Tips for running an online shop
These days, more and more companies are going online, and selling their products through the internet. Particularly since the lock down has started the days when you had to leave your house if you wanted to buy something are well and truly over.
But don't think that running your own online shop is going to be easy! It isn't. Despite the number of shops on the internet, the vast majority of them will fail, and have to close down in the first couple of years.
Today, I want to talk about what you need to do when you're selling your things online.
Know your audience
When you run a company, one thing you need to think about is your target market. This could be people of a particular gender, or age. It could be people have who a common interest. Or it could just be people within a geographical location.
Regardless as to who you're trying to sell to, you need to know what this type of person wants in a website.
Will they want something fun and flashy or something that's simple to use and just laid back?
Will they want as much information as possible or just some pictures?
Knowing who your customers are will help you to give them what they want.
Make it easy
Nobody wants to go onto a website, and have to feel like they need a degree to navigate it. They don't want to have to go on a treasure hint just to find what they want to buy, and they certainly don't want to fill out what can feel like a legal form.
People want to look at what you've got. Put it into their basket. And pay.
The idea of a website is that it's easier than going into a shop. So if your website is overly complex, you're kind of not getting the point.
Pictures
When people buy things. They want to know what they look like.
Whenever we go into a shop. We wouldn't just buy something in a plain white box, and hope that the product inside is what we want.
Anything that you put onto your website should be accompanied with a people. But you need to make sure that it's a good picture. A bad picture can make a fantastic product look awful.
As human beings, we are visual creatures. If we see something we like, we're more likely to buy it, even if it's something we don't really need.
Promotion
Once your online shop is up and running, you'll need to get the word out there. With literally millions of online shops out there, to say that you'll have a bit of competition is an understatement.
There are several ways you can get the word out there. The easiest and most obvious is to use social media. Since most of us are on social media anyway, it's a great way to share your business with people who wouldn't usually see it.
You can even pay to have an advertisement for your shop.
You can also tell your in real life customer about the shop, who can tell their friends and family.
I'm not saying that running an online shop is going to be easy. But unlike having a physical shop, you won't have the same geographical constraints. People from across the country (and potentially even the world) will be able to buy from you.
You just need to make sure that your shops is easy to navigate, fun to look at, and contains great pictures. And once you've done that, make sure that people know about it.
