The_E-ABCs_of_CyberMerchandising

The E-ABCs of CyberMerchandising! Shopping on the Internet is the wave of the future! Everything we knew about conventional marketing in the past has been turned on its head. The Internet has a personality of its own and you better learn the ins and outs if you're going to succeed. The Internet is self-contained. It is its own advertising medium. It is where you buy and sell. It is where you communicate. Everything is electronic. And it is only a click or two away at any given time! Run your web site in a businesslike manner. Remember that people are still leery about making purchases with a faceless and sometimes nameless entity. When you walk into a store you actually see a person, know how to find that person if something goes wrong, and usually see some type of reassuring information that gives comfort such as a Better Business Bureau sign. Most web sites are a study in anonymity. It's hard to find a real person's name or even a business name. Mailing addresses are kept a secret. E-mail correspondence is done by auto-responders. You look at a cold computer screen and get a chilly reception. Imagine asking someone to give you their credit card information, their home address and phone number, and other pertinent data and never telling them who you are and where you can be located if a problem arises! WOW. A bit presumptuous, don't you think? It is very important to make your site a comfortable and easy place to do business. First, you are faceless to the shopper and the shopper is faceless to you! In fact, you usually don't know who came and went. To overcome this, give the visitor every opportunity to contact you by e-mail or phone. One of the most effective ways is to go to http://hotfiles.zdnet.com/cgi-bin exis/swlib/hotfiles/info.html?fcode=0015H 0, get a free HumanClick chat program and install one on every page on your site where questions or problems might arise. If you are online you can answer immediately. If not, the potential customer can send an e-mail message for you to answer when you do go online. This gives you online presence even when you aren't there! Next, consider your site as a store or office. Make sure that your products and services are easy to find. Think of the aisles of a grocery store. If you haven't been frustrated in a badly laid-out grocery store you are truly unique! After you set up your hyperlinks in an orderly fashion, you must furnish clear explanations of what you are offering and how to make the purchase. I ran an advertising agency for many years and lived by a simple rule. That rule still holds true. Tell the reader the features and explain the benefits. A potential customer wants a simple question answered what is it going to do for me? Then you must justify the cost. If you do a good job defining the features and benefits, the price should be easy to justify. Make your site interesting so that your visitors keep coming back. Invite them to bookmark the site and assure them that new things are added regularly. Give plenty of free information and other things for them to download or use while on the site. The Internet is full of information sites that you can link with and free stuff that you can get and give away on your site. Remember that your business is no longer just a corner store in your peaceful neighborhood! People of all nationalities from around the World are now visiting your store. Do your best to present your wares so that everybody will understand. This is a monumental task, but English is considered to be a universal language and this helps. Stay away from slang and other expressions with limited use. You might even want to consider translations for your site if you are concentrating on specific nationalities. Last, but not least, give plenty of consideration to load time. We live in an impatient age and people will not wait for slow pages to load. One of the best tools I've found is SiteInspector at http://siteinspector.linkexchange.com/ . You can check just the last item load time and it will help you minimize time. Remember that people have to stay to buy! In Summary The Internet is still in its infancy. It is like a ball of play dough ever-changing and being reshaped by everybody everywhere. To be a successful merchant on the Net you must present your wares well, make it easy and safe to buy on your site, and promote, promote, promote! The Internet population is growing daily. More customers, but more competition also. He who stands still will be left behind forever. About the author: Bob Apperson has more than 40 years experience in advertising and marketing. He operates a 12-story cyberstore at http://www.addsales.com and is affiliated with most of the leading e-commerce sites on the Internet. For further information, Bob can be contacted at mailto:bob@apperson.com