Tips and Trends 2006

With a look back at 2006, and an eye on the New Year, we provide tips for successful online commerce gleaned from the experts we've interviewed on 10 topics and trends, as well as from research done in the fourth-quarter. Here's wishing everyone a prosperous 2007.

1. Drop Shipping: This aspect of e-commerce still takes some know-how, it's not as easy as it sounds to carry and sell virtual inventory. Fortunately, the technology for doing so has improved since the early days of e-tail, though the dos and don'ts of drop shipping remain the same. You want to be sure you've picked a reputable company by checking their history and credentials, make certain they can cater to your individual business needs, and, finally, don't forget you still have to market what you're selling by adding value to the experience. James Maguire covers this in detail here.
2. EBay International: Why not expand to those untapped markets abroad? Frank Fortunato shows you in this story that it's not as difficult and daunting as it seems. You need to know the rules, be prepared to fill out custom forms accurately, decide the best way to do payment transactions, badda-bing, you're in the big leagues.
3. SEO: The basics of maintaining your organic search results include picking specific search terms, keeping your site void of Flash and graphics that aren't recognized by indexing spiders, writing copy that uses relevant and specific terms and trying to get as many links to your site as you can. Jennifer Schiff outlines how here.
4. SEM: Search-engine marketing must-know logistics are outlined here where we provide a checklist for picking relevant keywords, writing targeted titles and descriptions, preparing an effective bid strategy and selecting effective landing pages.
5. Site Design and Specialty Store Trends: This topic is evergreen in that you can never just design a site and leave it be. Design is more of a continuous process that takes constant nurturing, tweaking and adjusting as your business grows. We provide a primer in a story here by Jennifer Schiff. For those in the service industry, you need to be sure your site reflects your personal touch, and expertise, by including things such as detailed biographies of staff and the journey from idea to URL. More information is available in a feature here. If you're considering capitalizing on the trend of luxury e-tail, you can find suggestions for that in a story about the huge popularity of wine Web shops and in an article on the trend here.
6. Holiday Rush Recommendations: While these nuggets of advice are framed around the fourth-quarter flurry of activity, they can be employed year-round for successful business operations, or if your busy season is, say, in summer instead of winter. Make sure your site is designed for a clickable-ka-ching experience by ensuring shoppers can find you, and once there, can easily buy what they want, which is covered in the above-mentioned design story. Also, studies show shoppers abandon ship if your homepage takes longer than four seconds to load, so keep that in mind. Be prepared for traffic surges by making sure your host provider will automatically bump you up to the next plan. More information on what to ask from your hosting provider is covered by Lena West here. Free shipping is now considered standard, so to stay competitive, try to incorporate that into your offerings. If possible, heavily promote your site in catalogs, as studies show they dominated multi-channel marketing pay-offs.
7. PPC Pay Off: How do you know if your pay-per-click is actually earning you money? You have to calculate a few things to determine the answer, but it's something every business owner should either know how to do, or be savvy enough to hire someone to do it for them. First, you have to determine your gross profit and compare that to your PPC cost/conversion. If you're not in the black, Steve DiPietro outlines five steps for addressing the issue in our comprehensive story here.
8. Snagging Big Spenders: Make it a resolution to not only know what your average order value is, but to increase it as well. You can do this by offering limited-time discounts, re-designing your site to showcase the appropriate products, reassessing your product selection and offering discounts with related-item purchases, among other simple initiatives. Steve DiPietro provides a case-study with all the details here.
9. Consider Alternative Marketing Approaches: Paid search is the staple of many promotional campaigns, but there's other ways to lure shoppers to your site. You might want to research placing ads out of context through a firm such as Blue Lithium, covered in detail here, or trying a mash-up that will extend your brand. Likewise, so-called social shopping networks such as MySpace and Buddy Shopping are playing an increasing role in influencing online shopping, so it's prudent to keep an eye on what these emerging players are doing. Finally, local search is another trend to stay abreast of, as shoppers continue to research purchases that can be made nearby.
10. Turn The Page: Every online seller should have a copy of "Starting an Online Business All-In-One Desk Reference for Dummies" handy. It's an excellent reference that you can turn to again and again for the basics of marketing, design, shipping and many other topics from niche and non-profit sites to creating an effective business plan to setting up an AdWord campaign.