Develop eCommerce Website

From LoveToKnow Web-Design

Within the current Internet marketplace, businesses both large and small are well aware of the reasons why they should develop eCommerce website domains. By developing one or more websites focused on particular niche markets, businesses can target a wider Internet audience and capture far more sales.

Why Develop eCommerce Websites?

The term eCommerce is what businesses use to describe commercial activity on the Internet. Whether it's purchasing stock, buying and downloading music, or businesses-to-businesses transactions, all of these activities fall under the umbrella of eCommerce.

The Dot-Com Boom

After the turn of the century, the concept of eCommerce was a cutting-edge novelty within the business community. It represented uncharted territory. After the dot-com bust, where poorly managed online businesses fell through, core online businesses remain. Retailers like Wal-Mart and Target use eCommerce websites to draw in additional sales or to provide valuable product research. Some online-only businesses also survived, such as Amazon and eBay. Every year, more consumers research and purchase products online. The result is that eCommerce is no longer a novelty, it has become a business necessity.

Website Tools For eCommerce Sites

When considering how to develop eCommerce websites to sell your product or service, it's important to consider the basic components of such a site.

The Website: How it's designed will determine how well you convert Internet visitors into customers
Product Catalog: Where you present your products or services
Shopping Cart: Where customers store purchases as they browse your site.
Credit Card Processing: Allows customers to pay you instantly, online.
Product Information: This is where you provide a potential customer with valuable product research.
Search Engine Optimization: Using SEO techniques, you'll attract more Internet visitors
Product Images: Customers like to see highly detailed images of products
About Us: Build consumer confidence by sharing contact information, professional affiliations, and any articles or books you've published
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ): Capture Internet sales by answering questions customers have about your products
Privacy Policy: Earn customer trust by putting your privacy policy in writing
Testimonials: Convert sales quickly by providing customer testimonials

Building Your Website From Scratch

You've decided that you want to jump on the eCommerce bandwagon. The following tips will help you to turn a simple eCommerce website, which attracts very few visitors, into one that flows with daily visitors who are looking to purchase what you sell.

eCommerce Website Design

If you are not an HTML programmer, and you want to make sure that you have a very professional website, consider hiring a web designer. Consider looking for a high quality, affordable website designer. If you would rather do it yourself, make sure that you first learn about how to develop a website for a company. Designing a site for a business is much different than building a simple, private website. If doing it yourself, follow this basic guide to improve website traffic and sales.

SEO optimize all pages. By using SEO techniques, such as using highly searched keywords, or by properly marketing your website, you'll multiply your visitor count.
Provide valuable product research and articles. Prove that you know your niche better than anyone else. either write articles yourself, or hire someone to write them for you, and publish them on your website. Also, link to your FAQ page from your product pages and from your articles. This will help to answer any additional questions customers may have, and it'll keep them on your website longer.
Make full use of social networking. Social networks provide businesses with very powerful marketing tools. Approach your customers at the forums or blogs where they congregate. Prove yourself as a market expert on those social networks, and you'll attract a loyal customer base.
Publish a Newsletter. Always provide new customers with an opportunity to "opt-out" of newsletters. Most customers won't bother to opt-out. Once you start growing your list of clients or customers, always provide monthly or bi-weekly email newsletters with interesting articles and the latest news about products within your niche. Provide plenty of links that will draw former customers back to your site.

Creating a Smooth Online Transaction

According to various studies, providing your online visitors with various methods of paying for your product or service online can increase sales conversions significantly. According to a study by CyberSource Corp., eCommerce sites that offer at least four payment methods convert website visitors to customers 12 percent more than websites that only offer one payment method. Clearly, smooth and secure online payment processing is important to online customers.

Build a clean and effective product catalog. Make sure your product catalog is well formatted, and it's easy to navigate between categories. Make sure it's very clear how to go about purchasing the product.
Use a professional shopping cart. There are many eCommerce shopping cart solutions available. Four of the most popular include 3D-Cart, Fortune3, Magento, or Yahoo Stores.
Offer several payment methods. Payment methods to consider offering includes credit cards, Paypal, Google Checkout, or PaySimple. Most major credit card companies also provide online billing services to small businesses.