Mobile E-Commerce is here and growing fast and the big question is “how do i get started?” or “where do I go to get a mobile web store?”. What do I need for my current web site; an App, customized CSS, what? That is the question that most retailers and businesses are going to be asking themselves if they haven’t already. How do I access all those potential clients with their little hand held computers (Smart Phones). I myself was asking this very question on behalf of my clients. How do we tap into the fast growing market of mobile e-commerce and get their online businesses optimized for the mobile world.
Alas I found a solution that I began to test and promote to my clients. I found an easy to use mobile web store creator called MovyloShop. I began by creating a demo store for one of my clients. In 20 minutes I had been able to show a client a few products in an optimized mobile store. They loved it and so I proposed a challenge to myself.
Could I build, launch and create a mobile e-commerce store with an AdWords ad campaign in 1 hour? Yes launch a store and market it in one hour. I an not talking about adding a couple of products but over 125 products with descriptions, images, weights and inventory, create the shipping table and set up the various store pages and set up the payment system as well. Then to top it off create a new Google AdWords account with a $75 free coupon (I added $25 for an even $100) and set up PPC advertising for mobile only. ALL THIS IN 1 HOUR! No Way Right?
Start the Clock…..
I set my billing timer up (yes this is a client project) and began. I have some experience with the MovyloShop system already and I knew the steps in creating a store. But as you will see that was not where most of my time was spent or yours for that matter.
First: I knew I wanted to promote the entire line of Kaenon Polarized Sunglasses for Point Loma Outfitting. There were 132 models with several categories, descriptions and images. Step one was to export the data I needed from their current shopping cart at PointLomaOutfitting.com. Once I extracted all of the Kaenon Sunglasses I had to clean the excel file so that I would upload only the current product that we could ship with in 24 hours. After getting that step done I looked up and 14 minutes had past. NO WAY 1 HOUR WAS GOING TO WORK.
Second: I went to Movyloshop to begin setting up the store. I choose the name kaenon and it was available and then after a couple of seconds a store creator wizard pops up asking you to add a new product. Since I had a file that I was planning on uploading, I passed on using the store creator this time. (I did use it the first time when I set up the demo for my client). I went first to the store tab. Here I knew I wanted to upload the products in bulk. I clicked on the download template button and opened up the excel file and copied the product information that I had for each cell. Here is where I made a 9 minute mistake. I did not follow the convention of the categories as laid out in the downloaded template and added my categories with comma separators. MovyloShop does not parse the commas and as such I ended up with funky category names.
I uploaded the file the first time and it took 2 minutes. Then I saw my mistake with the categories and had to re-fix the download file right and re upload it. This process took the extra 9 minutes that I could have saved. At this point the time is now 31 MINUTES! YIKES! No way I can finish right. Just keep going, I was not about to fail.
Third: After the products were good and the categories were good, I went to the preferences tab and began to create the look and feel of the store. I started by updating the page information of the Store Contents and setting up the store preferences pages. Since most of this info was already on their main web site I only have to cut and paste the info. This only took a quick couple of minutes. The shipping tables can be the hardest to program but here I wanted standard, 2 day and overnight. This made it easy to set up with only three shipping options.
Then I chose a theme and began to edit the colors. Since I had colors to go by I just used the same colors for the mobile version. I decided to create a logo from one of their logos I already had so I did a quick logo and uploaded and tested the look in the preview button. I also added photos to the category folders giving the site a upgraded look. The preview button gives you a live look at the web site. Also when you create your name, in this case Kaenon, you have a working store front: in this case kaenon.movylopshop.com. So I can see the store on the preview or my phone if I wanted. I looked up now and WOW 53 Minutes have passed and I need to set up the payment system. (Did I really need to make a Graphic Logo?)
Four: Went to store tab click on billing, checked the credit card box to add the PayPal login email and hit save. Still 53 Minutes.. That was easy!
Five: Reviewed my store and saw I can add product, go to check out and purchase thru PayPal.
If you already have a mobile store you can use MS to create impulse promotions and multiple landing pages for any product
Now to set up AdWords. I found a free coupon Web Site Magazine, created a new account in Google for this site. I created the AdWords account and began to set up the Campaign, Billing info and everything that it takes to get AdWords up and running. I used kaenon.movyloshop.com since I did not have a specific domain set up for this yet but I was on a Mission. 58 Minutes and counting. Oh by the way the store is done and running. In less than an hour. But I needed to finish AdWords set up. At 59 minutes and 33 seconds the credit card was charged and the campaign sat in pending until the AdWords team could approve the ad campaign.
Note: The ads were running 30 minutes later. I could have used a current account and had the campaign created much quicker.
So let’s review. I managed to take a non existing mobile e-commerce store and launch it with 132 products, all with descriptions and images, and set up a mobile only marketing campaign. I DID IT! But more importantly I was able to prove that in hour any business can begin selling to millions of potential customers who are shopping in increasing numbers every day on their mobile phones.
I do need to do a few more things like assign a .mobi domain to the site and I can upload the clients customer data and begin a SMS and email marketing campaign right from the back end. Also I can update the store page info to cater to the mobile user and since there are only a few pages, I will want to spruce up the info, But the goal of building and marketing a mobile web site in hour and achieving that goal seems so unreal, yet it is possible for any business to have a mobi web site in less than an hour.
Now that’s Technology!