Estimated reading time: 3 mins
E-commerce is one of the most rapidly expanding sectors of the retail industry. Worldwide, profits from e-commerce are expected to rise by as much as 15 to 25%. People are spending more and more time online, whether for work, education, recreational or social purposes. During this time, you want as many potential customers as possible to come across your website. This will result in them taking a look through your product industry and potentially making purchases, generating more profit for your business.
But when the web is full of budding new businesses, how do you get yours to stand out from the crowd? Not to worry, we’re here to help. Here are some top tips to help you establish your business online and start making sales as soon as possible.
Web Design
Your products may be brilliant quality, but if they aren’t presented to buyers in the right way, nobody will be interested in buying them, as innovative, unique or interested as they may be in themselves. Your website’s homepage is essentially your storefront. You need to entice customers to look through more of your products in the same way that a window display will entice customers into a brick and mortar store. First things first, you need to ensure that you have a professionally designed logo. This will be the image that consumers begin to associate with your brand. Work alongside an experienced graphic designer who will be able to put your ideas down on paper (and screen). Let them know what you want and they will be able to offer further advice on certain styles that might suit your brand image better. By working together, you will quickly create the perfect image to assign to your company. Next, you will need to work with Cefar a digital agency to help you design your site. You will need to settle on a signature font, as well as a colour scheme. You can then work on your homepage layout (perhaps with slideshows) and pages with product collections, brand information, sizing guides and delivery details. The more succinct and well put together your page is, the easier users will find their way around the site and the more likely they will be to add items to their basket.
Advertising
Once your site is established, you can start advertising. However, the most effective forms of advertising are those that follow well-conducted market research. Before spending on advertising techniques, you need to truly understand your potential customer base. Market research allows you to work out the current market climate in your area of commerce. It will let you know your potential customer base’s gender, age, disposable income and various other important pieces of information. It will also allow you to scope out competitors, find out how much they are charging for their products. This will help you to settle on a price that you can flaunt to potential buyers. It will also allow you to know the best places to put up posters, proactively leaflet and perhaps even invest in a billboard advertisement.
Once you have a stunning website and effective advertising, most of the effort on your part is out of the way. Customers will begin to come to you. All you have to do now is sit back and wait for the profits to come rolling in. Perfect!
