What should you bear in mind when setting up an online shop?

Due to the growing demand for goods available online, more and more online shops are being set up every year. By following a few key principles, you’ll increase your chances of success in the e-commerce sector.

Information, without which you will lose the trust of your customers

Polish law requires online shop owners to provide certain information in order to verify the credibility of their e-business.

Include on the page the information a potential customer might be looking for:

• Name and registered office of the company,
• The authority responsible for registering business activities,
• The NIP and REGON numbers under which the business was registered,
• Legal form,
• Exact cost and specified delivery date,
• Where and how to lodge a complaint,
• SSL certificate.

Internet users are aware of the risks online. The lack of basic information may simply be an oversight on the part of the shop’s creator, but in the eyes of the customer, the website will certainly lose credibility.

Although it may seem trivial, failure to comply with the disclosure obligation may result in low profits from the business.

Online shop design

It is worth consulting specialists when planning the design and functionality of an online shop. It is best to work with an interactive agency that has multidisciplinary teams capable of handling the entire development and implementation of the project.

The experience and knowledge of the team of UX designers will be invaluable when designing the usability of an online shop.

Creating an intuitive and straightforward shopping journey will boost conversion rates. Conversely, any mistakes made at this stage of setting up the shop could drastically reduce profits or result in no profits at all.

Hosting for an online store

Your decision should be strictly determined by your expectations regarding the e-shop and the budget you will allocate to the purchase of a server. Take into account the size of the shop and the software you use (e.g. open source – Magento or WooCommerce).

If you opt for a fully-featured Magento installation, you’ll need to invest in a powerful server. On the other hand, if you use ready-made solutions such as Shoper or Shoplo, your subscription will usually include a server with a certain amount of data transfer.

The speed at which your website loads depends on your choice. Remember that slow websites have a high bounce rate and do not rank very well on Google. In this case, lightweight and fast websites come out on top.

The right choice depends on many factors, which is why it is worth consulting experts on this matter. Our agency specialises in the the creation of many extensive online shops. We’d be happy to take care of yours as well too.

Make sure your product descriptions are good

The text on the website is another issue that shop owners approach with varying degrees of commitment. The easiest option is to copy the product description from the manufacturer’s website or from a competitor’s site, or – worse still – not to write one at all.

Writing high-quality, unique content is important not only because it will help you stand out in a market full of online shops. Bear in mind that potential customers view your products or services from different perspectives.

Don’t let random people end up in your shop. Create unique content that will help you attract exactly the users your sales offering is aimed at.

The stories of major brands show that the right choice of words and the right structure of the content enable you to reach the right target audience and build a bond between the customer and the seller.

Let a potential customer take a look at the product from different angles. If you don’t feel confident enough in writing, entrust this task to our agency. We’ll take care of the appropriate selection of keywords and the writing of texts, which will be sold a28> texts, which will sell.

Let the customer get in touch with you contact you

This is a very important issue, given the growing competition in online retail. Customers expect a quick response to their queries. Shops compete with one another in various ways – one of these is by offering a wide range of options for customers to communicate with staff.

Chatbots have been gaining popularity for some time now, making it even easier for users to communicate with shop staff and saving a lot of time compared to conversations conducted via email.

If your shop handles a large number of repetitive enquiries, consider implementing a chatbot. Thanks to artificial intelligence and optimisation, the chatbot will be able to communicate with a potential customer and conduct a conversation based on a list of frequently asked questions and possible answers.

The advantage of a chatbot over other forms of communication is all the greater because, if the bot does not know the answer to a question, it will hand the conversation over to a consultant. The person taking over the conversation will have access to the chat history, meaning the customer will not even realise when a real person has taken over from the bot.

Building a mailing list

This is one of the issues that entrepreneurs in the e-commerce sector tend to neglect. Many of us dislike the spam that floods our inboxes, so it’s possible that, as an online shop owner, you too are not entirely convinced that a newsletter can drive conversions.

Meanwhile, a solid email list can bring tangible benefits. That’s why, right from the start of your business, collect email addresses along with consent to be contacted for marketing purposes. This will enable you to build up an email list within just a few months of your shop opening, which you can then use to send out information about promotions or new products.

Selection of promotional channels

When planning to launch an online shop, it is essential to set aside a budget for marketing. Simply setting up an online shop and stocking it with products is not enough to start selling.

Profits will only start to materialise once the first users visit the website and decide to make a purchase. Until then, you need to ensure that your activities are properly promoted.

Use social media and Google Search to attract your first customers. A social media presence requires the creation of profiles, which must be updated regularly in order to attract fans of the brand.

When it comes to Google, it’s worth setting aside a budget for a Google Ads campaign. Choose the right keywords and find out what the CPC rates are in your industry. A well-thought-out advertising strategy on Google Ads or Facebook will help you achieve satisfactory results.

Creating a high-converting online shop is only seemingly an easy task. After all, there are plenty of cheap, and even free solutions. However bear in mind, that templates produced en masse lack individual features.

You’ll end up paying for features you don’t need. A good digital agency, on the other hand, can create an online shop tailored to your specific needs. What’s more, there’s the possibility of establishing a long-term partnership across a range of areas. A thriving online shop needs marketing, high-quality, unique content and well-planned advertising campaigns.