According to OECD, COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the expansion of E-commerce business, as many had to rapidly set up their online store and move their sales channels to the web.
From grocery stores such as Metro Mart to food deliveries such as foodpanda, have you found yourself shopping online one too many times during this pandemic? Part of the shopping experience is to figure out where to shop, and it is the store owner’s job to showcase themselves and present their store as the best place where a customer should buy from.
If your business is also riding this wave of the move to setting up an online store, you will need to make your shop stand out from the rest! There are a ton of guides out there on the web that give an outline and instructions on how to do it.
Well, look no further! Here at GoDaddy, we try to keep things simple for you. And we have pored over various sources on the internet and distilled their points into five key steps on setting up an online store for you to work on and take your E-commerce business to the next level:
Step 1: Ensure your online store loads fast
Ever tried looking for a product, and when you have finally found that one single shop, it took ages to load? And when the web store finally loads, you find out that the product is already out of stock? Yikes. That feeling of time wasted where you should have known quickly about the stock problem and would have spent it finding other sources on the net will stick with you -- and maybe leave a bad impression that makes you not visit the store ever again. Bad for business!
Having your website or digital storefront load as quickly as two seconds gives your customers a great experience. 64% of online shoppers are likely to consider other e-stores if they get dissatisfied with your site’s loading time. You will want to do this, especially if your site’s products have a lot of competitors. Google Pagespeed also increases your site’s rankings if your site loads fast. Pushing your online store up the search rankings will definitely increase your traffic, and increase your chances of a sale.
Editor’s Note: If you need a reliable provider that allows you to set up your online store quickly, check out GoDaddy e-Store for a seamless store setup and experience. Still not convinced? Here are five reasons why you should set up an online store with GoDaddy.
Step 2: Make your store look clean and professional
Starting an online store is one thing, and making it look good is another. Online stores with clunky designs and cluttered information hinders your potential customer's experience to explore and understand your products -- or information on warranty, aftersales, and support. Making this information easily accessible is imperative for any new online store to instill confidence in your wares, and to make a compelling case for people to buy from your store and not from your competitor (at least, subconsciously!).
Making a store look clean and professional will vastly improve your customer’s journey throughout their purchasing experience.
The quality of your website is often associated with the standards of your business. The best way to do this is to invest in a good web design, and make sure that your design and copy look professional and free of errors.
Have a small checklist for you to look at.
- Do I have clean copy, and no grammatical errors?
- Do I have all my shop menus easily accessible?
- Do I have my branding, support, and communication channels obvious to the customer?
Have this done and you’ll have your potential customers feel that they can trust you upon landing on your page.
Step 3: Make the checkout process painless
More often than not, we have seen stores with a smooth product discovery experience, only to fail spectacularly at the payments process. As a result, customers tend to abandon their cart.
According to a study by the Asian Development Bank, stores that lack payment channel support push at about 24%–25% of online shoppers to abandon their virtual shopping baskets before completing online purchases. Making the checkout process quicker and smoother for customers can help to decrease cart abandonment.
This is important, as most customers tend to abandon the purchase at the checkout process if it doesn’t support their payment method. Stick to what's necessary. Don't demand that users sign in with an account that does not necessarily help the process. Ask for what's important for you to complete the transaction, and where to deliver the product. Everything else is superfluous and nice to have.
Step 4. Write compelling copy
I remember the times that I have searched for a specific item, and found it available in multiple stores -- and finally bought the item from the store that gave a cleaner, proper, and professionally-written product description. To think of it, all of the stores sold the exact same product, and I gave my money to the one that took the effort to make their product page more complete, more compelling, and more professional-looking.
According to Redbox Digital, compelling product copy should answer customer questions, entice customers, and should ignite their imagination with them using your product.
Writing compelling copy is a very important facet of building an online store. It sets the tone of the product, and it helps instill a sense of trust, lets your customers imagine them using the product, and tickles their fancy. As well-written copy also ties in with #2, completing this step reinforces the professionalism of your site.
Step 5. Provide social proof
One of the most compelling ways to convince your customers that your products are good is to provide social proof.
As social proof is a powerful indicator of trust, it is important for a business to showcase or include such elements to a home page. It is also a guiding principle for people when faced with uncertainty, as people look to other people’s behavior for behavioral guidance.
How to do this? Embed Twitter or Instagram posts on your store; this can be either on the storefront, on the category or product pages. As Hubspot puts it, visual communication with your customers counts as part of content marketing. And content marketing is very effective, and can generate as much as 3 times more leads than traditional methods, and costs 62% less.
Start building your E-commerce business today
Any person or business can build an online store, but it takes more effort to build a compelling E-commerce store with high traffic. The five tips discussed above are essential for one to stand out and make a sale in this ever growing segment of the internet.
As many shops and stores are bringing their businesses online, you will have competition. To stand out from the rest, transforming the online shopping experience of your customers for your store is imperative. Hopefully, this little five-pointer helps you.
Good luck, and happy selling!
Editor’s note: Got questions about putting your idea online? Get instant answers on GoDaddy Asia Facebook Messenger now.
