( Reblogged from ebizsm/home) What the professional said: 6 tips to make your e –commerce startup grow big (part 2) Seeing is believing As opposed to a brick-and-mortar brand, people can’t touch and experience what you are selling. To overcome this “natural-born” disadvantage, design becomes critical as it bridges the gap between virtual and in-person interactions. Its success relies heavily on appropriate product / service imagery, descriptions, and categories. Serena & Lily, an up-scale bedding biz, does this perfectly; It offer on-brand product description for different demographic groups an effective “Make Your Bed” feature which allows users can mix-and-match bedding combinations and see what they would look like on an actual bed, giving customers a personalized vivid visualization of their products. Engage your customers We tend to listen to what users said instead of the brands themselves. This attitude was described as the “Amazon effect” by Joshua Porter in his book Designing for the Social Web. He observed during his tests that people always started shopping on Amazon first. Their main reason was not that Amazon was better or that they had an Amazon account; they simply knew that on Amazon they could always find trustworthy information provided by people like them. In the case of Hayneedle, an US-based online retailer focusing on selling home products, a 26% increase of sales is recorded after it starts displaying user reviews on its site. This is a shining example illustrating that the importance of developing a virtual community among your customers and encouraging them to sell your good by word of mouth. Besides simply allowing buyers to rate and review your products, special attention should also be paid to the display of customers’ opinions. For ratings, the design should indicate the number of votes each rating has received and total number of votes, and position the ratings beside or close to the product name to enable quick scanning. As for reviews, reviewers’ profile should be shown beside their comments, letting customers to know the review is written by a real user, not a professional writer. Overviews and summaries for those reviews rated as “the most useful” can also be included in the most noticeable column so as to present your products in the best way possible. There is no overnight success Last but not least, remember, money doesn’t grow on trees; even it does, trees don’t grow overnight. You should contain your excitement of starting a business and respond to challenges along the way with heart and patience. Believe your own ideas as well as listen to your customers because they are always right. Only by recalibrating your business model to respond to the ever-changing market demand can you make your business ever-competitive and adaptable. Give time to whatever decision you make and see how it goes. As we all know, slow and steady wins the race. Reference: uxdesign.smashingmagazine/2010/06/08/engage-customers-in-your-business/ tech.co/5-ways-to-build-a-community-around-your-e-commerce-startup-2012-04 billhartzer/search-engine-optimization-for-ecommerce-sites/ venturebeat/2013/05/27/6-important-tips-to-get-your-e-commerce-startup-off-the-ground/ Want to get the latest update of the latest trend of e-commerce and check out our e-commerce Wiki? Please take a look at our website, ebizsm/home
Posted on: Sat, 06 Jul 2013 15:24:34 +0000
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