Archive for the ‘E-Commerce’ Category

It’s the New Year and a lot of people make New Year’s resolutions. Some time ago Google released a very valuable market research tool that allows you to see the search trends that show what people are searching for, when and where. The graph at the top shows the search trend for one of the common New Year’s resolutions (weight loss). The horizontal axis of the main graph represents time (starting from some time in 2004), and the vertical is how often a term is searched for relative to the total number of searches. It’s funny how it spikes as every New Year shown comes around and then slowly dies off until next year.

So how can this be valuable to you? Here are a few examples:

1. You can see when your customers are more interested in your products/services and plan to market yourself more aggressively during that time. A lot of them are obvious. In the example I showed it is evident that a lot of people want to lose weight around the New Year’s. A lot of people search for “summer camps” before the end of the school year. Others are not so obvious and it may be very valuable for you to check out when your customers are interested in your products and services.
2. If you’re starting a new business you can check if demand for your product or service is going up or down. For example interest in software development has been on a steady decline since 2004.
3. You can check which geographical market is most interested in your product or service.
4. You can compare different markets. For example did you know that dogs are more popular than cats or any other house pets?
5. If you’re in retail you can check when holiday shopping really starts.

These are just some of the uses, but the possibilities are mind blowing.

Technorati Tags: double my sales, E-Commerce, Internet Marketing, ppc, promoting your business, Search Engine Optimization (SEO), search engines, selling products online, seo, site promotion, website promotion, website traffic

   A lot of E-Commerce website owners blindly offer free shipping in the hopes that it will increase their sales. It usually does, but they lose more money on paying for shipping than they make on extra sales.

   As with any other type of promotion in the E-Commerce industry, you should NEVER offer it to just anybody. If you offer it to everyone, free shipping, and other promotions will eat into your margins and the promotion itself will rarely make up the lost profit in additional sales. Offer free shipping on qualified orders to encourage customers to spend more or to buy your higher margin products. Alternatively you can use it as a tracking tool for your marketing efforts. Next time you’re planning on trying out a new way to advertise put this free shipping coupon in that advertisement to track the results you get from the advertisement. Here are some pros and cons of free shipping.

Pros:

• Allows you to track results from new marketing efforts that otherwise would be hard or impossible to track (e.g. offline ads like magazine, radio or TV ads that advertise your e-commerce website).
• Encourages higher spending or purchase of higher margin products if used right.

Cons:

• Eats into your margins.

Technorati Tags: double my sales, E-Commerce, selling products online

A small company grows and moves on from a start-up status and its’ software and web development needs change. You might have gotten along initially by working with moonlighters or a freelancer because they were cheap. But let’s face it – it is not a long term strategy. Most moonlighters and freelancers will abandon ship very quickly because it’s not their primary source of income and something better usually comes along or they just lose interest. It can be a frustrating experience trying to find a new one and hand over the project to that person. Even with a software web development company you have to realize that you’re not their only client. You hired them to do a project and they did a fantastic job. Now you want to roll out a second version of your product, but that company might be busy working on other projects now and you might have to wait in line to get your new version done because this is a new project and more time needs to be allocated for it.

There is a better way! If you need things done on an ongoing basis you need to work with a company that offers an SLA (Service Level Agreement). If you require ongoing work this is the best solution for you. Main purpose of a service level agreement is to allocate time for your project in that company’s schedule to ensure that work can be done when you need it. It quantifies the minimum acceptable level of service to you by spelling out the time that will be allocated to your project on an ongoing basis, response time for regular work and emergencies, etc. You can then rest assured that your software/web project will be taken care of when you need it.

Technorati Tags: custom software development, managing website, Software and Web Development, Website Design

It seems that everyone is seeking better search engine rankings. If you have a high ranking in the search engine results for the right keywords, you’ll get a lot of targeted traffic to your website. But how many of those visitors become your customers?

Conversion – not ranking – is what pays the bills. Conversion is converting website visitors into customers (if they can pay you right on the website) or getting them to take a certain action like filling out a contact form or a signup sheet for something like a newsletter or a webinar.

Search Engines, referrals, print ads, and hyperlinks all play an important role in an effective web marketing strategy. But once visitors arrive at your site, how do you go about persuading them to take the actions you want them to take? There are two main considerations: usability and content.

Usability

Make it easy for your website visitors to find what they came for. Consider creating landing pages that are directly relevant to the search terms they used to find your site. Visitors will quickly understand that they’re in the right place and can begin to move along the conversion process: fill out a form, contact you, or make a purchase.

You need to plan for different visitor scenarios. Do you have an understanding of the steps a typical visitor to your web site will take? Good navigation leads them through the conversion process with clear action steps. They should always know what to click next to achieve their goal.

Don’t overwhelm prospects with too many options. Eliminate unnecessary information like copy that doesn’t really say anything, links or banners that distract from the conversion process and graphics that serves no function. You got it right – less is more.

Test the conversion process yourself and get your or someone’s grandma to try it. Fill out a form. Register for membership. Make a purchase from your own shop. If it’s not painless for you or your grandma then you’re on the right track. Otherwise it is going to be tough for anyone coming to your site for the first time. Here’s the golden rule: keep it simple.

Put your efforts into improving your conversions. Think about it. Even a small increase in your conversion rate from 0.5% to 1% wills double your sales! Your targeted traffic will then be that much more valuable to you.

Content

Make sure that your basic message is very clear to your web site visitors. Don’t make them think. Provide clear answers to their most obvious questions and you’ll build your credibility.

Good copywriting may be the single most important factor in raising your conversion rate. The text on your pages should speak to your visitors in a consistent and appropriate voice. It should offer the right information at the right time.

Support the personal and psychological variables of your potential clients. It is also important not to overwhelm your website visitors with too much text. Some people want to read, but others prefer to see photographs and diagrams. Provide basic information to everyone and additional information (pictures and documents they need to fully evaluate your products and services) to the people who want it. When including pictures make sure they’re really useful: not every picture is worth a thousand words. Use high-quality detail shots and enlargements to tell the full story.

Technorati Tags: conversion rate, double my sales, Internet Marketing, leads generation, promoting your business, search engines, selling products online, seo, site promotion, usability, website optimization

To accept credit cards as a form of payment on your website you need to have a merchant account. The typical costs include setup costs, monthly fees, per transaction fee, and commission (discount rate). Some merchant account providers also charge non-standard fees (non-qualified charges, remittance costs, refund fees, chargeback fees, monthly minimum fees, statement fees, etc.), so I suggest you read the fine print when you’re selecting your merchant account provider. If you’re just starting to accept credit cards the fees are not going to be negotiable, but as you establish a sales track record you will be able to negotiate a better rate. A very important thing to consider is joining a business association that already negotiated a discount for its members. For example in Canada you can join Canadian Federation of Independent Businesses (www.cfib.ca) to receive a good rate from the start in addition to discounts from many other companies. Below is a comparison of some of the better merchant accounts I worked with. Keep in mind that fees posted are for information purposes only and may not be 100% accurate.

Technorati Tags: E-Commerce, Merchant Account, online payment methods, selling products online