When it comes to building your business these days it is necessary to have a presence on the internet. This may seem obvious but are you familiar with eCommerce? If you are a retail company you SHOULD be. Unfortunately, we have seen many large companies close as a result of large and successful eCommerce companies… Cough… Amazon. Do not let that be you, it is possible to be successful online even with these large brand names. Follow these tips and steps to get your business eComm on the right track!
Before you begin you must have:
- A marketing and business plan
- A budget
- A team and support
What’s next? You are going to need to select and purchase your domain. This is what is typed into the search bar to access your website and will be included in the URL, it will look something like this “example.com”. Next, you will want to choose a hosting service, this is what will make your website available to the worldwide web. Make sure you have your financials organized as well as shipping partners to get your products delivered to the customers in a timely manner.
You will also need a CMS. CMS stands for Content Management System. This will be where you manage all of the content for your website; editing, archiving, collaborating, reporting, and more. You may be familiar with a few of these platforms, but make sure you do your research and choose the one that is best for you.
- Shopify
- Wix
- BigCommerce
- SquareSpace
We suggest you consider cost when deciding the best platform for your business. Additionally, it is important that you know the functionality and integrations available. There are going to be certain things that you will want and need that not all platforms have. Also, how user-friendly is it? If you know that you are not an expert quite yet, then try to find one that you will be able to navigate easily and produce your best work. Last but not least, look at the SEO and site security capabilities.
Generally, these are all important steps when creating the site, however, the management of your website is just as important. Keep these best practices in mind throughout the life cycle of your website.
- Optimize your hero area. This is the most prominent area on your homepage that users will be drawn to when they first open your site.
- Do not have outdated content here, or anywhere!
- Have as few words as possible
- Do not clutter the area
- Have visual cues that focus on your call to action
- Simplify your menu
- You want your website to be as user friendly as possible and easy to navigate
- Eliminate steps in the checkout process
- Don’t force your customers to make a profile but encourage it. This is a great way to retain your customers.
- Buy a premium web hosting service
Lastly, we suggest that you utilize paid advertising! This is a great way to improve your potential and advance the success of your eCommerce. Additionally, this is a great way to discover your target audience. Here are our favorite forms of paid advertising:
- Google Ads
- Facebook Ads
- Instagram Ads
These platforms offer a variety of advertising options. For example, you can create google shopping ads. This is a great call to action for your product because it shows a picture of the product, the price, and your store name. Google also has remarketing ads, and search ads.
Facebook and Instagram are great places for brand awareness advertising, targeting a very specific audience, lead generations, and dynamic product ads.
We hope you have found these tips and steps helpful and can optimize them to create and manage the best eCommerce website possible! Contact Robb Digital to find out more about our expertise and services. We would love to help build and improve your eCommerce!