Many businesses are looking for alternate methods to grow their businesses due to the apparent downturn in the economy. This translates to the need for business owners to look for other proven methods to generate income with a current trend in the business world showing an increase in eCommerce interest.
According to Forrester Research, 2007 online sales experienced a growth of 21% over 2006 and future trends show a continued growth of around 14% p/a over the next 5 years, despite the current wavering economy.
The Dilemma of developing an eCommerce site that performs –
How do you build a good eCommerce website that delivers profits to the bottom line? One of the great challenges for Australian Businesses deciding to tackle the on-line world, is in the style of site they believe they need to design to generate any real profits.
Director of retail Phil Bonnano from The Leading Edge said, “Many websites in Australia are a basic catalogue pages placed on their website. There isn’t really a good demonstration of integration between websites and other technologies. A Majority of websites lack innovation, offer nothing new or exciting and fail to engage their visitors,”
This identifies an untapped market in Australia, where anyone with vision can establish themselves as the market leader in their niche.
Successful eCommerce websites are built by using Proven Techniques –
The key to a successful eCommerce site is in establishing a solid foundation and planning the future success. It’s critical to understand what and how a customer will buy from you and the message you want to portray about your business.
Think of creating a new website like the opening a new outlet or store.
Would you expect to have a high performing store if your customers had to walk through an unidentifiable maze to find your cash register? Or even worse, would you design a physical store where you customer is ready to buy only to discover they can’t complete their transaction as they are shopping in a display only store?
It is critical for your customers to find their shopping experience simple and enjoyable.
It is possible to achieve this through a combination of proven web design and eCommerce techniques.
eCommerce offers a Measurable Return on Investment –
One of the greatest challenges in marketing is through understanding what does and doesn’t work. Different marketing strategies can take months to come to fruition and you may not even understand if they are actually achieving a return on investment. eCommerce is proving to break free from the mould offering a medium that allows successful measure of campaigns through applications such as Google Analytics.
As David Trewern from marketing agency DTDigital was quoted as saying “You are able to prove your return on your investment – it is pretty difficult to find that level of information and data from other methods of measurement. You no longer have to guess what is working which gives you an upper hand in a bad economic environment, when people want to ensure they are achieving a result.”
eCommerce offers the opportunity for all businesses to compete on a level playing field –
In the world of Bricks and Mortar there is a huge difference between small and big business. Myers, David Jones and Woolworths hold the obvious upper hand over smaller independent retailers. This translates across many different industries and identifies a necessity to consider other mediums in order to grow business.
Any business with a solid eCommerce plan are proof anyone can out perform their competition in the on-line world.
Sites like vroomvroomvroom are an example of how smaller businesses can compete on the same playing field as Hertz, Avis and Budget through smart eCommerce sites that make it easier for visitors to navigate and buy through.
They currently have only 10 employees, and through well thought eCommerce strategies and implementation of technology have established themselves as market leaders in the Australian car hire industry. By redeveloping their eCommerce strategy they managed to grow their revenue by 121% in 12 months.
Do I need to take out a second mortgage to get a piece of the eCommerce action?
With expected growth of 14% p/a it is important to ensure you have a well thought eCommerce strategy to establish yourself as a leader in your niche. This will obviously involve an investment, but will not cost you anywhere near the price of setting up a physical shop and hiring a team of people to run it. Think of an eCommerce presence like a sales person servicing your customers 24/7, reducing your time and expenses you’d normally have to spend.
In today’s economic climate it is critical to ensure you are adapting to the market place. What better way to do that then to become a market leader in your niche through the development of an eCommerce strategy that will outperform your competition.
Technology moves so quickly, many of us feel like an ostrich with our head buried in the sand. Often we find that what was new yesterday is suddenly old news today and trying to keep up with the technological advances with concerns to the web hosting industry can be mind-boggling for the common individual.
If you have worked in an occupation that did not move swiftly along with the Internet, your knowledge of even the basics can now be considered illiterate. Now, more than ever before people are utilizing the Internet to advertise themselves and their businesses on the World Wide Web.
In order to establish your own web page on the Internet, it is important to understand some very important terms. The first and most important term to getting your website on the Internet is “web hosting”.
A web host is a company or an individual that owns a server that is connected to the internet 24 hours per day, seven days per week and who is willing to sell you a space on that server for a certain number of dollars. The ideal web host is online 99.9% of the time, however, many cannot fulfill this goal. There is a broad range of what hosting services can and will do, so research is a large key to successfully finding the correct server for your intentions.
How Do I Find the Best Web Hosting Server for My Needs?
There are many types of web hosting. It is very important to review, outline and determine exactly what your personal needs in a web hosting company are prior to establishing any type of business relationship. It is also extremely important to research each web hosting company thoroughly to insure that they are capable of providing the type of services you need for a price you can afford. There are many different ways to research a web hosting company.
You can take the time to contact each company personally and inquire as to the parameters of their services; hoping that they will honestly tell you the pros and cons of their business. However, you could access an independent Internet review company that specializes in web hosting and compare their findings with your needs.
Do you often feel stuck in the computer abyss when it comes to managing your company’s needs for web or information technology services? Businesses with fewer than 50 or 60 employees often find themselves struggling to keep pace with their basic web and computer support services and miss out on effective small business IT solutions.
Without the guidance of an information technology services provider, small businesses can end up wasting time and money on computer support services because they aren’t in touch with the best technology tools and practices for small business IT solutions. Even zero-employee companies can benefit immensely from a computer support services partner who shows them how to standardize their practices, save money with the right hardware or software and develop effective websites.Putting Out Fires – Who Needs Dedicated Computer Support Services Anyway?
The approach often taken by small organizations when it comes to information technology services is one of putting out fires. No one has time to update the website, the network is cobbled together with wiring strung across the floor, and you’re not sure when the last backup really ran. Then, a hard drive starts going click-click. You call that guy you occasionally use for computer support services, “Joe-I-Fix-Anything-PCs,” to get the computer booting. That’s when to your horror you discover that the tape in the drive since last Tuesday wasn’t really backing up and the click-click is the sickening sound of your QuickBooks data being eaten by the dying hard drive. There is a Better Way: A Solutions Partner for Web and Information Technology Services
It isn’t that “Joe” can’t spot you some quick computer support services and get you up and running again. It’s the point that the “bargain” hard drive failed without warning, your data wasn’t backed up and you didn’t even have a centralized data management practice to begin with. Wouldn’t it have been great to avoid all the headaches by using best-practice guidelines for business management and making informed purchase decisions? That’s where a good small business IT solutions provider comes in, not only to avoid disaster but to save money. For example QuickBooks could be integrated with your shipping and credit card processing which saves three employees 30 hours a week in order fulfillment. Then you might implement a web solution for online orders which integrates with QuickBooks. A good information technology services partner makes computer support services a value proposition. Small Business IT Solutions – Hiring a Partner
So what’s the best way to find a great web or information technology services partner to work with and then get the most out of that relationship?1. Look for a company that specializes in small business IT solutions
Computer support services companies that specialize in small business will be more in tune to your particular needs and challenges. They will understand budgetary constraints for computer support services and the need to use resources very efficiently. Because technology developers and manufacturers are now seeing a large and relatively untapped market of small business customers, there are some terrific tools emerging for small organizations. A technology partner focused on small business IT solutions and information technology services will help your company grow and succeed.2. Do you need a local information technology services partner?
Not necessarily. If the goal here is to find a provider of information technology services to help you manage your website, make purchase decisions and facilitate projects, it doesn’t have to be local. With sophisticated remote tools and web-based collaboration, many problems and projects can be addressed remotely. The key is to find a good fit. For onsite service such as network installation or hardware swaps, a good solutions partner can identify and schedule local computer support services as needed or works with a nationwide network experts for repairs, rollouts or other onsite computer support service. If the company isn’t local, ask what provisions it has in place for onsite service.3. Personalized computer support services
One of the stigmas attached to the tech industry and a common complaint about providers of computer support services is lack of personalization. A good provider of information technology services wants to get to know you, your processes and your employees. The staff should ask questions about what your company does and who the key contacts are to gain a feel for your organization’s culture. Likewise, access to the provider’s staff and resources is equally important. The relationship is going to be much more effective when that company has a mandate for personalized service and an open door to communications.4. Due diligence
Think of hiring a solutions partner for information technology services like you would hiring someone for your staff. Look for a company that is seeking a long-term partnership. Ask for references. Then find out how long the company has been in business, who you will have access to for a problem or project and how the provider charges for its computer support services.5. Cohesive approach and good facilitation
The partner that you select should want to take a cohesive approach to understanding your business or organization and help you come up with a customized plan for your technology and web needs, be it a long-range strategy or a specific project. The difference between “Joe-I-Fix-Anything-PCs” and a provider of complete information technology services and solutions is someone who can do a good discovery about your organization and its goals, facilitate the project and help bring together providers for the components outside their expertise. Also, a one-stop shop can provide you with benefits. Keeping your hardware and software purchases, web and computer support services together can provide you economies of scale combined with the convenience of single point of support and access to someone who knows your business.How to Get the Most Out of the Relationship 6. Identify key problems, goals and areas to improve efficiency
Once you partner with a provider of information technology services and solutions, the first and most important step is an analysis of problems. The more you can communicate about your company, current practices and areas to improve, the more effective your solutions partner can be in coming up with a computer support services plan designed to keep things running smoothly, maximize your assets and move your organization forward.7. Set up best practices
Typically the biggest challenge small organizations face in being successful is getting out of their own way, seeing the big picture and making the changes necessary for improvements to happen. A good small business IT solutions partner can help you set up best practices to get most out of your investment in information technology services. However, making sure those practices are implemented and followed rests squarely on your shoulders, not on those of your computer support services provider. 8. Avoid costly mistakes – Don’t make impulse purchases
Whereas large companies tend to have a formal evaluation and approval process in place for making technology purchases, many smaller organizations make impulse purchases. Let the company you’ve hired for information technology services do its job and provide you its expertise on purchases. If the company resells hardware and software at competitive rates, purchasing from it can be worthwhile. You’ll have a single point of purchase for computer support services, and the company can recommend hardware and software from manufacturers it has partnerships with and expertise on as well. All of that translates to added benefit to you.9. Choose managed information technology services designed for business
Small organizations have a tendency to operate off the cuff, looking for freebies or grabbing cheap services not really designed for business. This approach to information technology services can come back to bite you. If you want to grow your business, approach your needs for computer support services like a bigger organization would. If your IT partner makes recommendations on computer support services that you think you can find cheaper elsewhere, take a hard look at what you are getting and how it can really benefit your business. Once you weigh all the benefits, you may find the value to your business growth and offerings far outweighs the cost.10. Can I still do it myself?
Working with a good provider of information technology services doesn’t mean you can’t do anything yourself. In fact, a reputable and innovative IT company should educate you on how to better manage your technology needs and investments. There are still a lot of day-to-day tasks you can and should do within your organization, depending on your skill level, time and desire. The point is to keep your computer support services partner in the loop and use their expertise and input on major technology decisions. Conclusion
So, what’s in it for you? By partnering with a provider of information technology services, you’ll find a more thought out, comprehensive approach to small business IT solutions that can increase efficiency, save you money, generate revenue, and help your business succeed