This extension will fully install the CloudSponge address book service and will enable your users to import their contacts from the most popular email services: Yahoo!, MSN, Hotmail, Live, Google, AOL, Plaxo, and Apple Address Book.

With CloudSponge, your users can share your products with friends, family, and coworkers quickly and efficiently. Manually typing address book contents into a web form is definitely a thing of the past now that CloudSponge allows quick and easy address book import.

The true beauty of the integration is that CloudSponge let’s your customers import from multiple address book sources, online and locally.

Create a CloudSponge account today and download the Magento CloudSponge Extension to enhance your Magento store’s viral-ness.

This module is completely free. The first 20 users to contact us will receive a free installation.

Download Now

EyeMagine is an authorized OneStepCheckout partner and we highly recommend the OSC to all our clients. The OSC is the new must-have Magento extension that is taking the market by storm.

OSC is a total revamp of the standard checkout process in Magento. The core feature is that it reduces the six standard Magento checkout steps down to one. Totals and prices are dynamically updated via AJAX when shipping/payment method is selected. The user simply fills in their address and chooses delivery/payment methods on the same page, rather than having to do a separate step for each.

Improving the checkout process results in more customers completing their sales, and this has an immediate impact on your bottom line. It is the single most effective technical change you can make to reduce shopping cart abandonment.

Contact us to find out how to add OneStepCheckout to your Magento store today!

Listen Technologies has a rich history and a track record pregnant with innovation, growth, and excellence.

Founded in 1998 by Russell Gentner, Keldon Paxman, Cory Schaeffer and Kelli Lundgren, Listen Technologies is a leading provider of sound solutions for a diverse range of organizations.

Listen started by offering just two transmitters and two personal receivers. These early trend-setters included a built-in LCD display, 57 tunable channels, charging circuitry (SmartChargeTM), and the best audio quality in the industry. After those first few years, growth happened fast.

History. January 11, 2010. Listen Technologies <http://www.listentech.com/about-us-history>.

The new website was developed using Magento and Zend Framework with the future in mind.  We customized Magento with new modules that enhanced the content management feature set.

Content Delivery Network

A powerful content delivery network was integrated into the Magento CMS, allowing non-technical staff to add content that is distributed to servers around the world.  The distribution of cached content allows for an incredibly efficient user experience and decreased page load time.

Catalog Management

Most online catalogs need more than descriptions and photos.  The catalog management system was enhanced to allow for the simple attachment of documents, images, videos, MP3 files, and other files to both products and pages, giving the staff power to generate dynamic content with easy-to-use tools.

Find Out More

To find out more about EyeMagine and how we can help your online presence, contact us today.

With such measurable and obvious success criteria, you would’ve thought that good practice and winning techniques would by now, be well established, and bad advice would be quickly exposed for what it is. It appears however, that this is not the case.  It’s amazing just how bad some of the advice out there really is.

Here are five of the worst offenders:

1. You can never give the user too much  [Wrong!]

On the face of it, this sounds like a good idea. The more information you provide, the better informed their decision becomes. However, in reality too many options can be overwhelming and lead to ‘choice paralysis’.  You know what that’s like: taking much longer to order food from a very long menu than from a shorter one, or taking an eternity to choose which of the thousands of available paint colors to apply to a home.

More is not always better. If you want to encourage users to buy, you need to make their choice a simple one.  Remove everything but the most important information, and minimize the number of choices available. This is something that’s been understood for some time in traditional retailing, but hasn’t filtered through to the web.

2. Never miss an opportunity to cross-sell [Wrong!]

We all know supermarkets do it:  You’re lining up at the checkout surrounded by chocolate, magazines and other extras.  You go in for a loaf of bread and come out with a bag full of candy and a magazine on interior design; it’s an effective technique.

Many successful websites also use this approach very effectively, looking for opportunities to cross-sell, based on your buying habits and those of other users.  They may not always up-sell though, as the web is not the same as the real world.  Good online retailers are often careful to avoid distractions at the checkout.  They are user-driven and therefore have to be as easy, focused and fast as possible.

Up-selling is important, but do it before the checkout process begins, or after the transaction is complete. Once the user makes a decision to buy, you need to ensure that nothing gets in the way of that transaction.  Some opportunities to cross-sell are worth missing.

3. It’s all about your site [Wrong!]

Web designers want to sell you web site design services. It is therefore unsurprising that they concentrate their attention and advice on the website. However, the website is only one small part of a successful ecommerce business.  The heart of successful ecommerce lies in service, not the website.

Don’t become so fixated on tweaking and improving your website that you neglect other areas of the user experience. Good customer service includes vital components such as email notifications, telephone support, policies, order fulfillment, handling complaints, offers and discounts, and ongoing communication.

Customers who receive superb service are considerably more likely to make a second purchase and recommend you to friends and family.  It’s even possible to substantially reduce your marketing costs if you make customer service a priority; your reputation will spread through word of mouth.

If you want to learn more about customer service, try Bruce Temkin’s blog

All that being said, getting your website right is still extremely important. Small things can make a big difference in the eyes of your users. Take for example security…

4. Users care about security… badges [Wrong!]

It’s clear that users care about online security. In fact many people are still unwilling to buy online for fear of credit card fraud.  The media has done an excellent job of making the public suspicious of online transactions, even though they willingly hand over credit cards at restaurants.

Whether the users’ concerns are justified or not, we need to take them seriously if we want people to buy.  Many ecommerce businesses spend a lot of money to ensure the site’s security.  How then do they choose to communicate this to their users to reassure them? – They slap a badge on their website!

Simply adding a small VeriSign or MacAfee badge to your checkout page is not enough to alleviate users’ fears.  At best they are free advertising for the companies involved.  At worst they are entirely ignored because they look like banners.  A better approach is to add copy to your website addressing this issue, and the steps you’ve taken to ensure your customers’ security. Don’t rely on a single graphic to say all that needs to be said.

5. Amazon is the template we should all follow [Wrong]

This lie is probably the most widely held of all. There is a belief that because Amazon is so successful, all ecommerce websites should follow their example.

There are however, a number of flaws in this argument:

- They don’t get everything right (nobody can)
- They are partially successful as they were one of the very first ecommerce sites
- Their reputation and brand recognition allows them to get away with a lot
- Users are familiar with their site and its eccentricities

In short, what works for them will not necessarily work for you. Too many website owners blindly copy Amazon because they are seen as the leader in ecommerce. Not only is that flawed for the reasons above, it also removes the possibility of you ever being better than Amazon or innovating in any way.

Bonus lie:  Ecommerce is easy

Probably the biggest lie of all is that ecommerce is easy. Admittedly off-the-shelf solutions such as Shopify make it extremely easy to build ecommerce websites. However, building the site is only the beginning. The real challenge comes in:

- Marketing your site
- Deciding when to up-sell
- Providing great customer service
- Communicating clearly
- Learning from others

Creating a successful ecommerce business is a long-term commitment that involves continually evolving both your website and your strategy.

EyeMagine can make this a whole lot easier for you. Contact us for more details or complete our online Request for Proposal form.
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