Nothing Special

It is undeniably obvious how the technology influenced the way we are living now. It has brought us numerous improvements and advantages that is why some would even say that they can not leave without it.

We all know that business is very important part of our society, and this is one of the several reasons why we should be thankful to live in this era witnessing and experiencing how the technology transform the activity that fuels the development.

The development of the Internet and E commerce has made a significant impact to us. In the real world where development is propelled by business activities, the Internet has developed into a world where business activities have become a very common but important event.

The intensification of hasty internet connectivity and millions of individuals that are engaging in businesses online e commerce in different part of the globe at any given moment has opened the doors for many to reach customers everywhere. Here, big and small businesses have equal opportunities because they can appear to be equal.

An e commerce web site offers enormous potential benefits to businesses whatever their size. The e commerce web site is the market place for e merchant and e buyers to meet. It is very important to know the basics and details on how to gain customers and potential sales even if you do not see them face to face. How can you make them feel comfortable as if they are shopping in the real world? Just like in the physical world, careful study and critical decision making is important in order to gain and make sure to guarantee a high yield e commerce site. If you are able to manage and design your e commerce web site, your business will surely rocket in the virtual world. So what is the benefit in having a good and e commerce web site to a business? According to an article that I have read, the following are some it:
1.) Access to a global market – as I mention above, the Internet allows businesses to access the variety of markets to gain potential customers around the world.

2.) Cutting out the middleman – now, businesses can save up to third part because they can sell directly to its end users

3.) A level playing field – here, even a small business can equal the big conglomerate in the virtual world. A newbie in a small business can show itself to be as professional and credible as its larger competitors

4.) 24-hour business – because you are in the virtual world, a business owner can accept payments online, through a web site. You are always open for business to customers even if your office is closed.

5.) Greater customer satisfaction – if manage well, it can be a powerful tool to build loyalty to customer. A web site can let the customer buy, look through, inquire, and follow its order because it is now traceable.

6.) Reduced marketing costs – you can reduced the cost and expenses in marketing through treating customers well with of course your strategy in keeping you ahead over you competitors.

7.) Better customer information – you can observe and get your needed information in building your strategic plan because you can look at closely with the details and buying habits of your customer every time they enter your site.

8.) Streamlined business processes – increasingly companies are integrating their business processes. Orders come in to their website, card details are processed, goods dispatched and stock re-ordered seamlessly, dramatically reducing the cost of each sale.

Upon knowing how an e commerce web site can help your business, it is surely worth spending your time reading this article. If you want to develop and venture online business some they, read the following information. What are the things you need to consider in designing your web site? From the articles that I have read, these are the following information:

According to some expert, no matter how significant or relevant your site is if it is very slow to download chances are your potential client might not stick around. In this very fast evolving world, people do not have a minute to waste. In this world where almost all people are in a hurry, the following can help your web site not slow up:

1.) Limit use of flash
During our Multi-media class, our teacher mention that in our present time, flash is no longer in the trend. Though flash is a typical example of style and definitely has a place in professional web design, it can cause the speed of your site to slow down. Besides, most of your potential visitors don’t have the correct flash player. Also, it can affect your search engine optimization efforts since it is not accessible in the search engines.

2.) Compress your images

Pictures and other images can attract your visitor and can affect the looks of your site. You should realize that it also occupy so much space when you create web design. It is recommended that you should compress your image or picture before putting it in your web. In this way you can reduce the size of your image by up to half of its original size.

3.) Clean up your code

You should be careful in cleaning up your code even if you are using HTML code because even the extra space and unclose tag can affect and can add the size of your file.

4.) Use thumbnails
Small pictures and images can be helpful in the design technique for e commerce web site.

5.) Switch to CSS

The most preferable code that most of the web designers are using now is the Cascading Style Sheets (CSS). You can organize your code and can also save download time.

6.) Reduce server requests

Having different element of your web site from different server can reduce the loading time.

7.) Pay attention to page size
According to some professional web designer, the ideal page size is around 30KB. You should observe and keep in mind that big page size can slow response time.


Those are just some basic tips in designing your business web site. Since the aim of most business site is to give the best service to its clients, it is important to create and design the site that can attract and entice your potential customer. Many are looking for more advanced shopping cart features in order to them feel that they are like shopping in the real world. Here are some tips for your cart features that can help bring out the confidence and encourage sales:
1.) Payment Options

Since most of the visitors of online stores are using digital cash, your shopping card software must be able to process digital cash transactions. You should also consider not only those that are using credit card but also offer options such as PayPall®, Google® Checkout, checks, and/or money orders allows more people to feel comfortable checking out on your site.

2.) Site Search & Browse

Your visitors may need for a fast service. So there is a need for online stores to allow their customer to search for whatever product they may be interested with. In this way, they can navigate to categories to see its corresponding price, brand and etc. it is important to include a search feature on your site.

3.) Product Reviews

Testimonials of customers are important and can gain a potential impact on your sale. It is a way to encourage other visitor to try what others have experienced.

4.) Wish List/Registry
It is important in order to allow customers to save item online and return to it later. It is important to give additional features that can help your customer feel that they have a freedom in what they want.

5.) Real-Time Inventory

Keeping a careful monitoring on the available stock is important to make your customer aware that what they can see on the screen is accurate. In short, real time inventory management is important.

6.) Express Checkout
The check out process must be simple as possible making them feel comfortable not like in the physical store that you need to stand in the counter waiting for there turn to be entertained.

7.) Order Tracking

It is important to allow customers to track their order so that they may not be waiting in vain if there is something wrong.

8.) Special Offers

Having some new ways to encourage and entice customers is important just like in the physical store. You can give them special offers to gain their loyalty.

9.) Website Security

You should build an e commerce site with built-in SSL data encryption because security is very important in this kind of business. When you display SSL Certificate, customers feel confident that their personal information is protected.

Additional information aside from the above stated:

1. It is also important that when users misspell the product they want to search, you should be able to recognize it just like Google and other search engines and find some substitute in it. It is very important to inform your customer that they misspelled because the tendency is, they would leave your site and you will lose potential sale.

2. Providing user-friendly forms is recommended which encourage customers to fill in the forms. If you present form with large quantity of boxes, the tendency is that they will leave your site without completing the form.

3. A concise email follow up is important to make your customer aware of the confirmation. Make sure that it is in the form that your customer will not be annoyed by minimizing page that is full of advertisement. The recommended length is only one page containing only the information that your customer require.

4. Make sure that your shopping cart is designed to handle crashes so that when the costumer return to the shopping cart after he crashes happen, he or she can find it still intact.

5. The speed of the internet connection today is very fast changing. Quick download time is important; though broadband now is rapidly increasing there are still countries that were not reached by it. So better to designed it using HTML to reduce the download times.

6. Also, make sure that the image reflects the brand of your product placement. Correct branding is important and clean inviting look of your site clearly defined the reputation of it.




It is important to choose advanced cart features that help you sell and succeed online business. According to an article, e commerce shopping carts are just like engines that keep online stores running smoothly. As a merchant, you have to make sure that you will provide the needed information for your customer. It must make sure that the information is complete, clear and correct. It should be keep in mind that unlike the physical store that have real people to solve your customers problem just like maintaining the displays and many others. The web sites needs to provide quality information to satisfy customer needs. Remember that virtual stores don’t have real people to assist there needs and queries. It is critical to make certain that the information you provide and displayed is clear, concise and provide accurate up to date information. Anything lacking and less will make your sales decline. Providing them their needed and updated information (though it is very time consuming for the company), this will demonstrate that your have a great commitment to customer service. Another thing that you have to consider is the delivery times. There are those companies that overstate and exaggerate their delivery times. Though almost every body is in a hurry and customer may want it the soonest possible, you have to consider that we are in different geographic and demographic areas. You must address the issues regarding delivery times that suit you and your customer. You must inform her or him in advance how much cost that will be added to the original price though delivery time now is not a big issue anymore.

Having the needed technology doesn’t give you an assurance that you will succeed in your business. The above mentioned are just some of many suggestion to be taken in to consideration on how you manage virtual business, the important is, you are ready to handle and deal with uncertainties.

sources:
http://www.networksolutions.com/e-commerce/guide/ecommerce-shopping-cart.jsp
http://www.ecommerce-guide.com/solutions/customer_relations/article.php/3390731
http://www.stevearun.com/124/ar-001ar-ogwu-promoting-customer-sales-and-loyalty-through-web-design/
http://knol.google.com/k/steve-winnington/creating-effective-ecommerce-sites/mf86h2ycq1jd/2#
http://www.networksolutions.com/custom-website-packages/guide/web-site-design.jsp