A dummy’s guide to ecommerce, #3: Tips for Success

Posted by John Kilroy August 9th, 2008

Top tips for turning browsers into buyers

1. Do your research and try to sell products that have a market and are in demand.
2. Set your prices as low as you can.
3. Market your business from the outset, don’t leave it until after your site has launched, and make sure you have a healthy marketing budget for at least the first year.
4. Do show photos of your products, and make sure they are good quality. If you have to get them done for you then so be it, people want to see what they are buying.
5. Use conventions. The Internet is beginning to establish ways of doing things that people are becoming used to. Ignoring those conventions will simply confuse people and reduce sales.
6. Make sure your site is text-based. Not only will this help your search engine profile, it makes your site more accessible to your customers. An ecommerce website is a business enterprise not a glory-box.
7. Make sure your customers can find your:
   • Terms and Conditions Policy
   • Delivery Policy
   • Returns Policy
   • Privacy and Security Policy
   • Contact Details with company registration number and other formal details.
8. Make sure your policies are clear, fair and easy to understand.
9. Always advertise your phone number, and always make sure someone answers calls. There is little that people hate more than being unable to speak to someone when they need to.
10. Provide FULL product information. You might think it’s a superfluous detail what sort of bulbs your new line of light-fittings works with, or what the power rating of your new line of kettles is, however your customers might not agree. You will lose sales by not giving people the information they need to make an informed purchase decision.
11. Be up-to-date. If your products go out of stock, either mark them as such or remove them from your site.
12. Provide a good search facility and make sure it is on EVERY page of your site. A good search facility gives a small number of appropriate results, not thousands of vague matches.
13. Keep It Simple (stupid). The KISS principle is absolutely fundamental to good web design (ecommerce is web design, sort of). Use familiar terms and conventions wherever possible. Make sure a five year old could add products to his basket, and do the other things you want him to do.

Top tips for alienating people and loosing business

The following will all stop people doing business with you. (Caution may contain sarcasm.)

• Use a splash (introduction) page, any size will do, even a quick-loading one.
• Use images for important elements like navigation elements. This is especially effective for when you don’t want people to get around your site and find your products.
• Use Flash animations. Particularly effective at alienating people when used for navigation elements. They are also great for destroying your search engine profile. You can use them (solely) for advertising, if you really have to, remember that people particularly hate adverts in the middle of the screen.
• Use lots of advertising especially in the middle of the screen, in amongst your products is good. For extra effect you can try popup adverts which appear from nowhere and traverse the screen aiming to obscure information that someone might be reading.
• Break your promises. If you say you’ll deliver goods in 3 days, and then don’t, what’s the BIG PROBLEM?
• Send people unsolicited emails.
• Why not try asking people to ‘log in’ before you show them your products? This is a great way to winnow down your potential customer base. You will ensure that only the hardcore, dedicated or desperate stick around, and they’re always an easy sell.