Online Retail

When you get right down to it the fusion of the web and business is a bold lesson in abstract thought.

Think about your grandparents and the work they did. Their job could have been on the farm, in the factory, in a store or in the work of their hands.

If your grandparents were business owners most of their customers were met face to face. Customers may have gone to church with your grandparents or attended high school sports events and concerts. They knew each other and that made marketing much less taxing and far more trusting.

Advertising was often in the form of an print ad in a school program or a booster club for the airing of the local high school football games. The advertising wasn’t always essential to the success they had in their business, it was often used as a way to support the local reputation associated with their business.

Your grandparents knew the other business owners in town and often worked together to keep the local spirit of a town alive.

As larger retail businesses began to paint the landscape these small businesses (like your grandparents) often died when no one was really paying any attention. The vast number of empty storefronts in rural America pay tribute to the radical change in the 21st century retail market.

Why has online business created the need for abstract thinking?

Internet stores are composed of graphics and text... Not friends and family. These shopping carts are developed with software and not brick, mortar, glass and wood. These online businesses can operate 24 hours a day including holidays and the owner does not have to be present for a customer to make a purchase.

The business owner cannot see the site's visitors or customers, they can simply track the number of visitors and some analytical data.

It is this uncommon sense of intangibility that may makes online stores seem more like some elaborate computer game and far less like traditional business.

In order for some businesses to move in to the Internet marketplace there was a need to hire younger more computer savvy employees who were schooled with an insatiable appetite to learn and utilize the skills associated with online marketing and business.

Early on many business owners did not believe the web was even worth their while and ecommerce was never going to be successful. Many of those business owners sat back as time passed, the Internet grew and online sales improved, equaled and then surpassed what the business had previously been able to do with a local brick and mortar shop.

Many brave businessmen were early pioneers in ecommerce, and while they may not have understood everything there was to know about ecommerce, the results were crystal clear – ecommerce was a force much more powerful than they would have ever thought and was the road to continued success and the future of business. Many business owners who could not break out of their brick and mortar box have since had to sell that brick and mortar business.

As time passes more and more online business owners have accepted their new role as Internet marketer, dream maker and web design professional. They have grown accustom to this brave new world where faces are not associated with the sale, where customers probably aren’t your neighbor down the street and where the online store doors are always open.

Online business defies the notion of a simple local marketplace by tapping into something more global and more deliverable. Many small shops around the world have become staging areas for a worldwide customer base. Niche products once lost in a sea of big retail shops can now be the primary thrust of a successful online company instead of just one of many diversified products one might have found in an old general store.

Online business has challenged our way of thinking and changed the way the world does business.

Have YOU got what it takes?

What every single ecommerce business wants most is for online users to type in their credit card number and make a purchase of their products.... Nice and easy, right?

You can have the best developed shopping cart of its kind, but if no one is buying, then you simply have a really nice website.... Which isn't making any money.

When it comes to ecommerce and online sales, how do you encourage site visitors to move from passive window shopping interest to a paying customer?

The short answer is easy enough... Prove yourself trustworthy and professional so the customer has the necessary confidence to make a purchase.

That, of course, is easier said than done.

This is the hardest concept in ecommerce to implement, but if you want more shoppers and less visitors, you will have to work hard and learn a great deal.

First and foremost, you and your store MUST make the shoppers your number one priority. Having said this, realize the treachery involved in that statement.... Yes, I mean 100% customer service from your and your site.... Even when you are sleeping.

You will have to do whatever ways you can to find a way to prove to your potential customer that you are looking out for their interests and are genuinely interested in passing along helpful information to them.

There are far too many sites that exist that ooze with insincerity and even more with a complete lack of professionalism. It is a very tough sell to believe that these site owners care about anything beyond their wallets. Certainly, you can’t fault them for having an interest in their financial future, but online users want need you to prove to them you can be trusted and that you are worthy of their business.... This is especially true in these uncertain economic times.

I haven’t done exhaustive scientific research on the following statement, but I have performed enough research and management that the guess is very well educated...

The online businesses that will be most successful in the next decade will be ones who are honestly interested in the needs of the customers.

For those of you who are fixated on the bottom line you really need to know that customer satisfaction is tethered to your bottom line. Consider it the cost of doing business, something you pay forward for the ability to live with yourself and sleep at night.

Most of my teen and adult life I spent in restaurant/food management... I can tell you in no uncertain terms, you MUST earn your customers trust, approval and patronage. There is just no other way. So maybe you got in to ecommerce thinking it was a great deal... Easy money? Sorry to disappoint you, but when a customer entered one of my restaurants I have the GENUINE opportunity to look them in the eye and demonstrate my concern for them and their experience in my restaurant. Your online store DOES NOT give you that ability... You have to must work even harder than any brick and mortar small business. This I promise you.

The quickest way to grow your sales is to earn them with trust and professionalism..... and if you watch your bottom line too closely with regard to your customer's satisfaction.... It will move for your, indeed as it falls through the floor. The mix is quite unique, but you must find this balance in your business.

Inspect Your Design

Website design and usability are paramount influences for online shopping. If your store looks 1997 or relies on inferior website design methodology it may be holding you down. Existing shoppers are used to the site and its quirks, but what about new customers?

What impression do new shoppers get from your shop? What have you done cause them to come back?

Take some time and deep introspect to research your competitor's websites... Not so much to "Be Like Mike", but rather to be better. What seems to work well on their store? What have they done really well? How does this research stack up with your shop? What have you learned and what are your going to do about it?

Many ecommerce shops will phase in new site designs every two years or so to stay current and fresh. There are always new techniques, innovations and software applications to assist in the development of something that catches attention and is highly functional for users and business owners alike.

Redesigning your store in a hasty and unplanned manner will only lead to dysfunction and dissatisfaction. Build your new store on a test or development account so you can test the links and the new functionality of the shop's design. Have friends, kids, grandmas and colleagues test your development site to catch any flaws in the design. Make a promise to yourself that you will not discount even suggestions or concerns from your tester, which you deem dumb or untrue.... You will never see things like they do. Suggest you give them each a product to search for and buy, testing your search, navigation and very important checkout. There is nothing worse than launching a new site design that is riddled with errors and broken links.

The use of flashing text, unprompted sound or multicolored text should be avoided... Think about the user. The text may certainly get noticed, but generally for very wrong reasons. Simple, compact text and easy to read will provide the best means for shoppers to understand what your shop is designed to provide.  You may have both visually challenged and portable device customers that may use technologies that have space constraints. Many new site designs keep these limitations in mind... Sadly, many do not.

Anytime you are developing a new or redesigned  ecommerce shop enlist the help of several trusted individuals who are willing to tell you exactly what they think of the store. Honest feedback is important and invaluable when considering something with as much potential as an online store. A traditional businessman wouldn't dream of constructing a building without consulting an architect... So why should online business not strive to enlist the help of web professionals in ecommerce development techniques, design, usability and website appearance?

"People often say that motivation doesn’t last, Well, neither does bathing – that’s why we recommend it daily."
– Zig Ziglar

Humanity is impatient and desires acknowledgment, we’re not used to delayed gratification. We want what we want – and we want it right now... Yesterday even!

There is an unfair proposition in online marketing and commerce as a whole. This inequality can be found in list building, blogging, search engine marketing and virtually every other area of establishing a web presence.

Delayed Gratification

For the website owner there is no such thing as instant gratification. You are not likely receive the feedback you’re hoping for initially and it can seem as if you are improving your website for only one person and quite frankly you’re getting tired of impressing yourself.

Many times it can seem like establishing your ecommerce store is a bit like being asked to fill the Grand Canyon with a teaspoon. You persevere, but it’s hard to see the results.

The silver lining is while you keep working to establish your web store and its position you are finding better ways to describe your products, better content/copy to present, and all of the rough edges are slowly getting smoothed out. Still you have great difficulty measuring your progress.

Ecommerce is really a thankless job that is best suited for individuals that understand the true virtue of patience and are willing to work grievously hard to envision a future when the present doesn’t look so great.

"The ability to discipline yourself to delay gratification in the short term in order to enjoy greater rewards in the long term is the indispensable pre-requisite for success"
– Brian Tracy

We live in a modern time when immediacy is so important to so many people, that a significant number of businesses come and go simply because the owner failed to understand that delayed gratification is the payoff for perseverance, hard work and patience.

In 2006 there were 671,800 new businesses created and 544,800 businesses closed according to the U.S. Small Business Administration.

We know that many of these small businesses did not have a clear understanding of the long term trench warfare that comes along with the territory of a new business start up.

This post is actually plotted to encourage you to think long term. Your ability, as a small business owner, to look further ahead than the next sale is crucial if you want to succeed.

Ecommerce can certainly provide a substantially improved market for your products, but you still must do the hard work, and put your best face forward even when your website statistics may seem as if your playing in an empty concert hall.

"Success is not final, failure is not fatal; it is the courage to continue that counts."
– Winston Churchill

What is duplicate content?
Duplicate content generally refers to substantive blocks of content within or across domains that either completely match other content or are appreciably similar. Most of the time when we see this, it's unintentional or at least not malicious in origin: forums that generate both regular and stripped-down mobile-targeted pages, store items shown (and -- worse yet -- linked) via multiple distinct URLs, and so on. In some cases, content is duplicated across domains in an attempt to manipulate search engine rankings or garner more traffic via popular or long-tail queries.

So duplicate content very simply put, is any content which is too similar to another page's (any page's) content indexed in Google. Duplicate content can cause a host of headaches and is certainly not a concrete foundation for a top performing online store. Why should shop owners care about duplicate content?... Simple Google and other search engines care a great deal.

This is really one of those times when you as a business owner needs to walk a mile in Google's shoes. Google aims to deliver the best UNIQUE content for every search... This is what Google, the business, does for their customers. As I am sure you as a shop owner want the best for your customers, you can clearly understand why Google would not want the same content in 5 different results to deliver their users. So if there is duplicate content... What does Google do about it?

In theory, when Google is presented to 2 pages which are not unique enough to rank independently, they make a decision as to which page to rank for the terms. There is very certainly a very complicated algorithmic computation Google does to determine which page to rank... But that really matters little. Generally speaking, the site which has the greatest authority for the content will rank and the other is shunned from the main search-able index. There is likely a ton of metrics used to determine authority for this purpose, but the largest factors are likely to be PageRank, relevant links, traffic and the age of the page. Seriously though... The simple truth is if you stole it and published it, you are not going to be able to rank it properly.

So back to the purpose of this post...

What is the #1 cause of content duplication in shopping carts?

Many shop owners are distributing or drop shipping the product base from their online store. The drop shipper or main distribution source will nearly always provide product information and descriptions for the products they wish you to sell. In our hast and waste to launch our new store or new product, many shop owners will use all or some large blocks of the distributors or manufacturers product information... UHOH

There are really only 2 factors of concern with regard to this type of content duplication.

1. Overall duplication percentage of the page
2. Large blocks or shingles of text containing keywords

The overall duplication percentage of the page is not nearly the biggest issue, but it can and will cause Google to frown on your pages. Again, there is much debate as the what a tolerable level of duplication is... But Google's not saying (for obvious reasons). My best estimation is at or around 25 to 30% duplicate a page will begin to fail you.

The next and really more serious duplication factor in my estimation is large blocks of text containing keywords which are 100% duplicate. Whether is be theory or fact, we know Google is capable of identifying search terms in a page and presenting a snippet for a organic search result description... Therefore, in like function, large blocks of text containing important text and keywords which are duplicate will be easily identified. This is very specifically a debilitating issue when the block of duplicated content is at the top of a container, like a paragraph or div for example.

When content is at the top of a page, paragraph, div or table... Google considers it to be of larger importance that the text in the same container below it. Duplicate content is a position of power such as this is the quickest way for a page to fail at the hands of Google's duplication filters.

So whats the answer here...

How do I fix the duplicate content on my site?

Well, the simplest answer is not probably what most shop owners will want to hear (at least in my experience), but create great descriptive and unique content for your shops... Every page! At least any you want to perform well =-P!

So maybe you don't have the time or skill to write such killer content? You can take a great deal less time and "shingle" the content provided to you from the manufacturers. This is really not a complicated process at all, Google reads text in blocks or shingles... I think about 10 word shingles to narrow it down. So if you take the text provided by the manufacturer and change or add a word every 5 words... then it is no longer duplicate =-). Please notice I DID NOT say delete a word, as this does nothing much at all, you must add or change a word. I tell shop owners every 5 word shingles, simply to be on the safe side and ideally have even better content when they are done.

It can be very disheartening to hear shop owners say "I don't have time for that"... I just generally respond, you will have plenty of time when your online shop has no sales... Just do it then =-)

Google says this very clearly...

Don't participate in link schemes designed to increase your site's ranking or PageRank. In particular, avoid links to web spammers or "bad neighborhoods" on the web, as your own ranking may be affected adversely by those links.

So what parts of this affect these stores with their link directories?

1. Links intended to manipulate PageRank
2. Excessive reciprocal links or excessive link exchanging ("Link to me and I'll link to you.")
3. Buying or selling links that pass PageRank

Lets cover #1 "Links intended to manipulate PageRank". This can be very hard to understand for many shop owners as they have no intention of trying to game Google's PageRank system. Mostly these shop owners are trying to build relevant links in and out, as many "gurus" from various forums have instructed them. Honestly speaking, most are making the actions completely innocently and just lack the understanding of proper linking. For example...

• Linking out to 500 sites, related or not, will not help you if they are too many and do not provide usefulness to the shoppers on your site.
• If shoppers do find and browse you link directory, they are likely to leave for another site. Is the "value" of this link worth the loss of a potential sale?
• Additionally, these links in MOST cases would be perceived as advertising and need to be "nofollowed"

So in a nutshell to make this Google Guideline regarding the manipulation of PageRank perfectly clear...

Any link that you do not personally endorse (vote for) or is advertising in any way, must not be allowed to pass PageRank. Simple, add a "nofollow" tag to the individual links or link directory pages.

#2 "Excessive reciprocal links or excessive link exchanging ("Link to me and I'll link to you.")". This one is the one I see most. People with the link building bug swapping links. The pitfalls here are mostly hidden from the shop owner and they don't even realize they are creating an issue for their store's link profile.

• When a link is exchanged and neither is "nofollowed", the link(s) are devalued. This very simply means Google knows you swapped links and considers them less valuable or accountable than organic/natural links.
• Nothing stirs my fire like a shop owner with a link directory who is flagrantly begging for reciprocal links. First of all, why don't you just send and email to Google and beg them to devalue your links? Secondly, how do you think this looks to your shoppers? Yep, you look like a scammer.
• Lastly, and perhaps most importantly... If you get to the point that your link swapping or reciprocal links outnumber your organic links, then you have screwed up your entire link profile and cast a big Google storm cloud over your site. You have just devalued all of your links.

#3 "Buying or selling links that pass PageRank". You would think with the buzz around that everyone knows this one... But not so. I suggest you do not practice the buying and selling of links on your store's cart... Remember this is your business! None the less as many will buy and sell links anyhow, here are some tips.

• Do NOT label these links as "sponsored", "partners" etc. Once again, just login in to Google's webmasters tools and report yourself... Its a bit quicker.
• ALL links that have been bought or sold ARE advertising and cannot be allowed to pass PageRank.
• I would strongly advise you do not advertise your link bidding/selling campaign on your website. Not only does this look awful to your shoppers, but again just tell Google yourself.

Essentially, your store is a place of business... Not a link directory. This is just plain unproductive, and well dumb.

Seriously, from a consumers vantage they expect very much the same ethical business standards from your online store as any "brick and mortar" business. There is little doubt that link building is a daunting task, but if you loss your ability to impress your customers in the process... What the point?

Don't tell me how you have 5000 visitors a day... Tell me how many you are converting and how many just bounce. That is where you will find the answers to build a successful online store.

Overall Internet users have become more sensitive and aware of the factors which are considered "trust" violations. Surfers are quite skilled in identifying a "bad site" and are reacting accordingly. No longer do droves of Internet users mindlessly click ads or provide personal information, those days are gone. We are in the dawn of a far more savvy Internet user.

Some mistakes we see are in fact very common and very out of date, others are just plain lack of foresight. Today we will cover some of the most common trust reducing metrics we have found in the stores we have analyzed. You may well know that we develop and optimize Zen Cart, so some factors will be directly related to the Zen Cart software, but most of these store trust issues are very common in other e-commerce platforms.

• If you are using a shared SSL or none at all, you are sending a message of distrust to your shoppers. Even full PayPal or other off site processing accounts should make use of a private SSL. Customers don't even want to provide their email address without one. Honestly for the cost involved there is no valid reason not to use a proper secured protocol for your users.
• If you are using a private SSL, the battle does not stop there. Many times we visit a site and the secured pages include outside non-secure links or elements. Shoppers have no idea that these links or elements are generally just part of your template, and they don't care either. They only know the lock is showing broken and they feel unprotected.
• Let shoppers know you have installed an SSL to protect their transaction and what to look for to assure it is working. This is really not necessary as most know already, but it sends the message that you personally have taken steps to protect them.
• Collect as little information as possible on checkout. Shoppers do not want to answer unrelated personal information questions. Questions of this nature only lead them to believe you are somehow hording and using their information for other means.
• Enhance your checkout with helpful tips and notes to let shoppers know where they are in the checkout process and that they are on track. This includes a clear shipping policy for rates and delivery. They should know their shipping choices in the very beginning of checkout, as sites like eBay and such have burned shoppers with inflated shipping charges and they are very wary if they do not know the shipping cost before the begin to checkout
• Send ALL customers a receipt from YOUR store's domain email address and provide tracking or an update of shipment to EVERY customer without fail. Sure your processor will send them a receipt, but lack of your own receipt does not build any trust and makes you look less than professional.
• Do not under any circumstances allow your product catalog or checkout to have an unbranded template or theme. Shoppers have been abused by the entire affiliate sales phenomena and are very wise to such changes. I highly recommend you do not even redirect to a different url for anything, but if you must the template/theme must remain branded consistently throughout.
• Do not monetize your store or link out to sponsored ads and such. They have come to your store to make a purchase from you, not to be fed off to another site. Not to mention you are screwing yourself out of sales by letting them click away.
• If you use an off site processor like PayPal, you must return shoppers to a checkout success page. Otherwise you leave them wondering about the transaction and this is not likely to produce a return sale or referral from the shopper.
• Trust seals can be very costly. Most are pretty effective in gaining a trusting relationship from a shopper. However, if you are using a seal of any kind and have faked the resulting certification page... The shopper is leaving. For example, I see the PayPal verified seal on sites all the time that goes nowhere, no link at all. I have also seen such verification services lead the shopper to a self hosted page... Shoppers are not this dumb, they click these items as they already know what to expect on the other end. If you can't install or afford a proper verification result, then use none.
• Open your visitors experience with a mission statement or store information, do not hard sell them as soon as they load the page. Nothing is worse than that jewelry salesperson who stalks you around the store, and shoppers not only hate this, but realize good products do not require this type of technique.
• Provide good product images. Shoppers understand the color issue with monitor compatibility, but the do not want to see disclaimers regarding your product description or image. Statements such as "delivered product style may vary from image and description" do not exactly illicit trust.
• Cross selling is a very valuable tool if you understand suggestive selling and are keeping the shoppers needs in mind. Sell only related products to a customer, and only a few items as shoppers really do get confused as to what they "need" to buy in addition to the selection for compatibility and such.
• Your contact information, preferably a toll free number MUST be easy to locate. Contact pages are adequate, but a large font top side toll free number tells the shopper you are a "real" business.
• Never, ever send emails of any kind related to your store from a non-domain email account. How cheesy is it to buy something and receive a follow up email from the store owners GMail account?
• Provide an address for your store on your contact page, even if it is home based. Shoppers are very aware that many people work from home, but failing to do this only tells them you are hiding something. You do not trust them, why should they trust you. Even a PO Box is better than skipping this trust factor.
• Lastly, and you would really think this is the most obvious of all... Do not sell products you don't believe in or know well enough to provide customer support for.

Building trust is a highly effective sales tool, regardless of the fact that its the right thing to do. Shoppers are not alone in looking at these trust metrics, search engines use many of the above mentioned elements to score your trust within their ranking system as well. If you are not sending a message of trust to your shoppers, you are running a dying business as it will never build the referral and return sales you need to succeed.