Fugly Sports Gear: Our newest ecommerce site was created to remind those who love sports to lighten up AND have FUN! They have partnered with top clothing manufacturing companies in North America to bring a one-of-a-kind high-performance line of sports clothing to the marketplace. Their goal is to help people enjoy their favorite sports more fully by emphasizing fun first.

Visit the site or for more examples of our work, visit our portfolio.

» SOCIAL MEDIA

Social Media sites like Facebook and Twitter are highly popular, and continue to grow their user bases rapidly. These sites should really be utilized to complement your mailing list PR strategy. They have some advantages over mailing lists that make them hard to ignore:

1. Social Media sites are 'viral' in nature. (that's their angle) For instance, when a user 'likes' your company on Facebook, it tells their friends that they've done so. They can also choose to 'share' your page with just a click. You'll get additional 'fans' from the Facebook community this way, virally.
2. User authentication on the social media sites ensures that your list is always opt-in only, so no users complaining that you 'spammed' them.
3. When users change email addresses, you lose them on a mailing list -- not so on Facebook and Twitter.
4. With Social Media, you're typically hitting users during their 'leisure time' and not in their email inbox, rather than while they're working ... your 'sales promotions' won't be ignored because they have more vital work-related emails to look at.

Over time, your Social Media fans/followers will continue to grow. Your mailing list will continue to grow as well, but there is some concern that beefier privacy controls on mail clients, along with stricter laws concerning spam may make it more difficult to reach customers via email.

Conclusion: Email marketing is still the best way to reach customers and get repeat business at the moment. However, if you're not using Social Media, you're missing out on opportunities now, and not planning for the future. They should be used together for a more complete web PR strategy.

» FEATURED DATA FEED: Pronto.com

Pronto is the largest 'social' shopping site on the web with more than 14 million monthly unique users. Pronto connects you with social shoppers who are sharing and comparing products which, in turn, sends more qualified leads to your site.

Pronto is also the exclusive provider of product listings for Ask.com, a leading search engine of over 9.6 billion queries per month. (that is the main reason we are recommending this--it is difficult to control your search listings on Ask.com, and this is a perfect solution for those with ecommerce sites)

Pronto accepts data feeds, allowing you to post your site's products and get more traffic to your site. They charge a CPC (cost per click) when a user clicks on your product, sending them to your site. The fees range from 0.15 to 0.70 per click, depending on the category. For instance, most apparel items are 0.20 per click.

Contact us for more information about integrating your site with Pronto today.

See more from Web Retail Group: Product Feeds.

» RECENT UPGRADES

• Updated Main Account page:
  - Bestselling Vendors Pie Chart
  - Sales Graphs now show cancelled orders in red

» PLANNED UPGRADES

We're still working on these upgrades, and many other minor ones:
• Marketplace Error Reporting (Amazon only for now)
• Cloud Hosting Soon to be Available (major speed improvement)
• New Discount Module (many new options)
• Mobile Version of the Ecom Platform
• Data Import Log Graphs - Products, Orders (for accounts with integrations)
• More Integrations (details to come)

This section is intended to give you ideas for mailers/sales/etc that you could offer your clientele.

September Dates:
• Fall Hat Month
• Whole Grains Month
• Organic Harvest Month
• 9/6 - Labor Day
• 9/12 - Grandparent's Day
• 9/21 - International Day of Peace
• 9/22 - First Day of Autumn
• September is the month Fall begins
• September is when football begins

» WEBSITE FACELIFT

It is important to keep your website lively. A stagnant design, no matter how attractive, is bad for business. By letting users know you're updating your site regularly, you're encouraging them to visit more often. Even first-time visitors will compare your company to the competition, so you need to show that you're doing frequent updates.

How often?
  - For informational/small business sites: every 6-12 months at a minimum.
  - For ecommerce sites: at least monthly.

If its been too long, contact us about updating your site.

» KNOW ANYONE WHO NEEDS A WEBSITE?

We design websites for a wide range of clients with varying needs, small and large. If you know anyone who is looking for a reliable, professional web designer, please let us know! We would be happy to speak with them and give them a rough quote for their project -- no pressure!