5 ways to create a successful eCommerce strategy

By Candace Huntly

Selling online, especially during times where retail stores are forced to close, is an important strategy for businesses of any size. While your website is important, it’s not enough to just set up your site and hope that people will come. You need an eCommerce strategy to set you up for success.

We talked about your customer experience and path to purchase. But do you have everything in place to have a successful eCommerce strategy? Here are 5 things to consider when setting up your eCommerce strategy.

CREATE A COMMUNICATION HUB

Your website is the main source of information for your brand. It should describe who you are, what you do, how people can connect with you, and how customers can buy from you. Remember that you need to think mobile first as people are spending so much more time on their phones now – including for purchases.

MAKE YOURSELF LOOK GOOD

Product images and descriptions are among the most important aspects of your eCommerce strategy. You need images that are going to make your audience stop scrolling. You want to make sure your images are clearly visible, in focus, and on brand – this goes for both your product images and lifestyle images. So many brands only think about getting product images done, but they don’t think about images featuring people actually using the products. Your audience needs to be able to see themselves using your product and a great lifestyle shot can be aspirational and descriptive.

Your product pages should be extremely descriptive and provide both the product/service features as well as benefits. You need to answer the “why” for your audience. The more information you provide, the easier it is for people browsing and doing their research to purchase your product.

ATTRACT CUSTOMERS IN THE RIGHT WAY

I know what you’re thinking. Can you attract people in the wrong ways? Well… Yes! You want to set yourself up for long term customer relationships and an engaged and loyal community. That means putting your customer first by providing value in all of your marketing tactics.

Your content strategy should include regularly updated website content (helloooooo blogging for business!) and a discussion of themes that showcase your brand and your expertise. You also need to tie in your blogging with your social media strategy so that your social media content drives potential customers to your website. If you have done your job correctly, all of the great content on your website will keep them there.

Remember that you are building relationships, so you need to get social and stay connected with your audience. That means having a consistent presence on social media and creating a newsletter strategy so you can collect emails and showcase your expertise to an engaged audience.

MAKE SURE YOU CAN HANDLE THE BUSINESS

Getting your supply chain in order from securing product to how you will deliver it to customers will allow you to prepare. If you set targets and work towards them you can figure things out like how much product you will need, where you will store your product or if it can fulfill orders on demand, how your customers will get their orders (delivery, pick up, a combination of both?), etc.

Making these decisions ahead of time means you can focus on connecting with your audience rather than making decisions on the fly.

MEASURE YOUR PROGRESS

First of all, you need to define what success looks like to you. Are you looking to replace brick and mortar with eCommerce? Do you want to take your company global? Are you looking to increase your sales by a certain percentage? Whatever your goals, make sure they can be measured in some way so you can figure out when you have achieved success.

Review your strategy at regular intervals to see if you are on track to meeting your ultimate goals. Once you reach milestones or even reach your goal, you can adjust your goals to work to achieve more.

You don’t need to overcomplicate things when it comes to eCommerce, but you do need to prepare in advance and do the foundational work to create a successful strategy. If you need help setting yourself up online, book a FREE CONSULTATION with us!