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The ProStores eCommerce Blog

Competitive Pricing: When Pennies Make a Difference

When it comes to pricing, featured merchant Datch Haven of Epic Displays believes in a balanced strategy.  

One of his priorities is to be competitive.  “We keep our prices low,” he says.  With all the comparison shopping engines out there, people are not fools.  Five dollars is a big difference, even if an item costs hundreds or thousands.  If you’re sorting by price and a competitor has the same product, even pennies can make a difference.”  That's why Datch price matches.

Another way Datch stays competitive is keeping a close eye on his overhead.  He drop ships most of his inventory so that he doesn’t have to keep a warehouse.  He has also ruled out opening a brick and mortar. 

“As long as we’re on the other end of the phone when someone calls, we see this as the normal evolution away from the typical traditional store.  There are a lot of people working out of their home. It cuts down on office and travel expenses.”

That said, Datch insists that low prices have to be backed up by good quality and the utmost respect for the customer.  “The primary strategy is to have a great product, web site, and client service.  If you only concentrate on beating everyone else’s price, it’s a fight-fire-with-fire downward spiral."

 

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SEO Tips for Your Product Pages

We recently brought you SEO tips from one of our featured merchants Todd Walbridge of Tuxedo Tshirts Online.  

So when we found the following list of SEO pointers for eCommerce product pages, we thought it would offer some good complementary information.  

The article from Practical eCommerce gives nuts and bolts advice for title tags, metatags, URL strings and product descriptions. 

Check it out.

 

 

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Creating a Successful Blog

As far as web store blogs go, we love the one featured merchants Stella Ma and Amy Norman recently launched for their eCommerce storefront Little PassportsLittle Passports sells “Global Adventures” for children.  Every month, the subscription service sends kids a package and letter from two characters Sam and Sofia, as they travel around the world.   

When they officially launched the blog in March the two mompreneurs had a straightforward strategy – “provide regular, ongoing content that’s relevant to our user base,” as Stella explains. 

One would expect the Little Passports blog to cater to children and parents, which it does, but it also complements its product perfectly by focusing on topics related to travel and the world.

Little PassportsTopics include introductions to world holidays, like Cinco de Mayo and Chinese New Year; recipes, traditions, arts and crafts related to those holidays; recommended books; and photographs of different destinations.  Readers can learn the recipe for guacamole, instructions for making a Chinese red envelope, and how people in Japan celebrate Valentine’s Day.

We also like the blog’s user friendliness.  Readers can easily browse posts and view the archives using a horizontal category bar.  Topics include: Food, Arts & Crafts, World Holidays, World Community, and Gallery.  

To launch their blog, Amy and Stella ran an online Easter egg hunt, for which the winner received a free 6-month Little Passports subscription.  They received hundreds of submissions, which meant a lot of eyes on their new content – a fun and effective way of driving traffic and appealing to a loyal fan base.   

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