I would definitely say that this is the most common problem I have ran into with other people who have asked me what the problem is with their ecommerce website. Generally, people feel like ecommerce online is much like running a retail store on Main Street in their local small town. They expect that after they open the doors people will naturally come because it is now visible. The problem is that it does not work this way online.
Just because you can access your website does not mean that others are aware of it or will even be able to naturally find it on their own. I commonly give this example, but it bears worth repeating just so that you can ensure that you do not fall into this category. Building a website is much like building your business in the middle of the Sahara Desert. There is no one around, no one is going to see it, and you will never get any traffic. This is not to discourage you, but is the harsh reality of a start-up ecommerce website. What do you do to overcome this? Naturally, you would tell people who were interested in your store what services you offer, what products you sell, and tell them how to get there. In fact, you may even develop unique ideas such as running a shuttle to and from your store that is in the Sahara just to ensure that you get traffic.
Ecommerce is really no different. You should never count on your website gaining traffic without a little leg work. Just because you invested money into having it professionally developed does not matter. You may have the prettiest store of all your competitors. Still though, you are in the middle of the Sahara with no one around.
So from an online perspective, how do we overcome this? How do we do “leg work” online? Generally, this involves time and effort just as it would with your brick and mortar company. There are several methods to truly marketing your website, but I do not think there is anything more valuable to a businesses success than real interaction with potential buyers.
The first thing I would recommend that you do is to get involved within many of the online communities. It does not matter what type of ecommerce store you are running, there is a community out there that is waiting for you to get involved. Let’s say that you sell custom mugs and cups where you print a label on it. I give this as an example simply because it was the first thing I saw on my desk. You could find other small business owners forums who might be interested in having your create some cups for them for marketing purposes or to give to their employees. You could look at church organizations who might be interested in having their church logo placed on cups and give to their members to use at their work. The idea in mind is to go to where the people are, not just wait for them to come to you. If you fall into this, you will find it very difficult to succeed online. When you develop relationships, the word will spread quickly about who you are, where your website is, and will eventually begin to convert to sales.
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