweet), yet still grab your customer’s attention. Use dynamic language to explain your store, products and point out any current sales or deals. Tell visitors what differentiates you from your competition. If your shirts are made of organic cotton, say so! If each piece of jewelry is hand crafted, don’t keep it a secret.

The welcome message is not only a chance to tell customers about your store, but search engines as well. Incorporate keywords about your product into the welcome message to drive more traffic.

It’s also a great place to notify all your customers at once if you have an upcoming sale, a limited time only product, or an event for your store.

Sample Welcome Message:
Welcome to Charlie’s Kitten Mittens!
Thanks for visiting. Be sure to check out the week long 20% off sale on all hand-knitted Kitten Mittens, and join the Fan Club for even more savings and deals.

Should I even include a Welcome Message?

Some people prefer to let their products do the talking for them, and that’s great! There are benefits to the welcome message, like search engine optimization and calls to action for sales, the fan club, etc. But if your product speaks for itself, feel free to leave the welcome message blank.

Link To Your Blog – Where is the link displayed?

If you add a link, it will appear on the top menu of each page of your store. You can direct customers to your blog, another website, your twitter account, facebook page, or anywhere you want to direct them to that has a link.

If you keep this blank (like many of our customers do) no link will appear in the navigation.

About

How do I add a video?

You can add a video to your About Page using a YouTube embed code.

What is an embed code?

An embed code is html script that allows you to take a video hosted on sites like YouTube and Vimeo and post it to your site.

Where do I get the embed code for YouTube?

Usually, there will be an embed code button or link next to the video, upon clicking it, the link will expand to offer the full code. So all you need to do is copy and paste the embed code.

Click the Embed button below the video:

Set the customization options and copy the code, then paste it into the About section.

What should my YouTube video be?

The video can be anything from a webcam video of you introducing yourself as the store owner or product to an artistic commercial helping further the feel of your brand. Remember to keep it short and engaging.

If you make your own products it would be really cool to see you put one together. If you have a fun office give your customers a tour of your office. Customers want to see you and your smile.

Return Policy

Do you have a sample return policy?

Here’s a basic return policy, feel free to use it for your store if you’re stumped on what the policy should be.

(Your Store Name) Return Policy
We take great pride in our products. If for any reason you are not satisfied with a product you purchased you can return it within X days of the original purchase date, you must have a valid receipt dated within X days or less from the original purchase date.

Cash Refunds
Cash refunds will only be given with a valid receipt showing the original form of payment for purchase as cash.

Credit Card Refunds
All credit card purchases will be refunded back to the original credit card that made the purchase.

(Optional)
*Non-Refundable Items
If you have any items that you will not accept as returns, such as swimwear or perishable items, be sure to specify in the return policy.

What happens if I don’t fill out the Return Policy page?

If you do not enter a return policy into the text box, the page will not show on your site.

In general, it’s always good to specify your return policy to avoid confusion for the customer. It also builds trust and new customers are more likely to buy from you if they know you are not going to send them a faulty product and run away with their money.

Extra Page

What to do with my extra page?

The New Extra Pages can feature any content of your choosing. It can serve as a place for customer testimonials, detailed sizing or product information, and so on. Get creative, and use your extra pages as a portal to your blog by featuring your latest blog post on your extra page. The options are limitless!

What does the menu text mean?

The menu text is the text that will show up on the main navigation bar next to the Home, About and Contact links.

Can I have more than one extra page?

Yes, check out our blog for the announcement about the enhanced Extra Pages feature.

I’m not sure what to do with my Extra Page, can you help?

If you need some inspiration, here are a few samples of inventive uses of the Flying Cart’s Extra Page feature:

PoolShots Instructional Videos
The Pink Shoppe’s Terms of Service
MXMCTY Size Charts
Keysa’s Boutique Shipping Info
A Charmed Life’s Sample Gallery

And here are 10 other fresh ideas to inspire your Extra Pages.

How do I add a Flickr Slideshow to my Extra Page?

Step 1: Upload the pictures you want in your slideshow on Flickr

Step 2: Click on “Slideshow”

Step 3: Click on “Share”
Step

4: Click on “Customize this HTML”

Step 5: Set the Size and Copy the HTML of your Slideshow

Step 6: Go into your Extra Pages in your Flying Cart HQ

Step 7: Click on the “HTML” button in the tool bar

Step 8: Paste in the HTML you copied in Step #5

Site Keywords Should Be More Than Just a Meta Tag

Thursday, July 29th, 2010

As you probably already know, getting your business online is only the first step—now you’ve got to get customers to your site. That means letting search engines know what you’ve got to offer so that potential customers can find you through searching.

meta-keywords-flyingcart-hq

To get started, make use of the Basic Marketing Tools section in your Flying Cart HQ and fill out your Website Title, Site Description and Site Keywords. This information shows up in the meta section of your website, which search engines can look at to get a quick assessment of what your page is all about. (This can be done on any website using HTML, but we like to make it easier for you.) Choose a website title that is descriptive and uses the keywords that you want to focus on. Next, write a site description that explains what your site is all about. You don’t want to just list keywords here. This is the first thing customers see when they find your website in search results, so take the time to explain what you’re all about. Next, fill out your site keywords with terms that are most related to your topic. Try not to go crazy and spam up this field with a ton of keywords… choose a few really strong ones to focus on. But don’t worry too hard—this section isn’t actually as important as you may imagine.

Yeah I know… you’re probably thinking, “Wait what? I thought site keywords were really important!” Let me explain.

Keywords are really important, but this field isn’t. While meta keywords used to be very important, search engines have become more sophisticated and don’t rely so heavily on this section. Part of the reason for this change is that many websites abused this section, filling it with excessive, unrelated keywords.

“So if keywords are important, but search engines don’t rely on the keyword meta tag, then how they heck do they find my keywords?” The answer is simple: in your homepage content.

flyingcart-welcome-message-seo-tips

So the next thing you should do in your HQ is go to Store > Homepage and fill out your welcome message. This is your opportunity to tell not only potential customers, but search engines more about your store. Take some time and write a few paragraphs (200-400 words) about your store and make sure you include those keywords. Don’t just list them off of course, but write thoughtful (and most importantly) original content with meaningful context built around your keywords. If you take the time to do this you will see your search position climb in no time.

CSS Tips: Bigger Thumbnails

Wednesday, July 21st, 2010

Flying Cart comes with some pretty great built-in themes and gives you the ability to customize your store even further with custom CSS. If you’ve never worked with HTML or CSS making changes may seem daunting at first. But if you take things one step at a time and save your progress you can learn how to make a lot of changes yourself.

To get started, here’s a tip on changing the appearance of your featured products.

original-thumbnails

Starting with the Tuxedo theme you’ll notice that all of your product thumbnails are in a white box with white space around your thumbnails.

updated-thumbnails

But what if you wanted to remove the box and make your thumbnails larger? It’s a simple CSS fix.

Read more after the jump for details on how to change your thumbnails. Read more…
(more…)

JFKW Wedding & Birthday Invitations & Gifts

Monday, June 7th, 2010
Image of Wedding Card
Wedding Card
$35.00

Image of Anniversary Card-Book
Anniversary Card-Book
$35.00

Yeah, it’s the thought that counts, but not all thoughts are created equal. Flowers whither and cards get buried in junk drawers. But JFKW Wedding & Birthday Invitations & Gifts combines these simple nice gestures into a stunning gift idea they call Card-Books. These handmade, heartfelt gifts earn a spot on the mantle (rather than the hearth) and will be remembered well past the special occasion they honor. Ideal for weddings, thank yous, birthdays, anniversaries or any special day worth remembering. Made using beautiful dried and fabric flowers and adorned with satin ribbons and lovely detailing, each book stands as a unique peice of artwork.

How to integrate your UPS account with PayPal

Wednesday, February 24th, 2010

If you want to use your UPS settings to handle your shipping you can easily override the Flying Cart shipping settings and use them.  Here is how you can setup PayPal to use your UPS settings.

1.Login to your PayPal account and click on “Profile” -> “More Options”

2. Click on”Shipping Preferences”

3. Click on “Add new or existing UPS account”

How to give free shipping on big orders

Wednesday, February 17th, 2010

Here is how you can reward customers with free shipping if they order a lot of stuff.  I will explain with an example:

Our buddy Robert wants to give free shipping to customers that order $50 or more.  Here is how he would setup his shipping rates:

Notice how the rate applied between $50 – $100,000 is $0.00.  Make sure to remind them on your store homepage :)

1 and 1 Custom Domain Instructions

Friday, February 12th, 2010

1. Login to you 1 and 1 account and click on “Administration”.

2. Click on “Manage Domains”.

3. Check the box next to the domain you want to setup.

4. Select “Edit DNS Settings” under the “DNS” drop down

5. Select the “CNAME” option, enter in “stores.flyingcart.com” next to the Alias, click the checkbox at the bottom, and click “Ok” at the bottom to save.

6. Login to your Flying Cart store headquarters

7. Navigate to the Store -> Settings tab and locate the “Website Address” section on the page

8. Type in your domain name under “Use your own domain:”

Enter Website Address

9. Hit the “Update Settings” button towards the bottom.

Hey Folks, Update your Profile Pic!

Thursday, February 11th, 2010

Just click the “edit profile” link on your dashboard!

How do I setup shipping?

Thursday, February 11th, 2010

1. Login to your store Headquarters and navigate to Store -> Shipping

2. Determine if you are going to charge based on weight or price and click the save icon.  If you choose weight you will need to add weight values to each product.  In this example we will choose price (weight works the exact same way).

3. Pick a shipping location and click the “+” icon to add it.  This is what your shipping values will be for that location.  In this example I picked “United States”.

4. Enter in what shipping rates you would like to apply per price range and click the save icon button.  For example if you want to charge $5 shipping if the total cost of the purchase is between $0 – $20 then the range would be from $0-$20 and the rate would be $5.00.

5. Enter in the next shipping range and click the “+” button.  In this example I want to charge $8.00 shipping if the total cart value is between $20.01 – $100.00.

6. Keep adding shipping ranges just like in step #5 until you are satisfied.  If the shipping amount exceeds any shipping range that you haven’t specified then by default the highest range amount will be applied.  For example in the example above if a customer has a total of $150.00 then an $8.00 shipping charge will apply.

7. Select another country to specify shipping ranges to and click the “+” button.  In this example I’m going to pick Italy.

8. Repeat steps #4 and #5 for the new location

9. If you want to ship to any location pick the location “Everywhere”.  The “Everywhere” location will be applied to any location you haven’t specified.  For example if your specify shipping ranges for United States, Italy, and Everywhere and a customer checkouts out from India then the “Everywhere” shipping range will be applied.  If the customer checks out from United States the United States shipping ranges will apply.

How do I send out coupons to my fans?

Wednesday, December 9th, 2009

Tracey of It Girl Nail Decals just asked “How do I send out coupons to my fans?”

Thanks for the great question Tracey!  Here is how you do it.

Create a Coupon

1. Going to the “Marketing” -> “Give Coupons” section

give-coupons

2. Pick a Coupon type “Percentage Off” or “Free Shipping”.  In this example we are going to do a “Percentage Off” coupon for 10% if they type in “Awesome” and we are going to a make it public (public coupons get displayed off our homepage).  Hit the “Save” button to make your coupon active!

create-coupon

Send a Newsletter

3. Go to “Network” -> “Mail My Fans”

mail-my-fans

4. Enter in a subject, pick a greeting, and send them a message.  Make sure the message tells your fans about your coupon!

newsletter

Click on the “Mail My Fans” button at the bottom and your coupon will be sent to all your fans!