There has been a strong shift to online shopping in the last few years, and it looks like the trend is sticking around. A recent study found 67 percent of Millennials and 56 percent of Gen Xers prefer to shop online rather than in stores.
With so many buyers looking at websites to spend their money on, you want to make sure your company has an efficient and effective online business.
Take a look at these five tips to help you have a successful internet store.
5 Tips for a Successful Online Business
Put the Focus of the Customer
It’s not surprising that the biggest downside of an ecommerce businesses is the inability to let their customers touch, feel, smell, and see (firsthand) products before making a decision. While there’s no current solution for solving this problem, you can compensate for this shortcoming in other areas. Some of the supplements include offering appropriate pricing, providing free shipping, allowing easy returns and making the checkout process easy with simplified shopping carts.
Test Everything on Your Site Before the Launch
Before, during and after you begin any online business, you should invest in testing and analytics. Use your website like customer would to figure out what’s working, what’s not, and the reasons behind those answers. You want to find the broken links and problems in your site before they do; technical errors could deter customers from purchasing and coming back again.
Create a Mobile Friendly Site
Bill Siwicki of Internet Retailer references Goldman Sachs, saying, “Tablets will play an increasingly important role as worldwide consumer spending via mobile jumps from $204 billion in 2014 to $626 billion in 2018…” If you aren’t building your ecommerce business with mobile users in mind, you may be irrelevant in just a few years.
Be Social
Social media is the heartbeat of your online business, as it gives you an uninterrupted glance into the lives of your customers. While it’s perfectly fine to have a social media manager, it’s pertinent that you’re involved with it, too.
Create a Safe Site
Ransomware and data theft is a real problem with internet retailers and customers are worried about it. Many shoppers will only shop online if the site has the green, secure button in the URL. Check out our previous blog post, “5 Tips for a Safe and Secure Website,” for even more tips and insights into this topic.
Customers are increasingly shifting to internet shopping, which is why it’s important for entrepreneurs to set up an online business. If you want to create an ecommerce store or just update the one you have, contact us today to see how we can help you and your business.
About KooSwift
KooSwift is an all-in-one service operator for the web. KooSwift not only provides great domain names, they can create top-level websites that are customizable for your brand. Whether you are a small business or a student looking to create an online portfolio, KooSwift has something for you.