Introduction: 7 Important Issues to Consider Before Developing of Online Store.
Online trading is a very prospective market and it takes an interest of many merchants. Very often online store development topic sare started from the technical questions and advantaged and of the most popular e-commerce platforms. It has to be considered. There is an example of an approach to create a successful online store, but also there are some important questions which should be answered and they are not connected with the e-platforms and their technical characteristics. Let’s review some of them.
1. How your store will look like. An online store design is like the interior in a usual shop. It should support the brand, product range and give visitors positive idea about the store. The design “meets” visitors and you will not have a second chance to make the first impression. It is very nice if the company has the brand book where all elements of the corporate style are detailed. It is very useful to search for different web-templates and themes just to describe your web-design vision. This ground work saves time during the development.
2. Customer service. Most of the platforms optimize the main business processes. But it is important to check customer service more widely. The product delivery process may include other complex processes and requires the implementation of additional services. Or maybe you need to identify extra flows should be implemented to provide a personal approach to the client. CRM module sare available in many e-platforms, but the functionality is different, so if you know what you need, it will help you to choose the right platform.
3. Calculation of shipping-cost. This calculation is really important. Most of the carriers can do it for free, and most major e-platforms allow integrating these costs to the checkout procedure in the online store. Also, offering free shipping is a very effective method to stimulate sales. It can be applied only for orders over a certain amount. In fact, if your main competitors offer free shipping, you should do the same, if you are able to afford it.
4. Content strategy. The main feature of e-commerce is that consumers can’t directly interact with the product. So, the good quality pictures have to be provided. It is also very good to allow users to see the product from different angles. Preparation of high-quality images takes a long time and can be done in advance. An explanation video can also be very useful, because it can give extra information how to install, maintain or use the product.
The description must be short and stimulate people to buy. But you have to take into account that there are different users can visit the store. For example, forms, colors “how to use” information can be more interesting for women. But technical characteristics are interesting for men. So, not to create long text on the page, the information can be presented in different tabs.
Comments and reviews are also the part of content and it is good strategy if the client sare able to leave comments on your products. Such short notes make the content of the page more unique what is very good for SEO. Positive reviews can lead to more sales.
5. Marketing planning. What will be your first steps in the promotion of the online store? Any start is always difficult and it is important to have a detailed plan for all marketing activities. If the online store is new it is hard to have high organic traffic. There are a lot of opportunities on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and YouTube. These social networks can generate good traffic, but there is a lot of work to support them. May be project management system is needed to help to manage all the processes.
6. Dissatisfied customers and refunds. Every online store has situation to deal with dissatisfied customers or returned products. The process of how to respond to customer complaints should be carefully worked out. In your e-commerce platform you will need to have special tools that allow replacing, merchandising or refunding purchase prices, restocking your inventory and sending emails to clients about the return status. But it is also important to prepare staff to work with dissatisfied customers. The more recommendations you can find here.
7. How to measure results. It is important to determine at the beginning what results are considered as good results. Of course, sales volume should be taken into account. Traffic, behavioral characteristics of visitors, bounce rates, the number of returns, the number of comments, number of calls and other indicators can also characterize the activities of the store.
