10 Simple Tips to Create a Successful Online Store

A successful online store is more than a well-designed website, with lucrative offers. It’s more about how you improvise the shopping experience at your online store and how you keep the promises you make. Numerous online players have been rushing into the e-commerce domain, building rich online stores and offering a variety of deals to generate significant revenue. But the question is – how many of them are successful? As per the reports of online surveys, the possibility of failure of an online store is most likely 80 percent and some of the key reasons for failure are –

1. Competition based on Pricing Strategies
2. Poor User Experience
3. Inadequate Product Reviews
4. Lack of shipping and delivery strategies

While a well designed online store attracts the buyers to your website, it’s the seamless shopping experience is what keep the buyers engaged through the buying process. Here are a few 10 simple tips to create a successful online store –

Product Strategy

Tips #1 – Competitive Pricing always wins

The web is flooded with millions of online stores and it's increasing every day, as numerous key players are investing in the e-commerce domain. The major factor which gives you an edge over your competitors is the Pricing of your products. Even you earn a less margin, to provide competitive pricing and it’s the price promise that gets you, customers.

Tip #2 – Appropriate Product Data

In the event of launching the online store, most of the start-ups ignore the appropriate product content for all the products. Buyer will look for detailed product information before it makes a buying decision and the more the information you provide, the buyer will be much more confident. Product dimensions, features, warranty, upgrades, and FAQ are some of the key information you can add.

Tip #3 – Good Quality Images

Images come in second after the price where the customer looks at while browsing through an online store. It’s a common tendency between new online merchants of ignoring the weight of images in product strategy. If your listing contains blurred images of your product, then it is most likely the buyer won’t be interested to know more about the product.

Note – When you are adding good quality images to your products, then do plan on how those images will look in smaller and bigger screens.

Tip #4 – Persuade the Buyer

Persuading a buyer to buy your product is always unique and is what makes an online store unique. This might not be the major factor of greater revenue, but it really is an important factor for conversions. The ways of persuading the buyer depending on the use of actionable content, the positioning of content and highlighting the key benefits or selling points of the product.

Website Strategy

Tip #5 – Provide Key and Genuine Information

Provide genuine information on your website, as buyer expects that you will adhere to every single word you have mentioned on your website – whether it’s about Products, Shipping and Returns Policy, User Privacy, Security or website’s mission. Don’t use content to just lure the buyer into the website as in the later stage during delivery it will be difficult for you to fulfill the promises and eventually affect the reputation. Tip #6 – Design creates the Impression

When merchants come up with queries of why they are products are not selling or why their website is not getting the right attention it should – we found that design is the major factor which drives away or attracts buyers. When we say design, we don’t mean that your website must have high-end design elements, flashy banners or extravagant colors. All you need to make sure that your website meets the design standards, with a proper layout. Avoid multiple colors or flash designs as it mostly drives away or distracts the buyers. Concentrate on minimal icons in the product details page, as your most focus in product details page is the information of the product.

Tip #7 – UX sustains the impression and converts the buyer into a customer

There is a simple fact in every people interacting website, not just e-commerce, which is – you cannot ignore the UX. User experience is the critical part of your online store and this is what increases the user retention time on your store. The areas where online stores can improvise their UX are – Buyer Checkout Process, Buyer Registration Process, Payment Options, Cross Promoting Content, Product Advises and Blogs.

Tip #8 – Make it Mobile Friendly

There was a time when the mobile-friendly design was an optional feature for websites as then mobile users were not at large. In today’s smartphone era, where 70% of the e-commerce revenues are coming through smartphones – you need to have the mobile-friendly design implemented on your website. Recent Google Mobigeddon algorithm is also a good new approach from Google, which asks the website owners to make their website mobile friendly to show in the Google mobile search results.

Marketing Strategy

Tip #9 – Retargeting your buyers or customers

When a customer or buyer abandons the cart for any reason before making payment, you need to follow-up with the customer with the retargeting strategy – such as a discount price, offer or coupons. This increases the conversions. As per e-commerce surveys in 2014, the cart abandon rate is huge in the year 2014 and product pricing is one of the reasons for the same. What came out of the surveys is – 55% of the users in the age group of 25-34 are open to re-targeting. Don’t let go of your customers and find out innovative ways to persuade them to buy.

Tip #10 – Facebook marketing is the Key

It is found that the buying decisions of youth are mostly driven by the likeness of a product in social media, based on feedback from other users. Some of the key online stores have chosen Facebook to present their products to a potential buyer and this has been a great revenue generating source from social media. So far Facebook is the most productive social media platform where merchants can showcase their products through their Official Facebook pages.

Conclusion

The first sentence of this post is self-explanatory and it’s a customer whose views matters on your online store. You should continuously invest time and resources to know the customer experiences on your online and always improve this experience for a long-run business and stay ahead of your competitors. At Quocent Sdn. Bhd., we are providing e-commerce industry solutions for start-ups and enterprises. With easy to use CMS, modular features, mobile-friendly design, secure & stable framework, and scalable structure, we are making your business ready to compete in the e-commerce boom. We provide resources on Projects basis and FTE (Full Time Equivalent) resources basis, to build your online store idea into reality.