1: Introduction
Make sure to have a brief introduction on the homepage of your web site. Your introduction should be concise and clearly identify the benefits of your visitors shopping at your site.
2: Navigation
Make sure that your site has clear and easy navigation, such as a visible search box on the top part of your web site, clear categories to browse through, a FAQ page that clearly explains your shipping and return policy, and etc.
3: Gift Certificates
People love getting gifts at certain times of the year, so make sure that you have gift certificates that your visitors can purchase right on your web site.
4: Customer Loyalty
Instead of just focusing on getting new customers why not take advantage of repeat business? Why not give your customers an incentive to come back and do business with you again? You can easily do this by offering coupons and special discounts to ones who have already purchased something from you. This is a lot easier than acquiring new customers since they already know you and feel comfortable shopping at your site. You can also add more value to your customers by adding live
customer support to your site.
5: Special Offers
Make sure to have a section on the top part of your home page devoted to featuring your current special offers and sales items. In fact if you happen to have a lot of special offers you can just feature the most popular ones and then make a separate web page that shows all of your sales items.
6: Shopping Carts
People want the checkout process to go as quickly and smoothly as possible, so make sure that your visitors are always just one click away to checkout. Try to reduce the checkout process to as few steps as possible. Make sure to offer multiple payment options such as credit cards, Paypal, online checks, mail orders, and such. When you no longer have a product in stock make sure to either remove it from your site or clearly mark it as “out of stock”. There is nothing more irritating for a customer to go through the whole checkout process only to find out that you no longer carry the item they ordered.
7: Affiliate Program
Do you have your own affiliate program? The most successful web sites have one and you should too. By starting your own affiliate program you will develop an increasing online sales force where you only pay them when a sale is made. There is really no risk and it is one of the best low cost effective advertising methods that you can use.
If you put these tips into practice you will notice a drastic increase in your sales and web site revenue.
About the Author
Jordan Williams is the Owner of WebCashLink.com which gives you the resources, tools, and software to succeed with an online business.
http://www.webcashlink.com
A Successful eCommerce Website - Part 1
So you want to succeed at eCommerce? Welcome to a very large group. First off, let’s be clear that there are a lot of ways to do business on the internet - and a lot of ways to both make and lose money. No way can I cover all of them in a few fairly short articles.
This article is going to assume that 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 a bit beyond those basics. The basics here have to do with factors which will influence the success (or failure) and the degree of success an 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 for a high value site. Sure you can make some money. Once. And you’ll likely have a high refund rate. Essentially you'd be taking advantage of the inexperience of your customers and abusing their willingness to trust you. Not a good path 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 won’t do 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 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 difficult job if you outsource. The less expensive out-source
alternatives can be a bad investment. You’ll need to check very carefully and be certain the operators do actually speak and understand the primary languages(s) of your targeted customer group. You’ll need to provide extensive background information and highly flexible, well-written scripts. You should also collect customer evaluations of these services - separately, and carefully monitor your results to be sure you are getting a decent return on the investment.
You need to have an attractive website. Some can do well with an ugly site, but, in that case, you need to really understand what you're doing and why it might work. The ugly site tactic is not for the inexperienced and very few individuals truly have the grasp of marketing and customer psychology that can lead to 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.
Wherever you can, provide incentives for customers to buy and to return. The return factor is a critical piece of 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. They have at least some faith in you, enough to have purchased. Do your utmost to never damage that faith and treat them with the care they deserve.
The next article in the series will discuss factors such as personalization, security and assisting your staff in dealing consistently with customers customer support.
About the Author
Contracting the computer bug in the early 80's (yes, pre-www) and never cured, Richard, a PhD Clinical Paychologist, now writes on eCommerce, RSS and Niche marketing at http://www.Building-eCommerce-Websites.com
You may freely reprint but the link must be live and spiderable
A Successful eCommerce Website - Part 2
Succeeding with an eCommerce website is a dream for many these days. It can be done no matter how difficult it may sometimes seem. this series covers some of the basic success factors - things you must consider in creating, implementing, managing and developing a quality eCommerce web site. There are a multitude of ways to do business on the internet - and a lot of ways to both make and lose money. Primarily these articles focus on eCommerce sites intended to sell products of various kinds, Not every factor will apply to every site, but since a major failing of many internet entrepreneurs involves the lack of multiple income streams, you should carefully consider all factors and apply them as needed in developing alternate revenue streams.
On examining your eCommerce web site, think carefully about how you can provide personal attention to each visitor. The idea here is personalization through which each visitor, if they wish, can develop a unique experience of your site.
Provide options through which the user can alter layout, colors, etc. Give customers the capability to create their own personal pages on your site. Perhaps offer a simple and easy to provide service to registered customers, such as free email accounts.
As well as building loyalty and stickiness, such features also build your customer database. Scripts are also available which will allow on-the-spot personalization based on responses to a series of questions. You can also use this kind of script to focus your sales message more tightly to the user's expressed interests.
Free services which can be provided on autopilot can be a virtually endless source of targeted customers. Everything from free email to blog hosting, opt-in list building to free advertising forums, all operate on the same principle as building a list through a newszine, white papers, free ebooks or whatever. In return for registration, e.g. name and confirmed email, you provide a service. Careful structuring can allow you to collect significant marketing information on your registered users which would allow well-targeted marketing campaigns.
Never lose track of a customer. Maintaining a database of customers with any of their prior purchases, interests, and so on, allows you to provide personalized purchase suggestions and special offers. The life-long value of a happy customer may be difficult to estimate accurately, but it’s far easier to sell to existing customers than to be continuously forced to acquire new ones.
Even if you only have a single product now, you have to eventually expand your product line(s). Don’t throw a buyer away. Stay in touch, offer information, occasionally recommend a high quality product you use and value. Build trust through value and quality.
To further expand the human dimension, you can add forums and chat rooms. Provide a variety of means to
acquire visitor input. On site surveys and questionnaires, email surveys and opinion polls can not only increase your customers' sense of being in contact with real people who value their opinions and ideas, but also provide exceptionally useful information for refining your marketing and sales tactics. Loyalty programs and affinity networks can also help.
This is a lot like beating a real dead horse, but... Reliability and security are crucial. If your eCommerce site is big enough and busy enough, multiple parallel servers, redundant hardware, use of fail-safe technology, fast technical support service, high quality encryption, valid certificates, high quality payment processors and excellent firewalls will all allow you to ensure your customers that their data is safe, their orders are handled properly and nobody's getting their credit information that shouldn't.
Right now you may not need (or want to pay for) parallel servers, redundant hardware and fail-over technology, don’t ignore the rest. You depend on your ecommerce hosting provider to keep your business running. So think carefully and do some serious research. Overloaded servers, lack of redundant network connections, slow technical support, poor backup procedures can create a nightmare situation for both you and your customers
As this part’s final idea to consider: smooth out your customer contact and support procedures. If multiple staff might come into contact with your customers (chat, phone or email) , providing all of them with the same (and useful) information about the customer, prior orders, any previous or current problems and so forth, can avoid a lot of potential frustration - and lost orders or, worse, a customer lost forever.
It can be incredibly irritating to have to tell the same story over and over, getting bounced from one person to another when no information ever seems to have been recorded. While it may cut down on repeat complaints, that’s usually because the customer is gone forever. Construct your systems so that no information is lost and so that the data needed to be responsive and helpful is instantly available. You may want to restrict some information which customers may not feel comfortable about everyone knowing.
Doing these things right can add significant credibility and usability to your online business, as well as build a loyal customer base which actually enjoys dealing with your eCommerce business. And that's a winning situation for everyone.
About the Author
Contracting the computer bug in the early 80's (yes, pre-www) and never cured, Richard, a PhD Clinical Paychologist, now writes on eCommerce, RSS and Niche marketing at http://www.Building-eCommerce-Websites.com
You may freely reprint but the link must be live and spiderable.
www.Building-eCommerce-Websites.com
Accepting Payments Online: An ECommerce Web Site Overview
There are a seemingly infinite number of choices and configurations to accepting payments online. Choices range from almost total "do it yourself" programming to turnkey packages.
You can accept online payments from an ECommerce Web site in two general ways:
1)Through your own online merchant account and/or
2)Through a third party online payment processor.
Accepting Payments Online through your own Internet Merchant Account
Accepting payments online via a merchant account puts you in control and limits your reliability on outside payment acceptance services. This approach can also seem like a jigsaw puzzle. Besides an Internet merchant account, you will need shopping cart software, a store or site host, a processor, and a secure payment gateway.
You may fit these pieces together in several different ways. On one end of the spectrum, you can choose the provider for each piece individually. On the other end, you may choose a turnkey solution, where a single provider has completed the puzzle for you.
There is no single best solution. Your choice will depend on your particular needs and experience. Among other considerations, you should factor in your own comfort with the technologies, customer convenience, providers' service levels, available technical support, reliability, costs, and time commitment involved.
Fees
There are a myriad of potential costs and fees involved in accepting payments online, making it difficult to compare different options.
Potentially, you could be charged fees by each provider involved in helping you accept payments online - application fees, set-up fees, yearly memberships, monthly statement charges, monthly minimums, gateway access fees, statement fees, fixed transaction fees, variable transaction discount rates (processing fee for each transaction), and cancellation penalties are all common.
Often, it is easy to misinterpret the fees you will owe. Rarely are all costs revealed in one place. If you are reading about a merchant account, for example, the quoted costs may not include gateway access, hosting,
You can accept online payments from an ECommerce Web site in two general ways:
1)Through your own online merchant account and/or
2)Through a third party online payment processor.
Accepting Payments Online through your own Internet Merchant Account
Accepting payments online via a merchant account puts you in control and limits your reliability on outside payment acceptance services. This approach can also seem like a jigsaw puzzle. Besides an Internet merchant account, you will need shopping cart software, a store or site host, a processor, and a secure payment gateway.
You may fit these pieces together in several different ways. On one end of the spectrum, you can choose the provider for each piece individually. On the other end, you may choose a turnkey solution, where a single provider has completed the puzzle for you.
There is no single best solution. Your choice will depend on your particular needs and experience. Among other considerations, you should factor in your own comfort with the technologies, customer convenience, providers' service levels, available technical support, reliability, costs, and time commitment involved.
Fees
There are a myriad of potential costs and fees involved in accepting payments online, making it difficult to compare different options.
Potentially, you could be charged fees by each provider involved in helping you accept payments online - application fees, set-up fees, yearly memberships, monthly statement charges, monthly minimums, gateway access fees, statement fees, fixed transaction fees, variable transaction discount rates (processing fee for each transaction), and cancellation penalties are all common.
Often, it is easy to misinterpret the fees you will owe. Rarely are all costs revealed in one place. If you are reading about a merchant account, for example, the quoted costs may not include gateway access, hosting,
and/or shopping cart. Because you may be comparing "apples to oranges", options that at first appear low-cost can - upon implementation - turn out to be pricey. Similarly, expensive-sounding solutions may actually be reasonably priced.
Accepting Payments Online through a Third Party Online Payment Processor
If you are not ready to set up your own online merchant account and/or you want to offer additional online payment options, you can turn to a variety of third party online payment processors.
Third party online payment processors provide a way to accept payments online without the extra cost and obligation of a merchant account. To compensate, transaction fees and/or discount rates are significantly higher than for merchant accounts.
Each program is a little different and no single third party payment processor is right for all situations. Clickbank, for example, helps you sell digital products online. At last check, CCNow processes payment for tangible items only.
Deciding What's Best for You
Whether you accept payments online through an Internet merchant account, through a third party payment processor, or both, read all agreements carefully before committing. Do not hesitate to ask the providers questions if information is unclear or incomplete.
There is more information about accepting payments online - including explanations of merchant account fees, finding the right ecommerce providers, and third party payment processor overview - on the ecommerce information site Take-Payments- Online.com, http://www.Take-Payments-Online.com .
Put together the "puzzle pieces" for accepting payments online and your ecommerce Web sales will flourish!
About the Author
Bobette Kyle is publisher of the ecommerce information site http://www.Take-Payments-Online.com . She is also proprietor of The WebSiteMarketingPlan.com Network, subject-specific Web sites designed to help you find the right information for writing and implementing your marketing plan. Visit here: http://www.WebSiteMarketingPlan.com
Copyright 2004 Bobette Kyle. All rights reserved.
Advertising Your eCommerce Web Site
8 Tips for Increasing Your Online Sales
Once you’ve launched your eCommerce web site, you’ll need to show it off to the online world. Whether you’re paying someone to submit your site to all the major and minor search engines and directories, it’s still up to you to continually advertise your eCommerce site in order to keep attracting business.
Many online business owners will tell you that within six to nine months of your launch date you’ll start seeing increased orders for your products. However here are 8 things you can do to lure people to your site now!
1.Advertise on http://www.Craigslist.org . This entry will only last for 10 days and you must submit to one city and category at a time. You can include photos and/or advanced HTML in your ad.
2.Write a press release and send out for free to the following sites: http://www.prweb.com [this one has been around for several years]; http://www.prfree.com and http://www.openpress.com Paid submissions will get you more views, quicker listings in the search engines, and the ability to post photos and keep track of your statistics.
3.Submit your site[s] to http://www.isedb.com/html/Web_Directories [You’ll discover loads of directories here, from the highly specialized to the mainstream. Many of the sites have ratings; indicate whether they’re accepting new submissions, and if there’s a fee for submitting].
4.Search engine positioning. When advertising your eCommerce site, always have the following information on hand: A. Your Web site title. This should be approximately 7-12 words. B. Description. Have 3 different descriptions of
Once you’ve launched your eCommerce web site, you’ll need to show it off to the online world. Whether you’re paying someone to submit your site to all the major and minor search engines and directories, it’s still up to you to continually advertise your eCommerce site in order to keep attracting business.
Many online business owners will tell you that within six to nine months of your launch date you’ll start seeing increased orders for your products. However here are 8 things you can do to lure people to your site now!
1.Advertise on http://www.Craigslist.org . This entry will only last for 10 days and you must submit to one city and category at a time. You can include photos and/or advanced HTML in your ad.
2.Write a press release and send out for free to the following sites: http://www.prweb.com [this one has been around for several years]; http://www.prfree.com and http://www.openpress.com Paid submissions will get you more views, quicker listings in the search engines, and the ability to post photos and keep track of your statistics.
3.Submit your site[s] to http://www.isedb.com/html/Web_Directories [You’ll discover loads of directories here, from the highly specialized to the mainstream. Many of the sites have ratings; indicate whether they’re accepting new submissions, and if there’s a fee for submitting].
4.Search engine positioning. When advertising your eCommerce site, always have the following information on hand: A. Your Web site title. This should be approximately 7-12 words. B. Description. Have 3 different descriptions of
varying lengths. 15 words, 25 words, 100 words. Have them summarize the essence of your site. C. Keywords. 10 – 50 of your most important keywords arranged in order of importance. Again, some online directories will allow you to contribute more keywords than others.
5.Write articles about your products/service. Be an online expert. What makes your site so unique from the thousands of others in your chosen category? Is it your customized service? Your low prices? Your high quality? Don’t over promote your product, but concentrate on what will help others. It’s highly recommended you include at least two or three testimonials.
6.Exchange links with other sites that have quality information and are related to your field in some way. For example, I sell a lot of soap so I link with mostly gift basket, crafting and candle sites.
7.Free classifieds. These can sometimes get you listed in the search engines, but don’t expect too much response from them.
8.Offer a freebie. For example, if you have an eBook for sale, you won’t give the entire book away, but having a chapter or two online will increase interest – and sales. If you make or sell a product, offer a free sample with a paid order. Or free shipping on sales over a certain amount.
Follow one or more of these helpful tips and watch your online business bloom!
About the Author
Lisa Maliga, writer & owner of Everything Shea Aromatic Creations [http://www.everythingshea.com] offers a fragrant selection of designer shea butter glycerin soaps, exclusive Whipped Shea Butter, & unique SoapCakes to personalize for gifts or promotions.
An Arm & A Leg for eCommerce?
As a site designer myself, I realize how much time and effort goes
into registering, setting up, and designing a site; not to mention the
creation of content and seamless navigation. But it is unbelievable
how complicated and expensive this process has become!
Let's face it, very few entrepreneurs and small businesses can afford
to spend hundreds of dollars to set up their dot-com presence without
knowing how successful it will be! We've seen the results of high
expectations and over spending with the demise of many well-known
companies as reported in the news recently.
It doesn't have to be this way!
Are you planning to sell products or services?
You do NOT necessarily need expensive shopping cart software or
merchant accounts to sell your products or services. You can begin
your online venture by setting up a few of your most popular items or
services that can be purchased online. Once a customer has made a
purchase, you can then follow up with details on how to purchase
additional items.
There are low cost ecommerce solutions that can help you start
conducting business online without breaking the bank.
First, determine exactly how sophisticated your ordering process needs
to be. Then decide which of the following options best suits your
business needs.
Option A - PayPal
Set up a Premier Account with PayPal. PayPal is a stable and secure
company that has been around long enough to establish a credible
reputation. I can personally vouch for them, I use them consistently.
Benefits:
Doing Business As:
You have the option of using a business name or your personal name,
regardless of how your bank account is registered.
Low Cost:
There are no monthly fees and no set up fees. That’s right - it’s
free.
A small fee is with-held each time a transaction (purchase) is
processed.
Hassle Free
They process all orders and notify you when payment is received.
Referral Bonus
You can earn a small cash bonus for qualified referrals you send to
PayPal.
Features:
Shopping
Cart
Premium members can set up a shopping cart that links directly from
their site to PayPal.
Send an Invoice
If your services or product prices vary, you can send customers an
invoice from PayPal once the purchase price has been established.
Option B - eBay
Consider selling your products or services through eBay. You can
accept checks and money orders by postal mail, or you can accept
credit cards and checks using PayPal, or eBay’s version of PayPal -
BillPoint. You can provide links to your site with each item you
list for auction. You can also set up a reserve amount - the least
dollar amount you will accept for your service or product.
Ebay also offers an affiliate program.
Option C - ClickBank
Sign up as a merchant with ClickBank.net. There are some fees
involved, plus you have to determine what percentage of each sale that
you will allow the referring site to earn. Affiliates with ClickBank
can choose merchants they like (higher commission percentages do
better) and then place links on their sites. There is a setup fee for
merchants, but you'll also be providing your site a great deal of
exposure. Plus, ClickBank allows you to accept credit cards and other
methods of payment. You'll be setting up your own affiliate program!
ClickBank also offers an affiliate program:
http://zzz.clickbank.net/r/?abelle
Option D - Find a Host that provides Shopping Carts
Many hosting packages are set up with shopping carts with a buy
feature. Do your homework. Check on the setup fees and the monthly
fees. Make sure it’s a reputable company so you aren’t worried about
your money transactions.
These are just some of the options that are available for setting up
shop without going broke. I'm sure that there are many more options
available - it just takes some net research.
About the Author
Sandra Cobb is a work at home site designer and homeschooling Mom.
Visit her website for free resources at
http://www.designsbyabelle.com, and sign up for her monthly ezine -
Comets4Him at http://www.sandracobb.com.
An Ecommerce Internet Merchant Account
Small business owners and home based entrepreneurs sometimes reach the point where they realize their company is ready to grow, and then they begin to consider the advantages of an ecommerce Internet merchant account. Those who accept merely cash or check payments may decide to increase the ways in which a customer can pay for goods or services. A merchant account will let business owners accept credit card payments in many different ways. That is why so many business people opt to apply for an Internet merchant account.
If you do not already have an Internet Website to promote your business, this would be a good time to put one in place by opening an Ecommerce Internet Merchant account. More and more, consumers are looking to the Internet to find companies that offer the products and terms they want. Conducting business on the Internet or through technological means is called "ecommerce," sometimes spelled as "e-commerce," and it is growing at a tremendously rapid rate. Once your Website is operational, you will want to update it often with your latest product lines and descriptions and price lists. Once customers from any other computer in the world know where to find you, chances are they will return time and again if they like your site; they might even bookmark it.
To keep customers coming back, get an Ecommerce Internet merchant account that will let you accept credit card payments. That way, customers can buy things at your store locations, whether online or at a physical site, and pay for them instantly. You won't have to send out statements or wait for checks to arrive in the mail. Instead, your credit-processing feature will let them pay with a
If you do not already have an Internet Website to promote your business, this would be a good time to put one in place by opening an Ecommerce Internet Merchant account. More and more, consumers are looking to the Internet to find companies that offer the products and terms they want. Conducting business on the Internet or through technological means is called "ecommerce," sometimes spelled as "e-commerce," and it is growing at a tremendously rapid rate. Once your Website is operational, you will want to update it often with your latest product lines and descriptions and price lists. Once customers from any other computer in the world know where to find you, chances are they will return time and again if they like your site; they might even bookmark it.
To keep customers coming back, get an Ecommerce Internet merchant account that will let you accept credit card payments. That way, customers can buy things at your store locations, whether online or at a physical site, and pay for them instantly. You won't have to send out statements or wait for checks to arrive in the mail. Instead, your credit-processing feature will let them pay with a
Why Ecommerce is Not Ready for My Daughter or Me
As the mother of a teenage clothing fanatic I'm often at my local mall. It occurred to me that the shopping experience for my daughter is attractive to her not because she wants to spend my money, but because the experience of buying itself is so rich to the senses.
For example, when we enter her favorite stores the first thing that hits me is the music. If it's her kind of music, we're in the right place for her. If the signs near the front of the store have sale prices and notices about markdowns, we're in the right place for me. Immediately there are two user needs met. Mother's and daughter's.
Next, for me, is how products are displayed. I look for orderliness and logical groupings such as jeans in one place, the teeny tiny things she calls shirts in another place, "hoodies" in every possible color in another section. I also look for clean dressing rooms and clues as to how many items she can load up on before she meets their limit. Meanwhile, she's looking at colors, sizes, textures, and styles. She glides along in her beat up sneakers touching the items as she passes by. Her hands drift along piles of sweaters as if walking through a field of daisies. A certain texture will stop her dead in her tracks and I'll get that "Mom, look!" expression from her.
It strikes me that some of the stores she insists we stop into don't offer much for me to do or look at. The décor is dark, black, and limited to a few racks mixed with hanging things on the walls separated by posters of half naked teenagers standing next to cars they can't possibly afford to buy. Clothing prices are hidden inside sleeves. Sale signs are taboo. But the music is hip, the salespersons are scary-looking and the smell of leather mixed with hair gel is making my wallet itch. Their website, I bet, has but one click-path designed for teens and their parents must be blindfolded so as not to read the content before handing over their credit card.
Finally in a store where I feel welcome, my daughter is admiring the merchandise and starting to find what she likes in her size. I'm avoiding the mirrors and marveling at the sales personnel with their size 3 bodies, smudged eyeliner and 35 bracelets on each wrist. For my daughter, who looks just like them, this is confirmation she's in the right store. I, on the other hand, will stop holding in my stomach when we get back out to the parking lot, or when we grab our lattés in Starbucks on the first floor.
While other mothers and myself are holding piles of clothes in our arms, or running back and forth to get something in different sizes, my mind drifts to all the ecommerce websites I find in search engines, but don't purchase from. For starters, most of them think I'm going to read 35 links in their navigation, plus their ads, before deciding which is the right path to follow. Some of them will tell me about one sale, but if I want to know more, I have to figure out where they stuck that stuff. There's nothing I can physically touch and the images are usually tiny. Sure, I can click to enlarge but how many times have I done that only to find a bigger view of the
same boring, unattractive picture?
Most shopping carts don't give me shipping dates or availability information as I make my selections. (Just recently I ordered something, only to hear from the merchant via email that their software wasn't working and the color and size wasn't recorded, so they had to contact me for that information.)
We assume ecommerce have functional websites. We assume incorrectly. We assume they built them for many types of customers, but again, we've assumed wrong. We assume that the top 20 sites in search engine results are the best of the best based on our search keywords. That, I'm afraid, is the saddest shock of all. Top rank doesn't equal the best online experience once you click into that website.
That part of usability wasn't tested for you by the search engine or directory. That's not their job.
My daughter looks good in everything. So did I when I was a teenager. If I still had that body I could order from any lingerie site on the Internet and feel quite sure I'd look as fantastic and sexy as their starving models do. But, I never buy sexy lingerie on the Internet because quite frankly, they're not selling it to me. One look at their models, their poses, their ages and their airbrushed faces tells me their target market is men who dream of making their women look like that too, if they just buy that lacey thing for them.
Fortunately I have a levelheaded daughter who loves to hunt for bargains. The last time we shopped at the Mall together was because I wanted to get her a gift for making the Distinguished Honor Roll that marking period in school. She found something at her favorite teen store for under $20. We splurged at Starbucks on our favorite chocolate coffee fixes, which was the logical choice after doing so well at the clothing store.
Online, after a sale, I'd be alone staring at my monitor at a "Thank you screen" and likely not directed to go anywhere interesting next. This is another common ecommerce practice; dumping the customer off after the last screen of a shopping cart. Instead, they should try suggesting a related site (via paid sponsored link?) or a reminder to bookmark the site for later shopping or better yet, how about a quick "Did you find what you were looking for?" survey. One quick question, one button click is all it takes to say "We hoped you like your shopping experience but if not, please tell us how to make it better."
This is what the cute pierced nose sales clerk said to us when I handed her the $20 for my daughter's new shirt. I gratefully accepted the receipt from the nail polished hand attached to the 18 year old face with a pimple on the forehead, multi-colored hair and glittered eye shadow. You just can't get mimic that kind of user experience on the Internet yet.
About the Author
Usability Consultant, Kimberly Krause Berg, is the owner of UsabilityEffect.com, Cre8pc.com, Cre8asiteForums.com and co-founder of Cre8asite.net. Her background in organic search engine optimization, combined with web site usability consulting, offers unique insight into web site development
Why VPS is Perfect for eCommerce Hosting
I want to preface this little article with this fact: The optimal environment for an ecommerce website is a dedicated server. Nothing else offers you the level of control, security, and customizability as a dedicated web appliance for the simple fact that the entire server is yours. Unfortunately, dedicated servers are expensive. You either need to lease them, Co-locate your own server in someone's datacenter, or pay for a huge internet connection to your location where you host your own. I understand that $250-$8000 a month is not in the startup budget of most new ecommerce sites, so here is the next best thing:
Virtual Private Servers.
Virtual Private Servers, or VPS, are an intermediate service between shared hosting (where you get one domain account) and dedicated hosting (where you get the whole server). With VPS, the actual server hardware and resources are partitioned up into several isolated environments which each act as their own "mini" dedicated server. Each VPS maintains its own control over server software, mail servers, and independent software resources, parsers, and programs such as PHP and BIND. VPS minimize the drawbacks that shared hosting has and gives you guaranteed resources, a secure operating environment, and distinct advantages in performance and security.
The advantages of VPS are clear:
Control. While you can not usually change system-wide configurations such as the base operating system, you are free to update your PHP version, Apache configuration, MySQL version, or whatever application related change you want to make. Unlike a dedicated server where you can really, really screw something up if you don't know what you are doing, VPS don't really allow you to break something really important that keeps the server running. This makes it a great intermediate step in learning web server administration before graduating to a full, dedicated server appliance when your business needs to.
You can have more than one website. You can have multiple domains, subdomains, IP addresses, whatever. Some web admin panels have restrictions (like 25 or 100 domain licenses) but others like my personal favorite, cPanel, allow you to run hundreds of sites if you want off of one account.
Security. Each VPS acts like its own isolated environment, and as such your system and data files can not be seen by any other VPS account on the server. This is not always the case with some insecure shared hosting setups, where insecure permissions or scripts on another shared site can open the whole shared box up to attack. Also, if another VPS user leaves an SQL loop open and locks up the database server on their account, your account and resources continue to operate without interruption because your resource allocation is completely separate from theirs.
Cost. While VPS solutions cost more than shared hosting (most are in the $29.99-$99.99 price range), they are much more affordable than leasing a dedicated server appliance. The fact is, even the most mediocre dedicated server is oversized for a startup ecommerce site, and VPS represent a great value for the new internet entrepreneur.
VPS are not without disadvantages though, abet small ones. Here are the main ones:
It does take a higher level of technical savvy to maintain a VPS solution than a standard shared hosting account. I don't really buy into this one though, because when I ran my first dedicated server when I was 15 years old (yeah, it's so easy a 15 year old can do it) I only had one learning resource: The Internet. Everything you ever need to know and more about running a web server can be found for free on the internet. Add to that fact
that most VPS plans come with an easy to use web administration interface that is fully supported and documented and you got it made.
Your VPS host has a lot to do with the quality of your VPS account. Mismanagement of VPS appliances by your hosting company may land you with too many accounts on one server and as a result you may experience performance hits. Choose your VPS provider wisely.
Depending on your plan, it may be a lot of work to setup. Once again, this is all related to finding the right VPS provider. A comprehensive VPS plan will include a ready to go, setup environment with a name-brand web management console like cPanel or Plesk. These easy turn-key solutions will have you serving pages in an hour or two.
I was thinking about writing a big section on "How to decide if VPS is right for you" but I couldn't really make any arguments for not going VPS. Virtual Private Servers are superior to shared hosting in every way, and frankly if you are running an ecommerce site where your livelihood depends on your site being available and making sales you would be a moron not to investigate VPS hosting. The price point is there, the features are there, and the security and availability are there.
In my experience, this is what I think a VPS account should have for an ecommerce setup (let's use a heavily modified osCommerce setup for example):
It should be based on the Virtuozzo VPS system. These guys invented VPS, and they do it the best.
It should have at a minimum 256MB guaranteed ram for MySQL database driven sites, and at a minimum it should be burstable to 512MB for the occasional memory intensive query. The size of your database and traffic should dictate this number.
Disk space is trivial- I have not seen many ecommerce sites go over 3-5GB with thousands of products- make sure you get at least 5-10GB so you have plenty of room for expansion.
Bandwidth is kinda trivial too- you have to have a lot of traffic to exceed the 100-250GB bandwidth packages included with most VPS plans, and lets face it- if you have that much traffic you are going to be making money hand over fist and move up to a managed dedicated appliance anyway.
Get some sort of automated backup. If your host does not include it, it's usually a $10-$15 option that is completely worth it. That way, if you are learning how to administer your VPS and you break something, your site can be restored and running again in an hour or two.
Make sure you are getting it from a reputable company that has 24/7 support. There are lots of places to save $5 when you are setting up your business but the hosting that runs your lifeblood is not one of them. Get your hosting from a big company- they have the experience, the staff, and the systems in place to keep you running.
Make sure you get a VPS account with a name-brand web administration panel as this will smooth out your learning curve. I personally recommend cPanel as it allows unlimited domains, has its own name servers built in, and has two levels of admin- appliance control through the Web Host Manager, and individual domain control panels for each site. I can't say enough nice things about cPanel.
Whatever company you choose, I hope you will take a look at VPS hosting. This is your business, and you owe it to yourself and your customers to have a hosting account that is quick, responsive, and powerful.
About the author:
Jason Chance is a full time Online Product Manager and contract developer for the SMB market. He maintain's a site at http://www.jccommerce.com where he shares what works when trying to sell and promote online.
Why You Should Use Turnkey Websites To Jumpstart Your Ecommerce Activity
Most people looking to do business online have heard of turnkey websites. They seem to be a one stop solution to getting an online business going without all the usual hassles associated with an online startup. Take a look thought the business & industry section of eBay and you'll see thousands of turnkey sites, sometimes going for hundreds of dollars.
Turnkey sites are ideal way to start or grow your ecommerce activity, below are just a handful of reasons explaining why.
1. Design
Ever tried to design a site yourself. Did it go well? Or were the results not as expected. Designing and building a site from scratch can be difficult work if not impossible to finalise your desired look. Turnkey sites already have been designed by full time graphic designers to look professional and more importantly to achieve maximum sales conversions from your end users visitors. Why spend hours trying to get that look right when you can buy an existing proven design ready to go.
2. Functionality
All our sites at Trading-Web-Solutions are tested constantly for days before they are released. Each site needs to be tested in every browser, not just Internet Explorer but Netscape and browsers growing in popularity such as Opera or Firefox. Other things to test on your site include scripts, databases & different screen modes. Will the script work with UNIX and windows servers? Does the javascript function in both Netscape and Opera? Even a small fault that occurs when using another system could cost you many visitors and more importantly orders. Testing a site is the most time consuming process of getting any online businesses running.
3. Easy to modify
The majority of turnkey sites are very easily to modify, just by opening your control panel or by loading the site into Frontpage. This is necessary, as you should personalise your site with your welcoming text and sales message to make the site yours. You don't want your site to be exactly the same as someone else's does you. With all the hard work done by someone else, just personalise your site to complete it and make it stand out from
the crowd.
4. Trusted Partners
Affiliate Marketing is made easy by turnkey websites. If you want an affiliate relationship with another online organisation you need to be careful whom you choose. But by purchasing a turnkey site already affiliated with another party, all the research has already been done for you. Everything will have been examined about the affiliate program in detail, to make sure they are reliable, secure, pay out on time, offer excellent support to affiliates, and offer flexible linking methods. And if your site is not affiliated to another party but a stand-alone site it will be setup with the other payment links to a trusted payment processor such as Paypal or Nochex.
5. Cost
Turnkey websites are very cheap. For roughly $200 you can get one setup including one years hosting or pay monthly hosting and get one setup for about $100. Try getting a new site developed for this cost and you won't get very far. Most web developers charge from $85 per hour, so you'll be lucky if you get one page done for the same cost.
6. Quick Setup
Sellers who setup turnkey websites normally do it for a living on a full time basis. They've done it many times before so they know exactly what they're doing. Usually your site will be setup and live within 24 - 48 hours. You shouldn't have any problems after your sites been setup, after all they livelihood depends on it and if a seller makes any mistakes during the setup it can be very costly if not financially, then certainly towards their reputation and feedback.
7. Support
Want promotional advice, or to change the style of your site. Who better to ask than the people who created or installed your site? After sales support is normally included by email or a support ticket system and is a valuable source of information. Just one of the benefits of purchasing a turnkey website.
About the Author
Mark Kenny is an online entrepreneur who specialises in developing turnkey websites in niche and profitable markets. You can see a selection of the work he is involved in at: http://www.trading-web-solutions.com
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