Top five things to consider before selling online

Just like in the case of a bricks and mortar shop, creating a sales strategy online takes planning. Rush in to the project and you risk making mistakes that will mitigate your ability to sell. Here are the top five things to consider before commissioning your build.

Ignoring the obvious stuff like how you’re going to create the shop and what you’re going to sell, the following five areas should all recieve some thought before you plunge head-long into selling.

1)    How will you promote your shop?

Imagine a beach; now imagine you pick up a grain of sand. This is your fledgling ecommerce business. The marketplace for people selling online is huge and crowded, and everyone is vying for attention from customers.

Research ways of marketing your shop from the off – will you use ‘free’ vehicles such as social media sites like Twitter and Facebook, or pay-per-click advertising, regular competitions, email newsletters, product offers or loyalty bonuses – or a combination of these?

Even cheap marketing takes time; time which could be spent fulfilling orders, buying new products or even having a rest. So it’s important to plan your marketing strategy and factor in a balance between operations, sales and marketing.

2)    Getting the product to the customer

Your customers’ experience does not end with the sale. It’s no good providing a perfect buying experience only to mess up delivery of the item – so your fulfil process needs attention well ahead of launch.

Your biggest competitors will have complex and expensive fulfilment processes, capable of getting thousands of products to waiting customers in a few days and with only a small number of delivery hiccups. Can you do the same?

You need to organise a process that is cheap, simple enough that you can manage orders with the resources available to you, and that you have time to answer queries in the form of emails and phone calls.

It’s a good idea to launch your ecommerce website in beta, initially, and to test its operational effectiveness and system of delivery before implementing your marketing plan.

3)    Collecting payments

Scepticism about the security of buying online has dropped markedly in the last 10 years, but many people remain wary of purchasing from websites for the first time. Therefore, any sign that your site is not strictly kosher will send would-be customers running for the hills.

Your customers must feel safe before they will buy from you, so think about ways to increase confidence in your site. Your order pages should be encrypted and password protected, and credit card details must be kept from prying eyes.

No one pays through invoices or cheques anymore and ‘card holder not present’ transactions are the norm. This means customers can buy from a site simply by inputting some basic details about the card they’re using to pay for their goods.

This has some fairly obvious implications for fraud and there are stringent rules laid out by government and the banks making e-retailers put in place safeguards and accept the high risk level, compared with a conventional shop.

4)    Give customers piece of mind

Those are the basics of payment security, but more subtle signs that your site is safe can be found in its quality look and feel, its freedom from glitches and bugs that disrupt user experience, and the inclusion of feedback forms and contact details in its ‘contact us’ section.

5)    Know the law

There is a large body of rules and regulations affecting online retailers, especially when it comes to protecting their customers. You need to be up to speed with this before you launch your shop, so search online for legal guides and consult a professional if you feel unsure.

The key areas the law covers are: payment security which prevents theft of bank details, data protection which prevent sensitive details being accessed by strangers, and product descriptions which should be accurate and up-to-date.