eCommerce Made Simple
It’s the dream: set up a web shop, fill it with exciting new products, make checkout and shipping easy, sit back and wait for the millions to roll in.
But success is never simple.
Getting an eCommerce site up and running is just the start. To attract customers you need to build the right web presence. This is not the same as Search Engine Optimisation, a site with not particularly good SEO can regularly outperform search engine optimised sites, provided the site administrator gets the web presence right.
Web Presence
Put simply, web presence is just ‘being there’. Getting in front of the right eyes at the right time. Two years ago this meant getting a good page position when someone searched for your product or services on Google. But habits change and so should your tactics.
The Shopping Mall Analogy.
Mall shopping is more than a simple way to acquire essential items. It is a social event. Malls contain cinemas, eateries, coffee outlets and, oh yes, shops. Success in the Mall means attracting footfall. A similar approach is needed if your eCommerce site is to be effective.
Over the last couple of years the internet has become a playground: a place for entertainment and people now use the web differently. Facebook provides social engagment, You Tube, entertainment and a ‘slew’ of gaming sites have been set up.
To get noticed, to attract footfall, you need to get your offers and posters out into the Internet Mall. But blanket marketing and advertising becomes very expensive, very quickly.
The Internet as a Series of ‘Hot Spots’
Noticed how market traders with the best patter attract the largest crowds? It is the same online; you need good patter to attract attention. Comment knowledgeby and regularly on products and developments in your marketplace and you will develop a following. But it is not enough to simply create that following on your own site.
In the same way that posters and leaflet distributors direct shoppers in the Mall to particular retail outlets, you need to blogs, groups and fan pages that direct people to your site. Build these assets in hot spots, where your customers congregate. Create hot spots of your own: authoritative, entertaining content and customers will come flocking.
And you do not have to do all the work yourself. Atracting 4,000 interested shoppers to your site each month might deliver a respectable income but a network of 200 affiliates and recommenders will deliver an obscene income.
Building your eCommerce site is just the start. Success only looks easy when you have done all the hard work: building the blogs, creating the content, attracting a following and recruiting your affiliates.
Good luck.
Posted: March 18th, 2010 / 1 Comment /
1 Comment to eCommerce Made Simple
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Well written post. Keep us posting.
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August 11th, 2010