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Building eCommerce Websites that work - Part 3
Copyright 2005 Richard Keir An interesting eCommerce success factor that isn't precisely overlooked, but which is often thought about more in terms of being a way of feeding the search engine spiders has to do with providing content. In a very...
Canada and eCommerce
Canadian eCommerce growth was recently flat but still has an
attractive upside...
Recent studies found that Canadian retail e-commerce growth was
flat year over year (2003-2004). After further examination
however, approximately 60% of the...
Surviving the Ecommerce Competition
Just as putting up any other business, e-commerce has also its own trade secrets. Not applying those trade secrets could detrimental to the survival of an e-commerce site.
While many webmasters believe that content is king, if you only depend on...
The Ecommerce Myth
Introduction Ecommerce is growing rapidly. Besides the big players such as Amazon.com and Buy.com, small businesses realize that they can also increase their sales revenues by using the Internet. With this realization, more and more online stores...
Using eBay to market your ecommerce website
eBay is now the world’s largest marketplace, so why not use this to the advantage of you and your website? By creating an easy-to-use eBay Store and listing some of your more popular items at a small discount from the price on your website, you can...
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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
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| E-Commerce Times: Because E-Business Means Business |
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| ECommerce-Guide to News, Reviews and Technology Solutions |
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| Electronic commerce - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia |
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| E-Commerce News for IT Managers |
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| New Zealand Government E-Commerce |
| Resource containing information on electronic commerce, including law, trade, tax, privacy, consumer protection, and help for businesses. |
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| eCommerce Guidebook for web hosting |
| The eCommerce Guidebook provides many resources, including a directory of online transaction providers, a tutorial, and many other resources. |
| www.online-commerce.com |
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| Shopping cart software integrated into Frontpage, Dreamweaver, CSS and Golive ecommerce software templates. |
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| Information from the FTC on E-commerce and the Internet. Includes anti-fraud tips. |
| www.ftc.gov |
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| ec.europa.eu |
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| Online Business |
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| onlinebusiness.about.com |
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| eCommerce Info Center- ONE-STOP for eCommerce info, services ... |
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| eCommerce Innovation Centre |
| Practical resources for small business involved in or considering eCommerce implemetations. Expert Advice and Assistance. |
| www.ecommerce.ac.uk |
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| Web Marketing Today -- E-Commerce, E-Mail, Internet Marketing, and ... |
| Articles, tips and advice on e-commerce and effective Internet marketing strategies. |
| www.wilsonweb.com |
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| Web Marketing Today Research Room for E-Commerce |
| The largest collection of annotated links to web marketing and ecommerce articles and resources to be found at any single place on the planet. |
| www.wilsonweb.com |
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| The 2005 E-commerce Awards - Welcome |
| The UK national E-commerce awards organised by the DTI and Interforum. |
| www.ecommerce-awards.co.uk |
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| Mal's e-commerce |
| Mal's e-commerce ... Customize the look and feel of your store; No scripts or applications to install; Build as large an e-commerce site as you want ... |
| www.mals-e.com |
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| Howstuffworks "How E-commerce Works" |
| E-commerce has exploded in the last 10 years. Find out how e-commerce works and how you can harness the potential of e-commerce, from affiliate programs to ... |
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| Ecommerce Guide - Terms You Need to Know to Do Business on the ... |
| An online computer dictionary and internet search engine for internet terms and techincal support. |
| e-comm.webopedia.com |
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| Shopping Cart Software Ecommerce Solutions |
| Ecommerce solutions by Volusion will take your business to new heights. Volusion offers the best prices in the industry for a complete ecommerce web ... |
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