The Shotfarm Monthly
by Andrea Roble. As I’ve said time and time again, I’ve learned a lot about the eCommerce industry since I started working at shotfarm. I used to think it was relatively straightforward to design a website, but I now realize there’s a lot to consider. To say implementing an eCommerce website can be complicated would Continue Reading…
by Lee Syrjanen. As I’ve mentioned in previous posts I speak to quite a few different manufacturers and retailers every day about their current methods and different business processes, and one thing that I’ve noticed recently is the increase of retailers that are utilizing drop shipping. According to a study from university professors W. K. Continue Reading…
by Rob Cardenas. With eCommerce platforms becoming more user friendly for retailers you don’t need to be a rocket scientist to customize your site with plugins. Plugins can help your site in many ways, including conversion rate, connecting with visitors, customer management, and overall efficiency. No two business are the same so it is important Continue Reading…
by Andrea Roble. I’ve learned a ton while working at shotfarm. I can readily explain Rich Media Hosting, Digital Asset Management, and our Product Content Network to anyone who asks. I also feel like I could navigate the system in my sleep (and seriously, I do have dreams about it). While working at shotfarm, I’ve Continue Reading…
by Meg Robinson. You can’t have a conversation about retail these days without someone mentioning Pinterest. At eTail West 2012, it was on every presenter’s slides and every attendee’s lips – to the point of complete oversaturation. But this fad can back up the hype: from December to March, Pinterest increased its unique visitors from Continue Reading…
by Lee Syrjanen. Product images and image management has been the majority of what I’ve dealt with on a daily basis at shotfarm thus far, but with the impending launch of our new Digital Asset Management tools I’ve begun to focus increasingly on another tool that is becoming essential for both retailers and manufacturers: video. Continue Reading…
by Rob Cardenas. Currently there is no across-the-board standard when it comes to naming product image files. This makes it incredibly difficult to determine at a glance what product your images relate to. Coming up with a consistent naming convention will not only save you time and frustration internally, but will make you a favorite Continue Reading…
by Andrea Roble. Working at shotfarm has exposed me to many trends in the eCommerce industry. I can readily talk about rich media hosting, 360 spin technology, and digital asset management with any of my customers. This newfound passion for technology has really made me start to appreciate the time and work that goes into Continue Reading…
by Meg Robinson. We spent most of this month’s eTail West conference manning our booth and talking to retailers and brands about the challenges they face in gathering and delivering quality product content, but on the last morning, we were able to slip away to watch Guy Kawasaki deliver his keynote speech. For those of Continue Reading…
by Rob Cardenas. I’m pretty sure Amazon knows what they’re doing. There’s no one who comes close to competing, so we think it’s a good idea to always keep an eye on their strategies and standards to see how they might apply to the rest of the eCommerce world. Just take a look at the Continue Reading…
by Andrea Roble. It’s amazing how many different ways there are to sell a product. It used to be the traditional brick and mortar store was pretty much the only way a person could buy something. Then came telephone orders. Next, eCommerce sites started to become popular. Now, there are even more options. I’ve become Continue Reading…
by Rob Cardenas. U.S. eCommerce sales grew 14% from 2010 to 2011 hitting over 200 billion for the first time. This growth doesn’t plan on stopping anytime soon according the technology and market research firm Forrester. They are forecasting the U.S. eCommerce sales to reach $327 billion by the year 2016. It was reported last Continue Reading…
If you’re a manufacturer, you may have noticed that the uploader’s gotten a bit of a facelift over the weekend. Instead of our old Flash-based uploader, we’ve installed a really pretty drag-and-drop interface. The basic upload process is still the same, but when you get to the file selection page, now you can drag files Continue Reading…
by Lee Syrjanen. There are a few things that really blow my mind these days. Quantum physics, string theory and songs that are getting passed off as music “hits” these days are all things that I’ll probably never understand. One thing that baffles my mind time after time, though, is poor customer service. Whether it Continue Reading…
by Meg Robinson. In our line of work, we see a lot of websites. Some are pretty amazing and some are…well, decidedly less so. But what’s really interesting is the disparity between the websites of retailers and manufacturers. To make a blatant generalization, it seems that across the board retailers are putting more effort into Continue Reading…
by Andrea Roble. The eCommerce industry is growing rapidly, and competition is fierce. Therefore, I think it’s extremely important to keep on eCommerce trends to ensure your business is at the leading edge of technology and marketing techniques. I recently did some research regarding up-and-coming eCommerce trends in 2012, and I found many experts are Continue Reading…
We just couldn’t resist the pull of the eTail West conference (or the weather in Palm Desert), so the shotfarm management team is hitting the road. Mike Lapchick, Meg Robinson and John Ferguson will be manning booth 125 and educating retailers and brands on how to streamline their image workflows. The eTail show promises to Continue Reading…
Shotfarm is excited to announce the arrival of a new member of its management team: John Ferguson. John joins the company as the EVP of Sales and Business Development and will be leading the account team in bringing shotfarm’s new products and services to market in 2012. John has a strong background in image solutions, Continue Reading…
By Rob Cardenas. We have touched a lot on how important centralizing rich media is, but what good is it if you have an outdated eCommerce site or no site at all? In the past it was very difficult and expensive to get an eCommerce site together but now there are plenty of eCommerce platforms Continue Reading…
by Lee Syrjanen. Last week Andrea wrote a great blog regarding her inner struggle between shopping online and in-store. It’s a great read and if you haven’t checked it out yet you can take a look here, but Andrea briefly touched on a topic that I wanted to expand on a bit more: rich media. Continue Reading…
The shotfarm team is excited to announce the rollout of our new Rich Media Hosting 2.0 platform, a robust update of the Rich Media Hosting offering we launched in 2011. Now all of shotfarm’s hosting customers are able to add the benefits of a world class Content Delivery Network to ensure that their eCommerce sites Continue Reading…
Spring Cleaning with Bulk Delete Many manufacturers are getting ready to upload their new spring lines. Today, we are rolling out new functionality for bulk delete. Until now, users have the ability to delete up to 72 assets at a time from the gallery by selecting all and clicking delete. Anyone who has used this Continue Reading…
by Andrea Roble. I have a confession: For my age, I’ve typically been a very old school shopper. I’ve always preferred to shop in store as opposed to on the internet. There’s a few reasons for this. First of all, it’s really hard for me to sit in the same place for a long period Continue Reading…
It’s been proven time and again that Rich Product Content leads to greater conversions, higher sales and fewer returns. Sure, it’s a no brainer, but it can take time to evaluate and implement rich media technologies and create new content to maximize their impact. So where are you in your plans to employ Rich Product Continue Reading…
Have you taken a good look at 360 spin photography lately? It’s a pretty compelling case. In a digital world where the holy grail is replicating the tactile in-store experience, spin photography arguably provides the most detailed visual product information possible. By giving consumers the ability to investigate every angle and feature of a product Continue Reading…
Shotfarm founder Mike Lapchick teamed up with SPS Commerce Director of Product Management Eric Chaffee to provide insight on a few ways that retailers and manufacturers can work together to improve the online shopping experience for customers. Increasingly, retailers are realizing that they need to improve how they manage their product data as they integrate Continue Reading…
by Sally Mjoseth. With the craze of the holiday season finally dying down, it’s an important time to reflect on the past while also looking forward and planning for the year ahead. This holiday shopping season showed a very positive change in online sales, as shoppers spent a whopping $35 billion as reported by InternetRetailer.com. Continue Reading…
by Andrea Roble. How many of you keep your New Year’s resolutions every year? I can honestly say I’ve never, ever kept mine. I’ve tried, but it just never seems to happen. I realize this isn’t the greatest thing to admit, but I was sure I wasn’t the only person in the world who failed Continue Reading…
by Lee Syrjanen. A few weeks ago I stopped in at one of my local watering holes and started chatting with a young lady. Turns out she worked at a local manufacturing company and I was of course anxious to fill her in on what I did. I described the ins and outs of shotfarm Continue Reading…
by Lee Syrjanen. When I was younger Christmas morning was one of the best days of the year. I remember my sister always waking up super early, around 4:00 a.m., to get me up to open our presents. For some reason the promise of gifts wasn’t even enough to get me out of bed. Most Continue Reading…
by Sally Mjoseth. It’s that time of year again! Cheer is in the air and the holidays are around the corner. Despite the cold Midwest temperatures, this has always been my favorite season. I love preparing for festivities, decorating my house with lights and garland until it’s nearly unrecognizable, and putting thought and effort into Continue Reading…
The TGA recently highlighted shotfarm’s partnership with Briggs & Riley to help expand the company’s presence within the travel industry. Shotfarm has been rapidly expanding within the luggage category in particular, with more than 150 luggage retailers and manufacturers included in their membership.
by Sagar Chowdhury. In the old days of brick and mortar, a good location near heavy foot traffic might’ve been all you needed to get shoppers into your store. Perhaps some eye-catching signage, a solid reputation in the neighborhood, and maybe an ad in the local paper were all you needed to get—and keep—business humming along Continue Reading…
Last week shotfarm officially announced a really exciting partnership with supply chain management company SPS Commerce. SPS will be using shotfarm’s product images and information to populate its Retail Universe community. The Retail Universe is a free platform that connects members of the retail supply chain with new partners. One of the exciting feature is Continue Reading…
by Sagar Chowdhury. Last year, I wrote a piece called “The Web Is Presently Getting Tense.” It was a reaction to Wired Magazine’s cover piece “The Web is Dead,” which outlined the upcoming (now current) trend of retailers, news agencies, and more shifting away from the traditional internet (did I just call the internet traditional? Continue Reading…
by Andrea Roble. Working at shotfarm has exposed me to a lot of great opportunities thus far—one of which is communicating with clients internationally. I appreciate that technology makes it possible to communicate with people thousands of miles away from me, but there’s one thing that always seems to get in the way: the time Continue Reading…
by Lee Syrjanen. I’ve written a few times about the importance of retail websites having great high-resolution product photography. It’s an extremely important piece of the puzzle and can be a great way for online retailers to differentiate themselves from their competition. Something I haven’t touched on is the similar importance of manufacturers’ product photography. Continue Reading…
by Sagar Chowdhury. In June of last year, we published an article entitled Flash in the Pan—an essay that detailed our thoughts on the years-long Adobe Flash vs. Apple drama, how we sided with Steve Jobs’ opinion that HTML5, CSS and JavaScript were truly open standards, and that Flash, in all of its dysfunctional glory, Continue Reading…
Shotfarm’s user base has more than tripled in the last six months. No, seriously. Thanks to you we’re seeing the explosive growth we’d hoped for…and, luckily, that we planned for. In anticipation of the crazy holiday season, today we’ve launched shotfarm 2.0: a series of infrastructure updates that will allow our system to scale as Continue Reading…
by Sally and Andrea (of course). Our first blog article! We’re extremely excited to reach out to you all and introduce ourselves as the new account activation specialists at shotfarm. We’ve thoroughly enjoyed our experience here thus far, and feel we have joined a great team (including Walter, shotfarm’s resident dog and mascot–he’s great!). We Continue Reading…
by Sagar Chowdhury. In the past year and a half or so, I, and my fellow Shotfarmers, have occasionally shared our thoughts and tips regarding DIY product photography for small businesses, and we’ve led you to some hopefully helpful how-to articles published elsewhere in the Webverse. Well, late last June, I spotted an article in Continue Reading…
by Lee Syrjanen. There are some days when I feel like I’m 100 and other days I still feel like I’m 17. I’m not sure what brings this feeling on but you probably have days that are similar. The truth is I’m somewhere in between 24 and 26, and I’m starting to realize what a Continue Reading…
by Morgan Funke. That’s been one of my mantras—focus and simplicity. Simple can be harder than complex: You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple. But it’s worth it in the end because once you get there, you can move mountains. – Steve Jobs, BusinessWeek, May 25, 1998 Why Continue Reading…
by Sagar Chowdhury. Last week, I caught a little blurb in Mashable about Google Analytics adding a window into real-time web traffic with Google Analytics Real-Time. Essentially, GA’s new version provides real-time user statistics and reports. In fine Google fashion, they turned it on for a select few users last week, clearly beta-testing to make Continue Reading…
Another great article on shotfarm! STORES Magazine talked to shotfarm power-users Travis Benson from Bob Ward’s and Ryan Hirschberg from Altrec to find out how shotfarm’s philosophy of centralization has enabled retailers to collect images faster and provide better information on their sites, giving consumers more confidence to make buying decisions. Read the full article Continue Reading…
by Morgan Funke. The topic of color came up at the office the other day, and it reminded me of a time when I bought a jacket online but what came in the mail was a totally different shade from what I expected. I was only slightly irritated considering the jacket was heavily discounted (probably Continue Reading…
By Sagar Chowdhury. After publishing Part 3 of this series, “The Product Page,” in August, I knew that it was nearly time to start talking about customer service. Customer service is a huuuuuuge factor in building an excellent reputation and retaining customers by the thousands. But, having personally written about customer service in this blog Continue Reading…
by Lee Syrjanen. I stumbled across an interesting article this morning. The article was an E-Commerce Times piece titled “Pre-CRM: Relating Before There’s a Relationship”. The article goes on to outline the challenges of interacting with potential customers in an increasingly online world. Growing up my father owned a business in our little town, he Continue Reading…
by Morgan Funke. I read Seth Godin’s Sunday blog post this morning and couldn’t help but chuckle at myself for being the very “believer” he writes about. Godin talks about marketing with the placebo effect and how effective it can be, allowing varied perceptions of reality. From a young age we’re taught to respect others’ Continue Reading…
by Lee Syrjanen. The other day I came across an article about shopping cart abandonment and the contributing factors that really, for some reason, stuck with me. Over the course of my online shopping history I know that I’ve certainly been guilty of loading up an online cart only to leave it. I’m sure many Continue Reading…
