Ecommerce and the online world of retail has taken the world by storm. With the continuous development of digital breakthroughs and the never ending expansion of online, ecommerce has boomed over the last decade. If you are looking to jump onto the ecommerce bandwagon, now is the time! Statistics show that almost 25% of the entire global population will be shopping online by the end of 2019. That is 1.92 billion people making online purchases worldwide.
Creating an ecommerce startup need not be complicated and expensive. In fact, many budding entrepreneurs create a start-up while they are still holding down full time jobs. Start-ups have many great benefits for brand new business owners:
- You can do it in your time and in your own pace;
- You determine your financial goals;
- You can learn as you go!
The online world also offers thousands of tools and software to help you along your journey. All you need is a product! Many start-ups start with simple websites and social accounts and slowly build from there as they start making money. So, if you are considering starting up your own ecommerce store, start from the very basics. We have put together some of the top ways that you can get your site started today.
Step One: Create Your Website
The first thing to get cracking on is to actually start your website. We know, this is quite obvious, but there are several options for you to choose from when it comes to creating the perfect website. You can choose to create a website from scratch, which will mean that you need to get developers involved and the right expertise in creating a site from bottom up.
Secondly, you can choose to buy over an already created site, which usually means you are acquiring the full company together with the product and stock. If you are going this route, you will be kicking your business off from an already existing business, but you will already have established traffic to your site and have a fanbase familiar with your product.
Lastly, you can use the software and products like WordPress to create your website from already created templates. Not only is this cheaper than both of the previous options, but it is quicker and less hassle. It is also the perfect solution if you are kicking off your business and still finding your feet.
Step Two: Establish Your Brand
Next, you need to create a brand that is strong enough to resonate with visitors. Choose a name that is not only memorable, but that links to your product or service and that is easily searchable. You need to keep in mind that someone might see an advert or a post about your business somewhere and will only search for it later on when they need the product. Keep the website name simple!
The next thing to look at is the branding of your site. Go through your pages like a customer would. Take the customer journey. Enter the page from social pages, from the paid ads and from organic search and look at your site objectively. What does the sales funnel look like? Are you easily taken from the landing page to the product pages to the checkout and payment pages? If you are taking too long to get through to the actual cart, you will not be converting visits to sales. Getting the customer journey right is key in making sure that are conversion rates stay up, but that you are developing loyal customers and fans who will come back over and over again.
Take a look at the images, colours and layout of your site. Is it simple yet effective? Cluttered sites distract the customer from what they want to buy. But make it to minimalistic and they may not find what they are looking for. You need to keep in mind that everything you implement needs to generate sales leads. You need to convert visitors to sales.
Make sure your calls to actions are prominent enough to catch the attention of the visitor. You need to encourage the visitor to click through to the “View Now” “Buy Now” or “Subscribe Today”. If they are not taking an action on the site, you are simply not making money. The key that most businesses take is to test all CTA’s. AB testing and split testing gives you genuine results of what works best. What colours attract attention, how big they need to be and what message gets the most clicks. Implement and test continuously!
Step Three: Make it Mobile
The next step you have to take to starting an ecommerce business is to take it on the road. Your site needs to be accessible from as many points as possible. Research has shown that nearly 40% of sales on a traditional brick and mortar shopping day came from mobile devices in 2019. Let’s face it, people want access to shop at their leisure, in their time and from the location that they choose.
In order to create a successful business, ensure that you make your site mobile from the get-go. Not only do you have to take steps to ensure that the site is completely mobile optimized, but you should consider creating an app from the start. Making WordPress mobile app is not as tricky as it sounds, and at the end of the day, you could be benefiting from the app financially within a few months.
Not only does it allow for convenient shopping for your customer, but it also streamlines the full shopping process and reduces cart abandonment significantly. Look at it this way. If your customer has downloaded the app, logs on to see a product and clicks on it, after their first purchase, their details should already be saved in the app and making a payment is a simple few clicks and taps. The customer doesn’t have time to think and doubt their purchase like they would on a traditional site.
Wrapping Up
In wrapping up, kickstarting an online business is not only easier and more affordable than you think, it can also be highly profitable quickly if you are just savvy. All it takes is some smart thinking, using the right tools and thinking out of the box to reach a wider audience. Make sure you would want to buy from your site. Go through all of the motions and test, test, test! You will see how small changes can make a huge difference to your conversion rates.
