Moonfruit Lounge

Shop Update: Product Variants

Walt — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 14:42:00 +0000

Since October last year the ShopBuilder has gone from strength to strength and our customers have now built over 135,000 shops. There are already 168,552 products on sale. As Leila mentioned in an earlier blog we have been taking your recommendations on board for which features you'd like to see next and Product Variants (Options) came top of the list. Thanks to your feedback, today we pushed out an update that now allows you to apply variations to all your products e.g colour, range, size etc.

Variants

To update your shop to use variants, you need to use the update tab on the Editor for each ShopBuilder section. If you've not done this before it's very straightforward. Go to your shop page whilst logged in, click the shop on the page so it's highlighted and then go to the Editor. Click on the Update tab and click on the Update widget button. And then Save your page. You'll need to do this for the four sections (Product Catalog, Product Detail, Shopping Cart and Sale Confirmation) which you can work through using the drop down on the toolbar.

Getting the new updates is easy

Adding variations is also very easy. Go to your Product List on the Shop section and edit that product. You will now see a section in the middle called Product Options which allows you set up product options or variations up to a maximum of 50 per product.

How you set up variants within the Editor

So not only does this give you more flexibility over the products you sell, allow you to add one base product and offer a range of variations, but it also means, for example, that if you run a Standard account you can run a shop that offers up to 2500 different items or units for sale (50 products x 50 variations).

How your customers will see variants in action on your website

As with other features of the ShopBuilder, Product Variations will also appear on your Mobile Shop and your Facebook Shop (where they've been set up correctly).

Bonus

Now, for the eagle-eyed amongst you, who spotted the bonus feature?

We managed to sneak in Duplicate a Product to the release. This will make it easier for our shop builders to easily copy a product which you can then modify or adapt as you see fit on your Product List. Using the Edit drop-down for each product you can quickly copy a product into your Product List.

Duplicating an existing product is now very simple

So, what's next?

Well, the next release is very exciting and will see our first version of the mobile editor going out the door. The editor will give you access to mobile version styling (colours) and include/exclude content from the mobile version. For those of you who consider mobile technology to be a key channel to visitors accessing your sites, this tool will give you more control. Obviously the HTML5 work will provide even greater benefits but that won't hit the streets until Q3.

So, what's next for the shop? We've had some great feedback from our customers and we now wish to find out what the next most important feature is for you to have added to the ShopBuilder. We have selected the next top 3 requested features that we keep hearing again and again, but we'd like to get more specific feedback on what we build next. So if you want to have your say on what shop feature you'd like to see developed next please cast your vote in our quick and simple survey. So, over to you.

Lastly, what we have fixed!

We fixed a number of bugs in this release, many of which were minor. The headline bug fixes were:

Google Webmaster Tools verification code is again being added to the HTML
You can now scroll again in edit mode across all supported browsers
Facebook Shop image popup gallery is now working correctly again

And that's another release.

Online Content Editor

leila — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 10:07:00 +0000

We are looking for an Online Content Manager to join our team. Could this be you or do you know someone who will fit this role? Please check out the job description below.

Job description

Job title: Online Content Editor
Department: Marketing
Location: Eastcastle Street, London, W1W 8EA
Responsible to: Head of Digital Marketing

The package and perks

Salary according to qualifications and experience. Moonfruit offers generous benefits including annual bonus, private health care, pension scheme and 25 days holiday.

The company

Moonfruit.com is a small business that is growing fast. Having been around for over 10 years, it is now the market leader within the UK and is a real entrepreneurial success story. With the continuous goal of democratising web-design and ecommerce for everyone, Moonfruit.com provides design led DIY website and shop builder tools at an extremely low cost, providing accessibility to everyone.

The opportunity

The job of Online Content Editor will be primarily concerned around the website Moonfuit.com and additionally, our Shop and Sitebuilder products. The main audience focus will be sole enterprise, small businesses and other organisations that require low cost online coverage. Our audience is worldwide, however short-term we have a particular focus on the UK and America. This is expected to expand over time and become multi-lingual.

Job role and responsibility

In line with our brand guidelines and editorial brief, develop, build and manage our ongoing content strategy including research, sourcing, creation, editing and maintenance
In parallel with our development team, build a categorised content management process with a change control mechanism
Play a central and active role in all content related matters (projects and initiatives)
Create and update product/web/blog pages
Write articles and guides that can be used for both on-site and viral activities. Also support PR strategy and content creation
Use knowledge of SEO best practice to create effective content
Compile and organically evolve the Moonfruit content editorial guidelines
Absorb, understand and execute a style of writing representative of the Moonfruit image and brand values
Liaise directly with content and project stakeholders to ensure that material is produced in line with technical expectations
Enhance customer landing page conversions with effective messaging and CTAs
Through use of available online analytics, understand the value of content and change
Present and report upon content developments financial impact
Tailor content to support our partner activity
Where required, work with the CEO, COO and other company directors
Use external agency knowledge and resource to optimise content opportunity

The team

The Moonfruit.com team consists of web designers, developers, infrastructure & systems, testers, marketing and customer support.

Duties overview

Strategy in line with company and marketing goals
Process, management and change control
Creation of multi purpose/functional content for all Moonfruit channels and audiences
Timely delivery of content for projects and initiatives
Enhance marketing activity through content (SEO and conversions)
Content entrepreneurialism and creative thinking
Quality control (legal, brand guidelines, editorial guidelines)
Compliance (Intellectual Property, CAP codes)
Content ROI (Understanding the financial value of change)
Team and agency liaison

Skills, qualifications and experience

Educational level – Graduate or equivalent experience
Skills and experience
Online content strategy experience. Preferably in or for the small business area
Online editing experience. Preferably in or for the small business area
Experience of editing online content to optimise for SEO and usability
Good knowledge of consumer behaviour and best practice techniques for content conversion
Experience of developing and using content management systems (processes)
High standard of written and spoken English
First-class copy-editing and proof-reading skills
Good project-management skills
Good understanding of copyright law, plagiarism and related content legal issues

Personality and character

Self starting, team-player
Practical and efficient
Confident
Articulate
Adaptable
Careful, meticulous attention to detail
Excellent organiser and problem-solver
Able to prioritise
Ability to work calmly and effectively under pressure, handling multiple projects to tight deadlines

Some travel within the UK may be necessary from time to time

How to apply

To apply for this role please send a cover letter and a copy of your CV to jobs@moonfruit.com

Shopbuilder Showcase

leila — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 15:26:00 +0000

What a great year it's been. ShopBuilder was launched late last year and has been a great success. It's still very much in Beta but thanks to the feedback from our very awesome community, over the next few months, you should see even more requested updates.

As I've said before, we do listen to your feedback and sometimes your suggestions can take some time to develop, test and release. As an example, loads of you asked for shop variants as the next priority feature - we heard you! We are now in final testing and this should be in our February release, next week. If you have any questions or suggestions, please contact us via Twitter or Facebook. It's this kind of feedback that enables us to make our website building too easy for you to use.

Last year, after the blog launch, we showcased some of our nicest blogs. So, we thought it would be great to show off some of our ShopBuilder sites to help inspire you all. There are so many great shops that there's almost too many to choose from. But, here are some of our favourites. If you have a shop and would like us to take a look, please comment with your URL :)

www.whiteflowerfarmhouse.com

www.melijewelrydesign.com

www.cariadgifts.com

How To Optimize Your Facebook Shop For Valentines Day

Clare — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 14:45:00 +0000

This article by Joe White originally appeared in All Facebook

This year, the National Retail Federation projects that consumers are prepared to spend over 15.7 billion dollars in gifts this Valentine’s Day season, and with over 845 million monthly active users on Facebook, it’s time for shop owners on the network to take note.

With Valentine’s Day just under a week away, here are three ways to romanticize your Facebook shop and drive last-minute buyer traffic to your store in time to cash in on sales before the holiday.

Encourage Likes, Shares And Suggestions

Facebook’s natural format, optimized for sharing and suggesting serves as a perfect environment for both getting and giving gift ideas.

Shop owners can take advantage of the Facebook news feed to publish gift guides and package popular items as coordinated gifts for that special day, urging shoppers to connect and share their finds.

Additionally, shops can connect their Facebook shop to their main web site, linking users to published posts with content themed for the upcoming love day. .

Offer A Free Gift

For boyfriends, wives, fiancés, secret admirers and parents, Valentine’s Day is a cherished day for gift giving and as customers are looking to buy, they’re also looking for the best buy.

Offer shoppers an incentive to purchase from your storefront. Whether it’s an entry for a weekend trip to wine country, a 15 percent discount or simply free shipping for the customer — shoppers will be more inclined to purchase from your store.

For example, Méli Jewelry’s love-themed blog posts to Facebook and subsequent offer for free shipping through Valentine’s Day has already driven countless customers to purchase everything from watches to bracelets on its Facebook shop.

Design A Valentine’s Day Storefront

Draw in those rose-colored glasses and lovestruck shoppers with a themed storefront, recognizing the upcoming holiday and giving customers a virtual window-shopping experience.

Stores can utilize online site building and do-it-yourself design tools from numerous free storefront software providers to create a Valentine’s-themed microsite in a matter of minutes, producing a gift-giving guide for their Facebook storefront and planting their shop directly in consumers’ search feeds.

Shop owners have the opportunity to get creative with visual collage platforms such as Pinterest, to showcase suggested gifts for that special someone in a simple, eye-catching format.

Take advantage of this shopping occasion and give your Facebook shop a rosy tint this Valentine’s!

For the original article, click here

Domain Price Increases

Walt — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 09:00:00 +0000

Following price increases by two of the major domain registries (Verisign and Neustar) on 15 Jan and 1 Feb respectively, we have decided to increase the cost of buying, transferring and renewing a domain from 1 March, 2012. The prices will increase to £11.99 per year (including UK VAT where applicable), US$15.99, €13.99 and AUD$20.00 respectively. Our full price list of the current domains, currencies and prices available can be found at www.moonfruit.com/domains-pricing.

We have deferred passing on the price increases until 1 March to give our customers time to renew at current prices. You can easily renew your domains ahead of time and over multiple years (except for .uk domains which are restricted to 2 year renewals within 30 days of expiry by the registry: Nominet).

And remember, you still get a free domain voucher with SiteMaker Standard, two vouchers with the Plus account and three vouchers with the Max account. So these are now even better value. And with all of our domains you still get 5 free mailboxes, so we hope you still think it’s a good deal.

Easily Create a Website with Moonfruit

Clare — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 14:31:00 +0000

This article by Sam Cater originally appeared in AppStorm

Many tools and packages exist online to help people create websites with minimal effort and involvement. Of course, each one has their own strengths and weaknesses. Some are more aimed at creating blogs, while others are better for single-page info sites.

Moonfruit is another competitor in this market. It looks stylish, promises to be simple, and … you do want to create a new site, right? So what does it have to offer, and what are its pros and cons? Lets take a look…

Making Creativity Easy

Moonfruit is designed for people with absolutely no web design experience. It attempts to give small business owners and individuals easy access to web management and creative tools. So without further ado, lets take a look at the site itself.

Choosing a template to work with

The first step in creating a site is choosing one of hundreds of themes as a starting point. From there it’s a case of altering and tweaking pretty much everything you see into a website that you would use to represent yourself.

The tools in the editor are very simple and easy to use, which is great because that’s exactly what people need. The elements, contents and formatting can be added and removed in a way that resembles Word or Publisher, so most people will feel comfortable using it. Moonfruit effectively turns a website into a page-by-page online document, where everything you see is configurable and can be adjusted as required.

The Editor window - More tools are made visible by selecting the categories at the top.

The content of the site has been intelligently and automatically mobile optimized.

A very useful feature Moonfruit has is automatic optimization of your site for mobile viewers. You don’t even have to configure or enable this, it’s there from the word go, no plugins, or code to meddle with. It didn’t show the Gallery image you can in these screenshots, however I am sure that this is solvable. Mobile-optimization is important these days, as with the growth of smartphone and tablet computer popularity, more and more views may come from such devices.

Another factor that would definitely make Moonfruit appealing to people who want a hassle-free experience is that the hosting and domain settings are handled for you. No FTP client is required, and there are no HTML or CSS files to manage. The web interface handles it all. On the subject of domains, you can link one you own to Moonfruit in a matter of minutes. They guide you through the process of changing address records with the company you purchased the domain from and so forth. You can also use Moonfruit to register a new domain if you so wished.

The social aspect of a websites? They are included too, with Twitter integration, RSS feeds, comment boxes, forum backends, and chat widgets.

Costs?

Free website? Why thank you, yes.

They start you out on a 15 Day Free trial with 20MB of storage space. For any more space than this you have to crack open your wallet.

I chose the trial at first, and was expecting to have a really restricted interface and being prompted to pay for extra features. However when I signed in a popup box asked if I wanted to continue my 15 day trial, or keep a site for free. I clicked free, and the only condition is that I have to sign in every six months to keep the site ‘active’. Seemed like a good deal to me.

Obviously if you want a site for small businesses and enterprises you are going to have to break the 20MB limit, but for individuals or small groups it seems you can have a website on Moonfruit for nothing.

Bolt-ons

There are several pieces of functionality you can add into your website if so required, such as a blog, or even a shop.

Blogs

The blog interface is very simplistic, offering only minimal functionality. What you see in this screenshot is all that you get. However for those of you familiar with feature-rich WordPress, remember that this entire service is geared towards people looking for straightforwardness and simplicity. Whilst it may look pretty bare, this is all that a blogger really needs. Three design modes are offered, Text, Image, and Article, so it definitely won’t be replacing WordPress any time soon.

For the original article, please click here

How to survive a crisis

Clare — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 14:20:00 +0000

This article by Emma Haslett originally appeared in Management Today

It can be hard to stay in calm control through economic turbulence. As Rudyard Kipling wrote: 'If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs ... yours is the earth and everything that's in it.' That's more easily said than done. But, in his book Managing Through Turbulent Times, Anthony Holmes says it's important to distinguish between a crisis and a problem: 'A problem is straightforward, while a crisis changes and evolves.' So how do you keep a zen frame of mind even when your business is suffering?

Admit defeat

When things start to go pear-shaped, it's easy to hum loudly and hope the problem goes away. And denial may not come just from you. Wendy Tan White, CEO of website builder Moonfruit and seasoned crisis survivor, says that in the run-up to the original dotcom crash her business model clearly wasn't working, yet her investors put her under pressure not to change tack. The sooner you react to what's happening, the easier it is to work on a solution.

Look after number one

By its very nature, a crisis causes panic, so the first challenge is to think clearly. Often, your instinct is to keep pushing until you find a solution, but the best course might be to remove yourself from the situation - even if that means just taking a walk around the block. As the person in charge, says Tan White, it's important to look after yourself. 'Put your own lifejacket on first, keep your head clear, then you can look after everyone else. There's no honour in going down with a sinking ship.'

Phone a friend

When your livelihood is under threat, it's hard to look at a crisis objectively. If you're emotionally invested in something, it is difficult to set your feelings aside. If you find yourself at a loss for ideas, call for outside help: a friend, mentor or coach - one whose judgement you trust and who might have experienced a similar situation and can calmly talk you through your options.

Plan ahead

When you're up against it and your team is thinking with all the rationality of a cornered animal, this is easier said than done. Even in mid-crisis, though, planning is essential. Anthony Holmes says: 'You will need a well-thought-out plan B. It might not be as good as plan A, but if plan A isn't working, move on immediately. And the moment you do that, go away and work out plan C.' Jenny Irvine, chief executive of the Pure Package, adds that planning for the worst-case scenario often covers all eventualities. She had planned for her business to be 'burnt to the ground', she recalls, so when some laptops were stolen, it didn't present a problem.

Communicate

When your business runs into trouble, don't beat about the bush, because once the rumours start, they will serve only to erode your employees' morale. The more open you are with your staff about what is going on, the better they will respond and the more empowered they will feel. Try to keep staff informed in advance about what their roles will be when a crisis hits. 'It is about knowing who is in charge,' says Irvine. 'People need to know whose job it is to step up and find solutions.'

Look for opportunities

They say every cloud has a silver lining - which is worth keeping in mind as 2012 shapes up to be ever-more financially taxing for businesses. But as your competitors slash their costs, keep your eye on the future and don't stop innovating. During the previous recession, many businesses dutifully battened down the hatches, only to find that when things improved, their competitors had outmanoeuvred them. One company's crisis can be another's golden opportunity.

Don't live in the past

The most important thing to remember is that you cannot turn back the clock. A genuine crisis isn't a temporary blip - it will change your business forever. As Holmes explains: 'You can't drive a car forward looking through the rear-view mirror.'

For the rest of the article, click here

Moonfruit sites to be published in HTML5!

Joe — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 10:16:00 +0000

As many of you know, there's been lots of talk about HTML5 being the standard for web development of the future. The exciting thing about HTML5 is that it allows the kind of design customisation (embedded fonts, vector drawing, etc.) that in ye old days was only possible using Flash. Design is very close to our hearts here at Moonfruit, so Flash was our original choice of technology precisely because it could create the kind of visually stunning sites that we liked and that we knew you would like.

But times, they are a changin'. Now that HTML5 has the design capabilities to match the richness of Moonfruit websites, and has a wide enough adoption (it is only viewable in the most modern browsers), we're ready to take it on! As you know we've been working in HTML5 for our mobile and Facebook versions of sites, so this web version will be an extension of that, but take it far beyond.

So later this year, we will be updating Moonfruit so that sites can be published in HTML5 for web and tablets (though you'll be able to keep the Flash version if you want).

And this is what it will look like as our example site goes from Flash to HTML5 (watch closely!)

Spot the difference

Flash version

HTML version

www.moonfruit.com/html5/

Yes, you spotted it, the font changes slightly. This highlights one of the lingering issues with HTML5 is that fonts are treated slightly differently than in Flash. This is something that we will be working on, but may be one area you'll need to tweak if you want to use the HTML5 version for your site.

So when's it coming? We would expect the HTML5 site display to ship in Q3 this year, after the summer. We've been working towards this for quite a long time now with changes having begun in 2010 to reorganise the way we store data about your site so that we could choose to display it in different formats for web, mobile and Facebook. The HTML5 site display will be the another point on our journey to 'publish once, be everywhere'.

So to recap. In Q3 2012 Moonfruit users will have the option to display their sites in HTML5 by default. New sites from this time will automatically be displayed in HTML5. We've made this decision because HTML5 is the future of web development, and now supports the richness we need for beautiful Moonfruit websites.

Enjoy!

Top 100 Influencers in Social Media – Wendy Tan-White ranked as #31

Clare — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 11:58:00 +0000

This article by Bonnie Boglioli-Randall originally appeared in Social Technology Review

31. Wendy Tan White- Veteran founder in the digital space, Tan White founded Moonfruit, the UK’s number one website builder making significant inroads in the U.S. market. She is a mentor with 500startups, a startup accelerator program, and leverages her extensive experience to guide new companies in business development, e-commerce, design, PR, fundraising and more.

32. John Batelle- What do you get when you mash up a co-founding editor of Wired Magazine, professor, publisher and best-selling author? Someone who would be named John Batelle, Chairman of Federated Media Publishing. Founding and presiding over the next-gen publishing house, Batelle continues to disrupt the space by leveraging the digital ecosystem, building conversation around a product and measuring engagement. In his free time, you can be sure to find him dishing his prolific thoughts to any number of media outlets and making the conference rounds. You might also catch him receiving any number of awards, most recently from the World Economic Forum as ‘Global Leader for Tomorrow’.

33. Jolie O’Dell- Technology journalist (a nom de plume in case you’re wondering), got her big break covering the tech industry for Mashable. Today, O’Dell covers the sector for VentureBeat and offers up her decade’s worth of insight and a healthy dose of computer literacy (she’s a computer science student in her spare time). From web startups and mobile apps to conversations with Vint Cerf (yes, that Vint Cerf) and more, O’Dell dishes up multiple articles each day to keep you in the know.

34. Chris Brogan- Brogan is a New York Times bestselling author and speaker who puts his knowledge of digital media to unique use. As President of Human Business Works, Brogan works closely with large corporations to implement social media strategies that make a difference. If judging on clients alone, he’s helped some big fish like Microsoft, Ford and Cisco. Brogan is also well-noted for co-founding PodCamp, a crowd sourced gathering of new media stakeholders who participate in so-called ‘unconferences’ at cities around the world from the U.S. and Canada to the U.K., Australia and Denmark.

To read the original article and see the rest of the list, please click here

Help For Small Business As Cameron Launches “Business In You”

Clare — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 11:49:00 +0000

This article by Jemma Porter originally appeared in PABNews.

UK – The Department of Business, Innovation and Skills has launched a national campaign called “Business In You” in an attempt to try and get UK people to turn their dreams into reality.

The entrepreneurial push is based on the concept that there is “a business in everyone” and to encourage millions of people to start their own small businesses.

The campaign, which was launched in Leeds by UK Prime Minister David Cameron, will see the Government work in partnership with the private sector in order to support small businesses that want to grow and help entrepreneurs kick start their ideas.

In order to inspire people, the campaign has teamed up with nine of the UK’s most successful business owners including Wendy Tan-White co-founder of Moonfruit and Richard Moross head of Moo. The partners will offer free online seminars, video tutorials, workshops, and face-to-face sessions.

In an attempt to stir up motivation in the UK’s budding entrepreneurs David Cameron said that the government is determined to do everything to help small businesses start up this year. He went on to say that he wants people to fulfil their business dreams in 2012.

Business In You will advertise the initiative by advertising real-life case studies of the successful business partners. Moonfruit.com has been selected as one of the businesses to front the marketing campaign as it is still currently in the growth stage itself.

Startup Britain has plans for the Business In You campaign to influence at least one million people over the next three years. This target may prove difficult to reach as there is no budget for television advertising. Hopefully the association with major businesses in the UK will help spread the word about the initiative.

Moonfruit is the UK’s leading DIY website builder, it is now home to more than 4 million websites around the world, with hundreds of thousands of them being located in the UK. The company’s CEO and co-founder Wendy Tan-White said that the idea behind Business In You was a part of the make up of Moonfruit, as it is passionate about helping UK small business owners start trading on a wider scale.

To see the original article, please click here

Wendy Tan White helps you find the 'Business in You'

leila — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 18:42:00 +0000

At Moonfruit, one of our biggest aims is to help small businesses get online easily. So who better than our very own CEO, Wendy Tan White, to be one of the faces of the new Government Campaign 'Business in You'.

Business in You is a major new campaign from the Government, in conjunction with the private sector, to encourage UK businesses to start up successfully and grow. Their aim is to ensure that small businesses have the resources and support to help them grow and expand over the next few years. The initiative will offer workshops, web-based seminars, video tutorials and some free services from partners.

Wendy was with the Prime Minister, David Cameron, at the launch of the campaign in Yorkshire on Monday. The day of the launch was Chinese New Year and Wendy presented the PM with a Chinese Calendar and mentioned that the year of the Dragon brings the opportunity for great success or great failure. Both agreed that they are gunning for the former!

Wendy will be one of the featured entrepreneurs on their nationwide poster campaign, alongside Richard Moross (our friends Moo.com) and Paul Lindley (Founder of organic baby food, Ella's Kitchen). You can see what Wendy has to say about how she set up Moonfruit and her top tips for anyone starting out - Wendy's Interview.

So, if you're in the UK, look out for the campaign!

Moonfruit meets the Prime Minister

leila — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 17:31:00 +0000

24th January, London – Moonfruit.com, the UK’s largest DIY website builder, is one of the first businesses selected to take part in a major new campaign by the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills. The campaign is aimed at inspiring people to start or grow their own business. Based on the concept that there is "a business in everyone" and that all businesses can realise their ambitions, the campaign, launched by the Prime Minister in Yorkshire yesterday, sees the Government and the private sector coming together to highlight the support available to small firms and budding entrepreneurs.

The campaign partners will be providing free services such as workshops, web-based seminars and video tutorials on issues like finance, as well as providing mentoring and access to face-to-face consultancy sessions.

Throughout 2012, the “Business in You” initiative will showcase Moonfruit and other real-life small and growth stage business owner case studies, rolled-out using a nationwide advertising campaign, to ensure maximum visibility to small businesses who stand to benefit most from the initiative.

As a growth stage business itself, Moonfruit.com was selected as one of three businesses headlining the campaign on billboards and digital media - http://businessinyou.bis.gov.uk/casestudies/wendy-tan-white/ .

Moonfruit is well placed to support this initiative as the company is passionate about democratising the web for SMBs and entrepreneurs. It gives them the tools to build their business and promote it via the web, mobile and Facebook, allowing them to reach a global audience.

Since its inception, Moonfruit has enabled people to build more than four million websites worldwide and hosts hundreds of thousands of UK business websites enabling them to trade and win business online.

Wendy Tan-White, Moonfruit’s CEO and co-founder states, “The campaign encourages people to start and grow their own businesses, thereby boosting the UK economy, it’s very much part of Moonfruit’s DNA. We feel touched to be part of the BIS, Startup Britain campaign and very much support it.”

She continues, “Political cynicism aside, chatting to the Prime Minister yesterday was inspiring. Watching him take the time to talk to small business owners, students and staff makes you realise the steps we all take as individuals will make the difference in shifting the economy. We need to create a collaborative eco-system here in the UK where large corporations partner and support SMBs, consumers support small and local businesses and more serial entrepreneurs share their wisdom with new and growth businesses. Rather than being cynical when we see people trying out new business ideas, let’s support them. I mentioned to the Prime Minister yesterday it’s Chinese New Year, Year of the Dragon, auspicious for business and brings either great success or failure. We’re all gunning for the former.”

At the launch, David Cameron said, "Small businesses and entrepreneurs are the lifeblood of the British economy and I am determined that we, working with the private sector, do everything we can to help them to start up and to grow in 2012. I want to encourage people to go for it and make this the year of enterprise – whether that is fulfilling their dream of starting a new business or taking the leap to grow their business, to employ more staff, or to start exporting."

In further action to help small businesses get off the ground, the Prime Minister will also announce plans to make empty and under-used Government offices available to small businesses so that they can start up and grow. With over 300 buildings currently in the central Government estate with vacant space available in England, the Government will offer as much of this space as possible to small businesses, giving them space to grow at a low cost.

End of 2011, what a year it's been!

Joe — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 10:52:00 +0000

The final release of 2011 slipped out late last week, and we've now had a chance to sit back and reflect on what we've delivered over the year. What a year it's been! But every year brings new challenges, so we're also looking ahead to what we're going to be delivering in 2012…

As you know a big part of what we're striving for is to allow you to "publish once, be everywhere" all with "total design control", so that you only update your content in one place (your website) and we take care of publishing it appropriately to web, mobile, tablet and Facebook in a way that supports your brand identity.

2011 laid the foundations for this, and we think 2012 will blow you away ;-)

Here are the highlights of 2011:

Mobile optimised sites (Feb 2011)
New Moonfruit.com brand and website (Mar 2011)
Updated design tools - shapes, backgrounds (Mar 2011)
Improved customer support via Zendesk (Apr 2011)
Hundreds of new site templates (Mar – Dec 2011)
Image lightboxes (June 2011)
The Blog (July 2011)
4,000,000 sites built with Moonfruit (Aug 2011)
New File Manager (Aug 2011)
Getty Images (Aug 2011)
WebUser Gold Award - best website builder (Aug 2011)
The Shop - Web, Mobile, Facebook (Oct 2011)
Launch event with PayPal (Oct 2011)
Moonfruit office expansion (Nov 2011)
Shop improvements - categories, quantities, shipping (Nov/Dec 2011)

It's no surprise that the team look a little bit tired! But never fear we'll leap back into action early next year with even more goodies.

What's to come in 2012

Mobile version styling (colours) and include/exclude content from mobile version (probably Feb)
More shop improvements – product variants, stock control, etc. (Regular releases throughout the year)
And maybe, just maybe a little HTML5 website magic…watch this space ;-)

So that's that. We hope you've enjoyed 2011 as much as we have and you are looking forward to bigger, better 2012, as much as we are.

Until we meet again early next year, have a wonderful Holiday Season (or Xmas!), and a Happy New Year from all the Moonfruit team!

How online and social commerce is opening doors

Clare — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 10:10:00 +0000

Moonfruit's COO Joe White writing for the Smarta blog says: As the web continues to evolve, smart businesses look to use its new features in ways that can help them expand, compete and remain profitable - even at a time when the economic outlook seems bleak. This is particularly true when the web gives us opportunities to make money.

When Moonfruit.com was created, its aim was to allow anyone - from individuals through to small business owners and beyond - to control, maintain and customise their online identities, without needing big budgets or technical expertise. Together with the proliferation of social media platforms, this created a more equal playing field for people vying for online exposure.

Since then, people's online priorities have progressed from controlling their presence to boosting their sales. Online platforms use a number of methods to focus on money-making: traditional ecommerce, where people can buy products or services online using electronic payment; ad-supported platforms, which offer a service or content funded by commercial advertising; and paywalls and micropayments, which allow sites to monetise individual units of content.

What's new in ecommerce?

So why has ecommerce been so important for smaller businesses with a mandate to grow? Since launching our ShopBuilder tool - which allows people to publish online shops across a number of platforms, including their own site, Facebook and mobile - we have seen some innovative ways to make money using ecommerce functions. Some of these go way beyond simply selling products for payment.

Our customer Yoga Bellies, a pre- and post-natal yoga class that takes place across the UK, has done something very interesting with ShopBuilder. Its online shop function collects customers' payments for classes that take place offline. Similarly, the King's College London Symphony Orchestra is using ShopBuilder to allow people to purchase concert tickets in advance of the event.

While this isn't new in itself (most people have purchased tickets for a concert or holiday online), Yoga Bellies and King's College are integrating ecommerce into real life without using the complex online registration or billing systems required by tour operators and ticket vendors. This is hugely significant for small businesses and micro-traders because it removes some of barriers that may have inhibited growth in the past: customers not carrying the right cash, for example, or not possessing a chequebook.

Ecommerce vs. social commerce

Social commerce is a concept that builds on ecommerce by adding interactivity and sharebility to the traditional buy/sell structure. A number of studies have shown that people trust the recommendations made by their family and friends online more than they trust other types of promotion. It makes sense: Why would you trust an advert or even a third-party endorsement when you can access unbiased advice from the people you know in real life?

Facebook is a particularly fertile platform for social commerce not only because it has so many users, but also because ecommerce functions have started to be integrated with company pages. It's powerful because it allows people to buy within their own network without needing to visit other websites - and because they can engage with the brand in ways their friends and network can see. This process introduces a viral effect into the selling chain, and enables smaller businesses to grow organically using popular platforms such as Facebook.

We originally launched ShopBuilder to allow site owners to set up shop wherever their customers wanted to buy, and to fill a gap in the ecommerce market. So it's interesting to see that our users are most excited about one specific ShopBuilder feature, and that's Facebook integration! Thousands of our shops are already using this feature to publish their whole product catalogue into the social network to allow buying and selling inside Facebook itself. It will be even more interesting to see how they innovate with social and ecommerce in the future.

See the original article here

Moonfruit: A New Website Building Service

Clare — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 11:37:00 +0000

This article by Kayvon Ghoreshi originally appeared in Social Web Tools

Anyone and their kid can build a website nowadays, and the trend doesn’t seem to be stopping as more and more services pop up to help you build your website. One of the newest services to enter the market is Moonfruit.

In a nutshell, Moonfruit is an easy website builder, but it has a unique style to it. The templates that Moonfruit offers aren’t something you would expect from this type of service. Similar services often have incredibly basic templates you can build your site off of. These templates often have very basic color schemes, and seem blocky in nature. Moonfruit avoids those limited templates and give you some very modern looking templates that look much more professional.

Moonfuit offers immense customization. Every piece of text and picture that you add to your site can be rotated, adjusted in font and size, and even have links attached to it. This sheer amount of customization can be performed all over your site. You can alter backgrounds to have a certain color pattern or even an image if that suits your site better.

The service is also incredibly friendly to people trying to open up a business site. Moonfruit lets you set up an online shop. The shop is automatically compatible with the web and mobile devices and integrates PayPal so your customers can have a smooth shopping experience. Social media is also integrated into the shop so your customers can like and tweet about what they are getting, which should in effect get more publicity for you. The store also stands next to your blog which can be added to your site and have the same level of customization and social media integration to get your content the exposure it deserves.

So that is what Moonfruit offers, but how well does it do in execution? The answer is slightly less than desirable. The Moonfruit interface isn’t exactly the drag and drop interface that you might be used to with other services. It looks more like a Microsoft Office program where you can insert stuff and have options in an overhead toolbar. At times the interface can feel cluttered and you may have no idea where a feature you want is among the menus. Moonfruit also comes with different pricing options ranging from free (where you’ll have ads on your site) to plans costing $12-35 that give you upgrades such as Google Ad vouchers, more shop space, more bandwidth and storage, better support, and the ability to have members and member pages.

I wouldn’t go so far as to say that Moonfruit is the best web design experience I’ve ever had. It definitely has some flaws with its interface and some glitches with some of the features, but for being a brand new site in the niche it definitely impresses. If you want to give it a shot, Moonfuit offers a 14 day trial before you make any decisions on purchasing a plan.

To see the complete article, please click here

Christmas release!

Joe — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 10:28:00 +0000

Ho ho ho. We thought we'd get a few more things out in the St Nick of time just before the holidays. We'll follow up later in the week with a summary of everything from 2011 and a hint at what's to come in 2012. But here's what's just been shipped.

Updates to the Shop Checkout page

Your customers can now set product quantities on the Checkout page when buying multiple items. And we've also made more clear the checkout options via PayPal, or paying by Card (not requiring a PayPal account). Plus there's a shipping drop down box.

NB. To get the Checkout page updates, you'll need to navigate to the 'Checkout page' (by using the shop drop down list in the Editor), and then on the Page Editor click 'Update template'.

Shipping updates

We've added the ability for you to set domestic and international shipping rates for your product purchases. This is part of a long line of shipping based features that we will continue with next year, but for now this is one additional variable you can change.

Category tweaks

You can now hide categories from the list so you can organise your products in secret ways, and then link to special hidden categories without them having to appear in the Category menu. You can also rename the 'All category'

Mobile render tweaks

We've updated the way we generate the mobile versions of your site to better organise the content we show. Items are grouped more logically and additional images will now show in the HTML version. Previously images covered by text would not be displayed, but provided at least 50% of the image is 'visible' we'll now show the image in the mobile version. We have another release slated for early 2012 which will further enhance the mobile version.

New Shop templates

We've updated all the shop templates to include the categories from the last release, and also the quantities, shipping and payment options from this release. We hope you'll agree there's some lovely stuff in there!

That's all for now. The team are already working on more goodies for early next year, but we'll soon be putting on our warmest socks and settling down for a good long sleep over the hols. We hope you have a wonderful time and a welcome break too.

As always, thoughts and feedback welcome.

Video: Moonfruit's Joe White on surviving the dot com crash and thriving in the recession

Clare — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 10:07:00 +0000

This video by Dan Martin originally appeared in BusinessZone: Technology, Business profiles

Web design company Moonfruit raised millions of pounds in funding during the dot com bubble of the 1990s and then almost collapsed after the crash. A decade on, the company is thriving again. Dan Martin met co-founder Joe White to find out why.

To see the video, click here

Shop update: Categories!

Joe — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 20:33:00 +0000

As many of you will have noticed, we launched the long awaited ShopBuilder about a month ago and as promised we're going to have a continuous stream of new shop features coming as quickly as we can bake them in the Moonfruit oven. (We don't really bake our software, but you get the idea).

We've had a great response to the shop launch with over 45,000 shops having been built in the last month. And we've also had a lot of feedback from you about the additional features you'd like us to build as quickly as possible. We love the feedback, so keep it coming.

So first out of the oven is the new Category feature. Many of you were asking for it, so here it is.

Shop homepage with Category links

Categories allow you to create groupings for your products and have different ways of ordering and arranging them to suit the different audiences you may be addressing or targeting. In the shop manager you can now add categories and assign products to categories. One product can be in more than one category and the list order of products in each category can be different.

Category editor

Categories have their own URL so you can link directly to a category sub heading. We've also created a new link type on the link tab in the Editor so that any image or link can link to a category allowing you to construct your own navigation. You can add category links direct from the menu of your site too, so that your normal site menu can offer different category pages.

Link editor with new category link type

And if that wasn't enough, there is also a new category link widget in the File Manager which automatically creates a list of all your categories and links to each of them. You can customise the style of this category link widget and change the button style, font and colours.

Category list widget on right

The mobile and Facebook views have also been updated to incorporate the category view. So if you have more than two categories, your Facebook shop will show the category names and images, which link through to the category product lists. And on the mobile view you can navigate to the category types from the drop down at the top of the page.

Facebook shop with categories

Mobile shop with categories

So that's about it for now. All these images are taken from our shopdemo.moonfruit.com website, so feel free to have a look and a play there.

So what's next?

We're working on some improvements to the shipping options and the ability to change the quantities of items on the checkout page - so your customers can buy multiple numbers of an item more easily. These should be out before the end of the year (testing permitting). Then early next year we will bring out product variants, and after that basic stock control and discount/coupon options. After that? Well, some more stuff - helped by the feedback we get from you guys.

Shop Launch round-up!

Joe — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 12:30:00 +0000

It's been a busy few weeks here at Moonfruit HQ. Our new ShopBuilder product is now live and doing well, and has clocked up over 16,000 shop builds in the first week and a half, so we're pretty pleased. Here are just a few examples, selling everything from spices to handbags, headphones to concert tickets!

We launched the product with PayPal at their UK offices on Weds 19th Oct with a great audience made up of customers from Moonfruit, PayPal and StartUp Britain. The theme was Guerrilla ShopBuilding. We had PayPal's Cameron McClean and Beverley Bergin setting up the event and talking payment solutions. We then had StartUp Britain's Emma Jones and our very own CEO Wendy Tan taking about small business strategy and how to grow and get customers in these tough times, and me with a nerve wracking live multi-device demo (watched by the even more nervous development team from the back row!).

Wendy tells it how it is

It all went (came) off without a hitch and was very well received. We had a great time too and it was fantastic to meet so many of our customers and potential customers in one place to share ideas. We had some nice press too:

http://eu.techcrunch.com/2011/10/19/moonfruit-makes-play-for-shop-identity-with-killer-facebook-integration/

http://www.three-sixty.co.uk/om4biz/?p=521

http://blog.workspacegroup.co.uk/blog/2011/10/20/tech-for-start-up-britain-week-guerilla-shopkeeping-fight-in.html

For those of you that haven't seen it yet, our new ShopBuilder allows you to publish once, sell everywhere, with your shop working immediately on web, mobile and Facebook. You update your products in one place and we publish the updates everywhere. All products added have their own page, URL and SEO data and are effortlessly connected to your main shop page.

Using PayPal's accelerated onboarding we can get you trading immediately with only an email address (no credit checking) and with their Express Checkout you can start collecting payments from your customers using web and mobile optimised payment gateways without any configuration required by you. We do the hard stuff, you get on with selling your stuff.

Web, mobile, social

Total design control

So what's next…?

…you may ask. Well the e-commerce road is long and littered with complexity, and we're not done yet. We see it as our job to make trading effortless and remove the barriers to setting up your own shop. We want to keep things simple, but also give you the features you need to run an effective store. So the challenge is to add features without cluttering the interface.

Next up is product categories, which will allow you to organise and group your products to create category specific lists and landing pages. Of course these will work across web, mobile and Facebook straight away, and here's what they will look like when you get them in a couple of weeks.

New category admin view

We hope to continue releasing new shop features every month or so (e.g. variable shipping, product variations, product quantities, coupons, etc.) so keep your eyes peeled!

Moonfruit nominated in Website of the Year award

Clare — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 10:50:00 +0000

We are thrilled to have made it through to one of the 24 finalists in the Good Web Guide's 'website of the year' awards from a strong field.

The winner will be announced by Jo Malone at the awards reception to be held on Wednesday 16th November at the Royal Institution.

Details about all the shortlisted sites can be found here.

There is also a second category called 'The People's Vote'. The organisers believe it will be a good test of which site is the most proactive on the social media front. The winner of the People's Vote will be announced at the reception as well.

If you click on the following link, you will be taken to a page where your vote will automatically be taken, click here. Visitors can only vote once.

Please help us to do well in (or win!) the People's Vote – and of course, we'll keep you posted about our success in the main event.