Focus on SEO, Open Source to Boost Online Sales
Even in a recession, e-commerce firms can improve sales while cutting costs — Gartner provides five strategies for doing so in a report.Online retailers looking to cut costs during a recession while still improving the online customer experience are advised to switch their e-commerce software to non-customized platforms and funnel the savings into functions such as search engine optimization (SEO), according to research released today by Gartner.
E-commerce firms should consider commercial, off-the-shelf, or open source software as a replacement for current custom Web development initiatives to save up to 35 per cent of their ongoing maintenance and license costs, according to the report “Cost Cutting in E-Commerce, 2009″ by Gartner.
These savings can then be used to direct custom development efforts toward functions likely to have an impact on differentiating customers’ online experience, such as SEO,” says Gene Alvarez, research vice president at Gartner.
“Except for market leaders, such as Amazon and eBay, custom development is likely to be a waste of effort and money because it supports functions that do not enable a differentiated online customer experience. For example, a developer who supports a commodity function, such as shopping cart management, would be better to develop rich Internet shopping capabilities or improve site design for search engine optimization so that the site can rank higher in a Google-based search,” Alvarez said in a statement. The report comes out at a time when other research groups are showing e-commerce sales are leveling off while e-tailers struggle with smaller budgets as they try to retain customers and improve the online shopping experience.