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 manne...

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.

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