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Shane Blandford

Shane Blandford

FOUNDER

Founder of Orange Collar Media, a Denver ecommerce agency behind 800+ Magento and Shopify builds. In Magento since version 1.x - building, rescuing, and supporting revenue-critical stores since 2008.

Posts by Shane Blandford

025SHOPIFY

HOW TO BUILD A KILLER PRODUCT COLLECTION ON SHOPIFY

So, you’ve set up your online shop and have been uploading your products diligently, but now it comes to organizing. Leaving all your products loose on your site is like leaving them out to sea, they are difficult to find and certainly a lot harder to put in front of an interested customer. That’s where Collections come in. Think of them as life rafts, connecting them together and floating them into a tangible space. This article will take you through how to set up Collections in Shopify: cover

Shane Blandford
Shane Blandford · FOUNDER · 17 MIN
024SEO & GROWTH

HOW TO CREATE PRODUCT IMAGES THAT REALLY CONVERT

You might have heard on the grapevine that there’s a buzz around voice search as the future of online shopping, but the truth is image search is up there with it. Studies from Gartner predict that visual and voice search will be responsible for 30 percent of all eCommerce revenue by 2021. We are an image-centered culture. We respond to beautiful things, idyllic images, and relatable pictures. Our human brain is programmed to respond to images in less than a second. In fact, it takes one-quarte

Shane Blandford
Shane Blandford · FOUNDER · 24 MIN
023SEO & GROWTH

How to Get Quality Customer Reviews

Most ecommerce stores ask for reviews wrong - or not at all. Here's a practical system for collecting product reviews that actually drive conversions, with specific tools and timing for Shopify and Magento stores.

Shane Blandford
Shane Blandford · FOUNDER · 5 MIN
022SEO & GROWTH

HOW TO CREATE A HYPERLOCAL MARKETING CAMPAIGN

Most of us expect Google to take our location into account when browsing the internet, especially on mobile devices. You no longer even have to enter the words ‘near me’ into your search bar to get restaurants, shops, information and adverts targeted to your exact location. So, maybe it’s time you made your marketing campaigns reflect this location-centric attitude. It’s called hyperlocal marketing. It’s aimed at people in a specific area and it can seriously optimize your store and increase suc

Shane Blandford
Shane Blandford · FOUNDER · 5 MIN
021SEO & GROWTH

How to SEO Optimize Your Ecommerce Store

Most ecommerce stores lose organic traffic to fixable mistakes - thin product descriptions, missing schema markup, and bloated page loads. Here's a practical SEO playbook covering site architecture, on-page optimization, technical performance, and content strategy that actually moves rankings.

Shane Blandford
Shane Blandford · FOUNDER · 8 MIN
020SEO & GROWTH

How to Keep Customers Loyal

Acquiring a new ecommerce customer costs 5-7x more than retaining an existing one, and every dollar spent on retention returns roughly four times more than chasing new leads. Here's how to build a retention engine with segmentation, email automation, and loyalty programs that actually drive repeat purchases.

Shane Blandford
Shane Blandford · FOUNDER · 7 MIN
019SEO & GROWTH

How to Make Returns Work for You

Turn eCommerce returns from a costly problem into a competitive advantage. Learn how companies like Zappos use generous returns policies to build customer loyalty and drive growth.

Shane Blandford
Shane Blandford · FOUNDER · 9 MIN
018MAGENTO

IS MAGENTO 2 BETTER THAN A SAAS-BASED PLATFORM?

Before you begin building your eCommerce store, or even before a site upgrade, it’s important to know exactly what will work best for you. Broadly speaking there are two ways of doing it. One is to get an out-of-the-box solution – a SaaS, which stands for Software as a Service. Shopify, for example, and BigCommerce, are SaaS hosted stores. They enable you to choose themes, add plugins and build a site within their parameters, while they take care of all the updates and security. Whereas Magento

Shane Blandford
Shane Blandford · FOUNDER · 4 MIN
017MAGENTO

5 MAGENTO SECURITY FAILS AND HOW TO AVOID THEM

Security online is a seriously hot topic. Your store needs to be secure and reliable for both you and your customers. Why? Well, for starters, you have access to sensitive data. Everything from your customer’s name, and email address to their bank details and shopping preferences. This is data that needs to be managed sensibly, safely and with sensitivity. We’ve rounded up a few common Magento security failures, how you can avoid them, and maintain a safe eCommerce business. 1. ANCIENT SOFTWA

Shane Blandford
Shane Blandford · FOUNDER · 4 MIN