A Good System Should Just Run

E isn’t easy: Developing an e-commerce Website can increase profits, but it takes time, effort and know–how.

By: Padma Nagappan
Sep 8 2008

Today's Local News Article

Craig Weatherwax, owner of Oceanside Photo and Telescope, jumped on the e-commerce bandwagon early. And he’s glad he did.

OPT originally sold cameras but now focuses exclusively on telescopes. Its first website went up in 1997, expanding to accommodate online sales in 1999.

Today, OPT does $17 million in business annually, and $6 million of that is online.

OPT sells equipment to astronomers across the country and throughout the world who find the store through online searches.

“I would be out of business without a website,” Weatherwax said. “Aside from online sales, the bulk of our in-store sales also happen because these customers found us online. “

When Weatherwax took his business online 10 years ago, there were few similar websites to pattern it after. He started out just listing the products the store carried.

As his e-commerce business grew, it became an ever-increasing challenge for Weatherwax and his employees to ensure that the website was easy to navigate and to keep it up to date, since the store is constantly adding new products.

Weatherwax turned to Lynch Interactive, a Carlsbad company that specializes in website design and development and search engine optimization. Lynch Interactive worked with the OPT team to revise the Web site and set it up so it could be maintained and updated by two OPT employees.

Jeff Lynch, founder of Lynch Interactive, has worked with many start-up companies as well as established businesses to create websites, develop e-commerce sites and improve the visibility of the sites on the Internet. His company, which began in 1999, is now a five person team.

Over the years, Lynch has identified a few common problems that small-business owners face when they take on web design and Internet marketing.

“People have the impression anyone can put up a website, so they think it should be cheap or free. Newbies don’t understand the difference between a business and personal website, or the threats form hackers and fraudsters, “Lynch said.

Lynch spoke about the importance to online retailers of obtaining certification that their websites are secure.

Companies such as VeriSign and McAfee offer seals of approval to online retailers, confirming that the websites have been thoroughly scanned and are safe places for consumers to type in their personal information.

Obtaining certification boosts the company’s image in the mind of the consumer, but is not easy and the scans often reveal glitches that need to be fixed to make the back-end system safe, Lynch said.

Nancy Comer owns Running Center, a Carlsbad store that sells running shoes. She also has a store in Redlands.

She launched a basic website for her business and was persuaded by Lynch to make it an e-commerce site in 2003.

Like many small - business owners, Comer had reservations at first. She knew it would be a time-consuming effort to bring the site up to speed and keep up with consumer demands.

“I was not convinced that e-commerce was right for us, “ Comer said.

She said working with a professional such as Lynch makes a big difference in gaining a significant return on the investment involved in web development.

Comer said maintaining a profitable website is an ongoing process.

“You have to constantly ay attention to it, like a typical storefront, “ she said.

“Most business owners don’t have the time to devote to setting up a good website, so you need to find a good web designer who is constantly looking into the statistics and working on improving it.

“One of the issues we’ve had is visibility: how we fare in Google searches, where are people finding us.

“Also, we are always looking at how we can fine-tune our site.”

Once a website is launched, analyzing the numbers, observing how consumers conduct online searches and zeroing in on multiple paths that bring custome