subject: How To Put A Small Business Online? [print this page] How To Put A Small Business Online? How To Put A Small Business Online?
Here are some suggestions on how small businesses can start with e-commerce capabilities:
Find a reliable hosted e-commerce platform: This is the fastest way to get your e-commerce website up and running. There are many such platform providers available who would rent the whole design, shopping cart technologies at a low monthly rent. This link may help you understand the pros and cons of using hosted and non-hosted services and which tool to implement.
Use a template: For faster set up, use an existing template as provided by the e-commerce system provider. You can get the template modified as per your need with the help of a web designer. Some e-commerce providers also provide merchant services. You can also talk to your bank about setting up a merchant account.
Initial testing: Upload few products and run an end-to-end test before uploading all your products.
Credibility seals: Research shows that the visitors make up their mind about the trustworthiness of a website within the first 10 seconds that they spend on it. Trust seals are verification certificates that state that the website is safe for transactions. Getting a trust seal from a well-recognized company will ensure that your visitors feel safe carrying out transactions on your site. Well-recognized companies that provide trust seals are FreeTrustSeal, Shieldo, TrustGuard, ETrust, Kikscore, and BBB.Credibility can be improved with proper contact information, clear return policies, and other info relevant for the visitors.
Offer visitor convenience with complete customer support: Have a proper phone support, chat support, and email customer support available forpeople looking for further information. You can have a customer support team in-house or outsource it to a vendor.
Frequent traffic monitoring and website analytics: Continuously monitor web traffic and the visitor path and make necessary changes. Understand the reasons why people might be abandoning the shopping cart midway. Conduct A/B tests to tweak your pages and increase conversion rates. Research has shown that proactive online support can help increase conversions and sales.
If you own a small business that provides services, and wish to go online, then it's very important to have powerful content, a design that depicts your branding, a high level of credibility, a display of your expertise in your domain, social media links, easy contact and feedback mechanism, and a user-friendly virtual customer support.
