Increasingly sales are being directed online by a lot of busineses. Consumers are now flocking to online stores to purchase a variety of goods. This new found confidence in online purchase has led to an increase in the number of commerce startups. In this article we give you the ‘5 helpful tips for your eCommerce startup’.
1. Find Your Niche
When starting up an eCommerce business it is vital that you have an idea of how your business model will work. Ask yourself if your business is truly providing an original product or service. As with most cases, you might find that you have a lot of competition who provide similar products or services to your own. The best way to come out on top is to find a unique selling point or angle that only you can provide.
2. Know The Market
Often eCommerce startups look to their competitors as a carbon copy template form which to model their business on. This approach is detrimental to a startup and often hamstrings you from offering something unique to potential clients. A sensible way to approach a startup eCommerce website is to take note of all the positives from a competitors site and an even more comprehensive list of the bad features. This information along with the advice of a skilled UX (user experience) designer is vital in helping your website to be user friendly as possible.
3. Don’t Rush The Launch
One of the biggest mistakes eCommerce startups make is to rush the launch. Being impatient with the process usually ends up reflecting negatively on your brand. Ecommerce websites are complicated projects that demand expertise in design and development. Every top web design agency will always emphasise the importance of realistic deadlines. A realistic lead in time, dictated by a professional brief is essential to every eCommerce website. A well thought out brief and design process eliminates the possibility of impulsive design decisions. Unrealistic deadlines and added functionality lead to skipping time on design and development resulting in a bad user experience. This can terminally harm your startup before you have had a chance to get off the ground!
4. Test Absolutely Everything!
Every eCommerce website should be thoroughly tested before launch and at least once or twice a month. Having an eCommerce website that doesn’t work is a bad reflection on your business. Regular testing insures your site is secure, working and most importantly that you retain consumer confidence.
5. Have A Website That Converts
Converting visitors to sales is a scientific process in itself. Firstly you need to get people on your site. This can be done through a mixture of SEO, advertising on social media and Google ads, blogging and marketing. Getting a significant amount of people to visit your website is a challenging task, but keeping them on site is even harder. Ensuring that your website is user-friendly, communicates your business well and your call to actions work effectively is vital in converting visitors into sales. Simple things like cutting down the amount of steps one has to make to purchase, offering sales, free shipping, etc can be the difference in getting a viewer to purchase your product or service.
Bonus Tip – Make Sure Your Website Is Fully Responsive
Over 30% of all Irish internet users exclusively use mobile devices to browse the internet. This means up to a third of every website’s audience, view the site on a tablet or mobile device. If the website being viewed is not mobile friendly then there is an extremely high likelihood that the viewer will leave. Having a website that is not mobile friendly can also hamper a sites ranking in on search engine giant, Google. As of early 2015 Google has introduced a new ranking structure on mobile and tablet devices. This new system means that websites that are not mobile friendly will rank lower than mobile friendly websites when search on all mobile devices.
For any more information regarding the ‘5 helpful tips for your eCommerce startup’ or to avail of our services call Opus Creative on +353 (21) 242 8689 or email us on hello@opuscreative.ie
