More Revenue, Less Attrition - One Solution

Enhancing revenue is the goal of every business.

Likewise, many companies are concerned about attrition, or the loss of customers who take their business elsewhere possibly due to dissatisfaction, better offers from competitors, reasons associated with the customer life-cycle, etc.

If you're a web host, these are the issues that are often on your mind. Luckily, there's a way to tend to both, all in one step.

How? By adding eCommerce options such as payment gateways and shopping carts to your suite of products and services. Doing so can help maximize your relationship with existing customers, particularly if you currently only offer web hosting. It also makes you a more attractive option for potential customers looking for such a comprehensive solution.

Enabling online sales has an obvious, enormous, and immediate benefit to your client: More sales. But the benefit to you is also significant. A revenue increase means your clients' company will grow, opening up opportunities for you to provide them with more services in the future. Additionally, by partnering with merchant service providers you receive healthy incentives for each account that gets set up through you (generally ranging from five dollars to a percentage of the total bankcard processing for the accounts in question). So, you generate more revenue by earning a portion of whatever is spent through your client's website, which increases your average revenue per client (or average revenue per unit). And it gets better. By offering online payment services, you can also reduce attrition (or "churn rate").

A case in point: Consider the website mareorganic.com. This site's original purpose was to post basic menu and restaurant information. As time went on, the site's handlers decided to enable it to accept payments for gift cards. It went from a static page and little more than an online information source, to a powerful revenue-generating tool - without initially intending to do so and while staying with the same hosting company.

The lesson? Every website has growth opportunities waiting to be unleashed. Most are going to eventually get an online payment method. And if you don't offer it, they'll find it somewhere else.

Simply put, offering eCommerce solutions to your customers increases your value to them. Why be a company that just hosts websites when you can be a full-service Internet partner to your clients? They'll be more likely to enter into bigger and longer contracts with you, and more likely to stay with you instead of switching over to another host. After all, if a company already trusts you with their web hosting needs, it's a logical step to move that relationship into a situation where you also handle their email accounts, payment services, shopping carts, and much more.

Once your clients start taking advantage of these additional services, they'll be much less likely to seek out other vendors when it's time to take the next step. The goal, then, is to convince your customers that by partnering solely with you, they'll save and have the ability to grow.

And with a powerful eCommerce platform, that's a promise you can keep. You'll be able to enjoy the benefits of a win-win situation; your customers will be satisfied and you will generate more revenue while reducing attrition.