By Chris Cuellar

I’ve been meaning to write this article for some time now. Essentially what this article is about is a lesson learned about ecommerce and how to obtain rapid business growth online. Let’s face it everyone would like to be a success online and it’s no accident that online sales are growing year over year while brick and mortar sales decline. My premise in writing this is simply that most new comers to online sales go about it with the entirely wrong approach. I can’t tell you how often I’ve been contacted regarding an ecommerce software package or consultant opportunity and the potential client has made a number of wrong choices up to that point and is in need of real guidance on how to make their online sales grow. So often times I’ve heard it said to me they’ve already hired a professional search engine optimization services provider and still have not achieved the results they had hoped for even marginally. To be sure, Seo or search engine optimization is an important key element for e commerce shopping cart software web sites. However, in my experience even the best Seo consultant cannot overcome fundamental issues in poor web shopping cart software environments. Let me start by saying it’s is a combination of elements or tools that come together in a complimentary manner that make effective e commerce shopping cart software . I say this because it doesn’t matter if you’re selling chairs or computers the principles are all the same.

The Right Web Design Agency
I am going to start here because the design of a site will dictate the potential for growth online. I will state that again for anyone who doesn’t believe me. The design of the site will dictate the potential for sales growth online. What I am getting to is this there are many fundamental design principles that come into play when creating an effective presence online color choices, fonts, and compelling graphics all play a role in the success of your online storefront. You must be committed to creating the most compelling store front, products page, and user environment available online. Skimping in this area can doom an online store to failure. Your basic mom and pop design agency won’t cut it. You’ll need to hire a professional design agency with a track record of success in your niche or market.

The Right Quick Shopping Cart
You need a custom or fully customizable e commerce software package or web shopping cart software. Here is the most important thing to remember most ecommerce packages are not good enough. If you’re having trouble closing sales online despite tons of ad dollars being spent the potential culprit is your ecommerce software. Ask yourself how many steps or pages does it take to check out of my online store? If you answer more than 2-3 pages your shopping cart solution is hindering your sales. You risk shopping cart abandonment and lost sales every time someone visits your site.

The right ecommerce shopping cart software will allow you to change product prices on your web site and on online shopping comparison sites on the fly. Yes that’s right you need the flexibility to change your prices or promotions on your site at a moment’s notice. If you are spending ad dollars on shopping comparison sites do you have the ability to change prices instantly on your site and within the shopping comparison site feed? If not you can be sure that swift competitors are stealing your potential online storefront sales.

Identify your target market
This is something that as a business owner only you should know best. It is one of the most important principles of online sales you must get right. You see being visible online allows everyone from many different demographic areas to visit your store. However, you must choose the market your product best identifies with and build your website to suit those tastes and preferences. This includes your front-end design and shopping cart preferences, and search engine optimization. A web design targeted at a specific demographic gains traction fast. It becomes easy for online visitors to identify with your product and services and compels online sales.

Organic Search Marketing Campaigns
Simply casting a wide net in hopes of achieving sales via your website invites failure. You must research and identify the best online tools and resources needed to reach near, mid and long term sales goals online. If this sounds like a lot of work it is. It involves learning the fundamentals of organic search engine optimization yourself. Finding by research and references the best search marketing agency for your business. It is not enough to buy ads through Google, Yahoo or MSN. Let me say that again. It is not enough to buy ads via Google, Yahoo or MSN. You must research the terms best suited to your product both the high volume keywords, and product specific key phrases. This is perhaps the most critical step in growing your online sales. Often it is the easiest way to go, but can also be very costly and setup online businesses for failure if not managed properly. In essence research and develop and effective marketing campaign.

Best Shopping Cart Online
This next element falls back on the online shopping cart you choose if you cannot create custom product content, meaning having the ability to change product details, product specifications, images, title tags, meta descriptions, and keywords for each individual product page you are using the wrong solution. In addition you must be able to do the same for categories, sub-categories, and forum pages within the site. You must also be able to supply product demonstrations via online videos. (Here’s a key tip; don’t invest in any software that doesn’t isolate the videos in a separate database).

Offer multiple payment and shipping solutions seamlessly online This element is rather straight-forward, you need to offer all major credit cards, Google Checkout, Paypal Checkout and any convenient and cost effective payment solution available. The same is true for shipping services. All shipping services are not created equal, what I mean is that in many locals across the country it is not convenient to use one of the major carriers or the other. You’ll find offering a preference will have your new clients feeling warm and fuzzy every time they visit your place of business online.

Be accessible
How many times have you visited a website only to find you could not find a phone number or address to reach the company. Having a Phone number that clearly stands out and is available to anyone creates goodwill and sales.

Develop a reliable supplier base
So far we’ve discussed the importance of designing a website with your target market in mind. Now you must identify your supplier base and let them know of your operating rules after all your business will be driving their sales. Finding and developing a reliable supplier base is key. You must be able to count on regular shipments of products you intend to offer. If you cannot develop a reliable and cost effective supplier base your online sales are doomed.

Be an Authority in your niche.
You might be wondering after the steps we’ve considered why your web site needs to be an authority in its niche market. This is because authoritative sites rank well in search engines and therefore have the potential for more sales. In addition authoritative sites are “sticky” in terms of user retention. This not only sustains traffic growth but draws additional sales. You must find a way to write about the products and services you offer in a meaningful and appealing fashion, you must ask yourself does my ecommerce shopping cart software solution offer this feature?

Create Goodwill
Finally effective online companies do much to create goodwill among their clients and site users. They look for ways to receive meaningful feedback from users and then implement suggestions or methods to optimize their website. When users know their participation counts you can expect that they will reciprocate with loyal sales.

Thank you for reading my article this is an overview of my experience in growing an online company. By these methods and hard work I was able to take a company with no online sales to over $6 million in total sales in just 18 months. These are a few of the challenges I learned to address during that time. I am now available for hire as an ecommerce consultant. I am confident I can help you reach your sales goals online. For more information contact (970) 901-0062
Ecommerce consulting services are provided by Quote please call our office at (970) 901-0062 to receive assistance with a custom package.

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