| Many people realize that the internet is a great place to sell things, but a web site provides more than just a new sales avenue. You can use the internet to increase your business's productivity & efficiency - saving both time and money - and thus increasing profitability. the internet can also increase interest in & public awareness of your products/services which in turn can lead to increased sales via conventional channels. lets look at a few examples of what the internet can do for you ....
(1) - It can provide around the clock information: Imagine if you could have your office or shop staffed every hour of the day, every day of the year - we'll that's what a web site can do for you! it's like a store that never closes, enabling your customers to browse through it and gather information about your business and it's products/services whenever it's convenient for them.
(2) - It can answer queries and commonly asked questions without tying up your staff with telephone calls. How much of your employees' time is spent dealing with the same inquiries from different customers? By means of a web site you can provide answers to commonly asked questions and thereby free up your staff, so that they can focus on more demanding issues.
(3) - It can provide an alternative to printed media. Do you regularly print and mail out price lists, catalogues, instructions or other material at the request of your customers? A web site can provide a way for your customers to conveniently download this type of material and print it out themselves - saving you not only printing, mailing and/or faxing costs, but also the time consumed by these tasks.
(4) - It can use a variety of media to highlight your products/services. The internet provides a way for you to get your ideas across in a variety of ways: Text, Pictures, Sound and even Short Video clips can be used to communicate your ideas to both customers and colleagues - giving you an edge that may be unattainable through other means.
(5) - Lastly it can provide the latest information instantly. With printed media once its printed that's it - if you want to change something you have to reprint the whole thing. but with a web site changes and updates can be made available immediately. Web success can even create your site so that the process of making these updates is simple enough to be handled by your own staff. we can even create web pages that automatically update from your company database.
This is all how you can help your sales without even selling anything on the net. As well all know excellent customer service sells customers more often than price. You may be surprised to know that the majority of trade that is generated from internet exposure comes from within the web site's central locality. What this means is that you can serve your local customers better (your web site is open 24 hours a day) and gain a greater portion of market share - even in the local area - by establishing an effective online presence. |
Now which option is best? Do you just provide customer service, or do you want to actually seel products on the internet? It really all depends on your specific product or service, and how much you need to personally interact with clients. In some cases, your web site serves mainly as an informational brochure, with actual sales handled in the traditional manner. But for others, an online store or catalog, or judicially placed "Buy Me Now" buttons sprinkled throughout their site can be a real profit center.
There are two main questions to determine your needs:
The first is whether you have a credit card Merchant Account yet, and whether you want to spend the money to get one. There are solutions that don't require that upfront cost, but they are usually more expensive over time. Even if you have one, you may need another for use with online transactions.
The second question involves how much control you want over the look of each page, and how much HTML coding you want to get into. If your store is made up of individual HTML pages, with "Buy Me Now" buttons or links, you have complete control over the appearance of each product page, as long as you're willing to code the HTML for the Buy Me links by hand.
However, if you have hundreds of products, updating the catalog or store can be quite tedious. Also, you may not want to get involved in the nitty-gritty HTML details of your store. You may want to choose a database-driven store, which allows you to quickly edit your product line, usually online with a web browser, and it dynamically creates the individual product pages on the fly. This is where our expertise with the MIVA shopping cart comes in. MIVA is just such a solution and can be customized to suit your indiviual tastes and needs.
From a site as simple as Planetary Records which can be fairly inexpensive to set up and maintain even with a large database of products. To a more extensive and customized site such as Suppliesclub.com which can be more expensive to create at first but gives a more impressive presence, we can do it all. We offer solutions at all levels of entry, and we can help you get your credit card merchant account, so you can accept online credit card payments. No matter which solution you are looking for we can direct you to not only the best one, but the most cost effective one for your business.
Please contact us to discuss the best solution for you and your needs. |