E-Commerce Web Marketing

E-Commerce Isn’t Just Your Online Store

Get more leads for your online store today!

E-commerce is more than just setting up an online store and waiting for the transactions to process themselves. As with most online marketing and website needs, if done right, it takes a multi-faceted approach.

Many small business owners who lack confidence in their technical abilities can be a bit gunshy when it comes to getting involved with e-commerce. That’s understandable. You have a system of receiving payments. You also have a system of keeping tabs on your customers. Both have worked well for you in the past. Why add a new bell or whistle to the mix?

As it turns out, there are many good reasons to do it. Here’s a sampling:

• It’s a convenience to your customers: Consumers love to have options. They want to pay online, through their phone or set up recurring payments.
• Having an e-commerce presence indicates you’re a professional: Consumers appreciate companies that offer the freedom and flexibility to pay, even if that’s not the way they always go. It gives them peace of mind that they’re dealing with a company that stays current with the times.
• It’s a convenience to you: There’s nothing quite as fulfilling as seeing your bank account increase the first thing when you wake up in the morning. Of course, people pay you at different times, but you get the point. You receive the money you earned without having to take significant time out of your day and away from your business to run credit card transactions and collect pertinent data.

At Status26, we believe every business can benefit from an e-commerce presence. And we prove that to our clients every day by opening their eyes through a variety of actions. Here’s what it takes to get you the results you deserve.

Laying the Groundwork

Many companies don’t do enough of the legwork on their e-commerce solutions before “going live.” The oversight wouldn’t be that big of a deal if you had a small audience and weren’t planning a major launch. But when you have anticipation behind it, nothing sends a worse message than rolling out an e-commerce platform that breaks down and fails to do the basics.

(Does anyone remember the horror story of the Affordable Care Act’s initial website launch?)

As a company that proudly specializes in e-commerce, we run extensive tests to make sure the infrastructure works at launch and has the bandwidth to perform smoothly at heavy volumes.

Stepping Into the Role of the User

Every new e-commerce installation involves us putting ourselves into the role of the consumer. We try to understand the features and benefits that enhance user experience and incorporate those into the launch or subsequent updates. Empathy is a great quality to have, especially when you’re a business trying to close the sale.

Integrating Social

E-commerce shouldn’t just be about making money. It also should be about harnessing the power of data. Who are your customers? What are they buying? How does their purchase improve their lives? What other products or services might they have a need of based on what they bought from you?

All of this information is relevant to e-commerce in the sense that yours can give you the opportunity to solicit and receive feedback from customers at the point-of-sale.

Also, this is a good time to plant the idea of providing a testimonial in your customer’s head. When consumers make purchases, they are generally in the honeymoon phase of their relationship with you.

As a business, you want to make that phase last forever. Integration of social sharing is just one more way to make that happen. Maybe the customer is so over-the-moon they want to leave a glowing review right away. It happens. But it’s also far more likely they’ll have an opinion worth sharing after they’ve had time to fully use and understand your product or service. Either way, making it easy for them to click through and leave a review on your Facebook, website, or another relevant platform can feed into your future marketing.

Solving for Mobile

Some e-commerce solutions offer a functional store and payment processor so long as the customer uses the company’s main website. But when you get to mobile, there’s nothing more than a stripped-down version of the site with fewer features, usually minus e-commerce.

In other cases, the effort is made, but the functionality is so clunky, customers would rather drive over to the first brick-and-mortar location they see and hand the cashier their credit card. At Status26, we offer e-commerce solutions that work as efficiently on a smartphone or tablet as they do on a desktop or laptop.

Are you ready to turn your site into a direct moneymaker? Contact us today to learn more or to get your e-commerce site up and running.