We all know the phrase “business is booming” and with eCommerce, business is more than booming. It’s…double booming? Triple booming?
With an estimated 20% of retail purchases expected to be made online within the next five years, it’s a wise decision to take a look into eCommerce if you’re looking to start a business.
Getting an eCommerce business up and running doesn’t come without its
challenges. You’ve got to be able to build a proper website, easily resolve any
chargeback
dispute, and
design an effective marketing plan.
What else should you know about running an eCommerce store?
1- Design With Mobile in Mind
Even though there are people using their desktops for searches, the
majority of the people in the world have turned to their phones. Mobile
searches passed desktop searches a few years ago and mobile is leaving desktop
in the dust.
Not only that, but Google lists websites on their rankings page by how
well they perform on mobile.
When you’re designing your website, make sure that it has a responsive theme meaning it can be adapted to any device. Next, you’re going to want to make sure that it’s easy to navigate with a mobile device.
That means cutting down on large files and making any buttons and
menus easy to press. You want your users to not have any issues pushing on a
simple menu or selecting an item.
2- Professional Pictures
This can’t be stressed enough when getting your eCommerce store up and
running.
One of the easiest ways to have people click out of your website and
forget about it forever is having blurry or unprofessional pictures.
If you’re dropshipping, then you probably already have pictures provided to you which makes it much easier. But if you’re running your own store, it’s worth busting out a camera that takes high-quality photos or hiring someone to do the pictures.
3- Practice Great Customer Service
Running an eCommerce store doesn’t come with its issues. There are
always going to be shipping errors, purchasing errors, or something completely
unexpected.
That’s why it’s great to keep customer service as one of your main
goals.
Be sure to respond to online reviews or complaints, have a strategy
for dealing with a chargeback dispute, and make sure to provide human
interactions.
Top-notch
customer service is a
way to make sure people are spreading the word about your business, growing it
through word-of-mouth marketing.
4- Streamline Processes
One thing that strikes fear into the heart of every eCommerce business
owner is the following words: abandoned cart.
The user has gone through your entire store, picked out a few things
they want to buy, put them in the cart, and then nothing. Their cart just sits
there, waiting to be checked out.
While you can’t always make people purchase things, one of the reasons
that carts are abandoned at a high rate is because the purchasing process is
complicated. Maybe they have to re-enter information, be re-routed across your
website, or something else entirely.
You want to make all processes feel as simple as they would be purchasing something in an actual store. The easier you make certain processes, the more likely those customers are to come back or turn into conversions.
