Building eCommerce

When you consider setting up an eCommerce website and business, you must be aware that there are some limitations. The acceptance of eCommerce among consumers has really not matched up to early expectations. Certainly a great deal of business is done on-line, but the volume, despite the staggering numbers, has grown more slowly than expected.

A number of explanations have been put forward:

• Concerns about security. Many are reluctant to use credit cards online because of fears regarding theft and fraud,
• Lack of instant gratification with non-digital products. A major component of impulse buying is the urge to have it now - to use it and show it off NOW. Having to wait days to weeks for the product to arrive is not particularly rewarding.
• Access problems. Computers, adequate connection speeds and well-accepted, usable methods of payment are not universally available. This tends to apply particularly to poorer households and developing countries. But the penetration rates for internet access in some sectors is also still low.
• The social aspects. Some people truly enjoy the experience of shopping, being in the midst of people, talking to sales personnel, wandering from store to store. This is difficult to provide or replace online.

In a later post I’ll talk some more about product acceptance and what sorts of products and business models are particularly suitable for the online environment.

Security: It’s critically important that you provide secure access and recognized payment methods. And that you are explicit about who you are and what you’re doing. An “About” page is essential for a sales site. A physical address, a phone number and an online contact method are critical. You must not only BE trustworthy, you must APPEAR trustworthy. These measures will help reduce people’s fears.

Gratification: For physical products, offering a variety of shipping methods, including overnight delivery is one way to address this issue. Digital products, of course, are ideal since they can be downloaded immediately after the payment process is complete. Another alternative for physical products is to focus only on items which have historically done well with catalog/direct mail sales. Also, business-to-business sales are less subject to the need for instant gratification. Stressing the advantages of purchasing online (lower prices, wider choices, ease of purchase, etc) may also go a ways towards improving acceptance of some delay.

Social Aspects: This is the most difficult aspect to deal with. In some cases, forums, chat groups, live online help operators and adding video and audio to the site can enrich the experience and make it more rewarding for your visitors. Depending on what you’re selling, a wide selection set up on attractive and entertaining pages can also significantly enrich the shopping experience. What you can afford to do along these lines - especially with regard to live chat services - really depends on how valuable each customer is.

Everything on your site has to be considered - not just your sales copy. Minimizing resistance to online purchases, making your visitors feel secure and confident about you and providing, to the greatest extent possible, a rich and engaging experience should all contribute to making your site convert better. Just don’t get so entertaining that people come for the fun rather than to buy - you’re running a business not a family fun center. Every change needs to be tested for it’s effect on your bottom line. Some changes may seem wonderful and look great, but they could damage the smooth flow from entry to purchase and actually decrease your income. Test everything.

Having promised to present in a bit more detail the elements that an eCommerce web site wanting a successful affiliate program should include, looks like this is it.

Your alternatives here are pretty basic. You can run your own affiliate program or have it run by a third party. After that, the alternatives become nearly endless. There’s lots of software available for running your own program. It varies in it’s complexity, ease of installation and the features available - and, of course, cost.

If you outsource, there are again, many alternatives with many features and different costs. If you use Clickbank, you really need to also get software to protect your affiliates against commission theft. Adrian Ling’s program Easy Clickmate is highly regarded and adds many features ClickBank which lacks.

The most serious issue for any affiliate (as long as the commission is acceptable and the site converts decently) is tracking. Most affiliates who are serious about what they do can identify a leaky site in the first 3 seconds. If the sales page has outbound links, that’s bad. If you have a phone number for orders without any obvious affiliate tracking in place and without specifying (in your affiliate center) how you track phone, echeck or mail orders back to the proper affiliate, smart affiliates will look for a merchant who shows more concern for the people who drive his traffic and boost his sales. Alternate payment methods are fine - as long as there is acceptable affiliate tracking and you explain how it’s done. If there are certain things you just can’t track or where tracking sometimes fails, it’s best to be upfront with your affiliates.

A program that allows you some way to recognize and reward your best affiliates is important too. The 80/20 rule may go to 95/5 in this area. At the least, a small number of your affiliates will make most of your affiliate sales. Improving their payout will keep them working for you and do wonders for your reputation. Treat your affiliates right and you’ll have the super-affiliates seeking you out.

Getting accurate checks (or whatever form of payment is used) out on time and within a reasonable timeframe is critical. The better your tracking is and the more accurate and up-to-date the stats are that affiliates can access, the better the targeting they can do for you.

In most case, providing training materials for affiliates isn’t something you ought to be doing. However, advertising and promotional materials that have been tested and work are something you’d be smart to provide. Training materials in the sense of product explanations, text descriptions, background or industry material may be useful, but training someone on how to do affiliate marketing is unlikely to be productive for most eCommerce sites.

A great part of your success may well depend on your attitude. Attitude carries over into our actions and is fairly easy to assess. If you value your affiliates for what they do for you, then dealing with them fairly and honestly and rewarding them for their efforts will be a natural outcome. Never neglect them and never treat them badly. In many cases affiliates are your simplest, fastest and most direct path to great sales. Never forget that they’re almost certainly worth more to you than you pay them. And if they can sell your products, they could probably sell your competitors’ if you don’t take good care of them.