Get Business Website eCommerce Tips

Naturally, there are many components that come into play when you’re addressing with developing and then maintaining a strong traffic flow to your business website. Principal amongst these considerations is acquiring the trust of potential purchasers or clients when it comes to your how they view your website. I’ll provide you with an overview of tactics and strategies that you can apply when it comes to acquiring the trust of potential customers or clients for your eCommerce website.

Prepare and Design an Attractive Site

Among the most crucial steps that you’ll need to take in order to acquire the trust of potential purchasers or clients is to assure that your eCommerce website is appealing. Consumers of course are more disposed to put their trust in an eCommerce website that’s professional in its visual aspect. Business is lost each and every day in cyberspace attributable the unprofessional appearance of some eCommerce business websites

Recommendations can be Valuable and Helpful

Another method that you are able to employ to instill confidence and to gain the trust of potential customers or clients is the inclusion of testimonials from satisfied purchasers or clients at your eCommerce website. Past performance frequently is the best indication of future performance. Consequently, including testimonials from satisfied clients or customers at your eCommerce website, you’ll be taking an important and meaningful step in acquiring the confidence of future customers or clients. Encourage clients to leave feedback and have a specific way or place for them to do so on your business website.

List Associations at Your Website

If you are part of any association or establishment, you should include those affiliations at your site. For instance, if your business is part of a Chamber of Commerce or some kind of accredited Internet organization or association, you would be well served by listing this information at your eCommerce website.

“Contact Us” – Be Sure The Clients Actually Can

All over many eCommerce website you can see links to a “contact us” at the site. However, it’s surprising how often these “contact us” devices, links or pages don’t work correctly. You need to make certain that any mechanism that you are using to permit for contact between a prospective customer or client and your eCommerce website really works. You need to make certain that the “contact us” mechanism is user friendly – that a consumer doesn’t have to jump through hoops to connect with you. Finally, you need to make sure that when a potential customer or client makes contact with you that you respond in a punctual manner. This will help to foster a sense of trust between a potential customer or client and your eCommerce website.

Dont Fall Into the Website Split Testing Black Hole

If you believe the hype, then website split testing is the long lost “holy grail” of Internet Marketing and the key to transforming your online dreams into reality. Unfortunately, the hype is wrong because split testing is just a tool and like any tool: Its only as powerful as the person wielding it. In fact, one of the first things people tend to split test is their headlines. Well this is a complete waste of time because headlines dont drive conversions, they merely pull visitors farther into your copy where your other sales tools, like the offer, actually convert prospects.

So in other words: You could use website split testing to try 50 different headlines but if all the other components were held the same, then the net difference in conversion rate between versions would average less than 5%. Headlines dont drive conversions, period. So testing different headlines is a complete waste of time if thats your objective.

Now before you think Im against website split testing, make no mistake: I am not and in fact I believe it to be vital to any successful conversion rate optimisation project. However, a much wiser investment of your time would be to concentrate on setting up split tests on the following sales tools: Your pricing; Your offer details; Post Script or Call-to-Action

Pricing remains one of the biggest drivers of conversions so using website split testing to try out different price points is vital to dialing in the right balance between Price Point and Conversion Rate. After all, you might be able to sell Product X for $50 at a 1% conversion rate but get 1.5% at $39. Your job is to crunch the numbers and figure out the best balance for highest profits and thats where split tests become vital.

Now although pricing is certainly one component of your offer, here are the other components that you should consider website split testing to improve conversion rate: Your features and/or product description; Any bonus products or services; Your Buy Now button.

All of these components of your offer will significantly affect conversion rate so youll want to run separate split tests for each of them. I would not advise multivariate testing unless you have significant experience and have successfully done so in the past. Otherwise, stick to separate split tests for each offer component.

Lastly and believe it or not: Post-scripts or a final CTA really work to the tune of generating upwards of 20% more clicks to the shopping cart when done properly. Now on most Ecommerce sites, this final CTA will typically take the form of “People who liked this product also liked:” and then a row of pictures of related products that link to formal product descriptions.

On other sites, the final CTA may be a prompt to sign up for a free consult, lead gen product, or simply a traditional post-script linking to the shopping cart. Whatever format youre using, be sure to conduct website split-testing on your post-script or closing call-to-action because it can literally boost click-thru-rate to your shopping cart or database by 20% or more.

Make no mistake, split tests are a vital tool for any successful website optimisation project and can help you dial-in your price point, maximise offer effectiveness, and boost click-thru rates to your shopping cart. Just be sure to avoid split-testing “non-converting” sales tools and use them effectively to significantly boost online conversions.

Key factors that affect the success of an M&A

The cost of capital is low and your company made it through the recession. Now may seem like a good time to buy but youre scared off by the high business mergers and acquisitions failure rate. Studies conducted in the late 1900s and early 2000s show that M&A failure rate hovered around 70%.

However, recent results project an upward trend. According to Bain & Co, only 30% of M&As underperform, down from 50% of previous years. While the science of predicting the success (or failure) of M&A may seem hypothetical, there seem to be factors that hinder or help M&A.

Integration program

Budgets and people dont integrate themselves. Before the deal closes, its important to have a detailed integration plan that covers all facets of the organization. Moreover, first steps towards integration should be taken before the ink dries. Combining synergies on paper is easier than doing so in practice, but cultivating and maintaining processes should smooth the transition.

Target sighting and metrics

M&As with synergy targets and metrics in place have a better chance at succeeding. Collecting, analyzing, and presenting data on a regular basis lets the board know if the unit is growing according to plan or if actions need to be taken to correct missteps, should growth plateau or slow.

Maintaining business intelligence

Loss of key people has a definite impact on the future performance of the merged entity. Its important that new organizational structure and leadership is set early in the integration process to prevent business intelligence from literally walking out the door.

Protect your base business

While its important to have a smooth transition process, getting work done should still be top priority. Management shouldnt be distracted by M&A activity. They should be vigilant against competitors who may try to take advantage of the flurry of activity and present a unified front to customers despite gaps in the integration.

Lack of due diligence

Performing proper due diligence can unearth factors such as pending law suits, outstanding tax debt, and extreme vulnerability to litigation that can dissuade a potential buyer. A thorough background check can protect your base business and can save you time and money.

Relative Size

A significant difference in size between the acquiring and target company has been found to be a factor in poor acquisition performance. M&A can flounder if the divested company is too large to manage or if smaller acquisitions dont receive the time and attention they required.

Cultural Differences

Salient differences in corporate culture is another factor that can hamper the chance for success. When a company is acquired, the decision is typically based on product or market synergies, “soft factors” that can be overlooked with the assumption that personnel issues can be overcome. While cherished aspects of a work environment may seem petty compared to the bottom line, their removal may result in resentment, productivity decrease and loss of key employees.

Business Merger and Acquisition Experience

While previous M&A experience is not a necessary requirement for success, it does help when detecting red flags and creating and implementing a better integration plan. If this is your first M&A, seek the advise of expertise of knowledgable professionals.

Proformative.com is a free, open and independent community of corporate finance, accounting, treasury and related professionals that offers a wealth of expert advice, information and accounting resources . Finance forums like Proformative allow you to learn about M&A and other relevant issues important to finance, accounting, and treasury experts.

Moving Toward Ecommerce Site Design

Ecommerce has been a major player in the retail market place for more than a decade now. Initially invented in 1979 by Michael Aldridge, a British entrepreneur, the trend only exploded with the widespread popularity of the internet. Industry statistics this year estimate that 44% of consumers will shop online for holiday gifts this year, and as the market share is ever increasing, a number of companies continue to turn to the world of online shopping almost every day. For most companies looking into this type of website, however, there are a number of different concerns that must be addressed before you can ever begin to build a site that attracts customers and promotes sales.

Industries where Ecommerce May be Useful

Before a company ever starts down the path toward online sales, it may be helpful to take a look at which industries get the most out of the process. The answer is a pretty simple one – almost any industry. Take the city of London, for example. Long a mecca of shopping for people around the world, you couldn’t visit this city’s unique shops without actually visiting the UK. With the popularity of ecommerce, however, everything from famed department stores like Harrods to much smaller venues like Honest Jon’s are finding real success in the online marketplace. Whether you market auto parts to do-it-yourselfers or used books, you’re likely to find a home in the world of ecommerce.

The Site Design

Designing your site is key to the process of online shopping. That, however, is the case with any online venture. Customers must be able to find exactly what they’re looking for. Wandering around the forlorn virtual aisles of your e-store will do little but make them abandon their shopping cart and visit a competitor, leaving you without the online sale that is so essential to your bottom line. Here are just a few of the most important tips necessary to help your customers find the product they want:

Keep the Number of Clicks Required to a Minimum: If your customer has to click eight times to buy a single used book, you have a real problem on your hands. Perhaps one click is the search through the various categories. The next click leads them to a category description. From there, perhaps they have to click on a sub category. The process can get endless and frustrating. The rule of thumb is that more than four clicks to the point where they must provide their personal information is unnecessary and can cause a poor buy rate.

Add to Cart or Buy Buttons Must Be Obvious: It’s the first rule of any website design. Your customers have to understand what they are supposed to do, and nowhere is this more true than in an online shopping experience. Your customers should never have to scroll below the fold to find the right button to push to purchase their item from you.

Show the Price: This one may seem like an obvious marker, but many online retailers require more than one click before the potential buyer can look at the price of any given item. If you don’t show them what the item costs immediately, you risk losing them right away.

SEO secrets for E-commerce Websites

As the industry is changing as rapidly as Google tweaks their algorithm, it is hard to decide what the most important factors are. The On-site and off-site are the two major factors in SEO which is necessary for every type of website. Normally, most of the webmasters starts with the on-site SEO, because your aim is to get your website recognize by Google. If they dont, then how are you ever going to rank for a keyword?

The search engine spiders that crawl your E-commerce website will be looking at several different attributes on every page to determine where it needs to go and how relevant it is to specific searches done at Google search engine.

Another factor worth mentioning is a Keyword. What is a Keyword?

A keyword is basically an elaborate name for what people might search for when trying to find your E-commerce website. I am using a Bodhost.co.uk website as an example. People could search for “Web Hosting”, but they might also search for “Cheap Web Hosting”, “VPS Web Hosting” and “UK Web Hosting Service”. All of these would be keywords, or probably more properly could be said to be key phrases.

However, they are generally all referred to simply as keywords. Note that almost all On-site SEO has to do with is placing high-quality keywords throughout your E-commerce website content where search engine robots, spiders, or software might be able to decide what your website is about. 6 On-Site SEO Factors That Can Influence Your SERP Ranking:

* The Title of the Page * The keywords used in the text on your website * The keywords are used in H1 Tags * Keywords used in your domain name * Keywords used in the URL of a webpage * Meta Keywords

3 Major Off-Site SEO Factors That Can Improve Your Search Engine Ranking:

Backlinks to Your E-commerce Website

This is without a doubt one of the keys to having your website listed in the search engines results page for specific keywords. Google likes to look at what others are saying about your website to determine what it is about. For example, if someone is a huge fan of a UK Web Hosting, and you provide that service, they may link to your website with “UK Web Hosting” as the text that people would click on to get to your website. This text is called anchor text and Google will see that link as a simple “vote” for your website to appear higher than others for that keyword. In short, these are commonly referred to as backlinks.

Quality of the Websites linking to your Website

Those linking to your website should also have some form of importance. For example, there are many websites with loads of outgoing links to many websites. Google does not want to give these websites as much weight in their “vote” in comparison to a link from Bodhosts official website or something along those lines.

The Age of Your E-commerce Website

The reason I listed this as an off-site related issue, because it really doesnt fit in either category. This is a simple issue that the search engines will evaluate. This is not to say that it is the most important factor, but many older websites will naturally rank higher than new websites that have more backlinks.

I am not sure why this occurs, but many would say that it does. As compare to Google, Yahoo definitely puts more weight on this.