5 Simple Steps To Take Your Shop Online…
Christmas has been and gone, Cyber Weekend seems a distant memory, January sales have had their moment – It is now time to prepare for the year ahead! A recent report by The times suggests that 9 out of 10 small businesses expect to be selling online by the end of 2018. So is 2018 the year YOU start to sell online? Here are some simple steps to take your existing shop into the world wide web…
—Product Selection.
This is mainly aimed at those who already sell products but not online. You need to decide whether the online market for your goods is a local, national or global one. Maybe some products will work better online than others. Perhaps there are complimentary products that you don’t currently sell in the store but could make available to order online?
If you don’t have any products at all, the first step would be to decide what you are going to take to market online. The general advice, for someone who doesn’t already have any stock, do your research, find a need and fulfil it.
You should do a bit of market research to help guide you either way. Online forums, social media and customer surveys are a good place to get ideas and feedback. It may be a good idea to start with a small selection and grow it from there, rather than the daunting task of sticking everything online from day one!
—Stock Management.
Whether you are selling online or in store, it is important to have a good handle on your stock situation. When you start selling online, you will potentially have two inventories and unless you also have two heads, you will need to consolidate to avoid insanity!
No doubt you will have offline records already. We have seen everything from sophisticated systems to a basic pen and paper. Your new website can also keep track of sales and adjust stock levels automatically if you would like it to. It is best to pick one system and then update it with the daily sales from the other channel.
You could choose to integrate your shop till and website so that they talk to each other! They would then update each other automatically with regards to sales and stock levels.
—Delivery.
You will need to carefully consider your delivery strategy. Doing a quick survey to find out whether speed, flexibility or cost matters most to your customers will help you pick the right courier to partner with.
The most common reason for a customer abandoning their full basket at the checkout without placing an order is the delivery cost. Are you able to offer free delivery over a certain threshold? It is not always necessary but can be a great way to increase average order values. It is important to make your delivery policy clear and prominent from the outset.
Customers increasingly want to know an item is in stock before leaving home. They also want to know they’re getting a good price. This is explains the explosion in Click & Collect services. Over half of retailers now are already offering Click & Collect with many people planning to add it to their online retail this year.
—Payment.
Choosing the right payment gateway for your online shop is a pretty important decision although actually quite a simple one! It is a common misconception that you have to use the same payment provider that you already have in your store, you don’t!
Typically, as long as the payment provider allows payments in your currency and countries you sell to, it ultimately comes down to fees. Some will have monthly charges, some won’t, but be sure to check the fees you are paying. Many people start with Paypal or Stripe, they are simple to set up and with no monthly fees, you only pay when someone buys.
One of the main decisions will be whether you want an integrated or a hosted solution. This determines if you would like the checkout part of the process to happen within your website or whether the end user is redirected to the payment provider usually via a pop up window. We prefer it all to be fully integrated to provide a cleaner user experience.
—Merchandising.
Wo, you have decided what to sell, how you are going to manage your stock, how you are going to ship your products and how you are going to take payments…almost there. Now you just need to merchandise your online store.
Merchandising means displaying products in such a way that is stimulates interest and entices customers to make a purchase. Quality product descriptions help get the sale over the line and are very good for search engines. You need to have words that not only describe the products but go beyond that. What problem does the item solve? How does it make you feel?
Photography is one of the most important aspects related to the success of your site. Good photography improves the perceived quality of your product, it can communicate lifestyle values and increase how credible and trustworthy your site appears.
—Ecommercify.
5 simple steps to help you take your existing shop online. Once the preparation is in the bag, we can get you up and running with your ecommerce shop in no time.
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