Switching to online store? Few tips to beat the competition!
Selling goods and services online has some obvious benefits.
Your customers have an ease of buying without leaving the comfort of the home.
Your store is open 24/7.
Your customers have access to purchase products from anywhere as long as they have access to the internet.
Your customers can get their favorite items delivered at their doorsteps.
Your operating cost will be far less than a retail storefront.
Bricks-and-mortars' key benefit is in certain product categories wherein customers want to go to see and feel products. A study completed by the California Institute of Technology found that consumers pay significantly more for products they can view in person. For high-value items such as designer clothing, antiques, jewelry, furniture and cars, a retail storefront will appeal more to customers and generate a higher profit margin on individual items.
The Visibility: Retail Storefront vs Online Store
An online store can be accessed by millions and millions around world, whereas a Retail storefront is accessible to a small local population and tourists. However, in the early days of the business, it is much difficult to a get high visibility on an online-store compared to a retail storefront. Let’s take a hypothetical situation…
Let’s say you opened a chocolate shop in a mall. Your shop will be visible to the mall shoppers while they are window shopping, and most likely some will step-in your store to try new chocolates. What you need is an attractive display. If the customers like your treats, they will come again and recommend it to others.
Now Imagine, if you opened an online chocolate store. Chances of an online shopper stumbling on your website while searching for "chocolate" on google (and other search engines) are very very very slim. That’s because there are only 10 to 12 organic search results on the first page and your competition is fierce.
Competition online
There are thousands and thousands of ecommerce stores on the Internet. How exactly are you supposed to beat your Competition? In my view you need three things.
Great product/service and competitive offer
Attractive and user-friendly web design. (Just like you need attractive display in Brick Mortar store)
Great SEO and Online Marketing. (Visibility)
Techverx | Mascottech LLC has helped several businesses setup their online store and dominate their local competition within few months. Here are some of the tips for you to enhance your online presence.
Few Tips for a user-friendly Web-design
Make sure navigation is intuitive and user friendly.
Use the intelligent search features.
Keep search bar easily accessible on each page.
Use high quality images and professional photographer.
Provide a quick product preview.
Use plugin for a 3D image display if it suits your product.
Shopping cart should be visible on top of the page all the time.
Make sure to incorporate social media plugins.
Add a newsletter signup form.
Use clean product page designs.
Use an engaging testimonials plugin.
Display product variations intuitively.
Eliminate checkout distractions.
Keep the 'add to cart' visible.
Make contacting you easy.
You have limited space available on every page, Use a functional design approach, anything on the page should fulfil a purpose. Your website should be a reflection of your brand image. The message should be clear and crisp.
Few Tips for creating high visibility
Here are some tips for generating high traffics and online sales.
On-Site Optimization
Make a strategy to target the right keywords.
Optimize Title, Meta Tags, Header tags.
Make sure your content optimized with the target keyword.
Cleanup and optimize the HTML code.
Make sure Internal Links Structured & optimized.
Ensure Redirects are properly implemented.
Ensure that your page load-time is optimized.
Implement Schema Markup.
Optimize Images & Hyperlinks.
Analyze and create Robots.txt.
Create sitemap Creation
Setup Google analytics for tracking.
Local Search Engine Optimization
Syndicate name phone and address across business directories.
Build Citation.
Register with Google My Business / Bing Local Listing.
Submit your website to free classified site.
Distribute coupon through various online resources.
Whitepapers, Blogs and Articles
Write relevant content.
Write structured blog post.
Use paragraphs.
Use Headings.
Use signal words.
Use several social media platforms to distribute your content.
Email Marketing
Make your emails about the customers, not about your product.
Personalize your emails. The best email marketing doesn't come across as email marketing.
Your subject-line should be prospect magnet. If the subject doesn’t sell, no-one will open the email.
Keep it snappy! People get bored easily, your message should be crisp and concise.
Include engaging graphics and pictures.
Include a call to action. Lots marketers are good at creating hype but they fail to close sales. Why? Because they do not include call to action.
Please, Don't spam!
Video Content
Release your videos in a series one after the other. Keep your customers wanting more.
Keep it simple! Your message should be clear, concise and should address the obvious needs or a pain points
Keep it short! It becomes difficult to keep the audience engaged beyond 2 minutes. Packaging it parts is a good strategy.
Ask for feedback and spark discussions on the videos to engage your audience.
Tell a story. Your product story, your company story, or even your own story... We all love a great story.
Respond to issues in your industry.
Summary - Setting up an online store and to attract your target audience is NO ROCKET SCIENCE. But it is an ongoing hard work to say the least. You should consider a partner to help build an unbeatable online presence. And If you decide to do so then Get in Touch with us!
