10 Tips for a Successful Online Shop

Good shop software provides the basic framework for an online shop and saves you a lot of development work. An operational online shop does not mean, however, that the first orders automatically arrive. There are many more things to consider for the success of an online store. We have put together for you our seven top tips for a successful shop.

You should pay attention to these points in order to have long-term success with your online shop:

• Make it as convenient as possible for your customers! Avoid overloaded design, long-running texts, and complicated checkout process: These have clearly proven to be a sales killer.
• Strive for an appealing product presentation and detailed product description. This makes your online shop more trustworthy, creates positive emotions for customers and reduces the return rate
• The ECommerce sales via mobile devices have been growing for years, therefore a fast and mobile optimized online shop is an absolute must
• Customers are spoiled by fast shipping and many payment options. Therefore, your payment and logistics processes always have to work flawlessly.
• Keep engaging with SEO, SEA and social media. Set yourself regularly goals and KPIs that your shop should achieve, and check them continuously.

1. Make online shopping as convenient as possible

The usability in your shop is the alpha and omega everyone knows it: As soon as an online shop is unstructured or the checkout process is too complicated, the search engine is stolen and the product is bought from another supplier. If in doubt, the online giant Amazon has an equivalent product in the assortment. If you do not have a monopoly, then you should rely on a simple structure or offer other added value in your online shop. With Shopware 5, the basic framework is user-friendly as standard and the checkout process is already specified.

2. Merchandise presentation in ECommerce

If you buy in the stationery trade, then you probably prefer a tidy and clean shop. The trade invests a lot of money for a perfectly staged and emotional product presentation - for this, there is even a separate profession. In ECommerce, these rules also apply. Online shops whose merchandise presentation is clearly and emotionally designed are particularly successful. With the call-to-actions set in the right places, they can achieve high conversions. Take advantage of this principle and let your shop live through interactivity and emotionality. So you are sure to stand out from the competition. Inspirations of other great Shopware shops you can find here.

3. Mobile optimization is a must for online shops

Mobile first - the wisdom of the digital industry is underlined by steady growth rates in mobile commerce revenues. In your online shop, the content should, therefore, be optimized for mobile devices. Especially text lengths and image sizes play an important role here: Too long texts trigger a scrolling

process; Too large images lead to long loading times, which in turn can cause higher bounce rates. The responsive design is already given with your Shopware shop. Through our shopping worlds, you can even play different content on different devices.

4. Build trust in the shop

Especially in e-commerce, customers are often very critical of new online shops. In order to establish your shop in the long term, you should expand your brand. Trust can be built up through targeted content marketing. Run a blog and be a guide for your customers. Be there with passion and try to reach your customers emotionally. "Content is king, but relevance is queen" means that only relevant content matters. Inform your customers about a newsletter and show competence on your topic. When the newsletter is to be noted that the registration by double-opt-in procedure, I,e an email address is entered and the registration is subsequently confirmed by sending the link.

In addition, certifications such as the "Trusted Shop" seal or known shipping and payment methods play a major role. In Shopware Store you will find numerous plugins that allow you to easily integrate the shipping and payment methods.

5. Leverage for online success: SEA and SEO

When creating content and blog posts or landing pages, you should include relevant keywords. Do not always use the same words, but sometimes use synonyms. The more content you produce on your blog, the higher the likelihood of being placed higher in the organic search engine ranking. Short-term achievements reach you with paid adverts. But beware: to make AdWords as efficient as possible, make sure the phrase and the destination URL match. Landing pages that point directly to an action have proven themselves here. Nevertheless, link your shop to the landing page.

6. Customer Service: Payment and Logistics

An online shop is only as good as the underlying logistics processes of the provider. Due to online retailers, such as Amazon, Zalando etc. customers are particularly spoiled in ECommerce in terms of customer service and returns management. In times of social media, bad ratings and negative events spread very quickly. Therefore, test your logistics and returns management and continuously optimize the processes. Offer shipment tracking on shipping - your customers wants to know when the package arrives at the delivery address. If possible, ship your products via parcel services, which have a nationwide network - be it for returns or parcel stations.

7. Social Media Marketing

Showcase your online store on social media channels, like Facebook, Twitter, Xing and Co. Note that you fill these channels with life. A fan page on which no posts are set comes over a little professional. Share your blog posts, draw attention to your actions and entertain your target group. Try to get reviews for your shop to convince potential customers of you. Take care when choosing social media channels and see if your audience is on these channels. An online shop selling printers may not need a Snapchat account to present the printers live there? Do not underestimate the marketing activities on the different platforms - give yourself enough time or manpower. You can find more tips for social media marketing here.

8. SEO Content

Running a blog is an opportunity to generate more store traffic. Posts that contain SEO keywords and contain useful information for consumers are likely to rank high in search engine results. Blog posts that rank well and encourage people to visit your site are a stepping stone to people visiting your product pages and completing purchases.

Use SEO tools to measure the monthly search volume and keyword difficulty of terms. Terms with high monthly search volumes and high difficulty ratings are going to be more challenging to rank for.

Use Google Analytics to track the page views of your blog posts. Consider past posts that received high numbers of views when planning future content.

9. User Engagement

It’s important to remember that customer engagement is a year-round job. While online retailers may generate the highest profits during the holiday rush, those who are the most successful understand that managing the marketing funnel is a daily effort, so they continuously build their brands and qualify customers. It starts with creating a long-term strategy that includes multiple customer touch-points. A full-funnel marketing approach also includes analysis to find out what works and continuously optimize to improve ROI.

10. Google Shopping Listing

When you are paying for Google Shopping Campaigns (AKA Product Listing Ads), you are simply targeting people who are searching for your products. Shopping campaign ads have just one purpose. It is not about promoting your website or business; it is all about promoting your products and sales.

Not to forget, that Google Shopping Campaign ads will appear right there on top, even above the text-based ads or organic results.

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