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| Congratulations to Mack’s Prairie Wings!! MacksPW.com has been selected as a finalist in the Web-Sporting Goods Category of Multichannel Merchant’s MCM Awards! The MCM Awards are the industry’s top honors for B2B and B2C multichannel marketers. The MCM Awards recognize superior print catalogs and websites from around the globe. The award winners will be announced during a special luncheon at the Annual Conference for Catalog and Multichannel Merchants (ACCM) in New Orleans on May 6th. Other finalists in this category are www.llbean.com and www.orvis.com. A full list of categories and finalists can be found at MCM AWARDS Mack’s Prairie Wings uses Ability SmartSite for their ecommerce software. Website management and online marketing services are provided by Marketing Concepts. We are thrilled to have helped to contribute to Mack’s success and wish them the best of luck as they go for the gold! |
| New International Ecommerce Features are Now Available with Ability SmartSite™ 5.0 Looking to tackle UK and European ecommerce? Ability Commerce gives you the power to do just that with Ability SmartSite 5.0 ecommerce software. New features have been added with the functionality to address the unique needs of UK and European based ecommerce retailers. Ability to charge and choose how to display Value Added Tax (VAT) on your ecommerce websites. To follow UK and European web conventions as well as shopper expectations, UK and European sites need to clearly display VAT charges for shoppers. You can also display actual pricing without VAT, to downplay the difference between actual price and final cost. 
Ability to choose to display multiple currencies on your site to meet the needs of international shoppers. Additionally, the default currency can be set to match your audience’s preference. You can also choose to display non-default pricing when your shoppers select from those displayed. 
Ability to adjust address fields and labels to follow the accepted address formats for different countries. Give your shoppers familiar address forms, and increase conversions. If you have customers in several countries, there is an option to allow your shoppers to choose their country from a drop down list, which will automatically adjust the form to meet the accepted address format for the country chosen. 
Ability to meet UK addressing standards. Integration to Post Code Anywhere, a third party address validation tool, has been completed and tested for UK address validation. You can choose to give shoppers who enter an incorrect address the option to correct the address during checkout. Benefits include increased conversions, fewer delivery failures and reduced delivery charges for incorrect addresses.  Ability to accept additional payment types. Further enhancements allow for the use of major UK and European credit cards and the necessary format for them.  Ability Commerce wants you to have every advantage and gives you the functionality to compete in the global marketplace. Contact us today to see how we can help you improve your international ecommerce sales! |
The 3rd Annual Users Conference: A Smashing Success
The 3rd annual Ability Commerce Users Conference was held February 8-10th in Boynton Beach, Florida. We had a great turnout, with more than 40 attendees and 13 breakout sessions focusing on web marketing and financials integration.The ideas and feedback provided by the attendees will be used to improve our software, ensuring that it continues to meet the needs of catalog companies and multichannel retailers. With the challenges of increasing direct mail costs, shipping costs, and a down economy, our customers have new challenges and Ability Commerce intends to meet those needs. We look forward to creating more functionality that will keep our clients on the cutting edge of the ecommerce world. Despite the turbulent economic climate, I was struck by how optimistic many of our clients are taking on new projects and making new investments to grow their businesses. Many are very interested in taking advantage of Amazon’s dominance in the marketplace through our new Ability Amazon Interface Software. Others were interested in the latest ecommerce functionality of our Ability SmartSite web selling system, including our new international capabilities. Reaching new international markets is truly becoming a requirement, rather than a desire in our globalized economy. We had great feedback from attendees regarding our conference sessions. Practical tips on how to maximize use of their Ability SmartSite ecommerce software was the clear favorite of participants. Bottom line impact and increasing efficiency generated a lot of excitement as well. Many of the attendees also commented on how much they enjoyed the presentation on email marketing by Reggie Brady and the latest Microsoft Dynamics GP™ updates from Microsoft’s by Brenda Ronson. We can't wait to see the growth our customers experience during 2009! Copies of all the presentations have been posted on the Ability Commerce website. If you would like the login information to view them, please contact your support or sales representative for the link and password. Mark your calendars now for next year’s Ability Commerce User Conference, scheduled for March 21-23, 2010. |
| Ability SmartSite Feature Focus Item Display Choices Ability SmartSite lets you choose how to best merchandise your items when you have multiple product options. Generally, you want to use the simplest and easiest display option to maximize online conversions. Think carefully about which display option will be the most user-friendly for each of your items. Here are a few thoughts about the best ways to use each display type. List Display Use List Displays: when you need to clearly and simply show short list of a few single-option choices. Don’t use List Displays: if you have more than just a few options, because lists can get long and push options below the fold, where shoppers may not see them. You are also limited to a single option, so try Style Displays for items with multiple-option choices. 
Style Display Use Style Displays: to display multiple options for an item, allowing shoppers to choose from two or more dropdown lists. It's a great way to clearly give choices when customers most often buy single items. Clothing is a great example, as choosing both size and color are required for purchase. Don't use Style Displays: when you have shoppers who are ordering multiple combinations of options on a single item. Use a Grid Display in those instances to simplify the purchasing process. 
Kit Display Use Kit Displays: when you want to group multiple items into a kit at a special value to increase the total order. Shoppers won't have to add kit items to their cart piece by piece – it's one simple click. Don’t use Kit Displays: if you need to allow shoppers to purchase individual pieces. If shoppers want to purchase some, but not all of the pieces, use a Grid Display instead. 
Grid Display Use Grid Displays: to allow shoppers to easily add multiple pieces or sizes to their carts and purchase them from a single page. Grid display simplifies the presentation of multiple-option products with a clean visual display and makes choosing variable combinations of items fast and easy. Don't use Grid Displays: if you have a single item without multiple options – always use the simplest display choice for maximum usability.  |
| Upcoming Events Don’t forget to register for our FREE Microsoft Dynamics™ GP / Ability Financials™ Webcasts
ACCM 2009 Annual Conference for Catalog and Multichannel Merchants Booth #503 May 4-7, 2009 New Orleans, IRCE 2009 Internet Retailer Conference and Exhibition Booth #847 June 15-18, 2009 Boston, MA |
In the news... 8 Best Practices for Reducing Shopping Cart Abandonment eMarketingandCommerce.com Orders and Traffic at Mack’s Prairie Wings Take Flight InternetRetailer.com Weekly B2B Column by Terry Jukes, Ability Commerce President CatalogSuccess.com Ability Commerce Finds Opportunities for Direct Marketers to Improve Their Ecommerce Sites Press Release Ability Commerce Offers PayPal Express Checkout Press Release Ability SmartSite Helps American Musical Maximize Internal Site Search Press Release |
| Ecommerce Tools Free Tool – Ecommerce RFP Template Ability Commerce has created an Ecommerce RFP Template to help retailers get an "apples to apples" comparison of ecommerce software functionality. Get the RFP Template here. Whitepaper – The Skinny on Screen Resolution Determining what screen resolution to design your ecommerce website for is a balancing act. The ultimate goal is a site that improves user experience and boosts conversions. This paper provides considerations about screen resolution when redesigning your site, and current best-practice advice from the experts at Ability Commerce. Get the whitepaper here. |