E-commerce is a term used to refer to any trading or commercial activity done through the internet. E-commerce covers a wide spectrum of business activity including advertisement, branding, actual selling as well as after sales services. Some businesses are wholly dependent on the internet for all their activities while others only use the internet for some functions. Whether you are looking to start an internet business, or you are already running a business and wish to leverage on the internet, an e-commerce strategy banking on an affordable e-commerce solution is the way to go.You must have heard the bad stories: how businesses once rushed (and many businesses still do) to develop or buy ecommerce platforms only for them to end up with insignificant growth in sales and a hefty bill for the ecommerce platform. The primary source of this problem was a poor feasibility study or the use of an inappropriate and expensive e-commerce solution. Despite these real risks, the place of the internet in everyday business has moved away from a good to have to a virtual must have. Whether your target market is your neighborhood or it is global, e-commerce is a convenience that more and more customers demand.In order to launch your ecommerce platform on the best possible footing, it is important that you not only undertake a thorough feasibility study, but that you also pick an e-commerce solution that is technically suitable as well as affordable. The type of e-commerce solution is strongly determined by the nature of the business it is meant to be used for. You will be pleased to know that there several different solutions that you can choose from whatever the niche area of your business.At the minimum you should go for an e-commerce solution that incorporates an inquiries module (including a customer service chat option), an online shop for your products and a billing solution. More features will usually mean additional cost so be careful not to take up a platform that is too complex for the needs of your business and has modules that you will never need in the short and medium term.But settling on a good e-commerce solution is just one part of the strategy. You have to set out on an internet marketing drive in order to draw traffic to your website and work to convert as many of these visitors into paying customers.If your business is best classified as a service oriented business or a consultancy (for instance teaching, an architect, an attorney or an accountant), then one simple approach you can take to launching your ecommerce strategy is having a website or a blog through which you would provide advisory content that you would use to freely deliver value adding information to your existing and potential clientele.As more and more people recognize your website as an authority in your area and see the consistent quality of the content you churn, they would be more inclined to subscribe to the services available on your website. This same principle can be used even when you deal with goods as opposed to services. Remember that e-commerce, just like any other product delivery channel in a business, is dependent on the strength of your brand. Note that you can shore up your website’s visibility by linking back through social bookmarking sites as well as article hosting websites.

E-commerce websites have emerged as an effective tool for selling your products on the internet without actually meeting your customer as well as without showing him the real products. In such case, the design of an E-commerce website becomes very important. The E-commerce websites are designed to lead the visitor to one simple task – Make an Online Purchase. There are varieties of online selling principles that an efficient E-commerce website designer should consider.The first step is to know the difference as well as similarity between a simple website and an E-commerce website. First of all they all follow a unique selling principle. They all need to be attractive, well organized and should have easy navigation and should also make an apt use of colors, designs and graphics. However, a close scrutiny reveals some conceptual difference between them as well.A successful E-commerce website will alwaysGive its user a pleasant and hassle free online shopping experience
Provide sufficient information on the promoters of the website and their credentials along with the reasons why one should trust them
Easy to use and navigate otherwise visitor will switch on to competitor’s websiteThese selling principles are very much similar to the strategies applied by the sellers in malls, shopping centers and every other marketplace. In the real market, when you enter a well organized and beautifully decorated shopping mall, you might have noticed the most precious or rather basic necessity items are kept at the remotest end of the mall away from the entrance.For example sweet smelling food items are kept at the distance but their pleasant smell can be experienced at the very entrance gate. This is not always natural as sometimes the arrangement is done in such as way that the smell would reach to the visitor at the entrance gate by a special air duct. The idea is to attract the visitor to the end of the mall and in process exposing him to all kinds of tempting merchandises with an aim to open up his wallets.The biggest challenge for an E-commerce website designer is to translate the aforesaid conventional marketing techniques to the virtual world of Internet. An experienced designer will draw an imaginative web path for a website visitor in the same way that has been explained in the real market scenario. However unlike the real mall the website has no smell to attract a visitor. Thus in a website a designer will arrange the “shelf” in such a way that the products are exposed to the visitors efficiently.Layout of the website is a major part of E-Commerce websites. According to a research the middle left side area will attract the most attention followed by the center of the page. Knowing this a web designer should try to draw the “walking path” for the visitor’s eye, much like what was done at the shopping mallAn important thing to consider is that, arranging the products on a website is easier than opening a shopping mall. However selling the products on website is difficult. Thus a professional designing and look of an E-commerce website is eminent as it is an important factor for selling the products online. An effective E-commerce website design will lead the visitor to the right page in one click or two at the most. All the facts about the product have to be presented in a smart way while every few line the visitor should have the option to click on the order form.A greater number of products on the website lead to more designing complexity. Most of the sophisticated E-commerce websites use certain personalization technologies in an order to determine the best selection of products to offer to the visitor. These technologies are the major part of advanced E-commerce websites. One of such technologies includes prediction of what to offer the users on his first visit on the site.

This is especially true for brands, which invest heavily in online marketing campaigns such as Search Engine Optimization, Social Media Marketing, Content Marketing or any other method. In short, the brands that spend the most money on online marketing have the most motivation to learn.It is not just the websites that have lots of traffic, due to marketing that can benefit from increasing conversion and sales opportunities. Newer brands and websites as well would prefer to have better return on investment with e-commerce websites.Consulting Services are great tool to Increase Sales Working through consulting services and with an experienced industry specific consultant can yield excellent results for a brand. Skin care companies have it very competitive online with the average consumer being highly educated and knowledgeable. These beauty consumers spend much time researching and conducting their due diligence on anti aging products, acne treatment, and other types of skin care products.For a skin care website to convert higher in e-commerce sales online, a brand must understand conversion optimization techniques, website design and development, as well as the requirements of online marketing campaigns.An experienced consultant can assist a skin care brand in identifying elements in various areas of the website that need improvement, re-positioning, or edits to increase sales. In most cases, it is either or the combination of the skin care home page layout, e-commerce store pages, and product offering that needs to be addressed.Skin Care Website Home Page Layout & DesignHome page layout is probably one of the most important if not “The” most important area of a skin care website. Regardless of the e-commerce store pages or product offerings, the home page is critical to increasing online sales.The home page of a skin care website has to incorporate certain elements to support marketing efforts and the success of them. For example, if a company relies on Search Engine Optimization to gain website traffic, the home page has to have at least a 350 word SEO copy on the home page, preferably at the top of the page. Without scrolling a website visitor should be able to see this text copy. This is very important for SEO marketing campaigns and the success of them. Google dictates much of this in order to rank high within their search. The text copy has to be in alignment with the keywords, title tags, and Meta description.Brands that have only a large image on the home page, loose much momentum in growth ability when organically marketing their website. They simply lack the conversion elements of a home page layout. To often skin care brands mirror the look after a larger brand, which have different marketing budgets, market reach and already may have the needed traffic for e-commerce sales.Smaller brands and skin care companies that wish to grow online with traffic and sales, must realize that their home page layout cannot be like a larger brand. These larger brands may have a different strategy or are in a different position altogether. This is a very common mistake amongst beauty brand website designs.Here are some home page layout elements that improve marketing results and sales:
Quality written SEO text copy
User-friendly navigation
Correct Meta data (keywords, title tags, description)
Discounts, specials, promotions
Latest articles via company blog
Products linked to storefront
Hosting quality (speed of the website)
Conversion Optimization tools
Improving Conversion For E-commerce Websites & Store PagesTo increase sales online, the website e-commerce store pages as well have to be designed, developed, and architected correctly. Many storefronts are not customized properly or enough to convert higher. They at times are lacking certain elements to improve sales.Statistics already show that in most cases store abandonment is as high as 50%. This means every other website visitor who starts the checkout process, abandons it and does not complete the purchase. This increases the need to improve store pages for conversion.Established skin care brands and newer operations must setup their storefronts in ways that will increase the potential for a sale. Here are some ideas and methods to increase sales:
User-friendly product navigation
Easy to understand product groupings
Quick shopper account review
Recently viewed products
Cross sale products functions
Easy to read highlights of products
Short checkout process
Accreditation and certification displayed
Display payment options
Show guarantees and offers
Product Offering, Sales, and PromotionsOne of the best methods to motivate a potential buyer and customer is through product sales and promotions. It matters how certain products are offered as well. To increase sales online, a skin care website must give website visitors incentives to purchase products.Adjusting at times how products are offered can quickly produce results. For example, if a skin care website is not offering packages and is only selling single unit items, it will tend to have less sales. Customers like to buy combination of products that make sense to them. Buying a cleanser with a toner, an anti aging kit, or an acne treatment package for example. Offering combination packages increases drastically the potential for more sales.Here are some other sales and promotions to increase sales online:
Packaging products for multiple unit sales
Monthly sales specials
Product discounts
Shipping discounts
Coupon Sales
Gift Certificates
Return customer discounts
Seasonal sale specials
There are many ways to improve online sales and sell more skin care products through e-commerce websites. It is a continued effort of improvement, fine-tuning, and adjusting. Skin care brands must understand that they cannot always compare themselves to their competitors.Working with experts such as through consulting services can be very beneficial. Increasing sales does not have to be such a mysterious process. A consultant can work with a brand to identify what can be improved upon on the website to have better sales results.One of the greatest benefits of working with an expert is that all improvements made through the consulting services will benefit the brand from that point on. Any improvement to the website will continue to yield that increase in online sales for the brand.