17 March 2010
There are a number of areas that really help an e-commerce site.

Really concentrate on the shopping basket experience as this is where you can lose most of your customers. Don't make it too complicated or have too many steps, make it simple and easy to create an account, so minimum information and let them fill out the rest later.

If you look at one of the most successful e-commerce sites (Amazon) they have got it down to a fine art. 1 click purchasing, people who bought this also bought these items, customer feedback with ratings.

Sometimes they could do with simplifying a page mainly because if you're not used to the layout there is a lot that hits you all at once, but they make a lot of money as they have really perfected the art of reducing shopping cart abandonment.

Other key areas are:
1. Really understand who your customers are and what details they want to see in the descriptions.
2. Have large and many images of items being sold, customers like to be able to see the detail of the thing they are buying. This helps convince them that the quality or value is as advertised
3. Have a most popular list of items you sell and do regular special offers to people who sign up to your newsletter.
4. Have an FAQ and update it as much as possible, if you get a complaint or a question put it up there, show your customers that you are trustworthy and fair to deal with.
5. Make sure that the site is secure with SSL (the little padlock you see on secure sites) and has logos or information easily accessible proving this.
6. Have a good support system to deal with customers quickly, this will help your reputation and make sure you have multiple ways for them to get in touch.
7. Do a lot of PR to help build the trust in your brand, why should people shop with you even if you are a little bit more expensive.
8. Run loyalty schemes for your top buyers to keep them not only coming back, but recommend you to others.
9. If you have the right products you can create an affiliate program so get others to do the selling and effectively pay them a percentage of sale.
10. Measure and test often, try different headlines, look at your stats, keep trying to make your site better and easier to use for your customers.

There are many more factors, too many to mention here, but the list above are some of the main ones to consider. I hope you find it useful.

23 March 2010
The success of every e-commerce site rests upon the customer, you need to exceed their expectations and provide them with the ultimate shopping experience that makes it as easy (and as pleasurable) as possible to purchase and keep coming back to purchase.

Some quick tips would be:
Keep the navigation clear and simple
Research competition thoroughly before hand
Provide detailed product description and excellent product photographs
Ensure that the checkout and payment process is simple, safe and secure
Set up a Google shopping feed
Follow up purchases with top notch customer service
Invest in online marketing and SEO
Utilise social media to connect and engage with your target market

To be honest this pretty much only scratches the surface, but I hope it helps.

24 March 2010
The above two answers are fantastic, so take those to heart.

I would just add that using a custom solution versus an off the shelf solution usually results in a better e commerce site. (Or a CMS/e commerce system that can be customised to exactly what your business needs). This way, it will not just be an e commerce site, but also has the potential to streamline how you run your business.

Investing in SEO, and social networking marketing is also a great way to push visitors to your site.

Good luck with your project!

26 March 2010
Hi Joseph, there a a quite few things you can do and here are some quick tips.
1. Make it easy for visitors to your site to find the products they are looking for. Have clear and simple listing of categories and sub categories as well as a usable search box and advanced search page.

2. Have good quality photos of your products. Show enlargements and any detail the customer might need to make a choosing a product easier.

3. Dont make it too much of a tedious task to actually buy your product. Have only a few ordering steps and dont ask for unnecessary information.

4. Have accurate shipping pricing shown at the checkout, so customers dont have to contact you to find this out - and maybe change their mind.

5. Include pages on your site that offer advice and useful information about your industry, products or services. - This will also help your Search engine listings.

6. Make sure the site loads quickly. This means not choosing the cheapest hosting or using a "template" style site.

7. Make sure you can download and keep a copy of your shops database. Your database holds the information about your products, customers, sales and more. If ever you want to move your site to a new hosting, or are unhappy with your website design company, you will need your database.

Hope this helps

Peter

26 March 2010
Hi Joseph,

You need to look at the market place that your online store will be part of. Who would be your main customers so that you are not targeting the wrong clients.

You will need a stylish, nice website that is easy to use from start to finish.
You will need to look at online marketing things like SEO and offline marketing.

There is a lot of work, time and money that is needed to go into any website to make it successful, but what I said above is a simple starting block.

29 March 2010
Hi there,

Well i have to say there has been some good answers above which should have armed you with some really good info.

From our point of view and mentioned before the purchasing experience must be simple, easy and payment method to the users liking (like add paypal). If it becomes over complicated there is a good chance the online buyer will move to another website - bad news.

Lets say you have a really nice web design, easy to use shopping cart system, lovely pictures, products people want to buy -

People finding your website is the key - you must have SEO through your website, most good web designers will make your website search engine friendly when built.

Get website added to Google maps
Submit articles online promoting your webiste link
Submit your website to online directories
Get links from other websites who are happy to promote you
Consider advertising in magazines/papers that suits your products
Get a Blog sorted and use social media
Tweet your shop
Facebook to promote get friends and family to spread the word
Have some kind of promotional offer
Capture email addresses and email market

Just a few ways to help create a buzz and drive traffic to your website and online shop to make you money :)

We can help with any of the above.

I hope this helps Adam

6 April 2010
A lot of nice answers but an important one has been missed.

By July 2010, you must use a PA DSS certified shopping cart on a PCI DSS certified hosting provider. You must provide quarterly to yearly scans depending on the credit card brands you are accepting.

Failure to comply with PCI Compliance requirements can result in heavy fines by the Acquiring bank where you have your merchant account. Data breaches can result in legal action against you and your company.

In addition, if your application is breached, you may be required to pay for the costs of a forensics investigation resulting in 30-40,000 in expenses. The typical small merchant can expect around $10,000.00 in expenses if they fail to meet PCI requirements and are breached.

The best option for startups and merchants getting less than 20,000 credit card transactions a year (this is per card brand) is to use a hosted payment solution, Google Checkout, or Paypal.

Good Luck

17 May 2010
Reflecting on what those have already said, I think its appropriate to encourage design that lets the customer seemlessly go from seeing something they like, to a direct means of purchase.

Alot of websites miss good income simply because they do not filter interest (like a funnel) down to the sale, instead they perhaps bombard the user with the "hard sell" from the moment a customer lands on their site, this can confuse and even alienate a customer from the off.

The likelyhood of a user landing on your site looking to purchase is a great advantage to having a webshop, so encourage product browsing, and even impulse sales, but try not to overwhelm and scare off your customers within the first few seconds.

Best of luck!

Aimee (Darkbox Software).

26 May 2010
An online shop is somewhat like a retail shop

1 June 2010
The biggest factor is ease of use for yourself and clients. Study some top e-commerce sites such as Amazon.com. People use sites such as these because they are so easy to use. This builds up some more imperative needs of successful e-commerce sites such as trust and reputation.