In a online survey carried out by leading online consumer research company. The top 5 reasons given for customers for abandoning their shopping cart at the online checkout stage were :

1. Postage and Packing costs were too high
2. The Customer was not ready to purchase
3. Wanting to compare prices on other websites
4. Product Price was higher than the custom was willing to pay
5. They wanted to save the cart for later consideration

eRetailers, looking to reduce their shopping cart abandonment rates may could consider displaying their postage charges clearly before the checkout stage or look at reducing postage costs if the sale is over a certain value.

Its important to remember an abandoned sale doesn’t necessarily mean a lost sale either, the second and fifth most popular reasons for abandoning their cart was the customer wasn’t ready to purchase or wanted to take the purchase into consideration. So many visitors will return 1 day, 3 days or even a week later to make the purchase. Giving a visitor the ability to store or save a cart will greatly increase your chances of converting that visitor into a customer at a later date.

The key to any successful ecommerce website it dialogue, speak to your customers and ask for their reasons for buying from you. The same goes for potential customers, communicate with them to see why they haven’t brought from you.

Hows this? You may be thinking. Well the answer is simply not being clear with your potential customers. This time of year people especially don’t want to disappoint, whether its their kids, friends or relatives. By not making it clear wither and item is in or out of stock you could be driving away potential customers.

Many shopping cart programs allow you to display stock levels use this to your advantage.

The key to any successful ecommerce website is providing clear and accurate information to your ecommerce website’s visitors. In doing so you could see a huge surge in sales through your web site.

I’ve lost count the number of reviews that are submitted to this site where the reviewer complains that they have been billed again, charged a fee to move a domain or been charged because their site has gone over their bandwidth allocation. After taking sometimes just 2 minutes to read through the hosting company’s terms and conditions, its becomes obvious that the reviewer hasn’t read the terms and before signing up.

Some companies can have what would seem pretty draconic terms and conditions, however by clicking “I AGREE“, you are agreeing to fees, billing practices and anything else that may be contained in those terms.

The important message is, if you don’t agree to any of the terms outlined in their terms and conditions page, don’t sign up with that particular web hosting company.

Like moving home or a business, as long as you plan ahead you can make the transition as smooth as possible. We have created a simple ‘To-Do list’ to help you along the way.

Step 1 : Choose a hosting plan and sign-up with your new web hosting provider. Once your new hosting account has been set-up its time to move onto step 2.
Step 2 : Make a backup of all your files from your current web host. Using a FTP program such as CuteFTP, SmartFTP, or Transmit if you are using a Mac, are all great programs and really easy to use. Its important when you are copying down your files you keep the directory structure exactly as it is on your web server.
Step 3: You are now ready to start uploading the files, to your new web host. Do not change your domain nameservers yet! Most modern web hosting plans allow you to upload your files via the server’s IP.
Step 4: If you are running any sort of database driven site, setup you new database(s) and remember to change your sites config files.
Step 5: Setting up you new email accounts. This is something that often gets overlooked, but its sometimes the only contact point for a lot of websites. Make sure you remember everyone! It can sometimes be a good idea to temporary create a “catchall” or “wild-card” address just in case you forgot to someone - at least their email will not bounce.
Step 6: Its now time to initiate the domain nameserver change. Simply enter the new nameserver details that your new web hosting provider should have provided you. Changing nameservers can depend slightly on who you registered your domain name with. You should be able to find out how to do this via their website.
Step 5: Monitor for the domain name change. Once the change has been initiated it will typically take 24 - 48 hours for the entire world to see the change. This period is called propagation and is simply the time it takes for all the DNS servers around the globe to “catch up” and take note of your domains new location. Once propagation has completed its course you are free to safely cancel service with your previous host.
]]> http://blog.hostratings.co.uk/web-hosting/swithing-web-hosts-with-zero-downtime/feed http://blog.hostratings.co.uk/cpanel-tutorials/getting-to-grips-with-cpanel-11 http://blog.hostratings.co.uk/cpanel-tutorials/getting-to-grips-with-cpanel-11#comments Sun, 17 Feb 2008 11:53:17 +0000 admin http://blog.hostratings.co.uk/?p=5 Over the next couple of weeks, we will be releasing a series of tutorials for cPanel 11.  The series will include all the basics of cPanel, including setting up email accounts, mySQL databases, parking a domain as well as some helpfull tips on running your website through cPanel.
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