There is no magic formula that will make your e-Store successful, however, there are some steps you can take, which should greatly assist you with this.

Designing your e-Store

1. Take clear pictures of your products

Blurry pictures really affect the overall quality to a site.  It causes the customer to question quality of your e-Store, and they could turn away because of it.  By taking pictures with a quality camera, you may be able to retain your visitors.

2. Compress large pictures

If your pictures have a very large file size, it can take dial-up users, and slow DSL users, a long time to view your site.  Because of this, some may get discouraged and turn away.  It is a good idea to save your graphics in a compressed .jpg file format, with a recommended file size no larger than 50KB.  For more information, please visit the following link:

How do I resize my photos?

3. Create Featured Products

By creating featured products on your e-Store, you are able to promote particular products, or advertise newly added items.  You can also add a product Rotator or Product Grid to your page by going to the Home page category under the Content tab

4. Take time designing your website

Many customers have their e-Store linked directly off of their website.  If the website looks unappealing, or is hard to navigate, then the customer may turn away even before entering the e-Store.  Here are a couple things to keep in mind:

  A. Spend time designing your website.  If necessary, browse to other sites and see how they have their layout and color scheme setup.

  B. Limit the use of page transitions.  Long transitions can annoy customers and may cause them to loose interest in your site.

  C. Make your website easy to navigate

Marketing your e-Store

1. Add Metatags to your e-Store

Metatags are a necessary component to have if you want to submit your e-Store to search engines.  Please click the following link for more info:

Setup Meta Tags

2. Submit your e-Store to Search Engines

Once the metatag information has been entered on your website, you will need to submit your e-Store to the different search engines.  Please click on the following link for more information:

Setup Meta Tags

3. Setup Affiliate Links

An affiliate link is an online version of a "finder's fee".  It's basically a link that contains a code, that lets the seller know who referred them to your site.  Once a customer purchases a product off of your site, you will pay the referring site a small fee.

4. Paid Advertising

For a small payment, you can choose to advertise on popular sites through banner ads, or through Pay-per-clicks, which should bring extra traffic to your site.  Some very popular sites that do this are Google and Yahoo.

5. Purchase Website Traffic

By performing an internet search for "purchasing website traffic", you will come across a number of websites that will allow you to purchase website traffic for a nominal fee.  This typically is the result of companies purchasing expired domains, but it can provide many hits if these domains were popular.

Customer Follow-up

1. Communicate with a customer after an order

By communicating with the customer of when an order has been received, shipped, or is delayed, you let the customer know what to expect.  Because of this, the customer is more then likely to return if they have a pleasant experience, and if they are well informed about their order.

2. Create a Mailing List

By adding a mailing list to your site, you can keep in touch with customers who have perviously purchased a product off of your e-Store.  You would typically do this if you sent out a newsletter, created a sale, or if you sent out gift certificates / coupons.  Please click on the following link for more information:

How do I create a mailing list?