November 26, 2024 • 20 mins
The holiday season brings a rush of online shoppers, making it crucial for retail jewelers to ensure their e-commerce sites are in top shape. With a well-prepared website, you can enhance your customer experience, avoid technical hiccups, and maximize sales.
Here’s a quick checklist to help you get your website holiday-ready, from payment setups to product data and marketing strategy.
Adapted from the recent Punchmark blog article: https://www.punchmark.com/blog-post/administrative-checklist-8-tips-to-fortify-your-e-commerce-for-the-holidays
Send feedback or learn more about the podcast: punchmark.com/loupe
Learn about Punchmark's website platform: punchmark.com
Inquire about sponsoring In the Loupe and showcase your business on our next episode: podcast@punchmark.com
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome back everybody to In the Loop.
What is up everybody?
My name is Michael Burpo.
Thanks again for listening toIn the Loop.
This week we're going kind ofshort and sweet.
I recently published a blog forthe punchmarkcom blog and this
one was all about administrativechecklist eight tips to fortify
(00:21):
your e-commerce for theholidays.
It was a article I wanted toget out before Black Friday and
Cyber Week and everything andfor the holidays, but I felt
like it kind of warranted in theloop episode because I kind of
want to expound upon a littlebit of it.
It's pretty short.
You can find it on punchmarkcom.
It's the most recent article,but I wanted to kind of dive
(00:43):
into a couple things a littlebit more and hopefully you enjoy
listening along.
I hope you have a great cyberweek and a great holidays.
Let us know if we're yourwebsite provider, let us know if
we can help you reach out infoat punchmarkcom, and even if
we're not your provider, we havea great sale going on from
December 2nd to the 6th, soreach out for that as well.
(01:04):
All right, enjoy.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
This episode is brought to you by Punchmark, the
jewelry industry's favoritewebsite platform and digital
growth agency.
Our mission reaches way beyondtechnology.
With decades of experience andlong lasting industry
relationships, punchmark enablesjewelry businesses to flourish
in any marketplace.
We consider our clients ourfriends, as many of them have
(01:30):
been friends way before becomingclients.
Punchmark's own success comesfrom the fact that we have a
much deeper need and obligationto help our friends succeed.
Whether you're looking forbetter e-commerce performance,
business growth or campaignsthat drive traffic and sales,
punchmark's website andmarketing services were made
just for you.
It's never too late totransform your business and
(01:52):
stitch together your digital andphysical worlds in a way that
achieves tremendous growth andresults.
Schedule a guided demo today atpunchmarkcom.
Slash go.
Speaker 1 (02:04):
And now back to the show.
Okay, so, like I said, this isgoing to be a little bit shorter
, but I try to keep the episodesa little bit shorter at the end
of the year because I know youguys are going to be very busy
and I want to get these intobite-sized chunks, and also I'm
going to be working off of myblog article, so I'm kind of
(02:28):
pretty much read what I got andalso expound upon it a little
bit.
So, without further ado, here'seight tips.
The first one talk about yourpayment and security.
So payment is prettystraightforward.
Almost every single e-commercewebsite provider, including
Punchmark, is going to take theregular payment options, such as
, you know, credit card, butthere's a couple of other ones,
(02:51):
such as PayPal and Amazon Pay,that kind of hit some of the
fringe ones.
Currently, punchmark websitesdon't offer Apple Pay.
It's something we want to do inthe future, but adding PayPal
Pay and Amazon Pay is somethingthat, can you know, expand your
payment options, but alsosecurity.
So currently, punchmark has twofraud protection partners, and
(03:14):
that's iForFraud and ClearSale,and we work with them very
closely.
We have an integration withthem.
If you don't have a Punchmarkwebsite, I know that these two
companies work very easily withmost website providers and the
reason why we recommend you havesome type of fraud protection
company is especially around thebusy part of the year.
(03:36):
These companies they analyzeand scan every e-commerce order
that you get and if they saythumbs up, you're good, that
means you are cleared and theywill pay you.
If, like, the payment bounces,they'll cover it and then
essentially insure it for you.
We recommend that if you aredoing more than I'd probably say
(03:57):
a thousand dollars ine-commerce a month, then you
definitely should be having sometype of fraud protection on
your website.
I don't care who you're doingit with and I don't care if you
have us as your website provider.
I'm just trying to look out foryou.
I highly recommend you havesome type of fraud protection on
your website.
(04:17):
Don't get scammed.
Nothing worse than shippingsomething out and the payment
bouncing while it's in the mail.
That sucks All right.
Number two financing and buy nowand having a buy now, pay later
option.
So financing in BNPL areslightly different.
I don't really have a hard andfast kind of line in the ground
about the difference.
(04:37):
When I think of financing, Ithink of like a traditional one
through, like a credit cardcompany like Wells Fargo.
That's something someone we'reworking through and we have kind
of like a workaround for how itcould work.
But the buy now, pay lateroptions that we have at
Punchmark are Sezzle and Affirm.
There's some strengths andweaknesses to either.
(04:58):
Sezzle, I think, splits thepayment into four payments, I
believe, and Affirm splits itinto up to 12.
So it allows the shopper alittle bit more flexibility.
I believe Sezzle has a lowerceiling and Affirm has a higher
floor.
I know that is confusing, butbasically, affirm is good for
(05:20):
the larger purchases and Sezzleis good for the smaller
purchases.
A lot of our clients actuallyhave both of them.
But it's up to you what worksfor your business.
But the reason why we recommendhaving some type of BNPL right
now is because it allowsshoppers to, you know, punch
(05:42):
above their weight class, so tospeak.
So offering something where youknow an engagement ring or even
something less, a diamond, somediamond jewelry, if it's $1,000
, being able to break it intofour easy payments of $250, that
actually does make it a littlebit more attainable.
So quick story for me not tomake everything about myself.
(06:03):
Story for me not to makeeverything about myself.
But I actually bought a seasonpass to a ski mountain and it
was going to be, you know, justabout $1,000 or $600 or whatever
it was going to be, and I couldhave probably paid for it, but
I just decided, all right, whydon't I break it apart?
And a lot of the times thesecompanies are great for the
merchant you because it allowsthem to.
(06:26):
They pay you in full and thenthe consumer is paying them.
So they collect a little bit ofinterest, but you get paid in
full, no matter what.
So it really doesn't supermatter whether you're getting
paid via Sezzle or Affirm or ifyou're getting paid via the
customer.
Sezzle and Affirm they'll maketheir little bit of money
(06:46):
because I think they charge asmall percentage of interest.
But having that option reallyallows you to kind of stretch
and have some of those higherprice point items actually sell,
and we see it all the time.
One thing I want to mention isthat one thing I always tell
people about financing and BNPLis that it is the number one
(07:08):
forward-looking indicator forstores on how well they'll do.
It sounds crazy, but out of ourtop 10 performing stores
e-commerce-wise, I believe sixhave at least one option and I
think four of them have twooptions on there.
So highly recommend it.
(07:28):
It's a, it's a great way tokind of just improve a little
bit more.
All right, number threeshipping options.
So highly recommend that youhave an express and a slow
shipping option so you can alsoset your thresholds to make it
so that you know if you shop andyou have in your cart, you know
(07:52):
, free shipping on orders over$250, a lot of the times, no
matter the website platform.
I say that not just Punchmark,so other website platforms,
other website platforms.
That way, if someone has anitem in their cart for $168 and
the free shipping threshold is$200, they're more likely to add
(08:14):
another small item on therejust to get the free shipping.
How much is the shipping goingto cost?
Probably like $12.
But people see it as like a way, an incentive, and I recommend
it as well.
I'm a sucker for free shipping.
I hate having to pay forshipping and I think that it's a
great way to do it A lot of thetimes.
I just highly highly recommendyou have these dialed in.
(08:37):
You just take a look at themleading into the busy part of
the year, because sometimes whenyou don't get that much orders
like in May and June, you mightset one that's like you know
it's cheaper and you have anexpress shipping option that's,
you know, pretty low cost onyour website.
I highly recommend that youjust take a look at them leading
(08:57):
up to the busy part of the yearand make sure that you're happy
with them.
Okay, number four optimizingcustomer support.
So this could mean a lot ofthings, but specifically, two of
the things I recommend is justhaving some type of live chat
feature on your website.
I know that they can beexpensive, but Punchmark
(09:18):
partners with Podium andClientBook, so whichever one you
choose to go with, we work withthem.
We have nothing but greatthings to say about Podium and
ClientBook.
They kind of are a great vesselfor what we're always trying to
preach about your onlinepresence, whether that is.
We always say you know you needto be more human when you're
online and you need to be moredigital when you're in your
(09:40):
store.
So having these kind of humantouches for your website you
know, an instant response orgreat response, or even having
their AI feature is pretty darngood nowadays.
I highly recommend it.
Punchmark has a chat on ourwebsite and we use it all the
time, because a lot of timespeople just ask, you know,
(10:02):
regular questions like hey, I'mhaving issues with my website
and that's a great way to kindof help things.
We just put them in the rightdirection of getting tickets or
whatever.
But sometimes, I mean everyevery couple of months, we
actually make a sale justbecause we have a chatting
option, and I bet it would beprobably more often if we had a
(10:22):
lower price point.
You know target.
I mean, we're selling websites,so not as easy to turn over,
but I'm sure for a jewelry store, that little bit of type of
human touch so important.
All right, everybody, we'regoing to take a quick break and
hear a word from our sponsorthrough and now the moment
(10:45):
you've all been waiting forpunch marks biggest sale of the
year.
Speaker 3 (10:52):
Hi, I'm Hope Belair, punch marks digital marketing
manager, and I've got someexciting things to share about
this year's cyber week sale.
First, if you're an existingpunch mark client, our loyalty
rewards program will let youtake 2% off your new website
design for every year you'vebeen with us.
So if you've been with us forall 16 years we've been in
business, you'll save 32%.
Or, in lieu of a new design,you can take advantage of our
new website tune-up program toensure everything is optimized
(11:14):
and working perfectly.
Now for our digital marketingdeal.
That includes $500 off yourmonthly cost of the digital
marketing strategist plan for 12months, where you will still
get a full year of monthly callsfor free with me.
If you are an edge user lookingto get set up on a new jewelry
website, we will pay your edgeintegration fee on your behalf
(11:36):
as well.
This is normally $2,500.
And because of our partnership,it's only $1,250.
But we will pay this entire feefor you.
If you sign up during CyberWeek, or if you're not an Edge
user, you can save 50% off yourbase monthly fee for the first
year, which will save you $99per month.
(11:57):
Cyber Week runs from December2nd through the 6th, so be sure
to visit punchmarkcom slash savein order to take advantage of
these sweet offers.
Speaker 1 (12:08):
And now back to the show.
And we're back.
All right, let's talk aboutnumber five Product presentation
and availability.
Okay, so the biggest thing justput a homepage banner up that
talks about your sales.
(12:29):
It doesn't take that long.
Just get a nice, you know,turkey one or a candy cane
looking one.
I'll give you a.
This is an inside hint, thisone's on the article.
Go to Pexels, that'sP-E-X-E-L-Scom Pexels.
It's like iStock, for just goodphotography and it's free.
(12:51):
Don't tell anyone.
I told you that one becausePunchmark uses that one.
If people start using thoseimages all the time, I'll be mad
, but that's a great way to doit.
Have those banners up there.
It dresses up your website alittle bit and talk about your
sales.
The other thing is you can doproduct categories for price
(13:12):
ranges, so you can do giftsunder $100.
And then you can do gifts under$500.
And you can do gifts under$1,000.
So or do bestsellers.
That has to be manually added,but it still works.
Those are what we call softcategories, so they don't really
(13:32):
mean anything, except theyallow shoppers to shop on
autopilot as opposed to have toactively be making decisions,
and that is just a good thingwhen you're selling luxury goods
, so highly recommend that youconsider adding some type of
gifts under 500.
Just if you want a to-do listright now, after this episode
(13:55):
ends, go to your website.
Put a banner up on your websitethat says shop gifts under 500
and then link it to your jewelrypage.
Go in we have a whole knowledgebased article about how to do
under $500 and toss it on there.
It's super easy and, who knows,maybe it adds to the sale.
Okay, number six traffic andconversion boosters.
(14:19):
So this one is going to be alittle bit harder for you to do,
like while you're listening tothis episode.
This might take a little bit ofwork.
So what we're talking about ishaving your products appear in
different places.
So that's either on Facebookand Instagram, which is the
umbrella of meta, or on GoogleShopping.
So those two are going to coverabout 90% of your bases, or 95%
(14:44):
of your bases.
Highly recommend them.
We have knowledge-basedarticles all about it.
That's helppunchbarkcom.
Go check that out.
We have instructions on how tolink your website feed into
these different locations.
We also have a digitalmarketing team that can do it
for you, but do it yourself, noproblem.
The other one is doing time totake advantage of the goodwill
(15:09):
you've built up over the years.
Start posting on your socialmedia right now.
Please just throw one out everysingle week until Christmas or
the week after Christmas.
It's something someone can do.
Just go in, take a great photoof a great piece of jewelry and
put it on there and just saywe've got deals at our store.
(15:29):
Now is the time to kind ofsqueeze the lemon for all it's
worth.
Get that last little bit ofjuice out and convert on your
traffic.
It's important, all right.
Number seven this is emailmarketing.
So email marketing strategy iswhat I call it.
But have some type of emailmarketing Like I was talking
about, with just a number six,with traffic and conversion
(15:52):
boosters.
I recommend now is the time tojust cash in on your goodwill.
You spent all that time likeposting.
You know, you know nice thingsand everything.
Now's the time to talk aboutyour deals.
It really is, and you usuallyhave some type of email list and
even if it doesn't involve sometype of third party where you
(16:15):
have to, you know, pay the, youknow whether that's through
MailChimp or Cliveo or whateverI recommend that you send at
least one, maybe two emailblasts during the holiday lead
up.
Just export that email list,even if you pop it into just a
Gmail, and send some emails outor send it to just your VIPs.
(16:38):
We 100% recommend it.
And all you'd have to do isjust create a little coupon code
.
It takes five seconds to createit in the back end of your
website.
Create a coupon code thatexpires at the end of December,
send it to all of them for $25off, have them start shopping
and, who knows, it doesn't costany money to send out an email,
(16:58):
it's all free.
So if you get one sale boom,you made it Okay.
And the last one is probably themost important Number eight
testing and quality assurance.
So we 1000% recommend you justgo and look at your website and
don't do it from your logged inversion.
(17:20):
Take it, open up your website,actually punch the URL in to
your an incognito browser orwhat have you, and I want you to
do it twice.
I want you to do it on yourdesktop and on your phone and I
want you to go through and dothe standard QA.
I want you to look at everysingle page.
Look at your homepage, all yourlanding pages, your grid and
(17:43):
your color content.
So that is like your about uspage, our story, meet the staff,
those types of pages.
I want you to look at everysingle one of them and just give
it a once over, and then I wantyou to do it again on your
phone.
Do it on your phone, seriously,it's so important.
Look at it and take note ofthings that aren't right.
(18:04):
Does the stacking not lookweird?
Is there a strange overlap withyour text?
Did you build a landing pageand then forget to look at it on
mobile back in June and thenrealize it looks terrible on
mobile?
It happens to all of us in Juneand then realize it looks
terrible on mobile.
It happens to all of us and Ipromise a little.
You know brush through is worththe time and commitment that it
(18:25):
takes to do it.
So that is eight steps for youradministrative checklist.
You should be able to do all ofthese today, or just think
about them at least, and to runthrough them again.
It's payment and security,financing or buy now, pay later
options, shipping options.
Optimize your customer supportmaybe through a web chat if you
have time product presentationand availability.
(18:47):
So, honestly, I don't expectyou to re-photograph all of your
products, but just throw abanner up on there and talk
about how you have gifts under500 and link it to a category.
Or go to earrings and just linkit to your earrings Traffic and
conversion boosters.
So please just start postingabout your jewelry on your
Instagram, just for the nextcouple of weeks.
(19:08):
Email marketing.
So time is now to send out anemail blast and then testing and
quality assurance.
Go through on your desktop andon your phone and just take a
look.
It's so important.
Please, please, please, do thatlast one.
It is so important.
And if something is wrong, openup a ticket sooner rather than
(19:29):
later, because it takes time forus to fix them as well, or just
try to fix it yourself.
There you go.
That is eight administrativechecklist items.
I hope they helped you.
I hope you have a great cyberweek.
I hope you have a great holidayand a very safe Thanksgiving.
Cheers.
Thanks so much for listening.
We'll be back next week,tuesday, with another episode.
(19:51):
Cheers, bye, all right,everybody.
That's the end of the show.
Thanks so much for listening.
This episode was brought to youby Punchmark and produced and
hosted by me, michael Burpo.
A little bit of a shorterepisode this week.
This episode was edited by PaulSuarez, with music by Ross
(20:12):
Cockrum.
Don't forget to rate thepodcast on Spotify and Apple
Podcasts and leave us feedbackon punchmarkcom slash loop.
That's L-O-U-P.
We'll be back next week Tuesdaywith another episode.
Cheers, bye.
Welcome back everybody to In the Loop.
What is up everybody?
My name is Michael Burpo.
Thanks again for listening toIn the Loop.
This week we're going kind ofshort and sweet.
I recently published a blog forthe punchmarkcom blog and this
one was all about administrativechecklist eight tips to fortify
(00:21):
your e-commerce for theholidays.
It was a article I wanted toget out before Black Friday and
Cyber Week and everything andfor the holidays, but I felt
like it kind of warranted in theloop episode because I kind of
want to expound upon a littlebit of it.
It's pretty short.
You can find it on punchmarkcom.
It's the most recent article,but I wanted to kind of dive
(00:43):
into a couple things a littlebit more and hopefully you enjoy
listening along.
I hope you have a great cyberweek and a great holidays.
Let us know if we're yourwebsite provider, let us know if
we can help you reach out infoat punchmarkcom, and even if
we're not your provider, we havea great sale going on from
December 2nd to the 6th, soreach out for that as well.
(01:04):
All right, enjoy.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
This episode is brought to you by Punchmark, the
jewelry industry's favoritewebsite platform and digital
growth agency.
Our mission reaches way beyondtechnology.
With decades of experience andlong lasting industry
relationships, punchmark enablesjewelry businesses to flourish
in any marketplace.
We consider our clients ourfriends, as many of them have
(01:30):
been friends way before becomingclients.
Punchmark's own success comesfrom the fact that we have a
much deeper need and obligationto help our friends succeed.
Whether you're looking forbetter e-commerce performance,
business growth or campaignsthat drive traffic and sales,
punchmark's website andmarketing services were made
just for you.
It's never too late totransform your business and
(01:52):
stitch together your digital andphysical worlds in a way that
achieves tremendous growth andresults.
Schedule a guided demo today atpunchmarkcom.
Slash go.
Speaker 1 (02:04):
And now back to the show.
Okay, so, like I said, this isgoing to be a little bit shorter
, but I try to keep the episodesa little bit shorter at the end
of the year because I know youguys are going to be very busy
and I want to get these intobite-sized chunks, and also I'm
going to be working off of myblog article, so I'm kind of
(02:28):
pretty much read what I got andalso expound upon it a little
bit.
So, without further ado, here'seight tips.
The first one talk about yourpayment and security.
So payment is prettystraightforward.
Almost every single e-commercewebsite provider, including
Punchmark, is going to take theregular payment options, such as
, you know, credit card, butthere's a couple of other ones,
(02:51):
such as PayPal and Amazon Pay,that kind of hit some of the
fringe ones.
Currently, punchmark websitesdon't offer Apple Pay.
It's something we want to do inthe future, but adding PayPal
Pay and Amazon Pay is somethingthat, can you know, expand your
payment options, but alsosecurity.
So currently, punchmark has twofraud protection partners, and
(03:14):
that's iForFraud and ClearSale,and we work with them very
closely.
We have an integration withthem.
If you don't have a Punchmarkwebsite, I know that these two
companies work very easily withmost website providers and the
reason why we recommend you havesome type of fraud protection
company is especially around thebusy part of the year.
(03:36):
These companies they analyzeand scan every e-commerce order
that you get and if they saythumbs up, you're good, that
means you are cleared and theywill pay you.
If, like, the payment bounces,they'll cover it and then
essentially insure it for you.
We recommend that if you aredoing more than I'd probably say
(03:57):
a thousand dollars ine-commerce a month, then you
definitely should be having sometype of fraud protection on
your website.
I don't care who you're doingit with and I don't care if you
have us as your website provider.
I'm just trying to look out foryou.
I highly recommend you havesome type of fraud protection on
your website.
(04:17):
Don't get scammed.
Nothing worse than shippingsomething out and the payment
bouncing while it's in the mail.
That sucks All right.
Number two financing and buy nowand having a buy now, pay later
option.
So financing in BNPL areslightly different.
I don't really have a hard andfast kind of line in the ground
about the difference.
(04:37):
When I think of financing, Ithink of like a traditional one
through, like a credit cardcompany like Wells Fargo.
That's something someone we'reworking through and we have kind
of like a workaround for how itcould work.
But the buy now, pay lateroptions that we have at
Punchmark are Sezzle and Affirm.
There's some strengths andweaknesses to either.
(04:58):
Sezzle, I think, splits thepayment into four payments, I
believe, and Affirm splits itinto up to 12.
So it allows the shopper alittle bit more flexibility.
I believe Sezzle has a lowerceiling and Affirm has a higher
floor.
I know that is confusing, butbasically, affirm is good for
(05:20):
the larger purchases and Sezzleis good for the smaller
purchases.
A lot of our clients actuallyhave both of them.
But it's up to you what worksfor your business.
But the reason why we recommendhaving some type of BNPL right
now is because it allowsshoppers to, you know, punch
(05:42):
above their weight class, so tospeak.
So offering something where youknow an engagement ring or even
something less, a diamond, somediamond jewelry, if it's $1,000
, being able to break it intofour easy payments of $250, that
actually does make it a littlebit more attainable.
So quick story for me not tomake everything about myself.
(06:03):
Story for me not to makeeverything about myself.
But I actually bought a seasonpass to a ski mountain and it
was going to be, you know, justabout $1,000 or $600 or whatever
it was going to be, and I couldhave probably paid for it, but
I just decided, all right, whydon't I break it apart?
And a lot of the times thesecompanies are great for the
merchant you because it allowsthem to.
(06:26):
They pay you in full and thenthe consumer is paying them.
So they collect a little bit ofinterest, but you get paid in
full, no matter what.
So it really doesn't supermatter whether you're getting
paid via Sezzle or Affirm or ifyou're getting paid via the
customer.
Sezzle and Affirm they'll maketheir little bit of money
(06:46):
because I think they charge asmall percentage of interest.
But having that option reallyallows you to kind of stretch
and have some of those higherprice point items actually sell,
and we see it all the time.
One thing I want to mention isthat one thing I always tell
people about financing and BNPLis that it is the number one
(07:08):
forward-looking indicator forstores on how well they'll do.
It sounds crazy, but out of ourtop 10 performing stores
e-commerce-wise, I believe sixhave at least one option and I
think four of them have twooptions on there.
So highly recommend it.
(07:28):
It's a, it's a great way tokind of just improve a little
bit more.
All right, number threeshipping options.
So highly recommend that youhave an express and a slow
shipping option so you can alsoset your thresholds to make it
so that you know if you shop andyou have in your cart, you know
(07:52):
, free shipping on orders over$250, a lot of the times, no
matter the website platform.
I say that not just Punchmark,so other website platforms,
other website platforms.
That way, if someone has anitem in their cart for $168 and
the free shipping threshold is$200, they're more likely to add
(08:14):
another small item on therejust to get the free shipping.
How much is the shipping goingto cost?
Probably like $12.
But people see it as like a way, an incentive, and I recommend
it as well.
I'm a sucker for free shipping.
I hate having to pay forshipping and I think that it's a
great way to do it A lot of thetimes.
I just highly highly recommendyou have these dialed in.
(08:37):
You just take a look at themleading into the busy part of
the year, because sometimes whenyou don't get that much orders
like in May and June, you mightset one that's like you know
it's cheaper and you have anexpress shipping option that's,
you know, pretty low cost onyour website.
I highly recommend that youjust take a look at them leading
(08:57):
up to the busy part of the yearand make sure that you're happy
with them.
Okay, number four optimizingcustomer support.
So this could mean a lot ofthings, but specifically, two of
the things I recommend is justhaving some type of live chat
feature on your website.
I know that they can beexpensive, but Punchmark
(09:18):
partners with Podium andClientBook, so whichever one you
choose to go with, we work withthem.
We have nothing but greatthings to say about Podium and
ClientBook.
They kind of are a great vesselfor what we're always trying to
preach about your onlinepresence, whether that is.
We always say you know you needto be more human when you're
online and you need to be moredigital when you're in your
(09:40):
store.
So having these kind of humantouches for your website you
know, an instant response orgreat response, or even having
their AI feature is pretty darngood nowadays.
I highly recommend it.
Punchmark has a chat on ourwebsite and we use it all the
time, because a lot of timespeople just ask, you know,
(10:02):
regular questions like hey, I'mhaving issues with my website
and that's a great way to kindof help things.
We just put them in the rightdirection of getting tickets or
whatever.
But sometimes, I mean everyevery couple of months, we
actually make a sale justbecause we have a chatting
option, and I bet it would beprobably more often if we had a
(10:22):
lower price point.
You know target.
I mean, we're selling websites,so not as easy to turn over,
but I'm sure for a jewelry store, that little bit of type of
human touch so important.
All right, everybody, we'regoing to take a quick break and
hear a word from our sponsorthrough and now the moment
(10:45):
you've all been waiting forpunch marks biggest sale of the
year.
Speaker 3 (10:52):
Hi, I'm Hope Belair, punch marks digital marketing
manager, and I've got someexciting things to share about
this year's cyber week sale.
First, if you're an existingpunch mark client, our loyalty
rewards program will let youtake 2% off your new website
design for every year you'vebeen with us.
So if you've been with us forall 16 years we've been in
business, you'll save 32%.
Or, in lieu of a new design,you can take advantage of our
new website tune-up program toensure everything is optimized
(11:14):
and working perfectly.
Now for our digital marketingdeal.
That includes $500 off yourmonthly cost of the digital
marketing strategist plan for 12months, where you will still
get a full year of monthly callsfor free with me.
If you are an edge user lookingto get set up on a new jewelry
website, we will pay your edgeintegration fee on your behalf
(11:36):
as well.
This is normally $2,500.
And because of our partnership,it's only $1,250.
But we will pay this entire feefor you.
If you sign up during CyberWeek, or if you're not an Edge
user, you can save 50% off yourbase monthly fee for the first
year, which will save you $99per month.
(11:57):
Cyber Week runs from December2nd through the 6th, so be sure
to visit punchmarkcom slash savein order to take advantage of
these sweet offers.
Speaker 1 (12:08):
And now back to the show.
And we're back.
All right, let's talk aboutnumber five Product presentation
and availability.
Okay, so the biggest thing justput a homepage banner up that
talks about your sales.
(12:29):
It doesn't take that long.
Just get a nice, you know,turkey one or a candy cane
looking one.
I'll give you a.
This is an inside hint, thisone's on the article.
Go to Pexels, that'sP-E-X-E-L-Scom Pexels.
It's like iStock, for just goodphotography and it's free.
(12:51):
Don't tell anyone.
I told you that one becausePunchmark uses that one.
If people start using thoseimages all the time, I'll be mad
, but that's a great way to doit.
Have those banners up there.
It dresses up your website alittle bit and talk about your
sales.
The other thing is you can doproduct categories for price
(13:12):
ranges, so you can do giftsunder $100.
And then you can do gifts under$500.
And you can do gifts under$1,000.
So or do bestsellers.
That has to be manually added,but it still works.
Those are what we call softcategories, so they don't really
(13:32):
mean anything, except theyallow shoppers to shop on
autopilot as opposed to have toactively be making decisions,
and that is just a good thingwhen you're selling luxury goods
, so highly recommend that youconsider adding some type of
gifts under 500.
Just if you want a to-do listright now, after this episode
(13:55):
ends, go to your website.
Put a banner up on your websitethat says shop gifts under 500
and then link it to your jewelrypage.
Go in we have a whole knowledgebased article about how to do
under $500 and toss it on there.
It's super easy and, who knows,maybe it adds to the sale.
Okay, number six traffic andconversion boosters.
(14:19):
So this one is going to be alittle bit harder for you to do,
like while you're listening tothis episode.
This might take a little bit ofwork.
So what we're talking about ishaving your products appear in
different places.
So that's either on Facebookand Instagram, which is the
umbrella of meta, or on GoogleShopping.
So those two are going to coverabout 90% of your bases, or 95%
(14:44):
of your bases.
Highly recommend them.
We have knowledge-basedarticles all about it.
That's helppunchbarkcom.
Go check that out.
We have instructions on how tolink your website feed into
these different locations.
We also have a digitalmarketing team that can do it
for you, but do it yourself, noproblem.
The other one is doing time totake advantage of the goodwill
(15:09):
you've built up over the years.
Start posting on your socialmedia right now.
Please just throw one out everysingle week until Christmas or
the week after Christmas.
It's something someone can do.
Just go in, take a great photoof a great piece of jewelry and
put it on there and just saywe've got deals at our store.
(15:29):
Now is the time to kind ofsqueeze the lemon for all it's
worth.
Get that last little bit ofjuice out and convert on your
traffic.
It's important, all right.
Number seven this is emailmarketing.
So email marketing strategy iswhat I call it.
But have some type of emailmarketing Like I was talking
about, with just a number six,with traffic and conversion
(15:52):
boosters.
I recommend now is the time tojust cash in on your goodwill.
You spent all that time likeposting.
You know, you know nice thingsand everything.
Now's the time to talk aboutyour deals.
It really is, and you usuallyhave some type of email list and
even if it doesn't involve sometype of third party where you
(16:15):
have to, you know, pay the, youknow whether that's through
MailChimp or Cliveo or whateverI recommend that you send at
least one, maybe two emailblasts during the holiday lead
up.
Just export that email list,even if you pop it into just a
Gmail, and send some emails outor send it to just your VIPs.
(16:38):
We 100% recommend it.
And all you'd have to do isjust create a little coupon code
.
It takes five seconds to createit in the back end of your
website.
Create a coupon code thatexpires at the end of December,
send it to all of them for $25off, have them start shopping
and, who knows, it doesn't costany money to send out an email,
(16:58):
it's all free.
So if you get one sale boom,you made it Okay.
And the last one is probably themost important Number eight
testing and quality assurance.
So we 1000% recommend you justgo and look at your website and
don't do it from your logged inversion.
(17:20):
Take it, open up your website,actually punch the URL in to
your an incognito browser orwhat have you, and I want you to
do it twice.
I want you to do it on yourdesktop and on your phone and I
want you to go through and dothe standard QA.
I want you to look at everysingle page.
Look at your homepage, all yourlanding pages, your grid and
(17:43):
your color content.
So that is like your about uspage, our story, meet the staff,
those types of pages.
I want you to look at everysingle one of them and just give
it a once over, and then I wantyou to do it again on your
phone.
Do it on your phone, seriously,it's so important.
Look at it and take note ofthings that aren't right.
(18:04):
Does the stacking not lookweird?
Is there a strange overlap withyour text?
Did you build a landing pageand then forget to look at it on
mobile back in June and thenrealize it looks terrible on
mobile?
It happens to all of us in Juneand then realize it looks
terrible on mobile.
It happens to all of us and Ipromise a little.
You know brush through is worththe time and commitment that it
(18:25):
takes to do it.
So that is eight steps for youradministrative checklist.
You should be able to do all ofthese today, or just think
about them at least, and to runthrough them again.
It's payment and security,financing or buy now, pay later
options, shipping options.
Optimize your customer supportmaybe through a web chat if you
have time product presentationand availability.
(18:47):
So, honestly, I don't expectyou to re-photograph all of your
products, but just throw abanner up on there and talk
about how you have gifts under500 and link it to a category.
Or go to earrings and just linkit to your earrings Traffic and
conversion boosters.
So please just start postingabout your jewelry on your
Instagram, just for the nextcouple of weeks.
(19:08):
Email marketing.
So time is now to send out anemail blast and then testing and
quality assurance.
Go through on your desktop andon your phone and just take a
look.
It's so important.
Please, please, please, do thatlast one.
It is so important.
And if something is wrong, openup a ticket sooner rather than
(19:29):
later, because it takes time forus to fix them as well, or just
try to fix it yourself.
There you go.
That is eight administrativechecklist items.
I hope they helped you.
I hope you have a great cyberweek.
I hope you have a great holidayand a very safe Thanksgiving.
Cheers.
Thanks so much for listening.
We'll be back next week,tuesday, with another episode.
(19:51):
Cheers, bye, all right,everybody.
That's the end of the show.
Thanks so much for listening.
This episode was brought to youby Punchmark and produced and
hosted by me, michael Burpo.
A little bit of a shorterepisode this week.
This episode was edited by PaulSuarez, with music by Ross
(20:12):
Cockrum.
Don't forget to rate thepodcast on Spotify and Apple
Podcasts and leave us feedbackon punchmarkcom slash loop.
That's L-O-U-P.
We'll be back next week Tuesdaywith another episode.
Cheers, bye.
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