Developing a Winning eCommerce Strategy

Developing a Winning eCommerce Strategy

by: Lee Traupel

One bright spot on the economic horizons around the world seems to be continued consumer spending and ecommerce is clearly a part of this, with sales estimated to be in excess of $9.9 billion in the next three months according to ACNielsen. But there is a dark cloud hovering over this sunny ecommerce landscape called poor web site design. Letกs explore some of the reasons why consumers are not reaching for their credit cards after perusing an ecommerce web site.

There is a huge knowledge gap about how the web is really driving online and offline commerce. A recent eCommercePulse survey of more than 33,000 surfers conducted by Nielsen/Net ratings and Harris Interactive indicates ecommerce sites are driving more purchases offline (phone, catalogue, retail store sales) than online. Many consumers are using the web to effortlessly compare features and pricing, then calling the company or visiting their local retail store to make a purchase. Clearly many companies need to factor this information in when analyzing their online and offline marketing expenditures and related ROI.

According to a recent Zona Research and Keynote Systems Report released earlier this summer, over $25 Billion (USD) was lost in ecommerce due to users abandoning the web site prior to a purchase being made or during the process. The users just gave up because the load times (the amount of time it takes a page to be displayed in a browser) were painfully slow. Todayกs online shoppers aren’t a real patient group; they want information presented in 1218 seconds or they are off to another site that works.

Unfortunately, many firms have allocated a disproportionate amount of resources for advertising and not enough on good web site design and backend infrastructure. Itกs critical to make the market aware of a site, but if the potential customers are not presented with the right navigation and menus (read information architecture), they will not buy. Case in point: according to recent Dataquest surveys (and others), between 2040% of most users don’t purchase because they can’t figure out how to easily move around the web site.

Many firms fail to properly integrate their ecommerce components with the overall site design. The inhouse developers or the outside design firm concentrate on the sexy parts of the web site design process (the graphics, branding, look and feel) and only focus on the ecommerce process after the primary web site design is completed, making ecommerce an afterthought.

A large number of ecommerce web sites don’t even list a phone number, arbitrarily forcing people to contact the company electronically, This is a real problem, as many people don’t want to use email or forms as their primary means of communicating. They want the immediacy of the telephone.

Itกs very surprising, but approximately 30% of ecommerce sites don’t have a search capability that actually works. In many cases it just returns gobblygook. This is a real irritant for many online shoppers who want to find goods and services quickly and efficiently. The need for speed should be the ecommerce merchantกs marketing mantra and a good search capability gives users a way to quickly find products.

One of the most important parts of any web site is the home or index page, as it aggregates the design elements and information architecture. So many index pages are cluttered and poorly designed, loaded with poor graphics, bad menu structures, oddball words, or my absolute least favorite … 3060 second Flash animation sequences which force the user to sit and stare at a blank screen while the animation loads.

Privacy statements are about as exciting as filing taxes (unless you know you’re getting a refund). They are out of necessity filled with legal terminology that needs to be addressed succinctly and in a way that makes a consumer feel comfortable about doing business with an ecommerce web site. Unfortunately, many ecommerce web site privacy statements look like an afterthought, or are so กattorney drivenก (three pages who has time to read this?) that people are turned off by them. Itกs very important that a privacy statement be a compromise document brokered between legal and marketing.

We are a full service ad agency so I don’t mind shooting arrows in the direction of my peers. Too much attention is being placed on web site advertising metrics (clickthrough rates, certified traffic to substantiate ad rates, etc.) and not enough on how people find and use an ecommerce web site. The industry standard web site analysis tool is Web Trends, but one of the least understood aspects of this product is tracking how people find and move around a web site via reports which can be pulled from the server log files; i.e., where did the visitors come from, what pages do they visit, how long do they stay, what are their traffic patterns, etc.? eCommerce companies should be analyzing these กdigital customer tracksก to better understand how to improve their frontend marketing processes and backend web site design.

About The Author

Lee Traupel has 20 plus years of business development and marketing experience he is the founder of Intelective Communications, Inc., http://www.intelective.com, a resultsdriven marketing services company providing proprietary services to clients encompassing startups to public companies. [email protected]

[email protected]

This article was posted on July 25, 2002

by Lee Traupel

Earn On Offshore Web Design and Development

Earn On Offshore Web Design and Development

by: Julia Ramyalg

If you have some experience in web site design and want to make good money you can try acting as IToutsourcing partner. Learn more what you should know and how to start.

Why offshore web design and development

Offshore web site design and development help to keep prices at least 35 times less, for example, average hourly rate of web development services in USA is $3575; in UK $2550, in Ukraine $520.

How it works?

Typical plan:

You find a client who needs a web site, ask his/her requirements for the project and send to your offshore partner company.

The partner makes a proposal and gives you the project estimation basing on his hourly rate, for example, $10.

You mark up the rate $10/hour as high as you wish (and can taking into consideration competition in your region, level of demand for web design services, and other marketing factors), for example to $30/hour, and sends the proposal to the client. So if the web design project is estimated on 50 manhours of work, you charge the customer $1500, from which $500 you pay to your offshore partner company, and $1000 is your profit.

The partner company works on the project and delivers it to you along with copyright for the work.

You deliver the site to the customer.

Result you have a satisfied client and good profit from the marked up price.

How to start?

The first and most important step is to analyze market in your region and decide if it’s worth to start this business.

If you already have your own web design company it is easier for you because you already know situation in the market, gain certain reputation, have clients list, etc.

But don’t be afraid if you are new to web design business. Believe in yourself and work hard and finally you will be rewarded for all your efforts.

As in any type of business, starting the one in web design area, you must ask yourself general marketing questions:

Who will be your customers?

Why they will order the web design services exactly form you?

Where and how they will get to know about you?

Without having clear answers to these questions you shouldn’t try to start anything.

The second step is to find trustful and reliable partner – offshore web design company – that will work as ขdevelopment centerข for your business. This company must have good experience in web design and development area, good reputation, top level of customer care and communication. There are many resources in the Internet where you can find necessary information – search engines, web design directories, outsourcing portals.

For example, you can try searching in search engines for appropriate key phrases ขoffshore web designข, ขoffshore web site designข, ขoffshore web developmentข and analyze sites of your potential partners.

Also here are several sites where you can find lists of offshore web design companies sorted by country.

http://webdesigners.bluegeckonetwork.com/

http://www.theoutsourceguide.com/

http://www.1234findwebdesigners.org/

How to choose the right offshore web design partner company?

There are 2 main factors that determine your choice – cost and quality of web design work.

Cost

Basing on the average web design prices in your local market and your competitive abilities you set prices that you will charge to your customers. There are several methods of web design price calculation, most used are flat price for fixed web site packages, and price based on manhour rate. Most web design companies operate with both and choose one depending on each project type and requirements.

Then you decide which profit you want to have and narrow down your search choosing companies with appropriate price range.

Quality

Consider the company reputation, portfolio of previous works, testimonials of previous customers, level of communication. Pay attention to payment policy and method, conditions of ready projects delivery, warranties, postdevelopment support and maintenance.

If all details are agreed you may start partnership. Sometimes the first project is quite simple to test abilities of both parties and if everything is going well the partnership will bring mutual benefits.

About The Author

Julia Ramyalg

Marketing Director

http://www.itinventors.com

ITInventors professional offshore web site design company.

We are located in Ukraine and due to local economy we can offer you affordable rate $10/hour for custom web site design and web development services. Itกs at least twice less than average Western European rates and more than 3 times less than USA rates.

We have developed more than 130 projects for dozens of satisfied customers, established strong relations with partners from USA and UK.

Services we offer: Custom web site design, Ecommerce web site design, Content Management Software integration into existing web sites, Real estate web site design, Flash sites design, Logo design, SEO. Visit our site http://www.itinventors.com for more details.

[email protected]

This article was posted on August 20

by Julia Ramyalg

Building Consumer Confidence Builds Sales

Building Consumer Confidence Builds Sales

by: Diane Hughes

Many small online business owners have yet to understand the sheer power that comes from building consumer confidence. They struggle with sales month after month, but still, when someone tells them their site design needs help, they get offended. กI spent a lot of time building my own site!ก is the reply.

Here’s my reply… กSo what?ก

It doesn’t matter who designed your Web site. If it isn’t cutting it, then it’s time to move on.

On the Web, we have about seven seconds to accomplish ALL of the following:

1) Relay the message ‘rest Easyก instead of กGet Out of Here NOW!ก

2) Build consumer confidence through words and images.

3) Gain the attention of the visitor.

4) Make a lasting impression.

That’s a lot to ask from a site. But professional Web designers have the skills and talent to deliver.

How do you know if your site design is the cause of your suffering? How do you know if your visitors are rolling their eyes instead of smiling? Ask!

ACTION STEP 1

Ask questions

Is the quality of your Web site design as good or better than your competition? Visit your competitors’ sites and see for yourself. If they are portraying a more confident image than you, chances are good that you need a redesign.

What do your visitors think? Conduct a survey and find out. You can use a simple and free tool found at http://www.surveymonkey.com to set up a survey. Post a link to the survey on your home page so your visitors can offer their opinions.

ACTION STEP 2

Be honest with yourself

Whether you designed your own site or your cousin’s 16yearold nephew did it, you have to dump your pride and focus on your site design from a business prospective.

Don’t shrug off what others tell you about your site design. Taking offense will only hinder your business growth and cause you to maintain an image that discourages consumer confidence in you and your business.

When you get honest feedback about your site design, be honest with yourself and look at the information logically instead of emotionally.

ACTION STEP 3

Take action!

If you find that you do need a site redesign, don’t pout. Take action! Start reviewing Web site designersก sites. Contact a few designers and ask for quotes on your project.

If you have the skills to follow someone else’s work, you can save money by having the designer create one page. You can then set up the remainder of the site yourself.

Ignoring the fact that your site design is causing a decrease in sales is simply not smart business. Taking measures now to change your online image is the first step to impressing your visitors and boosting your cash flow in the years to come.

Copyright 2005 Diane Hughes

About The Author

Diane C. Hughes * ProBizTips.com

FREE Report: Amazingly Simple (Yet Super Powerful) Ways To Skyrocket Your Sales And Build Your Business Into A Tower of Profits! ==>> http://madmarketer.com/diane

This article was posted on August 22

by Diane Hughes

Use Great Opportunities of Offshore Web Design and

Use Great Opportunities of Offshore Web Design and Development

by: Julia Ramyalg

Sooner or later every small or medium business owner realizes that he needs a web site for his business. And almost everybody wants to have great web site for affordable price because usually web site design budget is quite limited.

There are few ways to find the best solution.

Somebody prefers to design the site by himself – but it takes much time and labor, distracts from the general business, and let be frank – you have seen many of such ขDIYข – web sites – they lack professional touch and look unfinished or overworked.

Somebody decides to hire a professional web design company but in case of limited budget he has to say ขgoodbuyข to many features he wants to see on the web site, because web design companies are also businesses and they can’t work for ขthank you very muchข only.

So what to do when you want to have great web site but your web design budget is limited?

Think about IToutsourcing and offshore web design!

There are many web design companies in other countries, mostly of Eastern Europe and EastSouthern Asia that operate with small budgets and offer great web design works.

How it is possible?

There are different economical factors which condition on low internal expenses of the companies in these countries so they can do the same volume of work but for lower price than it costs in USA, Canada, UK, Western Europe or Australia. So offshore web site design and development helps to keep prices at least 35 times less.

You can say ขYes, this is cool that I can save my money but how they will do the work if I am here in USA but they are in Ukraine, for example?ข

Easily! In our age of Internet this is not a problem at all! Practice proves that for web site design project it’s enough to have communication through email, instant messenger (ICQ, AOL, MSN) or IPphone.

You can say ขHow can I trust somebody whom I have never seen before and most likely will not ever see?ข

Actually this question must the web design companies ask, not you, because there are many of IToutsourcing companies and competition is quite strong in this area, so to get a customer many companies allow the first payment after 3050% of the project completion, i.e. you pay after you have seen good results and satisfied with the work.

And as in onshore web design you need to pay much attention while choosing web design company: look at their previous works in portfolio, and ask about previous customers’ references. Ideally all this information must be accessible on the company’s web site.

As for the rest there is not much difference between offshore and onshore web site design process. You see the results of work in the progress, make your comments, see changes, agree them. When the project is complete and the site is ready to be uploaded to your server, you make final payment. It’s also not a problem – you can make payment by credit card, PayPal, wire transfer, Western Union, etc.

So let’s resume what you must know when dealing with offshore web site design:

If you are on ขtight budgetข and can’t afford spending thousands of $$$ for your web site design you should think about trying offshore web site design opportunities.

There are many countries, which take part in offshore web site design; the most well known are India, Russia, Ukraine, Romania, Philippines.

To make right choice of offshore web design company for your web site design take into consideration the company reputation, portfolio of previous works, previous customers’ references, quick and competent feedback to your initial request.

To avoid problems you must be attentive and ask exact questions about payment policy and method, timescale and milestones of the project, conditions of the ready site delivery, warranties, postdevelopment support and maintenance.

Your first experience with offshore web design can seem to be too risky and complicated, but this feeling will be replaced with real satisfaction when you will see your new great web site live in the Internet and you realize how much you have saved on its design.

About The Author

Julia Ramyalg

Marketing Director of ITInventors

http://www.itinventors.com/

ITInventors professional offshore web design company from Ukraine offers affordable custom web site design at rate $10/hr. Services we offer: Corporate web site design, Ecommerce web site design, Content Management Software integration into existing web sites, Real estate web site design. More than 130 projects made. We are always ready to help you become an owner of a great web site for affordable price.

[email protected]

This article was posted on August 16

by Julia Ramyalg