New Online Store Tips for Beginners

Have you made any new year resolutions for 2022?

It might be to cut back on the morning coffees. Maybe you want to make sure you have a holiday before the year ends. Another popular one is finally joining the gym that you drive past every day.

However, a great new year's resolution is starting your first online store. Setting one up has the potential to provide you with financial freedom so you can quit your job or retire as early as possible.

So how do you start a new online store? More importantly, how do you make it successful? If you're new to the world of ecommerce, don't be turned off by the abundance of information that is available. Just be sure to follow these tips to help you get going.

Keep Your Website Simple, Engaging and Mobile-Friendly

It doesn't matter if you're selling the most popular product in the world. If you don't have a website that makes it easy to purchase the item or a store that's visually appealing to shoppers, then people will find another place to buy it. It also needs to work flawlessly on a mobile device.

Focus on using engaging images that showcase what you're selling and text highlighting the features and benefits. You don't want an essay. Keep it short and sweet. You also want to make it easy to purchase. So avoid using too many web pages if you can.

Tell Customers Who You Are

It's vital as a new online store to build trust with those who visit it. That's why you need to provide an About Us page that highlights who you are, what your business is all about, and what customers can expect from you.

You should also include a form for people to contact you for any enquiries as well as your social media channels. As you earn testimonials and reviews, post them on this page so they're easy to find and customers know they can trust doing business with you.

Go Above and Beyond with Customer Support

One method to earn testimonials is by providing exceptional customer support. If you can, try to offer 24/7 support. You don't want your phone ringing off the hook as you have a new online store to run. So look into live chat and messaging plug-ins as well as chatbots that can take on this task for you.

Customers will reward you with glowing reviews if you're easy to contact and provide support when it's convenient for them. Be sure to make these features easily accessible, so shoppers don't have to search too hard for them on your website.

Include Popular Payment Options

There are multiple ways to pay for goods and services online. While you don't want to have dozens of icons from different providers appearing on your website, you should include the most popular payment options to allow shoppers to choose how they will spend their money.

Credit card is an essential option. You should also offer PayPal, ZIP, Afterpay, Apple Pay, and Google Pay. If you're shipping products worldwide, then you'll want to include the most popular payment options in the US and UK as well to ensure anyone can buy your items.

Offer Choices for Shipping

To avoid a high cart abandonment rate, you should include options for shipping at the checkout stage of your new online store. Free shipping might sound like the best option. However, you'll find that many customers will happily pay extra for express delivery if it's available.

Instead of calculating all the figures on your own, integrate your new online store with Interparcel. Your customers will see live costs at checkout from all the most popular courier services. They can then choose what option is best for them, and you don't need to pay extra or lose revenue from shipping items for free.

Get Your New Online Store Off to the Right Start

Whether you're starting it as a hobby or looking for a career change, opening a new online store can be a rewarding and fulfilling experience. However, to be successful, you need to ensure you have a simple but engaging website that makes it easy to buy your products using popular payment methods. It should also be easy to contact you as well as for shoppers to find more about who you are.

Most importantly, you should provide choices in regards to shipping. It will allow buyers to decide how quickly they want the product in their hands and choose the service that delivers their parcel to the door. You don't need to do it all your own. You just need parcel delivery partners like Interparcel.