Admit it, you’ve probably went online to check out a merchant’s website and social media pages before deciding to visit the store in person or buying from his ecommerce website, either to get that sense of credibility or to read the brutal online reviews, and ever since you could shop online for things that vary from a shirt to car spare parts to baby diapers to even booking your travel arrangements online, we’ve become spoiled but you’re not alone, according to the eCommerce Foundation, 88% of consumers look for product information before they take an action.

Digitization often requires that old wisdom be combined with state of the art breakthroughs. 

Think about how you used to pay your phone bill 5 years ago, you probably called the call center and gave them your card information which is a bit of a security risk or went to the store which required more man power and more expenses besides wasting your time. But nowadays, you can simply log into your account to view your entire history, pay the bill, order a new phone and transfer money which in turn appeals to the younger generation and cut down the manpower expenses, it’s a win win.

Now that we agree on the importance of having an online presence, let’s see how to go about it:

Necessary measures to watchout for when taking your store online

Establish a website to market yourself

Your website is the backbone to all your marketing efforts because in the end, that’s where you want all your customers to go to, it’s the end goal. Which is why your website must be updated frequently unlike those other websites that haven’t been updated since 2015. 

You can also use them to send out newsletters to your subscribed customers to have a legitimate list of interested buyers. Also if you run google search campaigns, the ads have to lead somewhere and no it shouldn't be your Facebook page.

If you plan on running an ecommerce store, then by all means you already have this point figured out. One thing to always have in mind is that you must stay up to date with all the analytical tools and tracking codes the social media websites allows you to use and implement. Think of Google tag manager, Facebook Pixel, LinkedIn insight tag and Google Analytics.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is an ongoing battle and takes practice and effort to benefit from it, but what’s best about it is that when it works, you have yourself organic customers.

According to Moz, SEO has 20 x more traffic than pay per click ads.

Ux and UI

Making sure that your website is user friendly, bug free and secure should be on your top priority list because let’s face it what’s the point of having a customer visit your website only to be bothered by a broken link, a slider that doesn’t slide or simply the use of an unattractive font that limits his ability to navigate. According to a study by Maxymiser using different color variations for your buttons can potentially increase 11% of all clicks, not that hard.

Be active on social media

Almost every single one of your target audience now has access to a social media account and being able to provide helpful meaningful content alongside the product you’re trying to sell creates a community around your brand that ultimately pushes to the website. The best part about it is the sponsored ads, it’s not as easy as flipping a switch but when done right you’ll reap the benefits of your marketing budget.

Here are some cool stats to get you convinced:

1. According to instagram 60% of people discover new products on Instagram
2. Buffer stated that 73% of marketers have reported social media marketing effective for their business
3. A report carried out by Statista showed that 52% of the surveyors were interested in a product they found on Facebook.

Go all out or go home 

When taking your business online, end-to-end customer experience must be taken into consideration. It’s not enough to dissolve friction in specific areas because it will eventually lead to pipe blockage somewhere else. Consider the example we’ve given earlier about paying your bills online, imagine if the app only allowed you to view the bill, just that, no option to actually pay it, wouldn't that be frustrating. Customers don’t care about intentions or your future plans, they care about tangible products and services available now.

Listen to the customer

This is a new step for you, so it’s like launching your already existing product for the first time and implementing a tool like hot jar can potentially save your business by monitoring where your customers are falling behind.

It’s important that you ask them for reviews and to send out surveys to know their perception of your business instead of wasting your time chasing after certain aspects thinking they will perfect your product while in reality they will rarely or never be used.