E-Commerce

In this day and age, e-commerce has become a household word. Insimplest terms, it’s the selling of products online. Via your ownwebsite or an online marketplace like eBay, you can promote andsell products online, taking orders and accepting payment–allwithout stepping foot in a storefront or ever seeing your customersface-to-face.

The most amazing aspect of e-commerce is its ability to impactsales and marketing efforts immediately. By going online, suddenlya neighborhood bakery or a home based consulting service expandsits reach to a national or even international base of potentialcustomers. Web-based sales know no international boundaries.Forrester Research, which analyzes online trends and statistics,projects the online retail market for U.S. businesses to be $230billion by 2008. That’s a full 10 percent of anticipated total U.S.retail sales.

Not only is the internet increasing the number of potentialcustomers that a company can reach, but it’s also drivingprofitability, according to research from IPSOS, commissioned byPayPal. The survey discovered that, far from being an extra”expense,” internet operations boosted businesses’ bottom lines. Ofsmall businesses that sell online, 64 percent said the internet hasincreased their revenues or sales, 48 percent felt the internethelped to expand their geographic reach in the U.S. and 73 percentsaved money by decreasing administrative costs.

Cash flow is of significant importance to a new business–onlineor brick and mortar. The IPOS study found that small-businessowners who conduct business online feel it allows them to receivepayments faster and conduct business easier. When entrepreneursmove online, they establish themselves on a level playing fieldwith larger competitors. On the internet, even the smallest onlineretailer can be as attractive and as functional as the largest bigbox store–without the need to have a physical presence on everystreet corner. Often, small shops project a “boutique” feel thatattracts shoppers, who perceive smaller businesses as moredistinctive than larger stores.

Design and Navigation

Good websites begin with a good design that’s simple to use. Thegraphic design and content on the homepage should grab theconsumer’s attention, and the interior pages should be easy tonavigate. Information must be easily found and should be expressedin the “language” of the customer, rather than the company’sinternal lingo.

Here are 10 simple tips to consider when deciding on how thesite will look and how customers will navigate through it:

1. Immediately tell visitors on the site what thecompany does.
2. Get users to the information they want in twoclicks.
3. Consider including headers and links that give thestore’s name, and show a “tree” branching from the homepage to thecurrent page. Visitors should know where they are within thewebsite at all times.
4. Allow visitors to find answers to questionseasily.
5. Incorporate sufficiently large fonts and images,as well as audio descriptions where appropriate, so that content isaccessible to users with disabilities.
6. Pay special attention to the quality ofinformation, and ensure that the text is written well and spelledcorrectly.
7. Use buzzwords sparingly.
8. Include a link to the homepage on every page sothat in one click, users can be led there.
9. Develop visuals that are useful, not flashy anddistracting. Useful visuals include illustrations or photos ofproducts, graphics that separate categories of products, or mapswith directions.
10. Determine which technologies are appropriate andwhich are overkill. For example, developing a Flash landing pagemay be a nice design feature. It will become prohibitive, however,if users have dial-up, a traditionally slow Internet connectionspeed.

Marketing Your Site

When it comes to conducting business on the internet, setting upa website is just the first step. The greatest website in the worlddoes you no good if no one visits it. And attracting visitors isgetting tougher by the day. With literally thousands of newwebsites created every day, the competition is tough. Here are someideas for getting visitors to your site:

Promote your website in all your marketing materials. Putyour website address on your business cards, brochures, letterhead,product packaging, promotional items, in your ads and anywhere elseyou can think of.

Get listed with the major search engines. Google,InfoSeek, Excite, AltaVista, Yahoo!, HotBot and Lycos are the mostpopular search engines. Visit their sites for instructions ongetting your site’s address, or URL, listed with them. That way,when online users do a search for “tennis rackets,” your sportinggoods shop’s web address will come up.

In addition to the big-name search engines, there are hundredsof smaller search engines on the Web. Search online for companiesthat will do the legwork involved in getting your business listedwith these engines.

Enroll in free link exchange programs. These programswill display your company’s banner on other sites if you make spacefor third-party banners on yours. Just as with search engines,there are many link exchange programs. Search online to findthem.

Set up links to related sites. A “link” allows visitorsto your site to click on a website address and instantly link toanother company’s site. Send e-mails to sites related to yours andask if they’d be interested in establishing mutual links. Forexample, a florist could put up a link to a local bridal shop’ssite and vice versa.

It’s one thing to get visitors to your site and another thingentirely to get them to come back. Here’s some advice on setting upa site that tempts users to stay and return:

Hit ’em hard. Put all your company’s key information,including your e-mail address and toll-free number, on the firstscreen. That way, potential customers will not have to wait untilall your information loads to get an idea what your company is allabout.

Make connections. If possible, hyperlink your e-mailaddress; this means visitors can simply click to open a blanke-mail message and send you a note.

Have fun. People who surf the internet are looking forfun. You don’t have to be wild and wacky (unless you want to). Justmake sure you offer original content presented in an entertainingway.

Add value. Offering something useful customers can doadds tremendous value to your site. For example, customers cantrack their own packages at FedEx’s site or concoct a recipe for anew drink at the Stolichnaya vodka site. You don’t have to getquite that elaborate, but offering users the ability to downloadforms, play games or create something useful or fun will keep themcoming back.

Stage a contest. Nothing’s more compelling than givingsomething away for free. Have all contestants fill out aregistration form so you can find out who is coming to yoursite.

Content is king on the internet. It’s essential to have yoursite packed with a supply of product information, industry news,how-to tips or whatever other information your customers areinterested in. More important, that information must also be keptconstantly updated. Make sure the web designer you use is eitherwilling to update your site for you or can show you how to do ityourself. After a web surfer has visited your site more than a fewtimes and found the same information as the previous visit, oddsare good he or she won’t come back again.

You can use visitor information collected by your websitesoftware or web-hosting service to help you decide how often toupdate your information. If individual visitors are returning anaverage of once a week, for instance, you should add to or updateyour site at least once a week. The idea is to give them a reasonto come back in hopes of seeing something new.