Cross Loader

Shopping online offers a convenience that many dreamed about until a few years ago. Staying at home, sitting comfortably and making purchases with a few mouse clicks, is a great way to make purchases. However, there are a few things you should watch out for and take precautions against.

1. Credit card scams - This is a constant threat that you should always worry about. Fraudulent websites or malware can steal your credit card details. To avoid this, always make sure you do a background check on the website and their business.

2. Credibility - Checking the credibility of the website is always important. Apart from the issue mentioned above, you also need to check on how good the quality of the product is. For example, receiving goods that are scratched or damaged in anyway represents a major hassle for any customer. If the company is known to regularly send goods this way, you will soon know about it by doing a little bit of research.

3. Don’t buy everything - Avoid items that need certain verifications by you. For example, Clothing. Buying a shirt, jeans, t-shirts etc online can be a bit of a hit and miss experience. These are things that need to be tried on so that you know they fit. You are better off purchasing them at a bricks and mortar store to avoid complications.

4. Timing - Internet purchases are liable to time delays. Therefore you should make allowance for this. Otherwise you need to be particular, and buy from website that guarantee delivery in a specified amount of time or have 24/7 live support.

Sometimes, it is easy to forget that SEO is an ongoing process. As such, certain aspects of your website tend to be neglected. Here are some things you should consider improving to keep your SEO working for you.

1. Update your site map. When you constantly update your site (adding and deleting pages), the site map can quickly get outdated. You should pay constant attention to this component as it is something that your customers will refer to.

2. Describe your products well. It is disappointing that most websites resort to displaying the standard description that comes with the product. Make an effort to write your own description or at least try to expand the description so that it has more substance. The idea is to give the customer as much information as possible. This will also make you stand out more.

3. Anchor it. Your “read more” links should be more than just the generic link to more info. Use your Anchor Text effectively here. Not only will it be more useful to your customer, it will also help you in your SEO efforts.

4. Singular and Plural. Remember that search engines look the singular and plural versions of a keyword differently. For example, to them ring” and “rings” are two different words. To use this to your advantage, use the plural on the main page (i.e.: “Our gallery of rings”) and use the singular on the product page (i.e.: “The Infinity ring”)

5. Simple URL’s. Instead of having a long URL full of numbers and signs, change it into an understandable one. For example, www.myringsite.com/Infinity_ring instead of www.myringsite.com/products/category5/productid?id=5wsh123cd&store=26blue17s&oh=bro47781nad41e169&code=91cngtd112256778

If you are thinking of getting into Ecommerce or have just gotten into it, there are few things you should know. A sale can be lost at multiple points. Form the starting point of advertising to the end point of the actual sale, you have to be vigilant and ensure that you do everything possible to close the sale. Let us focus on the final point of the sale.

The order form or shopping cart. This should be clearly visible and easy to access. Do not lose the customer after they have made the decision to buy. Make sure that it is visible on all pages. After all, what have you got to lose by putting a link on every page?

Payments. Accept everything. Don’t limit your site to only VISA or MasterCard or PayPal. Ensure that you can accept all sorts of payment methods. The customer at this point has already made up their mind to make the purchase. Why would you want to lose a sale at this point after you’ve done all the hard work?

Security. Slap on all the encryption and security features you can. This will give the customer a lot of confidence to make the purchase. Credit Card fraud is rampant and customers are often worried about making online purchases, so it is up to you assure them that it won’t happen on your site. Another thing you can do to give them confidence is to display credible testimonials. You should also have your contact information clearly displayed and easily accessible in case they need to contact you. The contractibility will also give them assurance.

Web analytics is a great tool, but it must be used properly in order for it to be useful. Let us look at an example comparing a real world visit to a store and a visit to an online store.

A customer walks into a store and walks around looking at products. They may be there for just a minute or they may browse around for an hour. At the end of the time period they may or may not buy something. For the store owner, there is no information beyond the fact that someone came in and if a purchase was made, then that information is there too.

In an online business with web analytics the store owner will know
- Which page the customer came from
- what pages they looked at
- how long they spent on each page
- what purchases they made
- the geographical location of the customer, etc

However, all this amounts to just data if the store owner does not know what to do with it. What they should be doing is looking at each section of data and asking the question “Why?”

For example, if 60% of the visitors leave after viewing the homepage, then the reason for that has to be investigated. Perhaps the homepage is cluttered, perhaps it has the wrong information or it is misleading or maybe it is just too complicated. Whatever the reason is, it has to be fixed. In the same manner, every bit of the analytical data that is presented has to be analyzed this way. By doing this, a great deal of information can be gleaned from web analytics which can ultimately help the business move forward.

Operating an online business means conforming to certain rules and regulations. One such regulation is the Privacy Policy. In the U.S. the law states that you have to display the privacy policy in a clear location. This means that the visitors to the site should be able to find the link to the privacy policy easily. Failure to do so will result in a serious fine.

Having a privacy policy displayed is a criterion that other businesses look at when they consider doing business with you. Ultimately, your credibility reflects on theirs so this is a crucial point. For example, Google will not take advertisements from websites that do not have a privacy policy in place.
A privacy policy should ideally:

1. Describe to visitors how data is collected about visitors to the site.
2. Describe the data that is being collected.
3. Explain the purpose for which it being collected, where it will be stored and how the storage is handled.
4. Explain how this data will be shared with any third parties.
5. Explain how credit card details are handled in the event that the site does online transactions.

Consult a lawyer, if you can afford to, when formulating the privacy policy. If you are unable to, then there are many resources online that will help you get under way. There are even some Wordpress plugins that help you do this.

Although required by law in some countries, it is always a good practice to include a privacy statement on your website even if not required by the law in the country you operate from. How personal data is handled is an extremely sensitive issue and your visitors or customers will appreciate you and trust you more for having a privacy policy implemented.

If you run a business and have not put a Web store or ecommerce website, then you may have wasted precious time. Web stores are a great way of increasing your bottom line. Here are some reasons why:

1. Web stores have a global reach. Customers can come to you from down the street, across town, from another country halfway around the world, etc. This effectively means that your customer base has expanded into the millions.

2. Time. Your physical store may be open from 9 to 5, but your Web store is open 24/7, 365 days a year. So no matter what time it or what day it is, customers can make an order. This brings more opportunities for you.

3. New opportunities. With recession cutting jobs and cost of living rising every day, many people are extremely conscious of their spending. Even going to a store in a vehicle is a cost so many consumers are now electing to stay at home and get their products delivered. With a Web store you too can tap into that market.

4. Information. A web store is a great way to spread information about products. The more information a customer has the more confident they will feel about it. Once again you increase your chances of a sale.

5. Easy setup. With many instant Web store software available, it is an easy task to set up. Once it is up and running, the maintenance costs are very low and negligible.

If any of these reasons seem to make sense to you, then you should consider setting up a Web store for your business. However, if you feel unconfident about it, seek an IT professionals advice before you begin this venture.

Sometimes you need to make money really fast. This could be due to an unexpected expense, perhaps your spouse’s birthday, etc. One of the best and safest ways to make money is to have an online fire sale. The perennial favorite for this type of ecommerce is eBay. However, the problem with eBay is the cost; you have to pay for everything you list there.

A good alternative is Amazon. The advantage you have here over eBay is that you only pay if you sell the product. So there is no listing fee and therefore, no cost to you. But with all the stuff on Amazon, why would anyone want to buy your product? Well, it could be because the product you offer is no longer available on Amazon or anywhere else. This is usually the situation with almost all collectors’ items. If you do possess something like that, you can make a lot of money. Another reason why people would want to buy from you would be the price. If you have used the product and maintained it well, you can still ask for a decent price which is below the price of a new one. This would prompt the user to buy from you instead due to the price variation.

Always remember that the users browsing Amazon are there to buy or are thinking about buying. This is the best type of traffic any website would like. So when you put up your product, sweeten the deal a little bit. For example, if you are selling your digital camera you should throw in your camera bag as well as a bonus. This will tip the scales in your favor.

When businesses want to be successful, almost every time they trace all information related to the customer and the business and what does and does not work for them. After all, the customer is king!

When they say that some things never change, perhaps they were referring to the way that business will continue to remain customer-centric. And this is true even though the domain of the internet has unveiled a different kind of space for one to expand or even begin their business, while constantly keeping track of their business success through using tools that assist with web analytics.

Very simply, Web Analytics is “the measurement, collection, analysis and reporting of internet data in order to understand and accordingly optimize web usage”.

Now, there are two types conducted normally such offsite and onsite web analytics. The former does not require a website of your own to conduct market and business research but the latter does since its objective is measure your website’s performance against a few success indicators that have been set. Once data is collected, decisions can be made to improve the website or its marketing campaign, which can greatly impact the profitability of the business.

There are a large number of metrics that are used to determine how one can determine if a website is delivering to its maximum potential, and some of the popular ones are Hit, Page View, Bounce Rate, Session and Page View Duration, Frequency and Click.

Some of the popular software that is used for Web Analytics is Google Analytics, Yahoo! Web Analytics, Woopra, Webtrends, Webtrekk Q3, VisiStat, Clicktale and Bango Mobile Web Analytics which just require you to define the key performance indicators of your business and track them using this software.

Among several online options to send and receive money that buyers and providers have, we can safely conclude that Paypal is one of the safest and most popular ways to transact online despite the ever-increasing popularity of its competitors like Payoneer, Xoom and Moneybookers with the reason for its popularity being that it is so easy to use while vendors can receive payments through both bank accounts and credit card without any hassles.
As internet shopping grows in popularity each year, online entrepreneurs are experiencing a surge in business whether it is in regards to services or goods. And since the integration to a shopping cart can be completed in minutes, vendors will be more than happy to make use of this simple yet effective service.

And if you have not used this option yet, here are the steps to integrate Paypal into a shopping cart:

Step #1: Open a Premier or a Business account (if you do not have one already).
Step #2: Select Merchant Tools/ Services
Step #3: Look for Website Payment Standard and select that option with the mouse.
Step #4: Look for the tab, Payment Options, and click on ‘Create one now’ for any button that you prefer.
Step #5: Enter relevant information in step 1, 2 and 3 and select ‘Create Button’
Step #6: Select the HTML code that appears and paste it along with the HTML code of your website.

And now, you have created the simplest method to be paid through Paypal, and however there are other ways by which you can be paid by credit cards and bank accounts. All you have to do is look around on the Paypal Developer’s page for instructions.

Almost every ecommerce entrepreneur selling a product is interested in one thing only which is how to generate leads and therefore increase conversion rates when potential customers visit their website. To be honest, there are several ways by which one can do this keeping in mind that it is a matter of experimentation over time that will bring you success.

Here are a few tips to improve website conversions:

1) Build a professional, easy-to-use website that has a good headline, opening paragraph, call to action for customers, and sales copy that provides appropriate information and differentiates your product benefits from the rest while also using attractive visuals to capture the customer’s attention.

2) Use every internet marketing methods possible (such as PPC, SEO etc.) to generate ONLY potential customers to your website. You have to remember that your target audience is a customer who needs your product and not just anyone who is surfing the internet.

3) Make it easy as easy as possible for the customer to buy from your website. Also, ensure that they sign up for your newsletter which could keep them posted on the latest developments.

4) Provide customers with easy paying options as well as offering different payment options that will appeal to a wide range of customers.

5) Always remember to upsell similar products that customers might also like, by providing them deals if they purchase a couple of items instead of just one.

6) Finally, always use Google Analytics to check for the most popular kind of products as well as the least popular as well as several other statistics made available that will only increase the conversion rate of your website.