Website Freight Calculators and Shipping Modules: Are you thinking of starting a website or an online store ? Are you interested in starting a website to sell items? Although the shadow of the recent financial gloom is still lingering over many of us, Many pro active Australian business have gained a head start on the future of retail.Many Australian business owners are moving toward starting an ecommerce business, which can seem like a scary leap to take. However, a reason to take that leap is that the number of consumers shopping online is growing.
Australian Shoppers are increasingly turning to eretailers and shopping carts for their product needs instead of wandering through the local metro shopping center, hoping that they find the rightproduct, and that it is the right size, colour, price, etc. Recent figures show that online stores’ sales were up 12.4 percent in January, compared with a year ago. Ensuring that your shopping cart has a good range of products in stock at all times, as well as marketing your store to the right target audience can make all the difference in the world when launching an e-store in the Australian ecommerce market. Listed below are 5 important factors to consider when starting an e-commerce store.
1)Number one and most important is to have a clean unique and branded Web design to attract potential online buyers. A Web design that looks like it hasn’t been updated since 2000 will not give your potential online shoppers the feeling of security that they need to purchase merchandise online. Include key dates such as when fields were updated not only is it good for search engines it is good for your potential clients to see that your site is maintained. While eretailing has been around for a decade, it has finally become super charged throughout the mainstream population, growing in a global downturn while brick and mortar stores have struggled. You may love or hate them however jump onto twitter and facebook and at least create the account that links back to your website.
2) Have a straight forward structured shopping cart with as much detail as possible on your products features and benefits. As customers rely more and more on descriptions and pictures to purchase their products rather than walking into the store to look at it person, ecommerce retailers must ensure that they are giving the consumer as many details about the product as possible. Invest in clear images and pictures of your items. If you need to scale the items make sure they can be measured in context. Go the extra mile and have professional images taken to lock in the clarity.
3) Build relevant blogs and pay attention to feedback sites: Customer reviews and feedback are the greatest ways to build your brand loyalty and establish a trusting customer base. Having glowing reports on the internet is an easy way to encourage return visitors to your ecommerce website. Sure you can place testimonials on your webpage however having ( off page ) customer feedback can help your business grow faster. Customers who can’t see a product in person depend on the reviews of others who have purchased it before them. By including the word review in your own blogs as well can assist online surfers to know you are interested in listening to your customers feedback.
4) It is important to pay close attention to search engine optimisation commonly known as SEO. If people were to ask me I would say this is a critical part of online success. One of the main reasons that consumers shop online is the ease and convenience of finding items, products and services, so ensuring that your shopping cart is at the beginning of their search gives you a much better chance of hooking them with your great store and prices. Growing organically is the most economical way to go. There are many parts to SEO. Having relevant content constantly updated can be a timely job however worth it in the long run. You must be consistant and set routines for your updates and energy spent on SEO. Join forums to help you understand key tricks about SEO. Build relevant links to your website to encourage the right buying traffic. Join social media websites and boost your business buyers. Seo needs to be long term and measurable join up google analytics and google webmaster tools to measure your success. If being a geek is not your thing then you can always outsource to a good seo firm.
5) Have you thought of Ecommerce Shipping and delivery? Ok so you have an amazing website, traffic is zooming each each day. Have you thought about the shipping costs? Do you build in a flat rate and hope customers in Newcastle, Wollongong and Darwin dont buy from you so you dont loose money on the freight? Do you place an icon on your shopping cart that says contact us for delivery costs? Ouch a sure way forthe customer to start looking at the next shop. The ideal way is to have the exact shipping cost on the item at the checkout or at the product level so customers can see the delivery costs. Save on Freight have a specialised engine and DIY shipping module kits for the common ecommerce shopping carts. How does it work ? customers only need to select items into the cart , enter their postal code and out system crunches the top courier companies in Australia and delivers the delivery price…Simple. Save on Freight also generates the shipping label for you and has optional features for integrations such as insurance. We also have scalability helping your store grow from 5 orders a day to 5000 orders a day. Talk to our team on 1300856836 for more details
Even with the growth of Australian ecommerce consumption, successfully launching an online store in a tough economy is hard, so it is key to have these five components firmly established. Online retailers are going to continue purchasing online due to the ease and simplicity of e-shopping, and having great content and design, a shipping calculator as well as improving your site’s SEO, can turn your site into a repeat experience for potential Australian buying customers.