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Many clients have asked me what strategies can be deployed to drive their online business upward.  There are many ways to approach a web strategy and obviously each retailer needs to tread their own path to build a business amongst the thousands of competing sites.  However, some fundamentals are common to all.  I thought I would jot down some ideas on tackling the first steps of the challenge.

The most fundamental of all is to understand the end user shopping experience.  Have you put yourself in the shoes of the end user and went shopping on your site?  Did you analyze each step in the path from getting to the site to getting the item at your door? Use Snag It to capture the screens along the path, paste into PowerPoint and post on the wall.  Improving the end user experience is common sense – it just takes setting aside some time to review.  Check out www.zappos.com for a fabulous end user experience (I never thought I would buy shoes online…) and read the ancient text “E-Commerce User Experience’ guide by the Nielsen Norman Group for the never aging axioms of adding to cart.

Products, price and promotions are also critical to success.  I have seen clients fret over usability, traffic etc but a pricing review relative to competition was the key to sales growth.  This subject is a whole other blog…

Make sure that a web analytics solution is in place. Grab a coffee and check out the dashboard delivered to you in an email during the early hours.  Unique visitor sessions, conversion and order size are metrics that should be on your frontal lobe every morning.

Web strategies can take many fascinating paths once you have the fundamental pillars in place. Ask yourself the questions:

·         Can I convert with a usable shopping experience?

·         Is the combination of product, price, and promotion the best on the net?

·         Can I track the results of my efforts?

·         Do I have the natural search infrastructure in place?

Be careful about spending your marketing budget prior to building the pillars (we all wish for the PPC budget of eBay…). We can then all look forward to topics of affiliate programs, shopping feeds, additional marketplace distribution, keyword buys, rich media….

Cheers,

-- Rick

Posted at 09:56 AM in eCommerce Strategy | Permalink