Brand Labs is about a lot of things, but our real bread & butter is custom ecommerce development.  Yes, we design Volusion sites.  Yes, we build ecommerce apps.  We do a lot of things for a lot of online merchants, but custom development is the one thing we do that gives our clients an undeniable edge.  We say “undeniable” because when your store has something that your competitors don’t have, you’re ahead of the game before the shoppers even arrive.  By definition, you’re more prepared to serve their needs.  You’re more prepared to earn their trust.  You’re more prepared to win.

… but maybe you don’t think you need custom development on your site.  After all, Volusion does a good job of providing a feature-rich platform.  Why not just do what you can with what you’ve got?  Well, off the top of our heads, we can think of ten reasons…

1. You’re unique.

   No matter what Volusion introduces, they don’t know you personally.  They don’t know the exact thing that you need to express your individuality properly.  They don’t know your particular value proposition.  That’s not a failing on their part, it’s simply a fact.  You are uniquely qualified to identify your store’s specific needs and to act on those needs.

2. You’re not doing everything you can with your Volusion store.

   You know that smart phone in your pocket?  You’re currently using about 4% of its total capabilities (we may have just made that figure up).  That phone can do amazing things and you’re using it primarily to text people that you’re running late.  Your Volusion store is like that.  It can do amazing things that you’re currently not using.  Are you using the Deal of the Day function?  Is your mobile store set up properly?  Are you doing everything that Volusion allows you to do out of the box?  Probably not.  So, if we may continue to use the smart phone comparison: even though your phone is capable of doing a lot of things that you aren’t using, you still paid extra to download Angry Birds because it was a specific need that you were able to identify and address (i.e. your deep need to throw birds at pigs).  Custom development is like that.  You should definitely try to use all of the great functionality that’s built right in to Volusion, but just because you’re not, that doesn’t mean that you can’t add some features of your own.  Custom development for your Volusion store is just like apps for your iPhone.

3. You’ve got ideas.

   Just because we’re ecommerce experts (and Volusion is filled with ecommerce experts), that doesn’t mean that we (or they) have thought up every single thing than could ever possibly be thunk.  You have insight.  You have a plan.  You know things about your business that we don’t, but we definitely know how to act on your ideas.  Don’t let your ideas die in your head.

4. You’re probably right.

   You know that one thing that you think you know better than anyone else?  That one annoying thing that seems so simple and would make your life as an ecommerce merchant so much easier?  Or make your store more successful?  You’re probably right. Why not fix it instead of just letting it drive you insane?

   Read the rest of the list after the jump… (more…)

If you’re reading this, you’re looking at our freshly-redesigned, Volusion-centric ecommerce blog (unless you’re using some sort of aggregating iPad app or seeing this on our Facebook wall, in which case you’re probably going to be cut off any second when we hit the end of the excerpt and if that’s true, we humbly request that you click through to the actual blog which you clearly have by now because there are no excerpts that go on this long, so at this point we’re just going to go ahead and continue.)

Anyhoo, welcome to our new blog!  We’ve been a little preoccupied with the new site launch, so we have a lot of catching up to do.  Keep an eye on this space to see what we’ve been up to since we last spoke.  In the days ahead, we’ll be telling you about our new app (yes – another app), our latest custom Volusion development and all of our new Volusion site designs.  Speaking of new sites…

Our new blog isn’t the only new thing in town.  We’ve also completely redesigned our website.  It’s sleeker, smarter and loaded with beautiful examples of all of our best and latest design work.  We’re pretty dang proud of it and we hope that you’ll take a couple of minutes to check it out.

On the internal side, we’d like to thank everyone in design, development, marketing and project management  – basically the whole team – for pitching in to make the new site happen.  You’re all simply fantastic!

Now go – enjoy the new site.

You’re an ecommerce merchant.  Let’s say that your store has been up and running for a while.  Let’s also say that it’s doing well.  Of course, it may not be doing as well as you’d like, but if that’s the case, you sure don’t need a list of reasons to reexamine your site.  If your store isn’t doing what you’d like it to do, you should be going over it with a fine-toothed comb.  On the other hand, if your store is doing well, it’s easy to get complacent.  If you fall into that group, this article is for you.

We’ve said it a bazillion times: a website is a living thing. You have to nurture it – help it grow. If you neglect it, it’ll die… or worse. It’ll grow beyond your control until it’s a huge, rambling jumble of awkward navigation, dead ends and baffling content. Still unconvinced? Check out the list for the scolding you so richly deserve.

Read the rest after the jump…

(more…)

As a part of our continuing effort to make the custom Volusion development process more transparent (and therefore, less intimidating) we offer this Custom Volusion Programming RFQ Workflow.

In case you’re unfamiliar with the acronym, RFQ stands for “Request for Quote”.  It’s the process that you’ll go through when you come to us with a custom programming need for your Volusion store.  Of course, every need is as unique as the website it’s attached to, so there will be differences between what you experience and what you see here, but if you’ve never gone through the custom programming quoting process, this will give you a general idea of what to expect.

The most important part of this entire process is in the big fat circle in the upper left corner of the chart.  That’s the conversation (or series of conversations) that you’ll have with your account manager before the project moves an inch.  We know a lot about ecommerce and we want to know a lot about your business before we start any custom Volusion development project.  We want that info so that we can look at every possible solution available to you.  You may well have an idea of what you’d like to do, but it’s more important for us to know what you’d like to achieve.  If we know and understand your end goal(s) we can explore solutions that may not have occurred to you.  We want to solve your problem in the best possible way, even if we have to build the solution from scratch.

So, if you’re considering taking on a custom Volusion project, we’d like to help… and now you know how we plan to do it.  Of course this chart can’t answer all of your questions, but we can.

We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: the online market is a very competitive place.  It’s not a brilliant or deeply insightful observation, but it’s a critical one and you don’t want to ignore it.  If you know that it’s a battlefield out there, then you owe it to yourself to exploit every available advantage.  Which brings us (as it so often does) to the topic of branding.

We build Volusion templates that build your brand.  There’s a handy example right here – WhoAreYaDesigns.com.  This nostalgic and beautiful template design speaks volumes about Who Are Ya and their self-proclaimed dedication to soccer fans who are “in the know”.  This is a brand that’s about the history of soccer (football, for those in the know) – the feeling of it.  This is a brand that inspires dedication.  This is a brand that sells.

So while you’re marketing and tweaking your SEO, don’t forget to give a little love to the first thing your customers see: your brand.

In yet another stop on Brand Labs’ Fixing-The-World-One-Website-At-A-Time Tour, you can currently find us in booth 2481 at the Medical Design & Manufacturing Expo in Chicago!

We’re not just spreading the word about the wonders of ecommerce.  We’re luring manufacturers to the magical world of Direct-to-Consumer communication.  Whether you’re targeting the wholesale market or the retail market, Brand Labs can help.

Manufacturing, wholesale, retail – D2C or lead generation… it’s all about commerce and so are we.  So, if you happen to be in Chicago and you’re looking for innovative and exciting ways to talk to your customers, stop by booth 2481 at the MD&M Expo.

… man.  We really wanted to make a joke about playing doctor here, but we decided that it was way too unprofessional, so we’re not going to.

… but it’s killing us.

Our clients have a wide range of needs.  Of course we serve a lot of straight-up, retail, direct-to-consumer emerchants, but we also work with online businesses that sell digital products, gather sales leads or schedule services.  These sorts of specialized business models call for some specialized website functionality.  Take, for example, Shore Excursions Group…

Shore Excursions Group is one of our oldest clients and their site is like a mini custom Volusion development portfolio for us.  We’ve added all sorts of specialized software to allow SEG to become the market leader in the wide world of cruise ship side trips.  The latest addition is an automated expedite fee generator.

The software is brilliant in its simplicity.  It detects any instance of late excursion booking (within three days of the event) and it adds an expedite fee to the customer’s total.  If the customer tries to remove the fee, the software adds it back in.  It’s just this sort of big-picture, end-to-end transaction simplicity that builds credibility while it builds your bottom line.

We’ve been designing and developing custom Volusion templates for a lot of years now and it’s fair to say that we’ve got the process down to a science.  Need convincing?  Let’s go to the chart… (click to enlarge)

What you see here is the Brand Labs Custom Volusion Development Timeline.  Of course every Volusion template is unique.  That means that the custom development process varies from project to project, but there are certain things we can count on – predictable patterns.  That’s what this chart is all about.

If you look the chart over, you’ll see that it covers eleven weeks of consultation, design, more consultation, development and still more consultation.  If anyone tells you they can design your Volusion site from the ground up in under eleven weeks, we can tell you what they’re going to cut out: consultation.

Building a custom ecommerce site is a collaborative effort.  We pride ourselves on our efforts to learn about your business and its needs, but no one knows your business like you do.  Look at this chart – the orange areas are the periods in the process in which the client takes the lead.  In the eleven week process, you’ll see that the client takes the reins no less than seven times.

We want to work with you to transform your business in under three months – just fifty-five business days to build the online store of your dreams.  Call us to find out more about our custom Volusion template design process and how it can change your site from good to great.

Big week here at Brand Labs… our bosses are out of town! With no one around to tell us what to do, that means we can drink milk right out of the carton, have cake for breakfast and stay up all night adjusting PPC campaigns!  WOO-HOO!

Of course our ever-vigilant leaders would never leave us unsupervised without a very good reason – two very good reasons, actually.  Brand Labs’ president, Kevin Harman, is exhibiting with Volusion at Shop.org’s annual summit in Boston.  We’re sharing booth #1113 in the exhibit hall and Kevin is always eager to network after the show, so you should hit him up.  He’s like a business-card-hurling free drink machine.

At the other end of our great nation, you’ll find Dane Downer (Brand Labs’ VP) at the very exclusive Google Analytic Partner Summit.   You know why you never heard of it?  Because you totally weren’t invited.  It’s an invitation-only affair for Google Analytics Partners.  It’s our understanding that all attendees will actually be able to get their pictures taken sitting on the Google Bunny’s lap!  We’re very, very jealous.

BookPal is a different sort of online book store.  With their focus on selling popular titles in bulk and the high level of personalized service, they’re the destination shop for all of your multi-book-buying needs.  Need corporate gifts?  No problem.  Got a motivational speaking engagement coming up and need an appropriate giveaway?  You’re covered.  Need 500 copies of The Secret because Oprah’s coming over for tea and affirmation?  No sweat.

… and if we do say so ourselves, our custom Volusion template design for BookPal is a real peach.  Visiting the site gives you that warm feeling that you used to get when you walked into a bookstore.

… remember bookstores?  They were those places that you used to go to get coffee and read magazines.