Sales Page vs. eCommerce Website Breakdown

I’m noticing a trend.. you guys REALLY like when I compare things.. I guess it makes sense as it’s usually easier to take in important information quickly that way…

Well, so let’s try to do that with Sales Pages vs. eCommerce Websites!

At this point you should have something you want to sale, whether that’s a physical product, virtual product or a service. In the last blog post I showed you how to create a virtual product. I also gave you the Market Domination [PDF] which details how to select the right niche, find wholesale suppliers, spy on the competition and a few other things. Check it out if you haven’t already.

Now we need a website to sell your product or service; the question is do you need a shopping cart or do you need a sales page? Let’s figure that out.

Introducing eCommerce Website vs. Sales Page.

Now there are MANY different types of websites you could build, but for our purposes, in order to sell something online effectively we’re going to focus on a Sales Pages or an eCommerce website. I also want to add to the mix Squeeze Pages but I’ll get to that in a moment.

Quickly, an eCommerce website (shopping cart) is basically a script that is installed on your web server that makes it easy to sell multiple products and services. There are advanced to VERY simple eCommerce scripts out there. Don’t let what I just said intimidate you.. it’s easy as toast to install a shopping cart; I haven’t had toast in awhile (paleo) but trust me, it’s easy… as… Toast!

That said a Sales Page is usually intended to sell one product or service via long form sales letter, such as you would see on SixFigureBoss.com; it’s designed in such a way to maximize conversions.

Sales Page Elements: A sales page does well because it limits options (giving the visitor only one choice, to buy), it sells the lifestyle in it’s copy, the benefits of the product or service (people don’t care about features), it gives clear instruction on what to do (buy), it places time limits and more. While you can introduce these elements into an eCommerce website (which I STRONGLY suggest you do), this is what a sales page does best!

So in essence an eCommerce website makes it easy (you can introduce sales pages elements into a eCommerce website) and enables you to sell multiple products and services where as a Sales Page is basically a SINGLE high converting webpage for one product or service.

So which one is best for you?

Well, if you plan on selling more then one product or service then an eCommerce shopping cart is for you. You can make each product page on your shopping cart into a mini-sales page; I do that with easy. Below you can see my eCommerce product page:

(My sales page/product page on my eCommerce website)

You can do this easily with your own eCommerce website.

I also recommend reviewing Amazon’s product pages; as EACH page is PERFECTLY designed as mini-sales pages. This is the BEST way to go; it’s not just about a product description, it’s more then that.

The Platforms

eCommerce Website (easy as Toast)

So an eCommerce website has a lot of built in features that make it easy. It’s plug and play for the most part, no messing with code or having to do the hard work of building the website, it’s done for you. They’re perfect for selling multiple product and service. And you can have add-on plugins for more features with a lot of advanced shopping carts.

I recommend: CS-Cart

Sales Page (steep learning curve)

There aren’t a lot of platforms dedicated to sales page creation, there are a few but they’re limited. It’s better to create from scratch but that requires sales copy knowledge, along with design and optimizing. It’s not friendly for beginners but it’s doable. I’ll break break down a basic sales page, section by section another time. It’s more a science than it is gut feeling, if that makes sense.

Squeeze Page

While not a platform to focus on; I want you to bring in squeeze page elements into your Shopping Cart or Sales Page. What I mean by that is to capture your visitor’s email address any chance you get. ECommerce websites have it easy because you capture email at check-out, it’s built in. While sales pages this is not as obvious to do.

Capturing Lead: Personally I use Aweber when capturing leads, I have the ‘Add to Cart‘ button on SFB as the submit button when a person adds their email address, and forward users to my check-out page (Clickbank). So each user who goes to check out is added to the email sequence where I hope to eventually convert them into a customer. It’s fun stuff.

What you should do:

If your focus is on creating an eCommerce website I want you to combine the elements of a sales page and squeeze page into a type of eCommerce website. That means focus on the benefits/lifestyle that your product or service provides in your copy, limit options on page (focus on the funnel, the buy button), capture leads at check out and bring people back to your website via value based email marketing.

Alternatively if your focus is on creating a sales page you’ll want to still add squeeze page elements and capture leads as quickly as possible with your sales page. The reason for this is because MOST people when they go to purchase an item from you will NOT follow through and purchase, however since you have their email address you can bring them back to your website over and over again via value based marketing (similar to what I’m doing with these emails) in order to convert them into a sale.

So there you have it, two options for you!

Next we’ll get your website online and then we’re off to traffic generation strategies

About Donald

I'm Donald, I have a passion for making money online and teaching others how to make money online. If you haven't read Six Figure Boss already, check it out. It's a complete step-by-step guide to to creating your own online business.