Realistic Expectations for your Ecommerce Website

More often than not when I’m speaking with a budding ecommerce website owner there is this expectation that; “If I build it customers will come flocking to my website and give me their money”.

I’ve actually heard people say close variations of this, which is far from the truth. The Field of Dreams was a baseball field, not a website and I’m sorry but you’re not Kevin Costner, oh and by the way, you’re not in a movie!

Ecommerce takes work, plain and simple. Whether you’re selling speaking and coaching services, t-shirts or a variety of widgets you have to get people to your website in order for them to make a purchase. The simple tenants of ecommerce are often overlooked for businesses looking to set up shop online. So, what can be done to help align your expectations with reality?

Last week we wrote about website concepts, you can check that out here. We’ll skip that and jump to the next most important part; marketing. If you’re not able to get people to your website, it’s not possible for them to pay you. Pretty simple right? So let’s address a couple common mistakes:

Don’t Put all your Eggs in One Basket

Many times people will come to me saying that their entire marketing budget was spent on SEO, SEM or social media, banner adds or some other form of marketing and it did not work for some reason and they don’t know why. Unless you know for sure that a certain online marketing tool will not only get people to your site but convert them into a customer, it’s best when starting out to use a multitude of marketing channels to generate traffic to your business. You’ll have less stake in each form of marketing so if one channel is a complete failure, the resources can be reallocated to another channel that’s actually working. Which leads us to our next point…

Test your Marketing to see What Works

While I have a bias in this area because of my love of analytical data and background background, testing different marketing channels and even different processes within each channel is the best way to develop successful online marketing. By using the common analytical tools available (many will come standard with the marketing services you’re using, and always contact customer support if you have questions about how or what is important to look at within the analytics) you’ll be able to determine how successful each channel is for your specific business.

Leverage Existing Clients

One of the most often neglected elements of ecommerce when a small and medium size business is moving online is further developing their existing customers to online shoppers. Especially for those businesses which have been around for a couple years and have a solid foundation of clients, leveraging those customers should be your first step in moving online. Tell every customer that comes into your store that they are able to buy the same product online. Give them discounts for buying online and helping build your online profile. In our world today social connections and word of mouth happens online at amazing speeds, and the best part is most people love to talk about businesses that do well. So leverage these customers to help smooth out the rough edges of operating online.

We’d love to hear how this works for your business, or if you have feedback. Let us know, and if you have any questions don’t hesitate to contact us.