This joint venture will create a European group providing E-Commerce systems to the start-up and SME markets with a customer portfolio approaching 20,000 e-tailers. This union strengthens the group’s position in the E-Commerce market in the UK, France, Spain and Italy. The group also takes the lead as the foremost E-Commerce solution provider with over 11 million orders processed through Sellerdeck and Oxatis retailers combined, representing more than £1 billion of online sales per annum.

The joint venture will be represented in the UK by the formation of a new business division called Sellerdeck Online. This division will provide a full range of web-based E-Commerce solutions offerings to the UK market, based on the Oxatis platform.

The launch of Sellerdeck Online will complement the existing Sellerdeck desktop products (Catalog, Business and Enterprise) by providing an alternative SaaS-based E-Commerce application with a number of advanced capabilities not found in the current Sellerdeck range such as eBay, Amazon and Facebook integration. At the same time, Sellerdeck will continue development of the existing desktop E-Commerce software products range with version 11 due for release this summer.

Chris Barling, CEO and founder of Sellerdeck, says: “Sellerdeck has a large customer portfolio and extensive experience in the UK market. The combination of that experience and the expertise Oxatis possesses in the SaaS environment will help us to complement and strengthen the overall choice for both business customers and partners. There is clearly a strong synergy between Sellerdeck and Oxatis and we are looking forward to joining forces to make a real difference in the UK market.”

Marc Schillaci, CEO and founder of Oxatis, declares, “We are very happy to announce this alliance with Sellerdeck. It is an interesting and challenging market opportunity for us, and taking on this challenge will help us accelerate our European development and solidify our position as a European leader.“

Contact:

Simon Armstrong, marketing manager, Sellerdeck Online. 0845 129 4800   

About Sellerdeck:
Established in 1996, Sellerdeck is a long-time player in the UK E-Commerce market and offers a complete range of E-Commerce solutions dedicated to start-ups and SMEs.

About Oxatis:

Oxatis was established in July 2001 in Marseille, France and is a European leader in SaaS E-Commerce solutions. Oxatis is also present in Spain and Italy with over 6,500 confirmed customers.

In addition, the latest Sellerdeck survey of small and medium businesses selling online shows the quantity of orders processed by each e-tailer increased by 12% on average in the first quarter over the same period in 2010. Notably respondents also reported their average shopping cart value decreasing by over 3% during the period from £71.17 in the first quarter 2010 to £68.82 in the first quarter 2011, indicating shoppers are becoming more restrained in their spending.

If the two sets of figures are compared by month from 2010 to 2011 a very different picture emerges. January was very strong with a 20% increase in sales and 17% increase in orders processed, in contrast to February and March which both saw only a 4% increase in sales and 10% growth in the number of orders.

Nick Kington, managing director at Sellerdeck comments, “The quarter started very strongly, perhaps as a bounce back following the difficulties experienced due to the weather in December 2010. However in February and March there were signs that consumers might be starting to rein in their spending. With the government cutbacks starting in earnest and the possibility of an increase in interest rates the outlook for the second quarter of 2011 is looking less optimistic. But internet shopping still seems to be more resilient than the high street given that the British Retail Consortium reported a 1.9% decrease in sales this March.”

Selling Successfully Online is available as an A5 paperback from Amazon for £7.99 (www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0955068819), or for a limited time as a free PDF download from www.actinic.co.uk/top-tips.

Written and laid out in an easily digestible format which allows readers to dip in and out of particular topics, Chris Barling has collated the best tips from his own articles published over the last 15 years, as well as including real world advice from online shop owners and E-Commerce site developers. As a result the book offers a wealth of vendor-neutral ideas and sound professional advice to those thinking about E-Commerce, as well as anyone already selling online.

Topics covered include:

• Introduction to selling online including a FAQ about selling on the internet and setting up advice;
• Marketing a website – attracting people, digital marketing, SEO, PPC, email marketing, social networks, using video/audio and measuring performance;
• Selling – maximising sales with optimal product pages, turning browsers into buyers, avoiding abandoned shopping carts, pricing and promotion;
• Operations – fraud prevention, staying legal and shipping considerations;
• Advanced E-Commerce – selling abroad, mobile commerce and multi-channel retail;
• Customer relations – showing customers you care, interaction and feedback.

Book reviewers have described it as:

“A must read for anyone thinking of selling online, Chris Barling has packed in over 300 practical tips based on his experience of helping thousands of businesses setting up E-Commerce websites. The book is divided into easy to follow sections and covers all the aspects of selling online. If you are thinking of selling online this book will be invaluable to have and keep returning to.” Brian Jack, managing director of www.is4profit.com.

Rory MccGwire, founder of www.startupdonut.co.uk and www.marketingdonut.co.uk says, “The E-Commerce advice Chris gives visitors to our business advice websites is always sharp and insightful. Here it’s condensed into more than 300 practical tips for increasing online sales that anyone can follow — if I were you, I’d get hold of this book before your rivals do.”

Review copies & information from:

Sellerdeck ’s PR: Jane Lee, www.dexterity.co.uk, 01273 470199, Sellerdeck [at] dexterity.co.uk.

About the author:

Chris Barling, CEO and co-founder of Sellerdeck has provided advice and insight for small and medium businesses over the past 15 years. He has 30 years’ experience in the IT industry, having held senior positions in Reuters, Cable and Wireless and GLS before joining Sellerdeck and is also a non-executive director with Hargreaves Lansdown plc, the independent financial service provider.

His articles, blogs and interviews have appeared in the leading E-Commerce and small business media including .net, BCS Annual Review, Better Business, Business Matters, BusinessZone, Catalogue e-Business, Internet Retailing, is4profit, MarketingDonut, New Business, New Media Knowledge, Retail Systems, Retail Technology, StartupDonut and many more.

The deal will mean that businesses using the Sellerdeck platform to drive their websites can now select Ogone to process their payments simply by clicking on a dropdown selection in the Business Settings. The plug-in is available to those using Sellerdeck version 10 (v10.0.2 onwards) for Sellerdeck Catalog, Business, Business Plus and Enterprise.

As a result of the partnership over 12,000 of the UK’s small and medium sized E-Commerce ventures can now benefit from Ogone’s fully PCI-DSS compliant online payment processing. Furthermore they can take advantage of Ogone’s established relationships with all the major payment providers such as Visa, Mastercard and American Express, as well as all local European payment providers. These include Solo and Maestro in the UK, iDeal and Machtigingen in the Netherlands, ELV in Germany and Carte Bleue in France, enabling them to develop European markets through a single, consolidated payment mechanism.

Nick Kington, Managing Director, Sellerdeck said of the partnership “An increasing number of the UK’s independent retailer’s want to trade internationally. It is Ogone’s ability to process payments from different markets that differentiates them from other PSPs and makes its plug in an excellent addition to our platform and services.”

Julian Wallis, UK Country Manager, Ogone said: ‘Sellerdeck helps thousands of businesses to power their online stores and is a major player in the UK market. As British retailers realise that the our domestic E-Commerce market is maturing, it’s important they take the next step and prepare for overseas trading. The Ogone platform is specifically designed to open European markets and this partnership with Sellerdeck will simplify international trading for a large number of UK firms.’

Ogone has completed all the technical work to develop the plug in and fully integrate its payment platform with Sellerdeck so that Sellerdeck customers can benefit from Ogone’s extensive experience and wide range of payment services with minimal time and effort.

The plug in is available now and is listed on the payment services page. Please visit: http://www.sellerdeck.co.uk/index.php/partners/category/payment-service-providers

ENDS

About Ogone:

Ogone Payment Services is one of the main European service providers specialised in the processing of online payments, with more than 28.000 customers in 40 countries. The company provides a range of electronic payment solutions covering a number of areas, including e-commerce, ticketing, call centres or the hotel industry. This includes both business-to-consumer solutions and business-to-business services (purchasing cards). With its transactional functionalities and extensive back-office capabilities, the Ogone Payment Services offering is one of the most comprehensive available today.

Ogone Payment Services is connected to the banks by certified interfaces and hence is able to handle international methods of payment such as Visa, MasterCard, American Express and Diners Club, as well as local payment methods, including iDeal and Machtigingen in the Netherlands, Solo and Maestro UK in the United Kingdom, Bancontact/Mister Cash in Belgium, ELV and giropay in Germany, Carte Bleue in France, Dankort and eDankort in Denmark etc.

A number of major organisations have also opted to use Ogone to handle their payments. These include Friends Provident, Tui, Thomas Cook, Halfords, Just Eat, Bose, Opodo, Club Med, DHL International, Viking Direct/Office Depot, Thalys International, Misco and Center Parcs.

Ogone Payment Services has offices in Belgium, the Netherlands, France, Germany, Switzerland, Austria and the United Kingdom.

About Sellerdeck:

Founded in 1996, Sellerdeck (www.sellerdeck.co.uk) is a British company specialising in helping small and medium retailers trade, both online and offline, using its E-Commerce and electronic point of sale (EPOS) packages.

 Sellerdeck offers E-Commerce products for web designers and self-builders, including both web-based and desktop solutions. The range includes Sellerdeck Enterprise, Sellerdeck Business, Sellerdeck Catalog, Sellerdeck Express and Sellerdeck Designer. Sellerdeck powers more UK E-Commerce sites than any other company. 

Sellerdeck EPOS systems give a comprehensive feature set that is straightforward to operate at great value. The range extends from a low cost, single till installation for the smaller store, to integrated multi-till and multi-site systems with head office functionality for centralised product, stock and price updating and reporting.

Trademarks: Sellerdeck, Sellerdeck Catalog, Sellerdeck Business, Sellerdeck Express and Sellerdeck Designer are registered trademarks of Sellerdeck Software Limited.

Nick Ward / Sarah Mulder EpochPR T: +44 (0) 207 401 8001 nward@epochpr.com smulder@epochpr.com Enterprise House 1-2 Hatfields, London www.epochpr.com

Sellerdeck is pleased to announce the release of the latest Sellerdeck v10 update v10.0.3.

Version 10.0.3 fixes a significant number of issues from earlier Sellerdeck versions. It also includes several changes aimed at improving performance, particularly for larger sites, and a further enhancement to Sellerdeck Payments.

For information about the improvements in this release, see the key changes summary in the Release Notes.

For showing stock in extended information pages and other additions, see the new Advanced User Guide.

If you are not already using Sellerdeck v10 you can take a 30 day trial of this new release.

Sellerdeck Online

The new, web-based Sellerdeck Online E-Commerce range comprises five monthly subscription packages. All the packages include everything needed to design, build and manage an E-Commerce website. In a break from traditional software pricing where additional fees are often charged for high-level features, Sellerdeck Online pricing is based on usage with all the subscription levels offering identical functionality including advanced features such as:

• Dynamic integration with eBay and Amazon marketplaces
• Publishing products on a Facebook business page
• Promoting and tracking products on price comparison sites such as Google Product Search, Kelkoo, Twenga, Pricesavvy and Ciao.

Nick Kington, managing director of Sellerdeck Online comments, “In today’s E-Commerce environment, start-up and SME businesses are looking to take advantage of all the channels and services available to develop and grow their online businesses. With the launch of this new range of Sellerdeck Online products we are looking to provide British businesses with access to competitively priced, ‘all-in-one’ E-Commerce applications with all the integrated functionality necessary to build a successful online store.”

This launch follows on from the joint venture announced in June 2011 between Sellerdeck and Oxatis, the top-selling E-Commerce provider in France, Spain and Italy. The resulting pan-European group provides E-Commerce systems to the start-up and SME markets in UK, France, Spain and Italy and has a customer portfolio approaching 20,000 e-tailers with over 11 million orders processed and more than £1 billion of online sales per annum.

Sellerdeck Desktop v11

Sellerdeck has also recently shipped version 11 of its desktop software. This allows customer accounts to be created automatically and enables shoppers to view their account details and track the progress of their orders online. It adds support for single-use discount coupons, usability enhancements and SEO improvements including fast ‘single product per page’ implementation.

Pricing

The Sellerdeck Online monthly pricing includes telephone/online support and hosting. The packages are Bronze £19, Chrome £35. There are introductory discounted prices (valid until 31 December 2011) for Silver £59, Gold £99 and Platinum £149. All prices exclude VAT. The functionality for each package is identical and is dependent on the number of products, page views, storage and user profiles.

Sellerdeck Catalog v11 desktop starts at £499 excluding VAT.

In addition respondents reported their average shopping cart value increased slightly during the period from £67.30 in the fourth quarter 2009 to £68.90 in the same period in 2010.

E-tailers reported that the early snow placed extra pressures on their customer service operations as people were anxious about their orders arriving in time for Christmas.

Richard Smart, managing director, Smart Packaging, www.smartpackagingstore.co.uk reports that, “Although our customer service queries increased over 400% due to the unprecedented weather conditions, we still managed to increase our sales by 19%. We found that by working very closely with our main carriers we were able to offer a dedicated Weather Help page on the site which indicated the ‘troubled’ postcodes which then helped customers when ordering.”

Ben Biscoe, managing director of Fairyglass www.fairyglass.co.uk comments that, “While the snow caused a few problems with deliveries, it also meant that customers did not venture out to shop. As a result we had our best online sales ever this Christmas, up around 15% on last year.”

Nick Kington, managing director at Sellerdeck comments, “Despite the snow and ice, SMEs selling online have continued to report healthy increases in both the number of orders processed, and most importantly the revenues achieved in the run up to the crucial Christmas trading period. This survey highlights that more consumers have opted for the convenience of online shopping this Christmas, although businesses have had to work extra hard to overcome the customer service difficulties created by the weather conditions.

Contacts: Phil Rothwell, Sellerdeck.0845 129 4888 (calls cost 2p per minute plus your phone company’s access charge)

Sellerdeck PR: Jane Lee, Dexterity. +44 (0)1273 470199, Sellerdeck at dexterity.co.uk

About Sellerdeck:

Founded in 1996, Sellerdeck (www.sellerdeck.co.uk) is a British company specialising in helping small and medium retailers trade, both online and offline, using its E-Commerce and electronic point of sale (EPOS) packages.

Sellerdeck offers E-Commerce products for web designers and self-builders, including both web-based and desktop solutions. The range includes Sellerdeck Enterprise, Sellerdeck Business, Sellerdeck Catalog, Sellerdeck Express and Sellerdeck Designer. Sellerdeck powers more UK E-Commerce sites than any other company.

Sellerdeck EPOS systems give a comprehensive feature set that is straightforward to operate at great value. The range extends from a low cost, single till installation for the smaller store, to integrated multi-till and multi-site systems with head office functionality for centralised product, stock and price updating and reporting.

Trademarks: Sellerdeck, Sellerdeck Catalog, Sellerdeck Business, Sellerdeck Express and Sellerdeck Designer are registered trademarks of Sellerdeck Software Limited.

Sellerdeck is pleased to announce the release of the latest Sellerdeck v10 update v10.0.4.

This is available for all Sellerdeck v10 customers to download from the Software Patches and Updates section of the Download Centre.

Version 10.0.4 fixes a number of issues from earlier releases and adds fields for Brand and for three types of Product Identifier (EAN, UPC and ISBN) as required for submissions to Google Product Search. For an explanation about product identifiers and for information about the improvements in this release see the release notes.

If you are not already using Sellerdeck v10 you can take a 30 day trial of this new release.

In contrast, in Q2 2010 growth was running at over double this rate (15%), and with the Q1 2011 figures showing an average 9% increase, the trend is downwards. However, these latest results still compare very favourably with high street retailers where June gave only 1.5% growth, which was better than expected.

The average order value has remained virtually unchanged at £72.08 for Q2 2011 compared to £72.16 for Q2 2010. The survey does highlight that there are still e-retailers experiencing strong growth. For example, many specialist web stores in the arts and crafts sector are thriving.

“Our Sellerdeck E-Commerce site www.knitwell.co.uk has been running for over 7 years and we are still experiencing strong growth with a 13% increase in revenue and 6% increase in order quantity for our Q2 2011 figures over the same time last year,” says owner Michael Calvert.

He adds, “The knitting marketing has seen a resurgence with celebrity endorsements from the likes of Julia Roberts and Cameron Diaz, combined with more people wanting to take up a new, inexpensive, but rewarding pastime. The cold winter last year also helped, with scarves becoming fashionable again which attracted younger knitters.”

Monica Hardman, managing director of English Yarns (www.englishyarns.co.uk) comments: “In April our 2011 turnover for the year was down 23% compared with 2010. So we implemented a discount programme with coupon codes to increase traffic to our site and incentivise visitors to purchase, firstly to those in the UK and EU and then customers in the rest of the world. Within a month we were into positive figures again with an increase of 3% in May and 12% in June for the year to date.”

Nick Kington, managing director at Sellerdeck Online comments, “These figures are not a big surprise. Consumer spending is clearly being hit hard and online retailers are not immune to tough times. However, some web merchants are thriving, highlighting that a combination of good merchandising, marketing and customer service can bring success even in the current climate.”

Contact: Simon Armstrong, marketing manager, Sellerdeck, 0845 129 4800 

About Sellerdeck Online:

Sellerdeck Online (online-E-Commerce) provides web-based E-Commerce and shopping cart software solutions for start-ups and SMEs. Sellerdeck Online products are supplied, supported and maintained through an alliance between Sellerdeck, the best-selling UK E-Commerce provider and Oxatis, the market leader in E-Commerce solutions in France. All products combine flexibility, affordability and ease of use with the functionality needed to build and manage a successful online business and are used by many thousands of companies to power their E-Commerce stores.