Online success inevitably goes through digitalizing your business and most people are already aware of that. Every year, online sales are growing, and this trend seems to be here to stay. This is why today we want to talk about e-commerce and how you can also be a proud owner of an online shop.

Business Plan

 

Above all, you should know that creating a successful website is not an easy task especially if we are talking about an eCommerce website. The first step, as with any other business venture, is to create a business plan. It should include the following questions:

• What will I sell? – Researching the markets, selecting niche and products;
• How will I sell? – Matching the product to the specific market;
• Where will I get products from? – Building a distribution network and determining the regularity of shipments;
• Who are my competitors and how do they sell? – Learning about the competition, their advantages, disadvantages, and means of selling;
• What are the costs? – Identifying all possible start-up costs, investment in a base, equipment, and staff;
• What if I fail? – Defining backup options for unexpected situations.  Always be prepared for failure.

 

Domain Name and Web Hosting

 

A frequently underestimated step is choosing a name for your online shop, the so-called domain name.
There are several criteria that you should adhere to:

 

• The name should be as short as possible, accurate and clear, making it easier to remember it;
• It must be easy to write and pronounce;
• Choose the appropriate domain extension – the most popular .com .net is your first choice, but if your site will only operate on a local level, you can also go for a country extension – .bg, .ru, .de, or .co.uk

 

The next step is finding a web hosting provider. Choose carefully, search for additional information and reviews. Contact several companies and check how fast and effective is the help they provide. Avoid trusting sites like “Top 10 Hosting Providers” because they are mostly paid by the companies themselves. Keep in mind that it is a huge niche with thousands of providers so it’s pretty easy to get overwhelmed.

 

Choosing a Platform

 

Choosing the right platform for your online store is always a controversial moment. Everyone has different impressions and opinions about their favorite online solution, but there are a few that you can safely start with. WooCommerce, OpenCart, and PrestaShop are easy and intuitive for people with less experience, and for larger stores, you can also try options like Magento.

We recommend using WooCommerce for your online shop.

Of course, you can always bet on a platform developed specifically for you, but this is usually associated with higher costs.

 

Quality Content & SEO

 

Just because you have an online store doesn’t mean you shouldn’t rely on quality content to wow your users. Detailed and well-explained product descriptions, beautifully processed photos, video content, a dedicated blog with themed articles – the possibilities are endless.

 

Write for your visitors and not for the search engines, but keep in mind the factors for better ranking. They are the foundation of the good SEO optimization and they will help your text reach more people online. Create content that would be useful and interesting to YOU, things YOU would be looking for. This is the way to make content reachable from a larger audience and satisfying their needs.

Assuming your website is optimized in terms of structure, content, code, and load speed, the final step of that part it the link building and creating a good link profile.

 

Marketing and Advertising Plan

 

Your online shop is ready, you tested it, checked every page for spelling mistakes and functionality issues, filled it with your unique content and added the products/services. What now?

 

You should compile a marketing plan to advertise and promote your brand, helping it become more noticeable. After all your online store would not be successful if no one knew about it, right?

Some basic approaches are:

• Digital marketing
• Social media
• Permanent creation of valuable content
• Google AdWords & Facebook Ads – paid ads
• Email marketing
• Video marketing

 

Now what?

 

Congratulations! Your online store is ready for visitors, with a clear vision and purpose, neatly organized and ready for a revolution in online markets. There are many different factors that are directly responsible for its performance, but if you follow this plan, success is likely to come earlier than you think.

If you need help for anything, contact us at info@speedflow.bg and we will help by providing you with professional web services.

What do you think are the key elements of a successful online store? Promotions page? Search options and categories? Contact form? Mobile version? Yes, you are right! All these functionalities must be part of your e-shop infrastructure.

However, today we will be talking about some other elements. The ones that are being quite overlooked, but at the same time are no less important for the truly successful online store. The ones that improve your customer experiences and bring in profit at the same time. Here they are:

 

1. SEO modulе

If you want your website to rank higher in Google, it must be optimized for search engines (SEO). The same goes for online shops. If your website offers hundreds or thousands of items, optimizing every single page will take you too much time and effort. Manually entering meta titles, meta descriptions, and tags, which are an essential part of every on-page optimization, will most probably strike damp over your enthusiasm to have an online shop at all! That’s why we recommend you to use some sort of SEO module. It is extremely helpful as it automatically generates the SEO texts for each product. Depending on the eCommerce platform your e-shop was built on (like WordPress + WooCommerce), there are various optimization plug-ins and extensions you can use. Here we have listed some of the most popular ones:

• For WordPress – Yoast SEO Premium*
• For Magento – ReloadSEO
• For OpenCart – SEO Pack Pro (paid); SEO modules (free)
• For Joomla – Jsitemap or SEO Boss

* Yoast also offers a free version, which is in fact not quite basic and is extremely functional.

 

2. Automatically generated bills of lading (shipment documents)

Integrate into your successful online store with the modules of the courier companies you are working with. Thus, you will be able to automatically generate product shipment numbers.  It will save hours of your time. Imagine if you were to manually fill them in for each individual order. Modernizing such processes enables your customers (if they needed it) to use the generated number and contact the courier personally. Another convenience for users that also indirectly increases the number of your website visits.

 

3. Shipment tracking

A small detail one would say, but in fact, it’s a huge bonus for those who have already purchased something from your online shop. When a client logs in, he/she will be able to track the exact location of their order at any given moment. And you? You will get a satisfied and loyal customer that has no further questions…and again more traffic to your site.

 

 

4. Customized landing pages for different client groups

Is this possible? Yes, you can use Cookies information to target products and customize the homepage of each visitor based on their history as a potential client or a regular customer. For example, you can display new products, promotions or most purchased items to new visitors. And to those who have purchased from you before – favorite brands and products they have searched for before.

 

 

5. Different prices per customer groups

An extremely useful feature, especially when your online store targets several customer segments at once:

• End users
• Retail customers
• Wholesale customers

To have this feature enabled you must create separate customer groups in your back end. Upon registration, the client will choose the group to which he/she belongs. This will determine the prices and products that will be visible to them in the future.

 

6. Automatic customer notification for products in stock

We suggest that you implement a module for product notification on your website. It will send an automatic message to customers (via email or in their personal profiles) when a product they were interested in is back in stock. First, you will make them visit your website again. Second, you will increase their chances of repurchasing.

 

7. A single page for making order and payment

Many studies (and our personal experience) recommend having a single page for placing an order. You will save your clients time – fewer clicks, fewer pages to go through, less information to fill in. Otherwise, the chances of finalizing a purchase are reduced. The less effort your customers make, the more satisfied they will be, and the faster they will buy your products. You will hit the spot!

 

8. Auction

We must say that auctions are not for every business. However, if it’s not your primary focus, but rather an additional functionality, it can be used as a way to increase your website traffic. Many users will visit your online shop numerous times for one particular item! Moreover, an auction may even increase its purchase price considerably.

 

 

 

If you have more questions or are thinking about creating a successful online store, you can read our recommendations on how to launch your first online store.

Keep in mind that this is a process that requires a wide range of knowledge – from programming, web design and having experience with the CMS itself, to SEO, digital marketing, online/offline sales, etc. Or, in short, many years of experience in the industry.

Our advice is to “do your homework”, then choose the safe and more optimized way and trust the Speedflow professionals for your eCommerce website development so you don’t lose focus on your business! Do not hesitate to contact us here or drop us an Email at info@speedflow.bg.