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As recently as a few years ago, entrepreneurs tended to think of ecommerce as a relatively simple way to make money. You set up an online store, charged less than your competitors, and watched as the buyers flocked in from Google and other sources.

Now, competitive pressure and market complexity have made Internet retailing a little bit tougher. But, you can still make big profits in ecommerce as long as you follow a few simple rules. Here are a few pieces of proven advice you should keep in mind…

Choose The Right Domain Name

Your domain name is the online address for your store. Make sure it’s clear, descriptive, and easy to spell or remember. Otherwise, customers who forget to bookmark your store might not find their way back in the future.

Pick An Ecommerce-Friendly Platform

You have lots of content management system choices for building your ecommerce site. Talk with your web designer about the pros and cons of platforms like WordPress, Magento, and Shopify. What you’re looking for is the right balance between cost, ease-of-use, and future expandability.

Know Who Your Store Is For

Every successful online store has a well-defined target market. Think carefully about what kind of people would buy from you, and why. When you know the answers to those questions, it’s easy to make decisions on products, pricing, and marketing.

Embrace Clean Design And UX

You want it to be easy to shop in your online store. That means clean pages and strong search features. A good rule of thumb is that a visitor should be able to tell what any particular page or product is about in less than a few seconds, and should be able to get from any one part of your website to another in two or three clicks.

Build Trust At Every Turn

It’s asking a lot for new customers to share their credit card numbers with you and trust that they are going to receive the items they ordered when they haven’t done business with you before. Make it easier with encrypted connections, online security notices, and money-back guarantees.

Make Marketing A Priority

Building a great ecommerce site is only the first step. To turn it into a profitable business, you have to promote it through search engine optimization, social media marketing, email newsletters, and pay-per-click advertising. You should work with a creative team that knows how these marketing channels work and can help you use them affordably and efficiently to grow your business.

Stay In Touch With Customers

Over time, your biggest and most profitable sales are going to come from repeat customers. They are also the ones who are most likely to leave you positive reviews, respond to your email offers, and sing your praises on social media. So, do what you can to keep them happy, and reach out regularly with new discounts and promotions.

If you’ve always dreamed of launching an online store and owning your own business, there’s never been an easier time to take the first step. Call a member of the Kali Interactive creative team today to schedule a free consultation!

Business owners are more concerned about web security than ever before, and with good reason – not only are there more hackers and thieves trying to break into small business websites, but the consequences for a data breach can be severe. You don’t want your company to be in the news for losing financial records, and you certainly don’t want to have to call your customers or clients and let them know that you (or they) have been the victim of an attack.

With all of that in mind, how can you keep your data and company protected? There aren’t any foolproof answers, but the good news is you can do a lot with a few simple measures. To show you how, here are four things that business owners need to remember about web security…

#1 A Secure Website Starts With You

Business owners tend to assume that sophisticated tools and software are needed to keep hackers away. While there are a lot of helpful options out there, it’s important to know that the first step towards keeping your site safe and secure is simply using strong passwords and not sharing them with the wrong people. The vast majority of small business hacks occur after someone in a company has been duped into giving out sensitive information. Don’t be the next victim.

#2 Don’t Leave Open Doors And Windows

Going beyond phishing schemes, loose passwords, and other simple scams, the number one vulnerability small businesses have to hackers can be found in out-of-date software and plug-ins. When thieves see that you have an updated WordPress or add-on’s in your website, they can use known loopholes to get into your admin panel. That’s the online equivalent of leaving the doors and windows to your business wide open. Take the time to keep your site updated, or work with the creative team who will do it for you.

#3 Keep An Eye On Web Activity

In some cases, it’s obvious that your website has been hacked. Often, though, the first signs are unusual traffic patterns and strange visitor behaviors. So, in the event that your website is compromised, you’ll have an easier time figuring out what went wrong – not to mention dealing with it – if someone is keeping a close eye on your analytics. That someone can be you or your web design team, but it’s important that your analytics not go unmonitored.

#4 Secure Backups Are Priceless

In a worst-case scenario, your website might have to be taken off-line and then put back up again with stronger protections in place. That’s not going to be possible, however, unless you have regular and secure backups of your pages. Talk to your web design team about implementing this kind of system if you haven’t already, because those extra copies of your files will be priceless if you ever need them.

Keeping your website secure should be a top priority because just one online break-in can end up costing you thousands upon thousands of dollars… or even put you out of business altogether. Talk to our team today to see how we can help you put policies and backup plans in place and help you sleep better at night without having to worry about your website.

Does Your Online Reputation Really Matter?

If you are working with a good web design and Internet marketing team, then the chances are good that you’ve been hearing quite a bit about online reputation management lately. But is this something you really need to worry about as a business owner, or is it just another buzzword that doesn’t have much of an impact on your bottom line?

As it turns out, online reputation management isn’t just critical, but perhaps one of the biggest factors to your success (or failure) in the digital age. To understand why, there are a few things you have to know…

What Your Online Reputation Is

Your online reputation is really just the sum of all of the things customers, vendors, and even employees have been posting about you and your business on the Internet. It amounts to what people see when they Google your business name, or look for you on a social media site. It’s comprised of reviews, testimonials, videos, and any other information that’s floating around in cyberspace concerning your company.

Why Your Reputation Influences Sales

The Internet has made it convenient to buy products and services, but it’s also made it easier to choose the wrong service or vendor to work with. As a result, potential customers have gotten to be more skeptical than they used to be. They are likely to look up your business on a search engine, or to find some online reviews on a site like Yelp or TripAdvisor before they ever pick up the phone or visit you in person.

What they find when they conduct this kind of research is critically important. If previous customers say nothing but good things about you and your business, they can move forward confidently knowing they are very likely to get good service and value. But, if what they see scares them, they are likely to take their time and money to one of your competitors.

How To Find (And Fix) Reputation Problems

Finding out about your online reputation is easy. It just takes a trip through Google, Facebook, YouTube, and other related sites. Depending on what you see, the next steps could be very simple, or tedious and time-consuming.

Chances are, if you’ve been in business for a while, there will probably be one or two items in your online reputation that are less-than-helpful. Depending on the severity (and truthfulness) of the reviews in question, you can either ignore them, dispute them, or add your own point of view. No matter which road you take, it’s important to keep things professional and avoid making personal attacks.

Beyond that, your best move is to simply ask your best customers to leave positive reviews for you in places where other customers are likely to find them. The more you have people saying good things about your company, the less a past mistake or issue is going to stand out.

Online reputation management isn’t difficult, but it does take a bit of time and attention. Luckily, we can help. Why not call our team today to set up a free consultation and see how easy it is to get our creative minds working for you?