With no guard man or sales person to guide customers through the e-store, unveiling a full-fledged ecommerce store is definitely equivalent to opening a couple of retail stores with many operational and executional challenges.
So, what’s the most challenging part in this entire e-store setup? Some say its setting up the back end, while some claim it’s the design and there are many who deliberately argue that online marketing is the fundamental challenge and experts gladly nod their head in agreement with everything mentioned here. The reality is, every single component from User Interface [UI] to User Experience [UX], from Google AdWords to Social media marketing & Search Engine Optimisation contributes to the success of the store. Next comes the many questions that only data can answer. What is the entry source for my customer walk-in; what is the exit source for customer walk out; why haven’t they bought my products, aren’t they interesting and appealing, were the products expensive. Data actually answers all these questions and how best the marketing exercise has been effective.
Let us look at some interesting tips for building an e-store and effectively marketing them as well.
a. Responsive web design: No matter what your store sells, always have the customer’s experience in mind. Today, most of the online purchase happens only through hand phone and in our experience data proves 95% of people browse for shopping through their smart phones. Hence, ensure your e-store is responsive for multiple devices. Navigation is another major influencer for purchasing decision, so, ensure the pages are navigated with a single click approach and customer is able to browse across category in a seamless manner. Other aspects that can create a wow factor in customers mind therefore he become regular to the e-store are appropriate call to action button, easy to understand cart page and a single payment gateway that satisfies all Credit & Debit card requirements.
Our designer’s tip on e-store build:
“Follow brand colors and most importantly online shoppers don’t get to see, touch, feel or smell your product, so the best thing is a crisp, clear product image which shouldn’t entirely cut corners on photography. Offer simple information related to the buying process, don’t build walls”
b. Development:
E-store without a defined back end [content management system] is a loud no-no. First challenge is in choosing the right platform which does not expect you to spent lot of post going live maintenance time. Ensure proper planning at the product category level, categorize your product assortment, connect all the products with the right category and offer a structure which helps customer to find the product easily they are looking for.
Ensure your e-store is functionally strong. This means, at every step the customer moves around, make his browsing journey gratifying, examples are, an exciting offer for making a purchase right away if he is around the cart page, a discount on purchase value if he registers with his email id and not doing a guest log-in, refer a friend and get a 10% off on any purchase…and the list can go on as long as you make business sense in gratifying customer. Most importantly, ensure the site is hosted on a server farm, which ensures site down time is nil, unless for some maintenance.
Our developer’s tip on e-store build:
“Online shoppers need quick access to products & its details and most of them access their likes through phones, hence, ensure that pages all well optimized for multi-devices. “Keep in touch”, this phrase is more important and vital when you have first time user or a multi time user. Keep mailing them about product purchase, dispatch details, track your order and offer details as emails. This will help top of mind recall for brand name in customers mind.”
c. Marketing:
Am sure your tech and design team has spent hours of focused build time to make your e-store a grand success with great UI / UX. But wait, have you thought about e-marketing for your e-store. If you haven’t, then start right now. Customers can be reached through non-paid & paid models. To reach them organically and drive footfalls, optimize your e-store with Search Engine elements in each and every page.
We all agree content is king, so, write relevant content on each product pages with appropriate key words for Google to index your web pages and bring in people organically. Next is paid campaigns. You can try Google adwords, Facebook and Instagram ads.
Our e-marketer tip on e-store build:
“Spend money wisely is the key mantra. When you run a paid campaign in Google or Facebook, ensure that you optimize your campaign for key words appropriately therefore, you don’t spend money for clicks which does not result in sale conversions. Understand that, this is an on-going task, hence be patient and witness optimization delivering the best results over a period of time. Keep refreshing promo creative to avoid fatigue and also to show case the product category varieties. And also remember to carry out off-page submissions to maximize organic traffic.”
Trust the above information has helped you in understanding the basics of the e-store build. There’s more. Call us or write to us and we will come back to you.