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Archive for the ‘Brand Labs’ Category
 Anecdotal evidence shows that AutoResponderMax delivers a 7% – 17% conversion rate.
Okay. That was kind of an abrupt lead in, but we wanted to make sure you got the message in case you’re one of those people who only reads the first paragraph of anything. Anyhoo, now that we’ve got that out of the way…
AutoResponderMax is the autoresponder that Brand Labs created specifically for Volusion. It’s a fully automated, multi-featured direct marketing machine and so far, it’s enabled our clients to send over one million emails directly to their customers. It’s easy, it’s affordable and it works around the clock. It gathers product reviews, sends customized sales pitches and a bunch of other stuff to help you keep in touch with your client base. It can also help you to reclaim sales lost to abandoned carts and anecdotal evidence shows that AutoResponderMax delivers a 7% – 17% conversion rate.
See how we brought that right back around?
Posted: Friday, November 4, 2011 in Site Launch
 Spring may well be the first season that springs* to mind when you think of weddings, but autumn has its charms. Spring is delightful for its brash showiness, but autumn has depth – sophistication. The same could be said for autumn brides. Just ask our own autumn bride, Mariell.
Our latest custom Volusion store design client is Mariell, a bridal manufacturer and wholesaler. Founded in 1987, their bridal accessories are available in nearly 4000 retailers nationwide and their new Volusion site will offer all of those clients easy access to their enormous inventory. This is all very good news for anyone who’s in the market for 10 dozen rhinestone-covered fascinators, and who isn’t these days?
Congratulations on your new site, Mariell!
*Some puns are nearly unavoidable. Apologies.
Posted: Monday, October 31, 2011 in Site Launch
 Our latest site launch stands testament to the fact that Reality TV and Volusion go hand-in-hand. Those who follow us closely will remember that some time back we designed a custom Volusion template for, Jay McCarroll (Project Runway, Celebrity Fit Club). Well, we’re once again crossing paths with reality TV with our latest site launch – Tasty Cotton.
This time around, the reality star in question is Top Chef All Stars champion, Richard Blais. He’s endorsing his own line of Tasty Cotton shirts that all have to do with his very particular, very science-fiction-y style of cooking. Known for his use of liquid nitrogen and hair products, Blais’ shirts mix gastronomy and chemistry in a way that is uniquely Blaisian.
Tasty Cotton is the sister store of another of our Volusion template clients, Who Are Ya Designs, so if you love European football or food we’ve got you covered.
 Restyling the product page is one of the most common custom Volusion programming requests we receive. We understand completely. When you’re building your brand identity you don’t want the effort to stop at the product page. That’s why we’re so excited about the custom Volusion product page we just completed for Willow Street Boutique.
Willow Street is a fashion apparel site and since they’re all about creating that special look, they asked us to help them by creating a way to show that complete look on their product pages. They wanted to have the ability to prominently feature items related to the one on the current product page so that the customer could make a whole outfit without backtracking. So if you’re looking at a skirt, you could see the top & shoes that would complete the look. It’s a fantastic way to increase add-on sales… if only there were some way to make it happen… wait. There is. Hire us.
Check out the custom solution we created after the jump…
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Posted: Thursday, October 13, 2011 in Food, Site Launch, Volusion, Volusion Site Design
 Beer makes everything better – bowling, Oktoberfest, dinner with the in-laws, ecommerce… everything.
love2brew is dedicated to beer – like massively dedicated. They can sell you beer brewing equipment, beer ingredients, beer books… pretty much everything except for actual beer beer.
In addition to providing everything you need to make your own personal brew, the site can teach you how to make it happen via love2learn – the love2brew knowledge base.
So, if you’re interested in beer for reasons other than just drinkin’ it, love2brew was built for you.
Side note: look at that glass over there! Look at it! It just makes us want to lick the screen!
 You’re an ecommerce merchant. Let’s say that your store has been up and running for a while. Let’s also say that it’s doing well. Of course, it may not be doing as well as you’d like, but if that’s the case, you sure don’t need a list of reasons to reexamine your site. If your store isn’t doing what you’d like it to do, you should be going over it with a fine-toothed comb. On the other hand, if your store is doing well, it’s easy to get complacent. If you fall into that group, this article is for you.
We’ve said it a bazillion times: a website is a living thing. You have to nurture it – help it grow. If you neglect it, it’ll die… or worse. It’ll grow beyond your control until it’s a huge, rambling jumble of awkward navigation, dead ends and baffling content. Still unconvinced? Check out the list for the scolding you so richly deserve.
Read the rest after the jump…
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 Here’s yet another entry in our ongoing parade of custom Volusion Templates – Salty Supply!
We must admit that when we first heard the name of this site, we imagined some sort of online potato chip superstore, but that misconception was entirely attributable to our personal massive ignorance and our deep love of salty snacks. Anyhoo, Salty Supply is all about being the absolute best online supplier for all of your aquarium-related needs and not so much about Pringles.
… which is too bad, because when you think about it, salt water fish are probably among a very small number of creatures on Earth who can eat Pringles without worrying about how the salt content will affect their blood pressure.
… just sayin’.
 As a part of our continuing effort to make the custom Volusion development process more transparent (and therefore, less intimidating) we offer this Custom Volusion Programming RFQ Workflow.
In case you’re unfamiliar with the acronym, RFQ stands for “Request for Quote”. It’s the process that you’ll go through when you come to us with a custom programming need for your Volusion store. Of course, every need is as unique as the website it’s attached to, so there will be differences between what you experience and what you see here, but if you’ve never gone through the custom programming quoting process, this will give you a general idea of what to expect.
The most important part of this entire process is in the big fat circle in the upper left corner of the chart. That’s the conversation (or series of conversations) that you’ll have with your account manager before the project moves an inch. We know a lot about ecommerce and we want to know a lot about your business before we start any custom Volusion development project. We want that info so that we can look at every possible solution available to you. You may well have an idea of what you’d like to do, but it’s more important for us to know what you’d like to achieve. If we know and understand your end goal(s) we can explore solutions that may not have occurred to you. We want to solve your problem in the best possible way, even if we have to build the solution from scratch.
So, if you’re considering taking on a custom Volusion project, we’d like to help… and now you know how we plan to do it. Of course this chart can’t answer all of your questions, but we can.
 We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: the online market is a very competitive place. It’s not a brilliant or deeply insightful observation, but it’s a critical one and you don’t want to ignore it. If you know that it’s a battlefield out there, then you owe it to yourself to exploit every available advantage. Which brings us (as it so often does) to the topic of branding.
We build Volusion templates that build your brand. There’s a handy example right here – WhoAreYaDesigns.com. This nostalgic and beautiful template design speaks volumes about Who Are Ya and their self-proclaimed dedication to soccer fans who are “in the know”. This is a brand that’s about the history of soccer (football, for those in the know) – the feeling of it. This is a brand that inspires dedication. This is a brand that sells.
So while you’re marketing and tweaking your SEO, don’t forget to give a little love to the first thing your customers see: your brand.
Posted: Tuesday, September 20, 2011 in Brand Labs, Corporate Culture, News
 In yet another stop on Brand Labs’ Fixing-The-World-One-Website-At-A-Time Tour, you can currently find us in booth 2481 at the Medical Design & Manufacturing Expo in Chicago!
We’re not just spreading the word about the wonders of ecommerce. We’re luring manufacturers to the magical world of Direct-to-Consumer communication. Whether you’re targeting the wholesale market or the retail market, Brand Labs can help.
Manufacturing, wholesale, retail – D2C or lead generation… it’s all about commerce and so are we. So, if you happen to be in Chicago and you’re looking for innovative and exciting ways to talk to your customers, stop by booth 2481 at the MD&M Expo.
… man. We really wanted to make a joke about playing doctor here, but we decided that it was way too unprofessional, so we’re not going to.
… but it’s killing us.
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