Many people think it’s easy to manage an online store, because of the advertisements on Facebook that promote “easy money on Shopify” or “how to make money online fast”, etc. In practice, managing an online store requires a lot of time and a lot of constant hard work if you wish to succeed. In this article, we summarize what you need to know in order to succeed in selling products or services online.
Online Store Management Guide
Let’s begin by laying down some important facts:
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- Managing an online store is not easier than managing a physical store!
- Managing an online store is not necessarily cheaper than managing a physical store!
- Managing an online store does not guarantee quick success!
It’s important to know those facts, since we have many people come to us wanting to create an online e-commerce website or have a website built for them and they’re certain that within a few days the sales will come to them on their own. So, that’s the thing – they won’t. Just like a physical store must advertise its existence, and just like a physical store must be visible on the main streets, so do online stores must be visible in the right places and at the right times for the right buyers. And as we’ve mentioned, it’s not such a simple task.
So, How Do You Still Manage an Online Store Successfully?
That’s what we’re here for. With quite a few years of experience in managing online stores for others, we can give you the highlights that will significantly increase the chances of your store’s success. Here is a list of tips for day-to-day management that you should spend your time on:
- Plan the store properly!
- Present products in the right hierarchy!
- Present each product properly!
- Manage promotions/benefits for holidays and members!
- Stay in touch with the users!
Now we will briefly explain how each tip in this list can help you out:
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 what you offer). Therefore, you must focus and identify the channel through which you want to succeed. There’s no point in selling “clothes” in general, on the other hand, it is definitely worth selling “plus size women’s clothes”.
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That is, choose your niche well and focus on it because a significant share of a relative part of the market is better than a small share of the entire market. Why’s that? Since you most likely won’t be able to sell much if you try to compete with fashion chains and established websites with big marketing budgets.
Tip: Present Products in the Right Hierarchy!
You have chosen your niche. That’s great. Now, you have to tell the search engines and your users where everything on the website is. If your store is messy, buyers will run away, and search engines will give your spot to your competitors. On the other hand, if you invest the time and effort in arranging the website correctly, the users will easily find their way to the products and add more and more items to their cart, and the search engines will see that the website is better than others and bump you up in the search results and that magical circle will grow until your business will be established online.
Tip: Present Each Product Properly!
There’s no point in uploading large quantities of products to your website. Many products create a mess and wouldn’t properly target your niche. As a rule of thumb, it’s better to upload a limited but accurate number of products than a big amount of different or parallel products. Moreover, many people upload products in just a few minutes of work on each of them, without considering that no one will reach these products. The right thing to do is to take an hour or even two hours for each product so that the product will be presented in accordance with the users’ searches and their requirements.
A product page must contain:
- A simultaneously accurate and enticing title!
- A simultaneously accurate and convincing description!
- High-quality and stimulating images!
- Association to categories and tags!
- Unique but keyword-based content!
- And more…
These values cannot be found without appropriate research and without thinking about the users’ needs. Therefore, launching a product on the fly will not guarantee success. On the other hand, investing in plan and precision for each product guarantees that, over time, the exposure of the product will increase, and the sales of the product will skyrocket.
Tip: Manage Promotions/Benefits for Holidays and Members!
One way to successfully launch an online store is through collaborations with external and established parties. For example, it’s possible to collaborate with coupon websites, worker unions websites, strong Facebook groups, and more. With the help of prearranged focus groups, it’s possible to know which collaborations will work better and invest significant funds/discounts for them.
In these collaborations, you should never underestimate the users. It’s important to carry out these collaborations only for unique occasions such as holidays or other events that “justify” a significant discount without users expecting these prices year-round.
Tip: Stay in Touch with the Users!
Stay in touch!!! Those who have visited your website once will surely want to visit it again. Those who have purchased once would surely like 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 ongoing ways.
Examples of staying in touch:
- Managing a remarketing campaign for your users.
- Managing a newsletter campaign for subscribers to receive updates.
- Managing a newsletter 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 are no longer doubting the provider and are therefore more 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 grow your business in the long run!
In conclusion,
If you have got this far in this article, 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 more. If you have time to manage the store independently, this will be the preferred option. If you don’t have the 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 obligations, and we will be happy to help.
