Posts filed under 'eCommerce'
Before you start an online business, there are some things to consider. For instance, why do you want to start a business, who is your target audience, how will you market your site, etc. Here are ten tips to starting an online business ~ with a bonus tip and Special Report at the end.
Tip #1
Determine why you want to start a business
Tip #2
Decide what you want to sell by surveying the marketplace, determining if there is a need and desire for your product or service
Tip #3
To win customers you must stand behind the quality of your products and services
Tip #4
If you sell what everyone else sells, you must offer a wider selection, a better price or superior service ~ note good service is just the starting point to level the competitive playing field. You must offer superior service to stay in the game
Tip #5
If you sell a product, make sure production can meet demand
Tip #6
Write a mission statement for your online business. Include what you sell, why you sell it, to whom you sell, and what makes you different from the competition
Tip #7
Know your startup costs
Tip #8
Learn how to market your business online AND offline
Tip #9
Be consistent in your online and offline marketing efforts. Keep what’s working, get rid of the rest
Tip #10
Protect your customers privacy. Do not rent, sell or give away your mailing list without their permission.
Bonus: Communicate with your customers the way they want to be communicated with in all your marketing endeavors whether it be mail, email, telephone or in person
Be sure to check out the Internet Business Success Report for the 21st Century for more ideas to Start and Grow and Online Business.
December 16th, 2008
Getting eCommerce Ready…
When it comes to eCommerce, it’s not too early to start thinking about how you are going to prepare for the holiday season. You don’t want to put everything about your whole business and everything you offer on your home page. Have landing pages for separate items. When you give people too many choices, they become paralized and will leave without buying. Showcase your number one items or best sellers or the one, two or three items you want to move on your home page. Here are 13 more tips to prepare for the holiday rush:
1. Make sure you have precautionary measures in place. Where does your business get hit the hardest during the holidays? Is it local deliveries, customer service, shipping? Focus your attention on getting those parts of your system ready for the holidays.
2. Get help. Taxing your regular help during the madness that can occur during the season, can do more damage than good. Consider outside help to get you through the holidays.
3. Automate anything and everything you can. This reduces labor costs and streamlines processes and in most cases helps the customer get quicker service.
4. Reduce time by auto-processing credit cards. That includes auto settle and authorizations.
5. Manage Inventory. With the economic uncertainty of the upcoming holiday season, it is good to keep a low stock inventory as long as you can order and get a quick turnaround on products you need when the time comes.
6. Consider drop shipping orders to cut down on inventory. Use softeware that automatically forwards those orders to your vendors for fulfilment.
7. Rely on someone else’s I.T. Staff by using a software service provider. They have the compliant issues in place and they may be more able to have a quick turnaround if a proble arises.
8. Personalize your marketing offers. Use your cusotmer database to increase revenues by creating a 1, 2, 3 touch approach to remind them you are there to assist their gift-giving needs. That could be a postcard, email and telephone call or any combination of tactics to get them to order from you.
9. Send emails wisely and prudently. Don’t innundate your email database with messages. They will get mad and ask to be removed. Remember everyone is vying for their business right now. Create email templates or edit and reuse those that have worked in the past. Saves time, and creative talent to work on other high-priority projects.
10. Automate your gift certificates. Gift certificates have gained in popularity and every year the % of people who buy them increases. Many people actually prefer receiving them too. If you don’t offer gift certificates online, think about adding this feature to your website. Its a new source of revenue and there is nothing to ship.
11. Make use of multiple stores like ebay and Amazon or Yahoo to test products, to sell overstock items and move last season’s inventory.
12. Consider a “membership” program such as a flower of the month or book of the month club program.
13. TEST, TEST, TEST. Make sure your ecommerce site works properly, is easy to understand and seamless. Do pages load quickly or do they take more than 5 seconds? Do you have lots of flash? Do they inhibit buying with obtrusive popups or automatic sound? Invite current customers to do a ‘beta’ test, and Offer discounts to them for their feedback.
The best time to think about next year’s holiday season is when this one is over. You can plan better when records are within your reach and everything is fresh in your mind.
Happy Selling!
October 25th, 2008
Want to drive more traffic to your website? Perhaps you’re thinking of hiring a search marketing firm. The average person does not know what a search marketing firm can do for their company. They just heard that hiring one can help them increase visitors to their site and as a result of driving more traffic, turn prospects into paying customers.
Before you hire a search marketing firm, you need to know what they can do for you. Here are 20 questions to ask before spending a dime with any company (according to DoubleClick Performics Inc.):
1. Is your paid search solution full-service? If yes, describe what you consider full-service.
2. What technology supports your full-service solution? How often is the technology updated?
3. Does your technology have direct API integration with the top engines?
4. Do you use API data or referral data for reporting purposes?
5. Is the technical support team separate from my account team? Do you have 24/7 support?
6. Who will manage my account on a daily basis?
7. Is the account manager responsible for bid, keyword, copy and landing page management or do separate teams manage these efforts?
8. What is your methodology for search campaigns including bid management strategy?
9. What resources does my account manager have?
10. Do the account managers have vertical expertise? Which verticals?
11. What is the typical launch timeline?
12. How do you optimize my campaign once it is launched?
13. Which metrics do you use to define success?
14. What is the typical account manager’s background?
15. Is your search team certified by the engines?
16. What is your relationship with the top search engines?
17. How has your company shown leadership in the search marketing space?
18. Will I have opportunities to network with other clients?
19. How will you align my search campaigns with other online marketing efforts?
20. What other digital marketing solutions do you offer?
Once you are satisfied with the answers and that the firm you are considering can meet your needs, then you can hire them.
October 20th, 2008
On one of the forums I belong to the question was asked ~ how often do you market your company, especially before the holidays?
Here is my response:
We never stop marketing! Here’s what we do for our retail flower shop and website. In early November we begin our holiday push by sending postcards, greeting cards and email reminders to our customer base. Even though a great deal of our business revolved around the holidays, we never assume people will remember us in November (Thanksgiving) or December so we know it is just as important to keep our name in front of our audience during this time as it is the rest of the year.
In addition to the physical stay-in-touch reminder method, we send out a weekly eblast for our floral customers reminding them to order early – showcase our current specials and offer a small discount if they order by a certain date. You would be amazed how many people call and thank us for the reminder…
We also partner with our local chamber of commerce and send out an eblast and a broadcast fax around the 7th - for the corporate clients who want to ship out of state - we do gourmet gift baskets so this helps us to really pull in some new clients.
I attend any and every networking event available and give out a holiday CD with our product line for the holidays - which also includes a history of Christmas, Kwanzaa, and Hannukah, a coloring book for each of the holidays, the top ten flowers for the holidays, and several other goodies. People love these and once they were produced (about 3 years ago) we only have to update the product line on the CD. It is something people tend to keep.
In addition, we offer free downloadable information products similar to the information on the holiday CD, as well as a letter from Santa for Christmas and free coloring books for the kids. This type of content really drives traffic to the site during the busiest online shopping month of the year.
Although we don’t do as much social networking as I’d like (there are just not enough hours in the day when you are in retail), we do try to visit them at least twice or three times before December 10 to just stay in touch.
And the week after Christmas I do a short plan for the coming year - review last years goals and plan and adjust for any necessary changes or new trends on the horizon.
BTW, Our website, Eden Florist & Gift Baskets is getting ready to relaunch. Laura Wheeler of Fireflight Web Studio is creating a whole new look with greater functionality. Go there today to see it and come back in about a week. The new site should be live.
October 13th, 2008
Five MORE Tips for eCommerce Success
1. Stay top of minds with your customers and prospects by marketing wisely with SEO, targeted ads, pay per click, etc.
2. Make sure there is a human side to your virtual business – make it easy for the customer to contact a “live” person or receive a swift response from a live person when necessary.
3. Go with the flow –stay abreast of trends and be ready to change the course of business when the time is right – this will either keep you in line with the competition or way ahead.
4. Provide a variety of payment options on your ecommerce site. Make the buying process easy as possible.
5. Your online marketing should work in tandem with your offline efforts to further promote your business and get your message across to your target audience.
August 8th, 2008
Five Tips for eCommerce Success
1. Apply the same discipline to your virtual business as you would to a brick and mortar.
2. Treat your online customers the same as you would if you encountered them face to face (that’s assuming you treat all customers as VIP’s).
3. Use modern technology and customer data to give each customer a personalized shopping experience.
4. Use technology wisely – if the latest technology slows down your process, integrate it slowly.
5. Even when pricing is your competitive advantage, make sure you create a convenient shopping experience for your customer.
August 7th, 2008