Suppose all your 100 online visitors have the intention of buying a product or service but only 43% did. How about the rest of the 57% who have the intention to purchase but ended up to leave your website in the beginning or in the middle of the transaction? What may have gone wrong?

There are many factors affecting online purchase. Given the status quo that all online visitors have the intention of actually purchasing a product, there should not be a problem with converting the captured leads into sale. But, there is always something that lacks on your end as an online marketer.

Online Purchasing is a Risk

Whether your ecommerce website is running for 10 years or is just beginning, you cannot deny the fact that customers take a risk as they purchase a product or service from your website. How do you add credibility to your site? How will you be able to establish trust to your customers?

• Minimize down time issues

Your web hosting provider plays a big role in keeping your website visible 24/7. When purchasing a web hosting service, be sure to do your research as well. If a web hosting provider promises 99.9% uptime, you don’t always rely to that but be sure to research on company reviews and as well as testimonials.

Down time is sometimes caused by product or software upgrades, maintenance, et cetera. When a customer goes to your website, he may not be able to know this unless you put a message that says your website is undergoing some maintenance. Your website may not be functional upon maintenance, but you can always consider having to put a “sorry for the inconvenience” message a lesser evil than not having to place anything at all. It is also recommended to look for a web hosting provider that provides monitoring for down time days so you would be able to notify your customers for scheduled maintenance and updates.

If your web hosting provider fails to make your website available most of the time, it is highly recommended to switch to another provider that could provide you a better service.

• Customer Support and Trouble Ticket System

Online shoppers always seek the availability of online support and trouble ticket system in purchasing products and services just because they recognize the risk of not being able to get the value for their money being spent on a product or service. When launching an online store, providing customer support to answer queries and as well as solving errors and other forms of inconvenience to the part of the consumer should be a priority. Why? Because it is a way for you to get in touch with your customers and increase the probability of making a sale. Otherwise, your potential customers will stay away from your checkout page as your website does not establish enough communication and trust with them.

When you receive queries through your customer support email or trouble ticketing system, be sure to answer all queries, from low to high priority, within 24 hours. The shorter time your customer waits for response, the bigger the chances of actually trying out a product or service as you were able to display a great deal of trust and willingness to become a provider.

• Provide Trial Versions

This is normally relevant for service providers of software and learning materials which does not involve shipping or delivery of actual goods. Providing Trial Versions of your software or excerpts of a learning material gives the customers a better experience of what they are going to buy and the freedom of doing better purchasing decisions. In this way, consumers are happier and more satisfied with the product or service they bought and are more likely to make repeat transactions later.

• Confusing Checkout Pages

Checkout Pages are like checkout counters or cashiers. People arrive there because they are ready to buy the things inside their online shopping cart. But what makes them leave the counter even before making an actual sale?

Sometimes, checkout pages try to seize the moment to give out some suggestive selling before a user can actually arrive to the payment button. First, doing suggestive selling is good but it is actually time consuming for some users who prefer to checkout right away. Second, it triggers feelings of disinterest towards the product, service, or the whole website itself because of the lengthy process of checkout.

Your goal should be making a sale transaction in the fastest way possible. Eliminate potential barriers within the checkout process so that users can easily make purchasing actions in just a few clicks.

• Hidden Costs, Extra Charges

What’s more discouraging than being able to finally arrive in the checkout page with the bill having to add other costs on top of the price being advertised for a certain product or service? Shipping or delivery costs, taxes, and other charges needed together with the actual product or service price should be clearly stated in the product pages or better yet, get a good online shopping cart service which can help you with that.

• Few to One Payment Option

Online shopping has become popular due to the convenience of time and effort to purchase goods and services. But if you limit your website to only a few to one payment option, you are removing the freedom of consumers to purchase the goods and services according to the payment option they’re most comfortable with. Some consumers prefer using credit card payments instead of cash or use their PayPal monies instead of other forms of money, so you should be sure to open a merchant account that provides an all-in-one action in receiving any form of money.

• How users view your website

Your website has too many grammar and spelling mistakes which makes your website look very dumb. To avoid this, you can always do spelling and grammar check before publishing your content or hire a professional writer to do the content for you. The lesser errors you have in your website, the bigger the chances of establishing trust.

You may also want to check how you website looks. Are the colors looking great with the products and services you provide? Check your links and buttons if they are functioning well. Customize a 404 page so the users of your website would know that they are in a wrong page and have the ability to go back either the previous page visited or the home page.

Lastly, you should consider using Google webmasters tool to be able to know about website errors. Setting up of Google webmasters tool and as well as Google Analytics is free and easy. This should not be overlooked as it will help you make your website at full functionality.

About the Author:
Glen is a part of the NetIdnow team that helps individuals and businesses alike on how to create an online store using WebStudio Website Builder—an online store builder that allows people to make a website with or without HTML skills. Glen also enjoys sharing valuable information on SEO and Web Design.

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Over the previous 10 years we have used and tested several different Content management systems for e commerce. I am going to go through some of the different options available for a complete novice to save an awful lot of time and energy.

The first stage is to decide upon a content management system this is the key to the long term success of your online shop. The systems available all have there advantages and disadvantages where I look is the (SEO) Search engine optimisation features available and also the code used and its suitability and friendliness towards google.

The first system I am going to mention is oscommerce this system has been around for a longtime and as it is a open sourced system it has a massive amount of add ons available we use oscommerce and have found it to be a great system to use. The oscommerce sites also have a SEO pack that allows you to include a variety of titles and descriptions to each page. This is a must if all you items are going to be listed on google for the search results.

The next system is Joomla this is a system that is used by a lot of online shops but I have experienced problems upgrading from old versions of Joomla to new versions without losing important content. It does have seo plug ins available but I have found the entire structure of the Joomla system with the articles system not very user friendly it will take some time before you get used to the system but I am sure once you get to grips with it the system will work fine. But I do feel there are easier more user friendly systems out there.

Ekm Powershop is a fantastic system that we would recommend using available at around £30 per month you hire the shop from the company and log in online and add your content. The system is very easy to use what I would say is if you are serious about making the shop work well invest an extra £800 to £1000 in getting a custom designed template by there Photo shop experts. It really is so very easy to set everything up and you get the peace of mind of having a support team on the phone if required.

Another option is a custom designed CMS content management system by a smaller Web design company that is specifically coded and updated to your requirements. This will probably be more expensive but you will have one big advantage over the other systems that is total control which is one thing lacking in the other systems.

So to round things up if you are looking for a online shop we would recommend the following 3 systems -

1. Your own purpose built ecommerce CMS  from your own Webmaster

2. Ekm powershop is a very cost effective proven system

3. Oscommerce a proven old system not to be over looked

Garry Pickles

As the Managing Director of Online Media Direct Garry takes care of the day to day management of the company. Garry has been working within the Internet Marketing Industry for the previous 10 years and has a wide range of experiences in SEO, CPC and Social Media. | Follow me on Google Plus

Online Media Direct are pleased to announce the release of an all new updated content management system for ecommerce. The CMS (Content Management System) allows business’s with a low level of html or other website programming to easily setup and maintain a ecommerce shop to sell there products online.

Your very Own CMS Login Screen

Large amount of additional ecommerce cms features

The features include the following -

• Search Engine Marketing Feature – Add titles, descriptions and keyword to pages
• Search Engine friendly URL’s
• Web Stats
• Email Newsletter system
• Setup Affiliate campaigns
• Webmail and Email setup
• Full Support
• Navigation Menus
• Add additional pages
• News section – blog the latest news on your shop
• Payment system integration with the main providers
• Unique design is also available to make the site customizable to your needs and requirements

Most importantly this is a proven ecommerce cms system

Already providing hundreds of thousands of pounds in sales on a daily basis in a wide range of industries.

Orders in the ecommerce cms

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Online Media Direct are pleased to announce the launch of there new internet marketing blog. The blog will showcase there services and clients. Along with free hints and tips to improve your companies presence online.

Please subscribe to our news feed to keep up to date with any new articles.

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