Plan ordering methods for your website

Everyone is not an experienced web surfer. Provide your customer with simple instructions on how to order products. Provide step by stem instructions on how to use a shopping cart.

Instructions on using a shopping cart

1. Click Brows Catalogue to view the product categories
2. Click on the category you want
3. You will be taken to the Product List page
4. Find the product(s) you want and change the quantity if ordering more than one
5. If you want to order other products, then click “Add to Basket” button
6. Click the “Browse Catalogue” link again
7. When you have finished adding items to your shopping basket, click the “basket contents” to check your order and make any changes.
8. When you are ready to process your order, click the “checkout” and type in your address information
9. Click the “Submit Order” button.
10. Next page will add the shipping charge to your order and will show your total charge.
11. Type in your credit card information on this page
12. Click the “Submit Order” button again to complete your transaction.
13. To clear your order, click the “Clear Order” button.

I have composed a short article and will be back with more options for shopping in my next article. Until then please answer my three questions and I will include a link to your blogs with the answer to my three questions.

Are you going to open the store and wait for the customer to walk in?

Taking a business online does not guarantee success more than opening a store and waiting for your customers to walk right through the door. You must identify your customers. There should be a marketing effort. You have to determine customer needs and then develop methods of producing appropriate services and products.

Ask these questions and find answers to them first.
Who are my possible customers?
What do my customers need?
Where are my customers located?
What motivates my customers to buy?
When do my customers buy?

You need to identify marketing trends. You have to change with the changing environment and be prepared to change accordingly.

Branding your product or service is very important. People trust branded product or service than a product or service without proper branding.

Improve your customer awareness of your business by the appearance of your website and its association with desirable traits such as great prices and neat content.

Offer free stuff like e-books, software and offer something free if the customer purchases an item for a certain value. You can also offer gift certificates, prizes and free samples. For items like software, free trial versions will be very effective. But keep in mind that software must not effect other applications in the customer’s computer. Your customer will not return to you if that happens.

Provide how to information, and easy to use help

Ask customer feedback and suggestions about how to improve your service.

Create products designed to customer specification.

Offer an e-newsletter.

Provide each customer with an individual shopping experience.

Maintain a good and friendly relationship with your customers.

Customers will start to walk in through your door if you make the right effort. I wish you the best with your website.

Do something different

We always talk about how to design a good website. Refer my article on Planning a website for your business.

What I am going to say today is the power of good writing will attract visitors better than many pictures and soapy sales articles. There are lots of business with websites that do not except payments online. They do it via cheque or credit. They even trade internationally. So if you are a new comer and cannot handle all the electronic web payment stuff, just market your website and if people are interested, they will contact you.

A good article in a website and correct key words can make wonders. You have to describe the specific item or service you are offering. You can do it in a very interesting manner. A reader must feel curious about what you are saying and keep reading on. And if it is really interesting, he might then try searching for your specific product or service and you might be able to do a sale. Many websites lack this ability. Almost all websites look the same to many customers. A different website will attract a customer during their search, and that will influence buying.

It should not always be a website. I have seen people doing business with blogs. If you describe your product in a very influential manner interesting to the readers. For example, if you are selling clothing or fashion jewelry, you just have to write some articles very interesting about them. Tell in your article why this fashion is important. Some people like to imitate celebrities, why not tell that a certain celebrity model wore this to that particular party and so on. Check Laling's blog of Fashion.You have to do some research on your potential customers and write your article according to that. If you are selling uniforms or professional clothing this will not work, they will reject your article immediately.

If you are selling ladies make up kits, little articles on herbal treatments, natural facials, beauty tips and tricks will interest the potential customer. They might not buy at that point. But there is good chances of them keep returning to get new tips from you. Already you are offering free advice to your customers. Keep them encouraged in all the little articles you write by saying I will be back with more tips in my next article. Your frequent customer will tend to buy from you. At this point good customer service is really important. Only a satisfied customer will return to buy from you or refer others to you. Angry and frustrated customers will give negative feed backs about your service. All the time and effort you spent in preparing your website or blog will be of no use if your customers are frustrated. So be prepared at any time for a sales order. Assure your customer how long it will take to process the order and deliver the item. Display your terms and delivery time in your website. If you have a currency calculator it will help your offshore customers to verify their payments.

I have found that daily tarot readings on the web do not influence people very much. They are all the same and people get fed up. Most of the time they lure you into it and then you have to pay for the rest. But if some one tells you what Astrology is and what aryurvedic and holistic medicine has to do with it, will you not be interested in knowing more? You dig further to know what Astrology really means just click here to reed how Dr Teja explains Astrology.

For a beginner a blog will be a wonderful place to promote your service. Just leave your contact details and start doing business. Submit your blog to search engines and blogging communities. And I must say never limit yourself to internet. Just advertise locally and you can get more results. Usually at the beginning a website might not give you the results you expected, but with time it will grow. Satisfied customer recommendations and an up to date website will make your chances in the web grow.

Become a Retailer, Sell First and Pay Later

Have you seen this type of advertisements on the web? It Sounds too good to be true. I have found that it is common for this type of advertisements to include the following entries.

No Inventory
No Warehousing
Can operate from home
Most Profitable business on e-bay
You will be provided a professionally designed website with marketing campaigns.
Training provided

Any one trying to find a small business idea can jump to this kind of advert. They will tell you that these businesses are really cheap, No big investment needed, no shop rentals and good profit. They even provide you with a free website and a shopping cart. Everything is done for you. Yes, the advertisement is true, but this does not make you feel responsible, that is what I think. Before jumping to anything, do research on it. Talk with other people and get to know their experiences. First of all get to know this dropShipping business.

What is DropShipping?

DropShipping is becoming very popular in e-bay. It sounds very easy and people always do look for easy business ideas. You are being lazy if you try this business idea for the sound of being easy. People can sell their products online with their websites without having to carry any inventory, doing packing or shipping. What you have to do is to simply place ads and pictures copied from the supplier on your website and collect money from the buyer. Then you pay the supplier money and purchase the item and give the shipping directions to the supplier. Supplier then pack and ship the product for you in your company name or Supplier’s name as agreed between the two parties. This is an ideal home based business.

How to find a good Supplier

To run an efficient business you have to keep in contact with several suppliers. Suppliers are people who buy from wholesalers (manufacturers). Wholesalers usually do not sell products in one item each basis. They have a minimum order quantity and you have to buy in bulk. If you are not a brick and mortar business you can end up having heaps of rotting items in your backyard that is why there are Suppliers. They buy in bulk from the wholesaler, and store them in their warehouses, while you sell their items. Again, how can you trust a Supplier?

There are lots of suppliers springing up from nowhere on e-bay. You have to be very careful in selecting them. Some are not really suppliers; they are middlemen functioning as suppliers. If you register with them, your mark up price will be twice the normal price and you hardly will be able to do a sale. Lot of customers do some research before buying, and if you are not up to that price mark, you are opted out. Considering the money you spend for advertising and listing items, it is not worth a bit. You will be standing where you were before.

Before you start dealing with suppliers, do a thorough search. Compare prices. If you can get assistance with your government small business programs, consult people who are experts. Contact the suppliers and get to know them. A true supplier will not force you. Others are bound to force you. Go to forums and check. That is another method of getting to know suppliers. Fact is no matter how you do your research you might get a chance of being caught with a false supplier.

There are some websites who offer you free directory of suppliers. They will tell you “Your background research has been already done for you. You will be provided with a Website with every tool necessary for your business. Marketing sources are provided. Why not try now!”
This cannot be, because it takes lot of time and effort to find a real supplier, so how can they provide you with hundreds of suppliers. These are all middlemen. They provide you suppliers and when you sell an item the price is much higher, because these middle men earn a huge amount from your sale while you are struggling to sell a product and the person who supplies you with a dropshipper directory is earning a huge profit from your sale.

You can do your own research, and start by your own. First get help from your government small business development corporation. Before choosing a supplier, contact them and get to know the amount of stock available and their inventory order point. Inventory order point means, that usually a wholesaler keeps track of their inventory. If the seller usually keeps 1000 items in their inventory, they will order another stock of 1000 items when they reach the stock limit of 500 items. It is wise not to use a supplier who has less than 100 items available because these people can be new starters who are not keeping good inventory.

When listing items in your website, always list about 1/4th or 1/8th of the recorded inventory, 1/8th is more safer because your are not the only fish, there are others too in this huge ocean what you call e-bay. Limiting your display stock is also important that if your wholesaler tells you about certain amount of stock but they might not have that much stock available with them, you will be in trouble. You have to be careful also when listing items. Your customers might be looking for a certain amount of items and if you do not have that much they will underestimate you.

This is why even they say that you do not have to keep inventory, you should keep records and payments up to date. And while solving customer conflicts your records will come in handy. As I have stated in my article on managing a good supply chain, every point of the chain should keep good records and efficient management. All work done for you are not going to help you if you do not keep your records.

See my article on managing quality supply chains.