Responsive Web Design

What is responsive web design?

“Responsive web design adapts the layout to the viewing environment by using fluid, proportion-based grids, flexible images, and CSS3 Media queries, an extension of the @media rule”

Eh?
In plain English – Your website will change how it displays on a desktop, tablet or mobile device depending on the width of the screen that it is being viewed in. One website, one design, multiple layouts across multiple devices.

Why responsive design? Well, Google recommends it for one thing!

“(From Google) We recommend using responsive web design because it has many good aspects:

• Using a single URL for a piece of content makes it easier for your users to interact with, share, and link to your content, and a single URL for the content helps Google’s algorithms assign the indexing properties for the content.
• No redirection is needed for users to get to the device-optimized view, which reduces loading time. Also, user agent-based redirection is error-prone and can degrade your site’s user experience (see “Pitfalls when detecting user agents” section for details).
• It saves resources for both your site and Google’s crawlers. For responsive web design pages, any Googlebot user agents needs to crawl your pages once, as opposed to crawling multiple times with different user agents, to retrieve your content. This improvement in crawling efficiency can indirectly help Google index more of the site’s contents and keep it appropriately fresh.”

What benefits will a Responsive website bring me?

•  You’ll only need one website – not two or three versions for different platforms
• Google will like you more (for the reasons above)
• Your website will (if correctly designed) be more usable to the growing mobile/tablet market
• You increase your chances of conversions to sale through mobile/tablet channels
• You’ll stay one step ahead of your competitors
• You only need one web address, one website to administer and one website to market

Examples

Autotag.co.uk

Livinghouse.co.uk

Welders Warehouse

Important information

It’s worth noting that there is an anticipated growth of 50% in the mobile and tablet market for businesses in 2014!! That is a massive potential market to ensure you can deliver your website to.
Responsive web designs adapt to the screen width they are displayed within. NOT the device i.e. you are increasing your chances of future proofing your website

In Summary:

If you do not already have a responsively designed website, then make sure your next web design iteration is responsive. It could cost you business if you do not implement this latest web technology.

At present teclan is undertaking only responsive web design work, therefore if you want to book in your site to be redesigned into a responsive web design then please get in touch with the team asap to ensure a speedy turn around.

Call today on 0845 868 9380

We have written before about restrictions on International Deliveries, what you can and can’t send via Royal Mail and Parcelforce.  There may be a bit of confusion as to what you can and can’t send as a Business Customer, as opposed to a personal customer, in the UK.  Please see the following information from the Royal Mail.  For further details, please see their website at Royal Mail.com.

Aerosols  “Including deodorants, body sprays, hair sprays, shaving and hair removal creams, asthma inhalers, etc.  Valves must be protected by a cap or other suitable means to prevent inadvertent release of the contents during transport. Aerosols must be tightly packed in strong outer packaging and must be secured or cushioned to prevent any damage. Volume per item must not exceed 350ml. No more than two aerosols can be sent in any one package.

These items may only be sent using our 1st Class or 2nd Class products paid for via online postage, franking or on account (VAT exempt 1st and 2nd Class Account Mail), Special Delivery™ paid for via online postage, franking or on account, Royal Mail Tracked® and Royal Mail Sameday®.  Please note Packetpost™ Returns, Business Response, Freepost™ and all variants of Packetpost™ and Packetsort™ are excluded.

All other aerosols, including those containing spray paints, lacquers, solvents, air fresheners and oven cleaners are prohibited.”

Note:  If you are a personal customer, inhalers up to the volume of 50ml are the only aerosols allowed.

Alcoholic beverages and liquids (between 24% ABV and 70% ABV)  (Including whisky, vodka and most spirits and liqueurs)  “The items must be securely closed and placed in a leak-proof liner, such as a sealed polythene bag. Surround with absorbent material and sufficient cushioning material to protect each item from breakage. Volume must not exceed 1 litre per item. No more than two items can be sent in any one package. Mark as ‘FRAGILE’ when sending glass bottles.”

The same conditions apply re online postage, franking or on account only.

Any alcohol over 70% ABV volume is prohibited.

Batteries – new alkaline, nickel metal hydride (NiMH) or nickel cadmium (NiCd)  “Including household AA and AAA batteries. Must be new and sent unopened in their original retail packaging. Surround with cushioning material e.g. bubble wrap. The sender’s name and return address must be clearly visible on the outer packaging.”

Batteries – lithium ion/polymer batteries contained in equipment “Each package must contain no more than four cells or two batteries installed in equipment. The maximum net quantity of cells or batteries is 5kg per package.”

The same conditions apply re online postage, franking or on account only.  For more details on battery criteria and packaging requirements, click here.

Wet spillable lead acid/lead alkaline batteries (such as car batteries) are prohibited.

Biological Substances   May only be sent by, or at the specific request of, a qualified medical practitioner, registered dental practitioner, veterinary surgeon, registered nurse or a recognised laboratory or institution. The total sample volume/mass in any parcel must not exceed 50ml/50g.

Electronic Items - This depends on type of batteries included,  click here for more information.

Nail Varnish and Polish  “Volume per item must not exceed 30ml. No more than four bottles of nail varnish can be sent in any one package. Bottles of nail varnish must be placed in strong outer packaging and be so packed, secured or cushioned in such a way that they cannot break, be punctured or leak their contents into the outer packaging.”

The same conditions apply re online postage, franking or on account only.

Perfumes and Aftershaves   Including eau de parfum and eau de toilette.

“Volume per item must not exceed 150ml. No more than four perfumes or aftershaves can be sent in any one package. The perfume or aftershave must be within its original retail packaging and then placed in strong outer packaging. The inner packagings must be packed, secured or cushioned to prevent breakage or leakage of their contents into the outer packaging. ”

The same conditions apply re online postage, franking or on account only.

For other items that may be relevant to your business, click here.

Remember, the rules are set to change in June/July regarding postage within the UK – so make sure you keep up to date with news from the Royal Mail.

Some of you will have noticed that Google over the past few weeks have become more strict with the content of your feed.

This is due to the imminent changes that will be made to Google Shopping as it is transferring to a commercial product using Adwords in the UK.

Many of the once nice to have attributes have now become mandatory.

Please click here for the latest products feed specification which come into effect in March.

Another key change is that Google will no longer allow you to set a minimum spend in the shopping cart.

Important additional information for wholesalers.

All Google feed data must show the price including tax and the landing page must show the exclusive and inclusive vat prices.

Below is a good example of how you can display this.

Q&A

Why have Google made these changes?

It’s all about having better quality data which should result in a better experience for your customers.

Why are my competitors not being penalised?

The Google feed gets manually checked by the Google merchant team. You may see competitors that are bending the rules but they will be caught out eventually.

When will this come into effect?

The roll out in the UK will start in March.

Can teclan help?

We have helped many of our clients get onto Google Shopping. Call us today on 08458689380 or mail at info@teclan.com for more info.

Important Dates for your Diary

With Christmas over and the new year well upon us, now is the perfect time to start thinking about your upcoming promotions and marketing ideas. To make it a bit easier to plan, here is a list of dates that will be of use to businesses:

• Pancake Day – 12th February
• Valentine’s Day – 14th February
• St Davids Day – 1st March
• Mothers Day – 10th March
• St Patrick’s Day – 17th March
• Easter Weekend – 29th March-1st April
• May Day Bank Holiday – 6th May
• Fathers Day – 10th June

Not all of them will relate to your business of course, but with bank holidays representing peak buying times for consumers there are options here that any online business could and should take advantage of.

Why You Should Be E-mail Marketing

When times are tight for businesses everywhere, e-mail marketing is still the most cost effective way to get your products and services out to potential customers. By starting off with a list of your existing customers you already have a captured, usable list of contacts. That’s much better than just buying a giant unverified data list that could be months out of date, and you can use it to build lasting customer relationships.

It doesn’t just have to be a one-off contact either – newsletters that we have prepared for customers just like you are still being opened long after they were sent out, driving traffic and potential sales to your website.

How to Take Advantage

• Why not plan a special offer or discount around one of these days?
• Have you got a new product on your site that would make a great or unusual present for one of these days – why not let your customers know?
• Try and add in some personal touches like the customer’s first name to make them feel included.
• Did you pick up any new customers over Christmas why not add them to your mailing list?

Our e-mail software allows for detailed statistics so we can tell you when were peak times of interest or which products were most clicked on. You can also track your e-mail campaigns with Google Analytics to help you build up a better picture of how your online business is working.

If you don’t know how to get started with e-mail marketing, speak to teclan today. We have great offers on to take advantage of incoming holidays!

If you use Paypal as the payment gateway for your online store, you may have received an email last year stating they have planned to discontinue support for HTTP 1.0 protocol starting February 1, 2013. Which is tomorrow!

PayPal state this may affect some merchants, so you’ll need to prepare your e-commerce site for this change.

There is no need to make any changes to SellerDeck 2013 and if you have not already upgraded. You can upgrade today with teclan and recieve a free SellerDeck tools bundle worth £400.

https://www.teclan.com/acatalog/sellerdeck-software.html

Guide for V11, 10 and 9 users.

SellerDeck 11.0.3

1. Close down SellerDeck.
2. Click the link below to download updated file:
   http://downloads.sellerdeck.co.uk/AC…_3-HTTP1-1.zip
3. Unzip this file onto your desktop.
4. Within the zip file, you will see “ACTINIC.pm”
5. Browse to your site folder, for example it may be in this location:
   C:\Users\Public\Documents\SellerDeck v11\Sites\Site1
6. Copy and paste the file “ACTINIC.pm” into the site folder, to replace the current file in the site folder.
7. Open SellerDeck, then go to Web | Publish to web.

SellerDeck 10.0.4

1. Close down SellerDeck.
2. Click the link below to download updated file:
   http://downloads.sellerdeck.co.uk/AC…_4-HTTP1-1.zip
3. Unzip this file onto your desktop.
4. Within the zip file, you will see “ACTINIC.pm”
5. Browse to your site folder, for example it may be in this location:
   C:\Users\Public\Documents\SellerDeck v10\Sites\Site1
6. Copy and paste the file “ACTINIC.pm” into the site folder, to replace the current file in the site folder.
7. Open SellerDeck, then go to Web | Publish to web.

SellerDeck 9.0.5

1. Close down SellerDeck.
2. Click the link below to download updated file:
   http://downloads.sellerdeck.co.uk/AC…_5-HTTP1-1.zip
3. Unzip this file onto your desktop.
4. Within the zip file, you will see “ACTINIC.pm”
5. Browse to your site folder, for example it may be in this location:
   C:\Users\Public\Documents\SellerDeck v9\Sites\Site1
6. Copy and paste the file “ACTINIC.pm” into the site folder, to replace the current file in the site folder.
7. Open SellerDeck, then go to Web | Publish to web.

teclan are offering a fantastic utility bundle worth over £400 for anyone that purchases the SellerDeck Software, Upgrades or takes out SellerDeck Cover before the end of April 2013. Find out how to buy today here

In this blog we will have a look at each of the tools and how they can benefit you!

SellerDeck Bulk Editor

The SellerDeck Bulk Editor is the final version of teclan’s popular Task for Actinic software.

This software allows you to run your store effectively and efficiently saving you time and money by removing common repetitive tasks from your day to day SellerDeck management.

Perform hundreds of tasks on your SellerDeck store with the click of a button from changing prices to amending headings.

View the video here

SellerDeck Upsell Manager

Globally manage your also boughts and related products. Simply choose your products and pick the products you want them associated too. This is a massive time saver!

View the video here

SellerDeck Stats Counter

It’s a small, simple utility that analyses your SellerDeck database and tells you how many products, sections, components, attributes and choices your website currently has.

You simply run the software, pick the site you want and a report as below will be displayed.

SellerDeck Stock Reporter

Run stock reports and make changes to stock levels and prices.

Search by product reference or short description and make changes instantly to stock and price. This tool also enables you to run reports.

Video coming soon!

If you have any further questions regarding the offer or the tools featured in this blog contact us today on 0845 868 9380 or email us on info@teclan.com

If you would like to buy, upgrade or take out SellerDeck cover click here to buy.

Froogle, then Google Base and now Google Ad Listing in Google Shopping?

First it was free, and now we have to pay? What’s going on?

As you may or may not be aware lurking within Google’s every expanding empire, under the “Shopping” link in the main Google search pages, lies a valuable resource for all online retailers – Google Shopping. A search engine specifically designed for returning relevant searches on purchasable products, with links to the online retailers who sell them.

Online retailers can use Google Shopping to substantially increase their products exposure and ultimately generate more sales.

At teclan we have demonstrated to store owners again and again the value of listing your products on Google Shopping. It almost always generates more sales. In fact, if you are reading this and are not uploading your products to Google Shopping (currently a free service) then stop reading, sign up with Google and get them online, now! Need help with that? Just ask one of the team!

Google shopping “was” free.

The uploading of your products (usually in a text/csv file format) to Google Shopping was relatively easy, quick to do and most importantly free. A fantastic and cost effective way to generate more business. A stand-alone Google Base account was all that was required, and away you go!

Google Shopping will not be exclusively free anymore!

In a recent change to the business model Google has decided to rename the product upload listing for Google Shopping (once called Google Base) to Google Listing Ads.

NOTE: To quality for Google Listing Ads, you now additionally require a Google Adwords account and manage the listings of these product listing ads from your Adwords account.

Google have also stated that, whilst they will continue the free listings in Google Shopping through to the middle of this year, listings of products will now also be affected by “bids” placed on your listing ads from your Adwords Account.

i.e. Merchants who pay for Google Shopping listings will rank higher in the Google Shopping results than those merchants who do not pay!

When does this change happen in the UK?

Google have announced that from February 13th 2013 the new Google Shopping Product Listing Ads will come into effect.

What should you do?

Get registered onto the Merchant centre right now and start getting your products listed. Those companies that get their listings created now can continue with free listings whilst the new format rolls out.

You already list on Google Shopping?

Great! Keep going, and also setup your Product Listing Ads in readiness.

£75 promotion Credit

To help merchants move over Google is encouraging merchants to move with up to a £75 credit for their new Product Listing Ads.See their page for more information – https://services.google.com/fb/forms/shoppingcouponuk/

Get started today!

Read all about this and how to get setup with the new system here:http://support.google.com/adwords/answer/2456103/?hl=en&

For more information or advice please contact the teclan team.

The following article was submitted to teclan by one of our customers, More4Dogs.co.uk, who wanted to spread the message of their success to other ecommerce businesses who may not be undertaking effective email marketing.

“It took a little persuasion for me to realise I needed to send out regular email campaigns. I was probably worried about putting people off. However, the results have shown that my customers are very much interested. I would love to say that each email brings an avalanche of orders. I do get some immediate orders, but I also get orders for other products not mentioned in the email, as customers have browsed elsewhere in my site. I get orders days later and I also have returning customers again and again, as I keep them up to date with my new products such as our Supercollar (with build in lead) ,serving as a little reminder now and again that we are still around. I try to add snippets of news and pictures of our dogs using the products so the customer can build up a picture of our lives up here in the Highlands with our dogs – making it more personal.

I believe the trick is not to put too much information on each newsletter. Give clear instructions to your customers on how to buy, ie one click. Make it attractive but not too busy, some customer’s platforms cannot cope with fancy graphics. I’m careful not to send more than two emails a month and this ensures I have very few unsubscribes, probably only five in the past year.

teclan can put together a newsletter very quickly for a small cost. The software allows you to monitor the campaign, assess open and click through rates, vital for future campaign decisions. teclan provide a detailed report with recommendations for the next campaign.

I have spent a lot of money on advertising in the past, often with little return. This is a low cost marketing strategy which has definitely been the most successful tool for More4Dogs.co.uk.

Jackie, More4Dogs.co.uk“

If you would like to achieve the same success as Jackie then please get in touch with the team or visit our email marketing services page on our website.

Many may be aware already, but there is new legislation from the Royal Mail which may affect items you send via their International Mail. This is specifically for Royal Mail and Parcelforce. This is to comply with transport legislation and to prevent any risk there may be to the workers and general public. As from 14th January, more controls will be brought into effect concerning the items classed as ‘Dangerous Goods’. These items include nail varnish, aerosols (including deodorants), alcohol above 24% and perfumes and after-shaves (if flammable). The only ‘dangerous’ item allowed internationally is a lithium battery if enclosed within equipment. Royal Mail and Parcelforce may destroy or dispose of these items as they see fit and failure to comply could result in prosecution.

For the moment, small quantities of these items are still permitted to be sent via UK mail, however our local Post Master has told us there may be tighter restrictions in the UK from July.

For full details of what is and what is not permitted, CLICK HERE or alternatively you can pick up a leaflet from your local Post Office.

teclan would like to make you aware of the importance of having an SSL, also known as a “Golden padlock” on your website.

As well as providing visible security and trust for customers using your website, an SSL certificate on your hosting area is also a requirement for Google Base (Google Shopping), specifically when collecting payment and personal (i.e. address) information.

If you don’t currently use Google Base it is something we strongly recommend as it is currently free to use in the UK. If you require teclan to set it up or would like some advice on the benefits contact us today.

To comply with Google’s requirements we recommend you request that teclan install your SSL certificate for you.

Google’s Merchant Centre policies clearly state:

“Payments

Your website must provide a way for users to purchase the product online through either a payment service or directly from your website. Payment and transaction processing, as well as processing of any personal information of the user (such as the address) must be secure (SSL-protected, with a valid SSL certificate).”

Google Shopping Policies

Our SSL’s start from as little as £90(ex vat) per annum.

Simply call us or use the link below to buy now to ensure that you are protected and comply with Google’s guidelines.

SSL at teclan