Easy Options for E-commerce Websites

The great thing about the internet is that it levels the playing field for small businesses to compete with big companies in the same market. Now anyone can set up a professional looking website without a team of graphic designers and coding professionals. Online e-commerce platforms are abundant, so which platform suits your needs best? If you’re looking to make money selling products and services online, here’s an outline of some options that might work for you.

Shopify

Shopify is one of the easiest and most popular online e-commerce builders. Incorporating over 100

professional and sleek design templates, both free and paid, the builder has many add-on apps that can separate your website from the thousands of others online. But, more importantly, these apps help automate the processes on your site so that order submission and payment handling are fluid. Finally, 24/7 support services mean that any questions you may have along the way will be answered quickly and efficiently.

SquareSpace

SquareSpace is a drag and drop builder with impressive design templates that are responsive and very customizable. With SquareSpace you can build a regular website or integrate an e-commerce platform in the website with lots of options for customization, including order emails and coupons. However, in comparison to other e-commerce builders, the SquareSpace platform may not be for beginners and can take some time to understand how to properly use the tools provided. But once you get the hang of it, the outcome is certainly worth the effort. Another downside to SquareSpace is there is no option for a free builder. You can sign up for a free trial, but you will have to pay in order to continue using the service.

Etsy

Etsy focuses on handmade, vintage and unique items, allowing the user to sell their original products straight to customers.  It is a huge and growing online marketplace, enabling individuals to grow their brand from scratch and integrating social media straight into the platform for networking. Etsy is different from other e-commerce builders as there are limited customizing options. As well, Etsy takes a percentage of the sale price for each listing, though creating an account and page itself is free. Etsy is great for those who are not interested in creating their own website, and who are looking to sell products that fit within Etsy’s target marget.

Weebly

While Weebly is lesser known than the builders previously mentioned, the platform has gotten rave reviews from users for its ease-of-use. The site planner tool takes you through the basic steps needed to ensure that the goals for your e-commerce store are met depending on what focus your website will have. Weebly has also introduced an iPad app, allowing you to add products on the go, and even enables you to download your site as a zip file if you decide to move your site to a standard hosted domain outside of the platform. 

Each of these e-commerce website platforms have great aspects that make them attractive to first time sellers, looking to build a website without hiring professionals. Depending on what you’re looking for, one platform might be more suitable than the next, so take advantage of free trials to test out the each system to make sure you pick the one that works for you. Happy selling!

Business Essentials: Building a Great Website

It wasn’t all that long ago that for a business to have a website seemed a novel thing. The tipping point has long past, and for a start up company to not prioritize their website as a major arm of their business seems sophomoric. The hurdles that confronted the early pioneers of website building (technical complexity, cost, technological limitations) have disappeared and there is now no excuse not to have a website. There is, however, one basic rule that has not changed – nor will it ever – and that is: the better and more effective you want your website to be, the greater the investment it will represent. Below are a few handy tips that will hopefully give you greater insight into what steps are involved in building your website and allay any concerns that it might represent.

The Anatomy of a Website

There are essentially two vital parts to any website that businesses need to consider: the code and the server.

The Code: Everything you see and read on the internet is nothing more than a series of binary codes – a seemingly endless stream of 1’s and 0’s. It’s like the DNA of your website. And as your DNA eventually becomes the you that others can see and interact with, so the code is what will become the part of your website that others see and interact with.

The Server: The code, in order to be seen and read by others, needs a place to be stored and easily accessed. The place where these codes are stored, or hosted, are on servers owned by companies that continuously allow the transfer of information. These hosting companies pay for their servers, and to transfer all those billions of bytes of information, and they make their money by your renting space for your website on their server in the form of a “domain”.

A website thus becomes a website when your code occupies the domain space that you have rented.

What You Pay For

Renting space with a hosting company is a piece of cake and can be done for as little as a few dollars a month. A simple Google search will likely bring up a myriad of companies that offer hosting with different options. Most have a help line that you can call and simply knowing a little bit about what you want your website to do will easily give them a sense of what option is best for you. Most often it comes down to whether or not you plan to have a lot of data-heavy bells and whistles like streaming audio and video. These things take up space, which means you may need to rent more server space.

Once you’ve rented the space, you need your space to have a name. This is how people will remember your website. Ideally, you’ll want your domain name to reflect the essentials of what your business is about and it should be snappy and easy to remember. Acquiring a domain name is somewhat of an art. It’s quite possible that your perfect domain name is something no one has yet thought of, at which point it’s easily acquired through your hosting company at no charge. However, if your perfect website name is owned it can be a challenge to acquire. There are entire companies that purchase domain names with the sole purpose of brokering them to people who want the name for their business. At this point you have to decide what the domain is worth to you. If someone has already beat you to it and has built a whole site around that domain name it might be best to explore other options. If it is available for purchase, then it all comes down to what you’re willing to pay.

The code you can also pay for, but most hosting sites now come with their own website builder which can handle the code for you. Although these website builders are rudimentary, they can easily handle a variety of different website formats and give the user several different style sheets to choose from. If you have time, building your own website can be fun.

WordPress

Stepping it up a notch, WordPress has become the gold standard in website design. WordPress takes a day to learn and a lifetime to master. Ultimately, it is an incredibly powerful and versatile tool for building websites. The program (or code, since technically it’s not a program) is free, but you’ll definitely be investing your time to learn how to use it. It can be as simple as downloading the code for a template, or completely building your own style sheet and code right from scratch. Scouring the web there all kinds of add-ons that are available that are simple enough to add to your website’s code and that can make your website all the more engaging to the visitor.

Website Design

Website design has become a niche all unto itself and there are plenty of companies and freelancers out in the marketplace who are happy to do the legwork of building the code for your website for you. This is essentially the code that you can pay for and although prices can vary substantially, so can the quality of the workmanship. Obviously, a more complicated website brings with it a heftier price tag. It’s standard practice for companies and freelancers to have a portfolio of designs so that you know what your getting into before you buy, but ultimately their job is to make your website as concise, easy to navigate, and engaging as possible.

What is Ad Retargeting?

Big Brother is watching you. At least that is what you might be thinking when you're suddenly presented with online popup ads related to a recent web search. Is it safe to say that you were being tracked from one website to another?

Actually yes, but there is nothing sinister about this.

It is a very common practice known as ad retargeting and it's helping many online businesses pull in new customers. Are you currently running an ad retargeting campaign? If not, you should be, because the conversion rates on retargeted banner ads are much higher, in many cases up to 20%. Retargeted ad campaigns target the 98% of the audience that don’t buy after leaving a website.

Regaining the lost lead.

Traditional display advertising has mostly been used as an awareness and branding tool. Whereas, retargeted ad campaigns have been great for driving conversions on your site, be they sales, sign ups, leads or subscribers.

If the goal of your advertising campaign is direct sales or signups and you have a decent amount of traffic then retargeting is ‘right’ for you.

It’s all in the cookie.

Every time you log onto the Internet and start surfing you leave a trail of breadcrumbs wherever you go. Those "breadcrumbs" grow into cookies. This is the tracking technology that allows visitors to any e-commerce site to pick up a cookie with every visit. Now they are tagged for potential retargeting.

You'll be paying a company to set up a retargeting platform that will collate all those cookies and present a bid to run your ads across many other web portals. These ads are banner ads which can bring that customer right back to your website – especially if they are dynamic.

Understand the threshold.

There is a minimum recommended traffic size that you should have coming to your website before starting a retargeting campaign. You should be aware that retargeting only targets your site visitors.

If your site only receives a small amount of traffic per month, then you will only have a small pool of users to target resulting a low sales volume

.

It has been found that if your site must receive at least 5,000 unique visitors per month. Even if you have less than 5,000 uniques, you can still add a retargeting tracking pixel to your site but your goals should be towards branding instead of sales.  Run a contest, or a lead generation campaign. 

Does ad retargeting work?

According to a comScore study, companies who use ad retargeting can see a 726% increase in return visits to their websites within four-week period. As for online shoppers, 72% don't finish shopping when they put items in their cart. Of that group, 8% return to make the purchase. Factor in ad retargeting and those returns bounce up to 26%.

These numbers definitely provide a convincing argument that ad retargeting should be a strong force for the smart marketer.  

Some Startup Business Ideas For 2013

Where is the next great startup business idea coming from? It might already be out there waiting to be plucked off the internet and put into practical use. Always remember that in business there isn't really just "one thing."

Consider your own neighborhood. How many dry cleaners are there? How many nail salons? How many restaurants?

Businesses offering the same goods and services can coexist. What makes your business successful is how you innovate and market. Since more and more folks are turning to smartphones and tablets for daily use, you could find a sweet spot developing a product or website to fit the needs of all those potential users. If you're looking for an idea for a startup business consider these hot concepts:

Neighborhood Social Networks

Yes, everyone is on Facebook but that doesn't mean everyone is "connected" in real world terms. When it comes to social networking, staying local could be a big benefit. Developing a social hub for various communities could turn into a broader venture. Just keep it in the community.

Social Network Address Book

Speaking of social networks, there doesn't seem to be a decent address book that works across several platforms. Yes, every Smartphone has a version of an address book but supposed you want to organize all your online social contacts in separate categories? Where is the app for that?

The Next Great App

There is always room for a new great app. What about a digital business card or a digital customer loyalty card? If there was a way to scan those types of items and share them with other Smartphone users it could be a big plus to many businesses and reps.

A New Kind of Craigslist

So far, Craigslist has cornered the market when it comes to internet classifieds. Is there a better version? Perhaps something that isn't so cluttered? Maybe one that focuses more on trade than personals? Worth thinking about.

Group Shopping

Many fans of shopping like to do so with friends. What if you could go online shopping with your BFF? That could be a huge game changer for a smart ecommerce site.

Photo Sharing

There are many popular photo-sharing sites like Pinterest, Tumblr and Flickr. Is there room for more? When you think about the amount of pictures being shared today then the answer is "yes." The hook would be to come up with that tool or "cool factor" that the other sites are lacking.

If you've started up a new business this year, let us know. We'd be happy to share the good news! 

Mobile Trends That Affect Small Businesses

A study from AT&T shows how reliant small businesses have become on mobile technology. The 2013 AT&T Small Business Technology Poll mentions that 85 percent of small business employees now use a smartphone to help with their jobs. 

Customers are becoming more mobile too. The International Data Corporation, a global marketing intelligence firm, says the number of smartphones shipped now outpaces the number of other cell phones around the world. Tablets are on the increase with customers too.

Consider these mobile trends that affect small business:

Trend #1: BYOD – Bring your own device

BYOD or bring your own device is a trend that allows employees to use their Smartphones and tablets for business 24/7. According to recent surveys, the numbers of Smartphones sold outpaced the number of PCs. Maybe it's because the newest generation of Smartphones enables users to do everything their laptop does. Companies are utilizing BYOD as a way to increase productivity. For a small business owner, allowing your sales staff to BYOD will encourage them to use that device for all kinds of work-related tasks throughout the day. That's going to be very good for your business.

Trend #2: Mobile Shopping

In the U.S., Cyber Monday sales are quickly building towards outpacing the traditional top selling Black Friday sales and those are only two days out of the year! The vast majority of mobile tech users have made purchases through their phones and pads. It's not just the ease of one-click buying that customers appreciate but also the ability to shop and compare items right in the store. When your mobile application can make that shopping experience easy to navigate then you're going to build a stronger customer base. This means your website should be adapted for mobile phone use. Perhaps you should develop a separate app for your online store. At the very least there should be a lot of testing to work out the potential bugs. You might have only one shot at grabbing a mobile shopper, make sure your website is ready.

Trend #3: LTE – Long Term Evolution

Long Term Evolution networks or LTE are becoming all the rage for many Canadian businesses. These networks are allowing for all types of innovations like HD video conferences, transfer of large data files and hot spot access anywhere in the country. LTE networks allow businesses to make instant uploads across a variety of social media platforms. This insures a greater change of market penetration than ever before.

In the future, smartphones will continue to improve the way you experience the everyday world. Projection technology, for instance, is rapidly getting better, with some phones able to project pictures and high-definition video to a wall the same size of a 50-inch television screen.

Mobile payments using your phone will now become a hot trend, with many businesses vying to create the better “mousetrap”. Technology will always be evolving. With better streaming technology, faster processors, smartphones are becoming more powerful and will become much more integrated into our lives.

Social Media May Drive More Traffic Than Search Engines

The owner of a typical brick and mortar storefront depends a lot on foot traffic to insure that their business is a success. That's why location is so vital when picking out a place of business. For an e-commerce company, getting high visibility on search engines or access to a large source of traffic is just as equally important. Getting that traffic directly to a company's website is the goal of any online marketing campaign.

The prevailing wisdom has been that search engines will do the trick provided you can increase your ranking on those pages. However, it appears that social media networks are giving the search engines a run for their money in terms of providing them with organic traffic. You only have to look at the numbers to appreciate where most internet users are spending their time.

Where Are The Users?

A recently published report put out by Forrester Research has found that 50% of 18 to 23 year olds and 43% of 24 to 32 year olds list social networks as their go-to internet-discovery resource. In that arena, Facebook and Twitter are holding sway as the number one and two forms of discovery for nearly a third of all American users alone. That represents an 18% increase for "discovery-use" on those sites since 2010.

The good news for search engine sites is that 54% of American users regularly depend on those search results to find what they are looking for. The bad news is that number is dropping. It was 61% in 2010.

More Fun Social Media Facts

The vast majority of Fortune 500 Companies have a Facebook page and/or Twitter account, but that doesn't necessarily mean they are using those resources effectively. For a business start-up looking to get a foothold in customer traffic, social media could be a productive resource to invest in. 

Here are some more of the findings from the research report:

·         26% of internet users discovered company websites through branded emails. That's an 11-point increase from 2012.

·         18% of internet users proclaimed that paid search results got them to where they wanted to go. These would be all those click through ads on Facebook.

·         28% of all internet users find new websites by clicking through to links on sites they are visiting. 

How can you make that work for your company? A simple quid pro quo will do. If you link to a business ask them to link to you. Obviously, you're not going to find much traffic with a competitor, but landing an affiliate site would be ideal. Write a lot of guest posts and have the articles placed on industry websites.  

Does all of this mean you should give up on search engine optimization all together? Absolutely not. 

However, it is clear you should be dividing your online marketing strategy equally between SEO and social media.

You'll probably find that they work hand in hand.

Why a small business needs an ecommerce site

In the era before the internet, it used to be that small businesses would market their services locally through networking or word-of-mouth. Their marketing strategy was to provide great customer service, and grow organically until they could buy advertising in tv, radio or even print newspapers.

Today it may still be a good way to market, however, with the ease of creating an online presence, there is no excuse not to have your own website or an ecommerce store. It is a given that every brick and mortar retailer MUST have an ecommerce website, a social media profile on Facebook and a blog. If you don’t, it is reflected in your dwindling sales.

The internet has created so much efficiency that it has affected every aspect of your business, from:

• merchandising,

• pricing,

• marketing,

• promotions

• and even sales!

The true power of the internet is that you can automate one-on-one interactions to many people without having to lift a finger. This allows you to provide personal service to thousands of people from your location, without having to increase your staffing needs or even in some cases, technical know-how.

Some other advantages in having an ecommerce site are:

• Level the playing field between large and small businesses. With the right technology, you won’t be able to see the difference in service or performance.

• It saves you money. Keeping operating expenses down is a main factor as to why you should start an online store

• Reach more customers around the world. With a storefront in your neighbourhood that is already doing business, why would you even want to have an ecommerce website? Opening a brick and mortar store restricts you to your local area that you target. However, with an ecommerce site your market expands beyond your neighbourhood. You now have options to target any country that you want to... Done well, a business could double their profit margin just from their online business alone.

• Track everything your customer does online and on your store. The internet allows you to get a deeper understanding of your customer’s purchasing habits, all the way down to the individual client. All this data can be used to create brand loyalty, upsell more products for a higher profit margin and get into new markets.

By selling online, your company size doesn’t matter. All that matters is the shopping experience and whether the product is great! As mentioned before, ecommerce creates a level playing field where small businesses can compete effectively against the big boys.