Integrating An eCommerce Website With Your Business

Think of your e commerce website as an extension of your business model. Obviously your website needs to serve your business. Take a look at your overall business and think about:

• How does your business make money?
• Who are your target audience?
• How can you promote your business to them?
• How can the web be used to help automate your business?

Think about what you want accomplished with your website and the best possible ways to help your website achieve the points above. A good website is much more than just a beautiful design. You need to look beyond the design to try achieving your set objectives.

eCommerce Website

The purpose of having an ecommerce website is to earn money. As you must collect payments from customers via the web it is vital that customers feel confident and secure that any information submitted to your ecommerce website is protected. For this you will require a secure payment system. Your beautiful design will be effective only if it can draw customers’ attention to those things which make the business money. In no way should your website confuse your customers during the buying process. Purchase instructions and the security statements should be clearly displayed near payment areas. Purchasing from your ecommerce website should be as hassle free as possible.

Each time a visitor enters your ecommerce website he or she should easily find the reason to come in. Always put yourself in the customer’s shoes when writing the content of your ecommerce website. Guide them throughout the buying process. Consider what questions you might ask if you were purchasing from a website.

For example, if you are selling vacation packages it would help if you get an idea about the customer’s preferences first and guide them to where they can find what they want. Your suggestive questioning can start by asking the type of vacation and giving them a choice of vacations. Ask them to click on the type of vacations you have listed such as beach vacation, adventure vacation, safari vacation etc. then you can suggest types of vacations you offer that fit within that category selected. You can help your visitors decide what they want and increase your conversions.

Non eCommerce websites

Not all websites exist purely for the purpose of ecommerce. A business that is not web- based may want to promote their business on the web. Traditional bricks and mortar businesses can be looking to have an internet storefront or might want to personally deal with clients. Ask yourself what can you do to expand your reach?

Promotion is paramount

Irrespective the kind off business you are involved in, promotion is the key to successful business and on the web. You can use the web to perform any of many promotional tasks such as:

• Gathering sales leads by asking visitors to fill out a form. You can do this effectively by rewarding your visitors for their help. Offering an incentive can help increase the response rate.
• Gather email addresses for use on a mailing list.
• Sending emails targeting the customer's interests as indicated on a form.
• Provide specific indicators on customer interest using landing pages and keyword advertising.
• Conduct polls and surveys to get to know what your potential customers want.
• Include articles educating your customers on the subject matter of your business generating an interest.

Your website can showcase your business on the internet to a worldwide audience. The nature of your business might not require a worldwide visitor base. However what information you gather can be applied to your local clientele. Irrespective of their location, if they are an interested in your message or products then perhaps you can find a way in which you can expand your business to include this section of the market.

Automating your eCommerce website

Remember a web server is simply another computer. Computers are great at doing monotonous tasks humans hate or would find a huge waste of time. This is one of the best reasons to automate your ecommerce website. Look to see the ways in which your ecommerce website can make your life a bit easier. For example:

• Your email newsletters could easily be sent using your web server. Your entire mailing list can be sent at the click of a button.
• Auto-responders, automatically can update your customers with relevant information via regulated e-mails.
• Compile sales statistics and get them emailed to you automatically each morning (if yours is an e commerce site).
• Get all your earnings transferred directly in to your bank account avoiding the hassle of manual entry.

There are plenty of ways a web server can assist business functions. Let the computers do the work for you.

The crux of making your e commerce site function involves programming. If skilled you can do it your self or you can outsource to a professional. However, when venturing into automation, consider if it is truly necessary to do so and if it will benefit your business.