The 5 Toughest Problems Facing Online Retailers

Written by Raynay Valles


Continued from page 1

While a small change in your sales conversion rate will have a great impact on revenues, most website owners are unaware of this and are losing sales.

Problem # 3 The proximity ofrepparttar competition

According to Nielsen/Netratings, February 2003,repparttar 121026 average visitor spends only 55 seconds per webpage. In less than a minute, your visitors decide whether to continue viewing your pages or click away.

How many of your competitors are online? Find out now by going to your favorite search engine and typing in keywords prospective customers would use when looking for your business. How many options do your potential customers have?

Even if a visitor wants what you offer, he is tempted to comparison shop. It's very easy to click and go to another site. Are you doing everything you can to get customers to buy from you?

Problem # 4 Price-shopping

If you sell something exclusive, price-shopping wouldn't be a problem for you until competition shows up onrepparttar 121027 scene.

However, if you sell products that other websites offer, then you'll find intense pressure to lower your prices. Search engines give prospective customers a list of options. Plus, there are price comparison websites like Pricegrabber, MySimon and Dealtime that make it easy for consumers to price-shop. They give their users prices from several websites.

Problem # 5 Shopping cart abandonment

A visitor decides to buy from you. Somewhere between placing items inrepparttar 121028 shopping cart and completingrepparttar 121029 purchase they leave your website, usually for good.

More than 60 percent of online shoppers abandon purchases before completingrepparttar 121030 credit card transaction, according to Gartner Group, Inc. Which means if 40 people buy from you, 100 started to buy from you. Imagine how many more sales you'd have if you prevented some of these abandoned carts.

Identifyingrepparttar 121031 toughest problems facing online retailers isrepparttar 121032 first step in dealing effectively with them.

Raynay Valles, is an marketing specialist who helps her clients sell dramatically more despite the problems they face. Email her now at mailto:5toughest@jawdrop.com or visit http://www.jawdrop.com for more information.


Why Design Matters in a Slow Economy

Written by Eileen Parzek


Continued from page 1

When you visit a business onrepparttar web, navigation and content on a web site are extremely important, for it isrepparttar 121025 visual design which lends credibility and indicatesrepparttar 121026 professionalism and quality ofrepparttar 121027 business. Consumer Web Watch, publishers of Consumer Reports, found that "Design Look" (46.1 percent) and "Information Design/Structure" (28.5 percent) wererepparttar 121028 top factors people used to determine credibility ofrepparttar 121029 business they were visiting online.

Having a quality product or service is terrific, but it is not enough if no one can see you, or if no one knows you are there. What better time to letrepparttar 121030 world know that your business exists, than when your competition is hunkered down and not marketing? Professional design can improve your businesses image and communications, and it is good for economics. A good image offers increased, positive exposure and differentiation fromrepparttar 121031 competition. Improved communications assures your message reaches your audience, and is received. Economically, good design increases sales through increased acceptance and awareness of your products and services.

(c) Eileen Parzek, SOHO It Goes!

Eileen Parzek, better known on the web as "Turtle", is the owner of SOHO It Goes! which provides graphic design, marketing and computer solutions online and off, for small businesses and organizations.


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