Top 5 Surefire Ways to Reduce Shopping Cart Abandonment

You've spent a good deal of time creating an awesome website with very enticing advertising copy that is very successful in getting your customers to click the "Buy Me" button. However, after examining your websites logs you've come to notice a very ugly pattern - your customers are abandoning your website after they decide to buy your product (after they click the "Buy Me" button). This is called shopping cart abandonment, because it is usually the purchasing process within your shopping cart that scares the customer away.

Let's go over 5 ways to reduce shopping cart abandonment:

1. Be crystal clear as to what needs to be done: Complex shopping carts are a sure way to scare away potential customers. Make sure the instructions on what needs to be filled out are simple, easy to read, and easy to edit. Also, if the checkout process is multi-paged, make sure the button or link to get to the next page is clearly displayed.

2. Add a progress meter: The typical purchasing process for a given product on a website is multi-step (multi-page). While it is good to keep these steps to as few as possible, it's even better to let your customer know what step they are on. A progress meter simply tells the customer what step they are in within your purchasing process. You've probably seen them in action on some of your favorite websites. It could be a graphical meter or a simple text-based indicator. A progress meter is absolutely necessary to help reduce shopping cart abandonment.

3. Show the product (or products) in the shopping cart: This can be a small picture, or a very brief (but specific) description of the product. Make sure the picture or description of the product contains a popup link that shows all the details and benefits the product has to offer. Remember, as customers fill out the purchase form they need to see what they are actually buying - so they know exactly what their purchase consists of - and you'll also find that many just need to reread the benefits before they continue with their purchase.

4. Provide the shipping & handling costs upfront: It's a good idea to include the S&H costs in the first step of the check out process - or even better, include the costs in the product description page. Even though they were well aware of the S&H costs, potential customers get quite annoyed when they spend 10 minutes of their time typing all their checkout information to find that the total cost just shot up $15 for S&H on the last step.

5. Add some comfort logos: Do you belong to the BBB? If so, display the BBB logo on the website. Another good logo is the Hacker Safe logo (www.scanalert.com) indicating that your website is Hacker Safe certified. Simple Verisign and credit card logos are also beneficial in adding more comfort to the process.

There you have it... five good ways to help put the brakes on your shopping cart abandonment rate.

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Kitchen Appliances | Microwave Ovens A Healthy Cooking Kitchen Appliance

Microwave ovens are the type of cooking equipments which are used for baking, roasting, grilling, pre heating and cooking full meals. Different cuisines need different temperatures. Ovens generally have a variety of methods to cook. The most common can be to heat the food from below. This is generally used for baking and roasting. For roasting, the meat can be placed on a rack in the oven to ensure even application of heat. During roasting, the air circulates around the meat, cooking it evenly. The devices prepare food quickly, efficiently and safely.

In the past, cooking ovens were fueled by wood or coal. Modern ovens are fueled by electricity. Fortunately life is made a lot easier with a microwave oven and cooking is taken good care of. To make real progress in cooking, you need to evaluate the best appliance and put together a list of your top priorities. Make some changes in your kitchen to simplify cooking. You will feel energetic and be able to get a lot of things done easily. The importance of the right appliance and maintaining it is now a high priority among the most eminent individuals.

Microwave ovens provide structured features for its users developed in association with designs and styles. The booming products offer exciting performances. Ultimately the products with better facilities, technology and features are the primary choice. Manufacturers are always working towards making life comfortable for the people. They have an ability to catch the pulse of human minds. They know that people are selective and have developed their own taste to choose the product. Special attention is given for the best and they are working hard to produce some more new models.

Microwave ovens are also regularly used in big restaurants and hotels. The microwave ovens used in restaurants and hotels can fluctuate from those used at homes. They use large microwave ovens as the amount of food cooked in the restaurants and hotels are in great amounts. They have to put in order varieties of meals as per commands of the customers. The chefs effortlessly cope to prepare for all the orders handily on time.

Microwave oven is a kitchen appliance that comes in countless brands and designs. They offer large cuisine options. They help us to arrange the food with exciting results. The sensor cooking cycles fixed in the microwave ovens routinely adjusts the cooking times and temperature for the food to be prepared. Constant liveliness sharing, means cooking delicious food in a microwave oven. The food cooked in the microwave oven conserves total appetite and consistency of the food.

You can prove your skills towards an easy snack prepared by you. Your simple style of cooking food will be cheering for your associates and children. The secret of your fine cooking lies behind the microwave oven. An excellent logic of balance can progress the potential of cooking in a microwave oven. If you want your wishes to be fulfilled, log on to the Toronto appliances and they will be there to guide you. They give ample opportunities for shopping and shipping. Their services promise fast shipping.

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Classic Chinese Furniture For Today's Design Solutions: Tealan Is The Perfect Blend Of Form And Function

Western culture has long been fascinated by Asian art and design. The demand for Asian-influenced furniture in homes and businesses is higher than ever. The hunt for high-quality, Chinese-inspired furniture and architectural elements is over. Tealan offers Qing- and Ming-influenced Asian furniture, and adapts the classic Chinese style for modern applications.

Fusing simple clean lines with beautifully ornate details, Asian furniture is evocative of the balance, the yin and yang, so prevalent in the Buddhist philosophy. Designers turn to Tealan as a source for high-quality customized furniture and architectural elements for residential, hospitality, and contract applications. Tealan's online gallery offers an extensive collection of 18th, 19th, and 20th century Asian-inspired furniture, as well as accessories and decorative pieces. Full color photos, clearly marked prices, and helpful, attentive customer service make shopping for the perfect piece easy.

That's one reason that Tealan is a top source for Asian furniture that captures the classic Old World look. As with any culture, 21st Century furniture and art differs greatly from that of 18th Century work. When you shop with Tealan, you can purchase authentic classic Chinese styles from the period of your choosing, customized to your exact specifications. Perhaps, for instance, you're seeking custom Asian furniture because you have a large cove in your living room that you'd like to fill with a built-in bookcase. Or, maybe you need an elegant solution for housing your large screen TV, or a custom-crafted door for an entranceway. Browse through Tealan's vast collection, and you're sure to find the perfect addition to any setting.

Tealan's custom collection features distinctive hand-finished pieces. Any of their custom pieces can be built to your exact specifications. You don't have to give up the antique feel in order to commission a customized piece. Every item in the custom collection is made from reclaimed antique wood.

Many people are attracted to Asian furniture and architectural elements, but don't feel pieces in this style will fit in with their current look. It isn't necessary for you to dedicate an entire room to Asian-inspired design in order to include a Tealan piece in your home. Classic Chinese furniture complements many styles of home décor. For example, screens and windows are a subtle touch suitable for any interior design.

Asian furniture offers a large selection of various paints and wood finishes. You can easily find the right wood finish to match the pieces you currently own. When it comes to Old World Chinese styles, there's no style Tealan can't match, and they're renowned for their personal, one-on-one service.

Architectural elements are another way to incorporate the classic Chinese look into any room for a distinctive edge. Enhance the esthetics of any setting by incorporating Asian style and craftsmanship in the architectural elements. Customized doors and frames are just a couple of ways you can add Asian touches to your décor.

Explore the world of classic Chinese furniture, and experience a feeling of peace and calm throughout your entire home. Explore Tealan's online design gallery, and see how easy it is to purchase the best oriental furniture the world has to offer.

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How to open a small boutique : How to open a small boutique advice

How to open a small boutique For starting a boutique, the owner should be capable enough and must have a desire for work and must be apt and cheerful in interacting with the public. The decision for opening a boutique is a great step for financial stability and that should be praised and applauded. For starters, a business plan as well as a financial plan is required to be on paper before financially putting anything of them into reality. This version on paper in a way helps to focus the owner's attention more on his business and also it gives a kind of confidence in what is being done and it will also be helpful if any financial or any other assistance is required from outside. The party from outside putting their money into this business would know that the owner is pretty sure of what he is doing
Normally this boutique is like any other boutique attempting to be successful than others. But to make it different than others, some unique ideas should be used which may include the kind of stuff available, the quality of them rather, their costs, or on how good a customer is treated in the boutique.
This will increase the number of customers in the boutique. Or maybe, if the item that is not available in that area, is supplied in that boutique, it will increase customers and boost up business. Taking a good look at other malls in the area and trying to better their ideas in a modified way and decorating the place with a cheerful style would also do the trick.
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Prior to begin opening any boutique, a wholesale license and the required paperwork is necessary. This is a very complicated procedure as there is the need to have an experience of buying lots of articles directly from the manufacturers and in most cases, a license is required before they actually agree to sell their articles to the buyer. Selling the article at the same price as having bought it won't help making any money.
Moreover, over pricing the article as compared to cost price, will have the business short lived. In order for the business to thrive, the best bet would be to buy the merchandise at the lowest possible cost and sell it at a rate which is best suitable for the customer, as well as best suiting the profits of the boutique owner.
The location of the boutique has many options like in a mall, in a shopping center or having an independent location. The last option would be too expensive and not very good an option for business initially yet it might beef-up later on.
If at all the boutique is set in an independent location, it should be set up in a place where there is more traffic so that more people always keep passing by and there is more chance of business to flourish. A rented boutique might come in with the free gift of landlord having problems on the boutique owner redecorating the place, but paying the lease regularly would reduce that problem.

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Shopping: The virtual shopping trolley

Supermarkets today have woken up to the fact that we don't all want to spend Saturday morning battling with the weekly shop. Having spent years perfecting techniques to lure us into their superabundant aisles, they appear to be undermining their raison d'etre by going virtual. Rather than lull us into a Stepford Wives-style reverie, in the hope we'll splash out on impulse buys, they are competing to provide the most efficient home-shopping service via phone, e-mail, fax or Internet.

Give your local supermarket your precise, impulse-buy-proof shopping list and your goods will be delivered to your home, or office, at whatever time suits. Iceland, Sainsbury, Somerfield, Tesco and Waitrose are just some of the supermarkets offering, or poised to offer, home-shopping services.

Food retailers are in on it, too. Fortnum & Mason, for example, sells its epicurean delights on the Net as well as by phone and fax. But aren't supermarkets shooting themselves in the foot by effectively discouraging customers from entering their stores, with all their temptations to buy on impulse? Helen Bridgett, marketing manager of Tesco Direct, disagrees. Backing the pleasures of "dual shopping" (buying online and in- store) she says: "Our stores are still a real asset. Customers like the fact that we have a physical presence. And we've found customers do some {of their} shopping through the Net, freeing themselves to browse in the stores for treats. Combining the two approaches, they can enjoy the overall shopping experience more." Roger Ramsden, brand development director at Safeway, which is piloting a home-shopping scheme called Easi-Order (launch date to be confirmed), agrees: "Our research shows that customers still like the option of coming to the store to choose certain products, such as fruit and veg, while they are happy for our staff to collate the more mundane groceries. Easi- Order will simply give customers greater flexibility." So much for the supermarkets' triumphalism. But it was the independent retailers who got there first. London's 10-year-old The Food Ferry Company, for example, saw that only masochists could really relish checkout queues, heavy carrier bags, traffic jams and car-park charges. So its aim, says the director James Millar, became one of taking "the hassle and travel elements out of shopping by offering a fast, easy-to-use service". A demographic shift is partly responsible for the trend. According to the National Office of Statistics, there are now more working women in the UK than ever before, and many, especially the cash-rich and time- poor, want faster shopping. Not that all supermarkets are aware of this. Somerfield, for example, whose home-shopping is done by phone and fax only, seems to assume that its typical customer is a mousy, technophobic hausfrau. "We believe Mrs Smith in Stockport is more likely to use a handy catalogue from her supermarket than surf the Net in search for Fido's dog food," says the chief executive, David Simons. Another advantage of home shopping is the ecological benefit. The Fresh Food Company, which sells organic food, was the first to point it out. James Millar says, "By keeping 10 to 12 customer vehicles away from the car park with every van we send out, we hope we are addressing traffic problems. And reusable crates are better than plastic bags." Supermarkets adopted home shopping cautiously, but their eagerness to push it now is a sure sign it's the way forward. And they won't have any difficulties promoting it, thanks to a huge fan base - of couch potatoes, eco-warriors and, anyone who dreads checkout queues. Trolley dashes RIP... VIRTUAL SHOPPING - A BROWSER'S GUIDE Supermarkets ASDA ASDA@t home Croydon, Greater London Mail-order catalogue: 0845 300 7777 Goes on-line later this month, details at www.asda.co.uk Approximately 5,000 pounds 3.50 (minimum order, pounds 50). Free on orders over pounds 150 Orders placed by 10pm are delivered the next day between 8am and 10pm within an agreed two-hour time slot Delivery staff help unpack orders and check nothing has been missed ICELAND Iceland Foods Home-shopping Service England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland Phone: Freefone 0800 328 0800 Over 1,000 pounds 4 on all orders Orders placed by noon are delivered the next day between 10am and 8pm, within an agreed two-hour time slot A product that's out of stock can be replaced by a larger version of the same thing at no extra cost SAINSBURY'S Orderline Nine stores within the M25 area Internet: www.sainsbury.co.uk 20,000 pounds 5 on all orders Next day. Seven days a week, between 12pm and 8pm, within an agreed two-hour time slot You can create a list of favourite goods to speed up deliveries SOMERFIELD Somerfield Direct, incorporating Flanagans Somerfield Direct: Bristol; Cannock, Staffordshire; Chippenham, Wiltshire Flanagans: South-west London Phone: Somerfield Direct Freefone: 0800 056 5300 Flanagans: 0181-877 8000 Somerfield Direct: 16,000; Flanagans: over 6,000 Somerfield Direct: pounds 4 charge (minimum order pounds 25) Flanagans: pounds 5 on all orders Next day within a two-hour time slot Somerfield Direct: between 7am and 9pm, Mon-Sat Flanagans: between 8am and 10pm, Tues-Sat You can regularly order with a personalised shopping list (which you can always modify) TESCO Tesco Direct South-east England, Leeds, West Yorkshire Internet: www.tesco direct.co.uk 25,000-40,000 (depending on store) pounds 5 on all orders Next day. Seven days a week, within a two-hour time slot specified by customer (times vary from store to store) Clubcard customers gain points on-line WAITROSE WAITROSE@ work England. Office-shopping service which delivers goods to employees of companies signed up to the scheme (so far these include British Airways and Microsoft) Company intranet, but you can also access Waitrose's website at www.waitrose.co.uk 10,700 Free (minimum order, pounds 5) Same day. Twice daily, Monday to Friday, approximately 12pm and 5pm Store promotions, multi-buy offers, recipes and menu ideas appear on-screen Independent retailers THE FOOD FERRY The Food Ferry Central London Internet: www.foodferry.com Phone: 0171-498 0827 2,500, many of them organic First order: free delivery. Thereafter between pounds 2 and pounds 6, depending on length of delivery time Same day. Between 11am and 9.30pm, Mon-Fri, within a variety of one- to four-hour slots prearranged by customers Free delivery to selected streets chosen monthly, and to loyal customers FORTNUM & MASON Fortnum & Mason Mail Order World-wide Internet: www.fortnum andmason.com Mail-order catalogue: 0845 300 1707 Upwards of 1,000 Variable according to product and destination. Free for account holders on orders over pounds 40 within the UK Next-day delivery. Between 8am to 6pm. Surcharge (varies according to product and area) for goods delivered between 8am and 10pm Website has highest security levels to ensure orders are confidential FRESH FOOD COMPANY Organic Nation England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland Internet: www.freshfood.co.uk Phone: 0181-969 0351 Over 600 (largest range of organic foods in the UK) Set boxes no charge; bespoke orders, pounds 5 Thursday. 8.30am to 5.30pm. Timed deliveries are billed at cost. pounds 10 delivery surcharge for Northern Ireland Will help to locate any organic product not on the website.

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