Web In A Shell

It’s always nice to have a human face behind a brand or company. The same concept applies for an online retail store. If you have a store that is selling something you need to communicate to your customers. The best way to communicate and relate to them is through a retail blog. 

Communication – in the right way
It’s unfortunate that even to this day blogs are largely perceived as a personal log or diary online. This is far from the truth. A blog can be a powerful way to influence the minds of your customers. Besides this it helps position your brand in a much better manner. Plus with a blog you seem more approachable instead of just another website on the web. Customers are more assured that there is a human element involved and they tend to trust your brand more. 

Any niche
No matter what industry vertical or niche you belong to you can talk about everything under the sun through your blog. Blogs allow you to discuss opinions, trends and concepts as well as ideas with your customers. If your predictions about future trends are correct then customers will visit your blog more often – just to check out what’s new on the blog! Let’s say you own a clothing brand store online. You could talk about the latest trends in summer or spring fashion. Then subtly tie in your products with the trends. That way you are influencing the customer’s mind and soft selling your products as well. Your sales are more likely to improve through a blog. Customers hate to be told what to do. With a blog you are merely suggesting latest fashion trends and this is a powerful way to get a customer to like your products.

Personal touch – with professionalism
A blog is important for any online retail store in order to relate to the customer. Basically you want to appear to be just like your customer. However, at the same time your blog is representative of your brand so you need to keep that in mind while creating a blog. So while you will have a personal touch to your blog to appeal to the consumer you also need to maintain that element of professionalism and elusiveness to gain respect and credibility for your brand. Not having your bio posted on the retail blog is a critical mistake. Customers would like to know about you and your interests to connect at a human level. By not having a bio you appear as a faceless entity which makes a human connection difficult. Not sticking to your niche segment is another mistake because you are distracting the customer’s attention this way.

 Tired of hunting different sites to look for ‘your’ kind of furniture? Ever wished you could pick furniture styles in an easy, convenient manner? If you want to shop at places which boast the best styles in furniture then this is the right place! Here we list down the top 5 furniture online sites to pick modern design furniture of your choice!

Crate and Barrel
Crateandbarrel.com is undoubtedly one of the best places to shop online. You can get access to regular sales and the best thing is; you can almost always get a substantial discount while shopping here. The site is well constructed and looks very attractive. You can purchase almost everything for your home here from exclusive colonial furniture to house ware as well as gorgeous garden furniture to complement your outdoors perfectly.

Pottery Barn 
Potterybarn.com is a stylistically decorated website that will leave you wanting for more! The website has everything from bedding and furniture for entryways, bedrooms, dining rooms, kitchens, outdoor spaces, living rooms, small spaces and plenty more. You name it and they have it! They even have a fine collection of rustic furniture to complement your bedroom or living room beautifully. You will find everything from classic styles to modern design furniture to suit your tastes perfectly.

West Elm
If you prefer contemporary styled furniture as opposed to colonial furniture then westelm.com is perfect for you! The site has everything from furniture to accessories to complement the urban and chic look for your home. They even have a fine collection of rugs and pillows to accentuate your interiors, bedding and bath products, lighting and wall décor items, accessories and new trends to hit the home décor scene. So if you are looking for ideas and products to create a futuristic and originally designed room, then this is the place.

Design Within Reach
For the best in modern design furniture Design Within Reach’s dwr.com provides affordable luxury products to decorate your home in style. The site offers an interesting mix of contemporary styled furniture to accessories to complement your home. Right from bedding, accessories, rugs, throws and pillows to plenty more – there is a lot to shop for on dwr.com.  Also, when buying anything from this site, you would love to notice low shipping rates.

Restoration Hardware
Restorationhardware.com is another popular website that has everything from contemporary and classic furniture to retro chic looking styles. They even have a wide collection of bath accessories and bedroom furniture. For accentuating your outdoor spaces restorationhardware.com even has some amazing garden furniture to boost your exteriors. The site is classically designed and has an easy to search mechanism to find your favourite products. 

So the next time you go shopping for your furniture do not forget to look in these top 5 websites. These sites not only boast great designs but also provide plenty of value in terms of money spent! Most of the sites have regular promotional schemes going on so you can expect to save a lot of money in the process as well. So check out these top websites and start beautifying your home today!

With over 500 retail giants to choose from can interior design ever go wrong? No, not when it comes to mydeco.com. This site is the brainchild of Martha Fox and Brent Hoberman and after their previous site called lastminute.com this one is also set to make waves on the dotcom scene.

Virtual interiors
Confused about how your room is going to look? You can use mydeco’s amazing 3D tools to create stunning virtual imagery to depict your interiors. Put together real world products from over 500 retailers in mydeco’s database to create your own unique look for your interiors. Right from being able to add flooring to painting your walls virtually – it is great fun! Plus you also get 1000 dollars reward if you create an innovative design. All you need to do is to upload a photograph of your room and then use the 3D tools to furnish it. An easy to use drag-drop mechanism enables you to furnish your virtual room with carpeting, wallpapers, accessories, lighting and many more. The best part is that these products are real life products that are present with these retailers.

Showing off – in style!
Mydeco represents social networking and the concept of social shopping at its best. Its 3D interactivity features not only enable you to create new room designs but you also get to show off and discuss your interior designs with other wannabes on the site! Even if you are not born with decorating skills you can always ‘copy’ ideas from the many already created rooms by experts. If you are completely clueless about what ‘your style’ is you can take a quiz to discover the kind of color palettes and themes you really dig!

Things that need improvement
If you wanted to search everything contained in Mydeco.com it could prove to be an uphill task. While their 3D facilities are user-friendly their search facility is not exactly a perfect cinch. Certain aspects on the site tend to get overly complicated. You would think that simple things like changing your room dimensions etc. to be easy but they are more complicated. Even designing and making the changes reflect in the 3D mode can be time consuming. It takes up memory and slows your PC down!

Community focus
The main winning aspect about mydeco.com is its simple yet staggeringly unique concept. Never before has a site taken interior design and used it in social networking. Mydeco.com is all about community building and helping to get people together to discuss new ideas and concepts about their interior design ideas. Plus it is a great way to showcase their retailer database as you can purchase products if and when you decide you like them in your design! 

The future
The future of this site looks bright especially since it heralds a brand new concept. There are bound to be many other sites that will follow suit albeit with enhanced features and add-ons. Mydeco.com  is definitely worth a browse and who knows you may even get addicted to it!

You simply love shopping for clothes and matching accessories. Well if you do then this guide will help you visit some of the best online stores on the web. Here is our definitive guide on the 5 best stores to buy apparel and accessories from!

Anthropologie 
Anthropologie.com’s USP lies in its unique collection of clothing and accessories. They have a fine collection of amazing designs available in different sizes and with unusual patterns. The price can work out to be fairly expensive owing to the large shipping costs involved. However, it is a small price to pay considering the variety of designs you can choose from! The site itself is very attractive and well designed. Detailed product descriptions are provided as are suggestions with suitable accessories to complement the attire. This helps you pick out a nice ensemble for yourself. Exchanging or returning items is never a problem owing to the easy return policy of the site.

Bloomingdales
Bloomingdales.com is easy to navigate and checkout from. The site is very flashy and attractive to look at and easy to use. They also keep coming up with amazing discounts that can really save a lot on the amount you pay for an item. Known as one of the most famous department stores around, their site is upto expectations. The online shopping experience can be very pleasing especially as all product categories and descriptions are nicely stated on the site.

Gap
The online version of the regular Gap store is just as pleasing. Not only do you get access to huge savings and discounts on this site but you also have a huge variety of accessories and apparel to choose from. You will find everything right from cottons, to jeans and jackets to lovely shirts etc. You can find prices as low as 10 dollars for a t-shirt and 20 dollars for a pair of jeans here! Their service is also great as it offers great clearance opportunities as well as flexible return policies.

Macys
Macys has always been known for its spectacular sale prices! Most people have the wrong impression that prices at the site are extremely high but it is only applicable in some cases. Most other times clothes and accessories come at very good deals and prices. There are lots of bargains and deals to be found on Macys and their collection of clothing is truly outstanding. It includes almost everything you would need for people of all ages!

Asos
The large collection of clothing and accessories offered at asos.com is one of its main attractions. Their delivery is also exceptionally fast and navigating the site is as easy as 1,2,3. The prices quoted on the site are also very competitive and offer good bargains for consumers in the process. Their customer care is also very good and you can expect a quick response whenever you register any complaint. Even their return policy is flexible and generous. Definitely worth shopping at!

Maybe you hate searching through retail sites trying to find the exact product you want. Or perhaps you want a particular product which you are not able to find anywhere else. Instead of breaking your head over numerous searching options try out social shopping. It’s fun and it’s the next big thing in online shopping!

Combining two favorites!
Both online shopping and social networking represent two of the current hottest activities pursued by most Internet users. Social shopping is all about connecting these two concepts into one powerful ecommerce trend! It offers a nice platform for online shoppers to not only connect but discuss various products and review them. Many small start ups have benefited from social shopping. It is a win-win situation where both the retailer and the shopper seem to benefit.

Move away from the big guys
Most online shoppers already know what the mainstream retail sites offer in terms of the product range. Hence there is really nothing new to explore there. These big retailers have been there, done that. Today is the age of experimentation, specialization and the more niche your product the more chances it will be talked about on social shopping sites! Why because customers are always on the lookout for something different, a new product that exactly meets their requirements – and they want all this delivered to them on a platter! Who said ecommerce could be easy?!

A growing trend
Social shopping aims to map products that are hard to get to customers who are looking for them. This is great as it works for online retailers as well as online shoppers. While retailers usually cannot seem to connect their products to customers, consumers find it difficult searching for products they like.

Laying the foundations
Social shopping is just starting out and it’s already becoming a much-touted thing in the world of ecommerce. It is definitely here to stay. Customers essentially discuss ideas, review products and generally advise each other on which products and retail sites are the best. So if you are an ecommerce site then it is in your best interests to stay in the good books of these customers – else you might be written off forever!

Price vs. Service
Today customers are finicky. Quality plays a more important role than price. Another factor that plays a vital role is the service level offered by the company. Aspects like warranty etc. play an important role for a site’s success. Also in the world of social shopping where the customer decides a retailer’s fate, warranty and high service levels are paramount to ensuring success. 

Direct and goal oriented
With social shopping online purchasing is no longer going to be an ambiguous, vague concept where the customer guesses product availability on a site. Instead the customer will now be armed with plenty of information and advice from other customers thereby making the shopping experience more goal-oriented. If any ecommerce company wishes to stay afloat in the competition it should assess social shopping trends seriously.

Today online shopping has become a way of life for the regular Internet surfer. However there are so many sites that offer ecommerce that you really don’t know where to carry out safe online shopping anymore! Here are some guidelines to help you get sorted!

1. Latest versions
It is essential that you download the latest browser version in your computer system before you start shopping online. Browsers typically update their versions in order to accommodate more stringent encryption mechanisms. So having access to these will ensure a better safe online shopping experience for you!

2. Secure sites
The most critical part of any shopping experience is when you need to enter your credit card information. You always end up being scared if the information is secure enough or not. Well now you can take the guesswork out – just make sure the URL portion of http ends with an s indicating that the server is secure.

3. Email clicking
Many sites keep sending in promotional emails to attract customers. However, as a rule of thumb, to practice safe online shopping you should never click on any hyperlink included inside the email. Always make sure to log in to the site by typing in the URL.

4. Spyware detectors
There are many software available free of cost these days that can greatly enhance your safe online shopping experience. These can easily find out if your computer has a spyware or not.

5. Privacy policies
Privacy policies on sites mostly get ignored by users simply because they are so long! However, the key to ensuring a good safe online shopping experience is to read the entire thing. You will then know what the site is using your personal information for, what sort of control they can exercise over the information collected etc. whether they sell this information to third party providers or not etc. You will be much better informed before submitting any kind of personal information.

6. Padlock icon
This icon should ideally be located over status bar portion of your browser. This indicates a secure site.

7. Disputed transactions
Ensure that you keep a tab on credit card statements each month. This way you know if any transaction is fraudulent or not. You can then take it up with your bank if needed.

8. Promotional offers
Most promotional offers have a catch to them. So don’t get carried away. Read the fine print as it will ensure a more safe online shopping experience.

9. Know everything
You need to know everything about the product before you pay for it. Try and get information on color, size, price as well as warranty etc. You also need to know if the company provides any guarantees.

10. Check on shipping
If you are buying from another country’s site then shipping could be high. Make sure you know the charges before purchasing as otherwise you could end up paying more for shipping than on the actual product!