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A Successful eCommerce
Website - Part 2
Succeeding with an eCommerce website is a dream for many these days.
It can be done no matter how difficult it may sometimes seem. 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 a multitude of ways to do business on
the internet - and a lot of ways to both make and lose money.
Primarily these articles focus on eCommerce sites intended to sell products
of various kinds, Not every factor will apply to every site, but
since a major failing of many internet entrepreneurs involves the
lack of multiple income streams, you should carefully consider all
factors and apply them as needed in developing alternate revenue
streams.
On examining your eCommerce web site, think carefully about how you
can provide personal attention to each visitor. The idea here is
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.
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. 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 have to eventually
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.
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.
Right now you may not need (or want to pay for) parallel servers,
redundant hardware and fail-over technology, 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 this part’s final idea to consider: 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. You may want to restrict some information which customers
may not feel comfortable about everyone knowing.
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. And that's a
winning situation for everyone.
About
the Author
Contracting
the computer bug in the early 80's (yes, pre-www) and never cured,
Richard, a PhD Clinical Paychologist, now writes on eCommerce, RSS
and Niche marketing at http://www.Building-eCommerce-Websites.com
You may freely reprint but the link must be live and spiderable.
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