Hippo Diaries- Do’s and Don’ts of E-commerce

So, you have decided to set up an ecommerce store? Sounds so cool! Moreover, it doesn’t take long to set up your online shop these days. But hold on- building a successful online store needs in-depth planning and careful introspection. Starting from choosing a theme to a hosting solution, you need to consider many factors which connect with customers, attract traffic consistently and set you apart from the crowd. After all, there are millions of websites out there, so how do you raise the bar? Internet retail has seen a huge jump and customers are now asking for more and more from retail websites.

Hippo brings to you some of the essential do’s and don’ts to build a successful and effective online portal.

DO’s

1. Keep it clean

This is one of the most important aspects to take care of. Would you like to even browse a site which is full of clutter, let alone purchase from it? Nope. It is the requirement of every website to maintain ease of navigation, clarity of flow of information along with effective use of white space. Do not overload your website. Clear the clutter, especially on your home page, in order to attract people to your store. 

Give breathing space for your descriptions, images and marketing messages. Use search functions and filters effectively for the benefit of the customers. Remember you want to build up a loyal customer base. The longer a customer has to spend time on your site to search for a product, the less likely they are to return.

2.  Effective content strategy

As opposed to a bricks and mortar store, you are communicating with your customers through your website’s content. Give interesting, relevant and requisite information about your company and product features. People like a detailed product description along with images. Update our content regularly with the changing needs, styles and tastes of the consumers. Take care that your content is SEO friendly and also make intelligent use of social media to promote your product or service. Attract. Engage. Convert- is the rule of the thumb.

3. Embrace Responsive Web Design

In this age of digitization, superior internet connectivity and Smartphone usage, eCommerce sites receive a lot of traffic from Smartphones and mobile devices. So, it is important to make a responsive design for your website which will adapt to various devices like mobiles, phablets, tablets as well as desktops and laptops.

4. Care for your Customer 

When people view your website, they want to see your customer care policy in place. In case they have any doubts about the product or wish to exchange/return the product, it should be easy to contact your team. Give contact options like email, mobile numbers, social media and live chat options. Remember- ‘Your customer doesn’t care how much you know, until they know how much you care.’ (by Damon Richards).

5. Give Discounts & Offers

One of the main reasons for people to shop online is to buy at a lesser price as compared to the retail market. Run discounts, sales, schemes and the like. You can search for sponsors and offer attractive prizes like food coupons, event & movie tickets. Think about coupons on next purchase, discounts on buying products for a specified amount. Get creative and think out-of-the-box.


DON’TS

1. Complicated checkout process

It is a fast paced world out there and people do not have much time. A complicated check out process will make you lose your customer. They will abandon your cart and search for another site. Don’t give tedious forms to fill in and don’t ask for compulsory log in. Give the user the option to checkout as a guest. Keep the process short and simple. 

2. Difficult Login Process

A difficult log in process is a big put off for the customer. You can keep it simple by offering them the option to register through their social media accounts like Facebook, Google plus and Twitter. This way consumers don’t have to create new IDs and they will not hesitate to open an account for your store.

3. Not having a marketing plan

You simply cannot ignore marketing for your products. It is important to have an effective marketing plan for your products which uses a wise mix of marketing approaches like emails, PPC, social media campaigns, blogging, videos, direct mail, advertising in various mediums and more. Ignoring online marketing is like opening a business and not telling anyone about it! Also, install Google Analytics on your website in order to keep track of your customers.

4.  Communication Overload 

Do not overdo your marketing efforts. If you overload your customers with a plethora of information and unnecessary information, they will get irritated and stop viewing your messages and emails. Determine the right frequency of messages to be delivered.

5. Ignoring effect of images

Images have a powerful influence on our mind. A website selling a variety of products, should engage a professional photographer in order to flaunt their products. Nothing works like a high resolution image for your product. Remember your customer is only viewing your products and doesn’t have the advantage of touch & feel factor. Rather you should try to offer a 360 degree scroll feature as far as possible, allowing customers to flip and rotate items from all angles. This will improve the customer experience and can help increase sales.

Conclusion

Simply creating a website will not get you the traffic to your store. Launching your e-store is the only the first step in the success ladder. You have to get creative and think out-of-the-box to attract customers, not once but again and again to your store. Focus on appealing design with the best user experience to create a loyal customer base and improve sales.

StoreHippo is a mobile e-commerce platform which creates online stores while keeping the do’s and don’ts in mind in the process of creating web stores for online merchants. Do try us.  We promise we won’t disappoint you.