The Internet has forever changed the way we shop. It has increased the speed and ease of buying products and provided the consumer with a global library of information, real variety and choice. Being able to shop online is no longer the challenge. Understanding that online commerce is just as effective as offline is important. But understanding the online buyer’s behavior is vital.

Shopping online is so easy; buyers can do whatever they want with little effort; users can bookmark pages, compare prices and shop around before buying. Only seldom do they visit a site and buy straight away. This means your store has to be able to compete.

In year 2000, a Jupiter study on retail differentiation found that the two biggest drivers of consumer behavior for e-commerce were a better price (74 percent) and the ability to compare prices (46 percent).

People wanted good prices back then. But they also wanted information on products and some sort of basis for comparing products before buying. A Yankee Group study published in August 2000 confirmed the above, finding that 65% of online shoppers complained about not being able to tell the quality of the merchandise they wanted to buy. That same study also found that 80 percent of shoppers first seek information before buying.

What are online shoppers up to nowadays?
First there is the verdict given by a recent survey (via Corporact) Comet conducted involving 2243 of its online customers. And the verdict is that different types of web shoppers have different goals and shopping strategies, with mens’ and womens’ styles varying.

45% use the Internet for checking out product information “Grazer-style” and doing research before rushing in. The “Sniffers” (the bargain-hunting shoppers), representing just over 15 percent of the total polled, use comparison shopping tools and are just looking for the lowest price. Grazers and Sniffers are both more likely to be male than female (Grazers representing 61 percent male to 39 percent female and Sniffers 59 percent male to 41 percent female)

Overall, the survey indicates that while the Internet is often the first port of call for these shoppers seeking information before they buy, it indicates that nearly 16 percent are “Combos”; the shopping elite who use the Internet mainly as a source of information. This group like taking the best of the new with the reassurance of the traditional and do enjoy the offline shopping experience too. Of this 16 percent a “Combo” is more likely to be female than male – (53 percent to 47 percent respectively).

Of those polled just over 10 percent admit to having an “SAS-approach” to online shopping, making precision strikes targeting only the areas and website they need, and then quickly logging off. They know exactly what they want before logging on and only purchase that item. SAS precision strikers are more likely to be male than female (68 percent to 32 percent respectively).

However, the remainder uses the Internet on a “Needs Must” basis (4.5 percent). Those shopping out of necessity, or if they are pressed for time, are more likely to be female (55 percent) than male (45 percent). The social “Tiddleywinkers” (nearly 2 percent of the total polled) are enthusiastic, adventurous web users who will ping to new ideas as they are presented to them and use the Internet as a form of recreation (67 percent female, 33 percent male). “

On the other hand, Yankelovich underline the determination of the online consumer. "Whether it’s searching for the right blog or boutique, consumers’ determination to hit the right marks in their pursuit of goods, services, and experiences is undoubtedly leading them down some eclectic, perhaps unusual, paths. They have a determination to find “their own.” They’re veering away from where everyone else is headed if that direction or interest isn’t relevant. Or the conversation doesn’t match the preferred pitch, tone and caliber."

To conclude, online buyer behavior is also strongly influenced by usability and accessibility of your website/store. David Jackson, MD of Clicktools, said: “Site usability and the user's perception of the on-line experience are closely related. A site that is cumbersome, difficult to use or does not provide access to all groups of people is unlikely to generate a good customer experience.” Logical thinking, I have to agree.

Considering all the above factors, a question rises: how many of the online stores respond to their targeted online buyer needs? Next time when you have to deal with low sales, think about buyer behavior first.

It’s been a while since SilkFair first came online and the main seller and buyer features have been constantly updated with new, exciting functions that improve the user’s experience related to online marketplaces and online stores.

On May 12th we launched the Chatroom option (accessible for all logged in users under the Community tab), and we want to thank everybody that helped us in testing it, especially Shannon who has shown that videocams work, too. Similar to the MySpace chatrooms, the system allows you to create your own rooms and negotiate with customers for example. Friendly and pleasant, the chatrooms are free to use and don’t log any messages or conversations. More information about this feature can be read here.

A couple of days before, we released the Mini Store Widgets that allow store promotion anywhere you want online. The cool thing is that you don’t have to do anything else but grab the code and the widget plays all the products in your store. And if you want to have control (maybe you just want to send people to your store without showing them your 100 different products), then grab one of the ready-made Badges especially designed to complete the advertising features.

After a couple more weeks, we heard you’d like to have a personal place (thank you RocknWow for the idea) where sellers could speak about tips, suggestions, techniques etc. And that was the birth of the Secured Seller-Only Forums. To smooth things up for you, and avoid dealing with passwords/codes etc, our techies found a way to make the system know and allow the sellers in without any further actions from their part. User-friendly from head to toe!

When we got our first seller that had over 18,000 products to list (from TheSteamShoppe), it was clear that we had to work on a Bulk load/ bulk image upload facility in order to enhance the SilkFair service for sellers with a lot of products, too. Obviously, the above option is now up and running. To learn more about it, just go read this.

But let’s go on. The New Text Search Interface, Duplicate a Listing or Store Category Tree were one after another released for freely use. Every time you asked for something or we felt we could offer you an upgrade, we brainstormed with the programmers and found a way to create user friendly, usable improvements that turn online buying and selling into a fun and easy daily practice.

And let’s stop here for the moments with a preview for what’s next: The 100% Customizable Store. The name may give you a hint of what we’ve been up to, but for the time being, we keep this secret, as we’re still working on the bug-free version, but soon we’re going cut it loose.  

Image source: Yana Designs

A lucky number of talented people have native skills for taking impressive pictures. This article and tutorial is not for them. But it's for everybody else who feels their camera hasn't caught the perfect light and/or color every time they took a picture meant to sustain the description of an item in their online store.

The products used to create the color enhancement tutorial are randomly taken from two Silkfair stores. The archive is for you to download and keep on your computer for further use.

If you're looking for any other tutorials, drop a line in the comments section and let us know about it. Remember we're the online e-commerce solution that makes buying and selling fun and easy , therefore we're open to other suggestions and ways to improve your marketplace experience.

A comment today may get you a tutorial tomorrow.

Download the tutorial here. The link will open you a window from where you can save the archived files.

How many of you haven’t heard „Oh, my God! That’s so cute. You should sell it!” when other people (friends, family or just simple acquaintances) have seen your crafts? And you took their advice, worked your butt off to create original pieces, went to craft fairs, set up online shops and ....the results were not as you expected them.  Time passed and sales seem not to reflect your devotion and heart put in every little piece of work. Naturally, you start questioning yourself what you’re doing wrong?, what we’re doing wrong?, where is everybody screwing up?

The thing is that no one is doing anything wrong, but you must take advantage of the traffic and potential customers that visit your shops everyday. We’re bringing them here, you must make them stay, buy and return or at least speak about what they bought from you. That is advertising, that turns your shop into a viral.  
Now let’s get over all the specific marketing terminology and get to clean tips and suggestions on a budget, suggestions you can choose to stick to and improve your online stores.

Basically, it’s all down to DETAILS.
1. List new items. Often. Let’s suppose you finished 3 new items, nobody asks you to list them immediately. Today, tomorrow, in a week, listings are free and are meant to give you time to showcase each object. Show everybody that each item is important (so each needs some time to be in the flashlight before another one takes its place)

2. Develop the niche you’re good at and showcase your shop accordingly. If you try your hand in different crafts and areas, it may be better to have a new shop for each interest, rather than mixing paper crafts, with jewelry and vintage items with prints. Mixing different things only gives a feeling of discomfort and suggests you don’t really know what you’re selling; you may send wrong signals. If you’re not sure on your items, why should I buy them?

3. Be active in the forums, use the free blog as a way to advertise your items (I know several of you are already doing this, but this article is meant to tip suggestions to each seller in SilkFair). Posting raises the number of people that see your name, thus the number of people visiting your store. Keep in mind that other SF sellers are also potential customers.

4. Market you store! (Yes, we’re always going to emphasize the marketing thing, this is the way all businesses in the world develop). You know you should be doing this - but are you?

a). Join forums and put your SilkFair store URL/ widget in your signature, if the forum rules allow it.
b). Find people to link to your SilkFair store, and do the same for them in return. Advertise in free bulletin boards. List your stores in specific directories:
http://www.myspace.com/
http://www.cracker.com.au

http://www.google.com/addurl/?continue=/addurl
http://froogle.google.com/
http://www.search.msn.com/docs/submit.aspx
http://www.dmoz.org/add.html
http://www.arts-crafts.com/market/
http://www.ecom.yahoo.com/dir/submit/intro/
http://www.made-in-new-york.com/
http://seocompany.ca/directory/free-web-directories.html
http://www.blogger.com/start
http://www.freecraftfair.com/link_exchange.html
http://www.freecraftfair.com/categories.html
http://www.bust.com/girlweb/index.html
http://www.clipfire.com/

c). Put your SILKFAIR URL in your e-mail signature

d). Join communities and stick to other sellers in SF. Create groups, network, share skills, and promote your products and shops all together. Start groups based on shared location, craft interests, similar business medium or any other thing you may have in mind.  
http://www.stumbleupon.com
http://groups.xanga.com
http://www.stylehive.com
http://www.kaboodle.com
http://www.thisnext.com

And a couple for moms:
http://babble.com/
http://www.momblognetwork.com/

e). Do business card exchange with other sellers. You can use Vistaprint.com – (they have a free business card feature) and give them away like crazy. Send samples or cards to people attending craft fairs in other cities. Send your items to the Sampler (homeofthesampler.com) for gaining more exposure both online and to subscribers.

f). Use the video feature, people! The future of all business is in the interactive media. We’re offering you showcase with videos, why don’t you take advantage of that? Create short advertising videos for your items or your whole shop. You have tons of imagination to create beautiful, unique things; you must be able to create videos, too. Upload them on YouTube (if really creative) or just showcase them in SF (I know I’d like to see the backstage of your business, we all appreciate hard work so why not share a little piece of the process)

Not everything is going to work, but keep mark of what it does and stick to that!

5. Be accurate and objective when pricing your items. Calculate the costs based on your work, time spent and market relevancy. Try to have a couple of “less than 10$” items in your store, as statistics say that people are more likely to buy cheaper things.

P.S. Stay tune for the photo tutorial to come.  

Live simply.
In kindergarten your idea of a good friend was the person who let you have the red crayon when all that was left was the ugly black one.

In primary school your idea of a good friend was the person who went to the bathroom with you; held your hand as you walked through the scary halls; helped you stand up to the class bully; shared their lunch with you when you forgot yours on the bus; saved a seat on the back of the bus for you; knew who you had a crush on and never understood why.

In secondary school your idea of a good friend was the person who let you copy their social studies homework; went to that "cool" party with you so you wouldn't wind up being the only freshie there; did not let you lunch alone.

Love generously.
In pre-university your idea of a good friend was the person who gave you rides in their new car; convinced your parents that you shouldn't be grounded; consoled you when you broke up with Nick or Susan; found you a date to the prom or went to the prom with you (both without dates); helped you pick a university and assured you that you would get into that university; helped you deal with your parents who were having a hard time letting you go. On the threshold of adulthood your idea of a good friend was the person who was there when you just couldn't deal with your parents; assured you that now that you and Nick or you and Susan were back together, you could make it through anything; just silently hugged you as you looked through blurry eyes at 18 years of memories; and reassured you that you would make it in university as well as you had these past 18 years; and most importantly sent you off to university knowing you were loved.

Care deeply.
Now, your idea of a good friend is still the person who gives you the better of the two choices, hold your hand when you're scared, helps you fight off those who try to take advantage of you, thinks of you at times when you are not there, reminds you of what you have forgotten, helps you put the past behind you but understands when you need to hold on to it a little longer, stays with you so that you have confidence, goes out of their way to make time for you, helps you clear up your mistakes, helps you deal with pressure from others, smiles for you when they are sad, helps you become a better person, and most importantly loves you!

Speak kindly.
Thank you for being a friend. No matter where we go or who we become, never forget who helped us get there. There's never a wrong time to pick up a phone or send a message telling your friends how much you miss them or how much you love them.

This is something I found online. Unfortunately I didn't find the author, so if you by any chance know him/her, drop a line, in order to add credits.