Registration Opens for ABA’s IndieCommerce Institute

On Wednesday, June 22, the American Booksellers Association opened registration for its inaugural IndieCommerce Institute (ICI), to be held from 10:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on Wednesday, August 10, in Rosemont, Illinois, minutes from Chicago’s O’Hare Airport. The program, sponsored by the Ingram Content Group, will focus on online commerce and related marketing for booksellers at different levels of experience.

Open to ABA bookstore members only, the ICI will offer three educational tracks based on booksellers’ experience with their IndieCommerce websites — introductory, more experienced, and master class. Enrollment for the ICI ends on July 14 and is capped to help create an engaged and interactive learning environment. (Because of the subject matter and the structure of the master class programming, applicants must apply and may not qualify for a very limited number of spots. However, registrants who do not qualify are encouraged to attend Track I or II instead.)

The registration cost per person is $149 for the introductory and experienced tracks, and $199 for the master class. The cost for all tracks includes lunch.

Accommodations are available at the Sheraton Chicago O’Hare Airport, the ICI’s host hotel, for the night of Tuesday, August 9, at the discounted rate of $119, plus city and state taxes. All rooms are non-smoking double suites. Booksellers who want take advantage of the discounted rate must indicate their desire to stay at the hotel on the ICI registration form on BookWeb.org. (Reservations made directly with the hotel will not receive the conference rate.)

Attendees who choose to fly on American Airlines can receive a five percent discount with a special promotional code for the IndieCommerce Institute. Details about the discount, which is valid on flights from August 6 - 13, are available on the BookWeb event page.

IndieCommerce Institute Educational Program Preview

Track I: For New Users or Those Who Need a Refresher Course

This track is probably for you if...

• You are new to IndieCommerce (one year or less).
• You are looking for guidance on content editing, handling customer orders, managing wholesaler fulfillment, or setting store prices.
• You want a refresher course on the basics.
• You are introducing a new staff member to the program.

Topics to be covered include:

• Setting up your site
  Choosing a theme, setting up store info
• Content Editing
  Working with pages, menus, blocks, embedding YouTube videos, Twitter, Facebook, Constant Contact, and more
• Order Processing
  How money changes hands, best practices for order management, wholesaler fulfillment via Ingram, editing orders, reauthorizing cards, communicating with customers, and much more
• Store Pricing
  Setting prices using built-in tools and inventory sync, e-book pricing, the agency model, and more
• Syncing Your Inventory
  Using Above the Treeline or your POS
• Understanding site traffic with Google Analytics
  Setting up your account, basics of GA, sales tracking

At the end of Track I, you will have collaboratively built a sample site, which you will be able to refer back to later on to see how something was done.

Qualifications: Any ABA member bookstore with a signed IndieCommerce contract.

Track II: For Experienced Users

This track is probably for you if...

• You have been live on IndieCommerce for one year or more.
• You are comfortable using built-in tools to price books, process orders, add events/pages.
• You have an active customer base placing orders through your site and you are looking to expand.

Topics to be covered include:

• Redesigning your site
  Making changes without making them live at the same time, working with outside developers, 10 easy things you might not be doing to improve the look and feel of your site
• Advanced Google Analytics
  Slicing data, tracking customer behavior, understanding referring sites and keyword searches, and more
• Using integrated site reporting tools
  Money management, customer reports, and more
• Advanced custom products
  Building custom products with attributes and options, building custom add-to-cart links, using custom products as registration forms, handling stock for custom products
• Selling more online
  Making the site reflect the store, adding your unique products/services, capitalizing on events, and more
• Your own Authorize.net account
  Taking a more direct role in processing credit cards, refunding customers directly, and more

At the end of Track II, you will have a better idea of what is (and isn’t) happening on your site, and should have a variety of ideas for increasing sales, as well as the knowledge to implement them.

Qualifications: Any ABA member bookstore that is live on IndieCommerce at the time of registration.

Track III: Master Class — Limited Attendance, Application and Approval Required

This track is probably for you if...

• You have been live on IndieCommerce for one year or more.
• You have looked up Drupal modules or themes to use with your site.
• You are comfortable working with HTML and the built-in site building tools.
• You are looking for ways to save staff time by automating repetitive tasks.

Topics to be covered include:

• Redesigning your site
  Choosing/cloning/uploading a different theme, block settings by theme, dealing with the cache, understanding the structure of Drupal themes
• Drupal content types
  Understanding ‘nodes’ and ‘content types,’ CCK fields for text/image/dates, creating new content types, content types vs. product classes
• Taxonomy: Drupal’s tagging system
  Vocabularies, tagging nodes, grouping nodes by taxonomy, free tagging/multiple select, and more
• Views: Automating content on your site
  Intro to Views, Filters, Sorts, Arguments, Style, Fields, Displays (Page, Block, XML/RSS, CSV file export), making Views interactive, customer reports with Views, and much more
• Pulling it all together
  We will demonstrate building an events block/page/feed with author photos that updates automatically, a staff picks block that rotates books at random, and a report of customers who bought a given SKU
• Workshops
  Track III will close with thoughtful peer review and critique.

At the end of Track III, you should have the knowledge and tools to take your website to the next level, thereby saving valuable staff time and driving more sales.

Qualifications: An ABA member bookstore live on IndieCommerce with a track record of proficient and creative use of the product. Applicants to Track III must apply and may not qualify for a very limited number of spots. Track III registrants who do not qualify are welcome to attend Track I or II instead.

Register now.

Questions about IndieCommerce Institute content should be addressed to ABA Technology Director Matt Supko.