Boom! Pow! Expand!

"Blowing up" Your eCommerce Business In The New Year

I like to start each New Year by looking over the past and evaluating what was good and the not-as-good over the previous three hundred sixty-five days. I break things down into categories like sales, advertising, promotions, search positioning, and other things like that.

By going through all the major aspects of my store and seeing where things worked (and where they didn’t) helps me gauge what I want to spend time working on in the coming year and what I want to either spend significantly less time on or remove entirely.

For me, the beginning of the year is the time for expansion – growing the things that are making me money and diversifying my business to make it stronger and more secure. For me, eCommerce is about sustainability. It's about creating a business with a solid foundation that only becomes more stable over time. That’s why this type of year-end reconciliation of your store tactics is important for you to do.

Of course you don’t have to do it in January if that doesn’t make sense for you, but for many, the holiday rush is the biggest buying season. So, once it’s over, it makes sense to start planning and implementing so you can increase your profits when it comes back around again.

Figuring out where your tactics and stores stand is the first step to take when looking to expand. So once I’ve figured out what areas are working I then look into ways to expand them and / or grow them. I make the distinction between expanding and growing because I see them as related but ultimately different ideas.

"Expansion" I define as making something bigger, while "growing" I consider more as cultivating. And cultivating can sometimes entail actually culling. They often go hand in hand but separating them makes them easier to talk about.

Expanding Tactics

For instance, one of the things I'm going to be expanding this year is my AdWords presence. I now employ a near full-time Pay Per Click manager, which allows me to triple the amount of AdWords ads I have running. I’m also going to be able to grow my AdWords campaigns by more narrowly focusing efforts and cash on Ad Groups that are already paying off and removing campaigns that have been deemed outdated.

So yes - PPC is one of the big areas I recommend eCommerce storeowners spend more time on in the New Year.

You’ll want to do the same with your natural search optimization tactics, your article marketing efforts, store blogging, sales / promotions, and your site conversion. I also do the same with my vendors. If something isn’t working the way I want it to with any of them, I call them up and discuss it with them. If it’s a big enough issue and they won’t bend, I just grow my business...by firing them as a vendor.

Expanding Products

Now I want to talk about expansion in terms of your products and your store(s). If you have a product or product line that consistently sells well, finding more products like it might be a way to expand on a current success. This might mean simply adding more products from one of your current vendors or it might mean finding a new supplier in order to expand your product line.

Finding new vendors is a great way to expand your business - though it can be a daunting task. Before going out and searching for new vendors by hand, I like to go through the World Wide Brands drop ship source directory at NewVendors.Info. Even if I don’t find a vendor for products to expand my current line, I usually find a few that I’m interested in dealing with, in some way or another. Finding a new line of related products is a great way to expand your store and using World Wide Brands is an easy way to find quality drop shippers and wholesalers without putting in hours of search time.

Now let’s look at another scenario. Let’s say your most profitable product line is pretty large in terms of number of products. Let's say you’re looking to expand it by finding another vendor. So you find one, and the line they offer is also very large. What then?

Consider this. Instead of adding it to your current store, what about opening a new store centered around that product line?

I do this all the time. Over the past few years I have opened a new store every year – it has become one of my yearly goals. The more income streams you have out there, the more stable your business. But a new store doesn’t have to be completely different than your current store(s)! There is nothing wrong with opening a spin off niche site selling some of the same things you’re already selling.

Say, for example, that my Civil War weaponry and costumes are selling like hot cakes. I would happily open a second weaponry store designed for the Civil War niche. I would use the products I get from my current vendors and find a few more that I could source from to fill out the store.
Niche sites are great and they are easier to rank with and maintain than larger stores. Breaking out your successful products in this way will grow your business in a relatively easy way. It’s nice to start a new store knowing you have a product that sells because you’re already successfully selling it.

You don’t have to get rid of the products on your first store when you open the new store either. In fact, I would recommend NOT removing them from you first store. By creating a niche store around items you also sell in your big store you’re creating even more competition for your competitors. That’s a cool idea, huh?

You’re expanding your market reach, getting on your way to dominating the search engine listings, and giving yourself more chances of getting the sale. Competing with yourself is a strategy I also recommend eCommerce storeowners work into their planning.

This year I am opening a brand new store (in a brand new market) and starting a spin off store. The spin off store is going to take much less time to create and I already know where to focus my efforts in terms of SEO and paid advertising. So I’m going to create that one first. I’m confident it will be making money as soon as I get my PPC ads rolling so I’ll begin the brand new store pretty much the day after the spin off is open for business.

If you’re looking to open a brand new store, it’s a good idea to test your market before spending the time and effort it takes to build a whole store. Testing with AdWords is one of the best ways I have found to test my market research and make sure the market I want to dive into is viable. Setting up a few test ads around your main products doesn’t take very long and the numbers will start coming in right away. I recommend this type of testing to anyone looking to open a store. Reaffirming your market research is always a smart move.

Now I’d like to talk a little bit about diversification and different ways of expanding.

Diversifying Your Business

To create a strong, sustainable business you want multiple streams of income, not just one giant income source. You just never know if something is going to happen to jeopardize that one source, which is why having many sources creates a much more stable business environment and adds to your personal financial security.

Diversification doesn’t mean you have to open a new store; any new stream of recurring income that you can bring in is diversifying. In my opinion the more revenue streams the better. I’d rather have ten sites bringing in $1000 each per month than four sites bringing in $2500 each per month. That way if a couple markets take a dip, my income isn’t as effected.

So I have four main online stores. As I mentioned, this year I’m opening two new ones. My stores are my main sources of revenue. I also have in the ballpark of 100-150 affiliate / AdSense sites out there. I don’t make nearly as much with these as I do with my stores but they provide a nice passive income every month. That’s what I set them up for – passive income. I could make more with them if I spent the same amount of time working on and promoting them as I do my stores, but I don’t want to. They are not my main business because I don’t want them to be.

I like being a storeowner and spending my time and effort promoting the things I actually sell. But it makes sense for me to take some time to create affiliate sites and spend a little more time getting them ranked because once they are going to stay going for a while and produce consistent income. Passive income is fantastic because it doesn’t require much work from you and gives you a nice monthly cushion.

When you begin diversifying, I suggest you start by opening a second store. Building your second is a lot easier than building your first. You already know what to do and you’ve done it once – it’s a faster process the second time around.

These are the things I focus on every New Year and I’m always looking and open to new ideas for generating and optimizing income streams. The deeper you look into your existing business the more areas you’ll find where you can optimize and the better ideas you’ll have for diversifying your income.

Move 'Em Out! Streamline Your Checkout And Wow Your Customers

There are a lot of seemingly small, minor details that we eCommerce storeowners overlook when setting up their stores.

This is usually in the interest of getting the site built, live, and ranked. We put aside things like the Contact Us page, Shipping FAQ, Order Confirmation page and emails. Usually the intent is to go back and finish them once you see traffic coming to your store but many times other things pop up that seem more important and the smaller things get put on the back burner.

Including and/or customizing these pages and emails will have an impact right from the start and they are a big help when dealing with customers after they order.

Before The Order

First off, always include a detailed Shipping FAQ that preemptively answers questions like ‘How long before my order ships?’ and ‘What is your return policy?’ This will save you time answering calls and emails that do nothing to drive your business forward.

Second, you can dramatically cut down on monotonous repeat emails and calls by adding .a Contact Us page that contains links to important informational pages in your site like your Terms and Conditions, Return Policy, and Shipping FAQ page as well as having a contact form.
Many online shoppers also expect both of these pages and not having them (or having but not providing much info on them) can take away from the professional quality of your site. It might even lose you customers.

Remember - for every customer who takes the time to call or send an email there are five who simply leave your store. You can regain some of these customers by working on these helpful pages, most of which can be created in less than a day.

Here are some ideas of what you want to have on your shipping and contact pages: On average how long will a customer’s order take to ship? What shipping methods do you offer? From where is the order shipped? What if a customer’s order is not in stock? What is your return policy?

You can also include specific product information on this FAQ. For example on my Armory site I include a Product FAQ on the same page as the Shipping FAQ. This answers questions like: What is my chain mail made of? Are my swords sharpened? And do we offer custom work?

By answering as many of your customers’ questions as possible on the FAQ you’re eliminating the time you or your customer service team needs to spend answering emails or taking phone calls. Take notice of questions that come up over and over again and add them (plus their answers) to the FAQ. Not every customer will check it before contacting you but some will and any amount of time you cut from customer support is time you can spend on finding new sales.

On your Contact Us page, include links to all your informational pages right at the top so people will have the opportunity of answering their own questions before emailing you. Also include your live chat link and phone number on this page. If you are using a platform like Yahoo that doesn’t include a Contact Us form, I would recommend getting a form you can integrate. There are many free and paid form builders you can use. Be sure to choose one that does not put ads on or around the form; you want it to be a seamless integration on your Contact Page.

A Contact Us form is better than just an email link because it provides the customer with some guidance, which is helpful for both them and you. Before integrating contact forms into my sites I would get email questions about orders but not enough information to look them up. So I would have to write back with no answers to try and get more personal information. Customers don’t like that, they expect you to know who they are and what they ordered by heart. A contact form helps you meet that expectation.

Checkout

If you have the option in your store backend to change your checkout flow, make it one single page. Not every platform allows you to do this so if you find that you can’t, then add steps to the pages to let the customer know where they are in the process. For example, if you have three steps in your checkout process add “Checkout Step 1 of 3” at the top of the first page, and so on through the rest.

You also want to make your action buttons – Checkout, Submit Order, etc - big and bold. Lead the customer through the process with these big trail markers; it helps keep them focused and keeps moving them toward placing the order.

A customer will sometimes realize halfway through checkout that they forgot to look at your return policy and leave checkout to go do it. You can alleviate some of this by summing up the policy and adding it to the top of the checkout page. For example, on my Armory site, I have this copy at the top of the checkout page:

Items shipped upon receipt of payment. Returns accepted for 30 days less shipping and a 25% restocking fee. You must be 18 years if age or older to order. If you have any questions feel free to email us at customercare@a2armory.com or call 877-640-9486 between 10-6 EST.

That sums up all the salient points and doesn’t hide anything or deceive the customer in anyway. Once you have a customer headed through checkout you want to do everything in your power to keep them moving forward.

After The Sale

This process does not end after the Submit Order button is clicked. You also need a good order confirmation page and follow up email for buyers. Most shopping cart platforms have some type of default confirmation page and order email, but these are not good enough. You want to include a message about expected shipping time, links to your contact page, and your store phone number. And you want to include all that information and an invitation to contact you about any questions in your confirmation email.

Maybe it seems silly to you. After all, you had all that info on your site, if people had questions they would have looked at those pages or contacted you before ordering, right? Sometimes but not always - you can’t rely on your customer to search out information you have to provide it.

So make it easier for them to find information and contact you than it is for them to contact their credit card company. Put it all right in front of them so if they do contact their credit card company you can prove they knew your policies. Not only will you have fewer wrongful chargebacks, you’ll have fewer customer problems overall.

In addition to the order confirmation email, you also want an order status email. Even if you have link for online order tracking in your confirmation, you still want to send out a status update once their product ships. Seeing a charge on their card with no shipping confirmation to back it up can cause some people to panic because, again, it’s something they’ve come to expect. You can save yourself a lot of customer service work by keeping your customers in the know.

This email can be very simple - as long as it contains shipping information and a tracking number, your customer will be happy. You can take this a step further and use the opportunity to make an offer on a related product, just be sure to show them the tracking information first and the attempt to get more money second.

Whether you sell a single product or run a mega store like Amazon, simply taking the time to create informative FAQ pages and easy to use contact methods will help your business. It will save you time, make your store look more professional, make your customers happier, and provide you with recourse if a customer complains about your policies.

Checklist:

- Create a Shipping FAQ detailing your shipping methods and return policy.
- Customize your Return Policy page and explain, in detail, the return process and what’s needed from the customer.
- Customize your Contact Us page with links to your information pages and a contact us form.
- Create a Product FAQ and add it to your Shipping FAQ or as its own page on your site.
- Customize your Checkout page(s) with step numbers, large action buttons, and a summary of your return policy.
- Customize your Order Confirmation page and email to include estimated shipping time and contact methods.
- Send a follow up email including the customer’s tracking number, another thank you, and a discount coupon.