eCommerce & Selling Online

How to start an online business?

2010-02-17T13:40:00.013+11:00

Starting an Online Busness or eCommerce StoreMany people contact us and ask about getting started with an Online Business so they can sell online. Most already have a day job or business and either want to extend or add to their current activities. The advice that we offer always starts with the same question. Do you have a business plan? This may sound like a mundane question but it is essential

Measurable eCommerce –Indicators of Success

2010-01-22T09:17:00.006+11:00

Online Success - Measurable –Indicators of Success What are the most important indicators and key numbers that can be used to measure the success or failure of internet-based sales? These are important questions that you will be faced with if you want lasting success with an online sales model. In the end you will want to know if your company is successful or not in selling online.

What Do Your Customers Expect Online

2010-01-21T16:52:00.003+11:00

What Do Your Online Customers Expect?Online shoppers are demanding – and rightly so! Nowhere are so many sellers pushing themselves onto one spot as on the World Wide Web. You should, therefore, ask:What do my online customers actually expect?Your online customers primarily expect – beside top prices and service – transparency, convenience, security and reliability when shopping online. Recent

Design vs Function -- the Web Dilemma

2009-07-27T17:55:00.000+10:00

What is more important “Look and Feel” or “Functionality and Performance”? Businesses large and small approach the establishment of their web presence from different aspects. Some businesses believe that the design is all important and without the right design the website will fail. Although this is not correct it is sometimes very difficult to convince the customer to have an open mind to the

Is Selling Online Green?

2009-07-16T13:57:00.000+10:00

More small to medium sized business people and entrepreneurs are thinking GREEN. What does that mean? Simply put, it means they are thinking about how they can contribute to help make us all environmentally sustainable.We have all heard about the Global Warming crisis and the effects of more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Every day each of us contributes to the problem – and some of us are

Improving Shopping Cart Conversion

2009-07-09T16:59:00.005+10:00

Selling online has many interesting challenges and opportunities. Often these can be compared to the real “bricks and mortar” world of retail selling. There is one area where there is a fundamental difference. In the “bricks and mortar” store you can see and converse with your potential customers. Prospects step in off the foot path or on the mall and browse around. Immediately you can see age,

eCommerce in Sport

2009-04-15T14:19:00.000+10:00

Today more than ever consumers want to search and buy online. Results from recent surveys have shown that more and more search engines like Google dominate when consumers look for products. It is true also in sport. In Australia and worldwide millions of people are involved in sport. Starting at an early age children join sports clubs and associations and remain loyal members, often for life.

Enterprise eCommerce Issues and Costs

2009-04-05T16:05:00.015+10:00

Australia has a history as innovatorsThere is a debate about the effectiveness of selling products online for a large retail chain. On one side of this debate is the traditionalist that measure effective retail based on foot traffic through the store. On the other side are the proponents of selling online with consumer facing systems.At the big end of town Australia jumped into eCommerce very

Costs & Issues Starting An eCommerce Online Business

2009-04-02T11:45:00.033+11:00

How much does it cost to sell online?There are many people right now thinking of selling online due to the current economic issues. What are the real costs associated with starting an online business or adding an online shop to an existing business.This is a question we are hearing often and the answer is not always as clear as there are many different views and opinions in the market place.

eCommerce Supports Bricks & Mortar

2009-02-24T09:02:00.026+11:00

Why are Bricks & Mortar (traditional retailers) worried about selling online?Over the last few years we have built and deployed websites that sell products for many traditional retail businesses some with just one shop and some with hundreds. After the dust settles the general comment we hear is "why didn't we do this earlier". We have found that the online sales model can work for any retailer

eCommerce & ERP Integration

2009-02-05T08:56:00.007+11:00

Is it important to have your eCommerce website talking to your back end financial or ERPsystem? We see lots of companies every week who are looking to start an online store (eCommerce Website). It may be B2B or B2C and there is always a long list of requirements. In fact we probably have seen every requirement ever written for an eCommerce Solution. So when we see a new potential customer for the

Less Products and More Sales

2009-01-19T14:48:00.009+11:00

Micro-sites Sell MoreFor businesses both new and old often there is a belief that the more products that you have for sale online the better. However it really depends what you are looking for as a result that should focus your attention. Large websites with 1000's of products online are not always the best way to get quick results. Why? Basically because choice often slows down the conversion

Online Sales Hold Up Over Christmas 2008

2009-01-06T14:06:00.008+11:00

Can eCommerce Help Beat The Economic Meltdown?We have been seeing some interesting trends over the last few months and they seem to indicate that online shopping and eCommerce offers some great opportunities in the global economic crisis for small to medium enterprises; but also for consumers looking for a bargain. The key indicators for us are the volume of traffic to our stores, the monthly

Legal information on your web store is important!

2008-03-25T15:33:00.002+11:00

So what are the legal components that you should think about for your website and how do they affect the success of the website?Physical address and contact detailsI always recommend contact details containing a real address and phone number (maybe fax) are clearly shown on the website.A Post Office box might be OK if it is in Australia and you do not have a business address. But I prefer a real

What do you get from an online trial for eCommerce?

2008-02-04T12:57:00.000+11:00

That is a good question and one you should have an answer for before you start the test drive of a trial store. The other important questions are: What level of internet skill do I need? How long will this take me? What can't I do? What should I accomplish?If you are looking at the web site and considering starting a trial it most likely means that you are interested in starting an online web

Online Channels to Market

2007-11-24T13:02:00.000+11:00

More and more we are seeing the development of portals - online comparison shopping and online marketplaces in the Australian and New Zealand markets. This is not a new trend but one that started sometime back in Europe and North America. Portals like Amazon and eBay have become huge multi-billion dollar businesses that attract all types of merchants with nearly anything for sale. Curiously

Selling Online

2007-10-25T11:25:00.000+10:00

There are now over 1.87 million small to medium sized businesses in Australia and they are all thinking ecommerce. These include trades people, small stores, small farm businesses and in fact all types of businesses. Less than 9% are selling products online today and less than 20% even have a website. However Australia is falling behind the rest of the world in the ecommerce race even though

Christmas Online Sales and eCommerce

2007-08-20T11:06:00.000+10:00

Every year online sales at Christmas time takes a major peak. Online sales this Christmas are expected to be up around 25% over 2006. Buying online for Christmas starts as early as September but the real peak happens in the first week of December. Last year sales in that week increased 100% over 2005. To be ready for Christmas you have to think of a number of logistic issues:Is your online store

How many visitors is enough?

2007-07-23T16:34:00.000+10:00

How many visitors to your website is enough?It is an interesting question and one without a perfect answer. Before you start spending lots of money promoting your online store you need to know if there are any limitations. These may be issues like bandwidth or data caps on data storage. In most good eCommerce hosting environments limitations are not a major issue. You need to ask your provider

How do I grow my business?

2007-06-22T14:56:00.000+10:00

"How do I grow my business?" is a question that gets asked by every business owner that I have ever met.There is no simple answer to this question. In fact there are so many answers that it is a major topic and supports a larger community of business and financial advisers.There are some really good web based resources that you can review and one of the best I found was www.businesslink.gov.uk

eCommerce and selling online is too much work?

2007-05-20T14:41:00.000+10:00

Over the last few years we have had customers who have signed up for an online store but just found it all too hard. Some of these just dropped out after a few months or at the end of the contact while others kept at it but struggled. So what is it that makes some people successful online and some not so successful.Many web site developers or designers that you talk with will tell you that

Information about Domain Name

2007-05-19T15:21:00.004+10:00

Do I need a domain name or URL? Professional looking websites have their own domain name or URL (Uniform Resource Locator) to allow you to be found - so what are the issues? A domain name or your own URL are very important if you want a successful web business. When you setup your website or web shop the hosting provider will have an address by which you can locate the website. Often these are

What is eCommerce?

2007-04-30T11:20:00.000+10:00

eCommerce can mean many different things to different people and businesses. There is a lot of jargon that has evolved over time that can be very confusing.eCommerce stated back in the early 1990's and is a term that covered all forms of electronic commerce. Even transaction using an ATM machine or EFTPOS are considered to be eCommerce. Lately it has been used to describe buying and selling over

April 2007 - Top Ten Tips

2007-04-15T14:29:00.000+10:00

Tip 1When you visit a website you expect to find everything you need easily. Think of the things on the site visitors will need in order to buy from you. Find the right category, search for a product, see a product image, read a description, see the prices. Think about when you walk into a bricks and mortar store and how frustrated you get if you can't find what you want. Then when you find it

Confused about payment systems?

2007-02-16T14:25:00.000+11:00

Many of the questions that we are asked are about taking payments online. It is a confusing area and also one that is very important. There are a number of issues to consider:What type of payments will I accept?If I accept credit card how will I process them?Can I keep credit card information?Do I need a refund policy?Do I need a Privacy Policy and Terms and Conditions?Lets try to cover each