Business
How to Create a Successful E-Commerce Website
With an estimated average of $107billion worth of sales each year, online shopping is unquestionably big business. However, you will need to do a whole lot more than simply activate a website in order to get a slice of the action. Here are some top tips on turning your e-commerce site into a profitable online store.
- Attractive design
This sounds almost too obvious. However, the key here is that your site must be attractive to your potential customers, your target audience, not to you or a misguided designer. Remember that web traffic is often passing traffic and people decide whether to stay on a site at a glance. Make yours sharp and not too complicated.
- Quality presentation throughout
Clearly you want people to remain engaged and active on your site, maximizing the chances of making a sale. In order for this to happen you must pay as much attention to the ‘inside’ pages of your site as you do the home page. The quality of images, content and ease of navigation must be consistent throughout.
- Deals and promotions
With so much choice and competition online, your site needs to tempt the masses. Special offers and promotions are an important tool in achieving this. However, you need to know your audience in order to understand how best to achieve this. Decide whether slashed prices, free shipping or something else is likely to see your target audience click all the way through to a sale.
- Flag up new items, exciting products
Few people are going to wade through pages of your site in order to find the best and latest items. Make it easy for them by selecting your shiny new and exciting products and showcase these items on your home page. If you have something great to sell, don’t hide it away.
- Create instant trust with site visitors
In a recent study from the Pew Research Center, 90% Internet users are concerned about online privacy. When it comes to shopping online, the stakes are particularly high and it is crucial to take steps to give users the impression you are a safe, credible, and secure online shop. Besides messaging, look into various website security solutions; you can purchase SSL Certificates here, for example. This is an advanced way to encrypt the data that gets transferred across your website. The ‘https’ prefix is one example of how these certificates work and most users feel more assured entering their credit card information in HTTPS-based websites.
- Easy sales platform
Apparently, there is a cart abandonment rate of around 60%. That means that even though you may have an attractive basket or cart icon, people are deciding at the very last moment not to pay for products they have already earmarked and selected. It is amazing how an annoying sales platform can lose you sales. Make the sales process as simple as possible and then create a step by step guide, setting expectations of how long it might take.
- Customer support
Things can go wrong, even with a great sales platform. Make sure you are prepared. Ensuring that you have an easy to contact, reliable and helpful customer support network can save untold numbers of sales. The more methods to contact customer support, the better. Live chat can be particularly reassuring for customers.
- Use social media
Your site should be a portal for further engagement with your customers and stakeholders. While visiting an e-commerce site might be a fairly passive experience for many, active engagement can be achieved through social media where you can interact with a wide audience. Make sure you have social media links clearly displayed on your site.
After reading through these tips, your head might be spinning. You might be asking, How can I add a live chat for customer service?, What is an Extended Validation Certificate? or How do I get started with a Facebook campaign? Questions are good! The further you get along, the more questions you may have. It means you’re on the right track. Take this advice step by step and do your research along the way! Best of luck!
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