Methods of promoting an E-Commerce business.

Effective use of search engines
Using meta tags to promote your E-Commerce business would be a good way to do this as users may find your business on the search engine when looking for a specific product. Meta tags work by the client putting them into the html code. When a user searches for something the search engine uses page's meta tags to find the best match, if the user searched for something that is found in your meta tags, it will be displayed.

   Advantages

• The advantage of this is that the E-Commerce site may be displayed on the front page of the search engine which promotes their website and gains them customers and makes the site more well-known.
• It is cost effective compared to traditionally methods of promoting.

  Disadvantages

• The disadvantages of using meta-tag description is that other competitors can see the company's website meta-tag and make theirs match so that their site might come up more often on search engines.
• It will take a while for the website to actually be noticed and recognised by customers as a good and trustworthy site, especially if you are only a click organisation. 

Banners and pop-ups

Using banners and pop-ups is a good method of promoting an E-Commerce website as the more times a user sees the pop-up or banner then it will stay in their minds or get their interest. This could help get more customers and if people ever needed something they might remember your website gave what they were looking for in the banner or pop-up.

   Advantages

• The advantage of this is that it will get customers attention and stay in their mind, so if they ever needed something they might remember to check out your website first.
• Another advantage is that user's prefer banner advisement as they are nice to look at and easy on the eye, this will gain more customers by attracting their attention without annoying them.
• Also, if the business using social networking sites to promote their business it will reach a wider audience as many people use social media and these adverts can also be seen on some mobile phones, many people have mobiles.

   Disadvantages

• The disadvantages of this is that users find pop-ups especialling flashing ones to be annoying and irratating when they are opening a website.
• Another disadvantage is that recently centre flash adverts have become popular however they are very time consuming and creating them is an expense for businesses so only large businesses can have this option but they are good for getting attention.
• Pop-up blockers will stop customers from seeing the advert if they can't see it then it is pointless having it whereas banners will appear regardless of pop-up blockers.

Direct Marketing

Using direct marketing gets straight to your audience without the hassle of taking time to promote using other methods such as pop-ups and meta tags. Email marketing is used to promote businesses as people who subscribe to your business will get the latest offers and items on sale or if they have brought other items from businesses you can use this information that you get from other agencies to find people who may be interested in what you sell.

   Advantages

• Email marketing gets straight to the customer that likes your business so they can see what they like that is the latest in.
• When advertising direct to the customers they can have more control over the message they want to give out to consumers.
• The business can market their products/ business to the customers that will best suited or more interested in the products they are selling.
• If the business doesn't has limited resources this form of marketing is more cost effective.

  Disadvantages

• When sending out emails advertising your products they may be sent to the users Junk Mail which would mean that they will not see the advert so it will be pointless/ useless.
• Using this method can annoy customers who don't like being contacted directly, this could result in a loss of customers.

Effective User Interfaces
When using an E-Commerce website the user interface must be very good and easy to use as if the customer is unable to they will most likely shop somewhere else. When designing a user interface issues must be thought about such as who are the users, what do the user want or need to do, etc.
  Advantages

• The advantages of having a good user interface is that customers will find it easy to use and will most likely shop on your website rather than a site with a bad user interface as they will not be able to navigate around the website.

  Disadvantages

• The disadvantages of this is if it isn't good it might be too hard for users to work with so they will shop else where.

Site Names
When creating an E-Commerce website you want the domain name to be easy to remember to ensure that your customers can remember it whenever they want to go on it. Most domain names try to generally be small and easier to remember however some business have longer ones. You need to take into consideration how easy the site could be misspelt and many business use this misspelt versions of the name as domain names so that your customers could accidentally be taken to their website instead. 
  Advantages

• If the site name is a well thought name and easy for consumers to remember that it will help to ensure that customers have a way to find your business and purchase products. Especially if they can't go to a store.

  Disadvantage

• If the site name is easily misspelt you could have customers be directed to another website losing your business customers.