Need more proof that e-commerce is storming back with a vengeance? The U.S. Commerce Department’s newly released data shows the industry’s first back-to-back, double-digit percentage, year-to-year sales growth since the first quarter of 2008. Online sales in the U.S. were 14.3-percent higher in the first quarter of 2010 than they were a year ago, and this on the heels of a 14.6-percent rise in the final quarter of ’09. Web measurement firm comScore revealed similar gains in its report on the activity of online consumers.

To put the numbers in perspective, while total retail sales in the U.S. were also up from this time last year, that number grew only by about 6 percent. Traditional brick-and-mortar retailers, excluding grocery stores, saw an increase of 3.4 percent in the first quarter — less than one-quarter of the growth experienced by e-commerce retailers.

The last bit of good news is that the first-quarter gains were not bolstered by the holiday shopping season as were those of the fourth quarter of 2009, and they beat analysts’ expectations by nearly 2.5 percent. The outlook, then, is positive on two fronts. Consumers are starting to spend the way they did before the end of 2008, and more shoppers are choosing the online experience in favor of traditional retailers.

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Seybold Scientific offers a host of website design and eCommerce website development services for small and mid-size business. Please contact us at (208) 639-0781 to learn more, thank you.

It’s official. We are in a recession. Not that you needed confirmation from the government to tell you that especially as a business owner. But now that a recession has been officially declared – What is your company suppose to do to take advantage of the current business climate? Two words: Inbound marketing.

Inbound marketing is marketing focused on getting found by customers.

Companies have been using traditional or outbound marketing since the dawn of advertising to find customers. They have used techniques such as cold calling, print advertising, television ads, junk mail, spam and trade shows to get their message in front of the right person.

However, technology has helped make these techniques less effective, less successful, and ultimately more expensive. Caller ID blocks cold calls and telemarketers, digital video recorders make television advertising less effective, spam filters block mass emails, and tools like RSS are making print and display advertising less successful.

Of course, it is still possible to get a message out through these channels, but it takes more time and effort. Did I mention it also costs more money? And in today’s landscape spending more is not an option.
Today’s competitive environment demands that enterprises leverage each customer interaction for maximum benefit.

Instead of interrupting people with television ads, people and companies create videos that potential customers want to see. Does YouTube sound familiar? Instead of buying display ads in print publications, people create their own blog that people subscribe to and read on a daily basis. Instead of cold calling, companies create useful content and tools so that people call them looking for more information.

Inbound marketing is where you help yourself get found by people already learning about and shopping in your industry.  Your website needs to attract visitors naturally through the search engines, the blogosphere, and the social media sites.  In order to do this, you need to set up your website so it is smoking hot. It needs to be the place people bookmark. The site people subscribe to; the domain that gets top of mind awareness.

The game has changed. Are you ready to play ball?

Your potential customers are no longer driving to the mall to spend their hard-earned money. They are gathering online to find what they need. You are trying to sell a pay phone to a cell phone nation. They have all migrated to a new solution. Are you ready to sell to the new consumer?

With the inbound marketing tools that have become available over the past few years, the scale of any business can be unlimited. If you have a great product and the skills to communicate with your customers, you can compete with the biggest advertising budgets.

Pretty exciting, and for small businesses it is empowering.

To learn more about inbound marketing and how it can help your business in 2009, give Seybold Scientific a call at 208.639.0781.

What are the basic things you need to know in order to build an e-commerce site and start selling?

You’ve built a web site for your small business, and you’re actively marketing your business online. But, now you’re ready to go beyond online marketing to selling via the Web. What are the basic things you need to know in order to build an e-commerce site and start selling?

STEP 1: Get the software or service you need to run an online store.

Option A: Buy a software/service (Hosted e-commerce)
Do you have the technical staff needed to keep a custom e-commerce site up and running? If not, you may want to consider a hosted e-commerce solution like the Prostores Ecommerce Solution that we offer at Register.com. A hosted e-commerce solution manages all the technical details of an online store. So, the advantage of a hosted solution is that you can customize your online store, yet all of the technical details, billing solutions, etc. are taken care of by the hosted e-commerce provider that you select.

The majority of hosted e-commerce sites charge a flat monthly fee or a percentage of each transaction.

Option B: Build your own (Shopping Cart software)
If you decide not to go with a hosted solution and to build your own e-commerce site, you’ll need to choose shopping cart software to transact purchases on your site.

As with most software, there’s a wide variety of options and shopping cart vendors. In the end, you’ll need to compare several shopping cart software packages to determine what’s right for your site. Some of the leading shopping cart software vendors include: ProductCart, ClientReady, Zen Cart, or Shopsite Pro.

STEP 2: Establish a merchant account so you can get paid

You’re building your e-commerce site so that you can sell online, but obviously the big key is getting paid. Since the vast majority of online purchases are made via credit cards, you’ll need a merchant account to process credit card purchases for your online store.

The shopping cart software that you choose will often provide you with the basic tools to establish and manage a merchant account. However, there are many financial technology companies that can open a merchant account for you and enable you to start selling – and getting paid. Some of the leading merchant account companies include: Chase Paymentech, DirectPay, Wells Fargo, and PayByWeb.

Finally, most shopping cart software will also give you the ability to accept payments via PayPal or Google Checkout. In the end, you want to offer your customers as many payments options as possible to purchase your products.

STEP 3: Protect your business and your customers

Consumers have become very comfortable buying and shopping online. The most common technologies that have led to safe online shopping are Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) and Transport Layer Security (TSL). These technologies basically protect and encrypt the personal information that someone uses on your website to place their order – name, address, credit card number, etc.

In order to use SSL and TSL technologies, you have to purchase a certificate verifying your website. The best way to purchase a security certificate is via VeriSign.

In Boise you can find a number of website design companies. From simple website design with static HTML pages to full enterprise level and custom content management systems. In Boise you can find them all, but only a handful can provide truly valuable business insight as well as website design services.

In this blog post I want to take a moment to help my readers understand the difference between strategic website design and website design that simply is beautiful design.

Begin With a Goal

Whether you are a retailer or sell business-to-business in Boise, the best website begins with a solid foundation of what precisely you expect it to do for you. As a retailer it may mean an online transaction, but isn’t a visit to your physical store just as nice? As long as the cash register rings it’s all the same – right?

So let’s thin about that conversion path: Home Page > Category Page > Product Page > Shopping Cart .. ?? Store Directions.

This is a fine result provided you built it into your plan. All to often a visit to a Boise store cannot be attributed to a specific event. The merchant is completely unaware as to how their customer found them unless it is overtly stated that the sale began online. Since this is the case it is good to start with a goal and attempt to account for happy accidents in the process.

Next up: Search Engine Optimization

If you build it, they will come. This may be the case in baseball, but definitely is NOT the case on the Internet. Draft a marketing plan that includes your website and design it to allow search engines to crawl it with ease. There are many talented website design firms in Boise, but when selecting a website design company make sure you think about how you expect your website to “get found” before they begin coding.

On this site there are several articles on search engine optimization, so you should be able to get a pretty good idea of what a good website design company in Boise should do to make you successful. If you are still lost or confused, simply drop s a line for a no obligation consultation.

Lastly: Have Your Website Design Fit Your Audience.

A customer in Boise is different than a customer in Iceland. I think we can agree. So designing your website for a Boise, 35 – 50 year old mother can be challenge. Make sure you have the right people in the website design team. Do they think like your target audience? Can they write for the audience? Do they represent the demographic you are seeking to attract? These are important questions to think through – before you start!

Conclusion

Certainly we do website design; we hope to earn your business. But most of all we hope you will take our advice and think about how you approach your website design project before you select just any website design company in Boise or beyond. The engagement can be positive or a complete waste of money. We’d rather see you get what you pay for and have an excellent experience that turns searchers into visitors and visitors into buyers. This is what we do every day for our clients – we hope to do it for your company as well.