Creating an online business today is very simple. The difficult, no doubt, comes later. The most complicated thing is getting to be among the first in the search engines, achieving customers that buy (conversion), and above all, loyalty.
The vast majority of owners make the huge mistake, that at first, just think about getting their e-commerce at a low price. And once they finish their store, they think about what is really important, but it's too late.
For that reason, here are 8 things that you should think about or take into account before launching your online business.
1. Choose the platform well
For me, the choice of a platform is how to correctly select your partner. If you're wrong, you'll have a thousand and one problems. In this section, it will depend on three assumptions:
Test or try your luck: If you create your online business to try your luck, I advise you to choose a platform that has good characteristics, but above all is cheap. In this case, I recommend Shopify, that with $30 / month, you already have e-commerce ready in a few minutes, or choose WooCommerce, that you can even assemble yourself since it is very simple. We go the minimum risk.
Medium E-commerce: Yes, you are going to start an online business seriously, but the catalog is not big, and you do not want to spend a pasture, I recommend Prestashop.
Scalable E-commerce: When you create a scalable business, it's because you're going for everything. Undoubtedly, the ideal platform is Magento.
As a tip, I recommend you stay away from solutions with a small community of developers and that seems outdated. That is, choose a well-supported cm, with an excellent community behind, and that has many e-commerce functionalities as a series. You have to bear in mind that once you decide on a platform, there is no turning back because a bad choice can be very expensive.
2. Accommodation = Optimization
Have a slow load of your e-commerce, is the same as losing customers, no matter how cool your store is, no one will be waiting for more than three seconds to load. So that this is not a problem, without doubt, one of the main responsible, is the accommodation you choose. Depending on the platform you choose, you must acquire a hosting or another. Almost all platforms, with shared hosting, they are worth it, but Magento or Prestashop (catalog of more than 1500 products) need a dedicated or VPS.
Many of my clients, when selecting a hosting, have doubts which one to choose because there are many prices. That's why I think it's important to clarify which parameters are the ideal ones to start your online business:
With 1 Gigabyte of space, it reaches you for a beginning, if we were short you could expand.
With 1 Gigabyte of data transfer. This means the transfer of information between your visits and the server, or the number of pages that all your visitors can see every month. The unlimited transfer is almost impossible to obtain since the sites that offer it do not have it.
That has good technical support, and that works 24 hours 7 days a week.
It requires that the availability time reaches rates of 99.99999%, and the remaining 1%, for maintenance.
The type of support, at first you get with Linux (it's cheaper with Windows).
Take the domain in the same company as Hosting, as this will avoid headaches.
But, everything that I explained before you have to say who develops the online store since you will not have enough experience to correctly guess the election.
Apart from the accommodation, you have to optimize other features of the store, since it will help you a lot to achieve it successfully.
3. Deferred
Unless you make your own products, there is an enormous likelihood that your online business has many brands that other stores have. For that reason, you must differentiate yourself, and do not consider yourself another. One of the worst faults is to use a template and not customize it to your liking so that it looks different from others. On the other hand, there are the descriptions of the products, the photographs, .. etc All the above, is usually supplied by the manufacturer, and that is why we have to modify it and change it to our liking. In this way, you will be different and not be one more.
4. Competitive analysis
This does not only apply to electronic commerce, of course, but any online business has to analyze its competitors. Eye, not to copy, but to be inspired by the good they do, and their shortcomings. Many times, researching in the competition, you realize the many flaws they have, and that gives you many opportunities. The important thing is that at the end of the analysis, discover the strengths that your business will have in front of the competition, this will give you a huge advantage. I assure.
5. Not only do you sell
Nowadays, those who send in online business are consumers, because there are so many stores, they choose who they want. So we will have to capture your attention so that you choose us in front of others. Many make the mistake of competing on price, but it is a huge mistake. You have to think that a new vendor, will have little margin, has no brand, has no ability to reduce costs, ... etc, so you'll have to sharpen the wit and serve your skills and product knowledge to stand out. A good strategy is to become an expert in your niche and provide valuable information in your corporate blog entries. It is not just about selling, but about convincing. Here is the difference.
6. Do not forget the SEO
When you start the SEO of an online store, it is not at all simple. Unlike bloggers, the SEO of e-commerce is much more difficult. These bloggers have it easier because they choose a topic, and they develop unique content, and if it's good it's very easy to have a lot of followers. In this way, they get excellent SEO. Unfortunately, an online business has to fight a lot in SEO and is very vulnerable to the continuous changes in Google algorithms. You will ask yourself because the SEO of an online business is so difficult because it is for the following reasons:
The descriptions of the products are usually short, which causes the search engines to consider it as "Low quality" content.
The combinations, categories or attributes of the products, can generate URLs that duplicate the content. The solution is to canonize those URLs so that they return to the main product page.
The product categories usually cover several pages and thousands of products. To solve this you must ensure that these elements are indexed correctly.
SEO, it is very important to take it into account before starting a store, otherwise, you will lose sales and a lot of money. Therefore, you should be very clear about how to optimize your SEO.
7. Ally with your consumers
Currently, having an image and a description of the product is not enough to sell. What helps more to convert and increase sales, is to ally with customers, and help us with their own opinions of the product. Clients, by giving their opinion and sharing that product on social networks, manage to sell more than yourself, without a doubt. Like it or not, people will always find it hard to believe the words of the shop owners. So before you start your store, ally yourself with some test clients (friends, acquaintances, etc.), so that they are encouraged to put their opinion and share your content.
8. Get on Rich Snippets and videos
Rich Snippets "Rich Snippets" is a special code added to a page to describe the type of content you have. Using it will help you a lot in the search engines. In these rich fragments, what works best is to add videos. The user always chooses the online stores that include in those fragments,
The vast majority of owners make the huge mistake, that at first, just think about getting their e-commerce at a low price. And once they finish their store, they think about what is really important, but it's too late.
For that reason, here are 8 things that you should think about or take into account before launching your online business.
1. Choose the platform well
For me, the choice of a platform is how to correctly select your partner. If you're wrong, you'll have a thousand and one problems. In this section, it will depend on three assumptions:
Test or try your luck: If you create your online business to try your luck, I advise you to choose a platform that has good characteristics, but above all is cheap. In this case, I recommend Shopify, that with $30 / month, you already have e-commerce ready in a few minutes, or choose WooCommerce, that you can even assemble yourself since it is very simple. We go the minimum risk.
Medium E-commerce: Yes, you are going to start an online business seriously, but the catalog is not big, and you do not want to spend a pasture, I recommend Prestashop.
Scalable E-commerce: When you create a scalable business, it's because you're going for everything. Undoubtedly, the ideal platform is Magento.
As a tip, I recommend you stay away from solutions with a small community of developers and that seems outdated. That is, choose a well-supported cm, with an excellent community behind, and that has many e-commerce functionalities as a series. You have to bear in mind that once you decide on a platform, there is no turning back because a bad choice can be very expensive.
2. Accommodation = Optimization
Have a slow load of your e-commerce, is the same as losing customers, no matter how cool your store is, no one will be waiting for more than three seconds to load. So that this is not a problem, without doubt, one of the main responsible, is the accommodation you choose. Depending on the platform you choose, you must acquire a hosting or another. Almost all platforms, with shared hosting, they are worth it, but Magento or Prestashop (catalog of more than 1500 products) need a dedicated or VPS.
Many of my clients, when selecting a hosting, have doubts which one to choose because there are many prices. That's why I think it's important to clarify which parameters are the ideal ones to start your online business:
With 1 Gigabyte of space, it reaches you for a beginning, if we were short you could expand.
With 1 Gigabyte of data transfer. This means the transfer of information between your visits and the server, or the number of pages that all your visitors can see every month. The unlimited transfer is almost impossible to obtain since the sites that offer it do not have it.
That has good technical support, and that works 24 hours 7 days a week.
It requires that the availability time reaches rates of 99.99999%, and the remaining 1%, for maintenance.
The type of support, at first you get with Linux (it's cheaper with Windows).
Take the domain in the same company as Hosting, as this will avoid headaches.
But, everything that I explained before you have to say who develops the online store since you will not have enough experience to correctly guess the election.
Apart from the accommodation, you have to optimize other features of the store, since it will help you a lot to achieve it successfully.
3. Deferred
Unless you make your own products, there is an enormous likelihood that your online business has many brands that other stores have. For that reason, you must differentiate yourself, and do not consider yourself another. One of the worst faults is to use a template and not customize it to your liking so that it looks different from others. On the other hand, there are the descriptions of the products, the photographs, .. etc All the above, is usually supplied by the manufacturer, and that is why we have to modify it and change it to our liking. In this way, you will be different and not be one more.
4. Competitive analysis
This does not only apply to electronic commerce, of course, but any online business has to analyze its competitors. Eye, not to copy, but to be inspired by the good they do, and their shortcomings. Many times, researching in the competition, you realize the many flaws they have, and that gives you many opportunities. The important thing is that at the end of the analysis, discover the strengths that your business will have in front of the competition, this will give you a huge advantage. I assure.
5. Not only do you sell
Nowadays, those who send in online business are consumers, because there are so many stores, they choose who they want. So we will have to capture your attention so that you choose us in front of others. Many make the mistake of competing on price, but it is a huge mistake. You have to think that a new vendor, will have little margin, has no brand, has no ability to reduce costs, ... etc, so you'll have to sharpen the wit and serve your skills and product knowledge to stand out. A good strategy is to become an expert in your niche and provide valuable information in your corporate blog entries. It is not just about selling, but about convincing. Here is the difference.
6. Do not forget the SEO
When you start the SEO of an online store, it is not at all simple. Unlike bloggers, the SEO of e-commerce is much more difficult. These bloggers have it easier because they choose a topic, and they develop unique content, and if it's good it's very easy to have a lot of followers. In this way, they get excellent SEO. Unfortunately, an online business has to fight a lot in SEO and is very vulnerable to the continuous changes in Google algorithms. You will ask yourself because the SEO of an online business is so difficult because it is for the following reasons:
The descriptions of the products are usually short, which causes the search engines to consider it as "Low quality" content.
The combinations, categories or attributes of the products, can generate URLs that duplicate the content. The solution is to canonize those URLs so that they return to the main product page.
The product categories usually cover several pages and thousands of products. To solve this you must ensure that these elements are indexed correctly.
SEO, it is very important to take it into account before starting a store, otherwise, you will lose sales and a lot of money. Therefore, you should be very clear about how to optimize your SEO.
7. Ally with your consumers
Currently, having an image and a description of the product is not enough to sell. What helps more to convert and increase sales, is to ally with customers, and help us with their own opinions of the product. Clients, by giving their opinion and sharing that product on social networks, manage to sell more than yourself, without a doubt. Like it or not, people will always find it hard to believe the words of the shop owners. So before you start your store, ally yourself with some test clients (friends, acquaintances, etc.), so that they are encouraged to put their opinion and share your content.
8. Get on Rich Snippets and videos
Rich Snippets "Rich Snippets" is a special code added to a page to describe the type of content you have. Using it will help you a lot in the search engines. In these rich fragments, what works best is to add videos. The user always chooses the online stores that include in those fragments,
