Creating Your Ecommerce Business Presence
A Home Business Article Contributed by G. Uma Bennett
Creating Your Ecommerce Business Presence
When you decide to establish an ecommerce business presence online, what you are creating is a public image that will communicate effectively with its customers, suppliers, employees as well as the general public. For a online companies located in another country, their website may be the only source of contact they have with their customers.
An effective ecommerce site is one that creates an attractive presence that meets certain objectives: be well designed technically to attract visitors, user friendly to keep their attention and informative to satisfy their reason for visiting. Successful ecommerce websites combine information with interaction. Marketing an ecommerce website, is much different from personal contact, broadcast media or direct marketing by mail.
Borrowing elements from both of these media, the internet gives you the flexibility to communicate with customers via instant messenger chat applications or through email marketing reach thousands of customers with your ecommerce message instantly.
Catering to the Needs of Ecommerce Site Visitors
Online ecommerce storefronts are websites must be designed with the visitor in mind. The challenge is to supply the visitor with the information they seek in an easy to use format with content and methodology that holds their interest. The more you provide visitors with a meaningful, interactive communication link with your company, the more you will be able to immediately address their questions about your product or service.
Access is key in creating trust and building loyalty in ecommerce site visitors. Remember you are asking for not only their money, but the financial information that gives you access to their money. An ecommerce site that does not provide contact information becomes suspect to many online shoppers. Having your terms of sales, refund, return and privacy policies clearly outlined is vital, especially if you plan to use the customers information after their initial contact with your site.
It is a business best practice to inform your customers how they information will be used and give them the option to decline. There are many ways that you can testing usability in your web site design before you launch to make sure that the web site is designed in a way that makes sense to the customer and they feel encouraged to visit the site again.
Targeted Marketing for Ecommerce Sites
The importance of targeted marketing in ecommerce becomes evident when you look at the increasing number of stores coming online every day. Ecommerce is ideal for low cost micro-marketing as well as servicing the virtual markets that have been created online. In addition, ecommerce storefronts offers excellent opportunities for marketing research through interactive communications like surveys.
Ecommerce technology has enabled companies to tailor their products and/or services prices, terms, promotions and preferences according to their customer's behavior, preferences, needs, and buying patterns. Successful new marketing approaches all involve enabling the potential customer to find information easily and to customize the depth and quality of that information to encourage the customer to purchase and/or revisit the site.
