NNFP Web HELP Article: So, When Do I Start Making Money from my Website, part 4 by Nora McDougall-Collins

So, When Do I Start Making Money from my WebSite?
Shopping Site with Traditional Business

NNFP Web Services are sponsored by WERC

There is no doubt that adding a shopping cart to your web site can greatly increase your sales! I shop online often. In fact, I just bought two books, from Amazon.com, to take the mystery out of the men's clothing department. This is very important as I have one husband, two sons, four step-sons, and a son-in-law to buy clothes for (birthdays, Christmas, Easter, weddings, graduations, prom, ...) I have also made other purchases online, such as licorice and ginger Altoids, which the grocery stores stopped carrying, and some fantastic Coffee flower body lotion. I even ordered flowers for a relative from a shop in the Seattle area.

So, what's the point? Well there are a few:
1) Amazon.com got my loyalty a long time ago by finding the books and CDs I wanted and delivering them to my mailbox.

2) I want what I want now - without having to drive 30 minutes to the store, if I can. However, I'm more likely to buy it, if I already know what it is. This is the case of the Altoids and the lotion - I'm a repeat buyer, and I couldn't find these items at the places I normally shop.

3) I'm willing to take a chance, if I have enough information. This applies to the books. I'm hesitant to buy them without looking at them, but the previous customer comments sold me.

4) Sometimes, my options are limited, which makes it more likely that I will take a chance, but no less uncomfortable. This applies to the flowers. Neither the web sites, nor the staff response when I mentioned that I found them on the web encouraged me to buy. Only the time factor and the fact that I needed the flowers delivered from WA, prompted the purchase. I now use this experience as a case study in my web development classes.

Let's apply this to making $$$ by having a shopping cart to supplement your brick-and-mortar business:
1) Most of your online business will be with people who are pleased with their "live" experience with you, at least to start with. These are folks who identify with your facilities; so, be sure to feature what they like best about it!
Example: The Good Food Store

2) Before you build your shopping cart, figure out how your online business will integrate with your physical process.
Bad Example: when I called the florist in WA and asked for a specific bouquet from their website, the person on the phone hadn't even seen what they had online!
Good Example: At BodyCoffee.com, I had an email reply within 24 hours, and followup after I placed my order to be sure I got it.

3) Make sure that your staff is very familiar with your website, right from the planning stages. Assume that your web site is the only way that a caller (or email contact) knows about you. What did they see? What do they know about you?

PLANNING YOUR E-COMMERCE SITE
1) Just plan on spending a whole lot of time on this! You didn't put your brick-and-mortar business together overnight. This one won't work that way either. It's not uncommon for companies to call me with the expectation of having their site ready within a month. If you have a PLAN in place in 6 months, you are doing very well indeed!

2) Write a business plan for your online function! If you need some help, organizations like NNFP are available to help you!

3) Place online orders with 10+ companies you normally do business with (companies of various sizes and types.) Write down everything you like and dislike about finding a product and ordering the product as you shop. This step will be very enlightening! And, remember, what you don't like on other sites - people won't like on yours either!

4) After you have found your likes and dislikes, do some transactions where you make a list with a) each page you go to, what you did there.
Example: ordering from Amazon:
- go to home page: do a search for "men's clothing styles"
- go to list of books: click on AskMen.com: The Style Bible. Very disappointed that there is no way to read a few pages.
- go to Customer Comments at bottom of page. The specific information given about good and bad points was very helpful.
- go to 2nd book recommended in Customer Comment. This book has pages to read available.
- add 2nd book to One-click.
- login with password. Don't have to remember user name.
- go to page with order, which tells me that I need $6.00+ to get free shipping.
- add 1st book to One-click to get free shipping!
- etc!

5) Now that you have a list and and understanding of the specific process of online ordering, put together a software plan that will help you describe the specifics of your shopping cart. 6) Research various shopping cart products to find the one that matches your needs.