Making the most of your ecommerce website

Ecommerce is an ongoing effort

As convenient as selling online can be, there's always admin work to be done with regards to order fulfillment, tracking and management of product listings. Here are three things, on the business side, that your new ecommerce website needs to have:

• Marketing & Engagement; Putting up a shop and leaving it to make sales just isn't good enough.​​​​​​ Even the best developed, best designed online store will struggle to attract customers without it being put in front of them!
• Dedication & Effort; For all their conveniences, ecommerce websites still need to be managed by the business to ensure product information is correct, stock levels are up to date and so forth. Furthermore, the sales process shouldn't end at the store checkout!
• Time; There's a knack for every industry, niche & business that has an online store. Finding it can take time and, depending on how established your customer base is, instant results are never guaranteed.

Let's break those down a bit further and discuss in more detail what is required to make an online store website into a well-oiled selling machine and how to keep it that way!

Marketing & Engagement

There are multiple ways of marketing a website, including search engine ads, social media promotion, on-site SEO (Search Engine Optimisation), printed media campaigns - it's often a combination of different methods that yields the most results.

When it comes to customers finding you via search engines, you're options are paid advertisments and organic SEO. Assuming your website has been built correctly, the foundations for SEO should be present already but - and this needs to be stressed - getting your website higher in Google is an ongoing task. 

Modern ranking algorithms are much more complex than "how many times does this website have the words 'blue suede shoes'?" Paid adverts will give you a more prominent position, but can be costly if not managed correctly and, depending on industry, require significant financial outlay to return conversions. Summary? You can't (reliably) fluke search engine rankings half-heartedly.

Dedication & Effort

The amount of admin involved in managing an online store varies wildly depending on the products being sold; digital downloads don't require shipping or stock control for example, whereas physical products do. These things should be fairly obvious before setting up a shop but they can come as a surprise to some businesses when it comes to infrastructure and scaling. 

The worst thing a business can do is have an ecommerce website for the sake of having one, and not doing much with it. If you don't dedicate resources to 'the cause' then its unlikely to produce any results. 

Even if you don't have to worry about shipping, stock control and custom product configurations, there is much more to running an online store than just customers checking out; are you checking in with customers to ensure repeat business? Do you offer support services and have a returns process? Is the purchase process running as smoothly as it can and still secure?

Time

Nothing in business can be taken for certain (excluding perhaps taxes). A good launch of your online store doesn't guarantee consistent sales or repeat business. Similarly, a bad launch doesn't consign your store to failure. Rome wasn't built in a day!

Creating and optimising your onlines sales processes can be a trial and error-type job. Getting it all right first time is the goal; the reality is that you'll get some or most of it right and have areas still to work on. 

Especially if you are a new business that sells only online, you will need to gain the trust of your potential customers - something that takes time to achieve. 

Whether you are delving into online selling for the first time or are looking for a refresh of a defunct website, ecommerce requires commitment and determination. Luckily, Devetecho stocks commitment and determination by the barrel, not to mention the design skills that will make your shop stand out! Get in touch to discuss >