3 Pillars of a Successful E-Commerce Store Design

eCommerce Store Design

It's never again an issue of whether organizations should add a web store to their offering, yet how. The short answer is a strong online business system.

In 2017, we charged Sapio Research to lead an overview of more than 300 organizations around the globe to discover how they were moving toward their advanced change and online business methodology. 52% of respondents said that their own web store is their most significant channel. By and large, those with web stores saw a 22% expansion in income on account of this business channel alone.

This year, we found that B2B purchasers in 2019 still organize and favor online channels, however, organizations' internet business systems are substandard with clients' desires.

But how do you create a foolproof e-commerce strategy and get a successful eCommerce store design and running? How do you do it well, while spending minimal time, money and effort?

For us, it all comes down to 3 pillars of success.

# 1: Get Your ERP and Content Data In Order

87% of organizations we studied accept that getting the correct information in one framework is one of the most genuine difficulties B2B organizations face in their advanced change.

I'm not catching it's meaning to have the right information? Most importantly, you need to guarantee that your ERP (backend) information is forward-thinking. The most significant classes to concentrate on are:

-- Prices

-- Discounts

-- Customers

-- Products

On the off chance that you go for an incorporated web store choice, the entirety of the data in your ERP will be utilized in your web store. That implies it should be present and it should be finished — you don't need your customers to see obsolete or erroneous information.

# 2: Put the Right Person in Charge

In 2017, Sapio Research asked respondents which challenges they thought businesses implementing a digital transformation project face.

-- 41% said legacy technology that prevents digitization

-- 39% said organizational resistance to change was a major challenge

-- 38% said that disconnected sales channels was an obstacle

These challenges are varied, and it’s important that the key e-commerce owners in your organization have the knowledge, expertise and people skills to tackle them head-on. Today, these challenges remain an obstacle, so it’s important not to “set-it-and-forget-it” when it comes to implementing fixes.

# 3: Make a Concrete Business Plan

There’s an old Japanese saying that says vision without action is a daydream, and action without vision is a nightmare.

In other words, you need a concrete plan.

Saying that you simply need a concrete business plan may seem a little vague. That’s why we’ve put together six steps to follow to ensure you have a good, solid business plan that will help set you up for online sales success.

1) Set Goals

2) Determine Your KPIs

3) Define Your Target Market and Customers

4) Customer Communication

5) Create a Roadmap

6) The More You Know, the More You Grow

Launching or upgrading your web store is a big undertaking, and it’s one that will also yield big results if you tackle it with the right plan. We’re confident that these three pillars will give you a solid foundation for your journey to eCommerce SEO...

If you’re just getting started with your plan, it can be really helpful to learn SEO Tips more about what other businesses are doing and what customers want from their online experience.

Best Practices to Improve E-commerce Conversion Rate of Your Store

Often, beginning, and even experienced, entrepreneurs face the problem of their e-stores simply not generating a sufficient number of sales. They have enough traffic, their website position on search engines is high, and budgets for contextual advertising are impressive. Yet, still there lacks a copious amount of orders. If you are experiencing the same problem, or if you have just created your own online store and want to avoid such obstacles in the future, then this article is sure to be useful to you.

To increase your conversion rate (CR), you need to have proper website usability, visual attractiveness, simplicity in making orders, and availability of various payment and delivery methods. Let’s find out what a good conversion rate is for an e-commerce store features and whether it is important to adhere to this standard.

The Average Conversion Rates In the E-commerce

Conversion rates vary by industry, geography, type of device and other factors. As for e-commerce websites, rates around 1% to 2% are considered optimum. Take a look at the pic below to see whether your e-store matches your industry’s average CR.

Even though conversion rates between 1% and 2% are normal, it doesn’t necessarily mean that your shop is succeeding. To estimate the performance of your online business, consider other indicators in your analysis such as KPI, bounce rate, and average order value (AOV). Truly, the only thing that is important is to achieve a conversion rate that allows you to make a profit. This becomes possible if you consistently work on improving e-commerce conversion rates.

How Do E-commerce Stores Increase Their Conversions?

There are virtually hundreds of ways for how to improve the e-commerce conversion rate. Whether it’s good news or bad, nobody knows what exactly will work for your e-store. Simply changing the color of the CTA button probably won’t help you much. However, a more complex approach is likely to improve things. To help you, we have prepared interesting cases for increasing conversion rates that have worked for other businesses.

1) Improve Website Navigation to Make It Clear

For every business owner, their website looks intuitively understandable. However, from the customer’s point of view, similar product categories or an unclear allocation of the checkout button can be confusing. To improve the purchase process, you can use analytics (e.g. Google Analytics, Mixpanel, KissMetrics) to see how visitors move through the site, how many categories they sifted through before finding the right one, and whether they found what they searched for or instead just closed the page.

PrintGlobe proves that improving website navigation can give you an 18.5% increase in conversion rates. After various tests, they identified that showing products in a grid view combined with a navigation pane and carousel option at the top of the page allows buyers to shop the most effectively.

2) Create High-Quality Descriptions of Your Products, and Don’t Forget About Storytelling!

If you think people don’t read text on websites, you’re probably wrong. People just need a reason to read your text. An investigation conducted by BizReport shows that product pages containing detailed information are more important than reviews and prices.

Extend the description section on your website to tell more about your product. The main points to consider when writing the text for the product description section are:

1. Make the text easy to read

2. Write short sentences – 15-25 words

3. Predict potential questions and try to answer them in the description

4. Tell your website’s visitors about the benefits of your product

5. Use simple, everyday language

6. Include keywords in the text, but don’t overstuff them

Don’t be boring. Create a story around your product! Storytelling is a very powerful tool since it can attract the reader’s attention to your products and your brand.

A stellar example of storytelling comes from the guys at SignificantObjects.com. They purchased products from thrift stores for a very low cost and composed stories about them to create an imitation of history. Then, these products were placed on eBay. In the end, these guys sold $128 in goods for $3,612. Storytelling helped SignificantObject to increase the value of their products by 2800%.

3) Use Large, High-Quality Product Images

You can increase sales on your online store just by changing the quality of your website’s images. Even though the product description is important, providing large, high-quality images might be even better. More than 67% of customers say that high-quality photos are essential for the purchasing process. Let us introduce a striking example – Ties.com. At Ties.com, products are displayed from different angles and the images are zoomable.

Another way to engage customers and make them craving for your product is to add videos. This practice helps not only showcase the product visually and in a comprehensive manner. It also allows you to empower your marketing opportunities via sending sales & special offers or personalized videos to bring back abandoned cart users.

Moreover, viewing a video, potential customers get the feeling of real interaction with your product or service. Thus, they want it.

Remember, you can implement different types of videos: sales and offers, e-commerce listing and abandoned cart videos, and so on. All of them are a part of the e-commerce video marketing strategy which you should develop to increase sales.

4) Offer Easily Accessible Online Customer Service

Software Advice did research to find out communication preferences for online shopping. The result is that almost half of the website visitors prefer to use live chat instead of phone. This means that 50% of website visitors may be displeased with the customer experience on your site if you don’t provide an online means of communication.

Even if you have included all the characteristics of a product, there will always be customers who need to clarify details. This is usually because they doubt whether your product will suit their specific needs. Thus, it is a good option to provide online chat to the website. Further, the response time should be as short as possible and you should be prepared to answer the following likely questions:

– Is the product in stock?

– Does it have complex technical characteristics?

– Can you help me understand how to use it?

In these and other cases, online chat will help maintain a shopper on the site and lead them to make a purchase.

Let’s take a look at how it works. Virgin Atlantic had a 23%-increase in its conversion rate after implementing live chat. Also, users who initiated chat spent 15% more per order.

Another case shows us that Total Gym, a company selling gyms, has seen a 39% increase in sales after implementing their chat service.

5) Offer Freebies: Low Prices, Specials, and Promotions

Your customers like discounts. E-tailing Group states that 47% of online shoppers only like to buy products with a discount. 62% of them claimed they always look for the section with sales and special prices.

Sometimes, people buy goods because they are at a discount, not because they really need them. To entice these shoppers, you can launch an ad with discounts, add a banner to the homepage, and display promotional products in a recommended products section. Also, be sure to set a deadline, after which the discount burns. The closer it gets, the more willingly visitors will buy goods.

Be sure to think carefully about the amount of the discount. You won’t impress anyone with a 5% discount on already-cheap goods. However, a 30%-off offer on every product on your website will increase your conversion dramatically. For example, Macys.com has various discounts, and some of them even reach 50-70%. This is a solid option to drive sales. Just be confident about your price strategy.

Originally Published at www.whidegroup.com

Common Concerns About Starting Your Own eCommerce Store

Starting a business is always a scary prospect. There are uncertainties, doubts, concerns and, dare we say, excuses that hold you back from starting. 

These are all valid feelings, but if you dig deeper, you are going to see the counter arguments that make your doubts seem pretty small. Soon, you’ll even see the multiple compelling reasons for you to start an online store—today.

Let’s address some common concerns about starting your own online store.

“I’m not tech savvy.” Or, “I don’t know where to start.”

You don’t need to be that tech savvy to get started. E-commerce platforms are very intuitive, and the learning curve isn’t steep. Think of starting an e-commerce store the way you would think about starting a brick-and-mortar business. The only difference is that your store is placed online. 

With a physical store, you learn about business practices,  the process of getting your product into the hands of your customers, the equipment and the building itself. Having an online store requires the same initial knowledge gathering, only you’re learning about it through the lens of the internet. 

Fortunately, there are many free articles that address how to set up your online store, like our beginner’s guide to Shopify. You’ll probably want to read each article in full, but here are the basics of how to get started:

1. Before you start, do your due diligence and try to research as much as you can. 
   This will not only give you the know-how, but it will also make you more comfortable and confident about your decision. Preparation brings you close to perfection.
   
2. Choose your web hosting platform. There are many easy platforms to choose from, but we recommend the most popular two because there are the most user-friendly for beginners: Shopify and Bigcommerce. 
   Plus, both of these platforms have a 14-day free trial so you can get the feel of operating your store before you commit.
   
3. Proceed with the design/theme of your online store. Don’t worry. You don’t have to be a graphic artist or an art major to do this. There are templates or themes that you can choose from which are pretty intuitive and easy to use. 

But not everyone learns in the same way. We know that it can be challenging for many people to learn by just reading articles.

So we’ve also compiled some helpful resources that are more interactive:  

• There are step-by-step videos that detail everything you need to know to launch your e-commerce business Here are the ones we’d watch first:

• Shopify Tutorial For Beginners 2019 - How To Create A Profitable Shopify Store From Scratch
  
• 2019 Shopify Tutorial & Demo For Beginners - Complete Easy Guide From Start To Finish 2019!

• There are even courses/tutorials that you can enroll to. Some are paid like this one on Skillshare or some are free and are supported by the e-commerce platform itself, like this one from Shopify. 

Alternately, you can save time and outsource the aspects that you're not familiar with. The internet is not only a resource, it’s a means of communication and sharing. You can get other people to collaborate with you and share their skills to help you with the other tasks of running your online store.

You can even have experts weigh in and point you in the right direction.

“I don’t have any business ideas.”

We got you covered. Here are some of the ideas for a lucrative e-commerce business. (Hint, you may want to start with these for brainstorming and then make them your own.)

1. Try selling special clothes. According to Shopify’s research, the top product to sell in 2019 is “shapewear.” These are undergarments usually worn by women to enhance their shape, kind of like modern-day corsets (but way more comfortable).
   
   It might be surprising, but shapewear is considered one of the best evergreen niches. An evergreen niche is a focus on a product that caters to a specific buyer while never going out of style. There will always be someone who wants to look like they’re in better shape.
2. Consider hygienic products, especially those that are subscription based. There are multiple companies with this business model such as The Dollar Shave Club and FabFitFun. This is another interesting evergreen niche, as hygiene is considered a basic need (and therefore won’t ever go out of style).
3. Also think about Cannabis products. This industry is booming this year. If you’ve already thought of riding the cannabis high (pun intended), better start now.
   
   E-commerce cannabis is perfect since it’s a focused niche, but it still has a very large audience of Gen-Z consumers. And Shopify is the best platform for cannabis brands, thanks to its explicit and vocal support for the industry.

Even if you don’t choose one of these ideas, here’s what you need to keep in mind to help you choose the best business idea for your online store:

• Start with your passion. “Do something you love and you will never work a day in your life.” If you’re passionate about something, it will radiate through what you are selling, and customers will pick up on your passion.

• Start with something you are good at. “If you’re good at something, never do it for free.” Earn from your skills. If you’re already good at something and you produce it, quality control will always be easy. Customers love a quality and skillfully made product.

• Step out of your comfort zone. This is kind of scary, but try. You never know, you may be good at something you’d never considered before.
  
  Think of Harrison Ford. He was a carpenter for George Lucas (of Star Wars fame). He did an impromptu reading for Lucas, got discovered by Stephen Spielberg and got the role of Han Solo. Acting was very far from his original career, but he became successful anyway.

• Offer services through your store. Online stores don’t just offer physical products, they also offer services, software, digital art and much more.

• If you can’t think of any customer pain points, start with your own. All people are consumers. Chances are that your pain points are also other people’s pain points. Is there anything about the current product offerings that you wish was better? 

If you’re really struggling to come up with a good idea, there is even a software that can help you look for profitable products for your online store. Just last February, Intelligynce was developed to help online sellers find products that are currently in demand.

“My business idea is not popular.”

Although you might think that to start a business you have to aim big and try to target as many customers as possible, it’s simply not true. 

We mentioned niches in an earlier section. This is where you target a certain type of customer. The more specific your product or service is, the better. Chances are, you will find a group of people that will love your niche product because it solves their unique pain points—and they won’t be able to find it anywhere else.

Think of YouTube. Several years ago, when the internet was not as big as it is now, Youtube founders just wanted a simple solution to share videos. Believe it or not, that was a specific niche back in 2005. And by just focusing on that one pain point, they became bigger and bigger until eventually, they weeded out any competition.

The secret to the success of niche businesses is the community. If a niche creates a community, it becomes a super strong force, stronger than just a group of customers.

“I’m too late to the party.”

There is a Ted Talk by psychologist and New York Times best-selling author Adam Grant in which he states that he had a failed opportunity to invest in a startup that became really successful and influential, Warby Parker.

We’re talking about a startup that was valued at $1.2 billion last year and is always the comparison or benchmark when it comes to e-commerce startups.

One of the reasons Adam didn’t back them was because the idea had already been done. But even though Warby Parker may not have been the very first of its type, they outshone their competition by being much better.

Think of why you buy one product over another one. It’s not because one company was “first.” It’s because one of the products was better. You are never too late ‘cause the party keeps going.

“I already have a job.”

Every decision has its pros and cons, including the decision of whether to leave your full-time job to start your own online business.

You might say that having a job is more financially secure than having a business. However,  having your own business can potentially lead to more financial success than would ever be possible as an employee. The more sources of income you have, the more failsafes you have if an emergency happens. 

There’s nothing wrong with having a 9 to 5. But the fact that you’re thinking about starting a business is a good sign that you want more. Whether it’s experience, control, financial success or an outlet for your passion, you want more. 

Plus, consider that running an e-commerce business isn’t always full time. You might not have to choose between your job and your business. You can have your online store on the side and still keep your job. 

Finally, remember outsourcing. You don’t have to do it all on your own. Other people can do some of the tasks for you. 

“It’s kind of risky.”

It seems overwhelming and really uncertain to start a business online because the digital world can feel volatile. 

Yet, all businesses are started on a gamble. You can’t change the external factors that could affect the success of your store, but you can prepare for these possibilities and make your likelihood to succeed higher. 

Risks are always there and struggles will come, but smart businesses will last through proper preparation and relying on the right mindset.

“I’m not sure if it will work.” Or, “I’m not sure if it will pay off.”

This is the story of MVMT watches: They started with two broke college dropouts, Jake Kassan and Kramer LaPlante. These guys  founded a watch company even though they would be competing against thousands of already established watch brands.

The odds of them succeeding were so low even adventurous investors didn’t support them. But they persisted.

Now it’s the fastest growing watch brand in the world, and last year, it was bought by Movado for $100 million. If that isn’t e-commerce success, I don’t know what is. Some might even say that profits for e-commerce are inevitable.

Still not satisfied? Look at these other stories to get inspired.

1. 10 Best Free Shopify Themes of 2019
2. Top 40 Best Shopify Stores To Learn From In 2019

“I don’t have time.”

Running an e-commerce store, like anything else, is all about proper time management. If you look at what you really need to focus on and what you actually spend your time doing, you might be surprised at how much time you could redirect to your priorities.

Originaly Published At electriceye.io