“Fluid never want to rest on our laurels and accept that a project is ever “finished” – When both teams got our heads together it was decided that the whilst the site was good there were key things that could be improved, and it needed to be brought up to date with a graphical kick up the backside.”

The existing site skin was filleted away and a freshly caught new design was implemented, that was a lot more “artisan farm shop” than “fishmonger”.

Several tweaks were made to the existing functionality, to make the shopping experience more pleasant and easy for their customers, including improved product categorisation and a handy way for visitors to see at a glance the different health benefits afforded by eating our fishy friends.

Kind words from a happy client are as follows; “The great thing with Fluid Creativity is they don’t just look at your website, they seek to understand your whole business when conceiving a new design. This means that we now have a new website which not only looks great but will help us to reach more customers and provide them with a better service.” Andrew Franks, managing director of Fish Fanatics.

Check out the new website over at www.fishfanatics.co.uk

The initiative is dubbed “Race Online 2012″ and to achieve it’s aims, Martha Lane Fox intends to use her business contacts to create partnerships focused on achieving her goals. So far, BT, Intel, Google, and even the electrical retailer Comet – which plans to trial an in-store scheme to help older customers familiarise themselves with the web – are on board with the scheme.

Essentially, the initiative is looking to lower the cost of broadband to those who can’t afford it and to push broadband services out into rural Britain, a market that has largely been ignored by broadband providers. This isn’t a flash in the pan idea either, Lane Fox is heading up The Office of Digital Inclusion which is a part of the Governments wider Digital Britain plans. These goals are achievable.

“It is an ambitious project, but other countries have done it. And there are some compelling reasons for driving this forward,” she said.

Here’s the part that should be music to the ears of anyone who owns, or plans to own an e-commerce store. Of the £22bn set to be generated by the scheme, £8.85bn will result directly from an increase in online sales. If Martha Lane Fox and her initiative succeed – remember they aim to have this done in just three years – e-commerce sites will have 14 million more people to sell their products to.

That’s good news if you’re already selling your products online, and it’s even better news if you’re planning to. With the public and private money being spent to get more people buying your products online, there surely hasn’t been a better time to get your business online?

Are people no longer seeing shopping as a viable pastime? If people intend to spend their money they want to spend wisely on things they’ve carefully thought about. While the high street retail world is struggling, online sales continue to grow despite the tough times. It’s not a perfect world – there is some evidence that the growth is starting to slow with online sales growing 12.3% this year – half of last years growth. Mike Petevinos head of consulting for retail Capgemini said “While online is clearly showing signs of being affected by the recession, it is still faring better than the high street as consumers look to online to help them make better informed decisions during tough times.”

This is a key point that continues to rear its head. Consumers are looking to make better informed decisions. Sites like moneysavingexpert have grown substantially since the recession began to take hold – people are clearly looking to spend their money wisely. Something that can and must be taken into account in your e-commerce store.

Evidence suggests that online ‘window shopping’ is on the increase; more customers are browsing but conversion rates have fallen to just 5%, compared with between 6% and 8% in the past two years. It’s a signal that online retailers need to work hard on new ideas to close online sales; customers are around but they’re reluctant to get their wallet out. There are certainly challenges to fight through, but with a big dose of creativity there’s nothing a business can’t survive. Knowing what customers are looking for and then reflecting that in the user interface of your site is a crucial step. It’s relatively simple if you’re running a  virtual store, it’s easy to adapt to changing conditions. How can you turn the fact that people want informed decisions into more sales for your online shop? Integrating new functionality and content to make your products more attractive is a simple affair if you’re using Magento or a custom own e-commerce platform. Generate some functionality and feature ideas on how to make your products appear more buyable to weary consumers and then promote these new features prominently on your site. Of course if ideas aren’t your thing, they’re definitely ours – we’ve got more ideas than we know what to do with.

If customers want to know more about the products you are selling, work hard on your blog. Aggregate news about your product, give honest and impartial advice about what you’re selling, the prices available elsewhere, and how best to use your product. Connect with other people in your niche, review other products, review other retailers, review everything and be prolific. Your readers will trust your honesty and come to respect your niche expertise. Gaining the trust of your customers is crucial and a blog with plenty of great content is a fantastic way to do this. If you’re new to blogging and need some tips on how to gain traffic and an audience, contact us.

Finally, if people are shopping less for leisure and are looking to make informed purchases on specific items, it’s vital that your site is ranking highly for that term in Google – so get working hard on your SEO or hire someone (us) to do it.

Times are difficult but online retail is still doing well – well enough to convince some analysts that it could be the saviour of the UK economy. If you’re not already involved, get your online presence developed.