Design on the mind

What better way to illustrate to you what we can do for your business than to show you a case study of an ecommerce website that we designed and built for a client recently:

The Client

Chew Valley Trees are a long established nursery who specialise in hardy, native and ornamental trees, shrubs, hedging and fruit trees. They are situated at the bottom of the Mendip hills and their 18 acre nursery continues to grow both in size and product range. Their plants have featured at major national venues such as the Chelsea Flower Show, Hampton Court Palace and Westonbirt International Festival of Gardens. Professional and amateur gardeners alike have benefited from their helpful service and knowledgeable advice.

The Challenge

Chew Valley trees needed to reach a wider UK audience in order to expand their selling power. Their existing website was only a single page that wasn’t able to give any idea of the range and variety of plants and trees that they sell. It was also not optimised for the search engines and therefore not being found by a wide enough audience.

The solution

Deckchair quickly produced some initial designs for a full ecommerce website and after discussions with the Chew Valley team, started to build the website. The overall design and layout is appealing to the market sector with plenty of pictures, descriptions and tips. The navigation is intuitive and allows the customer to browse the product categories to easily find what they need, before proceeding to a secure payment system to buy the products.

The Chew Valley team has the ability to update the products, pictures and descriptions easily through a simple admin system. This enables them to add new products themselves and keep the website fresh and up to date. A news section allows them to add interesting and topical information making the website a valuable resource in the gardening and landscaping sector. It encourages their customers to return to the website on a regular basis.

Of course the website was built from the ground up to be search engine friendly and is optimized for niche key phrases such as:
Ornamental trees
Native tree shop
Trees online

They are averaging 150 hits a day and 78% of those are coming through google. The conversion rates from these visitors are very good and improving month on month.

The Result

As a direct result of their new website and it’s search engine positions, Chew Valley Trees is now a flourishing online business and their sales figures have soared. Not only are they reaching a UK wide audience through the website but the company profile has been raised and has increased the number of people visiting the nursery too.

Testimonial

“We could not have been happier with the level of service received. The genuinely friendly approach and sympathetic understanding of what we were trying to achieve were professionally translated into a website that we are delighted with. Nothing was too much trouble.”
Julia Scarth, Owner, Chew Valley Trees.

Are you a business owner who wants to take your business online with an ecommerce website? Give us a call we are happy to talk to you about your options and we can give our expert impartial advice on the best strategy for your company

Toni

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Need to order some champagne for a special occassion? Do you want a fabulous online selection of champagne, sparkling wines, fine wines and spirits at competitive prices? Of course you do!

SPA Fine Champagne Ltd, Bath, is a new and dynamic family run company headed by Andy Russell and his two sons Stephen and Phillip.  Andy Russell says: “Our objective is to offer champagne and sparkling wines, fine wines and spirits at competitive prices without compromising the service to our customers.”

Andy approached the web design team at Deckchair to design and produce an ecommerce website that would give his exclusive customers an easy way to order online.

The website has been designed using SPA Fine Champagne’s existing branding, it has an intuative navigation and search feature making the products easy to browse, view and order. The website also features a full content management system which means that the products, catagories and text can all be updated by the SPA team.

Andy gave Deckchair this testimonial: “Deckchair was recommended to me by a personal friend and right from the start of our relationship with Ollie and his team I found them easy and a pleasure to work with. I am a technophobe but Ollie managed to build us a fantastic and usable website, on time and on budget, that even I can use. I will without doubt recommend him to you and will be using him again to build other websites in the near future“.

If you are thinking of setting up an ecommerce business and you would like some advice or guidance give us a call or pop by for a cup of tea!

Toni

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According to a BBC report, shoppers in the UK will spend £200m a day on the internet in the run up to Christmas; with the total holiday spend likely to hit £4bn. This Year’s online spend is set to be 50% more than last Christmas.

People are more comfortable now than they have been with the idea of ordering on line. More and more businesses have set up ecommerce websites and are cashing in on this new buying trend. However, there are still weak areas that prevent the ecommerce businesses from achieving their full potential. The main issue that I want to discuss in this blog is:

Unpredictable Delivery

It is simply not convenient to have a package delivered at an unannounced or unpredictable time. Delivering goods to people’s homes during office hours whilst they are at work just doesn’t make sense.

I have had plenty of these little notes through my door saying: “Sorry we missed you…”. You then have to wait 48 hours for the package to get back to the depot before you can retrieve it. This not only delays getting your shopping but you then have to drive there yourself to pick it up. Great! That hardly takes the stress out of the shopping experience does it?

Another annoying delivery trick is when a courier company just leaves the package on your doorstep for all to see. If it hasn’t been stolen by the time you get home from work it has probably been damaged by torrential rain.

Some ecommerce websites allow you to put special instructions on your delivery details when you order which is certainly on the way to being helpful. This gives you the chance to specify a trusted neighbour to take it for you or a safe secret place where they can leave it. But it is still not ideal.

My delivery choice wish list

How about ecommerce websites giving a full range of delivery options? People like choice, it makes them feel like they have a say in the process. The range of options could look like this:

1. Free delivery – arrives 2–4 days
2. Standard delivery – arrives 1-2 days
3. Express delivery – arrives next day
4. Super Delivery – Arrives within a specified time slot of customer’s choice.
5. Special Evening delivery – Arrives after 7pm at night.
6. Weekend Delivery – Arrives at a specified time on the weekend.
7. Flying carpet delivery – Arrives at exactly the moment the customer specifies.

Well, if you had this many options for delivery you would certainly be spoiled for choice.

I have covered many ecommerce web design and business issues in these previous articles:

Types of Successful Ecommerce websites

Ecommerce peeves and must haves - Boost those conversion rates.

Anyone got any other ecommerce delivery solution ideas out there? Anyone want to rant about ecommerce delivery issues?

Toni

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We have designed a few websites for schools in and around Bristol in the last year and have just launched our latest project; the new website for Colston’s Girls’ School.

Colston’s approached us at Deckchair to design an up-to-date and fresh website using the Colston’s colours and style. They wanted the website to become a resource for students, staff, parents, govenors and prospective parents and students. They also needed the website to be updateable by their staff, include an ecommerce shop and many other features.

The website features:

• A bespoke content management system – allowing staff to update all areas of the website themselves and upload information and pdf files easily.
• Ecommerce shop to sell uniform, sports kit and stationery.
• ‘Letter to home’ feature, allowing letters to be directly sent to parents from the website.
• A-Z index of content and site map.
• Slide show of images on the home page created in Flash.
• Professional photography session including the school buildings, lessons, students, staff portraits and more to produce quality pictures for the website and printed materials.
• Training sessions and support for the staff to use the content management system.

 If you need any advice or help with content management systems or you are wondering if a system like this would benefit your business then give us a call for a chat or pop in for a cup of tea if you are local.

Toni

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Customer loyalty is going to make or break an ecommerce business. After you have attracted visitors to your website, how will you persuade them to buy? After that, how will you keep them coming back? Of course you need an excellent and well thought out ecommerce website design. But it needs to be backed up with efficiency and excellent customer service. Web shoppers are a fickle bunch; annoy them or make them wait and they’ll be gone before you know it.

I have to say that I do quite a lot of shopping online and so I consider myself to be somewhat of an expert in the field. Please do add anything you think I have missed!

So let’s start with my list of ecommerce peeves: the annoying things that will turn your customers away.

1. Flash intros and slow loaders – anything that delays the process of the consumer getting to the products quickly is a disaster for an ecommerce website. A flash intro might look ‘cool’ to you but it only serves to frustrate the user. Slow loading sites are also a big no no, not only does the shopper not want to wait but it brings into question the efficiency of the whole company; “will my order take this long to arrive too?”

2. Access denied! – Some websites require that you download software to gain access to the site or they will deny access if you have set your browser not to use cookies. (Cookies are small files on a computer that track info about the visitor; some people choose to disable them).  It is a big mistake to arrogantly demand that the visitor meet your needs in order to buy from you and you will simply lose their business.

3. Registration log on pages – Web shoppers will not take kindly to being asked to register to gain access to the content of a website. Why would you want to sign up to something you haven’t even seen yet? Don’t make people register before they have even seen what you have to offer; they won’t bother.

4. Pop ups and flashy visuals – A web shopper likes to feel in control of what they are viewing. Pop ups, blinking and bouncing graphics are just annoying extras that they cannot control; they just get in the way of them browsing the products. A lot of people have disabled pop ups anyway, so if you have something important to say then find another way of displaying your message.

5. Annoying music – just annoying really. (Especially if you can’t turn it off and your boss is just walking past your desk!!)

6. Out of stock - Don’t wait till the checkout to tell your customer that the product is out of stock! Tell them before they put it into the shopping basket.

7. Another stock peeve – Fair enough to run out of stock at some point, but don’t send your customers a flyer in the post advertising products that are out of stock once they get to the website.

8. Ineffective search function – If you are going to put a site search function on your website, be sure that it works!

9. Confusing navigation – Ever got lost on a complicated and badly planned website, with no hope of return? Keep it plain and simple, a few clicks to get the customer to the desired item is best. Don’t hide things in pages of unrelated products

10. Hidden prices and costs – Don’t hide prices and costs until the check out page in the hope that the customer will just go ahead and buy anyway.  Unexpected delivery charges sprung at the last minute will not go down well; people don’t like to be tricked.

11. Dead links – Links that don’t take you anywhere or come up with ‘page cannot be displayed’ will reduce the user’s confidence in the website you’re your company. They will more than likely give up and move on.

12. Slow delivery – Don’t send your customers order by snail mail, you will ruin their shopping experience; you can’t entice someone to order something and then fail them at the final hurdle by asking them to wait 10 days for it. I guarantee they won’t come back to your website again.

13. False advertising – Don’t advertise ‘Next Day delivery’ if you can’t guarantee it, people order for next day delivery for a reason – They actually need it the next day!

And now for my list of ‘Must haves’: The things that will get you the conversions and the repeat business.

1. Minimal clicks - The less clicks between entering your site and checking out, the greater the conversion rate. For 99% of sites with every click there is drop off between visitors and shoppers.

2. Clear navigation – Intuitive navigation, guiding the customer to the products they want without any confusion. Most people expect to see it located on the left hand side so it is better to stick to this rule.

3. Where am I? – It is very important to show the user where in the site structure they are. This can be done with headlines, sub-headers and breadcrumbs (i.e. Home > ladies > ladies shoes > pink shoes). In this way the user can quickly get themselves back to where they want to be without having to click ‘back’ a thousand times through everything they just looked at.

4. Detailed product information – give as much information as possible about the product; price, measurements, colour options, features, benefits, availability, shipping time, delivery costs etc. This all serves to persuade the buyer to make the purchase.

5. Product recommendations – Always good to show the customer other things they may like or associated products when they have selected an item.

6. Quality photography – goes without saying really, show the product off to its best advantage allowing the shopper to view several angles and close ups of the item. You’ve got to be able to see what you are getting.

7. Email confirmation - keep the customer informed on the progress of their order. Send an email confirming that you have received their order with full details so that mistakes can be rectified before shipment. Send another email to confirm the shipment of the order.

8. Easy communication – make it easy for your shopper to get hold of you at convenient times. Make the contact details and FAQs prominent on the website. Respond to emails immediately, (some say within 24 hours, personally I think this is too long!)

9. Legitimacy and security – make the user feel secure about disclosing their information and card details on your website by showing your security measures and fraud prevention safeguards. If you are registered in a professional capacity then display that too.

10. Guarantees – product guarantees, manufacture guarantees and money back guarantees; display all of these clearly on your website.

11. Delivery options – Give the customer the choice to pay a little more to get their purchase quicker. Giving them the power to choose gives them some control over the process which will work in your favour.  Quite often people are happy to pay more for a speedy delivery particularly if they have been given the option.

12. Make returns easy – Pre paid returns labels and packaging are a must. Make this a hassle free process

13. Belonging - Requesting customer input and devising loyalty rewards will give the customer that sense of belonging.

What are the things that have really annoyed you and put you off buying from a website? Are you loyal to a particular brand or do you shop around every time?

Toni

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To trade online you need to set up an internet merchant account with an acquiring bank. The internet merchant account enables an ecommerce business to receive funds from credit card sales. You also need a payment gateway which processes the card information and provides the link between the ecommerce website and the merchant account. These processes are obviously of paramount importance in the workings of an ecommerce business, so it is well worth doing your research to make sure you get the service that your business needs.

Of course in these situations I can really only recommend that you take advice from a professional web design company, they will have experience in setting up ecommerce merchant accounts and designing the website to go with it. However, if you do decide to go it alone: Shop around, read the small print and be very sure every eventuality is catered for.

Let’s just remind ourselves of the process for an online or ecommerce purchase, so as to be sure that each stage of the process is covered:

1. Customer adds the product to the shopping basket on the website.

2. Once at the ‘checkout’, the customer fills in a secure form, adding their personal and financial details.

3. These details are then transmitted to a payment gateway service, which is separate to the shopping basket. The gateway service sends the information through the financial networks; the customer’s credit card account is debited and the internet merchant account is credited.

4. Once all funds have cleared, the money can then be transferred to the ordinary business account.

So if you are a new company launching yourself as an ecommerce business you will need to look at getting a merchant bank account and a payment gateway; there are solutions out there that combine the two in one package. But for the purposes of this article I will look at them separately. If you are an existing business already able to process credit cards then skip the next bit and go down to payment gateways.

Ecommerce Merchant Accounts

Internet merchant accounts can be gained from most major banks, but there are plenty of fees to watch out for (of course!) due to the ‘risk’ involved. The fees will be determined by many factors; for example, the length of time your business has been up and running, what you are selling and your turnover. A “Low risk” business such as web hosting will qualify for a lower rate, whereas a “High risk” business such as a pharmaceutical reseller will have higher rates.

Another determining factor for a business to be classified as high risk is when its chargeback potential is high. (Chargeback fees occur when the merchants account has already been charged by the cardholders account and the transaction is then found to be fraudulent). There are also particular types of  business that will be considered ‘fly by night’ therefore deemed high risk and penalized for it. So you need to find a solution that will suit your company.

Here are some things to think about when choosing your internet merchant account provider:

1. You don’t have to choose the same bank that provides your normal business account, but be sure to choose a recognized name that will provide stability and reliability.
2. Full disclosure of all fees should be set out clearly in the documentation with no ambiguities or nasty shocks. Ask for clarification on:
• Application fee - some institutions will charge you for the privilege of applying for an account, regardless of whether your application is successful or not.
• Setup fee - once your application has been approved, there may be other fees associated with establishing the account.
• Statement - the charge each month for issuing you statements on all transactions
• Transaction - a flat rate on each transaction.
• Monthly Minimum - what you will be charged regardless of the level of sales each month 
• Reserve - some providers require you to maintain a certain level in the account to cover chargeback fees.
• Chargeback – Any fraudulent or disputed transaction where the card holder asks for their money back will cost you a fee, usually a substantial one.
• Versatility – check that you will be able to handle and process payments from a wide variety of sources including all major credit, debit cards, bank transfers and installments. If you are operating internationally check language and currency issues.

As an example of what to look for, supposing you are going to be selling a lot of very low priced items you would need to look very closely at the ‘transaction’ fee because if you were charged even a low percentage of the cost of the product, you wouldn’t see much profit.

3. Check out the customer support system and reputation, if something goes wrong you need to know it will be sorted instantly by a helpful and knowledgeable person.

Payment Gateways

Ok, now let’s look at the payment gateway. If you are an existing business and already have the facility to take credit card payments and therefore already have a merchant account; your web designer will need to find a compatible payment gateway solution to allow you to take those card payments online. The payment gateway provides the secure link between your website and the merchant account and ensures the card holders details are kept secure.

For payment gateways, think about the following issues and discuss them with your web designer:

1. Fees – some gateways will charge you an additional percentage on top of what you already pay to the bank. There are some though like Protx that will charge you a flat rate per transaction with no extra costs. Protx also have a special deal for small businesses where you just pay a small fixed monthly fee. Other fees to watch out for are:
• Annual subscription fees
• Set up or integration fees
• Fees for different currencies
• Fees for different payment features
• Fees for fraud screening and protection.

2. Fraud protection - There are a few types of transaction protection which may come at a price but will be well worth the extra money particularly if you are selling a ‘high risk’ product.
• AVS protection - Address Verification System (AVS) decreases the incidence of accepting fraudulent transactions by verifying the cardholder’s billing address with the card issuer. Using AVS on your transactions may also mean that your merchant bank provider will reduce your fees.
• Liability shift – If you use ‘Verified by Visa’ or ‘Mastercard SecureCode’ the liability of a chargeback will be shifted from you to the card issuer in the event that a card holder denies a transaction.
• CV2 – the digits on the signature strip of the credit card, also assist in the authentication of the card during “Card Not Present” transactions.
• Fraud Screening reports – will notify you at a glance of the level of risk associated with each transaction.

3. Compatibility – is it compatible with the shopping basket facility that you want and your internet merchant account?

4. Customer support – again you need to check this out; a company that will only respond to emails and have a three day turnaround on replies are going to frustrate you when you get into difficulties.
 

Two in One

As I mentioned earlier there are packages out there with internet merchant accounts and payment gateways rolled into one. There are quite a few out there to choose from. Again, my advice is to seek expert and impartial guidance from a web designer with experience in dealing with ecommerce solutions. Obviously you will need to consider all of the points already discussed and make an informed decision.  Keep in mind what the needs and goals of your business are before you sign the dotted line.

If you haven’t fallen asleep, I would really appreciate any comments you may have on this blog! 

Toni

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Let’s have a look at types of successful ecommerce websites. For an ecommerce website to succeed it needs to firstly be a viable online business, meaning you have to have a product that people want to buy and would feel comfortable buying online. If you are an established business looking to venture into the online world, you need to think how your business model will translate into this new area. If you are a startup company, then ecommerce is a viable platform to launch your business, but in both cases you need to have done your research.

Your research should include market research, customer profiling, competition analysis and probably most importantly ROI (Return on investment) research. You need to know that your profits will be healthy enough to make it all worth while.

The next stage is designing and developing the ecommerce website. There are a lot of options out there to choose from; a potential minefield. Different types of ecommerce packages will suit different businesses. An off the shelf solution which may be very cheap or even come free with an ecommerce hosting service, is going to look attractive to a start up business. But it is debatable whether these wizard-based / template / do-it-yourself style solutions would be successful in the long run; are they really that effective with today’s sophisticated on-line shoppers? Some may enable you to make sales but certainly do not allow you to operate at full potential.

All I can say is that it is worth investing money in the thing that is going to make you the money. (Strangely a lot of people haven’t grasped this concept yet!) Today, online competition is fierce and an original and intelligently thought out design is going to be more successful and give you that edge over your competitors. However, whatever you decide to do I would strongly recommend that you spend a lot of time planning it. Think about the following issues and discuss them with your web designer:

Usability and customer experience – Web shoppers are not the most patient people so be sure the web design not only grabs attention but is simple and easy to use. Increase your ‘browse to buy’ ratios by allowing the user to easily find what they are looking for and make their purchase quickly. Little glitches or errors will frustrate the user and more than likely turn them away; like a search function that doesn’t work properly or a slow loading page.

Positive Brand Image - Building a memorable, positive brand image that online consumers will be attracted to in the long term is a key issue. Branding in the online world is far more than just transferring your print brand identity to the Web.

Updateability – Make sure that you think carefully about the areas of your site that you need to update yourself. A content management system is essential for an ecommerce website, you will need to add new products, change prices, update news stories, upload pictures etc. It might also be useful to be able to add links. You don’t want to be running back to your designer for costly updates and changes that you could do yourself.

Web marketing - Appropriate marketing of the website is a key issue, and a huge subject (another whole article in fact). Increasing and maintaining your search engine profile is an ongoing strategy, and it is one of the most vital elements for success. Very basically, you need to get people to your website to maximize your sales. Search engine optimization and pay per click campaigns create as many doorways into your website as possible to ensure that your potential customers are finding you. You will also need to keep a watchful eye on your competitors, analyse their marketing strategies and stay ahead of the game.

Download Speed - The download speed has to be fast, so that regardless of someone’s connection speed they won’t have to wait for the website to load. They will only give it a matter of seconds before exiting and moving on to your competitor’s website.

Scalability – Allow plenty of flexibility within the design so that the website has the capacity to grow with your business. You don’t want to be held up at a later date by a restrictive design that can’t handle large volumes of traffic or can’t expand to fit your product sections.

Compatibility – Make sure all aspects of your website can connect successfully with any existing internal databases, banking systems, stock control or email systems. (Unless you wanted to overhaul them anyway).

Analysis - You need to have a comprehensive reporting system to enable you to analyse every aspect of your website: marketing, sales, web traffic, visitor tracking and stock control. It is only with constant analysis that you can make the necessary adjustments to these areas to ensure the best use of your budgets and continue to improve your service and turnover.

Payment system – Let’s not overlook this very important aspect – the money!! You will need a merchant banking account, to enable you to process credit card transactions and actually retrieve the money from credit card orders. Make sure you choose a reliable, fast and secure system with a proven track record.

Data capture – Be sure to have a function on your website that enables you to capture the details of visitors to your website even if they haven’t purchased something. The usual methods are to sign up to email alerts about promotions/offers and newsletters. This data can be used for future marketing campaigns.

Newsletter and email functions – A vital way to market your products; a system set up to automatically send out newsletters and emails to your entire customer database. Auto responder’s work in a similar way, allowing a ‘feed’ of e-letters or documents to be sent out at allocated times to customers. Don’t forget as well that a confirmation email sent automatically to confirm a sale that details every thing about that purchase will save a lot of phone calls from confused customers, wondering if their order reached you. A further email confirming the shipment will also add to the customer’s confidence and again reduce the volume of calls through your customer services department.

Relative and informative content – Quality copywriting that appeals to your target market is an absolute must. Ensure that all products have a full description and useful, relevant information to encourage the customer to buy. This content is also helpful to your search engine ranking and placement.

Quality Imagery – Display your products using quality product photography, it is not enough these days to just stick the manufacturers image on there. Go the extra mile and allow the user to explore the product from different angles with alternative pictures and zoom functions.

Trust and Reassurance – To get your shopper to part with their money and willingly give their card details online you need to emulate a professional and approachable appearance. An attractive, professional website design reassures the visitor that they’ve come to the right place. Secure shopping, clear contact details, returns policies and delivery details give the feeling of professionalism that will convince the customer to click that ‘BUY NOW’ button. Think about posting a page outlining your technical support policies and a F.A.Q section, this is a step towards addressing legitimate shopper concerns.

Call to Action – An obvious one, I know, but it is surprising the number of websites that don’t have clear phone numbers and contact details available on every page. Also make sure that your ‘Buy now’ and ‘Add to basket’ buttons are large and obvious.

Aside from the consumer facing website, you also need to make sure that all the internal structures of the ecommerce business are in place and functioning as they should. Delivery systems, returns policy and customer service all need to be operating smoothly to ensure you are providing the best possible service. Quality service with speedy delivery and an easy returns system will keep your customers loyal. Customer service is a big one – be sure that mistakes are dealt with promptly in a friendly and efficient manner, people don’t mind mistakes but they certainly won’t put up with rudeness or being ignored. I will be writing another article soon on “Ecommerce peeves and must haves”.

Well I think that just about covers it! So to summarise;
 
• Do your market research properly
• Choose a professional web design company
• Plan your website with your long term goals in mind
• Plan your web marketing strategies
• Focus on all angles of the business
• Keep your competitors in your rear view mirror at all times
• Keep your customers informed and happy
• Make loads of money!

Toni 

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According to a BBC news report today, online sales have rocketed! They rose to £4.2bn in July, up from £2.34bn in the same month a year ago. This is probably partly due to the terrible weather we have been having; people just don’t want to struggle round the shops in their wellies. But it can also be attributed to better ecommerce website design.

Online shoppers now expect the very best from the retailers’ websites. You only have a very limited time to grab their attention and hold it till the ordering process is complete. If you are an ecommerce business and you are not getting the results you had hoped for, have a think about the following points. They will help you to reduce your bounce rates and boost your sales:

1. If potential customers can’t find the product they are looking for quickly they will move on and probably not return to your website again. Have clear, simple navigation to guide them through your products. Use quality product photography so they can see what they are ordering.

2. If you market your website using a PPC (pay per click) campaign remember to point the customers straight to the product or service they are looking for. Design a specific landing page which correlates to the consumers search term. Otherwise the customer is forced to dig and search again for the very thing they thought they had just found – very frustrating!

3. Online consumers will also become very frustrated if the ordering process is very complex or slow. Keep it simple; use an easy and secure payment method. Don’t give them a thousand boxes to fill in before they complete the order or they will get bored.

4. Make it easy for your customer to find related products this will boost your sales. Let me give you an example – last week I ordered a ‘Hetty’ vacuum cleaner online. After I had added it to my shopping basket, I then thought I should probably buy some of the bags to go with it…try as I might, I couldn’t find them. Whatever I did, I was taken to a page which had all the vacuum bags listed in weird product codes that made no sense to me at all. I gave up and they missed out on a sale. (I am very pleased with my pink Hetty though!)

5. Remember too, that you will be competing with numerous other companies selling the same products as you. It is not enough to simply compete on price and you may find it hard to undercut a larger business anyway. Make sure your website looks attractive and enticing to ensure they pick you out from the crowd. Be sure to research your target market and know what will appeal to them. Use images and language that are directed specifically at them.

If you need help or advice about your existing ecommerce website or you are interested in setting one up, then give us a call at Deckchair, professional web designers in Bristol. We provide full ecommerce services including design, development,  marketing and analysis. We have a lot of experience in this area and would be delighted to talk to you. 0117 9299150

Toni

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