In the first part we set up a Google Merchants account and linked it up with Magento Go. In this part we’ll look at adding the necessary attributes required by Google Shopping and adding them to products.

Step One

Google Shopping requires certain non-standard attributes applying to each product before it will allow them to appear. These attributes are Condition and Product Type.

Navigate to Catalog -> Attributes -> Manage Attributes.

First we will add the Condition attribute.

Click “Add New Attribute” and populate the fields as follows:

• Attribute Code: condition
• Scope: Global
• Catalog Input Type For Store Owner: Dropdown
• Unique Value: No
• Values Required: No
• Everything else leave as they are.

Click Manage “Label/Options” and populate the following:

• Admin: Condition
• Default Store View: Condition
• (Any other languages populate the field with the appropriate translation).

Click “Add Option” and add the following:

• Admin: New
• Default Store View: New
• Position: 1
• Click “Is Default” button

Click “Add Option” again and add the following:

• Admin: Used
• Default Store View: Used
• Position: 2
• (Also add any appropriate language translations for the above)

Click “Save Attribute”.

Now we need to add the “Product Type” attribute, which is similar to above requires a bit more work.

As above, click “Add New Attribute” and populate the fields as follows:

• Attribute Code: product_type
• Scope: Global
• Catalog Input Type For Store Owner: Dropdown
• Unique Value: No
• Values Required: No
• Everything else leave as they are

Click Manage “Label/Options” and populate the following:

• Admin: Product Type
• English: Product Type
• (Any other languages populate the field with the appropriate translation).

This is where things differ from the “Condition” attribute above. We need to find an appropriate Product Category from Google, which we can find at this link.

Scroll down the page until you find the heading “The Google Product Category attribute”, scroll a bit further until you see the Search box. In here enter the name of your first category (For example, if your site sells Laptop Cases and Mobile Phone Cases enter “Laptop Cases” into this search box). Under the Search box you will see all categories that Google will accept for this product type. Copy the one that most closely relates to your product category, this must be word for word.

Back in Magento, click “Add Option”. In both the Admin and Default Store View boxes enter the Category title you got from Google above. In position put “1” and select “Is Default”.

Do this for every category that you want to use, first finding them at the above Google link, then clicking “Add Option” and adding each one, word for word, and increasing the Position number by 1. Leave the first Category as “Is Default” (Unless of course you specifically want to change this).

Once all your Google approved Category names are entered, click “Save Attribute”.

Navigate to Catalog -> Attributes -> Manage Attribute Sets. For each Attribute Set do the following:

• Click on the Attribute title
• Find “Condition” in the “Unassigned Attributes” column and drag it to the bottom of the “General” section in the “Groups” column.
• Do the same for Product Type.
• Click “Save Attribute Set”

Step Two

We now need to add these new attributes to any existing products

All new products added from now on will have the option for the client to choose the Condition (Generally “New”, but Google requires “New” and “Used” to both be options) and Product Type.

Navigate to Catalog -> Manage Products. Select every product you want to update from a particular category (every product you want to add to Google Shopping must be updated). From the “Actions” dropdown select “Update attributes” and click “Submit”. On the next page find the attribute “Condition” (probably at the very bottom of the page), tick the box that says “Change” and select the option you want for “Condition” (this will more than likely be New). Do the same for Product Type, choosing whichever option is closest to the products you have selected.

Click Save and all products that you had selected will now have the two new attributes updated.

Repeat this process for all products that fall under a particular product type/category.

Clients with existing sites will need to be told that all future products will have to have these two attributes filled in for all products they want adding to Google Shopping and clients with new sites will need to be informed of what these fields are for.

Next time we’ll look at mapping the Magento and Google Shopping attributes together and finally pushing the items up to our Google Merchants account.

Read Part One here.

The event encourages enterprise in students that have been identified as being high achieving by their school/college and is being run by The University of York in association with Brightside.

The students, over a ten week period, produce a business plan for a new idea that they create. The best business plans are shortlisted and the students are required to pitch their ideas at a Dragon’s Den style forum at the end of the program. The winning team are flown to New York for the holiday of a lifetime.

During the ten week period the students learn enterprise skills including:

• Creativity
• Risk taking
• Risk management
• Can-do attitude
• Drive to make ideas happen

I am really looking forward to mentoring the students, I have a great team to work with, who will have a real mix of ideas for the competition – GO Cockburn!
Anthony Main

Recently we were tasked with setting up a Google Shopping feed for one of our Magento Go clients. Having already set up quite a few of these for our Magento Community clients (Which I will write about in a future blog post), and knowing how awkward it can be, I assumed that it wouldn’t be possible in Magento Go.

Thankfully Magento have had the good grace to integrate Google API including Google Shopping into Magento Go. While this makes the process easier in some respects, it still throws up some issues along the way.

Hopefully this guide will shed some light on some of the less clear aspects of setting up a Google Shopping feed through Magento Go. So, without further delay, allons-y!

Step One

Sign up for a Google Merchants account here. Note the Username, Password and Account ID and keep them safe.

Step Two

Now, this is where things sometimes aren’t clear. You need to get Google to authorise (“white-list”) your Merchant account. Simply go to this page and fill in the appropriate details. Google may take a few days to respond, and they will send the confirmation to whatever e-mail address you set up as the username, so if this is a client’s e-mail account or one you don’t have access to make sure you ask them to forward any e-mails from Google to yourself.

Step Three

Hopefully Google will have confirmed the request and you are ready to proceed. If not, contact Google again through this form after 4 or 5 days to chase them up. If they have denied the request, reply to them asking why and explaining you need the access for submitting products through Magento.

Log into your sites admin panel and navigate to System -> Configuration -> Google API -> Google Shopping

Input the Account ID, Admin Login and Account Password that were all set up for the Merchant Account and then set the following fields:

Account Type: Google
Target Country: United Kingdom
Update Google Shopping…: Yes
Debug: Yes
The 3 fields under Destinations should be left as Default unless otherwise specified.

Click Save Config.

Next time we will set up Google’s required additional attributes in Magento Go. Add our blog to your RSS feed to be kept up to date.

Read Part Two here.

The past few years has seen e-commerce redesign the process of shopping. With consumers able to access e-commerce sites via their laptops or mobiles, shops can now be open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. However, it means competition for sales has increased as buyers now have access to shops all over the world and not just on their high street. Having a strong content marketing campaign is a great way to generate and retain customers. With that in mind, here are 10 tips to improve your content for ecommerce:

Have a clear strategy

Outline an aim to your strategy so you can measure progress and establish ROI. From the outset, whether for the long or short term, decide on your tone of voice, choose your primary goal and acceptable secondary objectives. For example, your primary goal may be to increase sales. Your secondary objectives can then relate to the process that leads to a sale. Start with brand awareness, do people know you exist? Have they liked you on Facebook or followed you on Twitter? Say they do, has this led to them visiting your website and browsing your products? The next part of your approach would be to get them to reach out to you. Get them to comment on your blog posts or ask you a question. These objectives may not necessarily have a direct effect on your sales straight away, but they are building numbers in your conversion funnel to make a sale later.

Inside Knowledge

Knowing what your competitors are doing is just as important as targeting the right audience. It’s not unusual for similar brands to use the same tactics for raising brand awareness and gaining custom. Competitor research allows you to benchmark and improve on what your competitors are doing.

Don’t be a social sheep

Not all digital channels will be ideal for your brand. Run tests to find out your demographics consumption preferences. This well help you connect with your audience more effectively whilst being efficient with your business’ time. For example, Pinterest is not the right platform to advertise your commercial fridge solutions.

Help others out

Use blog posts to build a positive image for your brand. By communicating and engaging with online users, you can develop a more human persona that users can relate to. If you can get a customer to reach out to you be it by twitter or comments on a blog post, your further correspondence will appear much warmer. You will get a better response rate through this method as opposed to reaching out to them cold.

Make it easy to share

It is a necessity for websites, blogs, links, tweets and online posts to be easily shared. This enables you to share information much quicker and in a seamless way.

Context is King and content is Queen

Your campaign needs to be engaging while still containing relevant content for the context of the page. Always ensure you have sufficient content to last the duration of your campaign.

Content requires discipline and method

Try putting together an editorial calendar to plan content production, and then make the extraction of content from all levels of your organisation. If you struggle with content creation, you may want to consider an external partner who can help develop different content such as content for blogging, website, social media or webcast for example. Videos work wonders both for products and brand.

Promote the publication of new content

Promote new content everywhere. Your objective is to enhance customer interaction, so engage actively with your audience by inviting their feedback. This applies to content ranging from blog posts to your latest white paper. Find forums related to your search terms and make posts linking back to your publication. Make sure you only choose relevant forums or you may be perceived as a spammer.

Experiment frequently

Regularly measure your strategies effectiveness. You may find that some target segments are performing better than others. Use your research to try new tactics, alternative executions or test new offers. For example, you might find it useful to have blog writers from different backgrounds writing in different styles, some professional, some conversational etc to see which persona performs the best. You could use the same writer with ghost personalities and writing styles. If one voice or style outperforms the others, you can start tailoring your future posts to that style.

Use reports

Measuring the success of your digital marketing efforts using tools like Google Analytics will allow you to get the maximum reward for your efforts. It will also help you monitor which content and strategies work most effectively helping you to achieve your goals in the long run. Don’t be overwhelmed by the variety of numbers and always keep your KPI’s in mind.

I have been quite broad here and hope to cover all elements of a great content campaign in much more detail. Stay tuned and I hope you found my first blog post helpful, I’ll be honing my skills and coming to an RSS feed near you soon.

If you would like anymore guidance or information on digital marketing strategies, visit our digital marketing page or get in contact with us. We’d be more than happy to help.

• The new iPad (retina display, and spec. bump all round)
• New Apple TV (now supporting 1080p and Apps (maybe?)
• iPhoto for iPad (seriously cool and advanced photo editing)

What does this mean for you as an App provider….

The New iPad

The Basics

Applications that crash frequently, get bad reviews.
Applications with a convoluted interface, get bad reviews.
Applications that don’t behave as expected, get bad reviews.

Hopefully these are all obvious; there are no miracles that you can perform to get good reviews on a bad application. Sorry.

A good description on the App Store is essential. You are much more likely to get a bad review from a user who has bought your application thinking it does something that it doesn’t, than a user who just doesn’t like it. This seems strange, but negative reviews usually come from users who are in a negative emotional state, and when comparing “Nice, but not for me” to “This doesn’t do what they told me”, the difference is clear.

Price is also definitely worth thinking about. There’s a lot that has been said about the trend towards $1 apps (£0.69), and the positive and negative impacts that it has had. One thing is for sure though, it has helped to build an ecosystem of impulse buyers. There is nothing that you can do about the fact that some people are going to buy your application and not like it, but what you can do is try to manage their reactions. A lower price point will reduce the likelihood that these users will come away feeling you have robbed them, an emotion that will often lead to a retaliatory negative review.

Pointing them in the Right Direction

It doesn’t matter how simple your application is, you’re going to receive support requests. It’s easy to write these off as an inconvenience, when in fact they are a great opportunity to communicate directly with one of your users. Try to respond quickly and make sure to be as friendly and personable as possible. If they’re asking for help, provide it; if they’re requesting a feature, either tell them you’re working on it or explain why you’re not; if they have a complaint, try to understand where their problem lies and help to resolve it. Once you’ve done this, sign off with a reminder that App Store reviews are important: “Don’t forget to write a review on the App Store :)” or something similar. Most users will be grateful for your help, and signing off like this reminds them that they can reciprocate.

Apple often use the phrase: surprise and delight your users, which seems very abstract in the context of application design. Support requests are a real chance to fulfil this statement.

Driving Reviews in your App

Not everyone is going to need support, most users will work out how to use your application on their own. Motivating these users to write reviews is more difficult, and requires some modifications to your application.

I know what a lot of you are thinking: throw up an alert on launch every now and then that asks the user to write a review. No. Don’t do that. I hate that. This has started showing up more and more in applications, and I’m going to tell you why it’s wrong.

Seriously, don't do this.

Throwing up an alert on launch is akin to a popup ad on a website: it’s infuriating, unnecessary, distracting… I could go on. Alerts should be reserved for critical situations where the user must respond to a condition, not for pestering your users with review requests.

A much better way to do this is providing a link somewhere in your application that the user can discover. That means don’t put it on the landing screen. As iOS developers (especially on the iPhone) we’re writing applications that are often used for very short periods of time, in which the user isn’t going to be able to write a review. By placing this link somewhere out of the way, perhaps on a Settings or About screen, you’re more likely to catch a user that has some spare time and is exploring your application.

The right way to do it

And if you still don’t believe me, my app Envelopes has an average rating of 4.5 stars over all versions, and 5 stars since I put the review driving link in the app.

Due to this fragmentation of operating system versions, with a wide range of use-cases for designers to consider and few guidelines to follow, various complex solutions to similar problems have been developed leading to inconsistent user interfaces, a difficult job for developers and most importantly disappointing experiences for users.

This is an important issue as iPhone development targets two known devices with a very consistent layout and style guidelines.  The Android platform has often been accused of fragmentation and these difficulties for developers can make it difficult to compete.

In October 2011, Google released a new version of their Android operating system codenamed “Ice Cream Sandwich” (ICS).  This release combines the tablet-specific changes of Honeycomb with updated mobile phone functionality to create a single operating system which runs on a remarkably wide range of Android devices.

To support these changes to the user interface, Google have released a design guide to enable designers to “learn how to design exceptional Android apps.”.

This website highlights the new and innovative features available when creating Android user interfaces, with suggestions how to cope with the differing target devices when designing apps.

It may be a while before manufacturers are able to provide “Ice Cream Sandwich” for their devices, but app designers have been given a great system to work with in Ice Cream Sandwich and designers now have good resources available which should result in a great wealth of exceptional apps over the coming years.  Based on the new devices announced at the 2012 Consumer Electronics Show, manufacturers agree and see a great future for the Android platform.

Ice Cream Sandwich is certainly something we are looking forward to incorporating into our Android app development processes going forward.

This does not suprise me as during our recent App Challenge event, when posed the question, over 70% of the students stated they owned Android devices and planned to target this platform over iOS despite the potential revenue they may be able to achieve. Apple recently stated that they have given over $1 billion dollars back to developers on their platform.

Despite what seems huge growth in Android sales, hitting 46% market penetration, HTC – one of the world’s largest Android device manufacturers announced a 20% drop in sales figures during the last quarter.

Is the demand finally dropping or is the smart phone market simply saturated now and users are getting more app savvy?

To find out how our dedicated team of Android developers can fulfill your app development requirements get in touch.

In Magento Community this wouldn’t be too much of a problem, however this particular site is a Magento Go store which doesn’t have the same amount of customisability or extensions. A quick search of the Magento Go documentation brought up a page showing how to add social networking links to Magento Go through a static block, but no reference to what code would be needed to actually connect to Facebook.

The code supplied by Facebook themselves requires placing code in sections of the page not available to edit in Magento Go, so things looked to have come to a stand still. However, through a bit of perseverance and good old Google, we came across the following code:

<script type="text/javascript">
var likeIt = '<iframe src="http://www.facebook.com/plugins/like.php?href='+document.URL+'" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" style="border:none; width:450px; height:80px;"></iframe>';
document.write(likeIt);
</script>

Then, by following the previously mentioned Magneto Go guide to adding social networking buttons, we created a static block that would show on every product page, allowing users of the site to “like” individual products, driving more traffic to the site.

The above code was added to Github by an anonymous user at the following link.

The last couple of months has been a great time for us with the introduction of a couple of new team members and our official partnership with Magento Go due in no small part to our fantastic and increasingly successful clients, for which we are very grateful.

What is Magento Go and why are we partners?

Magento Go is Magento’s new solution to entry level eCommerce, it is a hosted solution that allows rapid deployment of feature rich ecommerce sites.

Partnering with Magento Go now allows us to bring clients onboard at an earlier stage of their ecommerce venture due to it’s turnkey approach. Essentially it allows us to offer much lower fees for launching an ecommerce site.

We work with our clients to grow their business and the Magento platform will scale to do the same through Community, Professional and Enterprise editions, now with a beginners step, Magento Go.

A couple of recent Magento Go sites

Since becoming partners we have launched our first two Magento Go sites. Take a quick look at those below.

My Thoughtful Friend

For more information checkout mythoughtfulfriend.com or the My Thoughtful Friend client page on our site.

Eyesore Merch

For more information checkout eyesoremerch.com or the Eyesore Merch client page on our site.