How to create a profitable online store
Creating a profitable online store that generates a lot of revenue requires some knowledge in Digital Marketing and SEO too; I will give you all the tools necessary to successfully create and launch your virtual store and especially how to make your E Commerce profitable and really generate you regular and substantial revenues.
The 15 essential elements that a good online store should have
A lot of online sellers, believe that the Design of their shop will bring them back to themselves hundreds of customers, they then set up product animations, dynamic products and folio doors of all kinds, while the truth is elsewhere , and that all this Bling Bling does not guarantee to make sales or generate conversions, I have already seen online shops with only one product really saleable (the other products are only there to fill the shelves) and that brew hundreds of euros per month (Instagram traffic) , but these shops, they have what they must have, where it is needed and that’s what we’ll see in this article.
Here are the 15 essentials for any online business, Shopify, Prestashop or other, so that it attracts buyers and really makes sales:
First of all, if you don’t have Online Store yet, and you want to create one under Wordoress with Shopify for example, I recommend The best LWS Accommodation of the moment (less than 2euros/month, domain name offered,SSL included (security) –access directly to choose your domain name) with this offer:
- 1 OFFERT Domain
- 100 models
- 100GB of web space
- 10 pro email addresses
- Unlimited traffic
- Free image bank (very useful for an online store)
If you want a Prestashop Key Shop in hand (Special Price 27 $ Taxes free/month —- – Use this link to benefit from the offer (go down to the bottom of the left page)
Alternatively, you can also choose to create your Shop now with:
Bluehost
Hostgator
If you want to create your own shop or you already have one and you want to upgrade it, check the following:
1-A good user experience
The simpler it is, the better it is for an online shop, making it simple doesn’t mean not elegant, a good design that ensures a good user experience is therefore necessary to attract and above all keep your customers
More than 70% of users say that the ease and ease of browsing an online shop is the most important point that makes them decide to stay and shop there
The goal is to allow customers to find their product in your shop as quickly as possible, without having to search for a long time or click too much to do so.
An online salesman actually only has a few seconds to make a sale, and the customer who goes around in circles and gets lost in your store will not buy anything at all in fact
For a good user experience on your online store you need to:
Classify your products intelligently according to the needs of your customers and not by the availability of the products and the offer you provide
Install smart filters and set up a system that will facilitate product comparisons, their prices according to their quality for example and especially their prices outside your Ecommerce shop
Create menus and sub menus according to the users’ search intention, so that products that go together and complement each other, are categorized in the same radius, so don’t be afraid to put on hiking shoes and canes for walking or even a special backpack hikers in the same category at the places to make a special footwear radius for example
Improve product search features on your store with an automated system like Under Armour for example
Create and set up good visual and intuitive navigation without complicating it too much, so that your customer doesn’t have to read too much on your E commerce site so that he can find his ideal product
2-Your E Commerce Site Must Be Mobile Friendly
More than 50 million online transactions and purchases are made from mobile devices and smartphones, so why deprive yourself of such a huge market, especially since Google has made it clear that any website that is not suitable for Mobile will be put behind and downgraded on SERPs and especially will not appear in the results for Mobile because it is not going to be indexed in the mobile index simply-
So your online store needs to be responsive and mobile-friendly to ensure a good user experience for your future customers that you would have previously sent google directly from its organic search results.
If your E Commerce site isn’t mobile,you’ll even have a hard time classifying your ads and winning bids on Google Adwords, because it’s not enough to pay Google to make your store appear first on the SERP, a good experience User on Mobile is among the first conditions for this to happen
Walmart has totally doubled its sales just by adapting its Ecommerce site to mobiles for example
3-A good quality of visuals
Make sure that the images and videos on your online store are of very good quality, but with compressed formats that recharge very quickly, use the Plugin shortPixel to automatically compress your images without losing their quality.
Compressed images with good resolution in Jpg or Webp format for example and short HD videos that could be viewed with low resolutions also for customers with a low internet connection and low speed
In addition to this, your product must be photographed with different angles, and in different environments if possible, in order to put your client in the mood and so that he can zoom in and feel the sensation and joy that will give him the purchase of your product
So make sure that the photos of your products recharge and print very quickly whatever the flow of your customer, and do not be satisfied also with professional photos of the products, search on Facebook or Instagram, photos of your product at every day, otherwise ask your customers to take selfies with your product so that they get a discount at the next sale for example
These are the sensations created by the images that sell the products and not just the texts and descriptions, so put a catalog for each product and add different photos whenever possible
4-Consumer reviews boost sales
Customer reviews and product feedback must be integrated into your E Commerce site, simply because more than 90% of customers only buy a product online if other customers say good about this product or your online store.
Almost 60% of customers, will only buy a product if it has a score of 4 or 5/5 (star rating), so make sure to collect a maximum of votes and good product ratings too, good reviews you can ask your customers especially if you have confidence in your products
When a comment does not say good of one of your products, never delete it, it is better to leave them so that your customers know that your comments and product reviews are not false and so that they can trust you, believe me the trust is an undisputed condition for making sales on your online store
You can use Plugins to collect customer reviews on Facebook, yelp for example, social evidence is a key element for your online business to prosper and create a real shop that generates money and profits Thryv is made also to promote your offers and bring back customers really interested in what you have as offers, I love this tool.
So incorporate a star rating system to your shop and try to get as many feedback and feedback from users
5-Special Offers on your online store
Making special offers to your customers is a good business practice that most online businesses adopt, so don’t deviate from the rule because it works
You can even put a special space at the top of your home page to display your special offers, your time discounts for example
These offers gives a dynamic online shop appearance on which things happen, and it really reassures the consumer and it’s a good sign when an online store multiplies special offers, it means that its products are not old and that this shop is up to date choice issue, and competitive price issue too, so a customer will probably do good deals and purchases that he will not regret later
You can also dedicated a special page on your E Commerce site just for the current special offers, it’s also better on the SEO side and you could easily rank your page on google, depending on your product and the geographic area or you prospect your customers
6-Use Wish Lists
What better way to boost sales on an online store than to integrate a system that will allow your customers to tell you what they want and the products they want and you don’t have in your shop
Amazon does it very well and this is how you will ensure the availability of the products that your audience is really looking for, and especially this kind of system gives your customer to share his wish list with his friends and family, at parties like Christmas or birthday which will bring you back a lot of traffic, and more sales too
7-An integrated search bar
To boost sales on your online store, you need to think about integrating a search bar, through which the customer will directly type what he is looking for as a product
This way your customer is not going to go round and could even access your old products difficult to access on your shop because they are in deep pages for example
The best search bar for an online store must be visible and the rectangle must be permanently deployed, not just the magnifying glass icon!
This search bar should be ideally to the right of your menu (high right nail)
Make sure your search bar also appears on mobile devices
8-Similar Products
Your online store should give your customers the opportunity to know all the choice you have about a product category and in stock as soon as it expresses what they are looking for in your store
The related product items button, or products of the same category, ancillary products, must be part of your E trade site
Use phrases like “You might like it too” , “customers who did this research also liked” … etc. to show your choices regarding the same category of products you sell according to your customer’s needs and search intent
This is where you’ll know if your category choices are sound, or you need to organize your products according to new criteria, you could track everything your customers do on your online store through the data markers and find out what button they click after your customers have done a search on your online shop
9-Incorporate a FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) to your online store
Integrating a FAQ into your online store is essential to create a climate of trust with your customers and also build loyalty to your online store
You will try to answer the questions that your customers might ask about your products, their operation for example, also confirm the authenticity of your products and their quality by giving them guarantees in answers to questions such as ” is what this or that product is an Original brand, or Label Bio ,,,,etc
Your customers will also find in the FAQ, answers from other customers to their questions about returns and reviews on products, service after sale for example, and you would not have to manage all this alone once your business is launched, but your customers will find a space on your Ecommerce site where they will help each other and even advise each other products which will boost your sales too
10-Social Evidence for a Successful Online Shop
You will have to create profiles for your online store on social networks, such as a Facebook page or Twitter, in order to communicate directly with your customers, create an emotional link with your prospects and prospect at the same time other buyers through Facebook Ads advertising campaigns for example
But the most important thing is to be in touch with your customers and let them know that your online shop is run by a natural person who is there when needed and who will answer questions from his customers live if needs is.
This presence on social networks, in the name of your online business (Brand name) and especially your personal accounts to build a bond of trust with your audience (thryv will help you also for that) and facilitate their transition to action a liver that they are on your online store
Your presence on social networks will also allow you to refine your choices of products to put on your online store, because you will be in constant contact with your audience and you will be able to know which products would interest them really, which will increase the selling rate on your E Commerce store because you’re going to meet exactly the real needs of your audience
Putting emotional pictures of your products and telling a great story on Instagram for example will greatly increase your sales, opt for photos of products that tell a story, and not just cold pictures of products placed on a shelf and photographed from all sides
Showing a T-shirt worn by a customer happy with his purchase on your online store and that fits him like a glove will allow you to sell 10 times more T-shirt of the same model than others
These accounts, on social networks, will help you to have high value content, such as consumer comments and reviews, you can also use Youtube for example to create tutorial videos on the operation of these products, and also fold this audience on your online shop with links in the description of the videos
Install a self-responder that will almost sell you for yourself
11-Your online store needs to be secure
E Commerce sites that generate a lot of sales, are often targets for cybercriminal attacks, so consider activating the SSL Certificate of your Ecommerce site in order to encrypt your customers’ data, and allow them to make purchases in peace of mind without fear of their bank details
Woocommerce, incorporated into WordPress or magento will guarantee you a very secure online store, because their security systems (The Ssl Certificate, Email ID Confirmation, a Firewall and a Privacy Policy Page), are very effective and this is the choice made by the majority of e-commerce platforms for that matter.
When you are promoting your products, you must indicate that your online store is 100% secure, register it on your BIO on instagramme, pin it on your Facebook page, and everywhere else
Not saying that payment on your website is secure will put a doubt in seeing customers who will probably hesitate to buy
You can also solicit online website security services to display labels like Hacker Safe .. Etc
12-Integrating easy-to-access and diverse payment methods to your E commerce store
Paypal is a very good method of payment for an online shop, but you need to give your customers more choice with possible payment of their bills with bank cards from different providers and various online banks
Customers should also be given the option to sign up for your One Click Shopping system, making it easier to purchase at your store and will not be required to retype their credit card details every time they are go back to your online store
Integrating a one-click payment system into your online store will also build customer loyalty and often bring them back to your Ecommerce.
13-Integrating an efficient and detailed delivery system into your online store
If these are your own products that you are going to sell on your online store, you need to think about integrating an efficient delivery system that details the prevalences to be paid on product deliveries, delivery times need to be well studied and mostly respected
Be aware that free shipping, increases sales on online stores by 30%, so think about delivering your products for free, because all your competitors probably do, you have to let your customers know everywhere on your page especially your page home
If these are Dropshipping products that you are going to sell, then you don’t have to worry about how to deliver your products.
14-Add a Contact page to your Ecommerce site
Your customers should be able to reach you at any time, and via various means, so integrate a page “CONTACT” with your phone numbers, emails, physical address if you have in parallel a store
You could even integrate a Chatbot into your Ecommerce site, so your customers will be able to reach you at any time, know that this kind of system reinforces the confidence that your customers will have in you and in your online commerce.
15-The Privacy and Referral Policy
Your customers should know that at any time they can return the purchased product to you if the conditions in the “Return Policy” allow it of course and are respected. But you need to add this page to your online shop, and it has to be clear and not too severe too, your customers must be trusted, that they will not be abused in case the product they buy does not satisfy their real needs and is not what they expected
A You to Create Your Online Shop Now
Creating and launching an online store is not difficult in itself, I mean technically, you just have to choose your domain name and host it, then install Shopify for example
But the hardest thing to do is to run the shop, that’s why I advise you to stick to at least these 15 essential elements for your online store to be profitable and will generate recurring revenues.
Don’t forget that the Customer is king, and it is even more so online
