Word has it that instead of going out to shop next time in the future, everyone would be comfortably sitted at home, shopping with the aid of their computer. Now, while i personally enjoy going shopping and feeling the item with my fingers, i must admit that this sounds remarkably attractive for those lazy days where i cannot be bothered to move from my bed but have to do so because i need to buy something.
Well, with the advancement in technology, its not surprising that every Tom, Dick and Harry has caught on to this idea of selling or buying things on the internet. [By the way, my newest favorite site has to be http://www.ragnbone.com.sg/, our very own online karang guni!!] This entire business online is otherwise known as E-commerce and with that, let's take a look at 10 factors for the success and another 10 factors for the failures of e-commerce.
Success factors: according to John Greenfield and summarized by me! (:
(http://www.smallbusinesscomputing.com/emarketing/article.php/3672261)
- Be smart! Learn from the mistakes or failures of others.
- Good website design promotes consumer confidence
(Seriously, who wants to pay money when your website looks so unprofessional. If you can't design well, then pay someone to do it! ) - Set up a real-time payment gateway so as to ensure customers that their purchase is valid.
- Keep your prices competitive and value added! Freebies are always welcomed!
- Update your customers only when necessary! (No one likes spam!)
- Your customers are your best advertisers!
- Employ affifilates to promote your website
- Stock up smartly!
(Don't overstock or understock, keep steady numbers but also have a direct line to ready
supply!) - Make customer feedback avaliable for everyone to see
- Get started ASAP! Time waits for no one!
Fail factors (in my humble opinion)
- Lousy security (This goes without saying..)
- Inability to represent products correctly
- Terrible website navigation ( A total turnoff)
- Lousy customer service. (being rude/ taking ages to reply to queries)
- Inability to prepare for success
(case in point, a local blogshop owner was unable to cope with her overwhelming business, resulting in a backlash, items were sent out too slowly, last minute hired help..) - Poor product choice (Items are not popular with your customers.)
- Slow shipping/mailing
- Poor website design (First impressions do count!)
- Prices above the market rate
- No specialization, know your market and target group!
Moving on to e-marketing! Simply put, E-marketing is defined as the marketing of products or services over the internet. At the very centre of this would be the company's website to which Internet users are to be attracted for increasing sales.
- The first important thing to take note would be to have an attractive design and format for the website to make a good first impression.
- The next most important thing would be Search Engine Optimization (SEO). SEO is a procedure that relates to attracting Internet traffic to your website as much as possible, it includes optimizing your website in such a way that your site would be ranked on the initial pages of the search, so that the web users can visit your website for the contents they are in search of. This is done using keyword phrases that the users generally put in the Internet search engines for searching a particular product or service.
Last but not least, when we think of using the internet as a business tool, security naturally ranks very highly on the risk list. I personally feel that while the internet businesses take steps to protect our security online (eg. using real time gateways and trusted paying methods), the consumers should also take an active role in helping the sellers. Privacy can be easily maintained by the careful giving out of personal information on the web. At the same time, consumers should also carefully read through all the terms and conditions so as to avoid any legal situations.
With that said, i hope everyone finds awesome deals online! I know i have! I'm currently waiting for my ebay item to be shipped to singapore! :D
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