ITEMS YOU NEED TO KNOW BEFORE SELLING ONLINE
Doing business online will boost your companies sales right through the roof! If you have decided to sell online, there are a few requirements you must meet to be successful! Here is a detailed list of the requirements that must be met by your ecommerce website to ensure you have all the tools & strategies you need to have a successful online business.
1. Good Sales Copy
This is the most important aspect of your website as well as the most overlooked. Right away, your website needs to grab the attention of potential customers. If your visitors don’t see something that catches their interest within the first few seconds they’ll be clicking the back button. Once you’ve got their attention you’ve got to tell them exactly what your company can do for them and how your business can solve their problem. Answer their questions and clearly project the benefits of your product or service. Plus, don’t forget to convince your visitors to take action!
2. Easy to use Shopping Cart
Use of shopping cart software will greatly benefit your buyers. This software can store user information so they do not have to enter more than a user name and password when they would like to make a purchase. The easier you make it for your customers to make a purchase from you, the more often they will buy!
3. Autoresponder Emails & Confirmation Pages
It is important to make your buyers feel comfortable and secure about the online purchase they have made. Offering printable invoice pages and sending emails that confirm that their order was received and processed correctly are a necessity. Making your customers feel comfortable buying from you is an absolute must if you want to generate repeat sales!
4. Secure Hosting
There is a lot of risk involved in running an ecommerce website if you do not offer secure hosting. So much personal information is exchanged via the web and it must be exchanged through a secure connection. A website that is not secure is a hackers dream…so don’t let them get to your customers personal information and destroy your business!
5. Customer Management Database
A customer management database can be very useful for making important business decisions. A database will store customer’s personal information so you can market better to your best customers as well as satisfy the customer’s needs. With a customer management database you’ll also be able to send out personalized emails updating all of your customers with any changes within the business or new products and services available. Your business will be better equipped to serve your customers by knowing their needs with a customer management database.
6. Product Database Management
With product database management all of your orders will be processed with high efficiency. All product information is pulled out of a database full of specifications such as pricing, etc. Therefore, your business will rely less on human data entry and there will be far less inaccuracies during invoicing because of this.
7. Visitor Tracking Tool
Wouldn’t you like to know who is visiting your website? Knowing several different characteristics of people viewing your website can help your marketing campaign. Knowing your target market (who is visiting your website) is an invaluable piece of information. This information will help you to design your site to the specifications of your target market and to better meet their needs. With this tool you can also identify successful practices and activities and focus on them, as well as changing marketing campaign’s that may not have been effective.
8. Technical Support/FAQ
Whether you are selling online or not, if you’ve got a website, you need a technical support and/or frequently asked questions (FAQ) page. You’re business will be emailed questions about several things. Compile a list of these frequently asked questions, create helpful answers and post them on a “Frequently Asked Questions” Page. This will save your business countless hours helping individual customers. In some cases, though, you will need to offer technical support for problems not common to several people.
9. Merchant Account/Payment Gateway
A merchant account and payment gateway are essential tools for building a successful ecommerce website. These tools offer a secure connection from your online store to your internet merchant account and payment processing network. Companies like PayPal, 2 Checkout, and WorldPay offer these two services rolled into one, saving your business money!
10. Marketing Tools/Support Email
To help market your business you should offer your customers something they can’t get anywhere else. Coupons, sales events, and other special offers drive customers to your website and help them to make that purchase. Use your customer management database to gather personal information about customers and send personalized emails telling them of specials going on in store or on the web.
Businesses of any size can benefit from an ecommerce website. Follow these 10 requirements and watch your profits grow! Give your business the boost it needs to keep up with modern businesses and start selling online today!
Tyler Houts is the Public Relations Director for Kinetica Media, an internet marketing company that works to harness the power of the internet for businesses of all sizes. Visit www.kineticamedia.com to see how their proven online marketing campaigns can enhance customer loyalty and attract new clients
