It’s tempting to think of an online store as an easy way to bring in extra sales. You just create a website, add your inventory, launch and let the sales roll in. Simple, right? Not usually.
In actuality, the way your online store is set up — the design, language and organization — has a big impact on what your customers end up buying. Here are a few tips to make your e-commerce website work for you.
Use Square Online Store.
Square Online Store was purposefully designed by e-commerce experts to showcase your products and services to optimize sales. The tool is not only free but also so easy to use that it can be set up in minutes without the help of designers or coders. Some sellers have reported immediate results.
“We wanted to give our customers an option to pay online so they didn’t have to provide us with their credit card information over the phone,” says Scott Stone, co-founder of Dartpocalypse, a Winnipeg-based NERF battle party organizer that uses Square Online Store. “Within hours we had our first online booking.”
Make it mobile friendly.
Optimizing your page for a mobile device is one of the most important things you can do, as so many people use their cell phones to scroll through web pages and shop on the go. Sellers who use Square Online Store find that this is done for them — their stores are automatically set up to be both web and mobile friendly.
Know your online customers.
Take a look at your online store analytics to learn more about where your visitors come from — search results, social media, your blog, etc. — and what they’re buying. Then you can use this data to tailor your site to be as appealing to those audiences as possible. The insights from Square Online Store are included in real-time, easy-to-read Square Analytics reports about customer behaviour, sales rates and more.
Use colours to your advantage.
Limit your colour scheme to two or three to give your page a professional, branded look. Use the “isolation effect” to choose one standout colour for important features such as your “Add to cart” button, and make any calls to action (CTAs) simple to read and larger than other features so they are easy to see and understand. The themes provided by Square Online Store were created with these principles in mind and can be fully customized to suit your product, service or charity.
Turn interest into full-on desire.
Psychology is important to consider when designing the layout of your online store. Do everything you can to make your offerings look desirable using awesome product shots (Square Online Store has a drag-and-drop tool for photos), writing enticing descriptions, supplying testimonials or providing a special online-only offer to help convert interest into sales.
Stay in touch.
Turn customers into repeat buyers by re-engaging them from time to time. Send them newsletters with product updates or sales (with their consent and in line with relevant laws, of course) or keep them engaged through social media. You could also include marketing materials or promotions in their shipment or at their session — just be careful not to bombard them. If you play your cards right, they’ll want to come back to your shop again and again.