It isn’t any secret why e-commerce has become such big business. What sounds easier to you – shopping at home on the internet while wearing your jammies, or getting showered and dressed, fighting traffic and standing in line to shop? Online business is thriving and clearly in it for the long haul. With the amount of technology we use these days it has become essential to society. In fact, statistics show that half of all customers vastly prefer online shopping. This article offers four tips for ensuring your business has the best chance to succeed in the online marketplace.
Make Sure Your Website And Store Are Mobile-Friendly
Time magazine reports that 70 percent of people who shop online on Amazon use their phones or tablets rather than larger-screen computers. Even more shocking, 90 percent of in-store shoppers are also consulting their phones for price comparisons, to get coupons or discounts and to make purchases. Whether you have either a brick-and-mortar store or your business exists exclusively online, what this tells you is simple: your online store simply must be mobile-friendly. Not only will having a mobile-friendly website and store get your site high marks from Google’s search engine, but it will also help you capture a customer base that seldom finds themselves in front of a laptop or desktop computer when it is time to shop.
Be Sure Your Customers Can Find You Online
Even if you have created the perfect web store with amazing products priced competitively for the market, you still won’t make any money if no one knows you are there. Luckily, it doesn’t have to cost a lot (or anything, really) to make your presence known. Social media platforms (Facebook, Twitter, et al) make it easy to generate awareness of your products and presence. You can also purchase budget-friendly paid ads through Google Adwords, Facebook Ads and other social media ads. Finally, by choosing the right keywords and populating your online content with these keywords, you can ensure that prospects searching these keywords will be directed to you online.
Set Up Your Business To Weather Any Storms
As you continue to build your business online, there may come a time when you are ready to expand. Before you do this, you will need to ensure your business “house” is in order. You should ensure you have all the proper licenses and permits to do business and sufficient insurance to cover you against complaints and lawsuits. It can also help to work with places like Lexington Law credit repair to build a business credit profile that will be attractive to potential funders and investors when you apply for funding.
Study Your Analytics And Adjust Accordingly
No online entrepreneur does everything right the first time. There is just too much to learn and technology is changing too fast, but the most successful online entrepreneurs learn how to course-correct on a dime by reading their website and e-commerce store analytics. Your analytics can tell you which landing pages are outperforming the rest, when your peak days and times for visitors and sales are, which pages cause visitors to bounce from your site, how frequently shoppers abandon their carts and whether you are gaining most of your traffic from organic or paid searches or a combination thereof.
These four tips will help you build a trustworthy online presence that is easy to find and effortless to share and recommend. By ensuring your site is mobile-friendly, making use of social media for PR and networking, inviting your followers to weigh in and studying your analytics, you can build an online presence that is perfectly positioned to succeed.
About Kara Masterson:
