The Lowdown on ECommerce: Making All The Pieces Fit Together – Merchant Account
The Lowdown on ECommerce: Making All The Pieces Fit Together
Max Glantzman
The Lowdown on Ecommerce
Ecommerce is truly the most confusing aspect of purchasing web design services. This is unfortunate since most if not all businesses online would like to provide their customers and potential customers with easy access their products or services. In order to help make sure you get what you need to to set up an ecommerce web site, let
Search Engine Optimization in an eCommerce World – Site
Search Engine Optimization in an eCommerce World
Mike Barton
Before one can fully understand the importance and necessity of implementing a search engine optimization program into their marketing mix, it is important to look first at the phenomenal statistics regarding Internet use. For example:
There are 7 new people on the Internet every second.
Every 4th person online is buying something right now.
One billion dollars in e-commerce transactions will be conducted this month.
Over one trillion dollars in e-commerce business will be generated this year.
1 out of 8 dollars spent by consumers is spent on online transactions.
Source: ACCUTIPS.com, December 2003
Furthermore, according to glreach.com, there were 649 million Internet users online worldwide in March 2003---a 14 percent increase in just one year! That comes out to be about 88 million new users in that year alone.
There can be no question that the Internet is continuing to grow at an amazing pace. While the fact that so many consumers are online is important, it is even more crucial to understand what these consumers are doing while online. The two most outstanding reasons people use the Internet is to communicate e-mail and to research using search engines.
Again, here are a few statistics regarding how people spend their time online for more statistics and a list of sources, visit http://www.10xmarketing.com/information.asp:
88% of all Internet users use search engines
37% of online shoppers used Google to search for online retailers. Search was used by 25 percent of consumers searching the Web for holiday purchases
For car buying decisions, search engine advertising proved itself a stronger influencer 26 percent than TV ads 17 percent
Virtually all affluent adult shoppers HHI $100K+ use the Web to make or research their purchases. For automobile, computer and travel purchases, Internet use is extraordinarily high over 90 percent of those surveyed
When consumers go to the Internet, they use search engines because they are able to find the products they want, reviews, descriptions, consumer ratings, and the best price possible. Consumers are less concerned with where they buy their products as much as they are concerned with how much product they can get for their dollar.
Thus, each day millions of people use search engines to look for items they want to buy on the Internet. Those businesses that appear on the first page of these searches are getting 50% to 70% of the business from these customers. There is little doubt that potential customers are currently using search engines to search for the products and services your company sells. The only real question is, What are you doing to help them find you, instead of your competitors
There are two ways to have your web site to appear on the first page of any search. The first is to engage in a pay-per-click campaign. The second is to appear on the first page due to free or natural search results. Getting high, natural rankings in major search engines is one of the most efficient and cost effective ways to market and sell your products on the Internet.
Search engines use complex, mathematical algorithms to determine which web sites are ranked high and which are not. If your web site matches the criteria, youre ranked high. If it doesnt, then youre not. Its that simple.
Search engine optimization, then, is designing your website and all of your eCommerce actions so that when consumers search for keywords that are central to your company, your website will appear at the top of the search results.
For example, if your company sells running shoes a keyword that receives 127,575 searches per month, it would be very beneficial to be one of the top websites on the search engine. If you received only a small percentage of new visitors each month from that top ranking, it would still result in a significant source of revenue.
It might help to think of it this way: At least 10 million Internet searches are performed every month within each major business category. If only 1% of those searches found your website, you would have over 100,000 new visitors to your site each month. If only 1% of those visitors purchased your products or services, you would be making more than 1,000 new sales per month. The worldwide average is 2.5%, making these conservative estimates.
The scope of this article is not to look at the methods behind search engine optimization. Instead, it is to look at the importance the Internet is playing in business development today and in the future. The traditional marketing schemes of the past still have their place, but advertising dollars must be allocated to Internet marketing.
As Bruce Carlisle, CEO of SFInteractive said, If you arent putting money into search engines you are letting business walk out the door.
About The Author
This article was written by Mike Barton, of 10x Marketing. 10x Marketing provides companies with Internet marketing solutions that will increase consumer visits on a regular basis, thus increasing potential sales and revenue. Contact 10x Marketing today for more information about your companies Internet potential.
link to: http://www.10xmarketing.com/res/internet-marketing-technique.asp
mike@10xmarketing.com
eCommerce, How much does it cost – Web
eCommerce, How much does it cost
Dennis Dadey
Making profits with your existing website design or creating a new online store can be exciting, affordable and most of all; rewarding. Mmmm . . . thats what the last sales guy told me.
What is eCommerce or selling via the Internet It is similar to selling through a physical buildings business storefront, with one big difference: the costs for eCommerce are lower. The lower costs alone make it a lot more affordable for someone to start up a business or expand their storefront business onto the Internet.
So, the cost to do online business depends on how much time and effort you are able to put in and the eCommerce developer you choose to work with. Generally, developers should try to enable their clients to be as independent as possible in areas such as daily site updates, processing online orders, customer feedback and low or no cost except time online marketing.
Hosting costs are determined by: the amount of 1 server space you require for product photos, e-mail accounts, and 2 bandwidth - the more customers that visit your store, the more bandwidth you will require. Typically an online store setup may cost $15 to $90 per month for hosting.
Other costs include online store program and designing the storefront. There are many programs to choose from with some being free to some costing thousands. As with anything you buy, you do get what you pay for. Clients like to use online store setups that are easy for them to use when they need to do product updates and simple design changes. That way the initial higher cost for the clients online store will be offset by ease of use and low maintenance costs to operate over the long term.
Next we have graphical design costs, that can range from $70 for a pre-designed store template to a built from scratch setup that can cost $500 and up. If you have only a few products I would suggest starting with the pre-designed store template as the cost is low and the look is quite professional, with only a small amount of time required to input text and make some minor modifications to suit your requirements. If you have quite a few products and they are quite different from each other, you may incur more cost to develop the graphic design as each product category will have a look designed just for that category.
Finally, we need to open up the store for business: market the store and bring in some customers to buy the products. As mentioned earlier, there is no-cost marketing that can be done. For example, the site can be submitted to the primary search engines, adding the store listing to online directories that are relevant to the product or service, and exchanging store links with other sites that are similar but not direct competition.
What are we selling When your starting out with a new product, try to stay with a unique product that is light in weight, as shipping costs are often overlooked in starting up an online business. If you already have existing products to sell, revisit shipping costs and see where you can find savings.
I find most business owners sell what they are most passionate about. Some of your present hobbies or interests could sell as the end product, as items purchased by other people. Some of the most successful online stores are a result of ones passion and desire to share their dream with others and if done logically and thoughtfully with a good web developer, can result in financial rewards at a low investment cost through an online store.
About The Author
Since 1997, Dennis Dadey, Chief Designer at IR Design, has been helping people with e-commerce applications. Find out more about IR Design at http://www.irdesign.com.