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Wednesday, April 19, 2006

Pick The Right E-Commerce Pack And Put Your Business On Fire

By: Juhani Tontti

1. Businesses need powerful and quick technology and marketing in order for e-commerce to be successful. The objective is to grow your business by making it easier for customers to shop, and if your website’s lack of technology and marketing make it difficult for them, they may as well drive to the supermarket.

2. Before looking at e-commerce solutions, we must first speak about some typical problems of e-commerce. There are many complaints from customers, who have purchased articles online.

There are disorganized sites that are difficult and confusing to navigate; lack of information on the websites including failure to tell customers about special deals or prices.

The inability to pay with the customer’s own currency or payment processor, the inability for the customer to even understand the language in which the websiteis written; and frustrating and confusing shopping carts and check out procedures.

3. What are some e-commerce solutions? Having a professional looking website will attract customers and make them feel confident in buying.

You want your websiteto be organized, quick and easy to navigate, and if you have an informational website, which is search engine friendly; presents special deals; encourages up selling in a customer-friendly way (such as showing related items or showing items that customers purchased, who also purchased the item you are purchasing); is accessible in the major languages and accepts major currencies; has a user friendly shopping cart and single page checkout, then you won’t need many e-commerce solutions!

Remember, when your business is e-commerce, you want to take all possible steps to make sure you and your product are presented professionally, friendly, and easily accessible.

4. Recovering from the dot com crash in 2000, e-commerce is rising strongly. Stay in the comfort of your home. Spend more time with your family. Be your own boss. The benefits of having a home business are numerous. These are familiar slogans.

That is why so many people try to run their own home business. Being enthusiastic about earning their own income online, these people search to find how they can create their own business. And their own diciplines.

Then they understand that there are so many options for them to choose from. So, what is the best e-commerce package for you?
Talking about e-commerce packages, most online merchants
have the same basic needs. The trick is to make sure an e-commerce package matches your needs. Causing less frustration, you should also try to find something that will be easy to use.

5. Some important things to look for in an e-commerce package are:

A. Select a provider that will give you a site and hosting company.

Selecting a provider that helps you set up a website and hosts it for you can save you from a lot of frustration. By choosing a website and hosting combination, you are sure that your e-commerce package will not have to be manually altered.

B. A lot of templates

While all templates can be customized, sometimes that just does not work for every business. If there is a large amount of templates to pick from, there is bound to be template for your business.

C. Payments

You need to make sure that the payment options that your e-commerce package uses will match your customers needs. For example if your e-commerce package only accepts Paypal, you will miss out on the customers that do not use Paypal but want to pay with credit card. This will decrease your earnings.

D. Shopping cart

Most people like to see what they have picked into the shopping cart. Customers may also want to change what they want to buy. Perhaps they found something better.

E. Calculation of tax and shipping costs

While most of the customers are not from your own state, tax is not a major problem. Shipping is a different matter. Shipping and shipping time must be calculated for all customers. Customers also want to see what their shipping costs will be.

F. Customer reports

While reports are not useful to customers, they are useful for you. E-commerce packages that offer reports help you track of your costs and earnings. They save a lot of frustration.

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