We’ve been doing store locators for clients for some time, but every once in a while we feel compelled to remind you of the many, many ways we can alter your Volusion store to suit your particular needs.  In this latest case, BulletProofDiesel.com came to us with an existing Volusion store, but no good way to tell their online clients where they could have their products installed locally.  That’s where our Volusion store locator implementation came in.  Now, anyone browsing their online store will be easily able to pinpoint a local vendor, helping to seal the conversion and creating a brand new satisfied customer.  It’s just that easy.

Contact us if you’re interested in a store locator for your Volusion site!  We’ll be happy to help.

We recently completed an iShop USA integration for Sorella Jewelry’s Volusion store (shown in the lower right corner of the screenshot).  For those who don’t know, iShop USA is a remarkable service that allows any retailer to sell their products worldwide without having to concern themselves with all of the pesky details involved in such a transaction: customs paperwork, international shipping and returns, currency conversion… all part of the integration.  It’s like a dream for online retailers, allowing you access to potential customers all over the world, with one little hitch – it doesn’t integrate natively with Volusion.  We can fix that.

With our integration, your international clients will have a nearly seamless shopping experience and you won’t have to learn a thing about exporting, currency exchange or international shipping.  With one move you can expand your potential client base from 300 million to 6 and a half billion.  That’s billion with a “b“.  So, if you’re interested in having about a gazillion more customers, it’s something to consider and we can help.

Also, it pays to remember that we can do pretty much anything you’d like to do with your Volusion store.  Just ask…

In addition to designing the site and the logo, we created and developed a unique search refinement tool, specific to Dealer Direct’s business model.  You see, they’re a network of dealer-authorized parts dealers and as you can well imagine (with the huge number of different makes and models) it could be pretty damn challenging to search their site in the hope of finding a specific part for your car.  That’s where we came in.

Read about our solution after the jump…

What you see here is our custom-built search refinement tool.  Placed at the top of the category header, it allows the customer to narrow the search by make, model and year.  That’s handy enough on its own, but wait… once you’ve made your choices, they’re reflected site-wide!  So let’s say you choose a 2004 Honda Accord.  Now, no matter where you go on the site, you’ll be shown nothing but parts and supplies for the 2004 Honda Accord… AND the category header changes to show you that fact… AND, should you leave the site, when you come back, the site remembers your choices and retains your search options, simplifying the browsing process and adding a welcome bit of speed to the conversion process.

Of course, there’s always the chance that the customer may want to switch cars, which is why there’s a prominent “Change Vehicle” button in the header.  We’re clever that way.

Now, imagine the possibilities of this tool.  Let’s say you’re an apparel dealer.  Your customer could narrow her search to women’s size 8 and see nothing but the choices actually available to her.  She won’t see anything she can’t buy.  Imagine being on a site and knowing that everything you see is available in your size.  It would be like having your own, personalized store.  Now pretend that we never said “apparel” and instead, pretend we said, <insert your product category here>.  Now imagine the possibilities.

This is just another example of our mad Interweb skills.  We can do things for your Volusion store that you can’t even imagine.

It seems that the folks at Volusion have once again introduced a tool for their platform that we’d already developed.  Now don’t get us wrong.  What’s good for Volusion is good for us, so we’re always thrilled at their continuing efforts to improve what is already the best shopping platform in the marketplace.

But…

We do feel compelled to point out one thing: we totally did it first.  Sure, we already mentioned that, but our ego compels us to say it again.  We introduced iVoloo (our iPhone-friendly Volusion store) two years ago and we updated it pretty dramatically just last month.  All of this was completed independent of Volusion and as a direct result of needs expressed by our customers.  Now, in the big scheme of things, does being first really matter?

Well… yes.

While we don’t yet know all the details about Volusion’s mCommerce, one thing is sure: we did it first.  First is important because it means that we are capable of creating solutions before anyone else even has the opportunity to publicly recognize the need.  First is important because it means that we’re nimble and responsive.  First is important because every Volusion merchant who’s been using iVoloo, didn’t have to wait, nor will any new iVoloo customers have to wait for Volusion’s mCommerce beta to be complete.

This may sound like sour grapes (and that may be at least a little bit true), but, believe it or not, we have a great relationship with Volusion.  We like Volusion.  What’s important for us is that the Volusion community understand that we specialize in the development of custom solutions for all of their eCommerce (or mCommerce) needs.  We look beyond Volusion’s limitations to see its possibilities… then we turn those possibilities into reality.

We’ll continue to develop tools and applications to expand on Volusion’s (already expansive) capabilities.  Heck… we just introduced a more robust version of RapidCart, even though Volusion already has a soft-add-to-cart feature, just because we wanted to make a better one.  We fully expect that someday Volusion will somehow match RapidCart, but by then, we’ll have moved on to another need, a new goal, because that’s what we do.  We make the world a better place using every tool at our disposal, like Stephen Hawking or the A-Team.

Where to begin?  … well, how about product options?  RapidCart can handle multiple options with images.  You like alternate product pics?  You’ve got ‘em.  You want to include all of your pricing info and product description copy?  Check.  But wait… there’s more!  How would you like your soft-add-to-cart pop-in window to be styled to match the look and feel of your site?  We’ve got you covered.  Custom design is included in the RapidCart 2.0 implementation.

Of course, for many people, the Volusion soft-add-to-cart will be just fine, but for those who want to take their site to the next level, there’s RapidCart 2.0: custom development quality with an out-of-the-box price. Learn more and see RapidCart in action here.

Now, Carnal DaMMAge’s customers will be able to shop (and buy) on a mobile-optimized Volusion site, eliminating one more barrier between browsing and conversion.

You, too, can have an iPhone-friendly Volusion store for less than a thousand dollars!  (Okay… it’s $995, so not a lot less than a thousand… but still, it’s less.)

If you’d like to capture some of the ever-expanding mCommerce market (quickly and affordably) check out iVoloo.  On the other hand, if you’d like to beat the tar out of someone, but you’d like to be sure you’re properly outfitted first, check out Carnal DaMMAge.

The above-mentioned deep love was a big part of the reason that we introduced iVoloo – the first iPhone friendly Volusion store, back in July of 2008.  Back in those days (it seems so long ago), iVoloo was a novelty.  We developed it for a client who sells iPhone accessories, then (drunk with iPhone affection) decided to offer it to the Volusion community at large.  In all honesty, back then, the need for iVoloo was debatable.  There were absolutely excellent reasons to have a mobile-friendly store, but it wasn’t a critical need.  Those times have changed.

Do you remember back when the internet was still in its infancy?  It wasn’t that uncommon to search for a huge brand name, only to find that they had no web presence at all.  You’d just shrug and grab the phone book (remember those?), look up the store and call them to get your questions answered.  However, as time went by, an insufficient web presence became harder and harder to tolerate until finally it seemed like a personal affront to go searching for a store online and come up empty.  We’ve now reached the point where even the humblest of mom & pop operations are virtually required to have a website, lest they risk the wrath of their constantly-connected consumers.  That’s the future of mobile commerce.  You can go ahead and ignore it… for now.  You can ignore all of the research (here, here and here) that shows that consumers are quickly (very quickly) becoming comfortable with mCommerce.  You can frustrate your mobile customers by failing to offer them what they are rapidly coming to expect from their online experience.  You can put all of your eggs in your standard site and hope that your customers are tenacious enough to navigate your teeny-weeny little site in search of what they need.

… or, you could get ahead of the curve (and your competition) for less than a thousand bucks.  Give us a call.  It’ll be easier than you can imagine.

Not only does this site use embedded flash and video to fully describe the product in a single page, but it also gathers the customer info from the home page and populates the checkout page WITH NO EFFORT AT ALL!

BUT WAIT!  THERE’S MORE!  As soon as the customer fills out their credit card info, a window pops up AUTOMATICALLY, showing the customer a SPECIAL, LIMITED TIME OFFER!

How much would YOU expect to pay for such a HIGH QUALITY website?  $50,000?  $100,000?  Well, if you ACT NOW, we can give you the ONE-PAGE VOLUSION SITE, the INFO POPULATION TOOL AND the AUTOMATIC OFFER POP UP for a special ONE-TIME-ONLY price!!  CALL NOW!  Operators are standing by.  (This offer not available in stores.  Void in Uzbekistan.  Must be 18 or older.)

With that being said, Brand Labs is the most bestest client we’ve ever, ever had.  They’re so totally awesome to work with and the entire process was an absolute pleasure.  We couldn’t believe what an absolute delight they were and here’s what they had to say about us:

“Brand Labs is the best.  Period.  If you’re thinking of using anyone else, you’re a total dunderhead.”

Now, we don’t condone the use of antiquated Dutch insults, but they said it, not us.  Anyhoo, be sure to check out the new homepage and the fancy, dynamic blog feed included therein.  It’s the bestest.

In this case the post didn’t explicitly express a need, but instead, included a link to this Internet Retailer article (which, itself, is quoting Compete’s Smartphone Intelligence survey for Q3 2009) that shows two things quite clearly.  First, smartphone users are using their devices more and more, not just for “window shopping” but for actual mobile purchases (37% according to the survey).  Second, they are less likely to make a mobile purchase on a site that hasn’t been optimized for the mobile experience.

We’ve been aware of this for some time and, as a matter of fact, last year we released iVoloo, which has the ability to take a select group of products from your store and offer them in an iPhone-friendly format for the shopper on the go.  It’s a great tool and simply implementing it tells your customers that you understand their needs, but, the iVoloo wasn’t everything we’d hoped for.  It was limited in the number of products it could display and it required our assistance to merchandise the mobile-specific format.

… but, we’ve been working on it and guess what?  We are now poised to release iVoloo 2.0 and here’s the good news: not only can you put your whole damn store inside, but you’ll also be able to merchandise it easily (without any help from us) using the Volusion admin that you’re already familiar with!  It’s as close to a plug-and-play solution as you could hope for.

The release of iVoloo 2.0 is mere weeks away and if you’re interested, you can contact us now and you’ll be one of the first to have this sweet new tool on your Volusion store as soon as it’s ready.  Of course, you can also contact us for any other needs you may have, or you can post your question or need in the comments section of this post.  Don’t worry, though… we keep our eyes on the Volusion forum and if something comes up there that we feel we can address, we’ll do so here.