To be successful in ecommerce, it’s not enough to simply put a website and products online. The recipe for success relies on key criteria, essential to any online sales professional.
Choosing the right tools, knowing your targets, optimizing your website, and following a well-defined marketing plan: all these parameters will allow you to evolve in your business, provided you follow the recommendations to the letter.
Today, we reveal the 8 ultimate elements that are essential to succeed in your ecommerce adventure. Here’s everything you need to know!
How can you succeed and boost your ecommerce business? 8 key elements
Have you thought about all the aspects of your online store in terms of responsiveness, fluidity of navigation, or performance? Here are all the key points of your adventure, an ecommerce checklist to guide you.
1. Choose the right ecommerce platform
The first step is, of course, to choose your ecommerce solution. It must be perfectly adapted to your needs, your daily life, your budget, and your development skills. Does the chosen solution allow you to benefit from all the offers you can’t do without according to your sector? Is there an additional charge for adding a new feature or is it included in the base pricing? Take the time to test various solutions to make your choice.
There are two types of tools available: open source and SaaS.
In the first case, the promise is that of total freedom of configuration. But, in reality, unless you’re really skilled in code and computer writing, you’ll be dependent on an external agency that’ll charge you thousands of dollars to start your ecommerce business.
With a SaaS solution, everything is turnkey: you’re autonomous, and you can connect to your website anywhere, anytime, for a fixed subscription per month.
With WiziShop, managing your ecommerce site is easy. You benefit from more than 400 features, tools integrated to your online store, the follow-up of our Business Coaches, and complete ecommerce training offered, for a price starting from just $40 per month (and your first month for just $1)!
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GET YOUR FIRST MONTH FOR JUST $12. SEO: Work on the content of your website and your product pages
It’s undeniable, today, you must be effective with your SEO to ensure your visibility and your durability on the internet, making it one of the most important ecommerce features for the success of an online store. Make sure to work on your SEO to improve your ranking in search engines and thus distinguish you from your competitors.
However, be careful not to become too dependent on this lever, because a bad surprise can happen very quickly, and you can find yourself penalized. Remember that some ecommerce sites have been closed down due to the arrival of a new algorithm.
Display speed, keywords, website fluidity, image resolution, responsive homepage... So many parameters that are very important to succeed.
With the WiziShop ecommerce solution, SEO is a priority: the excellent base proposed by the platform allows you to quickly reach the top of the SERPs for popular target keywords!
3. Adapt your ecommerce presentation to mobile devices
According to Statista, in Q4 2022, 38% of U.S. ecommerce revenue was made via mobile devices. M-commerce is no longer a choice: it’s an obligation!
If you don't want to miss an opportunity to make sales, your website must be optimized for mobile devices, whether through the design of your responsive ecommerce site, adapted, or an application.
4. Provide high-quality photos on your product pages
In an era where social media dedicated to photos are very popular, the ones on your online store must be optimal.
First of all, your presentation images (slides, Facebook cover photos, communication visuals...) must be high quality and inspire your visitors.
The product photos must be able to show the quality, the material, and the details of the product in question. One of the limitations of online sales is not being able to touch or physically detail a product. Images with a significant zoom should remove this barrier.
Today, solutions such as Packshot Creator allow you to enhance your products with high-quality photos of your products from every angle!
5. Develop a social media strategy
If you have an ecommerce business, it’s impossible to ignore social media these days! A well-planned strategy with great content will allow you to increase your community’s loyalty to your brand and also to manage your e-reputation, boost traffic to your store, offer new contact points for customer service, identify ambassadors for your store, get customers for your ecommerce business, and more.
Once your accounts are created, you’ll be able to rely on influencer marketing to develop your visibility: with a partner like Favikon, identify the optimal influencer profiles and start collaborating on platforms to reach more potential customers!
6. Ensure efficient customer service
Beyond your products, the services offered by your ecommerce business are as many reference criteria for a visitor to decide to buy from you or not. Among these, the customer service you provide must be responsive and efficient.
Your customers and prospects must be able to locate your contact information as quickly as possible. Of course, the answers and solutions provided must be convincing. Never dismiss a problem by claiming that it’s the fault of the postal service or other shipping company, because the shopper will likely hold you responsible for the problem that they experience.
It’s up to you to identify a solution, to solve the problem with the delivery service and to offer a satisfactory commercial compensation. Good customer service is a sign of trust and one of the key pillars of ecommerce.
7. Analyze your data
Your online store can always be improved and optimized. There’s no such thing as a perfect ecommerce website. It must constantly evolve to facilitate the visitor’s shopping experience and make it more efficient.
To do this, analyze your statistics and study your Google Analytics data to identify possible areas for improvement.
8. Tools, features, news... Stay informed!
Finally, the internet and ecommerce are constantly evolving. The big names of the internet (Google, Facebook, Amazon...) regularly announce new features and new players, and new tools often appear on the market.
You must always adapt to new trends to stay ahead of your competitors. In this way, you’ll prove to your customers your expertise in the web sector.
Check out the 8 essential elements to succeed in ecommerce in the infographic below:
FAQ: Succeeding in ecommerce
What are the essential features of an ecommerce website?
In ecommerce, the most important services are the following:
- a responsive and mobile-friendly design;
- quality product photos;
- availability of several payment solutions;
- efficient logistic partners;
- reactive and professional customer service; and
- visible reassurance levers (shopper reviews, data security, etc.).
Which products should you choose to succeed in ecommerce?
To determine the most popular products, several sites can help you such as Google Trends (search by popular keywords), or the best-sellers highlighted on sites such as Amazon or AliExpress.
Keeping an eye on social networks can also help you in your quest for the ideal product to sell online.
Why have an optimal marketing strategy?
Your ecommerce website is certainly the most stunning in its sector, but what if nobody knows about it? To create visibility around your business, you’ll need to rely on a marketing strategy that prioritizes high-quality content.
Social networks, SEO, emailing... Give your ecommerce business a voice to stay connected to your customers and look for new targets, and this from the creation of your online sales site!
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