There’s nothing more rewarding than starting your own business from scratch and watching it grow. Thanks to modern technology, businesses are no longer limited by geographical borders. Most business owners have embraced the growing shift toward E-commerce. And, with consumers shifting their focus to online purchases, you have to embrace the change if you want to stay in business.
Running a successful online store can be exciting as it is challenging. But, you should not get overwhelmed by having too many things in your to do list. Rather, focusing on few core areas at first is a great way to ensure a solid base for your ecommerce store.
Here are a five essential areas you should focus on in order to get your online store started and put it on the growth track.
1- Focus On User Experience
The first step to having an online store is building an E-commerce website. It’s important to optimize UX and ensure your website is easy and enjoyable to use. It should have a responsive design to allow customers to access it from different devices. Site navigation should also be easy because if site visitors get confused, they’ll leave.
They should easily find their way around product categories, the shopping cart, and the checkout process. In addition, ensure page load times are no more than 3 seconds and the site is visually appealing with a large print and eye-catching, quality images.
2- Drive Traffic to Your Site
Now that you have an awesome E-commerce website, it’s time to drive traffic to it. After all, site visitors are the potential customers. There are several ways to drive more traffic to your website. For startups, the easiest and cost-effective ways include performing on-page SEO and creating great content.
With almost 600,000 trademarks filed in 2017, it only goes to show how the business world is growing. The E-commerce space has particularly become so competitive that you can’t afford to negatively affect your conversion rate.
3- Get Social
Social media is the heartbeat of any online business. It introduces your business to a wide range of people and allows you to connect with potential customers in fun, creative ways.
Start selling via social networks, including Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, Pinterest, etc. Make the most of social commerce by creating relevant social ads and hashtags to get more eyes on your post.
4- Provide Stellar Customer Service
The quality of customer service matters a lot in any business. Satisfied customers are loyal customers, not to mention they offer mouth-to-mouth advertising, which is the best kind of advertising money can’t buy. Don’t forget to include fast, reliable ways that customers can use to contact you for inquiries or more information.
Since online buyers can’t see your products/services, they rely on what others have to say about them. It helps to incorporate social elements on your site. Things like testimonials and product reviews can help the conversion funnel.
5- Take Advantage of Email Marketing
Another amazing way to boost engagement is through Email marketing. It builds a trusting relationship with customers, which in turn generate sales. With Email marketing, you can send out targeted messages to your customers that address their specific needs and wants.
Whether it’s to entice them with special offers and promotions or introduce a new product. Build a mighty email list to connect with as many audiences as possible.
The Bottom Line:
Making an online store a success requires multi dimensional efforts with careful planning and appropriate execution and it may be overwhelming for first time entrepreneurs to get hold of all the aspect at once. But if you streamline the activities in above five directions, more than 80% of your to dos are already streamlined and you get a clear ground to work on growth strategy.
