Opening an e-commerce store is simple: Making a living from it t is another matter.
1. Choose Your Niche
Your store can never be the next Amazon. Nobody can be all things to all people.
But you can be perfect for a few.
Buyers want ‘Wow’: They have many generic, boring e-commerce websites to choose from, but their pulse starts racing when they find your store selling precisely what they were unknowingly looking for.
Your store is a perfect match for their needs, and they are your perfect customers. These buyers will rave about you to their friends, enthuse on social media and will come back time after time.
Look after your dream customers: Follow them on Instagram, give them special deals and make them feel as special as they are.
2. Check out your Competitors
You need to know what other stores are selling. Not so you can sell the same, but so you can use this information to set yourself apart, to be different.
- What do you dislike about each store? Ask yourself how you can do better.
- What do you love about each competing store? Is it something you can build into your site?
- Identify the ideal profile of each competing e-commerce store is targeting. Can you narrow that profile down or do you have a better understanding of the needs of that group?
Your target customer may find a competing e-commerce site is a partial match, but your objective is to make your offering a 100% perfect match that will excite visitors
3. Choose Your Products
Choose products that link together, where one purchase automatically leads to a related item.
- Cufflinks lead to tie-pins lead to ties lead to shirts
- Bras lead to panties lead to shorts lead to sandals
- Pens lead to pen-holders lead to desk-tidies
Look for top and trending products to sell. These will be your bread and butter sales. If you sell swimsuits, make sure you also offer lingerie, because buyers need underwear every week of the year, even if they only buy bikinis as summer approaches.
Seasonality is another product factor to be aware of. You aren’t going to sell many Christmas tree ornaments in June. Change your products according to what buyers are looking for at different times of the year.
4. Make Your eCommerce Store Unique
If you follow what everyone else is doing, your only differentiator becomes price. Be brave, be different and be bold about what makes your store unique.
Each customer is unique and is looking for a unique shopping experience.
Never use the photos your suppliers offer. You are not going to rank in an image search for the same photo that one thousand other e-commerce websites use.
Be different. Take your own photos. They don’t have to be perfect, and you certainly don’t need to ‘Photoshop®’ them because real people want to see your product being used/worn in real situations by people who are real. You could improve sales by 35% just by switching out your stock images.
But remember to ask your employee/family member/model to sign a model release.
5. Focus Your Marketing
Never rely entirely on Google to send you customers. Be active on social media and put your brand in front of people who fit your target profile.
Use Instagram, Facebook groups and other channels that focus on imagery and videos. You should post frequently to build a sense of community in your tribe, and make most of your posts helpful or entertaining rather than promotional. Your customers are not going to share many posts of your latest product, but they will share photos of you doing something silly.
Ask each site visitor for an email address and send special offers to those who sign up. This group of buyers includes your ideal customer, so use email surveys to learn about the problems they have that you might be able to help with.
This MoneyStepper.com article is essential reading for ideas to keep people coming to your e-commerce site.
Long Story Short
You need to be different because it’s the only way to stand out in customers’ minds. Different in what you sell, different in the pictures you use, different in the way you value and communicate with your buyers.
Love your customers, and they will love you.
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