How to make a successful e-commerce store?

Today, the competition is huge! Literally, more than thousands of online businesses are started every day, and hence the competition seems to be getting tougher day by day. So, you need to have an outstanding online store design and a strong marketing strategy that helps you to stand out from the crowd.

The main challenge here is not just having your online shop up and running, instead it is very important to attract visitors and convert them to paying customers.

The following tips guide you to make your online shop really standout:

• Make your website simple: The most common mistake that is done when designing an e-commerce website is adding too much of content like flash animation, large graphics, videos and audios. These features may seem appealing to visitors, but will seriously affect the performance and the speed of your website. Instead, ensure that your web design is well-organized and your online store is easily navigable.
• Analyze your website: To run a successful e-commerce business, you need to analyze your website thoroughly. Your web design might be having a great look, but if there are no customers, then there is no use in having such a website for your business. Hence, you need to analyze the reason for this and find out the best solutions. Some free powerful tools, such as Google Analytics and Google Webmaster, provide you important information on your customer’s preferences and how they use your website.
• Track your competitors: Always check what your competitors doing and what customers like to do shopping around the best deals. And if your competitors provide a cheaper shipping rate than what you provide or if they have a monthly sale, then it clearly shows that the customers are shopping at your competitor’s website instead! So, always stay competitive and pertinent without losing your brand image, and also set up monthly sales, free delivery offers and competitions frequently.
• Have strong social presence: By having a strong social presence, you can increase your brand loyalty and sales right away. One of the easiest ways to make your customers engage in your business is opening a blog with frequent updates of your brand. Also, having social reviews of your products or services will definitely increase loyalty and conversion of your online shop. The social platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and many more, are all free to sign up and they are all the most powerful online marketing tools for your online business.
• Provide good customer service: Always keep in mind that every visitor of your website is a potential customer. Suppose if you get customers’ query, then it is important that you have to get back to them as soon as possible. If you do not deal with your customers’ queries promptly and effectively, then there is a great chance to slip your potential customers, as there is a heavy competition in the online business. Also, make sure that you always have someone to deal with the customer service for you, in case if you are away or not available to deal with it.
• Encourage returning customers: It is apparent that returning customers will greatly benefit your online business. If you provide your customers with good products and services, then there is a high chance of coming back. So, set up exclusive offers or deals for returning customers or monthly sales on your social platforms. Also, ensure that you never over-sell your products or services, which will drive your customers away.
• Have a clear marketing strategy: Every good online business must have a clear marketing strategy. So, make sure that you have a perfect marketing strategy for your e-commerce business. Ensure that what customers you are targeting and what region is your market. If you are really serious about your online business, then have your website ranked well in all search engines with a good SEO campaign.

Creating your online store using Shopify

Here is your choice to attract customers like never before. With Shopify, an online store builder, you can build an attractive online store based on all your specific requirements. You can organize your products, customize your storefront, track and response orders, accept credit card payments, and do many more with no hassles at all. Shopify is absolutely an easiest way to sell online!

Shopify has become the platform of choice for businesses ranging from small to mid-size organizations those who are looking for an effective e-commerce solution. With its proficient and easy-to-use templates, you can build an online store in a matter of minutes, and also have your website up and running in no time. 

How to create your online store with Shopify?

• Sign Up: When you are planning to sell your products online, then don’t try out something big right away. Shopify consists of three main plans, and especially a starter or a beginner plan for less cost. The cheaper the plan, the fewer the features it provides. Initially, you can choose the basic plan, and later on, you can easily upgrade your plan based on your requirements. Moreover, Shopify provides a large number of options to meet all your needs no matter what your budget is.
  
• Customize Your Online Store: As you are setting up your own online store, you have the facility to customize any of a Shopify theme of your own choice, by using a wide range of customization settings. Also, by using Shopify’s new Theme Settings Editor, you can preview your website in real-time to view the changes that you make. Also, Shopify’s Liquid templating language makes everything simple for you to change any aspect of your website.
  
• Add Products: Shopify allows you to add your product by simply clicking on the button “Add a product”. If you add a product, then you will be asked to provide the information about your product such as product description, product title, product type, product’s Barcode or SKU, etc. After filling the basic details about your product, there will also be some options like “tags” and search engine options. No issues if you don’t have much knowledge in SEO, because Shopify automatically fills the SEO related information.
  
• Other Settings: Shopify gives you with their own sub-domain, however, if you purchased your own domain, then you can set it up now. Next, you need to set up your shipping rates and tax rates. As Shopify was already configured with the tax rules of almost all countries, the shipping rate will be automatically configured for you by default. So, you will not be required to make any changes here.
  
• Setup a Payment Gateway: In earlier days, accepting credit card payment was very difficult for any e-commerce website, as the process required the customers to fill so many forms and bank related information. This drawback is completely eliminated in Shopify, as it provides a large variety of payment options to choose from. If you want, you can choose to use a different credit card processor or simply accept “cash on delivery” option.  Other option that you can provide your customers is allowing them to create their accounts on your store or just do guest checkout.

If you already have a website for your business, then you can integrate the Shopify storefront into your current website to provide a seamless experience for your existing customers. You can also customize a standard theme to capture the look and feel of any of your particular product.

So, start selling your products online with Shopify. Just choose a website design, add products, customize your store, add a secure shopping cart, and now you are ready to sell online.