Customers never want to get a hold of you - that's why they buy online! Plus, if they have a complaint they have no way of getting in touch with you other than email, and we all know how easy to forget that form of communication is.

Just think, without them knowing who you are, where you are, or how to contact you they can never make returns, never make complaints, and never cause waves. It's brilliant! You can claim customer satisfaction is 100%, because nobody could ever call you and tell you otherwise.

Sure, this might put off about 90% of your potential customers, but don't let that stop you. That still leaves you 10% of the internet, and trust me, that darn sure is big. Make sure you ship your items from the shipping store or the post office so there is never a return address on the box too. When the credit card company calls you about a chargeback, make sure you tell them the customer never called and complained.

Of course, you should take all of that as tongue-in-cheek. In most countries, it is illegal not to have contact details on a business website. As a bare minimum, you should provide an email address, a physical address and the name of your business (or your name if you are a sole trader).

Just because people shop online does not mean they don't want to know who they are dealing with. Make sure you post an address (even if it's just a PO box - its better than nothing) and a phone number where people can call and at least leave you a message. This is all about customer service, and this is what turns single customers into repeat customers and word-of-mouth advocates of your site (that's the best advertising money CAN'T buy).

Think about getting an (0)800 number. 800 numbers go a long way toward establishing yourself as a legitimate business. You don't have to be a blue-chip online store or a leading online service in the mold of O2 broadband to afford yourself your private customer hotline. There are some very affordable plans, and if you can't answer it all day make sure it has some sort of voice mail or machine attached to it. Call your customers back when they call. They will appreciate the personal service.

Invest in some nice company mailing labels for your packages - it builds brand recognition, makes you look more professional, and lets the customer know that you are a real company that can be trusted.

All makes sense doesn't it? As I am sure most readers know, I see about 100 osCommerce sites per day and a good percentage of those have NO contact details on them - other than the standard osCommerce "contact us" page which has nothing but an email form on it. It is easy to show the name and address of your store in osCommerce, just use this code:

After adding that code, if you see this in your site: "Store Name Address Country Phone" then you have not filled in your Store Name and Address in your Admin Area;

Most of this post is courtesy of my good friend Jason over at JC Commerce.