Introduction

Building a profitable e-commerce site takes more than design and technology. For an e-commerce site to succeed, it has to merchandise products effectively. Microsoft Office FrontPage 2003 features make building a site accessible to millions; yet for managers, marketers, and e-commerce entrepreneurs with a vested interest in achieving and optimizing sustainable profitability, organizing and displaying products and product information to appeal to customers and lead directly to a purchase decision is a deep challenge. This course leads students with intermediate-to-advanced FrontPage skills through a way of thinking about online merchandising—how to present products effectively online and boost sales. The primary goal is to introduce best practices that will enable the students to improve sales, lower costs, and build better customer relationships, which all add up to better Web site profitability.

Audience

This course is designed for managers, marketers, and entrepreneurs, particularly in small-size to mid-size businesses, who have a vested interest in achieving and improving sustainable profitability. This audience uses FrontPage to sell products online directly or through the affiliates model and is either building a site or seeking to optimize an existing one.

At Course Completion

After completing this course, students will be able to:

•	Identify correlations between both the company’s business goals for the site and the goals a customer has when visiting the site.
•	Organize the site’s navigation to present a product mix that addresses both the company’s business goals and the customer’s goals.
•	Lay out product pages that give the customer the information needed to lead directly to a purchase decision.
•	Plan and prioritize content areas on product pages to boost sales by offering appropriate cross-selling (selling related items), upselling (selling higher-priced items), and product support.
•	Analyze traffic and sales data and synthesize to improve the customer experience and focus on revenue-producing results.

Prerequisites

Before attending this course, students must have:

•	Experience as a manager, marketer, entrepreneur, or other business professional charged with building or maintaining an e-commerce Web site that sells products.
•	Working familiarity with FrontPage and other Microsoft Office applications (particularly Microsoft Word and Excel).
•	Experience in FrontPage creating a basic Web site; including opening an existing page and inserting text, creating a bulleted or numbered list, adding an image, and posting a page.
•	Experience in Word creating documents and experience in Excel creating formulas.
•	An awareness of the distinction between an e-commerce site’s front end (the interface) and back end (the database, transaction system and other behind the scenes systems).

Course Outline

Module 1: Identifying Company Goals and Customer Goals

This module helps you identify correlations between your site's business goals and the visiting customer's goals. The ability to use these correlations to drive decision-making as you plan or modify the site will translate into measurable bottom-line results.

Topics and Activities

•	The Online Merchandising Challenge
•	What Are Goals, Tasks, and Features?
•	Discussion: E-Commerce Goals—Two Points of View
•	Demonstration: Correlating Goals and Tasks
•	Exercise: Identifying Correlations for an E-Commerce Site
•	Discussion: Basing Decisions on Specified Goals

After completing this module, students will be able to:

•	Understand how specifying goals can translate to return on investment.
•	Distinguish among goals, tasks, and features.
•	Identify specific company goals for an e-commerce Web site and the goals a customer has in visiting the site.
•	Chart correlations between company goals and customer goals, and then identify tasks a customer would have to accomplish at the site for both sets of goals to be accomplished.
•	Know how to use specified goals and tasks as the basis for making decisions about features to include on your Web site.

Module 2: Presenting the E-Commerce Product Mix

This module will teach you how to organize an e-commerce site's structure and navigation in line with the mutual goals of the customer and your company.

Topics and Activities

•	Planning from the Ground Up
•	Putting the Goods Out in the Open
•	Exercise: Creating Store “Aisles”
•	Discussion: How Will Customers Achieve Tasks?
•	Demonstration: Labeling and Creating Pages

After completing this module, students will be able to:

•	Understand why and how an e-commerce site is more effective when it is structured like a store.
•	Organize an e-commerce site’s structure to address both the company’s goals and the goals a customer has when visiting the site.
•	Create site navigation to present a product mix that attracts business.
•	Apply best-practice guidelines to organizing your e-commerce Web site.

Module 3: Creating Product Pages That Sell

This module presents specific techniques to help move the customer toward making a purchase decision. The module will also help you identify and leverage opportunities for cross-selling, upselling, and product support.

Topics and Activities

•	Giving Customers What They Want
•	Templates Benefit Everyone
•	Discussion: Information That Enables Purchase Decisions
•	Giving Customers More of What They Want
•	Demonstration: Viewing a Page Template
•	Exercise 1: Creating a Product Page Template
•	Exercise 2: Maximizing Sales Opportunities
•	Discussion: Looking at Possible Solutions

After completing this module, students will be able to:

•	Identify content areas on a page and assign priorities based on company goals and customer goals.
•	Lay out product pages that give the customer the information needed to lead directly to a purchase decision.
•	Create and use opportunities for selling related products, selling higher-priced products or bundled products, and offering support for the sale of the product.
•	Understand how to use page templates to increase revenue, improve the customer experience, and reduce maintenance costs.

Module 4: Focusing on Revenue-Producing Results

This module addresses how to analyze traffic and sales data to improve a customer's experience and increase sales.

Topics and Activities

•	Methods of Measuring E-Commerce Success
•	Exercise 1: Measuring Traffic with FrontPage
•	Exercise 2: Calculating the Conversion Rate
•	Visit Value and Feature Investment Breakeven
•	Basing Modifications on Business Value
•	Discussion: E-commerce in the Real World

After completing this module, students will be able to:

•	Analyze traffic and sales data to improve the customer experience and focus on revenue-producing results.
•	Measure success more accurately based on company goals and customer goals.
•	Evolve an e-commerce site by making appropriate modifications based on set goals and appropriate measures of success.

About the Author

Brenda Kienan is the author of more than a dozen books on business and technology including Webmastering for Dummies (Wiley & Sons) and Managing Your E-Commerce Business (Microsoft Press). She has been a featured speaker at the Stanford Conference on E-Commerce, Regan Communications Conferences and meetings of the Society for Technical Communication.