Ecommerce owners do a lot of trial-and-error work on their way to building a successful operation. Along the way to success, it often becomes clear that the road could have been less rocky if a few things were done differently. Hindsight is often painfully clear. Several ecommerce owners outlined what they would do differently, if they had the chance to start over.
SHANE MCKENZIE, PRESIDENT/OWNER
WEBSITE: Thesunglassmanonline.com
SELLS: Sunglasses & accessories
ANSWER: I would spend more time learning how a site's design can impact conversion and search engine rankings. I would take more care with product images; improvements in this area really improve sales.
DEBRA KILLEN, OWNER
WEBSITE: Myembroideredgifts.com
SELLS: Personalized gifts for all occasions
ANSWER: My answer is really two-fold, but both ideas work together. To build my site, I would choose a well-rounded platform — one that would grow with my store. The second and more important thing would be to hire someone to design my website at the very beginning rather than trying to do it myself. My time is best spent developing products. My money is best spent paying someone who really knows how to design a website.
ANNE CAVICCHI, OWNER
WEBSITE: Maternitycorner.com
SELLS: Maternity, nursing and baby clothing, accessories and gifts
ANSWER: I would choose proven shopping cart software and a proven host. Initially, I used a program written by an acquaintance. I soon realized it wasn't going to do the job for me, so I switched to MIVA Merchant. I had to basically rebuild my site and re-enter all my products. When it became apparent my host wasn't all that great either, I had to switch that, too. I would have made more sales sooner — and I would have saved myself a lot of aggravation and work — had I done this in the first place. Live and learn!
SIMON MILLINGTON, PRESIDENT
WEBSITES: Golfoutletsusa.com (USA) and Thesportshq.com (UK)
SELLS: Golf equipment
ANSWER: I wish we had better understood the marketing angles that really serve to grow a business. Over the years, it's to be hoped that you will figure out what performs best, but we could have been more up to speed with search engine optimization and affiliates. Pay-per-click was a quick solution and worked well, but we missed out on the volume of traffic other methods produce. Things move fast with ecommerce, so it is vital you move at the same speed.
NORMAN VAZQUEZ, OWNER
WEBSITE: Unclebeanz.com
SELLS: Premium specialty coffee, roasted per individual order, on demand ANSWER: Use a website host that has flexibility. We chose our first host because it enabled us to build our website using its templates. It was a decent and functional site, but we quickly outgrew it. In retrospect, I can see that we gave up flexibility in order to get our site up and running quickly. Don't rush. Select a host wisely, preferably with 24/7 support. If you don't, you'll end up spending time rebuilding a site at a time when you should be growing your business.
MARK HEVERLY, OWNER
WEBSITE: Ebait.com
SELLS: Fishing tackle and equipment
ANSWER: Paying for website submissions to search engines was not worth the cost, and it was the first thing we eliminated. I cannot emphasize enough the importance of website optimization. Create web pages that are keyword-rich to help drive you to the top of the search pages.
JULIE LEE, OWNER
WEBSITE: Juliesjewels.com
SELLS: Diamond and Moissanite Jewelry
ANSWER: I would have researched and learned more about marketing an online business, and I would have spent more time measuring the items that truly matter — like conversion rates. I would have focused more on branding, and I would have concentrated my marketing efforts on the products that generated the greatest ROI. Unfortunately, I haven’t always spent my time and money wisely.
Friday, March 02, 2007 · 06:52 AM
WEBSITE: TrueRenu.com
SELLS: Japanese beauty and health products for skin, body and hair
ANSWER: First of all, this is a great questions with lots of great answers.
After three years running, we now have some cash flow to make some serious changes to hopefully increase sales, all to correct mistakes we made during startup:
1) Get a real designer to provide a more slick look and feel. A website should project the philosphy of the products sold... in our case, our customers (mostly female) should feel like they are shopping in Japan. $5,000-$10,000 may seem like a lot to spend, but we're thinking of lifetime value and the small amount of incrementl sales to pay for it.
2) SEO, SEO, SEO! First, a good designer will build in a lot of the basics to improve overall and individual page ranking.
3) We believe our cart (CandyPress) and host (CrystalTech) were good decisions, so no changes there. BUT, we are going to move from Access to MSSQL-based database to improve speed and traffic handling.
Thanks for a great mag and article — hopefully more like this to come??!!
-- Eric Bernhard
Saturday, March 03, 2007 · 11:41 AM
WEBSITE: TrueRenu.com
SELLS: Japanese beauty and health products for skin, body and hair
ANSWER: First of all, this is a great questions with lots of great answers.
After three years running, we now have some cash flow to make some serious changes to hopefully increase sales — all to correct mistakes we made during startup:
1) Get a real designer to provide a more slick look and feel. A website should project the philosophy of the products sold... in our case, our customers (mostly female) should feel like they are shopping in Japan. $5,000-$10,000 may seem like a lot to spend, but we're thinking of lifetime value and the small amount of incremental sales to pay for it.
2) SEO, SEO, SEO! First, a good designer will build in a lot of the basics to improve overall and individual page ranking.
3) We believe our cart (CandyPress) and host (CrystalTech) were good decisions, so no changes there. BUT, we are going to move from Access to MSSQL-based database to improve speed and traffic handling.
Thanks for a great mag and article - hopefully more like this to come??!!
-- Eric Bernhard
Tuesday, May 15, 2007 · 08:54 AM
Excellent article that has obviously triggered a good amount of responses!
Personally, I have experienced the following issues:
1) I would have done a great deal more research on the shopping cart solutions available. I started out with StoreSense (hated it – 45 online sales in first 6 months) and then moved to Nexternal (love it – 1350 online sales in first year with them). I used Volusion for my second and third ecommerce websites and have decided they are exactly what I want and need and more.
2) Pay-Per-Click Spending – I would have focused more of my marketing dollars at the beginning of my business on hiring SEO consultants to optimize my website correctly, from the start. I spent WAY too much on pay-per-click without seeing any improvement in my organic results for my top keywords. Let a firm like US Web do it for you correctly, from the beginning, then use what marketing dollars you have left on pay-per-click.
3) Finance/Accounting – I let my finance and accounting responsibilities falter during the first year and a half of my business and have been struggling to get caught up ever since. My advice? Hire an accountant. Don’t try to do it on your own.
4) Merchant Accounts – We all hate them for the power they hold over us but regardless of how mad they may make you, ALWAYS remember that they are the ones in charge…not you! Whatever they tell you to do…do it. Also, be sure to read word for word the merchant agreement that you sign. The more you know the better.
5) Affiliate Marketing – Affiliate marketing is a strategy I’m able to utilize now that I have an established business and I’m able to offer unique products at competitive prices. Currently, sales through affiliates accounts for approximately 20% of my sales. The concept is great – let other people do the selling for you. The more people you have out there that are selling your products through you the better. My advice: Establish your online business first and then with a year or two behind your belt sign-up with Commission Junction’s advertiser program. The cost may be a little steep for an online company that’s just starting out but the return on your investment is definitely worth it.
Lastly, remember that your online business is just as real and worthwhile as Joe Retailer’s brick-and-mortar store down the street. The only difference is that he has a ton more overhead to worry about!
-- Robert Ferguson
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