With an eye for fashion and a great business motto, this duo started selling dresses online through a Facebook store. Since then they’ve migrated to PrestaShop, and their business has blossomed into a profitable online shop! We interviewed Jason to see how they transformed their business into a PrestaShop success story.

Why did you choose to migrate your store from Facebook to PrestaShop?

We started on Facebook to test the market and see if this crazy-cool idea was even feasible. We found that there were lots of people interested in our concept and in the trendy dresses we were selling. Within half a year, we were processing 80 orders a month. It was a clear sign to us that we were growing. To capitalize on our growth, we needed a robust software and a custom designed website. This is why we migrated to PrestaShop – to grow our online business.

How much have you grown since opening your PrestaShop store?

We grew from processing 80 orders per month to about 1000 orders per month. I think that’s over 1000% growth since we switched over to PrestaShop. It’s amazing to think that this started as a far-fetched idea and has turned into our main source of income. We’ve grown so much that we’ve even added more people to our team. Our husband and wife duo has grown to a team of 10 full and part time employees!

How did you get started setting up your PrestaShop store?

We searched for a developer using Odesk and Elance. After reviewing a few developers’ portfolio and checking references, we settled on one developer. He suggested PrestaShop because it is robust yet easy to use. Since we were looking for a cost effective solution, he insisted on a software that did not burn through development hours.

However, the biggest deciding factor is PrestaShop’s scalability. We switched from Facebook to PrestaShop because we outgrew our first store. We need a solution that fits our needs today but doesn’t stifle our growth. Even though our store has expanded over the past two years, PrestaShop still easily handles all of our orders.

How long did it take to set up your PrestaShop store?

Our developer was able to get the one store up and running within a week. We were able to launch so quickly because we already had our product categories, descriptions and images from our Facebook store. The day after we launched, we came into work with an order already waiting for us. It was exciting to see how quickly our hard work was paying off!

How was your PrestaShop store different from your Facebook store?

With our Facebook store, we had to do quite a few things manually. The most tedious was payment processing because it required us to click off-site then back on. With PrestaShop, we were able to configure the integrated PayPal module in few clicks and process orders directly from the back office. Using PrestaShop reduces the amount of manual work we had to do and saves us time - everything is streamlined.

Did you customize your site with any modules from PrestaShop Addons?

We’ve been running PrestaShop since v1.4 and use a few modules to allow customers to sign up for emails when products become available and add social media buttons to product pages. However, the module we use most often is the newsletter module. We send bi-weekly newsletters to feature new products and announce sales. We also send themed newsletters on major shopping holidays.

For example, we emailed customers during Independence Day [US], to promote patriotic apparel. In this newsletter, we specifically included apparel that were red, white or blue. Like many of our newsletters, it brought in a 10% increase in orders.

As a marketer, what other marketing strategies do you use to drive traffic to your online store?

We do all of our marketing through social media. Currently we’re measuring the effectiveness of Facebook (against other social media platforms) by running a targeted promotion. It’s currently running so we have no results to share yet. We also use Twitter and Instagram to promote both our dresses and outfits.

[29 N Under has almost 100,000 Likes on Facebook and over 25,000 followers on Instagram! Additionally, their social media following actively promotes them with over 3,000 Facebook users talking about them and an average of 750 Instagram users liking each picture they post.]

How did you grow your online business? What differentiates your online store?

Although we sell dresses for low prices, we believe in providing customers with a quality product and quality customer service. When customers ask questions, we addresses them immediately, especially through social media. If there’s anything we can do to make their experience better, we try to accommodate them. Doing so has allowed us to retain 20% of repeat customers. Even those who do not make a second purchase refer other potential customers to our site.

What future plans do you have for 29 N Under?

We would like to open a few brick and mortar stores. 3 would be ideal, in major U.S. cities. We’re also looking forward to upgrading to the newest version of PrestaShop. The statistics and analytics will give us great and much needed insight to which cities we sell the most to and we can aim to open stores there.

Already have an online store? PrestaShop’s ecommerce solution help your online business grow. Download the software today and start building your online store. Not quite ready to start your own online store? Check out more PrestaShop success stories.

Whether you’re an online retailer, developer, agency or partner, come and have a chat with us at the PrestaShop Village. Find out about the latest news, ask questions and even get a free assessment from the PrestaShop team – we have two booths set aside just for that!

PrestaShop Village Key Figures:

253 m3 of space
11 Certified agencies —Kiwik, 123 monsite, Dream me up, My Web Shop, Web Alliance, My BB Services, Edatis, Antadis, Full Performance, Affinity Engine and Bm service
8 Partners —Mondial Relay, Shopping Flux, PayPlug, So Colissimo-Quadra, EcoPresto, PayMill, Profileo and Envoi Moins Cher
3 General booths
2 Assessment booths
500 Exclusive goodies

Ecommerce Conferences and Workshops

PrestaShop and our partners will be hosting daily workshops and conferences. Visit Room 2 for the latest news:

PrestaShop: E-commerce 3.0
(Tuesday, September 23rd, 4:15PM-5:00PM)
Featuring: PrestaShop founder Bruno Lévêque & CEO Benjamin Teszner

1-click mobile purchasing with Powatag and PrestaShop
Push m-commerce boundaries for your online store
(Wednesday, September 24th, 12:15PM-1:00PM)
Featuring: Powatag France Channel Director Eric Messin & PrestaShop Head of Partnerships Grégoire Véron

Offer a hassle-free buying experience with PayPal and PrestaShop
(Thursday, September 25th, 2:45PM-3:30PM)
Featuring: PayPal representatives & PrestaShop Chief Revenue Officer Arnaud Bourboulon

Advice from PrestaShop: A retail spirit for increased profitability
(Thursday, September 25th, 3:30PM-4:15PM)
Featuring: Affinity Engine CEO Teddy Malfait & PrestaShop Chief Revenue Officer Arnaud Bourboulon.

See you at the PrestaShop Village!
Request your badge!

Pencil this in!

E-commerce Paris
When: September 23-25, 2014
Where: PAVILLONS 3-7 / 1 Place de la Porte de Versailles
75015 PARIS

Help us win by casting your vote today. It only takes a minute!

Your vote counts!

Please vote PrestaShop for:
- Best eCommerce Solution for SMB
- Best eCommerce Solution for Enterprise

You can quickly submit your vote here: http://awards.cmscritic.com/vote

We really appreciate your votes! Help us spread the word by using the social sharing icons at the bottom of this blog post. We’ll keep you posted on the results!

To encourage more companies to use its platform, Pinterest introduced business accounts with powerful analytics that track impressions, repins and clicks. Whether you are a Pinning master or just a newbie, we’re showing you how to leverage Pinterest for your online store.

What is Pinterest?

According to Pinterest, they are “a visual discovery tool that you can use to find ideas for all your projects and interests.” In laymen terms, it’s a digital and social corkboard. Users (or in Pinterest speak, pinners) can collect (or pin) images onto curated web pages called boards. The social aspect comes into play when other pinners reuse those images by repining them onto their personal boards. Now that you’ve mastered the Pinterest language, the next step in leveraging Pinterest is with a great strategy.

Define your Audience and Message

The key to a successful strategy is knowing who you’re talking to and what you are trying to say. Pinterest users generally fall within one of these demographics: female, 25+ years old and live in a suburban area. If your customers fall into one of these categories, you should already be on Pinterest. If you want to target that demographic, you should also start pinning.

Now that you know who you’re talking to, figure out your message and how you want to deliver it. The power behind Pinterest is the ability to compile different images and ideas to convey a brand lifestyle. Be sure your voice, message, and overall content mirrors the lifestyle you promote.

6 Ecommerce Rules for Pinterest

Although you’ve set up your business Pinterest account, you’re not quite ready to start pinning. First, we need to lay down some ground rules to maximize the effectiveness of your pins.

1. Use relevant # to promote your pins.
2. Create your boards with a combination of original pins and repins
3. Pin at night, with peak pins at 9:00PM
4. Select images that are long because they work best with Pinterest’s layout.
5. Allows customers to easily share your products with a Pinterest Share button (a native feature in PrestaShop.)
6. Stay active. Repin, comment, or simply like other Pinner’s content to engage other pinners.

Original Content on Pinterest

Start creating your Pinterest business profile with this image size cheat sheet from AuthorMedia.

• Profile images: 165 x 165 pixels (scaled from 600 X 600 pixels)
• Pins in feed: 238 pixels x adjusted to height
• Expanded pin size: 735 pixels x adjusted to height
• Cover image: 217 x 146 pixels
• Tiny thumbnails: 51 x 51 pixels

Next, brand original images with a watermark that includes your online shop’s web address. Don’t put it on everything, just on beautiful location shots featuring multiple products. When you pin product images from your website, always link them directly to the product for effortless shopping. Finally, write good descriptions – do not use product SKU’s or files names like IMG_21231.

Ideas for Stunning Pinterest Boards

Get started with these 5 ideas and examples of Pinterest boards.

1. Products

Use a “Featured Products” or “What’s new” board to keep customers updated about your products. Gretel Home, a PrestaShop housewares shop, promotes their products with a New at Gretel board.

2. Inspiration

What inspires you? Do you work with cool patterns or trendy muses? What Goes Around Comes Around NYC is a PrestaShop powered, luxury goods reseller and they’ve curated some Vintage Luxury Ads to inspire their own photo shoots.

3. Color(s)

Pinterest is very visual so use that to your advantage by curating an entire Pinterest board dedicated to color. Choose one color, two complimentary colors, or even a rainbow. Check out PrestaShop-powered Condura’s Black & White board for some mod-inspiration

4. Collaboration

Ask customers to help contribute to your Pinterest boards. We recently asked our merchants to submit their gorgeous PrestaShop storefronts with #ShopShot. Those shops are now curated on our Of Pride and Stores Board.

5. Season or Holiday

Keep your pins current with seasons and holidays. As summer comes to an end, pin some ideas for last minute summer activities or look forward new accessories for fall. Last year Donna Wilson, a PrestaShop merchant selling hand-knit goods, created a Christmas Gift Guide with the perfect gifts ideas for mum, dad and even your best friend.

Conclusion

As with all strategy, analyze your performance to measure its effectiveness. Doing so will ensure you are getting the most of your Pinterest Business Account. Which Pinterest board are you most excited to pin to? If you’re already an avid pinner, let us know which of your board works best in the comments below! Not an online merchant yet? Get started today by testing our live demo or jump right in and download PrestaShop’s ecommerce software.

This complete introduction to ecommerce blogging will share the fundamentals of creating a great blog and examples of online businesses that are doing it right.

Benefits of Blogging for Ecommerce

Too many online retailers focus solely on marketing tactics that convert visitors into direct sales like discounts and promotions. And yet, blogging isn’t about converting customers right away. It’s about engaging potential customers with valuable, relevant content.

Why you should blog for your business:

- Appealing to your target audience
- Driving qualified traffic
- Promoting products without being salesy
- Building credibility as an expert
- Generating leads by instilling trust
- Enabling readers to share content

Now, how do you create a successful blog that lets you reap all of those benefits?

Defining Buyer Personas

An ecommerce blog is a great medium for generating traffic but savvy business owners know that tons of traffic doesn’t always mean tons of sales. You should write content that appeals to your buyer personas.

Buyer personas are a crucial step to be able to write killer content for your blog. That’s why you should ask yourself these 9 questions when developing your buyer personas.

Now that you’ve defined your customers, you’ll find it much easier to make a return on your blogging efforts and create the ultimate content strategy.

Creating a Content Strategy

A content strategy will determine the type of content, tone, topics and information you’ll publish to engage prospective buyers.

Because buyer personas play such a large role when developing a content strategy, there isn’t one approach that works for every ecommerce blog. However, there are best practices that are working for many successful businesses regardless of what they are selling.

Engaging blog content ideas for inspiration:

- How-to videos
- Photo heavy content
- Do it yourself articles
- Outfit inspiration
- Holiday gift ideas
- Interviews with celebrated leaders
- Review or predict trends
- Showcase your team, office, etc
- Review related services, products, events

Always remember that your blog should build trust, provide information and increase brand awareness with content that converts readers and/or keeps them coming back for more.

Building an Editorial Calendar

Every active blog has an editorial calendar running behind the scenes. A monthly editorial calendar is a document that manages the planning, creation and publishing of blog posts.

A comprehensive editorial calendar includes:

Publish Date: That’s pretty self explanatory but make sure you consider holidays, days of the week and timing. This article covers the best days and times to publish content.

Title: Blog post titles should be SEO-friendly but most importantly, they should tempt your buyer persona to read.

SEO Keywords: These are the keywords you want to use throughout the blog post to rank higher on search engines. Here are 14 tips for writing SEO-friendly blog posts.

Call to Action: Every blog post should have a clear call to action. What exactly do you want your readers to do after reading this post? Like your Facebook page, view a product, watch a video?

Channels for Promotion: How will you promote this blog post to readers? For example, you might share the blog post on social networks or in your monthly newsletter.

Soon you’ll see that an editorial calendar is an indispensible tool for planning and executing a great content strategy.

Who’s Doing It Right?

You’re just about ready to start blogging! There’s just one last step. Take a look at the blogs of your competitors to assess what they’re doing right and what you’ll do better.

For your own inspiration, here are 3 ecommerce businesses that are blogging successfully:

#1 Target.com

Target has taken blogging for online retail to another level! Their blog, A Bullseye View, is an incredible source for content ideas.

#2 Ikea.com

Ikea’s blog, Share Space, promotes their products without pushing a sale. By offering design advice and encouraging customers to share content, their blog inspires and converts!

#3 Gap.com

aDressed is Gap Inc’s official blog. Their blog is a platform for learning more about the company and positions Gap as an industry leader.

Add a blog to your PrestaShop store

Online stores powered by PrestaShop can easily start blogging for their business. Add a page for your already running blogging platform or choose a module from the Addons store to set up a blog on your website.

Not using PrestaShop yet? Download PrestaShop and start your free online store today.

In the likes Xerox for photocopying, and Google for online searching, Bootstrap has essentially become the go-to framework for designing websites. That may be a bit of a bold statement given the number of competitors in the market, but hear me out. In my previous post, I gave a brief history of the unlikely birth and explosive hype surrounding the Twitter Bootstrap framework.

Now, let’s look into 5 reasons why Bootstrap has matched the hype.

1. Time Saver:

Bootstrap comes equipped with pre-made grids, patterns, and ready-to-go CSS and HTML style elements like tables, forms, buttons, icons etc. What does this mean for the busy web-designer? It means that you literally have everything you need to create a professional looking website from scratch, all with one package of Bootstrap. Gone are the days where you have to style and code every element of your webpage, just Bootstrap it.

2. Fully Responsive:

Nearly all websites need to be mobile ready and responsive, especially ecommerce websites. You want your visitors to be able to browse products on a desktop at home, add products on their tablet while waiting to board a plane, and complete checkout on their smartphone after landing. It happens more and more each day as the power of mobile design and mobile payments evolve. Bootstrap comes ready with a variety of responsive grids to service every level of mobile ready design.

3. Active Community:

To date, Bootstrap’s GitHub repository has 70,000 stars (which equate to Facebook likes, or Google +1’s). It also has nearly 600 contributors making it one of the most popular repositories on GitHub. You can be sure that if you ever have a problem, concern or question, simply post the question on GitHub Bootstrap threads and interact with the experts. Chances are, your question has been answered already. It’s good to know the community has got your back.

4. JavaScript Plugin Bundles:

One of Bootstrap’s greatest features is that it comes pre-bundled with a variety of useful JavaScript plugins. Every designer knows the headache that can come with compatibility between JavaScript functions and your web-design. Fortunately, all of Bootstraps pre-bundled JS plugins work flawlessly. Do you need animated tabs, moving sliders and collapsible menus? Just Bootstrap it.

5. Docs. Docs. Docs:

One can never underestimate the power of good documentation. Bootstrap is heralded around the web-design world for having extensive, helpful and easy-to-read documentation. They provide examples of nearly every element. I can’t forget to mention that it also includes a demo that makes it even more accessible for the beginner web-designer. From the easiest functions to the most complex elements, the Bootstrap documentation covers all bases.

—–

Bootstrap exploded through the web-design scene and it’s no surprise why. The combination of ready-made elements, bundled animations, extensive documentation and a passionate community make the Twitter Bootstrap framework an attractive solution for all levels of web-design. That’s not to say you’ll have your dream website in a snap, you still must have a pretty good knowledge of HTML and CSS to really get started. If you haven’t seen it already, we were fortunate enough to interview the creator of Bootstrap, Mark Otto. You can check out the full video here.

Thanks for reading all about this awesome Framework, be sure to comment below. Finally, I’ll leave you with one question. Do you Bootstrap?

What can be returned?

The first decision you have to make is whether or not you want to accept returns or exchanges. Not sure? Here are 5 product categories that are generally not accepted for returns according to the California Legal Guide. Your local government should have similar documents available.

1. Food, plants, flowers, and other perishable goods
2. Customized goods received as ordered
3. Goods which cannot be resold due to health considerations
4. Products returned in non-resalable condition
5. Returns without original tags, packaging and receipts or invoices

If you sell an assortment of products, outline which items can or cannot be returned.

Refund Amount

List the refund amount customers can expect. For example, shipping fees are generally not refunded while taxes are. If you charge restocking fees, list them in your return policy as well. Customers should be able to calculate the exact amount they will receive.

How much time?

Specify the return period (in days or months), customers have to return their order. Not sure how much time is appropriate? Consider this key factor – payment processers store customers’ credit card information for a limited number of days. Without this, you will not be able to refund customers. Other factors to consider include the order delivery and return shipping times.

For a very clear return policy, we suggest indicating when the return period starts. Is it the day the purchase is made, orders ship, or customers receive the package? Also, include the activity that must be completed before that period ends. For example, do customers just have to ship their return or should you receive the package by the then. Finally, specify how many days it will take for your business to process the refund and keep customers updated by systematically updating their return status.

Where should customers send returns?

List the address return packages should be sent to and don’t forget to include the department. To help ensure customers ship to the right location, include a return slip customers can tape outside of their package.

You should also specify who pays for the postage. Having customers pay for the postage is cost effective, however, they may select a cheap and unreliable shipping service. Regardless of who pays, insure your product(s) with tracking services.

What about exchanges?

Can customers return an item for an exchange or store credit? If so, what is the process like for customers? How long will it take? Also, list any fees they will have to pay such as restocking fees or additional shipping charges. If you do not accept exchanges or offer store credit, clearly state so.

Special situations:

Sales

When retailers run sales, it can be assumed that those goods cannot be returned. However, this assumption varies from person to person, so explicitly state the applicable return policy for sales. For example, if you use language like “as is”, “all sales final”, “gifts with purchase”, or “BOGO (buy one get one free)”, clearly state it will not be accepted for refunds.

Past Due

Let customers know what happens if products are received past the return period. Will customers receive store credit, get a refund at a discounted amount, or will you simply return the item back? A strict return policy may protect you against losses, however, it may also dissuade customers from making purchases.

Closing remarks

Include a clause that lets you make reasonable changes or updates to the return policy at your discretion. As you learn more about your customers’ shopping habits, you can modify the return policy to better reflect their expectations. If you find that you receive too many returns, check out these 10 ways to reduce returns.

Let us know if this has been helpful, or if we’ve missed anything by commenting below. Looking for an ecommerce software that helps you manage orders and returns more efficiently? Download PrestaShop’s shopping cart software to get started!

If you are looking to learn how to install PrestaShop, you came to the right spot. This easy to understand video, created by PrestaShop Forum Moderator, Fabio Porta aka Nemo1, introduces the 1.6 version of PrestaShop and teaches you step-by-step how to install PrestaShop onto your server. To see more PrestaShop 101 tutorial videos, check out the YouTube page for Nemo’s Post Scriptum.

Use this tutorial video in combination with the Official PrestaShop documentation to get started on your online store. If you are have any questions, feel free to comment on this post. Check out below the video for more links to our awesome community resources.

Ways to Contribute

Whether you are a developer, a merchant, or just a software enthusiast, there are a variety ways you can help contribute to PrestaShop.

• Join the PrestaShop Forum and be active on one of the largest online retail communities in the world. With over 650,000 members and nearly 30 languages/communities, you’ll be in the perfect place for Ecommerce discussions, tips, technical tutorials and more.
• Help translate PrestaShop in your language. Thanks to contributions from our global Community, store owners can translate their online store in 60+ languages. Submit translations on PrestaShop’s CrowdIn page to help the Community sell all across the globe.
• Found an issue or want to submit a feature request? Use the Forge! PrestaShop Forge is the official issue-tracker for PrestaShop. You don’t need to be a developer to write a ticket or request an improvement. You will need to create an account on the Forge:follow these instructions, and then wait for a core developer to answer you.

He then created MyWifeQuitHerJob.com to share expert tips and advice on running a successful online business. Today his blog reaches over 90,000 monthly readers and has been featured by The New York Times and The Huffington Post. We invited him to share expert advice with 4 essential tips to improving your on-site search engine.

If you run your own online store, you probably already know that optimizing for the search engines (especially Google) is essential if you want to drive more traffic to your web site and increase your sales. However, as important as it is to drive traffic to your web site, the real key is keeping visitors on your site – and encouraging them to buy.

Unfortunately, too many online businesses focus so much on optimizing for the big search engines that they completely neglect their own web sites. After teaching ecommerce and running my own online business selling handkerchiefs for many years now, I have learned the value of a good on-site search engine.

Here’s an interesting fact. Most customers that land on my store home page don’t browse for the product they want. Instead, they head directly to the search bar to locate exactly what they want.

If your site isn’t ready to handle those potential customers, you could lose thousands of dollars in business. In fact, the data indicates that more than 95 percent of customers will leave a site immediately if the search doesn’t yield what they are looking for. One bad search, and that customer is gone — and so is your sale.

Out-Of-The-Box Search Solutions Are Not Good Enough

If you blindly add products to your shopping cart database without taking into account your on-site search engine, then guess what? Your on-site search engine is going to suck.
Not too long ago, I analyzed some of the search queries on my site that weren’t returning results for customers. Here were the results:

handkie
hankercheif
women’s hankies
mankerchief

It’s pretty clear, when looking at these terms, why no results were returned. The first two of those are misspelled. The third features an apostrophe that would normally be stripped out of the search string, but wasn’t. The fourth is clearly an attempt to find a handkerchief for a man. All of these items are available in my online store. However, a customer wouldn’t realize this from the search results.

Most ecommerce platforms won’t offer you what you need for an effective search return by default. Misspellings and synonyms could be costing you thousands of dollars, and you might not even realize it. If you want a chance at retaining these would-be customers and converting them to sales, here are 4 things you need to start doing:

1. Understand That Improving Your On-Site Search Engine Is Up To You

It’s true that most of your customers are going to find your products through Google, landing directly on the product page or on a category page. However, even with this reality, there are likely many potential customers using your on-site search tool.

While you don’t need to create Google’s next competitor, you do have to create a localized search engine on your site for your own products. In other words, you will need to populate product specific search terms to help potential customers find relevant results that keep them on your site. Even if you need a little help from a web developer, it is usually worth the investment.

PrestaShop’s onsite search is already pretty good in that it offers auto-completion and search suggestions, but most of work in optimizing your own search engine is going to require work on your part.

2. Log All of Your Searches

You will never be able to think of all the variations on your products. No matter how long you spend trying to pinpoint possible misspellings, syntax errors, punctuation mistakes, and other variations on your products, you will never think of them all. Searchers will constantly surprise you.

If you want a high-level view of what’s happening with search queries on your site, log them all. You can spot patterns and irregularities and adjust accordingly so that, even when searchers make mistakes, they will see results on the page. Here are the main things to watch for as you analyze the queries on your site:

Synonyms: Even if you have good product descriptions that provide alternative words for your merchandise, there is likely another word you haven’t heard of. Make note of those words and direct your on-site search to connect them to the appropriate products.

Plurals, apostrophes, and other punctuation: Make sure that your search strings strip punctuation marks and plurals. You can tinker with the code to make this happen so that errant grammar doesn’t doom your customers’ search results.

Contractions: Many searchers use slang and abbreviations when looking for specific products. Factor these into your search as well.

Misspellings: People will always have trouble spelling. You need to make sure your on-site search takes that into account. Pay attention to “alternative” spellings and common typos so that you can return valid search results when customers make mistakes.

3. Allow Customers to Easily Refine Searches

My store sells handkerchiefs. More than half of the products I sell are labeled “handkerchiefs.” This means that someone looking for “hankies” is likely to run into trouble with the search. Most customers aren’t going to stick around when they see the meager results. At the same time, it’s impractical for me to go back and add the search term “hankies” to all of those product search descriptions.

The good news is that you can use a little hack to get around that issue. Rather than displaying no results, or very limited results, you can include a new search link that asks the customer if s/he meant to look for something else. In my case, a search for “hankies” shows this message:

Did you mean to search for “handkerchiefs”?

This method can be applied to a number of misspellings and other errors that surface in customer searches. It’s easy to make this link prominent and clickable so that customers have to put very little effort into changing up the search. They receive better results, and stay on your site rather than abandoning.

4. Add Search-Specific Keywords to Your Products

Now that you’ve analyzed what people are looking for, it’s time to add search-specific keywords to your products. These are keywords that might not appear in your product name or title, and may not appear in the product description. However, you want these products to be listed for certain popular search terms on your site.

“Mother of the bride” is a popular term on my site. However, we don’t want to title or describe hundreds of products using that term. So this term is included in the search terms associated with particular products. This association means that customers can find hundreds of suitable items when they search for “mother of the bride.”

The best way to go about this process is to add the search terms each time you add a new product. Make it part of the routine when you add products to avoid time-consuming mass updates. If you are in a position that requires mass updates, block out time to do it little by little, starting with the most popular terms.

Bottom Line
Your on-site search matters. If you don’t want to lose customers due to frustrating search results, you need to make the effort to improve your on-site search.

With all this great advice, where should you begin? If you’re a PrestaShop merchant, we’ve got you covered with:

4 Steps to Get Started

1. Access and review keywords your customers have searched
         Back Office > Stats > Shop Search

2. Categorize each search word or phrase into
          a. Misspellings or Synonyms
          b. Attributes or Descriptions

3. For each word or phrase under the Misspelling or Synonyms category, figure out which keyword(s) you would like to redirect customers to. Then create redirects for each word.
          Back Office > Preferences > Search

4. For each Attribute or Description, find products that fit those descriptions and add the keyword(s) as tags.
         Back Office > Catalog > Product > Information Tab
(Learn more about managing Tags in our User Guide.)

Want a premium feature to ensure customers always find what they’re looking for? One of our certified agencies has developed the perfect solution. Give suggestions for “no result” searches with the Search AutoCorrection Module.

Not a PrestaShop merchant? Ask yourself, “Does my shopping cart software offer all these features – for free?” If not, it’s time to switch to PrestaShop! (Or help us convince you by testing our demo.)

Here’s what you’ll find!

• Brow.si – a completely free feature that optimizes your shop’s mobile shopping experience
• PrestaStats – view, compare and export your store’s critical data with an advanced dashboard
• Riskified – fraud prevention and protection for all or any high risk transactions

1. Brow.si

TRANSFORM YOUR MOBILE FRIENDLY SHOP INTO A SEAMLESS USER EXPERIENCE

What it does: Brow.si creates an intuitive mobile shopping experience with an easy-to-use, semi-transparent layer. It adds features for customers to easily search, explore, share, and purchase from anywhere on your site.

Why we love it: In one click, give your website app-like functionality with Brow.si. When users visit from their smartphone, key elements of mobile browsing makes the shopping experience clear, consistent and helpful. Customize this feature to match your site, set localization options and access analytics.

How it helps you sell more: Brow.si adds features that enrich the mobile browsing experience with push notifications, mobile search, a mobile checkout funnel, 1-click social sharing and more. Convert more mobile shoppers with an intuitive user experience.

Get Brow.si on your shop – it’s free!
Or find it in your PrestaShop Back Office > Modules > Mobile

2. PrestaStats

MANAGE BUSINESS DATA MORE CLOSELY THAN EVER WITH ADVANCED FUNCTIONALITY

What it does: PrestaStats exports raw data from your PrestaShop store and compiles it into easy to understand statistics you’ll need to make smarter business decisions. Abandoned carts, top products and profit are easily accessible from a real-time dashboard.

Why we love it: Your data is consolidated into key statistics to understand your business quickly and in-depth. Access them from any device, at any time – especially when to need to make critical business decisions. Best of all, you can review data from as far back as the day your shop opened.

How it helps you sell more: These statistics help you understand what’s happening with your online store to help you make better sales, management and marketing decisions. Quickly spot trends to make timely assessments, based on today’s data…today. PrestaStats empowers you with hard facts that help you run your online business smoother.

Start Your Free Trial
Or find it in your PrestaShop Back Office > Modules > Analytics & Stats

3. Riskified

ACCEPT TRANSACTIONS YOU WOULD HAVE DECLINED WITH GUARANTEED PROTECTION

What it does: Riskified’s turnkey fraud detection features lets you review, verify and approve all transaction or selected suspicious transactions. It also provides valuable insights into your transaction, which helps you understand your customers better.

Why we love it: Riskified stands by their fraud detection technology by offering a 100% money back guarantee in the event of a fraud. You pay only when a transaction is approved and you make money.

How it helps you sell more:Complete orders you would otherwise decline because they appear fraudulent to gain incremental sales. You also increase your profits by reducing charge-back losses and avoiding bank fees.

Accept More Payments – Request Your Demo
Or find it in your PrestaShop Back Office > Modules >
Site Certification & Fraud Prevention

Which of these features are you looking forward to adding on your PrestaShop store? Let us know in the comments below. Then tune in next month to see which features we select.