Using the internet as a sales channel can be a highly beneficial business activity that can lead to significant growth in customers and revenue. For small businesses, ecommerce makes it possible to grow from a local presence to a global one without the costs and hassle of an actual physical expansion.

Often times, when it comes to owning a small business having limited money and expertise, ecommerce may seem like a risk not worth taking. You might be concerned about the technology of selling online, how to manage an online store, or whether or not selling online can be a successful investment.

Technology Concerns
Some small businesses do not have the expertise, infrastructure, or budget to support high-tech ventures. You do not need any of these when it comes to setting up an ecommerce site. A hosted storefront is the way to go today. Enter: FoxyPress – Your solution. A hosted storefront like FoxyPress provides a simple template-based environment for designing and operating an online store. Technology concerns are taken out of your hands. Literally.

Concerns about success
Success is not guaranteed, but if you never take a risk success may never come. Many simple and affordable online tools are available for a small business to take advantage of. Online marketing tools are cheap, accessible, and innovative which can help your business keep up with larger competitors. Bringing a personal touch to customers no matter where they are is always important. Today there are online customer service and social tools that can do just this.

We all want to believe we have a perfect online store. Reality is, we all have a few things that could use an update. If you are guilty of any of the following items I will be discussing in this post (we have a problem). If your analytics show you have a high bounce rate, or the number of repeat customers is steadily decreasing there is still hope. It might be something as simple as making a few updates to your product descriptions, or stepping up and increasing your customer service.

Your site is too busy and confusing.
Whitespace is your friend. Embrace whitespace. If you try to jam pack your homepage with 50+ items you “think” people will love, it will actually have the opposite effect. Your site already looks cluttered, and your site visitor hasn’t even begun to navigate around the entire site. People will be confused and overwhelmed. This may be why you have a high bounce rate. Make it easy for potential customers to see your value, and easily find what they are looking for without any trouble. Display your top 5-10 products people love and organize your products effectively.

Customer service – how do you rate?
Mastering customer service online is difficult. The first and most important thing to do is being responsive. Letting your customers know how to contact your company and then following through with being there 100% of the time you are supposed to be.

Be helpful and get to the resolution as quickly as possible. Customer surveys are a great way to see where you stand with your customer service skills. Send a short email survey when your customers make a purchase. You

want your customer to know they are valued. Their input betters the service they receive from you.

An outdated website
Think of window shopping. The purpose of a window display is to draw in customers. The same goes with your homepage. Your homepage is the front window of your store. Keep your site alive and fresh. It man not require a re-design, but adding features customers expect and appreciate is always a good idea. But be careful, you do not want to overdo it and end up with a confusing and overly busy website.

• Over 500 million users
• Over 250 million logins from members per day
• More than 700 billion minutes spent on this site per month
• 150 million users can access this site on their phone through an app

Impressed?

Facebook has the largest and most active social network on the web which means that it is a phenomenal venue to market and promote your company. You have the ability to create pages, post comments, maintain discussions, and so much more to achieve an amazing online reputation through this one site alone. However, the only way to verify the effectiveness of what you are doing is through Facebook Page Statistics.

Whether the results are good or bad Facebook Page Statistics can significantly alter your behaviors and marketing methods through the social network site. Below is a list of statistics you should keep track of. The information you track can be transferred into revenue.

Monthly active users – the most important number on a statistics page. Monthly active users reports the number of “fans” utilize your site each month. With this statistic you have the ability to determine the level of interaction for your current following as well as adjust your marketing behavior depending on the results.

Activity – Instead of trying to input Google analytics into Facebook, the social network has it’s own measurement of activity which displays the unique and returning page views. You have the ability to view logged in views as well as unique views which gives you great insight into who is finding you. To utilize this information, you can start to update your content to target either your returning visitors or unique visitors.

Demographics – The demographics tool gives you almost every demographic piece of information that you could ever imagine. From gender to age range, or a combination of both, to fan countries, cities, and languages. If you want to target a particular niche location and you are getting majority of your users from alternate locations it is important you modify your marketing style and determine the best way to get back into the localization of your promotions.

Take advantage of the information Facebook provides and adapt to the conditions the statistics displays.

Want to drive traffic and sales to your website? What if I told you there is a marketing tool that is proven to do just this? Read further to learn what it is and how to use it to your full advantage.

You use this communication channel almost every day. Email.

When was the last time you emailed a marketing message to your customers? You have a full database of addresses from current customers; do not be afraid to reach them via email. How long did it take for you to acquire your current customers? It does not happen overnight. Keep in mind, it is more timely and expensive to acquire a new customer than to keep a returning one.

If you are not striving to either get started with or improve your current email marketing strategies you are missing out on a huge opportunity to not only increase sales but most importantly increase customer satisfaction.
Success does not happen overnight, but if you take the initiative to continuously improve your current marketing practices you are well on your way to being a successful business owner. Here are a few tips on how you can improve your email marketing strategies. Take notes!

Bad Subject Lines
Before your customer sees your email design they need to actually open the email itself. Your customer needs to be enticed by an effective email subject line. Keep the subject line short and concise. These critical words should summarize the content of the message while enticing the recipients to WANT to read further.

Poor email design
As your design evolves, remember to keep your email aesthetic similar to your website. Consistent branding is critical across all communications. If you need inspiration with your email design, look at messages you receive from your favorite brands.

Inconsistency
Before committing to email marketing you must decide on how often you want to target your customers. How often do you have promotions or sales? These are important factors to take into consideration before sending out your first email. The worst thing you can do is send out 5 emails this month and then come April you send zero. To help balance and organize your email frequency build a schedule that gives you sufficient time to design, create, and organize the content you will include in the email itself. Once you send out your first email check your response metrics. You want to know what is working/not working.