Getting the Goods on e-Commerce

SETTING UP SHOP ON THE WEB REQUIRES A FAIR AMOUNT OF LEGWORK TO BUILD TRAFFIC

Building a Web site to sell your product or service seems like a natural and relatively easy way to jump start your business and branch out to new markets.

It may appear that way on the surface, but building and maintaining an e-commerce site, despite improvements in technology over the last few years, is more difficult than some might expect. Not to mention the fact that a Web-based store is not always the best fit for certain types of businesses and classes of products. So before you take the leap into the world of e-commerce, there are a number of things to consider. The first is determining whether your product or service is a good fit for Web-based sales and whether it’s fiscally smart to make that kind of investment and commitment. You also need to think through how you’re going to attract customers to your Web site, and who’s going to be the point person—you or an outside party—to manage and maintain your site.

“There’s a presumption out there that sales are just going to happen by virtue of a site existing,” says Marc Bourassa, CEO of Grand Image Marketing Inc. (www.gimweb.com), a Web-site design company in North Andover, MA. “The truth is there’s a lot of proactive legwork required just like there is in a bricks-and-mortar business.”

Product Appeal

When considering the Web as a conduit for sales, companies—especially small businesses with limited resources—need to take a close look at what they’re trying to sell. Marketing commodity goods on the Web as a small business typically does not make sense. You also want to make sure you’re selling products that have curb appeal to the online buyer. The best strategy, Bourassa and other Web experts say, is to look to the Web as a platform when you’re selling something unique and not universally available. “The Web can be a great means to extend your business worldwide with your unique product,” Bourassa explains. “Don’t try to sell something that people can get down the street or that is universally available.”

Selling stereos online, for example, is probably not a smart bet for a small business. But a local craft maker, bakery, or specialty goods provider can probably open the door to a lot of customers they wouldn’t have access to otherwise by building a Web presence and offering goods not easily accessible for most people at their local mall or on Main Street.

Neal Greenberg, president of Nealsharbor.com (www.nealsharbor.com), can attest that the strategy pays off. His site, which sells specialty waxes, cleaners, and accessories for boat, car, and RV enthusiasts, has sold product to customers in every state since it set up shop on the Web in 2000. “We used to put pins in the map, but once we shipped to all 50 states, there was no point for the map any more,” says Greenberg in Andover, CT.

Getting Your Name Out There

Attracting a national or even global audience for your product is possible on the Web, but it takes some serious legwork. Greenberg does traditional print and online advertising for his site and has gotten into search-engine marketing, where you buy key words to ensure your site comes up when people do searches on particular product categories. “It’s easier to get started [selling] on the Web today, but because of that, the challenge is that there’s so much out there—how do you get the word out that you’re there and open for business,” says Kent Krueger, chief dog lover and founder of SitStay.com (www.SitStay.com), a specialty site selling products for dogs.

To promote SitStay.com beyond its original community, Krueger recommends keeping up with traditional advertising, search-engine marketing, and fostering a “buzz” about the site through word of mouth and by cultivating communities.

Look and Feel

How your site looks and how it operates is another key indicator of how it will be received. Online shoppers are more sophisticated today and can discern a well-designed, professional site from a homemade site,with limited commerce functionality. Therefore, having shopping cart functions, the ability to calculate tax, check the status of shipments, and incorporating merchant account capabilities are must-haves for today’s savvy buyers. “Your site has to look and feel like it means business,” Krueger says. “If it looks like a garage-sale site, people won’t buy from it because they won’t trust it.”

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