Setting Clear Goals and Objectives
You know what most people get wrong when starting an online shop. They focus on one single goal - making money. Of course, profits matter, but it’s hardly the best way to sustain a business in the long run. It puts unnecessary pressure on you as an entrepreneur, which in turn makes your buyers wary of spending their hard-earned money on your products.
When you think of goals for your e-commerce brand, think beyond sales. Think about your values - things like sustainability or charity or personalisation. Next, think about your customer, their needs and pain points, and how you can solve those with your products and services.
Then think about logistics - everything from packaging to delivery to payment gateways to building a website. Sounds overwhelming. More or less. That’s okay.
Building a brand can take up more energy than expected, especially if you’re running a solo operation or have a small team. I’ve found that breaking down large goals into smaller tasks is the only way forward if you want to create a realistic action plan for the near future. The bottom line is this - setting clear goals and objectives isn’t just beneficial for the trajectory of your business, but also keeps all parties on track. Always be open to feedback from potential and existing customers so that you can pretty much refine your goals into achievable tasks over time.
Choosing the Right E-commerce Platform
Too many people rush in thinking the shiniest, most expensive system must be the best fit. And like clockwork, they end up spending more time fighting with the thing than actually running their store. A lot of e-commerce brands choose platforms on the basis of popularity rather than usefulness.
But that’s the wrong way around - functionality and accessibility matter a lot more. With Shopify for example, everything is streamlined, and set up is a fairly straightforward process. Squarespace lets you build really slick storefronts that look more expensive than they cost to make, and WooCommerce is more or less made for sellers who already have a WordPress site. It seems like there are other popular options like bigcommerce, magento, and wix, but no option is truly perfect.
It’s hard to figure out exactly what you need until you start using your platform of choice. Things that seem ideal at first can turn out to be headaches in the long run when there’s no room for flexibility or freedom in web design or product delivery. In my experience, Shopify does this quite well for anyone looking to get set up quickly. But if you want something more customisable and aren’t pressed for time or budget, BigCommerce might be worth exploring too.
The only way to decide what’s best for your business is by trying each platform out - not all offer free trials, but most do. Testing is what will help you find what works and what doesn’t without making any permanent commitments or investments before you feel sure of your decision.
Designing an Engaging User Experience
Here’s what most people get wrong about designing a user experience - they try to make it an ‘experience’. Instead of focusing on what it feels like to be on your online store, they focus on the aesthetic. Visual branding is important but you can’t have visual branding without the user in mind.
There are some colours and layouts that people actually respond to, and others that turn them off. This is where things get a bit fuzzy because there isn’t one set type that works for everyone. It depends on your product, the age group you’re marketing to, and where you position yourself as a brand. Whatever your colour palette or layout may be, ensure that your website is easy to navigate for first time users and repeat visitors alike.
Make sure there are buttons clearly marked with things like ‘home’, ‘shop’, and similar descriptors that everyone gets. Place all the things that people come back for right at the top. Don’t hide them or make them impossible to locate. Designing for user engagement can get quite complex when we get into small details such as fonts, website speed, appearance across devices, shipping choices, and so much more.
But what helps through this is remembering to keep your audience at the centre of all design decisions around how your store feels. This is also where onboarding comes in - the process new customers go through when they visit your store. If users need to create an account before signing up then say it right at the start with a button labelled ‘register’. More or less.
This reduces drop offs due to confusion from not being able to find something they need immediately upon entering (register/login). You don’t want customers leaving over frustratingly hidden buttons now do you.
Effective Product Listing Strategies
Feels Like people often think that simply uploading decent pictures and sticking a few specs together makes an attractive product listing. Can't say that's true, though. Never mind engaging headers or eye-catching copy - what most people tend to ignore is the reality that you’re trying to attract two audiences here - the human sort and the not-so-human bot.
It's tricky though, isn’t it. On one hand, you want those not-so-human bots to pick your product up and pop it right at the top of their search results but on the other hand, you can’t risk losing the human element either. Whether your products are listed on Shopify, WooCommerce or even Amazon, you have to keep both these audiences in mind at all times.
From product titles to descriptions, pricing, categorisation and images - everything needs to be visually appealing but also relevant in that tricky SEO space. In my experience though, there’s one thing that works every single time - honesty. What often happens is sometimes brands want to oversell (as they should.
) but there is a limit with product listings. At best, it comes off as confusing and at worst, as spammy. Being descriptive is relatively great and helpful (and attracts those bots) but being simple with sizing or being specific about colours actually helps humans make buying decisions faster. Many people forget this but customer reviews also help make your listings more attractive.
Add a few testimonials if you must but allowing other buyers to share images using your products always makes for a positive effect. Sort of. I think the best strategy here is that first impressions can often be misleading and what customers really want is someone who has tried it already vouching for your products.
Marketing Your Online Store Pre-Launch
The way I see it, a lot of people think marketing is a numbers game. You throw out a bunch of posts, maybe a few memes, and then see what sticks. But the thing is, you need to know your audience before you start doing that.
If you don’t, all your efforts are sometimes wasted as they might not even see your posts. Marketing an online store pre-launch can be daunting because so much has to come together for it to work. You have to find those channels where your potential customers are hanging out, create anticipation for them, and then interact with them on the right channels. Creating anticipation is often important because if there’s any day when you want people visiting the website in masses, it's launch day.
Now I know some things can get complicated here. The market is changing every day and things that used to work just last month might not work anymore today. At times like these it’s best to let go of the things beyond our control and focus on what we can do - adding value and showing up for the audience every single day leading up to launch.
If you already have an audience from an existing business or other marketing efforts prior to launching your online store, great. If not, find ways to make sure they see your offers before launch day through social media, word-of-mouth referrals, influencer partnerships or newsletters.
Post-Launch Analysis and Optimization
Online stores open. But it’s all just the beginning. I see so many people assume everything will go smoothly after they’ve set up shop but that’s rarely true.
The reality is that post-launch is when you need to be most vigilant and watch out for problems that could threaten your business’ reputation, and in some cases, its very survival. Getting an online store running is not easy - it takes a fair amount of resources and time, among other things, but getting customers to trust you enough to make a purchase can sometimes be much, much harder. Sometimes, when an online store gets launched, people only realise after the fact that certain functionalities aren’t working as intended or some products aren’t being displayed right. There are also scenarios where the payment gateway malfunctions and doesn’t let a transaction go through in which case not only have you lost a sale but you’ve also potentially lost trust forever.
But most problems are fixable - or at least improveable - provided you’re tracking relevant metrics post launch and actively looking for things to better in your systems and processes. Data-driven analysis can help identify patterns in behaviour and preferences which allows brands to quickly adapt their strategies for better results. And A/B testing can be employed to test different approaches for users to see which one works best, allowing brands to keep optimising their offerings without risking too much.
I find that leveraging the data available through analytics tools is often overlooked by smaller businesses despite having tons of free options available online with different payment tiers depending on the level of features desired. And even if monitoring post-launch performance seems confusing at first - and there certainly are complexities involved - it almost always pays off over time because of how important it is for businesses looking for long-term e-commerce success.