Being a successful online merchant is not an easy thing. It is possible to fail even if you are a good business manager. Your career is management and it has nothing to do with web design and programming. The first key to success is working with a web design company in your area. This is particularly if you want a website that will sell products or services only in your country or continent. You will require a local website builder as they will understand your objectives better than any random internet company.
One thing you want your designer keep in mind when working is the navigation system. This is the main factor that a customer considers prior to deciding whether they want to shop from you. A series of planned steps will definitely bore your customers. Have you come across websites that take you through lectures you do not need? You will open a long product page with a link at the bottom. After you click on it, another long page will open with yet another link to click on. Even if you had already decided to purchase that particular product you might just move on to the next site. This is an obstacle you want your web design company to avoid if you are about to build a new website.
The sort of sales tactic I have described above is too persuasive to work on the internet. A website that uses the tactic effortlessly discourages impulse buying. As a beginner in online business you may not know that forcing your customers to click through pages before they land on the download or buy button is unethical. It should be avoided at all costs as it will not be productive or profitable in the long run. Your customer wants to purchase an item quickly and delaying purchase that could only damage your business' reputation. Leave this sales approach for live sales persons.
For an eCommerce site, you should make given links accessible from each page of your site. The best way to achieve this is to add these links to the navigation bar. Usually a navigation bar is found on the left, right, top or bottom of a website. The most important thing is not only the positioning of the navigation bar. It is also the items it will contain. First it should contain all the products you are selling. Your web designer will know how to link to a page that will list all your products or services.
Maybe you have many products to sell and they can not fit fit into a single page. Your website design professional should create category pages that can be accessed via the main product page. The navigation panel should feature an order form link that will point to your order form page. It should as well consist of the price list page that is not hidden somewhere your customer can not figure out. The about us page as well as the support page links should also appear on the menu bar.