Online business is a great way to get your dream off the ground without investing in a brick-and-mortar location and all the hassles that come along with it. Businesses with real-world locations are increasingly moving into e-commerce, and many businesses are entirely online these days.
Getting into e-commerce, however, can be deceptively easy. It can be tempting to think that once you’re online, everything will mostly run itself. The truth is, e-commerce businesses go under all the time. Here are three tips to make sure your business gets off the ground and stays there.
Give lots of information in the right way
When people go shopping online, it’s often because they want to avoid a trip to a physical store. They will find it very frustrating to end up at your site only to find almost no information about the products you sell.
A picture by itself is not enough. You need to provide an appealing description of products that are sensibly categorized. Include prices, warranties (if applicable), and basic shipping information that customers might want to have. Premier Glow offers an excellent example of plenty of well-categorized products and thorough information about each item.
Remember that when you’re selling online, everything is about the visual. If the information on your site is organized poorly, the site loads improperly. If things are hard to find or look amateurish, shoppers will go elsewhere.
Be mobile-friendly
People are switching to mobile devices in a big way. In 2016, Google announced that it would give preference to sites that were optimized for mobile devices. They did this because more people were using mobile for Google searches than were using computers.
Making a site optimized for mobile is trickier for e-commerce than for other types of sites. People surfing on a mobile device will be looking for a smooth, easy experience. They need to be able to see your site clearly on a small screen and navigate it without too many accidental finger clicks.
The best way to ensure your site is ready for mobile devices is to hire professionals in mobile SEO. The goal should be to get your site popping up to the top whenever potential buyers search the right keyword.
Not only will a mobile-friendly site put you at the top of searches, but it will also mean more buys. You want to make your site as easy for customers to buy off of as possible, especially if you sell products that people might be interested in buying quite suddenly.
Be proactive
One of the biggest mistakes an e-commerce site can make is to assume everything will just flow along naturally once the site is up and running. When you browse the web yourself, you probably run across lots of sites by accident — but don’t rely on customers finding yours the same way.
You need to drive customers to your site. You do this with promotions, special offers, contacts with partner sites, and pop-ups that let you make contact and communicate with your visitors. And this means you, also, have to be available.
Some things about business will never change, and one of those is the importance of customer service. Visitors to your site should be able to count on getting a reply to questions and emails within a day. If possible, you should also have a toll-free number they can call.
The e-commerce world is busy and hotly competitive. It can be easy to get lost in the vastness of the internet. But you don’t have to be lost. You can make your site stand out with good design and information, a site optimized for mobile, and a proactive approach.
