If you’re running an e-commerce business, the chances are very good that your customers and prospective customers – regardless of age, gender or financial status – are already actively participating on various social networks or social media websites, such as Facebook, MySpace and Twitter.

Let’s take a look at the following statistics found in a social media monitoring survey:

• 48% of males & 52% of females are using social networking sites.
• Over 60% of the Facebook members are middle aged or older. The average age is 37.
• Ages 18-25 are rather spread out all across the sites.

So the result: If you are not aware of what social networking websites your customers are frequenting, you are perhaps missing a big chance to build relationships and community. Likewise, you are almost certainly missing the opportunity to market to prospective customers via online WOM (word of mouth).

Use the following e-commerce marketing tips to reach those prospective customers that you are not reaching now.

Be Where the Customers are!

There are a very few options that guarantee unlimited possibilities. Digital & social media marketing is an exception. Whether it’s Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or even YouTube, there isn’t a limit to how accessible social networking channels are and how important they are to your online business. When it comes to e-commerce, it is important to choose the social networking channels that will reach your prospective customers.

Not sure where to look?

Asking them – This sounds too simple. Send out a survey to your customers or just informally polling them on your site may provide the knowledge you need.

Monitoring those social sites – Try free tools such as Social Mention and Trackur. If you would like to use something really robust you may use tools such as Radian6. These tools will help you determine exactly how or where the customers whine your brand, competitors or the keywords you targeted.

Leveraging stats – Websites like Facebook provide user statistics on their sites. So, check the various websites for their statistics to help you.

Reviewing – Reviewing back links, major job postings, key news announcements or the keyword rankings of your competitors. By doing this regularly, you can actually get a clear idea of their current online marketing strength.

Monitor Competitors’ Strategies

Say, your business isn’t performing well with social media marketing or maybe you just want to boost your traffic, “competitive intelligence” is likely to prove pretty useful. Consider spending some time doing a competitive audit of your top 5 competitors who are active on social websites.

Makes notes about the following items:

1. The social websites where they’re currently active
2. The kind of content they’re now publishing on social websites
3. The total number of followers, fans, or views they currently have on each and every site
4. The strategy they follow for promoting particular products, programs, services or events

Also, consider researching the major e-commerce websites that are unrelated to your business if nothing stands out while auditing your competition.

Using drop shippers is not a get rich scheme and like any home based business, requires some research and some work, but done correctly, can be very profitable.

Whether you are just beginning your journey into the e-commerce world or maybe you’re just looking for additional sources of products; doing your research is key to find drop shippers that fit your needs.

Because drop shipping can reduce your profit margins, it is important to find good companies to work with so that you can keep product returns, mistakes, and customer issues to a minimum.

Here are a few suggestions:

• Contact the product manufacturers direct and ask them if they will drop ship to your customers. They might actually have a program in place for their vendors but they just don’t advertise it.
• If a drop shipper does not require proof that you are a legitimate business, don’t bother with them because they will sell to the general public.
• Go to a tradeshow that will feature the types of products/services that you wish to sell. This is a great way to approach the actual manufacturers and discuss drop shipping or ways in which you could build a relationship with them.
• When researching and checking out all your options look for a drop shipper that:
  • Provide a daily data feed to update your product inventory numbers. If you sell costumes and its 2 weeks before Halloween, you might want to request an hourly feed so that you are not spending more time contacting customers to let them know that the item they just ordered is out of stock.
  • Provide shipping labels with your company address and not theirs so that they are transparent in the fulfillment and shipping process.
  • Ship orders daily or even guarantee if the order is placed by a time deadline that they will ship the same day.
  • Provide product images and data sheets including weights.
  • Correct any shipping or packaging errors, at their expense.
  • Provide a contact person that you can communicate with any time there is a question or issue.
  • Use multiple shipping services, USPS, UPS, Fed Ex, etc
  • Employees that have product knowledge and are willing to assist you as you learn about the products you will be selling

Really, what you are looking for is a company that will support “you” so that you can provide great customer support your customers.

Customer confidence is critical to your online success when selling products or services. Identity theft and fraud are on the rise. Consumers that shop online look first for the items they are interested in purchasing and then for websites that show they care about security and their personal information. It is very important to reassure your visitors that you have a legitimate, secure and professional website that will protect their information.

So, what you can you do to create customer confidence?

1. Display security logos above the “fold” of the page and in a prominent location that is displayed on every page.
2. Purchase an SSL certificate to secure the information that passes between the customer computer and your store hosting account.
3. Use a reputable payment processor.
4. Become a member of the Better Business Bureau – displaying your membership
5. Provide complete contact information with a street address (no P.O. Box) and phone number as well as hours of operation.  Who you order from a company that is difficult to contact and communicate with if there is a problem or if you have a question?
6. Post customer testimonials that validate your creditability and believability for your products or services.
7. Create a Return Policy page that discusses how you handle refund, returns and exchanges including company contact information
8. Provide a “Privacy Policy” page where customers can view your company’s policy regarding privacy.

In 2004, California was the first state to pass legislation requiring e-tailers to post a privacy policy on any commercial website that collects personally identifiable information about California residents.

Read more about the topic California Legislation here

Consumers no longer have to visit the local brick and mortar stores to do their shopping. Most internet service providers provide high speed connections making shopping online both cost effective and a time saver for the consumer. In today’s sluggish economy, businesses are turning to the internet to supplement their sales. As a result, competition is fierce for the internet shopping dollars. In order to compete in today’s marketplace you should consider these 5 factors:

Factor #1 – Take care of your existing customer base.

Customer loyalty is critical to the return business that will keep your business growing. Communicate regularly with your existing customers.

Send targeted messages to existing customers about new products or services or maybe a special you are running. For one-time customers send an email message telling them that “We Miss You” and offer them an incentive to return to your store to shop. This can increase your re-order average. You must work hard to stay ahead of the competition and keeping your customers satisfied is a good way to keep them from going to other stores or retailers.

Factor #2 – Make Shopping Easy.

Customers expect everything to move smoothly for them through effective communication. Be sure that there are no quality issues in your services. Spend time testing your shopping cart making sure that everything flows smoothly. Have friends or family test your system and ask them for suggestions of how you can improve the store. Make sure that the ordering, shipping and even the return process is not disappointing or frustrating to the customer. Communicate with your customers, let them know you are there to help them in any way you can and that you’ll gladly work with them to find just the right item they are looking for.

Factor #3 – Easy Returns

Customers must be able to return or exchange items. Easy returns or exchanges give the customer the confidence to place an order with you. Creditability is important to that initial order and any repeat business. You also want happy, satisfied customers because they have friends and word of mouth is the best kind of referral you can get.

Make sure to provide a Returns Policy page and include hours of operation and a way other than e-mail or online form to contact you. I recommend a toll-free phone number from a site such as Kall8.com. The cost is minimal and there were very few times when I talked to a customer on the phone that they did NOT place an order.

Factor #4 – Provide Lots of Details

If you are selling products, there are 2 ways to increase the chance of a sale. Make sure to use high resolution product images with a zoom or enhanced view so the customer can see the details of the product. Try to include multiple images that show different angles or variations of the product. Always write a detailed description of the product and include as much information as possible.

If the product has a service manual or owner’s guide, include a download, if you can get one from the manufacturer.

Factor #5 – Rinse and Repeat

If you find that your site is seeing a high rate of abandoned carts you should evaluate the need to make changes. Visit high traffic online store and see what they are doing, find what appeals to you, ask others to give you opinions about what you could do better. Evaluate those suggestions and make changes based on that feedback.

Once you’ve made changes, give those changes time to work for you. If the abandoned cart rate decreases, you will know some of your changes have made a difference.

If you continue to see a high rate of abandoned carts after making changes, go through the process again until you find that mix that brings more traffic and more sales.