Carving Your Ecommerce Market Niche
A Home Business Article Contributed by G. Uma Bennett
Carving Your Ecommerce Market Niche
Much the same as regular trade and commerce, ecommerce is best approached through niche marketing, particularly if you have a small advertising budget. You may have heard about niche marketing-where you target a specific segment of a large audience that is ideally suited to your product or service.
In the ecommerce arena with so many companies online competing for the same buyers, the companies that have the best in-depth knowledge of both the benefits of the product and the consumers who use them, can use their limited funds more effectively. The first avenue of ecommerce marketing is through your website, here is where you have the best opportunity to communicate first-hand with your visitors.
Design your ecommerce site to be as interactive as possible without distracting visitors from your product or service descriptions. Create different ways for your visitors to experience your website, streaming audio and video presentations work wonderfully to demonstrate features of your product or benefits of your service.
Once your customers have made their purchase decision, make sure your ecommerce payment systems are encrypted to a secure server and have a privacy policy in place to reassure customers that their private information is safe.
Resolving Ecommerce Security Issues
The largest issue for most consumers when it comes to ecommerce is security for their financial information. In 2004 alone, computer viruses have made headlines, crippling large networks and making the private information of millions vulnerable to hackers.
In the race to take advantage of the billions of dollars being spent through ecommerce, software companies have developed many "storefront" applications that can be purchased and installed by entrepreneurs without any in-depth technical knowledge. However, not all of these programs offer the same level of security and it is a smart idea to discuss with your hosting company about their ecommerce technical capabilities to understand what level of security as well as the limitations.
The type of ecommerce solution that you use can give your access to your customers private information or work directly with a financial institution. Most customers prefer that their financial information is accessed only by the payment processor.
Developing Your Ecommerce Privacy Policy
With so many companies marketing their ecommerce storefronts through email, more website visitors look to see if the company has a privacy policy in place to understand how their personal information will be used. Consumers understand that they have to supply information when they make a ecommerce purchase, but at the same time, they do not want to be exposed to unsolicited commercial email or SPAM.
Writing a privacy policy that explains to customers how they information is collected, who has access to their information and what happens to it is not only good business, it is an excellent method of increasing consumer confidence in your business.
Asking for your customers' permission to send them email and supplying them with the option to decline receipt of your emails at any time is also a confidence building strategy that will increase their trust in doing business with your ecommerce company.
