This week we learnt about "Doing Business On The Internet", it was such an eye opener for me as I personally do have a online website business running and I have been trying means and ways to mark up the standards and ability for customers to have a smoother transaction with the business.
One key factor, I believe to have a successful e-commerce website that can turn a low capital to a million dollar business is to build trust between the customer and business. The level to which you are able to convince your audience, is almost equivalent and correlated to how much increment would there be in your corporate account. It determines what sort of life you would lead, the house, the car and all the luxuries you can get. Why is trust so important? I shall elaborate more on that later on.
Firstly, let's get the definition of "Doing Business On The Internet" right. Basically, it is named E-commerce.
E-commerce they call is actually Electronic Commerce. So as the name speaks, it consists of the buying and selling of products or services over an electronic system such as the Internet and other computer networks.
Till date, there are hundreds of thousands of E-commerce websites and I believe it is still there are still heaps of them ongoing, in process of a launch. The easeness of managing an E-commerce allows people to tap on their business idea and talent. And it is like killing two birds with a stone, you can get to release your creative juices, and also create a money-making opportunity.
But out of the hundreds of thousands of business websites online, how do you stand out? How are you able to establish a reputation for yourself? And most certainly, how are you able to make the most profit out of the business? I believe the idea you are selling plays a huge part, but your website design and capability to articulate "convenience and trust" for your customers takes the biggest percentage of it.
Here are some extremely successful websites from our own local talents and worldwide. These website designs which took into consideration the customer's shopper point of view. This design layouts and detailed navigation took their business a tad notch higher. Achieving success with a definite secure in their customer base.
#10 - Give All the Order Details ASAP
When you send out order confirmations, make sure to include all of the product details to re-assure the buyer that they've selected properly. If I accidentally ordered the size 9 instead of size 8, I want to be able to fix it before the package arrives.
When you send out order confirmations, make sure to include all of the product details to re-assure the buyer that they've selected properly. If I accidentally ordered the size 9 instead of size 8, I want to be able to fix it before the package arrives.
(Love, Bonito website, http://www.lovebonito.com/. Started out by 2 sisters and a best friend. Currently under the age of 30, and are earning an annual turnover of SGD $1M.)
#9 - Let Me See Delivery Options
There is a certain subset of users that has to see the delivery options before they start shopping. I personally, will definitely look out for this information because it saves my time! It really helps when I am searching for an urgent item online. It's best to make the link obvious in the permanent navigation (it's most customarily at the bottom of each page).
#8 - Keep the Search Bar in Easy Reach
When a search has been performed, don't just show the search and the results. Provide a service that enhances customer's navigation while maintaining the query in the box for potential modificatio
#7 - Give Me Search Refinement Options
If you have an advanced searching system, or can allow users to select prices, options, colors, sizes, models, etc, do it. This will help you - users often rate "Search" as the most frustrating part of many e-commerce sites.When a search has been performed, don't just show the search and the results, do like the engines and allow more options to be displayed. Sometimes less is more, but when is comes to shopping online, MORE IS MORE!
#6 - Tell Me What it Costs & What I'm Saving
Some product category pages shows items without the detail users are craving. It's particularly important for discount sites to show pricing, but nearly every website can benefit from providing an extra bit of detail before the click to the product page. Also you can tell them materials, give a tiny description or list the sizes/colors/options you have in stock. And any other services you provide, like Gift Wrapping etc.
Whenever a user is navigating inside a store with more than 1 sub-level of navigation, it's critical to show them where in the site structure they are. This should be accomplished with headlines, sub-headers (when necessary) and breadcrumbs (e.g. Home > Category > Sub-cat > Product).The standards are "Price - low to high," "Price - high to low," "Popularity," aka "Best Selling," "Featured," "User Rating" (or "Editor Rating" if you don't have users rate products), and "New" or "Latest." You can eliminate "Featured" if you've got nothing to push, but all the other sorting options must exist (assuming it's possible to do so).
#5 - Provide fantastic payment facilities
Get help from a good merchant account service provider. Why Amazon is so successful is because they practice a variety of payment functions for the customers.With the help of a merchant account and merchant account service provider Amazon is able to accept payments from various credit and debit cards and these payments can be tracked and cancelled if necessary. This has created a lot of trust between the customers and the website.
#4 - Show Me the Products
Unless you've got more than 200 products total in a sub-category, it's only right to offer the user the option of seeing every product on one page. Broadband has rendered the load time argument nearly irrelevant and I personally can't stand sites lacking the feature. C'mon be proud of your products!
#3 - Allow Me to Sort Every Which Way
Whenever a user is navigating inside a store with more than 1 sub-level of navigation, it's critical to show them where in the site structure they are. This should be accomplished with headlines, sub-headers (when necessary) and breadcrumbs (e.g. Home > Category > Sub-cat > Product).The standards are "Price - low to high," "Price - high to low," "Popularity," aka "Best Selling," "Featured," "User Rating" (or "Editor Rating" if you don't have users rate products), and "New" or "Latest." You can eliminate "Featured" if you've got nothing to push, but all the other sorting options must exist (assuming it's possible to do so).
(MDS Collections website, http://www.mdscollections.com/, local apparel website. Started by 2 girls, annual turnover of at least SGD $500,000)
#2 - Tell Me Where I Am
(Ted Baker, http://www.tedbaker.com/. international designer brand. Awesome website design. Simple and straightforward!)
#1 - Provide Legal Info & list any necessary Terms and Conditions
This is my number one priority whenever I shop online. I would check out if the website business have listed their Legal Info, as it actually reflects how much the owner respects their own label. It is highly essential to indicate whatever legal info the business has because it upholds the value of integrity and consistency. Big names selling clothing like Chanel to selling electronic products like the popular Dell definitely will list these valid legal statements down. No matter how long it may be.... List them down!
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Why are issues about Security, Privacy & Legal Info so important and highly regarded?
The Internet is a growing and a continually evolving creature that will live on in perpetuity. As such, it would be wise to ponder the business legal and Internet marketing ethical issues. Whatever is written and published online will be there forever. Imagine the billions upon billions of text information pages that are and will be stored for a long time.
Now, with the new wireless web mail from cell phones and other pda communication devices, the Internet will be affecting more lives than ever before. Security and privacy concerns along with e-business regulatory issues will become more prevalent. It will become more difficult to figure out who you can trust online; with all the unethical, illegal, and Internet marketing and online advertising frauds and e-commerce email scams.
If you are writing copy and maintaining a client's e-commerce website consider the following consumer privacy and legal matters:
What you say when copywriting and publishing for a client is a reflection of how they are viewed to the rest of the world. Negative or defamatory articles published about various people and companies on other websites, if not properly researched, could possibly have legal consequences of libel that can stretch across countries.
If webmasters perform unethical optimization of a client's website, it could have long lasting negative business consequences for that client that can not be easily repaired. Consequences that at first glance may seem insignificant as people are getting more savvy online. They are starting to see the e-commerce that practice false advertising that is upon us. Beware; it's just a matter of time until we hear more stories and legal action taken.
Intellectual Property
When dealing with ethics in a B2B company and B2C clients there is a major degree of trust and responsibility that is imparted to a person or group that maintains the Web site. It is very important from both an ethical values based e-commerce and legal B2B and B2C perspective to make sure that the written words and what is portrayed about a company are factual. Because issues arise involving marketing ethics and the importance of understanding a business for Internet marketing issues and advertising purposes, there are potential areas for revealing trade secrets or intellectual property if proper B2B ethical behavior is not followed.
Email correspondence should be private and confidential. While certain individuals might not see any harm quoting it on the Web from an email sent, it is always advisable to get a person's consent prior to publishing anything. While the person might give consent, they might not realize the full implications - online privacy issues, or impact of having it published online. Therefore, it would be wise to consider it very carefully before even asking for their approval.
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Thus, starting an e-commerce business is no easy-peasy. It requires a lot of hard work, IT skills, communication abilities, marketing strategies and most importantly, an idea that can sell.
So start putting on your thinking cap and may you see a vision of yourself earning income from the comfort of your armchair and sipping to a hot well-brewed coffee at home!
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