How to create a successful online store?

The pandemic situation and the latest trends in trade are forcing entrepreneurs to think about opening an online store. The combination of offline and online sales increases profits, and during a pandemic, an online store sometimes becomes the only option for trading. It is better to open your own online store when:

• you already sell well offline,
• you have relevant or unique products,
• you have an established business and are looking for additional sales channels,
• there are competitors in your niche who successfully sell online.

Let's say you've already created your online store and launched your first sales. But customers don't always know what they want to buy. They can spend a few seconds browsing your online store, not find what they are interested in, and leave the site. To avoid this outcome, it is important to understand the wishes, interests, and habits of customers.

What do website visitors compare with competitors' online stores?

• Price.
• Convenient search
• Delivery time
• Payment methods
• Security and guarantees during the purchase
• Possibility of return

Show these advantages by describing them on your website in the relevant sections. The same texts on competing websites and monotonous photos make visitors bored. For a showcase, it is important that the photo of the product is taken from different angles so that the customer can examine it. Good content for an online store is:

• texts describing the unique properties of goods and their benefits,
• meaningful and clear video reviews,
• honest reviews of products,
• clear payment and delivery terms.

Tips to help online sellers keep the attention of site visitors

Buy this immediately

Sometimes, customers who are lost in the endless flow of information need help making a choice. For this purpose, you can use calls to action, such as: "buy this product at a discounted price" or "buy now", "place an order", "add to wishlist".

Cheaper all at once

An effective technique often used by online retailers to increase the average check. They offer the customer a product that matches what they have already bought and make a small discount on it. For example, a phone case for a phone, razor blades for a razor, and a set of linen for a blanket.

Convenient search for your online store

Place the search at the top of the page, so it will be more convenient for the customer to find the products they need. Try to place new products closer to the best-selling ones.

Customer loyalty

Imagine that you are a buyer, and you have hundreds of websites with approximately the same products, prices, and design. Which one should you choose? First of all, the one that inspires trust and gives the impression of a competent seller.
Create a store development plan and a marketing plan, but don't forget that the main key to success is customer loyalty. It's important to choose the right niche for your online store, so that your sellers are experts in the topic, as this affects customer loyalty. Inform customers and make them interested in promotions, discounts, and new products. You can install a program with the "Mass mailing" option and not only notify customers about discounts, but also increase their loyalty to the store by congratulating them on holidays via SMS, Viber, or e-mail.

Practical crust

Texts should attract attention, answer questions, and inspire trust. For example, if you sell medical products, create a section on your website: "Ask the Expert" where a specialist with medical experience will answer readers' questions. By listening to a doctor's advice, customers will be more willing to buy, for example, toothpaste with a therapeutic effect. You can create a blog section on your online store:

Home page of the online store

It is better to place a small text of up to 1000-1500 characters on the main page of an online store. It is important to understand where the person is, what product is offered, and where to find it. You can invite the buyer to interact with the store: go to the page, look in the following section, and contact our expert for answers.

Trade trends

Study trends in the area of interest to your target audience. News feeds often contain information about statistics: what sells best, what new products are coming out. Use this information to understand how your customers think. Try not just to adapt quickly to changes, but to anticipate wishes and meet customer expectations.

Promotion of an online store

Experiment and combine different sales channels:

• Price aggregators are platforms where a buyer can see offers from different sellers for the same product, compare prices, information about the seller, and choose the appropriate option. On a price aggregator, the buyer cannot purchase the product, but compares the price and follows the link with the most favorable offer.
• Contextual advertising is thematic advertising based on the client's search queries: banners, videos, links that appear on websites, social networks, and search engine pages when a user searches for a product. The user is advertised on the Internet for the products they have previously shown interest in.
• SEO - when a customer searches for something, it is search engines that give them options to browse. How do they decide what to offer the user? Search engines are focused on the words that the user enters into the search feed. They look for sites that have these words and show them to the user. It is important to use low-frequency and medium-frequency queries for the success of your website. In search engines, you can see how often users have entered a particular phrase into the search bar.
• Email marketing - sending messages to customers with catalogs, advertisements, and promotions.
• Retargeting is when a user is periodically exposed to online ads for a website they have visited. Such ads will remind the customer of your online store.

Attracting customers from different trading platforms

You will get more customers if you sell on several marketplaces at the same time. Choose options for selling goods on the Internet, for example: your online store, Rozetka, Prom. In the Torgsoft program, fill in the product information and upload a photo - the program will transfer the information to marketplaces.

Automation of an online store

Sales automation makes the purchase more convenient for both the buyer and the seller: it improves the quality of service and speeds up the sales process in offline and online commerce. Why do you need an accounting program for an online store and what does it do?
The accounting program is a virtual employee who works around the clock: accepts orders, reserves goods for customers, informs the buyer about the shipment, records all information about the transaction with the client in the CRM system, keeps track of goods, informs customers about new products and promotions. If you used 1C before, you can transfer information from 1C to the Torgsoft program. The program for an online store is convenient: you only need to enter information about the product (price, characteristics, photos) once and the program synchronizes this data with your online store and marketplaces. The program helps to control the work of employees: it records calls and actions of employees, keeps statistics.

Productive interaction between seller and buyer

Sometimes a customer has already visited the site, selected a product and even placed an order, and it seems that the purchase process has been completed successfully, but there are still many stages of the sale ahead, and something can happen at each of them. For example, the manager may respond rudely to the customer and he or she will refuse to buy. Or the purchase has already been paid for, but the customer is waiting for the delivery note for a long time, worries, and calls. In such a situation, even after receiving the parcel, the customer may still have unpleasant emotions that will encourage them not to buy from this store again. What does the customer expect from the seller and the store?

• Polite communication and respect for oneself.
• Quick response from the seller, clear answers to questions.
• Ensure that the price and description of goods on the website are accurate.
• To have the product in stock.
• No worrying while waiting for the bill of lading, wondering whether the parcel will be sent or not.

These wishes can be met with automation:

• Install IP telephony and record conversations between salespeople and customers. Torgsoft synchronizes with Binotel IP telephony.
• Make sure prices on your website are up to date. The program monitors the relevance of prices on the website. Torgsoft revalues the product if promotional discounts are planned or the price is related to the exchange rate. When the product is revalued in the program, all prices on the site are automatically updated.
• Use a program that synchronizes with delivery services for prompt shipment of goods. Torgsoft synchronizes with the delivery services Nova Poshta and Ukrposhta. This makes it possible to quickly process orders and send parcels: the seller does not waste time filling out customer information at the post office, he generates a TTN directly in the Torgsoft program, customer information is automatically pulled up from the program database, you can specify the TTN directly in the customer's check or send a message with the TTN, you just have to take the parcel to the post office.

On the Torgsoft website, you will find useful articles for online store owners.