Storefront websites are feasible on the Internet and generally do quite well when properly maintained.
When a customer comes into your shop, browses through your inventory, picks up and inspects items, looks over 
your prices, and finally decides to take one of your products to the register and purchase it; you have the essence of a storefront business.
If you want to sell your products online in storefront websites, your website must be enabled for e-commerce and will need to have the following characteristics:
- Storefront websites must replicate a storefront business and provide detailed descriptions of product sizes, colors, dimensions, and comparisons with similar products.
- Storefront websites must allow customers to select their product, get clear prices and shipping charges on the product, and complete the sale transaction. Customers must be able to get an order number, an invoice, and an email confirmation for their purchase.
- Storefront websites must allow their customers to select their own method of shipment, and have the various shipping costs and variables readily available for comparison.
- Storefront websites should always tell the customer if their item is in stock or if it will be back ordered. Telephone assistance, live chat, or email assistance should be available 24/7 to answer shipping questions.
There is specialized software available to storefront websites, to help provide immediate customer responses, with your own live chat or help desk service.
- Your customer service links should be prominent and clearly marked. Your customer should never need to search for a way to contact you for information about anything.
- Storefront websites, like any conventional storefront business, should provide customers with all of their storefront policies.
An “about us” page should clearly display your privacy statement, guarantees, warranties, and customer satisfaction policies. You could also provide a FAQ section with information about your return policies, shipping prices, and any additional insurance charges if required.
Customers feel more secure shopping on storefront websites with these policies clearly outlined.
- It’s always a good idea to display any emails or quotes from satisfied customers on your storefront website. People always like to know about other people that are happy with your products and service.
- Many storefront websites also offer printed catalogs to their customers, in addition to their online catalogs.
Many customers prefer to order a printed catalog from your storefront website, and then do their shopping in the privacy of their own homes.
- Update your storefront websites and add new product content frequently, so that returning customers don’t get bored seeing the same products they looked at six months ago.
- Lastly, don’t irritate your customers by displaying products that are marked ‘SOLD’, or web pages that are ‘COMING SOON’ or ‘UNDER CONSTRUCTION’.
If your product is sold, take it off your web page!
If a page is under construction or is coming soon, construct it and upload it instead of talking about it!
Depending on the product or service being sold, storefront websites are not only feasible, they generally do better than conventional storefront businesses.
What is a resource box and what are the benefits of a good resource box?
The main value of the resource box, is to drive traffic to your website.
Many websites use article directories to fill their web pages with useful content applicable to their niche market.
They allow these articles on their sites, along with the resource box, not only to fill their pages, but to become affiliated with other websites that could be beneficial for them.
When people click on your resource box, the traffic you generate can be counted upon as potential customers for the sponsoring website.
People often ask, what is good content for your resource box?
In a word ‘keywords’.
There are many free keyword development tools available on the Internet that you can use to determine what keywords are best to use in the resource box.
If you don’t already know, learn about how to identify the correct keywords that people are searching for, and front load them into the resource box. Use them in your title, and several times in the content of your article and resource box.
Make sure your keywords are related to your site and don’t intentionally mislead your potential website visitors by using irrelevant keywords.
You can build your credibility and create a long lasting impression with your readers by providing compelling correct information in the resource box.
You only get a small space for the resource box, so make the most of it. Get creative and use your imagination to capture your readers attention. With the correct content, you can grab your readers imagination enough to get them to click on your link, visit your website, and browse over your offerings.
You should never underestimate the power of the resource box.
It may be small in size, but it’s an extremely powerful traffic generating tool.
Just remember that you only get one chance to wow your readers with the resource box, and hundreds of chances to repulse them, so be creative and have fun and enjoy the benefits.
When you’re trying to create a new layout for your website or blog, using web templates is an excellent cost effective way to save you a lot of time and effort.
However, there are some mistakes to avoid when using web templates that you need to know about.
Many times people choose a web template and wind up with an end result that was nothing like they originally envisioned.
Here are a few guidelines to help you avoid making those mistakes.
- Don’t choose an extremely popular web template to create your website.
This is an obvious mistake many newcomers make, thinking that everyone will appreciate the basic design.
The opposite is true. When many people use the same web template, your website loses it’s uniqueness, and your credibility as a “fresh”, “different” website is compromised.
A generic looking website does not attract as much attention or traffic as a unique site. The goal is to “stand out” from your neighbors, not to blend in with them.
- Don’t customize your web template beyond recognition.
The whole point of using a web template, is to save yourself some time and effort. In many cases, all you need to do is change the title, and the appropriate details of the web template, and you’re pretty much finished.
You can customize your web template enough to create a unique graphic design, however by over customizing your template, you are defeating the very purpose of using it; to save time and effort.
Granted, when a template you purchase is suitable for your website’s theme, but some heavy changes need to be made to suit your vision; it still takes time to make the appropriate changes.
A good example for this, is when you find a stunning web template that suits your niche market, but the header has images of seasonal Christmas decorations in it.
To save time creating your website, you can still use the web template for your purposes, and replace the seasonal graphics in the header with images that represent your niche market.
This will still save you a lot of time, without having to redesign the full template.
- Sometimes people just choose to use the wrong web template for their target audience.
Although it’s subjective, choose your web template because it serves your purposes, and try to select a template that suits the appetite of your audience.
