Online Shops
The Basics
Why limit yourself to customers who are willing and able to visit your shop to make a purchase? Expand your potential customer base by having an online shop. With over 70% of people now using the internet to buy goods and services, even the smallest of businesses now need to have an online shop. In addition, over 1/3 of people are now using their mobile phone to make purchases so you need to be mobile friendly.
It can be daunting getting an online shop but it does not have to be. Here are 5 things to look out for when you set up an online shop:
1. Quality Design
It is estimated that nearly 50% of online shoppers base their opinion of a website on its overall design. They will quickly move away from a website if they do not like ‘the look’ of it – especially the home page. Even more important is to keep the design of the online shop section of your website simple and keep the focus on the products you are selling.
2. Quality Photos
Not many people would purchase something online without viewing a photo of it first. Despite this, some websites either don’t have photos of all their products or have poor quality photos. Having good quality photos is critical to the success of your online shop.
3. Quick Loading Time
Around 25% of people will abandon a website if it does not load within 4 seconds. It takes a lot of effort to get a potential customer to your website so you do not want to waste the opportunity by having your website load too slowly.
4. Easy Navigation
A potential customer will leave a website quickly if they can’t find the product or service they are looking for with ease. It is important to remember that people often use online shops for convenience so if you do not make the process of finding and buying what they want quick and easy they will go somewhere else. Try to put yourself ‘in the shoes’ of your customers to work out how they are likely to search for products. From this work out the different categories of your products and build in an effective filtering system. Allow customers to search by brand, colour, size, price or anything else that a customer thinks is important about the product you are selling.
5. Easy Payment Process
A badly designed payment process can cause customers to abandon their purchase at the last moment. It is best to provide minimal distraction at this last stage and provide clear calls to action to make sure the payment process goes as smoothly and quickly as possible. It is also very important to show your security certificates on your website so people feel comfortable using their credit cards.
Dynamic Websites specialise in small business web design. We are based in the Melbourne suburb of Hawthorn and provide services throughout Australia. We understand what it takes to get a small business online at an affordable price and with the minimum of fuss. Along with designing websites for small business, tradies and NDIS service providers we provide online marketing services. Our online marketing for small business extends to Google Ads, Google My Business, Microsoft Advertising, search engine optimisation (SEO), content writing and, blog writing.
