Do you remember a time when you had to go to a mall to buy clothes, shoes and household items? If your local store didn’t have your preferred option, you either went without or settled for an alternative. With an online store, you take charge of your purchases. Your options are endless and you’re guaranteed to find an item you love at one of the many e-commerce stores. How do you get on the trend? What key factors should you consider when setting up an online store?
Build a brand with great values
Your brand is the representation and identity of your e-commerce store. What is the driving force pushing you to excel at what you do? What makes you passionate? Set out your brand’s values and ensure it relates to the central endeavours of your business.
A closer look at Enso’s World Value Index shows that some of the top-rated brands have good values that are in line with their message and deviating hurts your brand. Customers build an impression of your brand’s identity based on their first interaction. If your brand is weak, those with better brands will poach your customers. Hence, your digital marketing strategy is most effective with a strong brand.
Pick a market
To maximise success, you need to pick a niche market that allows you to show off your unique selling point. Your preferred market should have attributes that earn you a loyal group of consumers and help to establish your brand. You can use this market’s behaviour to inform your marketing strategy and give them messaging that will resonate in the correct way.
Define your brand and customer
Once you’ve chosen your target niche, don’t jump into production. Think about your ideal customer and how the values of your brand match their expectation. You can think of products when you have a complete picture in hand.
Business planning & strategy
When considering the details, think about your sources of revenue, investment model and marketing strategy before finalising any plans. Campaigns and surveys are one source of a well-researched plan, not just for branding but for lead generation as well.
SEO strategy
Search engines are crucial to organic traffic but its’ hard to keep up with the frequent algorithm updates. Ensure that the content on your website is of high quality. The Fred Algorithm update, released in March 2017 penalises websites with low-quality content created to generate ad revenue. Setting your business up on Google will help get all the data you need to monitor your strategy.
The power of pictures
Product pictures are a part of all e-commerce stores. The bigger the image on your online store, the better the product converts. Invest in a good product camera that allows you to shoot products from a distance and change the focus of the background. An iPhone is decent but it doesn’t offer the functionality of a DSLR camera that highlights the finer details of a product.
Conclusion
Don’t forget to optimise your site for mobile users as that’s’ where most of your users are. Stay ahead of your competition by conducting competitor research to ensure you’re attracting the right customers, focus on quality over quality and provide excellent customer service to both your prospects and customers.
