ECommerce and the Entrepreneur

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E-Commerce and the Entrepreneur

• The internet remains a place where you can start
  with nothing and soon challenge the gods.
• -Mark DiMassimo

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Benefits of Selling on the Web

• The opportunity to increase revenues and profits.
• The ability to expand their reach into global
  markets.
• The ability to remain open 24 hours a day, seven
  days a week.
• The capacity to use the webs interactive nature
  to enhance customer service.
• The power to educate and to inform.
• The ability to lower the cost of doing business.
• The ability to spot new business opportunities
  and to capitalize on them.
• The ability to grow faster.
• The power to track sales results.

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Factors to Consider before Launching into
E-Commerce

• How a company exploits the webs
  interconnectivity and the opportunities it
  creates to transform relationships with its
  suppliers and vendors, its customers, and other
  external stakeholders is crucial to its success.
• Web success requires a company to develop a plan
  for integrating the web into its overall
  strategy.
• Developing deep, lasting relationships with
  customers takes on even greater importance on the
  web.
• Creating a meaningful presence on the web
  requires an ongoing investment of resources-time,
  money, energy, and talent
• Measuring the success of its web-based sales
  effort is essential if a company is to remain
  relevant to customers whose tastes, needs, and
  preferences are always changing.

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Factors to Consider before Launching into
E-Commerce (contd)

• What exactly do you expect a web site to do for
  your company?
• How much can you afford to invest in an
  e-commerce effort?
• What rate of return do you expect to earn on that
  investment?
• How long can you afford to wait for that return?
• How well suited are your products and services
  for selling on the web?
• How will the back office of your web site work?
• How will you handle order fulfillment?

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Factors to Consider before Launching into
E-Commerce (contd)

• What impact, if any, will your web site have on
  your companys traditional channels of
  distribution?
• What mechanism will your site use to ensure
  secure customer transactions?
• How will your company handle customer service for
  the site?
• How do you plan to promote the site to draw
  traffic to it?
• What information will you collect from the
  visitors to your site?
• Have you developed a privacy policy?
• Have you tested your site with real, live
  customers to make sure that it is easy to
  navigate and easy to order from?
• How will you measure the success of your
  companys web site?

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Twelve Myths of E-Commerce

• Setting up a business on the web is easy and
  inexpensive
• If I launch a site, customers will flock to it
• Making money on the web is easy
• Privacy is not an important issue on the web
• The most important part of any e-commerce effort
  is technology
• Strategy? I dont need a strategy to sell on the
  web! Just give me a web site, and the rest will
  take care of itself
• On the web, customer service is not as important
  as it is in a traditional retail store
• Flash makes a web site better
• Its whats up front that counts
• E-commerce will cause brick-and-mortar retail
  stores to disappear
• The greatest opportunities for e-commerce lie in
  the retail store
• Its too late to get on the web

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Strategies for E-Success

• Focus on a Niche in the Market
• Develop a Community
• Attract Visitors by Giving Away Freebies
• Make Creative Use of E-mail, but Avoid Becoming a
  Spammer
• Make Sure Your Web Site Says Credibility
• Consider Forming Strategic Alliances
• Make the Most of the Webs Global Reach
• Promote Your Web Site Online and Offline
• Develop an Effective Search Engine Optimization
  (SEO) Strategy

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Designing a Killer Web Site

• Understanding Your Target Customer
• Give Customers What They Want
• Select an Intuitive Domain Name
• Make Your Web Site Easy to Navigate
• Create a Gift Idea Center
• Build Loyalty by Giving Online Customers a Reason
  to Return to Your Web Site
• Establish Hyperlinks with Other Businesses,
  Preferably Those Selling Products or Services
  That Complement Yours
• Include an E-mail Option and a Telephone Number
  in Your Site

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Designing a Killer Web Site (contd)

• Give Shoppers the Ability to Track Their Orders
  Online
• Offer Web Shoppers a Special All Their Own
• Follow a Simple Design
• Create fast, simple checkout process
• Assure customers that their online transactions
  are secure
• Post shipping and handling charges up front
• Confirm transactions
• Keep your site updated
• Test your site often
• Consider hiring a professional to design your
  site

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Tips for Website Design

• Avoid clutter.
• Avoid huge graphic headers that must download
  first, prohibiting customers from seeing anything
  else on your site as they wait (or most likely,
  dont wait).
• Include a menu bar at the top of the page that
  makes it easy for customers to fine their way
  around the site.
• Make the site easy to navigate by including
  navigation buttons at the bottom of pages that
  enable customers to return to the top of the page
  or to the menu bar.
• Regularly look for a broken links on your site
  and purge them.
• Incorporate meaningful content in the site that
  is useful to visitors, well organized, easy to
  read, and current.

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Tips for a Website Design (contd)

• Include a frequently asked questions section.
• Be sure to post prominently privacy and return
  policies as well as product guarantees the
  company offers.
• If your site is heavy on content, say, 100 or
  more pages, or has more that 100 products for
  sale, include a search tool that allows visitors
  to find the product or information they want.
• Avoid fancy typefaces and small fonts because
  they are too hard to read.
• Be vigilant for misspelled words, typographical
  errors, and formatting mistakes they destroy a
  sites credibility in no time.
• Avoid using small fonts on busy backgrounds no
  one will read them!

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Tips for a Website Design (contd)

• Use contrasting colors of text and graphics.
• Be careful with frames.
• Test the site on different web browsers and on
  different-size monitors.
• Use your web site to collect information for
  visitors, but dont tie up visitors immediately
  with a tedious registration process.
• Avoid automated music that plays continuously and
  cannot be cut off.
• Remember Simpler usually is better.

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Tracking Web Results

• Software solutions
• Commerce metrics.
• Visitor segmentation measurements.
• Content reports.
• Process measurements.

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Tracking Web Results (Contd)

• Other common web site performance include the
  following
• Click-through rate (CTR)
• CTR number of clicks / number of impressions
• The cost per acquistion (CPA)
• CPA total cost of acquiring a new customer /
  number of new customers
• The conversion (or browse-to-buy) ratio
• Conversion rate number of customers who made a
  purchase / number of visitors to the site

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Tracking Web Results (contd)

• Gathering performance indicators
• Clustering.
• Collaborative filtering.
• Profiling systems.
• Artificial intelligence (AI).

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Ensuring Web Privacy and Security

• Privacy
• Take the inventory of the customer data collected
• Develop a company privacy policy for the
  information you collect
• Post your companys privacy policy prominently on
  your web site and follow it
• Security