E-Commerce -Is it for you?

• Wednesday, 26 May 2010
• By Sam Martin
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E-commerce is the process of buying and selling of goods and services over the internet and related computer networks, and this commerce option has become a large phenomenon for businesses and individuals alike. For businesses in particular, an e-commerce solution acts as a complementer for the organisations tangible product sales tools, and in many instances e-commerce sales now account for a large portion of company profits. It can be seen that the rise of E-commerce utilisation is due to advantages such as: it allows business transactions to take place without the barrier of time or distance, the direct cost of sales is less, presents simple and convenient processes for customers, ideal for selling niche products, it is a cost effective means of doing business and it sometimes allows for a reduction of personnel required.

These reasons might excite you very much and inspire you to want one for your own business. However, it is important to understand that the online shopping arena is fast becoming as competitive as in the real world. Therefore, at a minimum, the following is some important points on how you as a business owner can ensure that your E-commerce tools are effectively operating in the e-marketplace. 

Must Add

• Be unobtrusive - no account login required and NO unnecessary steps 
• I want to see it - ensure more then one photo for each product and high resolution 
• Give them options - add more payment options E.g. PayPal
• Help and security - include shipping rates on the basket page, or a link to them, customer reference number, information on delivery time.

Search Engine Optimisation (necessary inclusions)

• URL's 
• Meta 
• Titles
• Sitemap
• Google Sitemap 
• Headings
• Homepage 
• Product Descriptions 
• Other tools E.g. Blog 

The Up Sell - would you like fries with that?

• Link associated products 
• Others also bought this information  
• Promotions (spend limit or enter code, discounts: percentage off or freight)

Less is More

Lastly, you can't sell everything at once, too much information can overwhelm the customer, keep it simple!

Hopefully these tips will help you to create an E-commerce solution. Contact us for more information and check out some of the sites we have built Unit Riders and AussieSwimStore. 

Businesses getting a quick payback from ecommerce

• Thursday, 10 September 2009
• By Catheryn York
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Came across this article today. Heres a quick snapshot:

Sensis 2009 e-Business Report has found that most Australian small businesses are getting a quick pay-back on their ecommerce investment.Released late last month, the 14th edition of the Sensis e-Business Report details results from interviews with more than 1800 Australian small businesses about their IT and online spending.
 

Report author, Christena Singh, said that this year Australian small businesses had cut their spending on computer hardware.
“At the same time, businesses have begun focussing on online technology, becoming more creative with the way in which they market their products and services online, and more adventurous with the technology they buy.”
She said this year’s survey found 33% of small businesses doing email marketing, and 24% doing some form of digital marketing such as advertising on a portal or a search engine. 19% also said they are now using online auction sites.

Specifically, the SMEs interviewed said that a website increased their effectiveness, by:
• Informing people about the business (18 per cent);
• Increased awareness (11 per cent);
• Exposure to a broader market (10 per cent);
• Easier for people to access (10 per cent);
• More enquiries (nine per cent);
• Extra sales (eight per cent).

For more information  download a copy of the report

 

Australians and Online Shopping

• Tuesday, 2 June 2009
• By Catheryn York
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I came across this interesting article regarding Australians and their online habits.

In comparison to other parts of the world, Australians online shopping is an obvious area of difference. According to data collected by Hitwise, visits to shopping classified sites accounted for 5.93% of Australian online visitor numbers for the week ending 9 February 2008, significantly less than the 9.54% in the US and 9.61% in Britain.

In fact, Australia was the only country out of the three where social networking took the single biggest share of web visits – 8%. Social networking was also popular in the US and Britain but, with 9.18% and 7.615 respectively, ranked behind shopping site visits in each of those countries.

But while we spend less time looking for bargains we appear to spend more time getting informed – news and media sites accounted for 6.75% of visits for the week ending 9 February, well above 3.97% in the US and 4.63% in Britain.

In terms of particular content categories, bank websites were the most popular on 4.53% market share, ahead of software on 3.86%, education and reference on 2.63% share, and travel on 2.56%.