Are you brooding over the idea of starting your own eCommerce business? Before going further, you need to know about ecommerce and build an effective business strategy. Doing business online is not an easy task, it requires a lot of hard work, research and dedication. Let us uncover the strategies that you need to follow:
1. Make a Plan
A solid business plan is the first step to start any business & to succeed thereof. Planning means execution of an idea to make it a successful venture. First off, know the product you are selling, target customers, analyze competitors and so on. If your product is common and in-demand, it requires different marketing strategies.
2. Choose the Platform
Finding the best eCommerce platform for your business website is the biggest task. There are number of eCommerce platforms available in the market such as WordPress, Magento, Shopify, and many more. The presence of so many makes selection difficult. Consider these factors to choose a perfect eCommerce platform for your business website:
- Number of products
- Domestic or international services
- Business size
- How many options do you have per product (sizing, colors, etc.)?
- Do you also sell your products offline?
- Features and pricing
3. Website Design Strategies / Online store design
If your website is attractive, the visitors come calling. To impress visitors it is very important to select a unique and comprehensible website design. To make a great website, you need to consider these points:
- Simple, clear & SEO-friendly URLs
- Easy navigation
- Attractive images
- Proper contact details
- Compelling call to actions
- User-friendly product descriptions
- Clear description of inventory
- Effective color selection
- Search options
- Trust badges
- Integrated Shopping Cart
4. Analyze Your Products
Analyze your product before adding on the website. Find out the unique features of your product, which make your product better than others. Also, analyze the customer’s demands & requirements. Try unique methodology before going live like conducting surveys or selling samples of your product to your friends and business partners.
5. Take Time to Write about Products
A powerful product description leaves a positive impression on visitors. Many people just copy and paste the content from others websites. But, such content can get the website penalized and stall the website’s ranking on search engine. Always compare your product description with the competitor’s. Also, instead of explaining how great your product is, explain how the product is beneficial in making the customer’s life easier.
6. User-friendly Shopping Cart
A well-developed user-friendly shopping cart is an important factor in an online website. Actually, shopping cart helps you to increase your product sales. Be sure to avoid unnecessary fields, and group similar fields as the former may turn out the reason behind shopping cart abandonment. There are many modules available in the eCommerce market for an easy checkout process – One page Checkout Extension, Single page Checkout Extension, etc. Check these points, which are responsible for shopping cart abandonment such as
- High shipping prices
- Long delivery times
- Multiple step / page checkout process
- Unnecessary personal information
- Registration before purchase
- Confusing checkout process
7. Set A Budget To Test Marketing
For an online business growth it is very important to set and plan the marketing strategies. Find out the best marketing channels and strategies for your business. Free marketing sometime gives the best result, so make sure you have a budget for marketing.
8. Don’t Forget Customer Retention
After developing and designing the website, now it’s time to focus on other important things. Customer retention is important for an online business, so try to connect with your customers from the first order and make strategies to bring them back second time. Email marketing is a great way to increase return shopping. Other technical ways are:
- Search Engine Optimization
- Backlinks
- Cross link
- Online/offline advertisement
- Special offers
- Using different web-tools
- Emails
9. Product Management
To keep tab of your products and inventories, it is very important to plan product management. There are many programs and software that will allow you to manage your products and inventories easily.
