Ahh, a new year! The start of a brand new year provides an excellent time to evaluate your ecommerce potential for the year ahead. Whether your new year's resolution includes migrating a traditional brick and mortar business to the web or revitalizing an existing ecommerce site, a review a key fundamentals can benefit ecommerce newcomers and veterans alike.
Get Found
Attracting visitors to your web site has always been-and is still-the vital pathway to online success. That said, you must make it simple for customers and prospects to find you. Is your website displayed prominently in the results of major search engines? (See Is Your Online Store Search Engine Friendly?) Are you leveraging new advertising options for ecommerce sites? (See Comparison Shopping Engines Bring Customers Who Are Ready To Buy). If you didn't get the results you wanted from last year's online marketing and search engine optimization (SEO) efforts, it may be time to get professional help. Take the first step by completing this simple SEO challenge
Content is Still King
Despite advances in virtual reality, your customers still can't try on that cashmere sweater, taste a chocolate truffle, or test the latest cologne through your website. This is, of course, because they simply cannot feel, smell, or taste your products online! The content on your site therefore becomes critical in communicating product value. The art of ecommerce is all about how savvy you become marketing and describing your products effectively. "Feelings" must be transformed into literary expressions using concise but descriptive language, high-quality images, and even multimedia, when necessary. Product descriptions should be clear and concise and should also communicate value over the competition. (See Writing for the Web, in this GoECart eNewsletter). Of course, please make sure that you do not go against the search engine rankings while doing so.
The Customer is Still King (Too)
Online store owners should seek to provide innovative methods to serve customers and keep them coming back to the site time and again. For example, customer segmentation can be used to reward repeat customers. (See Practice Customer Segmentation for More Targeted Marketing Campaigns). Opportunities should be provided for customers to leave feedback (e.g., through surveys and feedback forms), and the best ideas should be implemented in order to provide a better overall experience for all customers. Remember, your nearest competitor is only a click away!
Security is Still Paramount
Customers will likely remain skeptical about entering credit card and similar financial information on the web for a long time to come, especially for new sites they are not familiar with. Therefore, online store owners must continue to take steps to make customers feel as secure as possible. All forms requiring submission of confidential information should be secured. (See Secure Your Online Store with SSL) Offering trusted payment processing solutions such as those available from PayPal and PayFuse will also help. Still further action should be taken to ensure that backend systems (especially those which also contain customer data) are secure-both from physical and online threats. Online store owners must also be sure to promote the security methods they use on the website.
Remember the User Experience
You must also continue to make the shopping and buying experience as simple and as user friendly as possible. Otherwise you risk diverting viable business away from your store. Mistakes often made on ecommerce sites include poor navigation, lengthy check out processes, confusing shipping policies, unsecured order forms, and slow loading product pages and images.
Happy New Year!
While the start of the new year provides a good time for reflection and planning, those online stores that will achieve the greatest success are the ones that will practice fundamentals day in and day out. As we embark on the year ahead, we at GoECart wish you all the best in your ecommerce endeavors!