Online Store Checklist – Step by Step for your Online Store

At least once or twice per month, I talk to a small online store owner who wants to understand if his online store contains all the important pages needed and how can he bring more potential clients to his store. 

For the inexperienced, these kind of inquiries above may sound corny as some beginners think it’s all about just making a website and the whole world will come see it. The more experience you have online, the more you know it isn’t quite easy. If you don’t have a good website and put in some marketing effort, you will soon find yourself in trouble.

In any case, it’s possible to change/adjust direction in order to get more results with your website. By paying attention to three main verticals, you will get your online business going while being able to bring in more potential clients. The three key verticals are: the quality of your store itself, trust and marketing strategy.

In this post, I want to give storeowners (and those who are about to get on board) a checklist of all the important aspects within the three key verticals. Check if you have covered each topic below and if not, start thinking about how you could do it. This is an easy guide to professional online store. Come back to this list whenever you make major changes to your website. So let’s start…

Build Your Stunning Online Store (a short step-by-step):

1. Go to SITE123.com and click on “Start here”. 

2.Choose your online store template. Just select the business industry your store fits in. This will be the basis for a great website. Then, choose among one of the login options.

3. Make text changes in seconds! 

4. Choose your online store layout. It all starts with good looks. The first judging of your website by the people who visit it will be how it looks. I hate this fact too, but I also hate ugly websites. And I bet you do too. And I raise my bet that you will do whatever is within your reach to put together at least a decent looking website. So would I. To facilitate your life here a little bit, SITE123 provides various kinds of layouts to choose from. You like menus on the left? You got it. Prefer them on top? No problem. Want to make it transparent? There it is. No matter your style, you will find a layout for it. Even if you would like the menu on the bottom (believe me, it has its uses), you are able to get it. 

5. Easily add your products

6. Take Good Product Photography or use SITE123 free image gallery. The looks thing extends to your products as well. Ultimately, it will extend to your revenues – and that’s why you would want to have good product photography. There is a series of things you can do to improve the photos you take from your products. For example, you can use two sources of light on the product when taking the pictures; you can use filters on the images; edit contrast and brightness; and so on. There is an infinity of accessible things you can do to have better images on your website. Among them is the possibility of using the free image gallery on SITE123 to give your website that sparkle with some pro photography.

7. Set the shipping and tax details. Don’t forget these two important charging aspects. Easily set up shipping and tax fees on the website editor> left side menu> settings> store> shipping & tax. Easier done than said. Yes, I inverted the word order in the adage to fit the context. 

8. Set up your payment option. Needless to talk about its importance. SITE123 offers all the payment gateways you need for a great store. They will allow you to provide various payment options to your clients.

9. Set the language of your store. Amazing!!! This in an almost unbelievable tool and I will tell you why. Have you ever been on a website that had language options (English, Spanish, Chinese, etc.)? Probably yes. Now what would you say if I told you that on SITE123 you can duplicate your store to any language you want in a few clicks? Holy s***, right?! 

10. Make sure you’re mobile-friendly! This is more of a “Hey, we’ve done it for you” kind of thing. SITE123 websites fit all kinds of screens, including mobile phones and gadgets. Preview how it looks on mobile, using the preview function.

11. Publish!

Earn Your Audience’s Trust:

• Be accessible with a contact page - your 'Contact Us' page is one of the top most-visited pages on any given website. From big online retailers to the pet shop on your neighborhood, one of the most visited pages on their online stores is the contact page. It will be the same for you so make sure yours is all set with updated information.
• Show who you are with an about me page - your clients want to meet the boss behind the store and this is the stage for that. Your about me page must pass the value that you provide and what you can do for your client. This will reinforce that you can do the job and deliver what they are looking for. The trust is first established when your potential clients not only like your products or services but when they also get to know more about you and understand that you are the right person to go to.
• Answer before they ask with F.A.Q page - One of the best ways to build the highest levels of trust with your potential customers is to anticipate any concerns they may have about a product and answer them before your customers asks anything. In many cases, they won’t even ask but just decide not to get that product from you. Of course, you don’t want that to happen to you. Use your F.A.Q. page to elaborate on any concerns your potential customers may face when visiting your website. This will make them feel much more at ease with what they will be purchasing. And in the long term, they will trust you and come back to you whenever they need.
• Display your rules with Terms and Privacy - Are there laws, regulations, guidelines you must follow on your online store? Any return policies, newsletter policies, membership rules? Make sure you have a clear Terms and Privacy spot on your website for the above and any other rules you have to display.
• Give amazing support - Let’s say you have to choose between two stores. They are pretty much the same in everything: prices, shipping options, etc. However, one offers awesome customer support and the other doesn’t. Which one would you choose from? That’s right: unless you are the dumbest animal on the surface of the Earth, you would choose the one that offers awesome customer support. Why? Just because this will help a lot if you come to have any questions or need help with any matters such as returns and refunds. In addition, it feels like you are getting an extra benefit from that store. That’s why it’s so important to provide great support on your website. Your clients will love it. There are many ways to do that and the more, the better. You can use email support, chat support, phone support, Skype support, WhatsApp support and whatever other support you can think of. This is all on you.

Marketing Strategy: Build and Keep Your Audience

• SEO! Make Sure You’re Visible. How would you like if someone looked for a product on Google and the first result they got was your website? Luckily, you can work in that direction by following a few steps. You can count on SITE123 for that, check this post.
• Coupons! Everyone loves a deal. Don’t you too? Use discount coupons on your store to increase your chances of sales. You can create commemorative coupons, special deal ones and much more. Use your creativity and label your coupons with some promotion to sell more.
• Get on Social Media - This is almost obsolete to say. We have heard it all along and everyone knows it’s extremely important to use social media to enlarge the reach of any given brand. People are on all social media platforms interacting with each other and with brands, discussing topics, taking action, etc. You don’t want to keep out of all that and all the possibilities it brings you. Use Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Instagram and any other platform you can think of to interact with potential customers and bring them onto your store. 
• Start a Blog - This is a great way to maintain a relationship with your customers. By feeding them with content, they will keep coming back to you whenever they need to understand something or get a product from you. In addition, blogging increases your SEO results. Know how to take advantage of that by reading this post.
• Email Marketing - One of the oldest yet best ways of marketing on the internet. Very different from spamming, email marketing is the art of sending a series of emails to your customers and potential customers in order to keep in touch with them and drive sales. The list you will be sending emails to is a list to which people actually subscribe to, that’s why it’s very different from spamming. Take advantage of email marketing by understanding your customers, getting them to sign up for your newsletter and then it’s all about sending out good content.
• Do Remarketing all over the web! And when we say that we mean Google, Facebook, Twitter and Bing. Basically everywhere you can remarket your ads to potential customers. If you are not familiar with the term, remarketing is the marketing you do to people who have previously seen your ads. In this sense, these people already know your brand and your products and are more likely to buy from you. Google, Facebook, Twitter and Bing all offer remarketing solutions. Make sure you use that to convert even more visitors into potential customers.
• Analyze Your Results and Improve - Keep on moving! If you follow all the steps above, you will have much to learn from your visitors and your store itself. The results you get on the way, give you a clear picture of the direction you are heading. And you can adjust your marketing strategy accordingly in order to reach the right audience and interact with them better. All you have to do is keep your eyes open to what the data has to tell you and you will know what to do. It’s all intuitive and you will improve your results more and more over time. Good luck on the journey!

SITE123 The Easiest Way to Create Your Online Store. Start Here.