What with the internet getting so big and popular and all, it has reached the point where having a business and having a website is basically synonymous. If you don’t have a website, unless you are a market stall, you don’t have a business…or at least, you are not making the most of it.
So to get your business online, you obviously need a website. This is just the beginning though. Too many businesses phone up the first website company they come across, give them some colour scheme and accept what they are given. They then throw their products in and hit ‘Go Live’. Then they sit back and wait for the orders to start piling up in their inbox.
Unfortunately for them there is so much more to it. They may as well not have bothered if they are not willing to spend a lot more time and energy making it the best it can be. There is just so much competition out there that websites need to be of a high calibre to make any impact or provide any return on investment.
Worthwhile Content
The first and most essential element of all is worthwhile content. You can spend £10,000 on your website design and development but if you don’t invest in providing useful, user friendly, valuable information then it will all have been a waste. Ecommerce sites for example need to not only provide pictures and prices; they need high quality images, good solid descriptions and detailed price breakdowns.
A Unique Online Selling Point
Another essential element is a unique selling point. This is something that makes your business stand out online ahead of your competitors. While your existing business may have one in place, this may not do so well online. Good online selling points are things like ‘Free Shipping’ and ‘Free Returns’.
Security
People are very aware of their vulnerability online. This means that anything that seems unsafe, especially when their credit card details are concerned will make them run a mile. You need your site to look professional, be free of adverts (where possible) or any pop-ups and offer reassuring information like your physical address and a phone number. Furthermore, how are you processing payments? This certainly has to be secure and brings about the issue of payment gateways and which payment service provider is right for you and your customers.
On Page Credit Card Gateway
Sticking with reassuring customers and payments; sending them to an external site to take their card details is a major turn off, so it is essential that you nip this in the bud now by immediately applying an online credit card gateway that can be used from the checkout seamlessly.
SEO Services
Finally, search engine optimisation is not technically essential, but you won’t get much traffic quickly without a professional casting their eye over your site and explaining what you need to do to be as attractive as possible to search engines and your customers.
A roadblock in the world of ecommerce is basically anything that stands between your customers and your products. You probably know that online shoppers are like a flock of birds: the slightest little jolt and they are off up into the sky and away. They’re not like ants who will immediately try to find another route to their goal, they will not often back track and look for gaps and ways over, under or around an obstacle. No they know that they can just go back to the search results and start again with a fresh site that probably has what they are looking for and may well be easier for them to get to.
The problem with blogs is that so many companies that have them do not know what they have them for.
A ‘Chromebook’ is the name given to a new type of laptop produced by Google which looks much like any other laptop, except that they are powered by Google’s own Chrome Operating System. These Acer and Samsung machines are geared towards being used exclusively on the web and therefore have no desktop or file system or any of the normal stuff you expect from a computer as instead the entire machine is basically designed as a web surfing machine.
‘The Apprentice’ is a very popular television program which features Lord Alan Sugar as he puts a group of budding entrepreneurs and business types through a string of rigorous and ingenious business and marketing tasks, in what must be one of the toughest job interviews ever created. The prize for the winner at the end of the series is to be awarded a quarter of a million pounds in order to start a business of their own.
Ecommerce stores are notoriously difficult to manage. Not necessarily because of the technology, but because of the users. Most people who visit ecommerce stores fail to do exactly what you want them to do or what you have predicted they will do. It would be all plain sailing if every visitor went straight to what they wanted and immediately completed a purchase or at least made an enquiry. This unfortunately is for the most part not the case and there are hundreds of factors in your ecommerce sales process that can cause users to decide not to make a purchase.
One thing is for sure, ecommerce store owners want their users to buy their products. They will go to great lengths to find ways in which people can be convinced that a certain product is the one that will change their life for the better. This might include altering the product, changing an advertising campaign, re-designing their website and fiddling around with their pricing. But one thing many ecommerce sites are unwilling to change is their registration process.
Online businesses in rural parts of the country have been rejoicing in the last few weeks as news has emerged that Fujitsu, a global provider of IT services and products, will soon be delivering superfast broad band to the rolling green countryside of the UK. The news comes as a huge relief to small and medium sized businesses who have been struggling to live with the sluggish broadband currently on offer.
Trust is one of most important things for shoppers. Gone (well practically) are the days when we can walk into a shop and be sweet talked by a savvy salesman into buying something we don’t want. Shoppers know their rights more than ever and are also particularly careful with their money. This is especially true online as we have no reason to stick around and read or listen to anything about something we don’t definitely want to buy.
With every person and their dog now owning and using a smartphone or tablet PC to access the internet, and with apps (downloadable applications) rapidly becoming the normal way with which people interact with these devices, you must be interested to hear what having one will do for your business…and what not having one will do to your business.
