We’re so excited to announce that 3dcart store LukieGames.com sales jumped 27% with help from 3dcart and SearchSpring:
“3DCart’s forums were open, and that was the kind of honesty, transparency and customer appreciation we were looking for.”
In 2009, Jessie Cover and his wife Sara turned a lifelong passion for video games and a hobby business selling games on sites like Ebay and Amazon into a company that would eventually reach $5 million in 2011 projected sales.
The secret to their success? Lukie Games is powered by 3DCart ecommerce software and SearchSpring faceted site search, a partnership that helped Jesse and Sara save big on per-sale fees and boosted sales 27 percent in August 2011. SearchSpring, a faceted navigation service, logged a 434 percent total ROI for the month.
Lukie Games sells more than 45,000 new and used video games, systems and equipment monthly online for brands like NES, SNES, N64, Sega, Playstation and Gameboy to a customer base of more than 250,000 shoppers. Prior to starting their own online store with 3DCart, the couple incurred $28-38,000 in monthly fees through other online stores.
Part of what drove Lukie Games to sign up with 3DCart was the software company’s visibility in contrast to competing software suites.
“At that time, Volusion had a tight grip on their customer forum, so we couldn’t access it. Actively trying to hide potentially negative feedback was a huge red flag for us. In contrast, 3DCart’s forums were open, and that was the kind of honesty, transparency and customer appreciation we were looking for.”
The web offered a lot of buzz about both products, but Volusion received another blow in LukieGame’s decision process as a result of site downtime. “Customers raved that 3DCart was one of the most stable platforms out there, and other online store owners criticized Volusion’s uptime—with some customers going as far as to complain of once-a-week downtime. In our eyes, that was simply unacceptable for an ecommerce company.”
Lukie Games eventually launched on 3DCart, and Jesse found that built-in features were a huge part of the software’s appeal.
- Built-in SEO – “We automatically popped up in the top ten search results.”
- Customizability – “From tweaking SEO to implementing layout changes, the software doesn’t lock you out the way competitors tend to do.”
- Autoresponders – “The ability to have ‘order received’ and other automated emails controlled by the system is a great time-saver.”
- Wish Lists & Waiting Lists – “The “wish list” and “waiting list” features, coupled with the autoresponders, simplify the process for customers waiting on back-ordered items.”
- Rewards Program – “It offers us the kind of repeat business we might get with a 15%-off coupon.”
- Shipping Integration – “Between domestic and international shipping, we can run organized shipping campaigns through each unique service provider.”
In the end, Jesse considers 3DCart and SearchSpring extensions of the Lukie Games team. “We chat with a lot of fellow business owners, and we’re constantly recommending the services,” Jesse said. “You simply don’t find businesses that care this much about their customers every day.”
To read the full case study, visit http://www.3dcart.com/ecommerce-case-studies.html.
About SearchSpring
Developed by B7 Interactive and a team of veteran E-Commerce software developers, SearchSpring’s E-Commerce site search and faceted navigation solutions empower online retailers to unleash findability. Delivering the latest in search and AJAX technology, SearchSpring enables merchants to provide a rich and engaging online shopping experience. For more information, visit http://www.searchspring.net or call 888-643-9043.
Below is a guest post by Patrick Levesque, 3dcart client and co-founder of MASC skincare line.
I am the co-founder of a men’s skin care and grooming product store based in Vancouver called MASC. We sell the best products and brands currently available for men and have a very loyal clientele. In addition to our retail store in downtown Vancouver, we also have a 3dcart webstore through which we sell our products nationally and globally. The great thing about being online is that you’re not limited to your own neighborhood when it comes to potential customers; your reach is unlimited.
Recently, my business partner and I stepped outside of our comfort zones by auditioning for, and pitching in front of the “Dragons” on CBC’s “Dragon’s Den“. For those of you in the US, this is essentially the equivalent of Shark Tank and even stars two of the same Dragons. 
With a few months to prepare, we got our pitch together and investigated all of the possible scenarios and holes they could potentially poke in our pitch. We felt prepared and confident that we’d deliver a successful pitch, but watching these dragons on television, you know you have to be prepared for the worst.
It was a quick trip. We flew to Toronto the night before filming, and were on set the following morning – bright and early. We met with our producer, went through makeup, and before we knew it, we were in front of the Dragons. Our pitch went quite smoothly and they were actually very responsive to our business concept and the need for our business in the industry. We received a couple offers from the Dragons, but in the end, we declined their offer. One of the Dragon’s that had made an offer said that he would be an advisor if he worked with us, but the thing is, as an advisor, he would advise us not to take his offer. At the end of the day, they felt we had a good thing going and it would be too soon for us to give away a substantial share of our company.
You can watch the video to see how it all went down by clicking here: http://www.cbc.ca/dragonsden/2011/09/web-pitch-masc.html (unfortunately for those of you outside of Canada, you won’t be able to watch it due to agreements in place with TV networks outside of Canada).
Most entrepreneurs go on shows like Dragon’s Den seeking startup capital, or capital to grow their existing business – that’s the whole idea. That being said, one of the main unspoken benefits of being on a national television show is the exposure you receive. If you pitch your business well, it can essentially be an infomercial for your business – without having to pay for advertising!
With respect to your online presence, it’s important to ensure your site is SEO’d properly so that you get all the potential traffic you can when your episode/article/blog airs. People may not necessarily remember exactly the name of your, but they’ll remember what it was about, and will search for you like that.
With all of these new customers coming to your site, it’s important to make a good first impression; having a professional, current, well designed and user-friendly site will help you to capitalize on the the PR and maximize sales. It’s also important to keep your blog up-to-date, keep your Facebook and Twitter pages current, and engage your new customers to keep them interested. Use calls of action to encourage your new visitors to follow you on social networking sites and sign up for your newsletter.
We definitely saw an increase in site visits, page views, and overall business as a result of the exposure and have seen repeat business from these customers already.
Our advice: If you have the opportunity to get your name out there (in a positive light), what are you waiting for? Go for it!
We recently wrote “5 Marketing Tips for Digital Goods”, but we wanted to get advice from a digital goods expert. SLG Publishing is online merchant with 3dcart and is the first publisher of such notable comic book artists as Evan Dorkin, Andi Watson and Jhonen Vasquez. SLG’ Supreme Commander Dan Vado talked with us about selling his comics online with 3dcart.
3dcart: Can you explain/describe your businesses and how digital goods are a part of that?
Dan: SLG is a publisher of comics and graphic novels and we sell a variety of our titles in digital form in a variety of different file formats (PDF and ePub probably being most familiar to your blog readers).
3dcart: How difficult was it to set up the digital goods in 3dcart?
Dan: Not hard at all, basically the same as setting up a physical product except for the link to the digital item.
What is the best thing about selling digital products?
Dan: The reader/customer can have instant gratification and marketing on a digital product and it can have an higher rate of conversion since the costs are generally lower than the physical. The path to a conversion is quicker as well since someone can read a review of a book of ours, go from the review to our site purchase and then start reading all within a couple of minutes.
What’s the most difficult?
Dan: For us the lower price point on digital is a big negative as people have become accustomed to buying digital files one at a time, meaning we end up paying more in processing fees as a percentage of each sale. There is also a certain amount of education you need to do to show people how they can consume your digital products.
What is your best piece of advice for a new digital products merchant?
Dan: Know the product inside and out. Be familiar with every conceivable way you can read/view/listen to a digital product. Tech support is going to end up being part of your job and if you sold an ePub file (for example) to someone who has no software for reading it you are going to be on the hook for telling people how to read that file. Be prepared with recommendations for players, readers and viewers and make sure you test every file thoroughly before you sell it.
To learn more about how 3dcart can help you sell digital products click here. Check out SLG’s awesome comic’s at www.slgcomic.com/
December 17th 2010 is Free Shipping Day
On Friday, December 17, more than 1,500 merchants participating on http://www.freeshippingday.com/ program will offer free shipping with delivery by Christmas Eve in the continental United States.This is the third annualFree Shipping Day, and scheduled for tomorrow December 17, is a one-day, online-shopping event when hundreds of merchants offer free shipping with delivery by Christmas Eve.
In 2009, shoppers selected from more than 750 merchants who participated in Free Shipping Day. This year, consumers can enjoy free-shipping opportunities from an anticipated 1,000 plus merchants, including such major names as Macy’s, Dell, Overstock.com, Apple Store, Cabela’s and more.
Black Friday and Cyber Monday once again have company in the holiday shopping season. The third annual Free Shipping Day is set for Friday, December 17, 2010.
At 3dcart, we want to congratulate 3dcart’s merchant YogaAccessories.com for being part of this initiative. And invite all other merchants to offer a Free Shipping promotion tomorrow December 17th to promote “Free Shipping Day” and take advantage of the holiday orders and high expectactions from holiday shoppers around this date.
* Source: http://www.freeshippingday.com/
Online Retailers Connect with Young Consumers via Facebook, Twitter, Blogs, YouTube and Mobile Sites
With the budding of social media technology, more kids are plugged in and connected through Facebook profiles and Twitter accounts, checking out sites on their Smartphones and rummaging blogs for the latest trends. With summer ending soon and students on the pawl for supplies and apparel, online retailers are bringing their products straight to the young consumers by using social media elements. By employing the latest e-commerce platforms, business owners are able to use Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, and blogging, as well as mobile sites to their full advantage.
E-commerce providers, such as 3dcart, facilitated this trend by launching Version 3.2 which included a social media integration allowing merchants to connect their store directly to popular internet ‘hangouts.’ Users of 3dcart are able to place products directly on their Facebook fanpages, embed YouTube videos from their channel into their store, create a blog directly on their storefront, construct a mobile site for iPhone and Smartphone as well as the ability to ‘tweet’ straight from the store to Twitter.
“What many online retailers are finding during the back-to-school season is that dollars shift during this period to the back-to-school specialty merchants,” stated Jimmy Rodriguez, Chief Technical Officer for 3dcart. “Social networks allow online stores that are not typically seen as back-to-school destinations to be creative in their customer messaging. The immediacy of social platforms allows these retailers to quickly establish sales, gift ideas and other promotions that put them into the back-to-school mix.”
The result is increased traffic and revenue for online sites of all kinds, but in the month of August, the focus has been shifted to online stores selling back-to-school merchandise. Even teachers are being marketed to by businesses like curriculum material retailer, Montessori for Everyone (www.montessoriforeveryone.com). The company’s 6,000+ Facebook fans are now turning into customers thanks to their integrated Facebook store through its 3dcart-powered social interface.
“Our Facebook page has become one of my favorite places—a way to interact with existing customers and meet new people all at once. By sharing a wide variety of helpful links, I can attract people to my Facebook page and then introduce them to my business,” said Lori Bourne, owner of Montessori for Everyone.
“With over 500 million users, Facebook can outperform virtually any other single media outlet ever in history. Its reach exceeds any television network, major newspaper, magazine or any any other forum,” said Gonzalo Gil, CEO of 3dcart. “When you look at the potential of social networks to build relationships and disseminate information instantly, at little to no cost, there’s no question that it is transforming the e-commerce landscape.”
3dcart’s Social Packages are now available for users of 3dcart 3.2. For complete information including pricing and package demos, go to http://www.3dcart.com/social-commerce-packages.html
Online retailer Rungreen has increased its online traffic 10 percent via the launch of its mobile-optimized site.
The company is using 3DCart’s social media packages that include Facebook, Twitter, blog and mobile. This is Rungreen’s first mobile initiative.
“We asked to be upgraded as soon as possible so that we could maximize the huge potential of mobile going forward,” said Paul Bondsfield, ecommerce manager at Rungreen, Holland, MI.
“We know that smartphones are being utilized at a rising pace – and wanted to be part of that.
“[A challenge was] the ability to stay on top, continue to tap into new customer bases, and make our products available quickly and efficiently,” he said. “We hope to utilize new technology to solve any challenges that stand in the way of our customers browsing where they want and when they want.”
Rungreen is wholly-owned by Fillmore Equipment, which owns several John Deere dealerships.
Royal Yarn & 3dcart; A Close Knit Team
Fernando, what brought you to 3dCart ?
My online world is shaped by integration; there is no single “best of breed” solution. So, I look for systems that easily integrate with other systems. In 3dcart’s case, what brought me originally was its complete integration with Stone Edge Order Manager. Between 3dcart (frontend) and Order Manager (backend), we can easily scale to order volume many times our current level. Furthermore, 3dcart recent announcement regarding its various integrations with Facebook and Twitter available in version 3.2 is very gratifying and potentially lucrative.
How have sales been in the past year?
We are about 10% down to last year. We sell crafts supplies which are particularly susceptible to cutbacks in consumer spending. What is your favorite product in your product database?
Between both 3dcart stores, we sell about 30,000 items. So it is hard for me to pick just ones. In general, however, I like selling the patterns for our knitting yarn store; it is always fun to see the fresh ideas the fashion designers create each season.
Which shopping carts did you try before coming to 3dcart?
I started selling online in late 2002 using Microsoft’s BCentral shopping cart. Then I migrated to Monster Commerce, then landed with 3dcart almost two years ago. I am very satisfied with 3dcart where I am impressed by the level of customer service and managements’ commitment to product improvement and development.
What do you have on the horizon?
Back to my main theme of integration, I constantly look for ways to extend my catalog into all venues where customers reside, whether they are on Ebay, Amazon, comparative shopping sites. The other focus I have is developing ways to increase the size of my catalog by adding more product categories.
What prompted you to start selling online?
I owned several brick & mortar business in the past. One business was a website development and design firm at the high of the internet craze in 2000/2001. One of my programmers built his own bead retail site in 2001 and was soon selling $150,000 from his home late 2001. At seeming his success and convinced that the internet was the future of retailing, I should all business and plunged into the online world soon afterwards.
What feature do you like best? How has 3dCart increased your business?
What I appreciate the most about 3dcart is the SEO capabilities. This feature alone has enabled me to more than double my business since joining 3dcart. 3dcart built-in SEO features like automatic sitemaps.xml, category & page meta tag customization, html rewrite scripting, etc. that make it very effective in attaining 1st page position on most search engine result pages.
Fernando, thank you for taking the time to sit down with us. It’s my pleasure to award you with the 3dcart Excellence in Ecommerce award for June 2010.
Until June 1st, our readers can use the code 3dcartknit at RoyalYarns.com and save 10%!
Rungreen Mows Down the Competition with 3dcart
Paul, you’ve been with 3dcart awhile, could you tell us where Rungreen started and give us some background?
I took over the site from a John Deere dealership that had been very proactive in moving to online sales- and was in fact online before John Deere itself. From there it was revamped after being sold to another dealership, and the rest is history.
Did you try any other shopping carts before settling on 3dcart?
We came to 3dcart after moving from Monstercommerce, after careful selection and trials of other carts. We’d had only one cart- Monstercommerce.
How have sales been ?
Sales in the past year are up roughly 10% in the last year and 20% in the last 3 months.
Thats quite an increase! What are some of your current e-commerce goals?
Our goal is always to expand our product line, bring in new customers, and possibly launch more 3dcart sites with related products.
Speaking of products, I was quite surprised to see the selection of John Deere branded merchandise you sell. You seem to have everything BUT tractors. Are there any products that you like in particular?
Our favorite product in the database could be several- but I’m impartial to the John Deere Crib Bedding Set- it’s unique and we had been asking about it for years before it came about.
What do you like best about 3dcart?
The thing I like best about 3Dcart is ease of use. Even though you can choose to use configurable options, anyone- and I mean anyone- can use their software. It has just as many features as other much pricier solutions, and yet has as much as we need to do a booming business.
You say that you were with Monstercommerce before, how has 3dcart changed your business?
I would definitely say that 3dcart has boosted our business. This is most noticeable in Search Engine Optimization. We jumped up in search engines as soon as we joined 3dcart.
We have recommended, and had several others switch or start with 3dcart. If they like our site, and want something easy, we tell them- and they are always surprised at how little it can cost.
Paul, thank you for taking the time to sit down with us. It’s my pleasure to award you with the 3dcart Excellence in Ecommerce award for May2010.
Until June 1st, our readers can use the code return at rungreen.com and save 5%!
Our congratulations and best wishes to the folks at www.lamaisongourmet.net for launching their e-commerce store, powered by 3dcart!
“Your online wine merchant, a source for small wine releases from California. We are proud to showcase our great selection of wines and love sharing our passion for wine with you. So to make your wine experience even more memorable, we promise to offer you the finest quality of wines at the best value. You’ll enjoy each sip, from the first to the last! Note that each product page has a review section, and we would appreciate comments about your wine tasting”
