The internet is full of tutorials on how to create your e-shop. Yet, during my consultations, I keep encountering the same problems that novice e-shoppers fail to overcome. Creating an e-shop is a very complex activity, so here are a few tips on what not to forget.
The website is only a small part of the business
Setting up your e-shop today is no longer complicated. But creating a successful e-shop is. I notice that many beginners spend too much time on web development and underestimate other areas. They are deciding what the menu should look like, what color it should be, and whether the product images are what they could be.
You can check https://www.webretailer.com/ for many great tips. All of this is important, of course. But your business is not based on what shade of green you choose for your menu but on whether you can bring customers in and convince them to buy. That’s what makes you money.
Addressing colors, element layouts, and other details on the site makes sense, as it can greatly improve the site’s usability and conversion rates. Still, beginners shouldn’t worry about it so much, in my opinion. Just follow best practices that can be traced from successful e-shops and many articles on the internet. You can usually just pick one of the e-shop templates that already have these elements fine-tuned and not invent anything special.
The most important competency of an e-shopper is the ability to bring customers to the website and sell to them profitably. Spend time on this, think about how to do it here, and get better. You just need to have a website at some reasonable basic level and improve it gradually.
There is strength in weakness
E-commerce is overcrowded with e-shops. Some industries are so highly competitive that entering them almost doesn’t make sense. Yet new e-shops are constantly being created and, for example, the fashion ones are perhaps the most numerous.
Beginners often correctly follow the major players in the industry and want to learn from them. Their websites often look similar to Amazon or Aliexpress and other giants from whom it makes sense to take inspiration.
But in business, it matters a lot who you compare yourself to. If you line up next to big players like that, people will logically reach you to them. And you will lose that comparison because you can’t offer nearly the range of products and services as the biggest e-commerce companies with billion-dollar budgets.
Only they can’t be like you. They can’t offer a personal touch like you, a human story, and more. Customers love to know that someone is just starting and doing their best to do a quality job. That in itself gets their attention, especially when so many people favor manufacturing and support small tradespeople.
