Ask Mr. D - E-Commerce

Dear Mr. D,

I have owned a sporting goods store for
the past 15 years. A few months ago I
decided to take the plunge into the world
of ecommerce. Boy, what a difference
between a brick and mortar store and a
store on the Internet.

In my bricks and mortar store we get a
few browsers, but most people that come
in buy something. However, at my online
store most visitors seem to just look and
then leave without buying anything.

I am obliviously going to need a lot more
traffic to make my web site pay off. Do you
have some advertising ideas that won't
cost me a fortune?

Signed,

Need Visitors

________________________

Dear Need Visitors,

Welcome to the Internet. As you have
learned, it takes a lot more visitors to
a web store to produce a sale than it
does to a brick & mortar establishment.

To increase your web site traffic without
busting your advertising budget, try
piggy backing your web advertising onto
your current local store ads.

For example:

In your newspaper ads use a little
space at the bottom of each ad for this:

Too Busy To Come By The Store?
We Are As Close As Your Computer
(Your URL)

Another traffic builder is to print up
some flyers advertising your web site
and staple them to each customer's
receipt.

Those are two examples of piggy backing
your web business onto your local ads
and business practices. You can come
up many more if you will take a little time
and think about it.