It’s no secret that the internet has brought with it a modern gold rush. With countless new ways to make money available, and new options popping up every day, it can feel like just about everyone is taking advantage of this powerful resource. Of course, though, for those trying to open an online store, the competition found in this space can be incredibly difficult to overcome. To help you out with this, this post is going to be exploring all of the most crucial elements of your ecommerce venture, giving you the chance to make yourself stand out.
The Idea & Demographic
Before you can start an online store, you’re first going to need a good idea that will have the potential to make a lot of money. Opening a store that already has a lot of competition can be a bad idea, and many companies find themselves struggling to get customers if they make this mistake. Instead, you need an idea that hasn’t been done before, and this means that you’ll need to think outside the box. Coming up with a winning business idea isn’t an easy process, but most people will surprise themselves when they sit down and take the right time with this.
Alongside the idea that will make your fortune, you also need to think about the demographic that will be served by your website. This will change the way that you structure the site and market it to the world, while also giving you the chance to make your market more specific. There are a lot of resources around the web that can help you to establish your demographic, and it’s worth using tools like this when you’re unsure of the steps that need to be taken to push your business forward.
Building the Website
Once you have an idea in mind, it will be time to start building the website that will power your e-commerce vision. This process isn’t anywhere near as challenging as it used to be, and there are loads of tools around the web that will make it simpler for you. There are several stages and considerations to make as you build your ecommerce website.
-
The Platform
There are quite a few different DIY website building platforms available in the modern world, and most of them can easily handle an ecommerce store. Larger stores will often find that options like Shopify and Squarespace are quite expensive, while smaller stores won’t benefit from the effort that goes into using WooCommerce. This makes it crucial that you assess the platform you choose to make sure that it will provide you with the features and tools that you need.
-
The Domain Name
A domain name is the main part of the web address that goes with your website. It’s usually best to choose something simple here, with URLs that have 10 letters being much easier to remember than those with 20. The “.com” suffix will also be quite important, with obscure snippets being harder for people to trust.
-
The Style & Appearance
The design will always be a major element in the web development process, with the vast majority of small businesses struggling to handle this area properly with their own site. Simply picking a theme because you like it isn’t enough; you need your site to reflect your products and appeal to your demographic. For example, it wouldn’t make sense for a street clothing brand to embrace classical designs that would feel more at home with a high-end perfume brand.
Dealing with SEO
Once you have a nice-looking website under your belt, it will be time to start focusing on SEO. Without SEO, your website won’t be able to be found on search engines like Google, and this will make it extremely difficult to get new customers. It’s easy to waste months working on SEO only to find that you’ve made mistakes along the way, and this makes it worth leaving the bulk of this work to someone else.
An eCommerce Marketing Agency will be able to help you to make sure that your website is SEO friendly, with titles, image alt-text, and your site performance matching the standards of companies like Google. Alongside this, they will also be able to give you tips and advice to help you to improve your SEO in other ways. A big part of this will involve keyword research and content creation, with these areas being crucial to SEO on websites of all sizes.
Alongside the background SEO work done by an agency, you’re going to need to do some of this work for yourself. Content creation will be key at this stage, and it could be worth doing some learning to make sure that you have the skills to write beautiful copy. Writing can be a challenge, and many people struggle with jobs like this, making it worthwhile to use tools like Grammarly to improve your skills.
Other Forms of Marketing
There are plenty of other forms of marketing out there, and they can all be used to push small businesses in the right direction. An online store needs more than just SEO to be successful, but it’s not as simple as buying adverts anymore. Social media, emails, and even physical adverts could all play a role in your marketing efforts, and it’s crucial that you are handling this correctly if you’re going to make the most of it.
-
Social Media
Social media is one of the hardest areas for small businesses to nail when they are first getting started online. Not only do you need to make regular and consistent posts, but you also need to interact with users on these platforms, and this can end up taking up a huge amount of time. Spending 5 minutes out of every hour or two replying to comments is a good limit for this, saving you from getting sucked into big conversations that will only serve to eat time.
-
Emails
A good email marketing campaign can give businesses loads of opportunities to get their voices heard, but how exactly do you run a good email campaign? There are a lot of resources around the web that can teach you about this, and tools like MailChimp make the whole process far easier than it used to be. You can easily start sending out emails in no time with the right subscription plan.
-
Physical Marketing
People largely ignore the idea of physical marketing nowadays, and this has made the price of adverts drop by a huge degree over the last few years. It will be harder to track this sort of marketing, and you may find it tricky to target a specific demographic, but this doesn’t mean that this path isn’t worth taking. Including discount codes on your physical marketing can be a good way to figure out how many customers have seen it.
Keeping Customers Happy
Finally, as the last area to think about, it’s time to consider how you’re going to keep your customers happy. This is possibly the most crucial element of running an online store, with many companies failing to properly consider the needs of their customers. With services like Yelp being so popular, though, you can’t afford to have a bad reputation.
-
Customer Service
Supporting your customers will be one of the most crucial elements of this. Providing phone numbers, email addresses, and live chat to clients can be a good way to ensure that your customers can always get in touch, while also showing that you care enough to listen to their issues.
-
Delivery Speed
People tend to take promises like delivery estimates very seriously, and companies that fail to meet these promises will often feel the fallout. You need to make sure that you’re working as hard as possible to keep delivery times short, while also letting customers know if their items are likely to experience delays. Of course, making lofty promises is far worse than promising a later date and delivering earlier.
-
Ethics
People don’t like to buy things from companies that don’t reflect their ethics, with businesses that don’t care about people, animals, or the environment often finding themselves being boycotted. You don’t need to do too much to show that you’re an ethical company, with the odd charitable donation going a long way to show people that you care.
Finding success in the busy online market is never easy. Many small online stores close before they have even a single customer, and this can make it extremely hard for normal people to get started in business. Of course, though, as time goes by, there are more and more tools springing up that can help with this process.
