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Diversify Your Product Offering and Target Demographics
posted by Web_University @ 8:00 AM
Sunday, June 5, 2011
Diversify Your Product Offering and Target Demographics
It’s common to see businesses obsessed with their “target demographic”. Tunnel vision leads them to blindly chase after a specific niche and pin their hopes and dreams that this ideal consumer will come knocking on the door.
The problem lies in competitive markets, where the target demographic is faced with a slew of options due to a saturated market place. What if APPLE solely focused its product development, marketing and advertising on age 18-24 year old, urban consumers?Not only would it alienate other demographics, but it would neglect other potential consumers who have a need for their products. APPLE created multiple commercials for the iPhone that showed a close up of a hand navigating through the phone with ease.
If you notice, at the end of the commercial an incoming call is made from an adult. We can see this from the photo tag that is displayed on the iPhone’s screen. Clearly, Apple was targeting an older demographic with this placement. Although many young adults will race out to purchase the iPhone’s latest release, APPLE understands the need to appeal to multiple demographics with the same product.
Another typical scenario is often seen in the nightlife. Nightclubs focus their attention on attracting women to their establishments. This is in hopes that a viral effect will take place, increasing demand from men to attend a venue where a plethora of women exist. I’m not saying this strategy doesn’t work, but solely focusing on women for a night club will be detrimental in reaching several other demographics.
Does your business burn too many resources on a single niche? Are you at high market risk due to dependence on a single demographic? If so, its time to:
A) research a secondary and tertiary market
B) research how these demographics consume
C) connect with multiple demographics
If your product happens to be a video game system you would focus on the 10-18 year old, male demographic. However, you should also create/alter your product(s) to reach the 25-35 year old male demographic that enjoyed video gaming in their younger years. We saw Nintendo achieve this when they released Mario Kart. Mario appealed to an older demographic that consumed video gaming at a much younger age with Mario Bros. The point being, don’t allow fear of untested waters or tunnel vision prevent you from reaching new consumers and experiencing longevity within the marketplace.
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What You Need to Know Before You Get Started on eBay?
posted by Web_University @ 8:00 AM
Saturday, June 4, 2011
What You Need to Know Before You Get Started on eBay?
So you’ve decided you want to get started as a seller on eBay. There are a few things you really need to know before you go and throw yourself in at the deep end:
* Selling on eBay
First off, you need to know what it is you’re going to sell: what’s your speciality? You’ll do far better on eBay if you become a great source for certain kind of products, as people who are interested in those products will come back to you again and again. You won’t get any loyalty or real reputation if you just sell rubbish at random.
When you think about what to sell, there are a few things to consider. The most important of these is to always sell what you know. If you try to sell something on eBay that you just don’t know anything about then you’ll never write a good description and sell it for a good price.
You might think you’re not especially interested in anything, but if you think about what kind of things you usually buy and which websites you go to most often, I’m sure you’ll discover some kind of interest. If all else fails mention it to your friends and family: they’ll almost certainly say “Oh, well why don’t you sell…”, and you’ll slap your forehead.
Out of the things you know enough about, you should then consider which things you could actually get for a good enough price to resell, and how suitable they would be for posting. If you can think of something of that you’re knowledgeable about and it’s small and light enough for postage to be relatively cheap, then that’s great!
Don’t worry if you think the thing you’re selling is too obscure – it isn’t. There’s a market for almost everything on eBay, even things that wouldn’t sell once in a year if you stocked them in a shop. You’ll probably do even better if you fill a niche than if you sell something common, and believe me, the number of niches on eBay is absolutely mind-blowing.
* Tax and Legal Matters
If you earn enough money, you should be aware that you’re going to have to start paying tax – this won’t be done for you. If you decide to sell on eBay on a full-time basis, you should probably register as a business. Of course, even if you sell part-time or in your spare time on eBay, you need to consider these things. I’m no attorney – that’s just my opinion.
* Prepare Yourself
There are going to be ups and downs when you sell on eBay. Don’t pack it in if something goes a little wrong in your first few sales: the sellers who are successful on eBay are the ones who enjoy it, and stick at it whatever happens.
Anyone can sell on eBay, if they believe in themselves – and if you do decide it’s not for you, then the start-up costs are so low that you won’t really have lost anything.
If you’re ready to start selling, then the next thing you need to know is the different eBay auction types, so you can decide which ones you will use to sell your items. There’s plenty of information out there that will go into this topic in great detail. Just do on search on Google.
Online Retail is booming even in the current economic climate
posted by Web_University @ 8:00 AM
Thursday, June 2, 2011
Online Retail is booming even in the current economic climate
Online retail is booming, even in the current economic climate, and has been growing significantly year after year for the past 6 years. However the online shopping landscape is changing, with declining customer loyalty; larger retailers focusing on price alone, severe price competition, the increase in cost comparison web sites and multibrand synergies.
Similarly consumers shopping behaviors are constantly evolving, with consumers now normally researching prior to purchases on multiple sites, often referring to comparison sites, and using search features within sites when looking for specific products. Sites must no longer just offer the best value for money (including price, service, mix of products, etc.), but they have to offer an exceptional user experience, which engages the consumer.
- So what are today’s online consumers looking for?
Price is the most important factors for the majority of consumers. To ‘catch’ these consumers, key web pages have to stress savings, but just ‘shouting’ about the price is not enough, consumers must be able to find what they are looking for, once on a site, with ease. And they must feel that the site is providing the right type of product information.
Research conducted by fhios has continually shown that consumers look for the following ‘reassurances’ when deciding to buy from an online retailer. These are listed from most important:
* That they are saving money or have value for money
* Free shipping, rebates/coupons, sales, etc.
* Privacy policies and guarantees, particularly early in the check-out process
* Order tracking
* Customer ratings and reviews
* Customer service, including live help, in-store returns, etc.
* Email alerts on promotions and offers
Interestingly, this prioritized list of ‘reassurances’ does change when considering ‘loyal’ consumers; once a relationship has been built between the consumer and the retailer some of the ‘reassurances’ are taken for guaranteed and other factors become more important. We have observed that customer ratings and customer satisfaction, as well as alerts are far more important for ‘loyal’ customers.
So in a changing online retail environment, there is the contradiction between ‘price hunters’ and ‘loyal followers’. To turn the ‘price hunters’ into ‘loyal followers’ is about ticking the primary needs of the consumer, and then ensuring the online experience goes beyond their expectations by building in loyalty programs to keep them interested.
To create an effective loyalty program, retailers need some kind of discount to lure customers into the program, but then they also need to create other means of locking the customers in (ensuring long-term loyalty) once they are part of the program. Retailers create these switching costs by moving beyond discounts to delivering an array of targeted benefits and services to their loyalty program members. Here are some guidelines we recommend to retailers:
* Provide benefits that appeal to each targeted group’s unique needs and desires.
* Focus on rewarding desired changes in behaviour, not just giving member’s benefits for taking actions they would have taken anyway.
* Encourage members to unify their purchases by offering increasingly valuable rewards the more they spend.
* Offer rewards that are cost-effective and provide both immediate and inspirational incentives.
* Influence customers at multiple points in their purchase decision-making cycle (for example, at home, when they enter the store, while shopping online, etc.)
Different consumer segments will respond differently to different types of rewards, it is just a matter of identifying the needs of the individual customer groups and focusing the loyalty program for that group.
Loyalty programs have much to offer retailers in terms of increased customer insight, improved reputation, brand equity, etc, as well as decreasing price competition, increasing customer retention, decreasing marketing costs and allows a more comprehensive understanding of the customer.
“Know eBay’s Different Auction Types”
Over the years, eBay has introduced all sorts of different auction types, in an effort to give people more options when they buy and sell their things on eBay.
For every seller who doesn’t like the idea that their item might sell for a far lower price than they intend, there’s another who wants to shift hundreds of the same item quickly. eBay tries to cater to all tastes. This email gives you an overview of the different kinds of auctions and their advantages for you.
* Normal Auctions
These are the bread-and-butter of eBay, the auctions everyone knows: buyers bid, others outbid them, they bid again, and the winner gets the item. Simple.
* Reserve Auctions
Reserve auctions are for sellers who don’t want their items to sell for less than a certain price – a concept you’ll know about if you’re familiar with real auctions. They work just like normal auctions on eBay, except that the buyer will be told if their bid does not meet the reserve price you set, and they’ll need to bid again if they want the item. If no-one is willing to meet your price, then the auction is cancelled, and you keep the item.
* Fixed Price (’Buy it Now’) Auctions
Buy it Now auctions can work in one of two ways. You can add a Buy it Now button to a normal auction, meaning that buyers can choose either to bid normally or to simply pay the asking price and avoid the whole bidding process. Some sellers, though, now cut out the auction process altogether and simply list all their items at fixed price. This lets you avoid all the complications of the auction format and simply list your items for how much you want them to sell for.
Recently, eBay added a twist to fixed price auctions: the ‘best offer’. This means that buyers can contact you to negotiate a price, which could be a good way to get sell some extra stock at a small discount. The only downside to reserve and fixed price auctions is that you pay a small extra fee to use these formats. In general, it is more worth using reserve auctions for higher-priced items and fixed price auctions for lower-priced ones – but remember that you can combine the two formats.
* Multiple Item (’Dutch’) Auctions
These are auctions where you can sell more than one of a certain item. Dutch auctions can be done by bidding. Buyers bid a price and say how many items they want, and then everyone pays the lowest price that was bid by one of the winning bidders. If you have trouble getting your head around that, then don’t worry – everyone else does too! These auctions are very rare.
What is more common is when a seller has a lot of one item, and lists it using a combination of two auction types: a multiple-item fixed price auction. This just means that you can just say how many of the item you they have, and offer them at a fixed price per unit. Buyers can enter how many they want and then just click Buy it Now to get them.
Now that you know about the different types of auctions, you should make sure that the items you plan to sell don’t violate eBay’s listing policies.
How to Destroy Your eBay Business
Don’t be fooled. What you are about to discover could prevent your eBay business from failing. Reputation is everything when selling on ebay and when tarnished with the wrong type you will forever struggle to regain buyer’s confidence. Be very aware of the following and by ensuring you are never guilty of any of these, you have every chance for eBay success:
- Untruths
If it does not work, don’t sell it. Don’t say it’s in perfect condition when it has a defect of any lind. Honesty will be rewarded.
- Your auctions end anytime
If your auction ends say during the middle of the night, how many potential bidders do you think will be around to create that bidding frenzy? How many will be around to ensure that they are the winner?. Ensure your eBay auction finishes at a “profitable” time.
- Why would you ever sell rubbish?
If you would not be prepared to sell it elsewhere else, don’t expect a rush of bidders just because it is eBay. If you think that you can make good money selling anything that you can pick up then think again. eBay buyers are just as discerning as any other buyers. And they won’t buy rubbish either!
- Never give discounts
Ever considered that a special deal might just seal a sale to a very happy and grateful customer that will make them return to your site to buy again. eBay is still like the real world, discounts and special deals are always good incentives to make sales. Don’t ignore their power.
- Unattractive listings
The easiest way to make a potential bidder click the back button is to have your listing full of noise, clutter, colour, capital letters, wrong font. You get the answer. Just because it is eBay, does not mean you can be bold and brash with your listing. What listings are professional and successful? Look at them and copy their ideas.
- Photos: Who needs them?
You do! Never, I repeat, never make an auction listing without the benefit of a photo of the item. All eBay Power Sellers use photos, so make sure you do to. As a customer, you will want to see the item that you are buying, so have the same atitude as a seller. And the more photos the better. Leave no question unanswered by the use of photos.
- Only use a short description
Never think that a two line quick description shall do.The more information that you give the potential bidders, the more inclinded they will be to place a bid. eBay is all about giving as much information as possible so an informed decision can be made by the person as to whether they wish to bid or not. Never let a potential bidder click off because they did not have enough information on which to make a decision.
- Ignore emails
A potential bidder may want to ask you a specific question about the item. This person could be the winning bidder, they may start what could turn into a bidding frenzy. You don’t know, so don’t restrict your opportunities by giving poor service by ignoring emails. If the customer does not receive a reply from you, how likely is is that they will bid?
- Posting at your leisure
An ebay customer will remember, they will post bad feedback and your reputation will suffer, all because your mailing of the itemjwas not efficiently dispatched. A last point, don’t overcharge on the posting. There is fair post charges and there is blatant money making postage charges. Don’t antagonise the customer, here is someone that is liable to buy from you again so treat them well and that will be rewarded.
Choosing shopping cart software
* Introduction
Choosing shopping cart software can turn into a tough job due to the large number of e-commerce solutions available on the market. Overall, it’s almost impossible to say which product is the best one since their feature richness, pricing, flexibility and the range of extra services vary to a great extent.
Therefore, buying the right product which fits into your goals can save a lot of time and effort, while a mistake may turn into extra costs, additional months of work or even cause starting the whole project from scratch.
There are several key factors which should be considered while picking the right solution. In this article, I’ll try to outline the most important steps that definitely should not be missed. The tactics described below may be varied according to your goals, however, following this advice will be useful in the decision-making process as a whole.
* Key groups of factors
a) Who you are?
In my opinion, the first thing you should ask is the role he’s going to play in the online store functioning process. The key factor of this role (at least for small and medium businesses) is the level of a person’s technical knowledge.
In most cases, technology is an issue for store owners, managers and administrators. Since each store needs its own unique design, functionality and storefront design along with the initial setup and server administration, you should clearly understand how these services could be purchased and what the manufacturer has to offer. Another important issue for this target group is the ease of administration and usage of basic functions.
Another group of users are web developers and designers who are technically skilled and usually maintain the store by themselves or develop e-commerce solutions for their clients (which usually involves complex code changes and development of extra functionality). For these people, the most important factors are: the quality of code, the ease of customization and add-ons implementation and flexibility of storefront design.
b) Types of shopping carts
All shopping cart solutions can be divided into two large groups: hosted and distributed.
Hosted carts are usually provided in the same manner as hosting services, which means that a customer has several predefined plans/packages (varying in number of products, monthly bandwidth, number of features, etc) to choose from. The pricing structure is also based on regular (monthly or yearly) fees. A hosting platform is provided directly from the manufacturer and the cart is usually activated without any actions needed from a client.
Hosted shopping carts are managed through the administration area which provides the interface to manage product catalog (add, remove items and edit their properties), define and change prices and so on. The storefront design can usually be altered by modifying templates, however, the access to the source code for hosted solutions is usually limited and it’s not always possible to modify the functionality.
Distributed solutions are sold at a fixed price (one-time fee for a lifetime license) as a software package which should installed on any compatible server chosen by a customer. After the initial setup, the store can also be managed using the administration area.
Usually such products come with source code and thus can be modified or extended to suit your needs. However, such modifications require good technical and programming knowledge (or working with those that have those skills).
Overall, hosted carts are often preferable for store owners as more easy to use and administer while web programmers, designers and developers mostly choose distributed solutions due to their flexibility.
c) Additional services
While most shopping cart features can often be used right out of the box, it’s important to note that in most cases online stores require some additional professional services.
For example, e-commerce software may come with a number of pre-installed design templates, but a serious store owner would usually have its own unique store look or integrating it’s existing design into the storefront. Also, since it’s impossible for an ecommerce product containing each and every possible feature or working the way which is totally suitable for everyone, a shopping cart manufacturer providing custom programming service is a good option in case you’re planning to implement some extended functionality.
Another option worth checking is whether it’s possible to get a fully-compatible hosting solution (since shopping carts usually have significant server-side requirements due to their complexity) and technical support (in case you need consultations or assistance in problem resolution).
d) Integration with external systems
Ecommerce software should not be treated as a standalone product, but rather as a solid ground for interaction between various components.
Not all operations are performed within the shopping cart engine. Most often, external services are used for payment processing, real-time shipping rates calculation, order processing systems, affiliate and statistics software, product directories and so on.
Thus, the richness of integration allows store owners to have a wider choice of services for their online business.
e) Technical support, forum & third-party solutions
Responsive technical support is another key factor which ensures that you’re not left alone with your problems and, in case the assistance is needed, you can be sure to receive a thoughtful response or a solution in a reasonable amount of time.
Support schemes from different companies may vary in type and costs. For shopping cart vendors, technical support is often on a pay-per-incident basis, or yearly/monthly flat-fee contract. Free technical support for ecommerce solutions is quite rare and may not always be effective or timely.
Forum activity is also a good indicator since it can be a good, free source of knowledge and assistance from experience software users.
In addition, it is advisable to check if third-party vendors offer modules or services related to a chosen e-commerce product to ensure that you will have a decent choice of extra solutions.
* Tips and advice for research
1. Requirements
First of all, before proceeding with the actual product research, I’d advise that you collect the list of key features which are necessary for your upcoming online store. Such a checklist will allow you to ensure that all (or most) of them are present while examining features lists for chosen candidates.
2. Looking in search engines using relevant queries
Next, you may proceed with picking products for comparison. To find the most popular solutions, start searching in Google/Yahoo/MSN using relevant search phrases characterizing the product, like “shopping cart software”, “ecommerce solution”, “online store builder” etc.
For each query, pick products from top ten or top twenty search results. Visit their websites, compare product features and services presented there, pricing and any other information that you may consider relevant.
3. Looking for reviews and comments on forums and directories
For each product in your list, you would surely be interested to know what others have to say. In this case, independent sources provide valuable additions to official information from software vendors.
Most likely, product profiles along with customer reviews can be found on large script and software libraries like HotScripts, Freshmeat and Download.com. Also, check out some comparison sites, for example, Epinions and Shopping Cart Reviews. Also, you may search through archives or start a new thread with your questions at popular IT forums, like SitePoint or WebmasterWorld.
4. Contacting sales department with your questions
Finally, I’m sure that for your short list of solutions, some questions may still remain. This is a good reason to contact a vendor’s sales team to find out their responses. Do not hesitate to do it, since the quality of feedback and attention to you as a potential client is worth checking before you actually proceed with the purchase.
* Conclusion
Choosing shopping cart software may not seem easy since it involves significant effort from a serious customer. However, the rewards for the effort is obvious: you get a product which fits into your goals and allows you to concentrate on sales and marketing without worrying about the technical side. Moreover, as a client, you get to know the software vendor before buying a product and ensure that the technical side can be handled without a problem. Good luck in your research!
Using Selling Manager To Boost Your eBay Home Business
posted by Web_University @ 8:00 AM
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
Using Selling Manager To Boost Your eBay Home Business
One of the wonderful things about eBay is that they offer a wide variety of different tools to help sellers generate more business. One of the more popular tools that eBay offers its sellers in the eBay Selling Manager, which is a sales management tool that can help you manage your auctions more efficiently. eBay also offers a more inclusive version of their selling tool, called Selling Manager Pro. Both of these tools do come with a low monthly fee that is added to your eBay statement, unless you run an eBay store, in which case it is free.
Deciding which version of the eBay selling tool you need can be tough. To start out, go for the basic package. You can always upgrade if you find you need to later. At the present time, the basic version is only $4.99 per month, so it won’t put a big dent in your budget. If you have a small to medium amount of sales to manage per month, this is all you need. You also get a 30 day free trial with the basic version, so if you decide it’s not right for you and your business needs, you can cancel before your trial is up and not waste any money.
The Pro version offers more tools for higher volumes of sales. If you have a large inventory to manage, the Pro version is probably a better choice for your business. At the moment, the pro version is just $14.99 per month, and it also offers a 30 days free trial. The basic Selling Manager is also free for basic store subscribers, and the Selling Manager Pro tool is available for free to those with a premium or anchored store.
Both tools have software that needs to be downloaded to be utilized. Both software programs support just about any operating system, so you shouldn’t have a problem with compatibility issues. Once the software is downloaded, your eBay selling links will automatically be replaced with your Selling Manager links, making it easy to use the selling tool with your current selling methods.
The software makes it easy to list and re-list your auctions, view scheduled listings, sold items, and closed auctions. You can track your sales, sent bulk invoices and e-mails to customers, and easily leave feedback for all of your buyers using the software. For record keeping purposes, the Selling Manager also lets you download or import your sale information to your computer or into a new Excel spreadsheet, making it easy to track your sales for tax purposes, or for your bookkeeping needs.
The Selling Manager can make boring and tedious tasks quick and easy to manage. You can keep track of your auctions with ease, and stay in contact with your buyers with the click of a button. This eBay tool makes it simple to manage your eBay home business right from your computer without needing to log into eBay, and can boost your efficiency, working like a dedicated employee for you around the clock.
On eBay, Pricing Is Key To Selling Your Items
posted by Web_University @ 8:00 AM
Monday, May 23, 2011
On eBay, Pricing Is Key To Selling Your Items
Pricing your items that you want to list on eBay can be difficult for those who have never done it before. List your items too high, and you won’t receive any bidders. List your items too low, however, and you run the risk of not making money – or worse, landing yourself in the negative. If you consistently price your items incorrectly, you can find yourself with little to no business, or owing money at the end of the day. Pricing your items correctly from the get go can severely cut down on how often this happens.
When you have done your research and know what items are popular on eBay, you should know what items you are looking for and their average selling costs. If not, you need to look up the most popular items on eBay by category, narrow down the products that you are interested in selling, and figure out what the average final selling price for each item you are interested in is. When you have a general idea, then you can start looking for where to purchase the item.
Purchasing items to resell on eBay can be tricky. You don’t want to spend too much money up front and risk having overstock that doesn’t sell, but you also don’t want to spend more money on each item by buying less at a time, leaving you a smaller margin of profit. The best route to go is to find an item you want to sell going for at least half the price of what you want to sell it at. This gives you plenty of wiggle room to make money, without setting your starting bid to high.
When you list your items on eBay, list them as low as possible for you to break even. This includes your final value fee, your listing fee, and your shipping costs, along with the total price you paid for one item. If the item you are selling cost you $50, and additional costs, including eBay fees, totals $10, then the absolute lowest starting price for your item should be $60. This way, if only one person bids, you will at least break even on the transaction.
If you are feeling a bit risky, you may even want to list your item slightly lower than what your total costs for it are. Starting your bid lower than the other bids for the same item on eBay can get you more hits, and in turn, more bids. Many sellers often balk at the idea of setting their starting bid too low, but really, these are the sellers who probably see the most money for their auctions. Buyers are drawn to what they think is a deal, and once they get caught in a bidding war, there’s no telling how high the final price could soar.
Be cautious not to set your starting bid too high, or you could effectively drive away potential bidders. Bids that start close to what the final price of the item should be, or bids that are significantly higher than the starting bids for the same items from other sellers, are far more likely to be passed over with no bids.
Cancelling A Listing On eBay
When you are running your own home business on eBay, you may find occasionally that you’ve listed something in error, or someone wants you to split an auction, so you need to cancel a current listing you are running. Cancelling a listing is easy, it’s perfectly okay to do on eBay. There are some things to know before you start, however.
Cancelling a listing is not necessary if you simply need to make changes to your current auction. Simply go in and edit the erroneous information, and it should be updated immediately. If you are making a drastic change, however, you must have no bidders on your auction to do so.
Cancelling an auction simply because the bidding price is not high enough is against eBay’s terms of service, and can get you suspended or banned from eBay if you do so.
If you need to cancel your eBay auction listing, log into your account on eBay. Visit your selling section, and you will see a current list of all the items you are currently selling, both active and inactive. Find the listing that you need to cancel, and copy the item number of that listing. Visit “Related Links,” and choose “More.” You’ll see an option for ending your listing early; this is where to input your auction number.
If your listing currently has bids when you want to cancel it, you have the choice to either cancel all of the existing bids, or award the item to the highest bidder. If you have decided to cancel all of your bids, or you had no bids before cancelling the item, you will then need to explain to eBay why you are cancelling the auction. After you submit this information, the listing will be cancelled.
Reasons for cancelling your eBay auction may include restructuring a listing for a potential buyer – for instance, if you have multiple items in one listing, and a buyer only wants to purchase one of the items, you may want to “split” the auction for them and create a new listing so that they can purchase the single item. There is no guarantee that the buyer will bid and purchase the item, however, so exercise caution, because the potential buyer is not required to bid solely because you created a special auction for them. You may also want to end the listing early to award the item to the highest bidder if you have reached the price you were hoping for, and want to hurry up and ship out the item.
It is also important to note that eBay does not refund the listing fee for cancelled auctions. While you won’t have to pay a final value fee – unless you award the auction to the highest bidder at the time of cancellation – you still have to pay the original fee that you were charged when you listed the item. This is usually very small, but for larger auctions, this may be something to consider before cancelling an auction if you don’t want to lose a lot of money.
How To Make Your eBay Business Seem More Reputable
posted by Web_University @ 8:00 AM
Thursday, May 19, 2011
How To Make Your eBay Business Seem More Reputable
Your home business on eBay depends on your reputation. Without a good reputation, you’ve got nothing. Your buyers don’t know who you are, they don’t know if they can trust you, and you won’t drum up much business. But when you are just starting out on eBay, building up a good reputation can be tough. It’s a bit of a catch-22: without a reputation, you won’t make any sales, but without any sales, you won’t build up a good reputation. So what can you do to make your eBay home business seem more reputable?
When you are just starting as a seller on eBay, the easiest, and perhaps most surprising way, to build up a good reputation is actually by buying. Starting out as a buyer not only gives you a great way to build up your positive feedback, it helps you better understand the buyer process. When you understand how the buying process works, you can offer your customers better service as a seller.
To get started as a buyer, you don’t have to spend a lot of money. Purchase the things you would normally need to purchase on eBay instead of going to the store. Spending money you would have had to spend anyway won’t leave you in the negative. You can also bid on some cheap auctions to build up your feedback. One you have received the item, be sure to leave positive feedback for the seller to illicit a response. If you don’t receive one after a few days, you can always contact the seller to explain you are trying to build up your feedback so you can start selling. Since they have also been in your position at one point in time, they are likely to return the favor.
Once you have a good, solid list of positive feedbacks under your belt, you can focus your attention on building your customer service policy. Offering your buyers a generous return policy, if only during the start up of your business, can help gain potential customers’ trust. Offer to accept returns within a certain about of time with no questions asked, for a full refund. This will help your customers feel much better about their purchase, if they know they can return it with no hassle if they discover they have a problem with the item.
Work hard to keep your positive feedback up. You can do this by leaving feedback as soon as you know the buyer has received their item, to boost your chances of receiving reciprocal feedback. Give your customers no reason to leave you anything but positive feedback by going the extra mile: offer your contact information directly on your auctions for customers to reach you with questions, and try to add something extra with your own personal touch to each package you send out. As your customers see how far you go to make them happy, they’ll not only leave you positive feedback, they’ll be more than glad to spread the word about your eBay business. A happy customer is the most reputable form of marketing you can receive, so strive to impress every buyer you get, and you’ll see your eBay home business take off in no time.
How to Supercharge Your Selling Online?
The Internet has changed the way we do business, and the way we do marketing. Ten years ago, it was enough to have a print ad in the Yellow Pages and a quick radio spot to spread the word about your business. Now there are new ways to market your business on the Web, and they’re wonderfully cost-efficient.
The internet is such a huge market place. People from all points of the globe are going online on a daily basis looking for products to buy. This huge demand has prompted a lot of marketers to take their business on the World Wide Web. Are you one of them?
Whether you are selling your own products or promoting affiliate products, it is very important that you know the elements and the tools that you need to use in order to secure great sales potential in the online arena.
Here’s how you can sell more over the internet:
1. The first thing that you need to do is to create your own website
No matter how good you are and no matter how great your products are, people will not possibly take you seriously if you don’t have your own place over the internet. Hire a professional web designer to create an ecommerce website for you where you can showcase your products and services. Ensure that your website is easy to navigate, secure, and loaded with valuable information that are closely related to your offerings and to your chosen niche.
2. Drive traffic to your website
Think of your website as a shopping mall. You will need to attract people to give it a visit before you can actually make a sale. Use different traffic-generating tools that can help you drive interested people to your website. You can promote your website on relevant forums, blogs, discussion boards, and social networking sites (Facebook, MySpace, etc.). You can also use article marketing and various link building campaigns that can make your website highly valuable to the eyes of various search engines.
3. Promote your products
Promote product awareness by properly advertising your offerings online. For this, you can use PPC advertising, search engine marketing, paid links, banner ads, ezine publishing, email marketing, etc. Since promoting your products using all available tools can be exhausting and time-consuming, you may opt to hire professional internet marketers to help you out. You will need to share a certain percentage of your earnings with these people in exchange of their services.
4. Take good care of your customers
As they say, the most effective advertising strategy is word-of-mouth advertising. Ensure that you keep all your customers happy and satisfied through your products and through your customer service. By doing so, these people will surely recommend you to their friends and family members who might need your offerings.
7 ecommerce strategies for standing out in a digital world
posted by Web_University @ 8:00 AM
Monday, May 16, 2011
7 ecommerce strategies for standing out in a digital world
Even in a dismal economy internet sales are growing. As people become more confident with ecommerce transactions and savvy with search, selling online just makes good business sense. The drawback is that more and more businesses are vying for a piece of the pie. As your customer reach expands so does the level of competition. The internet is gigantic and your customers are an impatient bunch.
* Be unique or go home
That is why it is so important for web marketplaces and ecommerce stores to differentiate themselves from the crowd. It’s no longer sufficient to declare you have the best prices or selection, because the fact is, your visitors can compare these statements faster than you can spell them out on the page. The good news it that technology and creativity now make it easier than ever for small web stores to offer a shopping experience second to none.
Here are 7 ecommerce strategies for standing out in a digital world.
1. Use expanded descriptions, multiple product views to convey the real value of your products. You wouldn’t nail down shirts in a clothing store so why would you only offer one view of your products? This doesn’t have to use elaborate or expensive technology, multiple views, close-ups and live use photos can provide a lot of information other stores don’t bother to share.
2. Invite customer opinion with customer product reviews and real life testimonials. Consider adding customer comments as audio clips. Adding customers audio testimonials can be a simple as taping a phone conversation. (With permission of course) Using audio clips is simple, inexpensive and does not require technical expertise or expensive online tools. By itself an audio testimonial may not make the sale but it is a very effective tipping tool, helping to nudge reticent buyers over their hesitation and into a sale.
3. Offer relevant information that doesn’t sell. You heard me right, give people information for free without trying to sell them anything. Remember that the main reason people are online is to get information -period. That is the primary goal especially before they buy. Statistics show that the longer people stay on your website the more likely they are to buy from your store (even if they decide to buy at a brick and mortar store) Use an irresistible giveaway to capture emails of people not yet ready to buy and use your content to keep them engaged until they are ready.
You can write articles, give teleclasses, offer whitepapers, provide downloads, share interviews, recipes or helpful hints. Make sure the information is informative, entertaining and relevant to your customers rather than a veiled attempt to sell. People can smell hype a mile away and this is the kiss of death online. Always remember your competitors are only a click away.
4. Get into video. A brief welcome message that shares your value proposition can give s a call to action can engage visitors and move them down the buying path. Use videos to educate your visitors on product uses or assembly. Create a short comparing product features or demonstrate the product in use. Keep your videos short (under 3 minutes) and clear. Host your videos on public sites like Viddler or Youtube and post them on your website. Here are a few examples talking about connecting with your website visitors.
It might seem that video clips within product descriptions are a luxury but I foresee video product descriptions as being the norm within 5 years. According to Internet tracking firm comScore’s Video Metrix, Americans watched about 14.8 billion videos in January 2009, or roughly 101 videos per U.S. Internet user. Todays online shoppers are using alternate avenues like YouTube to research product. Get a jump on the competition by giving your online shoppers a bigger experience, not by lowering your prices.
5. Put a face on your store – people buy form people not computers. Yes they use the computer to do it but they want to know there are real people who will back up their purchases, especially with higher ticket items, or products they are not sure they need. This will become increasingly important in a slow economy because buyers are not as willing to risk a purchase if they feel their concerns will get lost in cyberspace.
Consider adding human pictures to your about us page. Include staff picks or reviews and encourage your employees to write on the blog, social media sites and to contribute articles. After all these are the people your virtual customers will interact with. Don’t hide behind a virtual storefront – don’t be afraid to let your customers get to know the people they are buying from.
6. Make sure your online store has a clear value proposition that speaks to your target market. This value statement must answer the question that is on your best customers mind; “Why should I buy form you over the other guys?” If your website cannot convey this critical piece of information then your visitors will definitely miss it. Your ideal customer should immediately recognize that they are in the perfect place when they land on your ecommerce site.
Many online stores resist crafting a clear value proposition that targets a particular type of customer for fear of alienating other visitors. Look at your statistics and you might see that you make most of your money from a niche group or groups. A clear value proposition targets these customers and tells them exactly why you are the best solution to their problem.
7. Use social media to establish relationships and get feedback. Believe it or not your customers are hanging out in communities online. No, you may not visit Facebook or Linked in but social media sites are doubling every year. They aren’t just for teenagers anymore. The purpose of social media sites is to share opinions and interests. Connect with target market through blogs, twitter, linked in, Facebook, Stumbleupon or any of the dozens of niche social media sites.
Your customers are having conversations with or without you so schedule in an hour a week to schmooze online. This is a way to make connections, not sales – keep it authentic , informative and reap the benefits of worldwide word of mouth referrals.
The way people buy has changed forever with internet ecommerce. The world is literally your marketplace and customers can live just about anywhere. Using just one of these suggestions could immediately increase your ecommerce store profits. Now imagine what implementing all 7 could do!
These simple ecommerce strategies can help your online store stand out in a digital world.
Your Shopping Cart Setup: How To Grease the Tube
How is your online shopping cart setup? Does it make the transition from interest to closing the sale slippery so the prospect just slides along and automatically hits the Pay button? Or are there catches along the way which frustrate the client so they end up abandoning the shopping cart?
It is obvious that ‘greasing the tube’ so the client effortlessly glides through the ordering and payment procedure can make a huge difference to your profits. If you just reduced shopping cart abandonment by 10-20%, what would that do for your business?
When thinking about your shopping cart setup, it’s always helpful to compare your online shopping process with your own personal offline shopping experience. When you select items in a shop and make your way to the Pay Desk, what things irritate you or would irritate you? Have you ever selected a number of items and then had to look around for the Pay Desk. If it is hidden in some corner and you go round for 10 minutes trying to find it you know how you feel by the time you get there.
What if the cashier delayed your check out by trying to offer you other items, even trying a hard sell approach? Some may not mind, but I suggest that the vast majority would prefer to just take their items straight to the check out, pay for them, and leave the store to get on to other business.
Is a potential customer’s mindset any different online? Not really. Most people see what they want, and then just want to pay for it, and move on.
With the offline shopping experience in mind, here is a list of key points to bear in mind when considering your online shopping cart setup:
1. If you have “Add to Cart” buttons by each product, be sure to include a “Check Out” button beside it so the customer can easily go and pay for whatever they have selected quickly.
2. Let the customer check out easily with trying to push extra products on them. This is not to say you can’t try an upsell arrangement, but it has to be done gently and discreetly. One main domain registrar I use, mainly their prices are low, does irritate me with the number of options and extra bells and whistles they try to thrust on you before you can check out. At times I have a problem finding the checkout button because the page is so loaded with offers. I find that annoying and frustrating. Perhaps you do to.
On the other hand, Amazon have mastered the art of discreet upselling. Along the bottom of the screen once you have made your selection they gently tell you that other customers who were interested in ‘this’, were also interested in ‘that’. When I buy on Amazon, I don’t get the pressured feeling I do on the domain registrar site. The whole upsell process is carefully and discreetly woven into the shopping cart setup.
3. Make it easy for your customers to change their order. Your shopping cart should provide the option to delete or change the quantity of any item at any time with a convenient button in the cart.
4. Reassure, reassure, and reassure the customer that their ordering information is secure. Briefly explain the security measures you have in place or put badges and certificates alongside that indicate the whole procedure is going through a secure connection.
5. Minimize the number of steps to the final Pay button and make the buttons clear. Don’t confuse the issue with gawdy graphics and unnecessary steps. It’s a good idea to count how many times the user has to hit the enter key or mouse button from the time they add an item to the cart, to the click on the Pay button which actually processes the transaction. Your aim should be to eliminate any unnecessary steps. So within 2 to 4 clicks, the whole thing is finished and the payment is in your account.
If you’ve ever enjoyed a day at a water park with the family and taken a ride down the water chute, you know once you take that first step over the edge, there is no going back! You are on your way. Likewise with your shopping cart setup. Be sure to grease the tube by making the payment process, clean, simple, and as effortless as possible.
Scrutinize every step, familiarize yourself with all your shopping cart setup features, and utilize them fully. Rather than throwing money at more advertising, why not re-examine your shopping cart setup and add to your profits considerably.
Internet Shopping Cart: Make More Money With Reports and Bundles
Most internet shopping cart software packages come with a host of features. Make sure you familiarize yourself with the potential of your shopping cart. This article examines how to use reports and bundle offers so you don’t run the risk of leaving money on the table with each customer who engages the shopping cart process.
First off, let’s see how internet shopping cart reports can save you money and make you money.
Here are three examples:
- Filter Sales By Customer
If your shopping cart software allows you to filter the database according to client, you will be able to see where most of your sales are coming from.
You need to extract from the report the volume of sales for each client so you can target this group of customers with special discounts for bulk orders or something similiar.
- Filter Sales By Date
Use this feature to see if there are specific times in the year when sales volume dramatically increases. You may have a general idea and know which month(s) are the peak sales months.
However, by using a Sales By Date feature you can pinpoint specific times in the year you may not be aware of where sales volume is higher than normal, especially if those times are spread over just one or two weeks. Increase advertising dollars and promotions accordingly at those times and bring in even more sales.
- Filter Sales By Credit Card
Do you know which credit cards most of your customers are using? Probably Visa or Mastercard. What about other credit cards such as Discover, American Express, Diner’s Club, Delta? What are your merchant account charges for those other cards?
By checking on Sales By Credit Card you will see whether it is economically viable to continue offering those cards as an option relative to the number of sales you get. If it’s not, drop the uneconomical ones and save money.
Surely this underscores the importance of getting internet shopping cart software that provides a robust reporting feature.
Now we will turn our attention to another way you can increase sales and make more money from your internet shopping cart. It involves bundle offers.
An internet shopping cart setup can learn much from the bricks and mortar world. The Happy Meal by McDonalds is an example. Travel agents do it with their package deals. What are we talking about?
Bundle offers or the upsell – an amazingly simple way to increase sales value and revenue yet so under-developed in many internet shopping carts.
Once a customer has already committed themselves to buying you simply add on related items and increase the value.
If for example you are selling exercise equipment, exercise clothing, or body care products could be put together with the original purchase at a discount price to make a Bundle Offer.
Good internet shopping cart software packages should have this feature included with simple setup instructions. Once the client gets to the page that reviews the contents of the shopping cart, the Bundle Offer can appear. The client can then add the bonus items with just one mouse click.
- Push Without Being Pushy
Carefully choose the wording when describing the Bundle Offer to avoid coming over too pushy which may turn clients off. Don’t just make a slashed price offer. Be sure to emphasise the benefits to the user as well.
For example, “Enjoy a refreshing, invigorating shower after your workout with our exercise equipment, with the all natural, herbal shower gel (brand name). For an additional $x you can have a pack of 5 sent with your order.”
When choosing an internet shopping cart, make sure you have this facility so you don’t leave money on the table.
The beauty of this is that bundle offers don’t really require much extra effort yet they can produce substantial sales over the months. The customer is already in the buy mode, having committed to the first purchase. The second purchase is much easier!
My 7 Secrets Will Teach You How To Sell On eBay For Maximum Profits
posted by Web_University @ 8:00 AM
Friday, May 13, 2011
My 7 Secrets Will Teach You How To Sell On eBay For Maximum Profits
If you are looking to make money online to either supplement your current income or as a full time income, learning how to sell on eBay UK is by far the best place to start. This way, one of the hardest parts of running a successful online business has already been done for you. This is marketing. Driving potential customers to your products and making sales. Once you list your products ready to sell on eBay, you have the potential to attract millions of buyers from all over the world, not just from the UK. Worldwide, people spend more time on eBay than any other website!
Where else can you start an online business in just a few hours that allows you to attract immediate traffic to your products? Learn how to sell on eBay and you will find that this is a fantastic opportunity to make as much or as little money as you want. Whoever you are, you can learn how to sell on eBay and make money.
Here are 7 ‘How To Sell On eBay’ tips to help you:
* How To Sell On eBay 1:
Your eBay listings must have a relevant title. This is extremely important when learning how to sell on eBay because if your title is not relevant and does not contain the right keywords relating to your product, then eBay buyers searching will not be able to find it. Include all the related keywords you can think of and don’t use up your limited title space with words that are not required.
* How To Sell On eBay 2:
Write a detailed description. Make sure that your eBay listing includes all the important details about your product. This might include the size, colour, brand, model number, whether new or used, any special features etc. Highlight the good things about the product but don’t forget to mention if there are any flaws or faults with the item too, but make these less obvious. Learning how to sell on eBay includes being honest in your eBay listing description.
* How To Sell On eBay 3:
Spell-check your listing. eBay buyers are put off by listings littered with spelling errors and it looks very unprofessional. When you are learning how to sell on eBay, thoroughly check before you submit your eBay listing and make sure that important points are bold.
* How To Sell On eBay 4:
Use good quality photographs. People like to see before they buy. Use a good digital camera and take 2 or 3 photographs from different angles to use as your gallery picture and within your eBay listing. This will attract more bidders and buyers and will help you get more experience as you learn how to sell on eBay.
* How To Sell On eBay 5:
Always answer questions from potential bidders. You will receive questions and queries from potential buyers. And you must remember that this is exactly what they are – POTENTIAL BUYERS. Always try and answer any questions that come through eBay messages, within 24 hours, sooner if you can, even if you feel that it’s a silly question. If you frequently receive the same question then post it to your eBay listing so that everyone can see it.
* How To Sell On eBay 6:
Be polite and friendly. eBay buyers like friendliness and professionalism from eBay sellers. So, it’s best to be polite and enthusiastic when corresponding, but not too casual. Don’t use ‘text speak’ in your emails as this is very unprofessional, but show a good sense of humour, honesty and politeness.
* How To Sell On eBay 7:
Dispatch goods promptly. eBay buyers do not like to be kept waiting! So, make it your business to dispatch all orders promptly, preferably within a couple of days maximum. This is good service and will ensure that you get positive feedback whilst you are still learning how to sell on eBay!
Learning How to Make Money Online
When you begin learning how to make money online you must first have goal. Without a clear goal in mind you will find it difficult to set targets, and without targets you will find it more difficult to make money. That is why all businesses have a gaol and set regular targets that are the subject of business plans.
It has often been said that a failure to plan is a plan to failure, and nothing could be truer. As a simple goal, decide how much money you want to make in your first year. You could be silly and decide on a million dollars, but you are unlikely to achieve that, so be realistic: say $75,000 in your first year.
You can then break that down into monthly amounts, starting small and increasing each month, which will give you the basis of your targets. You should then plan how to meet these monthly targets. That is a good sound basis of a strong business.
However, you now have the problem of how you are going to make that money. There is a large number of ways in which you can make money online, some of the most popular being:
a) Creating your own product or service
Perhaps you have a skill or specialized knowledge that others will pay for. You might be a children’s entertainer or a hypnotherapist. Perhaps you can write en eBook about breeding dogs, or make a video series on maintaining your own car.
I know of one person that made a fortune by making series of short videos of how to carry out simple household maintenance tasks, such as changing an electrical plug, changing a tap or faucet washer, and even putting in a new sink and laying a carpet. A simple idea, yet something that had a massive customer base. Think of all those women living alone, or even guys that don’t know why a screwdriver has a flat end.
Think of what you are good at, or what you have knowledge of, and work out a way of packaging that knowledge or these skills in a way that would sell. I am a good writer, and make money online writing articles to help others to promote their websites.
b) Sell somebody else’s product
If you are unable to produce a product of your own, then sell somebody else’s. Everybody trying to learn how to make money online has heard of affiliate marketing, even if they don’t recognise the word. Affiliate marketing is selling a product for somebody else in return for a commission.
If that product can be delivered electronically – by email or downloaded – then that commission could be 50% or higher, since there is no replacement cost. Unlike a tub of vitamins, an eBook or software application doesn’t have to be produced again once it has been sold, so the vast majority of the selling price is profit. You can therefore be paid more for selling it. 50% is about minimum for such items, and some go as high as 75% or even 80%.
c) Others
Among other ways of making money online are multi-level marketing (MLM), where you recruit others to sell products for you, you receiving a commission on their sales, buying on eBay, and selling the same items for more than you paid for them, buying items in bulk when they are in high supply, and selling at a high price when they are scarce (e.g. certain toys at Christmas time), and many others.
Each of these ways of making money online has one thing in common: you have to learn how to go about it and how to promote whatever it is that you are doing. Even your eBay business has to be promoted by means of your ‘product description’.
Most businesses need a web presence, either as a traditional website or some other presence on the web such as a Squidoo lens or participation in social networking. They might also need software, and knowledge of how to use it, and knowledge of how to attract traffic – potential customers. Without customers, your business will fail.
This is where most people begin to fail. In fact 99 people out of every 100 that try to earn a living online fail. They fail for one of 4 reasons:
1. Lack of Planning
They did not have a clear objective in mind and did not plan properly. The started their business on shaky ground and looked on it as a hobby. They fell into one of the main traps of working at home: worked part-time, and took time off whenever they felt like it rather than set out the daily tasks needed to meet their targets and work until they were completed.
2. Lack of focus: Information Overload
They did not focus, and jumped from one program to another. They had too much information, and were unable to give any one method of making money online the time to work for them. They tried too much at one time and so failed in everything.
3. Lack of Perseverance
They gave up to soon. It takes time to build up a successful online business. Except for a very fortunate few, there is no ‘get rich quick scheme’. Making money online is hard work, and those that persevere tend to succeed. Most don’t!
4. Lack of Knowledge
This is the least reason for failure. There is no need for lack of knowledge in the internet age – everything you need to know is out there, yet many people try to do it themselves without getting the information they need. Learn from the work of others: do not reinvent the wheel. Trite, I know, but true nevertheless.
Use whatever training courses are available out there. It could be expensive, I know, but there are ways to learn all you need to know without spending a lot of money.
It is important that you do not fail for any one of the above reasons because they are all avoidable. It is a shame that so many dreams are shattered for a lack of planning, focus, commitment and perseverance, and a lack of knowledge. All are avoidable.
5 Factors That Influence Buying Decisions Online
posted by Web_University @ 8:00 AM
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
5 Factors That Influence Buying Decisions Online
People who purchase products online aren’t much different than people who purchase off line. They may be a little more cautious with how they spend their money, due to security and privacy reasons, but for the most part they care about the same things, foremost among them being value. The following five factors that influence buying decisions are important considerations if you expect to close the sale on your website.
- Factors That Influence Buying Decisions
Online consumers today are more sophisticated than they were ten years ago, or even five years ago. They’re not afraid to make a purchase online, but they will go out of their way to make sure they get value and are very concerned about privacy and security. If you expect to close the sale on your website then you need to consider the following five factors BEFORE you ever ask for the sale:
* Security
* Privacy
* Value
* Approach
* Emotion
- Customers Buy From Secure Websites
Online consumers are very concerned about security. They’re also educated. They have read up on cyber security and you should too. If you cannot convince your site visitors that your site is completely secure and that their financial information will be handled with care, they will go leave your site and go somewhere else. Security is one of the most important concerns for online consumers, especially today.
- The Growing Concern Over Privacy
In addition to security, online consumers are concerned about privacy. They will guard their e-mail addresses and other personal information with great care. If you want to build trust for your brand then you should start with assurances. Make sure that you put your website visitors’ minds at ease with constant reassurances that their private information will not be sold or shared with third parties.
Regard for privacy online has been growing for the past couple of years. Some European countries have sued Google over privacy issues and Yahoo! announced last December that it will not store search information on searchers beyond 90 days. Privacy is important to online consumers. Having a well thought out and clear privacy policy on your website will go a long way to building trust and confidence in your business.
- What Do You Offer Of Value?
Many consumers would still rather drive to pick up an item for purchase instead of making that purchase online for less money. In order to convince online consumers that purchasing your product online is safer and better for them, you’ve got to go out of your way to establish value in their minds.
Even then, providing a local retail outlet where consumers can order online and pick up their items later is a viable business model and could be the way to go for many online retailers. Still, value is in the forefront of consumers’ minds. In order to get them to purchase online you’ve got to ensure that you offer loads of value.
- What Is Your Approach?
How you approach online consumers determines to a great degree how you build trust. I still see veteran Internet marketers make the mistake of talking down to their customers or making basic assumptions about behavior to that lead to dismissal or rune behavior. Just because a person has not made a purchase in the past does not mean that she won’t make a purchase in the future. But how you treat a consumer with your content may determine whether they do business with you at all – now or next year. Check your approach and ensure that you meet the emotional needs of your readers before you ask for the sale.
- What About Emotion?
People buy for emotional reasons and defend their purchases logically. If you want to close the sale online then you’ve got to make the most basic emotional appeals and meet a real need in the minds of your readers. You have to connect with them on a gut level. Sometimes that takes more than one touch point. Pre-sales is just as important as closing the sale and savvy Internet marketers are learning how to set the stage for the sale down the road by spending a large amount of their time on pre-sales communication that builds trust and confidence.
- Conclusion
Different people buy for different reasons, but at the heart of every consumer action is emotion. If people trust you they will buy from you. If you fail to earn their trust then it doesn’t matter how well you do everything else. These five factors all contribute to whether or not a consumer trusts you enough to exchange their hard-earned money for your product or service.
Sell on eBay: How To Write Profitable Listings?
posted by Web_University @ 8:00 AM
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
Sell on eBay: How To Write Profitable Listings?
It is a simple fact that if you sell on eBay and receive only minimal views on your listings then the lower the bidding or amount of sales will be. It does not matter how detailed and professional your listings look, viewings are the key. And the key to increasing the number of viewings is research!
In order to research, you must first take a look at what other sellers, especially Powersellers of the same items, are doing. What keywords do they use? Which categories are they listing in? Do their listings trigger an emotional need so that the reader simply has to buy now? How many photographs do they have and what quality are these? Take a good hard look at how they sell on eBay to get ideas for your own listings.
When a potential buyer reads your listings, they are looking for good value. So, you must add value to your products. Adding value does not always mean giving something extra free or doing something to the actual product! You just need to achieve a perceived added value which will catch the reader’s attention when they look at your description. So added value could be something as simple as offering a no quibble 30 day money back guarantee. If your competitors who sell on eBay are not offering this then you have added value to your product. The same goes for your listing description – photographs add value, as do the benefits of the product.
Make sure that you write your description well and always include photographs – people like to see exactly what they are buying! It is important to remember when you to write your description in a friendly, informative manner, as though you are talking personally to the reader as this will encourage them to continue reading and arouse their interest.
If your product has lots of features and especially benefits, then make sure you include them in your listing. Do not drone on and on, but be clear and concise and tell the potential buyer exactly why they must buy your item right now.
To sell on eBay effectively, you need to invest some time into creating that added value as ultimately your listings will attract more views and sales. Bearing this in mind, there is nothing more off putting to a potential buyer than seeing a confusing listing before them! Not everyone is a technical whiz so where possible use simple layman’s terms in your description. Show all your Payment, Shipping and Dispatch Times so that they can be easily seen and understood so that buyers can work out total costs and approximate delivery dates at a glance.
If people feel at ease with your auction listing, then they are much more likely to bid or buy. So it is important when you sell on eBay that you are completely honest. If there happens to be a fault with a product, tell buyers what it is as this will show that you are not trying to mislead anyone. Really, the simple rule is to think about what you would like to know about the item if you were buying it, and then add all these thoughts to your description. Don’t miss bits out because if all the information is there in front of the potential bidder or buyer then they are more likely to bid or buy right now.
As your views and sales grow, you must encourage your bidders and buyers to look at your other listings because a big part of your eBay sales strategy is to get bidders to purchase more items from you. So, if you are selling a supplementary or complimentary item let your buyers know and highlight the fact that you offer combined postage if they purchase both items!
When you sell on eBay, your listings should be regarded as an opportunity to establish relationships with buyers. You then need to look after these buyers so that they come back to you time and again. Never think in one-off transactions, even if they do end up as a one-off, because your ebay income depends on customers to guarantee you success!
How to Sell Things on eBay: Writing Descriptions that will Pack a Punch
If you’ve spent any great length of time studying auctions on eBay you may have noticed discrepancies between identical items selling at wildly different prices. There are many potential reasons for this such as ending an auction at a bad time, a title that doesn’t really describe the item in question or an unrealistic starting bid dissuading people from getting into the auction spirit. All of these traits demonstrate a person that doesn’t know how to sell things on eBay. However, these traits can easily be mastered with practice and with research, making your auctions the ones that sell for more than your rivals.
One particular way in which to improve your auctions to make your items sell for a higher price is to spend a considerable amount of time on perfecting your item descriptions. The description of an item up for auction on eBay tells a potential buyer everything that they need to know about said item.
They expect to find all of the details including the condition of the item, any faults or failings with it and an accurate and comprehensively detailed description of it.
You aren’t alone when you are selling items on eBay. Even with a niche market there are likely to be other sellers competing for your customers, therefore you need to create item descriptions that are going to stand out from the crowd. Let’s consider a few handy tips that could help to promote your descriptions to the top of the class to aid you in mastering how to sell things on eBay.
* Avoid overly garish colours. Although you want your description to be eye-catching, too many overly bright colours could actually put a buyer off your auction instead of the opposite effect. Instead concentrate on using bold, italics and underline to help to bring attention to relevant sections of your description.
* Be detailed in your description. Include as much information as you can get your hands on with regard to the produce that you are selling. Not only will this provide your consumers with all that they need to know but it will also label you as an authority on the type of item that you are selling. Once your buyers have established that you know what you are talking about they are far more likely to come back to you.
* Check for spelling and grammatical errors. Don’t ever submit a listing to eBay without having proofread it. Ideally write your description in a word processor first to catch any spelling errors.
* Be persuasive but not over-salesy. In your description you don’t need to convince viewers that their life will end if they don’t purchase your product. Instead you need to appeal to the need that the item will fill, subtley persuading them that this purchase will make their life easier, better or more entertaining depending on the item.
Mastering item descriptions is one of the key elements to learninhow to sell things ebay,ebay selling,sell on ebay,sell stuff on ebay,powersellers secrets,make money on ebayg how to sell things on eBay. Remember that practice makes perfect, in no time at all you will be able to increase your sales through excellent descriptions.
3 Tips To Avoid Liability For Actions of Your Online Resellers
posted by Web_University @ 8:00 AM
Sunday, May 8, 2011
Ecommerce Websites: 3 Tips To Avoid Liability For Actions of Your Online Resellers
Recent case law confirms once again: if online agreements are presented properly to end-users, they’re legally enforceable.
This continuing trend is good news for websites that contract with registered users though SaaS Agreements, Membership Agreements, Subscription Agreements, Terms of Sale, Content License Agreements, and the like.
Why? Among other things, this means that important legal disclaimers and limitations of liability are legally enforceable.
But what about liability exposure arising out of customer contracts entered into by your resellers? Are you liable for actions of your resellers?
* The Direct Revenue Case
In the case of People v. Direct Revenue, the New York Attorney General in 2008 attempted to nail Direct Revenue for its distribution of software that served pop-up advertising software on consumers’ computers.
Direct Revenue is in the advertising business. It’s software client serves pop-up advertisements to consumer’s computer screens through the Internet. Direct Revenue does not charge fees to consumers. Instead, it charges fees to the companies whose products it advertises.
It’s interesting to note that one line of attack by the New York Attorney General focused on Direct Revenue’s “click-wrapped” (where the user clicks on “I ACCEPT”) end user license agreement (EULA) and Direct Revenue’s alleged deceptive and illegal practices. The court granted Direct Revenue’s motion to dismiss the claims noting that sufficient disclosure was given in the EULA, and the required elements for an enforceable agreement were followed.
Having failed with its first line of attack, New York’s additional line of attack focused on the customer agreements of Direct Revenue’s resellers in an attempt to hold Direct Revenue liable. The result was the same as with the EULA — Direct Revenue was held not liable.
New York conceded that Direct Revenue’s resellers were independent contractors rather than agents. Generally, a principal is not liable for acts of an independent contractor due to the lack of control over how the contractor’s work is performed. In addition, the court noted that Direct Revenue’s software distribution agreement required its distributors to obtain consent of consumers consistent with the EULA and prohibited distributors from holding themselves out as agents of Direct Revenue.
New York argued that Direct Revenue should be liable because it’s servers interacted with the consumers’ computers in the software installation process. The court pointed out that participation in installation was not enough for liability in the absence of participation in deceptive conduct that induced the installation.
Finally, New York argued that Direct Revenue should be held liable for the actions of its resellers on the ground that Direct Revenue ratified the conduct of its resellers. The court ruled that mere knowledge of consumer complaints was insufficient to impose liability on Direct Revenue, especially in light of the fact that when Direct Revenue had actual knowledge of a reseller misconduct, it took steps to remedy the problem.
* 3 Tips To Avoid Liability For Actions of Resellers
Potential liability for acts of online resellers is a major concern of ecommerce businesses which use reseller networks.
The Direct Revenue case teaches us that ecommerce sites may not be held liable for actions of their resellers if these 3 tips are followed:
1. if you transfer anything to a user’s computer, require your resellers to obtain consent of end-users consistent with your EULA – this means consent in clear and easy-to-understand (not deceptive) terms,
2. prohibit your resellers from holding themselves out as your agents, and
3. if a reseller does engage in misconduct, take affirmative steps to deal with the situation, including termination, if warranted (particularly if the reseller’s actions tend to indicate an agency relationship).
These 3 tips won’t guarantee that you have no exposure, but they’ll go a long way to protecting you from liability for actions of your resellers.
The Advantages of Using PayPal As Your Shopping Cart
posted by Web_University @ 8:00 AM
Saturday, May 7, 2011
The Advantages of Using PayPal As Your Shopping Cart
Any e-commerce application needs a good shopping cart to handle any purchases and payments for subscriptions. Of course you want the best shopping cart you can get for your blogs or websites, but there are so many options online, all promising you the world, that it can get confusing. Still wondering what a shopping cart is on website?
There are several points to consider, but the simplest description that all of us will recognize is the shopping cart in grocery stores. While that one has squeaky wheels and gets pushed up and down the aisle, the shopping cart on your website is a set of scripts that track what your customers buy so they can pay for the entire selection with one click.
All the shopping cart does is keep track of any items you have placed in it for purchase. Without a shopping cart your customers would have to pay individually for everything they want to buy. After your customers press the “Buy” button on your site, their transaction is transferred to a payment processor to collect the money owed, send it where it belongs and enables the download if required.
It’s not quite that simple, but it is a quick explanation of what happens behind the “Buy” button. There are several processes that are sending and receiving the request for payment on a mouse click that ends with the download instructions for your customer. It gets confusing when you start searching for a shopping cart for your own sites. A simple search will probably send you several hundred choices, all claiming to be the premier shopping cart for your needs.
An excellent choice would be PayPal’s shopping cart. For several reasons, using PayPal’s shopping cart will streamline your customer’s payment processes by letting you accept credit and debit cards and direct bank account payments. Some benefits for your customers include purchasing more than one item at a time and paying for them with a single click of the “Buy” button. It’s good customer service. You don’t want to irritate customers ready to spend money with you.
Other PayPal benefits for your customer include the ability to browse your entire collection of products and check out a list of what they bought before they click on your “Buy” button, which gives them the opportunity to modify the list. Ease of installation which does not require knowledge of CGI scripting is one big advantage of PayPal’s shopping cart. Opening an account is free of up-front costs and you are charged the same fees charged when you get other PayPal payments.
To find the fee schedule, check out the bottom of any page, even the log in page, for a link to “Pricing” or “Fees.” Some of the technical benefits of using PayPal’s shopping cart include being able to set shipping rates, if necessary, and tax rates. You can let your customers make donations to charities of their choice. You can easily convert your “Buy Now” buttons into “Add To Cart” buttons to make multiple purchases seamless to your customer.
Their free 410-page PDF, “Website Payments Standard Integration Guide,” has all the in-depth information you might need about using “Buy Now” buttons included. You can find a comprehensive list of services on PayPal when you click the tab, “Merchant Services.” If you click on the tab, “Products and Services,” you will find a link to the ebook. For your business records, PayPal will keep detailed transaction records on their website for your use when you need them.
You will also find details needed to integrate PayPal with your site, including how to pre-populate your customer’s sign-up forms. It might be a good idea to download their free PDF User Agreement for your records. You can find a link to the document at the bottom of almost every page on the service. Look for “Legal Agreements” and click that link. PayPal is easy to use with whatever application you need. It has been time tested for a longtime as eBay’s payment processor.
Besides being highly recognizable as something that a lot of people use already and have a comfort zone with, another undocumented benefit of using PayPal’s shopping cart is your own peace of mind in knowing that your business income is in good hands.
PCI Compliance and the New PA-DSS: Vital Information for Online Storeowners
A) Confusion Runs Rampant
Many folks in the e-commerce industry have found themselves scratching their heads in confusion over the new PCI PA-DSS (Payment Card Industry, Payment Application – Data Security Standard) rules and guidelines. PCI Compliance has never been an easy topic to wrap one’s head around and the new DSS is starting to cause panic among some involved in businesses that operate online. The July 1, 2010 compliance deadline is looming and many payment applications are still not DSS certified.
This is not good news for anyone involved in the e-commerce sector. There is no set punishment established for non-compliance with the new PA-DSS. If an online storeowner is found to be non-compliant then they will likely be charged increased merchant fees and penalties, face hefty fines and in some cases have their merchant account or even their entire website terminated.
Most of the confusion and controversy revolves around who exactly needs to comply with the new DSS. The answer to this is somewhat complex but the primary rule of thumb is that if your store processes credit cards online then you need to use a shopping cart that is PA-DSS certified in order to be PCI Compliant.
As an e-commerce merchant, vendor or retailer (those operating a business online), it is your duty to ensure you are utilizing fully PCI Compliant Hosting and that your shopping cart application is PA-DSS certified. If either your host or cart is not compliant with the PCI than your site is in trouble. Many carts and other merchant service providers are still shuffling to get scanned and added to the list of compliant applications before the July deadline.
If you are in the market for new shopping cart software than you do not want to use a program that is non-compliant with the PCI or PA-DSS. It is not worth losing money or possibly your business over something so simple to remedy. The responsibility falls on you – the storeowner – to find a host and cart that are compliant with the PCI and to fulfill the required network scans and questionnaires.
B) PCI Compliance vs PA-DSS: What’s the difference?
The PA-DSS (Payment Application – Data Security Standard) applies to products that are distributed as applications that people can purchase and then do whatever they wish. For example, this applies to shopping cart programs and e-commerce solutions. The DSS started as the PABP (Payment Application Best Practices) by Visa before becoming affiliated with the PCI Security Council, which represents all five major credit card companies. In order to be PCI Compliant you must be on a DSS certified application. In other words, your cart must be compliant.
PCI Compliance is a broader set of rules and guidelines. The PCI Compliance rules are the standards for the way in which credit card transactions and other confidential information is processed online.
As of July 2010, both PCI and PA-DSS Compliance are necessary for a site that accepts credit card payments. The PCI applies to all e-commerce businesses, web hosts, shopping carts, payment gateways and merchant account providers. When a company becomes DSS certified they are then added to Visa’s list of compliant companies. The PCI Compliance rules are the standards for the way in which credit card transactions and other confidential information is processed online.
In order to be fully PCI compliant with the new PA-DSS, level 4 merchants must be running compliant applications on their site (such as their shopping cart). Their web hosts must also be PCI compliant by using properly encrypted networks, regularly updating their anti-virus software and performing regular system scans.
There are a number of PCI scanning companies approved by Visa and MasterCard that will help small merchants pass PCI audits and complete the PCI questionnaire in order to show PCI compliance. Being fully PCI and DSS compliant is like having an insurance policy in the event of a security breech.
Use Coupons to Gain Customers & Create Conversions
posted by Web_University @ 8:00 AM
Thursday, May 5, 2011
E-Commerce Storeowners: Use Coupons to Gain Customers & Create Conversions
With the current state of the world’s economy, people are routinely looking to do whatever they can in order to save money. People will go to lengths that they previously would not go to so they can save a buck. You can easily make yourself stand out from the competition by offering valuable coupons for your products and services.
Many owners and operators of companies large and small have a tendency to either forget about or overlook the use of coupons as a promotional and marketing tool. Coupons are often thought of as thing of the past, with memories of parents and grandparents huddled over a stack of newspapers, scissors in hand, searching for the next big bargain.
With the Internet becoming the modern marketplace and the slow death of the traditional newspaper, coupons have evolved beyond the print media. The online coupon has become a formidable method of promoting a business while simultaneously saving the cash-strapped general public some money and encouraging competition between businesses.
Coupons are a powerful way of branding and gaining publicity for a business. By highlighting sales and current promotions, you can drive quality traffic to your online store. Traffic originating from a coupon is the kind of traffic that leads to conversions and this is the type of traffic that an online storeowner needs to generate, especially in this current economy.
There are currently a number of coupon sites online and they are becoming increasingly popular. They make their money from selling ads on their sites because of the staggering amount of visitors that check out these sites in search of money-saving purchases. Since the websites are making their money by selling ad space, there are generally no charges or fees for businesses placing coupons on these sites. Not to mention, all of the stores that have coupons on these popular websites are receiving high quality backlinks to their site. This is a surefire way of building links, page rank and climbing up the SERPs (search engine results pages).
A smart coupon strategy is to create a coupon that directs visitors to your Clearance or Sale page where discounted goods are already listed. You do not even have to go out of your way to fabricate a special sale.
The use of coupons can be a highly successful method of promoting your online business. Coupons do not need to be thought of strictly in the traditional sense. There is a whole new market for modern coupons.
The Opportunity of Web eCommerce: Fact or Fiction?
posted by Web_University @ 8:00 AM
Wednesday, May 4, 2011
The Opportunity of Web eCommerce: Fact or Fiction?
If you own a bricks-and-mortar retail store, a distributorship, or a manufacturing facility, imagine the potential for increased sales if you offered your products to a global marketplace by simply setting up a website with your catalog on it. After installing an ecommerce shopping cart system and the ability to process payments online, some aspiring Internet moguls just sit back and wait for the orders to start flying in. The idea of suddenly having access to hundreds of millions of credit card wielding customers can certainly be intoxicating, but the reality of ecommerce success is that it’s not nearly that easy!
Maybe there’s some glamour associated with being a “renegade entrepreneur”, adopting a take-no-prisoners mentality and making up the rules as you go along. In some cases, being unconventional and aggressive can certainly help an online store stand out in the crowded Internet marketplace, but skipping steps and ignoring proven business principles is a guaranteed recipe for failure.
So if selling stuff on the Web represents a huge opportunity, but most people fail at it, then what does one have to do join the ranks of the successful “webpreneur”? While there are always risks inherent in starting any business, beginning your journey with an up-to-date “roadmap” (or virtual GPS) can help assure that you won’t get lost, miss an ‘exit’, or fail to reach your destination on your way to ecommerce success.
Imagine this scenario (and it happens all the time): An awesome-looking web site with marketable products and competitive prices goes online, but makes no sales or performs far below expectations. What happened? Well, there’s a veritable checklist of possibilities that could explain abysmal sales figures, but it often boils down to two things: a lack of attention to search engine optimization (SEO) and sales conversion factors.
The Essence of SEO and Online Sales Conversion Tactics
In a nutshell, search engine optimization means that steps have been taken to demonstrate to Google, Yahoo, and Bing that a web site is highly relevant for certain keywords, and that it deserves a top-10 ranking when searches are performed for those keywords. What a sizable portion of ecommerce website owners do not realize is that if their web site isn’t among the first dozen or so listings on the search engine results pages, then, for all intents and purposes, their web site is invisible to thousands of prospective customers.
To put things in perspective, millions of web pages are competing with each other for a top-10 Google ranking for most common keyword searches. So, to stand a chance of gaining any visibility in Google (the dominant search engine), an ecommerce site has to contain keyword combinations for which customers are actually searching. Not only that, but the phrases have to be strategically placed on the web page, and, ideally, the most important keyword phrase should be in the domain name and in links to your site from other web sites (that’s where it gets a bit tricky). Once all that has been accomplished, then your ecommerce web site is geared up to begin competing on a level playing field with other similar web sites trying to be found by customers on the Internet.
Another common ecommerce blunder is failing to make the most of sales conversion opportunities on a website, which can include everything from including trust-building factors and a hassle-free checkout process to offering easy site navigation features and plenty of clear “calls to action” — which refers to what you want the customer to do before leaving your web site (such as, call your toll-free number, leave their email address, or order a product). A good ‘rule of thumb’ in ecommerce, which also applies to do business off-line, is that “a confused customer is a lost customer”. So to maximize the sales conversion potential of your ecommerce online store, instill your visitors with a sense of trust, a clear path to placing an order or getting more information, and an incentive to take action now.
5 Essential Secrets to Ebay Auction Selling Success
posted by Web_University @ 8:00 AM
Thursday, February 3, 2011
5 Essential Secrets to Ebay Auction Selling Success
As Ebay grows with 70,000 new customers everyday adding to the 277,000,000 registered users, the opportunity to sell a product to this growing market becomes ever more attractive. But this is not any market. Ebay is a specialised market, full of hungry targeted buyers seeking out products in over 50,000 categories.
Yet to make serious money selling on Ebay takes learning, skill and belief that is required to operate any business. To be an Ebay auction selling success, you can’t just submit a product for sale and hope that bids will automatically appear. There are proven methods to ensure that your Ebay auction will be more successful than the competition. There are certain techniques that you need to adopted to ensure Ebay is a lucrative money making opportunity for you, not just a trickle of money but enough for you to then consider becoming a fulltime Ebay seller and joining the Ebay auction elite.
The 5 essential secrets to Ebay auction selling success are:
1 Do Not Have An Auction Reserve Price – Ebay is removing this option from some of its sites which is a sign that you should follow suit. Ask yourself this. Why would you bid for a product that has a reserve price stuck on it? You would be bidding in the dark not knowing if the auction would actually result in a sale or not. Maybe the Ebay seller is just testing the market. You don’t know so make sure you don’t put a reserve price on your Ebay auctione as this will deter prospective bidders.
2 Keep The Starting Price Low – Why? It attracts interest, which attracts bids often at a much quicker pace which then builds momentum which can lead to an Ebay auction frenzy. Now would you like to experience that? Depending on the product, a starting price of .99 c has been proved to attract bidders very quickly. Even if the product is of high value, a low starting price can result in a flood of bids each pushing the bid price up. And remember, an Ebay auction of a product requires bids to be success. If a potential bidder sees that the item already has bids they will probably be more likely to bid themselves.
3 The Important Ebay About Me Page – You should see this as the opportunity to sell yourself, gain credibility so any potential bidder will feel secure and can trust you. Ask yourself, would you bid on an Ebay auction where the seller had no profile, no details, you knew nothing about them? You probably would not and move on to someone you can trust. You need to include details about you and your business, how long have you been registered on Ebay, where you are situated, specialisations etc.
4 Ebay Feedback – As Ebay is impersonal, any details that will give the potential bidder comfort should be made available. It is prudent if you leave feedback for the winning bidder as soon as the item has been paid for. This shows that you are on the ball and wanting to here the winning bidders comments whether they are positive or negative. Negative feedback need not be damaging. Ensure that you act on it fast and even if there is negative comment on your feedback, potential Ebay auction bidders will see that this is far outweighed by all the positive comments.
5 Ebay Shipping – You shipping costs must not be another income stream for you. Overpricing is against Ebay policy and you will be found out. Ensure if you are charging shipping that the cost is clearly stated within the item listing. Would you like to win a bid only then to find out that there is a large shipping charge which appears excessive? Avoid these two issues.
In order for you to distinguish and separate yourself from the vast majority of Ebay auction sellers and power yourself into the Ebay elite, these secrets are essential for your success. And once you achieve a reputation as an Ebay auction elite, the potential to make very large sums of money selling on Ebay will be freely available to you.
Online Retail is booming even in the current economic climate
posted by Web_University @ 8:00 AM
Saturday, January 29, 2011
Online Retail is booming even in the current economic climate
Online retail is booming, even in the current economic climate, and has been growing significantly year after year for the past 6 years. However the online shopping landscape is changing, with declining customer loyalty; larger retailers focusing on price alone, severe price competition, the increase in cost comparison web sites and multibrand synergies.
Similarly consumers shopping behaviors are constantly evolving, with consumers now normally researching prior to purchases on multiple sites, often referring to comparison sites, and using search features within sites when looking for specific products. Sites must no longer just offer the best value for money (including price, service, mix of products, etc.), but they have to offer an exceptional user experience, which engages the consumer.
* So what are today’s online consumers looking for?
Price is the most important factors for the majority of consumers. To ‘catch’ these consumers, key web pages have to stress savings, but just ‘shouting’ about the price is not enough, consumers must be able to find what they are looking for, once on a site, with ease. And they must feel that the site is providing the right type of product information.
Research conducted by fhios has continually shown that consumers look for the following ‘reassurances’ when deciding to buy from an online retailer. These are listed from most important:
- That they are saving money or have value for money
- Free shipping, rebates/coupons, sales, etc.
- Privacy policies and guarantees, particularly early in the check-out process
- Order tracking
- Customer ratings and reviews
- Customer service, including live help, in-store returns, etc.
- Email alerts on promotions and offers
Interestingly, this prioritized list of ‘reassurances’ does change when considering ‘loyal’ consumers; once a relationship has been built between the consumer and the retailer some of the ‘reassurances’ are taken for guaranteed and other factors become more important. We have observed that customer ratings and customer satisfaction, as well as alerts are far more important for ‘loyal’ customers.
So in a changing online retail environment, there is the contradiction between ‘price hunters’ and ‘loyal followers’. To turn the ‘price hunters’ into ‘loyal followers’ is about ticking the primary needs of the consumer, and then ensuring the online experience goes beyond their expectations by building in loyalty programs to keep them interested.
To create an effective loyalty program, retailers need some kind of discount to lure customers into the program, but then they also need to create other means of locking the customers in (ensuring long-term loyalty) once they are part of the program. Retailers create these switching costs by moving beyond discounts to delivering an array of targeted benefits and services to their loyalty program members. Here are some guidelines we recommend to retailers:
- Provide benefits that appeal to each targeted group’s unique needs and desires.
- Focus on rewarding desired changes in behaviour, not just giving member’s benefits for taking actions they would have taken anyway.
- Encourage members to unify their purchases by offering increasingly valuable rewards the more they spend.
- Offer rewards that are cost-effective and provide both immediate and inspirational incentives.
- Influence customers at multiple points in their purchase decision-making cycle (for example, at home, when they enter the store, while shopping online, etc.)
Different consumer segments will respond differently to different types of rewards, it is just a matter of identifying the needs of the individual customer groups and focusing the loyalty program for that group.
Loyalty programs have much to offer retailers in terms of increased customer insight, improved reputation, brand equity, etc, as well as decreasing price competition, increasing customer retention, decreasing marketing costs and allows a more comprehensive understanding of the customer.
Know eBay’s Different Auction Types
Over the years, eBay has introduced all sorts of different auction types, in an effort to give people more options when they buy and sell their things on eBay.
For every seller who doesn’t like the idea that their item might sell for a far lower price than they intend, there’s another who wants to shift hundreds of the same item quickly. eBay tries to cater to all tastes. This email gives you an overview of the different kinds of auctions and their advantages for you.
* Normal Auctions
These are the bread-and-butter of eBay, the auctions everyone knows: buyers bid, others outbid them, they bid again, and the winner gets the item. Simple.
* Reserve Auctions
Reserve auctions are for sellers who don’t want their items to sell for less than a certain price – a concept you’ll know about if you’re familiar with real auctions. They work just like normal auctions on eBay, except that the buyer will be told if their bid does not meet the reserve price you set, and they’ll need to bid again if they want the item. If no-one is willing to meet your price, then the auction is cancelled, and you keep the item.
* Fixed Price (’Buy it Now’) Auctions
Buy it Now auctions can work in one of two ways. You can add a Buy it Now button to a normal auction, meaning that buyers can choose either to bid normally or to simply pay the asking price and avoid the whole bidding process. Some sellers, though, now cut out the auction process altogether and simply list all their items at fixed price. This lets you avoid all the complications of the auction format and simply list your items for how much you want them to sell for.
Recently, eBay added a twist to fixed price auctions: the ‘best offer’. This means that buyers can contact you to negotiate a price, which could be a good way to get sell some extra stock at a small discount. The only downside to reserve and fixed price auctions is that you pay a small extra fee to use these formats. In general, it is more worth using reserve auctions for higher-priced items and fixed price auctions for lower-priced ones – but remembers that you can combine the two formats.
* Multiple Item (’Dutch’) Auctions
These are auctions where you can sell more than one of a certain item. Dutch auctions can be done by bidding. Buyers bid a price and say how many items they want, and then everyone pays the lowest price that was bid by one of the winning bidders. If you have trouble getting your head around that then doesn’t worry – everyone else does too! These auctions are very rare.
What is more common is when a seller has a lot of one item, and lists it using a combination of two auction types: a multiple-item fixed price auction. This just means that you can just say how many of the item you they have, and offer them at a fixed price per unit. Buyers can enter how many they want and then just click Buy it Now to get them.
Now that you know about the different types of auctions, you should make sure that the items you plan to sell don’t violate eBay’s listing policies.
How to Supercharge Your Selling Online
posted by Web_University @ 8:00 AM
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
How to Supercharge Your Selling Online
The Internet has changed the way we do business, and the way we do marketing. Ten years ago, it was enough to have a print ad in the Yellow Pages and a quick radio spot to spread the word about your business. Now there are new ways to market your business on the Web, and they\’re wonderfully cost-efficient.
The internet is such a huge market place. People from all points of the globe are going online on a daily basis looking for products to buy. This huge demand has prompted a lot of marketers to take their business on the World Wide Web. Are you one of them?
Whether you are selling your own products or promoting affiliate products, it is very important that you know the elements and the tools that you need to use in order to secure great sales potential in the online arena.
Here\’s how you can sell more over the internet:
1. The first thing that you need to do is to create your own website
No matter how good you are and no matter how great your products are, people will not possibly take you seriously if you don\’t have your own place over the internet. Hire a professional web designer to create an ecommerce website for you where you can showcase your products and services. Ensure that your website is easy to navigate, secure, and loaded with valuable information that are closely related to your offerings and to your chosen niche.
2. Drive traffic to your website
Think of your website as a shopping mall. You will need to attract people to give it a visit before you can actually make a sale. Use different traffic-generating tools that can help you drive interested people to your website. You can promote your website on relevant forums, blogs, discussion boards, and social networking sites (Facebook, MySpace, etc.). You can also use article marketing and various link building campaigns that can make your website highly valuable to the eyes of various search engines.
3. Promote your products
Promote product awareness by properly advertising your offerings online. For this, you can use PPC advertising, search engine marketing, paid links, banner ads, ezine publishing, email marketing, etc. Since promoting your products using all available tools can be exhausting and time-consuming, you may opt to hire professional internet marketers to help you out. You will need to share a certain percentage of your earnings with these people in exchange of their services.
4. Take good care of your customers
As they say, the most effective advertising strategy is word-of-mouth advertising. Ensure that you keep all your customers happy and satisfied through your products and through your customer service. By doing so, these people will surely recommend you to their friends and family members who might need your offerings.
How to Destroy Your eBay Business
Don’t be fooled. What you are about to discover could prevent your eBay business from failing. Reputation is everything when selling on ebay and when tarnished with the wrong type you will forever struggle to regain buyer’s confidence. Be very aware of the following and by ensuring you are never guilty of any of these, you have every chance for eBay success.
Untruths: If it does not work, don’t sell it. Don’t say it’s in perfect condition when it has a defect of any Lind. Honesty will be rewarded.
Your auctions end anytime: If your auction ends say during the middle of the night, how many potential bidders do you think will be around to create that bidding frenzy? How many will be around to ensure that they are the winner?. Ensure your eBay auction finishes at a “profitable” time.
Why would you ever sell rubbish?: If you would not be prepared to sell it elsewhere else, don’t expect a rush of bidders just because it is eBay. If you think that you can make good money selling anything that you can pick up then think again. EBay buyers are just as discerning as any other buyers. And they won’t buy rubbish either!
Never give discounts: Ever considered that a special deal might just seal a sale to a very happy and grateful customer that will make them return to your site to buy again. EBay is still like the real world, discounts and special deals are always good incentives to make sales. Don’t ignore their power.
Unattractive listings: The easiest way to make a potential bidder click the back button is to have your listing full of noise, clutter, colour, capital letters, wrong font. You get the answer. Just because it is eBay, does not mean you can be bold and brash with your listing. What listings are professional and successful? Look at them and copy their ideas.
Photos. Who needs them?: You do! Never, I repeat, never make an auction listing without the benefit of a photo of the item. All eBay Power Sellers use photos, so make sure you do to. As a customer, you will want to see the item that you are buying, so have the same atitude as a seller. And the more photos the better. Leave no question unanswered by the use of photos.
Only use a short description: Never think that a two line quick description shall do.The more information that you give the potential bidders, the more inclinded they will be to place a bid. EBay is all about giving as much information as possible so an informed decision can be made by the person as to whether they wish to bid or not. Never let a potential bidder click off because they did not have enough information on which to make a decision.
Ignore emails: A potential bidder may want to ask you a specific question about the item. This person could be the winning bidder; they may start what could turn into a bidding frenzy. You don’t know, so don’t restrict your opportunities by giving poor service by ignoring emails. If the customer does not receive a reply from you, how likely is is that they will bid?
Posting at your leisure: An ebay customer will remember, they will post bad feedback and your reputation will suffer all because your mailing of the itemjwas not efficiently dispatched. A last point, don’t overcharge on the posting. There is a fair post charge and there is a blatant money making postage charge. Don’t antagonise the customer, here is someone that is liable to buy from you again so treat them well and that will be rewarded.
Using Selling Manager To Boost Your eBay Home Business
posted by Web_University @ 8:00 AM
Sunday, January 23, 2011
Using Selling Manager To Boost Your eBay Home Business
One of the wonderful things about eBay is that they offer a wide variety of different tools to help sellers generate more business. One of the more popular tools that eBay offers its sellers in the eBay Selling Manager, which is a sales management tool that can help you manage your auctions more efficiently. eBay also offers a more inclusive version of their selling tool, called Selling Manager Pro. Both of these tools do come with a low monthly fee that is added to your eBay statement, unless you run an eBay store, in which case it is free.
Deciding which version of the eBay selling tool you need can be tough. To start out, go for the basic package. You can always upgrade if you find you need to later. At the present time, the basic version is only $4.99 per month, so it won’t put a big dent in your budget. If you have a small to medium amount of sales to manage per month, this is all you need. You also get a 30 day free trial with the basic version, so if you decide it’s not right for you and your business needs, you can cancel before your trial is up and not waste any money.
The Pro version offers more tools for higher volumes of sales. If you have a large inventory to manage, the Pro version is probably a better choice for your business. At the moment, the pro version is just $14.99 per month, and it also offers a 30 days free trial. The basic Selling Manager is also free for basic store subscribers, and the Selling Manager Pro tool is available for free to those with a premium or anchored store.
Both tools have software that needs to be downloaded to be utilized. Both software programs support just about any operating system, so you shouldn’t have a problem with compatibility issues. Once the software is downloaded, your eBay selling links will automatically be replaced with your Selling Manager links, making it easy to use the selling tool with your current selling methods.
The software makes it easy to list and re-list your auctions, view scheduled listings, sold items, and closed auctions. You can track your sales, sent bulk invoices and e-mails to customers, and easily leave feedback for all of your buyers using the software. For record keeping purposes, the Selling Manager also lets you download or import your sale information to your computer or into a new Excel spreadsheet, making it easy to track your sales for tax purposes, or for your bookkeeping needs.
The Selling Manager can make boring and tedious tasks quick and easy to manage. You can keep track of your auctions with ease, and stay in contact with your buyers with the click of a button. This eBay tool makes it simple to manage your eBay home business right from your computer without needing to log into eBay, and can boost your efficiency, working like a dedicated employee for you around the clock
On eBay, Pricing Is Key To Selling Your Items
posted by Web_University @ 8:00 AM
Saturday, January 22, 2011
On eBay, Pricing Is Key To Selling Your Items
Pricing your items that you want to list on eBay can be difficult for those who have never done it before. List your items too high, and you won’t receive any bidders. List your items too low, however, and you run the risk of not making money – or worse, landing yourself in the negative. If you consistently price your items incorrectly, you can find yourself with little to no business, or owing money at the end of the day. Pricing your items correctly from the get go can severely cut down on how often this happens.
When you have done your research and know what items are popular on eBay, you should know what items you are looking for and their average selling costs. If not, you need to look up the most popular items on eBay by category, narrow down the products that you are interested in selling, and figure out what the average final selling price for each item you are interested in is. When you have a general idea, then you can start looking for where to purchase the item.
Purchasing items to resell on eBay can be tricky. You don’t want to spend too much money up front and risk having overstock that doesn’t sell, but you also don’t want to spend more money on each item by buying less at a time, leaving you a smaller margin of profit. The best route to go is to find an item you want to sell going for at least half the price of what you want to sell it at. This gives you plenty of wiggle room to make money, without setting your starting bid to high.
When you list your items on eBay, list them as low as possible for you to break even. This includes your final value fee, your listing fee, and your shipping costs, along with the total price you paid for one item. If the item you are selling cost you $50, and additional costs, including eBay fees, totals $10, then the absolute lowest starting price for your item should be $60. This way, if only one person bids, you will at least break even on the transaction.
If you are feeling a bit risky, you may even want to list your item slightly lower than what your total costs for it are. Starting your bid lower than the other bids for the same item on eBay can get you more hits, and in turn, more bids. Many sellers often balk at the idea of setting their starting bid too low, but really, these are the sellers who probably see the most money for their auctions. Buyers are drawn to what they think is a deal, and once they get caught in a bidding war, there’s no telling how high the final price could soar.
Be cautious not to set your starting bid too high, or you could effectively drive away potential bidders. Bids that start close to what the final price of the item should be, or bids that are significantly higher than the starting bids for the same items from other sellers, are far more likely to be passed over with no bids.
Cancelling A Listing On eBay
When you are running your own home business on eBay, you may find occasionally that you’ve listed something in error, or someone wants you to split an auction, so you need to cancel a current listing you are running. Cancelling a listing is easy, it’s perfectly okay to do on eBay. There are some things to know before you start, however.
Cancelling a listing is not necessary if you simply need to make changes to your current auction. Simply go in and edit the erroneous information, and it should be updated immediately. If you are making a drastic change, however, you must have no bidders on your auction to do so.
Cancelling an auction simply because the bidding price is not high enough is against eBay’s terms of service, and can get you suspended or banned from eBay if you do so.
If you need to cancel your eBay auction listing, log into your account on eBay. Visit your selling section, and you will see a current list of all the items you are currently selling, both active and inactive. Find the listing that you need to cancel, and copy the item number of that listing. Visit “Related Links,” and choose “More.” You’ll see an option for ending your listing early; this is where to input your auction number.
If your listing currently has bids when you want to cancel it, you have the choice to either cancel all of the existing bids, or award the item to the highest bidder. If you have decided to cancel all of your bids, or you had no bids before cancelling the item, you will then need to explain to eBay why you are cancelling the auction. After you submit this information, the listing will be cancelled.
Reasons for cancelling your eBay auction may include restructuring a listing for a potential buyer – for instance, if you have multiple items in one listing, and a buyer only wants to purchase one of the items, you may want to “split” the auction for them and create a new listing so that they can purchase the single item. There is no guarantee that the buyer will bid and purchase the item, however, so exercise caution, because the potential buyer is not required to bid solely because you created a special auction for them. You may also want to end the listing early to award the item to the highest bidder if you have reached the price you were hoping for, and want to hurry up and ship out the item.
It is also important to note that eBay does not refund the listing fee for cancelled auctions. While you won’t have to pay a final value fee – unless you award the auction to the highest bidder at the time of cancellation – you still have to pay the original fee that you were charged when you listed the item. This is usually very small, but for larger auctions, this may be something to consider before cancelling an auction if you don’t want to lose a lot of money.
How To Make Your eBay Business Seem More Reputable
posted by Web_University @ 8:00 AM
Thursday, January 20, 2011
How To Make Your eBay Business Seem More Reputable
Your home business on eBay depends on your reputation. Without a good reputation, you’ve got nothing. Your buyers don’t know who you are, they don’t know if they can trust you, and you won’t drum up much business. But when you are just starting out on eBay, building up a good reputation can be tough. It’s a bit of a catch-22: without a reputation, you won’t make any sales, but without any sales, you won’t build up a good reputation. So what can you do to make your eBay home business seem more reputable?
When you are just starting as a seller on eBay, the easiest, and perhaps most surprising way, to build up a good reputation is actually by buying. Starting out as a buyer not only gives you a great way to build up your positive feedback, it helps you better understand the buyer process. When you understand how the buying process works, you can offer your customers better service as a seller.
To get started as a buyer, you don’t have to spend a lot of money. Purchase the things you would normally need to purchase on eBay instead of going to the store. Spending money you would have had to spend anyway won’t leave you in the negative. You can also bid on some cheap auctions to build up your feedback. One you have received the item, be sure to leave positive feedback for the seller to illicit a response. If you don’t receive one after a few days, you can always contact the seller to explain you are trying to build up your feedback so you can start selling. Since they have also been in your position at one point in time, they are likely to return the favor.
Once you have a good, solid list of positive feedbacks under your belt, you can focus your attention on building your customer service policy. Offering your buyers a generous return policy, if only during the start up of your business, can help gain potential customers’ trust. Offer to accept returns within a certain about of time with no questions asked, for a full refund. This will help your customers feel much better about their purchase, if they know they can return it with no hassle if they discover they have a problem with the item.
Work hard to keep your positive feedback up. You can do this by leaving feedback as soon as you know the buyer has received their item, to boost your chances of receiving reciprocal feedback. Give your customers no reason to leave you anything but positive feedback by going the extra mile: offer your contact information directly on your auctions for customers to reach you with questions, and try to add something extra with your own personal touch to each package you send out. As your customers see how far you go to make them happy, they’ll not only leave you positive feedback, they’ll be more than glad to spread the word about your eBay business. A happy customer is the most reputable form of marketing you can receive, so strive to impress every buyer you get, and you’ll see your eBay home business take off in no time.
How to Supercharge Your Selling Online
posted by Web_University @ 8:00 AM
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
How to Supercharge Your Selling Online
The Internet has changed the way we do business, and the way we do marketing. Ten years ago, it was enough to have a print ad in the Yellow Pages and a quick radio spot to spread the word about your business. Now there are new ways to market your business on the Web, and they’re wonderfully cost-efficient.
The internet is such a huge market place. People from all points of the globe are going online on a daily basis looking for products to buy. This huge demand has prompted a lot of marketers to take their business on the World Wide Web. Are you one of them?
Whether you are selling your own products or promoting affiliate products, it is very important that you know the elements and the tools that you need to use in order to secure great sales potential in the online arena.
Here’s how you can sell more over the internet:
1. The first thing that you need to do is to create your own website
No matter how good you are and no matter how great your products are, people will not possibly take you seriously if you don’t have your own place over the internet. Hire a professional web designer to create an ecommerce website for you where you can showcase your products and services. Ensure that your website is easy to navigate, secure, and loaded with valuable information that are closely related to your offerings and to your chosen niche.
2. Drive traffic to your website
Think of your website as a shopping mall. You will need to attract people to give it a visit before you can actually make a sale. Use different traffic-generating tools that can help you drive interested people to your website. You can promote your website on relevant forums, blogs, discussion boards, and social networking sites (Facebook, MySpace, etc.). You can also use article marketing and various link building campaigns that can make your website highly valuable to the eyes of various search engines.
3. Promote your products
Promote product awareness by properly advertising your offerings online. For this, you can use PPC advertising, search engine marketing, paid links, banner ads, ezine publishing, email marketing, etc. Since promoting your products using all available tools can be exhausting and time-consuming, you may opt to hire professional internet marketers to help you out. You will need to share a certain percentage of your earnings with these people in exchange of their services.
4. Take good care of your customers
As they say, the most effective advertising strategy is word-of-mouth advertising. Ensure that you keep all your customers happy and satisfied through your products and through your customer service. By doing so, these people will surely recommend you to their friends and family members who might need your offerings.
3 Tips to Avoid Liability For Actions of Your Online Resellers
posted by Web_University @ 8:00 AM
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
3 Tips to Avoid Liability For Actions of Your Online Resellers
Recent case law confirms once again: if online agreements are presented properly to end-users, they’re legally enforceable.
This continuing trend is good news for websites that contract with registered users though SaaS Agreements, Membership Agreements, Subscription Agreements, Terms of Sale, Content License Agreements, and the like.
Why? Among other things, this means that important legal disclaimers and limitations of liability are legally enforceable.
But what about liability exposure arising out of customer contracts entered into by your resellers? Are you liable for actions of your resellers?
* The Direct Revenue Case
In the case of People v. Direct Revenue, the New York Attorney General in 2008 attempted to nail Direct Revenue for its distribution of software that served pop-up advertising software on consumers’ computers.
Direct Revenue is in the advertising business. It’s software client serves pop-up advertisements to consumer’s computer screens through the Internet. Direct Revenue does not charge fees to consumers. Instead, it charges fees to the companies whose products it advertises.
It’s interesting to note that one line of attack by the New York Attorney General focused on Direct Revenue’s “click-wrapped” (where the user clicks on “I ACCEPT”) end user license agreement (EULA) and Direct Revenue’s alleged deceptive and illegal practices. The court granted Direct Revenue’s motion to dismiss the claims noting that sufficient disclosure was given in the EULA, and the required elements for an enforceable agreement were followed.
Having failed with its first line of attack, New York’s additional line of attack focused on the customer agreements of Direct Revenue’s resellers in an attempt to hold Direct Revenue liable. The result was the same as with the EULA — Direct Revenue was held not liable.
New York conceded that Direct Revenue’s resellers were independent contractors rather than agents. Generally, a principal is not liable for acts of an independent contractor due to the lack of control over how the contractor’s work is performed. In addition, the court noted that Direct Revenue’s software distribution agreement required its distributors to obtain consent of consumers consistent with the EULA and prohibited distributors from holding themselves out as agents of Direct Revenue.
New York argued that Direct Revenue should be liable because it’s servers interacted with the consumers’ computers in the software installation process. The court pointed out that participation in installation was not enough for liability in the absence of participation in deceptive conduct that induced the installation.
Finally, New York argued that Direct Revenue should be held liable for the actions of its resellers on the ground that Direct Revenue ratified the conduct of its resellers. The court ruled that mere knowledge of consumer complaints was insufficient to impose liability on Direct Revenue, especially in light of the fact that when Direct Revenue had actual knowledge of a reseller misconduct, it took steps to remedy the problem.
* 3 Tips To Avoid Liability For Actions of Resellers
Potential liability for acts of online resellers is a major concern of ecommerce businesses which use reseller networks.
The Direct Revenue case teaches us that ecommerce sites may not be held liable for actions of their resellers if these 3 tips are followed:
1. If you transfer anything to a user’s computer, require your resellers to obtain consent of end-users consistent with your EULA – this means consent in clear and easy-to-understand (not deceptive) terms,
2. Prohibit your resellers from holding themselves out as your agents, and
3. If a reseller does engage in misconduct, take affirmative steps to deal with the situation, including termination, if warranted (particularly if the reseller’s actions tend to indicate an agency relationship).
These 3 tips won’t guarantee that you have no exposure, but they’ll go a long way to protecting you from liability for actions of your resellers.
7 ecommerce strategies for standing out in a digital world
posted by Web_University @ 8:00 AM
Monday, January 17, 2011
7 ecommerce strategies for standing out in a digital world
Even in a dismal economy internet sales are growing. As people become more confident with ecommerce transactions and savvy with search, selling online just makes good business sense. The drawback is that more and more businesses are vying for a piece of the pie. As your customer reach expands so does the level of competition. The internet is gigantic and your customers are an impatient bunch.
Be unique or go home
That is why it is so important for web marketplaces and ecommerce stores to differentiate themselves from the crowd. It’s no longer sufficient to declare you have the best prices or selection, because the fact is, your visitors can compare these statements faster than you can spell them out on the page. The good news it that technology and creativity now make it easier than ever for small web stores to offer a shopping experience second to none.
Here are 7 ecommerce strategies for standing out in a digital world.
1. Use expanded descriptions, multiple product views to convey the real value of your products. You wouldn’t nail down shirts in a clothing store so why would you only offer one view of your products? This doesn’t have to use elaborate or expensive technology, multiple views, close-ups and live use photos can provide a lot of information other stores don’t bother to share.
2. Invite customer opinion with customer product reviews and real life testimonials. Consider adding customer comments as audio clips. Adding customers audio testimonials can be a simple as taping a phone conversation. (With permission of course) Using audio clips is simple, inexpensive and does not require technical expertise or expensive online tools. By itself an audio testimonial may not make the sale but it is a very effective tipping tool, helping to nudge reticent buyers over their hesitation and into a sale.
3. Offer relevant information that doesn’t sell. You heard me right, give people information for free without trying to sell them anything. Remember that the main reason people are online is to get information -period. That is the primary goal especially before they buy. Statistics show that the longer people stay on your website the more likely they are to buy from your store (even if they decide to buy at a brick and mortar store) Use an irresistible giveaway to capture emails of people not yet ready to buy and use your content to keep them engaged until they are ready.
You can write articles, give teleclasses, offer whitepapers, provide downloads, share interviews, recipes or helpful hints. Make sure the information is informative, entertaining and relevant to your customers rather than a veiled attempt to sell. People can smell hype a mile away and this is the kiss of death online. Always remember your competitors are only a click away.
4. Get into video. A brief welcome message that shares your value proposition can give s a call to action can engage visitors and move them down the buying path. Use videos to educate your visitors on product uses or assembly. Create a short comparing product features or demonstrate the product in use. Keep your videos short (under 3 minutes) and clear. Host your videos on public sites like Viddler or Youtube and post them on your website. Here are a few examples talking about connecting with your website visitors.
It might seem that video clips within product descriptions are a luxury but I foresee video product descriptions as being the norm within 5 years. According to Internet tracking firm comScore’s Video Metrix, Americans watched about 14.8 billion videos in January 2009, or roughly 101 videos per U.S. Internet user. Todays online shoppers are using alternate avenues like YouTube to research product. Get a jump on the competition by giving your online shoppers a bigger experience, not by lowering your prices.
5. Put a face on your store – people buy form people not computers. Yes they use the computer to do it but they want to know there are real people who will back up their purchases, especially with higher ticket items, or products they are not sure they need. This will become increasingly important in a slow economy because buyers are not as willing to risk a purchase if they feel their concerns will get lost in cyberspace.
Consider adding human pictures to your about us page. Include staff picks or reviews and encourage your employees to write on the blog, social media sites and to contribute articles. After all these are the people your virtual customers will interact with. Don’t hide behind a virtual storefront – don’t be afraid to let your customers get to know the people they are buying from.
6. Make sure your online store has a clear value proposition that speaks to your target market. This value statement must answer the question that is on your best customers mind; “Why should I buy form you over the other guys?” If your website cannot convey this critical piece of information then your visitors will definitely miss it. Your ideal customer should immediately recognize that they are in the perfect place when they land on your ecommerce site.
Many online stores resist crafting a clear value proposition that targets a particular type of customer for fear of alienating other visitors. Look at your statistics and you might see that you make most of your money from a niche group or groups. A clear value proposition targets these customers and tells them exactly why you are the best solution to their problem.
7. Use social media to establish relationships and get feedback. Believe it or not your customers are hanging out in communities online. No, you may not visit Facebook or Linked in but social media sites are doubling every year. They aren’t just for teenagers anymore. The purpose of social media sites is to share opinions and interests. Connect with target market through blogs, twitter, linked in, Facebook, Stumbleupon or any of the dozens of niche social media sites.
Your customers are having conversations with or without you so schedule in an hour a week to schmooze online. This is a way to make connections, not sales – keep it authentic , informative and reap the benefits of worldwide word of mouth referrals.
The way people buy has changed forever with internet ecommerce. The world is literally your marketplace and customers can live just about anywhere. Using just one of these suggestions could immediately increase your ecommerce store profits. Now imagine what implementing all 7 could do!
These simple ecommerce strategies can help your online store stand out in a digital world.
Your Shopping Cart Setup: How To Grease the Tube
How is your online shopping cart setup? Does it make the transition from interest to closing the sale slippery so the prospect just slides along and automatically hits the Pay button? Or are there catches along the way which frustrate the client so they end up abandoning the shopping cart?
It is obvious that ‘greasing the tube’ so the client effortlessly glides through the ordering and payment procedure can make a huge difference to your profits. If you just reduced shopping cart abandonment by 10-20%, what would that do for your business?
When thinking about your shopping cart setup, it’s always helpful to compare your online shopping process with your own personal offline shopping experience. When you select items in a shop and make your way to the Pay Desk, what things irritate you or would irritate you? Have you ever selected a number of items and then had to look around for the Pay Desk. If it is hidden in some corner and you go round for 10 minutes trying to find it you know how you feel by the time you get there.
What if the cashier delayed your check out by trying to offer you other items, even trying a hard sell approach? Some may not mind, but I suggest that the vast majority would prefer to just take their items straight to the check out, pay for them, and leave the store to get on to other business.
Is a potential customer’s mindset any different online? Not really. Most people see what they want, and then just want to pay for it, and move on.
With the offline shopping experience in mind, here is a list of key points to bear in mind when considering your online shopping cart setup:
1. If you have “Add to Cart” buttons by each product, be sure to include a “Check Out” button beside it so the customer can easily go and pay for whatever they have selected quickly.
2. Let the customer check out easily with trying to push extra products on them. This is not to say you can’t try an upsell arrangement, but it has to be done gently and discreetly. One main domain registrar I use, mainly their prices are low, does irritate me with the number of options and extra bells and whistles they try to thrust on you before you can check out. At times I have a problem finding the checkout button because the page is so loaded with offers. I find that annoying and frustrating. Perhaps you do to.
On the other hand, Amazon have mastered the art of discreet upselling. Along the bottom of the screen once you have made your selection they gently tell you that other customers who were interested in ‘this’, were also interested in ‘that’. When I buy on Amazon, I don’t get the pressured feeling I do on the domain registrar site. The whole upsell process is carefully and discreetly woven into the shopping cart setup.
3. Make it easy for your customers to change their order. Your shopping cart should provide the option to delete or change the quantity of any item at any time with a convenient button in the cart.
4. Reassure, reassure, and reassure the customer that their ordering information is secure. Briefly explain the security measures you have in place or put badges and certificates alongside that indicate the whole procedure is going through a secure connection.
5. Minimize the number of steps to the final Pay button and make the buttons clear. Don’t confuse the issue with gawdy graphics and unnecessary steps. It’s a good idea to count how many times the user has to hit the enter key or mouse button from the time they add an item to the cart, to the click on the Pay button which actually processes the transaction. Your aim should be to eliminate any unnecessary steps. So within 2 to 4 clicks, the whole thing is finished and the payment is in your account.
If you’ve ever enjoyed a day at a water park with the family and taken a ride down the water chute, you know once you take that first step over the edge, there is no going back! You are on your way. Likewise with your shopping cart setup. Be sure to grease the tube by making the payment process, clean, simple, and as effortless as possible.
Scrutinize every step, familiarize yourself with all your shopping cart setup features, and utilize them fully. Rather than throwing money at more advertising, why not re-examine your shopping cart setup and add to your profits considerably.
Make More Money With Reports and Bundles
posted by Web_University @ 8:00 AM
Saturday, January 15, 2011
Internet Shopping Cart: Make More Money With Reports and Bundles
Most internet shopping cart software packages come with a host of features. Make sure you familiarize yourself with the potential of your shopping cart. This article examines how to use reports and bundle offers so you don’t run the risk of leaving money on the table with each customer who engages the shopping cart process.
First off, let’s see how internet shopping cart reports can save you money and make you money.
Here are three examples:
a) Filter Sales By Customer
If your shopping cart software allows you to filter the database according to client, you will be able to see where most of your sales are coming from.
You need to extract from the report the volume of sales for each client so you can target this group of customers with special discounts for bulk orders or something similiar.
b) Filter Sales By Date
Use this feature to see if there are specific times in the year when sales volume dramatically increases. You may have a general idea and know which month(s) are the peak sales months.
However, by using a Sales By Date feature you can pinpoint specific times in the year you may not be aware of where sales volume is higher than normal, especially if those times are spread over just one or two weeks. Increase advertising dollars and promotions accordingly at those times and bring in even more sales.
c) Filter Sales By Credit Card
Do you know which credit cards most of your customers are using? Probably Visa or Mastercard. What about other credit cards such as Discover, American Express, Diner’s Club, Delta? What are your merchant account charges for those other cards?
By checking on Sales By Credit Card you will see whether it is economically viable to continue offering those cards as an option relative to the number of sales you get. If it’s not, drop the uneconomical ones and save money.
Surely this underscores the importance of getting internet shopping cart software that provides a robust reporting feature.
Now we will turn our attention to another way you can increase sales and make more money from your internet shopping cart. It involves bundle offers.
An internet shopping cart setup can learn much from the bricks and mortar world. The Happy Meal by McDonalds is an example. Travel agents do it with their package deals. What are we talking about?
Bundle offers or the upsell – an amazingly simple way to increase sales value and revenue yet so under-developed in many internet shopping carts.
Once a customer has already committed themselves to buying you simply add on related items and increase the value.
If for example you are selling exercise equipment, exercise clothing, or body care products could be put together with the original purchase at a discount price to make a Bundle Offer.
Good internet shopping cart software packages should have this feature included with simple setup instructions. Once the client gets to the page that reviews the contents of the shopping cart, the Bundle Offer can appear. The client can then add the bonus items with just one mouse click.
d) Push Without Being Pushy
Carefully choose the wording when describing the Bundle Offer to avoid coming over too pushy which may turn clients off. Don’t just make a slashed price offer. Be sure to emphasise the benefits to the user as well.
For example, “Enjoy a refreshing, invigorating shower after your workout with our exercise equipment, with the all natural, herbal shower gel (brand name). For an additional $x you can have a pack of 5 sent with your order.”
When choosing an internet shopping cart, make sure you have this facility so you don’t leave money on the table.
The beauty of this is that bundle offers don’t really require much extra effort yet they can produce substantial sales over the months. The customer is already in the buy mode, having committed to the first purchase. The second purchase is much easier!
My 7 Secrets Will Teach You How to Sell On eBay For Maximum Profits
posted by Web_University @ 8:00 AM
Friday, January 14, 2011
My 7 Secrets Will Teach You How to Sell On eBay For Maximum Profits
If you are looking to make money online to either supplement your current income or as a full time income, learning how to sell on eBay UK is by far the best place to start. This way, one of the hardest parts of running a successful online business has already been done for you. This is marketing. Driving potential customers to your products and making sales. Once you list your products ready to sell on eBay, you have the potential to attract millions of buyers from all over the world, not just from the UK. Worldwide, people spend more time on eBay than any other website!
Where else can you start an online business in just a few hours that allows you to attract immediate traffic to your products? Learn how to sell on eBay and you will find that this is a fantastic opportunity to make as much or as little money as you want. Whoever you are, you can learn how to sell on eBay and make money.
Here are 7 ‘How To Sell On eBay’ tips to help you:
How To Sell On eBay 1:
Your eBay listings must have a relevant title. This is extremely important when learning how to sell on eBay because if your title is not relevant and does not contain the right keywords relating to your product, then eBay buyers searching will not be able to find it. Include all the related keywords you can think of and don’t use up your limited title space with words that are not required.
How To Sell On eBay 2:
Write a detailed description. Make sure that your eBay listing includes all the important details about your product. This might include the size, colour, brand, model number, whether new or used, any special features etc. Highlight the good things about the product but don’t forget to mention if there are any flaws or faults with the item too, but make these less obvious. Learning how to sell on eBay includes being honest in your eBay listing description.
How To Sell On eBay 3:
Spell-check your listing. eBay buyers are put off by listings littered with spelling errors and it looks very unprofessional. When you are learning how to sell on eBay, thoroughly check before you submit your eBay listing and make sure that important points are bold.
How To Sell On eBay 4:
Use good quality photographs. People like to see before they buy. Use a good digital camera and take 2 or 3 photographs from different angles to use as your gallery picture and within your eBay listing. This will attract more bidders and buyers and will help you get more experience as you learn how to sell on eBay.
How To Sell On eBay 5:
Always answer questions from potential bidders. You will receive questions and queries from potential buyers. And you must remember that this is exactly what they are – POTENTIAL BUYERS. Always try and answer any questions that come through eBay messages, within 24 hours, sooner if you can, even if you feel that it’s a silly question. If you frequently receive the same question then post it to your eBay listing so that everyone can see it.
How To Sell On eBay 6:
Be polite and friendly. eBay buyers like friendliness and professionalism from eBay sellers. So, it’s best to be polite and enthusiastic when corresponding, but not too casual. Don’t use ‘text speak’ in your emails as this is very unprofessional, but show a good sense of humour, honesty and politeness.
How To Sell On eBay 7:
Dispatch goods promptly. eBay buyers do not like to be kept waiting! So, make it your business to dispatch all orders promptly, preferably within a couple of days maximum. This is good service and will ensure that you get positive feedback whilst you are still learning how to sell on eBay!
Learning How to Make Money Online
When you begin learning how to make money online you must first have goal. Without a clear goal in mind you will find it difficult to set targets, and without targets you will find it more difficult to make money. That is why all businesses have a gaol and set regular targets that are the subject of business plans.
It has often been said that a failure to plan is a plan to failure, and nothing could be truer. As a simple goal, decide how much money you want to make in your first year. You could be silly and decide on a million dollars, but you are unlikely to achieve that, so be realistic: say $75,000 in your first year.
You can then break that down into monthly amounts, starting small and increasing each month, which will give you the basis of your targets. You should then plan how to meet these monthly targets. That is a good sound basis of a strong business.
However, you now have the problem of how you are going to make that money. There is a large number of ways in which you can make money online, some of the most popular being|:
1. Creating your own product or service
Perhaps you have a skill or specialized knowledge that others will pay for. You might be a children’s entertainer or a hypnotherapist. Perhaps you can write en eBook about breeding dogs, or make a video series on maintaining your own car.
I know of one person that made a fortune by making series of short videos of how to carry out simple household maintenance tasks, such as changing an electrical plug, changing a tap or faucet washer, and even putting in a new sink and laying a carpet. A simple idea, yet something that had a massive customer base. Think of all those women living alone, or even guys that don’t know why a screwdriver has a flat end.
Think of what you are good at, or what you have knowledge of, and work out a way of packaging that knowledge or these skills in a way that would sell. I am a good writer, and make money online writing articles to help others to promote their websites.
2. Sell somebody else’s product
If you are unable to produce a product of your own, then sell somebody else’s. Everybody trying to learn how to make money online has heard of affiliate marketing, even if they don’t recognise the word. Affiliate marketing is selling a product for somebody else in return for a commission.
If that product can be delivered electronically – by email or downloaded – then that commission could be 50% or higher, since there is no replacement cost. Unlike a tub of vitamins, an eBook or software application doesn’t have to be produced again once it has been sold, so the vast majority of the selling price is profit. You can therefore be paid more for selling it. 50% is about minimum for such items, and some go as high as 75% or even 80%.
3. Others
Among other ways of making money online are multi-level marketing (MLM), where you recruit others to sell products for you, you receiving a commission on their sales, buying on eBay, and selling the same items for more than you paid for them, buying items in bulk when they are in high supply, and selling at a high price when they are scarce (e.g. certain toys at Christmas time), and many others.
Each of these ways of making money online has one thing in common: you have to learn how to go about it and how to promote whatever it is that you are doing. Even your eBay business has to be promoted by means of your ‘product description’.
Most businesses need a web presence, either as a traditional website or some other presence on the web such as a Squidoo lens or participation in social networking. They might also need software, and knowledge of how to use it, and knowledge of how to attract traffic – potential customers. Without customers, your business will fail.
This is where most people begin to fail. In fact 99 people out of every 100 that try to earn a living online fail. They fail for one of 4 reasons:
1. Lack of Planning
They did not have a clear objective in mind and did not plan properly. The started their business on shaky ground and looked on it as a hobby. They fell into one of the main traps of working at home: worked part-time, and took time off whenever they felt like it rather than set out the daily tasks needed to meet their targets and work until they were completed.
2. Lack of focus: Information Overload
They did not focus, and jumped from one program to another. They had too much information, and were unable to give any one method of making money online the time to work for them. They tried too much at one time and so failed in everything.
3. Lack of Perseverance
They gave up to soon. It takes time to build up a successful online business. Except for a very fortunate few, there is no ‘get rich quick scheme’. Making money online is hard work, and those that persevere tend to succeed. Most don’t!
4. Lack of Knowledge
This is the least reason for failure. There is no need for lack of knowledge in the internet age – everything you need to know is out there, yet many people try to do it themselves without getting the information they need. Learn from the work of others: do not reinvent the wheel. Trite, I know, but true nevertheless.
Use whatever training courses are available out there. It could be expensive, I know, but there are ways to learn all you need to know without spending a lot of money.
It is important that you do not fail for any one of the above reasons because they are all avoidable. It is a shame that so many dreams are shattered for a lack of planning, focus, commitment and perseverance, and a lack of knowledge. All are avoidable.
Choosing the Right Merchant Processor
posted by Web_University @ 8:00 AM
Thursday, December 23, 2010
Choosing the Right Merchant Processor: What to Look For?
Almost all the businesses today accept credit cards. If your business doesn’t then its high time it began accepting debit and credit cards, as they are being increasingly used by customers to make purchases on account of the convenience factor.
The credit card industry has revolutionized the way people make their payments and are constantly coming out with new innovations like cash-back bonuses, mileage credits, and numerous others to make them more acceptable for customers. Small, online business owners are circumspect about processing sale on a credit card, because they are unsure about choosing the right merchant processor.
Given below are a few tips that would help you select the right merchant processor. So without further ado here they are:
* Your Business Bank can be a Good Option
Your search for a good merchant processor can end with the bank you are doing business with. However, not all banks offer merchant services to start-ups or new businesses. The standard practice of most banks is to avoid offering merchant processor services to a business that has been in operation for less than a year.
However, if you can convince the bank, you can’t choose a safer merchant processor than where you do your business banking.
* Peer Referrals
Choose a merchant processor that your peers might refer to you. A peer might have been using the services of particular merchant processor company for a significant period of time, and hence can give you his feedback and enable you to make the correct choice.
* The Transaction Fee and Percentage
You will find that there is not a single transaction fee and percentage across all banks. The transaction fee and percentage for credit card purchases as well as debit card purchases differ from bank to bank. Do extensive research on the specific rates offered by each bank pertinent to specific cards like MasterCard, Visa, Discover, American Express etc.
At times various businesses come together through a trade association to negotiate rates with a merchant processor. Herein, the processor might just charge less, as compared to the existing market rates. Explore this opportunity to see if you can get some benefits.
* The Independent Sales Organizations
Try not to choose those merchant processors who act as an agent for an independent sales organization (ISO). Pick an ISO who works with major banks. You won’t go wrong there. Your local chamber of commerce might be able to help you out in this regard or the local board of trade.
* The Primary Bank
Choose a merchant processor who is associated with a big-time primary bank. This ensures good services and timely payments to your checking account, which is an absolutely must for any business.
* Track-record and Clientele
Find out how long your merchant processor has been in business. This should not be your only parameter of selection, but it does give you a good indication of what you can expect from the merchant processor. Moreover, it will be infinitely easier to work with a well-established merchant processor.
You must also try to get some idea about the clients who have formed an association with a particular merchant processor. The more the clients the better it will be. More importantly if the processors have some big clients up their sleeves, then the better for you.
* Contract Length
Most banks would ask you to sign a 3 year contract. If this is the case, then select the services of a bank that gives you good rates with respect to the time frame. Always try and choose the bank that offers you advantageous rates if it asks for a long term contract.
* Manual Processing of Cards
Choose a merchant processor who gives you an option to manually process the cards. This makes for a great convenience if you have a power cut.
* Customer Support
Your merchant processor must be known for its superior brand of customer support. The hours of operation must be commensurate with the hours of functioning of your business. You also might want to get in touch with your merchant processor at odd hours at times, in case of problems. Choose somebody by taking into account all these aspects.
We hope these pointers would enable you to choose a merchant processor who you can have a successful working association with. Study all your options thoroughly before making your choice.
Learning How to Make Money Online
When you begin learning how to make money online you must first have goal. Without a clear goal in mind you will find it difficult to set targets, and without targets you will find it more difficult to make money. That is why all businesses have a gaol and set regular targets that are the subject of business plans.
It has often been said that a failure to plan is a plan to failure, and nothing could be truer. As a simple goal, decide how much money you want to make in your first year. You could be silly and decide on a million dollars, but you are unlikely to achieve that, so be realistic: say $75,000 in your first year.
You can then break that down into monthly amounts, starting small and increasing each month, which will give you the basis of your targets. You should then plan how to meet these monthly targets. That is a good sound basis of a strong business.
However, you now have the problem of how you are going to make that money. There is a large number of ways in which you can make money online, some of the most popular being|:
1. Creating your own product or service
Perhaps you have a skill or specialized knowledge that others will pay for. You might be a children’s entertainer or a hypnotherapist. Perhaps you can write en eBook about breeding dogs, or make a video series on maintaining your own car.
I know of one person that made a fortune by making series of short videos of how to carry out simple household maintenance tasks, such as changing an electrical plug, changing a tap or faucet washer, and even putting in a new sink and laying a carpet. A simple idea, yet something that had a massive customer base. Think of all those women living alone, or even guys that don’t know why a screwdriver has a flat end.
Think of what you are good at, or what you have knowledge of, and work out a way of packaging that knowledge or these skills in a way that would sell. I am a good writer, and make money online writing articles to help others to promote their websites.
2. Sell somebody else’s product
If you are unable to produce a product of your own, then sell somebody else’s. Everybody trying to learn how to make money online has heard of affiliate marketing, even if they don’t recognise the word. Affiliate marketing is selling a product for somebody else in return for a commission.
If that product can be delivered electronically – by email or downloaded – then that commission could be 50% or higher, since there is no replacement cost. Unlike a tub of vitamins, an eBook or software application doesn’t have to be produced again once it has been sold, so the vast majority of the selling price is profit. You can therefore be paid more for selling it. 50% is about minimum for such items, and some go as high as 75% or even 80%.
3. Others
Among other ways of making money online are multi-level marketing (MLM), where you recruit others to sell products for you, you receiving a commission on their sales, buying on eBay, and selling the same items for more than you paid for them, buying items in bulk when they are in high supply, and selling at a high price when they are scarce (e.g. certain toys at Christmas time), and many others.
Each of these ways of making money online has one thing in common: you have to learn how to go about it and how to promote whatever it is that you are doing. Even your eBay business has to be promoted by means of your ‘product description’.
Most businesses need a web presence, either as a traditional website or some other presence on the web such as a Squidoo lens or participation in social networking. They might also need software, and knowledge of how to use it, and knowledge of how to attract traffic – potential customers. Without customers, your business will fail.
This is where most people begin to fail. In fact 99 people out of every 100 that try to earn a living online fail. They fail for one of 4 reasons:
1. Lack of Planning
They did not have a clear objective in mind and did not plan properly. The started their business on shaky ground and looked on it as a hobby. They fell into one of the main traps of working at home: worked part-time, and took time off whenever they felt like it rather than set out the daily tasks needed to meet their targets and work until they were completed.
2. Lack of focus: Information Overload
They did not focus, and jumped from one program to another. They had too much information, and were unable to give any one method of making money online the time to work for them. They tried too much at one time and so failed in everything.
3. Lack of Perseverance
They gave up to soon. It takes time to build up a successful online business. Except for a very fortunate few, there is no ‘get rich quick scheme’. Making money online is hard work, and those that persevere tend to succeed. Most don’t!
4. Lack of Knowledge
This is the least reason for failure. There is no need for lack of knowledge in the internet age – everything you need to know is out there, yet many people try to do it themselves without getting the information they need. Learn from the work of others: do not reinvent the wheel. Trite, I know, but true nevertheless.
Use whatever training courses are available out there. It could be expensive, I know, but there are ways to learn all you need to know without spending a lot of money.
It is important that you do not fail for any one of the above reasons because they are all avoidable. It is a shame that so many dreams are shattered for a lack of planning, focus, commitment and perseverance, and a lack of knowledge. All are avoidable.
Sell on eBay: How To Write Profitable Listings?
posted by Web_University @ 8:00 AM
Friday, November 19, 2010
Sell on eBay: How To Write Profitable Listings?
It is a simple fact that if you sell on eBay and receive only minimal views on your listings then the lower the bidding or amount of sales will be. It does not matter how detailed and professional your listings look, viewings are the key. And the key to increasing the number of viewings is research!
In order to research, you must first take a look at what other sellers, especially Powersellers of the same items, are doing. What keywords do they use? Which categories are they listing in? Do their listings trigger an emotional need so that the reader simply has to buy now? How many photographs do they have and what quality are these? Take a good hard look at how they sell on eBay to get ideas for your own listings.
When a potential buyer reads your listings, they are looking for good value. So, you must add value to your products. Adding value does not always mean giving something extra free or doing something to the actual product! You just need to achieve a perceived added value which will catch the reader’s attention when they look at your description. So added value could be something as simple as offering a no quibble 30 day money back guarantee. If your competitors who sell on eBay are not offering this then you have added value to your product. The same goes for your listing description – photographs add value, as do the benefits of the product.
Make sure that you write your description well and always include photographs – people like to see exactly what they are buying! It is important to remember when you to write your description in a friendly, informative manner, as though you are talking personally to the reader as this will encourage them to continue reading and arouse their interest.
If your product has lots of features and especially benefits, then make sure you include them in your listing. Do not drone on and on, but be clear and concise and tell the potential buyer exactly why they must buy your item right now.
To sell on eBay effectively, you need to invest some time into creating that added value as ultimately your listings will attract more views and sales. Bearing this in mind, there is nothing more off putting to a potential buyer than seeing a confusing listing before them! Not everyone is a technical whiz so where possible use simple layman’s terms in your description. Show all your Payment, Shipping and Dispatch Times so that they can be easily seen and understood so that buyers can work out total costs and approximate delivery dates at a glance.
If people feel at ease with your auction listing, then they are much more likely to bid or buy. So it is important when you sell on eBay that you are completely honest. If there happens to be a fault with a product, tell buyers what it is as this will show that you are not trying to mislead anyone. Really, the simple rule is to think about what you would like to know about the item if you were buying it, and then add all these thoughts to your description. Don’t miss bits out because if all the information is there in front of the potential bidder or buyer then they are more likely to bid or buy right now.
As your views and sales grow, you must encourage your bidders and buyers to look at your other listings because a big part of your eBay sales strategy is to get bidders to purchase more items from you. So, if you are selling a supplementary or complimentary item let your buyers know and highlight the fact that you offer combined postage if they purchase both items!
When you sell on eBay, your listings should be regarded as an opportunity to establish relationships with buyers. You then need to look after these buyers so that they come back to you time and again. Never think in one-off transactions, even if they do end up as a one-off, because your ebay income depends on customers to guarantee you success!
Use Coupons to Gain Customers & Create Conversions
posted by Web_University @ 8:00 AM
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
Use Coupons to Gain Customers & Create Conversions
With the current state of the world’s economy, people are routinely looking to do whatever they can in order to save money. People will go to lengths that they previously would not go to so they can save a buck. You can easily make yourself stand out from the competition by offering valuable coupons for your products and services.
Many owners and operators of companies large and small have a tendency to either forget about or overlook the use of coupons as a promotional and marketing tool. Coupons are often thought of as thing of the past, with memories of parents and grandparents huddled over a stack of newspapers, scissors in hand, searching for the next big bargain.
With the Internet becoming the modern marketplace and the slow death of the traditional newspaper, coupons have evolved beyond the print media. The online coupon has become a formidable method of promoting a business while simultaneously saving the cash-strapped general public some money and encouraging competition between businesses.
Coupons are a powerful way of branding and gaining publicity for a business. By highlighting sales and current promotions, you can drive quality traffic to your online store. Traffic originating from a coupon is the kind of traffic that leads to conversions and this is the type of traffic that an online storeowner needs to generate, especially in this current economy.
There are currently a number of coupon sites online and they are becoming increasingly popular. They make their money from selling ads on their sites because of the staggering amount of visitors that check out these sites in search of money-saving purchases. Since the websites are making their money by selling ad space, there are generally no charges or fees for businesses placing coupons on these sites. Not to mention, all of the stores that have coupons on these popular websites are receiving high quality backlinks to their site. This is a surefire way of building links, page rank and climbing up the SERPs (search engine results pages).
A smart coupon strategy is to create a coupon that directs visitors to your Clearance or Sale page where discounted goods are already listed. You do not even have to go out of your way to fabricate a special sale.
The use of coupons can be a highly successful method of promoting your online business. Coupons do not need to be thought of strictly in the traditional sense. There is a whole new market for modern coupons.
By not following these 5 points in your checklist, you are putting yourself at risk.
1. Copyright Notice. Check Your Copyright Notice. Your copyright notice consists of the following elements: the word “copyright” or copyright symbol (c in a circle) followed by the year of first publication followed by the name of the copyright owner.
24 Ways To Provide Amazing Satisfaction To Online Shoppers Part 2
posted by Luigi_M_Scollo @ 11:40 AM
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
I recently posted an article and reviewd how to find a need for the online shoppers. I even showed how there is a lot of ball-dropping. Fortunately, it can all be corrected to give yourself a leg up on the competition. Here are some more tips:
• Search is fundamental. Be there at every entry point possible.
• The landing page is crucial. You should have a landing page relevant to the search term.
24 Ways To Provide Amazing Satisfaction To Online Shoppers Part 1
posted by Luigi_M_Scollo @ 11:37 AM
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Three-quarters of online shoppers surveyed said website content is insufficient to complete research or purchase a product online always, most, or some of the time. Nearly 80 percent rarely or never purchase a product without complete information, and 72 percent will take off to a competitor that does supply that information.
It seems that consumers really want to buy online, but retailers aren’t making it easy for them. Sometimes, it seems like retailers go out of their way to lose customers.
Having a website that effectively communicates your image can be a rewarding and profitable experience if you follow five basic concepts:
1. Know you Audience, you can be proud of your site but remember, it’s the customer who buys. You are designing your website and logo for your customers, not for yourself. Your likes and dislikes may be similar to your clients’ likes and dislikes, but since they come first, your website and logo should reflect what they need and will respond to.
Your competitors customers know, like, and trust them. With their prices so much higher than yours, why aren’t they coming to you? Simple, your not doing the things right to get them to know, like and trust you.
In this century, any illusions you still entertain about controlling the customer relationship need to be removed. So here’s how we’re going to improve your company blogging today…
Still feeling a little frustrated getting started on E-Bay? Don’t feel too bad, recent changes like “Detailed Seller Ratings (DSR)” and “discounts for sellers,” have made it challenging for even the experienced sellers.
To some, the changes didn’t sound like anything to be concerned about, but some saw through the plan and noticed other phrases in there, like “removal of bad feedback for buyers” and saw the potential for smaller businesses to be shut out. This is a notion we are seeing proven accurate months later.
Today, I`m going to give you IRRESISTIBLE EMAIL SUBJECT LINES that have proven their ability to grab attention, and then transform attention into interest, and interest into desire.
You can copy some of them exactly and use others as
templates for your email marketing campaigns. If you`re
feel extra creative, you can use these tested subject lines to light the fire under of your email marketing campaigns.
Here are 8 points you NEED to know to have success in emailing campaigns.
Point 1, Know your audience
Before you sit down to write your email sales letter, you`ve got to determine exactly who your audience is. This is a
master key to getting results from email marketing, knowing what appeals to your target market.
Point 2, Get the emails opened with great subject lines
Before an email can generate results, recipients need to open it. But what can you do to spark their interest and get their interest “motor” revved up? The SUBJECT LINE.
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