While we worry about adding stock, customer service, delivery times, picking, packing and generally ensuring that everything is running like clockwork on an ecommerce website, there is a fundamental element that is frequently missed when it comes to that website.

In fact, it happens so often that I thought I’d turn it in to a bit of a game in this blog.

If I showed you two checklists which one would you say is correct?

Checklist One

• Stock levels are maintained
• Phone number / email in view on all the pages
• Succinct copy with good key wording on products
• Images of products available
• Overall good standards of SEO and Search Engine Marketing
• Sign-up form / log-in working?
• Delivery charges up-to-date?
• Terms and Conditions present?
• Discounted products correctly displaying in checkout?

Checklist Two

• Stock levels are maintained
• Phone number / email in view on all the pages
• Succinct copy with good key wording on products
• Images of products available
• Overall good standards of SEO and Search Engine Marketing
• Sign-up form / log-in working?
• Delivery charges up-to-date?
• Terms and Conditions present?
• Discounted products correctly displaying in checkout?
• You can take credit card, debit card and Paypal?
• No out of date product pages?
• Clear instructions for the end user to get to the checkout?
• Customer service links all working?
• Information buyers need easily found?

Now based on these two lists, which one do you think is the one that ecommerce companies should follow?

If you’re thinking it’s Checklist Two then you’re almost there, but I’ve probably been a bit sneaky as actually both lists do not include the one thing you need to do regularly to ensure you are optimising on potential sales.

Check your credit card payments / checkout payments regularly!  That means you need to be going through and buying so that you can ensure your customers can actually buy!

Now this may seem really obvious but there are a surprising number of people who never check their websites and checkout facilities.

Imagine how silly this really is?

Recently I discovered a company that had not done this and who were wondering why their sales had dropped off.  They thought it was the economy when in fact, it was simply the fact that people couldn’t buy – even though they wanted to.

So the best advice for any ecommerce seller is that you really should check your website regularly for any errors.  They do happen and just because something appears to be working does not necessarily mean that it is.

So it’s your duty to ensure you check things like this regularly by behaving like your customers.

How often should you check your website?

Realistically, you should probably check it weekly or at the very least twice monthly if you’re a relatively busy business.  If you’re smaller, then once a month should suffice, but never miss checking it completely as it could have a serious affect on your business.

Think of it this way – if you don’t check it and without your knowledge your site won’t accept Visa cards suddenly, how much business are you potentially losing?

Don’t rely on contact forms either.  Recently I tried to order something from a website and then had to amend the order.  However, to my absolute frustration I discovered that their website’s contact form didn’t even work!

This is not great customer service and if you can imagine this coupled with a problem at payment, a potential customer will soon leave your site and go elsewhere.

If you need any advice on websites and how you can improve your presence online, it’s worth looking around my blogs.  I cover a massive amount of digital information and advice, which has served to help many online businesses over time.

If in doubt, check your website out!

Paul

In our final blog in this series we thought we’d look at another element of Google’s forty changes that we feel has significant bearing on the way in which your website might appear in search results in the next few months and beyond.  In turn, this will also affect the way in which your website is SEO’d too.

Essentially one of Google’s aims is to improve local search results.  Now, while this is good news for some types of business, it isn’t the best news for all!

In fact, this action on Google’s part will have a big impact on where your site appears in search results and shouldn’t be ignored.

What are we talking about?

Quite simply, the notion that local businesses will be turning up in Google searches for everyone!

What does this mean to you?

Imagine if you put plumbers in to Google search and get a list of results relevant to your location.  Good you may think on the surface, but what about if you are an online retailer that sells shoes?  In fact, what if you don’t have a shop and only sell online?  This means that the end user will end up being directed to websites from retailers in their location, so if you’re a UK retailer who can deliver anywhere, the local results listings could end up being a nightmare.

What does this mean in the short-term? 

Essentially what it means is that many websites will end up on page two of Google or even page three, as more local based results will be deemed more relevant to the person searching.  Of course if your business relies on your website bringing in visitors and you are not ‘local’ as it were, you could end up losing trade, which is why we feel this change should not be ignored.

Right, I got it – Local isn’t good!  So what are you going to do about it?

Well, for some people (locally based business) the change will see their results improving but perhaps the biggest change will come in the way that keywords are evaluated for your website.  For a long time SEO practitioners were championing the use of local based key words as they were less competitive, now national keyword relevance will be important.

At Little Big Voice we’ve always focused on harder key words ourselves, so for us the change is relevant but will not completely affect the work we do for our clients, but it is going to be important to sit tight and wait for your own SEO professional to get to business and keep your website where you want it to be.

There will be a solution somewhere of course but as we always tell people, patience is always the key.

So if you’re suddenly seeing a drop in your own rankings don’t run out to the first shoddy company that offers you a page one listing on Google, without carefully considering these forty changes.  You don’t want to waste money in an economy that is tough, so our advice is to make sure you don’t make any rash decisions and listen to your SEO adviser as (like us) they usually have years of experience and are quite used to seeing changes in the way that search results are created with the major search engines!

Paul

Digital businesses are doing reasonably well at a time when the High Street is feeling the literal squeeze of the struggling economy. In the current climate, however, it’s important for an e-commerce website to constantly reassess and readdress its model in order to improve its operations and strengthen its offering to customers.

Here are some key things to check off to ensure that your e-commerce site is operating at its peak in January.

Social support and customer service

January can be a hectic time for ecommerce websites, particularly around the beginning of the month. The January sales cause an influx of traffic with consumers eager to find the latest hot deals after Christmas. This is a time when your social media campaign can support your ecommerce and digital marketing efforts in the best possible way. Use this time to engage with your customers and talk to them on social media. You’ll find that more customers use Facebook pages and Twitter around this time as they try to communicate any issues or difficulties they are having with their online shopping experience. If they don’t get a reply straight away, a simple post can escalate into a much bigger issue.

The key to social media is awareness. People are always watching you on social media and it’s important that you NEVER remove a post that criticises your website or your brand. Removing posts like this is bad customer service and bad PR; it can turn a relatively simple issue into one with much bigger stakes. If someone is unhappy and venting on your Facebook page or Twitter feed, speak to them directly to ascertain what the problem is and deal with it as quickly as possible. If customers can see you dealing with your customers and interacting with them proactively, they will have greater confidence in your brand’s ability to deal with customers in a positive way. This will be particularly encouraging for any new customers debating whether or not to order with you for the first time.

Social media is a great support to your e-commerce campaign in January and its customer service value is not to be underestimated.

Stock levels

The January sale is a guarantee that your stock levels will run low on certain items, both sale items and regular stock. It’s important that the messages are clear and immediate if stock runs out on a certain item. Set a graphic that displays when stock runs down and out. This is a clear indication to your customers that the item is unavailable and stops them from getting frustrated when their order won’t go through. Keeping the item live and disabled is much better for search engine marketing because it keeps the content and URL live for the search engines to find.

Sales newsletters

Although a heavily saturated market around this time of year, the newsletter is still a good way to target your customers. More consumers are opening their emails on mobile devices and a targeted, segmented email notification of an appropriate offer might sway them to purchase immediately via their mobile.

E-commerce sites stand to start the year on a strong note if they check off these key points on the e-commerce checklist. Be smart about your targeting and you’ll be off to a good start for 2012.

Happy 2012 from Little Big Voice.

Paul

See also: Essential E-commerce Tips For Christmas – Part 1

Every year, Christmas seems to come around faster than ever, but here at Little Big Voice we’re always prepared and while we don’t like to mention Christmas with the summer only just disappearing, we thought we’d give you our very best tips for your ecommerce site this year.

Check your site

This may seem obvious but there are many people who forget to do this.  So go through the checkout process on your website to ensure that the checkout and the shopping cart are all working correctly and that there are no problems.

Hopefully your website will be busy and therefore if there’s an issue you don’t know about, you could end up losing sales.

Things to look for include the mechanics (check you can purchase items properly) but also that your website works in all the major browsers.

We looked at a site just yesterday and discovered not one bit of the content was displayed correctly in Firefox!

Don’t decide you suddenly want to ‘tweak’ your site

This is the last thing you should ever do coming in to Christmas season.  If your site is in working order then don’t touch it!  If you suddenly decide that something will work or look better elsewhere and change it, you might end up breaking something else on the site.  Leave it until the New Year!

SEO and your online Advertising

Talk to your Search Engine Marketing company about promotions and other things you can implement to make the most of the Christmas shoppers.  This could include free postage and packing, some discounts and even a free gift.

Ensure that your SEO keywords and promotions are in line with those promotions.

We recommend that you set-up a separate Christmas campaign – outside of your usual activities.  It is much easier to manage and will allow you see how successful you’ve been.

We also suggest that you look at Google Trends to get an idea of where people are looking but also how many searches are being done for particular products.  If you do this, then your ads can pick up on those searches and drive people to your website.

Social Media can work for you

Once you’ve decided on what promotions you will be running, then make sure you use all your arsenal to tell people about it.  Facebook, Twitter and even your blog should be places you use to tell people what’s going on.

Social Media is excellent if you have products that ‘sell out’ quickly.  For example, electronic games consoles or this season’s ‘gold dust’ toy.  If you’ve got it and no one else has, then tell people in virtual ‘real time’ and they’ll buy.

Help your shoppers buy

We all have different approaches to the way in which we shop.  You might like to add things like price options for buyers (gifts by price) or gifts for him / her.  This will make navigation much easier for people and they’re more likely to stay on your site if you make searching a breeze.

Stocking fillers please

A company with £2 million + turnover a year, always said that on an ecommerce site you should always have a £5 or under range of items as they knew that they’re great for adding to the average shopping purchase totals.  Stocking fillers can be lower value items but are always great additions when you shop so if you’ve got this as an option, make sure you use it.

Shipping information and returns

When people buy online they have worries when it comes to Christmas presents in particular.  If they’re buying clothes for example, there’s always a chance it may not fit, or the recipient may not like it.

Therefore, be really clear with your shipping policies and returns and if possible, try to have them on each and every product page so they are very clear.

This will instil confidence in you as a company but it will also save a lot of time for the buyer.

Many people forget to do this at any time of the year, yet it is the single most important factor for many buyers who have time constraints.

Offer a gift wrapping service

A very easy thing to do for your customers, is to gift wrap their purchases.  Many people buy presents and get them sent direct to the recipient and a gift wrapping service means you can add charges on but also offer a better shopping experience.

Again, a simple service and an option to buy a gift tag will add to your average shopping price per person and are especially relevant during the Christmas season.

Do the work for your customers

Another option at Christmas time is the concept of you creating a gift package for your buyers.  Items that match or go together in some way can be an attraction option if one gift just won’t do.  If you’re selling scarves and gloves, then offer a discount if the two are purchased as a set.  This will really boost your sales considerably and will not require too much effort to implement.

Be very clear

When you operate an ecommerce business there is one thing at Christmas that everyone wants to know.  When will my parcel arrive?

You must let your customers know when the last day of shopping is for guaranteed delivery of their purchases.  If you can’t answer this then you will lose sales.

So check Royal Mail as soon as you can or indeed whichever courier company you’re using and get that information up on your site as soon as possible.

Returns

As we’ve said, people worry a great deal when they buy at Christmas as you never know what the recipient will feel upon receiving a gift.  Therefore, make sure that you are clear on your policy with returns and make it really easy for your customers to find it on your website.  You can have this information in the confirmation email a buyer gets, you can have it prominently on your site and if you want to use it as a way to sell, consider using better language such as ‘no quibble’ returns or similar.

Make it look festive

Just like your office, make sure you give your site a Christmas feel.  You could consider a simple header change perhaps just to give the site a festive feel that will help your customers to get in the Christmas mood.

Is your server up to it?

As we’ve mentioned earlier, extra traffic on your website will affect your server. So best check to see what kind of usage you’ve had over the year and what you think may happen come Christmas time.

You should expect extra hits which in turn will affect your site and you don’t want it to crash, so make sure you’ve got this covered above everything else.

It’s one thing to run out of a product, but if customers can’t even get to your site because it’s too slow you’re in trouble.

Allow your buyers to ship to recipients

It’s worth making sure your shopping cart has this as an option because as we get closer to Christmas you’ll find more buyers will want to know they can get their gifts sent quickly.  To resolve this, you just need to make sure your shopping system will support a billing address as well as an alternative delivery address.

Customer service and order fulfilment

This is the most important factor of any ecommerce website business and therefore you should make sure that you are ready but also willing to convey Christmas promotions and discounts with your clients sooner rather than later.

Also, if you are busy with the orders, make sure you strive to deliver on any promises and get those orders out the door and to their recipients in good time.

This part of the process really requires you to be ready so ensure you have enough staff and support to give a brilliant quality of service.

Be consistent with advertising

If you do have promotions, make sure that your site visitors can find them easily.  You will want to be consistent with the branding across all mediums, from landing pages on your site through to emails and leafleting.

The more relevance your site conveys in relation to your other promotions the more sales you will be able to make.

Gift certificates anyone?

These are very often under-utilised by many ecommerce businesses, but they are a brilliant way of turning over more business.

The Christmas season is a busy time and very often people get stuck, not knowing what to buy their friends or family, so having a gift certificate option will encourage purchases.

They are particularly good for the last minute shoppers as well – so whether it’s a paper gift certificate or if you have an option to offer a ‘virtual’ gift certificate – make sure you get them out there!

Wishing you a Merry Christmas

Paul

A lot of ecommerce websites approach their business with the mindset: ‘Copy doesn’t matter – my products will sell themselves!’ That’s a nice idea, but if your customer isn’t being engaged or given an incentive to purchase, the quality of your product rapidly becomes moot.

Effective product copy needs to succinctly and smartly engage a customer with specific reasons to buy or the customer will look elsewhere for what they need. Brand loyalty falls by the wayside in the online world, especially when your product copy resembles something from the clumsy fingers of Dan Brown.

The first step is identifying your target market and writing in the style that fits with both the brand tone of voice and your demographic. Writing product copy that talks directly to your audience will build engagement and trust with ecommerce customers.

Don’t take a detour, get to the point! 

One of the key components in grabbing your customers’ attention on a product page is a strong tagline. Online customers are usually shopping in a rush and a tagline helps to grab their attention immediately.

Offering incentives to the consumer or shocking them completely will instantly work in your favour, but it needs to be relevant. The best taglines sum up the product in one line, which will lead the consumer to read on. Keep taglines in sentence case to make it easier for the reader to scan quickly.

Good example: A cleanser that’s all bark and no bite [tagline for a natural facial cleanser in reference to the natural soap bark used in the product – it takes a popular saying that people can identify with immediately.]

Preach the benefits…

If you don’t, a new customer is much less likely to buy unless they’ve come to the site on strong word-of-mouth. You should keep ecommerce product copy to a maximum of 200 to 250 words. No one wants to read essays on the products they want to buy, they just want information; break up blocks of text into easily digestible paragraphs with clear and engaging reasons to buy. Get yourself into the habit of being as concise as possible – using bullet points is an easy way to do this.

By giving customers all of the information they need, they can make an informed choice based on their needs and the suitability of your products; this shows that you have the customer in mind and again builds trust through directing informed purchases. Sit down and think of the top benefits of the product, how to use that product if it’s something that isn’t intuitive, and who the product might be good for.

Honesty is key when talking about the benefits of a product.

Call to action

A clear and striking call to action will catch the customer’s eye and lead them on to purchase the product. This is your final pitch to the customer to buy and it is crucial to get it right. If you don’t, you can lose the sale instantly and the customer will leave the site.

People always think that ecommerce copy can’t be good copy because it has to factor in so many different things; in reality, ecommerce copy can be engaging, friendly and informative without stagnating under its own burdens. It’s challenging, but that’s half of the fun.

Paul

See also: Essential E-commerce Tips For Christmas – Part 2

We all know that as retailers, Christmas can be a very challenging time.  Not only do we have to worry about the usual day-to-day business, but we’ve also got the festive period to cover.

This can be more stock, more staff and a whole lot more orders (hopefully), so in an effort to try and assist our search engine marketing clients, here is our definite guide to enjoying the turkey without feeling stuffed!

Two issues affect retailers

The main issues for businesses online is the marketing for a festive period and then the logistics problems associated with getting the extra orders out.

Now without the marketing, you won’t necessarily have to worry about the logistics, so let’s start with some basics.

Take a look at last year

Often online retailers worry more about what’s coming than what has happened before, but looking back can be very beneficial to your business.

So, take a look at what sold last Christmas.  Is there anything similar in stock this year?

You should even consider looking at what the top Google searches were last year using the Google Keyword Tool and Google Trends to give you some ideas as to what you may need to promote this time around.

Don’t forget your current customers

Very often we forget about the people who have purchased from us previously, so our biggest piece of advice is to make sure you email your customers with your promotions and discounts early!  This will trigger some of your previous buyers to visit your site.

Remember, you are looking to get attention in a very crowded market place, so you will need to remind people you’re around.

Boost your PR and off line marketing work but don’t forget about your Search Engine Marketing campaigns.  If you’re using PPC then make sure you are co-ordinating your advertisements with your promotions to gain maximum effect.

Time sensitive promotions

Think of the ‘early bird’ who likes to catch the worm and you may get a chance of early sales if you produce time sensitive offers. This could be an extra £5.00 off an order or a discount that is only applicable for those who are shopping early.

Don’t under-estimate this either as it’s a proven method of retail online.

Wind up your resources

If you’re expecting to be busy, never let your customer service slip.  It’s time to think about getting in extra pairs of hands or maybe even a bit of customer service training to prepare everyone for the onslaught.

This will pay dividends when you’re working to capacity and need a well oiled machine to keep things moving well.

At Christmas, anything’s possible

During the festive season, you’ll find new customers coming to you – who may only buy from you once a year, so bear this in mind when you’re considering service expectations.  If some of your customers buy regularly from you then they’re used to the way things work.  A new customer may be less patient and in fact doesn’t potentially have a clue how good you are.  So, remember to instil confidence and offer guarantees on delivery etc.

Get your extra stock in now

As you’re looking at selling more (hopefully) then you will want to make sure you’ve got the stock to sustain those orders.

Popular lines should be purchased at double the quantity at least but don’t forget things like packaging, tape, wrapping and labels.  Might sound funny, but if you suddenly run out with a week left before Christmas your customers will not be willing to wait!

If you’re really unsure what you might be doing by way of sales, take a look at your figures for the previous year.

Look for the peak in sales and see how much stock you got out the door that week as it will give you a fairly good indication of what you’re going to need this year.

Great service is everything

For many businesses, they forget about the simple things and one of the easiest ways of keeping people happy is to ensure you are a good communicator.

As a rule of thumb, try and answer a phone within three rings and emails within the hour.  If you do this you will see just how much people appreciate your efforts.

Remember, people are very impatient and if you leave it too long, chances are they will have found the same product somewhere else because that company answered their enquiry more quickly

Never, ever take an order you know you can’t delivery on

If you can see you’re going to run out and cannot replenish the stock, do not take an order and make a false promise.  This is ecommerce suicide.

If you haven’t got something, then find out if the customer is willing to wait.  If not, then try and help them find an alternative or similar item if it’s a gift.

There are so many things you should look at in the ecommerce run up to Christmas, with many of the things in this list being based on experience with real clients, who have become seasoned at dealing with the kind of issues that come up year after year.

Remember to come back soon to view Part 2 of our Essential E-commerce Tips For Christmas .

If you need help with your Search Engine Marketing and SEO or you’re worried about how you can better equip yourself for the festive season, remember to contact us for some good, honest advice!

Paul

Little Big Voice is a Search Engine Marketing and SEO company which specialises in putting a whopping-great virtual megaphone to the mouth of a wide array of innovative start-ups and independent businesses. That means we constantly get to hear about dynamic new online business ideas and futuristic solutions from the like-minded and lively individuals who run these companies.

Unfortunately, it also means we have to hear them moaning about the less than enthralling aspects of selling online, like the dull, dull business of fulfillment services. Sadly, as mind numbing as these outsourced services might be, they are also vital to the success of many companies. So because we’re a hard-working, martyr-like business always willing to go the extra mile, or perhaps just an office full of masochists, we’ve taken it upon ourselves to write up a blog article explaining the ins and outs of fulfillment services in order to help out our clients.

Of course as a Search Engine Marketing company, we can’t help but make everything we do stand out from the crowd. That’s why instead of a yawn-inducing run-of-the-mill description, we’re going to explain fulfillment services through an elaborate metaphor drawing parallels with Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and those rather cute, orange Oompa Loompas.  Makes sense?

Don’t worry, it will soon…hopefully.

Essentially, fulfillment services are a way for businesses to hand over the complicated and immensely boring logistical nightmare of storing, sending out and delivering their goods to someone else. We’ve never actually set foot inside a factory with orange coloured fulfillment professionals, but we can imagine it’s a magical land of chocolate waterfalls and lickable wallpaper manned by fluffy squirrels.

These unusual workers are split into two feuding teams known as pickers and packers. The bushy tailed pickers are skilled in sorting, storing and keeping inventory – and know just where in the mystical factory your company’s products have been stored. This means they can pop into their glass elevator and fetch them for delivery within moments of your client placing their order, but you won’t physically have to do it yourself and in fact, the factory could be two hundred miles away from your business.

Impish tangoed packers on the other hand will use their tiny orange hands to delicately wrap up your company’s products for transit and send them out to the client along the bubbling chocolate river in a pink Viking longboat constructed from sugar. Inexplicably, this bizarre method of transport does manage to reach clients all over the world, even those who don’t live on the banks of a chocolate waterway and is a very cost effective solution to businesses who may have large products such as car parts to store and deliver.

The services of these unique fulfillment companies are invaluably useful in allowing you to focus on the more meaty and lucrative aspects of your business. You’ll also save a pretty penny, as these large scale fantastical storage and delivery facilities have mastered some form of dazzling sorcery which allows them to benefit from economies of scale.

So what do you need to consider when choosing your fulfillment company to make sure you end up with a golden ticket to business success, and not up chocolate creek without a paddle?

When you meet with the mysterious top-hat wearing CEO of the fulfillment company, make sure to ask about fees, what’s included in a contract and whether payment will be due before or after order completion. Do your homework on the company’s performance regarding turnaround times and whether their particular pink sugar longboats are equipped for international shipping. Make sure their factory can cope with the specific demands of your product too; there’s no point asking to store frozen fish fingers behind a steamy melted chocolate waterfall after all.

If all else fails, make sure you’re insured in case of the ludicrously unlikely scenario that entrusting your company’s storage and delivery logistics to small rodents, mythical dwarfs and edible transport systems doesn’t work out.

Now that’s done and dusted, we’re off to the shops to gorge ourselves on a certain brand of chocolate bar to gain access to one of these incredible fulfillment factories, as by the end of this extensive metaphor, even we’ve begun to believe that fulfillment services can be fun.

Paul

With more and more companies seeing the benefit of having a website that really ‘sells’ rather than ‘sits still’ we thought we would write a blog that offers updated information on the ecommerce side of things.

A large proportion of our Search Engine Marketing clients are ecommerce based and we’ve successfully helped them grow their initial ideas into thriving businesses, so it seems to be worth offering some useful insights and an idea of the kind of thing we hear from new SEO clients.

“My ecommerce site doesn’t make any sales”

Or

“My ecommerce site has a high bounce rate”

Or

“My ecommerce site gets visitors but they never buy”

Now while there are a hundred and one reasons that these things could be happening to you, there are also a hundred and one ways to resolve the problems.

First of all, your SEO or Search Engine Marketing should be bringing traffic to your site – and not just for the easy, localised key words either.  If you sell hats and are based in London but you ship to the whole of the UK then you need to make sure that your SEO company is getting your site at the top of the search engines for the term ‘hats’ and not necessarily ‘hats in London’.

There are a lot of people living in the UK who buy online and many of them live outside of London, so your SEO needs to reflect this.

Remember, if you have a great website but no traffic you may need some Search Engine Marketing help and if you have lots of traffic but no sales you may need SEO and some serious amendments to your website.

If you have the traffic however, the next thing to consider is the website itself.  Chances are, if you’re getting 300 hits a day but only making one sale then there’s something seriously wrong with the site.  It’s a hard fact, but let’s assume you’re paying each month for a top level Search Engine Marketing package that is bringing in leads through good key words and relevance but you’re not making any sales – you will probably think it’s the SEO itself somehow not doing its job.

Unfortunately what many business owners make the mistake of doing is having a site built that THEY like.  They’ve perhaps been in their business for five years or more and are very close to it.  They love the bright yellow against the black background or the dark black and red writing reminds them of their bedroom when they were young!  These are all very nice reasons but they will not sell you much these days!

The truth is while they may be excellent at business they’re not necessarily a genius when it comes to websites and don’t think about the implications of having a site that is hard to navigate.

Recently through a colleague we heard a story of a designer who wanted a new site.  They wanted to reach more of a mass audience.  They wanted to sell quantity.  But when faced with the reality of  ‘retail’ online they decided that THEY didn’t want it.  Even though an experienced ecommerce site designer told them they needed a different layout they wouldn’t listen.  Needless to say they have a lovely looking site but it will not bring in the mass sales that they wanted!

So, if you’re site isn’t selling – sorry to say but it’s probably one of these things:

• Key information is beneath the fold (that’s the area of your site an end-user sees when they land on the page
• It’s too difficult to search for items or items are not categorised well
• The shopping experience is okay but the checkout is hidden right at the bottom of the checkout process.  This means when customers get to the checkout page, they can’t find out how to pay!  We’ve seen this – it does happen so never assume anything!
• It takes countless clicks to buy things!  The general rule is that a sale should be easily obtained in three clicks by the end user
• Too much text puts people off
• There are no calls to action
• The site looks cheap
• The site doesn’t have an SSL certificate and therefore appears unsafe to the end user
• A contact number and email is not on every single page of the website
• Delivery information is not clear – people often use websites to buy presents that are time sensitive for example so if they can’t see how quickly things will arrive.  Take a look at www.amazon.com for very clever ‘delivery’ options placed throughout the shopping process

Okay there are other elements which we’ve not even covered, but if you’ve not considered at least two of the things on the list then you will never have an ecommerce website that will work as well as it should.

Tips and Tricks you can use now!

If you aren’t sure what’s going on with your ecommerce sites, but want some fixes that might help – here’s our top ten tips for making your ecommerce site sell more!

• Offer free shipping or a set price.  No one wants to muck around with weights and measures.  If they order something and it costs £5 to deliver they’re much happier than spending another ten minutes trying to figure out your delivery system to save a few pence!  Free shipping is often the very best option because it means you can simply add a small cost on to your products and it will appeal to a lot of buyers.
• Make sure your phone number and email are on EVERY PAGE of your website.  When people buy on line they have questions and want them answered.  Don’t put them off answering them by making it difficult to contact you.
• Put a shipping banner at the top of your site.  It needs to be clearly visible when a viewer visits your site.  Again, look at Amazon for some key ecommerce tricks
• Make special offers visible and don’t cut so much that items seem too good to be true!  Big retailers can get away with it but a smaller ecommerce site will seem ‘dodgy’ if you’re selling something so cheap it seems too good to be true
• Offer a gift wrapping service and gift tags!  Many people buy presents on the net for family members or friends who are far away.  Make it easy for them to turn one of our products in to a gift in a few clicks!
• Be very clear with your returns policy – this is again something that online buyers will want to know about you as it instils trust – especially for buyers who feel buying online is a gamble
• Create a ‘popular products’ page as this will lead people to products that you know sell well!  Very often people who browse buy on impulse and this is where this tactic can work well
• Try and offer price bands to fit lots of budgets.  Remember – clear navigation means making it easy for customers to find what they want.
• Consider getting someone to professionally audit the site.  This is particularly useful if you’ve been looking at it for too long.
• Make sure your product list is added to Google Shopping for excellent search results.  You can read our previous blog about it here.

As always there’s a lot to digest here, but if you’re spending money on your Search Engine Marketing or you’re looking for someone to SEO your site, then make sure you get the very best advice across the spectrum of options, because they will all be relevant in your quest to make your ecommerce site thrive!

Paul

Like many smaller businesses that have ecommerce concerns, finding the right courier can be a real challenge – especially if you need someone to handle the Fulfilment side of things as well.  We will discuss the potential benefits from using a Fulfilment company in our next blog so do come back to read more but for now, we’ve been doing some ‘courier’ homework on your behalf!

We offer a number of our Search Engine Marketing clients advice on how best to navigate delivery of their goods (especially ecommerce clients) and how to approach your delivery options in a cost effective, yet practical way.

Let’s start with the basics

In an ecommerce situation or indeed any situation where you have items that need to be posted there are so many concerns to think about:

How shall I pack it?

What insurance do I need?

What if it gets lost?

How much do I charge?

These are all things that may seem simple at first glance but that actually pose quite a few challenges to say the least.

Yes but what do I focus on?

The main thing about finding the right courier company is to ensure that you are clear about what you want.

Are your items small and perhaps low value in terms of insurance or are they enormous and high value?

Obviously lower value parcels can be sent in a variety of ways.  If you want some security with your parcels, but know that should one get lost it wouldn’t be the end of the world, then you might want to try Royal Mail.  They offer reasonably rates to businesses that are generally very reliable.

However, if time constraints are important to you (for instance if you have clients that request for items to arrive more quickly) then you may want to consider something like Recorded Delivery.  This option offers some insurance and requires a signature upon delivery.  Usually delivery times in the UK mainland are two to three working days (but Royal Mail does suggest you allow for up to 5 working days for a parcel to arrive).

However, if you want guaranteed delivery, then you could try Royal Mail’s Special Delivery which offers guaranteed next working day delivery by 1pm or if it’s really urgent by 9am.  Obviously there is additional cost involved for these kinds of services – but that said they are actually very reliable and offer a relatively good tracking service with them.

This kind of option can be particularly useful for your customers who will order say on a Monday and can see where their parcel is within the delivery system.

The key is to research and go with the best service available. It shouldn’t always be an issue of price. The main focus should be on the attitude of the courier company and their service options.

What variables do I have to take into account?

Whether you’re using a big courier service firm or Royal Mail there are particular things to look out for and to ask to find the best solution:

• Time

Depending on the service you use and the time of week and year, the collection/delivery times can vary tremendously. If you’re using a consumer delivery service keep in mind that busy periods such as Christmas or even weekends might delay the progress of your package(s) where as professional business delivery services will have a better system of dealing with a high volume of loads. You will also have to double check cut-off times for deliveries, which, again, will vary depending on postcode, distance and timing.

• Expense

Size, shape, weight can all affect price if using the Post Office/Royal Mail but larger parcels and packages sent through a courier service is not necessarily going to cost that much more. The major expense is when an item is “fast-tracked.” Average delivery time is within two to three days; the only element that makes the cost go up is when you want a package delivered within a certain time. End-of-business-day delivery is generally more cheaper than a specified time. Watch out for hidden charges or costs. Some delivery companies charge additional fees that you may not be aware of unless you ask them a lot of questions about their delivery policy.

What’s wrong with using Royal Mail?

There’s nothing wrong with using Royal Mail and in fact, a number of our Search Engine Marketing clients use Royal Mail every single day, for both express and traditional deliveries so we have it on relatively good authority that the services you’ll get are actually extremely good and very reliable.

The Royal Mail service can guarantee next day delivery (with an additional charge of course) and they generally receive positive reviews. The simplicities of using Royal Mail are one of their major benefits. The options are all relatively self-explanatory and they cover a broad range of delivery and collection options including:

• First/second class mail options
• Signed for/recorded delivery options
• Special Delivery (specified time and day)
• Collection from your business
• Provision of ‘mail sacks’ for high numbers of parcels
• Insurance
• Dedicated client account managers

However, courier companies also offer mail services to customers. These services can often undercut Royal Mail at a cheaper price to send bulk mail. Many businesses prefer to send large amounts of post through a courier service – but do bear in mind that the flexibility on offer may not be quite as simple as it is with Royal Mail.

When you’re running a business and when it comes to finding a courier service all you need to be sure of is that they are reliable and can get products, documents and packages to all your customers, partners and associates on time without any problems.

Are there any others worth looking at?

Absolutely – when you’re looking for the right service you want to make sure you’ve checked out a number of options.

For larger parcels that have value – whether time sensitive or not, then Parcel Force can be a good option.

They also offer a number of overseas options (although you may not always find these to be the cheapest).

However that said, their website at www.parcelforce.com does allow you to get an approximate costing so it’s worth checking it out.

Also, www.ups.com  offers a number of delivery options for things like documents right through to larger items.  The great thing here is that with UPS you can get deals on deliveries – especially if you generally have the same weight on a number of parcels.  You can often barter a little on price for the work and obviously there is a great tracking service.

However, bear in mind that unlike Royal Mail where a sorting office is usually relatively close to most people in the UK, with a larger courier company you may need to consider those clients who might have to travel ten or fifteen miles to collect a parcel if they’re out.

This is most likely not going to make people very happy so be sure to check this out BEFORE signing up for anything.

If you want to check out a number of delivery options then Parcel Monkey is definitely worth a look.  Often used by Ebayers it offers a great selection of delivery options and items for collection and delivery are very reliable.  The service also includes International deliveries as well as ‘same day’ with some options offering you the lowest delivery costs in the UK.  You can find the website here:  www.parcelmonkey.com

Paul

As a Search Engine Marketing company we work with a number of home workers in London and beyond, so we thought it would be a good idea to write a blog that offers some tips, tricks and hopefully good advice to anyone currently sat at their PC in the comfort of their living room or home office.

We’ve pretty much always worked with home based businesses, initially as a Search Engine Marketing provider but these days also as online advisors and ‘friendly ears’ to many as it can get a bit lonely out there at times!

So give us the good!

Well obviously being a home worker allows you a lot of flexibility that just isn’t possible in a conventional work setting.  You can keep your own hours, develop your own ideas and there’s always a positive to not having an overbearing boss on your shoulder day-in, day-out.

You also get to enjoy your own working hours of course, which for some may mean starting later in the day, starting really early or for the night owls possibly in the evening if the work suits.

With such low overheads, a home working office environment is financially viable – especially for newer business owners who want to try and save as many of their pennies as possible.

You can also have more holiday time if you’re that way inclined and there has to be something said for a hot summer’s day (yes we do know this is rare) when you can suddenly change your work schedule and enjoy it if by chance the sun appears.

If you have a dog (which loads of us do) then you don’t need to worry about dog walkers or rushing about to Fido’s needs either, as you can walk them or let them out whenever you need to.

Oh and did anyone tell you that there’s nothing quite like having an ‘early’ finish when you know your workload is complete for the day.

What’s the bad then?

Well if you’re not self-motivated you could end up having more time off the job than on it so to speak and if you do prefer to work weird hours, bear in mind that the majority of the world doesn’t.  So if you can’t sit down and focus on regular hours at least (that’s to say the same start and finish time every day you might have a problem).

Loneliness can also be a problem.  Now let’s not get the violin out just yet, but many people have dreamed of their own space and control, only to find that they get extremely despondent when there’s no one to talk to.  So this is really important to bear in mind if you’re not someone who enjoys being on your tod!

With home working you are self-reliant and need to be multi-skilled.  So, for example, if you have a website, you may want to ensure you get a Search Engine Marketing person on the case to ensure you’re getting traffic and therefore leads for potential new work, and work on setting up new relationships.

Sadly, this is probably the hardest part of the whole home working experience as you need to be sales person, worker, administrator, accounts person and your own coffee maker – so never go in to it without being realistic about this.

Finally, a home office can become a prison for some.  Not literally of course as there are no bars, but if you are a workaholic you’ll find yourself working eighteen hour days and weekends to get things done, so if you want a life you need to be extremely disciplined to make it work for you.

We can take it!  Give us the Ugly

The ugly truth is that home working is brilliant and horrible at the same time.  You will on occasion find that sunshine is something you’ve only ever heard of as you sit in your office through from sunrise to sunset.

You will find that you can get very isolated with such a lack of people around you.

You will put on weight if you don’t look at an exercise plan to counteract the impact of having a 30 second walk to work every morning.

You will need to work twice as hard as everyone else to get new work and sustain it.

And, perhaps worse than anything else, you will never have a financially ‘secure’ feeling as while you get a job, your mind will already be thinking about the next one and whether you’re going to have enough work for the months following.  This is probably the hardest thing to deal with and really is the ugliest of all the home working realities – but don’t let that put you off.

As we said, we work on a considerable amount of Search Engine Marketing projects for lots of home based businesses and we’ve had those relationships for years – which in essence says that if you work hard and get the right support you can make home working a good choice, while securing a bright future!

Paul