MNET Blog

MNET Launches Gulf Oil Mobile Website

Mon, 21 May 2012 16:17:00 -0400

MNET recently completed the creation of a mobile version of the Gulf Oil website. The adaptions made for mobile devices allows for a faster and more efficient mobile browsing experience. The device-centric experience allows for users to more easily access Gulf Card information, Store Locator and Gulf’s Roadmap program while on the go. The new mobile website is optimized for iOS, Android, and Blackberry phones and tablets. To see the site for yourself, you can visit it by going to http://www.gulfoil.com

MA Veterans Benefits Website Live

Fri, 18 May 2012 17:38:26 -0400

In collaboration with Gopi Bala, LLC and the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative MNET launched the Massachusetts Veterans Advisor Website today. The website is a custom guided search application that helps Vets and their families find benefits that they are eligible for based on a number of factors. A formal announcement will be made at a ceremony with Mass Secretary of Veterans Affairs Coleman Nee Presiding on May 25 at Bunker Hill Community College.

E-commerce newbies should be aware of the e-commerce iceberg:...

Thu, 23 Feb 2012 09:56:57 -0500

E-commerce newbies should be aware of the e-commerce iceberg: consider all of the issues that are behind the scenes of your beautiful, new shopping cart experience….

New Smartphone Penetration Numbers by Neilsen

Mon, 20 Feb 2012 14:28:12 -0500

New deck fodder from Neilsen today shows the growth of Samrtphones by young people continuing at an astounding rate….

"Mobile is the new face of engagement, businesses should stop thinking about it as a small Web site..."

Mon, 13 Feb 2012 15:46:00 -0500

““Mobile is the new face of engagement, businesses should stop thinking about it as a small Web site on a tiny computer, and start thinking about mobile as being deeply embedded systems of engagement. That turns out to have huge implications.””

- Ted Schadler (Forrester Research) via New York Times article

SMB Hosted E-Commerce Platform Duel: In Progress

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 17:41:03 -0500

Having designed and deployed a number of sites using Magento Go (the new Magento hosted platform), Volusion, Big Commerce, and currently 3D Cart, we are compiling the latest and greatest comparison of these popular hosted platforms with the hope that this analysis will make your selection process easy. Our assessment criteria include usability, integratability, quality of the API, and front end customizability. We will be posting the report in the beginning of March. If you want us to ping you when you can download it, just send us an email at info@maintainnet.com with the subject line “Duel” and we will send you a note with a link when it’s ready.

How to Influence Purchasing Decisions On The Web Infographic

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 11:41:54 -0500

How to Influence Purchasing Decisions On The Web Infographic:

When savvy consumers are in the market for something — a new pair of kicks, a sweet DSLR camera, hair pomade, a toaster — they turn to the web, knowing there’s a wealth of knowledge and information to be had. But where on the vast Interwebs do they look? Well, that depends on what they want to …

New Tablet and E-Reader Numbers Astounding

Mon, 23 Jan 2012 12:44:38 -0500

The numbers continue to defy prediction. The time of device explosion is officially upon us. According to Pew the holiday sales numbers are indicating that tablet and e-reader ownership has doubled in the last month. What does this mean? Device use for internet browsing is exploding so be ready to carefully understand how your users are going to view your websites and then be ready to make changes so that you can maximize the number of device use cases for your own audience, AND continuously improve your site over time to account for new devices and faster-than-predicted adoption.

New Manufacturing Web Site for One of New England's Largest Consumer companies

Wed, 18 Jan 2012 18:56:00 -0500

First website launch of 2012 - 360 Manufacturing Services of Longmeadow, MA

Six social media tips to drive online sales by Channel Advisor

Tue, 10 Jan 2012 12:22:55 -0500

This is a very handy checklist that should keep an e-commerce site manager working on a nice, organized cycle of updates that can help to drive sales. Nice quick read with references to top e-commerce site practices.

Get Smart about Smartphone Adoption in 2012

Mon, 09 Jan 2012 06:23:50 -0500

Brighthand presents a treasure trove of Smartphone popularity and adoption data that you can use to start building a plan for making your site responsive. For the last two years we’ve watched as mobile device (and Smartphone in particular) adoption rates have way outpaced super smart analysts’ predictions about adoption and browser share. Start by learning more about the most popular devices, make a list of browsers they use and check your Google Analytics to see how the usage on your site is panning out. Next week we will share a progress report on our “device lab” we are building that will allow hands-on testing of sites on devices - a lab you can and should consider building too in 2012.

IAB Center for Mobile is a Mobile Help Desk...

Wed, 14 Dec 2011 06:39:40 -0500

The IAB mobile marketing center web site has great links and resources for mobile developers - not just ad designers and developers so check it out if you are looking to set some objectives for mobile in 2012.

E-commerce Stats for 2011 Holiday Projections

Wed, 23 Nov 2011 09:35:00 -0500

E-commerce Stats for 2011 Holiday Projections:

Ad Age daily came out with these stats today - great infographic - most astonising is the rise of mobile “as a contribution to” retail sales from 3.4% to over 6.5% in the last year

Checking In on Gemvara and its MeCommerce Platform

Tue, 15 Nov 2011 12:34:13 -0500

Even if you don’t have $20mm (Gemvara’s venture funding to date) there are a lot of great things about Gemvara’s site to inspire your e-commerce effort. Just a quick warning though and especially with the holiday shopping season upon us you will be hard pressed not to buy something if you’re in the market for jewelry - the UX and the way the products are presented are fabulous….yeah a lot of that $20mm resulted in one of the best e-comemrce websites on the planet. What do we like?

1. Guided Search Interface - the technology is proprietary but the the custom site is built on a LAMP stack with JSP so maybe there’s an implementation of SOLR behind the scenes. Whatever the technology the UX for the guided nav and search makes shopping effortless - and that is how they really stand out in a crowded industry.

(We’re a bit fascinated with great Guided Search solutions in the marketplace now because we have a gargantuan task on our hands now solving a search problem for a State Agency and we are going with guided search and nav as the solution)

2. Product Photography - we suspect no expense was spared here and for good reason - the products are beautiful and the detail of each piece is easy to see. The lesson here is that content is king and even if you are putting together an e-commerce site on a budget don’t gasp

Mobile and Global Growth Highlight Meeker's Web 2.0 Internet Trends Presentation

Wed, 19 Oct 2011 11:08:14 -0400

Mobile and Global Growth Highlight Meeker's Web 2.0 Internet Trends Presentation

Polishing Up your Store Guided Search? Apple is Worth a Look.

Mon, 17 Oct 2011 07:33:46 -0400

Guided search products are really taking off in e-commerce and there are several open source products (SOLR) which are making this utility affordable even for smaller online stores. For inspiration a great place to start is Apple.

here

Big Commerce Two Way API in BETA!

Tue, 20 Sep 2011 14:25:13 -0400

Today Big Commerce announced availability (limited to upon-request BETA users) a new “RESTful” API upgrade that will allow merchants to pull and push order data from and back to their webstores. Check it out.

Solr Powered E-commerce Coolness

Mon, 12 Sep 2011 06:43:00 -0400

brought to you by the folks at Go Chic or Go Home. Unique shopping search site and blog uses Apache Solr and Drupal to create a peek at the future of guided search for retail store owners. This site is unique, incredibly easy to browse, and quite honestly “chic.” If you are considering faceted search for your e-commerce site check it out.

Mobile Commerce will be $12billion in 2012 / Znode Mobile Module Offer

Thu, 01 Sep 2011 07:42:14 -0400

According to Znode, the e-commerce software company and an important player in the mid-market tier of that space. Znode is offering mobile commerce module with licensing of their core product through September 30. In this announcement, provided by email, Znode sources Gartner in claiming that by 2015 companies will be averaging 50% of their online sales from mobile and social applications. Visit Znode here.

Best article yet on organizing multiple topic approach to Twitter and Facebook

Tue, 16 Aug 2011 07:03:08 -0400

Best article yet on organizing multiple topic approach to Twitter and Facebook:

Drake Martinet and the Wall Street Journal give a great lesson on organizing by topic for social media. If you’re confused about how to mobilize your company and its multiple topics and initiatives this may give you a big head start and provide an approach for managing social media. Great read.