I use both Mac and PC daily, and one thing I hate the most is to come across a site with features that only run on Windows. Or, sometimes I will be working in Safari, only to have to open up Firefox as well, cluttering my dock. While there is nothing you can do to guarantee your website will look identical in every web browser out there (and trust me, there are tons), there are however, some things you can do to generally get the same functions and look out of every version. Here is a summary of a list of tips from an article by Anthony Short:

1. Always use strict doctype and standards-compliant HTML/CSS
2. Always use a reset at the start of your css
3. Use -moz-opacity:0.99 on text elements to clean up rendering in Firefox, and
text-shadow: #000 0 0 0 in Safari
4. Never resize images in the CSS or HTML
5. Check font rendering in every browser. Don’t use Lucida
6. Size text as a % in the body, and as em’s throughout
7. All layout divs that are floated should include display:inline and
overflow:hidden
8. Containers should have overflow:auto and trigger hasLayout via a width or
height
9. Don’t use any fancy CSS3 selectors
10. Don’t use transparent PNG’s unless you have loaded the alpha

And of course, TEST your website on different browsers. You want your clients to get the most out of your website no matter what browser they may be using.

Is your design firm an ‘award winning’ firm?

One of the things that makes me chuckle a bit when I see advertisements for e-commerce website design is when a firm claims that they are an award winner.

From who?

If you do some checking around, most of the so called ‘awards’ they have won are awards given within the industry itself. A ‘good ole boy’ network if you will. Often times it’s an award from another website they in fact own.

At times, it really is an award from another company within the industry. But it’s rare.

Website design is not like the grammies. It’s not like the emmies. It’s business.

Yes, you want a beautiful website designed for your money. But give me the choice between an award winner and a producer, I’ll take the money every time.

A beautiful website that makes no money is an ugly website.

An ugly website that makes money becomes more beautiful by the dollar.

See the beauty. Make some money. It’s what e-commerce is all about. Don’t lose sight of your goal when you take your venture online. Making money should always be the first and most important goal. Not flash design and symbolic pictures. Not a bunch of no name awards.

Awards are nice.

Sales are better. Hire a firm that can design your e-commerce site to make sales.

You do want to make sales, don’t you?

Chuck Crawford
e-commercewebdesign.org
559-761-0910

How well are your products described on your site? Are you in the process of developing your website store or e-commerce site and considering just how you’re going to present your warez?

One of the main things to consider when you are selling online is how each product and page is going to perform in the search engines. Your product description needs to be thorough, to the point, and keyword rich. But not spammy rich.

Write your product descriptions honestly, just as you would if you were putting up a sign in your store. Remember the medium you are using for your sales. You do not have the customer in the store looking at the merchandise, nor are they looking at your when they are considering buying a service you offer.

Your product or service is going to sell on the description you provide. If you write poor text to describe that product or service, you’re probably going to lose that potential customer / client.

Also take into consideration how the search engines index pages. If you have a shopping cart that puts each product on it’s own page, make sure you utilize this option. Write good original text for EACH item. These pages can be golden in the search engines if done correctly.

Search engines crawl web pages. Not websites. Make sure you get the most out of each page. Write good product descriptions for each and every product or service you offer. Stay focused.

These pages can really pay off in the long run if you give them the attention they deserve.

Chuck Crawford
E-commerce Web Design
559-761-0910

Odds are, your e-commerce website will have a shopping cart or some avenue for the purchase of your products or services.

Most times it’s a cart, so that’s what I’ll focus on today.

It doesn’t matter if you have an out of the box shopping cart script or a custom cart solution. Either can present problems when it comes down to SEO and SERP results.

The fact of the matter is that most shopping carts just don’t do well when it comes to getting crawled by the search engine spiders. The actual product pages tend to rank poorly, if at all.

Yet, these were the pages you wanted to rank better than any. Because these are the pages you intend to make money with. These are the items you designed your site to sell. That you want to rank well in the engines for.

It comes down to designing your e-commerce site with optimization as one of it’s primary goals from the start. If you are going to have a custom script written, make sure that you talk to your developer. Make sure they have experience in writing code that performs well in the search engines. Ask to see examples.

Also ask them what they plan to do to make sure those pages are going to get crawled. Consider sitemaps and good link structure. Consider actual page optimization for specific products. Consider having professional content written for each item in order to maximize your likelihood of ranking well for specific keywords or phrases.

Ask a million questions when it comes to optimizing your shopping cart for good SEO performance. You need your products to rank well. If you include SEO from the beginning, your SERP results will show it in the end.

Need help designing your E-Commerce Website?

Call us.

Chuck Crawford
559-761-0910

Building an ongoing relationship with your customers is a large part of e-commerce and your success.

That is why most e-commerce sites have one or more avenues for an ongoing relationship with users or potential users. For example, one good method to cultivate recurring sales with your users is a newsletter.

Cultivating your email list is a great way to build long term sales volume with both existing customers and potential new customers. By offering a newsletter signup option on your e commerce website, you can often bring back those site browsers with special offers and sales events. Just by dropping them a line in their inbox.

So when designing your e-commerce website, be sure and consider adding options that develop long term interaction with your users. You’re likely to see a large increase in your sales volume.

If you need help developing your e-commerce site, be sure and give us a call.

Chuck Crawford
559-761-0910

Shopping carts, shopping carts…

There’s a truckload of options when it comes to selecting the cart your going to use for your e-commerce website. Where to start and which one to choose can be tough.

Often, people already have a merchant account for the offline business. Many times this same merchant account will offer you free software to use when you take your business online. The first place to start in this instance is with your bank. Call them and ask.

If you already have a merchant account, it’s going to make your current accounting a lot easier if you use the same system. You already know the in’s and out’s of getting your banking done, deposit times, etc. By taking an existing system online, you already have a good idea of how it will work online.

Now, that said, some systems work really well in the offline world and not so well online. Be sure and do a thorough search online and make sure that other sites have not had much difficulty with the software. This can save you HUGE headaches in the long run. If the coast is clear, really consider this option.

Paypal is another option and is probably the biggest processor online today. People are familiar with Paypal and their cart system. They trust Paypal. In turn, they will likely trust you and your company by selecting a system they probably already use. Paypal is simple to install and setup, and addition of products is a snap.

2CO. 2Checkout is my preferred payment processor. I like 2CO because they offer a bit more to my users. By that, I mean they will process almost all credit cards, and ALSO accept Paypal payments and e-checks. This allows for awesome conversions and 2CO is also an extremely well known company. Again building that level of trust with your users.

MoneyBookers. MoneyBookers is a great system to use if you plan on accepting the majority of your orders from users in lots of different countries. MoneyBookers is a ‘paid and stay paid’ system, in that once you are paid, the users cannot charge back their purchases. Protecting vendors even further. Now this is NOT a very good trust builder with must users, and is something you want to consider when building your site. People like to have a good return policy, they like to know that you are going to provide them with a quality product. So offering a good return policy regardless of what MoneyBookers policy is would be an excellent idea.

CCNOW. I don’t personally use this system, so I can’t honestly give it a good rating. I have looked at it, but have not implemented it on any of my sites. From what I see it’s got many of the same features as 2CO and might be a good option. The big difference I see is that CCNOW only pays you once a month, where 2CO pays you once a week. I don’t know about you, but I like to get paid as often as I can. Good cash flow is good business. Waiting a month for products and services you are providing to your customers now, might not be a good business plan. But for some it might, so that’s why it’s here as an option.

No matter what shopping cart system you use, make sure you select something that is secure. Third party carts can be difficult to configure and can contain security holes. Do extensive searches about a product before using it as your primary source of income on your website.

A little research can go a long way.

If you need help developing your e-commerce site, don’t hesitate to give us a call.

Chuck Crawford
559-761-0910

I was watching television today and saw a commercial that puzzled me.

In the commercial there were people singing, walking through the park, and involved in other every day activities. But after the thirty seconds was up, I had absolutely NO clue what they were trying to sell. In fact, I didn’t even know the company name. All I knew is that they had paid for a commercial that had absolutely zero impact on me.

My wife was sitting with me and I asked her what she thought of it. Her take on it was similar to mine. She also had no clue what they were selling, why, or if they were offering anything at all. She did comment that the people looked really happy though.

So I started thinking about how this applies to website presentation.

How many times have you gone to a url only to find it impossible to locate what you want? For example, have you ever wanted to BUY something, only to find a website filled with nonsense and no real clue how to purchase what they have to offer?

What is the purpose of a site like this? Now sure, the odds are they are doing well in the engines because you found them without much hassle. But what good is a site that ranks well but can’t actually sell your product or services? Think about that for a minute. You can have the very best retail location in any city in America and fail. If you have a great location but fail to sell your products or services, you’ll be closing the doors as soon as your startup budget runs out.

And this happens to many websites. Many companies take their wares online. Some capture really good rankings in the search engines. But some of these sites are not designed to sell at all. They have lots of pretty images that have nothing to do with your products. They have impossible navigation and hidden shopping carts.

Why???

It’s insane to build a site and then hide your products from your users? You need to present your products simply and clearly. Let your users buy your products quickly and easily. Show them a clear path to BUY…

The bottom line is this.

If you have a product or service, be sure that it is easy to purchase said product or service from ANY page within your site. Now that doesn’t mean you should have a buy it now link on every page. But there should be clear navigation throughout your site so that your users (CUSTOMERS) can get to your cart and buy whatever it is you have to offer.

Make sure your navigation is consistent!

Another pet peeve I have is when I go to a site and the navigation constantly moves from page to page. I don’t want to have to participate in a scavenger hunt to get to your cart or back to your main page. For cripes sake, put your navigation in the same place on all of your pages. Make it simple for me to get where I’m going.

Customers come to your site because they are interested in purchasing the products or services you offer. When designing your e-commerce site, please keep it in the front of your mind that THEY are the reason you are building the site. They are who you are aiming to please.

If you need help designing and developing your E-Commerce Website, please don’t hesitate to call us.

Chuck Crawford
559-761-0910

One of the most important aspects for any e-commerce website is how you interact with your customers. Many e-commerce websites don’t have ANY medium for communication with their clients. Others limit their customer service to simple email or forms.

But did you know that perspective clients really do want to read up on your interaction with your current clients.

This is where a community environment for your site can be extremely beneficial. A forum, a blog, etc. Somewhere for your clients to post questions, and for you to post answers.

Several things are accomplished by doing this. First, your current customers can be satisfied by good interaction. Just having someone to tell them when they can expect delivery or to solve a small problem can help you avoid costly chargebacks and product returns.

Secondly, your potential clients will have more trust in your product or services when they see how helpful you are to your existing customers. E-commerce is about trust my friends. Anything that builds trust will help your bottom line.

The third benefit is one you might not think of. Site content. Your e-commerce site can now grow gradually with new content. Specific site content that can help your search engine results. Results for keywords that laser target the products you offer. This benefit can be HUGE. Because now you may find a ton of new clients coming in from new search phrases. If they like what they see (your site’s customer service policies and customer interaction) your sales numbers might see a boost.

So consider handling your customer service in public. Your sales figures and your wallet might thank you.

If you need help designing your e-commerce site, please feel free to give us a call.

Chuck Crawford
559-761-0910

So you are ready to build your ecommerce website? You have a product, or line of products and have decided that the web is your next logical step.

Good. You are in the right place.

Developing and designing your ecommerce website can be a bit tricky. There are specific guidelines you need to follow in order to make your site a success.

Having a great product is not enough. Having great pictures of your products is not enough. Now it’s time to sell your product to the public at large. But not only do you have to sell them, your ecommerce website needs to have many elements that build trust with your users in order for them to purchase your products.

Have you considered what cart you want to use? Do you want to have a custom cart built? Once you have the cart concerns decided, what payment processors do you want to use? Do you already have a primary payment processor, or do you need to find one that’s reliable and trustworthy. Will your users trust your payment processor? What is their history overall? And will your processor integrate well with your shopping cart selections?

All good questions, all need answering near the start of your development. Before you start laying out the design portion of your site, get the basics inline and know what basic elements will comprise the sales and delivery portion of your site.

Know how you intend to track your sales, shipping, customer interaction, etc.

If you don’t know where to start, get help. Qualified help.

We have been helping companies build their ecommerce websites for over 13 years now. We know exactly how to help you build a secure website that will help you sell your product.

So feel free to contact us, we’d be happy to help you design your e-commerce website.

Chuck Crawford
559-761-0910