J.D. Associates Retail POS Solutions Blog

5 Considerations for a Successful Ecommerce Site

  

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E-COMMERCE 

Currently there are several major avenues available for retailers to expand into a multichannel approach to marketing their merchandise. E-commerce is one of them. Considerations for your ecommerce site:

1. Is your ecommerce site easy to find on the web?  Have you hired a professional Search Engine Optimization (SEO) company to help potential customers locate your e-store?  If you rarely rank on one of the major search engines, your efforts will go unrewarded.   SEO is not a onetime effort but is a living, breathing organism that requires regular nurturing and attention.
2. Is your ecommerce site attractive to the eye and easy to navigate? There are Internet tools that allow you to track visitors and click-through rates.  It is critically important to know how much traffic you are getting and how deep that traffic is traveling into your ecommerce site.  By tracking this, you can easily analyze the information and find out where the point of cart abandonment is and try to remedy the problem.
3. Is your merchandise fresh?  Like any other channel, to win repeat business, your merchandise needs to be new and exciting.  Potential customers are quick to abandon an ecommerce site that does not freshen merchandise, does not have Internet-only specials, and carries out-of-date news.   Again, through the use of Internet tools, it's easy to track conversion rates (how many potential customers visiting the site who are converted to paying customers).
4. How easy or difficult is it to make a purchase?  It may surprise you to know that many potential sales are lost at checkout. Getting lost in the process can be so frustrating to the buyer that they simply abandon the purchase.  This abandonment is also easy to track and remedy with proper Internet ecommerce tools.  Shopping online should be an easy and enjoyable experience.  Checkout should be quick, understandable and seamless.
5. Are return policies clearly stated?  As in all other methods of multichannel retail, return policies need to be clearly posted.  Whether the policies be liberal or conservative, clarity is an absolute must to avoid confusion or unwelcome and fraudulent manipulation.

Most retailers in today’s new economy are currently taking advantage of multichannel opportunities. Because of limited discretionary income, today’s consumer is demanding value and convenience more than ever before. Customer loyalty is fickle at best. High visibility is essential for all retail enterprises.  To achieve this visibility to the widest number of potential buyers, some retailers are selling their merchandise through several different channels at the same time while most are focusing on one channel which is most often e-commerce. As is the case with brick and mortar, multichannel initiatives are seeing varying levels of success.  For those who take the “build it and they will come” laissez faire approach, success will be fleeting at best.  For those who treat their multichannel initiative as a “real” business, requiring all of the attention of a brick and mortar store, the chances of success are much greater. 

The initiatives discussed in this article are not the only multichannel opportunities but reflect the most popular ways that today’s retailers are marketing their merchandise. There are also new and exciting initiatives on the horizon utilizing mobile technology.  Whatever initiative(s) retailers decide to choose when swimming across the multichannel, careful planning, consistent branding, value and extraordinary customer service are all essential ingredients to achieve a rewarding and profitable venture.