Making the decision to set up an online shopping store is both daunting and exciting at the same time. Even though there’s no arguing the benefits that a business can enjoy from going online, without the right marketing, the venture could easily fail.
When done properly, ecommerce has the power to skyrocket your business to success. For a start, you’ll find almost all of your customers online – It’s estimated that there will be 1.92 billion global digital buyers by the end of 2019 as a whole. By 2021, this number is expected to increase rapidly to 2.14 billion.
How can Ecommerce be Used?
Setting up an ecommerce store requires first building a website, and then marketing it to appeal to the customer. It can be used effectively by businesses looking to expand their physical shop presence to online, or even those who are just starting out and have opted not to own a physical store.
In the ecommerce world, everything around the transaction works as it would offline. The only difference is that the product is not handled directly by the customer before the purchase; rather, it is only seen in person when it arrives at the customer’s home. Ecommerce also requires completely different marketing approaches than a physical store would, in order to be easily located by customers on the internet.
How Much does Ecommerce Cost?
The initial costs of setting up an ecommerce store can be quite pricey, as there is a lot to factor in if you want your business to be in line with its top competitors.
You can expect to pay around $5,000 to $10,000 for a professional website to be built, followed by between $500 and 10,000 a year for your hosting. The price per year for your domain name depends on its popularity, but you can usually expect to pay between $5 and $40. Don’t let these prices put you off, though – with successful marketing, you will more than make up for your start-up and maintenance costs in the long run.
Examples of Companies using Ecommerce Right
The best ecommerce sites are the ones that can easily be found at the top of a search engine, are easy to navigate, and are appealing in design and layout. It doesn’t necessarily matter what you’re selling; anything can look good to an audience if it’s sold in the right way – as proven by the companies that use ecommerce right.
Retail brands TOMS and Hollister both have physical and ecommerce stores, and their theming carries clearly from their shopfronts to their websites. TOMS offers a simple and enjoyable ecommerce experience, while Hollister takes the customer into a Californian beach paradise, through simple but clever design. These are both examples of companies that know exactly what their theming is, and how to implement it across their platforms.
Best Ecommerce Tools to Use
Whether you’re just starting out in ecommerce or you’re an old-timer looking to step up your game, it’s definitely worth checking out these handy ecommerce tools if you haven’t already:
· If you’re yet to build your ecommerce site yet, consider BigCommerce. You can view and alter all of your sales channels from one dashboard, as well as easily manage inventory, add or remove products, calculate taxes and much more.
· Ecommerce is not so effective without the help of social media marketing, and there are plenty of tools, such as Zoho, that can help make your social media marketing easier. Zoho allows you to schedule and automate your posts ahead of time, leaving you to get on with the important stuff when it matters.
· Never forget the importance of customer service, no matter how big or small your ecommerce business may be. A great live chat tool is Acquire, which you can use as a plugin for your site to allow customers to quickly and easily get in touch if there’s an issue.
· Businesses with smaller budgets should consider PrestaShop for setting up their ecommerce store. With PrestaShop, businesses can expect the same sorts of features as Shopify and BigCommerce, but with a smaller price tag.
· Building your email list is vital if you want to form and maintain an audience of dedicated customers. Constant Contact allows you to quickly and easily build email marketing campaigns, with an impressive range of templates to choose from, and automatic updates for unsubscribes, bounces, and inactive emails.
My Top Tips for Killing it with Ecommerce
Ecommerce is constantly evolving, and you have to stay alert if you don’t want to fall behind. Here are my top tips for killing it with ecommerce:
1. Keep your website layout simple and easy to navigate. The easier it is for your customers to reach your products, the better.
2. Set up a blog and post to it frequently. It’ll give you more avenues for people to find you from via search engines.
3. Know your theming and stick to it. Make sure it’s represented well in your design and branding.
4. Generate and automate an email marketing campaign for your email list. It’s one of the best ways to encourage customers to make more purchase without being bombarded with all-out ads.
5. Implement a loyalty programme. Everyone loves a discount, and loyalty programmes are an easy way to bring in more frequent customers.
The Top Ecommerce Blogs to Follow
1. Shopify
Shopify is one of the biggest ecommerce platforms, and the Shopify blog is updated on an almost daily basis with business ideas, tips to grow your sales, founder stories, and Shopify product info.
2. A Better Lemonade Stand
A Better Lemonade Stand is a resource and community for ecommerce businesses on a worldwide scale. Its blog enables you to filter posts depending on the stage you are currently at with your own business: build, launch or grow.
3. Sumo
Sumo helps ecommerce businesses to monitor growth and steer towards online success, and its blog topics go beyond ecommerce strategy – you can also find plenty on email marketing, content creation and social media.
Ecommerce never stays the same for long, and if you want to keep in the know, I recommend taking a look at my full list of top ecommerce blogs.
Conclusion
The world of retail has changed massively, and the days of physical stores ruling the industry are over. Ecommerce is here to stay, and as it increases in popularity, making it big is only getting harder. Nevertheless, with the right skills, techniques and patience, there’s no reason why you can’t see success in ecommerce.
