If you are thinking of opening an online store or want to open a new one, then there are several key things you will need to do. While the list of things that you can do to sell merchandise on an online site is almost endless, concentrating on thesefour things gives you an excellent starting point. From there, you can build on that firm foundation. Here are four tips for managing an online storefront better.
Attract Customers
There are many ways that you can attract customers to your storefront. Find the right keywords and make sure that you use them in ways that make sense without meaninglessly sticking them into content. Spend some time on social media promoting your customers to your storefront by creating posts that will connect with your target audience. Write news articles about your industry and get them posted on other sites in hopes that Google will feature them.
Create a Responsive Website
Your website needs to be mobile-friendly, so make sure that each of your pages adjusts to the viewer’s device. Visitors will not wait for a slow website to load so allow images and other data-intensive objects to load after the main site has displayed. If a large amount of users leave your page within only a couple seconds Google tracks this as “bounce back rate” and having a high bounce back rate will negatively impact your search engine ranking. Concentrate on creating a navigation menu allowing viewers to get where they are going quickly. Use long-tail keywords on the web pages as they are easier to rank than smaller ones. Keep in mind that customers are also impatient when it comes to your messaging response time. In fact, one in five customers expects to receive a response from a business within five minutes of messaging them online. So take steps to ensure that you have both a responsive website and a responsive messaging system.
Encourage Reviews
Claim or create pages for your business to allow customers to leave reviews. Chad Brooks recommends, “for starters, make sure to claim your Google My Business account as it will show prominently on Google’s Search Engine Result Page when someone enters your company’s name.” Create a page on your own website so that people can leave reviews.
Consider using a plugin that will allow customers to create reviews directly on each product’s page. Toby Scammell explains, by doing so, you can then take advantage of customer reviews quickly to help build your online presence. While 88 percent of customers trust online reviews as much as they do a personal recommendation, everyone understands that people will sometimes leave unjustified reviews. Answer all reviews professionally.
Make It Easy for Customers to Pay
Ensure that you have a secure site where customer’s credit card information is encrypted as these sites are preferred by Google and customers. This gives websites a small ranking benefit, because they want to encourage all website owners to switch from HTTP to HTTPS to keep everyone safe on the web. Give customers as many ways to pay out as possible. Make sure that your payment system functions as you desire, and that your company’s policies on returns are prominently displayed. There has been a rise in alternative payment methods like online only money and finance platforms that are becoming extremely popular. Other payment types like sms payments, Venmo, PayPal, and Apple Wallet make paying for things much easier.
When you master these four tips, then you are well on the way to creating a profitable e-commerce site. As long as you have great products at a reasonable cost and are beating your competition on the level of customer service that you are providing, you will be successful. Use analytics to show you if you are conquering these four steps.