Published on May 10, 2012 Business value for your online business: factors to consider when selling online
We all know that a big part of business is about making a return on your investment in time, effort and money. When it comes to selling online the rules are the same as offline, in a different selling environment. You must still persuade customers based on a range of factors from price to brand.
Choosing a platform for selling online should follow the same rules as if you are choosing a place for a new store location – look at the overall value proposition: the domain name, the quality of the website platform, the design and quality of the building where you are selling. And of course, affordability.
A hosted ecommerce solution is a powerful marketing channel to reach more customers but it can do more than offer you somewhere to sell your products.
It can:
- Help you build a brand for your business – regardless of how much or how little you actually sell online
- Give your customers convenience and choice – especially for customers who have to travel to reach an online store. Online shopping can help customers control their budget and in tough economic times, that can drive more people to be looking online
- As a hosted solution (versus a site you have to maintain on your own servers) can free up your time to focus on the marketing and the people cost of managing your hosting, security, and technology management. It’s very different managing a web server from a local in-house network.
Many business owners who have offline businesses, do not see the value in having a website as it seems like a daunting challenge and not somewhere they will get customers in the long run. But these people are overlooking the value of the brand – when a customer finds out about a new business, 9 times out of 10 they will Google them. If they can’t be found, or their site is unprofessional, what does that say about their initial impression of the brand?
Store owners do not realise that online stores can actually drive traffic in store, and not all of their sales will be online – as there will always be customers who prefer the in-store social and shopping experience. Not all shopping is about solving a problem. Sometimes it’s just about fun.
As new research predicts that the size of the Australian ecommerce market is approximately a third of its long term level and the percentage of online sales to total retail sales has the potential to be higher than even highly developed ecommerce markets like the UK, there’s a huge amount of potential for smart Australian retailers to get ahead selling online.
Things to look for to get the most value out of your platform include:
- What are the features of the ecommerce package? Are they Australian?
- Where will you get help? Who will help you? Can they speak English? Are they in an Australian time zone?
- Will you have to pay for security management to keep your cart compliant with the credit card industry’s payment (PCI DSS) compulsory standards?
- Will you have to pay for hosting on top of your monthly fee for your site?
- What do your competitors do? What level of quality are you competing against?
- Who will do the design for you? How much will it cost on top of the ecommerce package that you are purchasing?
Business is about value so ask yourself what value you are getting from your shopping cart package. It’s not all about features, or design, or hosting, or security – it’s about all of those things, together.
No Comments