Andrew & peter

Is it possible to ignore the e-commerce??

The reality and vaginal high-tech era, the development and use of technical means, and the growing conviction by adopting a pattern of actions and the implementation and a specific platform for the development, and in light of the majority of Arab countries entering the WTO, under the requirements of international trade liberalization of trade in goods and services, and the entry of foreign companies as Arab markets Real competition, offered by electronic commerce to facilitate the operations of the competition if they can discharge requirements and achieved the success of their projects, the ignored - rather than as an expression of the inability to acquire the tools to deal with the challenges of the information age - nothing exaggerated in maintaining the traditional patterns that researchers argue It will not survive long, traditional patterns of trade but is still the existing structure is implemented gradually shifted towards the use of electronic means, if the banks are still mostly depend on the means to execute requests for regular customers, they rely on a system of techniques that work banking Solved by technology day after day in all aspects of banking activity, which makes electronic commerce ignored in this instance, failure to deal with the reality experienced by these institutions already. The same is provided to all sectors, Alice shipping activity for example implemented through a series of media and technical means, you stayed in the field of transport and tourism was not completed and turn into a technical patterns. A world that tends to bring technical in every field of human activity, in the President, vital services and services provided by the state, will develop e-commerce subject at the top of the agenda topics evolution and development, for all that, just ignore the e-commerce is not commensurate with our desire to deal With secretions positive for the era of information technology and possess the means of confronting the negative effects of globalization era and secretions.

Article source :www.opendirectorysite.info

Advantages of electronic commerce.

There are many studies and articles on the advantages of electronic commerce and the importance of recourse to it and adopt a pattern president for commercial activity in the era of information through high-speed, and we briefly introduced the most prominent features of electronic commerce - one that concerns us most in the Arab environment - from the summaries of studies and reports referred to as follows : -- Find ways trafficking approve the information age In the information age and the trend towards long hours in front of computers and Internet sites, only the pressing need for a trade patterns with features of this era and manners, from here enabled Alalkintrunet trade patterns to create innovative ways of management of commercial activity, like in selling through electronic means (RETIL E - commerce) and electronic commerce between businesses (E-commerce business-to-business) and in both fields possible change in the way the comprehensive service delivery and presentation of the product and achieve comprehensive presentation of options for shopping. Access to global markets and achieve a higher return than traditional activities: -- The universality of electronic commerce abolished limits and restrictions before entering commercial markets, thanks to the transformation of the world market is open to consumers regardless of their geographical location of the seller or buyer, and whether international trade agreements (GATT, GATS, TRIPS) seeks to liberalize trade in goods and services, Electronic commerce is inherently achieve this goal without the need for consensus and negotiation rounds, it was said here that electronic commerce requires a collective international effort to regulate it, starting in nature because they do not recognize boundaries and limitations that do not require adherence to any restrictions. Options to meet customer smoothly Enabling e-commerce companies to understand the needs of customers and shopping options available to them more broadly, and this alone achieve a high rate of satisfaction among customers are offered traditional means of commerce, the customer can know the items and prices and features every type and product differentiation and evaluate the subject of procurement in terms of how it meets the desire of the options buyer. Development of trade performance and service: -- Electronic commerce, including the required infrastructure and technical strategies for financial management, marketing and management relations and contact with others, provide an opportunity for developing the performance of institutions in various fields, which provide great service for enterprises in the field of evaluating reality and the efficiency of its employees and the safety and effectiveness of technical infrastructure management and rehabilitation programmes. "" The growth of electronic commerce stimulates research on finding new and improved methods for the use of coupons and electronic checks, and in the meantime, there are new methods of work and thrive on the Internet that were not possible in the real world. For example, many companies sell specialized in dealing with corporate surplus stocks online through Internet auctions. The company predicts "Forrester Research" The auctions between companies via the Internet sales will exceed 7.3 billion U.S. dollars this year alone. The most important thing with respect to the auction site is limited impact on the price, in a maneuver, can not the producer or distributor to determine the price alone price of the goods or service is determined only by the registered demand in the market. Studies show that "to" get the support of the concept of electronic commerce throughout the company a very important issue. Can be obtained such support through the education cadre administrative and marketing managers and information technology, finance and sales officials so that the representation of all sectors in the company in decisions taken on Electronic Commerce, "" This highlighted the advantages of electronic commerce by putting us an opportunity to exploit this pattern of action to reach the markets may not allow traditional trade reached and to establish projects small capitalization may fit the investment opportunities in the Arab environment.

Article source : www.opendirectorysite.info

electronic commerce and Arab markets.

-3 Has entered e-commerce business environment Arab???

Recalls Darsat research and statistical (14) that the Arabic language does not represent more than 0.5% of the land use on the Internet, and this is the main obstacle to the success of electronic shopping trade in the Arab region, the problem of language is an important factor restricting e-commerce activity Arabic, and Lack of awareness of electronic commerce and ways and means to meet specific price through techniques pay cash and credit cards, and weak confidence in security aspects to protect the information represented a decisive factor in the weakness of the prevalence of this type introduced for commercial activities. The challenges in the field of electronic commerce Arab building three-dimensional: - then I, infrastructure requirements, a challenge is technical in nature related challenges of building and developing human cadres in the field of technical knowledge management strategies and challenges of IT projects in the public and private sectors and dealing with the safety of their language and requirements. The second dimension is the legal challenges of building an effective and harmonized with the reality of society and nation and to remove the perceived impact on existing foundations and rules of the legal system, a challenge is an organizational nature, either after the third main challenges excellence, continuity and competitiveness, a challenge related to work or more accurately The concept of business development (business development) and a researcher at the Arab reality, notices the growing effort to achieve the requirements and meet the challenges of these three dimensions, which vary by the efforts of Arab institutions in terms of performance and achievement and excellence, but we can not say that much has been achieved in these fields, since what remains Most Arab countries suffer from problems of infrastructure in the fields of communications, computing, instead of shortage or lack of adequate investment and competencies of qualified personnel to deal with the technical challenges of building an effective, with the absence of strategies for rebuilding education courses in the field of technology, information, rehabilitation, training and applied all means, respect to this dimension Non-majority Arab countries overcome the problems of pricing policies for services instead of providing connectivity and Internet services, a critical factor in increasing the number of participants is essential input for the existence of e-commerce market Arabia, a market here is not just e-commerce sites, but essentially the user or customer market, which allows the survival and evolution of these Sites. In the second dimension, dimension and productive regulatory legal framework governing electronic commerce, and so far it has not stood legislative institutions in general Arab stance before the comprehensiveness of the information age secretions and its effects on the legal system and legislation preterm logic prevails, solutions and partial measures instead of comprehensive solutions, and we believe that the strategy of dealing with Any of the topics of information technology, electronic commerce for example, must be based on a comprehensive briefing by the relevant focus of research and place the measures, since how the legislation of electronic commerce for example, is effective and appropriate if not the legal system on protection for example, recognized the criminal information from the dangers of computer crimes and Internet , Or was on the legal system does not accept the authenticity of electronic means, revealing a computer does not recognize him in evidence. The third dimension, and on the development of e-business to ensure continuity and competitiveness, although it depends on the vastness of starting business and to expand the size of the market for electronic commerce, the Arab building projects electronic Arabic - with us to facilitate follow-up - does not reflect a genuine recognition of the importance of this dimension and the public here saying What is needed is not just a Web presence, because without the presence of competitive ability and the evolution of the equivalent non-permanent presence may even be the last option is less costly and provides passive losses presence on the Web. However, the sites of hundreds of Arab, overcome language problem through the adoption of the bilateral language translation software and solutions, particularly the Arab environment, managed to enter the market of electronic commerce, has announced a number of banks, particularly the major banks in the United Arab Emirates, to start providing banking services across Internet, as widely established virtual stores on the Web, most notably clothes and sweets shops, some shops and libraries Egyptian emerged as a comprehensive service sites, newsletters, advertising and marketing of many commodities in the forefront of technical magazines and products from hardware and software, electronic markets are projects (host sites selling platforms Mail) in Dubai, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Jordan more ambitious e-commerce projects and plans were expected to develop a good development in the Arab market of electronic commerce. With the wide interest in the events of Arabic websites on the Internet to various institutions and commercial entities in the Arab world, began positioning Founded in previous years by adding electronic shopping services and other electronic commerce services, and studies show that the percentage increase in e-commerce activities in the Arab environment is more difficult to monitor rapidly, The forecasts indicate that each (7) out of (10) points of Arab develop a Web site, add services within the site marketing and media activities and service falls within the scope of the concept of electronic commerce. Following a comprehensive study conducted by government agencies and the private sector in Bahrain, the government devised the most prominent obstacle to the spread of electronic commerce, lack of confidence in the level of security based on the Internet and the fear of becoming the contracts and payments vulnerable to fishing pirates directing attention to the misdeed of a significant e-commerce sites, To overcome this major impediment, in order to provide a more efficient infrastructure for launching e-commerce, has been assigned the task of electronic commerce in the UAE Emirates Telecommunications Corporation - Communications, a private sector, which in turn launched a project (Komitrst), which provides integrated solutions for electronic commerce in the UAE, thereby, Emirates may be responded to with global guidelines to leave this activity to the private sector, responded with the keys to its development, which stands in the forefront of providing confidence of the entrepreneurs and customers together on safety and security of electronic commerce environment as it assumes the points have efficient shoulder legal responsibility for the safety assessments solutions In the field of electronic commerce (15). But this trend does not mean that other Arab environments binding adoptions, as important to assign the activity capable of assuming and capable of achieving the confidence of the investment and points to its customers.

Article source : www.opendirectorysite.info

Five Easy Lessons for Holiday Selling

It's been about 11= months since the first major e-tail disaster. Last year's holiday season really put e-tailers to the test, and few passed. Even such retail giants as Toys "R" Us and Barnes & Noble were forced to recognize that web-based retailing isn't the same as the brick-and-mortar variety.
So what did e-tailers learn from all this? Can consumers expect a better performance from them this year?
Today's article discusses five lessons that will make the difference between e-tailing's 1999 and 2000 holiday seasons. They are simple points -- almost too simple. But I guarantee that if e-tailers follow them, this year's holiday season will look a whole lot different from last year's e-disaster.
Lesson One: Speed matters. No wonder Toys "R" Us teamed up with Amazon. The partnership married the toy retailer to a successful distribution network. Tapping into Amazon's seven gargantuan U.S. distribution centers has probably eliminated the possibility of Toys "R" Us seeing a rerun of its 1999 delivery debacle, one in which Toys "R" Us had to give dissatisfied customers $100 vouchers to compensate for failed deliveries.
Lesson Two: Answer those damn emails. Last season, 56 percent of e-tailers didn't answer emails within 48 hours, and 26 percent didn't answer at all. These results were gleaned from a survey by Resource Marketing, a Columbus, Ohio, Internet strategy and marketing firm. The same survey conducted this year shows a dramatic increase in email inquiry responses. Now, 78 percent of shopping sites answer emails within 48 hours, compared with the last survey results of 44 percent.
And let me remind you of an obvious, but apparently neglected, fact. An answer within 48 hours means a real answer, not some standard reply assuring the consumer that an answer is on its way. Emails mean business. And sometimes they even mean extra business.
Lesson Three: Consumers still don't trust the Net. You know what? I understand why, 100 percent. Lack of consumer trust is why e-tailers have to encourage its development by offering new types of guarantees like a no-questions-asked return policy. Such incentives build consumer confidence in e-tailers and ensure that the 79 percent of online customers who, according to AC Nielsen, still feel uncomfortable about typing in their credit card numbers on the Net, will continue to do so.
What other policies make your consumers feel uncomfortable? Find out what they are, and replace them with consumer-friendly policies.
Lesson Four: Be the best at what you do. E-tailing does have some advantages that brick-and-mortar retailing can never achieve: outstanding selection, no waiting time, and lower prices. These are the ingredients for e-tailing survival. If you don't have even one of them, you destroy your ability to attract customers.
Lesson Five: Keep your promises. If you promise to deliver, DO IT. Eighteen percent of products never arrived at consumers' doors last holiday season; don't let the same thing happen again this year. Remember, one bad experience means no return customer.
It's a simple principle: Keep your promises. Never underdeliver. Only overdeliver. When I bought some flowers in Australia via www.rosesonly.com.au, I not only received my roses, but I also received four other small gifts that included chocolate and perfume, which I hadn't asked for. What a wonderful surprise.
You're probably now saying to yourself "So what new information is offered in this article?" And you have just cause to wonder. There's nothing new here, and ain't that what it's all about? Since last holiday season, 80 percent of e-tailers have gone broke, and, in almost 90 percent of the cases, it was simply because they never managed to tick off the five lessons we've just considered.
This year is absolutely the last chance to retrieve consumer confidence in e-tailing that was lost last year. Learn from the five lessons, and you'll help ensure that your e-tail customers feel it's a happy season after all.

Article source : www.clickz.com By Martin Lindstrom

Don't hide key e-commerce information

One of the biggest nuisances online shoppers face is missing or hidden information. Sometimes, sites simply fail to provide needed information. Other times, the information is too difficult to find or isn't handy when shoppers need it. This situation is particularly absurd in a medium whose chief selling points are convenience and information.
The end result is predictable: lost sales. Even after going to the trouble of finding and selecting products they want, shoppers frequently click away before completing the transaction--a phenomenon known as "shopping cart abandonment." Industry studies estimate that up to 75 percent of online consumers abandon their shopping carts before they complete the checkout process.
If you're managing an e-commerce site, you can improve it substantially by having all the right information on your site and by making sure it is easy to find. Geri Spieler, research director at the Gartner Group, offers some general advice. "Design the site as though your customer had never been to your store before. All pages must have three things on them, no matter how many times the user clicks: a search window, link to customer service, and contents of the shopping basket at any time."
Here are seven types of information every e-commerce site should provide to help convert more shoppers into buyers:
1. Product details. If you're selling apparel, it's not enough to tell shoppers that the product is a snow parka and list the price. Potential customers also want to know about fabrics, colors, sizes, waterproofing, temperature thresholds, weight, and other details as well as see one or more images of the product. Matthew Berk, an analyst of site technologies and operations at Jupiter Media Metrix, says online retailers often fail to understand the distinction between managing electronic catalogs and managing content. "Consumers want a product's gestalt," he says. "Not just prices, discounts, and when it will arrive, but how it compares with other products. In short, they want content."
2. Privacy policy. Since they need to give all sorts of personal data to complete the sale, consumers are understandably sensitive as to how this information will be used. For that reason, every site should have a privacy policy that's readily accessible. Steve Talleen, Giga Information Group's vice president for Web Site ScoreCard Services, says every site should have a clearly labeled link to its privacy policy. "At a minimum, this link should be on the home page and any page that requests the customer to input data," he says. "The best sites have it on every page--usually as one of the text links at the bottom."
Privacy policies need to cover a lot of ground--the type of data being collected, its intended use, and the conditions, if any, under which it will be disclosed to a third party. Avoid legalese--opaque language can make it look like you're more interested in protecting your own interests. Cover the main points of the privacy policy as forthrightly as possible in a summary paragraph before launching into details.
3. Shipping information. Unclear shipping information is one of the single biggest sources of consternation among online shoppers. It's particularly irritating for consumers when they can't discover shipping options and pricing until they are in the middle of the checkout process. Shipping information is an important consideration for shoppers. A Vividence study found that high shipping prices are the No. 1 reason customers abandon their shopping carts, cited as the reason for abandonment among 72 percent of those surveyed. A Yankee Group survey found that 52 percent of online consumers who research products online don't purchase online because they have to wait too long to receive the product from an online retailer. Paul Ritter, Yankee Group's program manager for Internet market strategies, says, "Clearly, merchants that make it easy for shoppers to find out how long it will take to get their merchandise and that offer overnight shipping as an option will win out in converting these non-buyers to buyers."
4. Complete pricing information. Consumers should have easy access to complete price information before checkout. "This is one of the classic 'baiting' habits of online merchants," says Gartner's Spieler. "They don't tell you about taxes and shipping until [you get] to checkout. This is often where the shopping basket gets dumped." The consumer should be alerted to local sales tax and other fees and where they apply before getting a rude awakening at the end of the process. Something as simple as this can determine whether a customer is willing to buy from you in the future. A reader who wrote me about discovering that he had been charged sales tax after completing a transaction said he will never do business with that company again.
5. Warranty information. Warranties help create buying confidence, especially among shoppers who are accustomed to going to a store and looking a merchant in the eye. Yet few companies provide decent warranty information. In a recent evaluation of 110 online retail sites, the Federal Trade Commission found that 52 of the sites selling warranted products didn't provide adequate information about the warranties.
6. Return policy. Like warranties, consumers may want information on return policies both before and after making a purchase. You should have links to a return policy alongside pricing, warranty, shipping, and order confirmation information. The return policy should spell out whether refunds are issued and under what conditions, how long consumers have to return an item after purchase, how long it takes to process the return and provide remittance, what customers need to provide (such as a receipt or returning the goods), who pays for the return shipment, and the form of remittance (a check, charge credit, or merchandise credit).
7. Customer support. Don't hide your company's contact information. Customers get confused, need information you didn't anticipate, and get angry and need some form of recourse. Make sure customers have an avenue to ask questions and resolve difficulties--whether it's e-mail, a toll-free phone number, live chat, or some combination of these. If you use e-mail, make sure you give customers a clear picture of how soon they can expect an answer. Also make sure you have a reliable process in place for getting them timely answers.
E-commerce is growing up. Having a competitive site means filling in the information gaps so customers have the knowledge they need to make decisions at key milestones in the shopping process. You should be able to boost sales and increase customer satisfaction by making sure that your site has complete information that's easy to find. Perhaps most important of all, it can help you keep customers coming back for more

Article source : www.techupdate.zdnet.com By Adrian Mello

The Seven Deadly Sins of E-Commerce

Many doomed e-tailers failed to make sure that goods were in stock - or at least that customers were informed when the company was sold out of a particular item.

E-commerce companies made a lot of mistakes in the early days, and the same errors torpedoed hopeful e-tailers over and over.

The Web is haunted by the ghosts of those failed dot-coms, but at least the ones that have survived now have a good understanding of what not to do.

Pride Goeth Before a Fall

"The first deadly sin is to believe that you can sell anything over the Internet," Giga Information Group analyst Andrew Bartels told the E-Commerce Times.

That attitude led to e-commerce disasters like Pets.com, Furniture.com and Living.com, which were trying to sell things that did not make economic sense on the Web. "Product selection is one of the key success factors," Bartels said.

Some companies just had poor business models that would have failed online or offline, Lori Iventosch-James, director of e-commerce research at Harris Interactive, told the E-Commerce Times.

Some businesses were "poorly run, not well thought out or not the greatest fit for an online market," Iventosch-James said.

Gluttony for Growth

The second deadly sin was thinking that e-commerce companies could look forward to skyrocketing growth for the foreseeable future.

Because they thought online sales would keep growing by 100 percent or 200 percent year after year, many companies rushed to set up shop on the Web and just as quickly learned the error of their ways.

"Except for EBay and Amazon, first-movers by and large have not been successful. It has often been the second- or third-movers who have been able to learn from the mistakes of the first-movers," Bartels said.

Channel Envy

Channel blinders were an unfortunate accessory worn by many failed dot-coms, according to Iventosch-James, who cited Circuit City and Best Buy as examples of companies that have an integrated channel strategy.

"It's clear that one of the things e-commerce companies have learned is that they have to integrate their online and offline operations," she said.

"If they don't have a comprehensive channel strategy, they are really missing the boat. That is one of the lessons that was learned early on -- online is just one piece of the whole picture."

In some cases, e-tailers simply ignored other channels, which Bartels said was a huge mistake. Those companies failed to recognize the value of other marketing channels, including paper catalogs and physical stores. "A growing number of successful retailers have now learned," he noted.

Lust for Customers

A common but deadly sin was not paying enough attention to customers. "People are learning that good customer service is really critical in this particular environment," said Iventosch-James. That is one reason why catalog companies like Eddie Bauer are doing so well online while some more traditional companies like J.C. Penney and Bloomingdales have struggled.

Part of the customer service equation is customer fulfillment, and many e-tailers failed to make sure that the goods were in stock -- or at least that the customer was informed when the company was sold out of a particular item.

In other words, companies did not "[make] sure that the promise of the online sale was met by the reality of the delivery," Bartels said.

Another key aspect of e-commerce that many companies neglected was user experience on the site.

According to Bartels, "Good sites did this well. Bad sites lost customers they may have enticed with marketing by failing to make the experience a satisfying one."

Greed with the Green

One of the deadliest sins committed by e-commerce companies was turning a blind eye to costs. "A lot of the ones that failed burned through an incredible amount of cash in a very short time -- think of Blue.com," Bartels said.

Caught up the Web whirlwind, many companies spent gobs of money on facilities, parties and perks -- and their carelessness led to many an e-commerce downfall.

Some firms did it right, however. According to Bartels, NetBank is famous for its penny-pinching president, who mandated the purchase of used computer equipment and low-rent office space. As a result, the company is one of the most successful Internet banks.

Slothful Planning

Deadly sin number six involved e-tailers' single-minded focus on low prices, ignoring other value propositions like information, good service and unique products.

"The problem with being a low-cost provider is that you're constantly in danger of being beaten out by the next guy," Bartels said.

"Amazon does not usually have the lowest price, but they compensate with superb execution, and they have a lot of information that people can use to make educated buying decisions. That gives them more loyalty," he added.

And that leaves just the last sin -- anger. That shows up after all the other sins have been committed, when e-tailers realize they have done everything exactly wrong and that they have no one to be angry at but themselves.

Article source :www.ecommercetimes.com By Elaine X. Grant

Understanding the Consumers behind the $300 Billion e-Commerce Market

Forrester Research expects the U.S. online commerce market to grow to $300 billion over the next four years. But NOW is when consumers are forming their online shopping habits and developing buying loyalties. With shoppers' expectations maturing, and competitive pressures mounting, it is important for retailers to recognize the changing face of the online customers they serve.

In a recent ATG Web cast, Forrester Research's Tamara Mendelsohn talked about the e-commerce landscape, the changing demographics of the online marketplace, and what to look out for in 2007. Here is a brief look at what Mendelsohn had to say. For the full story, view the recorded Web cast.

Growth in the e-commerce arena
According to Mendelsohn, if we look at the last six years of e-commerce, the industry saw incredible growth at about a 97% compound annual growth rate between 1997 and 2003. Online retailers were able to sustain themselves on this steady growth rate, on the fact that consumers were coming online and beginning to buy online for the first time in quite large droves. But if you look at the next five years beginning with 2004, says Mendelsohn, we are experiencing a much steadier and slower growth rate. Forrester predicts a roughly 14% annual growth rate over the next five years or so. That means the number of households beginning to buy online is not climbing at the rate we've seen over the past couple of years.

Where will future growth come from?
According to Mendelsohn, the new online buyers -- the buyers who are now just beginning to buy online -- are much more demographically mainstream than their counterparts who began buying online in the late nineties or even in early 2000. They don't have as positive an attitude towards technology as those who came online before them, and consequently they're hesitant to trust the online buying experience. So for the retail industry, Mendelsohn says this means that as mainstream consumers begin to shop online they will gravitate naturally towards brands that they know and trust. All retailers, even the well known brands, really need to focus on making the buyer trust the shopping experience and to make the online channel an even more convenient and satisfying way to buy.

Who's online?
The Forrester consumer technographics survey, which includes a panel of about 60,000 households, gauges the attitudes of online consumers toward technology and seeks to understand how they incorporate technology into their lives. The survey showed that consumers that began to buy online four or more years ago tended to be under 45 in age with high household incomes. They are predominately technology optimists. These folks were the early adopters of the online channel as a way to support their lifestyle.

But looking at the buyers that came online for the first time within the past two years, the Forrester study shows this group to be a lot more mainstream. Their household income is considerably lower. They are less likely to have a college degree, and they spend less online. Only about half of them are optimistic about technology, which means that the other half don't view technology as having a positive impact on their lives. To a certain degree, says Mendelsohn, they're technophobes. They're also less satisfied with the online purchase process. Buyers that began purchasing online three or four years ago are much more satisfied than those that have begun shopping online just in the last two years. Mendelsohn says that's because the mainstream consumers are much less willing to deal with a bad technology experience. They don't engage with technology for technology's sake, as many of the early adopters did, but instead bring higher demands to the channel and expect to interact with it in a much more human fashion.

What's driving online shopping?
According to Mendelsohn, online shopping is being driven primarily by price. Forrester's research shows that the number one reason for shopping the online rather than offline channel is that the price of the product was cheaper online.

But make no mistake: Mendelsohn says even though consumers shop online because they can often find better prices there, they're still not satisfied with that channel. When Forrester asked consumers how satisfied they were with each of the shopping channels, including the Web, the call center, and the physical retail location, consumers still like the physical store best. Surprisingly, even though there are problems with the physical store in terms of training sales associates and keeping them up to speed on complex products, it is still the most preferred channel for researching products. It's also the most preferred channel for purchasing products.

Mendelsohn says this may be because the experience in the store environment is one that consumers are very familiar with and for which they have very realistic expectations. Therefore they aren't let down as much as they are with some of the newer channels.

What do consumer preferences mean for online retailers?
In Mendelsohn's opinion, the e-commerce market continues to be a huge opportunity for retailers. The online experience has a long way to go in meeting mainstream consumer expectations. There are certain values that the online channel brings to the shopping experience, such as the ease of accessing information, that the offline channel is not as good at providing, says Mendelsohn. Therefore, Forrester believes that there is a tremendous opportunity to enhance that experience over the next few years.

Where should retailers focus?
Mendelsohn identifies several spots that deserve focus. First, retailers should look at security and support for new payment methods to help consumers overcome over their hesitation to share financial information. Second, retailers should think about introducing new ways to build loyalty and drive sales through content, experience, and reinforced branding messages. Until now, the online channel has been very transaction-focused. Mendelsohn believes that 2007 represents a great opportunity to take advantage of enhanced content and focus on richer site experiences to build loyalty and drive sales.

Retailers also need to provide cross-channel consistency to raise customer satisfaction and deliver more relevant marketing. Forrester's research shows that mainstream consumers are most comfortable shopping in the offline channel, and the online needs to tie more seamlessly into that experience. According to Mendelsohn, 2007 will be the year where retailers will focus on using better tools to provide better online shopping experiences.

How do you prepare your site to address changing consumer expectations?
Learn more about the changing faces of online consumers, as well as how your business can benefit from serving them better. Check out the full Web cast.

Article source :www.atg.com

4 Strategies To Help You To Make Money From Your Website

People always seem to be looking for new ways to make money online. There is nothing wrong with being innovative and trying new methods to make money online. The problem comes up when people, seeking new methods, forget to pay attention to the proven methods of making money online.

What has worked in the past for successful webmasters is still working today, and will likely continue to work into the foreseeable future. There are 4 primary areas that a webmaster must focus on to be successful. These four areas are important regardless of the type of website you run or the product or service that you sell.

Conversions

Conversions are critical. You can get a million visitors to your site, but that means nothing if none of them make a purchase at your site. Conversions are calculated as the percentage of people that make a purchase at your site, compared to the number of total visitors.

The higher your conversion rate, the less traffic that you need to your site. Many webmasters struggle with getting that all-important traffic to their site. So instead of exclusively chasing traffic, also work on increasing the amount of traffic that you can convert into sales. There are a number of ways that you can do this with your online business.

Many webmasters understand that having a compelling sales letter, or sales pitch, is crucial. If you do not have the best possible sales letter, then you are losing potential customers. If you do not feel comfortable writing your own sales letter, consider hiring a copywriter to do it for you. You could also ask the copywriter to develop a few sales letters for your business, and you can do a comparitive analysis to see which ones bring the best conversion results for your business.

You can also improve your conversion ratio by paying attention to the layout of your web pages. There are a lot of different opinions on the best layouts for selling your products or services. For me there are a couple of easy ways to determine web page layouts.

The first thing that I consider is what I like and dislike about other websites. Is it hard to find the product on the page? Is the price hidden? Is a description of the product easy to find? Is the ordering information easy to find?

The other factor that I look at is what successful webmasters before me have done with their layout. There is no need to reinvent the wheel here. Instead of spending weeks trying to develop my own perfect layout, I will start with a template similar to those that are known for making high conversions.

Linking For Traffic

Now that we have covered conversions, we can talk about linking for traffic. While your conversions may be very good, it will never be 100%. So what this means is that the more of that precious traffic you get (at whatever conversion rate you are getting) will result in more sales and more money. It is known that the more links you have to your website, the more traffic that you will get. The links to your site are critical in driving traffic.

First of all, people click those links. I value a link from a high traffic website as much or more than a link from a high PageRank site, because actual humans are likely to be clicking the link to my website. I also place a very high value on having articles published in ezines and newsletters, because it always results in a nice boost in my website's traffic. The amount of traffic that comes as a result of having an article published in an ezine or newsletter will of course vary depending on the number of subscribers on the list.

A certain percentage of readers will always click the links that I have in a webpage or an ezine. And, a certain percentage of those who visit my website will convert to sales. Having my link appear in some ezines or newsletters can literally translate to thousands or tens of thousands of visitors to my website in a single day!

If you utilize article distributions, you can often get your articles published on a variety of websites and ezines. These articles will have your link in the author box, and you will also have the opportunity to discuss your web site and the products or services that you offer in your author box. This being said, the more effort you put into writing a good article and author box, the more likely you are to get some traffic as a result.

Linking Popularity

Building links for search engine placement purposes is just as important as linking for traffic. The more relevant back links that you have coming into your site, the higher your website will rank in the major search engines for your keywords. Back links are one of the best ways that you can get your online business to rank near the top of the search engines for your niche.

Be sure to use an anchor text on those links that is the same or similar to the keywords that you are targeting. Also, try to get those back links from relevant sites as much as possible. By this, I mean try to get those links from sites and webpages that have something in common with your site. A link from a webpage about bird watching will have little in common with your website about automobiles.

To illustrate the importance of back links, look at Digg.com (http://www.google.com/search?q=link%3ahttp%3a%2f%2fdigg%2ecom). They have a whopping 131,000 back links, which is why they are one of the most popular social book marking sites on the Internet.

Link Baiting

Link baiting is a great way to get those important back links, both for traffic and for link popularity. But, what is link baiting? It is when you have something so interesting / amusing / informative / useful that people will want to link to you, without you asking them to do so. Having something on your site that people will blog about, tell their friends about, or to send emails to their contacts about, is what constitutes link baiting. Your bait is so powerful that the fish will basically jump into the boat, without you ever needing to ask!

What kind of things work as link bait? This will depend a lot on the audience that you are trying to reach. In the SEO world, good link bait is placing free webmaster tools on your site. This means that people will bookmark the site; refer to it on forums, and possibly blog about what they learned by using your free webmaster tools.

If you are able to grow a reputation among your niche market as an expert, people will cite you and your website because of the quality information that you offer. If you run a humor site, people will forward the URL to their friends and tell them to check out a certain page.

Link baiting is also why the social book marking is exploding in popularity. If you have an article that gets onto the front page of Digg.com via link baiting, you will have an explosion in traffic. The same can be said for all of the major social bookmarking sites.

Link baiting is all about offering something unique that people will want to tell their friends about and that they will want to talk about. Spend some serious time thinking about what you can offer to your customer base that will result in successful link baiting for your website.

In Conclusion...

If you spend your time focusing on these 4 ways to make money with your online business, you are sure to be well ahead of most of your competitors. Optimize your site for conversions, build links for traffic, create links for popularity, and dangle some link bait for others to share, and you will find your customer base beginning to grow, and you will see your sales will start to improve.
Article source : www.site-reference.com by Trey Pennewell

2008 Predictions for Internet Retail

Everyone else is making predictions, so I guess I will get in on the fun too. The best thing about making predictions is that you will never remember them by the end of the year anyway. (unless I get them right, in which case I will remind you!)

Here goes…

1) Death of the little guy. This is already happening, and the trend is going to continue. It is simply going to become more and more unfeasible for small budgets to compete online. That is not to say that there will be exceptions, but you will hear about fewer and fewer of them.

If you fall into this category, you are feeling the squeeze already. Your revenue is stagnant or falling, and you are finding it harder and harder to get sales. Here is my best advice for you. Take 2008 and focus on your brand instead of revenue. Your success depends on it. Yes, it is not easy, but it will be necessary in the coming years. If you cannot sell products under your own label, focus on your company image as a whole.

2) Retailers will depend less on SEO. SEO success is not going to be easy or even possible for most retailers, and smart retailers are going to learn to get their traffic in different ways.

Ironically, moving away from search engine optimization will probably help your search engine rankings in the long run. There is little doubt in my mind that the most popular companies will eventually dominate their retail niches in search engines. If you can generate your traffic based on your brand itself (increase your popularity), you will eventually see good results in the SERPs.

3) Social marketing explosion. Online advertising continues to be inflated in most sectors, and more and more marketers will attempt to create demand with such strategies as viral campaigns and stealth marketing. Things are about to get very crowded out there in the social networks.

While a bit risky, social marketing still is more cost effective than CPC advertising. That will be the case for a while until the whole phenomenon collapses under its own weight. We are already at a point where you have to take every user review with an gigantic grain of salt. Before long, social marketing will become the new MLM model where armies of individuals parrot marketing hype online in order to make a few bucks selling something to a friend.

While I probably sound a bit cynical on this topic, I am a big believer in social/viral marketing. You should definitely explore it for your business.

4) Online fraud. Wow, these fraudsters are coming out of every where. They are getting more sophisticated all of the time. While we used to be safe in this area (what thief would steal vitamins?), we are now rejecting an amazingly high percentage of orders.

If you do not strategies to protect yourself, it is time to come up with some. Collecting the CVN number on credit cards and calling to verify customers who place large orders are two procedures that are becoming necessary.

5) Manufacturer action to control pricing. I have said many times that internet retailers can be the biggest enemy of a brand. If you own a brand that you let internet retailers sell for you, you have to be very careful.

Fortunately, in 2007, the Supreme Court has opened the door for manufacturers to better control the price their products are sold at. Many manufacturers are already implementing MAP policies with teeth in them and cutting off retailers who break the rules.

If you have built your business by piggy-backing on your competitors’ advertising while under-cutting them, you are in trouble. It is time to come up with another marketing strategy.

6) Online retail will grow X%. OK, I have no idea what X is, but I would guess less than 20%. Who cares anyway? You can grow faster than average anyway if you work hard!

So, in conclusion, it really comes down to this. I am bullish on retailers who have a strong brand and bearish on retailers who have not focused on their brand. Have a happy and prosperous 2008!

Article source : www.marketingpilgrim.com by Greg Howlett |