The Wave of the Future is Here Now
 

How would you like to go shopping at a place that has no lines or crowds, is always open when you need it and is just a minute away?

Sounds great right?  So how do you make your store that convenient to your customers?  Easy, start an e-commerce Web site!

 A professional e-commerce site is a powerful tool to boost your store’s sales and increase customer satisfaction.  The convenience of an e-commerce store allows your customers to shop when they want, how they want and wherever they want.  Even out-of-state customers can buy your merchandise!  Plus, an online store can help you grow your business without the costs associated with opening a new brick and mortar store.

Your local customers have the option to browse your Web site for new products and then visit your store to make the purchase.  Your Web site will actually generate more in-store traffic!  Additionally, 49% of internet shoppers perceive companies with online and brick and mortar stores as better at providing customer service than exclusively online stores.  

The benefits of an e-commerce presence are numerous; however, there are some complications involved.  You should consider how you will manage your inventory, returns and exchanges.  Customer satisfaction will decrease if you have out-of-stock items on your Web site or in your store, or if your return policy is too inconvenient.  Without web and store integration, it’s easy to oversell items online due to in-store purchases.  Overselling is a serious problem that can result in losing sales and spending extra time on the phone apologizing to unhappy online customers.  You must integrate your web and store data to accurately manage your inventory levels.

You should also be aware of the challenges of keeping online customers.  Online loyalty is very difficult to maintain.  You will no longer have the benefit of proximity; customers down the street may likely purchase the same item from an online store out-of-state if the price is better.  The personal contact your customers receive in-store is no longer available.  Instead, customer service is based on good prices, fast shipping, in-stock guarantees and secure payment protection.

To keep online shoppers it is important they feel confident about their purchase.  Detailed descriptions and crisp pictures of your merchandise encourage trust.  Many Web sites allow customers to post messages about the product once they have received it.  These ‘testimonials’ increase customer confidence that the item is quality and accurately depicted. 

You should also set up automatic reply e-mails to your customers.  Once they place their order, they should receive an e-mail confirmation of the transaction.  It is also professional to provide your customer a tracking number for the delivery service.  Just make sure your Web site has a professional image, a secure shopping cart, and doesn’t require your customers to reveal excessive personal information, and your online store will be perceived to be as trustworthy as your brick and mortar store. 

According to a study by Jupiter Research NYC, by the end of 2006, online retail sales could hit $95 billion; however, the amount of new online shoppers is only slowly increasing.  With few new online shoppers, you must work hard to convert those that already exist.  Invest in search engine optimization and online marketing.  You wouldn’t buy a store and not buy a sign, right?  You should also keep your online inventory fresh; online shoppers have millions of stores at their fingertips, yours must carry something unique to garner attention.

While there are a few challenges associated with running an online store, they are greatly out numbered by benefits.  With the amount of money spent online today, you cannot afford to miss out!  Contact Clever Computing’s sales department today, sales@clevercomputing .com, for more information about opening your online store!

 

Clicks that Buy -
The Keys to Ecommerce Success
By Rebecca Ramme of UniteU Connected Commerce

The growth of eCommerce continues at an impressive rate. During the 2005 holiday season sales increased over the previous year by 30% and predictions are that similar opportunities will exist in 2006. To capitalize on this trend specialty retailers need more than just another website. Today’s online retailer must attract shoppers, convert them into buyers, and then the ultimate goal is to retain them as loyal, repeat shoppers who also tell their friends.

ATTRACT – Shoppers can’t buy from your site until it has entered their sphere of influence. How does that happen? The best approach is multi-faceted, but there is no doubt that natural search is still king. It must be part of virtually every online merchants marketing strategy. After all, over 80% of online shoppers use search engines such as Google and Yahoo. If you aren’t there you don’t exist. So, an ongoing commitment to search engine optimization is critical. Simple changes in design, navigation and content can hurt or help your rankings and increase or kill your traffic. The best approach here is to engage with a web marketing professional and to listen to their advice!

CONVERT – It is amazing how many merchants spend fortunes driving traffic to their site without realizing that they are converting so few into customers. What is your site’s conversion rate? Most ecommerce sites come with some statistics package; unfortunately many online retailers aren’t looking at this metric or the data may be presented in a confusing way. If you don’t already have great analytics tools, invest in them. If you have them, use them. What should you expect? This varies by product line, but most online stores have a conversion rate of somewhere between 1% and 3%. (This factor is simply the number of orders divided by the number of shoppers for a specific period of time.)

Once you start tracking your conversion rate you can work on improving it. This can be done through online merchandising and improved usability. Online merchandising is similar to in-store activities such as how you arrange your products, having rich, high quality images and offering promotions and incentives to buy. Usability involves an understanding of shopper responses and behaviors that encourage them to buy. This can include visual factors and layout as well and can also include elements that establish confidence and credibility so that the shopper is more likely to trust your site and enter personal and payment information.   

RETAIN – Retention and loyalty are key to online growth. Extreme experiences are shared – good and bad. If your customer has a poor experience with your site they will tell others. Conversely if they receive great service they will return and they will talk it up to their friends. Integration with your Point-of-sale system – such as Retail Pro and Microsoft Retail Management System - can help you deliver great service. You have a single view of your customer and your orders are automatically downloaded for fulfillment - eliminating delays and order entry errors. Also, integrating inventory availability enables you to automatically show only products that are in stock and ready to ship. This prevents disappointment and manual exception processing.

Like any retail operation, running a successful online store requires a lot of product knowledge, marketing savvy and the ability to deliver great customer service. But long-term success also depends upon solid information systems in the store, the back office and on the web itself.

UniteU Connected Commerce is a leader in eCommerce solutions for specialty retailers. They offer complete online store applications, integration software and web marketing and analytics services and tools.  For more information, visit www.uniteu.com, call 1-866-786-4838 or email sales@uniteu.com.