3 Easy Steps for Creating an Online Shop

Creating an online store for your brand seems like a no-brainer – you can reach a lot more people than with just a physical location, earning far more profits and brand recognition in the process.

But expanding to online storefronts isn’t as easy as it sounds, and many businesses just like yours have failed at it. So how do you avoid making their mistakes and ensure your shop becomes a success?

Use a Proper Platform

Nothing disappoints a potential customer more than opening a retailer’s website only to see it being built by someone with basic knowledge of HTML.

You know exactly the type we’re talking about. Improperly cropped or sized pictures, stretched out multi-coloured background, slow and clunky menu…

It’s the equivalent of your client walking into a dusty, smelly store with broken shelves. You wouldn’t expect them to buy anything from that store. So why do you assume they would be more inclined to purchase from an improperly built online shop?

At the same time, most people, even those that own small companies, aren’t particularly well-versed in building and managing online businesses. But that’s okay, nobody expects them to be. That’s why certain developers who are skilled at this have built online platforms for them to use.

Online storefronts such as Magento, OpenCart, WooCommerce and ZenCart are available to use, giving people with little or no knowledge of programming or design the chance to easily build their stores.

Users can easily enjoy the benefits of a wide range of plugins for each platform. Some essential plugin examples include check-out, additional cart, shipment tracking and product feed manager. But those are certainly not the only ones that your online shop can benefit from.

If you’re looking to start an online store from scratch, these are an excellent place to start.

Be Flexible with Shipping

Presumably you own your own business, but chances are that you’ve also been a customer of another. As such, you’ve likely encountered an online storefront with a completely unreasonable shipping rate.

Maybe it cost more than the item itself. Or perhaps it took months for the product to arrive at your door. Worst case scenario, the item wasn’t even available for delivery in your area. Needless to say, you absolutely need to avoid any and all of these low points.

Do some research and discover which shipping company has the lowest rates for national and international shipping.

It’s not out of the question for one shipping company to give you a better deal on shipments within the country, while another for ones sent abroad.

Look into how long it takes for the company to ship a package, and what shape it eventually arrives in.

If your business is big enough to justify it, look into making a contract with them to ship at a reduced rate, or maybe even for free in exchange for a flat, monthly fee.

Create an Easy Check-Out System

This may sound like obvious advice – of course customers should be able to check out easily.

It’s as simple as clicking a button, right? Well, not necessarily.

According to a recent study, 67% of all customers in the UK have abandoned an online transaction because the check-out process was too complicated or they weren’t able to pay using their preferred method.

Even the best online store with best prices can’t possibly remain profitable if no one ever checks out. To stimulate more check-outs, ensure that your system is flawless and easy to use.

The solution is simple and the benefits are many:

• Easy implementation and an affordable payment solution –  Adding support for popular payment solutions will be invaluable. Fortunately, we can help you and your customer through this arguably most important step.
• Securely accept payments – You can easily implement a secure, easy checkout into many big online storefronts (like Magento, OpenCart, Prestashop and many more). Your customers can conveniently check out, saving them a lot of hassle, and the profits will go directly into your regular business account!
• Constant upgrades – Don’t rest on your laurels once you’ve implemented your check-out system. Implementing a reliable and professional check-out system will guarantee that you will be able to introduce further innovation in the process over time.
• Great customer experience – your clients will be pampered all the way!  For example, if a client calls you and has an interest in purchasing something, thanks to the features of your payment solution, you can directly send them a payment request for the items they want.

A store that looks great, functions well and offers reasonable shipping is good and all, but it’s all worthless if your clients can’t even be bothered to pay.

So let myPOS handle that for you!

If you need assistance, by all means message us at [email protected] with your questions and we’ll be happy to help!