Are you very busy? HISCEC’s Team can help you

If you are interested in becoming a member of the Hispanic Chamber of E-Commerce but your time is very limited, please let us know and we can help you out. We don’t want you to miss the opportunity to start promoting your company with us. Just sent us your information (name of your business and Web Site) through our contact form and within 48 hours your company will be listed at HISCEC’s business directory. Let’s get started, click click here.

Web Design: Virtual Stores

Web sites come in all kinds, shapes and sizes. The final result will depend on the creativity of the web designer and the needs of the customer. There are very talented Web designers in the market that can help you to build a very functional Web site. Right now, we want to share a few good tips to keep in mind when you are planning to incorporate an online store to your Web site.

The Virtual Store has three basic elements:

- The Online Catalog.
- The Shopping Cart.
- The Checkout Box.

There are a few things that you need to keep in mind while you are thinking about a perfect design for your virtual store:

• The process must be very simple. 2-3 Clicks must be enough to close the transaction.

• You have to try to keep the buyer in the shopping area.

• Facilitate the management of the products that are in the cart.

• Make the payment easy and safe.

• Inform the buyer of the status of the order.

• Guarantee privacy and security.

• Make sure to be clear about the shipping and handling. • Confirm orders and shipments.

• Provide support offline.

In summary, everything must be a clear step-by-step high quality process. Besides the technical parts, you can't forget to design an appropiated strategy in the following areas: Customer Service, Loyalty Programs and Corporate Branding.

We would like to finish this article by sharing with you a few good examples of successful virtual stores that are in the market. In order to do so, we will focus our attention on Online Clothing Stores. These stores have successfully created online stores that capture the essence of a good design:

JCPenney - Customer Service

Executives from JC Penny have tried to respond to the needs of their consumers in the best possible way. Through constant monitoring of the site measures, the company has managed to assemble a site that is constantly being updated; it offers a consistent image, motivates the action and generates enough traffic. During the third quarter of 2007, the company increased its sales over the Internet by 11.8%. The site of JC Penny has sales greater than $ 1.3 trillion annually. It is one of the sites most visited by men who seek clothing online. As an online shopper, I have enjoyed buying at JCpenny.com. It’s very pleasant and they have exceptional customer service.

GAP - Loyalty Programs

GAP.com has a virtual store where you can shop from four different stores in one single checkout. That makes it simple for the consumer.

GAP Inc. is a company that takes very seriously the importance of loyalty programs in all its brands. Those programs are successfully transferred to the websites of each of them. If you subscribe to their e-mail list, you receive periodic discount coupons which are easily redeemable at the time that you are buying at its website. In 2006, GAP Inc. reported online net sales of $ 730 million for all its brands (Gap, Old Navy and Banana Republic). With well-developed loyalty programs GAP has achieved to develop a close relationship with all its customers.

GUESS - Corporate Branding

Web Designers

- SEO King, Inc.

- Realskies Web Design

- Co-Op Web

The Hispanic Chamber of E-Commerce is working for you.

We look forward to having you as a member.

Sincerely,

HISCEC Staff

Yellow Pages: Is it worth it to have an ad there?

Over the last week, we have focused our attention to analyze the effectiveness of having an ad at the internet yellow pages. Our research shows that there are mixed opinions about the topic. For some business owners investing marketing dollars in the internet yellow pages have paid them good dividends but for some others it has been worthless, leading them to look for new ways of advertising online.

Business owners want to reach customers faster than their competitors. The Yellow Pages sales reps are aware of that and are going to show up at your business with different statistics that they are going to use to try to persuade you into the idea that there ads perform better than the competitors or other media.

Let’s take a look at some statistics:


Yellow Pages Association Perspective

“The Yellow Pages Association(TM) (YPA(TM)) announced, earlier this year, that industry research shows 2007 Yellow Pages usage grew to 17.2 billion searches in 2007, up from 16.7 billion in 2006.

Print usage remained stable with 13.4 billion print Yellow Pages references, unchanged from 2006, according to the 2007 Knowledge Networks/SRI (KN/SRI) Industry Usage Study, while comScore reports Internet Yellow Pages (IYP) searches increased 15 percent in 2007 to 3.8 billion, up from 2006's 3.3 billion IYP searches.

Additional findings regarding Yellow Pages usage include:

- Approximately 87 percent of the U.S. population used the print Yellow Pages in 2007.

- Average number of monthly IYP searchers up 16 percent: 73 million IYP searchers per month in 2007, compared to 63.1 million IYP searchers per month in 2006. (comScore)

- Of the 144 million people performing local searches online in December 2007, over half (51 percent) used IYPs. (comScore)” (Reuters, February 2008)




Source: Google Trends. August 17, 2008 at 6:45 p.m. PST

Consumer Perspective (Nielsen/NetRatings survey)

"- 24% of respondents rated yellow pages "not effective at all" or "mostly ineffective".

- 42% of survey respondents rated yellow pages as "effective" or "very effective" and 19% rated yellow pages "neither effective nor ineffective" ( 14% had no opinion or no experience with yellow pages).

Budget Allocation: Those who rated yellow pages as "not effective at all" or "mostly ineffective" allocated only 9% of their budget to yellow pages and a whopping 45% of their budget to internet advertising. Not surprising considering that 75% of this group rated internet advertising "effective" or "very effective".

What was somewhat surprising was the response from 42% of merchants who believe YP is effective. Of those merchants, 75% rated internet advertising as "effective" or "very effective". They allocate an average of 37% of their marketing budget to yellow pages and 30% to internet advertising (the remaining budget goes to newspapers, radio, TV and "other").

Willingness to Invest: Of merchants who rated the yellow pages effective, 73% would not spend more than $100/month on internet advertising. Of merchants who rated YP ineffective, 60% would not spend more than $100/month on internet advertising.




43% of merchants were willing to spend only between 0-3 hours per week marketing their business online. 40% said they would be willing to spend between 3-10 hours and 16% would spend more than 10 hours per week.” (Circle Merchant, February 2008)

Tim Somers, from the Michiganbusinesshub.com, shares his story: “The past 2 to 3 years I have cut my Yellow Pages advertising considerably. From full display ads to half inch ads and in some categories just bold line listings. So in March of 2007 I went with a $40 a month advanced listing on YellowPages.com that linked to my site. A few months had past and I did not see much activity in my Google Analytics stats in regards to traffic from the listing on YellowPages.com. I asked for my stats – first off I was told my impressions, I snapped back with the comment that impressions don’t mean much to me – I want to know how many clicks (visits to my web site) my listing received. She told me 85, I asked “Per Month”? – Nope that was from March 2007 through January 2008 (11 Months) – so I did the math, 11 months at $40 is $440. Now it gets worse, $440 divided by the 85 clicks is $5.18 per click, wow I almost fell off my chair at how much per click I paid.” ( Tim Somers, March 2008)

Hispanic Chamber of E-Commerce Perspective

If your business has a decent marketing budget, a well-designed yellow pages ad certainly has a place in any good marketing program. The problem is that too many businesses rely on yellow pages ads as their sole means of advertising. With such a strategy, the chances of your business reaching its full potential are slim to none.

What you needed is an effective marketing strategy, one that overcomes the limitations of yellow pages ads and uses a variety of marketing tools to generate the biggest ROI for your marketing dollars. A well designed marketing strategy can include yellow pages ads, direct mail, newspapers ads, flyers, etc.; as well as, e-mail campaigns, e-newsletters, Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Pay-per-Click Campaigns (PPC), etc. Remember that we live in a media-saturated world and that the local search advertising market is highly fragmented. Therefore, you have to focus on what you need. Try to maximize your available resources by testing various communication channels. Eventually, you are going to be able to decide what marketing tools generate the best return on your investment. Stop wasting you’re your resources on ineffective, one-dimensional advertising and start growing your business in the most cost-effective possible manner.

We offer you an opportunity to register without cost at HISCEC. Some of the benefits of becoming a member are listed below:

1. Free listing at our Business Directory.




2. Complete Profile




3. Logo and description of your business




4. Online Catalog with your products/ services.



Hispanic Chamber of E-Commerce Case Study

Business: Don Lucio’s 3 Mexican Restaurant
In business: 6 years.

Employees: 3

Advertising Strategy: None

How do they get customers? Networking with the local community of Santee, CA and by customer referrals.
Strengths: Quality service, delicious food, friendly attitude of the owners and a hard working team.

If you Google “Don Lucios 3” it comes out in the first page, right below other “Don Lucios” restaurants. Not bad at all considering that he got listed at the Hispanic Chamber of E-Commerce for FREE.

Other services available to Members are articles submission, online advertising and sponsored links. Coming soon the site's forum is going to be available as well as a section where we are going to be posting promotional videos of your businesses and more.

We hope that you have found this information of some value to you. It's up to you to decide whether or not an ad at the yellow pages is a good move to promote your company. You know that there are several options in the market that you can consider before spending lots of money in just one, try different advertising channels until you find the ones that are more effective for your business.

We look forward to serving you.

Sincerely,

HISCEC Staff

California Home Loans: Vibra Bank

Your long-term financing needs can be met promptly and professionally by our experienced lending team. At Vibra Bank, our desire is to empower and inspire our customers to reach their goals and full potential with the support of the Bank’s resources and our commitment to building quality relationships.

Whether you need a mortgage on your home, an SBA 504 loan for your business headquarters, or a conventional commercial loan on an investment property, we can structure a loan that makes sense for your needs. What’s more we put our relationship banking style to work for you, to try and meet your needs even if they don’t fit the “packaged” loans offered by some banks. Give us a call today, and we’ll show you how.

Contact Us

Vibra Bank530 BroadwayChula Vista, CA 91910
Telephone: 619-422-5300Fax: 619-422-5311
Email: vibra@vibrabank.com
Mail:P.O. Box 1437Chula Vista, CA 91912-1437

Visit our profile at HISCEC, click here.

El Portón Cobre - Copper Products

San Diego, 2008/ HISCEC News/ -- Workshop and store "El Portón" crafts of copper and metals, special prices to wholesalers. If you are a wholesale buyer, we have the best deal, quality and price; you won't regret! We can send your purchase any place in/and outside Mexico, we have parcel service. We export to any part of the world.WORKSHOP AND STORE, TALLER Y TIENDA “EL PORTON” IT’S A TRADITIONALLY –RICH BUSINESS WITH MANY YEARS IN THE PRODUCTION & FABRICATION OF COPPER-MADE PRODUCTS, NOW WE HAVE SEVERAL SHOPS.



WHENEVER VISITING US, YOU CAN TAKE A CLOSE LOOK AND EXPERIENCE THE TRADITIONAL WAY IN WHICH OUR SKILLED MASTERS, THIS UNIQUE METAL, BY THE USE OF A STILL-PRACTICED ANCIENT TECHNIQUE, CONSISTED OF A CONSISTED OF INSTANT “HAMMERING” OF A SOUL METAL PIECE ALL THESE YEARS HAVE MADE US IMPROVE OUR QUALITY AND PRODUCTION, BRINGING AS A CONSEQUENCE THE BEST AND MOST COMPETITIVE PRICE YOU CAN FIND IN THE BRANCH.



WITHOUT ANY DOUBT, THE USE AND MASTERING THESE ANCIENT TECHNIQUES, IS WHAT GIVES OUR PIECES THE QUALITY AND THE FACT OF BEING UNIQUES, ONE PIECE IS DIFFERENT FROM THE OTHER; HAND-MADE PRODUCTS.




WE PROVIDE SPECIAL TREAT TO EXCURSIONS, TOURS, TOURIST GUIDES, TRAVEL AGENCIES, AND GROUPS; WHEN CONFIRMING YOUR VISIT YOU GET A SPECIAL GIFT.




LOCATION: DOWNTOWN TO SANTA CLARA DEL COBRE, PINO SUÁREZ N. 69

We invite you to take a look at our online catalog available at HISCEC. Click here!

Article sponsored by: El Portón Cobre.

Albavera Designs - Jewelry

Albavera design is a company that was born by the end of the 69's in the beautiful City of Taxco, Guerrero. The Company was founded by Mr. Miguel Albavera Bahena.Throughout the time, the experience has guided us towards new forms and techniques of design elaboration without losing the handmade essence that has characterized this company. Different awards and prizes have been granted to Albavera Designs four our great work showed to Taxco society and to all our clients.

We are currently producing a line of fine jewelry with semiprecious stones, pearls, amber, Fossils, and much more, captured in Necklaces, Bracelets, Bangles, Charms, Claps, Rings, Earrings, among other pieces. Our pieces are sometimes unique since no other similar is produced. We offer thousands of models to choose from, and new designs every three months.
Since 2002, Albavera Designs joined a select group of companies in Taxco Guerrero called "Altamente Exportadoras" (ALTEX), certified by the Public Credit and Treasury Department under certification number ALTEX 2002/4507. The experience we gained has allowed us to export to any part of the world. We want to be always in the taste of the people because of the great passion that we pour into our designs, beautifying even more those whoe wear our jewels.

With my best wishes,

Miguel Albavera - Designer of Fine Sterling Silver Jewelry, Since 1969

Visit Albavera's profile at HISCEC, click here.

Product Reviews - New addition to HISCEC's application

The Hispanic Chamber of E-Commerce has added a tool that allows to leave a product review at each one of the products/ services that are listed at the e-marketplace. In the last couple of weeks, we started to get some really nice comments about a few products that are already listed at our site so we decided that it was a good idea to allow other members to read those comments right at the same page where the product or service is located. We added a product review form to our e-commerce tool. Our IT Department did an incredible job in such a short period of time. Here it is how it works:

1. You click at the product/ service:





2. Click the link that it is located right next to the five stars.

Fill out the form. Make sure to select 1-5 stars before your summit your product review. If you give the product/ service 5 stars that means that you really like it.

3. Your feedback is going to look similar to the one shown below:

4. The product/ service will show how many users have provided a product review and also, the overall rating provided by the participants.

We hope that you like the new addition that we have done to our e-commerce tool.

Have a nice day.

We look forward to serving you.

HISCEC Staff

Membership Benefits

There are two levels of Membership available at the Hispanic Chamber of E-Commerce at the moment. They include the following benefits:

1. Basic Membership ................................................ FREE

- Promote your business at HISCEC's e-Marketplace.
- Add a logo, description of your company and contact information.
- Link to your Web site.
- Post up to 5 products/ services in your profile.
- Post up to 12 pictures of your business.
- Receive unlimited messages at your account without making your e-mail address public.
- Get feedback from your customers. Greater levels of information retrieval.
- Development of relationships within the Member's Network of the Hispanic Chamber of E-Commerce.
- Plus all benefits offered by promoting your business in the Internet:
* Access to your products by potential customers 24/7
* Develop new markets
* Communicate with a large number of customers
* Increase Sales
* Cost Savings
* Greater Visibility

Sign Up now!

2. Premium Membership ................................. $150 USD

- Promote your business at the business directory of the Hispanic Chamber of E-Commerce.
- Add a logo, description of your company and contact information.
- Link to your Web site.
- Post up to 100 products/ services in your profile.
- Post up to 12 pictures of your business.
- Receive unlimited messages at your account without making your e-mail address public.
- Get feedback from your customers.
- Development of relationships within the Member's Network of the Hispanic Chamber of E-Commerce.
- Plus all benefits offered by promoting your business in the Internet:
* Access to your products by potential customers 24/7
* Develop new markets
* Communicate with a large number of customers
* Increase Sales
* Cost Savings
* Greater Visibility
- The Hispanic Chamber of E-Commerce can help you to find buyers.
- Higher level of trust in the community of the Hispanic Chamber of E-Commerce.
- Receive special discounts from Members and Sponsors.

Sign Up now!

We will modify or add new benefits as soon as new services become available at our site.

Tambo Roses: Since 1994 improving the rose spirit

We produced and export a great number of rose varieties, with an excellent quality and personalized service to satisfy the needs of our customers.

The modern effort of our organization allow us constant innovation technology, respect for the environment and to have our human resources motivated, qualified and fully compromised with efficiency and profability. Visit our online catalog here.