|
|
|
Building Ecommerce Web Sites: Where Do I Start?
Building a web site isn't something that is really cut and dry. There's a huge variety of products and services that can either help you get your web site where you want it or simply confuse you. It's also important that you make the right choices...
Ecommerce Hosting For Your Online Business
When you plan to start an online business, you will need to find a reliable web host that meets your requirements. Searching for a reliable and cheap web host is not an easy task. But if you know what you are looking for, it makes your task simpler....
Network Monitoring for Serious eCommerce
In the real world, businesses come in every size, from self-employed entrepreneurs like me to mega malls like Wal-Mart.
On the Internet, companies come in every size, too, from a stand-alone ebook sales page with webmaster and owner all in...
Select a Niche Market for Ecommerce
Choosing a carefully pinpointed niche market should be one of the first steps that an internet business owner has to take. A very common way of describing a niche market is ‘a targeted group of individuals with very specific and similar needs or...
Web Design for Ecommerce
Your website is your tool for showing the online community an image of your Drop Ship retail business. Whether or not your business succeeds depends heavily on your website. If your website design is user-friendly, more visitors will purchase your...
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Developing a Winning Ecommerce Strategy
One bright spot on the economic horizons around the world seems to be
continued consumer spending and ecommerce is clearly a part of this,
with sales estimated to be in excess of $9.9 Billion in the next
three months according to ACNielsen. But, there is a dark cloud
hovering over this sunny ecommerce landscape called poor web site
design. Let's explore some of the reasons why consumers are not
reaching for their credit cards after perusing an ecommerce web site.
There is a huge knowledge gap about how the web is really driving
online and offline commerce. A recent eCommercePulse survey of more
than 33,000 surfers conducted by Nielsen/Net ratings and Harris
Interactive indicates ecommerce sites are driving more purchases
offline (phone, catalogue, retail store sales) than online. Many
consumers are using the web to effortlessly compare features and
pricing – then, calling the company or visiting their local
retail
store to make a purchase. Clearly many companies need to factor this
information in when analyzing their online and offline marketing
expenditures and related ROI.
According to a recent Zona Research and Keynote Systems Report
released earlier this summer over $25 Billion (USD) was lost in
ecommerce due to users abandoning the web site prior to a purchase
being made or during the process. The users just gave up because the
load times (the amount of time it takes a page to be displayed in a
browser) were painfully slow. Today's online shoppers aren't
a real
patient group, they want information presented in 12-18 seconds, or
they are off to another site that works
Unfortunately many firms have allocated a disproportionate amount of
resources for advertising and not enough on good web site design and
back end infrastructure. It's critical to make the market aware
of a
site, but if the potential customers are not presented with the right
navigation and menus (read information architecture) they will not
buy. Case in point, according to recent Dataquest surveys (and
others) between 20-40% of most users don't purchase because they
can't figure out how to easily move around the web site.
Many firms fail to properly integrate their ecommerce components with
the overall site design. The in-house developers or outside design
firm concentrate on the sexy parts of the web site design process
(the graphics, branding, look and feel) and only focus on the
ecommerce process after the primary web site design is completed
–
making ecommerce an afterthought.
A large number of ecommerce web sites don't even list a phone
number,
arbitrarily forcing people to contact the company electronically
–
this is a real problem, as many people don't want to use e-mail
or
forms as their primary means of
communicating, they want the
immediacy of the telephone.
It's very surprising, but approx 30% of ecommerce sites don't
have a
search capability that actually works – in many cases it just
returns
gobblygook. This is a real irritant for many online shoppers who want
to find goods and services quickly and efficiently – the need for
speed should be the ecommerce merchants marketing mantra and a good
search capability gives users a way to quickly find products.
One of the most important parts of any web site is the home or index
page, as it aggregates the design elements and information
architecture. So many index page are cluttered and poorly designed,
loaded with poor graphics, bad menu structures, oddball words or my
absolute least favorite, 30-60 second Flash animation sequences which
force the user to sit and stare at a blank screen while the animation
loads.
Privacy statements are about as exciting as filing taxes (unless you
know your getting a refund) – they are out of necessity filled
with
legal terminology that needs to be addressed succinctly and in a way
that makes a consumer feel comfortable about doing business with an
ecommerce web site. Unfortunately, many ecommerce web site privacy
statements look like an afterthought, or, are so "attorney
driven"
(three pages – who has time to read this?) people are turned off
by
them. It's very important that a privacy statement be a
compromise
doc brokered between legal and marketing.
We are a full service ad agency so I don't mind shooting arrows
in
the direction of my peers – too much attention is being placed on
web
site advertising metrics (clickthrough rates, certified traffic to
substantiate ad rates, etc.) and not enough on how people find and
use an ecommerce web site. The industry standard web site analysis
tool is Web Trends, but one of the least understood aspects of this
product is tracking how people find and move around a web site via
reports which can be pulled from the server log files; i.e. where did
the visitors come from, what pages do they visit, how long do they
stay, what are their traffic patterns, etc.? Ecommerce companies
should be analyzing these "digital customer tracks" to better
understand how to improve their front end marketing processes and
back end web site design.
About the Author
Lee Traupel has 20 plus years of marketing experience He is the co-
founder of a Northern California and Brussels Belgium based,
privately held, Marketing Services and Software Company, Intelective
Communications, Inc. http://www.intelective.com Intelective focuses
exclusively on providing services to small to medium sized companies
that need strategic and tactical marketing services. He can be
reached at Lee@intelective.com
|
|
|
|
|
| E-Commerce Times: Because E-Business Means Business |
| Everything you need to know about doing business on the Internet. Information for C-Level executives and small-to-mid-sized business managers. |
| www.ecommercetimes.com |
|
| ECommerce-Guide to News, Reviews and Technology Solutions |
| ECommerce-Guide provides ecommerce business owners with e-commerce news, hardware and software reviews and tutorials, technology solutions and information ... |
| www.ecommerce-guide.com |
|
| Electronic commerce - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia |
| Electronic commerce (also referred to as EC, e-commerce or ecommerce) ... Even in product categories suitable for e-commerce, electronic shopping has ... |
| en.wikipedia.org |
|
| E-Commerce News for IT Managers |
| Daily e-commerce news for managers of business covering marketing, transaction processing, security, retailing and service delivered over the Web. |
| www.internetnews.com |
|
| New Zealand Government E-Commerce |
| Resource containing information on electronic commerce, including law, trade, tax, privacy, consumer protection, and help for businesses. |
| www.ecommerce.govt.nz |
|
| 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 |
|
| ClickZ Internet Marketing Solutions for Marketers |
| Includes columns with commentary and analysis on a wide variety of internet marketing subjects ranging from B2B marketing to search engine marketing. |
| www.clickz.com |
|
| Shopping cart software for Dreamweaver, Frontpage, CSS ecommerce ... |
| Shopping cart software integrated into Frontpage, Dreamweaver, CSS and Golive ecommerce software templates. |
| www.ecommercetemplates.com |
|
| E-Commerce & the Internet |
| Information from the FTC on E-commerce and the Internet. Includes anti-fraud tips. |
| www.ftc.gov |
|
| Economy & Work: eBusiness | Europa - Information Society |
| The e-business concept goes well beyond e-commerce (buying and selling ... A pilot study on E-commerce and the Internet in European businesses (2002) was ... |
| ec.europa.eu |
|
| Online Business |
| If your e-commerce site currently accepts online payments, and is really, really, ... They are looking for entries from ugly e-commerce sites to win a new ... |
| onlinebusiness.about.com |
|
| eCommerce Info Center- ONE-STOP for eCommerce info, services ... |
| eCommerce Info Center, created and maintained by Slim Baltagi, will make it easier and faster for you to find out relevant eCommerce information, ... |
| www.ecominfocenter.com |
|
| eCommerce Innovation Centre |
| Practical resources for small business involved in or considering eCommerce implemetations. Expert Advice and Assistance. |
| www.ecommerce.ac.uk |
|
| 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 |
|
| 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 |
|
| The 2005 E-commerce Awards - Welcome |
| The UK national E-commerce awards organised by the DTI and Interforum. |
| www.ecommerce-awards.co.uk |
|
| 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 |
|
| 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 ... |
| www.howstuffworks.com |
|
| 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 |
|
| 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 ... |
| www.volusion.com |
|
|