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| How to Sell Onlne
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| Reprinted from
MyComputer.com |
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While out riding my bicycle this spring on the rain flooded
roads west of Boston, I rode through a flooded road I thought was only a few
inches deep. It turns out it was over 10" deep with ice floating on the
surface. My bike really did not like my riding through a river since the water
washed the grease from the bearings that hold the pedal arms.
So it
was off to my favorite bike mechanic, who runs a one man shop. When I entered
his shop and saw all the repair work he had piled up, I asked him why he let it
go so long during this very busy time of the year. His answer was, "I think I
am going to give up repair work and just stay with the online mail order
business."
This was a very interesting comment because, like most
industries, there are online mail order giants. So what sets this small shop
apart?
My friend developed a USP early in his "online career." His
Unique Selling Principal is that he sells very specific products to a very
specific subset of bicycle riders. Therefore he has become the "go-to" guy.
He started selling online by putting photos and descriptions of
products on his Web site and only took phone orders. Then he migrated to taking
orders by email. He would call the buyer for a check. Then he broke down and
got himself a genuine Merchant Account so he could take credit cards. But as we
all know, most people do not feel safe putting their credit card numbers in an
email.
PayPal to the rescue.
PayPal.com has
gone into online payment processing for small businesses and organizations.
There are other such services as well.
Let's look at what works for
online selling. |
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Necessary Software
Depending on the number of
items you have to sell, you can create your own online catalog and use a
service like PayPal. There are Web hosting companies that provide an online
store as part of their package, complete with a catalog, order processing and
credit card checking.
There are numerous CGI and JavaScript programs
that you can use on your own site to create an online catalog and a shopping
basket. If you go to sites like
ZDNet.com,
Cnet.com,
Webreference.com - to name only a very few - you can search for "Forms" and you
will be presented with a multitude of free or very inexpensive solutions for
creating a small online store.
There are software vendors who produce
more sophisticated products than the freebies. They usually have complete
administrative sections that allow updating right on the Web server through an
administrative Web page. One such company that was suggested to me is
www.cartit.com.
HTML editors like Macromedia's Dreamweaver UltraDev and Net Objects
Fusion have modules specifically for the creation of online stores. These types
of programs can be used on any server. Programs like ColdFusion need to be on a
server that supports their extensions. Many service providers offer this
support for an additional monthly fee. UltraDev has support for ASP (Active
Server Pages.) |
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Organize Your Store
Make sure your
buyer has a pleasant buying experience. Create links so no matter what page
your buyers are on they can still get to other sections of the store. Think of
how you shop in a supermarket. You can easily walk up and down each aisle, you
can bypass any aisle, and you can look up at the overhead signs to see what is
on that aisle. Once in the checkout line you can wheel your cart away to pick
up the item you forgot. Shopping online is no different. If you walk into a
store that is difficult to navigate you probably will not go back. At least in
the supermarket you will probably make the one purchase. If your customer
cannot easily navigate your online store, you are only one mouse click from
anonymity.
One very frustrating online experience is clicking to the
checkout page to look at your shopping cart and not being able to get back to
where you were. The better shopping sites make this very visible, others seem
to hide the link. Some sites still force you to go all the way back to the home
page and scroll back through. Forgedaboudit!
If you use an off site
credit card processing service, be sure they are set up to take a Ship To
address as well as the Bill To. They should also have a system to allow changes
and updates to both. Recently I was on a site and inadvertently entered some
incorrect information in one field. There was no method of correcting this. The
company never got my order.
There is a site I have tried to shop on
but their back-end processing does not like my zip code. Therefore it will not
allow the order to be processed. I emailed their support people but never
received an answer. Writethatoneoff!
In a brick and mortar
establishment it is easy to tell how many people do not buy. Those are the ones
walking out empty handed. Without sophisticated tracking software this is
impossible to track online. Since you do not have the time to constantly
re-invent your store it is important to be right the first time out. |
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Be Responsive
The Internet is fast. People expect
fast shipping. People expect fast replies to emails. The good online retailers
have spoiled us.
If you are doing your own fulfillment (order
processing and shipping) tell your customers right on your Web site when they
can expect their order to be shipped. If you are not going to fill orders every
day be sure people know up front that they cannot expect their shipment in a
one or two days.
Use an auto responder to let your buyers know their
order did not go into cyberspace, even if it is just thanking them for their
order. You should consider sending an email when you ship the order so they
know when to expect it. Many Web hosting companies provide an auto responder.
If yours does not and you are comfortable installing a simple CGI script on
your site, go to www.mastercgi.com and do a search on
"autoresponder."
Provide a Guarantee and Return policy. This way, you
break down one more barrier to the online shopping experience. Offer assistance
with products. Provide installation and setup instructions in print and online.
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Follow-up
One very effective method to keep your
customers happy is to use a Post-Sell technique. This can be as simple as a
thank you note inside the package. On the back, again, outline your Guarantee
and Return policy. Provide instructions if applicable. Include a postage paid
business reply card asking for feedback. You can also put a feedback form on
your Web site and ask people to fill it out on line. This type of interaction
tells you what your customers think, shows them you care, and will keep them
coming back.
Answer email questions quickly. Here again the auto
responder will assure your potential customer you have received their email.
Provide an incentive for satisfied customers to recommend your store
to a friend. One easy method to do this online is with the simple Master
Recommend CGI program available at no cost from
www.willmaster.com.
If you are planning
an extensive enough site that appeals to a mass market, think about getting
your site listed with sites like Bizrate.com. They rate merchants, they do a
tremendous amount of Post Marketing for you, and people know them for
reliability.
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| Whoever coined the phrase, "You never get a second chance
to make a first impression" had no idea how true this would be on the Internet.
You get one chance or one mouse click away. |
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