You can have the most attractive webpage in the world, or tens of thousands of visitors a month, but if your order system is not easy to understand, convenient and flawless to use, you will be watching people come to your site and then leave (without buying anything). So many people get caught up in salescopy and promoting their site, that they forget about the small details such as their ordering systems and options. The ordering process is a critical link to the success or failure of a business. Your order process can make you or break you.

I have seen very slick order systems as well as some really "mickey-mouse" ones. Remember, on the Internet you don't have a store front like in a retail store, or a showroom for people to walk into where they can touch and feel things. The only thing they have contact with is your website. You are just a URL in the crowd and this is why (as mentioned in my internet marketing course - http://www.marketingtips.com/tipsltr.html) making the customer feel comfortable at your site, building a rapport, and then asking for the sale is so important. These are just the basics but if you have a poor ordering process which is confusing, complicated, or simply out-dated, you are losing a boatload of sales.

If you still only offer the option to mail in a check (and that is the only ordering option), you might as well call your ISP and tell him to pull the site down, because you will never earn a dime from it. Or if you have a site that accepts credit cards, but they have to call you to place the order (in other words, no way to order online), you are throwing away a huge percentage of your sales (we will explain why a little later)! Even if you have an online order form, but it is not automated and in "real-time" you are still in the Stone Ages. Our goal here is to go over the EXACT order process, the options and payment types needed to get the sale and why these are so important.

The entire idea of an Internet business is that your "store" (or webpage) is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week receiving orders, and collecting your money (all automatically while you sleep). Let the computers and software do the work for you. Ok, lets get into the specifics...

1. Be prepared to check your email every day of the week, including weekends and holidays.
   
   
2. Be prepared to confirm and process every order within 24 hours.
   
   
3. Be willing to give up valuable time to fulfill orders and do paperwork when you could be marketing your business and increasing sales.

If you do become fully automated, be prepared to spend a little more time and money in the beginning setting up your business and website (to get the automated system fully operational).

Don't wait until the orders start rolling in to figure these things out. All repeat sales depend on your professionalism and ability to handle the first sale quickly and smoothly. As I will show you later, in a newsletter, repeat sales will be a big part of your net profit, even if you presently don't have anything else to sell. I will show you how to recommend other products/services for a portion of their profits in a later newsletter.

The ordering process and payment types you offer are key to your success. If the customer is confused on how to order, or you don't offer a payment type that is convenient, you will lose the sale. I cannot stress how important this is! I have seen too many people have a great product or service, and sales letter, only to miss the sale because the order process was too complicated and the payment options were not convenient enough for the customer.

Because there is so much to discuss about ordering and payment, I have broken the information into a few categories to make it easier to read.

Also, Let me show you what the order form looks like from The Internet Marketing Center course, "The Insider Secrets To Marketing Your Business On The Internet" (it is very similar to the Car Secrets secure order form).

Make the customer feel at ease by confirming every order by email. After a customer places an order, they really don't know if it was received or if the product is being shipped until they hear back from you. Remember online marketing is not like a retail store where you get to talk to a cashier. Don't overlook the psychological impact a simple electronic "thank you" can have on the customer.

Confirming an order also gives the customer the confidence that your are a legitimate company. If you are using an automated ordering system, the confirmation will automatically be sent to the customer via email moments after they order.

If you are using a manual order system where the order is simply emailed to you (so you have to process it manually), try to send an email confirmation within the next 24 hours or have an autoresponder "triggered" to send a confirmation right away (discussed in the next paragraph).

I bet you're wondering how to set up this automated process and reduce your workload, right?

Well, there are many ways to automate the receipt of email or orders. For example, if you look at one of my manual order pages for the Car Secrets Revealed book, http://www.carsecrets.com/order87.htm, you will see in the HTML code that the order is sent to two email addresses (remember to click on "view source code" in your web browser menu to display the HTML coding). The first one could be a customer service representative's, and the second could be the autoresponder that sends a confirmation to the customer within seconds (however, in this specific case above, the second email address on the order87.htm form is of an associate that we send copies of the orders to).

Note: Autoresponders will be explained in a separate newsletter. Basically how they work is when an email is sent to the autoresponder's email address, it will email back the original sender whatever document you have set up, all within seconds.

Another example of how orders are confirmed is by using a completely automated service at the server. We will use Car Secrets Revealed as an example. With the secure server that I use, the process is set up so that as soon as the customer orders:

1. The credit card is approved in "real time" while the customer waits for a few moments.
   
   
2. The money is deposited to my bank account.
   
   
3. The order is emailed to a fulfillment company who ships the hard copy of the book.
   
   
4. The customer is sent a confirmation of the order by email.
   
   
5. The customer is sent the software version of the book via email within a couple of minutes (I offer software delivery by email, and the secure server processes the transaction automatically for me). Of course this is only relevant if you are selling software or electronic information.

In the email confirmation to the customer, I repeat the contents of the order and the price, and then state when and how the order will be shipped. Your customer will appreciate the follow-up and the professionalism of this approach. Here is an example of the letter I use for Car Secrets Revealed: