Researches show that Internet users in average spend only 46 seconds on a web page (Source: Clickz.com). And within this severely short time section an online business has to turn a mere visitor into a customer, that is, attract his or her attention, make a compelling offer and confirm the deal. In addition to this quite disappointing fact, the competition on the web grows faster and faster and the total number of registered domains is over 60 millions.

What can an online business do to stay ahead of the competitors? In our opinion the following 10 tips can be of help in increasing your chances for online prosperity.

01  Look for untargeted customers
Study your customers’ profile thoroughly and discover some of their needs that are not taken into account by your competitors. If you are a newcomer to online business, conduct a comprehensive research of your competitor’s activities and pay special attention to the aspects that YOU can benefit from.

02  Plan your business activities
Define exactly the sources of your business revenue, break-even periods, major expenses and other important characteristics of your business. This will give you the strong basis for planning of your further development strategy. Be precise in choosing your close and distant business milestones.

Remember about the fact that Internet environment changes dramatically fast and make your perspectives of upheavals regarding the possibilities of such changes.

03  Choose right E-Commerce software
Choose the software that is adequate to your business goals and current needs and is easy to use and manage. Pay special attention to e-commerce software scalability and security level.

Do not economize on investments in your software if it is capable of adjusting to your future business needs.

04  Make your Web Store peculiar
Scientific researches show that visual impulses have stronger impact on people’s memory than plain textual information. Branding techniques are one of the most important components for your online business success. Make your targeted customers recall your brand with the help of adding peculiar features to your e-store design.

Use favorable color schemes, convenient site layout and prominent logo to distinguish your e-shop visually from thousands of others. Be different and find custom solutions for creating a positive impression of your store in customers’ minds and making them remember your brand.

05  Increase visibility of your top products
Highlight your featured services or products. Even if the visitor of your store do not intend to purchase these products this time, next time he or she will more likely recall and visit exactly your store.

Use “attention getters” – ads, pictures, color selections, attractive slogans, etc. to emphasize your best-sellers’ advertisement.

06  Make your customers remember you
Try to build a comprehensive customer base right from the start (the best way possible is when your e-commerce solution initially incorporates CRM system). This will let you perform customer relationship management activities on a unified basis.

Let your customers be informed about all events that happen in your online store – new products, latest updates, sales and discounts, etc. Be inventive but not annoying, treat your customers with care and generate permanent sales.

07  Let your customers be aware of your presence on the Web
More than 85 % of your online shop visitors come from search engines and 90 % of them look through only first 3 or 4 search result pages. Search engine optimization and thorough Internet marketing campaign will help you place your site at the top of search engines listings. You can perform SEO at every stage of your site development, but initial optimization is preferable.

Implementing SEO and Internet marketing requires special knowledge so it is better to have professionals to perform these services for you.

06  Ensure the reliability of Backend operations
Unreliable and outdated backend operating system is a potential threat of you online business failure. When evaluating the software you are going to use pay special attention to inventory management, credit card processing, reporting, etc. features. Be sure that your software is robust enough to provide you with accurate and real-time backend operations. Do not also forget about security of online transactions and privacy of your customers.

The stronger your software backend operating platform is, the more reliable you online business will be.

9  Improve your business constantly
Analyze your business activities, spot typical mistakes that you and your competitors make and be prepared to eliminate these mistakes faster than they even know about them.

Follow all innovative trends in both business and technical performance and implement the most relevant to be always one step ahead of your competition.

Be fast in identifying and eliminating mistakes and in finding and implementing new trends.

10  Astonish your Customers:
Change your business offerings, be incentive and provide your customers with surprising offers, product groups’ discounts.

Enhance the storefront of your e-shop regularly; be inventive in displaying the products in various ways. But make sure that these changes are not too frequent and detractive from your brand and business image.

Focus on your primary goals, improve your online business constantly and this way will lead you to undoubted success in online environment.

And remember about flying 46 seconds!..