You want to succeed at eCommerce? Welcome to a very big family. Right off, let's be clear - there are lots of ways to do business on the internet. And lots of ways to both make and lose money. Successful eCommerce websites come in all shapes, kinds and colors and while I can't cover every type of site in this series, I will present the basics you need to consider and apply for an eCommerce web site to be successful.
Let's begin by assuming you have some of the fundamentals, that you understand the language and that you are serious. I'm not going to tell you how to set up a web site or get a decent hosting account. We're beyond those basics. The basics here are the factors which will influence the success (or failure) and the degree of success your eCommerce web site experiences.
First and foremost, you need to provide value for your customers. Absurd as it seems to have to repeat that, a lot of so-called eCommerce sites provide no or very little value for their visitors. Pretending to offer value is not the same thing as providing value. Promoting miserably written, hackneyed, cloned ebooks filled with questionably useful and/or outdated content doesn't make a high value web site. Sure you might make some money. Once. And you'll end up with a high refund rate - and an unhappy credit card processor. That path means you're taking advantage of inexperienced customers and abusing their willingness to trust you. This isn't the way to a long-term business with steady repeat customers.
Value on the net is not very different from any kind of off-line retail sales -- a quality product line that will attract potential customers and a competitive price that will lead to purchases. An honest, quality product that will meet the expectations you've created in your buyers. Hyped junk just doesn't cut it.
Next, you've got to have a smooth, user-friendly, easy to follow process all the way to your thank you page. The simpler, cleaner and clearer you can make the process, the better. Where it makes sense you can augment this user-responsive site profile by adding live-response chat.
If you do decide to use call-in or live chat, it's imperative that your operators be well-trained, understand your products and your system and be customer friendly. This can be a problem if you outsource. The less expensive out-source call centers can turn out to be very expensive in terms of lost sales and customers who never come back.
You'll need to check very carefully and be 100 per cent certain the operators actually speak and understand the primary language(s) of your targeted customer group. You'll need to provide extensive background information and highly flexible, well-written scripts.
You should collect your own customer evaluations - separately. Don't rely exclusively on any monitoring or customer satisfaction surveys provided by the call center. Track your ROI to be sure it's money well-spent. Don't stop monitoring just because the results looked good for the first two or three months. Things change. Make sure you're tracking desired actions linked to the call center separately from those NOT related to call-in or live chat. Mixing outcomes leaves you in the dark about what's really happening.
You probably should have an attractive website. An ugly site can work, but to do that you need to absolutely know exactly what you're doing and why it should work. And you'll have to test like crazy to optimize (of course, you should be doing that anyway). The ugly site tactic is not for the inexperienced. Very few individuals really have the grasp of marketing, market and customer psychology that makes for a successful "ugly" site.
To provide a pleasant experience, you need to be careful in what you use - colors, text-size, graphics, animation and white space can add value to your site or turn it into a user nightmare. Test your site with people who will tell you the truth. Just because you love it doesn't mean anyone else will. In general, aiming for a professional appearing site is your best option. Look for the highest ranked, busiest sites in your business area and study the layouts they use. Extract the common features that you see on those sites. While other factors heavily influence traffic and ranking, appearance has a strong effect on visitors and sites that do testing evolve toward optimizing visitor behavior.
Keep in mind that a site's desired actions affect the design and layout. You'll want to study sites where those actions are most similar to the desired actions you target on your web site. If your goal is direct product sales, there's not much point in emulating a site that's optimized for newsletter sign-ups or AdSense.
If your main goal is direct sales (and if it is, then you need backend products too), provide incentives for customers to buy AND to return. The return factor is critical to a long-term strategy for success. Anyone who buys is your best possible future customer. Keep them, track them, make them special offers. Use coupons, discounts, special deals, customer-only offers and back end sales. Your customer base is your gold mine. Since they've shown enough faith in you to buy, do your utmost to never damage that faith. Treat them like the priceless resource they are. Think long-term: successful eCommerce websites are all about value and customer service.
Copyright 2005 Richard Keir
Richard teaches, trains and consults, on and off-line, on business and professional presentations, eCommerce, site building and programming. And writes a lot. Visit http://www.Building-eCommerce-Websites.com for articles, information, resources and links and check our blog at http://www.Building-eCommerce-Websites/blog for opinion and ideas.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|


Once your website has secured an order, you have to... Read More
This isn't the first time I have written about the... Read More
Inherent (or Business) RiskInherent Risk is the risk that exists... Read More
There are so many metrics surrounding direct marketing. So many... Read More
In theory you could create a retail web site with... Read More
Choosing a carefully pinpointed niche market should be one of... Read More
There are lots of ways to advertise for free but... Read More
Online customer service is still one of the most frequently... Read More
The concept of this is for you to offer a... Read More
Many surfers already know about Froogle, Google's shopping portal that... Read More
If you're thinking of jumping on the bandwagon and going... Read More
The first article of this series discussed page views per... Read More
One bright spot on the economic horizons around the world... Read More
Often the simplest Web stores have the most success. But... Read More
Our website, Best Of The Home, has been listed in... Read More
Congratulations! You created an impulse in a customer to buy... Read More
--Online Commerce--E-Commerce website is all about selling products and services... Read More
Because of this encouraging surge in activity, many individuals are... Read More
In Part One we talked a little bit about what... Read More
Internet has opened a new era of business opportunities. Each... Read More
If you have been wrestling with the idea of applying... Read More
Drop Shippers, the manufacturers or distributors who are willing to... Read More
Yes, it's true, coupons are not just for newspapers anymore.... Read More
Recently I went looking for an online merchant account, with... Read More
So you want to start a business? Good for you.... Read More
Open Source applications can bring unique value to business owners.... Read More
After building and transferring many e-commerce sites it still amazes... Read More
To conduct business on the Internet, whether informal, one-time only... Read More
This article will show small businesses how to get free... Read More
1. Balance - You want to find a directory rich... Read More
What is an E-marketplace anyway?E-marketplace is a business to business... Read More
When your eCommerce business grows to the point where you... Read More
Shopping online has become more and more popular in America... Read More


Is there a difference between writing a landing page and... Read More
When your eCommerce business grows to the point where you... Read More
When shopping for e-commerce hosting there are a lot of... Read More
BENEFITS OF A DATABASEBy maintaining your list as a database,... Read More
The days of easy money are overIn these post-dot-com days... Read More
In this surreal world of the internet, anyone, even you,... Read More
It was reported in 'Marketing' magazine this month, that Britain... Read More
Our website, Best Of The Home, has been listed in... Read More
Paypal is one of the wonders of the web. Never... Read More
The Internet began as a male dominated medium, but those... Read More
Do you have any product that has not been moving... Read More
When most people think of a retirement gift, they think... Read More
Knowledge Management for beginnersKnowledge Management (KM) can be defined simply... Read More
The Internet has changed the way people do business today.... Read More
My Business is Afraid of the InternetBill Gates, CEO of... Read More
To conduct business on the Internet, whether informal, one-time only... Read More
Internet now days became a real marketplace and many many... Read More
Summer must be when many work at home Mom start... Read More
Concept of ServiceThe current work deals with marketing offer of... Read More
Some people do not understand the Internet idea of online... Read More
So you want to start a business? Good for you.... Read More
This may not be a popular view, but I think... Read More
First off, you need to know what an ecommerce solution... Read More
E-gold is a digital currency, used extensively on the Internet... Read More
As you may have noted, there are thousands or even... Read More
Using an Address Verification System (AVS) when processing your online... Read More
Greetings!Friends and relitives ask us all the time " How... Read More
Inherent (or Business) RiskInherent Risk is the risk that exists... Read More
Did you know that 80% of all sales are made... Read More
Global Insight, a leading economic and financial forecasting company, (formerly... Read More
China's IT industry is expected to see a sales revenue... Read More
Simply put, business plans can make or break your business.... Read More
What is a Stakeholder?Try "define: Stakeholder" in Google and you... Read More
E-commerce |