1. Enable your customer to browse and select items, and then later decide which ones they want to purchase.
2. Display a summary of items that your customer has selected.
3. Provide links to information for your customer to consider before confirming the purchase, such as the return policy or the description page for each product.
4. Allow your customer to change the quantities ordered or remove items before checking out.
5. Enable your customer to navigate to the checkout process or to return to the store to choose more items.

This shopping cart software allows you to accept orders for multiple products from your website(s). It automatically calculates and totals your customer’s order, including tax and shipping charges. Some shopping carts are even integrated with the fulfillment capabilities of UPS or the U.S. Postal Service to make the order acceptance and shipping process much smoother.

There are several services that offer secure online shopping cart technology. PayPal, for instance, offers a free shopping cart program to its merchant members. At checkout, shoppers indicate that they want to make their purchases through their PayPal accounts, and the process rolls out automatically.

Other application service provider (ASP) companies also keep your shopping cart on a third-party site, where it is secure and regularly updated. Securenetshop.com provides this type of service for a monthly or annual fee. Popular software packages that can be purchased include Miva Merchant and QuickStore.

Originally Posted on: Florida Small Business Consulting - SuncoastGlobal.com

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E-mail newsletters for customers who “opt in” (request or otherwise sign up for them) are a terrific marketing tool for online businesses. Rather than being a hard-hitting price-and-product flyer, an online newsletter ideally provides useful information and/or news relating to your lines of business.

A popular outdoor and camping-gear store, for example, sends its customers a newsletter with information on camping trips and outdoor activities. As an incentive for opting in on the company’s website, the store offers new subscribers a coupon for 10 percent off their next order.

In fact, e-mail newsletters commonly are used to promote special offers or discounts to their subscribers. They are an inexpensive way to place your brand and products in front of a highly receptive customer base that already has demonstrated interest by signing up for your newsletter.

And because it’s in digital form, its free and unlimited. Giving you a huge advantage over your paper pushing competitors.

Originally Posted on: Florida Small Business Consulting - SuncoastGlobal.com

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So, how do you get to the front of search results? There are two approaches to ensuring that links to your company’s website appear high on a search engine page: “natural search” and “paid search.”

To rank highly in natural search, the content on your company’s website should include the keywords a consumer might type to search for what you offer. These keywords should also be included in the links to your website from other websites.

For example, if you own an online jewelry store, you may want your company’s website to show up when a consumer searches for the words “diamond earrings.”

There are various strategies to improving your company’s rank in natural search. Most are legitimate, but there are some vendors that don’t comply with the rules and regulations that the search engines have in place to ensure honest marketing.

If you decide to work with a third-party to implement a natural-search strategy, be sure to check references, look at other companies they’ve worked with, and make sure they are forthright about their policies on working within search engine service agreements.

For paid searches, companies get to the top of search listings the old fashioned way–they buy their way there! Search companies, for example, allows businesses to suggest keywords that relate to their products and services, to create a description and even to choose a geographic area that they want to reach.

The company’s listing appears high in the results of search engines like Yahoo! and MSN, and the merchant is charged a fee each time a visitor clicks on the listing to get more information.

The most popular search engine, Google, has a cost-per-click pricing plan based on keywords called Adwords. Here, business listings (called Sponsored Links) with short descriptions appear next to the list of related search results, attracting attention and clicks.

Business owners should explore a variety of search engines to see which kind of program works best for their products or services.

Originally Posted on: Florida Small Business Consulting - SuncoastGlobal.com

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Usually the address is a name that ends in dot com (.com), which indicates a “commercial” site, or dot org (.org) for an “organization.” If a business is lucky, its address will be the same as its company name or a close reflection of it.

Staking a Claim in Cyberspace

Businesses can register and claim a URL for a small annual fee. The URL, however, is simply the address — the entrepreneur will need a piece of property that the address defines.

That plot of cyberland is the space on a computer where all the electronic files that compose the web site will reside. Numerous commercial “hosting” services, will rent you space on their large computers (called servers) for a nominal monthly or annual fee.

Some mid-size and larger companies host their sites on their own in-house web servers, but they remain responsible for maintenance of the site and the hardware to be sure it’s accessible 24/7. An ISP can also speed the time it takes for online shoppers to download your web pages.

Originally Posted on: Florida Small Business Consulting - SuncoastGlobal.com

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• Is this person really a frustrated businessperson disguised as a lawyer? Some lawyers get tired of being on the outside looking in when it comes to business dealings. Such a lawyer may attempt to second-guess your business judgment. Be wary of a lawyer who takes too keen an interest in the nonlegal aspects of your work.
• Does this person communicate well? J. P. Morgan once said, “I do not pay my lawyers to tell me what I cannot do, but to tell me how to do what I want to do.” The right lawyer for your business will not respond to your questions with a simple “That’s OK” or “No, you can’t do that,” but will outline all your available options and tell you what other businesses in your situation normally do.
• Are the offices conveniently located? You will need to visit your attorney frequently, especially in your first few years in business. You should not have to waste a day traveling to and from the nearest city each time you need legal advice. When in doubt, choose a lawyer close to home.
• Do I like this person? Don’t forget to follow your instincts and feelings. You should be able to communicate openly and freely with your attorney at all times. If you feel you cannot trust a particular lawyer or you believe the two of you have different perspectives, keep looking. Just remember good looks and a dynamic personality are not as important in a lawyer as accuracy, thoroughness, intelligence, the willingness to work hard for you and attention to detail.

A great place to start is with the American Bar Association. The ABA’s website has a wealth of information for consumers and professionals alike who have legal questions. In the “Hire a Lawyer” section, you’ll find information on public service lawyer referral programs, wherein you are interviewed to have your needs diagnosed and then provided with a referral to a lawyer or to helpful community resources.

There are also commercial lawyer referral services on the web. Go to FindLaw, for instance, and you have instant access to thousands of lawyers. You can search by city and state, and several results come up within the area you specify, with details of each firm’s background, areas of practice, published works, attorneys on staff and so on. There are other similar services listed on the ABA site.

For a fee, you can also request a search of the ABA’s National Lawyer Regulatory Data Bank to see if any disciplinary action has ever been taken against the lawyers you are interested in.

Originally Posted on: Florida Small Business Consulting - SuncoastGlobal.com

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Here are 10 simple tips to consider when deciding on how the site will look and how customers will navigate through it:

1. Immediately tell visitors on the site what the company does.
2. Get users to the information they want in two clicks or less.
3. Consider including headers and links that give the store’s name, and include a “breadcrumb” showing visitors where they are in relation to the “Home” page at all times. Visitors should know where they are within the website at all times.
4. Allow visitors to find answers to questions easily.
5. Incorporate sufficiently large fonts and images, as well as audio descriptions where appropriate, so that content is accessible to users with disabilities.
6. Pay special attention to the quality of information, and ensure that the text is written well and spelled correctly.
7. Use buzz words sparingly.
8. Include a link to the homepage on every page so that in one click, users can be led there.
9. Develop visuals that are useful, not flashy and distracting. Useful visuals include illustrations or photos of products, graphics that separate categories of products, or maps with directions.
10. Determine which technologies are appropriate and which are overkill. For example, developing a landing page in Macromedia’s Flash technology may be a nice design feature, but it is annoying to your visitors and completely ignored by the search engines. Don’t use it.

Originally Posted on: Florida Small Business Consulting - SuncoastGlobal.com

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For many small businesses and entrepreneurs, the idea of consulting a lawyer conjures up frightening visions of skyrocketing legal bills. While there’s no denying that lawyers are expensive, the good news is there are more ways than ever to keep a lid on costs.

Start by learning about the various ways lawyers bill their time:

• Hourly or per diem rate. Most attorneys bill by the hour. If travel is involved, they may bill by the day.
• Flat fee. Some attorneys suggest a flat fee for certain routine matters, such as reviewing a contract or closing a loan.
• Monthly retainer. If you anticipate a lot of routine questions, one option is a monthly fee that entitles you to all the routine legal advice you need.
• Contingent fee. For lawsuits or other complex matters, lawyers often work on a contingency basis. This means that if they succeed, they receive a percentage of the proceeds — usually between 25 percent and 40 percent. If they fail, they receive only out-of-pocket expenses.
• Value billing. Some law firms bill at a higher rate on business matters if the attorneys obtain a favorable result, such as negotiating a contract that saves the client thousands of dollars. Try to avoid lawyers who use this method, which is also sometimes called “partial contingency.”

If you think one method will work better for you than another, don’t hesitate to bring it up with the attorney; many will offer flexible arrangements to meet your needs. When you hire an attorney, draw up an agreement (called an “engagement letter”) detailing the billing method.

If more than one attorney works on your file, make sure you specify the hourly rate for each individual so you aren’t charged $200 an hour for legal work done by an associate who only charges $75.

This agreement should also specify what expenses you’re expected to reimburse. Some attorneys expect to be reimbursed for meals, secretarial overtime, postage and photocopies, which many people consider the costs of doing business. If an unexpected charge comes up, will your attorney call you for authorization?

Agree to reimburse only reasonable and necessary out-of-pocket expenses.

No matter what type of billing method your attorney uses, here are some steps you can take to control legal costs:

1. Have the attorney estimate the cost of each matter in writing, so you can decide whether it’s worth pursuing. If the bill comes in over the estimate, ask why. Some attorneys also offer “caps,” guaranteeing in writing the maximum cost of a particular service. This helps you budget and gives you more certainty than just getting an estimate.
2. Learn what increments of time the firm uses to calculate its bill. Attorneys keep track of their time in increments as short as six minutes or as long as half an hour. Will a five-minute phone call cost you $50?
3. Request monthly, itemized bills. Some lawyers wait until a bill gets large before sending an invoice. Ask for monthly invoices instead, and review them. The most obvious red flag is excessive fees; this means too many people–or the wrong people–are working on your file. It’s also possible you may be mistakenly billed for work done for another client, so review your invoices carefully.
4. See if you can negotiate prompt-payment discounts. Request that your bill be discounted if you pay within 30 days of your invoice date. A 5-percent discount on legal fees can add thousands of dollars to your yearly bottom line.
5. Be prepared. Before you meet with or call your lawyer, have the necessary documents with you and know exactly what you want to discuss. Fax needed documents ahead of time so your attorney doesn’t have to read them during the conference and can instead get right down to business. And refrain from calling your attorney 100 times a day.
6. Meet with your lawyer regularly. At first glance, this may not seem like a good way to keep costs down, but you’ll be amazed at how much it reduces the endless rounds of phone tag that plague busy entrepreneurs and attorneys. More important, a monthly five- or 10-minute meeting (even by phone) can save you substantial sums by nipping small legal problems in the bud before they have a chance to grow.

Originally Posted on: Florida Small Business Consulting - SuncoastGlobal.com

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Some online companies absorb shipping charges; others include them in the listed price and offer “free” shipping. All the major postal carriers have websites that allow merchants to calculate the shipping charge for any item, based on weight and location.

Shipping efficiency and pricing can be major competitive advantages or hand grenades in an online store’s shopping cart. Try to make a profit on shipping charges — your store is more likely to lose the sale than gain the margin.

Originally Posted on: Florida Small Business Consulting - SuncoastGlobal.com

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Not only is customer service a great way to build loyalty, but it’s also a valuable feedback mechanism–customers are all too ready to sing your praises or call out improvements that need to be made to your product, service or image.

An important aspect of customer service is deciding how quickly the business will respond to customer inquiries and complaints (phone or e-mail). This response time should be realistic and consistent. If the policy says all phone calls will be answered within two minutes or returned the same day, that time line becomes a pledge to the customer.

Nothing frustrates an online shopper more than sending an e-mail to an address listed on a shopping site and waiting hours, days or interminably for a response. To keep customers on the site, businesses must keep them in the loop.

Be honest and follow through with your customers – your competitors are only a click away!

Originally Posted on: Florida Small Business Consulting - SuncoastGlobal.com

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Merchants should use photos showing their items from a variety of angles and, in some cases, position them next to something else to show the relative size (a cell phone the size of a lipstick, a bench that’s knee-high).

When formulating a product marketing strategy, consider the following:

• Avoid over-describing or over-selling offerings on the site. Information should be useful to the shopper, bringing out all the positive benefits of the product or service in a conversational tone.
• Offer complementary products or partnerships to bolster a store’s offerings. Businesses that don’t carry a wide variety of products often partner with other merchants to offer complementary items.

Originally Posted on: Florida Small Business Consulting - SuncoastGlobal.com

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