Let’s assume you’ve got a product to sell. You might have a physical shop – or not. You don’t need a shopfront to sell a psychical product through your website. You will need a good dose of customer service attitude.

Here’s what you’ll need

1. A domain name
2. Website hosting and an email address
3. A website with eCommerce functionality

1. A domain name

Your domain name is your unique website address. For example, if you want to visit Google you go to www.google.com.au. The google.com.au part is their domain name.

You will need to register a domain name with an accredited domain registrar. You can search through Google to find one (stick to the first couple of pages of results). Melbourne IT and Net Registry are a few of the big ones. It can cost from around $40 for 2 years to register, it does pay to shop around for specials though.

When you register your domain make sure you file the details (including username and passwords) for easy access later. You may have to give these details to your website designer/developer later.

Tips

• Register a .com.au domain name if you’re selling to an Australian audience
• Register a .com if you’re selling to an international audience
• Ensure your domain name is easy to spell and communicates the message of what your eCommerce website is about

2. Website hosting and an email address

Just like you need a domain so that people can find your website, you need hosting so that your website is viewable on the Internet.

Likewise, if you want to create email addresses using your domain name – i.e. hello@clarelancaster.com.au you will need hosting.

Most domain registrars will offer hosting plans, unless you have a specific host in mind I recommend also purchasing hosting through the same company that you register your domain with.

If you decide to purchase hosting separately search Google for “website hosting package” or ask around to find reputable website host. Most website hosting companies will offer different levels of service or packages.

Generally, if you’re a small business I recommend starting off with the smallest/cheapest package unless you’re looking to use lots of rich media on your website (i.e. video) or attract lots of visitors very quickly then you may need a more robust package.

Otherwise, you can usually start small and upgrade later if you need it (always check with your host though).

Hosting pricing can start from as little as $12.95 per month.

When you purchase hosting, make sure you file the details with your domain name files. You will need them later.

3. A website with eCommerce functionality

There are a couple of ways that you can setup your website to sell products online.

You can choose a solution where all transactions occur within your website – from browsing through to purchasing.

Or you can choose a solution where the purchase transaction is handled by a third party.

Before we get into that let’s break down exactly what your eCommerce website will need to work.

• A catalogue of products
• Individual product details
• Shopping cart
• Payment processing

A catalogue of products

A catalogue of products will group your products into logical groups for your customers to browse through. For example, if you sell dive equipment you would group your products into wetsuits, fins, snorkels, masks etc.

Individual product details

It’s incredibly important to provide as much detail about your products as possible.

High quality photography showing the product from as many angles as possible, close up images showing any important details, thorough descriptions, dimensions, weight, price are all vital.

Consider giving customers the chance to review products or add comments about products. Doing this can help you increase your social proof and encourage trust from new customers.

What’s the point of all this detail? If a customer has never purchased from you before you have a number of barriers to making a sale. Providing all the information they need and anticipating any questions or concerns they may have will help remove these barriers.

Shopping cart

Your shopping cart provides the functionality for customers to add products to an order, checkout and complete the transaction.

Payment processing

As I mentioned earlier there are a couple of way to handle the payment processing.

The first example I’ll take you through is when the customer completes the transaction without leaving your website. This is known as a seamless payment solution.

When your customer initiates checkout – the process of completing their order – they need to purchase the products. To do this you need to have a payment gateway enabled.

There are two steps involved with setting up your payment gateway.

1. You need a merchant account from a major bank
2. You need a payment gateway to securely handle the transaction and connect with your shopping cart

Some popular payment gateway providers are eWay or Securepay.

Alternative payment processing solution

If you don’t want the costs involved with seamless processing (e.g. higher Merchant account fees) you can choose to go with a third party provider like PayPal.

PayPal offer shopping carts and payment processing for a fee on each transaction. This option is worth considering if you are just starting out, testing the waters and don’t want to commit to a full development just yet.

Read more info about their business services.

eCommerce Best Practices

• Keep your website design as uncomplicated as possible – the purpose of your website is to showcase your products and encourage your customers to purchase
• Make your “Add to cart” button unmissable and use a contrasting colour to the rest of your design to help it stand out
• Always use “breadcrumbs” to help the customer identify where they are on the site
• Keep your checkout process as brief as possible
• Write a list of frequently asked questions and answers and have them accessible to your shoppers on every page throughout the website
• Be upfront about delivery costs, product inventory, shipping expectations

What are your experiences setting up an eCommerce website? Thinking of setting up shop but still not sure? Leave your questions and comments below.

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Here’s an overview of 10 common shopping cart mistakes to look out for in 2009.

1. Overcomplicating the process

Keep your shopping cart and checkout process to as few clicks as possible to reduce risk of customers backing out of the purchase.

2. Using a “Buy” button instead of “Add to Cart”

“A good shopping cart should encourage multiple sales within the one transaction. Using a shopping cart button that prompts the customer to ‘Buy’, rather than simply ‘Add to Cart’, puts the sales pressure at the wrong ends of the transaction.”

3. Forcing the customer to finalise payment too early

You risk missing out on multiple sales and up-sells if you finalise the payment too early.

4. Failing to have shipping costs up front

Outlining shipping costs upfront will reduce drop out rate. Think about all the information the customer requires to make an informed decision and provide that information early on in the process.

5. Not discounting postage on multiple purchases

Show discounts on multiple purchases – if a customer knows that shipping won’t be a cost factor to consider you’ve just removed a reason to not purchase and encouraged your customer to buy more.

6. Requiring registration before accessing the cart

“Don’t restrict your customers from creating the desire to purchase your products. If you force a customer to register before being able to place an item into a shopping cart, you run the risk of driving them away. Allow them to see the savings, play with the combinations, experience your combined shipping discounts and fantasise about buying your wonderful things. Only require registration when they are finalising their transaction.”

7. Forgetting GST variables

Take into consideration who will be purchasing from you and know the legal requirements involved – E.g. in Australia you must illustrate the GST amount on the invoice.

8. Inflexibility

Consider the limitation and scaleablity of your current e-commerce solution.

9. Requiring complex written instructions to use

Your shopping cart should be intuitive to use.

10. Out of stock

If an item is out of stock, let your customer know early in the checkout process.

You can read the full article here.

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The general feel of the webinar was to build credability and trust through professional design and customer service.

Here are my notes.

Panelists: Amelie Mills, Campbell Corser, Chris Thomas, Craig Reardon, James Thomson, Naomi Simson, Nicholas Egonidis.

The webinar will cover two parts:

• #1 Fundamentals: Removing barriers to purchase and
• #2 Advanced tactics to close/up the sale.

Part 1 – Fundamentals

Photography

• Critical to have good quality photography (correct lighting, show details, show different angles) first impressions count when it comes to professionalism and trust building/credibility.
• Would you purchase – does it show you enough?
• Naomi Simson: Professional photography is critical. They realised quickly it had a huge impact on sales and now use it to connect to their audience. Must be vivid and authentic – use your own photography, visitors are bored of stock photography. Needs to portray the service/experience authentically and perception is incredibly important – listen to your customers to develop your tone and products/services.
• Provide rich content, and think of all the angles from a customer perspective – think ahead to provide the right information.

Payments

• Offer a range of payment options
• Consider offering pay by phone, fax (least secure way of buying online), mail in addition to online, direct deposit
• Make it clear who you service (which areas) and how transactions are processed (if over the phone, is it still processed online through your gateway?)

Delivery

• Make delivery charges clear upfront
• Consider a flat rate for shipping or build shipping into product pricing and introduce free shipping. Removed a mental block and simplified. <-Chris Thomas
• Last minute charges are a major source of ‘Cart Abandonment”
• Make sure there are no surprises such as shipping and handling, or a long delivery time or out of stock

Tangible Contact Details

• Many people still nervous about purchasing online
• Credible contact details clearly displayed (email address, physical address, fixed phone number not mobile)

Returns Policy

• Tell visitors what to do if product is faulty
• Answer common questions (who pays for shipping, how long have they got?) and let them know the process to give them confidence and remove another sales barrier
• If you’re selling services how do you return? You offer a Refund and Exchange voucher.
• The more info you give them, the less time you have to spend answering questions.

Call to Actions

• Have clear ‘Add to cart” buttons
• Have “Order Now” clear call to actions
• Tell people what they need to do to buy and start directing people towards the checkout
• Don’t make people think about what to do next – tell them.

Customer Support

• Respond to both orders and queries promptly
• Customers will be nervous about transacting with you until they receive a professional response
• Say they will respond within a time frame (e.g. within 12 or 24hours) when you respond promptly and professionally 9 out of 10 customers will go on to purchase.

Security

• Don’t ask for or store credit card details yourself
• Have the payment service (banking/Paypal) collect them
• Assure customers their details are safe – have that clearly displayed that a secure 3rd party gateway is used for their security.

Product Range

• Bring as much product to the front page as much as possible (while not crowding)
• Tell people clearly what you sell
• Involve people in the website – provides interactivity for visitor and useful customer data for you. Think about voting polls. E.g. home page of Red Balloon Days.
• Have reviews from staff – creating personality and trust
• Give people chance to browse the whole range (different price range and types)
• People love a bargain – have a few specials
• Search facility is incredibly important and have fuzzy logic (typo’s or ‘did you mean’ suggestions)
• Suggest related products before checkout

Customer service

• Contacts – give multiple options for customers service.
• FAQs – Explain how transaction works, think about other barriers to purchase and questions that potential buyers would ask and answer them here.
• Show staff photos so that visitors can see who is behind the business, behind the website.
• Always have an “About Us” page
• Naomi Simson: “Life at RedBalloon” is one of their most visited pages people like to see what its like to run an online business and who is behind it all.

Design

• Needs to be as professional as possible
• The less you are known, or your brand is known the more critical this is.
• Naomi Simson: They are up to the 7th version of their website to reflect brand qualities. Be aware of optimising it for Google (text) but humans love images/aesthetically pleasing finding the balance is key.
• Invest heavily in design, how customers use the website and tweak design to suit.
• Doesn’t need to be expensive but should reflect your brand values, consistent message, instill confidence and speak to your customers.

Part Two – Advanced Tactics

Delivery Tracking

• Adds a better level of assurance
• People want to know where their order is up to, when will it get to me
• Enter order number to check process status (processed, shipping, back order)
• Saves time dealing with tracking queries from customers
• Notify customers via email of status updates

Introduce currency conversion

• Attracts international sales
• Have a currency converter calculator/selector

Introduce customer reviews

• Either automatically or manually
• They used to have a rated system but if an experience was consistently low rated they would be removed from the website
• Staff reviews are popular – video and photography gives visitors a richer experience. Customer reviews are priceless – e.g. Don’t just take our word take a look what other people have said to see if it suits you.

Provide Chat and/or Phone help

• Provide further assurance and tangibility
• Look at implementing ‘online/live chat’ facilities

Experiment with eBay

• Good way to clear stock
• Come up with interesting bundles to clear stock

Extras

• Throw in a pleasant surprise in the parcel
• A little treat goes a long way – Red Balloon add a little gift movie tickets, discount coupon, related – Make their day and they’ll come back and spread the word.
• Make it seasonal/e.g. Valentines day chocolates or heart shaped balloons.

Questions and Answers

Q) How can you tell where people leave in the checkout process?
A) <Chris Thomas> Install Google Analytics to see where people are dropping off. Set up a goal funnel from when they add a product to the end of the shopping process. See if they drop out and see where they go – if they’re going to the FAQ page they might be looking for more info on shipping etc. Then you can respond by providing information throughout so they don’t have to leave and look elsewhere for it.

Red Balloon also use Google Analytics for tracking and analytics – daily reporting on drop out rates and keep trying and testing to reduce drop outs. Have found that brand recognition improves drop out rates if they have trust and confidence.

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