Many people think it’s easy to manage a virtual store. This is because they see Facebook advertising for “easy money on Shopify”, or “how to make money online, and fast”, etc. In practice, managing a virtual store requires time, and more than that – a lot of around-the-clock hard work if you want to succeed. In this article, we summarize what you need to know in order to succeed in selling products or services online.
Virtual Store Management Guide
Let’s start with some important facts:
ask us anything! its free 🙂
- Managing a virtual store is not easier than managing a physical store!
- Managing a virtual store is not necessarily cheaper than managing a physical store!
- Managing a virtual store does not guarantee quick success!
It’s very important to understand these facts since there are many who come to us with a wish to create an online e-commerce website, or want a website made for them and they believe that within a few days the sales will start streaming in on their own. Well, not exactly. Just like a physical store must advertise its existence, and just as a physical store must appear well on the main streets, so do online stores must appear in the right places and at the right times for the most relevant buyers. And as we’ve mentioned it, it’s not that easy.
So, How Can You Still Manage a Successful Virtual Store?
That’s what we’re here to help you with. With quite a few years of experience in managing online stores for others, we can give you the highlights that can significantly increase the chances of your store’s success. Here is a list of what you should really invest in for day-to-day management:
- Plan the store properly!
- Present the products in the correct hierarchy!
- Invest properly in each and every product!
- Manage promotions/benefits for holidays and partners!
- Keep in touch with your users!
Now we will briefly explain how to put into practice each tip in the list above:
Tip: Plan the Store Properly!
In the online world, competition is fierce. You compete with countless stores nationwide and even worldwide for the same audiences (users looking for items both of you offer). That’s why you must identify and focus on the main path on which you want to succeed in. There’s no point in selling general “clothing”, but maybe it’ll be great idea to sell “plus size women’s clothing”.
We mean it, ask us anything!
That is, choose your niche well and focus on selling just those items. That’s because a significant share of a relatively small part of the market is better than a small share of the bigger market. Why? Since you most likely won’t be able to sell too much if you try to compete with fashion giants and established websites with particularly large marketing budgets.
Tip: Present Products in the Correct Hierarchy!
You have chosen a niche. That’s great, now you have to tell search engines and the users where each and every thing is on the website. If your store is messy, buyers will run away and search engines will give your place in the results to your competitors. On the other hand, if you put in the time and arrange the website correctly, the users will easily find their way and add more and more items to the basket, and the search engines will “understand” the website better and bump you up the search results, and the magic circle will grow until your business is established online.
Tip: Invest in Each and Every Product Properly!
There is no point in uploading large quantities of products to the website. A large amount of products means a mess and you’re probably not properly targeting your niche. As a rule, it is better to upload a limited but accurate number of products than a large amount of different or parallel products. Moreover, many people upload a lot of products within a few minutes without considering that maybe no one will reach any of these products that way. The right thing to do is to sit down for an hour or two for each product so it would be shown according to the searches of the users and their demands.
A Product Must Contain:
- A simultaneously accurate and enticing title!
- A simultaneously accurate and convincing description!
- Simultaneously high-quality and stimulating images!
- Simultaneously associated with categories and tags!
- Unique but keyword-based content!
- And more…
These values cannot be achieved without appropriate research and without thinking about the users’ wishes. Therefore, launching a product on the fly will not guarantee success. On the other hand, investing in thought and great precision in each and every product guarantees that over time the exposure to the product will increase and the sales of the product will skyrocket.
Tip: Manage Promotions/benefits for Holidays and Collaborations!
Some of the best ways to successfully launch a virtual store are through collaborations with external and established parties. For example, it is possible to collaborate with coupon websites, employee union websites, active Facebook communities, and many more. With the help of prearranged focus groups, it’s possible to know which collaborations will work better and invest significant funds/discounts in them.
In these collaborations, you cannot, whatsoever, seem cheap to the buyers. That’s why it’s important to carry out these collaborations only on unique occasions such as holidays or other happy events that “justify” a significant discount without making the users expect these prices for the rest of the year.
Tip: Keep in Touch with Your Users!
keep in touch!!! Those who have visited your website once will surely want to visit it again. Those who bought from you once will surely want to buy from you again! Therefore, it is your duty to keep in touch with your users and buyers in a variety of creative but normal ways.
Examples of keeping in touch:
- Managing a remarketing campaign for your users.
- Managing a mailing campaign for subscribers to receive updates.
- Managing a mailing campaign for your buyers.
- And more…
Hundreds of separate studies and surveys show that the best customer is a repeat customer. They know what the quality of the service is, they know what the quality of the products is, they’re no longer afraid and are therefore open to repeat purchases if you only encourage them to do so. It is your responsibility to create a continuous relationship with the customers because this is what will build your business in the long run!
In conclusion,
If you have read this far, you understand that managing a virtual store is not as easy as you might think. Managing a virtual store requires time, energy, hard work, and much more. If you have time to manage the store independently, this will be the preferred option. If you don’t have time to manage the store, we are professional webmasters and are happy to take on new customers. Contact us for a consultation at no cost and without any obligation, and we will be happy to help you out.
