Getting Started in ECommerce ? Part Two

In Part One we talked a little bit about what Ecommerce is, getting a domain name and setting up a merchant account. Ecommerce is more than that, much more. To have a really good online presence that gets people to stop and shop you need a strategy for success. Your strategy must include your USP or Unique Selling Position in the marketplace. What makes you stand out from all the other online entrepreneurs looking for the same type of customers as you? Can you stand out from the competition based on quality, price or benefits? Once you know your USP, you can begin the monumental task of telling the world about your site. A really unique selling position will give you an advantage over all the competition ? well that and a lot of planning and investing of your time and money.

FOCUS

Emphasize the benefits and the results the customer will get from purchasing from you and using your product or service. You can discover the benefits by listing all the features and then converting them to benefits. List everything your product or service offers. For each feature list a relative advantage from the customer's perspective. You can discover the customer's perspectives when they buy. Simply ask them, " Why did you place an order today or use our service?" BE very specific when creating your benefit statements. An example of this is, "You will save $100.00 sells better than "you will save money." "You will loose 20 pounds in 10 days" sounds better than "you will loose weight." Rank your benefits in order of importance to the customer. If you have enough of them, use bullet points for emphasis.

Emotion sells. People make most buying decisions with their heart and not their head. Paint a picture of the results the customer will get when they purchase from you. " You will look 20 years younger." "You will be $100 richer."

Make sure you include a call to action. Want them to make a buying decision today? Give them a reason to do so. Offer a bribe (discount, bonus, something for nothing).

Your website must load quickly and function easily. If your site loads slowly people will get impatient and go elsewhere. Do all your links work? Have you tested your order page by running sample orders? Have you tested load time using different connection speeds? You can get a fr*ee analysis by visiting Submitplus.com.

Make your website easy to look at and read. I find dark background tend to be more difficult to read than do pale backgrounds. The overall look of your site should be clean and professional. When we were first creating the Women's ECommerce Association, International we did everything in-house. Not being truly adept at HTML coding we thought we could just use a simple program to create a professional site. It was okay, but the one we now have is so much better. Why? Because we hired a professional. You can create a website with a good template program. We are using ECommerce Templates to create our new look for WUN Publications. It is simple to use and relatively inexpensive.

When it comes to graphics, be conservative. Sites that are laden with graphics and flash tend to take longer to load. If your site takes more than 3 seconds to do so, you will loose many visitors and potential buyers. If you must use graphics, make sure the files sizes used have been reduced as much as your image editing/compression software will allow.

View your site using as many different browsers as possible. In addition to Internet Explorer and Netscape, there is Opera, Mozilla, Lynx and those are just the ones that run on Microsoft Windows. WebMonkey has a chart of those supported by Macintosh, Unix/Linux and others. Also, many people will surf with their browser's graphics switched off. Make sure you know what your site looks like without the graphics and that it is still easy for visitors to surf.

One last thought Make sure all your important information is above the fold. If you know that visitors are looking for something specific and you make them scroll down to find it, chances are they won't.

Excerpted from The PMS Principles - Powerful Marketing Strategies to Grow Your Business © 2005 - Heidi Richards

Heidi Richards is the author of The PMS Principles, Powerful Marketing Strategies to Grow Your Business and 7 other books. She is the owner of Eden Florist & Gift Baskets and the Founder & CEO of the Women's ECommerce Association, International http://www.WECAI.org (pronounced wee-kī) ? an Internet organization that "Helps Women Do Business on the WEB." BASIC Membership is Free. She can be reached at http://www.HeidiRichards.com or heidi@wecai.org. You have permission to publish this article electronically or in print, free of charge, as long as the bylines are included. A courtesy copy of your publication would be appreciated.

In The News:


pen paper and inkwell


cat break through


Set Yourself Apart From The Ordinary

I have written at length about the need to anticipate... Read More

Is ClickBanks Popularity Drawing To An End?

ClickBank is the Internet's most popular payment processor for online... Read More

Online Customer Service - The Cornerstone of a Successful Online Business

Online customer service is still one of the most frequently... Read More

Free Competition Analysis for E-Commerce Startup

For anyone who has completed research regarding e-commerce, there are... Read More

Shopping Cart Usability

Usable Shopping Carts Increase SalesE-commerce has been around since 1993... Read More

Creating The Perfect Ecommerce Website

If you're thinking of jumping on the bandwagon and going... Read More

Why Ecommerce is Not Ready for My Daughter or Me

As the mother of a teenage clothing fanatic I'm often... Read More

Why Suppliers Should Use B2B Exchanges

Business to business e-commerce is on the rise! Worldwide B2B... Read More

The Internet Challenge

In spite of the increasing attention on how the Internet... Read More

The ClickBank E-Commerce Solution

ClickBank.com can offer you multiple solutions for your e-commerce business.... Read More

Online Shoppers Say They?ll Buy from Small and Large E-Businesses Alike

As the holiday shopping season begins in earnest, consumers say... Read More

A Tale of Two Revolutions - Ecommerce: A Historical Perspective

The World As It Then WasThe dynamic economic growth of... Read More

Building eCommerce Websites That Work - Part 1

You want to succeed at eCommerce? Welcome to a very... Read More

Web Store - Why Do You Need One?

Internet has opened a new era of business opportunities. Each... Read More

Grow Your Business Using B2B Emarketplace ? Part II

Selecting the right emarketplaceAlthough, IT spending has been staying flat... Read More

5 Tips for Online Shopping

Shopping online has become more and more popular in America... Read More

Is ECommerce Right for Our Business?

If your business features products or services for sale, undoubtedly... Read More

E-commerce Software That Will Safeguard Your Business against Fraud

Fraud is a huge issue when it comes to the... Read More

Getting Started in ECommerce ? Part Two

In Part One we talked a little bit about what... Read More

How Measuring Key Performance Indicators Can Improve E-Commerce Strategy - Part One

The problem with most e-commerce marketing strategy today is that... Read More

Your Readers are Publishers Too

Too often we charge ahead and treat the web as... Read More

Online Florists - Send Flowers Online When Youre In a Hurry

You did it again, didn't you? Forgot until the last... Read More

E-Gold

E-gold is a digital currency, used extensively on the Internet... Read More

The Webmasters Assistant

There are many tools available to a webmaster to analyse... Read More

Guide To Safe Online Shopping

Online shopping can be a little frightening to people who... Read More

12 Easy and Effective Ways To Create Reports

1. Combine a few of your articles into a free... Read More

Make That 3 Billion

My previous article I wrote called "One Point Two Billion"... Read More

Web advertising e-Marketing Places!

Overview:What is web advertising?Internet Advertising is popularly known as web... Read More

Why Our Site Was Removed From The ODP

Our website, Best Of The Home, has been listed in... Read More

Bringing the World to Your Door

According to Internet.com, by the year 2008 nearly 30% of... Read More

Coupons & Rebates

Yes, it's true, coupons are not just for newspapers anymore.... Read More

The Secret Science Of Online Shopping

In theory you could create a retail web site with... Read More

Choosing An Internet Merchant Account

Surf to Google and perform a search on "Internet Merchant... Read More