Entrepreneur’s Journal: Cranking out more cash from e-commerce

15 12 2007

Entrepreneur’s Journal: Cranking out more cash from e-commerce

Posted by: in Small Business

Filed under: Dell (DELL), Wal-Mart (WMT), Amazon.com (AMZN), Target Corp. (TGT), Small business

On so-called “Cyber Monday,” another record was broached, as U.S. on the internet shoppers clicked-up $733 million in sales. Some of the top performers included Wal-Mart (NASDAQ: WMT), Dell (NASDAQ: DELL), Target (NYSE: TGT), and Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN).

These are the huge players. But I’m sure there could have been even more sales, had smaller on the web venues been able to keep up in terms of technology and customer service. In other words, e-commerce sites can still be complex — enough to foil would-be buyers, and resulting in abandoned virtual shopping carts.

How can you improve your on the web store?

“A key is anticipating customer questions,” said Suzy Meriwether, who is the Industry Solutions Manager at RightNow Technologies (NASDAQ: RNOW), which develops customer relationship management applications. “This is becoming more important as products get more complex.”

One suggestions is to put together a FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions), and make sure you periodically update the questions (and think about highlighting the most common). To this end, RightNow recently launched a new web service, called a knowledge syndication widget, that automates this process. Such technologies not only improve customer conversions but also lower costs for call centers and customer support.

But, when putting together the content, it’s critical that you establish realistic expectations. “A key area is about when a customer will receive the product,” said Meriwether. “Also, customers want to know — up front — what the shipping costs will be.”

Another strategy is to provide multiple ways for customers to communicate with your website. “Keep in mind that young consumers may prefer text messaging or IM,” stated Meriwether.

In fact, Meriwether is a massive fan of live chat. “We’ve found that chat can be a great way to shut a deal when a user is at the deciding phase,” she said.

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including The Complete M&A Handbook and The Edgar On the web Guide to Decoding Financial Statements. He also operates DealProfiles.com.