Tips and tricks about marketing and online store optimisation. Learn how to attract new customers and grow your sales.
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Promoting your fashion brand online is more than the occasional Tweet or Instagram story. Before using social media, there are a few more simple things that you can do to get your brand seen. By starting a well-planned promotional campaign, it's easier for your brand to be seen and your clothing to be bought.
Were you a fan of ‘The Devil Wears Prada’? When it comes to promotion of you fashion brand, you may need to be just as vicious as Meryl Streep's Oscar-nominated performance. Whether you’re selling screen-printed army shirts or intricate evening gowns, a measurable and effective promotional campaign is essential for boosting your fashion brand.Today you're going to see:
By the end of this article, you'll be empowered to go out there and get eyes in front of your brand.
It sounds like a no-brainer, right? A central website where you can base all your activities around and build your brand image.Time and time again, many brands start selling on a marketplace and believe that's enough.While that may work for Kanye, chances are it won't for you.
It’s never a good idea to put all your eggs in one basket (we’re looking at you, Etsy sellers).If you’re already selling on a marketplace, a lot of the hard work is already done. You've already got traffic, you're building a following and are probably already moving some product.
Building a clothing brand is so much easier (and more efficient) if it's based around an independent web store.
This website is where you brand lives, it's where visitors can discover who you are and really build a relationship with you.Selling on marketplaces and your own website it called 'multichannel selling' and it's a powerful way to get your product seen by more people.
An ideal eCommerce platform for a clothing design brand is one that can handle a wide range of variants. The same product in different sizes and colours, for example.Bonus points go to a platform with versatility. A platform that lets the user update the homepage to show off new arrivals and collections is going to make your life easy. Shoplo ticks all these boxes. Our client base is built on fashion brands. We’re constantly finding new ways to accommodate and educate fashionistas of all kinds.
Simplicity and elegance combine on the MOIESS homepage by Shoplo
Let me get this out of the way early in the piece:
Don’t abuse social media by only promoting yourself.
No one is going to follow your brand if all you do is use social media to sell your products. Remember the social side of social media.
Yeah Bunny entertain their fans with clever videos
Social media plays many roles in the world of ecommerce, but it's best for getting your brand seen by more people.
Ryan from One Tribe Apparel found that using exclusive discount codes and giveaways were a great way to grow their social media following. But not just any kind of giveaway.
We started doing co-brand giveaways where we would team up with other brands in our niche and do a giveaway through our social channels. We'd promote it and help each other grow our followings.
This kind of cross-promotion is a double edge sword. Not only do your followers increase, but you know they’re high-quality engaged followers.
An example of One Tribe’s joint giveaway with Cordalife.
Engaged followers mean that they're interested in your brand and that it’s not just a generic throwaway account that’s followed you. Once you're growing your following this way, it’s important that you’re posting interesting, relevant and engaging content. If you’re boring, you’ll lose those followers as quickly as you got them.
You have less than 7 seconds to capture someone’s attention when they first land on your web store.Therefore, the more you treat your customers like goldfish, the more you will sell.Maybe.
Ok maybe not like a goldfish, but if you treat customer like you only have a few seconds of their time, you will see more sales.
As the marketer and designer for your brand (yes, you’re in marketing and design now), your mission is to make your brand memorable.
Make sure people will remember your brand after only being on your web page for 10 seconds.
Here are a few ways you can give your brand personality:
Words and imagery are everything in your online store. You don’t shouldn’t cut corners on product photography, so don’t do it with words. Good copywriting does a lot of things to help define your image and make your brand memorable.
AppSumo make their tone of voice well known as soon as you arrive
Bonus: Echo your witty and unique writing into your product descriptions.
Custom packaging is a great way to make your brand memorable for first time buyers as well as web site visitors.By using custom packaging, your customers are more likely to share photos of their new purchase amongst their social media followers.
This is content that you can then reuse on your own webpage. This is called social proof' and it's seen as incredibly important for small brands in the beginning.Quality packaging also has other benefits.You only get a chance for one first impression. For an ecommerce brand like yours, this moment happens when your buyer first lays hands on their purchase. Make sure that your packaging and presentation echoes your branding.
Don't do this:
Look at those previous photos and ask yourself the following:
By using product photography as per the first image, you answer all those questions and become more memorable.
Having a page that tells your story is nothing new. But most pages are quite boring. Liven it up a bit. Have one page dedicated to your story, your goals and mission and another page dedicated to your team.
Firstly, it’s not good to send traffic to a page that doesn’t exist. But if people are accidentally going to get there, you may as well make the experience memorable for them, like MailChimp do.
You’re reading a Shoplo blog right now. By providing an educational and informative blog, we’re building trust with you. We discuss things that are happening in your industry and how they affect you. By reading this, you’re starting to trust us. This is the exact point of this blog. The overall goal of our blog is to educate and inform to the point where readers trust the brand enough to make a purchase.So that’s great for a Software company like us, but what about a clothing design brand?
Inverse Culture uses their blogs to entertain their following.
Kiran from Sydney-based streetwear label Inverse Culture explains that blogging can go beyond building that emotional rapport and help the technical side of things.
Blogs provide visibility for any website by being easier to find on Google. The more high-quality blog posts you drop, the better your organic SEO will be. Once you add keyword research in to find hot topics - you can really supercharge your traffic for the exact type of people you want.
The Inverse Culture team don’t stop there when it comes to delivering content for their followers. A link in the main nav bar will take you to a ‘Curated Playlists’ section where potential buyers will find - exactly that. A collection of Spotify playlists.
We have a deep passion for hip-hop, so it allowed us to creatively build amazing playlists between all our other business duties.It also enabled us to take our fans on a journey - the type of journey we would experience when hearing our now favourite DJ-sets - you hear familiar songs, classic songs you forgot about & music you've never heard before but you need it in your life.
The Inverse Culture team have, in one foul swoop, found another way to build a rapport and trust with their customers. Leveraging mutual passions.
‘People don't forget people who recommend them awesome music - if you find something in one of our playlists that you LOVE, we know we have the foundations of a brand advocate right there, it's that mutual love.’
Check out the favourite tunes of the Inverse Culture guys here.
Simple, clear and concise product photography has its place - on your product page. But look-books are what actually sells your gear. Look-books are an age-old feature with the overall goal being to sell a look and inspire shoppers.
Look-books show off your outfit in a natural and organic environment.
Reykjavik District shows off their products out in action.
Look-books invoke an emotional response from buyers. They convey a ‘feel’ or a ‘vibe’ by putting the products in an environment where they take centre stage. A well-designed look-book excites a viewer and can gently usher them toward the checkout.Max from A Hume Country Clothing says they get extra value out of their own imagery.
By allowing blogs and news publications to use our imagery on their own websites, we can acquire links from a variety of authoritative websites, which improves our overall organic visibility.
Email marketing has long gone hand in hand with eCommerce. It is a direct path into the face of people who have expressed an interest in your brand.
A change in consumer habits clearly proves that online shoppers are immune to in your face advertising.
says Maria Wachal from Freshmail.
Email marketing gives fashion brands a tremendous opportunity to create personalised customer experiences focused on the needs of individual customers. The email format facilitates fostering relationships with subscribers that drives conversion and sales.
Want to know more about increasing your ecommerce conversions?
Read the article:
25 Ways to Optimize your Ecommerce Conversion Rate (read now.)
Building an email list is no easy task, though. Boxes on your web page with text along the lines of ‘Subscribe to our newsletter and stay on top of all our latest news’ really isn’t too convincing. Would you sign up to that? Instead, look at other ways to obtain an email address. ‘Enter your email address to get 10% off your first purchase’ for example. This way, you get the email address you want and increase your chances of getting a sale.
Numbers can be scary. Scarier than words sometimes. But data and statistics play a huge part in your growth and development. These numbers give you an insight into what’s working and what’s not. “Using data in the running of your business means you’re no longer relying on instinct to make decisions about your business, and it can reveal insights about your business that you might never have considered before,” says Sarah from Neatly.io.
Data from Google Analytics and Facebook’s Audiences can tell you what your visitors are interested in beyond the products they’re looking at, so you can create a marketing message that really resonates with them and is more likely to convert them.
Data is a rollercoaster ride you need to be on.
Being ‘data-driven’ like this is a fantastic trait to have when it comes to planning for your brand. It can show where you’re growing fastest and gives you a yes or no answer about meeting your KPI’s.Here are some things we pay attention to when looking at our traffic in Google Analytics:
These are some simple ways that data and traffic influence the way our brand develops.You may feel like your Instagram following engages with your promotions more but do they really?Look at the data.If it points to Facebook being your main driver of traffic, you clearly know where to invest your energy. That being said, following your gut instincts has some benefits, too. History often repeats itself. You may know that you have more followers on Instagram, but everyone that followers you on Facebook it more engaged with what you post. Data doesn’t necessarily show the behaviour of lurkers!It’s not hard to strike a balance between going with your gut instincts and letting your numbers guide you. This is a great guide to letting the numbers and your gut influence you on equal levels.
Good media coverage starts by figuring out where your ideal customers spend their time online. What blogs and magazines they read, which social media networks they frequent and who influences their decision making. Another big step is figuring out your Unique Selling Point, or USP. This is essentially the reason that someone should buy something from your brand, rather than your competitors.One all these things have been established, Kristin from Creative Development Agency says it’s time to reach out to outlets with a well-crafted pitch.
Once you know who your core customer is and what makes your brand newsworthy, then you'll be able to draft a pitch that resonates with a specific magazine or blog's readership. Keep your pitch limited to fewer than 400 words, including five to seven benefit-based bullet points, a short bio, and a link to a look-book. Never send attachments.
Kristen has gone so far as creating a free course on how designers can get media coverage for free. The Squash the Competition with PR. The FemFounder.co Chief Blogger put this together to see smaller brands take advantage of opportunities that usually go unseen.
Good PR can help produce more leads, website traffic, email subscribers, and sales. Additionally, it can help position someone as an expert to help book speaking engagements, land larger media opportunities, and more.
When starting out, your energy and enthusiasm are the most important traits to have. But be sure not to bite off more than you can chew.
Aiming too high is a great way to lead yourself to disappointment and frustration.“Most people have an idea that if they can just get one mention in a big name like Vogue that it will skyrocket their brand to the top”, says Elijah of Powerful Outreach PR.
The best way to prove this to the big fish is by feeding all the small ones first.”
Once you’ve achieved a few small victories, you naturally start to grow and evolve.“By starting small, you will have much more success, sooner. You will slowly seep into the scene until the point where some of the bigger writers will start to think – “Where have I seen these guys before?”
Armed with this new information, we encourage you to do out and see what works for you. Let us know what works for you, or any other tips you can add! Was Anne Hathaway better in ‘The Devil Wears Prada’ or 'Bride Wars'?
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How to improve your store's visibility in Google? Learn about SEO essentials fo ecommerce and rank higher in serach engines.
The numbers are as following.
Of course, the more attractive to search engine algorithms your page is, the higher it will rank in SERPs and the more visible it will be to people. It’s worth playing this game, isn’t it?
The first place to start with SEO is on your ecommerce website itself. Search engine algorithms look for several factors when they crawl through each page of your site. The most important ones are listed below.Site structureIf your site is structured well, all pages and subpages will be easily found by search engine crawlers.KeywordsSEO is pretty much based on keywords. Finding out what words searchers use to find online stores similar to yours is the key to success. After doing a profound research you’ll have a list of relevant keywords in your hand. You can then start the optimization process which basically means placing keywords throughout the whole website. The main keywords should be used in titles and repeated naturally in the content, others should be placed in image tags and meta descriptions.Page URLEnsure that each URL is SEO-friendly, which means that it should include the main keyword that the page is targeting. What is more, remember to keep an URL address brief, descriptive and relevant - a visitor at a glance should be able to tell what the website is all about.Alt-text of imagesSearch engines don’t read images, they read alt-text instead. You should use alt-text to help engines better understand the meaning of an image and what it represents. While describing an image, don’t forget to use some of your focus keywords.Title tagTitle-tag should define a site’s content in a concise and clear way. You should keep it short, max 50-60 characters. Be sure to include at least two of your most important keywords along with your brand’s name.Meta-descriptionsMeta-description is a short paragraph which is displayed under a title tag on SERP. The optimal length of a meta-description is between 150-160 characters. While creating a copy be as much creative as you can. A boring description can decrease a click through rate and bring you less visitors.ContentContent on your store website if optimized well can make a huge difference when it comes to making your business more visible in search engines. The keywords are one of the most important factors when it comes to your content optimization. You should pick only the most relevant ones and use them throughout the whole website.Internal linksInternal links - links that point to other pages of your site - are an important part of on-page SEO. They help search engine algorithms to crawl through your site, indexing each page as they go.
Off-page SEO techniques involve building links from other parts of the web to your site. In the past, ecommerce site managers would scatter links to their site all over forums, directories, and comments sections, as well as buy links on other sites. These link building techniques are penalized by search engines these days, which means that you need to take a different approach.Current off-page SEO techniques focus on building relationships, not links. It’s better for you to reach out to your customer base through social media. If you create entertaining content and share it with your followers on Facebook and Twitter, the customers you are interacting with may share the content on their blogs or in other communities - this way links will be created naturally.Want to learn more about SEO? Download free ebook 'SEO essentials for Ecommerce' here.
It can be difficult to keep the stock numbers of your online store up to date, especially when you sell retail and online. But there's a lot of small business inventory software that can help you save time and sell more. Click here to see the best small business inventory management system for your brand.
As a small business owner, you need to be psychic. You need to be able to predict when you will run out of a certain product, how long it will take to get back in stock and how much to reorder.You know that feeling, right?Controlling your inventory is one of the most important parts of knowing how to manage a small business.So what does your small business inventory management plan look like? How do you establish how many of what products to keep on the shelves?Today you’re going to learn all the answers to those questions. In this article, you’ll also learn:
But before you take a deep dive into inventory management for small business, what exactly does the phrase mean?
Inventory management is organising your products to ensure you have the right quantity on hand at most important times. It lets keep a close eye on numbers and know exactly how much cash you have sitting on the shelf. This is integral to the way your business operates. If you know how much stock you have on hand, you’re always aware of the strength of your business.Good inventory management allows you to:
Good inventory management promises that you’ll have the products on hand when they’re in demand.
You may be saying:“but I do know what products I have. I have my spreadsheets where all the data is accessible whenever I want it”.But have you ever put a wrong number into a spreadsheet? Or sold a product which you didn’t have in stock? I bet you have! And if you haven’t, there’s every chance that it’ll happen to you in the future.Why?Let’s take a look at some problems that spreadsheets cause:
It may seem efficient to manage your small business inventory using a spreadsheet. Having data in a spreadsheet is great for your small business.Managing your small business inventory in a spreadsheet is not. Let me explain.If you rely on spreadsheets too much, you leave yourself open to a wide range of mistakes:
...and that’s just to name a few.
There's a better way to manage your inventory than this...
Another massive downside of inventory management using a spreadsheet:Spreadsheets and handwriting also can’t talk to other systems, like your online store, invoicing methods or POS system.Good inventory management software for small business avoids these problems.
Some small business owners use the help of virtual assistants as they're cheap and good at repetitive tasks.A virtual assistant is essentially an employee that you pay to do online tasks.In the world of ecommerce, virtual assistants are regularly used to:
Sounds great, right? Just because a virtual assistant can help you out with your inventory management, doesn’t mean that you should use a virtual assistant.Virtual assistants can be convenient for saving you time but can cause some incredible headachesPutting another human into the process, (especially someone you don’t know) is a great way to increase the likelihood of messing up your numbers.Why pay someone to do that when there’s already software that can automate this process for you?
As you just saw, virtual assistants and spreadsheets can’t manage your data in an efficient way. Small, very small, medium and huge businesses base everything on numbers, statistics and data because that's a reliable way to grow.
The accuracy of this data is crucial, regardless of the size of your brand. Your small business needs reliable, accurate and up-to-date information.That’s exactly what inventory management software guarantees you.Here are 5 benefits of using inventory management software for your small business:
Once the addiction of being an online retailer bites you, you’ll soon want to increase your product range. For example, more variants of current products, new products and even new categories altogether. Before long, you’ll want to be selling in different currencies and languages. Reliable small business inventory software that works alongside your ecommerce platform will make all this a breeze.
Online sellers that sell in more than just 1 channel increase their sales by more than 33%. So it’s clear that offering your products on more than just one sales channel is a great way to sell more products. But this does present a few problems.
ButWhether you’re a multichannel seller or seller on just one channel, cloud-based inventory management software can help you enter a new market and sell more.I’ll explain.Consider this:An inventory management system that can automatically sync your inventory into a new sales channel.Would this make it easier for you to test and enter a new market?You wouldn't have to log into your eBay account and your online store each time you had a sale.
This means that you never have to think about syncing products yourself.Look at the example below:
Shoplo Multichannel inventory management - manage your inventory now
In the above example, you can see your inventory column shows the number of products you have in stock. When a sale is made in any channel, numbers update automatically in every other connected channel. For example:Imagine you sell laptops.If you sell 1 MacBook Pro on eBay and 2 in your own web store, the stock numbers are automatically updated - from 45 to 42.This change in stock numbers is reflected in both your eBay store and web store, immediately.In your eBay store, the number of available MacBooks will change from 45 to 42 even though you sold only 2 MacBooks via eBay, and 1 on your own store. How does this benefit you?
No more time lost doing data entry every time you get a sale or receive new stock. You’ve got more time for you to focus on growing your brand.This is just a taste of what small business inventory software can do for your brand.
Sending the wrong order to the wrong customer is a painful and expensive experience. Plus, it leaves your customer quite unhappy.
An inventory management system that integrates with a fulfilment service is very beneficial to your small business. How? When an order is placed in your store, the software will take your customers data and automatically create a shipping label for you.You can also book a courier to come pick up your delivers from within the software.No more mixed up orders, no more costly returns. You’ve now got an inventory management platform that helps you fulfil your orders.
The dashboard of your inventory management system gives you a quick overview of the performance of your sales.You’re able to see your total number of sales, as well as your revenue per sales channel. But let’s see this theory in practice. Look at the example below to see how an inventory management tool presents your data to you:
Shoplo Multichannel Inventory management - manage your inventory now
As you can see in the example above, you have instant information about your revenue from all sales channels in the “total” field.Looking at the trend curve, you can also see your current sales trend projected again the previous time period. You’re also able to see the sales of a certain channel expressed in a dollar value, or a percentage of your total revenue. How does this help you?It gives you a clear picture of:
All this data is presented to you in real time. This means that you stay constantly up-to-date about your inventory numbers, as well as your sales.
As a small business owner, you’re always on the go. But your productivity shouldn’t have to suffer because of that. Many cloud-based inventory management software solutions have dedicated mobile apps.As a seller, you can change order statuses, contact customers and even manage your online store. You certainly can’t do that managing your inventory in a spreadsheet!This means that your business doesn’t stop when you’re not in the office. For example, a customer completes a large first-time order while you’re stuck in traffic.Now you can contact them immediately and say thanks - don’t forget about the thank you note, either.
Shoplo Mobile App. Small business inventory software on the go
If you’re considering using software to manage your inventory (and if you’ve read this far, you probably want to), there are some things to keep an eye out for.The best small business inventory software should:
Let’s take a look at other ways you can get the most out of an organised inventory:
Using software to manage your inventory will free up time for you. In that time, use the following techniques to improve your inventory management processes:
This method, sometimes called a proportional value analysis can save you money.It allows you to tie up a minimal amount of money in your stock while still being able to keep up with demand. But what is an ABC inventory analysis? It is the process of dividing your products into 3 categories to keep up with demand, without tying money up in products that sell slowly. The method states that this is how you stock your inventory:A-type itemsProducts that make up 70-80% of sales take up 10-20% of space in your inventory.B-type itemsProducts that make up 15-25% of sales take up 3% of space in your inventory.C-type itemsProducts that make up 5% of sales take up 50% of space in your inventory.A-type items are products that you sell a lot of. They only take up a small amount and therefore must be reordered regularly. This allows you to predict future forecasts with more accuracyYou should keep very low numbers of C-type items on hand. These are products that rarely sell. Consider these items not as ‘how many should we have in stock’ but rather ‘should we have these items in stock at all?’B-type items benefit from being in the middle. Average amounts of orders and an average number of units on hand.
Many small business inventory software solutions can be used to arrange your stock in this way. This is a fine example of how online inventory management for small business can not only save you time but also help your cash flow.
A product feed is a file that contains all of your products’ information.As a small ecommerce business, product feeds are important to you because:
Inventory control software generates and exports product feeds to dozens of sales channels. By using small business inventory management software to manage your product feeds, you ensure that every sales channel is updated with the most recent price and stock numbers.
Having the right amount of stock ready to ship during busy times means you can pocket the maximum amount of money.Being able to predict how many products you will sell in the busy (and not so busy) times is a great asset to your small business. This is called forecasting and it allows you to make sure that you always have enough products in stock.Take a look at the following data to see trends and patterns of your sales:
A majority of these things are available at a glance within your inventory management software.This means you can base your predictions on facts and data, rather than raw speculation.
If a customer can see a product that they can’t actually buy, they’ll go buy it from your competitor's store.The solution?
Don’t show customers something if you can’t sell it to them then and there.
Inventory management software can be used to alert you when stock levels hit a minimum level. This means that you have plenty of notice to order new products - you never have to sell a product that you don’t have. So now you know the benefits of using inventory tracking software, it’s time to discuss how much a product like this will cost you.
Perhaps you’re interested in some inventory control software and want to give it a try. But you might be wondering:“Can I even afford it?”In the past, a lot of inventory management tools have been aimed at warehouses and big brands with hundreds of thousands of products to sell.Until now. You can find many inventory management solutions available at nearly any price point. Many are designed especially for a small business like yours. Some even have free plans for you to test before committing.Shoplo Multichannel is one solution that is completely free if you have less than 100 sales per month. See how Multichannel can help you save time and grow your sales (try now).
Today you learned:
Now that you know how to keep track of inventory in your online store, it’s time to start selling efficiently and saving time.What are some of your favourite inventory management tips? Let us know in the comments below!
WooCommerce vs Shopify. 2 of the best ecommerce platforms, the benchmark of the ecommerce industry. Is it Shopify or WooCommerce that's the platform for you?
Shopify vs WooCommerce - Which of these popular ecommerce platforms is the best ecommerce platform for you? In this ecommerce platform comparison, we’ll answer exactly that.
Shopify is the go-to solution for entrepreneurs of all kinds. WooCommerce - one of the most popular Shopify alternatives - accounts for over 30% of all web stores online. Many entrepreneurs on Reddit feel that WooCommerce isn’t worth the effort. You need to:
A lot of wasted labour if all you want to do is sell a few things online!An established brand that has a well-known image and a huge fan base need complete control of their website. An ‘out of the box’ solution may present more problems when you want something to look a specific way. As some of the best ecommerce websites, both options have what you need. Attractive design, product variations, payment gateways, SEO & marketing features.The ‘opinions’ in this article come in part from Shopify and WooCommerce reviews. Online resellers actually using the product shed valuable information on how it works. We decided to gather them together for your convenience!In this ecommerce platform comparison, we will take a close look at two of the best ecommerce platforms.
After reading this post, you will know
Many people ask the question ‘Shopify vs Etsy, which is better?’ That’s simply an unfair comparison.You may think that Etsy is a site like Shopify, or maybe even an alternative to Shopify. But you’d be wrong.Etsy is an online marketplace. Shopify is one of the best ecommerce platforms. There are many other sites like Shopify. Some of the best ecommerce sites being BigCommerce, Magento, Squarespace and Shoplo. Selling on Bonanza is another great way to increase your sales.But it’s comparing apples and oranges. The best answer depends completely on your business model, target audience and what you’re selling.A stay-at-home mum who makes beaded jewellery will have more luck on Etsy than a Shopify website.A company that sells boutique lingerie online and in multiple retail stores will benefit more from a Shopify or WooCommerce website than selling on Etsy.Read more about the differences between marketplaces and web stores here.Shopify is just one of the alternatives to Etsy. If you want to learn more about other sites like Etsy, read the article:
WooCommerce and Shopify are ultimately the same things. They are a CMS (content management system) for your online store. WooCommerce and Shopify allow you to create a storefront, list products and provide a secure gateway for customers to pay. In the backend, both platforms provide you with a way to manage your products, customers and sales. The fundamental difference between the two platforms is how you set up and operate it.Still confused?
Still not clear?
The design is a huge part of your ecommerce store. It’s used to not just look pretty, but build trust and show off your branding.Even the best products will not catch anyone's eye is they’re presented poorly.
Average design will destroy your ability to sell more!
Shopify knows the importance of good design for your ecommerce store. This is reflected in their 54 different templates, 10 of which are free. They even offer their own return policy template.All Shopify themes are crisp, sleek and made with your customer in mind. Some themes have unique variations, meaning you actually have over 100 templates to choose from.Shopify themes remove one hurdle if you have never operated an online store before - user experience. While you may know how you want your store to look, that isn’t necessarily beneficial to your customer.
Shopify gets you started with some fantastic free and paid themes.
Shopify themes excel here, as they’re made by an in-house team of user-experience professionals. Because of this, Shopify themes solve complex things like buying friction, pain points. These are things that delay a customer from committing to their purchase in your store. The downside? Most themes are ‘structured’ and lack originality and uniqueness. Shopify’s ‘theme editors’ allows you to hide, and drag and drop certain elements of your page. All colours fonts and styles can be customised to your liking, too. One feature that you can take advantage of is the ability to hide sections, customize them and then make them public. This is an issue that a lot of developers have with WooCommerce and have complained about on Reddit.But they cost money - paid themes can cost upwards of $120.All Shopify themes are in RWD (Responsive Web Design) meaning that they’ll function perfectly on a desktop, tablet, cell phone or tablet.
Press London working on both desktop and mobile devices.
A downside of Shopify’s themes is that you need to learn Shopify’s ‘Liquid’ code if you want full theme customisation. This is a major set back if you like to tweak and change little things. WooCommerce uses HTML and CSS - the most common coding language.
WooCommerce’s relationship with web design is very different to that of Shopify’s. WordPress, WooCommerce and parent company Automattic don’t actually supply any themes. They provide you with the platform and gateway to sell products and you take care of everything else. The theme of your website is dictated by your current Wordpress theme.With that, the world is yours - you control everything.
My Goodness Organics is a fine example of a WooCommerce web store.
Don’t like that part there? It can be removed. Want to revamp everything? No problem. You have complete control. There is no need to know HTML or CSS coding to do this, but it does help. Coding skills or not, designing a web store on WooCommerce can up a lot of your time. If you lack the skills, you’ll need someone else's time, and that ultimately costs you money. After installing and activating WooCommerce, your theme will change to a new one, called Storefront. Storefront is more like the basic theme that all of it’s ‘child themes’ come from. Storefront child themes are in abundance in the WooCommerce Theme Store and are all backed by WooCommerce themselves. Child themes cost around $39. If you’re a developer, you can get them all for $399.
The Untold Wish is another one of our favourite WooCommerce web stores.
Don’t like Storefront themes? There is a huge range of other WooCommerce themes made by independent developers available elsewhere online. Before committing to a 3rd party theme, check it’s WooCommerce theme reviews, the frequency of updates and what the support is like. One difficulty of web design with WooCommerce is that any changes you make will be seen by the world as soon as you implement them. To avoid this you need to use some pretty complex tools. Scary things if you’re not a developer.
Without a doubt, the design process is easier with Shopify. The ability to pick from a premade template as a starting point is great. Drag and drop what you want where you want it makes design a breeze.On the other hand, if you know exactly what you want, Shopify can be restrictive. The abundance of great plugins can help but also add to the confusion and price tag.WooCommerce is the better option in terms of design customisation, but be aware that it isn’t always easy!Because of the ease of use, Shopify wins the design battle
Whether you have a few sales a month or hundreds, value for money is integral. Both Shopify and WooCommerce are very different when it comes to pricing.
Shopify pricing is easy. WooCommerce isn’t.
As mentioned earlier, WooCommerce is like getting an old Cadillac for free. You got it for nothing but you still need to store it somewhere and put time and effort into making it drivable again. Shopify is buying a brand new car from the dealer. You pay one set amount and get everything you need to drive home - the car, insurance, registration, a full tank of gas. WooCommerce is a free, open source plugin for Wordpress. Wordpress is free, as is WooCommerce. But to use them, you need things like a domain name, web hosting (we really like Pickaweb) and an SSL certificate. Perhaps even one-off payments to include certain payment methods. Shopify is a monthly fee for everything to work. The pricing comes at a different level, and not unlike the automotive industry, the more you pay, the more features you get. You sign up and get your store that’s ready for you to upload and sell your products. Ultimately, WooCommerce is the cheaper option but you may also need to factor in other extensions and plugins. These may be one time payments (Stripe integration for WooCommerce is $79) or monthly recurring charges. Shopify is simple in its pricing.
Each package has a wide range of features that work straight out of the box to help you operate your online store.
With WooCommerce, you don’t pay any per transaction fees. WooCommerce itself comes with PayPal integration but it’s Paypal who will charge you the fee for using their service.
WooCommerce charges no transaction fees.
Shopify charges between 2.25% and 2.9% + a $0.30 commission, per sale.
Shopify and WooCommerce allow you to add other payment methods like Stripe, PayPal (included with WooCommerce) and Apple pay. Regardless of which platform you use, you will be subject to payment gateway fees.
Ultimately, Shopify is the more expensive of the two - yet it works straight out of the box. The fees are similar to that of a marketplace like Etsy and can add up quite quickly, though. As the old adage goes, time = money. While WooCommerce is cheaper, you will spend more time, and perhaps money, setting it up and getting it functioning smoothly. However, WooCommerce gives you more control over things like meta descriptions and SEO. These are features that you can leverage to generate a higher income, and ultimately offset the initial time and money spent on setup.
Shopify works out of the box but you’ll spend time and money setting up your WooCommerce store.
When it comes to what you need to set up and operate your only store, both WooCommerce and Shopify are very similar. The most important features are built into the main framework of the software so when you’re ready to go, you’re ready to go. In terms of bonus features, plugins and add-ons there is a lot. Both Shopify and WooCommerce have a wide range of apps that can help run your online store. Part of Wordpress’s success owes to the fact that it’s open source - anyone can make anything for it. That means that there are a huge huge range of 3rd party plugins to add on to your WordPress site and WooCommerce website, such as:
Shopify features are abundantly more than that of WooCommerce. A blessing and a curse though, as a lot of Shopify users don’t know or need the included features. Right off the bat, Shopify gives you:
So with all these features in mind, which one benefits you the best? Shopify’s list of free included features is impressive, but remember that plugins can get you the same - if not better.Answering that ultimately comes down to your skills or access to resources, what you’re selling and a good knowledge of your customer. If you’re an author selling your book, you may have no need for Instagram integration, but you’d love to show off your Goodreads bookshelf on your website.Alternatively, if you’re using dropshipping on Shopify to send your book from a far-off warehouse, you will need drop shipping capabilities straight away. The only thing that can differentiate Shopify and WooCommerce here is the fact that one is made with ecommerce in mind, while the other is an add-on to an already existing website. It’s very hard to pick a winner in terms of features, as both are so abundant in their own way.
Whether you’re moving to Shopify from another platform or building a new web store with WooCommerce, ease of use is important. Not just setting up the account, but operating it on a daily basis, too. Your time and efforts are better spent being innovative and creative elsewhere in your business - not setting it up.Below you will find a comparison of an ease of use of Woocommerce and Shopify.
After clicking the ‘Sign up’ button, we’re presented with a few questions. Fill in a few details about yourself including your personal info and Shopify present you with their dashboard - full of helpful information.
Navigating and using Shopify on a day to day basis is simple, too. The main navigation is clean, easy to read and straightforward.
Adding a product to sell is just like the rest of the process. Simple.
As mentioned WooCommerce is a plugin to an already existing Wordpress site. Once you’ve installed Wordpress into your hosting platform, it’s a matter of installing with WooCommerce plugin.Below you will learn how to install the WooCommerce plugin from WordPress.
Navigate to your plugin section from your WordPress admin panel, search for WooCommerce and install it. Once installed, hit ‘Activate’ and you’re presented with the set-up wizard.
Straightforward, easy to use and nothing too scary. Anything done here can be edited and changed later. Once the wizard is complete, you’re ready to add your products.
Again, like all things WooCommerce, plenty of options and customizable fields are present.
In terms of day to day use, there is little to no difference at all. Both platforms have their navigation set and clearly labelled on the left. Customer and order data is easily accessible from anywhere. Fulfilling orders is simple, even with the vanilla versions of the platforms.It comes down to you, the individual and which one you feel more comfortable operating.
There are very few areas in which WooCommerce or Shopify come out as clear winners and ease of use is no different. Set up on Shopify is clearly easier and is more geared to those who just want to get online and sell.If you can operate a Wordpress blog, you’ll be able to manage a WooCommerce store. If you’ve got no experience with operating the back end of a web page in any way, shape or form, Shopify is your safest option.
Multichannel selling is the concept of selling your products in multiple channels. A web store, as well as a marketplace like Amazon or eBay. Selected products in your web store’s inventory are automatically synced into external marketplacesMultichannel selling is a powerful tool to grow your brand’s awareness and increase your reach, and surprise surprise, both platforms approach it differently!If you’re considering using WooCommerce and would like to sell on Amazon as well, you may have a lot of work ahead of you.To easily sell your WooCommerce inventory on Amazon, you’ll need a wide range of plugins. One to handle listings and product updates, another to handle sales and possibly a third to sync customers and orders.The Shopify platform includes free integration with Amazon but only if your product fits in the clothing and accessories category. There is a workaround to list your Shopify products in other categories, but it gets complex and time-consuming.
From time to time, we need a bit of support. Even the most advanced online retailer needs a little help on the odd occasion.Shopify is renowned for its outstanding support, help and documentation. A customer looking for something has access to 24/7 phone support, chat and email support. Add to the list, a gigantic knowledge base that covers queries ranging from adding a product to adding an emoji in a comment.WooCommerce has a strong support base, too. That support comes mostly in the form of the user forums. WooCommerce support is complemented by strong and extensive documentation, too.
Taking what’s offered at face value, it’s clear to see that Shopify has the superior customer support. That being said, WooCommerce is coded in HTML and CSS, the two most common coding scripts. 9 times out of 10, a simple Google search will provide you with various solutions to your WooCommerce/Wordpress problem. So while official WooCommerce support may be inferior to that of Shopify, it’s not too hard to solve most WooCommerce problems by yourself.
SEO is an incredibly important and often overlooked part of ecommerce marketing. Using the Google Keyword Planner is an important way to plan your ecommerce SEO strategy.Blogging plays an important role in the marketing of your ecommerce brand. As Steve from MyWifeQuitHerJob says:''Blogging is an excellent way to …
If you’re using a WooCommerce store, you’re already using the world’s most popular blogging platform, WordPress. Many ecommerce sellers who run a blog, do so on WordPress. No matter what ecommerce platform they’re using, WordPress is the first choice for operating a blog.Yoast SEO is the go-to plug-in to make sure you’re on top of your SEO on all pages. It’s only available on Wordpress and WooCommerce stores. Getting the most from your SEO efforts means you need access to as many back-end features as you can get. WooCommerce and Wordpress give you that access, no questions, no fuss, no coding (well, very very little) required.Shopify is also aware of the role SEO plays in running a successful online store. Integrated features to help your SEO efforts include alt-tag editing, image optimization and meta tags.Fast servers and quick download speeds are important to make sure your ecommerce store ranks on page one. Since Shopify is an out-of-the-box solution, you’re using their state-of-the-art servers. This means your page will always be loading quickly.Shopify gives you that access, but you need to play by their rules and in their language - their liquid coding language.
But even the most SEO friendly platform won’t place you high in search results just because you have it!
You have to know what to do to optimize your store to help it appear in search results.
If you’re serious about your SEO (and you should be), WooCommerce is the hands-down winner.
Optimize your store and start bringing in sales today. Download the free ‘SEO essentials for ecommerce’ ebook!
Both Shopify and WooCommerce are overwhelmingly safe. Every month, thousands of people search ‘is Shopify safe’ and ‘is WooCommerce safe’. Let’s put those questions to bed right now.Yes, they’re safe.Yes it’s true that WordPress has it’s vulnerabilities without plugins, but there’s a simple solution to that - use security plugins. Shopify has a unique program called the bug bounty. This encourages hackers to report problems or weaknesses found in the Shopify platform and get paid cold hard cash for pointing them out. Instead of hackers holding Shopify to ransom for a bug, Shopify will pay out up to $5000 per bug, depending on the severity.Hacking your account is more than just gaining access to your website, products, customers and orders. Fraudulent orders pose a real threat, too.Shopify also has world-class risk analysis tools. Each transaction is screened by a complex algorithm and gives you an overall assessment of the risk. As a seller, this gives you peace of mind that your buyer is genuine and won’t issue a fraudulent chargeback.
WooCommerce is open source and it’s free. This means everyone has access to the same basic code and can find holes in it. The upside is, that being opened source, anyone can develop plugins for it. With so many ecommerce web stores hosted on WooCommerce, security is a high priority. In fact, some of the free security plugins for WooCommerce and WordPress are on par with the security of your internet banking. When you sell on WooCommerce, you are not alone. If there’s a widespread attack, you won’t be left alone, as millions of other online stores are susceptible to the same attacks.Clearly, you want to make sure that you're more than safe, regardless. Head over and read this article by Kinsta to find the best WordPress security plugins.
Security is not only paramount to you, but to both Shopify and WooCommerce. Any attack at your store makes them look back, so both platforms hold security very highly. On Shopify, it works straight out of the box. With WooCommerce, it’s up to you to set difficult passwords, regularly update plugins, use SSL and secure payment gateways.
Mobile ecommerce accounted for over 31% of sales in 2016. If people can buy from your web store on their mobile device, you should be able to manage your web store from a mobile device. Shopify launched their mobile app in 2012. Since then, it’s had well over 1,000,000 downloads on both Android and Apple devices.
The app lets you ‘manage your business in the palm of your hand. You can manage your products, fulfil and process orders and communicate with clients in real time. A bonus for the modern entrepreneur who cannot afford to be tied to a computer all day. WooCommerce also has their iOS app but not an app for Android. The WooCommerce mobile app gives you all the analytics of your web store in the palm of your hand. A full range of product, order and customer details means that you’ve got as much control on your phone as you do on your computer.
Mobile functionality is a nice to have feature, but in this day and age, it can give one platform the edge over another. While it may not be essential, it’s nice to know that both platforms serve up a mobile app for your convenience.
As an online seller, you know how important a good social media campaign can be for driving sales and brand awareness. Facebook, the biggest player in the social media world, offers the ability to sell product directly through your fan page. But individually uploading your product to your Facebook store is time-consuming. Both WooCommerce and Shopify allow you to showcase your products on your brand’s Facebook Fan page.With Shopify, the process is done in your dashboard. With a WooCommerce store, it’s taken care of by a third party plug-in. Either way, both options give you the same functions.
Out of the box, Shopify allows your customer to get personal updates of their order status within Facebook Messenger. Naturally, this can be done within WooCommerce by a plugin.Regardless of which platform you use, it’s critical that you have your Facebook pixel installed on your website! This little guy will help you keep track of which Facebook fans go to your web store and how effective your paid Facebook campaigns are.Selling on a web store and Facebook at the same time is the first step toward the bigger world of multichannel selling. This concept is important for any online seller wanting to diversify sales and market their brand to a wider audience.
Comparing two things is never a simple process, very rarely is there one clear winner.What you need for a small business depends on your skills or what you can afford - ultimately, your business goals.Still can’t make your mind up if WooCommerce or Shopify is the best ecommerce platform for you?
As you can see, the better platform depends on you. But you will get the best possible outcome and sales growth while using either option.Do you agree with our verdict? Is there another ecommerce platform comparison that you’d like to see? Let us know below in the comments!
Why have you decided to make eco-friendly bags? Where did the idea come from? One day, the idea just popped into my head. It took me a few weeks to
Why have you decided to make eco-friendly bags? Where did the idea come from? One day, the idea just popped into my head. It took me a few weeks to research the best materials and create our first bag. The recycled yarn that we currently use turned out to be the best choice for us. The best is that the yarn is also made by a polish company! Since a while ago, we’re trying to be more aware of everything that surrounds us - from a healthy lifestyle to using recycled materials. First, our eco bags awakened our consciousness, and now we generally follow and love the eco way of life.
Who runs Bohou Bags? At first it was only me, now Bohou Bags is a team of two - me and my husband Marcin. It may sound strange, but yes, men can also crochet. I gave up my regular job 5 years ago and Marcin also liked my way of working and the joy of creating something of our. He eventually decided to end his career as a restaurant manager and join me.Have you ever regretted giving up your full time jobs? What does your own brand really mean to you? This was the best decision we have ever made (maybe besides marriage haha). Running our business/ brand was life-changing! The satisfaction of creating something from the beginning to an end is amazing. Being independent, fulfilled and being able to work whenever we want - these are the huge assets of self employment.
Being independent, fulfilled and being able to work whenever we want - these are the huge assets of self employment.
What does the Bohou name mean? This is just reference to the style of our bags - boho, which I personally really love. Please tell me more about the beginnings of the brand. Do you remember the first sale? What was it and how did you feel back then?Honestly, at the beginning, I did not fully believe in the success of the brand. Perhaps it resulted from too little self-confidence. Fortunately, I did not let go. The biggest motivation were our friends, who were our first customers. After the first published photo of one of our bags - the same day I received a few orders! The excitement and happiness we felt are hard to described. After some time I understood that it is worth pushing forward and create your own online business.
After the first published photo of one of our bags - the same day I received a few orders! The excitement and happiness we felt are hard to described.
Where do you get ideas for new products? What inspires you?Our main inspiration is street fashion. What we see every day, we process in our own way. However, the most important thing for us is that we like and believed in our products before selling them. We would never make a product just because is ‘fashionable’ or ‘in’ right now, if we don’t like it ourselves.
Can you tell us, which of your products is the most popular? Our bestseller is the CROCHET BUCKET BAG. I think it is so popular because this bag goes with every accessory that we have and you can personalize it. What makes Bohou different from the competition?Above all, we focus on quality. We always try to choose the best materials. Additionally - We always try choose Polish suppliers, whenever possible. (eg.: metal chains). On our social media channels - we try to show ourselves as creators - not just as a ready-made product.Where are the biggest costs hidden when it comes to running a store with handmade bags?Mainly it is the time we need to invest to make the bags. The second cost is - the recycled material.Your Instagram profile @bohou_bags is followed by almost 8500 people already. Which rules do you follow when it comes to your social media channels?
We never thought about it. We take care of everything ourselves. We try to be honest with what we do and what we show to our potential customers.I love taking pictures. I also love to think about new places and looks. Marcin had to learn about patience while creating social media content, but I think he already likes it.
We try to be honest with what we do and what we show to our potential customers.
Does Instagram generate sales for your brand?Yes, of course. We really focus on Instagram promotion. What is the profile of a typical Bohou's customer?For sure it is a girl/woman who likes to stand out.
Recently, while drinking my morning coffee, I saw your brand on the morning television show. First of all, congratulations on the show! It is a great honor and achievement. I am very curious how you managed to get on television and I would love to learn more about this experience.
Thank you very much for your kind words. We were lucky to be noticed by the stylist who prepared the stylizations on the show. It was definitely a wonderful experience seeing our handmade products on television. Although I do not hide that it was a bit stressful for me - how the bags will look on TV, or if everything will fit together, etc.
Have you noticed an increase in brand interest or sales after the TV show?Unfortunately not. TV programs are diligently hiding company logos. But we are still very happy that we could have this experience and share it with our customers.
...we are still very happy that we could have this experience and share it with our customers.
What do you consider to be the greatest success of your brand?A large and committed community on social media. We have a close relationship with many of our customers that come back to us. We even talk to some of them every day! This is our greatest success - loyal customers.What was the worst thing that happened to your brand?Over time, I can say that there was no such thing that negatively affected us or the development of our brand. We hope that it will stay that way.If Bohou Bags was a man, how would you describe its personality?Brave and hardworking.In retrospect, what was the biggest risk you took in running your brand? Was it worth it?
I do not know if it can be called a risk, but there was a moment that was quite stressful. Not so long ago we decided to show who is behind the BOHOU brand on our social media channels.We did not want to be another brand that only shows products. We are only learning this but we want to show more and more how the process of creating our bags looks like, what "problems" we face every day and who we are.After the official post, we received such a response that we did not expect at all ... It was very positive! The post broke the record of views and comments. Until today, we still receive private messages with congratulations and very nice words. We sometimes can’t believe how strangers can give so much warmth and motivation.
We did not want to be another brand that only shows products.
How does Shoplo help you in your everyday business?First of all - at the beginning we did not have to worry about large fees associated with the creation of an online-store. Connecting quick payments, setting email templates, etc. was very easy, so I created the site in one day.In the daily running of our store - Shoplo helps us mainly with its intuitiveness. I love to change the look of our website, and it takes literally just a moment. The really cool option is that when I have a problem with setting something new on the store, I can contact Shoplo and I always get help quickly.What is your greatest motivation to work?Definitely our customers, who very often after the purchase come to us with feedback about our bags. Some customers call us and thank us for the bags! We once picked up a phone call from an older gentleman who congratulated the idea and told how delighted with the gift his wife was. Often we hear that our customers are asked by other people on the street "where did you get such a purse?" This is what gives us great motivation!What would be the one business advice you can give to people who want to start running an online store?Believe in your own project and avoid negative thoughts that something will go wrong.Thank you for the interview.
Do you make fashion or textiles? Want to sell more? Bel from techpacks.co looks at 6 fatal fashion designer mistakes can make and how to avoid them.
What else does your customer usually buy and why? What are your customers' beliefs and core values? Thorough research helps you make better design choices. Know your price points too, what do other brands in your market charge? Can you realistically see your target market spending this amount on your product?Pricing is tough to get right, but getting it wrong can really hurt your sales. Too low and you are undervaluing yourself which gives the perception of low quality. Too high and you’ll be pricing yourself out of the wallets you’re trying to nudge open.
You can buy products for $10-20 from Walmart and Target that aren’t terrible quality. A smaller brand can’t compete with those players at this price point. As an independent designer producing small quantities... economies of scale are working against you.You need to take it up a level and be making something above and beyond what you can get at a big box store. Maybe your product is small-batch, natural or handmade? Maybe you use premium materials or maybe you only source locally.Make sure it is obvious at the point of sale that your product will be well made and that it provides value for money.
Fit forms the biggest decision for why customers do or don't buy your product. If you’ve not got the fit right for the body types of your customers you won’t be able to sell much of anything.Think about how you feel in a store fitting room. The first thing you look at when trying something on is, how does this look on my body? Does it sit nicely in all the right places? (You know which ones!)Make sure you’re testing your products on a fit model and other people in your target market. How does the garment look when worn? Is the wearer comfortable and can they move with ease?You can’t perfectly fit every body shape out there. Which is why it’s important to nail it down for just a few. Get feedback on your sizes from your customers, as well as some body measurements. Chest, waist and hip widths are a great place to start. Begin to create a measurement chart which you can use to determine the sizing for future lines.
Your fabric affects the product hugely and should be your first design decision. Before you refine the details of your design you should choose and find your fabrics. There is nothing worse than discovering you can’t get the right fabric color, print or quantities.Sourcing (finding the right materials) is a science in itself. You need to think about quality, prices and minimums. It’s not uncommon to find that what you wanted isn’t available to you for whatever reason. Best to find out as soon as you can, before you invest too much time and money into a design.
You do get samples made by your contractor before production, don’t you? You should be asking for fabric swatches, trim and component samples to begin with. Then get a first sample or prototype made by your contractor.Request any necessary tweaks to this to get your product looking the best it can be. It’s normal to make adjustments at this stage so don’t hold back.It is a good idea to get a size set (samples of all the sizes of your product). Test these out too. If you can’t afford that, then at least every other size.Before you jump into production invest in a pre-production sample as well. It’s a must. This is the ‘holiest of all samples’ and it’s what you can sign off on before production starts. The factory will use this as the physical standard that the rest of the order should match up to. There is no room for error here, so make sure you are well and truly happy with this sample.Next, you’ll need a salesman sample, which is the one that is actually used for selling. It’s for photographing, taking to shows and for buyer meetings.At each of these stages, you should be keeping all these development samples. You may need to reference them later so keep them safe.Last but by no means least are your ‘TOP’ samples (top of production). These samples are a segment taken from your production run. These should be sent to you to look over and assess the quality of the order. A tech pack can help you with this, which brings me to my last suggestion!
Unless you’ve documented the specifics of your product and shared it with your factory... how do you *know* that they will be producing the vision from your inside head? The fact is, you don’t. And who wants to add extra risk into the manufacturing equation!The tech pack ensures you get a quality product made too. There is nothing worse than pouring your heart and soul into a product design for weeks. Then waiting several more weeks while it’s made. Only to receive boxes of products that don’t fit or look shoddy. Not to mention the money spent! Use a tech pack to document your quality controls, measurements and tolerances to prevent errors.
Another hidden but delightful benefit... create a single document to save yourself from the 50+ email threads. Get a sample made from your tech pack quickly and without fuss. A tech pack gets you from idea to product in half the time with 50% of the effort.So now to wrap up this little list of don’ts… we congratulate you for getting this far! Hopefully, a couple of these tips can save you a potential headache or two. If you can’t put in place all the ideas at once, go for one at a time. Slow and steady wins the race.
Set your business specific goals to measure its performance and optimise it. See most important KPI for online store and act smart!
In order to be effective, those objectives should meet the SMART criteria which means they ought to be:
Therefore, if you want to measure your success effectively, you need to choose the indicators to help you assess progress and identify the results of marketing campaigns. Of course, the priorities vary among different kinds of stores, which is why each entrepreneur focuses on different factors. For instance, those who consider websites' popularity essential will aim at increasing its number of visits and unique users by 50%. On the other hand, the traders for whom professional customer service counts most will pay special attention to responsiveness and the number of problems solved.[sc name="50 ways"]However, there are certain indicators crucial for all the businessmen. Below you will find those factors divided into three main categories: sales, marketing and customer service.
The most common indicators are daily/weekly/monthly/annual sales indexes. Since various stores sell with different frequency, the indicator should be adequate to the results.Other indicators commonly used to measure sales are: the quantity of products sold, conversion index and percentage of returning customers. A lot of attention is also given to prices and comparisons with competitors offer.
It is worth considering the traffic on the site – the number of its unique users and their visits - while measuring whether our promotion is efficient. Checking the average time the customers spend on stie and the source of traffic (how they came across the site) would also be advisable. You can get access to such data for free. All you have to do is add the Google Analytics code to your store on Shoplo (General Settings → Analytics Code).Another helpful way to measure your effectiveness is to examine statistics indirectly linked to your site such as the number of Facebook fans, followers on Twitter and newsletter subscribers.
Since whether customers return to a store depends on its quality, do not forget about customer service while setting yourself goals. What this category includes are mainly: the number of e-mails and calls received/answered, average time of solving problems and responsiveness.As the article shows, there is a great deal of performance indicators which may help you measure your effectiveness on Shoplo. Remember that in order to be successful, you need to monitor your progress constantly. At first, pick three factors which you find most important and assess your actions according to them. Systematic results measurement will show you what mistakes to avoid, as well as indicate which ideas are effective or worth developing. Consequently, you will be more aware of the most efficient solutions and able to restrict unnecessary expenditure.
Learn how to write a product description for your online store. Follows these tips to boost your sales and increase your webiste's visibility in Google.
[sc name="50 ways"]There are many reasons why product descriptions are as important as the pictures you use in your store. First of all, if they are well written, it is more likely that your website is displayed higher in Google's search results. Secondly, if your description is informative enough, it will encourage customers to buy your products and they will not need to visit other sites. Copying wholesalers' or producers' description is not a good idea, since Google “does not like” such content duplication. Writing a unique product description makes your website display higher in search results, which in turn leads to increase in the number of prospective customers. This is also a good way to stand out from all the stores selling the same products.
Although writing product descriptions does not seem like a fascinating thing to do, if it is done competently, it will result in sales increase. Do you know any good examples of products descriptions? Please, share them in comments!