Posted February 04, 2014 The never-ending winter weather is keeping a lot of people stuck inside and that means more of us spending time in the kitchen cooking. Did you know the kitchen is where more home fires occur than anywhere else in the house and that cooking is the number one cause of home fires? The American Red Cross has steps everyone can follow to avoid a cooking fire:1. Never leave cooking food unattended – stay in the kitchen when frying, grilling or broiling food. If you have to leave the kitchen, even for a second, turn off the stove.2. Check your food regularly while cooking and remain in the home while cooking. 3. Use a timer so you’ll remember that the stove or oven is on.4. Don’t wear loose clothing or dangling sleeves while cooking.5. Keep the kids away from the cooking area. Enforce a “kid-free zone” and make them stay at least three feet away from the stove.6. Keep anything that can catch fire - pot holders, oven mitts, wooden utensils, paper or plastic bags, food packaging, and towels or curtains—away from your stove, oven or any other appliance in the kitchen that generates heat.7.
Clean cooking surfaces on a regular basis to prevent grease buildup.8. Consider purchasing a fire extinguisher to keep in your kitchen. Contact your local fire department to take training on the proper use of extinguishers.]9. Always check the kitchen before going to bed or leaving the home to make sure all stoves, ovens, and small appliances are turned off.10. Install a smoke alarm near your kitchen, on each level of your home, near sleeping areas, and inside and outside bedrooms if you sleep with doors closed. Use the test button to check it each month. Replace all batteries at least once a year.To learn how to prevent a fire in your home and how to keep members of your household safe, you can take our cooking safety quiz and download the Red Cross Fire Prevention and Safety Checklist. Downloadable fact sheets are also available on how to avoid home heating fires, candle safety, proper use of smoke alarms and teaching your children what to do in the event of a fire About the American Red Cross:
The American Red Cross shelters, feeds and provides emotional support to victims of disasters; supplies about 40 percent of the nation's blood; teaches skills that save lives; provides international humanitarian aid; and supports military members and their families. The Red Cross is a not-for-profit organization that depends on volunteers and the generosity of the American public to perform its mission. , or visit us on Twitter at @RedCross. Red Cross Responds to Home Fires amid Prolonged Cold January 31, 2014 -Your storefront looks great. You've spent a lot of time tweaking it and making sure everything flows properly. But why aren't any visitors adding products to their cart? You've taken time to advertise your store and it's getting traffic, but it isn't converting. Perhaps your visitors are having a hard time navigating your store because there isn't a clear call to action. They simply don't know where to click. In this post, we'll take a look at some inspirational examples of stores that have fantastic call to actions.
You'll be able to take their techniques and apply them to your own store. Your call to action is what tells visitors what to do, where they should click, and what to buy. It’s what lights a path to your checkout and turns a visitor into a customer as quickly as possible. The most obvious example of a call to action is a “Buy Now” button, or a “Shop Now” button on your storefront. There’s no definitive answer on which button, phrase, styling or size works best, so it’s important to always test and optimize your storefront. Let’s dig in to what some of the basics are for an effective call to action. While this is something that can be tested, optimized and modified for years depending on your store, it’s good to have a basic understanding of what techniques should be used to make an effective call to action. When shoppers feel an opportunity is limited, they may be more inclined to purchase. You see it in retail store displays all the time.
Often, you’ll see end of season sales that run for a week. The same can be applied to your ecommerce store. For instance, if somewhere on your storefront you included a stock level, or something that says “Buy now - only on sale until midnight” then you’re building on the sense of urgency. A case study by the team at ConversionXL shows that by adding a sense of urgency to their product, they were able to increase their conversion rate by 332%. That’s a huge lift for any business. While there’s no definitive color that converts best, it’s important to ensure that you’re using a color that resonates with your visitors, and your brand. Here are a few tips to consider when determining which color to use for your CTA. While most Shopify themes already include this feature, it’s good to make sure your CTA appears as a button and not just text. Even if its surrounded with a small border, it’s better than having just a text link. There is a lot of data and studies that show that buttons work well for directing visitors to the checkout process.
Make sure to keep the text within the button short and sweet as well. A simple “buy now”, “add to cart”, “buy” works well. Tip: You can cater your button copy to the market you’re selling. If you’re selling something like coffee, try changing the copy on your buy button to “Brew it” and see if that helps with conversions! Hero images can be used to highlight a product or collection - in other words, they can be used as a massive call to action. One study by Notre Dame University shows that the first image out of five images received 84% of all clicks on stores with rotating slideshows. Be sure to have your hero image link to a product, or collection to get visitors to checkout faster. Try to keep everything above the fold if you can. The “fold” of a storefront is the point on any website that comes after scrolling down. Any content above the fold is what visitors immediately see upon entering your store. If you can grab a visitors attention above the fold, chances are they’ll continue to click through and navigate through your store.
Let's take a look at some stores that have achieved success and employ some of these techniques on their store. By clearly stating that their hoodies in black and gold are limited edition, it immediately adds the notion of urgency and scarcity to the product. Chances are, if you were looking to buy some Beastmode Apparel after the Superbowl and saw that, you’d be more inclined to complete a purchase. Secondly, they utilize the idea of encapsulating the call to action button by surrounding the “Shop Now” text with a rectangular border. It stands out from the background, and grabs a visitors attention. Looking at their storefront, you’re probably inclined to click on one of their buy now buttons. You know exactly where to click. There’s no question of how to purchase their product. They show what the product looks like, what it does, and how to buy it - all above the fold. They take advantage of some very bold colors on their storefront, and use a contrasting “purchase now” button to attract the attention of the visitor.
Another clever approach that Bixbi uses, is encapsulating their product collections with a banner. Normally we see additional frontpage products lined up by name, but by making the entire collection a section of its own, a visitor is more inclined to click on them. Department of Motivation takes advantage of keeping the most important aspects of their store above the fold. By taking advantage of a powerful hero image, the visitor knows what the product is, what it looks like, and exactly where to click. By using a responsive theme, their storefront looks great above the fold on any device at any resolution. Perhaps one of the most custom Shopify stores of the list, the Carry on Cocktail kit is a beautiful example of a powerful storefront that employs a simple, but effective call to action. Upon entering their storefront, we see exactly what their product looks like. A simple “Scroll down” message is intriguing, so as a visitor we continue to scroll down to read more about the product.
It’s a fantastic example of a call to action that guides the visitor to the checkout. Plus, it is a fun spin on their branding and product. The Manpacks storefront is an excellent example of all of the tips we went over. Their main call to action is located above the fold, is in their hero section, and is extremely clear. They have a clear description of what they’re selling, a very apparent call to action, as well as a secondary option to get started using Facebook. Not only does Grovemade use beautiful hero images that are full width, full bleed on their storefront, but they’ve managed to make a fun and fantastic call to action. A visitor knows exactly where to click upon visiting their store, as their call to action is very apparent without being too distracting. Furthermore, their navigation menu is very simple making it obvious where a visitor would need to click if they wanted to purchase a product. Now that we’ve seen some call to action examples, it’s your turn to take action and apply some techniques when you create your ecommerce website.