Ideas?

Hey everybody, feels good to be back around this place (made me thousands by the way), I've been gone for a while now because I am trying to start my own online retail business.

I am trying to do some mass research now and I wanted to get customer opinions. I know at least 98% of youse guys have shopped online and many of you probably have had problems or opinions on how to imporve the experience. So I was wondering if you guys could share your experience with me and let me know how you feel it could be done better. I know this is a freebie board and not a business board, but you guys are some of the smartest people I've chatted with online (seriously) and [i76abb782d3]most[/i76abb782d3] of you have really great opinions, so I figured it would be the same with online shopping being the topic.

Let me know anything you would like to see in an online retail store and even what promotions you might have seen online that really caught your attention.

BTW, anything huge happen in the last few months I've been gone?

1) make shipping as easy to calculate as possible. ask me for my zip code and immediately give me a "final cost" for everything in my cart shipped via the default / cheapest method.

2) amazon's suggestion features work reasonably well and i use them

3) also amazon does those combo things ('buy this with... and save 10% on both'), those are pretty cool and again, i use them.

4) single item deep discount a la amazon gold box, or woot.

5) accept both cc and paypal

[quote324710ca2e="Admin"]1) make shipping as easy to calculate as possible. ask me for my zip code and immediately give me a "final cost" for everything in my cart shipped via the default / cheapest method.

2) amazon's suggestion features work reasonably well and i use them

3) also amazon does those combo things ('buy this with... and save 10% on both'), those are pretty cool and again, i use them.

4) single item deep discount a la amazon gold box, or woot.

5) accept both cc and paypal[/quote324710ca2e]
Haha, Amazon always seems to come up as the perfect model.

Good ideas Admin, I wanted to get a suggestion feature because I really do care about the customers since they basically ARE my business.

Combo's are cool too, I wanted to actually give away a free item with EVERY purchase made on my site. No business has ever done that and I think it would be a cool concept. Especially if the product was a mystery, pertaining to the product you buy of course. Maybe along with discounts.

4 is alright too, but I'm not sure I can do deep discounts just yet, once I grow I'll look into that. Maybe I could, but I would have to take a huge loss and make it more of a marketing thing.

Paypal accepts all major credit cards for me so I should be good in that area. I don't want to accept checks and money orders though, they take too long and not many people use them anyways, do any of you guys use them?

if you email out promotions to valued customers like "Order before Feb 1st and receive FREE SHIPPING" or "use code XYZ before Feb 1st to receive 10% OFF your order" it might help. I have gone and ordered stuff after receiving an email about getting free shipping and had i not got that email, i wouldnt have even thought about going back to the site at that moment to see what they had new.


Good Luck with your store!! You are already off to a great start getting opinions and ideas. Smart that you have been mass research too!
D



Edit Whoa, youre 18 years old and starting an online business? I dont know why but when i read the post i thought you were like 40 or something. I guess sterotypical.

I;m just curious, can you say what type of retail store?

[quotec8b9aab1eb="Dave82"]if you email out promotions to valued customers like "Order before Feb 1st and receive FREE SHIPPING" or "use code XYZ before Feb 1st to receive 10% OFF your order" it might help. I have gone and ordered stuff after receiving an email about getting free shipping and had i not got that email, i wouldnt have even thought about going back to the site at that moment to see what they had new.[/quotec8b9aab1eb]
Thanks for that tip Dave, I've read about that in a few eBooks/magazines, it gets people to buy from your store without looking around and taking their time (potentially buying somewhere else) because they feel like they might miss out on something. It's a good technique, it might seem like tricking someone, but it's more like getting them to pay more attention to your place.

[quotec8b9aab1eb="Dave82"]Good Luck with your store!! You are already off to a great start getting opinions and ideas. Smart that you have been mass research too!
D[/quotec8b9aab1eb]
Thanks for the vote of confidence too, I've been researching for quite some time now (about a year and a half), but always seemed to get deterred because of school. Now I'm out and figure I've got to get experience somehow, 'getting my feet wet' so to speak.

[quotec8b9aab1eb="Dave82"]Edit Whoa, youre 18 years old and starting an online business? I dont know why but when i read the post i thought you were like 40 or something. I guess sterotypical.[/quotec8b9aab1eb]
Yea, I'm really mature for my age, been real inspired by a line that Cassidy wrote "Never been a dummy, Never did what the dummies do, that's why I had a mil to burn for' I turned 22". I want to set a course now, so later I can enjoy life later without answering to anybody but myself.

[quotec8b9aab1eb="Dave82"]I;m just curious, can you say what type of retail store?[/quotec8b9aab1eb]
The store's had a lot of directional changes, but I think I'm going to stick with sporting goods, research has shown much promise and potential in that area.