Beside having the right products, market research, web design, seo..... what other things need to note for? i.e payment gateway. I too wanted to start e commerce site
Know what you're selling and do proper research on how to make the customers convert. Some tips:
- The products need to have information and high quality pictures. No pictures or information = No sale.
- Keep them near the CTA. If they have to look or scroll for it you're losing sales.
- Provide an easy way to contact you for help! A 'contact us' section is important. Live chat with actual people there to help is a bonus. Depending on what you're selling you may benefit from a ticket sysem.
- Have an SSL certficate for your domain which is provided by a trusted provider. If the users see no SSL or get a warning (doesnt matter what the warning is either. It could be about not offering pie..) they will leave. It costs $50/year but it should pay off within
the first week.
- Do not ask for information you do not need. Selling a digital product does not need a shipping address!
- Do not require registration (unless you technically require it and there's no other way [ex: membership website])
- If you accept credit card info on site then you should ease the consumers concern that you're going to steal it or have it stolen. Site scan seals, SSL seals and other security seals usually boost conversions 5-20%. Put these next/very near to the CC# form. Also put them in the footer.
-
DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCE STORE CC INFO! Do not store the card holder name, the CC#, the expiration date or the cvv! If you do and your site is compromised you will be able to be sued for
millions. The only way you can store CC info and abide by visa/mc/amex rules is expensive (think $5k+/month) so just use an off-site processor like...
- Authorize.net . They have low processing fees and the
best part about them is the AIM Gateway integration. The person can put all their CC information on your site and never leave. Your server will never see that information. It removes you from several parts of PA-DSS compliance
- (Done with payment info)
- Always keep your response times low. Anything over 24 hours is bad.
- Collect emails with email lists! Newsletters can boost your sales tons.
Assure the customer you will not use it to spam, sell, trade or otherwise give away! Let them know right next to the input area!
So much more but I'm getting a bit bored typing this up lol.