Ready, Set, Sell!
e-Marketing Company
Once you've got your website up and running, you, an in-house IT
staffer or an IT consultant should optimize it for best results. Lisa
Schneegans, executive vice president of Praxis Software Solutions, a
Minneapolis provider of internet solutions for small and midsize
companies, suggests 10 ways to optimize your website:
1. Test your site early and often. Plan ahead to ensure your site can
handle heavy shopping traffic.
2. Test your content for misspelled words, broken links, busted
pictures, etc.
3. Make sure images load quickly. A slow-loading page may drive
customers away.
4. Install, verify and test all patches and upgrades.
5. "Load test" your site to see how much traffic it can support. A web
maintenance service can tell you how you do.
6. Create sample transactions. These can simulate expected customer
traffic and web transactions. By running "synthetic" transactions
periodically--say, every five to 15 minutes--you'll know if there is a
problem before your customers do.
7. Check the performance of your network provider. You can do this by
looking at a site that is simi-lar to yours in your area but connected
to another network.
8. Add cross-sell and upsell opportunities throughout your site. This
means, for example, suggesting table linens on the dinnerware,
silverware and glassware pages. Offer "Top Gift Suggestions" or
"Bestsellers" to improve sales and drive impulse purchase
opportunities.
9. Make it easy to find and contact live customer service. Providing
an easy-to-find phone number on the site helps online shoppers feel
more secure. Clearly state your company's return policy.
10. Make your search function more effective. Your search function
should accommodate common misspellings by returning similarly spelled
items or your site's most popular search terms.
Taking Shortcuts
If you don't want or need a full-blown e-commerce site, check out the
following quick, low-maintenance ways to sell merchandise and
services.
Craigslist.org: Craigslist.org allows you to post items for sale for
free. More than 10 million people use Craigslist each month, and there
are more than 6 million classified ads and 1 million forum postings
each month.
Gorage.com: Want to avoid paying auction commissions? Then try
Gorage.com, an online garage sale, classified ads section and
storefront shopping alternative that offers flat-rate pricing for
listing items online, allowing sellers to avoid paying auction
commissions. The pricing structure is based on the number of "selling
spaces" a user chooses, which together make up the seller's "gorage."
Gorage.com pricing plans start at $5, which gets you up to 10 selling
spaces for 30 days, and they run all the way to $600, which buys over
2,000 selling spaces for 30 days. Gorage.com charges no auction
commissions, which can help you save money and pass on savings to
customers.
SwapThing.com: Have a limited amount of cash? Tired of being outbid in
auctions? Then try SwapThing.com, a site that lets you swap or sell
everything from music, art, trading cards, old schoolbooks--even
personal services. You can list items for free; the site charges each
party $1 for every item swapped or sold.
Sincerely,
Scott Richard Adams, CEO
e-Marketing Company