Creating a successful e-commerce seems to have become a must. In fact, online sales is an area that has been growing exponentially in recent years.
In the first quarter of 2021,e-commerce, on a global scale, marked +58% compared to +17% in the first quarter of 2020. AndItaly is doing even better with +78%.
Therefore, it is clear that establishing itself in online sales is essential for many businesses, both those also structured with a retail network and those that have so far neglected this opportunity. However, equally clear is the difficulty of emerging in such a highly competitive industry.
In this article, we get to work to show you the most useful aspects of creating a successful e-commerce. Not only that: also to tell you the best way to start your own online sales venture. Without neglecting those who are looking for ways to make their digital store more effective: also for you some tips from experience in the field.
1. Make a business plan for your e-commerce success
The business plan helps you monitor the process of implementing ideas, rather than the end result. In addition, it is the tool that aligns the business strategy and financial plan, but also the vision and sharing with the work team.
There is an immense bibliography on how to create a business plan and it is not the case to digress from the main topic. However, we would like to list the key points to keep in mind when making one:
- Summary: Don’t pay too much attention to the form of concepts as much as to their substance. Your plan must be effective and to the point.
- Honesty: looks realistically at threats and opportunities.
- Great brainstorming: the business plan is also an opportunity for creativity, and the use of infographics and images can help you visualize and expand your ideas.
2. Avoid the most trivial mistakes
Designing your e-commerce while avoiding the most common mistakes is already a first step to success. Since the list is likely to become long and sterile, let’s focus on the aspects to focus on to avoid the classic ‘major’ mistake that can jeopardize the whole project:
Outdated design: a template that is too standardized, or even worse, an unusual or outdated design, is the first deterrent for surfers.
Non-responsive theme: a site that is not usable on the various types of devices (smartphones, tablets and desktops) is no longer conceivable in the ‘mobile first’ era.
Poor user experience: the user is looking for quality content and speed of page loading, if they do not find these two conditions fulfilled they will immediately abandon your site.
3. Do your research
Proper research is always essential, regardless of the type of e-commerce. What is important, however, is not to understandanalysis as a process with a beginning and an end: research work is continuous and includes various stages of analysis and monitoring.
Let’s look at a couple of particularly relevant points.
Keyword research for successful e-commerce
Knowing how to choose the right keywords to intercept queries, i.e., user searches on Google, means gaining a huge competitive advantage: on the one hand, it allows you to be found with ease, and on the other hand, it makes it easier for you to produce content that is responsive to current trends.
But how do you do keyword research for an e-commerce?
Try thinking with the user’s head: what are the words they will use to search for your product/service?
Go step by step, from macro topic categories to more specific concepts, always considering only words relevant to your business.
To make this clearer, let’s proceed with a practical example. If your e-commerce sells sports shoes, the keyword “shoes” is very generic and may be too competitive to guarantee you a good result in the SERP, especially if our business is new.
We can, however, work on many other options, such as “women’s tennis shoes,” “men’s tennis shoes,” “professional soccer shoes,” “anti tendonitis sports shoes,” “children‘s basketball shoes,” “little girl’s dance shoes,” and the like.
The variables are many and can be declined with individual brand names and based on the specificity of your warehouse.
Further reading:
Keyword research: how to identify the most relevant keywords for your website.
Study the competition
Take a close look at the competitors and what they are doing: what are their strengths? Do they have weaknesses? Think about individual aspects of their business model and use the results of your observation to improve your unique value proposition.
For example, studying the major players in your target market can give you an edge in identifying the best products to sell.
4. Build your own successful online store
The plan of action is defined, the keyword set is in the pocket, and the competition has no more secrets: all that remains is to move from theory to practice.
The technical part of an ecommerce is usually the one that scares you the most, because you are afraid that you will not understand it fully and will not be able to handle it properly.
However, technology clears the field of any unfounded fears: the CMSs available, each have specific features that can be enhanced as needed.
We draw your attention to this point: the functionalities of Content Management Systems are so simplified as to suggest that they can be handled ‘lightly’.
A misjudgment that can cost you dearly! Some steps-such as linking the online sales site to the corporate bank account, or handling invoicing-require technical expertise and specific knowledge regardless of the ‘ease’ of the chosen platform.
5. Promote your online sales activity
Even the best e-commerce, without supporting promotion, has no hope of holding its own in the online sales market.
You can start by promoting your ecommerce with free channels, for example by leveraging the sounding board of social media.
However, keep in mind that for functional growth and conversion goals, first and foremost increasing lead generation and sales, a paid digital promotional effort will need to be considered.
The tools available are suitable for every budget and include, for example Google Ads,email marketing and content marketing for e-commerce.
Tips for improving your e-commerce
What happens next? That is, what are the best practices to enable e-commerce to continue its success?
Here are some tips to help you keep your online sales site’s standards high.
Provide excellent customer service
Approximately half of customers are ready to abandon the transaction if they do not receive real-time information that will help them resolve any doubts. Reason why a high level of customer service is crucial for a successful e-commerce.
- Create a page with answers to FAQs (frequently asked questions).
- Offer live support with chat.
- Provide a reserved number for customers.All this, together with authentic product reviews, will give users confirmation of the reliability of your e-commerce generating a virtuous circle of trust and good reputation.
Take care of the customer journey
The conversion rate of a good e-commerce is estimated to be around 2 percent. This figure is the result of a statistical average among different industries that obviously produce different conversion rates (source).
The success of your online store rests on this data. How much would the percentages go up if you could optimize the user journey from landing to purchase?
Optimizes the user experience
How do we make an e-commerce better? If, as mentioned above, keyword study allows us to make the site irresistible to the search engine, constant work on certain factors gives us the opportunity to impress users. How? By constantly focusing our efforts on:
- usability for example, with intuitive navigation bar and unique and original product sheets;
- Page loading speed.
Frequently update the inventory
Good inventory management can reduce unsold/storage costs and allows you to sustainably expand your product catalog. Monitor the availability of best-sellers and focus your resources on periodic greening of offerings to keep traffic to the site high.
In conclusion: how do you make a successful e-commerce?
A successful ecommerce is the result of a combination of insight, analysis of results, field testing, and all the aspects we have explored in this brief guide.
To work, all these elements must be tailored to your specific case.
And this is where an element that is too often underestimated comes into play: the professional. Why underestimated? Because the widespread trend is to favor low-cost speed at the expense of competence and the human factor.
Actually, for a truly tailored e-commerce, you cannot resort to a standard template (however customizable), nor to content without originality, nor creativity.
What Isola can do for your e-commerce site
La web agency Isola di Comunicazione Can realize for you:
- the search for the best keywords
- the sitetree
- The identification of navigation categories
- the choice unique product codes
- the writing of effective descriptions
And it can, above all, guarantee you a constructive and constant confrontation. On the one hand, theSEO agency with experts in the realization of e-commerce sites and the specialists in the positioning of websites; on the other you with your ideas and knowledge of the field.
If you are looking for the best way to create your e-commerce, or to increase visits to your site, our creative agency in Milan is the right landing place for you.
The team of experienced contributors, consisting of highly professional profiles and people available for human contact, is always listening and ready to pick up-and spread-your message.
