It may seem unnecessary to post an article about the necessity of having an e-commerce website on a blog devoted to making money online. However, just yesterday I saw a Facebook post by a well-known fashion blogger, one with thousands of followers, give a recommendation to a new handbag line. Of course, I clicked through to the link and was absolutely shocked by what I saw. When I arrived at this website, it was a static page with the logo. No contact information, no products to sell, no press shots, no “about” page. There was absolutely nothing useful there.What a missed opportunity! Will I ever visit that website again? Probably not.
The first step in ‘Marketing 101′ is creating an effective website.
How To Create An Effective Website
When first starting our handbag company, charm and luck, we did not have ‘two nickels to rub together.’ All of our money went into buying raw materials and paying our factory to produce our new designs. We did most of the marketing ourselves – creating linesheets to showcase our products, photographing products ourselves, and much more.What we did not have the skills to do was to build a website. Working through elance.com, we hired a freelancer in India and spent only a couple hundred dollars. And the site looked like what we paid for it. It was very elementary.
At the time, I did not have a clear understanding of what information a website should have. An effective website should have elements such as an “about” page, clear categories, an easy way to contact the company, a sitemap, and an e-commerce mechanism to sell products.
As soon as we started making some money, we redid our website to have it look more polished. For our second website, we partnered with a company which took a percentage of profits. Actually, it was a win-win situation for us at the time. They took on the building of the website and handled all the product updates. When sales came in, we would just drop ship the product out. It was quite nice not to have to worry about the look of the site. Providing the photos of the product and the copy was easy enough.
The kicker was that this company took a hefty 25% of the site’s profits; this maintenance fee was sometimes up to $6,000/month!
At this point, our website sales were a dependable source of income for us, but I wanted to have control of the website and stop paying an outrageously high maintenance fee. Now armed with the knowledge of the tenets of a successful website, I waited for our website contract to end and began to search for another contractor to build us another website.
We hired some of the key designers who had worked on the Sephora and LVMH (Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessey) and changed our website for a third time in five years. This was another complete overhaul. The results were impressive. In the first month, our new website earned over $30,000, which was more than enough to pay our staff salaries.
With these new web developers, we could change our home page often. We had an email sign up list. We did cross promotion with various products and the website would intuitively suggest items for customers. Furthermore, we developed a very strong email marketing campaign. Every single time we received press in a magazine, we would email customers. Whenever we had almost any news at all, we would communicate with our list.
Why Every Business (Brick and Mortar Or Online) Should Have An Effective Website
So, while most readers of this blog have one or probably more websites, I thought I would do some research on the businesses who do not have websites. In fact, almost 43% of small businesses do not have a website, according to Entrepreneur Magazine. For those who haven’t yet built websites or those who haven’t fully optimized their sites, here are five reasons why every business (brick and mortar or online) should have an effective website.- You never know who is searching for your product and who might be your next potential customer. I work with fashion accessory designers, but I also consult with traditional brick and mortar companies handling marketing. One of our clients had just put up a website and it was purely informational. Within a couple of weeks, he received an inquiry from the government. He now has a lucrative, multi-year government contract.
- A better website gives you a leg up on your competition. Let’s face it. If your website looks better than your competitors, you will get more business. Why? A well-produced site signals to customers that a company is legitimate and communicates the critical product information needed to turn browsers into buyers. If your website looks professional, is stylish, has a clean layout, an obvious call to action, and is SEO-optimized, then you are well on your way.
- Social media brings sales. In conjunction with your website, I recommend Facebook e-commerce pages. Businesses should effectively take advantage of Facebook as a viable sales vehicle with a proven sales return. Facebook provided the recent case studies: Incipio Technologies, a firm that sells iPhone and other gadget cases and peripherals, found that Facebook has been its second highest source of traffic over the past eight months. Secondly, online ticketing service Eventbrite revealed in October 2010 that each time someone shares a link to an event with their Facebook friends, it results in $2.52 worth of ticket sales. Tweet out a link, or better yet a photo, with a link to buy and the conversion rates are solid. Additionally, with the introduction of Google +, although it is not available for businesses profiles just yet, it will be a major player in the social media game, and businesses should realize that this is a huge opportunity for them to gain some market share. (Connect with me via G+ here.)
- Websites which are optimized for mobile devices = more sales. Bon Mercado, Mobile Ads Product Specialist at Google, stated last week that consumers, on average, now spend $300 per purchase via mobile devices, as people become more comfortable purchasing higher-priced items. Despite increasing consumer acceptance and better industry collaboration, Mercado said, 79% of large online brands do not have a mobile optimized site.
- Companies which blog have higher sales. Companies who blog consistently have sales which are 55% higher than companies who do not blog. Drip content out to your customers and always have something to say. People are paying attention.