Starting an Online Business All-in-One For Dummies®, 3rd Edition

Chapter 4: Converting Browsers to Buyers

In This Chapter

• Providing content to keep your customers coming back
• Figuring out what your customers want
• Creating a Web site that users enjoy
• Tempting your customers with good offers

People measure online businesses by using different statistics (such as W total revenue, total profit, and total number of customers). Another measurement, however, exists in the online world that doesn't exist in a brick-and-mortar business:Stickiness indicates how many minutes a user stays at a certain Web site.

Stickiness is measured from the moment an online user first types a URL to the moment he or she either moves on to another Web site or closes the Web browser, including the time spent browsing around the site and deciding what to do there. The longer the average time, the stickier the Web business. The more time that people spend on your Web site, the greater the chance that they will purchase one or more of your products or interact with other customers.

Some online businesses are stickier because of their purpose. Compare businesses such as eBay or Yahoo! to a business such as MapQuest. Yahoo! and eBay offer lots of reasons for users to browse around, but MapQuest offers only a couple of reasons (maps and driving directions).

Strive to make your Web site as sticky as possible. Customers who keep coming back are more likely to buy your products ...