subject: Three Steps To Success In Online E-commerce & E-business [print this page] Getting your e-commerce site to sell for you is going to be a lot of hard work, but you don't have to learn lessons the hard way. In this article I'm going to talk about a few important pointers that will make your road to e-commerce & e-business success a lot smoother.
1. Having Shoppers Find You
Search engine marketing and placement commonly referred to as search engine optimization is an import factor that should be considered hopefully before you build your next e-commerce site. The successful application of search engine marketing can lead to huge rewards in gained traffic, and hopefully shopping carts being checked out.
There are many things you can do to get your website well placed in the search engines. Many search engines a high value on the quantity and quality of links you have coming into your website. This will be important for your e-commerce site. You will want many links directly to your main category pages, and product pages.
Many shopping cart applications have web addresses with question marks and special characters which could potentially hinder your pages from being indexed properly. This is common for sites that use some type of dynamic programming language like php and asp. It's important for site owners to stress to their web masters that they want static urls, with .html file extensions.
Adding in keywords and meta tags to your pages will only add emphasis to the search engines that these particular words are found on your site, and it should refer people to your site looking for this type of content. One thing that you can do to be sure your pages will be easily readable by any search engine is to make sure that it uses valid XHTML.
2. Making A Strong Presentation
Getting visitors to your site is only part one. They still need to take the action that you want them to, whether that is adding something to their shopping cart and checking out, or signing up for a newsletter you are offering. Whatever action you want them to take can be accomplished if you are presenting you website visitor with an eye pleasing website, that is clean and well laid out.
You will probably want to have a graphics artist work on your site, so that he or she can help you to materialize your great ideas into an eye-catching piece of web art. The professionalism of your site, and overall look can be the deciding factor on your web visitor turning into a satisfied shopper. Be sure that your visitors can find of the necessary trust factors that will put them at ease.
Trust factors can be things such as a visible SSL graphic, a link to your support or customer service department. Your site visitors will feel more comfortable if they know they can get help if they need it.
3. Having Just The Right Products
Many people only have a limited stock of items to sell. It's important that you market your products well, and feature them in a way that adds value to the shopper. If you have hundreds or even thousands of products, then it's important that you create categories and sub-categories for your products to be easily browsed through.
Having a search on your site will only enhance your potential web shopper's experience. Helping them get to what they need quicker. Helping your visitor get their products into their carts faster can only translate into more checkouts, and a pleasurable shopping experience.
If you have an affiliate site, or are an Amazon Associate, you are in a great position to make a great product offering. Because Amazon offers everything you'd find in a Wal-mart, Home Depot, Bed Bath n Beyond and even more stores, chances are you will find the right mix of products to offer. Amazon make commissions on the products that they sell. For the entrepreneur, this can be like standing in a department store all day long making sales commissions, except that you do this from the comfort of your computer desk, and your site works for you 24 x 7.
