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Building Ecommerce Websites That Work - Part 1
Building Ecommerce Websites That Work - Part 1
By Richard Keir, Sat Dec 10th
Copyright 2005 Richard Keir You want to succeed at eCommerce? Welcome to a very big family.Right off, let’s be clear - there are lots of ways to dobusiness on the internet. And lots of ways to both make and losemoney. Successful websites come in all shapes, kindsand colors and while I can't cover every type of site in thisseries, I will present the basics you need to consider and applyfor an web site to be successful. Let's begin by assuming you have some of the fundamentals, thatyou understand the language and that you are serious. I’m notgoing to tell you how to set up a web site or get a decenthosting account. We’re beyond those basics. The basics here arethe factors which will influence the success (or failure) andthe degree of success your web site experiences. Firstand foremost, you need to provide value for your customers.Absurd as it seems to have to repeat that, a lot of so-calledeCommerce sites provide no or very little value for theirvisitors. Pretending to offer value is not the same thing asproviding value. Promoting miserably written, hackneyed, clonedebooks filled with questionably useful and/or outdated contentdoesn’t make a high value web site. Sure you might make somemoney. Once. And you’ll end up with a high refund rate - and anunhappy credit card processor. That path means you're takingadvantage of inexperienced customers and abusing theirwillingness to trust you. This isn't the way to a long-termbusiness with steady repeat customers.
Value on the net is not very different from any kind of off-lineretail sales -- a quality product line that will attractpotential customers and a competitive price that will lead topurchases. An honest, quality product that will meet theexpectations you’ve created in your buyers. Hyped junk justdoesn't cut it. Next, you’ve got to have a smooth, user-friendly, easy to followprocess all the way to your thank you page. The simpler, cleanerand clearer you can make the process, the better. Where it makessense you can augment this user-responsive site profile byadding live-response chat. If you do decide to use call-in or live chat, it’s imperativethat your operators be well-trained, understand your productsand your system and be customer friendly. This can be a problemif you outsource. The less expensive out-source call centers canturn out to be very expensive in terms of lost sales andcustomers who never come back. You’ll need to check very carefully and be 100 per cent certainthe operators actually speak and understand the primarylanguage(s) of your targeted customer group. You’ll need toprovide extensive background information and highly flexible,well-written scripts. You should collect your own customer evaluations - separately.Don't rely exclusively on
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any monitoring or customersatisfaction surveys provided by the call center. Track your ROIto be sure it's money well-spent. Don't stop monitoring justbecause the results looked good for the first two or threemonths. Things change. Make sure you're tracking desired actionslinked to the call center separately from those NOT related tocall-in or live chat. Mixing outcomes leaves you in the darkabout what's really happening. You probably should have anattractive website. An ugly site can work, but to do that youneed to absolutely know exactly what you're doing and why itshould work. And you'll have to test like crazy to optimize (ofcourse, you should be doing that anyway). The ugly site tacticis not for the inexperienced. Very few individuals really havethe grasp of marketing, market and customer psychology thatmakes for a successful "ugly" site. To provide a pleasant experience, you need to be careful in whatyou use - colors, text-size, graphics, animation and white spacecan add value to your site or turn it into a user nightmare.Test your site with people who will tell you the truth. Justbecause you love it doesn't mean anyone else will. In general,aiming for a professional appearing site is your best option.Look for the highest ranked, busiest sites in your business areaand study the layouts they use. Extract the common features thatyou see on those sites. While other factors heavily influencetraffic and ranking, appearance has a strong effect on visitorsand sites that do testing evolve toward optimizing visitorbehavior. Keep in mind that a site's desired actions affect the design andlayout. You'll want to study sites where those actions are mostsimilar to the desired actions you target on your web site. Ifyour goal is direct product sales, there's not much point inemulating a site that's optimized for newsletter sign-ups orAdSense. If your main goal is direct sales (and if it is, then you needbackend products too), provide incentives for customers to buyAND to return. The return factor is critical to a long-termstrategy for success. Anyone who buys is your best possiblefuture customer. Keep them, track them, make them specialoffers. Use coupons, discounts, special deals, customer-onlyoffers and back end sales. Your customer base is your gold mine.Since they've shown enough faith in you to buy, do your utmostto never damage that faith. Treat them like the pricelessresource they are. Think long-term: successful eCommercewebsites are all about value and customer service. About the author:Richard writes, teaches and consults on business presentations,eCommerce, site building and programming. Visit http://www.Building-eCommerce-Websites foreCommerce resources and links and check http://www.Building-eCommerce-Websites/blogfor opinion and ideas.
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