Image by Pabitra Kaity from Pixabay

By Henry Brown

There’s no denying that the Internet has changed the face of the retail industry. These days, you can find a wide array of online stores open for business 24/7 and selling all kinds of things from pizzas to car parts.

You’re probably reading this because you’re an entrepreneur with an established retail business. But, you’d like to expand your operations and sell your products and services online. The thing is, how can you make your e-commerce business a roaring success?

Take a look at the following tips and tricks for some entrepreneurial inspiration:

Conduct some market research

Deciding that you want to sell your products and services online is undoubtedly one of the best choices that you’ll make in your business. You’ll be joining the legions of entrepreneurs that made the same decision and haven’t regretted their choice.

However, you need to maximize your sales and improve conversion rates by selling the products and services that will most likely appeal to customers online. With that in mind, it makes sense to conduct some market research.

Find out what products and services sell the most, and research whether they’ll also sell well online. That way, you can concentrate on selling the things that will help you grow your business online.

Select the right platform

Next, you’ll need to think about the best e-commerce platform for your needs. A cursory search on the Internet will reveal many potential candidates that could meet your requirements.

Examples might include the mighty Shopify. But, it would help if you made comparisons between the platforms that you shortlist. Once you’ve done that, determine which features and benefits you need and how much you’re willing to pay for them.

When you’ve carried out such an analysis, you’ll soon find the perfect platform for your online store.

Use A reliable web host

If you’re using an e-commerce platform like Shopify, you can skip this section. However, if you’re planning to self-host something like Magento or OpenCart, you’ll need a web host to provide the resources necessary to run such software.

When you look for a web host, please don’t assume that they all offer the same quality of service and select the cheapest option. As you would with anything in life, carry out plenty of prior research before deciding on a provider.

It would help if you also determined which features each offer. For example, do any web hosts offer truly unlimited bandwidth and disk space, or is there a cap hidden in the small print of their terms of service?

Partner with a fulfillment provider

When you sell physical goods over the Internet, you need warehouse space to store them and a team of people that can ship those items to your customers whenever they place orders with you.

With that in mind, it’s a good idea to work with an ecommerce warehouse provider like ShipBots. Such providers can pick, pack, and send out your goods whenever you receive an order.

What’s more, providers like ShipBots will scale their service to you as your business grows. That’s great news for when your online store becomes one of the top-used e-commerce sites in your part of the world.

Many fulfillment providers exist, so it makes sense to check which features each one offers in your region. Additionally, you should determine how good they are at what they do through their online reviews and perhaps talking to their existing customers.

Make SEO a priority

SEO or Search Engine Optimization is an essential part of any online business. Why? The answer is simple: it ensures that a) customers find your website when they’re looking for the products and services you sell, and b) you get relevant visitors to your online store.

SEO has many aspects, so you must have an actionable plan that covers all the ones relevant to your online business. For instance, your product pages should have relevant keywords and phrases.

You should consider creating some landing pages, especially if you’re selling services or subscriptions. Landing pages help attract different targeted audiences and can be categorized by different demographics like location, interests, and previous purchase history.

Take a look at Google’s SEO Starter Guide if you’re new to search engine optimization and aren’t sure where to start.

Build a social media following

Creating a fantastic e-commerce website hosted on a reliable server and keeping your SEO in check are just some of the ways to make your online store successful. However, they aren’t the only things you can and should do.

For instance, one idea is to create profiles on social networks like Facebook and Twitter and build up a social media following on them. When you have people interested in your brand, you can engage with that audience and convert some of them into paying customers.

Building a social media following isn’t something that can happen overnight. But, with patience and determination, you’ll amass thousands of followers that will share your content with their followers and, ultimately, spend their money with you.

Invest In automation tools

Many automation tools exist for e-commerce businesses, and you should be using some of them. For example, you can use Facebook AI bots to respond to messages sent to your page. They can answer common questions and recommend products and services you sell.

You can use tools like HootSuite to schedule social media posts, including promotional content. Plus, your e-commerce platform can automate tasks like relaying order information to ShipBots or your chosen fulfillment provider.

Make your customer service awesome

Lastly, irrespective of what you sell online, you must always make customer service a priority for your business.

Strive to offer class-leading customer service like Amazon, for example, and provide several ways that customers can reach out to you if they need help or wish to complain. Also, ensure that all conclusions are satisfactory to your customers.

Final thoughts

Setting up an online store is no mean feat. There’s a lot to consider. But, with the right approach and the best tools at your disposal, you can make your e-commerce website a successful venture.

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Henry Brown is an online marketing executive. When he isn’t talking shop, he’s roaming the streets of London, uncovering the extra-ordinary in the ordinary.