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Building eCommerce Websites that Work - Part 2
By: Richard Keir, Thu Mar 30th, 2006
Copyright 2005 Richard Keir
Succeeding with an eCommerce website is a dream for many these
days. It may seem nearly impossible at times, but it can be
done. This series covers some of the basic success factors -
things you must consider in creating, implementing, managing and
developing a quality eCommerce web site. There are many ways to
do business on the internet - and, not surprisingly, a lot of
ways to both make and lose money. Mainly, I'm focusing on
eCommerce sites intended to sell products of various kinds. Not
every factor is going to apply to every site, but since a major
failing of many internet entrepreneurs is the lack of multiple
income streams, you'd do well to carefully consider all factors
and apply them as needed in developing alternate revenue streams.
On examining your eCommerce web site, put some serious thought
into how you can provide personal attention to each visitor. The
idea here is a process of personalization through which each
visitor, if they wish, can develop a unique experience of your
site.
Provide options through which the user can alter layout, colors,
etc. Give customers the capability to create their own personal
pages on your site. Perhaps offer a simple and easy to provide
service to registered customers, such as free email accounts.
As well as building loyalty and stickiness, such features also
build your customer database. Scripts are also available which
will allow on-the-spot personalization based on responses to a
series of questions. You can also use this kind of script to
focus your sales message more tightly to the user's expressed
interests. This technique has been reported to substantially
increase conversion rates.
Free services which can be provided on autopilot can be a
virtually endless source of targeted customers. Everything from
free email to blog hosting, opt-in list building to free
advertising forums, all operate on the same principle as
building a list through a newszine, white papers, free ebooks or
whatever. In return for registration, e.g. name and confirmed
email, you provide a service that your visitors desire. The
exchange of value is critical. The more valuable the service
that you offer, the more willing people are to provide their
information. Careful structuring can allow you to collect
significant marketing information on your registered users which
would allow well-targeted marketing campaigns.
Never lose track of a customer. Maintaining a database of
customers with any of their prior purchases, interests, and so
on, allows you to provide personalized purchase suggestions and
special offers. The life-long value of a happy customer may be
difficult to estimate accurately, but it's far easier to sell to
existing customers than to be continuously forced to acquire new
ones.
Even if you only have a single product now, you will eventually
have expand your product line(s). Don't throw a buyer away. Stay
in touch, offer information, occasionally recommend a high
quality product you use and value. Build trust through value and
quality. It's nearly impossible to over-emphasize this point.
Look to the long term and plan ahead. Every serious marketer
needs to do this.
To further expand the human dimension, you can add forums and
chat rooms. Provide a variety of means to acquire visitor input.
On site surveys and questionnaires, email surveys and opinion
polls can not only increase your customers' sense of being in
contact with real people who value their opinions and ideas, but
also provide exceptionally useful information for refining your
marketing and sales tactics. Loyalty programs and affinity
networks can also help.
This is a lot like beating a real dead horse, but... Reliability
and security are crucial. If your eCommerce site is big enough
and busy enough, multiple parallel servers, redundant hardware,
use of fail-safe technology, fast technical support service,
high quality encryption, valid certificates, high quality
payment processors and excellent firewalls will all allow you to
ensure your customers that their data is safe, their orders are
handled properly and nobody's getting their credit information
that shouldn't. Many people still are extremely hesitant to
purchase on-line because of fears of identity and/or credit card
theft. You can't ignore this issue and hope to succeed.
Right now you may not need (or want to pay for) parallel
servers, redundant hardware and fail-over technology, but don't
ignore the rest. You depend on your eCommerce hosting provider
to keep your business running. So think carefully and do some
serious research. Overloaded servers, lack of redundant network
connections, slow technical support, poor backup procedures can
create a nightmare situation for both you and your customers
As a final consideration for this part, smooth out your customer
contact and support procedures. If multiple staff might come
into contact with your customers (chat, phone or email) ,
providing all of them with the same (and useful) information
about the customer, prior orders, any previous or current
problems and so forth, can avoid a lot of potential frustration
- and lost orders or, worse, a customer lost forever.
It can be incredibly irritating to have to tell the same story
over and over, getting bounced from one person to another when
no information ever seems to have been recorded. While it may
cut down on repeat complaints, that's usually because the
customer is gone forever. Construct your systems so that no
information is lost and so that the data needed to be responsive
and helpful is instantly available. In doing this consider that
some information which customers may not feel comfortable about
everyone knowing should be restricted to those who would
actually need it.
Doing these things right can add significant credibility and
usability to your online business, as well as build a loyal
customer base which actually enjoys dealing with your eCommerce
business. When you reach that stage, you're there - the true
win-win situation that's makes an outstanding eCommerce web
site.
About the author:
Richard writes, teaches and consults on business presentations,
eCommerce, site building and programming. Visit http://www.Building-eCommerce-Websites for
eCommerce resources and links and check http://www.Building-eCommerce-Websites/blog
for opinion and ideas.
