Last week we introduced you to the idea of creating an online shop. We provided you with tips and tricks on the best methods for getting going, as well as some insight into what software you will need to get started.

In this week’s installment, we want to share with you why having an online store involves more than just the right technology to be successful. Here are some of the fundamental elements that you will need to get right:

Your product

You need to decide what is it that you actually want to sell. Why not ask yourself the following questions:

  • Are you going to specialise in something niche or broad-based?
  • Are you going to be a big or small business, expensive or cheap and who are you going to service i.e. the whole country, including big cities and smaller towns?

The good news is that any of these will be perfectly fine, you just need to be clear on who you are and what you offer so that shoppers know what to expect from you.

Managing stock

There’s nothing more frustrating for a shopper than to go into a store and not find what they’re looking for and the same holds true for online shopping.

Yes, you could have a run on a product – especially if it’s on promotion – but it’s important to keep your stock levels up so that something being out of stock is not the norm. If you don’t have the product a customer is looking for, it’s worth considering including a note on your site about when it will be available again, and offer the option to order now and receive later. Don’t forget that if you go with this option, always keep the customer informed on the progress of their order.

Marketing

All successful e-commerce businesses need a marketing strategy for attracting customers to their sites. Various options exist and here are some tips to consider:

  • Test your site early and often in order to make sure it can cope with heavy traffic
  • Always ensure that product names are spelled correctly, that all links work and that images load correctly
  • Don’t assume that people will just find your site. No one will end up on your site accidentally so you need to have a plan to get traffic to your site, which is why you need to set up your site for search engine optimisation (SEO)
  • Include cross-sell and upsell opportunities like making suggestions of additional items to buy based on other shoppers’ purchasing behaviour. Other ideas to improve sales and push impulse purchases could include: “This week’s top sellers” or “Top gift suggestions”
  • Make sure users can easily find the “Contact us” option on your site. In South Africa, the addition of an actual telephone number to talk to a real person, increases the shopper’s sense of security
  • Be clear about your return policy

Delivery

The online shopping experience needs to be attractive to the customer. If they don’t get their purchases, they will never shop with you again and with the power of social media behind the consumer these days, your business could face reputation risk too.

Ensure that you are contracted to a reliable delivery service and that their offering and yours are completely aligned – if you say you deliver across South Africa, your courier company must too and if you say you can offer over-night or 24 hour delivery, so must they.  Also consider setting up a service level agreement with your supplier of choice so that you are covered if they don’t deliver. A bulk discount on delivery costs should be negotiated too.

And that’s not all. Next week in our final e-commerce instalment, we will share with you some do’s and don’ts involved in setting up an online shopping business.