Internet Lighting Retailer 1000Bulbs.com Improves Customer Experience

Newly enhanced website features include improved navigation, intelligent search and a variety of tools for both business and consumers.

Garland, TX (PRWEB) April 02, 2012

Internet lighting retailer 1000Bulbs.com has revealed a variety of customer experience improvements to their website in recent months. The aesthetic and functional changes are the product of suggestions by the lighting retailers customer base and lighting industry experts. The improvements include a cleaner look, intuitive navigation, intelligent search, social network integration, customer reviews and a variety of tools for both businesses and consumers.

One of the most significant improvements to the website is an integrated product search that intelligently returns accurate search results while omitting any irrelevant results, a drastic change from the websites previous simple text search. The search also helps customers find products with faceted navigation of results, enabling the customer to filter results by price, manufacturer and other product specifications.

Customers may also save their frequently ordered products to Favorites folders. This feature provides users with the ability to repeat recent orders without re-adding each product to their shopping cart. Similar customer-oriented features include an address book and payment method selector, which allow users to save multiple addresses and credit card numbers for shipping or payment. For the first time, international customers may also order from the site and ship to addresses outside the US.

Customers, too, have enhanced the 1000Bulbs.com shopping experience by writing more than 5,000 product reviews. The site's new review functionality allows customers to write a review, give a product a rating from one to five stars and evaluate the effectiveness and value of the product. The review area also encourages customers to upload application photos for display on the product page. Other customers can vote on the helpfulness of individual reviews and share their favorite reviews via Facebook, Twitter or Digg. 1000Bulbs.com customer reviews are also archived at dedicated subdomain of the site as a customer shopping aid.

An improved feature aimed at commercial clients is the new "quotes" area. The feature allows a 1000Bulbs.com sales representative to send quotes for large-quantity orders to clients' account pages for their review. Customers may review the quotes for a 30-day period by logging into their account. The quotes area is one of many features designed to integrate the company's web and person-to-person sales experiences.

1000Bulbs.com also enhanced preexisting features after carefully assessing customer feedback. The sites well-known category-based navigation tool is still intact but is cleaner and simpler with the added advantage of side-by-side product comparisons. The company also reworked its product recommendation tool to collect previous client data and deliver corresponding and related products to the client. The site will only get better with time, says CEO Kim Pedersen. We believe the website will provide the same ease-of-use customers are used to, but with constantly-evolving features that will stay one step ahead of their needs.

Indeed, 1000Bulbs.com also plans to launch several more features and improvements in the coming months. Some of these features include tighter integration with social media sites, further streamlined faceted navigation, and interactive finder tools that allow customers to select ballasts based on lamp type and number and to find batteries and automotive lamps based on vehicle make and model.

About 1000Bulbs.com: 1000Bulbs.com is an award-winning Internet-based lighting retailer. The company offers everything from simple, household light bulbs to cutting-edge specialty lighting systems. Nationally recognized for growth, innovation, and customer satisfaction, 1000Bulbs.com is an influential force in the lighting industry.

For the original version on PRWeb visit: http://www.prweb.com/releases/prweb2012/4/prweb9346782.htm

Dexclusive.com boosts conversion 50% by dumping ‘garbage traffic’

This low-quality traffic also had a negative impact on the retailers page rank andsearch engine results, because those visitors didnt go beyond the home page,Picariello says. Most of these visitors were only on our site for a few seconds and clicked right off, he says.

So last summer, the retailer cut off about 1,000 affiliates and reduced three affiliate marketing networks to only Commission Junction. That was the main reason traffic dropped 30% in 2011, but conversion went up 50% from 0.8% to 1.2%, Picariello says. We stopped working with those affiliates because it wasnt worth getting all the garbage traffic slowing down our site with no conversions, Picariello says. Now we are only getting people truly interested in purchasing watches.

Another contributor to higher conversion was the shift from a Miva Merchante-commerce platform to a custom-built Magentosite, Nul says. We have a lot more user-generated content now, he says. Customers can now tag our products or Like them on Facebook; we added product comparisons, wish lists and more product images. We widened our screen, too, so we can fit more content on one page. This is all definitely boosting our Google search results.

The shopping cart is also more streamlined now, with fewer steps involved in the checkout process. The addition of Checkout by Amazon also contributed to higher conversions, Picariello says. Thats because some customers like paying for items by only entering their Amazon.com username and password, as opposed to their entire credit card billing information and address. Nearly 25% of shoppers currently pay with Checkout by Amazon, while 25% use PayPal and around 50% use credit cards.

The fraud protection is a lot better with Amazon too, Nul adds. They cover all the costs if someone fraudulently purchases from us and we get a chargeback. This is a big deal for us, because we sell high-end watches, sometimes $3,000 or $4,000 apiece.

The changes Dexclusive.com implemented in the last year are positioning the retailer for more growth in 2012, and Nul is forecasting a 100% increase in sales.

April Anderson, retail industry director at Google, will speak at the Internet Retailer Conference amp; Exhibition 2012 in June, in a session titled, Paid search strategies for the smaller merchant. The IRCE $200 early-bird discount expires March 31.

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Groups Call on NY’s Top Environmental Cop to Enforce 40-Year-Old Disclosure …

ALBANY, NY (03/19/2012)(readMedia)-- Twenty one groups delivered a letter to New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) Commissioner Joseph Martens today asking him to enforce a nearly 40-year-old law that requires the manufacturers of household cleaning products to disclose the sometimes dangerous and toxic chemical ingredients in their products, as well as the health risks the chemicals pose. For maximum benefit to consumers, the groups also called for a user-friendly, searchable, centralized database of product and chemical data.

Spring is nearly here and with it spring cleaning. As New Yorkers break out their mops and buckets, they shouldnt still be guessing whats in their cleaning products said Saima Anjam of Environmental Advocates of New York. Its time to step up and dust off this 40-year-old law. Lets shine some light on what consumers are bringing into their homes and exposing their families to.

What are cleaning product manufacturers trying to hide? said Ansje Miller, Eastern States Director for the Center for Environmental Health. Under the status quo, the only ones left in the dark are the consumers and workers who use cleaning products on a regular basis. If these products were truly safe, disclosing their ingredients shouldnt be a problem.

New Yorkers have a right to know what chemicals are in cleaning products, and 40 years is much too long a time to wait for a law to be enforced, said Sarah Eckel, Citizens Campaign for the Environment. According to the EPA, cleaning products are among the top five most common exposures to poison for children. New Yorkers right to be informed and protect their families is long overdue.

Since 1976, state regulations have required that manufacturers of household cleaning products selling their wares in New York file semi-annual reports with the DEC listing the chemicals in their products and describing any company research on their health and environmental effects. The law was passed in 1971. Decades went by without meaningful enforcement, depriving consumers of information they need to protect themselves.

Scofflaw cleaning product companies need to know that they cannot ignore New Yorks regulations any longer, said Deborah Goldberg, Managing Attorney of Earthjustice. On the other hand, full disclosure will help green and responsible companies, because once there is a website that offers easy product comparisons, consumers can stop buying the toxic cleaners.

In the letter, the organizations, which include American Lung Association in New York, Center for Health, Environment amp; Justice, Clean and Healthy New York, CRAAB!, Center for Environmental Health, Citizens Campaign for the Environment, Citizens Environmental Coalition, Consumers Union, Earthjustice, Empire State Consumer Project, Environmental Advocates of New York, Grassroots Environmental Education, Huntington Breast Cancer Action Coalition, Institute for Health and the Environment, New York Committee for Occupational Safety and Health, New York Public Interest Research Group, NYSUT, Riverkeeper, Inc., Sierra Club, Sierra Club Atlantic Chapter, and Womens Voices for the Earth formally requested
that Commissioner Martens make public disclosure of household cleaning product ingredients a priority. The DEC has committed to require that household cleaner companies reveal the chemicals in their products and any health risks they pose and has been working to develop a system that will provide this valuable information to the public. But the agencys proposal has been under consideration for more than a year, and it is now time to make this process a priority. The groups are asking the agency to accelerate the timeline for action, so New Yorkers have access to this information as soon as possible.

Household cleaning products typically contain an array of chemicals that can be harmful to public health and to the environment. A growing body of evidence associates exposure to such chemicals with long-term effects, such as cancer and hormone disruption. And because many cleaning chemicals survive sewage treatment systems intact and are released into streams and other bodies of water, there is growing concern such chemicals pose a threat to fish and other wildlife.

Some companies seem to think that household cleaner chemical disclosure should be made only on a need-to-know basis. Well, guess what: New Yorkers need to know, because toxic chemicals in household products can affect our quality-and length-of life, said Bobbi Chase Wilding, Deputy Director for Clean and Healthy New York. Were counting on DEC to move forward quickly to collect this crucial information from all companies and provide the public easy access.

The Sierra Club recognizes the importance of cleaning to protect health especially of children, elderly, pregnant woman and others with existing health conditions. But just as people are not the same, we recognize that not all cleaning products are the same. Disclosing ingredients will help household consumers identify the products that best protects their familys health, and it will make it easier to reward innovative companies who create effective products that are safer for health and the environment, said Steve Ashkin, Sierra Club, Toxics Committee.

From detergents to disinfectants and aerosol sprays, these household products do more than make our homes sparkle: they contribute to indoor air pollution, are poisonous if ingested, and can be harmful if touched, said Laura Haight, New York Public Interest Research Group. The public has a right to know what these products contain so they can make informed decisions as consumers.

The groups assert that contrary to the claims of household cleaning product manufacturers, it is not enough to have industry-selected information posted voluntarily on individual company web sites. Multiple locations and inconsistent presentations of data make it difficult, if not impossible, for even the most diligent consumers to determine whether a particular cleaning product contains dangerous chemicals or if there are safer alternatives on the market.

The solution, the groups say, is a user-friendly, searchable, centralized database of product and chemical data.

In our recent report, Dirty Secrets, we revealed that popular cleaning products like Tide Free and Gentle laundry detergent contain some nasty chemicals like 1-4 dioxane, a known carcinogen, that are not disclosed on the label, said Erin Switalski, executive director of Womens Voices for the Earth. New York has a law on the books that would require companies to disclose the presence of such chemicals-all the state needs to do is start enforcing it.

Many household cleaners contain chemicals that can trigger asthma attacks, leaving users struggling to catch their breath, said Michael Seilback, VP Public Policy and Communications at the American Lung Association in New York. Giving consumers access to the information they need to protect their health makes sense and is New York State law: we urge the Commissioner to enforce it.

Despite the dangers of many of the chemicals used in cleaning products, there is no state or federal requirement compelling cleaning product manufacturers to identify chemical ingredients on product labels. Although New Yorks reporting law has largely been forgotten, its mere existence means the state leads the nation in household cleaner right-to-know laws.

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Compare Prepaid Credit Cards With Cheap.co.uk

(PRWEB UK) 23 March 2012

Compare prepaid credit cards with Cheap.co.uk.

As part of a recent agreement signed with OMG services ltd, Cheap.co.uk now displays a number of pre-paid credit cards on their site (http://www.cheap.co.uk/credit-cards/prepaid-credit-cards.htm) allowing site visitors to compare the best offerings on the market.

A spokesmen for cheap.co.uk commented: "Although the pre-paid credit card market isn't the largest we thought it would make for a useful comparison to number of our site visitors, hence why we have put this site page together. We hope it comes in useful and receives some interest and perhaps users can find the best deals on the pre-paid credit card market with our help."

The comparison allows visitors to compare application fees, ATM machine charges and the reloading options available amongst other details on the individual cards. Added to this the option to filter various types of cards including those for business users and those less than 18 years old and the comparison should come in useful.

Pre-paid credit cards are particularly interesting for those travelling abroad. Rather then taking a risk with their bank and standard credit card whilst away, an increasing number of travellers look to load cards with their holiday funds so should the unfortunate occur and they lose their documents, only the amount added to the prepaid card are lost. This is just an extra precaution and in almost all cases, cards are covered by travel insurance policies.

Soon to follow money related product comparisons include credit cards and bank accounts with mortgages and loans expected later this year.