If you're planning to start doing business online, one of the many items on your “to do” list will be a new website. Your website is crucial to the success of your enterprise, so it's important to spend some time talking to website designers about ecommerce solutions.
When you're shopping around for a software company to build your ecommerce website it's a good idea to have formed a concept of the sort of website you want. This concept isn't just about your website's visual design, although that's important. Spend time thinking about the way you want your shop to work; some of the things you'll need to consider include:
- how many different products will you be selling?
- what features of these products do you need to show on your web pages?
- do you want other areas of your business like the inventory, purchasing or accounting systems to be linked to online sales?
- how do you want customers to contact you?
- how are you planning to maintain your online shop?
- how do you want to take payments from customers?
- Having considered these details before you start talking to an ecommerce software company ensures that they'll be able to make the best match between your business model and the ecommerce systems hey recommend.
The success of your new business depends on building a base of loyal customers, so when you're considering ecommerce solutions it's vital to focus on features of your business model and your website that will attract online customers and keep them coming back for more. Here are some suggestions:
- Offer customers a choice of several ways to communicate with you, including phone, email or online real-time support. Make a commitment to respond to emails promptly.
- Make it easy for customers to buy from you by offering different payment options. Before your ecommerce checkout system can accept online credit card payments you'll need to arrange a merchant account with a bank, or subscribe to a third party processing service like PayPal.
- Consider offering free delivery. Some customers are deterred from buying if they don't know the full cost of their purchase until the shipping charges are calculated at the end the checkout process; customers who know that you offer free delivery are less hesitant about adding items to their shopping cart.
- Encourage a community of customers by providing ways that they can interact with your website: writing reviews, commenting on blogs or participating in online forums helps to engage customers who'll want to keep coming back to your site.
Think about how much time you can devote to maintaining your website. Just like a bricks and mortar store that needs to have windows cleaned, shelves dusted and floors swept, your website will need regular attention on a daily basis – processing orders, responding to emails, updating pricing and product information. What website management functions do you want to do in-house, and what do you want automated or outsourced?
Take some time to think through the operational features of your website that are important to you. This will bring some focus to your discussions with software providers, and help you to choose the best ecommerce solution for your new business venture.
