Hey everyone! I have a client for a web design job who is highly interested in selling his products from his glasses store on the internet as well. His glasses shop is very successful and he has a very wide range of sunglasses and prescription glasses, some that are even one of its kind and can sell for a LOT of money. Now, as a designer, I want to ensure this works, especially if he is willing to pay high for a job like this. The biggest question is, how can this site get big and popular enough for people to purchase on it. It has TONS of products, and I'd create a cart system for him, be he wants to start making money almost right away. Is Google Adwords the best way for this, and if it is, how much money do you think he should spend? His hope is to have buyers in other countries who can't easily come to his glasses store still buy his products. He said he tried eBay but it was nearly impossible just because there were just too many other users selling similar products and nobody noticed his. So, again, HOW can this site get popular...it has all the criteria to become successful (ie: amazing products, a huge inventory, good prices, a good site design and easy to navigate), but we just need a method of getting the word out, and relatively quick. The site isn't designed yet mainly because I need some feedback on this before I commit my time to working on this job. Thanks.
A retail site will take time and effort to become established and successful. Try a viral campaign with amusing youtube ads.
He can start by simply giving his existing client base business cards with the web-address. He could also put the web-address with other existing ads he runs in the yellow pages or whatnot. His initial goal should be to have existing customers tell people about his business and the web-site makes it very easy for them to see what he has. If someone told me that a store had such and such I'd probably forget about it before I made the time to drive out there. But if I had a web-site then I'd be far more likely to check out his merchandise and make a decision whether or not to go to the store or order on-line. Also, I find a lot of local businesses through Google and I tend to go with the ones that have web-sites. If John Doe is looking up sunglasses in the area your guy is located on Google and your guy's web-site shows up, he has a much higher chance of making a sale either on-line or in person. People don't like to blindly go to stores hoping they have what they want. So, don't worry about the overseas market. A lot of local people will be more likely to buy if they can see the products before they drive out. My wife is starting a business and I'm doing her web-site more out of convienience for local people. It's a lot cheaper to make an on-line catalog and business cards than to print out a full color, magazine quality, multi page document at Kinkos.
Okay, thank you. He is worried that he will 'waste' lots of money and not know if this thing will run, but being just a designer, this isn't really my responsibility. He should be the one running this and putting the work and marketing in to make it a success? Is that correct?