An e-commerce website can be defined as a website that facilitates the buying and selling of products and services online. An e-commerce website is, basically, an online shop. a shop displays products, buyers come in, select products, and pay for them.
Calla Marketing
Do you want to launch your e-commerce site? This guide gives you a simple, easy to follow checklist for the core components of your next e-commerce website.
Let’s dive right in, then! Here is your e-commerce checklist!
- Business plan: It is important to think of your e-commerce site as the creation of a business. All solid businesses start with a business plan!
- Analyze your competition: The internet is a very competitive place and you must know your sector /industry well, your competitors whether they are in physical stores, and other e-commerce sites.
- Name and Domain name: In digital marketing, your name matters a lot as it is the first point of interaction between you and your prospective buyers. Create a relevant, catchy name that gives you some mileage, and then make the right choice for the domain name of your e-commerce site, in relation to your business name and these two should go hand in hand. Imagine choosing a store name and finding later that its domain name is not available…
- Visual identity: Your brand counts! So, tink carefully about your visual identity – logos, fonts, colors, image guides, and other brand elements that convey a message tailored to your consumers and clearly highlighted on your e-commerce site and all of your communication media.
- Content: In addition to your product images and text, you need to think about the content of texts, images, videos, etc. which will be set up on your e-commerce site. Are you planning to set up a blog, a newsletter?
- Communication and promotional plan: You need to drive traffic and awareness to your website. Otherwise, no one will know of your existence and that’s death to business! Set your communication budget, media/channel selection, and your overall promotion plan well in advance. Think about SEO, social media, PR, influencer marketing, and paid ads.
- Legal: As online sellers do not necessarily meet their buyers during the selling process, it is essential to cover your back legally. Come up with, and prominently display important legal information such as your general conditions of sale, legal notices, return policy, and privacy policy on your site.
- Payment Platform – The choice of the payment system matters a lot. Of course, you need to be able to securely receive payments for your sales, and make it easy for your customers to pay online. Cards (such as Visa and Mastercard) are imperative, and, if you are in markets like Kenya, mobile money (M-Pesa and Airtel Money) may be a must-have. Also consider if you will use the tried-and-tested escrow services (such as PayPal and Flutterwave), or if you will integrate each service individually.
- Shipping – E-commerce businesses depend on the efficiency of shipping systems. Ensure you have a reliable supply method covering your entire areas of operation before embarking on your project!
- Analysis – Ensure you have systems in place to have actionable visibility of your business. Have data on your fingertips on visitors to your e-commerce website and their behavior and sources, sales, abandonment rates, and other metrics that matter to you!
- Team – As you have seen, there are several cogs and you may need a team to keep your online business running. Who will take care of the website? How will you handle your marketing? Who will handle your day to day running of the business? It may be quite a bunch to handle. So, cobble up a team, even if it means outsourcing from experts like Calla Marketing!
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Further questions to ask yourself
- What sets you apart from the competition, vis a vis what customers are looking for? Will visitors find in you what they will not find in others?
- Do you have the technical and business knowledge to run the store?
- Do you have reliable suppliers? If your primary supplier lets you down, do you have any alternatives? Could you continue to run the store?
- Do you have the right partners for your business?
Calla E-Commerce Services
With a combined 30+ years of experience in e-commerce projects for large e-commerce companies, the Calla Marketing team possesses your key to an effective online business. We can help you with:
- E-commerce website design and development.
- Branding for your online store
- Integration with payments and shipping providers
- Content and marketing strategies
- Actual marketing via social media, search engines, PR, emails and more
- Training to take your business forward.
Can we help? Contact us today.