Today, there are so many online stores that it creates a false impression of the ease of doing business remotely. Created a shop, defined the range, set up an order form – sit back and wait for customers and profits to flow by the river. But in fact, it turns out that one online store remains in the market and dies in the status of beginners. Why is this happening? Let’s consider in this article typical mistakes at creation of Internet shops.
A wrong niche of the online store
What am I gonna sell and how? This is the question that any online store should begin with. Only a competent analysis of the market will allow you to find your place. If a neighbor has a good product, it does not mean that you will have a similar situation.
It is not always important to bet on the popularity of the product, especially since it quickly passes. When choosing a niche for the future owner of the online store should start with answers to the following points:
- What would I really like to sell?
- Am I ready for the difficulties of the first few months?
- If I choose this niche, are there opportunities for development?
- Am I ready for a competition?
The answers to these questions will create an initial outline for your business project.
If you stop at a specific niche, look around you – who is already working there, will you pull this competitive environment? Of course, a certain amount of risk should be present when opening any business, but no one has canceled common sense either. For example, if this segment already has a dozen major players who have a leading position in search engines, is it worth choosing this field?
Refusal to provide professional services
Own vision of the future of the business is good, but the seller can not be at the same time a good manager, progressive advertiser experienced SMM-manager, courier, etc. Therefore, you should be able to delegate authority and trust the specialists. The duty of the owner of the online store – to give a competent specification, which should fully describe their requirements.
The most common mistake is a rough idea of what your shop will be like. Look at the sites in the web, select your favorite ones. One of you can be attracted to usability, the other – a bright, memorable design, the third – a capacious and easy to find. Collect these findings in your bank, and on their basis create your own child. Relying on the support of professionals.
Seeking to save money, entrepreneurs sometimes take on the creation of a website online store. On their own make photos of goods, write long and boring descriptions of goods, do not hire employees to promote the site. And usually, nothing good comes out of it, because such a website will not bring much money.
“We will make the site beautiful, and the sales will go on their own”.
This is a typical misconception of those who order a fashionable site in terms of design and forget about its selling functions. Or another option: to load the site at once and all, including in the terms of reference all possible functions for the site. And both – extremes.
Undoubtedly, the appearance of your online store should be remembered, but remember that it is primarily a platform for sales. Therefore, run the store with a set of selling features that are currently needed.
Signs of a good online store:
- The site has contact and registration details of the seller;
- The site works without technical errors;
- Full information about the goods, products, and services sold is available;
- The description of goods is written in simple and clear language;
- The description is supplemented by photos of good quality (own production, without infringement of other people’s copyrights);
- On the site is a convenient basket for orders;
- Online store managers are always ready for a dialogue;
- Phones on the site – real and working;
- The form of payment is protected and safe;
- There are reviews of products (not only positive).
Ineffective promotion of the site
Sellers of the site must be predictable. So, you must represent the target audience of the site, its needs, purchasing power. You should have a marketing plan and a plan to promote the site.
Some, especially novice online store owners, are optimistically wrong about this. The site has already been created – paid for the domain, hosting, site development, its design – in the process of investing money, everything should work itself! If everything was so simple …
SEO, SEM and SMO – these abbreviations should be known to you.
SEO – is the optimization of the site for search engines. It includes:
- Code optimization;
- Work with tags;
- Usability;
- Content improvement;
- A set of reference masses.
SMO and SMM – is to attract and retain customers who came to the site from social networks.
SEM is a complex of marketing actions aimed at the promotion of the portal.
To understand all the difficulties of Internet marketing, invite a qualified marketing specialist, who will make a program of specific actions for your site. On your own promotion, you risk spending a lot of time and effort (and not the fact that you can do it at all), while the pro will make it faster and more efficient.
Poor quality content and product description
The content of the site – is its filling, this is the maximum useful, necessary, vital, and sometimes entertaining information that the visitor should find on the site. Content includes:
- Product range catalog;
- Photos of goods;
- Thematic and entertaining articles;
- Surveys and reviews;
- Photos.
The modern Internet user is spoilt for an abundance of information on the Internet, he is accustomed to perceive it quickly and easily, so it is worth paying attention to what you place on your site.
The catalogue should be:
- Сomplete (there is nothing worse if the description is added only on a small part of the goods);
- Clearly structured (complex and confusing menu will definitely throw away a potential buyer who wants to search for their goods among hundreds of items?!);
- With the indication of the prices (Customer Prices Suite extension for Magento 2 may help you);
- It is supplied with qualitative pictures and a detailed description of each position.
- Photos on the pages of the online store perform the selling function, because the buyer has no opportunity to consider the product in person. Therefore, they should:
- Being of good quality;
- With good color rendering;
- Display the product from different angles.
If you expect that the visitor will be held on your site, think through a content plan for the placement of articles. They may differ in subject matter and form of submission. What you should pay attention to:
- On literacy, compliance with the rules of the language;
- Structured and capacitated;
- The uniqueness of information.