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Elements for success in a web based Arts and Crafts business

Location

The old adage that the 3 keys to success for a brick and mortar business is 'location, location and location' is a gross over simplification of what it takes to have a successful business. While it accurately reflects that a business in a poor location will likely not do as well as a similar business in a preferred location there are quite a number of elements that factor into the likely success of any business and not surprisingly many of those elements apply to web based businesses.

In a web business I think there are at least 3 keys to success. 'Location, Store Front, and, it is a business'

Lets begin with location, location and location.

In the web world this is indeed critical. If no one can find your website, you will not make any sales. Given that the vast majority of first time customers who visit your site will find you via a search engine (the statistics range considerably but 80% is probably about right) it is imperative that your site be designed in part to maximize your location on the search engines. If a search on a product you wish to sell ranks 9,999 out of 10,000 search results returned you are in a very bad location. Frankly, if you are not in the top 20-30 returned search results for what ever product you are trying to sell you are not going to enjoy good sales.

Just as a brick and mortar business would prudently search for the ideal location using the services of professionals so too in the web world. The difference is, in the web world, how you create your site will determine your location. Do not assume for a moment that if you build a glossy, professional, high impact site that you will get customers. What you need is a solid understanding of, or the help of professionals to ensure a good location. Search engine optimization (SEO) is a high growth industry and if you don't involve your self in learning the fundamentals or hire a reputable professional you are wasting your time setting up a web site.

Ideally, when thinking about a website as a sales channel you will want to involve SEO expertise from the very beginning.

Before you or your webmaster produces a single page of your site, make sure you, your webmaster or a 3rd party has properly analyzed your product, intended market and made recommendations on how that should be incorporated into your site design.

Do not allow a webmaster to 'snow' you about how good they may be at SEO...have them back it up with proof. Have them provide sites they have built and optimized (verified by the site owner). It is perfectly reasonable to have a webmaster and a separate SEO expert as the two tasks are a rare find in a single individual.

SEO can be overwhelming in complexity and is a constantly evolving issue but if you aren't going to take this first most critical step then spare your self the time and money and don't bother building a web site.

Indeed 'location, location and location' are critical to the success of a web site but running a successful business is more than that.

Let us assume that you have built a site, that it is optimized for good location and you have that all important traffic to your site. What happens next?

Web Site Quality

Odds are, 90% or more of those prospects will be gone in 20 seconds or less. It isn't your product they don't like...it is your website. Frankly, many customers will leave before they have any appreciation or understanding of what you sell.

A slow loading site, too much flash and glitter and not enough substance, they will not even get past the first page. If a customer can't easily and intuitively navigate the site, they are gone. Poor quality pictures or descriptions and they are gone. A less than professional appearance, they are gone. Annoying pop up ads or similar distractions and they are gone.

Think of it this way, if you walk into a brick and mortar store and there is no sales floor help to guide you to what you seek and the place is just a jumble of products...how long will you wander aimlessly before you just walk out. The store may have what you were looking for and at a competitive price but you will not spend an endless amount of time looking.

The list of reasons why people will exit a site is virtually endless. There is however a simple solution to keep a prospect looking.

It is known as the KISS principle (Keep It Simple, Silly). You only have a few seconds to engage a prospect and hopefully convert them to a customer so don't overwhelm them with anything that distracts from your message.

Your message is your product. Let the customer know exactly what you offer quickly and easily. Odds are if the customer found you they know what they are looking for, so large slow loading pictures may be a bad choice for that first point of contact. Brief text to describe your product line and simple navigation is your best chance of holding onto a prospect.

You are not selling your, or your webmasters technical prowess in building web sites. What you are selling is your artistic creations or your otherwise crafted items. Skip the flashy stuff. A 'Flash' presentation is a huge waste of time and money and will turn off many a prospect. Emphasize simplicity, instant understanding of your product and its desirability.

Don't create a navigation system on your site that at any time a customer could become lost or confused and at the very least not be able to get back to some place they are familiar with. A simple tree structure that takes a customer from the most general pages to the most detailed and consistently applied will work best. Make sure they can easily work back up the tree to lesser detailed pages and with only a few clicks understand exactly how to navigate your site.

This concept also has the added benefit that most search engines like a logical structure on a site.

Make it look professional. Spelling and grammatical errors are a no no just as much as putting up a hard to understand description of a product. Don't even think about putting up a picture (of any size) that is blurry, distorted in any way or is otherwise a poor representation of the actual product.

Do pay for your web hosting so that you avoid pop up ads and such...they just distract and annoy.
Do test your site on multiple operating systems and browsers and screen resolutions. What looks perfectly wonderful on Internet Explorer may look terrible or not display at all on Netscape. A good average screen resolution to try for is about 800 X 600.

Do use your creativity to immediately appeal to your customer. Perhaps a small picture of the family pet is appropriate for your site, but unless you are actually selling the family pet...think it out carefully. It is likely better to have a picture of one of your products.

As with SEO issues, whole books can (and have) be written about on page elements that are important but I would like to turn your attention to the one area of Art and Craft sites that seems to be the least well addressed and is the 3rd of the 3 key elements I think are important, namely it is a business.

Understanding this seemingly obvious point will spare many an anguished hour over lack of success.

Any business needs to appear professional, act professionally and have all the requisite trappings of a professional business if it hopes to succeed. A tremendously gifted artisan or crafter does not automatically make a good business person and very often I see that just by looking at a site.

Have you ever been to a web site that appeared to have a wonderful product but you couldn't figure out how to order it? Either you couldn't find a way to the shopping cart or it may not even exist? Then you find out they only accept checks or maybe a service such as 'PayPal' and you need to make a long distance call to place an order? These sorts of issues just scream non professional. As a crafter or artisan it is imperative that a web site be as professional as your product and no corners are cut in the name of saving a few dollars.

Any business has costs associated with running them and you can be sure your successful competitors are paying those costs so you need to plan to as well. If you can not cover those cost and still sell your products at a competitive price you aren't really in business.

Must haves to appear appealing in an online business environment.

Start with the first two premises...namely you DO need help designing your site to achieve good location and you do need to make sure your on page information can translate a prospect into a customer. Both of these issues will require time and/or money. If you are not intending to or can not make those commitments...stick to other sales channels as online will not be a success for you.

Provide an easy to understand and working shopping cart. Have a merchant account to handle most common credit cards(70% or more of your business will come from credit card transactions). Define an alternate payment method such as PayPal, checks or money orders. Be clear on policies with respect to your site and how you conduct business, how you protect consumer privacy, return policies and so forth.

Just a small fraction of the have to haves but it points to the premise, if you want to succeed online be prepared to invest time and money on other issues, not just producing your product. Very few businesses succeed that have little or no investment other than product.

What you do behind the scenes is also very important to your success.

Repeat customers are the brass ring of good business so you need to make sure you can induce a one time buyer back again. To do this, you need to keep them informed of sales, new products and as appropriate what is going on in your business.
It is self evident that in order to inform a past customer of a sale or a new product you need to be able to contact them. Frequent sales are a must have, it gives the opportunity to 'contact' the customer and remind them of your business. You need not do deep discount type sales and in fact that is probably a bad idea. In order to retain perceived value in your product, limit your sale prices to no more than 10-15% off regular price.
You do need to be constantly looking for new product ideas to develop and bring them to market. It is pretty hard to convince a customer that has previewed your product line to buy more unless you keep it fresh.

Establish a system to track your existing customers and keep it current...the buzz word is Customer Relationship Management (CRM). All you really need is an email list or a snail mail list to do this. Properly maintained you will reap excellent rewards for your effort.

Understand your business. As tedious as it may be, you must understand what a product costs you to make and what sells. This means keeping good records of sales and costs associated with those sales. Think about the fact that a good selling product takes an extraordinary amount of time to produce but generates the same rate of return as a simple item. Is it it really the right thing to do? Keep your accounting current and don't let it slide.

Look after your customers.

Just about every company on the planet will tell a customer how great they take care of them. Reality being hard to escape...95% or more companies don't understand customer service nor truly understand its importance. Don't talk the talk...walk the walk. Make sure you find a way to take care of every customer that visits your site. A key concept that I drill into the staff that are likely to handle a customer complaint is a little strange but worth a gold mine. If handled well, particularly in the impersonal online world...you have failed miserably in customer service if you can't turn an unhappy customer into a customer for life. At the point a customer is having to contact you after the sale for what ever reason it is no longer impersonal and you have a chance to fix the problem. If you ignore them, you have lost them. Similarly if you don't provide satisfaction you have lost them. It takes some sense to know the difference between a genuine dissatisfied customer and a con artist but lean towards giving the benefit of the doubt. Try to find a solution quickly and acceptable to the customer.

The preceding is but a small fraction of what it takes to run a successful online business (I was supposed to keep this article to about 2000 words-and still went over), be it an art or craft type or any other online business effort these suggestions will help.

Best wishes in your business endeavor,

Glenn

About the author:
Glenn is a small business owner who co owns and is the webmaster for Gemshow-Online Jewelry Supply.
Having spent a quarter century in the world of big business and big government in various senior Information Services capacities he has come in contact with many business models and ideas and still thinks the KISS principle works best. Since the initial launch of his website in 1999 he has increased full year sales by an average of 5 fold per year and claims a 45% repeat customer base (at least one repeat sale).