Starting an online shop: what do you need to consider? · Ghio Webservices

Starting an online shop: what do you need to consider?

The foundations of a successful online shop — from product-market fit to logistics and legal requirements.

Having a physical or digital space from which you sell your products can only ever be a means to an end (never a goal in itself), but you've known that for a long time, of course. After all, you're already managing to do business offline. When you also want to do business online, what exactly should you think about?

Building or having a website built

Your website / webshop is your foundation. You can make this as cheap or expensive as you like, depending on the look and feel and the functionalities you want your website to have. Doing it yourself with websites like Wix or Jimdo is the cheapest option, but it's also very labour-intensive and then once you're further along (assuming your business becomes a success), you'll have to start again because of the limitations. Remember that your time costs money too!
Outsourcing costs more, but should deliver a more professional result and, most importantly, your guarantee that you won't be limited when you want to scale. If you choose to outsource, make sure you have the desired look and feel (logo, colours, images of the products, etc.) ready beforehand and have thought carefully about the functionalities your website and webshop should have.

Choosing a webshop system

A webshop runs on a webshop system. There are various options, for example WooCommerce + WordPress (a simple and intuitive system), Shopify or Mijnwebwinkel. Choosing a webshop system also depends on the functionalities you want. Think about how you process an order or what's involved in processing a return, for example. Also think about payment methods and whether you only want to offer delivery or whether you also want to allow customers to collect products.

Setting up your digital shop

Set up your webshop with the right images of your product. Make sure to include clear, concise text. It's essential that the correct dimensions, colours and quantities are included. Confirm this again when customers check out. This way, the customer knows what to expect throughout the entire shopping and purchasing process.

Creating integrations

What do you want your webshop system to be connected with? Perhaps a wholesaler, a dropshipper, Google Shopping or a site like eBay. You might also want to connect your system with a review website such as Trustpilot or Klantenvertellen.nl. These are all things to think about carefully beforehand.

Hosting provider

A website can only be found if it runs on a server with a hosting provider. Perhaps the party building your website and webshop offers this service. You can also choose a different hosting provider.

Visibility and security

Create a good business profile for free via Google My Business with correct opening hours. This increases the visibility of your business. Once you're logged into your business profile, you can also copy a handy link here to invite customers to leave a review of your products or services. Make sure your website and webshop are optimised for the most common search engines and that your website and webshop are easy to use on all devices. Your customers' data must be secure, so ensure that your website and webshop meet all security requirements. We're happy to help you with this.

Remarketing

Your customers now know how to find their way to your webshop. Measuring their behaviour is essential to know whether you need to make adjustments for their next visit. So let's get started with Google Analytics! Do you have plenty of visitors but sales remain low? If you show previous visitors advertisements as a reminder, they're more likely to buy because they've already visited the website once. We call this remarketing.

What's your story?

As I said earlier: we're triggered by the behaviour and experiences of other people. The days of 'we from brand X recommend brand X' are thankfully long behind us. As consumers, we're no longer easily fooled and we want authentic stories! Sit down with a professional to have a great brand story for your business written down, which you can use in your online and offline communications. Your customers also have stories to share! Actively ask them to send you photos of your product in use. We call this user-generated content, basically the digital version of word-of-mouth advertising.

Talk to your customer

Having a digital shop means you sometimes need to go the extra mile to make your relationship with your customer personal. So make sure you keep a close eye on your social media channels and respond when someone mentions or replies to your business or product. Satisfied customers are fantastic ambassadors who spread your content for free. And did you know that a dissatisfied customer who is then helped well with their problem becomes even more loyal? Do you have a dilemma about your webshop or product? Ask your customer! Some of them turn out to be brilliant ambassadors? Reward your customer! Truly, loyal customers are worth their weight in gold.

Convenience, service and speed

We're all spoilt consumers these days. From large online shops, we're used to everything going smoothly when we shop. We prefer to have our package delivered yesterday rather than today. Put yourself in the shoes of a customer and look at what you find pleasant and less pleasant when shopping online:

In short, learn from the best and design the ultimate customer journey for your webshop and ask yourself which processes you can automate yourself.

Need help? We're here for you!