A bitter taste in the mouth

We’ve had our first ‘negative’ experience since starting www.LensLocker.co.uk. Not one, but two of our orders did not came back! Obviously we have had a few occasions where parcels have turned up late, nonetheless, in such cases a quick call to the customer has confirmed that the lens or camera has been returned and the delay is with the courier.

Not this time around…..despite all of our efforts we have been not able to contact the customer on the phone, email or letter, and we now have recognized that we’re highly unlikely to retrieve our photography gear.

We’ve spent a couple of days feeling hopeful (maybe they will arrive!), frustrated, disappointed, angry and then very angry! I am now feeling resigned that this type of thing happens and hopeful the police, which are now involved, will have the ability to allow us to resolve this case.

As the whole experience leaves very bitter taste the only factor that we’re certain of is the fact that we must learn from this experience. What will we do in order to minimise the danger without deterring customers from using our services? So what can we provide when it comes to delivery and collection which supplies added assurance our equipment is going to be sent back? What further inspections are we able to do ahead of time to flag potential risks? These are things that have now been pushed very rapidly towards the top of my ‘to do’ list!

Despite this slight setback we still love our business and helping our customers. We’re ongoing to further develop the business and we our expanding our selection of equipment and our stock levels. We take great pride within the service we provide and we’re getting receiving great customer feedback. We are starting new and exciting offers, we are keeping our website fresh with new ad banners and pages and we are working with our designers to ensure we are getting the most from our stock and our website.

And also the best little bit of news now….we hit number two for several key phrases around the search engines like Google – pretty good for a company which is not even 6 months old.

How Do You Increase the Conversion Rates of Your E-commerce Business

As an owner of an e-commerce business, you must be analyzing your website visitor data regularly. Have you ever wondered why the conversion rates are low? Out of the thousands of people visiting your website, why do only a few complete the purchase process? Why do a majority of them abandon the shopping cart midway?

The answer is simple. While browsing your e-commerce website, visitors are looking for credible information that convinces them about the benefits and value of purchasing your product or service. With the short attention spans and limited time that net-users have, they just move away if they do not find what they are looking for. Of course, you cannot provide all the information at one go, and the visitors might have specific queries for which they need answers to.

Convert them when they are interested. Visitors come to your e-commerce website when they want more information about your services, when they want to compare your services with those of your competitors, or when they want to make a purchase. Whatever be the reason, the key is that they seek INFORMATION. By proactively offering the right information in the right manner, you can see positive change in the conversion rates.

The Solution: 24×7 Virtual Customer Support

How would you like if you visit an e-commerce website, and you get all the support you need, in a friendly manner through representatives of that company? Would it not impress you if you have the option of contacting them through any channel, be it live chat, telephone, or email, and getting complete support while you make your decision of whether to make a purchase or not even in the wee hours of the night?

You can also offer the same superior level of support to your e-commerce website visitors through 24×7 Virtual Customer Support. You do not need to have a complete support team in-house, as it might prove costly and tedious. You can outsource your customer support process and get all the benefits with investment within your budget.

You can hire the services of a suitable partner that can offer all types of support from a single front, with people who understand your product or service and hold-hands with your prospects while they visit your website and make a purchase.

By offering complete ONLINE CHAT SUPPORT, PHONE SUPPORT, EMAIL SUPPORT, and assisting during the purchase process through LIVE ORDER TAKING, you can make your prospects feel comfortable while they select your company for their needs.

Interacting with a responsive live person is always better than automated replies. Studies have shown that cross-sell and up-sell rates, and shopping cart amounts increase if visitors can interact with the representatives of the company while they visit their website.

With professional 24×7 customer support you can get the edge your competitors are struggling for and ensure that all genuine visitors get the attention and the service they deserve.

Top Tips for Online Store Success

Achieving success in Ecommerce is similar to achieving success in any other type of business. For tasting success in a web-based business one must work with determination, diligence, discipline and proper planning.

Useful Tips for an Online Store Success
Before you make your mind up to initiate the online business of your dreams, you must be aware of the things required before a launch. If you have already developed an online store, you must re-visit it to incorporate all the essential features. Take a look at the comprehensive synopsis of the main procedure of selling online successfully.

1. Choosing the web address of your online shop is very crucial. You must try to incorporate the name of your company in the URL of you online store. If the exact name cannot be used, incorporate some variation of the name. The online address of your store is definitely a significant element in your marketing as well as branding efforts.
2. You must choose such an Ecommerce web hosting set that has all the features needed to run an online store smoothly. You must also consider the fact that if offers web marketing tools as well.
3. Setting up of a merchant account is essential for secure payment at the online store. The merchant account must at least accept the most common modes of payment – credit cards, bank drafts and payment through Paypal.
4. Create a user-friendly Ecommerce website along with the help of a professional web designer. Apart from being user-friendly the design must also attract the visitors.
5. Take the fullest advantage of those elements of online store that differentiate you among the others and boost your web marketing tactics. Make use of dedicated email boxes as well as targeted mailing lists. Doing something different from the rest of the crowd will help you gain online success easily.
6. Use social marketing tools to spread the word. In this day and age, it has become almost mandatory to promote your goods through social marketing tools. Make sure that you are able to indulge the followers in discussions and chats.
7. People who aim at selling just a couple of services must consider approaching an online auction site. On the other hand, creating a personal online store or an online Facebook shop is the best bet for those who wish to sell their products regularly.

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Selling On Amazon And Ebay

When it comes to online commerce, nothing beats eBay and Amazon. These two are the most popular online sales company on the internet with revenues going through the roof. Last year, eBay generated $8.46 billion in revenues while Amazon posted an all-time high profit of $19.166.

As an internet marketer, selling on eBay and Amazon is definitely one of the most profitable ways to make money. Your goal is to become prominent merchant selling top quality products and not just casual auction guy selling items from your garage. This isn’t an easy task. At some point, you’re going to run into stumbling blocks, like competition, lack of market demand, not enough customers, etc. But if you know how to navigate your way through these challenges, selling on eBay and Amazon will prove to be profitable business.

How to find promising merchandise that guarantees only success? Many entrepreneurs out there end up losing great deal of their investment because of their lame approach to doing business. If there is but one rule about online selling it is “keeping up with the times.”

Here you will learn sure fire techniques on profitable online marketing and how to be sales magnet in eBay and Amazon.

The keys to online selling

As with any business, the key to successful eBay career is understanding the market. Don’t sell products that don’t sell. Conduct thorough research on the items that are popular with the masses. Suppose you plan to sell flip-flops, ask yourself, do I actually have market for this? What makes my brand cut above the rest? If you get to point where you can honestly say that you have market, then you can move on to the next step.

The next step is to know your competition well enough. How much do they sell the same item for? What is the going rate for such items? Don’t list your product at an opening price which is totally way out of line.

Let customers get feel of the product, by writing compelling descriptions about it. If buyers are critical enough when buying in an actual store, just imagine how overtly critical they can get when purchasing online. Provide close-up picture of the product and explain in detail its size, colour, weight, and texture.

Online sellers are treated as scammers by default. They are known to be naturally deceptive and so people don’t just trust them right off the bat. Respect is something that to have to earn when selling on the virtual world of the internet.

You To earn trust and respect, be overly professional in everything. Conduct proper business from the get-go. This means following protocols, proper business ethics, charging proper taxes, and carefully tweaking minute details such as the make and packaging of the product. If you get good reviews, the good news spread fast like disease. Positive feedback is priceless thing when promoting online merchandise.

Tips for excellent e-commerce website design

The ultimate goal of an e-commerce website is to lead customers to buy products from your site. If you are looking for an edge over your competitors, then it is time to get serious with e-commerce website design. By putting in effort in designing your website, not only will you increase your sales and customer satisfaction, you will also gain valuable information about your products and customer preferences.

Here are a few tips for e-commerce website design: Effective e-commerce website design will help the customer find, purchase and pay for a product easily. The gold standards for any e-commerce website design are simple navigation, search engine facilities and online payment schemes. A website should not be complicated to go through – products and services should be neatly formatted and accompanied with suitable pictures, information and prices. Customers should be able to find products easily incorporating a search engine makes it easier to find a desired product. By incorporating advanced filters, the visitor will be able to filter products by various attributes, thereby narrowing options and finding precisely what they are looking for. Customers should be able to purchase and pay for their products using a shopping cart functions and online payment processor. All charges should be included in the initial prices and this process should be secure.

Other features that will improve an e-commerce website design are:
Multicurrency and language support – going online, means that you are going global, which means that you are dealing with customers from all over the world. By incorporating multi languages and currency options, you will be expanding your market base and getting more sales.
Help and support options to answer queries about your products quickly and efficiently.
Frequent promotions of products – discounts, free delivery, and special offers will all help increase sales. These can be easily set up online on your e-commerce website.
Additional marketing avenues integrating your website with other websites such as Google will expand your marketing. E-commerce website design not only helps you increase sales directly; you can find a mass of information via your website. There are features so you are able to keep track of stock easily – with full stock control features and low stock level alerts. In addition to replacing necessary stock, you can keep track of how many and which products are being sold, which in turn will give you insight on your customers preferences, popular products and online buying habits.