Logicblock's Blog

Logicblock at S.P.Richards ABC Expo

Tue, 03 Aug 2010 18:16:00 GMT

For the first time, Logicblock Exhibited at the 12th Annual Advantage Business Conference at Miami Beach. The 2010 S.P. Richards Advantage Business Conference (ABC), held from Jun 23-27, drew an optimistic and enthusiastic crowd to Miami Beach, Florida to investigate sales and educational opportunities presented over four days of seminars, workshops and networking functions.

Attendees enjoyed top-notch educational speakers and the USA’s largest Office Products Vendor Exposition that showcased over 240 exhibitors displaying the best in new office products, services, equipment and technology. In addition, entertainment and networking events made for an exciting and productive week.

We had a great time at the show. Steve, Joe and Alex were the sales people on the ground and we did not let up for more than a couple minutes. Thank you everyone for coming by the booth and seeing what we have to offer.

We have very aggressive plans to improve our ecommerce solution for the office supply industry, 7cart eCommerce.

Here are a couple pictures we were able to take after the show ended. Yes, we ARE exhausted!

If you missed us at the show and want more information about how Logicblock's ecommerce solution is integrated with S.P. Richards, please contact us.

E-Commerce Sales Rise by 5 Percent

Wed, 30 Dec 2009 18:26:00 GMT

Online sales jumped 5% for the holiday season, according to comScore Inc. (SCOR), which attributed the growth to a continued increase in the number of people shopping online.

The Internet researcher said total online sales from Nov. 1 through Christmas Eve were about $27 billion. After adjusting for an additional shopping day this year, sales grew by about 3.5%.

The increase followed last year's weak performance, when online sales fell 3%.

"The season featured a strong start as a result of early retailer promotions and a very strong finish helped by the snow storms that occurred the weekend of Dec. 19-20, retailers' willingness to offer free shipping later in the season and consumers' confidence in expedited shipping arriving in time," said comScore Chairman Gian Fulgoni.

Fulgoni said retailers expanded their use of social-network marketing this year and noted larger retailers "significantly outperformed their smaller brethren."

He added retailers that were able to invest in aggressive marketing and free shipping offers were "clear winners."

Electronics saw particularly strong sales growth of more than 20%, according to comScore. Jewelry and watches also turned in a strong performance, following a very weak 2008 season.

E-commerce has been one of the bright spots for the retail sector, which continues to face challenges as consumers cut spending amid high unemployment and foreclosure concerns.

    2009 Holiday Season vs. 2008
    Non-Travel (Retail) Spending
    Excludes Auctions and Large Corporate Purchases
    Total U.S. - Home/Work/University Locations
    Source: comScore, Inc.
    ----------------------
                                            Millions ($)
                                            ------------

                                                       Percent
                                       2008     2009    Change
                                       ----     ----   -------
    November 1 -  December 24       $25,845  $27,121        5%
    -------------------------       -------  -------       ---
    Thanksgiving Day (Nov. 26)         $288     $318       10%
    --------------------------         ----     ----       ---
    Black Friday (Nov. 27)             $534     $595       11%
    ----------------------             ----     ----       ---
    Cyber Monday (Nov. 30)             $834     $887        5%
    ----------------------             ----     ----       ---
    Green Monday (Dec. 14)             $859     $854       -1%
    ----------------------             ----     ----       ---
    Tuesday, Dec. 15                   $754     $913       21%
    ----------------                   ----     ----       ---
    Weekend of Dec 19 - 20
     (winter storm)                    $677     $767       13%
    ----------------------             ----     ----       ---

    *Individual days and weekends are compared to corresponding
     shopping days in 2008

Simpler is Not Always Better Online

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 03:08:00 GMT

One of the important purposes of your website is to inform your visitors what it is that you do, and that is not as easy as it sounds. We have the pleasure of working with customers who have this problem when trying to design the site map for their website and typically have the same recommendation... Simpler is not always better.

Yes, you need to keep your main message simple, but don't stop there. You need to segment your information into layers so that your visitors can find what they need by finding the basic information first then be able to drill down into more and more detail.

Just today, I was explaining this to a long standing client (almost family by now) and used a Walmart store as an analogy. Imagine a Walmart Superstore with no signs. Imagine walking in and every single product is all on the same isle. That is just way too much "content" too fast. What you need is a nice way to present your top layer concepts, then allow someone to drill down further and further into more granular detail.

How does a company like AT&T present their business? By proving tiered bits of information. You land on the att.com homepage and are presented with the very top layer of offerings. They do not try to force everything on the homepage, but they do not over simplify their site either. If a company with this amount of information online were to try to break up all of their different offerings into completely different websites, or limit the amount of information available a few issues would present themselves.

First of all, most people don't really read all the text on the web pages that you have, but search engines sure do. Content is king when it comes to the world of SEO. The more relevant and real content your website has, the more food you feed the search engines. Do not overdo it. My suggestion would be that it needs to read well and make sense to a person reading it. If you find yourself copy and pasting content or rephrasing something you already said 100 times, leave it out.

Now, you may notice that I said "most people don't really read all the text". If someone wants to learn more about your business or how something works, over simplification will only leave them frustrated and require them to fill in a contact form or call you to get some details. This is critical if you are trying to inform the public or if your products and services are complex. For example, if you are a foundation that is promoting awareness, you will want to have as much "drill down content" as possible. Students, parents and other groups who crave the reading material will be left wanting more.

So, with so much content and information, you will need a solution to help you manage and organize your online content as well as facilitate your online visitors to quickly search your website for the information they need. Our online business solutions have the tools you need to post tons of excellent content and not overwhelm yourself or your visitors.

Contact us for more information ;)

Holiday Shopping Online Starts Now

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 03:44:00 GMT

38% of online shoppers say they are planning to do more shopping online this holiday season.
Zoomerang, the leader in online surveys, today released the results of its nationwide study of more than 400 online shoppers. While 22% already began shopping for the holidays before October 1, the majority say they will be shopping online from October 1 thru December 10, 2009.

Convenience was cited as the most important reason women are planning to shop online, while the ability to compare prices easily was the most motivating reason for men. 18% of holiday shoppers plan to spend $501-$1,000 online this year, while only 9% plan to spend $501-1,000 in traditional brick and mortar stores and shopping malls. Ages 26-64 are the most popular recipients being shopped for online. Electronics and accessories was the #1 holiday shopping category, followed by clothing and apparel with books and media placing third.

5 Tips for Your E-Commerce Website This Holiday Shopping Season

Offer Free Shipping - 74% of online shoppers cited the cost of shipping as the #1 reason for NOT completing a purchase online!
Create Coupons - 47% of online shoppers stated that they search for online coupons before completing their purchases.
Advertise Gift Cards - Gift cards surfaced in the study as a popular holiday shopping item.
Offer Payment Options - After credit cards, 21% of online shoppers prefer to pay through PayPal, which emerged as a more popular payment method than ATM/debit cards.
Get Positive Product Reviews - The top three most popular sites among the online shoppers are Amazon, Ebay and Buy.com, which all offer customer reviews as part of the shopping experience. 82% of respondents stated that they would be more likely to purchase an unknown brand with positive reviews over a well-known brand with negative reviews.

About Zoomerang

Zoomerang, part of MarketTools, Inc., pioneered Web-based surveys in 1999 to give organizations a powerful, self-service solution to conduct accurate comprehensive surveys with a minimum of cost and effort. Today, Zoomerang is the world's #1 source for online surveys, helping thousands of organizations, including over 70 of the Fortune 100. Zoomerang's business, educational and non-profit customers have created and sent more than 100 million surveys. Zoomerang supplements its surveys with expert professional services, including survey programming, and the recruitment and selection of custom groups of survey respondents. The survey provider also hosts MySpace polls and Facebook polls that you can use to get friends' opinions on your favorite social networks.

Source: San Fransisco, CA (PRWEB) October 19, 2009

Shared Success

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 03:21:00 GMT

We have worked with all kinds of companies over the years. Everything from home cooked goodies to sophisticated technologies that would require an entire blog post just to explain. In doing so, we have the privilege of understanding a little bit about their business and how their industry works. Trust me, it is not a requirement for us to understand your business, but something interesting happens when we learn about it... We share knowledge.

Our expertise with online businesses, whether it be in Ecommerce or search engine optimization or how to properly structure your online site map, almost always benefits our customers in their endeavor to launch a successful online business.

You may be asking yourself, why bother? The fact is that one of our main philosophies is something I called Shared Success. In other words, if you are successful, we will be successful. Almost all of our business is from some sort of referral or repeat business and this can only be achieved by providing excellent products and service. If you go out of business, that does not really help us, but if you increase your online sales by 200% or triple your online leads, you will hopefully refer us and/or return to us for more services.

Ask yourself, can you really have a successful Ecommerce site, online business, informational website or anything else if the company building it does not understand what it is that you do? The answer is obviously, no. So, give us a call. You may be surprised by how much time we will dedicate to understanding how your business works rather than just tossing you estimates and invoices for a website that will fall short of what your business truly needs. Remember, your success is shared with ours, so we want to make sure we help you as best as we can.

Aggregate Your Life in One Place

Mon, 06 Apr 2009 14:33:00 GMT

Tired of having multiple systems to log into each day to complete tasks for managing and running your company? The monthly costs payable to multiple platforms that stand alone and are time consuming to manage driving you out of your mind?

Well the buck and the madness stop here. Whether your managing customer relationships, editing website content, performing email marketing, billing, website analytics and even e-commerce solutions, it’s time to change the way you operate.

Logicblock’s Enterprise Business Suite was built for you, with it’s sole goal to make life simpler for you while still giving you all the neat services you rely on to enhance and manage your tasks. This suite allows you to integrate the various components across multiple platforms, all into one single system. This robust platform has one monthly rate, giving you access to all your tools from one system. After all we believe your services should interact together, and not simply remain disconnected from each other.

Sign up today and start accepting payments, creating email marketing campaigns, building customer databases, analyzing and improving results all in one place.

Aggregate your services together and make both you and them more effective.

Mnemonic Design

Mon, 06 Apr 2009 14:31:00 GMT

Logicblock focuses with online business. Anything online, we do it, and we do it well. That being said there is often a cross over between the web world and the print world. We strive to bridge the gap between the two, funneling ideas, and creating discussion around design techniques and strategy efforts that work, and ones that don’t.

Snapple is the perfect example of this. They’ve just launched a snappier, new snappie. As an avid Snapple fan, we noticed the change and decided to compare what they were gaining and what they were losing with the redesign.

At first glance we liked the general vibe it was giving of a fresher, more all natural flavor. But we found the design to pull almost too much away from the original intentions of their so sweetly crafted mnemonic design. For years I’ve ran down the drink isles in stores looking for that slanted Snapple type faced bottle. We equivocate the original design to that of the waffle typed “Waffle House” and the green circle of “Starbucks.”

All in all we feel good about the changes, yet wish they had keep some of their Snapple roots within the redesign. This is something many of our clients come to us with. They are looking for something new in their logo, or their website. They know they need something knew, yet they don’t want to lose what they’ve got, simply make it better. We sit down with our clients and focus on the elements needed to keep, and the elements needed to add, then go from there to create a series of new looks to choose from.

Contact us about a redesign today, and get all the benefits of a new design, with the original elements of your existing work.

Getting Noticed vs Existing

Mon, 06 Apr 2009 14:34:00 GMT

As the competitive world evolves a company can no longer survive and be noticed simply by existing. Websites built by relatives, and friends, and more often than not overnight companies often only provide you enough to exist.

Existing doesn’t allow you to become noticed – it merely puts you in the ring, but not center stage. Here at Logicblock Headquarters our duty is to get our customers noticed. Everyone exists, only the greats get noticed.

So how can we bring attention to your company? Well there are multiple processes we have in place to boost your strength. Take for instance SEO (Search Engine Optimization) – being the structure that drives traffic to your site based on keywords and phrases, and intricate code and strategy techniques.

We don’t expect you to be an expert at SEO, but we do expect you to be an expert of your company and your products/services. That being said, we provide sessions where we sit down and perform SEO on STEROIDS to your new or existing site. This session circles around the core components and dives into depth of how search engines like Google and Yahoo, etc. rank your website. We make it easy going forward to continue to manage the SEO on a dual track method.

“If you don't get noticed, you don't have anything. You just have to be noticed, but the art is in getting noticed naturally.” - Leo Burnett

Don’t you think it’s time you get noticed?

Five Ways to Flourish in a Recession

Tue, 10 Mar 2009 18:07:00 GMT

Businesses are defined by their peaks of success, but are truly recognized because of the valleys they arise from.

With all the negativity on the news and in blogs recently about the economy and it's affects on business, we decided (although we know things are rough, and we haven't found the right medicine to fix this headache yet) we would focus on five simple ways to maximize all you can during these rough times.

Build your business NOW. Leverage extra time, lower rates, and financial opportunities to invest in yourself. IBM’s biggest building years were during those of the great depression.
Use extra time to do NEW promotions. Look at this season as an opportunity to invest in your brand equity and awareness.
Don’t cut back. That’s the natural response, kind of like driving in snow when you sliding out of control- don’t do your natural reaction to correct the spin, do the opposite and turn into the spin, it always fairs out better in the end.
Stay on your customers minds. Only in subtle ways, use this time as an opportunity to mend relationships.
Make marketing part of your DNA. Marketing isn’t something you do or don’t do when the economy is bad, it’s something you just DO all the time. Make it an ingrained machine. Refine and define who you are. Marketing is like exercise, we never find time to do it, we know we should do it but we don’t. Be Proactive.

Microsoft Virtual Earth Imagery Updated

Wed, 04 Feb 2009 19:57:00 GMT

Microsoft has released their first major Virtual Earth 2009 image update, which includes about 100TB of new images (that is a ton!). The major updates include the new Digital Globe satellite imagery they recently licensed and Bird’s Eye photos of many many new cities and counties around the globe. There are literally tons of updates to the imagery, from satellite, to birds eye to orthos.

If you are looking for a web application or website that requires integration with Virtual Earth, Logicblock can help. From GPS tracking solutions to Store locations for your eCommerce store, we have the experience you need.

For the full list of where the new imagery can be spotted in Live Search Maps and Virtual Earth, see the blog post.

Google helps you Measure up in a downturn

Mon, 26 Jan 2009 20:52:00 GMT

The Google AdWords team has launched a new micro-site, www.google.com/domorewithless, to help novice website owners and advertisers reach their goals in the current economy. The site is really just a set of links to a existing Google tools and services (Insights for Search, Google Maps, Google Analytics, etc.) available to online marketers or business owners.

At the same time, on the Google AdWords blog, they’ve started a three-part series of articles that will explain how these cool tools work. The first web-tool to be highlighted is the Google Website Optimizer.

SEO professionals will probably not find anything new on this micro site, but marketing novices should take a look.

A New Page for the WhiteHouse

Thu, 22 Jan 2009 16:40:00 GMT

Today, for the second time in American history, the president's website switched owners adding much more focus on online communication, transparency and online participation.

According to the site's first blog post, written by Macon Phillips, a veteran of Obama's campaign and now the White House's new-media director, WhiteHouse.gov "will serve as a place for the President and his administration to connect with the rest of the nation and the world."

Visually, the site is a close cousin of the campaign Web site BarackObama.com and the presidential transition portal Change.gov. And just as Obama maintained an active YouTube presence during his 21-month campaign and nearly three-month transition, he will do so as president. WhiteHouse.gov added a YouTube channel shortly after Obama took office and is promising weekly video addressees.

Personally, I think the site is visually great looking and I believe that with the enhanced communication and participation features, it will be a bookmark for a much larger group of people all across the globe interested in keeping a closer eye on what is going on!

Be Great or Find Someone Who Is

Tue, 16 Dec 2008 22:37:00 GMT

Last year I designed a post card for a friend's nonprofit organization. Working with friends can be a headache sometimes... It took him awhile to understand why you would pay someone to put text and photos on a page. Aside from knowing the programs anyone can do this stuff, right?

Well, just the other day I got this year's postcard design. I think he created this in MS Publisher or even MS Paint. Anyways, he sent this around to all his friends and evidently they preferred last years design better. So what do you know, he's called again for more work!

I suppose graphic design is becoming a generic term. It can mean you work for Pentagram in New York or simply the night shift at the local Kinkos. Even my dad at home can be a graphic designer. Everybody "does graphics," but only few do graphics "great."

A serial entrepreneur in Dallas, Texas once told me that "the best way to get things done is to have other people do those things for you." He went on to say that "it takes time to find the best people to fill those spots, but once you know who can do what you need the best you lock them in."

We want you to lock us in. We are extremely confident in our abilities to build you anything your heart can desire. Not to mention our superb ecommerce and business builder systems provide so many tools at your disposal.

Let us be your "great" web/design/application team.

The Progressive Web

Tue, 16 Dec 2008 22:32:00 GMT

In an interesting conversation the other day we talked about how progressive companies that constantly institute changes for the better succeed immensely on the web front.

This is held true especially in the SEO world where constant updates are recognized by search engines and relevant data is categorized. But lets dig a bit deeper for discussions sake and note that a progressive web presence also engages your viewers.

Most would agree that it would be wasteful to visit a site that never changes its content. Not to mention less appealing each time. Yet websites that constantly update content/products are viewed far more often. Especially when there is a community that drives these iterations.

So how can you tell if you're a progressive web company? Here's a quick checklist:

Are you constantly making changes for the better?
Do you look at your failures and fix them as valuable lessons?
Do you push to make continuous improvements over time for better results?
Do you experiment with new methods?

Maybe you don't know how to be progressive. Well it's our job here at Logicblock to make your web presence progressive.

Anticipating Ruthless Holiday Season, E-Commerce Companies Push Promotions

Mon, 24 Nov 2008 18:57:00 GMT

'Cyber Monday' Discounts Bloom as Online retailers plan to offer more deals and promotions to spur holiday shopping on the Monday after Thanksgiving this year, according to a new study.

The survey, commissioned by Shop.org, a division of the National Retail Federation, says 83.7% of retailers will have special promotions on that day, known unofficially as "Cyber Monday," up from 72.2% a year ago. Of those promotions, one-off deals, email campaigns and one-day sales are expected to be popular.

Big online buyers of Lindor sweets can get bonus truffles.

"Due to the economic circumstances, it's extremely competitive for every dollar somebody's going to spend," says Scott Silverman, executive director of Shop.org. "Retailers need to be aggressive with promotions."

E-commerce sales have already slowed significantly this year. Online retail spending grew only 1% in October from a year ago, its lowest growth rate since 2001, according to market research firm comScore Inc. The slower growth is part of a downward trend that started late last year.

To lure consumers, Mr. Silverman says retailers haven't pulled back on promotions such as free shipping, which isn't a cheap benefit to provide consumers. Free shipping across all products will be offered by 22.5% of all retailers surveyed.

Charming Shoppes Inc.'s FashionBug.com site, which sells women's apparel and accessories, says it will offer free shipping on Cyber Monday. It is also offering 40% to 60% discounts on all categories, which will last throughout that week. Holiday Gift Guide

"Shipping costs is one of the biggest barriers to buying online, and we want to take away that burden," says Tim White, senior vice president for marketing for Charming Shoppes.

Other retailers such as Chocoladefabriken Lindt & Sprungli AG aren't waiting until Cyber Monday to offer promotions. Last week, the Swiss chocolate seller began offering 50 free Lindor truffles valued at $25 to customers who purchased $50 or more on its Web site. The deal will still be available on Cyber Monday.

The Shop.org study, released Monday, also found that 55.8% of workers with Internet access at work, equal to roughly 72.8 million people, will shop for holiday gifts from work, up from 44.7% in 2005. Mr. Silverman added that most of those people shop during their lunch hour.

By CHRISTOPHER LAWTON - The Wall Street Journal