I think this is a rather loaded question don't you? hehe. I mean, who wouldn't? Most people have thoughts of GREAT aspirations and achievements when they first investigate opening a Ecommerce site, from the average person to the technically savy. However, with many FREE Ecommerce solutions out there like OSCommerce, many people are putting up websites to sell stuff using a very minimal hosting fee's and paypals IPN to produce a very LOW investment solution. The problem with this is, there are starting to be WAY too many people doing this, and it will only get bigger as third world country people get on the ship with this as a means to an end.
So to answer your question, which I am still not sure what it means..
YES I would be disappointed. But most people realize (or they should) that they won't see a sale for about 3 months. After about 2 years time, you should know what your site is going to do. I think after a years time, there should be serious consideration as to what changes need to be made if any.
Advertising is key to starting off correctly. But where do you do that? Locally is the best solution. Post flyers where applicable, put ads on billboards, newspapers, etc. This should generate some sales. Will it make up for the money spent on advertising? Hopefully. That is up to you to decide if you think it will.
If for example, you sell low $$ low profit items, it just isn't worth it. If however you are selling medium $$ and profit margin items, then advertising is key.
Long ago I did a little poll of people leaving a stadium while drunk hehe. There was an ad for a website flying overhead with 60,000 people watching it on the back of an airplane. I asked about 100 people the following questions:
1. did you see the add - out of 100 people, about 35% of the people say they saw it.
2. do you think you will remember the ad tonight? about 80% of the people said they won't remember a thing about it. tonight, and about 90% said they won't remember it tomorrow or when they 'go to browse the net'
3. are you going to check the site out. about 90% said they didn't know what the website was for, and about 5% said they might if they are looking for that item.
So if you take these results. About 30 people will actually visit the site and purchase something. It was for a clothing boutique. Assuming only 10% of the people purchase something from the amount of people that will visit the site. And I think that is a high estimate.
Now, I did a little research beyond that. It cost the guy probably $1500 to do that ad and have that plane fly around. It may have costed up to $5,000, but these was pre 9/11 so flight restrictions, licenses, and fee's were MUCH lower.
The person sells clothing. Average price about $40 per product. Profit margin of about 60%. So take 30x40= $1200. Profit of about $720.
So that cost the guy a loss of $480.
Wanna bet that person is disappointed?
Ok, so..I hope I answered your question and more.
Most people that putup a website to sell stuff no-adays do have high hopes for their site, especially if they have a 'legit' CC# acceptance system and hosting and cart system that can run them upwards of $200 a month. With free carts, paypal ipn, and an inexpensive host, this can be lowered to $6 per month if you know what you are doing.
As a designer, I'm not the best at advertising and especially SEO. What does that mean for me? Nothing. I don't guarantee any results, and only state that I will submit their website for search engine review. If however, they want to pay for SEO, I will be more than happy to research research and research to help them out. But I will probably point them to many other people that know MUCH more than me. As a designer even, I will be unhappy if my client was unhappy.
That said - I think most people feel the same, and all parties would be disappointed if they didn't at least make a few bucks on their website. What is the difference between a BIGTIME website and a losing website using the same flashy graphics and content? Advertising...to...the....right...audience!
S
