Avoid Common Mistakes In Online Store Set Up

One mistake that many make is trying to incorporate a flashy design in your store.  The fact is that keeping your online store simple is one of the best tools for you and for your customers.  When you have too many graphics, the end result is that you confuse and overwhelm your visitors.  They are also too heavy meaning that the visitor has to wait longer to see your page.  Instead, keep it simple.

To help you to do that, use ready to use templates and be sure that the ecommerce solutions that you use are ones that are able to be integrated properly. Design integration is essential here.  You will either need to have a set of templates that are specially created for your ecommerce solution or you will have to change the html code in your store to match that which you have in your graphics file.
When having these features is too costly, do consider a free design or even a low cost template.  Put more of your money towards marketing now and later you can make changes if you need to.  The bottom line is that great custom design means expensive money but not necessarily more customers.
To find a good design for your store, consider TemplateMonster.  Whatever you do, do not consider flash templates as they take a long time to load, they are very expensive and they also can decrease your search engine ranking.  By far it is important to consider only software and programs that you know you can trust such as XCart for your ecommerce shopping cart.
Display Your Information
Many make the mistake of not providing enough of their contact information to their visitors.  If you just want to leave an email address, do not expect customers to be placing many orders.  You need to create a sense of professionalism by providing your visitors with your full contact information including your company address and phone numbers.  This builds trust.  When they trust you, you will increase your visitor to order ratio considerably.
For those that do not have an office and do not want to use their home address, there are solutions you can use.  One of them is to sign up for a Post Office Box or even a UPS Store box.  With the UPS Store, you will even get a suite number and avoid the PO Box problem.  You should also supply a phone number on every page of your site.  Ecommerce shopping carts are not the only place to provide this information.  If you do not have a number, use a service like GotVmail as a virtual phone system.
The fact is that you need to consider this for improving your level of customer service.  Respond to each and every phone inquiry and email that you receive within 24 hours.  You can also consider having a live chat feature or live support button on your website.  This is helpful with any software program including XCart because it allows your customers to ask questions and for you to offer help as you monitor their actions on your site.  Due carefully consider the offline button though.  You may not want to have it shown at all because this often is a drawback when a customer can not find a time when you are actually online.  For those that have a busy store, consider an online support board to help.  This allows you to track a ticket history, solve any unresolved problems and it helps you to hand inquiries quickly.

Source: Google.com