Consumers want to quickly find products in your store without roaming aisles and making wrong turns. Online shoppers are the same way and won’t hesitate to browse to another site if they can’t easily find products on your webstore. NitroSell’s new Persistent Filtered Search (PFS) is like a store employee who greets you at the front door to point you in the right direction and drops by occasionally to see if you need any help.
PFS builds upon the traditional drill-down navigation by providing additional search choices, called filter attributes, which are relevant and related to the department that your customer selects. For example, in a beverage store the liquor department can have bottle size attributes while wine has varietal and region.
PFS incorporates the traditional Department > Category > Subcategory drill-down navigation with several key enhancements:
- Filter Groups be selectively applied to any or all departments.
- Search attributes can be shared among departments, i.e. Price Range, or specific to defined departments as shown above.
- Effectively, there is no limit to the number of drill-down levels.
- Categories and Subcategories can be added or cleared from the filter criteria (see example below).
- Search criteria can be refined at any time without having to start from the beginning. For example, you may select two Price Attributes to expand your filtered search from $10 – $20 to $10 – $30 (see example below).
- A “Selected Filters” window appears after filter attributes have been selected to summarize your search criteria and provides the ability to clear a filter attribute (see example below).
Filter Attributes and Selected Filters Window
Refined Filters and Results
Setup is straight-forward and done within WebStore Manager (WSM).
The first step involves NitroScript. If you need help with NitroScript, please submit a support ticket. Two new NitroScript sections have been added; Persistent Filtered Search Panel and Persistent Filtered Search info which creates the “Selected Filters” box at the top of the search results page. Insert code {include:panelPersistentFilteredSearch} below the navigation panel (recommended).
Next you’ll add Filter Groups and Filter Attributes. This drives what is displayed when you select a PFS-enabled department. Here is an example of a Filter Group and Filter Attribute from the webstore page (see example below).
To setup “Filter Groups” select the Filtered Search link in the left hand navigation. Click “Add New Groups.”
Enter Filter Group name and save.
Enter Filter Group Attributes and save changes. Note, you can change the order that the attributes appear. Click the attribute, hold the left mouse button and move attribute up or down. Release the mouse button when the attribute is in the desired position.
Next, assign attributes to products. Use the drop-down menus or keyword search to filter items for this process.
You can alter the fields that are displayed in columns, which you may find helpful.
Select the items to which the attributes will be applied. You may select items individually by clicking the checkbox or click the checkbox in the header which will select all items. You may assign attributes from multiple Filter Groups at one time.
When complete, confirm the new settings in the Attributes column. If there are multiple attributes assigned to items, they will be displayed accordingly.
One last step – you need to assign Departments to Filter Groups. This identifies (1) which Departments are enabled for PFS and (2) which Filter Groups appear when the Department is selected in the webstore. From WebStore Manager, click on “Filtered Search” and scroll down to “Group Assignments.”
Please note that Persistent Filtered Search is currently in beta. If you would like to nominate your company for participation in the beta program, please submit a support ticket.
Have you ever found an item on the web you are almost ready to purchase only to find the key information you need to verify your requirements is missing? Will it fit?/ How heavy?/What is it made of? Etc. If important details are missing, you will most likely leave the site you are on and carry on searching.
All too often the problem is that it’s difficult to remember all the key elements relating to every item so even though the extended descriptions sound good, it’s easy to overlook minor but nevertheless important details.
Nitrosell has a perfect solution for this and it’s all down to the capabilities of the PAM or Product Attribute Manager. Depending on what type of product you sell, extended descriptions can be used to populate useful resources such as a size chart or a specification sheet. You are now able to empower your customers with the critical information that can help trigger the purchase. They don’t need to go anywhere besides your Web store to buy!
See KB Article #239: Creating a Link to a Size Chart for Specific Items/Departments.
Check out these Product Specification examples:
Model Trains
Tennis Raquets
Wine
Creatively using NitroSell’s field mapping capabilities and NSc PAM can give you the ability to easily classify or sort your information in different ways or add supplemental information to your product listings, etc. For example, one book retailer used Sub-Description 3 to maintain the condition of used books to help users find and price books matching their preferences. This ability goes farther technically than we are covering here.
For more on field mappings, etc., see KB Article #383: Field Mapping Example: Concatenating Two Fields, among others, or open a support ticket with your specific request.
In general, most people rely on “Spell Checker” to correct those common spelling mistakes we all get wrong from time to time. Let’s be honest, no one is perfect. However, when it comes to browsing on-line, customers are often oblivious to the fact they are incorrectly spelling a particular Brand or Product Name. We also need to consider Brand names and Product Names do not follow the standard naming conventions that will easily be picked up & corrected. For example is the popular sports brand called “Adidas” or “Adiddas”? Is the children’s character “SpongeBob” or “Sponge Bob”?
This can lead to frustration when the item description has been painstakingly keyed into a product search field but the only message returned is “Your search resulted in no matches”. As a retailer this can present a major problem as the standard reaction for most on-line shoppers who can’t find their items quickly is to abandon the site. “No point in searching here, I’ll go on to another site”. The sale is lost and it’s not even your fault!
There is a simple way of combating this which has always been a key feature of Nitrosell but has frequently been overlooked. Adding common misspellings or alternative phrases to your products will not only help to direct customers to your products whilst on your site but will also give your site the advantage if the misspelling has been applied to a Google search. The search results will direct the customer to sites that have included the misspelling.
Follow these simple steps to apply:
Open PAM and filter to the Brand, Department or Category containing the items you wish to apply Keywords to.
Make sure you have the Keyword attribute displayed and simply apply word combinations or miss-spellings that may be commonly associated with the product. Be sure to separate each word or phrase with a comma and copy and paste to other items if applicable. Don’t forget to commit changes when complete.
In the example below I have entered “Squarepants” into the search field on my web store
Even though “Squarepants” does not appear in any of my description fields, because I have added the phrase as a Keyword it still shows the correct product results.
The United States Postal Service offer an array of shipping options connected to an online rate calculator that NitroSell uses to calculate shipping prices for shoppers. From time to time USPS upgrades their rate API, and the old one is discontinued. USPS plan to discontinue their existing API by March 2012. In order to continue to offer USPS as a shipping method we have upgraded NitroSell eCommerce to handle the new API. This was done in such a way that doesn’t break existing users implementations.
Due to the essential nature of this upgrade and the extensive testing that it has undergone, we are releasing this upgrade to both the Beta and v5 stores. For those that want to revise their USPS implementation choices, or those interested in using the USPS for shipping then read on…
Nitrosell are pleased to announce the integration of NitroSell eCommerce and Heartland Payment Systems.
The winner of multiple awards in several spheres including security, Heartland Payment Systems are the 5th largest provider of payment services in the US with over 3,000 staff. They are traded on the NYSE as HPY.
Heartland Payment Systems are a payment gateway that service US merchants in a broad range of industries. Based across the US, Heartland Payment Systems handle VISA, MasterCard, Amex, Discover and JCB cards. The Nitrosell/ Heartland integration supports both sale — for when a product is posted the day it is ordered — and delayed capture — for when products are not fulfilled the day an order is made.
We anticipate Heartland Payment Systems being a suitable match for many retailers in the US and expect a strong takeup of Heartland Payment Systems as partners to our eCommerce clients. If you are interested in availing of this payment gateway talk to Heartland Payment Systems at 888-963-3600 then raise a ticket with our services team who will gladly steer you through the set up in Webstore Manager.
One of the most common questions we get from our customers during implementation projects or from support inquiries is “how do I improve our search rankings?” We encourage you to attend our customer webinars and to download our NitroSell Best Practices Guide which covers such content. In addition, you may find these Yahoo!, Bing and Google webmaster guidelines to be helpful from The Beginner’s Guide to SEO by SEOMOZ.
Yahoo! Webmaster Guidelines
Many factors influence whether a particular web site appears in Web Search results and where it falls in the ranking. These factors can include:
- The number of other sites linking to it
- The content of the pages
- The updates made to indicies
- The testing of new product versions
- The discovery of additional sites
- Changes to the search algorithm – and other factors
Bing Webmaster Guidelines
Bing engineers at Microsoft recommend the following to get better rankings in their search engine:
- In the visible page text, include words users might choose as search query terms to find the information on your site.
- Limit all pages to a reasonable size. We recommend one topic per page. An HTML page with no pictures should be under 150 KB.
- Make sure that each page is accessible by at least one static text link
- Don’t put the text that you want indexed inside images. For example, if you want your company name or address to be indexed, make sure it is not displayed inside a company logo.
Google Webmaster Guidelines
Googlers recommend the following to get better rankings in their search engine:
- Make pages primarily for users, not for search engines. Don’t deceive your users or present different content to search engines than you display to users, which is commonly referred to as cloaking.
- Make a site with a clear hierarchy and text links. Every page should be reachable from at least one static text link.
- Create a useful, information-rich site, and write pages that clearly and accurately describe your content. Make sure that your <title> elements and ALT attributes are descriptive and accurate.
- Keep the links on a given page to a reasonable number (fewer than 100).
If you have SEO related questions, please open a ticket and select ticket category “SEO/Search Engines”.
The problem
An example
The solution
- Firstly there are two filter buttons to help you sort databases with large numbers of products.
- Secondly is a Nav Structure button that opens a new window showing showing your departments and categories (image to the right).
- Thirdly and lastly is a department dropdown menu. This is where the magic happens!
How to do it 
Changing your mind
We’re here to help
Since NitroSell sites are designed to sell products, product descriptions are critical. Many of you have data feeds or product spreadsheets provided to you by the manufacturer of the goods you offer for sale. While taking this information and putting it in the extended description is a fairly easy way to get product descriptions on your site, it is not the best way to go. You end up with content that is duplicated on competitive sites across the web as many others will also take this “easy way” to populate product descriptions.
Search engines try to provide their searchers with the most relevant results possible for a given search term. When several sites have the same information on them, product descriptions in this case, the search engines try to determine who is the originator of the content or who might the searcher prefer to see. This tends to skew the results for these kinds of searches towards manufacturers, “big name” stores, or shopping consolidation sites such as amazon.com.
So what should you do? Google says in their Webmaster Tools Help Section:
- Consider creating original product descriptions and information with rich, descriptive content, rather than using manufacturer’s descriptions, which may appear on many sites across the web. Original content provides useful information to users, and can help your site’s visibility in our search results.
- Consider adding video product demos or other rich content, such as user reviews, to your site. The more unique and compelling your content, the more likely it is to perform well in our search results.
- Submit your product catalog to Google Product Search which is part of the Google Merchant Center. With the new changes in place, this should be done after the upgrades to the Google Feed come out in mid/late October.
- Use plenty of product images, with meaningful captions and Alt Text. Note: NitroSell recommends using the Item Description for Alt Text, which can be configured in Product Attribute Manager (PAM).
Original content is a great idea but may not be an option for retailers with large product offerings and limited resources. If you have the resources, follow Google’s advice and create useful, in-depth and descriptive original descriptions for all your items. If you don’t have the resources to do great descriptions for all your items then pick a meaningful subset of your items; i.e. a brand, theme, category or other manageable section of your inventory that it would make sense for you to specialize in. Work on those items to differentiate your site. Even if it is only a small percentage of your items, it can help your entire site.
For more helpful information on product content, see the NitroSell Best Practices Guide. For information on NitroSell’s SEO consulting services, please send an email to trafficbuilder@nitrosell.com.
NitroSell E-Commerce already supports many payment gateways, from Realex to PayPal, they all have their advantages, disadvantages and costs. Each gateway covers certain geographic areas and deals with certain currencies. For those outside the areas covered by the main payment gateways and for those looking for an alternative to PayPal, we have introduced support for a new gateway called AlertPay.
Who are AlertPay?
How it works
How to start using AlertPay
Please note: this article only applies to those who uses MailChimp as their mailing list provider and this update is only available on BETA and V5.
A tenet in security is that you restrict access to your accounts to only those that need access.
Six simple steps:
- Browse to https://admin.mailchimp.com/account/api-key-popup You will be asked to login to your MailChimp account. Once logged in you will get the screen shown below:
- You need to copy the digits highlighted in red and enter it into the appropriate option in the WebStore Manager (WSM);
- To do this, login to the WSM, go to Configuration, then WebStore on the left, then select the Customer tab;
- Click Enable MailChimp Integration (4th item on the list);
- You are going to enter two items: your API key and the existing mail list in the format apiKey/MailingListName;
- Remember to click on the save button!
