E-Commerce Hosting – Everything you need to know
E-Commerce Hosting – Everything You Need To Know
Currently, ecommerce is one of the most thriving business structures available for any business that lacks a large amount of initial startup capital. If you’ve decide to take advantage of this emerging trend, fret not. Just follow this guide on everything you need to know to set up your online store!
Step 1: Develop the Right Domain Name
This may seem simple enough; all you have to do is select a company name, and turn it into a URL. However, this is where many virtual companies go wrong. They tend to come up with names that are complicated or difficult to remember. Make sure it is something unique, short, and most importantly, memorable! Search for the availability of domain names. Next, you should register it with the right web hosting company.
Step 2: Set Up your Website with an Online Store Company
Your Online Store/Web hosting company will provide you with the infrastructure that will help connect all your business to the internet. The right web hosting company will provide you with domain registry, custom development of the site, email accounts, an affiliate marketing program, and the best website service and maintenance options. So when out looking for a web hosting company, here’s what you need to keep in mind:
- What does website service and maintenance cost
- How often are they available?
- Email accounts provided
- SSL Encryption
- Regular security auditing
- Backup options
Step 3: Design An Easy-to-Use Website
It is imperative that the site be simple, and not too cluttered. Your storefront is what your online store will be judged upon, so design carefully using the right logo, name, introduction about company, product description etc.
Step 4: Make Your E-commerce Store Secure for Customers
With fraud and unauthorized credit card transactions taking place, your customers are going to be wary. Therefore, make sure you have SSL (Secure Socket Layer) or any standard World Wide Web security protocol already established to build your customers’ trust, and make your website safe.
Step 5: Set up an Internet Merchant Account to Manage Payments
There are several ways to manage payments, but the simplest is to set up a merchant account with any financial institution that will handle the credit card or debit card transactions as per your instructions.
You Get all This with Us!
Earth Skater is an innovative and creative e-commerce company that will design, develop, and market your online store. We provide a complete online store setup, web design layouts, customer support system, and are accredited by the BBB with an A+ rating.
For more information, call us on our Toll free number (877-627-2492) or email us at info@earthskater.com.
5 Key Strategies for eCommerce Growth
E-Commerce Growth StrategiesIf you expect to achieve sustained growth with your eCommerce business you will need the website, marketing plan, advertising plan, and budget to get there. Growing a profitable Web Business is a strategic process that requires long range commitment, careful planning, and on-going execution and patience. It’s vital that you know exactly what you want to accomplish and that you have done your research to understand what it will take to get there. Of course you need to have a website that is optimized and tested to convert traffic (sales funnels for your website and landing pages for your advertisements), and then you need to devote time to developing and executing short-term and long-term promotional strategies. These strategies must stand on their own as well as work together to get you the best results. Here are five key strategies you can use to advance your business and improve your profit margin: #1. Always Look For Opportunities to Increase SalesThe hunt for new customers should be phase one of an ongoing (as in monthly) three-phase marketing approach that every online business owner should embrace. Phase two is to follow up with these new customers from time to time, and introduce them to additional offers. The objective of this second phase is to get them to buy from you more often. The final phase is to offer expensive items, or bundle multiple items into higher-priced packages. This will give your customers more opportunities to make larger purchases. #2. Find the Best Use for Your Marketing BudgetAfter you have identified your market demographic (USA, Canada, all countries, just your state, just your county, tri-county, etc), fixed your goals and decide on a promotional strategy (something catchy) for reaching potential customers, then the next step is to figure out how to maximize your budget and get the job done without blowing your budget. DID YOU KNOW: Studies show that the average consumer will see a promotion about five to seven times before taking action on the offer. You want to expose your product or service, as often as possible, to consumers who will derive the most benefit from it. So instead of blowing your budget on a single opportunity to reach your select group, it is much wiser to get everyone’s attention with repeated promotions (monthly on-going advertising). Use as many different forms of advertising as you can afford and squeeze the most out of your marketing dollars. * Earth Skater Online Store Solutions include real time analytics to track website visitors and search engine traffic and sales in real-time. The value of knowing where visitors arrive from and on what page and where they go on your site will help you to optimize and improve your website and landing pages over time. Using both your general website statistics and Earth Traffic will be the key to understanding how your online business works and ways you can increase traffic. #3. Invest in a Virtual AssistantThis is an opportunity to outsource various redundant tasks to someone who is capable, reliable and trustworthy. The big advantage to you is you’ll have more time to devote to activities that generate income and help you grow your business. A virtual assistant works from his or her office as an independent contractor and is responsible for whatever administrative or operational responsibilities you assign. Compensation can be agreed upon at an hourly rate, per assignment or by retainer. If you are not yet at the stage where you can afford to pay a virtual assistant, you can consider a suitable barter arrangement with a subscriber or a customer. You can also ask a family member or a friend for help. You can’t do it all yourself and you shouldn’t even consider that option for the long-term. * Earth Skater provides expert service to off load your work burden. Whether it’s updating website products and content, managing and/or providing your marketing and advertising campaigns, or just providing consultation to your business; Earth Skater provides service second to none in both expertise and affordability. #4. Use the Power of Email to Convert Visitors Into CustomersEmail marketing is one of the most economical and reliable ways to build a relationship with visitors and eventually convert them into buyers. It is an effective tool for staying in touch and developing the level of comfort and trust that is necessary before they will agree to do business with you. You can use email to convince your subscribers of your expertise in your niche. The more they come to accept you as an authority, the greater your credibility will become and the easier it will be for you to make sales. Plus, email is a very handy tool for keeping customers abreast of new products, special promotions and the latest announcements about your business. * Earth Skater recommends iContact, read more about Earth Skater Professional newsletter marketing here. #5. Develop a System for Everything You DoMake sure to design methods and procedures that simplify and expedite important aspects of your business operation. Very often these systems will evolve from trial and error, but when they have been perfected they should become standard procedure. The most efficient systems are those that get you to your objective as quickly as possible, for as little money as possible and with the least possible effort. * Earth Skater eCommerce is #1 the system for small merchants to manage their online stores and affiliate programs. Consult with an
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10 tips to choosing the right ecommerce solution
Here is some food for thought when choosing an ecommerce platform for your business website operations.
As a small business owner, you must consider the functionality you’ll need to differentiate yourself, your budget as it relates to available online store solutions, whether or not you want to or are able to set it up yourself, and integration with third party API’s that may be needed.
- Ask the right questions when deciding which online store platform is ideal for your business.
- Despite how easy the platform is to use, do you feel comfortable using it to build your own website or do you need some help.
- Do you want to setup your own website or do you want your provider to set it up for you with your input?
- Who is going to be there to support me when I have questions? Is it basic entry level support or will you get expert support and a personal account manager.
- Are there any added transaction fees that the online store solution requires?
- How customizable are the design themes? And do you want to customize your own design or let Earth Skater do it for you?
- Compare the total cost of platforms and the total value proposition they offer including support and on-going service options.
- Ensure your online store looks professional.
- Choose a great domain name, your domain name is the foundation for your brand and image.
- Set up analytics like Google Analytics and webmastertools and the same from Yahoo/Bing as well as real-time visitor tracking to gauge your success and optimize your results.
8 Ways To Start Or Buy An E-Commerce Business
With a computer, you can establish an online business in as little as half a day. And you don’t need an ounce of web development skills. Although your mileage may vary based on your budget, Earth Skater specializes in getting your online store affordably and customized for your business needs.
- Test the waters before investing in a custom web site.
- Consider looking for a micro niche.
- Start a business because you can’t find something you want.
- Set up shop on an existing marketplace — from giants like Amazon and eBay to listing services like Craigslist to niche sites like Etsy.
- Find a mentor.
- When you’re ready to build a site or online shop, go with a fully-hosted, cloud-based service that handles the backed of e-commerce.
- Build a collaborative-economy platform.
- Finally, there is the option of buying an existing online site or store.
How to Setup an Online Clothing Store
The most frequent question we receive from new online merchants is… how do I setup my online store? The answer to that question is typically the same whether you are selling clothing, electronics, supplements, or any other retail product. It is important to note a few exceptions to the typical online store setup. More complex online store setups include sites that sell recurring subscriptions, digital downloadable products, or some other custom calculation that involves the customers input.
OK, so you are ready to start your online clothing store. Here are our top 6 things to consider when it comes to setting up an online clothes store.
- Brandable Domain Name
- Online Store Platform
- Product Photos
- Social Media
- Blogging
- Newsletter
Brandable Domain Name
A short and memorable domain name is ideal. Premium domain names, domain names that are for sale at a premium price, may be the best way to get the exact brand name you desire. Sites like Oro.Domains specialize in the sale of premium domain names. The more basic and identifiable your domain name is, the more likely it will be ranked higher in the search results. For a clothing store, choosing a name that represents the brand or one that represents the specific niche in the clothing market may work well. Your business plan should help guide you in this process. Earth Skater offers a complimentary domain name branding service during our setup process to help choose the perfect name for your business.
Online Store Platform
Setting up your online clothing store can be difficult and time consuming to say the least, not to mention costly. Clothing store merchants do better with an online store platform that can help them set up the website. Questions to consider when choosing your online store platform for your clothing store are:
- Will I be able to design the site to match my brands image
- Will I have help in uploading the products, content, and photos
- Does the online store support all of the product options needed to sell my product line effectively and efficiently
Product Photos
Product photos are extremely important and just as important as having an awesome looking web design. So your product photos must be top notch in order for your brand clothing store to shine online. Taking time to optimize, resize, crop, and re-create product photos so that they are as near perfect as possible can be an easy way to differentiate your clothing store from your competitors. Photos should be consistent in terms of size, lighting, background, to give the most professional appearance. Photo watermarks can be added and most online stores allow for a watermark to be added when inserting products into the online store.
Social Media
Setting up your social media accounts is vital to building your online clothing store brand. It is not that difficult or time consuming, just go over to Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, YouTube, and other social media sites and create an account with your business name and information. After you create your accounts you will add the links and plugins to your website to connect your website with the social platforms. Finally, the vital part is to stay active on your social media accounts. This means regular posting to each account. Vary the content posted to each social media platform accordingly based on the audiences you are reaching respectively. Clothing stores can post about things customers are thinking about and looking for. Use keywords in your posts that customers are searching for and focus on the customer always.
Blogging
Setting up your Blog is the other vital part of marketing your online clothes store. Blogging and social media go hand in hand. The blogs you write will also be posted to your social media accounts to create life cycle of marketing content. Blogging is vital to building your online clothing store brand because of the content that you create as the business owner. As a clothing store owner you will post about topics of interest to your customers and include the keywords they are searching for. Also, your customers will see that your website is alive with content through the regular posting being done.
Newsletter
A very important piece of the puzzle in marketing an online clothing store is setting up a newsletter. Adding a JOIN OUR NEWSLETTER feature to your website allows you to build a list of targeted people to market to. You can offer an incentive to join your newsletter like a 5 or 10% discount on their next clothing purchase. The bigger your list grows the more valuable it becomes as a go to source for increasing sales. Your newsletter is a vital way to keep in contact with your followers and increase sales.
Earth Skater specializes in eCommerce with complimentary website setup and transfer. We’ve helped hundreds of merchants make an easy transition into the world of websites and selling online with our online store platform.
Merchant Processing 102
Shopping Carts, Gateways and Payment Processors: Anatomy of an Online Purchase
Merchants should understand the value of operating in multiple channels. For those who haven’t yet incorporated e-commerce into their business but want to, there is much to learn.
With a little research and education, merchants can find the best providers to accommodate their business needs and those of their consumers. It just makes sense — e-commerce provides merchants an opportunity to make more money and succeed in an increasingly competitive marketplace.
What Makes an E-Commerce Solution Possible?
In addition to the range of software and hardware that companies use to support the sale of products and services online, there are three vital components that make online shopping possible: the shopping cart, payment gateway and payment processor.
Shopping cart:
The shopping cart acts quite literally as a virtual shopping basket. It holds the items customers select from a Web site until they are ready to proceed to the checkout stage, where their credit card information will be processed. The shopping cart:
o Keeps track of items until they are purchased
o Automatically totals the amount of a customer’s order, including shipping and tax
o Allows shoppers to securely enter address and credit card information
Payment Gateway:
In order to accept credit cards through the Internet, a payment gateway is critical to transport the credit card information from the shopping cart to the payment processor once the consumer clicks the “Buy” button. In most cases, this transaction happens almost instantaneously. The payment gateway receives encrypted transactions from the merchant’s shopping cart. An encrypted transaction simply means that credit card numbers can’t be read by people who are not supposed to read those numbers. Authentication is then provided and the decrypted payment information is transmitted for authorization. The payment gateway:
o Fulfills the same function as a point-of-sale (card swipe) terminal at a physical retail location
o Takes information provided through a shopping cart and transmits it electronically and securely to a payment processor to be routed for authorization of payment
Payment Processor:
The payment processor transmits a customer’s credit card information via the Internet to the merchant bank for authorization. It also sends data back to the merchant’s bank to approve payment or the transfer of funds. A payment processor:
o Acts as a link from the merchant to the acquiring bank or merchant bank
o Receives information from the merchant through the payment gateway and packages the information for delivery to the acquirer, ensuring that all necessary transactional data is present and valid
o Later transmits information back from the acquirer for delivery to the merchant to settle the transaction
Call 877-627-2492 to discuss your eCommerce plans today.
Membership Subscription Billing
How can you sell your products online with recurring billing? The answer is not always so simple, especially if your recurring billing / subscription billing requires any sort of customization.
What are the foundation pieces you need to sell recurring subscription billing products or services? The answer is simple:
- a website
- a billing system that will allow customers to purchase subscription products and have their billing info. stored and charged on a frequency basis
…but the solution is not always so straight forward.
A Website
You may already have a website which is good. You may also have an online store which is good as well to sell one time purchase products. Now, depending on the type of customer experience you would like, you must integrate or connect with a recurring billing solution.
Connecting Recurring Billing to your Website
This is where things can get tricky. Depending on your website solution and online store solution, the answer to how to proceed will vary. Typically, you will have 2 options:
- Integrate a 3rd party recurring billing solution directly into your website with embed code or custom programming (most professional)
- Just link from your website to the 3rd party recurring billing solution so customers are brought to the 3rd party site to pay (not the most professional)
Customer / User Experience
This is the most important part of creating a recurring billing membership solution, customer’s must be able to easily make payment, update payment information on file, and perhaps even upgrade or downgrade an existing or multiple subscriptions on file.
- Integrating recurring billing into your website directly is the most seamless solution and typically best user experience
- Ability for customer to update their billing info. on file is a must for when billing info. on file expires or a new card is issued for example
- Ability for customer to upgrade or downgrade their subscription package is a huge value but requires custom programming
- Ability for customer to apply a coupon to receive a discount on the first or all recurring payments
- Ability for website to calculate custom package pricing for the customer’s recurring billing subscription is an option with custom programming
Earth Skater specializes in custom eCommerce recurring billing and subscription payments with complimentary website setup and transfer. We’ve helped hundreds of merchants make an easy transition into the world of websites and selling online with our online store platform.
Recurring Billing and Subscriptions
Accepting recurring payments online is supposed to be quick and easy to get going, right? Yet, it is much more involved and often times complicated to set up an online store with subscription payments like for a service or auto-ship product.
Today, online store’s are offered like a commodity, and recurring billing and subscription products are some of the most difficult features to find and especially to customize to your specific requirements.
Authorize.net Recurring Billing
Earth Skater supports recurring billing (ARB, automated recurring billing) and CIM (Customer information manager to safely store customer information) with Authorize.net. Customization is a key to success with recurring billing setups. Your websites may need to allow customers to:
- update billing package
- update billing frequency
- update billing date
- update billing credit card information
- cancel a recurring subscription
- connecting in with 3rd party API’s
- update user/pass in membership account
- save billing information
What Does This Mean For Me?
There are a few ways to setup recurring billing on your online store and so the biggest question is… Does your online store software support recurring billing and does it meet your requirements?
If the answer to any of the questions above is NO, then please call Earth Skater today where we will be happy to help you review and find a solution to your business needs.
Earth Skater specializes in eCommerce with complimentary website setup and transfer. We’ve helped hundreds of merchants make an easy transition into the world of websites and selling online with our online store platform.
Online Store Software Customization
Online stores are supposed to be quick and easy to setup, right? You just sign up and type in a few products, upload a few pics, and voila… er, not so fast.
Today, online store’s are offered like a commodity, just pick the one with the cool web design and a list of checkmark features that seems to match your needs, at least the needs you think you know you have. It’s all up to you, good luck! Setting up an online store can be done on the cheap but I don’t think most merchants would describe it as easy, quick, or sufficient to needs of their success.
Online Store Customization = Custom For You
Customization is a key to success, your website has to stand out through branding (your domain name, visual design, and marketing) and a variety of other factors including online store functionality and customer service in order to be distinct in the marketplace!
Customizing your online store or website could involve:
- having the website design created exactly the way you want it
- create custom content or using high quality stock photos & video
- creating a custom interface for the customer ordering process
- programming to automate and process orders more efficiently
- connecting in with 3rd party API’s
- recurring billing subscriptions with membership account
- storing customer billing information
- digital download products
What Does This Mean For Me?
There are many ways to customize your online store and so the biggest question is… Does your online store software provider provide the service to help you customize? Better yet, do they go the extra mile and offer the flexibility to meet your specific demands?
If the answer to any of the questions above is NO, then please call Earth Skater today where we will be happy to help you review and find a solution to your business needs.
Earth Skater specializes in eCommerce with complimentary website setup and transfer. We’ve helped hundreds of merchants make an easy transition into the world of websites and selling online with our online store platform.
