Registering your site at the major search engines is your first and most important step in marketing your Web store. Although there are hundreds and hundreds of search engines, directories, and yellow pages that you can register your site with, you should register your site first with these major search engines.
After you’ve prepared your Web site for the search engines and carefully registered with them, your thoughts now should turn to promotion. Your first question is probably “How can I make a big impact on the Net—fast?”
After you have the consumers‘ attention, you have to bring them to your site. So, your next challenge is to give shoppers a reason to come to your store in the first place—then give them a reason to return. To attract visitors to your site, you have to promote not only your products or services [...]
Similar to BOOTP, DHCP uses a request/reply mechanism, and the packet format is almost the same for both to provide for backward compatibility. The layout of the packet used by DHCP looks very much like the layout of the BOOTP packet, with a few exceptions. The first 11 fields are the same. However, the last [...]
How we choose, internalize, process, and store information has an effect on how we learn and use information. Customers ultimately make purchase decisions based on bits of information. People select the information they deem important or relevant and ignore the rest. Then the information is simplified and stored in the brain. We transform concepts as [...]
Truly understanding your customers means determining their preferences and capturing, at a moment in time, their emotional responses to any given number of stimuli. Even though some customers believe they shop analytically, every shopper is influenced by the shopping environment. In fact, many decisions the customer makes are emotional. Preferences and opinions are the result [...]
Many websites have products that people can’t find. It is clear that a big gap exists between how online stores are organized and how customers want to shop for products. This results in unsuccessful searches and abandoned shopping carts. Shoppers give up when they can’t find, what they are looking for easily and quickly.
Most websites [...]
E-commerce is moving into a new era, a renewal of consumer faith in this evolving channel. This channel is also moving into a reawakening of the need for customer-focused practices and considerations to survive and thrive in the new marketplace.
Fulfilling customer expectations, providing product value, and applying excellent usability engineering factors all contribute to a [...]
While each store is unique, consumers use some natural biological patterns to move through a store. The direction they turn upon entering a store, how they approach an aisle, or how long it takes them to notice merchandise after they walk into a shop are more a function of human nature than cognizant behavior. Harnessing [...]
A. Competing in the New Marketplace
Your competition is not just another online store—nor is it just retail, nor just catalog. Today, it’s every store, and tomorrow it will increase even more. The more you know about your competition, the more you’ll know about how to acquire and retain customers.
Understanding your competition will help you [...]
Managing Multiple Stores and Shelves
In the process of selling through one channel, it’s important to consider all the other selling motions. At any given time, customers can have access to any one of the stores—whether they are physical, virtual, or in print. Multiple channels spawn additional stores, and the proliferation creates a variety of ways [...]
The following techniques incorporate the best practices from retail and catalog merchandising and blend them with technology innovations to create a profitable and satisfying online store. The online store provides its own best practices that are part of its technological inherent nature. It is this hybrid combination that creates new methodologies for merchandising.
Each online store [...]
Shopping is not always about choice. It is often the process of elimination. Signage can help narrow down the selections and serves two purposes. First, it’s directional and helps shoppers find their way through the store. Next, it separates a variety of products into logical categories. The same ability is available online. Virtual signs can [...]
Merchandising helps consumers make product selections and guides them through the store. Retail merchandisers use any combination of the following fixtures:
Signage—outside signage, directional signage, category signage
Floor graphics—directional, product specific
Spinners—rotating free-standing racks holding a specific product or entire category
Shelving—standard shelving; custom-made usually for a specific brand or category
Shelf talkers—small signs or animated graphics promoting a brand [...]
Because retailers use every medium to promote their stores, advertising outside the channel will leverage sales. Utilizing direct mail, print advertising, and even broadcast advertising will reach an audience wider than those who frequent the web today. If web shopping is perceived as appealing, it will give others a reason to participate.
Promotion is more than [...]
Online stores use the following six basic component webpages in their store design:
Home page
Category pages
Sub-category pages
Product detail pages
Informational content pages
Checkout page
Category Pages—”The Aisles”
A main category link off the home page brings the shopper to a main category page or “aisle.” These e-aisles collect similar products together—such as dresses, printers, or shoes.
Retailers with more than one channel should write separate plans for each with an overarching, integrated business plan that balances products and resources. Independent channel decisions vary depending on the customer base and business structure. Internet planning must take into account the global nature of the channel. In addition, the physical flow of product distribution, [...]
The online store is a hybrid with traditional influences. An online store is neither a typical catalog nor a retail store. It’s a combination of both—plus added technology brings the capability to present products in brand new ways. The online store has evolved into its own organism and the following five factors are part of [...]
