E-Commerce and the Entrepreneur

@rawpixel

Factors to consider before launching into E-commerce

• How company exploits internet/ opportunities to transform relationships with suppliers/ vendors/ customers/ external stakeholders

• Representatives plan to integrate internet business (web design/ maintenance/ creating brand name/ promotional strategies)

• Importance on customer relations. Attracting costs money/ retaining people produces profit. Giving them a reason to come back.

• Ongoing investment resources (time/ money/ energy) to create presence. Establish attractive website to pull in more people to your company

• Remaining relevant to constant change of customer taste, needs, and preferences. Web analytics improves site is essential

Essential to achieve E-commerce success: acquiring customers/ optimizing conversions (visitors to customers)/ maximum web performance/ ensuring positive experience/ retaining customers/ using web analytics for continuous improvement

Strategies for E-Success (increase profits by serving customers better)

• Develop a community (similar interests)/ listening & acting on it/ attract by giveaways/ sell the experience

• Creative use of email (No spamming!)

  • Open rate: open email Click thru rate: click through to site conversion rate: make a purchase

• make sure site says “credibility”/ make most of global reach (international marketplace)/ go mobile

  • responsive web sites: conforms seamlessly to size/ resolution of screen that is displayed

  • social local mobile (SoLoMo) strategies: capitalizing on shoppers use of social media/ mobile devices/ search engines to find product/ service they want to purchase/ the businesses that sell them

• Promote website on & offline/ use social media tools to attract & retain customers

  • Mashup: site/ app that combines content from multiple sources

  • Really simple syndication (RSS): app allows subscribers to content from favorite sites into one feed

  • Social media provides excellent platform to interact with customers/ listen to feedback

  • Wiki is a dynamic collection of web pages that allows users to add/ edit content

  • Widget is a low cost application that appears like a small tv screen on a site to perform simple function

  • Apps provide a way to stay in their customers minds to generate sales

• Develop effective search engine optimization strategy

  • Natural (organic) listings: search engine listings resulted from spiders (powerful programs that crawl around the web and analyze sites for keywords/ links/ other data)

  • Search engine optimization (SEO): the process of managing content/ keywords/ titles/ tags/ features/ design of web site so that it appears at/ near the top of the internet search results

    • Improving placement results by: developing keywords to locate products/ find words that are more commonly used in Google's adwords keyword tool/ use these words in the sites headlines/ create meaningful & relevant content/ encourage social media shares

    • Sponsored Listings: show ads/ links to sponsors comp site on search engines (keywords)

    • Product Listing Ads (PLAs): paid google ads that show more info (images/ prices/ etc)

    • Click Fraud: comp. pays for clicks generated by someone with no intent to purchase items

Designing a Killer website

• Start with your target customer/ give what they want/ select intuitive domain name (short/ memorable/ indicative of a company's business/ name)/ easy to spell

• easy to navigate (landing pages: where visitors land after they click on sponsored link in search engine/ email or online ad) Also, getting product information

• suggestions for related products/ add wish-list/ gift idea center/ customer ratings & reviews/ use online videos/ establish call to action (each page should have purpose)/ build loyalty by giving reason to return

• give links to complementary products/ space for customer contacts/ track orders/ offer special deals/ use power of social media/ follow simple design (avoid clutter/ less text/ avoid slow graphics/ menu bar)

• Simple check out/ multiple payment options/ secure payments/ post additional fees upfront/ confirm transactions/ keep site updated/ test site often/ have analytics help your site/ hire a professional

Tracking web results

• Web analytics: tools measure sites ability to attract customers/ generate sales/ keep customer coming back

  • Commerce metrics- basic analytics (sales revenue generated/ number of items sold/ best sellers)

  • visitor segmentation measurements- info about online shoppers (how they arrived/ return customers?)

  • content reports- which products customers are looking for/ which pages viewed most

  • process measurements- understand website attractiveness/ how well to convert visitors into customers

  • Cost per acquisition- measures the cost that company incurs to generate each purchase

  • Avg. # of pageviews per visit- measures how much time visitors spend on a site (duration)

  • bounce rate- Percentage of visitors to comps website who view single page/ leave without going further

  • conversion (browse to buy) rate- measures proportion of visitors that make a purchase

  • cart abandonment rate- customers put one thing in cart/ never complete transaction

  • search engine ranking- shows where company website ranks in search engines results page

Web Privacy: take inventory of customer data collected/ develop privacy policy for that info/ post policy & follow

• Privacy policy- explains nature of the info collected/ what is done with it/ recourse if mishandled

Security (concerns translate into lost sales)

• virus detection software: programs that scan computer dives for viruses/ hacker programs to take info

• Intrusion detected software: programs that monitor on network server/ sound alert for break-ins

• firewall: combo of hard/ software allows employee to access web/ keeps unauthorized users out

• Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) Tech: encryption device secures customers transaction information over the internet

Charge-backs: Online transactions that customers dispute