Posted by David Beckham, MarketProMBA on July 27, 2010 at 8:24 am
Let’s face it; most businesses today need to have a presence on the Internet. The problem is, that most small business owners are quite honestly scared of the work it will take to get their business online. I can completely relate to this because as a small business owner, I have been there before. My experience with selling on the Internet actually started back in the early ‘90’s. Shopping carts were very clunky and complicated. Domain names cost hundreds of dollars compared to just a few dollars now and SEO wasn’t invented yet.
We have come a long way since those days. Now your choices are too many to count. As a small business owner you basically have a couple of choices to make. First, you can just decide to hire someone to build and manager your website and shopping cart. After all, not all small business owners have the expertise to build an online business. Your second choice is to do it yourself. While this sounds impossible, if you have the right ecommerce system or shopping cart, it really isn’t that hard. With a little help and time, you can easily put your business online. So, if you don’t feel comfortable building your own site, then hire a professional, but if you want to try it for yourself, then I have 10 things to look for in a shopping cart that will make it easier for you to set up and manage. So here we go:
- Ease of use. Ok, I know that this sounds obvious, but let’s be honest, if you have to read a War and Peace manual to get your business online, then it isn’t worth it. You aren’t likely to try and set it up your self and you will just end up frustrated. You want a shopping cart program that is easy to use and set up. It should contain easy to follow, step-by-step instructions on getting your site set up.
- Web-based control panel. You want to make sure your shopping cart system has an easy to use web-based control panel. It should be secure, but most importantly laid out and easily managed. Your inventory, website design, company information and customer database should all be easily accessed from your control panel.
- Integrates easily with a wide array of payment processors. For the newbie, a payment processor is the gateway in which you can accept credit cards or other forms of payments. The one most people recognize easily is PayPal. Your shopping cart system should integrate with a variety of payment carts so it does not limit your ability use a processor that you are comfortable with and one that gives you the best deal.
- Real Time Shipping Rates. Your e-commerce system should easily integrate with the most common shipping programs, UPS, FedEx, and UPS at a minimum because these are your most common shippers. Your shopping cart program should allow you to pull real-time shipping rates so you can ensure you are making your money for shipping and your customers are getting the best shipping rates possible. More shipping systems gives your customers more options on how fast they receive their products and the cost.
- Safe & secure, reliable web site hosting. You have to rely on your shopping cart host to keep your information safe & secure. You also want to make sure that it stays online 24/7. After all, when your web site is down, you don’t make sales so reliability is a powerful selling point. You should look for a company that has fast servers, hacker deterrent security systems and redundant backups so you never have to worry about your shopping cart and web site being down. Your store should always be ready to accept orders and instill confidence in your customers that their private information is secure.
- Easy to use, already built templates & designs. In order to get your shopping cart and web site up and running as fast as possible, you want to have a wide variety of store designs and templates you can chose from. With pre-built templates, you can simply add your store information, products, photos and start selling quicker. If your shopping cart has several designs available, then you will have a better chance of finding a design that matches your business colors and products.
- Ability to change the layout and templates without hiring a programmer. Your shopping cart system should allow you to easily make changes to your layout and design without having to hire a programmer. Shopping carts that use WYSIWYG, which stands for “What You See Is What You Get” allow users to type real time information and see how it will look as you enter it. If your shopping cart allows you to move blocks around so you can arrange how your pages look and feel, it gives you even more creative power.
- Flexible and easy to update product options. The reason you get a shopping cart program is because you want to sell products online. You want the process for entering products to be as easy as possible. You also want options when entering products. Your shopping cart should have options to show various product views and allow you to put up as many photos as it takes to truly show your products. The ability to zoom in and out also allow customers to get a good look at what they are buying which helps to reduce returns and customer dissatisfaction. Your e-commerce system should also allow you to easily use videos or YouTube to give your customers even more ways to view your products online.
- Simple, effective marketing & promotional tools. Your shopping cart system should have several options to allow you to market your business successfully. The ability to add coupons or discount codes is the minimum that you need. You should also have integration with Google AdWords, Google Base product support and the ability to share products on Twitter and Facebook. Your customers should be able to set up their RSS feeds to always get your newest products and changes. RSS stands for “Really Simple Syndication”. You might be familiar using RSS feeds to stay on top of your favorite blogs or news agencies. The best shopping carts will allow you to interface and set up a web store directly on your Facebook page. Your e-commerce system should offer as many options as possible to market your business and get your products in front of potential clients.
- Unlimited support and lifetime updates. Finally, your shopping cart system should have unlimited support and updates. There are always going to be times when you just can’t figure something out. If your shopping cart provider has a good FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) then you will likely be able to get the majority of your questions answered without intervention, however when you have a question that you can’t figure out, you wan the ability to call or email tech support to get a quick solution to your dilemma. You should also expect updates to your software for as long as you are using the system. The Internet is an ever-changing platform that requires shopping cart providers to make constant changes to their software so it aligns with the advancing technology. You want a shopping cart system that does this for you so you don’t have to do anything.
That’s my 10 best requirements for a good shopping cart, e-commerce system. Do you research and be sure to check out what others say about the e-commerce system you are reviewing. I recommend that you look for shopping cart programs that offer a free trial. The longer the trial, the better chance you get for analyzing the program and making sure it is a fit for you. My last bit of advice is that your e-commerce system should be scalable which is to say it should be able to grow with you. If you only have ten products right now, you don’t want to pay for a system which hosts one thousand items if you don’t have to. Get a program that can grow with you.
Finally, I can’t finish this without my own recommendation. First, I will tell you that I personally use this product and the link provided is my affiliate link. Yes, if you sign up under me I make a little bit of money. (Thank you!) I have used several different programs over the past many years, but I honestly have to say that the best program I have found is the BigCommerce, E-commerce system. It has all of my ten requirements and more. I have yet to find a program that is easier to use than BigCommerce. All I can say is, try it and see. If you click here or the banner below, you will get a 15 Day FREE trial of the BigCommerce system. Try Big Commerce FREE for 15 days! See why it’s the best way to sell online!
If you are not sure or have questions, please feel free to email me or make a comment below. I am happy to tell you my experience. You can check out our online store at http://www.obbpensacola.com. You can also view my YouTube Testimonial. As you can see, I feel that this is the best shopping cart that I have worked with in my opinion. Good luck on your decision!
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Posted by David Beckham, MarketProMBA on December 10, 2009 at 2:35 pm
Around my house on any given night, the television is usually on and just providing background noise to drown out the chaos of a household with 3 dogs, 1 bird, 1 teenager, and my 9 year old. I really don’t watch much TV other than a few select shows, the news and late night television. Last night, while working on my new blog posts, I heard a strange sound that was not a bark, scream or crash that normally goes on in the background. Instead, I hear a Snap, Crackle and a Pop. No, it wasn’t someone pouring a bowl of cereal, it was my 42 inch Sony TV. Needless to say, I was a bit concerned. My TV went black and nothing I could do would bring it back.
So what did I do? The same thing any modern American would do. I went straight to the Internet. I researched my model of TV and sure enough within minutes I had determined that the likely culprit was a burned out projection bulb. I found instructions on how to remove it and verify that in fact it was dead. Then I researched the best replacement bulb and online retailer and placed my order. In about 2 days, I will have my new bulb and we will be back in business.
It’s easy, right? What on earth did we do before the internet!!? The whole episode really started me thinking about life before the internet and how this modern communication tool has been woven into our lives now. Before the internet, we would have called a TV repairman or taken our set into a repair shop, then waited until a diagnosis was made, then pay the labor and parts and what ever other costs they come up with. Now, it’s with a stroke of the key board, a little bit of research and online purchasing we do in minutes what used to be a lengthy process.
According to Nielsen Online, there are 227,719,000 internet users in the U.S. as of August 2009 which represents 74.1% of the population. Over 69 million of these internet users are also broadband customers. So what’s my point? It is simply that the internet is now used as much as television or likely more than many other forms of media. What does this mean to small business owners? It means everything! As a small business owner, you can not afford not to be on the internet and expect to stay in business.
The internet has opened doors and expanded territories of many small businesses. If you sell a product, you can easily market this over the internet and open up a larger market for sales. Most of this might be old news to many small business owners, but the truth is I still come across business owners who do not have a presence online. Some of them don’t even use email? How do they conduct business? Some of these businesses are actually the ones that have lost business to the internet. Let me explain: In my example, I stated before the internet I would have to call a T.V. repairman or a repair shop to have my T.V. fixed. The internet has most likely reduced the need for a T.V. repairman so what would you do if this was your business?
The simple answer is you get your business on the internet and retool. Use your expertise in the form of a blog to talk about common T.V. problems, then offer solutions on how to fix these issues and instead of making a house call, you sell them the parts they need. Now you have a new door to your business and you still have an opportunity to gain local business. On top of the local business, you also open yourself to market outside of your area. Instead of being beaten by the competition on the internet, you embrace it and use it to change your business and offerings.
Out of the 227 million internet users, how many people do you think were just like me last night trying to figure out how to get their beloved television working again? Imagine how I would have felt to find a local company that offered the parts I need or the know how to fix my problem even quicker than it took me? The internet shouldn’t be looked at as “what killed” the small business owners, but rather it should be looked at as “what saved” the small businesses of today.
In our business, THE original basket boutique, the internet could be considered the 800 pound gorilla in the room. It is both a blessing and a pain for us. We use the internet to expand our sales region and reach out to our customers on a regular basis. We conduct more business over email than we do over the phone. The downside is in our business, we have heavy competition from the internet. There are a lot of very big gift basket companies out there, so how do we compete? Like any small business owner should, we focus on our local business and we go after one client at a time. We use the internet as a tool to find new potential clients, educate our current clients and stay in touch. Our best sales tool is still personal sales and that one-to-one connection you get when you look someone in the eye and demonstrate your products and knowledge.
The bottom line is the internet has changed all of our lives. I can’t imagine what to do without it? Even when I try to “unplug” and get away from the internet, I still have my smart phones, internet appliances, iPods, and now even our cars can be connected. The internet is going to be part of our lives forever more and I believe will be woven even tighter in our lives as technology advances every day. So don’t fight it, embrace it. If you are a small business owner and you are not on the internet, get on the bus. Brainstorm ways to grow your business by using the internet. If you can’t think of any ways, then contact me. I will throw some ideas your way. Make it your 2010 resolution to “rethink” your business and look for new ways to grow your business.
David Beckham
MarketProMBA
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Posted by David Beckham, MarketProMBA on May 16, 2009 at 5:48 pm
It has been some time since my last post. I took a little time away to get some fresh thoughts and contemplate the direction that MarketProMBA is going to take for 2009. My article “Marketing in a Tough Economy” has seen a great deal of traffic and I have had many requests for reprint. I am happy to grant those requests as long as you give me credit. It is obvious why this subject is popular with small and medium size businesses right now. We can’t escape what is happening in our U.S. economy. We are facing some of the toughest times since the depression. There are many economists saying that this could be on of the toughest downturns we have faced.
Therefore, with the current state of the economy in mind, the direction I am taking for the most part in 2009 will be to help small and medium size business owners find ways to weather this financial storm so they can come out on top when it is over. I have also asked a few people that I have a great respect for to add some posts this year. These people range from current business owners to directory advertising professionals. This will really add to the diversity of MarketProMBA.
In all, I am expecting this will be a great year for business despite the current economic conditions. The longest lasting recession on record was 16 months long. We are 12 months into this one, so the expectation is we will start to come out of it later in 2009. There won’t be overnight changes, but we can expect to see some recovery. My hope for all business owners is that you remain strong, work smart and keep going forward. You will persevere and come out a stronger business in the end.
Happy Holidays to all best wishes to you for a prosperous New Year!
David Beckham
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Posted by David Beckham, MarketProMBA on May 16, 2009 at 5:08 pm
My name is David Beckham, not to be confused with the soccer player. I am the original!
I currently work for AT&T Advertising & Publishing, The Real Yellow Pages as the Sales Support Manager for the Florida Panhandle. As the Sales Support Manager, I have the responsibility of the processes and procedures for a $30 plus million-dollar district.
A year ago, my wife Sheri and I purchased The Original Basket Boutique franchise for Pensacola, FL. Since that time, I have taken on an additional role with The Original Basket Boutique (OBB) as the Director of Operations. My primary responsibility is the development and sales of new franchises, national marketing, and the development of the corporate web site.
I have a Bachelors of Business Administration in Marketing and a Masters of Business Administration in Marketing. My background includes operational management, marketing, promotions, administration, and business development. I have experience with small business marketing and development as well as a very strong technical background in computers and technology. I have developed web sites and online marketing programs.
Overall, you might call me a jack-of-all-trades. My well-rounded background has given me opportunities and experience that go beyond my formal education.
My goal is to teach and learn from all those who visit my blog. We can all learn so much from each other and I look forward to conversing with everyone.
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