We’ve Got IT !

The Online Shopping innovator that invented the Shopping Cart concept really hit on the right way to appeal to our acculturated expectations. How much more does a Shopping Cart embody all we do when shopping than anything else? Nothing says “Shopping” like a shopping cart. In fact, I sometimes think that the Mall stores are missing something important by not utilizing Shopping Carts.

It is expected with an online store to find some sort of shopping cart. After all, the purpose of offering something for sale online is to actually sell something. The merchant that shows products, but then requires customers to buy using conventional methods – phone call, fax, order form in the mail – they might as well not bother. One of the really cool things about our online store is that we wake up in the morning, and somebody has bought something from us – and we didn’t even know it! Where is that Shopping Cart?

There are hundreds of vendors offering a variety of shopping cart solutions. Some come bundled in a web hosting package. Some bolt on to an existing site. Some require that you find your own Merchant Account for handling payments. Some are complete solutions. It isn’t hard to find candidates. It IS hard to make a final choice.

The most basic cart would be a home-grown web-form that allows someone to fill in a few blanks, or check a couple of boxes, and then generate an email to you with their selections detailed enough for you to take action. Payment is something you could arrange through a PayPal “Request Money” action.. (In fact, if you have Microsoft Outlook, you can get a PayPal plug-in that will automatically generate a PayNow button for you…)

PayPal also offers some rudimentary Shopping Cart features you can use for a smaller number of items. You can generate a simple PayNow button to include with your description. They are relatively easy to create, and they look attractive and are effective.

They also offer some more robust shopping cart solutions that more resemble a more complex cart. Again, this is relatively easy to create. However, it is cumbersome for more than a small number of items.

The next step would be to get an all-inclusive package from a comprehensive provider. Some of these allow you to use their inventory and descriptions and simply re-create their web presence on your own domain. Others give you the bare bones organization, and require that you create everything on your own.

I know of one vendor that has a wonderful online tool that allows creation of item descriptions, headings, pictures – the works – but they don’t allow any other sort of updating. You can’t create offline and then upload your creation via FTP (File Transfer Protocol). You are required to use their web interface or nothing at all.

Another option is to purchase a full-blown shopping cart program. These allow you to maintain a database of information on all your items. They give you full configuration flexibility through a dashboard or console arrangement. Your look and feel are controlled by your requirements, not the limitations of the program. This is a way to go for those without much programming experience

Finally, the way we chose to go, is to get an off-the-shelf Open Source cart (in this case, Zen Cart) and roll up our sleeves and learn how to make it go. The Zen Cart is easy enough out of the box to get a generic store. Its power is the ability, through Style Sheets and custom programming, to make your site absolutely unique. You can see several samples and examples by visiting their site here: www.zencart.com.

The advantages of being able to create and manage to the deepest depths are unmatched in the ease offered by stock solutions. You will certainly learn more about how the internet works with one of these open source programs. I commend it.

The other part of the shopping cart situation is the payment processing required. Obviously, if someone is to purchase something from you, they will have to pay for it somehow. Our experience is that about 10% of our shoppers prefer to pay the old fashioned way – checks or money orders. The rest are happy to use their credit card without fear. (Obviously, those who fear using their cards will probably not be in our sample, but that’s a different topic.) How can you capture that credit card business?

The easy way is to use the PayPal account method. Get a Premium or a Business account, and you can accept credit card payments. Easy.

The harder way, but some swear – superior – is to have you own Merchant Account. This means that you establish a formal relationship with a bank or credit card processing entity and pay their fees. They usually all have a per-transaction fee in addition to a percentage of the sale. In addition, most will have a minimum fee for volume if you don’t reach that minimum threshold. This means, generally, a minimum monthly payment of $20-30. The transaction and percent fees are comparable, generally, so to break-even with PayPal, your monthly credit card volume should be above $1,000. If not, PayPal is a viable option until your volume exceeds $1-2k.

Be sure to test, test, and test some more – regardless of which shopping cart or payment processing you select. Nothing will kill the sale fater than defective links, or programs. Don’t make it harder to buy from you than it is from your competition.

John
www.bobbibopstuff.com

How do you go about planning for something? An e-Commerce site, or online shopping experience is an important development. Planning for its success is one of the most important tasks you can do.
Planning is a process of deciding, today, what you will do tomorrow (or next week or next year…) With that definition, there isn’t anything magic about getting it done. You think about what needs to be done, and you make a plan of when and how you’ll do it.
Take this BLOG, for instance. What does it take to make it successful?
1. It takes Content. These essays need to be meaningful and interesting enough to keep visitors reading them, and to entice them to return.
2. Consistency – the entries should appear often enough to be relatively predictable.’
3. Organization – there should be multiple ways to organize Categories, Pings, Track-backs, and the like.
4. Exposure – More and more visitors need to come on by and see what’s cooking.

With those 4 criteria, we can construct plans for each area.

Content – I don’t know about you, but writing is hard work for me. How can I keep up any sort of consistent schedule of content creation? The blank screen blanks my mind. What can I do to improve my output?
Try this:
Make a list of topics. Brainstorm a number of them and write them down. Filter them down to a manageable number. Formalize the list.
Make an outline for one topic each day.
Write a rough draft of a different topic each day.
Edit a third topic each day.
Post it.

Consistency – This is simply a calendar schedule that makes it plain to me when I have to have something ready to post. If I’m using the Content plan, then virtually any calendar will work. If I need a different writing schedule, I can make it based on my desired posting plan.

Organization – This might be First topic, or come after your brainstorm. Primarily, this is to bundle my random thoughts into recognizable and relevant topics. I write down the potential topics and bundle them together.
I also need to keep my eye on how the site in general will be managed. This requires a plan, too.
Finally, how will I organize my business in general? Topic for another BLOG, I think.

Exposure – There are plenty of known ways to market a BLOG. Which of those ways will I include and How Often will I engage in “Marketing?” Again, knowing what needs to be done will allow me to construct a schedule of tasks and deadlines.

Planning is deciding today what to do tomorrow. It is as simple as that. A skeleton outline of the process is:
1. What needs to be accomplished?
2. What are some of the ways it can be done?
3. Which way will you choose to do it?
4. Write down the plan.
5. Do it
6. Evaluate how well you did.

Plan your next big adventure in online shopping.

When you go shopping, you want to be assured that the vendor you are working with has adequate experience in the field to be reliable and knowledgeable. How can you know? What are the markers for an experienced vendor?

Here are a few:

• Good Looking Website
• Adequate Descriptions and Photos
• No cheesy blinking lights or MIDI songs running in the background
• Reputable Merchant Account for your credit cards
• High Google Page Rank
• Low Alexa score meaning high popularity

But, you can get tricked these days. It is so easy to spend a few bucks and get a pre-made website complete with content and professional checkout. It is easy to get good scores in the Search Engines.

Take this site, for example. Before this blog, We’ve Got It wasn’t even on Alexa’s radar. It had a popularity rating of “No Data”.

Since beginning this blog a few weeks ago, our 3-month popularity is below 400,000. And we haven’t even tried to get noticed, yet, wanting to actually have some product pages built up and ready to show.

So, if we can get notice without trying, the really determined can game the Search Engines and temporarily gain the Experienced label with their high scores.

The best way to gauge experience is to test their longevity. How long have they really been in business? How many customers have they served? When did they begin carrying this particular product line? Unless they tell you, you’ll have to dig for it, that’s for sure.

John