What do cycling and running an e-store have in common?
Setting up and running an online store is a complex process with many pitfalls. In this article, I’ll share several tips that will be relevant for those who are just going to open an online store, and for those who already have one.
Nowadays non-store retailers have come out on top of the e-commerce growth spurt. Sellers now are geared up from the start for the socially-distanced.
So, what points to pay attention to when opening a new store or increasing the efficiency of an existing one?
Choosing niche
First and foremost is choosing the right niche. The most important rule of commerce is to give people what they need and they will bring money to you. The demand for goods is one of the most important qualities of a successful business. You need to find out if the niche you want to occupy is oversaturated. If so, then you should consider whether you will be able to withstand the competition and attract customers.
This requires research. You should:
Target audience
A portrait of the target audience is also an important component of creating a store. If you do not know who you are working for, there is a great chance to fail miserably. Understanding what product will be relevant to your target audience is crucial.
It should be borne in mind that there are so-called Innovators, buyers who will immediately come on a novelty due to psychology and leave the first opinion about your product, but there are only 2.5%. You should remember that the most massive segment is the so-called Majority(34%). This segment needs time after the launch of your product, these people are waiting for the first reviews from Early Adopters(13.5%), who in turn rely on the opinion of the Innovators, and look at their reaction. Thus, the focus of any start-up should be on these 2,5% Innovators, further sales will depend on how you set up a dialogue with them and on your service.
Build the perfect supply chain
For the convenience of your customers, we recommend setting up several delivery methods. The choice will depend on the type of your business. The most popular ones:
- Courier delivery — implies additional costs for the maintenance of the courier and transportation
- Pickup
- EMS
- Transport companies
One of the most important factors for the successful development of an online store is the right choice of suppliers. Your profit, the quality of the products sold, and the number of complaints and returns from buyers will depend on this.
The best solution for a newly created online store would be dropshipping because of its simplicity.
This term means direct delivery of goods that do not belong to you. The order will be arranged through you and sent to your supplier (manufacturer or wholesaler). The supplier, in turn, will ship the item to the buyer on behalf of your store. Your profit will be the difference between the cost of the goods from the manufacturer and the price for your buyer.
Choosing e-platform
You need to choose the right platform for running your online store. There are two major types of e-сommerce platforms:
- SaaS-based e-commerce platforms
This type of platform is simple for newcomers because it is a ready-made solution with no technical skills required. But all that glitters is not gold. It has some limitations, such as incomplete control over the site and business, no source code is available to you, or minimum customizability.
- Open-source e-commerce platforms
This type of platform is more complicated. It is a modular system that allows you to personalize your store as you wish. You are offered the source code that you can install on any web host and set up your entire site in a few hours. But it’s important to remember that you will need some technical skills to manage the source code. Moreover, it has a limited number of functions, so you will have to buy extra modules. An important feature of the open source platform is that they are community driven and supported. One of the most popular platforms of this type is Magento.
Magento has a large community formed over more than 13 years of existence, and a ready-made marketplace offering extensions from different vendors. The choice can be difficult, but here’s a tip: choose the platform based on your basic needs and financial capabilities. But we understand that you may need a personalized solution, in this case, we are ready to offer you our Magento Custom Development Services.
Naming
The next important part of creating a store is choosing a name. Everyone remembers a store on the Internet by its web address (domain name). When choosing a domain, remember that it should not be too long, easy to listen to, and consist of words close to your field of activity. Your URL and brand name tell people what you do. So don’t push them away with a complicated name.
Our SEO specialists offer creating a store name as follows:
“If you, for example, have a door store [in Dallas], then it is best for the site to be called: doors-in-dallas.com or something like that. Almost all user queries on this topic will be “doors”, so this address will perfectly go into SEO promotion.
But if you’re talking about a store name outside of the SEO context, it takes creativity. But you should still focus on user requests. I would combine the most popular searches with a word to get a memorable and original name.”
Creating website design and its settings
The first method can be called the simplest, but it will also be the most expensive — to transfer the development to an agency or a freelance developer. In this case, your direct participation in the creation of the store will be minimal and the result may not meet your expectations.
The second way is to use a CMS for self-development. But this method is the most difficult.
You need to have at least basic knowledge in coding. Although CMS is one of the possible ways to develop an online store for free, only if you have the skills required to do this.
Layouts can be used to create an e-store. However, the functionality of such layouts is limited, therefore, you are limited in choosing the design and functionality of your store.
Payments
There are a large number of payment methods that you can implement on your website.
Most important payment options to add:
- payment with credit cards
- payment with debit cards
- cash on delivery.
To keep your sales and conversions high, you can connect mobile payment apps and e-wallet payments so that your customers can freely choose their payment method.
Be sure to get an SSL certificate for your site to protect sensitive customer data.
The most popular payment services are: PayPal, Amazon Pay, Stripe, SagePay.
Some important things to remember when creating a website for your e-shop:
- Usability
The next important point is the functionality of your store. The more optimal the set of functions of an online store, the more comfortable customers feel. Having opened your site, the user should understand where the product of interest is located, how to make a purchase, pay and what are the delivery times for the order. If your site is really user-friendly, then the buyer will stay on it and won’t think to go to competitors. This is the role of the store functionality.
- Adaptive design (cross-device)
In the era of mobile-first, you need to remember that your store will work equally well both on a laptop and on a smartphone or tablet. It is important to take into account the design of the pages, which will provide a correct and convenient presentation of the site for a mobile user. This directly affects the user experience of your site.
- High-quality product presentation
How to get the customer’s attention? Present the product to them in a plummy manner. The product page must contain comprehensive information about the product or service. The buyer should understand what kind of product it is, what qualities it has, how to buy it, how to make a payment.
- Feedback
And last but not least is the feedback. The performance of your store depends on the opinion of buyers. If you don’t get feedback from your customers and don’t know what they think about the products and services you offer, you cannot guarantee that they will get a positive experience from interacting with your store. Consumer opinion is the key piece of information that will help you understand how a brand looks in their eyes, and also make sure that you are providing what consumers want.
Nowadays everything changes at a very high speed. When making a store you need to realize that this process must not stop to be successful. This process is like riding a bicycle — if you stop, you will fall.
You will have to constantly develop your business and then it will certainly be prosperous.
We are always there and ready to help you, we build websites, extensions, and PWA add-ons from scratch, develop custom and ready-made solutions for your platform.
