Moving Toward Ecommerce Site Design

Ecommerce has been a major player in the retail market place for more than a decade now. Initially invented in 1979 by Michael Aldridge, a British entrepreneur, the trend only exploded with the widespread popularity of the internet. Industry statistics this year estimate that 44% of consumers will shop online for holiday gifts this year, and as the market share is ever increasing, a number of companies continue to turn to the world of online shopping almost every day. For most companies looking into this type of website, however, there are a number of different concerns that must be addressed before you can ever begin to build a site that attracts customers and promotes sales.

Industries where Ecommerce May be Useful

Before a company ever starts down the path toward online sales, it may be helpful to take a look at which industries get the most out of the process. The answer is a pretty simple one – almost any industry. Take the city of London, for example. Long a mecca of shopping for people around the world, you couldn’t visit this city’s unique shops without actually visiting the UK. With the popularity of ecommerce, however, everything from famed department stores like Harrods to much smaller venues like Honest Jon’s are finding real success in the online marketplace. Whether you market auto parts to do-it-yourselfers or used books, you’re likely to find a home in the world of ecommerce.

The Site Design

Designing your site is key to the process of online shopping. That, however, is the case with any online venture. Customers must be able to find exactly what they’re looking for. Wandering around the forlorn virtual aisles of your e-store will do little but make them abandon their shopping cart and visit a competitor, leaving you without the online sale that is so essential to your bottom line. Here are just a few of the most important tips necessary to help your customers find the product they want:

Keep the Number of Clicks Required to a Minimum: If your customer has to click eight times to buy a single used book, you have a real problem on your hands. Perhaps one click is the search through the various categories. The next click leads them to a category description. From there, perhaps they have to click on a sub category. The process can get endless and frustrating. The rule of thumb is that more than four clicks to the point where they must provide their personal information is unnecessary and can cause a poor buy rate.

Add to Cart or Buy Buttons Must Be Obvious: It’s the first rule of any website design. Your customers have to understand what they are supposed to do, and nowhere is this more true than in an online shopping experience. Your customers should never have to scroll below the fold to find the right button to push to purchase their item from you.

Show the Price: This one may seem like an obvious marker, but many online retailers require more than one click before the potential buyer can look at the price of any given item. If you don’t show them what the item costs immediately, you risk losing them right away.

AVS Technology Breaks Iron Triangle of Good Fast and Cheap

by Anthony W. Hawks, Chief Legal Officer, e-LYNXX Corporation

AVS Technology is the basic procedural component of any automated solution for buying custom goods and services that must be defined by production or performance specifications at the time of purchase. It includes the following steps:
ENTER vendor attributes
ENTER project specifications
MATCH vendor attributes to project specifications to determine sub-set of qualified vendors
SEND project specifications to sub-set of qualified vendors
RECEIVE a bid response from at least one vendor

When these steps are applied using a computer-operated system, a unique competitive bidding environment can be established where vendors of custom goods and services are now willing to offer their lowest prices to fill idle production capacity. This strategy is called “contribution pricing”. When vendors bid work (even when bidding well below normal rates), any income obtained above out-of-pocket costs “contributes” to fixed costs and overhead and, when absorbed, to their bottom lines.

Prior to AVS Technology, buyers of custom goods and services were faced with the “iron triangle” of quality, timeliness, and cost. Regardless of the industry involved, every procurement or supply chain solution seeks to attract business customers that want to achieve the purchasing trifecta of “good, fast, and cheap.” Before AVS Technology, however, a buyer could only achieve two of these three goals at any one time, not all three simultaneously.

AVS Technology breaks the “iron triangle” because it allows pre-qualified vendors with excess idle capacity to provide an extraordinary low price without risk of establishing future buyer price expectations. In other words, price is no longer tied to quality and timeliness of delivery. This is what makes AVS Technology integral to all current and future e-commerce methods and systems for buying custom goods and services including ERP systems, general supply chain management systems, specialized product or service procurement systems, and even older legacy systems. One such system for organizations with significant buying needs in direct mail, marketing, publications, packaging, labeling and other types of print is currently being offered by American Print Management. Regardless of the industry or buying need, however, all users and providers of such e-commerce methods or systems are required to license AVS Technology if they wish to benefit from this revolutionary innovation.

AVS Technology is unique in creating a controlled bidding environment in which repetitive purchasers of custom goods and services can leverage the open production capacity of their preferred vendors in a way that virtually guarantees “contribution pricing” that is, below normal pricing that seeks primarily to absorb out-of-pocket costs and some level of fixed costs and overhead. This is accomplished by allowing qualified vendors to bid high, low, or not at all (1) without having to consider buyer pricing expectations; (2) without fear of setting either high or low precedent for future bid prices; and (3) without worrying about being denied future bid opportunities for which the vendor is qualified. Freed from these concerns, bidders offer pricing based on their open production capacity at the time each job is bid, knowing that if they bid low this week when they are hungry for work, they are not bound to offer the same low price next week when they are busy with other orders.

The technology is based on a series of patents that the U.S. Patent Office awarded to e-LYNXX Corporation, including Patent No. 6,397,197, Patent No. 7,451,106, post-Bilski Patent No. 7,788,143, and Continuing Application 12/8885,423 (collectively, the “AVS Technology”). This thicket of patents covers all custom goods and services, not just print.

Licensing AVS Technology should be viewed as both a strategic benefit and a legal requirement. Any organization with a computer-operated system that procures custom goods and services, by following the steps outlined in AVS Technology, is required to obtain a license to use (or continue using) the patented procedure protected by AVS Technology. This applies to systems that are developed internally as well as those used through third-party brokers, procurement services and system providers. Organizations should check with their system or service providers to ensure that the system being used is in compliance with AVS Technology licensing requirements.

About e-LYNXX Corporation
e-LYNXX Corporation patented the technology integral to e-commerce. Endorsed by Educational & Institutional Cooperative Purchasing (E&I) and Printing Industries of America (PIA), e-LYNXX drives results through its three divisions. AVS TechnologyTM licenses the patented* automated vendor selection procedure used in e-commerce and procurement systems. American Print Management provides web-based system, services and patented AVS TechnologyTM to reduce substantially the procured costs of direct mail, marketing, publications, packaging, labels and other procured print. Government Print Management offers effective U.S. GPO bid services and strategies. www.e-LYNXX.com 888-876-5432

Turbo is Only as Fast as You Make it

Selling a bulk of inventory on eBay takes a lot of time. Having to upload items one by one would take ages, and writing descriptions would take even longer. Thats why eBay offers turbo lister: a listing manager that allows you to list large quantities of inventory on eBay quickly and efficiently. You can organize your items, create templates, and save tons of time. Turbo lister is a great feature on eBay, but you (as the ecommerce businessperson) still have to do all the work.

Sure, you can read the 243 page user guide for turbo lister and start listing items in bulk. But with Infigra Ecommerce, well do all the listing for you. If you arent computer savvy, turbo lister can be difficult to master. Some features are simple, others are more complicated. If youre more of a business person and less of a computer whiz, Infigra can take care of all your listings without you having to lift a finger. Infigra Ecommerce is dedicated to serving your ecommerce needs. We target online marketing channels, like eBay, and make sure your products are the ones that customers are attracted to.

With the Infigra Ecommerce server, we create multiple titles for your products to increase the “searchability” of your items. We also create temples to market your products with professional looking graphics and high quality colors. Making templates on eBay costs money; finding high quality graphics and fonts for your products can be costly, and it also takes some knowledge about computers. With Infigra, you dont have to worry about graphics or titles for your products. We create unique templates for your products as part of our ecommerce site services. Have confidence that well market your products in the best way possible.

Infigra not only helps ecommerce business owners list large numbers of items on eBay, but we also post listings on other sites to increase your sales opportunities. We post on Amazon, Newegg, Google, Buy.com, and many others. We also create our own ecommerce sites to specifically promote your ecommerce products. Listings for your inventory will appear on a variety of online marketing channels with professionally designed templates and high quality photos. While turbo lister requires work from the ecommerce business owner, Infigra will take care of listings while you can focus on running your business.

Getting an ecommerce business started can be a daunting task. Dont hesitate to contact Infigra for help with online marketing channel listings and other ecommerce needs.