Selling Online versus Selling in the High Street

Articles on Web Site Design Suffolk Oct 2010

Differences between selling on line and on the High Street?

• High Street Shop. With a High Street Shop you have one shop in one location selling your goods which people can call in, wander around and choose to buy. Your shop would be open for the hours you can man the shop, maybe 6 days a week from 9 till 6. And if you haven't got an item in stock, you expect your customers to come back in a few days time to pick up their goods.
• Online Shop. With an Online Shop you have one shop on the internet which can, in theory, be seen in your town, your county, your country and even worldwide. In theory it could be seen anywhere by anyone that finds it online, wanders through the pages and choose to buy. And your shop would be open for people to see 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and 365 days a year.

For a High Street Shop to reach as many potential customers as an online shop, they would need a chain of shops within your country and the world. So the potential for sales should be far greater for an online store as long as you can get customers to visit your online store. But of course, an online shop will not automatically attract customers in the same way that a High Street shop would have a shop window to entice customers in to look and then buy.

For an online web site shop to perform well you need to create a web site design that is easy to use, conveys the image needed and that can be found by your customers. This may sound easy, but infact this is one of the biggest challenges to online websites, efficient website promotion.

• Buy a domain name that will be your web shop name. This may be a name that reflects the items you hope to sell. For example B and Q superstore started out with the domain name diy.com rather than their own shop name.
• Create a 'nice looking' web site that reflects your shop - relaxing, dynamic, sporty etc. and is easy to navigate and order from. A simple clear web site design UK can keep customers better than an elaborate, fancy design that confuses people or takes a long time to load.
• A clean, inviting shop window for your web site, just as you would have a clean, tidy, dressed shop window in a High Street shop. So no clutter and a straight forward message for customers on how to shop. Clear indication of where your shop is located  and how to contact you. Your pledge re delivery and returns and p and p costs.
• Make your web shop easy to find by the search engines. This is key to getting your shop seen by lots of people all around your town, country, country or worldwide, however far afield you want to trade. Search engine optimization can be a costly business. But with a well designed web site and clever submission to search engines and directories and links to relevant other websites can give you affordable search engine optimisation for budet UK seo.
• Make your shop easy for a customer to navigate to the items they want and then buy quickly and securely. There are few things as annoying as a website that you can not understand what you are supposed to do, or where you are supposed to go. So keep it simple and let people enjoy being on your site.
• Be able to update your web site design at regular intervals to keep it fresh. Fresh, new content on your pages means there is a reason for people to come back and look at your site again. And the search engines and robots like new content and will rate your site more highly for this.
• Use social media to create a marketing presence with social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter and others. Social media is used by many businesses, organisations and individuals.

Creating a good online shop needs a creative, individual and accurate web site design company such as Affordable Website Design UK. To find out more about our Website design Services please contact us at Website Design for a quote or to make an enquiry. We realise that websites and websites design may be very new to many people, so we offer free support for a month after website is completed.

More website design articles.

Related pages: How to get your own custom domain name, Website Portfolio, Affordable small business website design.

Afford Web Design for Website Services Suffolk including Website Designer UK, Website Designers Suffolk, Website Designer Bury St Edmunds, Website Designs Suffolk, Website Designs Bury St Edmunds, SEO services Suffolk UK, Social media Suffolk, Ecommerce Website Suffolk, UK Graphic Design Services, Google Places Local Suffolk UK.
Website Design in East Anglia and UK, including Bury St Edmunds, Newmarket, Ipswich, Sudbury, Cambridge, Colchester, Thetford, Lavenham, Stowmarket, Thurston, Elmswell, Haughley, Barrow, Suffolk, Norfolk, Essex, Cambs..