Getsocio's Posts - JenSocial: Social Web Directory and Ning Tips2024-03-29T09:40:25ZGetsociohttp://jensocial.com/profile/Getsociohttp://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/358822999?profile=RESIZE_48X48&width=48&height=48&crop=1%3A1http://jensocial.com/profiles/blog/feed?user=0gkqbyeh9uu7a&xn_auth=noIs Your Online Business Ready for the Big Shopping Season?tag:jensocial.com,2013-10-15:2154984:BlogPost:4994042013-10-15T15:07:03.000ZGetsociohttp://jensocial.com/profile/Getsocio
<p><span><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/401079809?profile=original" target="_self"><img class="align-left" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/401079809?profile=RESIZE_320x320" width="253"></img></a> The holiday season is approaching rapidly. Up to 40% of annual retail sales occur during October through December.</span> <span>Last year’s holiday season showed that online sales were booming even on big in-store shopping days like Black Friday and Cyber Monday. This trend continues to grow, nearly half of shoppers plan to purchase gifts online this year. All these…</span></p>
<p><span><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/401079809?profile=original" target="_self"><img src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/401079809?profile=RESIZE_320x320" width="253" class="align-left"></a>The holiday season is approaching rapidly. Up to 40% of annual retail sales occur during October through December.</span> <span>Last year’s holiday season showed that online sales were booming even on big in-store shopping days like Black Friday and Cyber Monday. This trend continues to grow, nearly half of shoppers plan to purchase gifts online this year. All these tendencies promise great prospects to businesses related to eCommerce, particularly to online retailers, daily deal websites and coupon providers. Here are some ideas to keep in mind that can help you to meet the big shopping season fully prepared.</span></p>
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<p>First of all it is necessary to remember that the Christmas shopping season begins earlier than some people think. Many consumers start their holiday shopping before Halloween and they make their shopping plans even earlier in the year. That is why it is very important to have your sales and advertising forces geared up beforehand. The beginning of October is a critical time for online businesses to make preparations for the holiday sales rush.</p>
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<p>The holiday sales season is the year’s largest period for consumer price hunting. It is noteworthy that consumers are often not loyal to a particular brand when gift shopping. During holiday shopping, people are buying many things they don't usually buy and price is the determining factor for purchase. Present-day shoppers use various channels to research products, compare prices and make purchases. But it is a matter of fact that an online experience and digital resources tend to dominate in consumers’ purchase decisions. Coupons from newspaper inserts are going out of use while online coupons and deal offers are becoming more and more popular among consumers. This opens new horizons for <a href="http://getsocio.com/Help/Daily_deal" target="_blank">daily deal</a> and <a href="http://getsocio.com/Help/Group_buying" target="_blank">group buying</a> websites that offer deep discount offers and turns them into powerful marketing tool which can boost your holiday sales.</p>
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<p>Social networking services also represent an efficient marketing channel that can help to attract customers throughout the holiday season. Social media provides great opportunities to reach people on the early shopping stages when they are researching products online and to influence their purchase choice. Besides, there are some new interesting advertising options provided by social networks, such as Facebook’s News Feed ads and Twitter’s retargeting platform, that allow to deliver engaging messages to consumers and can be used to promote holiday specials.</p>
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<p>Another important trend of the holiday season is that consumers often rely on tablets and smartphones to help with their shopping. Even while shopping in a physical store, they research products via mobile devices. A holiday consumer survey by Google has revealed that over 60% of shoppers are using their smartphones more frequently during the holiday season. People are using smartphones to research brands, read product reviews, compare prices, check inventory and hunt for coupons. The consumers’ migration from desktops to mobile devices creates the need to keep your ads and website content relevant for users of mobile phones and tablets. It is a good reason to make a mobile site or a <a href="http://getsocio.com/Help/MobileApps">mobile application</a> to enable your customers to make purchases via their hand-held devices.</p>
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<p>The stakes in the big shopping season race are very high and the competition for shoppers’ attention is fierce. The earlier you start fuelling customers interest in your products, the more efficient marketing channels you utilize to power your holiday promotions and the smarter pricing strategy you use the greater your chances to win holiday sales.</p>Top 10 Benefits of Daily Deals and Online Coupon Business | Infographictag:jensocial.com,2013-10-08:2154984:BlogPost:4992712013-10-08T14:36:42.000ZGetsociohttp://jensocial.com/profile/Getsocio
<div dir="ltr"><span><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-6FgQx9GsCtw/UkwUffgHQJI/AAAAAAAACpg/RDvPWTdQueQ/s200/Top_Benefits_of_Daily_Deals_pic.jpg" target="_blank"><img class="align-left" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-6FgQx9GsCtw/UkwUffgHQJI/AAAAAAAACpg/RDvPWTdQueQ/s200/Top_Benefits_of_Daily_Deals_pic.jpg"></img></a> Owning a daily deal or online coupon business can be financially enriching and emotionally satisfying experience. Thousands of new <a href="http://getsocio.com/daily-deal" target="_blank">daily deal</a> and <a href="http://getsocio.com/group-buying" target="_blank">group buying</a> websites emerge each year. Certainly…</span></div>
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<span><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-6FgQx9GsCtw/UkwUffgHQJI/AAAAAAAACpg/RDvPWTdQueQ/s200/Top_Benefits_of_Daily_Deals_pic.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-6FgQx9GsCtw/UkwUffgHQJI/AAAAAAAACpg/RDvPWTdQueQ/s200/Top_Benefits_of_Daily_Deals_pic.jpg" class="align-left"></a>Owning a daily deal or online coupon business can be financially enriching and emotionally satisfying experience. Thousands of new <a href="http://getsocio.com/daily-deal" target="_blank">daily deal</a> and <a href="http://getsocio.com/group-buying" target="_blank">group buying</a> websites emerge each year. Certainly the daily deal industry has its pitfalls and challenges. However, there are many advantages of this business, e.g. starting a digital coupon business often requires less financial resources and less time than than owning a brick and mortar company. </span><br />
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<span>In this infographic we show main benefits of starting and running a digital coupon or daily deal business.</span><br />
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</div>Why Daily Deals is Still One of the Best Ecommerce Business Modelstag:jensocial.com,2013-08-29:2154984:BlogPost:4979732013-08-29T14:40:40.000ZGetsociohttp://jensocial.com/profile/Getsocio
<div dir="ltr"><span><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-KfgEm58OhbI/Uh8xkrE26vI/AAAAAAAACnA/w4aSC7WhZmk/s200/Daily_deal_benefits.jpg" target="_blank"><img class="align-left" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-KfgEm58OhbI/Uh8xkrE26vI/AAAAAAAACnA/w4aSC7WhZmk/s200/Daily_deal_benefits.jpg"></img></a> After the skyrocket growth in 2010 and 2011, the industry of daily deals has experienced some downfalls recently. The effectiveness of Groupon business model is often questioned in mass media and many authors are focusing on the problems associated with daily deals. There can be no doubt that it is very important to be aware of all…</span></div>
<div dir="ltr"><span><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-KfgEm58OhbI/Uh8xkrE26vI/AAAAAAAACnA/w4aSC7WhZmk/s200/Daily_deal_benefits.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-KfgEm58OhbI/Uh8xkrE26vI/AAAAAAAACnA/w4aSC7WhZmk/s200/Daily_deal_benefits.jpg" class="align-left"/></a>After the skyrocket growth in 2010 and 2011, the industry of daily deals has experienced some downfalls recently. The effectiveness of Groupon business model is often questioned in mass media and many authors are focusing on the problems associated with daily deals. There can be no doubt that it is very important to be aware of all potential risks before entering deal of the day space. However, exaggerated concerns about hidden costs and dangers of deal promotions make some businesses keep away from this powerful marketing solution. That is why we would like to shed light on the beneficial sides of <a href="http://getsocio.com/daily-deal" target="_blank">daily deals</a>, which still remains an efficient e-commerce model for generating profit and driving sales.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr"><br/> <a name="more" id="more"></a><strong>Wide Range of Business Opportunities.</strong></div>
<div dir="ltr"><span>Daily deals is a huge industry where small websites offering a single deal category can co-exist with diverse mid-sized daily deal companies and multinational giants, such as Groupon or Living Social. Besides, there are many variations of the deal business - <a href="http://getsocio.com/group-buying" target="_blank">group buying</a>, deal of the day, flash sales and so on. So, each business owner can choose the deal business model that works best for him or her.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr"><br/><div dir="ltr"><strong>Daily deals is a highly scalable business model.</strong></div>
<div dir="ltr"><span>The limited-time deals create a sense of urgency. This encourage users to share items with each other and to involve their friends into group buying schemes. As a result daily deal companies can grow much faster than other types of businesses.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr"><br/><div dir="ltr"><strong>Accessibility to entrepreneurs with no programming knowledge and with modest financial resources.</strong></div>
<div dir="ltr"><span>There is a wide choice of software applications for creating clones of Groupon, <a href="http://getsocio.com/Help/Tangible_goods_deals" target="_blank">Woot</a> and other popular deal and group buying sites. The site building platforms vary in functionality and cost but they are specifically optimized for deals business and there is no need to develop your website from scratch. So, the daily deal startups can easily find a solution to create their own websites that fits their technical skills and budget requirements.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr"><br/><div dir="ltr"><strong>Deal promotions is a powerful marketing tool that can’t be ignored by businesses.</strong></div>
<div dir="ltr"><span>Daily deals is a forceful, scalable marketing channel with no upfront cost to merchants. With strategic pricing and good execution, running deal promotions represents a very attractive marketing option for small businesses, that can’t be ignored and will always be in demand.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr"><br/><div dir="ltr"><strong>Consumers love discounts and often recommend the deal site to friends.</strong></div>
<div dir="ltr"><span>Daily deal sites offer considerable discounts. Using coupons provided by the deal site let consumers save a lot of money and this encourages them to recommend it to friends and relatives. As a result more and more users sign up to receive saving offers from the site and all involved parties benefit from the deal.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr"><br/><p><span id="docs-internal-guid-3690073c-c9bb-6db3-9f73-f453fcf30f0d"><span>These are just some advantages of <a href="https://getsocio.com/site/new" target="_blank">daily deal websites</a> and it is quite clear that in spite of all difficulties it is still a good opportunity both for start-ups and for established companies looking for new ways to attract customers and grow their business.</span></span></p>
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</div>Grow Your Ecommerce Business With Pinteresttag:jensocial.com,2013-08-09:2154984:BlogPost:4969302013-08-09T11:49:57.000ZGetsociohttp://jensocial.com/profile/Getsocio
<p><span><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-gcAUjyvHqd4/UgI17b48QjI/AAAAAAAACj8/B4LlWKISHnk/s200/Pinterest_ecommerce.jpg" target="_blank"><img class="align-left" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-gcAUjyvHqd4/UgI17b48QjI/AAAAAAAACj8/B4LlWKISHnk/s200/Pinterest_ecommerce.jpg"></img></a> Staying up-to-date with the recent developments in digital marketing and social media space has become the must for online entrepreneurs. It is quite a big challenge for small business owners to keep up with all the latest changes and updates on numerous social media platforms. Attempts to build your company’s presence equally on all popular…</span></p>
<p><span><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-gcAUjyvHqd4/UgI17b48QjI/AAAAAAAACj8/B4LlWKISHnk/s200/Pinterest_ecommerce.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-gcAUjyvHqd4/UgI17b48QjI/AAAAAAAACj8/B4LlWKISHnk/s200/Pinterest_ecommerce.jpg" class="align-left"/></a>Staying up-to-date with the recent developments in digital marketing and social media space has become the must for online entrepreneurs. It is quite a big challenge for small business owners to keep up with all the latest changes and updates on numerous social media platforms. Attempts to build your company’s presence equally on all popular social networks is a time consuming and overwhelming task. If you are not planning to spend all your time on growing your business profiles on social websites it is important to prioritize them and select websites that are the most effective for your business to get the best value out of your efforts. One of the social media platforms that deserves the precise interest of eCommerce businesses is Pinterest.</span><br/><br/><span>Pinterest is a young social bookmarking site that was launched as lately as in March 2010 and since then has become a major social network with over 70 million users and 2.5 billions page views per month. The fact that Pinterest is one of the fastest growing social platforms and the third most popular social media website behind only <a href="http://getsocio.com/Help/Facebook" target="_blank">Facebook</a> and <a href="http://getsocio.com/Help/Twitter" target="_blank">Twitter</a> already makes it very interesting for businesses. This thriving social network provides many brilliant opportunities for online entrepreneurs to leverage their brand popularity, drive sales and traffic to their websites.</span><br/><span><br/></span><span>One of peculiarities of Pinterest is that it is extremely friendly place for promoting online businesses and for driving revenue to eCommerce sites. Pinterest users are more active in sharing eCommerce content than users of any other social networking site, they trust information they receive through Pinterest and they tend to spend more money than Facebook and Twitter shoppers.</span><br/><span><br/></span><span>The Pinterest’s pinboard-style design is very conducive for sharing product images and other <a href="http://getsocio.com/Help/Marketing" target="_blank">marketing</a> materials. New features introduced by Pinterest are making it even more attractive to eCommerce businesses than it was before. Rich pins, rolled out in May, allow to put detailed information, including current pricing and availability, into product pins. Including prices on pins is an effective marketing technique because pins with prices statistically get more likes and have higher click-through rates than regular pins. Price alerts for product pins, released recently, have made this option even more exciting for both merchants and shoppers. Now Pinterest users get email notification whenever price of a pinned product drops. Price alerts can help to drive more sales as this feature works like a free email marketing tool.</span><br/><span><br/></span><span>Generating direct sales leads is not the only one use of Pinterest for brands.</span> <span>It provides great opportunities for e-businesses to reach potential buyers, establish firm connections with customers, drive long-tail</span> <span>referral traffic, research latest market trends and many more</span><span>. Of course, all this can’t be achieved without hard work on creating smart-looking business profile with interesting boards and pins, accompanying your posts with stunning images, building an engaged audience and persistent work on seeding your content on Pinterest. However, the powerful benefits provided by Pinterest for businesses are worth the effort and the opportunities for brands on Pinterest continue to grow. Pinterest has the power to grow your eCommerce business larger than you ever dared to dream!</span></p>Coupons & Happiness [Infographic]tag:jensocial.com,2013-08-02:2154984:BlogPost:4967952013-08-02T13:11:55.000ZGetsociohttp://jensocial.com/profile/Getsocio
<p><span>According to the recent study “Your Brain on Coupons: Neurophysiology of Couponing” conducted by Professor of Neuroeconomics Dr. Paul J. Zak at Claremont Graduate University, coupons can help make shoppers happy and relaxed. This is the first known scientific research of the neurologic effects of couponing performed in a laboratory setting. Dr. Zak’s team aimed to explore what happens to the human body when people receive a discount offer. The findings show that the levels of oxytocin,…</span></p>
<p><span>According to the recent study “Your Brain on Coupons: Neurophysiology of Couponing” conducted by Professor of Neuroeconomics Dr. Paul J. Zak at Claremont Graduate University, coupons can help make shoppers happy and relaxed. This is the first known scientific research of the neurologic effects of couponing performed in a laboratory setting. Dr. Zak’s team aimed to explore what happens to the human body when people receive a discount offer. The findings show that the levels of oxytocin, a hormone of love and happiness, rise when shoppers receive a</span> <a href="http://getsocio.com/daily-deal" target="_blank">coupon</a><span>. In fact, after getting a saving offer, oxytocin increases more than from cuddling or receiving a gift. Coupons were also associated with the reduction in several different measures of stress. So, the results of the study suggest that receiving coupons decreases anxiety and can directly impact happiness of people.</span></p>
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<p><img src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-naQ6-aLbHhY/UfpJMD6QlRI/AAAAAAAACjc/aMgJh_n-ToM/s1600/Infographic_coupons_538.jpg" class="align-center"/></p>
<p><span>Run a</span> <a href="http://getsocio.com/Help/Deals" target="_blank">coupon promotion</a> <span>- make your customers happy!</span></p>What Kinds of Businesses Benefit From Coupons and Daily Deals?tag:jensocial.com,2013-07-30:2154984:BlogPost:4967652013-07-30T13:28:48.000ZGetsociohttp://jensocial.com/profile/Getsocio
<div dir="ltr"><span><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/401082294?profile=original" target="_self"><img class="align-left" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/401082294?profile=RESIZE_320x320" width="250"></img></a> Group buying and daily deal sites have been experiencing quite volatile times during last months. The struggles of Groupon and LivingSocial, along with controversial evaluations regarding efficiency of daily deals for merchants, have undermined the belief of some entrepreneurs in the deal-of-the-day concept. Nonetheless, fueled by the consumers’ love for a…</span></div>
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<span><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/401082294?profile=original" target="_self"><img src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/401082294?profile=RESIZE_320x320" width="250" class="align-left"></a>Group buying and daily deal sites have been experiencing quite volatile times during last months. The struggles of Groupon and LivingSocial, along with controversial evaluations regarding efficiency of daily deals for merchants, have undermined the belief of some entrepreneurs in the deal-of-the-day concept. Nonetheless, fueled by the consumers’ love for a bargain and supported by the diverse benefits of the model for businesses the daily deal space stoutly resist the market collisions. Business owners are always looking for efficient and cost-effective methods of attracting new customers. Coupons and deals is a great way to accomplish this goal. Food, drinks, beauty, health, baby products and other popular deal categories continue to provide a solid base for further development of the deal industry.</span><br />
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<span>A common complaint from vendors about low revenue from running <a href="http://getsocio.com/daily-deal" target="_blank">daily deals</a> is not really fair because a deal promotion is more an advertising tool than a direct method of generating income. As a form of advertising, daily deals are highly beneficial for small companies because deal websites provide an even foothold for all players, whether it is a local shop or a big national retailer. So, a deal offer of a small family cafe may be listed and distributed together with a similar offer of a prestigious restaurant. Moreover, running a deal promotion does not require an upfront payment from the vendors which is not typical for the traditional forms of advertising on TV, radio and in print media.</span><br />
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<span>It is important to understand that the daily deal model does not work equally for any business. A recent research by Rice University showed that the deal promotions work well for health and fitness services, doctors, dentists, tourism services and photographers. Restaurants, bars, cleaning services, retailers and some other businesses that repeatedly run deal offers have a lower success rate. So, if you have a dance class or a yoga studio and you have the problem of low attendance, daily deal offering is a perfect solution for you. Filling the room is vitally important for that kind of services because people do not like to attend empty classes. Besides, there is a big chance that the coupon users will return at full price if they enjoyed the first training.</span><br />
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<span>Daily deals also work well for online businesses, because they have small overhead charges and the low margins present a lesser problem for them than for traditional companies. Besides, online businesses have better chances to take daily deal operations into their own hands and carry out their deal promotions bypassing Groupon or other daily deal publishers.</span><br />
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<span id="docs-internal-guid-3170e83d-10ee-8a43-661d-797e98ef3cbe"><span>The merchants and service providers are the main driving force of the deal business but they are not the only ones who benefit from daily deals. The daily deal industry provides opportunities for making money for many other businesses as well. Daily deal site owners get a percentage of the deal offers sold on their websites. Daily deal aggregator sites earn money through affiliate commissions and advertising options. <a href="http://getsocio.com/" target="_blank">Providers of daily deal software</a> and website developers are in demand for building the daily deal websites from scratch, supporting deal websites that already exist and for development of applications and tools needed to run a successful deal business. Media and analytics services that collect market data and report news within the daily deal landscape also get their part of the profit pie.</span></span><br />
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<span>So, it is not just the merchants and the daily deal websites that are involved in the deal-of-the-day business. This diverse and dynamic industry is more universal than it might seem and there are many ways to make money in the daily deal space.</span><br />
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