Web Site Hosting Services
Web site hosting companies such as Bigstep.com and freemerchant.com have made it possible to set up a Web page and conduct e–commerce within a matter of days and with litte up-front cost . Such companies have packaged all the basic development tools and made them available for free . Using only browser , you can choose a Web site template suited to your specific type of business . whatever it may be –clothing , collectibles , or sports equipment . Using the tools provided you can write the descriptive test and add images of the products you want to sell. Within hours , your site is up on the Web and accesssible to millions .
These companies can also provide free hosting for your store , but to allow visitors to pay for merchandise with credit card , you need a merchant account with a bank . If you company doesn’t already have one , then it must estabish one . Typically there is a monthly charge of $10 to $50 plus a transaction fee of $.05 to $.25 , and it takes at least a few days to establish a merchant account . Without cases , you site won’t have its own distinct Web address – www.wearmyhats.com for instance . Instead , your store will appear as a subsection of your services provider’s URL
Storefront Brokers
Another model for setting up a Web site is the use of a storefront brokers , which serves as a middleman and retail expersite . At sites such as Bigstep ( www.bigstep.com ) or Vstore ( www.vstore.com ) , you pick and choose what to sell to match the themes of your site and the products you think might interest your visitors . For examble , you can set up to be a storefront operator with Vstore.com and build your own on-line store with its own unique URL . You create the product categories , choose the products , and customize the store as you see fit . You can build links to your own pages or other sites to display the products , creating , in effecting a virtual storefront stocked with merchandise that is actually handled by another on-line merchant
The storefront brocker deals with the details of the transactions including who gets paid for what , and is responsible for bringing together merchants and reseller site . The storefront brocker is similar to a distributor in standard retail operations , but in this case no product moves – only eletronic data flows back and forth . Products are ordered by a customer at your site , orders are processed through a user interface provided by the storefront brocker , and product is shipped by the merchant.
Storefront broker s make their money taking a commission from the merchant-anywhere from 5 percent to 25 percent-or by collecting a finder’s feeper customer from the merchant . The storefront operator usually takes a commission , again in the range of 5 to 25 pervent . Although these brokered sales represent a loss of margins , By multiplying the number of outlets for the products-sometimes by the thousands-merchants stand to make more money .
BUILDING TRAFFIC TO YOUR WEB SITE
The Internet includes hundreds of thousands of e-commerce Web site . With all those potential competitors , a company must take strong measures to ensure that the customers ti wants to attract can find its Web site . The first step is to obtain and register a domain mane. It help if you domain name says something about your business . For instance , stuff4u might seem to be a good catchall , but it doesn’t describe the nature of the business – it could be anything if you want to sell soccer uniforms and the equipment , then you’d try to get a domain mane like www.soccerstuff4u.com, www.soccerequipment.com or www. Stuff4usoccer.com. The more specific the Web adress , the better .
The next step to attracting customers is to make your site search-engine-friendly by including a meta tag in your store’s home page. A meta tag is a special HTML tag , not visible on the displayed Web page , that contains keywords representing your site’s content , which search engines use to build indexes pointing to your Web site . Again , the selection of keywords is critical to attracting customers , so they should be chosen carefully .
You can alse use Web site traffic data analysis software to turn the data captured in the Web log file into uesful information . This data can tell you the URLs from which your site is being accessed , the search engines and keywords that find your site , and other useful information. Using this data can help you identify search engines to which you need to market your Web site , allowing you to submit your Web pages to them for inclusion in the search engine’s index.
MAINTAINING AND IMPROVING YOUR WEB SITE
Web site operators must constantly monitor the traffic to their site and the response times experienced by visitors . Nothing will drive potential customers away faster than if they experience unbearable delays in trying to view or order your products or services . It may be necessary over time to modify the software , databases , or hardware on which the Web site runs to ensure good response times .
Web site operators must constantly be alert to new strends and developments in the area of e-commerce and be prepared to take advantage of new opportunities . For examble , recent studies show that customers more frequently visit Web site they can customize . Users who personalize such sites also more frequently subscrible to paid sites , user on-line bill payment services and promote products via e-mail to their friends , all of which make them an advertiser’s dream . The Wall Street Journal spent $28 million to overhaul its WSJ.ocm site to attact highter-value , repeat customers by letting them more easily cotomize their home pages with columns , stock quotes , and other regular WSJ.com features.
Personalization is another approach for increasing traffic to a Web site . Personalization is the process of tailoring Web pages to specifically target individual consumers . The goal is to meet the customer’s needs maro effectively and efficiently , make interactions faster and easier , and , consequently , increase customer satisfactions and the likelihood of repeat visits . Building a better understanding of customer preferences also can aid in cross-selling related products and selling more expensive products . The most basic form of personalization involves simply using the consumer’s name in and e-mail campaign or in a greening on the Web page . A more advanced form of personalization is that employeeby Amazon.com , where each repeat customers is greeted by name and a list or new product recommendations based on the customer ‘s previous purchases.
Businesses use two types of personalization techniques to capture data an build customer profiles . Implicit personalization techniques cature data from actual customer Web sessions-primarilly , which pages were viewed and which ones weren’t . Explicit personalization techniques capture user-provided information , such as information from warranties , surveys , user registrations and contest entry forms filled out on-line. Data can also be gathered through access to orther data sources such as the Bureau of Motor Vehicles , Bureau of Vista Statistics , an marketing affiliates ( firms that share marketing data ) .Marketing firm aggregate this information to build databases containing a huge amount of consumer behave ioral data . During each customer interaction , both types of data are analyzed its real time using powerful algorithms to predict the consumer’s needs and interests. This analysis makes it possible to deliver new , targeted information before the customer maves on . Because personalization depends on the gathering and use on personal user information privacy issues are a major concern .
These tips and suggestions are only a few ideas that can help a campany see up and maintain an effective e-commerce site . With technology and competition changing continually , managers should read articles in print and on the Web keep up to date on on ever-evolving issues
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