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Ask Mr. D - ECommerce Sales
Dear Mr. D, After spending about a year as an affiliate for other companies, I have come up with my own product. My product is similar to one that I was selling as an affiliate. I made real good money selling this product as an affiliate, but my...
Ecommerce Solutions Compared
There are dozens, perhaps hundreds of businesses and
organizations eager to assist and sell product online.
Basically, they fall into four categories: credit card
transactions, digital cash transactions, electronic fund
transfers and telephone...
Getting Started in ECommerce - Part One
In 2004, Enquiro.com conducted a study of the search behaviors of men vs. women. They found that women spend more time in their searches and at specific sites. The study also revealed that women tend to be more deliberate in reading search results,...
Integrating Microsoft Great Plains Accounting/ERP: RMS, CRM, eCommerce, Lotus Domino – overview for developer
Microsoft Business Solutions Great Plains has substantial market share among horizontal and vertical clientele in the USA, Canada (including French version for Quebec/Montreal), UK, Australia, New Zealand, Spanish speaking Latin and Central...
Web Ecommerce: Where To Begin?
In web ecommerce, you are going to find a wealth of information
about what it is and what it can do for you within minutes of
looking on the web. The problem with this is, it is hard to sort
out the good from the bad and the worthless from...
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eCommerce - A Plan
Planning an ecommerce website is like building a house -
architecture and budget need to be agreed before the decoration.
AN AGREED REQUIREMENTS SPECIFICATION MUST BE DRAWN UP AS THE
FIRST STAGE BEFORE ANYTHING ELSE IS DONE - ANY OTHER APPROACH
WILL ONLY LEAD TO CONFUSION AND WORSE.
Once an AGREED REQUIREMENTS SPECIFICATION has been agreed then
solutions need to be evaluated and costed against that
specification are:
- Project management - Hardware - Web design and software - Site
marketing - Project management:
All aspects of the project need to be managed. Decide who is
going to do it and properly plan the requirements, activities,
outcomes, milestones and timings.
Hardware:
Your choices here are a managed service or your own server. The
security and disaster recovery aspect that is achieved by
hosting with a major provider is very important. Only go with
your own server if you have the experience and facilities.
Design and Software:
Site design
Develop site templates and test them with real people. They have
to be easy to use and navigate. Don't let "design" drive the
site; let ease of use and sales drive the "design". Think how
the customer thinks.
Software
At least 5 solutions need to be considered.
- Updating - Shopping cart - Forum - Email - Statistics
Updating
There are 2 realistic routes here. Either an online or an
offline, PC based content management system (CMS). The online
CMS can be either an Open Source CMS (Open Source means any
application that has been made available, generally free, to
developers to view and modify freely. Examples of Open Source
applications are MySQL and PHP) or commercial.
There are pros and cons to both routes. An online system is
available to anyone with relevant security clearance anywhere
any time. A PC based system is, obviously, limited to the PCs
running the licenses. An example of a PC based system is
Macromedia Contribute which integrates with Dreamweaver. There
are a whole range of online Commercial and Open Source options
such as SuiteWise™, Drupal, Joomla, and Website Baker etc.
However, even this is complicated by the fact that some of the
shopping cart solutions also contain CMS that may be sufficient
for many companies' requirements.
Shopping cart and CRM
There are also 2 realistic routes for the shopping cart - Open
Source or commercial.
There are excellent Open Source shopping carts such as
OSCommerce and Zen, but also excellent commercial solutions such
as Actinic and Customer Focus Quick Order Portal (which comes
with a complete CMS).
There are other factors to consider with the shopping cart:
- Does it have its own or does it easily integrate with your
exiting stock control systems?
- Does it integrate easily with
accounting systems (e.g. Sage,
QuickBooks)?
- Does it have or integrate easily with Customer Relationship
Management (CRM) systems that may be proposed in future?
Forum
Many CMS have good integrated forums but if they do not our
recommendation would be to use a good Open Source package such
as PunBB or phpBB. They are free, robust and easy to integrate
and customise into any site.
Email
Most CMS, shopping carts and forums have email solutions.
However, some solutions are very basic. If the chosen shopping
cart solution that best meets the ecommerce and other
requirements does not have an effective integrated email
solution and if the same be true of the CMS and forum solutions
then stand alone Open Source applications such as PHPlist are
one alternative solution and the other is an online solution
such as Constant Contact or many others.
Statistics
This is arguably the most important part of the package. If you
do not know how visitors to your website and in the shop are
behaving, what turns them on and what turns them off then it is
far, far harder to improve sales and site profitability.
Commercial applications such as WebTrends and ClickTracks need
to be evaluated for best fit.
SITE MARKETING
There are 4 major areas to consider here.
- Offline marketing - e.g. in-store. What works most cost
effectively to drive traffic and orders via the web from non-web
activities.
- Site optimisation - how to make sure technical structure,
copy, content, back-links and a range of other factors are
initially and remain optimised so that as many high search
engine placements on relevant searches are obtained.
- Pay per click and other online marketing - how to get traffic
from advertising against key words and phrases used in search
engines and from adverts on other sites.
- Email - how to grow the email list and use it to grow
profitable sales.
In summary:
- Manage the project - Think how the customer thinks - Get
excellent software to make finding product and price easy - Make
terms clear and payment simple - Ensure you are in stock and and
have achievable delivery timescales - Make sure you have a good
CRM system and clear communications - mail, phone, emai - Market
the site appropriately - Know what's going on - use your stats
to test, track and try
Cost ............ well how long is a pice of string, but you
could be up and running for far less than the cost of new
premises!!!
About the author:
Richard Hill is a director of E-CRM Solutions and has spent many
years in senior direct and interactive marketing roles. E-CRM -
http://www.e-crm.co.uk - helps you to grow by getting you more
customers that stay with you longer. We provide practical
solutions that pay for themselves. We help you to make sure that
your marketing works.
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| 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 |
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| 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 |
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| 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 |
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| 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 |
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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. |
| www.ecommerce.govt.nz |
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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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| 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 |
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| Shopping cart software for Dreamweaver, Frontpage, CSS ecommerce ... |
| Shopping cart software integrated into Frontpage, Dreamweaver, CSS and Golive ecommerce software templates. |
| www.ecommercetemplates.com |
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| E-Commerce & the Internet |
| Information from the FTC on E-commerce and the Internet. Includes anti-fraud tips. |
| www.ftc.gov |
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| 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 |
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| 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 |
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| 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 |
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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 ... |
| www.howstuffworks.com |
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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 ... |
| www.volusion.com |
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