From Digital Media Works President Stephanie Diamond:

"What I Learned at AOL about Creating E-commerce Sites"

In my eight year tenure as Marketing Director for AOL (and my 25 yr. career as a marketer) I'd like to share the following 5 tips I learned about creating successful e-commerce sites of any kind:  

1.  Make your products EASY to BUY! 

I chose that phrase for my company tagline because all the clever images in the world won't impress a customer who can't use your shopping cart.  If you knew how many people left your product in their cart (you should be collecting this statistic called 'cart abandonment') because the process was too hard, you would be shocked.

2. Don't assume your customers know a lot about shopping online (even in 2010)

If you assume your customers are savvy online computer shoppers you make that a pre-requisite to purchase your product.  That means that if you sell baby shampoo, your customer needs to be a "savvy online shopper who needs baby shampoo."  Can you afford to narrow your customer base like that?  I think not!

3. Make sure you accommodate customers over the age of 50

Unless you can afford to cut Baby Boomers and Seniors out of your marketing plan, think about how to include them in your marketing.  Don't create type that is too small to read and make sure you spell out product benefits for the over 50 crowd.  Big disposable income in this target group! 

4. Use more than one type of information on your site

People make decisions in different ways.  Make sure in addition to plain text, you use audio, Flash movies, video and anything else you can think of that gets your message across.

5. Have a clear marketing strategy for an site you create

This may sound difficult, but it's not.  You need to think about each customer type and how you will make your message special for them.

I offer a 90 minute online web strategy session that will help you create a clear marketing strategy.  Without a strategy, everything you do will be based on luck.  Great for card games, bad for business revenue.