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Ecommerce Information |
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Bringing the World to Your Door
According to Internet.com, by the year 2008 nearly 30% of offline purchases will be influenced by online research. If your site is a well-implemented ecommerce site, the web can significantly lower both order-taking costs and customer support costs after the sale has been made. You could also experience larger purchases per transaction. Through automation, you can sell the 'back-end" on the front end by suggesting additional items at the time the purchase is made. You can offer your customer more information, such as order tracking. A customer can shop from the comfort of her or his home, in her bunny slippers or his boxer shorts. You can give the customer a larger variety of offerings. No need to send a great big catalog through the mail anymore. When you run out of an item, you simply remove it from the website. Makes shopping so much easier. But first you have to get them there! No matter what function your site performs, whether it be to display your online brochure or ecommerce site, to get people to visit, you still need to market your site. It's easy to create a new ecommerce site, getting people to visit yours is not so easy. Getting traffic to return to your web site a second time is equally challenging. Provide a product or service the customer needs, and they may be back and they may even refer others. What makes you different from the competition? Check them out. See if they are online and see what they are doing. Look for strengths and weaknesses in the site's message, design and links. Find out who else is online. How do others fit into your target market? Surfing is one thing, visiting another, but selling something online is the ultimate challenge of ecommerce today. When creating or making improvements to your site, here are a few things to keep in mind: Design a user-friendly site. Make it informative and easy in which to move around, so they will want to come back. Use light backgrounds with dark text for easy reading. It is also better to have less information on a page than pages full of text that will lose the reader's interest. Have an eye-catching site that entertains and informs. Keep graphics simple. Over-use of graphics and flash graphics take longer to download. Today, you have 5-10 seconds to grab your visitor's attention. If loading your site takes longer than that, chances are good that they will quickly exit. Keep your URL (uniform resource locator) - aka web site address/domain name - simple. It is the main way people locate you on the Web. While many of the good dot.com's are taken, dot.net's are a viable alternative. Soon, they too will be gone. If you have not already done so, get your domain name immediately. Make it memorable, something people might type in the subject line in a search engine looking for what you have to offer. Hard to spell words make it more difficult for visitors to find you. Let's assume you have built a great Web site. It is filled with great content, well organized, easy to navigate, and encourages customer interaction. But you need visitors. The following online marketing ideas will help you sell your products or services, offer better customer service, help you build your company identity and establish brand awareness in the marketplace. In fact, if you are relentless in your pursuit of marketing on the web, you'll be hard to beat. Here are just three ideas to "bring the world to your door." Number One: Lead with your benefits. As with any copyrighting, headlines can make or break your success. Clearly state the benefits your site has to offer in your headline. Use power words, words that appeal to your visitors' emotions. It should describe how you will solve a problem, relieve pain, improve your visitors lives, educate them, give them something for FREE, save them time, and so on. Number Two: Capture visitors. Add a form to your site so visitors can "register" - leave their name and email address. Tell them you want to use the information to send them periodic email message announcing special offers, and new products and services. It is important that you also make it easy for people to remove themselves (unsubscribe) from your list. Never send anything to this group unless you have something valuable to offer or say. Keep the emails short and succinct. Add links to your message that direct people back to your site for more information. Save time by automating this process with autoresponders. Number Three: Start an Ezine This is an instant customer database builder especially if you offer it for FREE and it has a perceived value to your visitors. Ezines allow you to build a relationship with your customers and prospects. It should be short, interesting and filled with valuable information. I currently write five ezines. They are Self-Marketing News, Creating A Legacy, Ramblin' Rose, Petals N Cents, and WECommerce News. Between the five ezines, we have a total subscriber base of nearly 30,000 opt-in prospects and customers from all over the world. In addition to the great marketing potential ezines offer, they help you develop a positive reputation. As the World Wide Web continues to grow and evolve, more and more companies and individuals are turning to the Internet to serve their needs. Make sure the world knows to turn to you. Excerpted from The PMS Principles - Powerful Marketing Strategies to Grow Your Business by Heidi Richards © 2004 - Heidi Richards is the author of The PMS Principles, Powerful Marketing Strategies to Grow Your Business and 7 other books. She is also the Founder & CEO of the Women's ECommerce Association, International www.WECAI.org (pronounced wee-kī) - an Internet organization that "Helps Women Do Business on the WEB." She can be reached at www.HeidiRichards.com.
MORE RESOURCES: Ask An SEO: How Should Ecommerce Stores Deal With The Arrival Of AI Overviews? Search Engine Journal News Alarm bells ringing with the end of de minimis – ultimately it will add costs theloadstar.com FedEx ecommerce report: 97% of shoppers abandon purchases due to inconvenience Digital Commerce 360 NAVER D2SF backs STUDIO LAB’s AI-driven solution for e-commerce PDPs Retail Insight Network How Ecommerce Retailers Can Mitigate Shipping Delays and Disruptions Global Trade Magazine Top Ecommerce Trends Shaping Online Business in 2025 TechRepublic Latest B2B Ecommerce news, research and case studies Digital Commerce 360 Merchants’ Guide to Optimizing CSS Practical Ecommerce AI-enhanced ecommerce helps boost 2024 sales for US Foods Digital Commerce 360 Ecommerce earnings recap: What you missed from Estée Lauder, Peloton and more Digital Commerce 360 Ecommerce Trends: Is Amazon the largest online retailer? See for yourself Digital Commerce 360 Kirkland’s outlines 3-pronged initiative to reinvigorate its retail, e-commerce business Furniture Today AI-Powered eCommerce: Optimize & Win Digital Commerce 360 Airfreight rates remain firm despite e-commerce concerns Air Cargo News Buy Now Pay Later B2B and E-commerce in Europe Fintech Finance The 7 best ecommerce platforms of 2025 TechRadar United States Begins to Restrain Cross-Border E-commerce White & Case LLP 43% German online retailers dissatisfied with market Ecommerce News Ecommerce Stocks To Consider - February 16th MarketBeat Shopify targets B2B ecommerce growth with strong financials and expanded tools Digital Commerce 360 Perfect Moment's Mixed Q3: 204% Sequential Growth Masks Annual Decline - Key Metrics Inside StockTitan The impact of Royal Mail’s second-class delivery changes on eCommerce Premier Construction Magazine US ecommerce sales growth holds steady in Q3 Digital Commerce 360 Bill on E-Commerce passed unanimously The Rising Nepal New Metapack® Survey: How Consumer Expectations are Reshaping Ecommerce After a Quarter Century of Retail Transformation Business Wire The secret behind Temu’s rock-bottom prices The Conversation France Topic: E-commerce worldwide Statista Black Friday ecommerce sales reach $10.8 billion Digital Commerce 360 The State of the Ecommerce Fashion Industry: Statistics, Trends, and Strategies to Use in 2025 Shopify Ye website down after selling swastika shirts; e-commerce platform says site violated terms NBC News UAE E-Commerce Market to Reach USD 632 Billion by 2033, Growing at 22.50% CAGR During 2025-2033 openPR AppLovin Divesting Apps Business To Dig Into Ads, Ecommerce 02/17/2025 MediaPost Communications Who is the CEO of Shopify? Kanye West’s dispute with the e-commerce platform over Yeezy clothing line explained Soap Central Thanksgiving shoppers set new ecommerce record as growth outpaces 2023 Digital Commerce 360 Costco ecommerce sales off to hot start in Q1 of its fiscal 2025 Digital Commerce 360 Romance scams: The hidden threat to e-commerce merchants Electronic Payments International Bookshop.org, an Amazon Rival, Adds Ebooks Practical Ecommerce US Ecommerce Forecast 2024 eMarketer Walmart Earnings Preview: 'Alternative Revenue Streams' And E-Commerce Will Eventually Boost Margins Seeking Alpha Dayhouse Develops Software to Integrate Design, E-Commerce and Digital Health Technology TechBuzz News Women and E-commerce in Emerging Markets International Finance Corporation (IFC) This E-Commerce Leader Rockets Past S&P 500, Clears Entry Amid 55% Earnings Growth Investor's Business Daily Pitney Bowes sets an exit path for Global Ecommerce unit Digital Commerce 360 BlueTape releases new e-commerce integration LBM Journal Qatar E-Commerce Market to Reach USD 10.1 Billion by 2033, Growing at a 10.27% CAGR During 2025-2033 openPR How tariffs and trade wars will impact cross-border ecommerce Digital Commerce 360 My friend and I pooled $10,000 to start an e-commerce company. After months of brainstorming products, we chose pickleball paddles. Business Insider |
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