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January 15th, 2008How to add basic Google Analytics tracking code to your Yahoo! Legacy Store and Merchant Solutions Store.
June 21st, 2006Here’s the quickie tutorial on adding the basic Google Analytics tracking code to your Yahoo! Legacy or Merchant Solutions store:Â Â
1. Instructions on how to find your profile specific Google Analytics tracking code:
   http://www.google.com/support/analytics/bin/answer.py?answer=31845&topic=7174
2. Copy the tracking code that you find in step 1 and paste it in the following locations:
   A. Store Webpages - You can paste the tracking code in the Head tag under your store variables or you can paste it in any other html variable that is used throughout your site. This will install the tracking code on 99.9% of your store pages. Be sure to publish the store pages from the store editor.
   B.  Shopping Cart Page - If you installed the tracking code in the Head tag in step A above then you won’t need to do anything here. Otherwise, you will need to paste the tracking code somewhere on the shopping cart page.  Just paste in the code wherever you add other text above or below the shopping cart module.
   C. Checkout Pages - Browse to your Yahoo! Store Manager and click the “Order Form” link under the “Order Settings” section. Scroll down and add the tracking code to the “Message” text box under the “Shipping Info”, “Billing Info” and “Order Confirmation” sections. Be sure not to overwrite any other text you might already have in these text boxes! Simply click in the message text box and add the tracking code in front or after the text already in the message text box. Next, click “Done” and then be sure to click the “Publish Order Settings” link after you edit the Order Form fields.
Once you start sending traffic information to Google Analytics you can start doing some analysis to see where your customers are coming from, what they are looking at, and where they are going.Â
Be sure to check out the tutorial on how to setup Goal and Funnel tracking!
 Good luck!
How to setup Goal tracking with Yahoo! Legacy/Merchant Solutions store and Google Analytics
June 19th, 2006Google Analytics has some really cool tools that will help you keep track of your traffic, where it’s coming from and where it’s going. Among the tools is a great visual representation of how your traffic goes through the final stages of your order checkout..
Click to view full image…
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* Before the goal tracking can be active, you will need to have a valid Google Analytics account with the proper Google Analytics tracking scripts installed on each page of your website. Tutorial on how to add the Google Analytics tracking script to your Yahoo! Store.Â
    Here’s a quick tutorial on how to setup your Google Analytics account to track the traffic that clicks the order button and follows through to checkout…
1. Log into your Google Analytics account and click on the “Edit” link next to the url that you want to set a goal for.
2. Next, scroll down to the “Conversion Goals and Funnel” section and click the “Edit” link in the “G1″ row.
3. Next,
    A. Enter the Goal URL as:
        wg-thank-you
    B. Enter the Goal Name that you prefer
    C. Click the “On” radio button to make the goal active for tracking
Click to view full image…
4. Next, enter the Define Funnel information in the next section:
    A. Enter the Step 1 URL as:
        wg-order
         and Step 1 Name such as: View Order
    B. Enter the Step 2 URL as:
        shipping-form
         and Step 2 Name such as: Shipping Information
    C. Enter the Step 3 URL as:
        billing-form
         and Step 3 Name such as: Billing Information
    Click to view full image…
5. Next, edit the Additional settings:
    A. Uncheck “Case sensitive” if it is checked.
    B. Select “Regular Expression” from the Match Type dropdown.
    C. Enter a Goal value if desired for orders received
Click to view full image…
6. Finally, click “Save Changes” to save the Goal Settings.
After data has been delivered to Google Analytics from your store, you can view the Shopping Cart Abandonment graphic by clicking:
Content Optimization->Define and Funnel Process->Defined Funnel Navigation
Enjoy playing around with the results and when you see some abnormal cart abandonment, you can make the necessary changes to improve the conversion!
Drop us an email if you have any questions about this setup… info@thesupermanager.com
Who’s afraid of the big bad “G”? Yahoo! store and Gbuy…
June 17th, 2006Well, it seems some aren’t too exicted about Google’s new payment system, Gbuy. Well i’m excited and i’m looking forward to getting setup and online as soon as possible. It’s a great opportunity to get ahead of the game by accepting Gbuy payments before your competitors.Â
Sure, Google might be able to accrue a few more data points by seeing what kind of traffic and eCommerce comes through their payment system, but it will still only be a small fraction of the overall payments received (MasterCard, Visa, Discover, American Express, PayPal, etc.). The eCommerce industry is constantly changing and if you want to be here in 5-10 years then roll with the changes and enjoy the ride.Â
We’ll be setting up the Gbuy integration with Yahoo! Stores and Merchant Solutions so check back soon!
Customer Service Tip - add the personal touch!
May 25th, 2006In today’s WWW, we have changed from dealing with people and faces to dealing with email addresses and dot-coms. Adding a personal touch can go a long way in the not-so-personal WWW. For online retailers, this is even more important and valuable to give you an opportunity to set yourself apart from other store owners. Be creative and think about ways how you can add a personal touch to your experience with your customers. All the way from the first view they have on your website until the end of time. You will be surprised at the responses you receive from customers who appreciate the extra care.
Here are some ideas to get you thinking…
- Add a personal handwritten note to every package that you ship out. A personal note on the invoice or in the package will surprise any customer and will get them talking about their experience with you and your store to their friends!
- Be creative and personal with your website content. Write custom descriptions of your products and include some humor as appropriate, personal comments, or customer feedback comments about the product
- Call your customers from time to time!!!! Give ‘em a call now and then to find out what they like about your store. Find out what could be improved and ask them what products you might be missing. Customers can give you a fresh look and new ideas that you haven’t thought of.
Be sure to ask other store employees, family and friends about ways that you could add a personal touch to your customers’ experience with your store.
Best of luck!
Mike Griggs
Yahoo! Store Owner and Developer
mike@thesupermanager.com
http://www.thesupermanager.com
Changing Mail Exchange (MX) Records in Yahoo! Legacy Store to use external e-mail hosting
May 23rd, 2006Sometimes Yahoo!’s email system can be a bit frustrating with time-outs, rejected emails and false positive spam blocks, so some Yahoo! store owners choose to manage their email outside of Yahoo!. This is straigtforward for Merchant Solutions store owners but not as clear for Legacy stores.Â
Follow the instructions below to specify an external Mail Exchange (MX) record for your Yahoo! Legacy store (I did this on one of my stores and it took about an hour to start receiving mail..)
- Log into your Yahoo! store manager and click the “Email” link under “Site Settings”.
- Next, delete all of your email aliases and forwarding email addresses and then you will see some new information about setting up email with a link that says “Install MX Records”.
- Click the “Install MX Records” link.
- Enter the Mail Exchange (MX) record in the text box provided and click “Done”. Yahoo! only allows for 1 Mail Exchange (MX) record to be entered for Legacy Stores but this should be sufficient in most cases.
If you have any questions or comments about this nugget of information then feel free to drop me an email at mike@thesupermanager.com
Mike Griggs
Yahoo! Store Owner and Developer
mike@thesupermanager.com
http://www.thesupermanager.com