Follow These Six Further Steps to Build a Successful e-commerce Website Within a Year
Setting up your own eCommerce site can be a daunting but worthwhile task.
According to the Office for National Statistics, average weekly spending online in July 2017 was £1.1 billion – an increase of 15.1% compared with July 2016. That’s a market that any business would want a share of.
Promoting Your Website
Search engine optimization is critical in helping clients find your site. Using keywords that they are likely to search for, whether product related such as Bronze Animal Sculpture or industry related like accountancy, can push your site up the ranks of unpaid search. In general, the earlier, and more frequently your site appears in the search results, the more visitors you are likely to receive.
Don’t forget that product images can also help you attract users. Tagged correctly as part of a Google Shopping campaign, for example, they can really help boost visitors to your site.
Sites such as Help A Reporter Out (HARO) and Pitchbox can help promote your site for you. HARO is a free to use site where journalists source information to help them write their upcoming stories and if they use your content it can provide you with a valuable source of media coverage. Pitchbox costs from $195 and is an automated system that helps you find and form media relationships quickly and easily through a series of well targeted email campaigns.
When pitching your site to reporters and editors do your research. Make sure you’re pitching to the right people. Show that you understand your market and send them samples if you want to stand out from the hundreds of daily emails they receive.
Make Paying for Goods Easy
If you want clients to buy from your website and come back again, it needs to be easy for them to pay. Setting up a payment gateway can take a while, so make sure you allow enough time so that it’s ready to go live when your website is.
Packing, Shipping and Storing
And finally, don’t forget that before you can go live with your eCommerce site you need to have worked out how you’re going to pack, ship and store your stock.
