Digivate - More money for your blog

Arsenal Football Club has developed a transactional website with the help of Venda, the European market leader in ecommerce solutions.

The online store for the club’s merchandise uses built-in guided navigation, which they hope will improve conversion rates and increase revenue.

Adrian Ford, Arsenal’s commercial director, said: “Our new online store provides our fans with a superior shopping experience, as well as providing a cost effective and scalable way of growing our business in the e-tail space. Venda’s ongoing innovation on our behalf will mean that we can continue to improve the customer experience for our fans.’

Venda numbers Crabtree & Evelyn, Hamleys, Panasonic, Pokemon, The Body Shop, Urban Outfitters and Xerox among its clients.

Founded in 1886, Arsenal has been in England’s top division continually since 1919, with achievements including 13 League Championship wins and ten FA Cup victories.

Nearly nine out of ten consumers have experienced problems when making purchases online, according to a new study.

The Harris Interactive research revealed that 37 per cent of customers found websites difficult to navigate, 34 per cent of people had received error messages and 29 per cent felt they had been given insufficient or incorrect information.

Other bugbears included endless loops that block transactions (22 per cent), search functions that do not work properly (21 per cent) and being automatically logged off the page (20 per cent).

The findings suggest companies should make ecommerce website design a priority - 42 per cent of those who faced such difficulties either switched to a competitor or abandoned the transaction altogether.

Nor was customer service rated highly. Some 49 per cent of those who had been in touch with customer services said that their complaint had never been resolved and 68 per cent were convinced that the person they spoke to knew nothing about the website.

For information on ecommerce technology click here.

Shopcreator is launching two new ecommerce packages.

The Start-Up and Retailer packages provide new, small and mid-size online retailers with access to the same ecommerce platform as BHS, EMI Music and Guardian Newspapers, the E-consultancy website reports.

Elias Moubayed, head of sales and marketing at Shopcreator, said: “Today’s first and second generation online retailers are rightly aspiring to sustained and exponential business growth.

“With so many ecommerce platforms unable to support this, it’s often only a matter of months before successful online retailers have to scrap initial investments and switch providers.

“The Start Up and Retailer packages address this scalability issue and are designed to give every assistance to creating and protecting a successful online business.”

Waddesdon Manor, Black Essentials and The Red Arrows are among the retailers already using the software.

Start-Up and Retailer cost £45 and £90 per month respectively and prospective buyers can try them out for free via the Shopcreator Website.

For information on ecommerce technology click here.

Digivate has just launched a new ecommerce website for plus-size women’s clothing retailer Elvi as part of the merchant’s planned store rollout and multi-channel expansion.

Will Gotley, managing director at Digivate, said: “The new Elvi site showcases several exciting new interactive features that will make online clothes shopping even easier and more fun.

“One of these features is ’shop by outfit’ where shoppers will be able to buy all the components of an outfit on one page. Another is a simplified checkout which will minimise the clicks needed to purchase.”

Meanwhile, Oliver Spark - the chief executive officer of Elvi - commented: “Elvi has huge potential as a multi-channel brand and a first class transactional website is an essential part of the mix.

“It was easy to choose Digivate - they provide both proven ecommerce technology and powerful marketing skills.”

Digivate, which was founded in 1998, provides an integrated service to multi-channel retailers.

For information regarding website design click here.