The Internet offers tons of opportunities for making money. When you’re thinking of starting a new business, an online store makes real sense. People love shopping without leaving their homes, so you’ll easily find customers interested in your offer. Even when they cannot try on the items and get direct experience of their performance, Internet users are ready to take the risk and wait for the delivery.
That doesn’t mean you can sell your products or services without any effort, though. If you want to maintain a really successful online store, you’ll have to be very patient and invest tons of effort. Visitors will be leaving your website for no apparent reason, so you’ll have to think of new ways to convert them into customers. The merchant you provide is important, but so is the overall selling approach you have.
So how can you avoid experiencing abandoned carts and high bounce rates? There are few mistakes you need to avoid if you want to engage your customers to the point of making the final purchase. Don’t worry; we won’t keep you in the dark any longer. These are the silly actions you need to stay away from:
1. Lack of a detailed business plan
The process of setting up an online store seems pretty straightforward: you think of a concept, get the items you need, you set up the website and promote it to the target audience. Well, it’s not as simple as it seems. You absolutely need a sturdy business plan that will carry your idea toward success.
Before you take the first step, you need to investigate the market and craft a nice, realistic business plan. Start by writing down the objectives, and then plan how you will achieve them. The business plan should list your capital and provide estimations of the expenses and prospected income. It should be based upon the expected behavior of your target audience and the offer of your competition, so you’ll need to conduct in-depth market research before writing it.
This outline will give structure to your idea. Although the process of crafting a business plan may turn out longer and more complex than expected, you cannot avoid that step if you expect to maintain a successful online store. If you get stuck, you can always hire an expert to help you write the business plan.
2. Entering a busy market without a special offer
What kind of products do you plan to provide? When you were checking out the competition, you probably spotted many other online stores that included similar items in their offer. The market is saturated and the competition is tough. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try setting up an online store; it only means that you should offer something fresh to your target buyers.
Here is how you can avoid this mistake: think of the products you are going to offer and conduct a few surveys to see what your audience expects. You can use SurveyMonkey or another online tool that lets you design a custom survey and choose a target audience. Ask about the trends they are interested in, the problems they have, the prices they are willing to pay, and everything else that’s going to help you set up a more attractive eCommerce site.
Spice up your offer with giveaways and contests, and throw in a nice present to everyone who makes a purchase during the first month once your website goes online. That’s the kind of special offer that Internet users cannot refuse.
3. Lack of a SEO strategy
The descriptions you write for your products are extremely important. Visitors need to know exactly what they are going to get with the order they place. You don’t need to make them too long, but these texts should be attractive and informative at the same time.
Don’t neglect the importance of search engine optimization. You want Google to direct a great deal of buyers to your website, and you can only do that by implementing the right words and phrases into the content. A blog section will be a valuable addition to the website because it enables you to stick to a masterful SEO strategy without bothering the visitors with large chunks of website content.
You can’t write any kind of content, though. The product descriptions and blog posts have to be well-written and regularly updated. If you can’t handle all that work or you don’t want to bother with writing, you can find great writers by following the recommendations of reviews on writing services.
4. Not focusing on the right audience
One of the most serious mistakes people make when starting online stores is avoiding defining their audience. You can’t expect random people to land at your site and pick the products they are interested in. You need to specify a target audience, so you can execute your business plan.
You can avoid this mistake by focusing on your ideal customer and his/her buyer persona. The surveys you’ve conducted give you the insights you need, so you’ll implement all important factors that identify your target audience: the online products they like, demographics, the devices they use to shop online, the budget they are willing to invest in the type of product you offer, and more.
When you have all this information, you’ll develop a focused offer and you’ll be able to craft a more successful marketing campaign.
5. Launching a lousy website
You have invested tons of resources into an effective SEO campaign and you have promoted your project as much as possible through blogging and social media platforms. What happens when you attract people to visit your site? Are they going to enjoy using it?
According to the data published by Kissmetrics blog, loading time is one of the main factors that triggers page abandonment. The average Internet user wastes a lot of time browsing through different websites, but he doesn’t have patience to wait for a page to load. In other words – you have to make your website fast and reliable. The product pages need to load as quickly as possible, so abandon all unnecessary elements, ads and banners that affect the speed. The products should be presented through appealing HD images and videos, so the customers will have realistic presentation of the items they are going to get.
Develop a reliable checkout system that doesn’t create any confusion for the buyer. If you’re not experienced in Web design, hiring a professional designer will be a smart investment.
The effectiveness of your website must be elevated with an effective customer support center. When someone has questions or problems using the site, he should get immediate assistance from your team. That’s the only way to build a trustworthy online store that deserves recommendations.
You’re Responsible for Your Own Success
By avoiding the five mistakes listed above, you’ll be closer to launching a successful eCommerce site. It will be a challenging journey that demands persistence and commitment. Once you get through the initial stages and you attract a decent base of returning customers, the rewarding experience will keep driving you forward.
Louise Coleman is a professional freelance writer with wide experience in covering educational, business, blogging, and travelling topics. Also, she adores writing analytical articles to help people to overview and understand better significant and interesting researches. Apart from writing, reading is her real passion from the very childhood. You can get more information about her via e-mail or by visiting her profiles at Facebook and Google+.The post Avoid These Serious Mistakes to Make Your Online Store Successful appeared first on SiteProNews.
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