FEATURE ARTICLE

Holiday Shoppers Are Coming. Is Your Store Ready?

15 Ways to Holiday-Proof Your Site

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MonsterCommerce CEO Stephanie Leffler interviewed by Practical eCommerce Magazine
Stephanie answered questions about how she got into e-commerce, what challenges face online merchants and how to go the extra mile with outstanding customer service. Listen to the interview here!

Ensure your store is running at top performance for the holidays One commonly overlooked aspect of site design is image optimization. Having properly optimized images greatly improves the speed of your site. This will ultimately improve the percentage of customers that purchase from your store, keeping them from leaving due to slow-loading pages. If you have noticed slowly loading pages, your site may benefit from our image optimization service.

Give your site a holiday makeover with custom design services
Online shopping spikes during every holiday season, increasing profits for the year. To give your site a festive, holiday theme or simply improve its professional look in general, you should update your site’s appearance at least twice per year. Let our design team at MonsterCommerce set your site apart.
Our e-commerce design experts will study your site for usability and conversion improvements to ensure your site is ready for the season! Get 5% off all custom design packages in the month of November to ensure your site is as credible and effective as possible. Take a look at our custom design solutions, and let us know if we can help to make your site a success this holiday season!

Congratulations to October's MonsterSellers
The MonsterSeller Award medal is given to those merchants who sell a specified number of products, within a month, through their MonsterMarketplace store listing. Their listing is marked with a Platinum, Gold or Silver medallion, which helps enhance credibility. Click here to view the MonsterSellers for October.

MonsterMarketplace merchant spotlight
Congratulations to Ann Bernard and Hayla Heard for the success of their site, CreativeSpacesUSA.com, which was featured as the Merchant Spotlight for the month of November. Read more about their achievements.

Take Five

Each month, we ask a different MonsterCommerce merchant the same five questions regarding his or her online business and its success.

This month's featured merchant is PuppetRevelation.com

MonsterCommerce Merchant since: 10/28/2003

Owner: Janette Lively

Best-Selling Product: Puppets of course!

1. What is your favorite feature about your site right now?
   There are so many wonderful features in the new admin panel, from varients and custom shipping options, right down to the extra themes for holidays (which I will be using this year).
   
   
2. What was one major obstacle to your store's success, and how did you overcome it?
   The biggest obstacle was building up my link and search engine popularity. With the Internet constantly changing how it places you, it has been a tremendous challenge. MonsterCommerce’s new placement system has really made a difference. Every time I have used the Web promotion packages I have seen swift and good results. Combining the link package, optimization and the monthly maintenance has worked wonders.
   
   
3. To what do you attribute most of your site's success?
   Happy exciting images and colors, some interesting different products. Keep it simple , no clutter and easy to navigate site with good security. Spend your money wisely on advertising, keeping a close watch on what you spend and put your money where the best bang is. Also Very important: make your policies very clear to the customer and try to hold up a standard of excellence in your customer service.
   
   
4. What is the best or most rewarding experience you've had so far selling online?
   Getting letters from customers that are truly happy with the products and service we provide.
   
   
5. What web sites or online tools or resources would you not be able to live without?
   Write It Once software and Aman Software, Monster admin panel and report features, Yahoo PPC and Stamps.com.
   

Industry News

• Survey reports: 43% of shoppers will buy holiday gifts online
  A recent survey conducted by the National Retail Federation forecasts jump in online shopping for holiday '05.
  
• U.S. holiday online sales to increase 18% to $26 billion
  A recent JupiterResearch survey reports that consumers will spend $26 billion online this holiday season, up 18% from the $22 billion they spend in 2004.
  
• Spyware threat guidelines released
  The Center for Democracy and Technology’s new Anti-Spyware Coalition recently published guidelines for assessing the risks posed by spyware programs.
  
• New vertical search engines aim to connect buyers and sellers
  A new form of search engine is showing up on the ‘net, catering to buyers and sellers within specific industries or areas of interest.
  
• Want to sell to Canada? Look to Borderfree
  A new distribution center and Canadian currency pricing feature will help Canada Post Borderfree, a logistics provider to direct-to-consumer retailers, handle a 100% increase in the number of U.S. merchants selling into Canada this holiday shopping season.