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.
When you are building a business online there are many factors which you need to consider before you rush into things. First you need to ensure you have your business goals in line with the rest of your service mediums as well as sorting out a 
With the launch of new technologies such as the iPhone 4 and the iPad, it’s easy to forget that not so long ago there was a time when the most advanced technology in an office was the telephone: A simpler time when pen and paper, or maybe a typewriter, along with the postal service and a filing cabinet was the basis of all work and communication. A time when salesmen went out and about to do business on the road and when computers were closer to abacuses than today’s superfast nanotech marvels.
In previous blog posts we have looked at how you can analyse site traffic tools such as Google Analytics to better tune your site for better conversions. Once you are confident on your sites ability to convert visitors into customers then you may start wondering how best to drive not only traffic to your site, but traffic that you actually want on your site. After all, 1000 potential customers is better than 1000000 casual visitors with no chance to convert.
When it comes it familiarising yourself with the Google Analytics system there are a lot of areas that require looking into to give you a reasonably concise overview. Among the most important areas to familiarise yourself with are the monitoring of visitor data and creating and tracking goals within your sites account. This requires quite a bit of time to be put aside in order to really get a feel for the system. However, once you have this under your belt you can make the next vital step in analysing and utilising the data that analytics gathers for your site in order to really begin optimising your site for success.
As any website guru will tell you, ‘content is king’. This applies as much to an ecommerce site as to any other. It is vital that the site provides something invaluable to potential customers. Of course no website will be perfect for everyone but it is vital that even in a niche market you are providing a very high standard. For an ecommerce site, content refers to products and services.
