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WEDNESDAY, APRIL 6, 2022
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eCommerce: Web design tips for building an online store
Sarah Whitney
Chemeketa Small Business Development Center
Here are five tips on how you can cre-
ate the perfect conversion rate online to
help you produce a profit.
1 The Customer Journey
Be aware of how customers 'flow'
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 fine 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 first page of
Google. While it is helpful to have SEO,
the best way to improve your ranking is
by having keywords appear in the first
100 words of a page's content. This
means the first headline you use, the
first 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 confidently
self-sufficient.
“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, find a professional
photographer to take pictures for you.
Having good photos will tremendously
improve your website's performance.
4 Product Research
One of the first 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
effectively 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-identified 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 specific product on a
product page. Another way to gather an
even greater response is to collect testi-
monials. The biggest difference 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 find what they are look-
ing for much more quickly, give them
the ability to filter 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.
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Kloi Spencer is president of Backbone, a group of youth working to find solutions
to youth homelessness. ABIGAIL DOLLINS/STATESMAN JOURNAL