The 6 commandments of e-commerce - or how to launch an online store in 5 days

Someone might ask: - But is this even possible? It turns out that in most cases the hype declarations may not be a lie. Many portals offering such services are indeed able to launch an online store within 1 day. But.

What's sudden is after the devil

The vision of starting a profitable business in just 24 hours is tempting. However, conducting online sales is not just about the store itself. When opening an e-commerce business, we need to keep in mind 6 areas that will ensure efficiency and security.

First: the product

No matter how polished our store's website would be and how many resources we would allocate to its production, without the product we want to sell, we won't make a dime. If you've only been selling stationary so far, you'll need a few things without which launching an online business will be very difficult.

Photos

An attractive form of product presentation is essential. Most people "buy" with their eyes - 94% of all first impressions are based only on design-related elements, and 67% of buyers confirm that good photos influence their purchase decision. Therefore, taking them with a smartphone, in a dimly lit room, is not the best idea. If you have a small number of products on offer, it's enough to buy one photo day at a photo studio. If, on the other hand, we have hundreds or thousands of them, it's better to equip ourselves with our own good-quality photographic equipment and carry out the product shoot ourselves. Contrary to appearances, it's not that difficult.

Description

If you want to sell something that other stores already have in their offerings, make sure to have an interesting and original description that highlights the advantages of the product. Then it will stand out from the rest of the identical items that have the same stiff technical description.

Feedback

Surveys show that more than half of shoppers base their decisions on the ratings and opinions of others. When launching an online store and starting to sell, we won't be able to show off the opinions of buyers right away, because those buyers haven't yet had time to use the offer and give their rating. In such a situation, we can get some positive but general reviews from our existing offline customers and include them in the product description.

Demo

It is worth taking care to present the functionality of our product in some interesting form. We can replace a static photo with, for example, a video showing the operation or use of our product and place it on one of the portals (such as YouTube or Vimeo) and make it available in the description.

Packaging

As much as 1/3 of purchasing decisions are made based on an assessment of the quality of a product's packaging. Therefore, it should not be overlooked that the condition in which a product reaches the customer will have an impact on the customer's brand loyalty and decision to make further purchases. Producing your own packaging can be time-consuming. That's why, for starters, consider attaching dedicated messages to your products, for example, in the form of a handwritten message stating who packaged a particular order along with a greeting. Such a simple procedure can work wonders. The customer will feel singled out and have the satisfaction of knowing that we have taken a very individual approach to fulfilling their order.

It is worth remembering that products for your new store do not have to be entered manually. An experienced project team will be able to help you integrate your e-commerce with the product management system you are already using. In the future, your inventory and prices will synchronize automatically. Remembering to update your online store will not be necessary.

Second: appearance and usability

Three out of four customers judge the quality and reliability of a service based solely on the aesthetic experience. It is worth taking care of this sphere of our online business. Of course, stores-within-a-store follow some universal schemes. Ba! We can even choose one of the ready-made templates, theoretically, tailored to the specifics of a particular industry, but... Well, that's it. The templates are so universal that they may not be fully adapted to our offer and will not distinguish it from others on the market. Original design and selection of appropriate solutions can be guaranteed by an efficient UX team. Another important element of our store's usability is its performance, i.e. the speed of loading subsequent screens and the ergonomics of navigating through it. As studies show, each additional second that elapses after entering the site reduces conversion by up to 7%.

Third: marketing and promotion

If you already have a new, working platform with attractive products, the next step is to invest in its promotion. Without it, the appearance of your store will go unnoticed in the huge online market. To start with, you should plan to run a simple online marketing campaign. Of course, you can try to position your site organically in search engines yourself. However, this usually takes a long time, even up to several months. With the help of paid business promotion tools offered by Google or social networks such as Facebook. If you don't have experience in this area, it's worth using the support of SEO and positioning professionals. Specialists will tailor forms of promotion to your target audience.

Fourth: sales channels

An online store can be your main sales channel, but not the only one you can use. By creating an online store, it is quite easy to integrate your product catalog and sell your products in other places on the web, such as Facebook or Allegro. Remember that customers will want to browse your offerings and shop on mobile devices as well. Business Insider estimates that in 2024 almost half of all online purchases will be made through mobile devices (smartphones or tablets). But you don't have to worry - at this point, a dedicated mobile app is not necessary for you. All you need is a fully responsive website for your online store. This means that it will look good on a laptop, tablet or smartphone, as all graphics will be adjusted to the size of the display on which your site is presented.

Fifth: payments

Customers who make purchases online care about paying quickly. The traditional transfer form, which we can complete at the nearest post office, is not a popular solution and may cause the customer to abandon the purchase of goods. That's why there are so-called payment gateways on the Internet - services integrated with almost all banks that allow even immediate transfer of funds. Using online shopping, you probably encounter quick payments, such as BLIK. You don't have to worry about that either. Most popular payment gateways secure this option as well. The same goes for mobile payments such as Google Pay, which are becoming increasingly popular, especially when shopping via mobile devices. Integrating your store with a payment gateway will not be a problem for the development team creating your e-commerce. All you need to do is set up an account with one of the providers of such solutions (such as PayU or Przelewy24).

Sixth: logistics

If all the online steps taken by your customer to make a purchase have been successful, there is one more task waiting for you. You need to package and deliver the product to the indicated location. You can use your company's already existing logistics infrastructure for this. However, if it is insufficient, you have two other solutions. First, you can partner with one of the courier companies. They operate in the global market and choosing one of them will not be a problem. So will integrating with their automatic shipment registration systems. Such functionality should not cause the e-commerce implementation team any problems. You can also use the services of one of the companies engaged in the so-called fullfilment, that is, a comprehensive service consisting of maintaining the warehouse, collecting order items, packaging and distribution.

How fast can it be done? But seriously.

As you can see, the list of things you need to take care of is not frighteningly long, but nevertheless extensive enough that it will take you more than one day. Realistically, you are able to launch the basic functionality of an online store in 5 days. What does that mean? Within a working week, an experienced project team can launch and configure one of the popular e-commerce platforms, such as Magento, Sylius or WooCommerce. Of course, choosing the right platform will depend on your needs, the size of your warehouse or your target market. The latter will be taken care of by the UX team, which will profile your potential customers and prepare proposals for solutions to increase sales. In these few days you will also be able to launch all the services necessary for the operation of your store - payment gateway or courier services.

Summary

Remember that you do not have to go through the process of launching an online store on your own. It is worth entrusting this task to a company that will complete it from scratch. Professionals will suggest you some proven solutions, based on their previous experience. Outsourcing these tasks to specialists is, first of all, a great time (and therefore money) saver. It will also allow you to avoid beginner's mistakes, which experienced teams have long known about.

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