Renting DVDs via Ecommerce Store - Who's Counting the Catalog?

WHO IS YOUR TARGET MARKET?

Despite varying opinions that going to the movie theaters is better than renting DVDs through an ecommerce store, or downloading movies on the TiVo or mobile devices, online movie rental has a big market to exploit. People from anywhere in the world love to watch movies now more than ever.

WHEN SHOULD YOU SELL?

There's no right or wrong occasion to sell. It's safe to say though that you should market aggressively during the season of the year when people would rather stay indoors than plow through the snow and mud to see a comedy flick.

WHERE DO YOU SELL?

Although movie rental ecommerce stores such as Blockbuster.com as scattered all over the U.S. and can ship DVDs almost at any state, a lot of online DVD rentals still don't have their own warehouses but merely dropship from a major distributor. Does it matter? The point is to provide customer convenience as part of the business concept.

WHAT IS YOUR UNIQUE ECOMMERCE SOLUTION?

Expand your DVD catalog. I am still disappointed, from a consumer point of view, that although ecommerce stores such as Blockbuster.com ship DVD titles pretty efficiently and handle exchanges well, I still have to look elsewhere for other titles I cannot find in their catalog.

Ecommerce Strategy - How to Sell Musical Instruments

The great thing about selling musical instruments online is that profit is not restricted to the occasion. You can make money anytime of the year, as long as you regularly update your product catalog with new items and keep in touch with new or old customers alike.

This holiday season, a good ecommerce strategy is to capitalize on selling musical instruments that people are likely buy as gifts to their friends and family.

eBay lists the Gibson Electric Guitar as one of the top musical instruments being sold and traded online. That is, with the exception of the iPhone, of course. (Haha.) A lot of people who own used Gibson electric guitars or manuals are selling them on eBay, while others auction brand new items. And others build their own musical instruments store as their Christmas ecommerce strategy.

If you're thinking of the same thing, you sure have a lot of competition to beat. But if your ecommerce strategy is to provide more value-added incentives to your buyers such as free shipping, gift wrapping, or discounts, then you're likely to take a bigger market share.

Ecommerce Technology Tip - Gadgets and Games Sell Best Online

Competition is tough for online electronic gadget merchants. But despite this ecommerce technology trend, online marketing experts report that computer and electronic gadgets are the best selling products online. The demand even tops apparel and other average consumer items. In eBay alone, electronic gadgets such as the iPod Nano, Nintendo Wii and Playstation 3 are on top of the hot items list for Christmas 2007.

Ecommerce technology has broken the limit on what merchants can and cannot sell online. Because people have more freedom to compare prices, read reviews, and research on an enormous number of gadget stores, they are more encouraged to buy.

Online retailers should of course take advantage of this opportunity. By capitalizing on in-demand items such as the iPod Nano 8 GB or other popular gadgets, they can make a good profit this holiday season. The best part of it is that with the help of fast changing ecommerce technology upgrades they can bridge their brick and mortar and online stores, converting mere visitors into buyers.

How Do You Sell High Demand Transformers Toys on Secure Ecommerce?

How does one sell items by virtue of secure ecommerce? And here I don't mean just ordinary items and a small product catalog. I meant Transformers toys! If you're thinking of products to invest on these holidays, try plunking in some on Transformers toys sold online. The demand for them as Christmas gifts for kids (the third most popularly searched product according to eBay survey) is so huge that it would be hard to ignore what could be a good yearend profit for you.

And because so many Transformers fans are out to buy, sell, trade, and purchase gift certificates for these toys, making sure you transact on secure ecommerce system should be your first concern.

For example, if you buy Transformers parts from traders, you should make sure they are high quality items before you pay them. If you sell to Transformers collectors, make sure they have paid in full (layaway can also be considered) before shipping the items. For a more secure ecommerce transaction, provide various payment methods online (and offline) that are backed with anti-fraud tools such as SSL encryption and geolocation IP detection for international buyers.

Fraud happens a lot in many online transactions involving high demand and huge catalog so merchants must be sure they are safe whether selling toys online or offline.

ECOMMERCE STRATEGY - Are you Selling to Impulse Buyers?

Online shoppers buy on an impulse mostly because they are merely "window shopping" or are indecisive. For example, sometimes I go to flea markets without anything exact in mind to buy, but when I do find something nice, or something that I will probably need in the future and is offered at a low price today, then I buy it on an impulse. Even online many merchants take advantage of this "indecision" as an excellent ecommerce strategy.

And yes, you are familiar with this ecommerce strategy that even McDonald's and other brick and mortar fast food stores use.

People also buy on impulse if the products are on sale on a limited period of time. The temptation to buy and save money on the purchase is overwhelming enough to let the opportunity pass. As an online merchant, the more you can exploit this ecommerce strategy by offering "more for less", the better you will make a profit.

Should You Write Perfect Web Copy All the Time?

Should you write perfect web copy all the time?

Pffffft. I know some of you may laugh thinking how ridiculous this question is. We already know that bad web copy is a huge turn off. But did you also know you can take advantage of a few misspellings in your ecommerce web site to catch the "eye" of the search engines?

When you write web copy, you try to make it sound as natural and as convincing (if it's a sales copy) as possible to your visitors. Your goal is to convert them into buyers. If you're familiar with how people use the Internet to buy, or browse from one ecommerce web site to another, you will know that a lot of them make mistakes in spelling when searching for products online. This is something you can take advantage of.

A perfect web copy is spic and span. It's grammatically correct, it has natural flow of words, it's creative, and it's run on spell checker. But smarter ecommerce web site owners know that a little twist on word spelling and synonyms of their highly searched products which Internet users tend to overlook can mean a huge difference in potential sales.

When Movies and Web Ecommerce Collide

A lot of people are not aware that they can take advantage of the Internet to learn more about certain exotic, international, indie, or otherwise "rare" films they have always wanted to watch. Decades ago, it is almost impossible to get a hold of these movies. There are way more restrictions to what people can watch.

Decades ago also, moviemakers cannot reach their audience as much. A lot of movies simply go to the back archives because they are not allowed to be advertised on various forms of media. If they are, they cannot be watched by certain groups of audience such as minors or people who live in geographically restricted places.

Today, however, web ecommerce has changed the face of movie making and movie selling.

Movie producers know better than to take for granted all the possibilities that web ecommerce advertising can bring. Online, they can reach their target audience. Online, they can reach a "way bigger and more highly targeted audience". They can even encourage non-movie watchers to buy relevant items such as souvenirs, apparel, ringtones, or e-books.

With the help of social networking platforms such as blogs and forums, movie makers can promote films further. Viral marketing is a highly effective technique they can use.

And if finally, they are still not satiated with their web ecommerce marketing efforts, guess what -- they can do it the Second Life way. Film-based MMORPGs and action-packed online video games are the way to go.

ECOMMERCE SOLUTION 13 - 4 Essential People for Ecommerce Success

Selling online is never entirely a game of chance. Many merchants have been groping in the dark because they know so little how ecommerce works. They set up their store before they actually know what to put in it. Worse, they make their ecommerce web sites flashy and colorful as a way to attract online buyers.

Now, there's nothing wrong with a good ecommerce web site design. But before you hire your well-paid web designer, hire an SEO expert first! I've seen so many highly interesting and quality ecommerce sites languishing on the bottom of the pile. The search engines do not reach them, and if they do, they cannot be found on the first pages of search results.

If this is your problem, then you have made ecommerce web site design your enemy, not your friend.

The SEO seminar in Asia I attended back in October 2007 taught me a lot about the relationship of the web site designer, programmer, content writer, and webmaster. These four people are essential in making your online business a big success. A webmaster directs all marketing efforts and overall ecommerce set up, a programmer sets up the site according to SEO instructions, a content writer makes sure all text are search engine friendly, and a web designer works on the ecommerce web site design's goals to make the store an exciting place to shop and visit.

If you have these key people to help you build your online store, then you're not taking chances. You know you're likely to succeed.

How to Build Your Ecommerce Name - Step 3 E-mail Addresses

E-mail addresses play a crucial role in doing business online. I had my own free as well as company accounts and I use them however the situation requires. Often, when I correspond by using free e-mail accounts such as @hotmail.com, @gmail.com, or @yahoo.com, I don't get responses or I get refused when I sign up. What is wrong with using free e-mail accounts?

Obviously, if you are using a company e-mail address it is a sign that you're doing business professionally. Does your ecommerce package allow you to create custom company e-mail accounts? It may not sound like a big deal but in business, sometimes the little things mean big things. Your ecommerce package should be able to host custom e-mail accounts for you.

Free e-mail accounts matter not just to your customers, but to other merchants as well. Doing business to business ecommerce requires more professionalism, because your target market are fellow merchants. Your ecommerce package is key to showing them that you are willing to invest on B2B ecommerce. You don't want them to be signing up to your services using free e-mail accounts too, do you?


How to Build Your Ecommerce Name - Step 1 Domain Name
How to Build Your Ecommerce Name - Step 2 Web Hosting
How to Build Your Ecommerce Name - Step 4 Should You Spam?

ECOMMERCE STRATEGY 11 - Selling Online is Like Hiring

Do you know how much contact information about your company matters in your ecommerce site?

When I was out of college and was looking for jobs I didn't know the first thing about aggressive and efficient job hunting. Of course, I was a newbie. I needed work and learning about my prospective employers' background wasn't one of my biggest concerns. Back then, I had worked with all kinds of employers, and yes, some of them were unscrupulous, who didn't have good credentials, didn't pay government taxes (underground), and sometimes never showed up in the office! I learned a great deal after so many years of switching from job to job. Eventually I soon found out that when searching for a good job, the first step I would do is to check out my employer's background.

It's the same thing when selling services or products on the web. All merchants who own an ecommerce site should provide decent contact information online. This is one of the best ways to earn buyers' trust.

If I have access to a company's office address, phone number, email address, and even a short background on the owner and his staff on his ecommerce site, I can easily make inquiries. And if I can talk to the company representatives, that sets my mind at ease! Trust is a big deal when doing business online. Let your customers reach you, so they can trust you!

WEB ECOMMERCE OPPORTUNITY 4 - Affiliate Marketing

Another possibility in ecommerce and small business is partnership through affiliate marketing. This gives opportunity to merchants who have only as little capital as a "personal blog" to earn money through promotion of relevant products. Google Adsense is famous for this democratic money making scheme.

Advertising has been the backbone of most existing businesses today. Ecommerce and small business owners pay for web space, bandwidth, design, maintenance costs, and other facilities and resources in order to give their products and services good exposure online. At the same time, they can also affiliate with other merchants who also sell relevant products and advertise them on their site for x amount of revenue.

Many merchants have made good money on affiliate marketing. If you are an ecommerce and small business entrepreneur, this is just one of the many avenues you can take. You either become a merchant who offers the affiliate program or the affiliate marketer itself.

ECOMMERCE WEB SITE SUCCESS TIP 3 - Use Your Backend Design to Your Advantage

It's funny how so much of the web has evolved. Back in the old days, all merchants could do is upload information on their products on a bulky program -- and it may take days, weeks, even months to see how the ecommerce web site will look like. Today if you have a good template and a product feed software, uploading data doesn't take an hour if you have a small product catalog.

But this is exactly why it's far better to invest on good ecommerce web site design these days. You are bestowed more flexibility when it comes to managing content for your store. Best of all, as you as become more well-versed in it, you can cut costs in the long run.

My opinion is that it takes certain experience to be able to pick a good ecommerce web site design provider that has everything that you want in one package. One that enhances the look of your store while giving your customers a good shopping experience, while at the same time making it easy for you to manage the content every time you make changes or add new products. Have you found the right provider yet?

Other articles:

ECOMMERCE WEB SITE SUCCESS TIP 1 - Three Rules of Thumb
ECOMMERCE WEB SITE SUCCESS TIP 2 - Build networks, Build Backlinks

ECOMMERCE WEB SITE DESIGN TIP 3 - SEO WWWHATT?

People who have browsed the web long enough will attest to the fact that most of the websites appearing on Google search engine's top results page pretty much aren't heavy on the design department. In fact, most of them are simple web pages that have nothing but text on it. If this is the case, why do merchants have to spend so much on ecommerce web design?

Well, to attract more visitors of course. These days, with more and more people being glued to the "interactive tube", an engaging website design is one step to being ahead of the ecommerce merchant crowd. A plus is knowing an attractive ecommerce web design concept merging with good SEO techniques.

So if search engines crawl no-frills websites better than elaborately primped ones, why bother with ecommerce web design? The latter is still necessary to show that you are a professional dotcom business who is concerned about enhancing your customers' shopping experience. Simplicity of design, on the other hand, will favor promotion and more visibility of your site. Think of how awesome the results will be if you strike a good balance between the two.

ECOMMERCE WEB SITE DESIGN TIP 1 - Watch out for your designer's promises
ECOMMERCE WEB SITE DESIGN TIP 2 - Content is the Meat and Potatoes

ECOMMERCE STRATEGY 9 – What's Your Favorite Color?

I like buying stuff from Victoria's Secret store a lot. I either visit their brick and mortar store in Texas or browse on their ecommerce web site. One thing I appreciate about VS is that although they don't employ the best web site design, they allow me to see the dresses that I prefer in various colors. They do this by letting me click on the color patch. Then the model's dress changes to that shade that I have picked.

If you cannot provide this ability for your customers to see the outfits (or any product) in the colors that they pick, there's a high likelihood that they will not buy. I would say this is where employing this type of shopping flexibility becomes handy for your ecommerce web site. If you can't work this tactic, a customer might just abandon the shopping cart halfway.

So take notes. Victoria's Secret is well known for classy, sexy, and affordable outfits for women. Their ecommerce web site may not be the most impressive (their models are, of course), but they allow me to see the dresses that I like in my favorite colors. This is a huge convenience if I'm not able to visit their landbased retail store on a stormy day in the Lone Star state!

ECOMMERCE STRATEGY 7 – Underpromise, Overdeliver, Not a Cliche!

Underpromise, but overdeliver. How many times have you heard this statement in the online business circles lately? You can almost call it one of the biggest cliches in web ecommerce 2.0 today!

But here's the deal: merchants and customers can't live without this cliche. The bigger the surprise, the better. In fact, it is outstanding for an online merchant to exceed his customers' expectations by "underpromising, and overdelivering".

One perfect example is when you ship products ahead of expected receiving date. This will astonish your customer and immediately give you positive feedbacks. Success in web ecommerce does require you to still stick to tradition sometimes. You can also make this trick work to your advantage if you are a merchant who sells digital or downloadable products.

In this web ecommerce era, everyone lives by the power of a mouse click. Therefore if you are selling digital files (software) online, try your best to give your customers access to the full version as soon as they have purchased. Their satisfaction will always reflect on your sales.

SHOULD WAL-MART'S ECOMMERCE STRATEGY BE EMBRACED BY SMALL RETAILERS?

Ecommerce shipping success brought about by Wal-Mart's example has spawned a good number of online retailers now offering buy online, in-store pick up option. Can this be the beginning of zero shipping costs and quantum leap on sales conversions by online retailers? Is this going to be the ultimate ecommerce strategy that will break the "shopping cart abandonment tradition"?

Who knows, but this is when finding the answer to the question really matters. Why? Because since the trend has been set by big online retailers such as Wal-Mart or Ace Hardware, many smaller retailers aren't likely to follow their footsteps. An ecommerce strategy that would allow buyers to find the product by going to the nearest store itself after showing the intention to buy it from the online store may cost them more money than profit itself.

For example, niche apparel stores such as Nike, American Eagle, or Callaway Golf may find it actually more difficult to profit by shipping smaller or fewer items to fewer stores nationwide. Sure, they can adopt Wal-Mart's ecommerce strategy but they would have to ship products on longer time frames -- weeks, instead of days, to save costs. I'd say the question now can only be answered by individual small retailers themselves.

eCommerce and Small Business SPOTLIGHT - eBay.com

eBay is just huge. When you think of the amount of labor put in the site to make it the ultimate buying and selling portal in the web today, it is almost impossible to replicate its success. Ecommerce and small business owners register, advertise, trade, and communicate with customers for almost nothing. I've known a few who actually make good money off trading on eBay. And I'm talking about merchandise that aren't the easiest in the world to find such as shells, coins, and rare jewelry, and yes even pinball machines.

I'd think the major advantage for ecommerce and small business members in eBay trading is the ability to find items with only a few clicks and having access to the right tools to help them sell. For example, features such as accounting assistant, promotional tools, sales reports, etc. are provided as a member. For buyers, resources such as product reviews, guides, and lists of categorized items are indispensable.

eBay is second to Amazon.com on the list of top 50 ecommerce sites that people voted for. Although it is the epitome of the online flea market today, many ecommerce and small business owners still look for options such as joining merchant malls or building their own ecommerce site. This is because they can customize everything and even create a shopping cart suited for their store better than what they use in eBay.

Spotlight: Amazon.com

SPOTLIGHT: AMAZON.COM

Amazon.com wouldn't be on top if positive customer feedbacks didn't overwhelm the negative ones. Here's a good example:

Customer 1: Amazon provides an exact shipping date but delivers it earlier than expected.

Customer 2: Amazon doesn't have good enough graphics and can't show an enlarged picture in the same window. Why do they have to put the large picture on another window?

Customer 3: I got so many choices with Amazon and the best thing is that they give big discounts on everything, every time!

GOODIES

Another good thing is that Amazon.com has so many value-added items. Some of the ones I like best are:

1. Amazon Daily

   Lets me customize the content on the Amazon Daily blog. I love reading blogs and this one is a good place to learn what's new or hear other's expert opinions on the latest products.

2. Customer Reviews

   Although I try my best not to be influenced by customer opinions in every product I view I still think that it's worth taking a read at what they have to say. They give me a lot of freedom to learn more about the product, whether reviewed in good or bad light. Customers can even compare one product to the other to find out which one looks and feels better.

3. Product Information

   There's no better way to learn about shipping, privacy policies, refunds and exchange policies than in the product information area.

UGLIES

1. Slow loading pages

   Whether it's my internet connection or not that's responsible for the slow loading pages, it still sucks. Like any other ecommerce store, Amazon can't satisfy all customers with such high traffic from all over the world.

2. Too many ads

   Amazon like any other ecommerce website thrives on ads and customer purchases. But the layout does get confusing and sometimes I find myself not knowing where I was or what to browse.

3. Everything in one place

   Don't get me wrong – I like multitasking and seeing a lot of items here. But I get overwhelmed by so many things to see at one time. I'd wished Amazon.com has a better way to organize things than to cram all items and details in a single page.

So needless to say, I've had my share of Amazon.com's best and worst, like all you guys do. Did you have your own goodies and uglies with Amazon.com too? Share them with us!

Top 50 E-Commerce Stores - Like 'em or Lump 'em!

Now what could be more enlightening than coming up with a list of top 50 e-commerce merchant stores today? I must agree that they're making gargantuan profit, but there's a lot that the common eyes can't see. Curious about our analysis? Check out the list and we'll let you know what we think!

1. Amazon.com
2. e-Bay.com
3. Wal-Mart.com
4. BestBuy.com
5. JCPenney.com
6. Target.com
7. Kohls.com
8. Overstock.com
9. Google.com
10. Sears.com
11. OldNavy.com
12. CircuitCity.com
13. LandsEnd.com
14. LLBean.com
15. QVC.com
16. Yahoo.com
17. Blair.com
18. Macys.com
19. LaneBryant.com
20. HomeDepot.com
21. VictoriasSecret.com
22. Chadwicks.com
23. AE.com/American Eagle
24. Haband.com
25. ColdwaterCreek.com
26. Gap.com
27. Lowes.com
28. EddieBauer.com
29. Newport-News.com
3o. Costco.com
31. Newegg.com
32. TigerDirect.com
33. HSN. com
34. Buy.com
35. Zappos.com
36. Roamans.com
37. SmartBargains.com
38. AOL.com
39. MSN.com
40. WomanWithin.com
41. Cabelas.com
42. EastBay.com
43. SierraTradingPost.com
44. Kmart.com
45. KingSizeDirect.com
46. Forever21.com
47. Dell.com
48. SamsClub.com
49. CasualMale.com
50. FashionBug.com