Is ecommerce dead for small companies?

We've built several successful e-commerce sites for our clients. The key
seems to be to market to their existing customers to generate incremental
sales. One wholesale client has built up an opt in me-mail list of over
40,000 and we send updates to them twice a week, generating substancial
sales. Any company that has a catalog or phone operation will immediately
benefit from an e-commerce web site.

100% Internet based start ups are harder, but with e-bay and onsite auctions
you can generate the traffic and necessary sales.

Good luck,
Dave

 > Just a couple of years ago there were many success stories reported in the
 > media of small businesses putting a e-commerce site on the web and
immediately
 > increasing their sales dramatically. However, now it seems that any
 > new web site gets lost if the shuffle, and it is very difficult to get
noticed
 > without spending a huge amount of money in advertising, pay per click etc.
I
 > recieve a flood of e-mail every day, each advertising a scheme to drive
traffic
 > to my site, and it is difficult to sort out the valid offers. So, is
anyone
 > with a small e-commerce site having any success ?
 >
 ><!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: Is ecommerce dead for small companies? 

panavista.RemoveThis@aol.com (Panavista) wrote in message news:<20030908231028.14444.00000659.RemoveThis@mb-m12.aol.com>...
 > Just a couple of years ago there were many success stories reported in the
 > media of small businesses putting a e-commerce site on the web and immediately
 > increasing their sales dramatically. However, now it seems that any
 > new web site gets lost if the shuffle, and it is very difficult to get noticed
 > without spending a huge amount of money in advertising, pay per click etc. I
 > recieve a flood of e-mail every day, each advertising a scheme to drive traffic
 > to my site, and it is difficult to sort out the valid offers. So, is anyone
 > with a small e-commerce site having any success ?

What is your market? How many and how credible are your competitors?

These are just two of the factors involved in securing your position
in the e-commerce marketplace. You need to build a functional and
aesthetically pleasing site, which ranks well in the search engines -
and you need to promote your site offline, as well as online!

Your choice of tools can SERIOUSLY affect your search engine
indexation - for instance, Actinic is by far the best tool we've found
for getting sites products into the engines - example:

Google search for: dodge viper superchargers
Top result should be: 4redlinemotorsports.com
Search engine optimization carried out: NONE (except using correct
category naming within Actinic and putting SOME keywords and
description in place)
Reason for result: Actinic's superior page format - non-dynamic URLs,
page title

OsCommerce has some search engine friendly options you can turn on -
they help, but using tools for the core of the store means you have to
spend more time and effort optimizing the pages OUTSIDE the store -
example:

Google search for: push lawnmowers
Result: #1 - Sunlawn.com
or
Google search for: push lawn mowers
Result #2 - Sunlawn.com
Search Engine Optimization carried out: Our basic SEO package over 2
years - cost - in the region of $2,100 spent over 2 years
Return on Investment: Online sales in the hundreds of thousands,
increase in dealers (partially helped by having a high ranking
website) - dealers increased 3 fold! Company REVENUE increased over
300%.

Some of these clients listen to what we tell them - others listen to
SOME of what we tell them... we honestly don't have ALL of the answers
- but when it comes to e-commerce & the search engines, there are a
LOT more ways to harm your position, than to help it!

Can you reproduce these kinds of results on your own - Yes - if you
use the right tools. If you choose any old tool to build your site,
the chances are slim to none.

Search engine optimization begins with the choice of your toolset -
it's far too late to consider that AFTER your site is built, and
unless you lucked out by accident, your results will be hard won and
few and far between.

Just a few pointers... we do this for a living, so additional advice
might cost... ;{)

regards

Greg Hewitt-Long

--
<a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://www.webyourbusiness.com/" target="_blank">http://www.webyourbusiness.com/</a> - Design & E-Commerce consultancy
<a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://www.aaabusinesshosting.com/" target="_blank">http://www.aaabusinesshosting.com/</a> - Hosting & E-Commerce Systems<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: Is ecommerce dead for small companies? 

On 9 Sep 2003 09:29:53 -0700, newsposting0209.RemoveThis@webyourbusiness.com
(Greg Hewitt-Long) wrote:

 >panavista@aol.com (Panavista) wrote in message news:<20030908231028.14444.00000659.RemoveThis@mb-m12.aol.com>...
  >> Just a couple of years ago there were many success stories reported in the
  >> media of small businesses putting a e-commerce site on the web and immediately
  >> increasing their sales dramatically. However, now it seems that any
  >> new web site gets lost if the shuffle, and it is very difficult to get noticed
  >> without spending a huge amount of money in advertising, pay per click etc. I
  >> recieve a flood of e-mail every day, each advertising a scheme to drive traffic
  >> to my site, and it is difficult to sort out the valid offers. So, is anyone
  >> with a small e-commerce site having any success ?
 >
 >What is your market? How many and how credible are your competitors?
 >
 >These are just two of the factors involved in securing your position
 >in the e-commerce marketplace. You need to build a functional and
 >aesthetically pleasing site, which ranks well in the search engines -
 >and you need to promote your site offline, as well as online!
 >
 >Your choice of tools can SERIOUSLY affect your search engine
 >indexation - for instance, Actinic is by far the best tool we've found
 >for getting sites products into the engines - example:
 >
 >Google search for: dodge viper superchargers
 >Top result should be: 4redlinemotorsports.com
 >Search engine optimization carried out: NONE (except using correct
 >category naming within Actinic and putting SOME keywords and
 >description in place)
 >Reason for result: Actinic's superior page format - non-dynamic URLs,
 >page title
 >
 >OsCommerce has some search engine friendly options you can turn on -
 >they help, but using tools for the core of the store means you have to
 >spend more time and effort optimizing the pages OUTSIDE the store -
 >example:
 >
 >Google search for: push lawnmowers
 >Result: #1 - Sunlawn.com
 >or
 >Google search for: push lawn mowers
 >Result #2 - Sunlawn.com
 >Search Engine Optimization carried out: Our basic SEO package over 2
 >years - cost - in the region of $2,100 spent over 2 years
 >Return on Investment: Online sales in the hundreds of thousands,
 >increase in dealers (partially helped by having a high ranking
 >website) - dealers increased 3 fold! Company REVENUE increased over
 >300%.
 >
 >Some of these clients listen to what we tell them - others listen to
 >SOME of what we tell them... we honestly don't have ALL of the answers
 >- but when it comes to e-commerce & the search engines, there are a
 >LOT more ways to harm your position, than to help it!
 >
 >Can you reproduce these kinds of results on your own - Yes - if you
 >use the right tools. If you choose any old tool to build your site,
 >the chances are slim to none.
 >
 >Search engine optimization begins with the choice of your toolset -
 >it's far too late to consider that AFTER your site is built, and
 >unless you lucked out by accident, your results will be hard won and
 >few and far between.
 >
 >Just a few pointers... we do this for a living, so additional advice
 >might cost... ;{)

As you can see Panavista, it appears that ecommerce consulting isn't
dead, therefore ecommerce businesses shouldn't be dead.

 >
 >regards
 >
 >Greg Hewitt-Long

Nice post.

later,

tom


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 >> Stay informed about: Is ecommerce dead for small companies?