build your own
online store
20 Top Tips for Making Money Online
by Chris Barling, CEO, Actinic Software
The days of the wild west web have largely gone and plenty of people are succeeding online. Sadly, there have been numerous casualties, but the good news is that you don’t have to follow in their footsteps. Here’s some of the best practices that have been extracted from the last few years of turmoil.
1. It’s about your product, not technology
Internet technology has enabled the whole ecommerce revolution to happen, but if we just focus on technology, we will never succeed commercially. The rules of ecommerce are like those for any other business: You have to have something that customers want, at a price that they can afford and that people are prepared to buy online. Then you have to let your prospects know about it. Simple as that.
2. Marketing, marketing, marketing
If your great idea is ever to be profitable, people have to know about it. Over 90% of Internet users, and the majority of new visitors to web sites, use a search engine – mostly Google. You need to know how people search, and what key words they use for your type of product. Use a keyword research tool like Wordtracker (www.wordtracker.com) to find out. What other ways do they look online? Talk to lots of people and try to understand a bit more about it all. Here are some sites that can help www.searchenginewatch.com, http://searchmarketing.yahoo.com, and www.webmasterworld.com (look under 'Ecommerce' and 'The Marketing World').
3. Market offline
It’s true that all of your prospects are online, but it is also true that they are all offline more of the time. You need to ask whether traditional marketing like advertising, PR or direct mail can help. Sometimes the answer will be no, but you can’t afford to miss any tricks. Somewhat ironically, my own company built initial awareness almost exclusively offline.
4. Build trust
Buying online is an impersonal experience and involves a lot of faith. How does a visitor know that the goods ordered will actually arrive? So reassure people as much as possible, e.g. have a good photograph of you and your staff or your office on the About Us page, and join at least one of the merchant accreditation schemes like ISIS, TrustUK, SafeBuy or Verisign.
5. Remember your existing customers
Once you are up and running, remember that existing customers are your best customers. Make sure that you encourage them to return by making special offers and letting them know what you are doing at your store. Why not try loyalty or affiliate schemes?
6. Use technology that already works
Use technology that works, not something that’s a masterpiece in progress. This really speaks for itself, doesn’t it? I must declare a bias from my background, but why bother debugging software from a start-up or paying thousands for a bespoke solution that leaves you reliant on the designer ever after, when you could be using a package that is already working on thousands of online stores.
7. Sell from the second they arrive
Once someone arrives at your site, marketing is over and selling begins. So leave the smooth talk out, and make it easy to find your products.. Have a clear link like "Shop Here". And don't ask them to register before they can look at your catalogue. There will be plenty of time to get their name and address once they have decided to buy.
8. Make your site work for you, not your designer
The Direct Line red telephone continues to be used in ads because it works, however irritating it is. The same principle applies online. Don’t let a fantastic design spoil your business because, for instance, the design stuff takes so long to load that everyone just clicks away. Make everything the servant of the business objective, which is to make sales.
9. Get a good online payment provider
You need to be able to take payments online, and it makes sense to team up with a good one. A comprehensive list of UK payment providers is at www.actinic.co.uk/services/online-payment.htm.
10. Sign up with a good hosting company
Your online store needs to be hosted somewhere, and there are plenty of great deals for good, low cost web hosting around. Just type something like “ecommerce hosting” into Google to get a list. And make sure that your chosen web host can support the ecommerce technology you plan to use.
11. Make arrangements for the shipping of orders
Arranging for shipping is not so daunting as you might think as there are many specialist firms to help. Many ecommerce merchants ship abroad without any problems. The big boys are UPS, Fedex, DHL and ParcelForce, but there are many others. Asking for advice from local businesses that also ship out goods can be very helpful here.
12. Be legal and decent
Like every area of business these days, ecommerce is surrounded by a maze of red tape, rules and regulations. In fact, selling online tends to be worse because of the international dimension. And any slip-ups you make are there for the world to see, so it's doubly important to be legal and decent. The following five tips try to pull together some of the areas that you need to think about and understand. They shouldn't be taken as definitive – it's your job to comply with the law – but they are a good place to start.
13. Comply with the EU Distance Selling Directive
Under the EU Distance Selling Directive, you must make clear who you are by providing full contact details including an address and phone number. This is also good practice for building trust.
Under the same Directive, you must accept goods for return for any reason within 7 working days. Why not make this a selling point?
14. Get your tax right
If you are VAT registered then when selling to the EU, you should charge VAT at your usual rate. But there are some exceptions. If you exceed the individual VAT threshold for Germany, France, etc. then you should charge VAT at the appropriate country VAT rate when selling into that country, not the usual UK 17.5% rate. Also, if your customer is a non-UK business in the EU and is registered for VAT in its own country, the buyer is allowed to quote their VAT registration number to you in order to be exempted from tax.
Finally, you don’t have to charge VAT when selling outside the EU, such as to the US.
15. Allow for disabled visitors – it's the law!
Make sure that you comply with the disability law. The key requirement is that you have to take "reasonable" steps to provide access to people with disabilities, and this includes your online store. One way of doing that is to make sure that all images have alternate text tags so visually impaired people can still navigate your site.
16. Privacy matters
You probably need to register with the Data Protection Registry at www.dpr.gov.uk. Registering takes just a few hours of intense work and thought, but it is a must.
17. Comply with the rules on sending email
You are only allowed to send direct email marketing to individuals who have agreed to receive it from you by directly opting in. It is not sufficient simply to provide an opt out.
However, if you obtained their details in the course of making a sale the rules are different. You are allowed to continue communicating with them provided there is a free method of opting out each time you send them an email. This can be an ‘unsubscribe’ link or email request but make sure you implement the request.
18. Turn burdens into a benefit
Assuming that you are legal and decent, let the world know. Anything that adds to your credibility will help online. So why not list all of the things that you have done under the heading "We comply with the following legal and tax regulations"?
19. Avoid fraud
One potential problem when selling online is fraud. Don’t get things out of proportion, there are problems with any business and no-one has managed to entirely eliminate shoplifting yet. Unfortunately it's true that orders from some countries seem to be much more likely to be fraudulent than others. If in doubt, stick to ones from Western Europe and North America.
To help avoid fraudulent orders look out for these
indicators:
•
They tend to use the most expensive shipping method
available
•
They tend to choose the most expensive products
•
They tend to use free email addresses such as Yahoo
or Hotmail.
In addition you can check if the customer and card details marry up by contacting your payment processor. Or by asking for a fax of a copy of the back strip of the credit card; asking for proof of name and address to be faxed; or you can telephone to make sure that the number is genuine. Most fraudsters give up at the first hurdle and you don't hear from them again.
20. Go for it
Finally, you may have been wondering for a while whether ecommerce would be worth it. Well the results are now firmly in, and it’s very clear. Ecommerce is really on the rise, while conventional retail is at best static. Online consumer spending rose 48% in the twelve months to May 2007 (IMRG). What’s stopping you getting your share?
