Generating
Revenue From Your Website
by
Denise Davies,
ALEPH Inc. www.alephinc.com
The Internet is now used by millions of people to buy goods and services. Selling products online, or e-commerce, is an option to consider for many businesses.
There are many advantages to selling online, but it is important to plan your strategy. A well designed website can effectively display your products to people at any time of the day or night. There are cost savings in having an online catalog rather than a printed catalog which is expensive to print and distribute, and often is out of date by the time it is printed.
There are different e-commerce models that are appropriate for different types of businesses. For example – a restaurant can offer online ordering for takeout; a retailer or manufacturer can sell products; a writer or consultant could sell a book or online registration for a workshop or seminar.
When considering generating revenue from your website, here are 7 important points to consider in developing your e-commerce plan:
- How many products do you have? You could sell just one product or thousands. Large online catalogs should be organized by categories, and have search tools to enable your customers to find the product(s) they want.
- Do you expect people to buy more than one item at a time? If your customers will buy more than one item at a time you will need a “shopping cart” that will enable them to select one or more products, change quantities, and calculate totals.
- Calculating the order total. Will you be charging for shipping and tax? The shopping cart should be flexible to meet your business requirements.
- What is the price range of the products and the average order size? If you are selling items with an order total of less than $1000 payment online by credit card is acceptable. For orders larger than that you may need to offer your customers other payment methods or payment terms.
- How will people pay you? To accept payments by credit card online you will need a Merchant Account that is setup to accept online transactions. Check with your bank, merchant services such as Verisign, Paypal or your web company.
- How will you receive the order from the website? You can have your website setup to send you the orders by email, by fax or to view orders in a secure “Store Manager” area that you log into on the Internet.
- How will you manage your online catalog? If your catalog needs to be updated often – adding new products, changing pricing or other product details, then you may find it best to have a Store Manager where you can view and manage your catalog online.
Future articles will address the questions of “How do you bring people to your website?” This will be followed by “How do you convert visitors to buyers?”
Denise Davies is co-founder of Aleph Inc., an Internet development company. She directs an international team of talented analysts, designers and programmers to build Internet solutions for startups to established corporations. Denise speaks to groups including NAWBO, SBA, SCORE, and the Volunteer Center of Orange County on Internet Strategies for success. For more information contact Denise at 714-277-4498.