Faab has prepared this documents so that you can build your own knowledge on the know hows on how the websites are build and how to market them correctly to bring more business. Use this documents as guidance only, as each and every customer requirements differ.
Planning Your Website Building Your Website
Improving Your Website Marketing Your Website
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POINT 1 - FIRST, GET INFORMED, BUILD KNOWLEDGE
First and foremost is to gain knowledge. The more you know about your industry, the better decisions you will make. So look out for your industries trade press, forums, competitors website etc. Search on Google for your industries related keywords, themes, forums and read up about the industry.
POINT 2 - Who actually owns your Website?
Like other businesses there are plenty of dishonest e-commerce solution providers. If you buy a solution that is hosted across the net by your providers, and if it happens that supplier has quality or financial difficulty than your business will suffer too. The business you have built painstakingly can disappear like a flash. The lower start up costs certainly looks appealing but more research needs to be carried out. The longevity and the track record of your solution providers should make your decision easier.
POINT 3 - Make sure E-commerce business is right for you.
I get about 4 phone calls a day where the person on the other side wants to set up a new Online business. When questioned on how the practical side of the business will operate. They have no clue. Just because their uncle or cousins have agreed to supply them with goods, that doesn't mean that they can run Online business.
If you are selling goods that customers don't need to touch or feel or smell then web is the place to start your business. Web can provide your customers with convenience to shop from their own luxury and time. Start Up costs is usually low too. As mentioned before check your competition Online. Do search on Google and see if you are going to be competitive. Ensure you take your Marketing and Delivery costs while carrying out comparison research.
I have seen so many times when retailers have just used their Cost purchase price of a product to compare, and have actually not bothered to take other costs in consideration.
Faab is willing to listen to your ideas, and help you implement your ideas into a concrete Online business. Call me on 0786 3345947.
POINT 4 -Security should be priority
With so many different ecommerce solution providers and free ecommerce softwares in the market, it is a necessity to get the security right to ensure your customers and you feel confident that you have adequate protection against hackers and fraud. One of the main security issue is PCI DSS. I will cover this at later date. But it is paramount that you choose your ecommerce solution provider that has experience in this type of security and not merely buying the solution based on costs. Do not overlook at this issue, as it will come and haunt you at later date. Your customer data should be kept secured at all times. Don't rely on your service providers words or marketing literature. Ask them for proof and for previous projects.
Contact Faab on 01924 455556 who will assist you in any questions you may have. Faab has worked with companies to acquire PCI DSS Tier 1 Compliance, the highest compliance ever.
POINT 5 - Reliable Technology, Staff, Supplier
Your online store will be live 24 hours a day. You store will take orders even when you are asleep. But only if its available to your customers 24 hours a day. Your service provider should assist you in ensuring appropriate reliable hosting is provided. Software used is bug free (error free) and reliable. Payment service provider is PCI DSS compliantand have a secure and safe transaction policy. If your supplier has no stock or out of stock item for long period, than how are you going to fulfill your orders. Ensure you have enough, right quantity and reliable stockists of your products you intend to sell.
What about customer service? Who is going to answer the sales calls, asnwer email queries and deal with faulty / returns of goods. How is returns policy going to work. Ensure you have covered all the grounds. Don't leave anything for someone else to make decision for you. Gain knowledge if required.
POINT 6 - Control your costs
It is true that the less you have to spend on website design, or technology or graphic design, the more money you will spend on marketing and other activities to bring customers to your site.
But customers these days knows that if a site owner has taken care in ensuring the layout, style is upto date and has not skimped on quality of the site than the ROI and orders will pour in.
So controlling cost is one aspect but do not skimp on the necessary stuff. Control your cost on marketing, employ experts initially until you build your own knowledge. Do not be chief of everything. No one can be experts at everything.
So if you are a start up business, look for low cost solution but the one that will provide you support and assistance as your business grows. A service provider that will provide future upgrades.
Faab supports all its cilents from startups to a successfull multi million pound business. We have achieved this for our clients. Can your service provider provide you with this confidence? Call us for all your Website Design, Ecommerce solution on 0786 3345947.
POINT 7 - Your Own Website or Marketplace like Amazon, Ebay
In past few Years there has been a rise of "Online MarketPlace" such as Ebay, Amazon, Play.com, Pixmania and more. Benefit to sell on this Marketplace is that you can use their technology straight away and more importantly, they will deliver visitors and customers to your store page. These are one of the major benefits and why so many other retailers use them.
Many merchants with their own website also sell through these online marketplaces.
Marketplace company either charge you for a listing fee and final sale fee, or %age of transaction fee. These fees are significant, but when compared against the Sales they can generate they should not be ignored just based on these charges.
Since its not your website, you do not have full control. Such as how product is displayed, attributes settings, shipping settings (complex ones), how the price is shown etc. You have to adhere to market places rules and policies. And if you step out of line you will disappear overnight.
Since its so easy to start selling on this platform, there is a constant stream of new competitors. Many of them are homeworkers, who manage their orders after work etc. There competitors approach to start up is to sell as cheap as possible. Which certainly puts margin pressure on everyone. Most of this businesses do not last long, but due to the nature of market place there will still be constant new competition.
Faab can help you integrate your products with Amazon, Ebay, Shop.com, Pixmania. We can even automate your stock data with this sites, ensuring you do not sell products that you cannot fulfill.
Call Faab on 0786 3345947 to discuss your requirements TODAY!
POINT 8 - DIY or not to do DIY? (Do It Yourself)
Since you have been following my posts and reading this latest posts, I presume you have decided to run your own Web Store. Next decision is to whether you have the knowledge to do it yourself or use professional like Faab.
This decision is entirely yours. There are many open source shopping carts that you can play around with and build your experience on. But remember from my previous posts, take security of your site seriously.
The decision to go it alone will depend on various factors. This will depend on
1. Your Budget. Higher the budget better for you.
2. Your technical knowledge.
3. Internet and Business Know how.
4. Help from your friends & colleagues with technical knowledge.
5. Availability of time and planning.
6. Resources such as Domains, Hosting Servers, Database.
7. Finally it depends on whether you enjoy this type of work or not?
We all can't be chief of everything, and as such it is better to employ experts such as Faab, who will take care of all of the above and more. This would result in freeing you and provide you with a quality time on Sales and Marketing.
Experts such as Faab are well equipped to deal with new start up business and are experts in deploying a good looking, professional, finished products at a low cost.
A web designer such as Faab will add a professional finish and enhanced features that can generate confidence and boost your sales.
POINT 9 - What is Ecommerce?
Ecommerce - Any activity or transaction which involves selling of goods and services with an objective of earning an income by making a profit over the INTERNET is called E-commerce.
In 2011 an astonishing 228 billion UK Internet visitors visited websites and 28 billion hours where spent online (Hitwise). By 2015 over $1.7 Trillion will be spent online alone.
Out of top 50 retailers in UK 21 online retailers sells Clothes for Man, Woman and Children.
Is E-commerce the future. Hell YES!
But i can't be bothered with Online shop and my retail shop too.
Its too much to manage.
I don't have staff.
I don't have time.
These are the most common obstacles of all. Internet is here to stay. ecommerce should be part of your business plan. It should be the corner stone of your sales and marketing plans.
As technology moves on and there is a cross between the internet and mobile technology, MCommerce is here. Mobile internet is the next step. If you have no presence on internet, mcommerce is even going to be difficult.
POINT 10 - Ways to accept payment on your Internet shop
There are various ways to accept payments on Internet. There are no physical cash points, so you cannot use cash or real money.
All the payments are through Debit, Credit Card or through payment website like PayPal.
Security of your customers card details are of most importance. This is where PCI DSS compliance comes in. PCI DSS will ensure that all data passing through your servers and to your customers PC and vie versa is secured. Most of the transaction process is taken care by the PSP (Payment Service Providers) such as Google Checkout, Sagepay, Card Save and more. PayPal is one of the oldest Online payment company. It is cheap to setup with PayPal and as a first online business, Paypal is ideal payment platform. It is not cheap to run but easy to manage, control and grow your business.
PayPal also allows buyers to use their credit or debit cards and use their balance in the PayPal accounts.
The second and most secure option is to process the card payments in real time on Internet. To do this, you will need a merchant account, from your bank. This is not same as your business account. You might have to ring your bank and request to speak to team responsible for Internet Merchant Account. They will ask general questions, such as
1. How Long have you been trading
2. Who do you currently Bank with?
3. Products you are selling
4. What will be your delivery lead time
5. Average basket value
6. Estimated Monthly sales
Based on the above questions your bank will provide you with an offer that would include, their charges and when the remittance of the payment will happen.
Charges by Banks will in general depend on above questions but more likely be cheaper than PayPal. Banks will charge a %age of each credit card payment and a fixed charge per debit cards transactions. You will also pay a minimum fee to PSP's. With Sagepay it is £20 fixed for upto 1000 transactions a quarter.
In past merchants (retailers) used to capture and store card details on their servers. and than process them later through PDQ manual machine. Systems still being used today as a cheaper options by developers OsCommerce etc. These are not safe and secure and every attempt should be made to not use this type of payment acceptance. This option is no longer viable as it is not allowed by bank rules and this may result in a heavy fines.
POINT 11 - Promoting your Website
The most obvious way to promote your website and web store is by using your current marketing literature. If you have a business card, brochure, leaflet than ensure you have added your website address on there and call to action phrases such as "Order Online". Ensure your existing customers are made aware of your new website. If they like your store, they will probably mention it to their friends and families. So you should have your website address on every single marketing literature that your company produces.
The second best way is to first register with Search Engines such as Goolge, Yahoo & Bing. Also register with DMOZ, Internet directory. This will take time as search engines do not confirm the entry and it will be a very slow process. But when it does get accepted, you should see a steady stream of customers and visitor counts. It is also free. You can do this yourself or employ SEO companies such as Faab to take care of online marketing.
The system you choose should have basic functionalities where by editing Page Title, Description, Keywords to optimise the page are easily available. There is no great deal of technical knowledge required. Obviously there is more to it than just submitting to the search engine.
1. Build Quality Link exchange with relevant site.
2. Carry out PPC (Pay per click) advertising.
3. Think about joining Affiliate programme
4. Employ SEO consultant
We will touch base in detail at later stage on above topics.
It is important to think about this at a start up stage, as your budget, your committed time on project and what's required to educate yourself on your new project is critical. Don't leave everything for someone else to do.
POINT 12 - Converting Browsers to Customers
What are the key reasons or things that will turn your casual browser into buyers? Removing the reasons why people might not buy from your website would be a starting point to convert browsers into customers. Make your website oriented towards sales rather than marketing. Most companies and people forget the reason for their website and end up having a brochure / marketing website. Use website as your sales channel at all processes.
A complete sales transaction is confirmation that your marketing process is complete too. Provide enough information for your audience to convert them to buyers.
These are my 6 tips to boost your conversions.
1. Ask for feedback - Talk to your customers. You must speak to your customers in order to understand the key triggers that motivates your customers to buy from you.
2. Keep it in stock - Ensure products are in stock and priced appropriately. There is nothing worse than miss management of stock which results in cancel sales and loss opportunity.
3. Training for staff- Provide appropriate training to staff. Whether its for using your system of product knowledge or just general customer service. Ensure your staff are trained to provide an excellent customer service and are prepared to do whatever it takes to ensure that customer becomes an advocate of your site / brand.
4. Ready for Sales - Be ready for your customers. Schedule price changes, promotion, seasonal changes, goods in and goods out, packing, email marketing etc.
5. Appoint a Leader - Appoint someone who has good knowledge on products, has appropriate knowledge on customer service and more. By appointing a leader you are creating a smooth communication channel with someone who has a "can do now" attitude.
6. A universal channel - As smart phones and internet becomes more accessible to users, try and align your business to ensure your business is open to your customers on all this channels. Retails shops, Websites, Mobile Phones, Apps etc. The more reason people can find you the better it is for your brand.
What's your best advice for turning browsers into buyers?
POINT 13 - Competing with Big Boys
The beauty of internet is that even a small business can compete effectively. A well presented, developed website can give the impression of a large company.
When I first started my very first ecommerce business, I started in my bedroom. I was selling over 60,000 products. Was not storing any products, and we where using our suppliers warehouse stock as our stock. It gave an immediate impact and we where able to replicate our business as a large organisation.
Nobody know the size of your company from your website.
Only criteria in achieving this is to
1. Ensure you have good reliable supplier.
2. Ensure they are able to fullfill your orders in a prompt and timely manner.
3. Ensure you have good returns procedure.
4. Find a niche which will help beat big boys at their own game.
5. Don't just compete on price.
Faab designs and build ecommerce website for small to medium businesses. We have vast experience. Contact us today on 0786 3345947.
POINT 14 - Security risk for accepting Online Transactions.
Accepting payment online involves less security risks as long as you follow the rules. In UK all sites that accepts payments online must follow PCI DSS regulations. PCI DSS is set by Credit Card companies to ensure your site is secure 100%. If your site is not secure you will be fined by this company in thousands.
So what are things you should look at in the system? Who is responsible for securing payments and customer data? How is the system going to handle the communication between the customers PCs an your servers?
Using companies such as CardSave, SagePay, Paypal, Google Checkout, Worldpay would help in ensuring you do not capture any payment details of your customers. These companies take care of everything. Only thing now left is securing your DB and data.
This is where Faab comes in. We can help you integrate and provide the best secure payment system.
POINT 15 - So how much will this costs?
First question we always get asked is How much will it cost?
The answer really varies according to your requirements and the sophistication required. By sophistication I mean, modules, things your software need to do, facility for your customers and more.
My usual answer would be that if you where to set up a retail outlet, you would lease / buy the property. Tidy the interiors with nice design, lighting etc. Have nice clean shelves which are clearly marked with neat bold price tickets, so that your customers can locate the products quickly and easily.
So why can't you have this facility online. Just because the products online and not physical, just because the shop is not a physical shop, it doesn't mean that customers are not going to try and gather information before their purchases.
You as a retailer have to provide all the above and more. You can buy an off the shelf simple shopping cart software, that you can set it up yourself for around £20 a month plus your fees to Credit Card and PayPal. More sophisticated software are available for around £200 and more a month. It depends on your needs.
Professional website design company like Faab will evaluate your needs and provide you with a solution which is a cost effective and provide you with ROI. Just make sure you have enough in your budget for marketing your website.
No visitors = No Sales.
POINT 16 - IS Ecommerce Profitable?
Simple answer is Yes! As long as you have carried out your own research, have a good relationship with your suppliers and with your developers. Trading online is the most successful for SME and small business.
There are tens and thousands of businesses that have made a successful leap including the major brands into the online sales. Selling online can be done on a small or a on a large budget.
Lot of established businesses have moved to online too. Businesses such as Argos, Tesco, Asda to name a few. As for the complete new start up you have website such as ASOS, and BooHoo that have sprung up from no where to establish themselves as industry leader in their categories and competing with the high street chains.
As with everything else, you will have to carry out your own research, get advice from the experienced and trusted contacts, and plan your budget to what you can spend if you are just wanting to test the waters before you jump in.
Faab can certainly help with research and advice. We have number of Years of experience of trading online.
POINT 17 - How to attract people to your Online Store
1. Get a Website Address that makes sense. Its also called Domain name. Should be short and easy to remember. Spend some time on thinking a suitable name.
2. Use your current marketing materials. Add your website address, email address into your current advertising. Add it to your business cards, brochures, invoices, letterheads etc. Wherever you promote your company promote your website address too.
3. Use SEO techniques to appear on major Search Engines and Directories.
4. Consider PPC (Pay Per Click) Marketing. Search Engines allow advertising against their results. While there is enormous potential, it can eat up on your budget very quickly.
5. Use your expertise on forums, blogs and Social Media sites. Inform people about what you can do. Present yourself as an expert and you will gain the confidence in getting new business.
6. Spend wisely. Starting any business is exciting, but if you do not keep an eye on your costs you could loose vast amount of money very quickly and your reputation too.
Faab will assist you in all aspects of running an ecommerce online store.
POINT 18 - Selling Successfully Online
1. Generate PR interest.
If you have cut carbon footprint, or are using innovative green packaging, raising money for charity or been on Dragon's Den. Use all this for your PR activity. All publicity is good publicity.
2. Ask questions, What's working for you?
I see so many examples where owners don't have a clue about what is their ROI, what Conversion they have through website. Its like anoraks are in driving seat. The way to success is to measure the results against what you are doing or not doing. Find out where your customers are coming from. What are they searching. Why are they are buying or not buying from you? Where did they hear about you?
3. Link Building
This is the most misunderstood part of any website success. Done correctly will generate good ranking on Search Engines and will bring lots of traffic. Yes there are lot of cowboy link building companies out their. I would avoid them. Link with the relevant sites to your products, and services. Link with your suppliers. Have a referral scheme. Link exchange with right site is a win win situation that wont cost you anything, but will bring better search engine results and rankings.
4. Don't try to reinvent the wheel.
Learn from the success or failures of your competitors. Keep an eye on your competitors and see what is working for them. Which marketing is generating interest for them. Don't just copy their concept. Innovate yourself and do it better.
5. Why should customer buy from you?
Ask this question yourself. If its just price, well than you are doomed to failure. Every body competes on price, but amazingly on web not everything is sold is based on price. People look at quality, recommendations, reviews etc and make their decision on to whether to trust this site or not. In real world we all make a decision to either shop with Alsi, Asda or Marks & Spencer, and have our own ideas of type of type of customers that shop their, same way web shop can be geared up in such a way by offering extra service, free delivery, free disposal of goods, 14 day return warranties etc and more. Provide confidence to your audience, don't hide your policies on policy pages.
I have been in online business since 1997 and have built up a vast amount of knowledge to share. feel free to ring me on 07863345947 anytime.
POINT 19 - Selling Successfully Online Part 2
1. Remember your existing customers
You have manage to gain customers. Keeping this existing customers should be your priority a they will be your best customers. Encourage this customers to return to your website by providing them with discount coupons, friend referral scheme, and letting them know what exactly you are doing on your online store.
2. Use Email Marketing
If you have managed to collect the emails from your website by letting your customers opt in, than use this emails to communicate to your customers. There are number of marketing companies selling email data. Be careful with this data. Test it out and go to a company that has been recommended to you personally. Email marketing can work expensive, so it has to be targeted effectively and ensure the content of the email is written in such a way that your emails don't end up in spam box.
3. Use Social Media
Just looking around on most website, you will see social media icons all over the place. The power of Social Media should not be underestimated. Use it to promote your goods, new lines, new services, news worthy items and more.
4. Customer Feedback
No man knows less than the man who knows it all. There is no shame in asking for feedback. Don't just look for good feedback. There are systems out there that will collect feedbacks on your behalf. Use it wisely. Use it to improve your prices, services etc. This would be the most important tool. Listen to your customers of what they want rather than what you want to give them?
5. Recommendations
Asking customers to recommend your products or services to their friends and families should be on top of the agenda too. Customers are more likely to buy from the companies they have been recommended by their friends and family members. If you do get a sale or business through recommendations, make sure you thank the recommender by means of discounts, vouchers etc.
6. Ones that got away
When you are running an online business it is paramount that you monitor all aspects of the business. One of the way should be to look at abandoned cart. Why did they not complete the checkout? Chase this customers up and get their feedback. Is there anything you can do to get their business.
7. Market Offline
Do you know that most of the people you have been targeting online has a life outside online. Oh yes they do. It's sometimes forgotten that 100% of this prospective customers also have an offline life. Use your traditional marketing strategy to push for online sales.
POINT 20 - Marketing your website.
Getting the Basics right in Search Engine Optimisation is key to making you success online.
This is most obvious to us all, but search engines are the number one sources for new visitors to any websites. I would not be exaggerating if I say over 90% of population use Search Engines to search.
I would also not be exaggerating if I said that most people over 50% would not click 2nd or 3rd page of Search Engine Results page. That means that if your site is not listed on page one than you will hardly be noticed.
Alongside a Website Design, Structure and technical plan, make sure you have drawn a plan to at least have some sort of presence on the first page.
Now that you have understood how critical Search Engines are to make your website successful, how are you going to use them? There are 2 ways of getting on the first page.
'Natural' or 'PPC'?
Natural or Organic listings are the results which search engine has determined the most relevant as per users search keyword.
PPC - Pay Per Click or sponsored listings are advertisements which appear at the top and on the right side of the the Search Engines. Merchant has to determined a payout of how much they are willing to pay for that click. You bid against other merchants to get the highest spot. Higher the bid the higher the ranking.
Which ever method a user might have used to visit your website, good news is that they have ended up on your website by searching for goods or services that you sell.
The trick behind using the search engines to drive traffic to your website is knowing what your users are searching. They might type in a single work or a phrase. They might try few different keywords or phrase to find the relevant site. The job for the SEO specialist like Faab is to find the keywords and phrases that users will be searching for. Optimise the site so that its relevant to those search results.
Contact Faab on 07863345947. Yorkshire SEO specialist.