If you are starting eCommerce website, Few things should to know

Launching an E-commerce Website

Let’s look at a few things every aspiring eCommerce entrepreneur should know when launching a new online store:

SIMPLE USER-INTERFACE (WEBSITE) DESIGN

A website’s look and feel is the first impression a customer gets of an online business. Neon signs in the window of a brick-and-mortar store might attract customers, but a flashy website design with all the latest bells and whistles meant to impress visitors may not. The more complicated a website the more difficult it is for a customer to find a product. One important rule to keep in mind is “the fewer clicks it takes a customer to get to what they want, the more satisfied they will be with their shopping experience.” On the technical side, many times fancy website design options don’t perform well and may cause visitors to become confused or irritated.

MARKET RESEARCH AND TARGET AUDIENCE

Before launching an eCommerce website, get to know your competition and target audience. Competition for a local business may be limited to other stores in the same neighborhood. Well, competition for an online store can be worldwide. Make sure there is a market for the products or services. Find out if these products or services have something new or better to provide customers than the competition. Target audiences can vary as well since not all people who shop traditional stores shop online.

BUSINESS MODEL B2B AND RETAIL

Business-to-business (B2B) is the sale of goods, services or information to businesses instead of consumers. It is predicted that B2B sales will soon exceed sales to consumers. Of course, online sales to individual consumers, called e-tailing, will continue to be a popular choice.

WEBSITE MARKETING

It’s surprising that some people still believe the myth that, “if they create a website, people will automatically find it.” This worked in the 1989 fantasy sports movie “Field of Dreams” when a farmer heard the words, “If you build it, he will come.” And, it works to some extent for brick-and-mortar stores in attracting the attention of passersby on their way to somewhere else.

CUSTOMER SERVICE & ONLINE INVENTORY MANAGEMENT

It is important for customer service. It’s nearly impossible to ignore a customer when face-to-face in a brick-and-mortar store. But, it’s easier when the only contact us via phone or email. Plus, communicating over the phone and through email can feel more impersonal. In all situations, merchants need to make sure their customer service departments respect and treat their customers well by being open and accessible, responding quickly, fairly and honestly, and providing solutions to complaints and inquiries.

Online Inventory - Just like traditional businesses, eCommerce businesses need to keep track of inventory for the products displayed for sale on a website. Using an automatic inventory system keeps product information and availability up-to-date 24/7. An inventory system is best integrated into a website during the planning and design stages. And, must have built-in protection from fraudsters and hacking attacks.

Cross-Checking the Authenticity of Online Credit Card Payments

As a result of advancements in technology, e-Commerce platforms exist that allow businesses to sell products and services globally. But, along with the positive aspects of selling online comes a negative factor. That has the potential to lead an online business down the road to disappointing growth and lost revenue.

The issue of fraudulent online transactions, which has been increasing exponentially with e-Commerce growth, is a problem for merchants. Thus, online merchants need to be vigilant about detecting the use of stolen credit card details and misuse of the chargeback system. Monetary losses due to chargebacks alone can have serious consequences for merchants.

So, how does an online merchant protect itself from fraudulent transactions? The best way is to cross-check orders. Cross-checking involves verifying cardholder information provided by the buyer according to the basic rules prescribed by The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) and keeping watch for unusual or suspicious activity.

CAREFULLY OBSERVE BUYER BEHAVIOR

It’s not as easy to observe buyer behavior online as it is when purchases take place in-person; however, it can clear effectively. The first step is automatically taken when cardholder information is verified by a payment processor at the time an order is placed. Merchants need to take this a step further by scrutinizing orders for signs of suspicious activity during the fulfillment process.

Signs of suspicious activity include anything out of the ordinary. Such as unusual order sizes, the frequency of orders from the same buyer, different billing and shipping addresses, subsequent attempts to resubmit an order using different cardholder details after the decline, and multiple orders to the same delivery address using different credit cards. Sometimes a call given to the buyer is all that’s just to clear up any questions and confirm an order.

Cross-checking means it will take a little more time to process some orders. But, considering the consequences of a possible fraudulent transaction, it can be worthwhile.

How to start selling the products from any eCommerce Platform?

The technicalities discussed below are some of the crucial points that will decide if the customer will stay on the website and will order products or service or not:

The website should have an SSL certificate: The full form of SSL is “Secure Socket Layer”, one of the essential certificates that should be purchased and incorporated into the website. The working of the SSL is to provide a secure connection between web-browser and the website. This enables the customer to share the private data that is card details or net banking password with reliability and trust while purchasing the product or services.}

The website design should be user-friendly: Now the term “User-friendly”, carries a lot of aspects about the website design. The website should not contain the flashy elements on the front page that affects the vision of the buyer in the first place and also affects the performance of the website. The website should be easy to access, that means the website should clearly show the products and services on the screen. The website should easily load on all the browsing platforms without delay.

The business vision and the policies should be invisibility: According to the observations and researches, shoppers have developed the tendency of looking at all types of pages that define the working of the organization. These pages include “About Us”,” Refund and return policies”, “Contact Us”, “Disclaimer”, “Sponsors and collaborations”, and any other page that specifies the working of the company. The visibility of these pages will help the business to develop the satisfaction of the customers and grow effectively.

Electronic payment acceptance rules to be followed: The eCommerce website should display all the electronic payment acceptance collaboration symbols in the visibility of the user. The website should be well-developed that it should collect the authority from the buyer before deducting the amount from the buyers account that is an electronic invoice that should be displayed on the website page at the time of collecting payment details, an e-mail should be sent to the buyer when the buyer places the order. These are the evidence that proves that the merchant collected the payment with buyers consent. If the product is a subscription, the amount of recurring should be mentioned specifically at each point of sale.

Payment Checkout page essentials: The websites many times don’t mention the terms and conditions related to website or product. This can lead to some kind of trouble to the business as many times customer starts to presume the things that are not mentioned. So, while collecting the payment information, the website should have the policies and tentative disclaimers regarding the product that helps buyers to know what they have to take care before placing the order.