Announcement

#2 · 05-18-05, 12:40 PM

online sales dillema (suggestions welcome!)

Trying to follow all this stuff and I think I understand the issue. I
have done some investigating on my site...

I googled a generic costume phrase "plus size gypsy costume" to see
which and where my static catalog page occured.
It had picked up the static catalog page and then the static product
page that was linked from the catalog page. (did others and they all
landed at 33 and 34 respectively in Google, not sure what that means?)

Google - 33rd item listing out of 59,400 or so listings. (not terrific
but should get better as I get more incoming links)
Netscape - same place as Google
Yahoo - 2nd item out of an unknown amount of listings
MSN - 15th out of unknown total

I am fairly certain that Google has picked up the product pages from the
miva merchant (since it does say they have 500 plus pages from my site,
and I only offer 35 products), but they are so far back that going
through 28 pages on Google did not produce one miva product listing for
any of the generic items I had on my static catalog. I doubt that
anyone is going to cruise through anything more than maybe 10 pages to
find what they want..

So it is obvious for me, that the static catalog page is the way to go,
but you don't want duplicates or you get penalized...
Here are my questions...

Instead of having the static catalog listing point to a seperate static
product page, I have changed it to point to the actual miva product
page. Since they are picking up the catalog page first anyway, then
linking it directly into the Miva product page should work, right?
And since I have deleted the static product pages, do I need to do an
htaccess redirect for those pages I deleted just in case?

Thanks for all the tremendous help the "techies" and other users
contribute to this list...

--
Linda T
www.corsetsandcostumes.com

#3 · 05-18-05, 12:44 PM

online sales dillema (suggestions welcome!)

Given g.Category_Code, this routine returns then number of products assigned
to the category in g.ProductCount.

%OUI%
%SET(g.ProductCount|0)%
%DOFUNC(g.found|g.Module_Library_DB|Customer_Categ ory_Find_Code(BasketList.d
.cust_id,g.Category_Code))%
%IF(g.found)%

%DOFUNC(g.found|g.Module_Library_DB|Customer_Produ ct_FindFirst_Category(Bask
etList.d.cust_id,Categories.d.id))%
%WHILE(g.found)%
%ASSIGN(g.ProductCount|g.ProductCount + 1)%

%DOFUNC(g.found|g.Module_Library_DB|Customer_Produ ct_FindNext_Category(Baske
tList.d.cust_id,0,Categories.d.id))%
%WHILEEND%
%IFEND%
%VAR(g.Category_Code)%: %VAR(g.ProductCount)%

An untested version to Not count out of stock products might look like this.

%OUI%
%SET(g.ProductCount|0)%
%DOFUNC(g.found|g.Module_Library_DB|Customer_Categ ory_Find_Code(BasketList.d
.cust_id,g.Category_Code))%
%IF(g.found)%

%DOFUNC(g.found|g.Module_Library_DB|Customer_Produ ct_FindFirst_Category(Bask
etList.d.cust_id,Categories.d.id))%
%WHILE(g.found)%

%DOFUNC(g.stock_level|g.Module_Feature_INV_RT|INV_ StockLevelCode(Products.d.
id))%
%IF(g.stock_level NE 'out')%
%ASSIGN(g.ProductCount|g.ProductCount + 1)%
%IFEND%

%DOFUNC(g.found|g.Module_Library_DB|Customer_Produ ct_FindNext_Category(Baske
tList.d.cust_id,0,Categories.d.id))%
%WHILEEND%
%IFEND
%VAR(g.Category_Code)%: %VAR(g.ProductCount)%

Hope that points you in the right direction.

Ray Yates
<A HREF ="http://www.flyinghands.com ">http://www.flyinghands.com </A>

-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected]
[mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Marvin Sanders
Sent: Tuesday, May 17, 2005 9:45 PM
To: 'Miva User Group 4'
Subject: [mru] OUI lookup: number of products in category

Hi Guys,

Can OUI look up the number of products in a category and stick it in a
variable? In pseudo-code, I need something like:

%ASSIGN(g.prodcount|(getprodcount|categorycode))%

Deluxe version would be if the prodcount only included products with
in-stock status according to Miva inventory tracking.

Thanks for any help,

Marv

#4 · 05-18-05, 12:49 PM

online sales dillema (suggestions welcome!)

Your bolderinggear. com security certificate has expired over a year
ago. That might tend to impact your sales somewhat.

Norman

Anthony V wrote:

> Hi All,
>
> I've been a lurker on this list since 2000 when I opened my first
> Merchant store. The store, www.BoulderingGear.com sells rock climbing
> equipment... not exactly a broad market by any measure. The store saw
> limited success but soon began to suffer as competition arose. Today
> it pretty much sits there gathering a paucity of orders. Back when
> the store was successful, I was working as a climbing photographer and
> the site was more or less advertised by electronic word of mouth.
> Since then, my involvement in the climbing community has waned and so
> have sales.
>
> I recently opened www.stylepup.com, a site which sells dog clothes and
> accessories. The site has as broad appeal as any, with potential
> customers everywhere. (Even if you don't own a dog, you probably know
> someone who does.) Pricing is on par or lower than most other sites
> out there (and there are many other sites out there), but sales are
> nil. Admittedly, wholesale sales (non-web) of the exact same products
> are huge, with spencer gifts carying many of these products. In
> addition, at a local consumer pet show we attended, our booth was
> flooded with people buying multiple products.
>
> I really want this site to flourish rather than tank, and would
> welcome any and all remarks, comments, suggestions or even harasment
> over the fact that dogs would be made to wear such things ;)
>
> thanks in advance,
>
> Anthony V
>
>

#5 · 05-18-05, 12:53 PM

online sales dillema (suggestions welcome!)

Anthony,

I really should be working my other job (accounting) but I am bored with
the numbers, so I thought I'd take a moment and give you my dimes worth.

First, the meta refresh from stylepup.com to rapid-fire is a big no-no
with SE. You may never get into the SE at all due to just this one
thing. Use a 301 redirect at the server level.

Next, as Andreas mentioned, really need to optimize. Your title tag on
your storefront is 'doggy'. Title tags are the easiest piece of real
estate to optimize. Find the keywords that customers type in and
optimize for those. Wordtracker.com is great for this purpose.

While you are optimizing and waiting for the SE to pick you up
organically, start a PPC campaign with Adwords and Overture.

HTH

Julie

Andreas Toman wrote:
> Try to google for your site. NIL! Read about search engines and optimize
> your site or nobody will find you. Have a look at your meta-tags. Some state
> 'test' ... hmmm ... looks like you have to improve this ;o)
>
> Andreas Toman
> PCINET, LLC
> Miva Development, Installation & Upgrade
> "E-commerce is the next step in the evolution ..."
> www.pcinet-llc.com
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: [email protected]
> [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Anthony V
> Sent: Wednesday, May 18, 2005 4:24 PM
> To: [email protected]
> Subject: [mru] online sales dillema (suggestions welcome!)
>
> Hi All,
>
> I've been a lurker on this list since 2000 when I opened my first Merchant
> store. The store, www.BoulderingGear.com sells rock climbing equipment...
> not exactly a broad market by any measure. The store saw limited success
> but soon began to suffer as competition arose. Today it pretty much sits
> there gathering a paucity of orders. Back when the store was successful, I
> was working as a climbing photographer and the site was more or less
> advertised by electronic word of mouth. Since then, my involvement in the
> climbing community has waned and so have sales.
>
> I recently opened www.stylepup.com, a site which sells dog clothes and
> accessories. The site has as broad appeal as any, with potential customers
> everywhere. (Even if you don't own a dog, you probably know someone who
> does.) Pricing is on par or lower than most other sites out there (and
> there are many other sites out there), but sales are nil. Admittedly,
> wholesale sales (non-web) of the exact same products are huge, with spencer
> gifts carying many of these products. In addition, at a local consumer pet
> show we attended, our booth was flooded with people buying multiple
> products.
>
> I really want this site to flourish rather than tank, and would welcome any
> and all remarks, comments, suggestions or even harasment over the fact that
> dogs would be made to wear such things ;)
>
> thanks in advance,
>
> Anthony V
>

#6 · 05-18-05, 01:24 PM

online sales dillema (suggestions welcome!)

Heather,

I have used the OUI SuperMod on two sites. It takes some getting used
to, but once you figure out how it all fits together, it becomes much
easier (well, duh!). In essence, each page has a corresponding "screen"
file (ex: screen.prod.tmpl for products). This screen file holds the
general layout of the page. To this screen file are added various
"include" files (ex: include.cattree.tmpl for category tree) which
define things such as how the screen begins and ends (useful for nav
elements and such), where to place other non-MM items (links to non-MM
pages for example). The "include" files can also include other
"include" files as need be. At euroluximports.com I have a category
tree include file that includes the other items below the cat tree, each
in a separate include file.

I would like to say this is all well documented in the manual, but it is
not. Like many manuals, it makes sense once you know what you are doing.

Oh, and the VMOD portion is totally separate from the templates. It is
very powerful, but somewhat tricky to use.

HTH,

Norman

---

Norman W. Bunn
[email protected]
803.405.1008
----------------------------------------------
www.CraftedSolutions.com
Crafted Solutions, Inc.
Web Design & Development
Web Site Hosting & Custom Solutions
"Get the results the Internet promises;
get the 'Net Result' from Crafted Solutions!"
----------------------------------------------

Heather Peterson wrote:

>Hi, I am using OpenUI along with PPT, CPT, and OPT and Miva 4.24. I
>have pretty customized layouts in CPT and PPT and I have now come to
>customizing the pages in OPT (Basket Page, Customer Account, Login,
>etc.) but I am finding them too limiting to do the customization that
>I want using OPT. I don't have the time right now to spend on writing
>a bunch of code so I was looking into OpenUI SuperMod. I wanted to
>ask the opinion of the group if this is a good module to use and if it
>is easy enough to customize? For example, the types of things that I
>want to do is change the "remove" and "update" buttons in the shopping
>cart to images, change label names in the billing and shipping address
>but keep the validation functionality and I keep running into road
>blocks doing this with the OPT module.
>
>Any feedback is greatly appreciated.
>
>Thanks!
>Heather
>
>

#7 · 05-18-05, 01:29 PM

online sales dillema (suggestions welcome!)

iFulfill.com supports Miva Merchant almost out of the box.

<A HREF ="http://www.ifulfill.com/services_what_you_get_for_free/index.php#orderentry ">http://www.ifulfill.com/services_wha...php#orderentry </A>
(Scroll down to XML!)

Andreas Toman
PCINET, LLC
Miva Development, Installation & Upgrade
"E-commerce is the next step in the evolution ..."
www.pcinet-llc.com

-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected]
[mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Tom
Sent: Tuesday, May 17, 2005 9:10 PM
To: Nick J West; [email protected]
Subject: RE: [mru] Outsourcing Fulfillment

Nick,

Thanks for the link! Very interesting information.

Tom

> -----Original Message-----
> From: [email protected]
> [mailto:[email protected]]On Behalf Of Nick J West
> Sent: Tuesday, May 17, 2005 1:28 PM
> To: [email protected]
> Subject: [mru] Outsourcing Fulfillment
>
>
> I've seen a request a number of times on this thread about persons
> interested in information about outsourcing their fulfillment; This
article
> may be of interest:
>
> <A HREF ="http://www.ecommerce-guide.com/solutions/building/article.php/3505611">http://www.ecommerce-guide.com/solutions/building/article.php/3505611</A>
>
> Nick J West
>
>

#8 · 05-18-05, 02:27 PM

What does this mean? EEK

<A HREF ="http://www.maternitycorner.com/miva/merchant.mv?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=599">http://www.maternitycorner.com/miva/merchant.mv?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=599</A>
74&Category_Code=AS&Product_Count=8 and I get this message:

modules/ui/oui.mv: Line 2297: Runtime Error: The maximum number of nested
function calls (23) has been exceeded

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Anne Cavicchi
Annie's
106 - 402 Baker ST
Nelson, BC V1L4H8
250-354-2000
www.maternitycorner.com

Announcement

online sales dillema (suggestions welcome!)

online sales dillema (suggestions welcome!)

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment