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About Appeal tribune. (Silverton, Or.) 1999-current | View Entire Issue (April 6, 2022)
SILVERTONAPPEAL.COM | WEDNESDAY, APRIL 6, 2022 | 3A eCommerce: Web design tips for building an online store Sarah Whitney Chemeketa Small Business Development Center Here are five tips on how you can cre- ate the perfect conversion rate online to help you produce a profit. 1 The Customer Journey Be aware of how customers 'flow' through the website. Remove any barri- ers that prevent them from purchasing your product or signing up for your ser- vice. You don’t want your customers to ever wonder 'how do I purchase this?' It should be clear. Any moment of hesita- tion could mean the loss of a potential sale. 2 Online Payments My absolute favorite eCommerce platform is Shopify because of the fea- tures and ease of use. Fast page load speed and SSL are included in the host- ing plan. Credit card payments can be made directly through your Shopify store. As long as you have your business connected to a tax id number, your bank account will receive funds transferred directly from your Shopify website. No third party involved. Other platforms include Wix, Squarespace and Woo- commerce. Squarespace and Woocom- merce payments can be made through Stripe and/or PayPal. There might be a fee with online payments, so be sure to read about all the fine print when sign- ing up for a Stripe or PayPal account. 3 Page Ranking on Google Everyone wants the same thing, to get their website on the first page of Google. While it is helpful to have SEO, the best way to improve your ranking is by having keywords appear in the first 100 words of a page's content. This means the first headline you use, the first paragraph you write, those words Homelessness Continued from Page 1A old as 25 and each person contributed to the plan, she said. “It’s not just an outside consultant saying, you know, here’s a top priority, let’s do this or let’s put money here,” Bradshaw said. “It’s youth and young adults who have walked that walk say- ing, ‘This is what will be most helpful.’” The $3.7 million is not “remotely enough” for all the needs in the system but it is a starting place, she said. Spencer, President of Backbone, said she is blown away by the progress youth have been able to lead. She also has an ‘elevator pitch’ ready to go about Back- bone and the grant for anyone willing to listen. “I usually tell people, ‘There’s a Youth Action Board here in the community of youth and young adults who’ve experi- enced homelessness and our job is to end youth homelessness in Marion and Polk County. We recently just got fund- ing from the Youth Homelessness Dem- onstration Program which is a $3.69 million grant to help end youth home- lessness here in our community,” Spen- cer said. Key goals More than 170 people representing 72 agencies and organizations participat- ed in the development of the “Mid-Wil- lamette Valley Coordinated Community Plan to End Youth Homelessness.” The group’s shared vision is: Every youth and young adult has a safe and stable place in their community to live, sleep, connect and thrive, where each unique individual feels valued being their authentic self and has supported opportunities to become confidently self-sufficient. “Kids need a place to stay but also a place where they can thrive and connect with other people,” Spencer explained. Making eCommerce simple will help your business' bottom line. GEORGE MILTON / PEXELS are super important. You want to make sure your content is both relevant and authoritative, meaning you want the customer to know what your business is about and also how they can take action towards making an online purchase. The other thing to consider is having the most up to date information and con- tent. Make sure your products are shown with current information, in- cluding photography. I highly recom- mend researching product photography online and watching YouTube tutorials on proper lighting and backdrop. If you have the budget, find a professional photographer to take pictures for you. Having good photos will tremendously improve your website's performance. 4 Product Research One of the first things people do when they search online for a new prod- The 58-page plan submitted to HUD this week outlines the goals to reach that vision: h Identify all unaccompanied youth. h Use prevention and diversion strat- egies whenever possible. h Use coordinated entry processes to effectively link all youth experiencing homelessness to housing and services solutions that are tailored to their needs. h Swiftly assist youth to move into permanent or non-time-limited hous- ing options with appropriate services and support. h Have resources, plans and system capacity in place to continue to prevent and quickly end future experiences of homelessness among youth. h Have a comprehensive youth homelessness system that ensures eq- uity in access, experiences while seek- ing and receiving services, and out- comes for all across the geographic re- gion. Proposed projects to reach those goals include expanding sites where youth experiencing homelessness can access information about housing and services. Currently, sites for coordinat- ed entry are based in Salem, but the plan recommends partner sites in Dal- las, Santiam Canyon, Silverton and Woodburn. The plan also suggests cre- ating youth-identified ways to access the coordinated entry process such as developing an app to self-refer or re- quest an assessment. The community also needs to adopt a coordinated entry assessment tool for youth younger than 18. Additional objectives include build- ing out youth and young adult pathways to permanent and non-time limited housing options such as replicating the Host Homes model where families vol- unteer to host homeless youth, adding a lottery system to the Salem Public Housing Authority plan for 18-24-year- olds, and increasing long-term housing options designed for youth. The hope and vision are more than uct is look at customer reviews. What did other people think of the product? Is this a product they would purchase again? What was the overall purchasing experience with your online store like? This is the kind of information you want people to see. Reviews are really great shown with a specific product on a product page. Another way to gather an even greater response is to collect testi- monials. The biggest difference be- tween a testimonial vs review is that the testimonial is more in-depth. In a testi- monial, the customer explains their ex- perience with your product or service, why they chose it, and how it improved their lives. Testimonials should be made public on your site. Collecting testimo- nials and reviews should also be a part of the sales process so that you get into a good habit of always asking for feed- back. 5 Product Selection just having shelters and more than just having the necessities, Bradshaw said. “Our hope is to go beyond that, where each person can connect then thrive re- gardless of your identity or regardless of where you are geographically,” she said. Once approved by HUD, they can be- gin the Request for Proposal process where community organizations will be able to submit proposals for funding. A committee would be formed to review proposals to ensure that projects receiv- ing funding match the priorities out- lined in the coordinated community plan. That committee will be made up of 50% youth and young adults with lived experience with homelessness, Brad- shaw said, to continue elevating youth leadership. E K A M You will want to streamline your checkout process with as few clicks as possible. Each additional click to anoth- er page reduces the opportunity for a completed sale. You want to use very detailed product title descriptions. To help customers find what they are look- ing for much more quickly, give them the ability to filter and search certain product categories. About 30% of visi- tors use a site search tool. It’s a critical component for any eCommerce site. Sarah Whitney is a Business Adviser at the Chemeketa Small Business Devel- opmentCenter. The Small Business Ad- viser column is produced by the Center. Questions canbe submitted to sbdc@chemeketa.edu or call (503) 399- 5088. T CHOICE ! H G I R THE Oregon Equipment Sales “Formerly OVS ® ” OES ® MCMINNVILLE 2700 ST. JOSEPH RD. MCMINNVILLE, OR (503) 435-2700 OES ® AURORA 19658 HWY. 99 E. HUBBARD, OR (971) 216-0111 800-653-2216 • www.orequipmentsales.com HOURS: Mon.–Fri. 8–5 • Sat. 8-NOON FULL SERVICE SHOPS WITH MOBILE CAPABILITIES! $0 DOWN, 0% A.P.R. FINANCING FOR UP TO 60 MONTHS * ON SELECT NEW KUBOTAS Kloi Spencer is president of Backbone, a group of youth working to find solutions to youth homelessness. ABIGAIL DOLLINS/STATESMAN JOURNAL