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10 Killer Tips to Create a Successful Online Store

by David Mickel Educational Management

If you want to start an online shop, you may be looking for advice and the perfect way to start it. There are many tips available out there but which ones to follow can be confusing.

You probably think that building an online store and adding products is the last thing to do, but it’s not. There are many things you need to do for succeeding in your business in the long term. That’s why, in this article, we will be sharing ten killer tips to create a successful online store.

1. Choose Your Platform Carefully

The first thing you need to fix how you will build your eCommerce website. There are two ways you can create your website: 

  • You can hire a developer to develop your website

  • You can create your site using an open-source platform such as WooCommerce, OpenCart, Magento, or even Shopify.

However, we recommend you to go with an open-source platform that is popular, has a vast user, well supported, and products look stunning in shops.

Another reason why you should choose an open-source platform because it doesn’t require you to have coding knowledge. However, you still need to have a little technical knowledge to customize your shop.

Building an online store with any of these platforms is extremely easy — all you need to buy a domain and web hosting. If you are not sure which host to choose, read this article on the best SiteGround alternative.


2. Engaging Web Design

It doesn't matter much if you offer cheap rates for your products, if your online store's website design is terrible, most probably your customers leave your site. 

To create an eye-catching website, you can either hire a web designer or make it yourself. You can also use a ready-made theme, template, and customize on your way.

The good news is, there are thousands of free themes available in the WordPress theme directory. You can choose any of these themes that has clean layout, mobile device optimized, and load faster on all devices.

3. Partner with Other Brands

It will be a significant step if you partner with other popular brands. You can establish your store’s reputation by highlighting other popular companies or their logos to show your customers that you are working with brands.

They don't need to be big companies like Apple, but also small brands can incorporate a level of trustworthiness to your business.


4. Make your site SEO friendly

Search engines like Google, Bing, Yahoo should be the primary source of website traffic. If your website is well-optimized for SEO, then your site will get traffic as well as convert visitors into customers.

To make your eCommerce store SEO friendly, you need to follow some tips. By combining SEO keywords right into your product title and also descriptions, your web site more likely to rank higher in search results.

Another thing you need to do is keyword research for your product. For example, the keyword “Apple iPhone” has a high search volume than the keyword “where is my Apple”

To find relevant keywords or keyword phrases in your niche, you need to use a keyword research tool. This tool will show you total search volume, keyword difficulty, similar keywords, CPC, and many more.

Once the keyword research is done, add relevant keywords to your products. You can see your website traffic is significantly increasing.

5. Offer Multiple Payment Options

If you don’t want to miss any of your sales, you have to offer multiple payment options.

Sometimes, customers add their products to the cart but can’t make the payment because your payment gateway is declining their cards. That’s why it’s crucial to offer multiple payment options.

If you currently offer card payment, you can add another popular payment gateway like PayPal.

You can also allow customers to create an account on your store and save their payment info to make future purchases more flawlessly.

6. Keep an eye on your competitors 

Customers browse online sites trying to find the lowest costs and the most effective overall shopping expertise. You might not know what other store owners are doing, what things make them grow over time? To understand their marketing tactics, you need to keep an eye on your competitors.

Are the stores offering a 60-day or 30-day return policy? Do they offer free shipping or one-day delivery? Do they provide 24x7 customer support? After understanding what makes your competitors more successful, you can determine what you need to change to keep your customers returning to your store.

7. Integrate Google analytics and check traffic

It’s quite hard to grow a business without monitoring its progress. The easiest way to track your marketing task and also consumers' behavior is to use an Analytics tool. 

Google Analytics is the best analytics tool out there, and it’s totally free. This tool shows the total traffic of your website, traffic sources, devices they used to visit your store, total time spent on your site, bounce rate, and many more.

Regularly track your selling metrics along with website traffic gives you an idea of how to interact with customers more effectively and boost your sales. 

8. Offer Free Shipping

Offering free shipping to your customers is a great way to make them shopping repeatedly. 

While the initial expense of providing free shipping may cost you more, lots of merchants see a higher return with boosted sales after offering free shipping.

However, you don’t need to provide free shipping for a lifetime, but you can run this campaign for a limited time. Once, you gather lots of customers organically and people coming back to your store, you may then offer free shipping if they purchase products total amount of $50 or more.

To make sure customers notice the plan, add the message on your online store that you offer Free Shipping. You can also add a pop-up box or a notification bar on your website.

9. Easy Return and Money Back Guarantee

Buying products from an online store is risky if the store is brand new. Before they make a purchase, they think if the product is damaged, then how fast the product will be replaced or money will be returned.

Sellers can build buyers’ trust and also incentivize purchases by providing an easy return as well as money-back guarantee policies.

Allowing customers to return a product if they change their thoughts or if it doesn't match the product description shows other consumers that you trust your customers and also intend to give all of them worth.

As a result, you'll get even more customers, and they would love to buy products from your shop again.

10. Offer excellent customer support

Your customers need to know whether they will get help after they purchase any products from your store.

It’s essential to provide support to your customers. And, if you can impress them with your support quality after their first purchase, they would love to buy from your store again.

One of the best ways to provide support is through a live-chat function. This function can boost your conversion.

Besides, it would be a great idea if you provide help through ticket, email, and phone calls. You can add an FAQ section, where you can write the most common questions customers ask.

Starting an online store is risky. If you don’t have a clear plan or strategy, you may not grow your business as there is a huge competition out there. Take your time to learn and make the necessary changes to your shops can significantly boost your sales.




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About David Mickel Advanced   Educational Management

37 connections, 0 recommendations, 140 honor points.
Joined APSense since, April 25th, 2020, From Washington, DC, United States.

Created on Nov 22nd 2020 08:33. Viewed 634 times.

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