So, you’re thinking about turning your passion into your priority and starting your own online business? That’s a great idea, considering online consumers spent more than $450 billion on retail purchases last year alone, according to Digital Commerce 360. While starting an online store can feel incredibly exciting, it can be overwhelming and daunting to a rookie business owner. Weebly is here to help you feel like a pro with a professional online store that is both beautiful and built to drive sales. Also, check this ultimate guide to starting and scaling an online ecommerce business by Foundr.
The first step to getting your site up and running is doing just that – create a memorable and custom domain name, choose a great photo, tell your visitors that a full site is in the works, and hit that publish button! Driving additional traffic to your ‘coming soon’ website by connecting it to your Instagram and other social channels can also help convert social followers to become potential new customers the day you go live with your full-fledged e-commerce site.
First Things First – The Photos
Once you’ve fleshed out the perfect website design, it’s time to start adding high-quality photos to show your customers exactly what you have to offer. Always remember that your website tells a story and communicates to your customers why your brand is valuable. It doesn’t mean you have to go buy a brand new DSLR camera, but take into consideration the value alluring photos can bring in conveying different perspectives, size options, close-up product features, and lifestyle portrayals that will help reinforce a customer’s confidence in your products and lead to fewer returns. Compelling photography help to illustrate why your products deserve attention among millions of competitive products being sold online. A key element in creating compelling imagery for your site is having a photo editing app to clean up and enhance the photos you’ve chosen to represent your brand values. The Instasize app allows you to adjust image settings, try nearly 100 filters, create beautiful text designs, and build collages – perfect for creating and editing all the photos for your website.
Your Biggest Asset – You
So you’ve designed and created your site – now what? Start promoting it! They say in the beginning that an entrepreneur’s greatest currency is enthusiasm, so start sharing your new beautiful online store URL everywhere you can. Your brand’s social media profiles will be the best avenues for content circulation and are great tools for maintaining a strong customer following. Don’t be afraid to tap into your closest friends and family, encouraging them to help share the word about your burgeoning business.
Also, try to keep a consistent drumbeat of content output by considering a regularly updated blog for your business. Blogging is a great way to provide firsthand perspective about your personal story and can often serve as a means to establish a deeper connection between you and your customers. It’s also a great way for you use to more keywords and boost your organic SEO and ability to get to the top of that Google search. A well written and inspiring “About” page can be just as important as a product page on your online store – so don’t hold back! For example, if you source your products locally or from sustainable resources, this is an important message to draw in and retain more environmentally conscious customer base. Lastly, always, always, always ask visitors to your page if they’d like to sign up to receive promotions and new product information by subscribing to your newsletter. With all three of these marketing tactics in action, you’ll be off to a great start in your attempt to begin driving traffic (and therefore sales).
Set Up Your Payment Processor
When you make your first sale (from someone other than your mother) you’ll experience the joy of hearing that first push alert from your online store and subsequently seeing the money land in your bank account. As you start to sell your products online, do your due diligence to find the payment processor that works best for your business. Look for platforms that can deposit money from sales directly into your bank account within 24 hours. If you sell both online as well as at pop-ups, farmers markets or craft fairs, having a payment processor that syncs online and offline sales can save you valuable time from calculating sales and inventory later.
Abandon Your Abandoned Carts
Another key feature of a successful e-commerce store is utilizing an abandoned cart feature. Studies by Baymard Institute show that almost 75% of carts are left abandoned online, which is why having an automated email reminding a shopper of that beautiful item they left behind is so crucial to push shoppers over the finish line to click purchase. Research by Moosend shows that 40% of abandoned cart emails are opened, proving to be a great tool to keep your product top of mind. Adding a discount coupon to drive them back to your store can also help.
Use Reviews to Your Advantage
First-time visitors to your online store need encouragement to gain trust in your brand and the quality of your product. This is where the true power of online customer reviews can lead to new sales, and hopefully repeat customers. According to PeopleClaim, 70% of customers consult reviews or ratings before making a final purchase. When your product meets the expectations of your customers, the reviews will come pouring in. If you get a bad review, that’s ok too, just be sure to give them great customer service in hopes that they’ll update it or remove it all together. It’s important to rely on your email marketing platform to automatically prompt recent customers to leave a review on their purchase to help you save time and build your business for you.
Ultimately – Keep Customers Engaged Through Their Entire Shopping Experience
If you want people to really love your brand, they need to feel a connection. This connection is what creates a strong loyalty that ultimately grows into customers feeling invested in your brand. Defining your brand voice in a memorable way that establishes authenticity can turn one-time shoppers into return customers and repeat business into rabid fans. Keep it simple starting out – focus on basic aesthetics, ease of use, and communicating a genuine story, and you’ll start off ahead of most of the competition.
