Business to Consumer E-Commerce:

Selling on the Internet

Beth Duncan
Objectives
This module contains basic information for teaching existing businesses and new
business start-ups how to get started in selling products and services electronically to
customers through a retail web site.

Participants will learn...

1. the factors businesses should consider regarding e-commerce;

2. what people are currently buying and selling via the Internet;

3. what e-customers want from a retail web site;

4. how to get started in building a web store;

5. how to choose and purchase a domain name;

6. the factors to consider for an online catalog and ordering system;

7. about online merchant accounts and payment processing;

8. about the importance of online customer communication and tracking systems;

9. about web hosting options;

10. design and technical considerations for retail web sites; and

11. how to market a web site.

Total Time
Required
2 to 4 hours

Materials
Needed
PowerPoint slides and handouts of slides

Audio/Visual
Equipment
Overhead projector and screen
Electronic classroom with Internet access (optional) - if this is available, the
instructor can use a combination of lecture and hands-on approach to teaching.
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2 Southern Region Community Development Institute
Buying and Selling Online is Here to Stay!
There’s no doubt about it. The way we buy and sell consumer goods is changing — and it’s changing quickly!
The reason for the big change can simply be explained with one word - Internet. Estimates indicate that more
than 580 million people are online worldwide. By the year 2005, the global Internet population will reach
1.17 billion [1]. A report released by the Census Bureau of the Department of Commerce estimated U.S.
retail e-commerce sales for the second quarter of 2002 at $10.2 billion, an increase of 24.2 percent from the
second quarter of 2001. Total retail sales for the second quarter of 2002 were estimated at $825.5 billion, an
increase of 2.5 percent from the same period a year ago. The second quarter 2002 e-commerce estimate
increased 3.7 percent from the first quarter of 2002, while total retail sales increased 11.0 percent from the
prior quarter. E-commerce sales in the second quarter of 2002 accounted for 1.2 percent of total sales, while
in the second quarter of 2001 e-commerce sales were 1.0 percent of total sales. In the first quarter of 2002
e-commerce sales were 1.3 percent of total sales [2].

Why are people buying products over the Internet? A survey of Internet shoppers gave the following reasons
[3]:
Ease of placing an order;
Large selection of products;
Cheaper prices;
Fast service and delivery;
Detailed and clear product information;
No sales pressure; and
Easy payment procedure.

What are people buying over the Internet? As of January 2002, the following product categories were selling
(listed in descending order by revenues generated) [4]:

Airline tickets
Computer hardware
Apparel
Toys/Video games
Consumer electronics
Hotel reservations
Books
Music
Videos
Software
Food/Beverages
Jewelry
Health/Beauty
Car rental
Linen/Home decor
Sporting goods
Footwear
Office supplies
Tools/Hardware
Small appliances
Furniture

Business to Consumer E-Commerce: Selling on the Internet 3

 Flowers
Appliances
Garden Supplies
What does all this mean to small business? It means the Internet is a new way to expand business opportuni-
ties. It is proving to be a great equalizer, allowing the smallest of businesses and those in rural locations to
access markets and have a presence that allows them to compete on equal footing. It also means businesses
should watch this trend and develop a strategy to position themselves in the new Internet economy. In devel-
oping a strategy, first ask, “Does the business need a web site?” and, “What does the business want to accom-
plish by establishing a web site?” Don’t make the mistake of hurriedly creating a web site without serious
thought and business planning.

Small businesses are using the Internet to create new markets, provide information about products/services 24
hours a day, service customers, get customer feedback, and sell products. Basically, these can be boiled down
into three main reasons why businesses establish web sites: marketing, customer support, and sales.

Many businesses have sites that create a presence on the web and are what some term a “brochure” site. They
serve as an advertising/promotional tool for the business, providing information about the business but not
actually selling products online. The Internet has significantly reduced the cost associated with obtaining
information about products, and many people use the Internet to research products and then purchase them
off line. A web site may provide a telephone number and/or fax number for actual ordering. Many companies
have found this type of web site an effective tool for servicing customers by providing product information
and specifications, providing answers to frequently asked questions, and communicating with customers. Some
businesses start out with brochure sites and grow into full-service transactional sites.

A full-service transactional web site not only creates a web presence but is also designed for accepting and
processing orders online in real time.

Like any other marketing or sales effort, setting up and running a business web site will cost money. The cost
can range from next to nothing to thousands of dollars, depending on the purpose of the site, size of the
site, how much is done in-house, and how much is out-sourced. The bottom line is that a small business with
a well thought-out strategy and plan can be doing business online in a short period of time and for a reason-
able amount of money.

While the traditional ways of doing business should not be totally abandoned, given current trends and pre-
dictions, it is essential that small businesses embrace the use of the Internet as a vehicle for sales. The busi-
nesses that position themselves now for a technology-driven future increase their chances of survival.

What Do E-Customers Want?

An important question that needs to be answered before an electronic retail (e-tail) web site is created is,
“Who are the people that will be visiting my web site?” or, “Who is my customer or target market?” The
more you know about your target market, the more you can adjust your web site contents. For instance, is
the purpose of your web site to provide information or to market and sell a product or service? These are
two very different objectives and creating a web site to address each objective may result in significantly differ-
ent end products.

Before you start building your electronic storefront, do your homework. Go to the web and look very closely
at existing e-tail sites. Evaluate them from a customer standpoint.

4 Southern Region Community Development Institute

Here’s what customers say they want:
Clear/accurate product information and representation;
Real-time answers through self-help features and toll-free telephone numbers;
Good prices and clear representation of all charges;
Secure transactions;
Easy to use return/exchange policy;
Quick processing and delivery time;
Elimination of unknowns; and
Shopper privacy.

A good place to start is with some of the most successful business sites, such as amazon.com and qvc.com.
Even if your online business is going to be much smaller in scale than these sites, there are still lessons to be
learned from them such as site design from a selling and customer standpoint.
In addition, Internet and e-tail customer research can provide guidance in web site development. According to
a report on e-commerce from Forrester [5], exceptional customer service strongly increases future sales
through return visits and word-of-mouth. The study showed that 90 percent of satisfied customers are likely
to visit again, and 87 percent will tell family and friends about the site. A report by Jupiter [6] said 45 per-
cent of online shoppers choose web sites based on word-of-mouth recommendations. The Forrester [5] report
further indicated that Internet shoppers expect e-commerce sites to have customer service readily available
throughout the buying experience.

So when it comes to building an e-tail web store, the question becomes, “Precisely what do e-customers
want?” Internet shoppers want the following:
Fun and easy to navigate sites — make the shopping experience at your e-tail site a pleasurable experience
by making it user-friendly and easy to navigate. The site should be concise and informative. Potential cus-
tomers may be reluctant readers, and by encumbering them with volumes of information, you may just
encourage them to go elsewhere. Remember the three-click rule: if a customer can’t accomplish what he
or she wants to do within three clicks, then the system isn’t working right [7].

Quick download time — a major complaint among Internet users is long load times. Research indicates
that 80 percent of web users cite download time as the number one problem [8]. Pages should be fast
loading and not keep customers waiting. A couple of seconds is ideal, 10 to 15 seconds is ok, but take
more than 20 seconds and your customer is gone. Keep in mind as you design your site that most con-
sumers are connecting to the Internet via slow modems, and large graphics increase load times. Recent
studies indicate that slow-loading web sites cause online consumers to abandon up to 50 percent of
online transactions [9].

Pages that appear professional — clean and simple is better than cluttered and complicated. In e-tail, you
are selling, and your site should be designed to display and highlight what you are selling. The web store
should reflect good use of the elements of art and principles of design, while at the same time be
designed for online shopper usability. Don’t get caught up in the latest bells, whistles, glitz and flash at
the sacrifice of service and sales.

Clear and accurate product information and representation — since customers cannot actually see, touch
and feel products in person, the graphic representations must be clear and visually accurate. Product
descriptions must be thorough and eliminate any guessing. The more clearly and accurately you represent
your products on your web store, the less time you will have to spend answering questions about prod-
ucts and restocking returned merchandise from dissatisfied customers.

Business to Consumer E-Commerce: Selling on the Internet 5

 Displaying an in-stock inventory count for products — this is particularly helpful for items that tend to be
in short supply. Shoppers do not want to waste time ordering an item that is not even available.
Inventory software is available that can make this an automated function on your web site.

Real time answers through self-help features, e-mail and a toll-free telephone number — Internet shoppers
want answers, and they want them quickly. E-mail and the telephone are the most used and the most pre-
ferred forms of contact, with e-mail ranking first. In both circumstances, it is key to customer satisfaction
that someone be available to answer questions in a timely manner, preferably in real time. Real people
providing real time answers add a human touch to doing business. Even online shoppers still prefer doing
business with real people. According to a study by Jupiter Communications, 47 percent of people are
more likely to buy online with the addition of real time interaction [6].

However, many Internet shoppers prefer to find the information about products themselves. Provide easy-
to-find answers to anticipated questions such as product information, minimum orders, shipping, warran-
tees and pricing schedules. You must design your storefront so customers can easily find answers to their
questions at your site, not your competitors. Offer self-help through the use of searchable databases,
online videos and frequently asked question and answers sections. Ideally, web-based customer service
should include both self-help and real time or live help capabilities [10].

Good prices and clear representation of all charges — price is a major factor in closing a sale, so your
prices must be competitive. Any additional charges such as shipping, handling, special delivery, gift-wrap-
ping, custom or special orders, etc. should be clearly presented to the customer.

Payment options — most Internet shoppers want to buy online in real time; however, there are people
who prefer to purchase using an alternative method. Offer customers various means of ordering and pay-
ing for the items they select. You should offer the visitor the opportunity to order online, by telephone
number (preferably a toll-free number), by fax or by mail.

Secure transactions — customers consistently indicate credit card security is a primary concern when shop-
ping online. Statistics indicate that you lose 50 to 60 percent of potential sales when you don’t offer a
secure transaction site. Include a statement about your web site’s security system to help alleviate fears of
using a credit card online to make a purchase.

Easy to use return or exchange policy — online shoppers want the same or even better return and
exchange policies that they are used to receiving in traditional retail. Your return policy should be clearly
stated on your e-tail web site and should be as liberal as possible given the merchandise you are selling.

Quick processing and delivery time — “we want it now” is the motto of Internet shoppers. It is critical
that you have a delivery plan and system in place before you go online with your business. Inform cus-
tomers as to when they can expect delivery at the time they place the order and after they place the
order. Send another email message the day the product is actually shipped. Follow-up communication via
e-mail is a frequently used and proven model for e-commerce.

Shopper privacy — many consumers are concerned about protecting personal information and are leery
about how the information they provide at e-tail sites might be used. Consider posting a privacy state-
ment or policy on your web site, explaining to customers what information you collect about them and
how you use it. Remember that from an ethical standpoint, if you post a policy, it is your responsibility
to follow it.

6 Southern Region Community Development Institute

Getting Started Building A Web Store
As with any business venture, there must be something to sell — a product, service or combination of the
two. And as with any business venture, the more planning that goes in on the front end, the higher the
chance of business success. These same principles hold true for e-commerce, whether it be a new virtual busi-
ness or an existing business wanting to expand by selling via the Internet.

The information covered in this section provides the basics of how a small business can establish an electron-
ic retail web site. This information is intended as a starting point for the many businesses thinking about
going online but don’t know where to begin. Establishing and maintaining an e-commerce web site takes a lot
of research, planning and plain old hard work. However, the rewards can be great!

A small business venture that establishes a web site or web store that represents their products AND actually
accepts and processes orders online is called a transactional e-tail web site. This type of online selling basically
requires:
a domain name/web address;
a web store;
online product catalog;
ordering system/shopping cart;
merchant account/payment processing;
customer communication system;
tracking system;
a web server/host; and
site marketing.

Domain Names
Early in the process of setting up an e-tail site, you need to decide on the domain name for the business,
which is the name that will be in the URL (universal resource locator). The URL is the web address or loca-
tion on the Internet for your e-tail web site — www.yourname.com. The name you choose is important. It
should reflect what you sell and be easy for customers to remember. Once you have chosen your name, the
next step is to see if it is available. If the name is available, you need to register it. Domain name extensions
most commonly used for business sites include:
.com - a general domain extension intended for commercial use;
.net - a general domain extension primarily used for Internet infrastructure organizations/companies;
.org - a general domain extension primarily used for not-for-profit organizations;
.biz - a general domain extension intended for businesses;
.info - a general domain extension intended for both commercial and non-commercial use.

There are free web sites that allow you to search domain names and determine if a specific URL has already
been registered. For example, the register.com and networksolutions.com sites allow you to search domain
names to determine if a particular web site address has been registered.

If the name has not been registered, you can register the domain name with one of the many registrars (com-
panies that can provide domain name registration services). Registration gives you the right to a particular
domain name for a specified number of years after which it has to be renewed annually. Currently, initial and
renewal registrations are available in one-year increments, with a total registration period limit of ten years.
Compare the different companies fees and accreditation and use the one with which you feel most
comfortable.

Business to Consumer E-Commerce: Selling on the Internet 7

Registering your domain is a simple process that can be accomplished in a short time, so put your time and
effort into coming up with just the right name. You have heard the saying, “What’s in a name?” —
Everything! When it comes to selling on the Internet, this can be very true. Your customers need to know
how to reach you without having to think about it. So choose a name and choose it carefully — think like a
customer!

It is important from a business standpoint to have your own unique domain name. Using your company’s
name or your product’s name in your domain name makes it easy for customers to recall and remember the
name at a future date. Including additional characters or words in the domain name only increases the likeli-
hood of customers not being able to accurately recall your complete domain name. Some web hosting servic-
es and electronic shopping malls will help you get your site up and going, but your name is embedded within
their domain name — www.theirname/yourname.com. Try to avoid this set up because it is often hard for cus-
tomers to find your site and hard to build your own web identity.

Another issue to consider is buying multiple domain names or variations of the name you choose. For exam-
ple, if you were growing and selling all varieties of red roses, a natural choice would be redroses.com.
Variations might be red-roses.com, redrose.com, etc. You may also want to consider registering the name as a
.com, .net, and .org. That means you have to register (and pay for) each domain name separately. However,
from a business standpoint, that is a small investment to protect yourself from lost sales to a competitor who
registers a variation of your domain name to draw your customers to their site. If you do register multiple
domain names, each domain name can be structured so that it directs the customer to a single web site.
Registering multiple domain names does not necessarily mean multiple web sites have to be developed.

[Note: For more detailed information and answers to frequently asked question regarding domain names, go
to the U.S. Department of Commerce’s InterNIC, web site.]

Online Product Catalog

Your web store is more than just a web site — it must be designed from an e-tail perspective and contain fea-
tures that make it easy to access and buy products. First it needs to contain an online product catalog that
offers good quality and accurate graphic representation of each product you are selling. This is fundamental
to selling on the web. Remember that customers cannot touch and feel your products, they can only see what
is up on their screen, so products must look good and make customers want to buy them. (Many businesses
that are already selling via mail order catalogs are a natural for selling on the web. They already have a print
catalog that they can adapt to a virtual catalog as well.)

Keep in mind that download time for any web site should be quick. Internet shoppers are impatient and
don’t want to wait more than a couple of seconds. Keep your graphic files as small as you can without dis-
torting your product images. Many sites use small graphics that when clicked open to a larger view of the
product.

Ordering System/Shopping Cart

Incorporate an ordering system that is easy to use to allow customers to pick and choose the products they
want to order from your online catalog. To date, the most successful online shopping model is the shopping
cart ordering system. The electronic shopping cart is modeled after the way most of us shop for groceries in
the United States — with a cart that we fill with products as we push it around the store. The online shop-
ping cart system allows customers to place items they choose into their own personal virtual shopping cart.
When online customers are through shopping, they proceed to check-out where items are totaled, including
shipping/handling and any other charges. If you are building your own web store, there are many software

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packages available that utilize the shopping cart model. Shopping cart software ranges in price from free to
thousands of dollars depending on the quality and functionality. Look for a fully integrated software package
that takes the process all the way from product selection to order total.

Merchant Account/Payment Processing

Currently, credit cards are the quickest and most efficient way to accept payment for online purchases. The
two ways for accepting credit cards for online purchases are manual processing and real time processing. In
manual processing, the online customer enters the credit card number for payment of purchase. The informa-
tion is sent to you and the transaction is processed by hand with a terminal keypad. You enter the numbers
into the terminal where it then connects to a processing network and returns the status as approved or
declined.

In real time processing, the customer enters the credit card number, and the transaction is processed entirely
online. After the transaction has been completed, the processor will deposit the money from the transaction
into your bank account. The process for accepting real time credit card payment via the Internet requires
communication between your web store shopping cart and payment processor using your merchant account.
It is critical that these functions are compatible with one another.

Either way, you need to set up the ability to accept credit card payments online by establishing a merchant
account and a way to process payments. Without a merchant account, web businesses can’t accept credit
cards and may miss out on more than 60 percent of their sales opportunities. There are many services set up
to do this for small e-tail businesses. Go to a search engine and type in “merchant account” and a long list of
merchant account and processing service providers will come up. Compare and evaluate companies in terms
of costs (set-up fee, per transaction fee, percentage of sales, monthly/annual fee), secure transactions, how
long they have been in business, compatibility with your system, and the services they provide (an impartial
listing of merchant account providers can be found at MerchantWorkz.com). It is easiest and simplest to go
with a fully integrated service that provides you with the merchant account and payment processing at a
secure location; however, this can be more expensive.

From a customer standpoint, having a secure site where they actually submit their credit card number is criti-
cal. This is done by using a SSL (Secure Socket Layer) server where the transactions take place. Insuring secure
transactions is currently the number one customer issue when it comes to buying online. Experts say that you
lose 50 to 60 percent of potential sales when you don’t have a secure transaction site.

Customer Communication System

In addition to an ordering system, your web store needs to incorporate a way to communicate with cus-
tomers. There should be a telephone number on each web page where customers can call with questions, and
there should be an easily accessible e-mail system where customers can send questions. A recent study by
Forrester indicated e-mail and the telephone were the most-used and the most-preferred form of contact, with
e-mail ranking first. In both circumstances, it is key to customer satisfaction that someone be available to
answer the questions in a timely matter —- within 24 hours or less. Remember, your competition is just a click
away!

The communication system you incorporate should have a mechanism that e-mails customers once they have
placed an order, thanking them and letting them know when to expect shipment. A customer database can
also be used to send customers information about new products, sales, etc. This communication system
should be as automated as possible.

Business to Consumer E-Commerce: Selling on the Internet 9

Tracking System

In addition to a communication system, the web store should incorporate a system that tracks each customer
order from placement through delivery.

Web Server/Host

Once your e-tail web site is designed and ready to go, you must have a place for it to reside or an ISP
(Internet Service Provider) to host it. The two basic choices are to purchase your own web server or “rent”
space on a web server. The key word here is web server — not just any server will do. The first choice, buying
your own server, can be costly both in initial hardware and software and in maintaining the system. If you
don’t have the necessary skills, you will have to hire someone to set up and maintain your server for you, and
that can be quite expensive. Most small businesses choose to rent space on a server. Either way, you will pay
a monthly fee to an ISP to host your site or your server. It is important to start locating the ISP while you
are working on your web store. Don’t wait until you have your web store done. Make sure that the service
provider has adequate space, bandwidth, reliability, knowledge and capability to handle a transactional e-tail
web site.

Outsourcing and Web Building/Hosting Services

At this point, if you have decided that you do not have the time, talent, staff or inclination to build your e-
tail web site in-house, then do what many small businesses do and out-source it to a company or person with
expertise in building web sites. Make sure that whoever you hire not only knows how to build web sites but
also knows how to build e-tail web sites. There is a lot more to building a site for doing commerce on the
Internet than building a personal web page or an informational web page for a business. Always take an
online look at work they have done and evaluate it before you hire someone for your business. The cost to
out-source your web site design will vary from a couple hundred dollars to thousands of dollars depending on
the complexity of site, size of site, who you hire, and what you want done.

Another option — what some call the “one-stop” method of getting an e-tail web site up and going for mini-
mal costs and in minimal time — is to use a web building/hosting service. These are services that take you
through the entire process of setting up your web store starting with securing your domain name and going
all the way through the marketing of the site. These companies provide templates for designing your web
store, shopping cart software, forms, a place to host your site, a source for setting up a merchant account and
processing, secure transaction locations, and more. Go to a search engines and type in “web hosting service”
and a long list of web hosting service providers will come up. Compare and evaluate companies in terms of
costs, services they offer and ease of use. This is a real option for many small businesses, especially those
companies that don’t have a large number of different products to sell, have a small budget dedicated to this
effort, or just want to start out on a small scale.

Design and Technical Considerations

There are many design and technical issues that need to be considered when designing a web site. The more
knowledge you have before building your site, the better your site will be. The following are some of the
more critical issues to consider:
Bandwidth — bandwidth affects the speed with which a user can access the Internet. The dominant design
criterion should be download speed in all web projects until about the year 2004. Design your web site
for the masses aiming at optimal usability over a 56K modem. Apply the KISS rule to your web site —
Keep It Short and Simple! The more you use large graphics, animation, video streaming, audio streaming
and other multimedia design features, the slower the download time. Recommendations are to keep page

10 Southern Region Community Development Institute

 sizes (file sizes) below 50K to prevent loss of viewers [3]. Internet customers don’t like to wait!

Browser Compatibility — design your web site so that it looks good on all browsers. What looks okay on
Netscape might not look okay on Internet Explorer or AOL browsers. And what looks okay on Explorer
6 might not look okay on Explorer 5.

Color Palette — color configuration varies from computer to computer from multi-million color displays
to 256-color and 16-color monitors. For consistence in graphical appearance, it is recommended using a
256-color/16-color default in your web design.

Continuity — the overall look of the web site should be consistent from page to page. There should be a
unified look and feel as the user navigates within the site. Pages should incorporate similar layout, logos,
fonts, colors, styles, graphics, etc., creating a comfort factor and a sense of familiarity with customers.

Frames — avoid using frames in the design of your site. Frames decrease the dynamic space you have to
work with, thereby decreasing the amount of space for featuring products. They often present navigation
problems for the user, some browsers cannot print framed pages accurately, and search engines have trou-
ble with framed sites.

Home Page — the most prominent design element on the home page should be the name and logo of
the company. They should also appear in smaller scale on every page of the web site. In addition, a busi-
ness web site should provide customers with a brief description of the business and available products.
Briefly describe any unique aspects of your business from inception to the current operation to include
unique manufacturing, service, distribution and other processes. This type of seemingly useless informa-
tion provides your company the opportunity to differentiate itself from competing products. Be careful
not to overdo it; too much seemingly useful information may actually become useless if you cannot
retain the customer’s interest.

Navigation — use directories, site maps and navigation bars throughout your site. Be consistent in your
format from page to page. The goal is to enable customers to move around your site with ease. No mat-
ter where a customer is on the site, they should be able to get wherever they want to go quickly.
According to an internetday.com article, 20 to 40 percent of users don’t purchase because they can’t fig-
ure out how to easily move around the web site.

Page Width — do not design for a specific screen width. Experts recommend creating page layouts that
will work across a range of window sizes — a resolution-independent page or liquid layout that can adapt
to anything from 620 to 1024 pixels. However, if this is not possible or you do choose to design for a
specific size, at least for the immediate future stay with the current standard page size of 800 x 600 pix-
els. Currently, about 93 percent of the web population can view a page at 800 x 600 without unnecessary
scrolling [11]. Taking into account the actual viewable browsing area, this means you would design pages
that are about 770 x 430.

Readability — design your site so that it is easy to read. The background should not impair the visitor’s
ability to read and see the information on the page. Use colors with high contrast between the back-
ground and text. For example, a black background with dark blue text can make reading extremely diffi-
cult. Don’t use patterned backgrounds that interfere with the ability to read information and see prod-
ucts. Use fonts that people can see and read easily. Be brief, concise and succinct in your writing. Make
your words count. Use short paragraphs and bulleted lists. The rule of thumb when writing for the web is
to reduce by 50 percent the amount of text used to write the same material for print.

Business to Consumer E-Commerce: Selling on the Internet 11

 Screen Compatibility — screen size and resolution vary from user to user. Design your web site so that it
will look good on all screen sizes and screen resolutions.

Text Only Default — a well-designed web site will include a text-only option that will display alternate
information for browsers without graphics capability. In addition, a text-only version of your site makes it
easier for visually impaired users to access your information with a talking browser that reads the text
aloud.

Accessibility — a web site should be designed so that it is accessible to people with disabilities. For exam-
ple, consider the following design issues that affect web site accessibility:

— The visually impaired use special readers that read only text.
— Blinking text can trigger seizures in some visitors.
— Poor color choices may render text unreadable to color blind visitors.
— Mouse-dependent site navigation can be difficult for visitors with physical limitations.
— Information contained in sound clips is inaccessible to hearing-impaired visitors.

Bobby is a web-based tool that analyzes web pages for their accessibility to people with disabilities. The
Center for Applied Special Technology (CAST) offers Bobby as a free public service in order to further
its mission to expand opportunities for people with disabilities through the innovative uses of computer
technology. To analyze your web site, go to www.cast.org/bobby and type in the URL of the page that
you want Bobby to examine and click submit. Bobby will display a report indicating any accessibility
and/or browser compatibility errors found on the page. Additional information regarding accessibility for
the disabled is available through the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI).

User Interface — a web site must be easy to use, period. Ease of navigation is critical. And the easier and
more logical you make this process on your site, the happier the user will be. Navigation interfaces need
to help customers answer three fundamental questions relative to the web as a whole and relative to the
site’s structure [3]:

— Where am I?
— Where have I been?
— Where can I go?

There are several excellent books on the market that address these issues and more:

— Designing Web Usability: The Practice of Simplicity, Jakob Nielsen

— Homepage Usability: 50 websites Deconstructed, Jakob Nielsen
— Son of Web Pages That Suck, Vincent Flanders

Site Marketing
“Build it and they will come!” They may, and then again, they may not. You must put some effort into mar-
keting your e-tail web store. Many companies are not satisfied with their web site as a marketing and sales
tool. It is not unusual for a business to expend significant resources constructing a professional web site only
to leave it unattended. To make your web site work, it must be a critical part of your marketing plan and
receive the same attention other components receive. The web site needs to be updated periodically and mar-
keted continually to be successful. There are millions of web sites on the Internet, and without rigorous mar-
keting, the chances of your site generating the desired level of customer traffic and/or sales is quite small.
12 Southern Region Community Development Institute
The key is to get your site known so potential customers will come and take a look. There are several things
that you can do to increase the hits on your site.

Submit your site to the “big” search engines (Yahoo!, Google, Alta Vista, Excite, Web Crawler, MSN, Infoseek,
Lycos, Ask Jeeves, and HotBot). You need to be listed with the search engines because this is the number one
way people find sites selling products they are interested in purchasing. It is estimated that 85 percent of all
web users find sites via search engines [5]. To submit your site, go to the main page of the search engine and
click the button for site submission. For example, yahoo.com has a “How to Suggest a Site” link at the bot-
tom of their page that takes you to a page of instructions on how to do it. Most search engines require a fee
to submit a business site. The cost is well worth the investment.

When you submit your URL to search engines, don’t expect your site to show up immediately. Some search
engines take a while before your listing shows up. A month or so after submitting your URL to search
engines and directories, check to make sure it is listed properly. Some search engines and directories have
links that allow you to verify that your web site has been registered. Don’t stop there; it is important to fre-
quently check on your web site pages as pages sometimes disappear, dead links may develop, or the page may
be deleted from a search engine or directory catalog.

For optimal indexing of your web site by search engines, Dr. R. F. Wilson of Web Marketing Today recom-
mends the following tags be incorporated into the web site coding:
Write a Page Title. Write a descriptive title for each page of five to eight words. Remove filler words from
the title, such as “the” and “and.” This page title appears on the web search engines when your page is
found. Entice surfers to click on the title by making it a bit provocative. Hint: use some descriptive key-
words along with your business name on your home page. Instead of “Acme Cutlery, Inc.” use “Acme
Cutlery — Pocketknives, Butchering Sets and Kitchen Knives.” The more people see in the blue highlight-
ed portion of the search engine that interests them, the more likely they are to click on the link.

List Keywords. To get your juices flowing, sit down with some associates and brainstorm a list of 50 to
100 keywords or key phrases — the kind of words or phrases someone might search on to find a business
or site like yours. Then refine the list to the most important 20 or so. Make sure you don’t repeat any
word more than three times so you’re not penalized for “keyword spamming.”

Write a Page Description. Select the most important 20 keywords, and write a careful 200 to 250 charac-
ter (including spaces) sentence or two. Keep this readable but tight. Eliminate as many filler or throwaway
words as you can (and, the, a, an, company, etc.) to make room for the important words, those keywords
that do the actual work for you.

It is important to resubmit a web page after major changes have been implemented. By resubmitting the page,
search engines and directories have the opportunity to index your new page. The new index may significantly
impact your search engine results ranking or place the page in another category. Resubmitting a web site after
significant changes have been made is one way to ensure that your site’s content is current within the various
search engines and directories.

[Note: The following web sites have excellent information on the subject of web marketing via search engines,
meta tags, etc. — searchenginewatch.com, searchengines.com and members.attcanada.ca/~lillyb.]

Reciprocal linking and cross promotion — if you provide a link to my site, I will provide a link to your site —
is another way to increase traffic to your site. This takes full advantage of the way the web works. It is well
known that word of mouth is a powerful form of advertising. With the web, verbal referrals are replaced with
links or click referrals. A study by Forrester showed that 90 percent of satisfied online customers are likely to
visit again and that 87 percent will tell friends and family about the site.
Business to Consumer E-Commerce: Selling on the Internet 13
Affiliate programs are becoming an extremely good way to generate traffic and revenue. An affiliate program
works like this: you sign up to become an affiliate of a company (for example, amazon.com) on the web.
Once you become an affiliate and provide a link to their site, any time someone visits them via your link and
makes a purchase, you receive a percentage of the sale. It costs you nothing to do this, and you can use an
affiliate program to promote your own site. You would give affiliates a percentage of sales they generate by
linking customers to you. Tracking is crucial to affiliate programs, and you would have to incorporate such a
system into the design of your site if you go with this type of program.
Advertisements are another way to increase traffic and to generate revenue. You can purchase ad space on
sites that receive a lot of traffic, hoping to capture potential customers to your site, or you can sell ad space
on your site to others. Don’t forget to include your URL or web address with your traditional forms of adver-
tising and on all collateral business material such as radio, television, print, business cards, brochures, station-
ary, fax cover sheets, invoices, quotes, etc. www.yourname.com should be highly visible in all aspects of your
business. Including your web address on all business material allows you to expose current and potential cus-
tomers to your address. The key is to get your web address in front of as many people as possible.

The Bottom Line

The bottom line in business is, of course, profit — and profit from e-tail is achieved by:
getting customers to come to your site,
getting customers to make a purchase once they get to your site, and
getting customers to return to your site and purchase again, and again, and again!

References
[1] NUA Internet Surveys - http://www.nua.ie/surveys

[2] U.S. Department of Commerce - http://www.census.gov

[3] Dr. Jakob Nielsen - http://www.useit.com

[4] CyberAtlas - http://www.cyberatlas.internet.com

[5] Forrester - http://www.forrester.com

[6] Jupiter Media Metrix - http://www.jmm.com

[7] E-Commerce Times (S. Strauss) - http://www.ecommercetimes.com/small_business/strategy/strauss307.shtml

[8] Terry Sullivan - http://www.pantos.org/atw

[9] Keynote - http://www.keynote.com

[10] E-Commerce Times (D. Cruse) - http://www.ecommercetimes.com

[11] StatMarket - http://www.statmarket.com

14 Southern Region Community Development Institute

For more information on e-commerce
BizReport – http://www.bizreport.com

CyberAtlas – http://www.cyberatlas.internet.com

ECG – http://www.ecommerce-guide.com

E-Commerce Times – http://www.ecommercetimes.com

EcomWorld – http://www.ecomworld.com

Forrester – http://www.forrester.com

IDC – www.idc.com

Internet Economy Indicators – http://www.internetindicators.com

InterNIC – http://www.internic.net

Jupiter Research – http://www.jmm.com

NUA Internet Surveys - http://www.nua.net/surveys

Search Engine Watch – http://searchenginewatch.com

searchengines.com – http://www.searchengines.com

StatMarket – http://www.statmarket.com

United States Census Bureau E-Commerce Retail Sales Statistics – http://www.census.gov/mrts/www/

current.html

useit.com – http://www.useit.com

web Accessibility Initiative – http://www.w3.org/WAI

Business to Consumer E-Commerce: Selling on the Internet 15

APPENDIX