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Clicks and Mortar - Ecommerce for the Established Business |
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If you have a successful offline business that is going online, there are specific strategies you should use to maximise sales. They are obvious, but often forgotten.
First of all, if you've been an established business for any length of
time, brag about it. If you pride yourself on customer service, tell
people about that too. You have probably learned more about direct
customer service than most pure etailers ever will, so make sure you
leverage that knowledge. Some examples...
You know that people like the personal touch. Make sure you provide it
on your site. Let prospective buyers know that a real person is only a telephone
call away. Have your number - preferably Freephone - on each page,
prominently displayed. Use Live Chat to drive sales too (we'll talk
more about Live Chat in a future article).
You also know that customers want to pay in the way they want to pay...
Make sure your shopping cart integrates with multiple payment systems
(we'll also cover this in a future article).
Give consumers the opportunity to comment on your products and
services. Make sure they know where to find you. If you have awards and
memberships of trade associations... flaunt them.
In the next two articles we'll show examples on a real site, and then move onto Live Chat and other customer service techniques.
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