We built it, why won't they come?

There are a plethora of visually stunning websites that retail businesses have spent thousands of dollars developing. The site gets launched after many months of design and development time; the business owners are convinced that their sales are going to exponentially explode!

And then they don't. A whole lotta bucks and zero bang.

"Why don't people buy from my website?" The business owners ask themselves. "My site is gorgeous; it's hip; our products are great!"

Just like any other business venture, websites require creative and persistent marketing strategies in order to draw a crowd. The method of marketing can be considerably different, while sharing many similarities to the opening of a new retail location: you have to let your existing and potential customers know what the address is in order to entice them to shop at your online store.

• If you have a storefront, be sure to place your URL (website address) on your signage, stationery, shopping bags and anything else that you would normally put your logo on
• Tell people about it! Make sure that your staff are trained to talk about it: "Check out OurShop.com; you can preview and purchase our new spring line there!"
• Don't put images that make your product look poorly; nice pictures are very important
  
• Make sure the content on your site is indexable by the major search engines
• Make sure your commerce solution works; test it!
• Ensure that as many payment options as possible are available to your customers, (There's nothing more frustrating than getting to the checkout and discovering that the store won't accept your preferred credit card.

Be excited about it! You have just opened a new location! Celebrate it; everybody loves a party!

Retailers Partnering for Online Success

Imagine a situation where you have 2 fashion designers with their own lines of women's fashions. They have a similar price point, and are targeting the same market. They are both interested in selling their products online, but find the cost prohibitive.

The owners of Store A and Store B have both gotten national media attention for their shops, but are only able to sell locally. It benefits them both to change this, and is possible to reduce their costs by teaming up. They are located on the same block, and the owners have a good relationship.

Store A and Store B find a URL that they both like; we'll call it shopAB.com.

Store A has a great relationship with their Merchant Account Provider, and they get a great rate on all of their credit card transaction.

Store B has a larger storage area and gets a great deal on shipping through a trade association they belong to.

They decide to pool their resources to get their products online; this reduces their Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) for the e-commerce site by half, and expands their marketing efforts through co-marketing; every time someone visits their website, they both get exposure. Every time the shops are mentioned in the media along with the website, they both receive attention by association.

And as far as getting media attention goes, a couple of businesses willing to work together for the benefit of both is in itself a news worthy story.

So you want to open an online store...

Selling your retail products online can be one of the more daunting steps that a small business owner can take. It can also be very rewarding financially, if it is planned and implemented correctly. Starting an online store is much like opening a new store, and requires investments of time, energy, and money. Here are some things to consider:

It takes approximately a month from start to finish to design and implement a basic e-commerce site, assuming that everyone is communicating effectively and all of the pieces are in place before you start. Some of those pieces include:

• Your logo in digital format.
• A list of websites that you like who are selling similar products online, and notes on what you like about them.
• Images of your products.
• A clear understanding of who your customers are.
• A fulfillment plan: How are you going to get your products into the hands of your customers? Who will be responsible for order fulfillment, shipping, and reordering from suppliers?
• An online merchant account. You can't accept online payments without one; if you already have a merchant account for your physical location, you will still need to set one up. (Alternately, you can use Paypal to accept payments, but there may be more economical options available through a Virtual Terminal/Merchant Account provider.)
• A great e-commerce development company with a good track record

The last point can't be stressed enough; a company that knows the technology that you need to sell your products, and has the ability to design a website the reflects your store, is very important. A professional e-commerce company will have the processes in place to help you evaluate what you need to do to make your site a success.

Running a successful online store takes overhead. Take www.shopkitson.com; they have an extremely successful online store, which is managed well by the staff at Kitson. They aggressively market their online store on the internet using very savvy Guerilla Marketing techniques, Search Engine Optimization, constant product updates, blogs, and numerous other online promotion tactics.

Many retailers take the same steps as Kitson to promote their physical locations, but in some ways actually waste their marketing dollars by providing only an informational website. Potential customers are unable to fulfill their impulse shopping impulses, and go on to another site, where they can shop to their hearts content without leaving the comfort of their own home.