Custom Ecommerce services developed for your business
Ecommerce allows consumers to buy and sell goods and services online, regardless of time zones time or distances of shipping destinations.
The benefits of Ecommerce to a business can be immense. Not only can it compliment a traditional bricks and mortar business, it is possible that it overtakes and even replaces the original business model. With that in mind, Ecommerce is an option that most businesses should seriously consider.
Ecommerce covers a range of different types of businesses. Familiar B2C (business to customer) examples include:
- retail websites such as Amazon, Marks & Spencer and PC World
- auction websites such as eBay
- music websites such as Play.com and HMV
These are just the tip of the iceberg — there are businesses of all sizes dealing with hundreds or even thousands of other businesses, either as customers or suppliers.
When a company enters the world of Ecommerce it can be a daunting challenge. There are so many design considerations to take into account. Everything from the aesthetic (how do you effectively tie your logo into the site design?), to the financial (which payment gateway is most cost effective), to usability (what happens after ‘Add to cart’ is clicked) and many more areas have important decisions to be made.
Our experience as Ecommerce builders and designers means we are able to efficiently make these decisions and put them into practice.
- Ecommerce is considered faster, cheaper and more convenient than the traditional methods of customer facing negotiation or telephoning for goods and services.
- Ecommerce seems relatively immune to the current global economic downturn. This is evident as (in the UK) E-commerce sales are expected to exceed £80 Billion in 2011. This impressive figure is due to factors, such as competitive prices, product comparison websites, improved online security, gift wrapping services, fuel savings and other convenience factors that encourage consumers to shop online.
- It is further believed that online sales will continue to rise steadily over the next few years as more businesses decide to downsize on commercial floor space in the High Street and use their brand to sell products and services online.
Each Ecommerce website is unique as each offers different USP's (unique selling points) or promotions to set it aside from competitors. However, a successful Ecommerce website would have as standard:
- Easy to understand navigation — remember to use entries such as ‘brands’ as well as logical product categories
- Unfussy product layout pages — render no more than 4 or 5 products in each product row
- Easy to identify ‘add-to-basket’ buttons under each product entry
- Appropriate functionality — your customers may benefit from:
- Search box
- Quote calculator
- Membership
- Newsletter subscription
- Clear price labeling with no hidden extras – highlight shipping costs and tax charges before payment at checkout
- Upselling further products or services – highlight related products or indicate if you offer a gift-wrapping service
- Informative shopping basket – your basket should clearly list all your selected items including compulsory requirements such as the size or colour
- Error-proof secure payment system - obtain a merchant account to accepting credit cards payments through an online payment gateway such as SagePay
