subject: Building an Online Shop for Success [print this page] Building an Online Shop for Success
Online shopping was recently ranked second in a poll of Britain's favourite innovations, and with Brits spending over 5 billion a month online, selling over the net is proving a real money maker. But like bricks and mortar businesses not all are a success, here's how to ensure yours is!
Online shops are a great way to make money, if you have something to sell that people want to buy! Firstly you need to research your competition and find out what you can offer that they don't.
Once you have a good idea about your businesses unique selling point you need to purchase a domain name (web address). Domain names don't cost very much but it is very important that you choose a name that reflects what you do as a business. Unless you are an established brand, like Currys or Topshop for example, people are unlikely to search for your business name if they do not know it exists! If you sell jewellery for example it will be a good idea to have jewellery in your domain name, this means when people are searching for jewellery in Search Engines your website has more chance of popping up.
Next you will have to find a company to host' your shop; this is similar to paying for the rent of a space or building for a physical shop. There will be thousands of hosting companies to choose from, although you might think the bigger the company the better this is not always the case. As a small start-up it's advisable to choose a smaller company who will be able to offer you more individual support if there are problems along the way. Ask around on web forums for advice on companies that are reliable and secure.
The website is the face of your shop and will be where you display all your products.Like all websites an online shop needs to be well laid out and easy to navigate, if the customer can't find what they are looking for easily they will leave and you will find you have a very high bounce rate. If you have the expertise you can design and build the website yourself, but there are many ecommerce companies that offer design and software packages which include shopping cart software. Take a look at the company's previous work and make sure you choose one that offers support.
The shopping cart is one of the most important aspects of your site, but with 60% of online shoppers who add items to the shopping basket abandoning it before the sale is finalised you need to ensure you minimise this if you want to make your online store a success. The process is too long and complicated, payment options are limited and concerns about security are some of the main reasons for shopping cart abandonment.
The more time it takes to complete the checkout process the longer the customer has to change their mind. A recent study found that 57% of online shoppers insisted on a rapid checkout process so ecommerce software tools that shorten the checkout process are invaluable. A Postcode Address Finder' (PAF) tool can reduce check out time by over 30%, as it only requires customers to enter their postcode and find address to populate fields automatically.
As well as making the payment process as easy as possible it is also important to give customers a good choice of payment options. As well as credit and debit cards a PayPal option is often expected. PayPal is a safe, secure payment channel so people will feel more confident when buying from a site that offers this option. In terms of security it is also vital you display a security logo prominently and display a closed padlock or an unbroken key icon as customers know to look out for these clues that a site is secure.
Before you even consider selling anything from your online store make sure you have reliable distribution and supply systems set up. If you have made promises on your site that deliveries will be within 2 working days, this is what should happen. And if items are constantly out of stock potential customers will look elsewhere to find a site that has what they are looking for.
Whichever hosting company or shopping cart software you choose if you really want to make a success of your online business, once your site is live you must market it. If you are considering doing the marketing yourself it is invaluable that you do a lot of research on online marketing, search engine optimisation (SEO), Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising and Social marketing. Alternatively you can pay a company to do the marketing for you.
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