E-Commerce and the Entrepreneur

1. E-Commerce and the Entrepreneur The internet remains a place where you can start with nothing and soon challenge the gods. -Mark DiMassimo

2. Benefits of Selling on the Web • The opportunity to increase revenues and profits. • The ability to expand their reach into global markets. • The ability to remain open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. • The capacity to use the web’s interactive nature to enhance customer service. • The power to educate and to inform. • The ability to lower the cost of doing business. • The ability to spot new business opportunities and to capitalize on them. • The ability to grow faster. • The power to track sales results.

4. Factors to Consider before Launching into E-Commerce • How a company exploits the web’s interconnectivity and the opportunities it creates to transform relationships with its suppliers and vendors, its customers, and other external stakeholders is crucial to its success. • Web success requires a company to develop a plan for integrating the web into its overall strategy. • Developing deep, lasting relationships with customers takes on even greater importance on the web. • Creating a meaningful presence on the web requires an ongoing investment of resources-time, money, energy, and talent • Measuring the success of its web-based sales effort is essential if a company is to remain relevant to customers whose tastes, needs, and preferences are always changing.

5. Factors to Consider before Launching into E-Commerce (cont’d) • What exactly do you expect a web site to do for your company? • How much can you afford to invest in an e-commerce effort? • What rate of return do you expect to earn on that investment? • How long can you afford to wait for that return? • How well suited are your products and services for selling on the web? • How will the “back office” of your web site work? • How will you handle order fulfillment?

6. Factors to Consider before Launching into E-Commerce (cont’d) • What impact, if any, will your web site have on your company’s traditional channels of distribution? • What mechanism will your site use to ensure secure customer transactions? • How will your company handle customer service for the site? • How do you plan to promote the site to draw traffic to it? • What information will you collect from the visitors to your site? • Have you developed a privacy policy? • Have you tested your site with real, live customers to make sure that it is easy to navigate and easy to order from? • How will you measure the success of your company’s web site?

7. Twelve Myths of E-Commerce • Setting up a business on the web is easy and inexpensive • If I launch a site, customers will flock to it • Making money on the web is easy • Privacy is not an important issue on the web • The most important part of any e-commerce effort is technology • “Strategy? I don’t need a strategy to sell on the web! Just give me a web site, and the rest will take care of itself” • On the web, customer service is not as important as it is in a traditional retail store • Flash makes a web site better • It’s what’s up front that counts • E-commerce will cause brick-and-mortar retail stores to disappear • The greatest opportunities for e-commerce lie in the retail store • It’s too late to get on the web

8. Strategies for E-Success • Focus on a Niche in the Market • Develop a Community • Attract Visitors by Giving Away “Freebies” • Make Creative Use of E-mail, but Avoid Becoming a Spammer • Make Sure Your Web Site Says “Credibility” • Consider Forming Strategic Alliances • Make the Most of the Web’s Global Reach • Promote Your Web Site Online and Offline • Develop an Effective Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Strategy

10. Designing a Killer Web Site • Understanding Your Target Customer • Give Customers What They Want • Select an Intuitive Domain Name • Make Your Web Site Easy to Navigate • Create a Gift Idea Center • Build Loyalty by Giving Online Customers a Reason to Return to Your Web Site • Establish Hyperlinks with Other Businesses, Preferably Those Selling Products or Services That Complement Yours • Include an E-mail Option and a Telephone Number in Your Site

11. Designing a Killer Web Site (cont’d) • Give Shoppers the Ability to Track Their Orders Online • Offer Web Shoppers a Special All Their Own • Follow a Simple Design • Create fast, simple checkout process • Assure customers that their online transactions are secure • Post shipping and handling charges up front • Confirm transactions • Keep your site updated • Test your site often • Consider hiring a professional to design your site

12. Tips for Website Design • Avoid clutter. • Avoid huge graphic headers that must download first, prohibiting customers from seeing anything else on your site as they wait (or most likely, don’t wait). • Include a menu bar at the top of the page that makes it easy for customers to fine their way around the site. • Make the site easy to navigate by including navigation buttons at the bottom of pages that enable customers to return to the top of the page or to the menu bar. • Regularly look for a broken links on your site and purge them. • Incorporate meaningful content in the site that is useful to visitors, well organized, easy to read, and current.

13. Tips for a Website Design (cont’d) • Include a “frequently asked questions” section. • Be sure to post prominently privacy and return policies as well as product guarantees the company offers. • If your site is heavy on content, say, 100 or more pages, or has more that 100 products for sale, include a search tool that allows visitors to find the product or information they want. • Avoid fancy typefaces and small fonts because they are too hard to read. • Be vigilant for misspelled words, typographical errors, and formatting mistakes; they destroy a site’s credibility in no time. • Avoid using small fonts on busy backgrounds; no one will read them!

14. Tips for a Website Design (cont’d) • Use contrasting colors of text and graphics. • Be careful with frames. • Test the site on different web browsers and on different-size monitors. • Use your web site to collect information for visitors, but don’t tie up visitors immediately with a tedious registration process. • Avoid automated music that plays continuously and cannot be cut off. • Remember: Simpler usually is better.

15. Tracking Web Results • Software solutions • Commerce metrics. • Visitor segmentation measurements. • Content reports. • Process measurements.

16. Tracking Web Results (Cont’d) Other common web site performance include the following: • Click-through rate (CTR) CTR = number of clicks / number of impressions • The cost per acquistion (CPA) CPA = total cost of acquiring a new customer / number of new customers • The conversion (or browse-to-buy) ratio Conversion rate = number of customers who made a purchase / number of visitors to the site

17. Tracking Web Results (cont’d) • Gathering performance indicators • Clustering. • Collaborative filtering. • Profiling systems. • Artificial intelligence (AI).

18. Ensuring Web Privacy and Security • Privacy • Take the inventory of the customer data collected • Develop a company privacy policy for the information you collect • Post your company’s privacy policy prominently on your web site and follow it • Security