Transcript E-Commerce and the Entrepreneur

E-Commerce and the
Entrepreneur
The internet remains a place where
you can start with nothing and soon
challenge the gods.
-Mark DiMassimo
Benefits of Selling on the Web
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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 web’s 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.
Factors to Consider before
Launching into E-Commerce
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How a company exploits the web’s 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.
Factors to Consider before
Launching into E-Commerce (cont’d)
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What exactly do you expect a web site to
do for your company?
How much can you afford to invest in an ecommerce 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?
Factors to Consider before
Launching into E-Commerce (cont’d)
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What impact, if any, will your web site have on your
company’s 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 company’s
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 don’t 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
It’s what’s 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
It’s too late to get on the web
Strategies for E-Success
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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 Web’s Global Reach
Promote Your Web Site Online and Offline
Develop an Effective Search Engine
Optimization (SEO) Strategy
Designing a Killer Web Site
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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
Designing a Killer Web Site (cont’d)
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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
Tips for Website Design
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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, don’t
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.
Tips for a Website Design (cont’d)
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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
site’s credibility in no time.
Avoid using small fonts on busy backgrounds; no
one will read them!
Tips for a Website Design (cont’d)
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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 don’t 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.
Tracking Web Results
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Software solutions
 Commerce
metrics.
 Visitor
segmentation
measurements.
 Content reports.
 Process
measurements.
Tracking Web Results (Cont’d)
Other common web site performance include
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Click-through rate (CTR)
CTR = number of clicks / number of impressions
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The cost per acquistion (CPA)
CPA = total cost of acquiring a new customer / number of
new customers
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The conversion (or browse-to-buy) ratio
Conversion rate = number of customers who made a
purchase / number of visitors to the site
Tracking Web Results (cont’d)
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Gathering performance indicators
 Clustering.
 Collaborative filtering.
 Profiling systems.
 Artificial intelligence (AI).
Ensuring Web Privacy and Security
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Privacy
 Take the inventory of the
customer data collected
 Develop a company
privacy policy for the
information you collect
 Post your company’s
privacy policy
prominently on your web
site and follow it
Security