Small Business Blog

What Makes an Effective e-Commerce Website?

Mon, 30 Apr 2012 08:27:00 GMT

According to Forrester Research, a technology and market research company, electronic commerce will account to about six percent of all retail sales in the United States alone, with online sales reaching an astounding $335 billion this year. Truly, e-commerce is increasingly becoming an industry staple, with more and more businesses opting to reach the global market through electronic means.

With this in mind, many e-commerce sites have sprung up to provide services to customers in behalf of the companies. E-commerce sites are fast becoming a lucrative market as well, taking advantage of the growing demand for quick purchases and transactions.

An e-commerce may be as simple as a blog with links to PayPal or Alertpay, or a more professional-looking website completely sponsored by the company. If you’re trying to set up your own website to augment your business, it should be effective, attractive and accessible enough to attract long-term customers.

So what makes an effective e-commerce website? This article will enumerate some of the traits many successful e-commerce sites have in common. This is just a basic enumeration; e-business experience and industry background are also as important to make your e-commerce site a success.

Your homepage should be attractive, but practical for customers.

Your website’s homepage is the face of your business in the electronic world, and what you put on it will greatly affect your e-commerce objectives. There’s no use in creating a flashy homepage if it doesn’t provide a direct link to your services. The best e-commerce homepages are attractive, attention-grabbing, while at the same time utilitarian enough so that customers can have quick access to your services.

Your homepage is the central hub for the numerous web pages in your site. Be sure that your homes page contains links of all the important pages in your site. However, you do not need to provide a link for every single page in your site. If you do so, your homepage will look cluttered and unorganized, and will eventually become an eyesore for your customers.

Here is where good web design comes along. A professional web designer can help you design your homepage in a way that:

it looks pleasing to the eye;
it makes for easy navigation;
it connects to the most important pages in your site; and
reflects the overall image of your company.

It may cost you a bit up front, but a professional-looking homepage will do you wonders in the long run.

Each page should have a specific purpose.

Many websites have a thousand or so pages, but these should be organized in only a few subpages. Each subpage should have a well-defined purpose; one must not overlap the functions of another subpage, or else you’ll confuse your customers. The number of subpages depends on your product or service, and on the objective of the customer. For example, product pages should all be contained in the Products page, reviews and feedback in the Reviews page, purchases in the Purchase page, etc.

Some service may need to be completed in multiple pages. For example, a page for a certain product may contain a link to the purchase page for easy transaction. It may also contain links to customer feedback, reviews etc. It’s your task to make sure the navigation of your site is easy enough so that your customers can finish their transactions faster and more efficiently.

Your website should be user-friendly, reliable and trustworthy.

This is easy for established companies that have gained the trust of customers over the years, but if you’re just a new company, or a small one just starting out on e-commerce, achieving customer loyalty may take some time. Aside from providing commendable and high-quality products and services, the design, lay-out, and over-all interactivity of your website will be a contributing factor in making sure your customers come back again.

One way to achieve customer trust is to gain website certification from an independent source. It may come from a commendation from an accreditation firm, or getting a design or lay-out award from a website award-giving body. Check out online if your website or service corresponds to a specific award’s criteria, then you can enter your site for consideration.

Another way is to make sure your website is secure from credit card fraud or virus attacks. This would mean you have to beef up your site’s security with anti-virus coverage and constant security maintenance. It’s a costly task, but it will ensure your customers that the site they’re dealing with is safe and virus-free.

Hot, Hotter, Hottest: How Heat Maps Can Help Your Ecommerce Website

Mon, 17 Oct 2011 10:19:00 GMT

Heat maps are one of the most powerful tools an ecommerce website owner can have at their fingertips. These literally give you an insight into your customers’ minds as they peruse your website. Here is a short introduction to heat maps along with tips for making them work hard for your ecommerce website.

What are heat maps?

A heat map is a visual picture of your website as it is viewed by visitors. This tool usually shows the webpage in question as a color map, with red being the area most viewed and blue and violet as the least viewed. This allows you to see exactly where consumers are looking when they open a given webpage, which then allows you to place the most important elements in these places. While it may seem like a gimmick, a heat map is actually a valuable and effective tool. There are many programs that will allow you to heat map your website and see how it can be improved.

Heat maps can be developed both for eye tracking and for click tracking. Click tracking is similar to eye tracking, except that it looks at where your visitors are clicking the most. This again can help you to move around important page elements so that the ones that generate sales are given prime placement.

Using Heat Maps

Heat maps are nifty, but they work best when you approach them in a scientific way. Here are a few tips for getting the most out of this tool.

Start with a specific question. There are several things you could look at, like: Do customers look at my call to action? Do they see the sidebar? Are they looking at my photographs? Do customers scroll below the fold? Each of these questions is easy to answer with heat maps, and all can contribute to the success of your company.
Choose your panel wisely. Customer research is a huge investment and it is one that needs to be spent wisely. Make sure your panel is made up of people from your target audience, not just anybody within a broad demographic.
Be specific. Your panel needs to have very specific instructions regarding what they are looking for and the goal of the study. In addition, you need to have a defined set of outcomes for your test and know ahead of time what they will indicate. Thinking about these factors ahead of time can help you to design a test that will give you the answers that you seek.
Consider testing an alternate design. Sometimes the flaws in a design can be seen best when there is another one available for comparison. It may pay to develop a new and very different design to be tested side-by-side with your real one.
Don’t stop at the data. While looking at aggregate data is important because it gives you an overview of the test results, you need to look deeper in order to get the in-detail information that you need. Analyze individual sessions as well as playback videos; often these have the answers that you really need.

A Second Look at Cookie Permission

Mon, 17 Oct 2011 10:17:00 GMT

We previously discussed the new EU Privacy and Electronic Communications Directive, which will change the way that many ecommerce websites do business. The main change for you is that you will need to disclose the way that you use most types of cookies and get permission from your visitors before placing them.

However, this brings up one important issue: how do you encourage website visitors to opt in to cookies? This is an issue that we discussed briefly in our last post on the subject, but it really deserves some in-depth analysis of its own. If you have visitors or customers that are based in Europe, this will be one of the most important issues facing you in the future. Here are a few more tips for increasing your chances of getting that Yes.

Make the opt-in as unobtrusive as possible. You don’t want to clutter up your landing pages with opt-ins; they are likely to get lost in the fray, anyway. The best way of approaching this is probably to have a pop up or lightbox window asking for permission before the user can continue. One bit of warning: this creates an extra step in the buying process, so you may want to experiment to see what works best with your consumer base.
Explain the issue in everyday language. You will want to touch on the benefits to the customer (such as improved website performance, the ability to store items in their shopping carts, etc.) in a bulleted list. Emphasize that you respect consumer privacy and that the cookies are necessary for the customer’s needs. Keep in mind that EU customers to ecommerce websites will soon be seeing many of these opt-ins, so they will not create too much friction is they are worded carefully.
Test. You need to figure out the approach that works the best before the regulations take effect. This means that you need to begin testing now. AB testing is probably the easiest way for you to determine what approaches will be most effective for your market, although you will probably have to test several models before you find the precisely perfect approach. Unfortunately, this new law will present yet another challenge for the small ecommerce website owner trying desperately to make it.
Separate variables. If you decide that AB testing is right for your ecommerce website, you will want to test a variety of variables. Look not just at copy, but at presentation (lightbox, etc.), the call to action and other variables.
Modify. As more and more ecommerce websites become compliant with this law, customers are going to change the way that they view this law and thus the way that they interact with different opt-in styles. You will need to be modifying your own approach as well. A good way of watching the changes is by keeping an eye on what your competitors are doing. If your approach is very different from those of most websites similar to yours, you may want to reconsider.

Facebook Optimization

Mon, 17 Oct 2011 10:14:00 GMT

If your ecommerce website is like many, you already have a significant social media presence. However, if you are like many ecommerce website owners you have not given a lot of time or thought to optimizing your Facebook News Feed. Here are a few tips for making sure that you get the most exposure and sales out of this and other social networking websites.

Link between social networking websites and your ecommerce website. In order for any of the following tips to be successful, you will need to have a decent flow of traffic between all parts of your business’s internet presence. Place these links in obvious and visible places so they will get plenty of attention and clicks.
Choose your landing tab carefully. Visitors do not have to go immediately to your Wall; you can select a landing tab that will get immediate engagement and encourage visitors to become fans. For instance, consider having customers go to a page with coupons, quizzes, or other value-added content. Not only will this encourage fans to interact with your page, it will raise your chances of making it into the fan’s News Feed; companies and friends that get interaction are given preference on the Facebook algorithm. Keep in mind that you cannot control what is on your Wall at any given time, while you can control other tabs.
Include a call to action. Your Facebook page should have a point—or even a few. Obviously one of the main points will be to get visitors to ‘Like’ your page, but you may also have other goals. The most important goals should be prominently displayed and enticing. Nota Bene: it is best to avoid having calls to action that take visitors away from Facebook on your landing tab. It rather defeats the purpose.
Pimp your landing page. Your page does not have to be a standard page with a white background. Facebook now supports CSS and iFrames, which makes it easier for you to coordinate your landing page with your ecommerce website brand and also to add fun, interactive features. These programs will also allow you to add usability and tracking features, which can come in handy if you are making Facebook a major part of your marketing.
Be strategic. Your Facebook posts, photos, tabs and other elements should be written to build your brand. They should be planned to entice fans to visit your Facebook page, which will then funnel the visitors to your ecommerce website. While social networking is by nature social, you should remember that your Facebook page is about business, not pleasure. Give it that professional edge. Also, focus on content that encourages sharing, which may help you to go viral.
Frequency and timing are important. Most business analysts agree that posting between one and five times per day is the most effective strategy. This will be most effective if you plan these posts so that they coincide with the times that your target audience is most likely to be on their social networking pages. Keep time zones in mind when making these calculations.

Social Proof: The Word-of-Mouth of the Future

Mon, 17 Oct 2011 10:12:00 GMT

Social proof is the new word of mouth for ecommerce websites. Once upon a time, customers bought products at their local stores, and then talked to friends about their likes and dislikes. Word of mouth becomes more difficult to attain when you are dealing with online customers in far-flung areas of the world. However, social proof allows people to see that your products and the general shopping experience at your ecommerce website are liked by others, replacing more traditional word of mouth advertising. Here are a few ways of making sure that your website visitors are exposed to social proof of your high quality.

Allow users to ‘Like’ or otherwise approve of your website and products on social networking sites. It is usually easy to install a simple button that does not detract from sales or conversions. As a bonus, this usually comes up on the customer’s social networking page, giving you a little extra positive exposure.
Don’t be afraid to brag. If you have reached a landmark number of issues or have high scores in follow-up surveys, advertise this in a prominent part of your landing pages. People assume that a crowd of happy customers cannot be wrong.
Seek endorsements. Contribute products to popular review sites, magazines or whatever media deals specifically with your product category. If you get a positive review, mention it and even link to it wherever appropriate. Like social media, this will give you additional publicity in addition to street credit.
Seek industry awards. People tend to give high value to awards and other third-party organizational endorsements because they are difficult to get. The downside, of course, is that they are indeed difficult to get. Nonetheless, it takes only a few minutes to nominate yourself… so go for it!
Use social proof in product recommendations. Think of Amazon’s, “People who bought this product also bought X.” Customers are less likely to view this as an upsell than other types of recommendation. In addition, there is a good chance that they will add Product X to their cart. This kind of recommendation feels friendlier and more authentic.
Use advanced personalization where positive. One of the advantages of being an ecommerce website owner is that you can immediately tailor the shopping experience to the demographic of the person doing the shopping, especially if that person has a profile with your business. Different types of social proof work best for different personas. Your job is to begin experimenting and develop a personalization plan that is perfect for your customers.
Place customer favorites on the home page. If an item is being bought more than others, make this clear. Most people like to have the ‘latest thing’ and will consider a popular item more valuable than others.
Allow product reviews. These are an important part of your product pages, because they allow viewers to virtually interact with other buyers of the same product. Product reviews from customers are more important to your ecommerce website visitors than any other recommendation.

Is It Time to Redesign?

Mon, 17 Oct 2011 09:58:00 GMT

Redesigning your ecommerce website every now and then is a necessary part of maintaining relevance and presenting a shopping experience that your customers love. However, there is a time and a place for everything. A new ecommerce website design can boost sales, but it can kill them as well if it is the wrong change at the wrong time. Here are a few ways of telling if here and now is the right time and place.

When to redesign:

To boost sales. With the economy tanked, more than sixty percent of ecommerce websites are redesigning in any given year simply to maintain sales. Design services can be expensive, but sometimes they are the only way to hold onto a drifting customer base.
To improve the shopping experience. If there are flaws in your system that can only be resolved with a complete overhaul, there is no better time than the present to fix them. You don’t know how many customers you might be losing do to even small ecommerce website design issues.
Your current design is outdated. Visitors tend to see your ecommerce website design as an indication of your overall quality. An out-of-date or unattractive design will say nothing good about your business, and possibly drive potential customers away.
Your customers are demanding it. If surveys and emails are showing that a certain part of your design is a real problem for many customers, then you need to remedy the problem as soon as possible.

When not to redesign:

Only minor problems are present. If your website has a great design that is working well for your customer base, but there are a few small issues, then do not throw out the baby with the bathwater. Simply fix the problems and keep your current design until a new one is truly needed.
Right before your busy season. A new ecommerce website design will take time to perfect. There are always kinks—always. In addition, it may take a while for your existing customer base to acclimate to the new design and embrace it. Your busy season is not the time to experiment; there is simply too much at stake.

Making the Switch

If you have determined that a new ecommerce website design is necessary and that now is the time, then you need to make a plan. First, survey customers to see what improvements are necessary. Second, contact a design professional. This is not something that you want to undertake on your own unless you have an academic and professional background in design. Last, make small changes over time rather than hitting customers with an entirely new system. If you must make a large change, then introduce it with a site tour or tutorial that will keep existing customers from feeling lost. Some websites find that they are most successful when they roll changes first to new visitors (those without cookies) and work out the kinks before introducing the changes to returning visitors. Ultimately you will have to make a decision that is best for your ecommerce website and your customer base.

Shopping Cart Must-Haves

Mon, 17 Oct 2011 09:56:00 GMT

There are several reasons that ecommerce website customers may abandon their shopping carts, factors that we have examined in past posts. However, it is sometimes effective to look more at what you should be doing than what you should not be doing. There are a few features that your shopping cart absolutely should include. Here is a short list that you can compare with your own shopping cart to identify any shortcomings.

Images. People are very visually oriented; in fact, there is a good reason that your customer selected the item in question because of the photographs. To prevent pre-buying remorse, you need to show the same images in the actual shopping cart. Not only will this prevent shopping cart abandonment, it will make it easier for customers to review their carts and identify unwanted purchases, which in turn prevents returns.
Product information. Your shopping cart needs to have a link to the product as well as the price, the amount selected, and any other important information. People will begin to question whether they have made the right selections; you should make it easy for them to see that the order is ready to be bought.
Editing buttons. Buttons like ‘update quantity’ may seem like a waste of space, but they can prevent immense frustration in a customer who realizes that they chose the wrong size or otherwise needs to change their choice. If this option is not available, or if it is located in an area that is difficult to locate, the customer will be very likely to abandon their cart and never return.
Point of action assurances. This term covers ‘fine print’, things like privacy policy, return policies, security seals and customer service phone numbers. These offer information that many customers actually need; in addition, they show that you are honest enough to be upfront about your policies.
The call-to-action. Not only does your shopping cart need a ‘Call to Action’, usually in the form of a Checkout button, it needs to have one that is large and contrasts with the rest of the page. Make sure your most important call to action get priority when it comes to space and contrast, with less important ones occupying less prime real estate and in more muted colors.
Estimated tax and shipping. People like to know as early as possible what their total will be. In fact, fear of unexpected charges is one of the main reasons that people abandon their shopping carts. You can prevent this by simply giving them an idea of what their total cost will be. In most cases, it is not as bad as your customers expect.
Gift options. These are an excellent way to upsell, and you might be surprised at how many people take advantage of them. In fact, some customers are so adamant that their presents to other be wrapped that they will only shop at stores offering gift options. Offer gift options on the shopping cart page will encourage customers to complete the order and also give you a new source of revenue.

Ecommerce Coupons: Making Them Work for You

Mon, 17 Oct 2011 09:52:00 GMT

Many ecommerce website owners wonder whether coupons are right for their business. Indeed, these can be a great way to bring in new customers and also to encourage them to make purchases. On the other hand, there are drawbacks as well. Coupons obviously cut into your own profit margins, and they can distract customers from the buying process as well. They are something that has to be handled in moderation. The first step is to decide which kind is best for you. Here are a few ideas.

Limited Time Discounts. These can be available for a weekend or a month. The whole point is to create a sense of urgency by putting a time limit on the coupon. The discount is not even really that important; it is merely the catalyst that brings the customer to your website.
Holiday Coupons. The holidays are the biggest shopping season in North America. Customers are already looking for places to buy the gifts that they need, so a well-placed coupon in their inbox can be a huge boon for your business. Try an early bird special or an eleventh hour deal including free upgraded shipping. If people feel that they are getting a good deal, they will be happy to get their holiday shopping over and done with.
Deals of the Day. These usually include a special sale on just one item or one narrow class of item. There are many websites that specialize in promoting these deals (including ones that cost you nothing) so use this and other publicity tools to their full advantage.

Now that you are planning your next coupon campaign, you may be wondering exactly what types of coupons are most effective. This varies according to your exact market, but there are a few different types that have been shown to be successful. Here are a few ideas.

Free shipping. This is perhaps one of the most popular promotions available to an ecommerce website. Many people are almost afraid of shipping costs, and a coupon such as this alleviates their fear.
Dollar or percentage off purchase. This is best handled by setting a minimum purchase amount; you would be surprised at how many people will pay several dollars in shipping for an item that they don’t need merely because it is free.
Free with purchase. Whether you are offering a BOGO or another value-adding proposition, any coupon that gives a customer something for free is bound to be well received, even if the free item has little intrinsic value.

Hopefully these ideas should get you started on your very own coupon campaign. This can be a very successful way of encouraging sales, and it often builds a sizeable customer base in a short amount of time. However, it is important to approach the deal with the right attitude and to ensure that you will be able to absorb the cost of your campaign. Coupons may be difficult to plan at first, but soon they will become just another part of running an ecommerce website business.

Is Your Head in the Cloud?

Mon, 17 Oct 2011 09:44:00 GMT

Most people understand cloud computing on a basic, rudimentary level. However, it is more challenging to decide whether your business can benefit from this new phenomenon. Here is a short primer on the topic and a guide to deciding if it is the right solution for your ecommerce website.

What is cloud computing?

Cloud computing can mean many different things, but it is most easily understood as being similar to an electric grid. Rather than having your own self-contained systems, you are buying into a large system and taking services as you need them. It is growing quickly in popularity among ecommerce websites that are too small to support all of their own functions.

Why is cloud computing important for ecommerce?

Cloud computing can be a good decision for some—but certainly not all—ecommerce websites because it allows you to deal quickly with increases in demand, such as a peak in visits or a sudden need for upgraded systems. It allows people who partake of it to pay only for what they need, without having to create a complete infrastructure. More importantly, it can provide security; you will always have what you need. For many ecommerce websites, there is a definite cost advantage in buying only what you need. You can pay more or less depending on your needs, which are usually proportional to your profits.

Do you need to switch to the cloud?

It is easy to understand what cloud computing is; understanding whether it is the best solution for your business is a more difficult mental task. There are a few situations in which cloud computing is probably the best solution:

You are spending too much on infrastructure. For some businesses, infrastructure is one of their major costs, disproportionately so to their profit. If this is the case for you, cloud computing may solve a difficult problem. Cloud computing may lead to a huge increase in profitability.
Your business has huge ups and downs in traffic. Take, for example, a Halloween oriented website. They will see a huge amount of traffic in the fall, but have only a trickle of visitors during the rest of the year. These types of websites can really benefit from cloud computing, buying what they need when they need it. Even if your business has less dramatic ups and downs, can you really afford to pay for infrastructure that is not used?
Your servers and other systems are not used to capacity for much of the year. Many ecommerce website owners have to overbuy infrastructure to accommodate increased demand during relatively small periods. This means that you are paying for a lot of unused capacity.
You do not deal with information that has a high level of security need. Security in cloud computing can be a major issue. If you are keeping a database that includes highly personal or confidential information, the cloud may not be your ideal solution. Your cloud will exist outside of your firewalls and security systems.

Dos and Don’ts of Video SEO

Mon, 17 Oct 2011 09:41:00 GMT

Video content can be a huge boost to your ecommerce website’s SEO. Thanks to Google’s Universal Search feature, videos can drive traffic to your website, but only if you are optimizing them. However, video SEO has its own set of rules. Here are a few dos and don’ts to get you started.

Do:

Allow search engine bots to find your videos. Submit a video sitemap to major search engines as well as an mRSS feed. Make sure that User-agent “Googlebot” is allowed in every nook and cranny of your website; Google will not enter where it is forbidden.
Use keywords in all tags. Title tags and descriptions will both be essential to the way Google views your videos. Make sure these are meaningful and filled to the brim with good keywords. The title tag is the most important part of your video SEO, so make it especially good.
Give videos their own URL. You can place multiple videos on a certain page, but make sure each has its own URL. You can instead give them each a hashtag, but the URL solution is generally more effective for SEO.
Build links to your videos. The power of linkage, both internal and inbound, is one area in which video SEO is similar to that for text. The more links, the better the links and the more inbound links, the better.
Provide text for all videos. You should have either closed captioning or a transcript for all of your videos. Google can read either, and you will also be improving the accessibility of your website to the hearing impaired.

Don’t:

Host videos yourself. Most ecommerce websites do not have the bandwidth necessary to host their own videos. This slows down loading, which makes Google sad and lowers your ranking. Use a content delivery network (CDN) instead so videos load almost instantaneously.
Get lazy with tagging. Google expects that your ecommerce website video tags be in a certain format. Do not leave these blank or enter them incorrectly. One common error is to submit dates in the wrong format. Google requires the date to be entered as YYYY-MM-DD.
Use the wrong kind of video format. Most search engines follow Google’s lead, and Google currently indexes only videos that are in .asf, .avi, .flv, .m4v, .mov, .mp4, .mpeg, .mpg, .ra, .ram and .wmv.
Disallow comments. Comments are also read by Google Bots, and they can increase your SEO immensely. Many of the types of videos offered on an ecommerce website will not draw large amounts of comments, but you still should make it possible.
Spread the love. You want for the video on your website to come up at the top of search engine results, not the syndicated version on YouTube. Syndicate sparingly, placing videos in no more than three sites, and do so only when there is a clear benefit to your company. Give syndicated videos their own titles and tags to avoid the duplicate content issue.

A New Approach to Dealing with Bouncing

Mon, 14 Nov 2011 18:23:00 GMT

I recently visited Overstock .com to look at convection ovens. It was more of a fact-seeking mission than an actual shopping excursion; I had witnessed one in action at a friend’s house and was curious about what they cost. When I left the website, no longer interested in the appliance due to its cost, I seemed to see advertisements for Overstock.com everywhere I went. These advertisements coincidentally had convection ovens, the exact ones that I had looked at just hours before.

This is an example of an ecommerce website marketing behavior called remarketing. When a customer visits a participating website and looks at particular items, Google takes note of this. Whenever the consumer visits a website with Google ads, these are targeted based on the known interest. In other words, the products I looked at and rejected at the time are being marketed to me once again via follow-up ads, as the name implies.

These campaigns are rather easy to create, thanks to the magic of Google Ads and all of the web advertising companies that follow Google’s lead. You can choose between several options, including following up with general display ads for your ecommerce website and following up specifically with ads for items that the customer previously viewed.

This has applications that can be used not just in increasing sales, but in understanding customer behavior in order to stop the initial bounce—that moment when I left Overstock.com and went about my merry way. Sometimes people do this because they had other tasks to fulfill or because they were simply bored; these groups will be likely to return and make a sale at another time. Some people had objections to price that can be overcome with a coupon or a special deal. By tracking the effectiveness of different remarketing strategies, you can begin to gain valuable insight into why people are bouncing in the first place.

Of course, there are always the customers like me, who simply decide that they do not really need a convection oven. I can’t help you there.

If this sounds like a win-win situation, you may want to briefly consider the drawbacks. First, customers may quickly become annoyed by being bombarded with constant advertisement for an item they have already rejected. Second, some customers who bounce may actually intend to return later and complete the sale. Meanwhile, you are spending valuable advertising dollars on someone who was already a sure thing. Last, some consumers are going to become perpetual cart abandoners, losing their sense of urgency. After all, the item will be shown to them over and over, wherever they go in their virtual wanderings. They might even be offered a special deal. Why buy now?

The remarketing system is dependent on cookies, which less than a third of all internet users clear on a regular basis. This means that, if it is right for your ecommerce website, this style of marketing will probably allow you to quickly and easily reach your bouncing visitors.

Canadian Ecommerce: The First Step to Going Global?

Mon, 17 Oct 2011 09:36:00 GMT

If you run an American ecommerce website and are thinking about expanding beyond your national borders, Canada is probably your top choice. Going global can be a huge strain due to issues with culture and regulations, but Canada’s market is almost identical to the American one. In addition, Canadians are a lucrative potential market, with more than three-quarters of a large population using the internet. Over half of Canadian internet users are also ecommerce customers, spending $16.5 billion on the internet last year and expected to almost double that by 2015. Here are a few things to think about when deciding whether to expand your ecommerce empire to include our neighbors to the north.

A Growing Market?

As we said above, Canada is a rapidly growing market for ecommerce websites. This fact has already been realized by the big names in ecommerce; twenty-two out of the fifty most popular ecommerce retailers already have dedicated Canadian domains. Canadian ecommerce grew last year in all but a handful of retail sectors. This does not include sales made through mobile apps or social websites such as Groupon, either. In addition, Canada is an easy market for an American retailer to break into. In addition to having a similar culture and language group, Canada is easy for American ecommerce websites to ship to. They use the same payment options and respond to the same types of marketing.

The Other Side

Before you buy that .ca domain, there are a few drawbacks to consider as well. While Canada has high internet penetration, there are markets with far larger ecommerce websites. Japan, for example, is the place where internet sales have really taken off, and many European countries are embracing the dot.com age much more rapidly.

Is It Right for Your Ecommerce Website?

One thing that you need to ask yourself is whether your products are popular in Canada. To fall back on a few clichés, if you are selling hockey equipment, you will see more success than an ecommerce website selling surfing gear. You also need to familiarize yourself with the logistics of shipping as well; the costs to ship large items over an international border may be much more than you anticipate. Do your research before making this huge step.

One thing to look at closely is whether your competition has a large and/or successful Canadian counterpart. If not, there may be a reason for that. Few lucrative markets stay untapped for long. Canadians have not been as warm to ecommerce as many other modern markets; even before the internet took over long distance shopping, catalog shopping was simply not as popular there as in the United States. There may be more cultural differences than you bargain for—subtle ones that can make all the difference.

However, if you decide that a Canadian ecommerce website is the next step in your business’s growth, you may be pleasantly surprised. Many companies simply ignore Canada, and I have heard numerous complaints from citizens that they have a hard time finding ecommerce websites that cater to their needs. If you are the first one in your sector to break into Canada, you may just find this a lucrative area after all.

YouTube and Ecommerce Product Pages

Mon, 17 Oct 2011 09:35:00 GMT

YouTube videos are becoming increasingly common on the ecommerce website product pages that we visit. It seems like almost every page I open has some YouTube link, some more relevant to others. This may lead some website administrators to wonder if this is a trend they should follow. Here are a few considerations to think about when making this decision.

Why Add YouTube?

YouTube is an outside website that most modern people are familiar with, and even use on a regular basis. It has serious street credit and is generally the leader in the video hosting industry. In addition, many ecommerce website owners are already incorporating video into their product pages, usually videos that give insight into the product being sold. People like video (consider the success of television) because it is just easier and more entertaining. YouTube is the cheapest and easiest way of giving consumers what they want.

Visual Competition?

You have probably optimized your product pages to smoothly lead customers to the end of a sale. Adding a YouTube video changes the entire dynamic of your product page. It adds a distraction from the ‘Add to Cart’ button. In addition, YouTube videos usually come with ads, which may be marketing items from your competition. At the end of each video, there is a display of related videos, which also may come from your competitors. In addition, there is a tendency for people to get lost in YouTube. Some of your customers may abort the shopping trip and settle in for a long afternoon of video viewing instead.

Is YouTube Annoying?

To many people, YouTube is annoying. It is overly commercial, especially now that each video is inundated with ads. This can contaminate your brand. You want for your customers to feel soothed and comfortable, not harried and harassed. The annoyance factor will go through the roof if your videos feel unprofessional; you will need to invest in having quality videos made before you can even consider adding this to your product pages.

On the Other Hand…

Sometimes video can communicate where text and photos fall short. Customers who have a video option can interact with the object they are considering, similar to an in-store experience. Video can make a difference for customers who are unsure of their purchase and give other consumers more confidence in their decision to buy. Video reviews can be especially powerful.

Like all resources for your ecommerce website, YouTube comes with a potential benefit as well as some amount of risk. You may want to experiment with a few pages before you completely make the switch. YouTube can be a huge sales tool for some websites, but a sales killer for others. Only you can make the decision about where your own ecommerce website falls on this spectrum.

Youtube carries risks – namely making your site look cheap, annoying or distracting customers. You can mitigate those risks by using your original videos on your site, or asking for the Youtube user’s permission to embed their original video on your site.

Out of Stock? A Few Ways to Save the Sale

Mon, 17 Oct 2011 09:33:00 GMT

Dealing with demand for out of stock items can be one of the biggest headaches facing ecommerce website owners. It seems like there is always huge demand for an item that you don’t have. However, there are a few ways that you can save the sale. Out of stock does not always have to mean out of luck. You can make a plan that will increase your chances of making the sale. Here are a few strategies.

Prevent the problem. One of the best ways of dealing with issues related to being out of stock is to disable adding to cart when an item is not available. This will prevent most—but not all—of your ‘out of stock’ issues. However, this strategy is not foolproof. For example, customers may add items to a saved cart and then come back later, or you could encounter a period of high demand in which too many people try to check out the same items at the same time. For these situations, read our next tips.
Offer similar products. Often customers are happy to take a similar item or an almost-identical one from another brand. Showing a window with these related items can make a sale possible even when the desired product is out of stock. If you can show several different products in a carousel or list, you increase your chances of winning the customer over.
Offer to notify customer when the item is restocked. This can be as simple as an email button. Sometimes a customer is really happy to have found what they need. This type of customer is highly likely to come back and make the sale at a later date, as long as you let them know when. This can also help to build your email list.
301 redirect. Sometimes taking the customer automatically to a similar item increases your chances of making the sale. After all, this takes away one of the decisions that they have to make when an item is out-of-stock, and it allows them to fully experience the alternate product before making an offhand rejection.
Direct to a partner. You don’t want to make sales for your competition, but you do want for customers to leave happy. If you have corporate partners that offer similar merchandise, consider redirecting your out of stock product pages to their own similar or identical products. You can even make a reciprocal deal that will give you a little more traffic while enabling you to deal with stocking issues.
Allow checkout to continue. You may have lost the sale on the out of stock item, but this does not mean that you have to lose the sale altogether. When all else fails, include a ‘continue to checkout’ button that allows customers to make the rest of their purchase.
Create a sense of urgency. Creating a feed of sold out products or otherwise publicizing them can create urgency for customers thinking about buying your products. It shows that they may not be able to leave now and buy the product later.

Customer Surveys that Inform and Enlighten

Mon, 17 Oct 2011 09:23:00 GMT

Customer surveys can be a great way to improve your ecommerce website. After all, unlike a traditional small business owner you do not interact with your shoppers on a daily basis. However, the only way to get the right kind of feedback is to design your survey carefully. Here are a few tips for getting the most from this important consumer insight tool.

Define your goals. What do you want to learn from the survey? What parts of your ecommerce website are likely to be affected by survey results? You need to focus on information that can be used to improve your customer experience. If something is out of your control, for example, or simply not up for change, don’t bother asking about it.
Prioritize. Some things will be more important than others. For example, you might be planning a website redesign and need feedback in that area more than in others. Consider carefully how you will use the information.
Plan for credibility. You need to have a way of collecting data that is credible and accurate. If you have not taken a course in statistics, you may want to hire a consultant for this step of survey planning.
Consider the audience. The type of information that you need will determine who your audience includes. If you want marketing information, you may want to offer the survey to members of your email list, registered customers, Facebook fans or other select groups. If you need more general information regarding the shopping experience, a follow-up survey for customers is probably the right choice. If you want to lower your bounce rate, an exit survey could be the answer.
Execute the survey. There are many ways of accomplishing this; some ecommerce websites opt to handle it themselves (a difficult task, by the way) while others hire a survey firm to do the footwork.
Keep it short and sweet. Not only will long surveys decrease the completion rate, they may lead to inaccurate responses. Customers get tired of answering questions and begin flying through the questions without thought. Similarly, the survey should be designed so that it is easy to complete, with multiple choice questions rather than typed answers. You can always leave a blank at the end for miscellaneous feedback, but make most of the survey as easy as possible.
Follow up if necessary. If an unusually unfortunate incident is related through a survey, you may want to follow up with the customer and rectify the situation. People often are reluctant to bring their complaints to you, but you can bet they are telling everyone that they know about their unpleasant experience with your ecommerce website.
Use the information wisely. It is unfortunate, but many ecommerce website owners will spend a lot of time in planning and executing a survey only to ignore the results. Sometimes the truth hurts, but that does not make it less true.

A survey can be an important tool because it allows you to get honest information from the people who are most important in the success of your website—your customers!