Zend launched a new Varien designed and coded Framework site today, you can check out the new design at zendframework.com. The redesign came about as Zend was releasing the biggest update to its Framework since the 1.0 version, and wanted the site to reflect the big update. Varien redesigned the site to match the occasion, while still keeping the navigation and layout of the site as people were used to. Varien also produced the HTML coding for the redesign.

This follows other work Varien has done for Zend, including the redesign of the main site, Zend.com, and more.

The 2007 holiday season saw a drop in customer satisfaction with ecommerce businesses. For the 2006 holiday season ForeSee Results saw an improvement in customer satisfaction, but this past season overall satisfaction was down, even as growth continued for ecommerce businesses. (It is worth noting that even though there was growth, it came at a slower rate than the 2006 holiday season). Ecommerce Times reports on customer satisfaction for the 2007 holiday season:

Customer satisfaction dropped 1.3 percent to 74 and the less discernible upgrades to Web sites might well have been one factor, Larry Freed, CEO of ForeSee Results, told CRM Buyer.

“Companies continued to invest in their e-commerce operations. However much of that money was devoted to back-end investments that might not have been as apparent to the consumer,” he said.

The good news for ecommerce businesses is that offline retailers are getting less from online shoppers. More people are turning to Web sites to make their purchases. However, if you want to distinguish your business among other ecommerce businesses, it is important to make improvements to the customer experience. Customer satisfaction with the overall ecommerce experience at your Web site is one of the most important deciding factors in whether shoppers will return.

Tags: ecommerce businesses, ecommerce, ecommerce Wen sites, 2007 holiday season,
online shoppers

In ecommerce, one of the most important things is search. And right now, search has been moved to a whole new level with what is called blended search. Blended search is when the search engine takes it beyond text links to include pictures, video, blogs, news and just about anything else. This is changing ecommerce search especially, because now product search is part of this.

A blended search for a product can bring up reviews, pictures and links to ecommerce Web sites that sell the product. Internet Retailer reports on how ecommerce Web sites can benefit from blended search:

That benefits retailers that provide product feeds to the search engines and keep them current, Sullivan says. “It’s not helpful to you as a retailer to be putting out a product if you’re out of stock,” he says. “You want to make sure you’re updating them with the right price and stock information.”

One way you can increase your visibility on the search engines is to create a product feed. Make sure you update it regularly. Adding pictures or “how to” videos to embellish your product listing could also help. Customer reviews and ratings can also increase your visibility and help in a blended search. Blended search means more integration of more elements. The ecommerce Web sites that embrace these changes are those that will find the most success.

Below, see examples of a search for “DVD players” from the three major search engines. It is worth noting that the “news” aspect highlighted on the Google results probably has something to do with CES this week.

Tags: search engines, blended search, ecommerce, ecommerce Web sites,
three major search engines

From the Varien family to yours, Happy Holidays.

Varien has been selected to present Magento in Twiistup 3. The event takes place in Los Angeles, CA on January 16th, 2008.

Twiistup showcases some of the best and brightest tech talent in Southern California. Twiistup’s goal is to allow start-ups to showcase their ideas and create a friendly atmosphere where guests can network with fellow innovators, investors, job seekers, and established industry leaders. We believe that one of the most important ingredients in a successful business venture is generating energy and excitement from those that can help move an idea along - and Twiistup is a catalyst for making that happen.

If you are in the southern California area and would like to meet us in person, this is the place! We’ll be there in full force with a bunch of schwag to give out.

Hope to see you there!

That’s right, 100 days. December 9th will mark 100 days since the release of the Magento preview version and community site and there have been some truly impressive numbers, including 70,000+ downloads and 4,600+ community members.

Head over to the Magento site to see more on the first 100 days and see what’s in store for the next 100 days.

If you are reading this on Varien.com you have probably noticed, but for all you RSS subscribers, the redesigned Varien site is now live.

The new site reflects the first phase of Varien’s re-alignment towards focusing on Magento.

The homepage now communicates the latest from the Magento blog and the eCommerce Cache, along with a look at Varien’s recent work at a glance.

We also changed the top navigation to bring visitors the information they want quickly.

Visitors can now easily find information about Magento in the products section, learn about our services and request a quote for a project.

We also have quick links to view our past work, learn more about the company, contact us and last but not least, read the eCommerce Cache.

We would love to hear what you think in the comments, so please let us know.

After months of anticipation, the new Zend.com site launched this week. The site for Zend, the PHP Company, was thought-up and redesigned from the ground up by Varien on the basis of criteria gathered during a site audit on Zend’s previous site. The feedback from the site-audit illuminated the need for an overhaul to the information architecture of the site as well as urged more focus in the overall messaging of the site.

Working closely with the Marketing team of Zend based in Cupertino, Germany, and Israel, Varien set to architect a site that would account for much of Zend’s existing multi-lingual content, their new content and integrate content dispersed in different Zend entities online.

The new design established a clear information hierarchy and visual language with type, color and composition used consistently on every page. From a marketing standpoint, the call out banners throughout the site were given ample space, refined messaging and a matching look and feel that communicates Zend’s image as a professional, modern, tech-savvy company. New features such as Product Showcase and Browse by user type were added to give users yet another way of finding relevant information fast.

Another goal that the new design set to accomplish was to make major processes on the site such as Downloads, Store, Support and My Account more efficient. To achieve this, Varien collaborated with specific departments at Zend to accommodate their unique customer or product-related needs.

Our latest site, the California Wine Club, wanted to make both their customers’ online shopping experience and their entire operation of order fulfillment and phone orders much more efficient. Launching just in time for the 2007 holiday season, this newly dynamic site features two-way XML integration with CRM and order fulfillment, allowing for real-time price, inventory, customer information and order information updates. This integration has made their entire backend operation run on automatic (not to mention the trees and ink saved).

To make navigating the site a faster and better experience for customers, we restructured all wine categories into a guided navigation scheme. Customers can now find their preferred wine by filtering the wine listings by price and country of origin attributes as well as searching by keyword.

One of the California Wine Club’s most-prized benefits is its monthly wine club subscriptions. Subscribed members receive every month (for the length of the subscription) two bottles hand-picked by the California Wine Club expert staff. Needless to say, setting up a solid subscription system was extremely important to the company. Working closely with the client we developed a flexible subscription system which allows customers to purchase memberships with no money down, collect post-dated payments and streamline a previously cumbersome process.

Since every state in the US has different laws regarding the shipment of alcohol, we set up an advanced shipping system for the store to help eliminate the headaches that updating these rules can cause. The Store Owner has complete control over the store’s shipping methods, and is able to create customized shipping rules for individual states to ensure that the company is always within the letter of the law. To make it easier for customers to purchase wine for themselves and for others, we also added Ship to Multiple Address functionality. Now, customers can easily purchase and ship gifts (along with a little something for themselves) without having to go through multiple transactions.

We also restructured the store’s My Account system, adding an address book, and membership upgrade capabilities. With the site’s new ratings and review system, customers can now rate and review their favorite wines in the My Account section and on each product’s page. To improve the site’s promotional capabilities, we added a landing page building tool for use in the regular catalog and for special items. We also included an advanced coupon tool to support general and specific promotions.

So if you’re looking for a gift for the upcoming holidays or want to explore our latest work, check out the site. Let us know what you think in the comments!

Nothing says fall like popcorn, and the best way to satisfy that craving is a trip to the recently upgraded Popcornopolis.com. When Varien was approached for the redesign of the site, we focused on optimizing the architecture of the catalog to make it easier than ever to find that perfect gourmet kernel.

In the old site, customers had to not only search for the desired flavor, but were forced to drill down into the catalog to find the exact product that they wanted to purchase. Popcornopolis’ new site design improves all of this, featuring a leftside navigation that makes it easy for the customer to browse the store’s catalog by flavor, collection or gift. The product images were also upgraded to newer versions that will make your mouth water.

This navigation change makes the shopping experience much more streamlined, allowing customers to first choose a flavor, then choose the popcorn’s container. Displaying the container options and prices on the product page enables the customer to make faster choices and creates an up-sell opportunity.

We’ve also added a tool that allows the store owner to easily upload promotional containers for holidays or special occasions, which encourages customers to buy popcorn for themselves and as gifts (especially when coupled with the site’s Ship to Multiple Address functionality).

Take a look around, and experience the new shopping experience for yourself. We’d love to hear what you think about it in the comments!”