Ecommerce Software: Q&A with Volusion's Ruth Dew
Are you in the market for ecommerce software?
You’re probably here because you’re not 100% happy with your current ecommerce store. Who knows, a platform switch might be on the horizon. Before heading down that road, you should know that the elusive, perfect, one-size-fits all ecommerce software provider doesn’t exist, so you’ll have do so some shopping around.
With so many options out there only a fool would make a final decision before assessing all the options on the table. Today we bring you an exclusive 1 on 1 with Volusion’s Product Marketing Manager, Ruth Dew. As one of the most well-known ecommerce software solutions out there, Volusion is worth a good look.
Describe Volusion in 60 words or less.
Ruth: Volusion is a leading ecommerce software provider, offering an all-in-one shopping cart solution that includes best-in-class business tools, website design, and inbound marketing services for online merchants of any size. Competitively priced monthly plans include premium hosting, use of the optimized software, access to award-winning 24×7 customer support, and more.
What’s the one ecommerce issue that you’ve found comes up the most for ecommerce merchants and (in a nutshell) how do you propose to fix it?
Ruth: We have found that merchants are always looking for new ways to drive traffic to their stores. First, all Volusion stores are created using SEO-friendly default settings and with only a few mouse clicks, our merchants’ stores can be optimized for indexing by all major search engines based on site data, URLs, and content. We also have an expert marketing services team that specializes in SEO and can offer help to our merchants when needed. For those that like to tackle it themselves, we have over 50 blogs, videos, and Knowledge Base articles dedicated to helping our merchants learn and stay up to date on SEO best practices.
In addition to traffic driven by SEO, our ecommerce software is the only one to offer true multi-channel ecommerce via our built-in integrations with Amazon, eBay, Google Shopping, and Facebook. These additional channels also help bring more traffic to our merchants’ stores and products. Additionally, our built-in social media sharing capabilities enable both our merchants and their shoppers to share and engage online, enabling greater exposure to our merchant’s stores and products.
What’s the one piece of advice you’d offer to ecommerce retailers to get the most out of Q4?
Ruth: One of the best ways that merchants can maximize revenue during the busy holiday selling season is to increase average order value. To do so, there are several upselling tactics that can be utilized – for example, merchants can offer free shipping at a certain order amount, such as $50.
Another idea is to show related products and accessories to entice shoppers to add more products to their cart. Finally, merchants can offer a small gift card to help increase order amounts, such as a $10 gift card with $100 purchase.
What are the benefits of Volusion to an ecommerce retailer?
Ruth: With Volusion, an ecommerce retailer is provided a fully hosted ecommerce software solution with a powerful shopping cart, management tools, hosting, and website in one. Our all-in-one solution offers over 900 ecommerce features, hundreds of beautiful ecommerce templates, and an in-house design and marketing services team – all backed by our award-winning 24/7 support team.
The Volusion platform provides business owners with everything they need in one place at one low cost. Included are the latest in social and mobile capabilities as well as multi-channel integrations with Amazon, eBay, Facebook, and Google Shopping.
What kind of retailer/business is best suited for Volusion’s service?
Ruth: The Volusion platform serves over 40,000 businesses of all sizes and across numerous markets. Volusion has everything entrepreneurs need to get started selling online as well as more advanced features that established retailers need to grow and expand their business. Volusion offers an entry level plan best for those just getting started and from there offers plans to fit the demands of large businesses.
Many of the most successful businesses on the Volusion platform are in the apparel, health and beauty, electronics, and sporting goods industries.
What’s Volusion’s unique selling proposition (USP)?
Ruth: Volusion’s all-in-one solution is really what sets us apart in the ecommerce marketplace. By providing an extensive feature set, hundreds of beautiful ecommerce templates, and an in-house design and marketing services team – all backed by our award-winning 24/7 support team – Volusion is the one-stop-shop for ecommerce success.
Additionally, the incredible success of the over 40,000 Volusion merchants is a true differentiator and one we are extremely proud of. Volusion merchants are 3x more successful than merchants on competing ecommerce software, earning over $77k each year on average!
What does the future look like for your ecommerce software?
Ruth: Volusion has some great developments on the horizon. In Q4 alone, we’re delivering several features to help our merchants streamline their selling processes and manage their businesses much more quickly and easily. We’re introducing greatly enhanced mobile capabilities, a new storefront editor, built-in tax rates, and a new Volusion Mobile app for monitoring store operations on-the-go.
In 2014, we’re focused heavily on new merchandising and bulk operations to support the needs of our incredibly successful merchants. We’ll also be introducing a new storefront theming engine that will enable our merchants to fully customize their Volusion stores. We want to empower Volusion merchants to deliver the most beautiful, personalized, engaging, and exciting shopping experience on the Web today.
How can an ecommerce merchant get started with Volusion?
Ruth: It’s very simple to get started with Volusion. We offer a free, 14-day trial where you can experience all that the Volusion platform has to offer at no charge. Also, remember that we’re here, ready to take your call day or night with any questions you have.
About Ruth:
Ruth Dew is the Product Marketing Manager at Volusion. She is responsible for the marketing positioning, messaging, and sales enablement strategy for the Volusion Platform. Ruth specializes in identifying and delivering innovative features, capabilities, and services to best fit the needs of the thousands of merchants that the VolusionPlatform serves.
Stop by our Volusion Review for more info!
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