Ecommerce Web Design Blog

Whether you are selling online or offline, pricing your products is a key part of doing business.  What methods can you use to price your online products? Here are a few tips you may wish to consider.

Some common methods to price products include:

• Cost-based pricing (also called cost-plus pricing. this is the price that you paid for an item plus a mark-up)
• Market-based pricing (what your competition is selling items at)
• Value-based pricing (what your customers value your products at. You may apply a premium to reflect your brand, to depict quality or the value of your product in the marketplace)

In practice, the price you place on your products will often depend on a combination of the techniques above.  There are also many different strategies that you can use to price products depending on your objectives in the market.

For example, if you are a new business online you might run an introductory sale, you may have some products of popular items priced equal or below the competition to get people to your store and other products priced using value or cost-based pricing. 

Some  online businesses also use a technique called a loss leader of pricing one product below cost to match or better competition, to get people into your online store and looking around. If they buy that item and you can cross-sell it with others, you could build up a sizeable cart and make a profit overall, even if one item is sold at a loss. 

Whatever you do, make sure you look at the prices of your products as a whole and not only individually, as it will depend on your competitors, your products, your shopping cart website, your advertising and your brand as to whether customers will be prepared to pay your prices.

For a wary online consumer, one way to assess whether an ecommerce website is safe and secure to purchase from is to look at whether the site is kept up-to-date.

A well designed website that has a good selection of products, an easy-to-use checkout system, an active newsletter and is obviously well maintained is more likely to inspire confidence in the buyer that the products they order from you will be of high quality and actually get delivered to them.  Keeping your shopping cart website up-to-date by reflecting seasons and events (such as Christmas, Chinese New Year, Valentines, Easter,  etc) and sending out a regular newsletter to your subscribers/customers can therefore be a big influencer in whether your customers keep buying from you.

At the start of each year, mark on a calendar or in your online diary your planned promotions, events and seasonal messages for the year.  Allow your sales,  promotions or seasonal messages to run for at least two weeks prior to each event to allow people to find you and buy from you during your sale period.  For big sales, you may need to run them for four weeks to get maximum benefit. Each promotion will depend on the time of year, what you sell and your industry - there is no set formula.  Also, make sure you stay aware of what your competitors are doing as they will probably be keeping track of you.

 

How can you get a competitive edge for your shopping cart website?

If you have a shopping cart website, you are already taking advantage of the hundreds of thousands of Australians and New Zealanders who use the Internet to search for products and services to buy.  How can you get more from your shopping cart so you really stand out from your competitors? Competition is tough and studies show you have about 8 seconds from when a customer clicks on your site to make a lasting impression on them and keep them clicking. Every little edge will help your shopping cart get filled with products and not your competitor's.

One way to gain an edge is adding a talking character (avatar) to your website. Just like the one below.

You can wait for your site visitors to click on the play button or set the page to play automatically. The choice is yours.

You could add a talking character to your home page, a content page or even as a side box on your whole site to add and enhance the shopping cart experience for your cutomers. If you have a complex product, want to highlight a sale or just explain your products and services in more detail then a talking character is for you.

To order a talking character for your website (with free installation if you are an ozCart shopping cart customer) please visit our website add-ons shop.

Want to turn a paid shopping cart into a free one?

Osc Works offer shopping cart software packages from between $34.95 to $109.95 per month, but with some smart lateral thinking, you could have an ozCart shopping cart website for free. So can you get your own free shopping cart website?

The answer is to take advantage of the Osc Works affiliate programme, that all ozCart and Information Website customers are entitled to join.  Just purchase an ecommerce website from us and put a special banner or link to  Osc Works on it. If your website visitors click-through and then buy their own ozCart shopping cart website within 30 days, then you can earn cash for every sale!

This makes it really easy for you to take advantage of the many new businesses getting online  or expanding from 'brochureware' to online shops.

If you were to refer just two customers to us per month, then you have paid for your own starter shopping cart website, with credits left over to buy ozCart add-ons.  Three customers pays for an Advanced site (allowing you to accept credit cards).  For just five new customers buying sites from us a month and you could have your own Platinum shopping cart with all the Platinum Privileges that come with it! For free!

Take the Osc Works affiliate challenge today and you could be on your way to your own ozCart shopping cart website for free.

UPDATE 16-Jan-2009: With our new payout rates you can reach these goals even faster! We now pay up to a massive $100 per sale for referrals to our Platinum shopping cart.

When shopping for ecommerce software to start your own online shop, features and the monthly costs are important factors to consider.  But even if the monthly payments are affordable for your business, what about the setup cost? Small businesses need every cent they can save when they set up given the costs of business registrations, phone and Internet connections, business cards, stationery, suppliers and buying stock.  So why spend too much for your ecommerce store setup?

What does setting up your website involve? At most of the top shopping cart providers you will be paying for their specialist technicans to install the ecommerce cart into the website and pre-configuring it for Australian business conditions. At many, the customisation of the graphics and colours to suit your business will also be included.  Setup also covers the level of features you get in the shopping cart software and being entered into the cart provider's billing system to make your ongoing payments.

There is a lot of variation in the setup costs of hosted shopping cart software providers in Australia so it can pay to shop around.  For example, some providers charge $800-$1,000+ to get an ecommerce website set up whereas others charge between $100-$400 setup for a similar level of customisation and as many features.

Ask also whether the price of gst is included or excluded. Even if you can claim back the gst against your tax, paying the gst initially is still a cash flow expense that you must meet. For a small business setting up, this could be significant for you. It pays to check.

If you are unsure about what you are paying for, just ask your potential shopping cart software provider exactly what their setup costs cover.  We think a competitive price in today's market is between $100 - $400 including gst depending on the level of features you are receiving, but what you are prepared to pay will depend on the value you feel you are getting from that shopping cart provider.  

One important point to note is that ensuring you don't pay too much does not mean that the cheapest ecommerce website is necessarily the best shopping cart.  You still need to consider how many ecommerce features the site has, how much flexibility you have with payment and shipping options, the ability to import and export products and customers, and how images will be displayed. Most importantly how will your customers experience your shopping cart? If it is not easy for them, it doesn't matter how easy it is to manage.

Expanding your business to open an online shop or starting an online store from scratch need not be a difficult, confusing or overwhelming process. There is a lot more help at hand than you may think to get you through the considerable ecommerce jargon.

At Osc Works, our shopping cart packages are designed to be as easy to undertand as possible, and help you through ecommerce jargon. We both have the same objective: get your online store up and running as quickly as possible.

Here is a quick introduction to ecommerce for the beginner. At the end of this ecommerce guide we also list some other resources at Osc Works that could be helpful to you.

What is ecommerce?

Ecommerce is simply trading online. Instead of putting up a physical shop and waiting for customers to call, mail or walk into your store, you add the capability to a website to allow customer to visit, view your catalog and buy things from you without leaving the comfort of their own home.

A shopping cart is the web-based software that allows your product catalog to be displayed online, for your customers to view your products and product-images, read your product descriptions and add them to their basket. Just like in a physical store when they have finished browing your store, the customer can go through checkout and purchase those products securely online from you. You can accept credit cards, bank transfers, cash on delivery or a number of payment options and offer customers a variety of shipping methods each with their own charges. You can add extras to their total order, automatically (like a rush fee for weekend delivery or shipping insurance) and then the order is processed.

The best shopping carts have an order management system built in, integrate with a formal electronic inventory/accounting system or allow you to export orders to a spreadsheet for importing into an accounting package. They also allow customers to add products to a wishlist for later purchasing or for others to create gift registries for others to buy from.

Is ecommerce in Australia any different from other places in the world?

More than ever Australians are getting online, using the Internet to browse products before they buy them and compare providers.  In many cases, if you do not have an online shop, you will not even be considered. Some customers will visit physical shops to browse products and then look online for the cheapest place to buy them. Having an online shop can be crucial to your business success in some industries. 

Due to some issues in provisioning of broadband across Australia, we have been typically slower than other parts of the world getting online, but the rate of take up has definitely increased. As more and more customers get online, so too will many more businesses.  Does your business web presence include an online store or is it just 'brochureware'?

What is involved in getting started with ecommerce?

Getting started with ecommerce doesn't need to be difficult.  Look for a shopping cart provider that has an easy to use store front that has been proven to stand up to heavy sales. Make sure it helps store owners as much as possible to get indexed in search engines. Ensure also that it has many powerful ecommerce features so that you can grow your online shop as your business grows. Try out the store front by performing a demo purchase. Is it easy for your customers to use?

If you are unsure about anything - like what payment options to choose or how to go about choosing them, how you will manage your store or promote it, then talk to your potential shopping cart provider before you buy.  Do they make it easy for you to understand? Do they treat you like a number or are they willing to treat you like a partner and work with you with your success in mind? Are they just a hosting company that is trying to cash in on ecommerce or a real ecommerce specialist? Do they care about your business? What kind of support will you get? These are all important questions to ask. 

Ecommerce shopping carts and security

Fear of credit card fraud is a major reason that still prevents many Australians from shopping online. But given the strict controls that banks and ecommerce cart providers put on online purchasing, we are convinced that online purchasing is just as safe and secure (if not more) than in a physical shop.

There are a number of high security measures in place by the top shopping carts today: like encryption of credit card details (using a technology called SSL), compliance with business process and technical security measures mandated by Visa and MasterCard (known as PCI DSS compliance) and third party vulnerability testing of shops and all electronic websites (like the McAfee Secure trust mark verification we use at Osc Works).

Moving from an auction website like eBay to your own online shop

If you have bought or sold items on eBay, you have already participated in ecommerce. Many sellers on auction sites eventually get tired of auction listing fees, success fees and  having their products listed right next to their competitors products all the time. They opt for their own online store. Many successful movers use both eBay and their own online store together to get he best of both worlds. Auction sites like eBay have the benefit of 'instant traffic' due to the large number of sellers who already know to look there for things to buy. But the disadvantage is that control is limited on auction sites and competition can be fierce. Setting up your own online store can encourage the people who already buy from you on an auction site to visit you directly next time for a better browsing experience (and maybe a financial enticement depending on your business strategy). 

The importance of web design

Online you have  an extremely limited period to make an impact on your customers - studies suggest this is 8 seconds or less! This means that an easy to use cart is only part of the formula for success. It has to look superb too. That's why at Osc Works we take the time to get the web design for your ecommerce storefront just right. You choose a base layout from our collection and nominate some colours and the types of images you would like to see. We then provide you with a draft web design concept to review based on that information and one of them is then used to build your store. The process is fast, efficient, keeps you involved and ensures that you are totally satisfied with the way your site looks when it is completed. Have a look at our sample portfolio for a brief glimpse at some of the ecommerce designs our team have put together.

Where can I find out more?

 Osc Works wants to help you understand the ins and outs of ecommerce and get your business online as quickly as possible. We have put together an ecommerce glossary which we would encourage you to bookmark and search for terms if you need to know anything. We would also be happy to answer any questions you have about ecommerce. Just contact us directly and we would be happy to help.