10 Tips to Open a Successful Eshop
1. Take it Seriously:
The first important step is to fully consider the web opportunity.
If you do that without enough resources, your shop won't start and you
won't have any order. The first step is to give to, at least, one person
the responsibility of the website and orders. With the Ecomready admin
interface, this person doesn't have to know much about technology but he
has to know the products and be able to answer the customers' emails
fast (less than 24 hours).
2. Good Strategy:
On the web, every shop is next to the other. So why people would
buy on your site instead of another ? There are 2 winning strategy on
the web: sell at the best price or sell an exclusive product. Be sure to
be in one of those categories.
3. High Quality Website:
If you have a poor quality website, surfers won't buy anything. As
in a real shop, if you door is dirty, customers won't enter to see if
they are interested in any products. That's why WebGift offers
professional looking shops and web design services for those who want us
to do the complete layout of their website. Don't put poor quality
images and check your website with different browsers to see that
everything works properly.
4. Make Your Site Easy:
Shoppers want to find quickly what they want and an easy way to
order the products. That's why the WebGift engine includes a search
engine and a easy and well explained order process.
5. Buy Yourself On-line:
The best way to understand what decides people to order, do on-line
shopping yourself. When you buy on a website, try to find out how have
you found the site and why will you order on it. You will learn a lot if
you take a look at successful ecommerce sites.
6. Reassure your Customers:
You won't buy on a website if you don't trust it. Your customers
neither. Don't forget to put for example a good "Privacy Statement" and
"Terms and Conditions" (both included in the eshop). Explain
to your customers as much as possible about the order process, return
policy and give them a detailed description of your products. Don't
forget to put your street address (not a PO Box). Give them also an
email or a phone number they can use if they need more information.
7. Promote Your Site:
If you don't promote you site, you won't have much traffic. There
are different ways to promote your site. On-line methods: search engines
registration, newsgroups, banners,... . Off-line methods: put
the address of your website on your letter, promotional material,...
Both methods types has to be used together for optimal results.
8. Update Your Site:
If you want your visitors and customers to come back, often change
your site. Change the layout, add more information and new products in
your catalog. Put also promotions and special prices. Use the feedback
and the stats (included in the eshop package) you have from your
visitors to update your site.
9. Be the First:
As shown by the statistics, it's always easier if you are on the
net before your competitors. If none of your competitors is on-line yet,
it's now or never.
10. Patience:
As in a normal shop, customers won't buy on your website the first
day you open it. It takes several months (from 2 to 6 months) to start.
So don't wait for direct profit and continue to work hard on your
website. But when it starts be also ready to answer very quickly to a
huge demand.