I have a great looking website, I have a product to sell, I have a shopping cart, I have a merchant account that accepts Visa, MasterCard, American Express and Discover, I have an account with UPS? BUT, I HAVE NO SALES!.

Sound familiar?

Our staff of experts at Durrani, have been building successful e-commerce sites for over 4 years. We not only understand that you have to make it easy for customers to find the product they want but you also have to give every customer a piece of mind when they go to checkout. The Creative staff knows exactly what customers want from their sites when they decide they are going to submit there private credit card information and mailing address to some website that they have visited only once.

This is why we have outlined the top 12 things everyone needs to know before offering products for sale online:

1. Visibility – Just because you are the only one selling solar powered flashlights don’t think that customers can find you. You must strengthen your site for Search Engines using the proper SEO, or search engine optimization.

2. Navigation – Make it very easy for anyone to find their way around your store. They can get to the product they want, the contact page, the policies page and checkout with ease.

3. Security – In some states it’s the law that you offer protection to your customers against identity theft. Today, the number one thing customers look for is an icon of a lock in the lower left corner of the browser window or an “s” in the URL before offering sensitive credit card information.

4. Contact Inform
ation – A good rule of thumb is always have the customer support phone number visible on every page. If not then make sure the “Contact Us” navigational button is very easy to find.

5. Check Out / View Cart – Whenever someone is shopping and wants to verify what they have placed in their cart have it very easy to find. Typically, both “View Cart” & “Check Out” will be somewhere near the top of the sites navigational menu.

6. Products in 3 clicks or less – Make it easy to get to what they want by minimizing the amount of clicks it takes to get what they want. 9 times out of 10 customers know what they want when they walk into your store and they want to get it and get out so help them through the process by eliminating useless clicks.

7. Shipping Details – Have a menu selection on your site that is dedicated to the shipping details. Your shipping policy will let someone know if they are going to buy from you. It is important to customers to know that your using a reputable parcel carrier, can overnight it if needed, and it is insured.

8. Customer Service – Not that this isn’t the number one priority but when it come to customer service you cannot offer more support than you do when online. Use logos of companies you use to assist with customers support such as: Verisign, Geotrust, Better Business Bureau, Hacker Safe, etc.

9. Return Policy – Whether you allow for returns or not, it is important to state your policy. Customers convert to sales if they know they can return an item if it wasn’t what they wanted.

10. Have a good looking site – Don’t appear like you’re a trunk slammer. Offer a well groomed site that is styled to your business name or product you sell. You get more credibility with your customers when it appears as though you take pride with your online presence.

11. Today & Tomorrow – When building your online store be sure to build it on a platform that can grow with your customers demands. If you allow your customers to see the same home page or same products then they will not come back. They will think you have lost interest in your store thus losing interest in your customers.

12. Product Details – If you carry a product that needs some explaining, then give a product detail. Don’t get too wordy but done leave out the important things like “batteries not included”. Let your customer know the benefits of your product if you want to move it off your shelf.

If you want to be successful with your online store then don’t cut corners. Don’t think just because you have an online store and not a regular “brick & mortar” that you eliminated your expenses. You still have to market your site and pay for online utilities. So, go ahead and build your online store with Durrani that specializes in optimizing your site to increase sales!