An e-commerce web-site has 2 main factors to determine it’s success
1) Traffic – how many qualified people are finding your site
2) Conversion Rate – of the people that find your site how many will become customers
Running an e-commerce web-site holds a great deal of opportunity if enough research and planning it put into those 2 areas. If you are targeting a small niche of people then you will likely find it easier to promote your site, partially due to lower competition and partially to the value of a niche itself. If you are looking to buy a new chair for your office, do you want to buy from WeCarryEverythingUnderTheSun.com or from OfficeFurnitureDirect.com? Where do you think you will find better selection and support?
If you are working with an ez-build web-site company where you create everything using a form builder within your browser your ability to tweak how someone goes from finding your site to filling in their payment information is a bit limited. You will likely have less control over tweaking the layout and process. What you can control is the information that is on your site, without getting too in-depth using positive imagery to describe individual products and anything that sets your company apart from others (you do have a Unique Selling Point don’t you?).
My greatest advise to anyone getting started is to ensure that you have access to quality analytics information such as Google Analytics so you can keep on top of how many people are finding your site, how they got there, and what they are doing once they arrive.
Unless you have a fairly large ad budget it is best not to expect to be selling in large quantity right away, though starting small and practicing continual improvement with focus on the 2 items listed above you can create a great new business or additional income stream.
An e-commerce web-site has 2 main factors to determine it’s success1) Traffic – how many qualified people are finding your site2) Conversion Rate – of the people that find your site how many will become customers. Running an e-commerce web-site holds a great deal of opportunity if enough research and planning it put into those 2 areas. If you are targeting a small niche of people then you will likely find it easier to promote your site, partially due to lower competition and partially to the value of a niche itself. If you are looking to buy a new chair for your office, do you want to buy from WeCarryEverythingUnderTheSun.com or from OfficeFurnitureDirect.com? Where do you think you will find better selection and support?
If you are working with an ez-build web-site company where you create everything using a form builder within your browser your ability to tweak how someone goes from finding your site to filling in their payment information is a bit limited. You will likely have less control over tweaking the layout and process. What you can control is the information that is on your site, without getting too in-depth using positive imagery to describe individual products and anything that sets your company apart from others (you do have a Unique Selling Point don’t you?).
My greatest advise to anyone getting started is to ensure that you have access to quality analytics information such as Google Analytics so you can keep on top of how many people are finding your site, how they got there, and what they are doing once they arrive.
Unless you have a fairly large ad budget it is best not to expect to be selling in large quantity right away, though starting small and practicing continual improvement with focus on the 2 items listed above you can create a great new business or additional income stream.