April 13, 2009 at 15:1110 scary mistakes in online commerce
Last night I talked with ICQ with Anastasia, the editor of the website Turnover, a very interesting woman, they decided that it would be interesting to read about the most common mistakes in Internet commerce.
I will write errors from my own practice and the practice of other merchants.
1. Domain selection. Most novice merchants for their IM choose the domains most consonant with the selected product. There are many clone sites with similar names. Which can greatly hinder the future: unfair competition or an unscrupulous merchant (all the bumps of dissatisfied customers will be strewed down on you).
Practice: in Ukraine there is a site elitparfum.com.ua, there is also elit-parfum.com.ua, elite-parfume.kiev.ua, elite-parfum.com.ua. Some of them sell fakes.
2. Business with a friend or relative. Here opinions differ. But from personal experience: “if you want to quarrel with a friend - invite to business.” At first everything goes well, trust each other. Then there is more money, views on business diverge dramatically. The problems begin.
3. The desire to implement a bunch of cool ideas interferes with common sense. Ideas are good. But the implementation of these ideas can not only hurt sales, but also waste the money invested. It is necessary to carefully think through ideas, consult with professionals.
Practice: due to the unsuccessful choice of the engine, 1000 cu were spent
5. Avaricious pays twice. You are an Internet merchant but have not yet mastered this postulate? You were either lucky or you did nothing. Work with professionals, even if they require more. But no one is safe from the fact that professionals will be "sticky." Be careful.
Practice: working with some freelancers has led the project to freeze for a while.
6. They calculated the income, but did not consider the increase in expenses. So do inexperienced businessmen. The level of income was calculated, the timing of reaching the level, but it was not taken into account that certain expenses are required to achieve this level. This is where rainbow fantasies collapse.
Practice: having reached an income of thousands of cu expenses also increased by orders of magnitude.
7. The complication of everything from the very beginning. Remember, simplicity = success. The easier it is to receive goods from you, the more customers there will be.
Practice: for beauty and originality, an Ajax catalog was invented, which caused a problem with returning to the previous page. There were other problems.
8. Wrong planning of the advertising budget. The launch of advertising will not give instant growth of the client. Even from contextual advertising, the effect begins in a week. For banner at least a month. Plan not the coverage of sites, but the duration of advertising on the sites.
Practice: 500 cu were thrown away
9. Horrible service. It is not paradoxical, but many stores forget what a good service is. The client is willing to pay more for quality service. You can kill your low price with a lower price. Quality service is difficult to interrupt.
Practice: the notorious callback within 15-20 minutes, as it turns out to be a rare occurrence among MI. In 90% of cases, our managers call this period. According to our customers, many competitors are not even worried about a call back.
10. Dumping. Too low a price scares buyers. Human psychology is built on choosing a middle ground.
Practice: There are always a lot of thirsty freebies, but in my head I still have doubts about the quality of the goods because of the low price. This is shown by the words of our customers.
Figures: Marketing director of nadavi.com.ua (service for comparing prices for goods) announced the numbers that the main clicks are on average price offers
I will write errors from my own practice and the practice of other merchants.
1. Domain selection. Most novice merchants for their IM choose the domains most consonant with the selected product. There are many clone sites with similar names. Which can greatly hinder the future: unfair competition or an unscrupulous merchant (all the bumps of dissatisfied customers will be strewed down on you).
Practice: in Ukraine there is a site elitparfum.com.ua, there is also elit-parfum.com.ua, elite-parfume.kiev.ua, elite-parfum.com.ua. Some of them sell fakes.
2. Business with a friend or relative. Here opinions differ. But from personal experience: “if you want to quarrel with a friend - invite to business.” At first everything goes well, trust each other. Then there is more money, views on business diverge dramatically. The problems begin.
3. The desire to implement a bunch of cool ideas interferes with common sense. Ideas are good. But the implementation of these ideas can not only hurt sales, but also waste the money invested. It is necessary to carefully think through ideas, consult with professionals.
Practice: due to the unsuccessful choice of the engine, 1000 cu were spent
5. Avaricious pays twice. You are an Internet merchant but have not yet mastered this postulate? You were either lucky or you did nothing. Work with professionals, even if they require more. But no one is safe from the fact that professionals will be "sticky." Be careful.
Practice: working with some freelancers has led the project to freeze for a while.
6. They calculated the income, but did not consider the increase in expenses. So do inexperienced businessmen. The level of income was calculated, the timing of reaching the level, but it was not taken into account that certain expenses are required to achieve this level. This is where rainbow fantasies collapse.
Practice: having reached an income of thousands of cu expenses also increased by orders of magnitude.
7. The complication of everything from the very beginning. Remember, simplicity = success. The easier it is to receive goods from you, the more customers there will be.
Practice: for beauty and originality, an Ajax catalog was invented, which caused a problem with returning to the previous page. There were other problems.
8. Wrong planning of the advertising budget. The launch of advertising will not give instant growth of the client. Even from contextual advertising, the effect begins in a week. For banner at least a month. Plan not the coverage of sites, but the duration of advertising on the sites.
Practice: 500 cu were thrown away
9. Horrible service. It is not paradoxical, but many stores forget what a good service is. The client is willing to pay more for quality service. You can kill your low price with a lower price. Quality service is difficult to interrupt.
Practice: the notorious callback within 15-20 minutes, as it turns out to be a rare occurrence among MI. In 90% of cases, our managers call this period. According to our customers, many competitors are not even worried about a call back.
10. Dumping. Too low a price scares buyers. Human psychology is built on choosing a middle ground.
Practice: There are always a lot of thirsty freebies, but in my head I still have doubts about the quality of the goods because of the low price. This is shown by the words of our customers.
Figures: Marketing director of nadavi.com.ua (service for comparing prices for goods) announced the numbers that the main clicks are on average price offers