Tuesday, June 30, 2009

5 Must haves For E-Commerce

1) Site search: You need to get customers to your web site so you need a good proper search engine optimization. But there is also a question of site search or native search, the search function on your site, i.e. finding products on your site with a search tool can fall into different categories, natural language search, parametric & keyword, but the most common and most accurate is navigation or faceted search.

2) Proper merchandising: It seems that in this age of web marketing and selling merchandising is become a lost art. It is and will always be a key ingreadent to the overall retailing experience. There are rules when it comes to retailing. As a marketing manager you might want to take control of this complex roll and not let your web designer do it for you. You need to decide how products are categorized, how they are sorted, how they are found, how different products are tied together and how products are cross-sold.

3) Content: Consumers are not just looking for good content. They EXPECT good content. They need an online experience and perhaps user generated content like ratings, reviews, and a blog to talk about specific products. Make your site a destination rather than only a placed to shop. Even online people do take the work of other people over that of the company’s verbiage. Find ways to get them to your site and keep them on it.

4) Quick checkout:
People; use the internet as a way to be more efficient not getting bogged down at the checkout line. Heck they can go to a brick and mortar if they wanted that. Keep your check out clean neat and fast. You might want to do a little cross selling if it does not get in the way, or give an incentive on their purchase on your site if it does not get in the way.

5) Analytics: You need to know! Gone are the days of just measuring the click on your landing page. You should be knowing your conversion rate at the product level. The technology is out there, why not use it.

Larson note: Make the experience worth it! As online selling becomes an even greater part of the market place and a major source of income for straight online marketers and mixed online/brick & mortars you need to be making sure your site is competitive and hooked up with the best e-commerce offerings to make your customers experience spectacular and worth it for them to come back and buy again. Always be vigilant for the latest in tools and gimmicks. That is part to the online experience.

Howard Larson
Larson & Associates
Target Marketing & Telesales Professionals for new account acquisition
Making good businesses great and great businesses even better
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