Digital Growth 27 Dec , 2021 What do you need to know before developing an online store? Valdis Strautiņš Have you thought or are already planning to set up your own online store? Then you have to read this! This time we will tell about what factors should be taken into account in order to create a high-quality online store that is attractive to the customer and profitable. eCommerce development services E-commerce allows people to purchase goods and services in a convenient way without leaving home. Who hasn’t ordered anything on the Internet at any time? This is still a relatively new concept, however, its popularity is growing rapidly. In particular, 2020 has contributed to the popularity of online stores in both the trader and consumer circles. For this type of customer service, growth opportunities are seen by many young and already experienced entrepreneurs, as a result of which there is a lot of competition between them on the Internet. This article will summarize the main considerations that need to be taken into account before you start developing your own online store, so that it is as successful as possible. Learn more: Development of online stores Research. Before you invest your finances in a product or service, it is very important to conduct a proper market research. How popular this product or service is, how much competition there is, how much is the opportunity to earn something with it. This could be in the way that you find all your competitors, look at the prices and even possibly talk to them about how they are doing in the business. In this case, a good helper can be a google search engine. If you do not produce products yourself, you would recommend finding out the contacts of suppliers, contacting them to understand what the cost price of the products is. It is also important to understand how big the market is and how much competition there is. We also recommend analyzing keywords to understand how going the product is. Budgeting. The cost of setting up an online store varies greatly. They can range from a few hundred euros, to several tens and even hundreds of thousands. You need to understand what your budget is and what online store you want – simple and inexpensive, for some goods, without functionality and individuality, or a serious, respectable, attractive and high-quality store for the customer, where it is convenient to shop, with a convenient menu, filters and appealing visual content, even if you sell only one item. Understand what product you will need, target audience and potential growth to be able to choose the right system. If you are already a large company, with an impressive volume and a large warehouse, you definitely need a stable, safe growth-oriented system with many produkas, integrations, etc. According to your needs, a more adapted, functioning and larger project will, of course, be more expensive. In this matter, we recommend that you contact us or any other developer, because for each company the requirements are very individual and the amounts can vary dramatically. Target audience. Targeting is a very important factor. This will make it easier for you to plan the design and functionality of your online store. Also, when planning to advertise yourself, with what message you will address your potential customers. It is no secret that children, young people and older people have different interests, therefore, when creating an online store, each of these groups needs to use different methods of attention. According to this information, the designer will create a brand, structure UX/UI and mock-ups of the online store. Ad placement. You can have an excellent online store with excellent design, functionality and high-quality products, but all this may not bring profit if people do not know about your store. Placing relevant ads is very closely related to the target audience, as you need to be able to get the attention of your target audience directly. Nowadays, this can be done in a wide variety of ways, for example, through the most popular social networks, such as: YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, creating stories and collaborating there with influencers, or through the media, which is television, radio or ad placement in newspapers and environmental advertisements. Marketing. Let’s start with the fact that you have to try the most successful way of advertising. We would recommend asking for other people’s experiences or searching for information on trusted internet resources. Perhaps there is some feedback on marketing campaigns and advertising agencies that have really successfully implemented similar niche projects. (always ask for portfolios, results and reviews) . Of course, the first stage may come together more than testing, but we would recommend understanding as soon as possible what works, what does not work and invest basic marketing capital in what works – fail fast and move forward. Don’t invest a big budget on testing and experimentation, especially at the beginning. For example, if you know that Google Adwords advertising campaigns are working very well for you, you shouldn’t now suddenly redirect 30% or 50% to Facebook advertising campaigns without really knowing what the result will be. Start with 10% to get new advertising channels, and the other 10% – 90% interest on what’s already running. System selection. This will be the first step you will have to face immediately after you have chosen the developer when you start creating an online store. When creating an online store, you need to understand on what platform it will be built on. The systems available are very diverse, from the ready-made platform to the huge individually coded giants. In order to choose the most suitable system for you, the main factors to consider: How big will your online store be? A store with 5 items will definitely not have as much system requirements as a store with 1000 items. Do you need custom-made features? For example, a lot of product customization options, automated connection with the supplier, mass trader systems, non-standard filters and search engines, etc. Is there a plan over time to expand the online store and add custom features? For example, decide to add a highly personalized sign-up system, virtual wallet, tracking systems, or one of the examples of the previous paragraph. In business, you always have to look a couple of steps forward. What payment systems are planned to be used? Are there and what delivery services are needed?We prefer Laravel and Vue JS frameworks Feedback on our work is with the highest rating – five stars We work honestly and with great diligence in the interests of our customers It is advisable to understand from the beginning from which partners you will take products to know on what system you will develop the store on and it would be easier to connect it to the warehouses of suppliers. Functionality of the online store. the nterneta store must have well-thought-out functions and be easy to review, because, unfortunately, we humans are lazy and if we can’t find something right away, then we will choose another option. This could be solved, for example, by the search engine function. Simplicity should not be forgotten either. The functions should be simple, because people do not like complex things. The fewer clicks when choosing, for example, a category, the more pleasant it will be to shop with you. Transparency – Try not to ‘find out’ the main page of your interneata store, it can make the customer mess in the head and scare away. It is also very important to choose high-quality product pictures, so that if an increase in it is necessary in case of an increase in it, for closer inspection, the picture does not drastically lose quality.These are just a few nuances that should be taken into account in the functionality. Also in this matter, the developer can help you. Conversion. Once the online store is built and the advertisements are placed, it is very important to watch the increase in the number of customer visits. No matter what basic system you use, the most important thing is to understand what your customers’ habits are when using the store. Namely, which places in your online store are those where potential customers spend the longest time, in which – the shortest, and in which step they choose to leave the online store. This is a very important point in order to be able to make improvements that would encourage customers to make a purchase in your store instead of leaving it and buying products elsewhere. Let’s say that many of Youri’s customers leave the online store at the payment step. A possible reason for this could be that the payment step has too many actions, and before payment is made, customers have lost patience or been distracted by something else. Payment system. Surely you want customers to pay for your product or service, don’t you? It would be pointless to develop an online store that would prevent customers from paying for a service or goods. Both finished and self-built systems allow the integration of different payment methods. However, before installing a payment system for your online store, you need to make sure that your chosen payment system can be connected to the intended banks and other payment platforms. In addition, when this is done, it is imperative to make sure that the payments actually work. Delivery. As you know, the products themselves will not go to the customer, so if you intend to sell physical products, it is necessary to plan how their delivery to the customer will be implemented. If you sell goods that require special transport conditions or maintenance, you may need to enter into contracts with suppliers who specialize in it or make deliveries yourself. Plan it before choosing a store platform, as it may not be possible to connect it to the systems of the intended transportation companies, in which case it may be necessary to develop an online store on the basis of a different platform than originally planned. Customer service. If you gain the trust of the customer once, it is very likely that he will return to you again. Always make sure that you are easily accessible to the customer. If there are any incidents when it is not possible to deliver the item on time, always report it to the customer and, best of all, provide some small gift of 😉 comfort As they say, be human.