Tips For New E-Commerce Web Builders

How would you like to build an e-commerce web storefront on the web?  Perhaps these few tips will
help you as you embark on this exciting venture; of joining the other e-commerce site builders. 

To stay on course you first must focus carefully on a website building plan.  Define your goals and lay
out which marketing strategies and what results you expect from each.  Is it your goal to generate leads? 
Do you want to have an online catalog?  Would you like to accumulate a database of possible clients? 
List your objectives in measurable form (i.e. increase sales by 20%). This will help you to gauge the
success of your e-commerce site as time goes on.               

Your next task will be to decide the things your prospective clients will want and need to know prior to
making a purchase.  These things might be: 

•          A detailed product or service description complete with pricing guides, key features, product
       specs, etcetera. 

•          Customer reviews and testimonials, reports and studies, customer success stories and positive
        remarks made by prior customers. 

•          A section that covers frequently asked questions (FAQ) to answer questions and cut down on the
       need for one-on-one assistance.  

You should focus primarily on customer use when planning the construction of your site.  Potential clients
will want a site that is easy to use, easy to navigate, and answers the many questions most consumers
have prior to spending money on a product.  You should strive to create a site map that will outline each
page of your site, starting with the home page.  You should also plan to implement the use of tools that
will track and measure your site activity (i.e. where do customers click most often and whether or not
those clicks lead to a purchase).  This way, as you build your e-commerce web site, you will be able
to compare your goals against your results. 

As you build, you will want to make certain you are using the right tools.  Your soundly laid out plan is
just the beginning. Next you can commence with the actual construction of your e-commerce web site. 
Many businesses will turn to professionals (a very powerful tool in web building).  The professional
website builders design and create outstanding web sites.  There are unlimited sources of contact
for professional web builders.  Use the phone book, or better yet, look online and you will quickly find
a firm in your area.  

On the other hand, maybe you are not budgeted to have professional help building your web site.  Many
successful e-commerce sites are constructed using tools that are designed to help the layperson create
a professional and polished site on their own, without the aid of HTML experts.  Again, resources for such
sites can be found all over the Internet and you can even find great web building programs to download
for free. 

So let us review.  In order to build a successful E-Commerce web site, your primary goal is to keep your customer in mind.  Determine what you would like to see if you were investigating a product and do your best to build a web site that suits those specifications.

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For more info on E-commerce related topics Doyle invites you to check out Web Advisor , Online Success

and Marketing Tools
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