A Turtle Technology newsletter, with a focus on building an online shop

Hi Everyone, 

Our spring weather maybe consistently inconsistent but our quarterly newsletter doesn't miss a beat.

Is your (or your client's) online shop up to the challenge of converting viewers to customers? This newsletter is devoted to the art of designing and building a profitable online shop.

We've had a busy few months and you can check out one of our success stories below.

I know it's way too early, but as I will not be in contact until 2012 - Happy Christmas!

Enjoy the newsletter and let me know if we can help you to build an online shop.

-Daniel Scott.

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Convert !

The primary pathway for an online shop user is: Arrive > Intrigue > Inform > Decide > Buy. Our aim is to maximise the number of people who make it to the end of the pathway. How do we do that?

• Arrive - top quality Search Engine Optimisation and other marketing
• Intrigue - engaging site design and content plus great and relevant products!
• Inform - products and information should be relevant, engaging and easy to find (if you can't find the product, you can't buy the product)
• Decide - surprisingly traditional sales techniques
• Buy - easy online payment

These days the majority of your customers may be experienced in online shopping. They expect more than a functional shop they require an enjoyable experience without frustration.

Find out more about how to convert online sales.

Not sure where to start?

We partner with marketing agencies and consultancies and sometimes they ask us what they should ask their clients to understand their online shop requirements. Here are some of the key questions that you should ask yourself or your client:

1. Do products have variants and do they have different prices? e.g. different car colours cost the same but different car models have different prices.
2. Do products have add-on features which should be promoted?
3. What are the business rules around shipping? Are there international and national zones? Is shipping weight and/or size-based? How are multiple items shipped together?
4. Do users revisit the shop often? If so user registration may be useful, particularly if there is some additional value to the user e.g. access to discounts.
5. Are discounts offered? Examples are free shipping, percentage of sale value, bulk discounts, coupon codes and special offers.
6. Do they sell gift cards? What security is in-place? Can a card be used across multiple transactions?
7. Should the cart integrate into a business system to log orders, check stock levels and synchronise the product catalogue?
8. Are subscriptions being sold or products downloaded? Other systems may require integration.
9. What payment system should be used? A payment gateway is more expensive but more professional and more accessible to customers.

 Aquabumps

We recently built an online shop for Aquabumps. It was a fantastic project for a fantastic client. They email 47,000 people each day with their wonderful photos and now for the first time these can be purchased online.

We designed the technical solution and built the online shop. We integrated the cart with their website content management system and with their business system. The shop includes special offers, gift-cards, on-demand products and inventory. Check out their amazing photography at www.aquabumps.com.

Feature-driven

We thought we would brainstorm a list of every common feature we could think of for an online shop. If you (or a client) are thinking of building a shop you should check it out and decide what you might need. It doesn't hurt to introduce features in a staged approach - after all the enhancements will give you an excuse to contact customers and remind them of your fantastic products.

See our checklist of online shop features.

The 'hidden' costs

Don't forget that there are other costs to building an online shop - it's not just the programmers... You are likely to need to purchase an SSL certificate, you may need to purchase software licences, you might need professional photography, your bank will certainly want a slice and the payment gateway will too.

Common Pitfalls

What are some of the pitfalls to look out for? Put simply: anything that disappoints your customers. This might include problems with your website design, the technology, security or your content. You also need to ensure that your business processes can cope with this new sales channel.

Here are some examples of pitfalls of building an online shop.

  Social Shopping

How can you use social media to increase sales? There are a few mechanisms to integrate social media into your online shop:

• Drum up interest by marketing to your followers
• Integrate social media concepts into your shop such as reviews and similar purchases
• Sell through a social media site by using a plug-in to create a new sales channel
• Offer customer service through a social media site to provide pre/post-sales support

Our social media site of choice is LinkedIn. Please follow us: 

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