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New Web Store? Your Checklist for Success in 2018

Tag: SEO

New Web Store? Your Checklist for Success in 2018
Mohab Growth Hacks 0

New Web Store? Your Checklist for Success in 2018

The world today is way more digitalized than ever before, and this has immensely impacted the way stores, showrooms and even small merchants are getting their business done! Everyone has an online presence and every business is trying to rope in as many potential customers possible through web stores or online stores. Naturally, the competition for attracting the target audience is high, and if you too have joined the bandwagon of online merchants recently, here are some cool tricks that can help you stand out!

Web design that attracts and engages

No matter how great the product or service you sell is, without a wonderful web design, your marketing campaign will fall flat on its face. Either you can learn to create a visually appealing web store yourself or you can hire a professional web designer. The investment will be worth it. Or, check out sites such as TonyTemplates or TemplateMonster to get hold of an attractive e-commerce template with the latest designs and layouts. Minimal text and high quality full-width images are the way to go.

Focus on “About Us”

Your “About Us” page is the biggest bait after your landing page to hook potential customers. Keep the design minimal and mention clearly how your brand was born, what you offer, and why it is important. Include testimonials and achievements to gain customer trust and also mention contact details like address, email, and social media pages.

Don’t ignore the power of online support

Your interaction with the customer is not just till the moment he or she makes the payment and gets the product delivered. It should go beyond that in the form of awesome online support or after-sales services that they might need before using the product. Pre-purchase support in the form of live chats on your website can boost the conversion by more than 10% as well. It will also encourage new buyers to trust your store. Make sure that the chat box or the phone line is clearly visible on your homepage.

Choose the perfect payment gateway  

Without a secure and fast payment gateway, your online business will do anything but prosper. So, go for a gateway like PayTabs which lets you sell your products globally and receive payments even within 24 hours! It has a very robust 2-layer fraud protection system, and accepts 168 currencies too. You can integrate PayTabs very easily into your system and benefit from features like online invoicing, mobile apps, and convenient payment processing. Customer details and purchase history are well-protected, and PayTabs also generates financial reports that can help you monitor cash flow. This payment gateway is ideal for every type of business, it can make your business cycle easier to handle and it will keep a track on recurring customers too.

Make your website and blog SEO-optimized

Ensure that both your website and blog (everyone has one these days) follow Search Engine Optimization or SEO. This means, that the content, product titles and descriptions must contain keywords that will help you rank higher on organic search results. Or in other words, using the right keywords will increase your visibility to the online audience. Before incorporating the keywords which you think will work, type them into a search engine like Google and see who your business competitors are. If they are big ones, change your keyword to something that is not so competitive. For your blog, use SEO tools and Google Analytics to track page views and see which posts do better.

Other tips

Advertise creatively on social media, track analytics of your site, make your site is mobile-friendly, offer free shipping and assured refunds, use email marketing, and network with industry bloggers, traditional reporters and social media influencers to create a buzz about your product. Don’t forget to keep an eye on your competition too.

6 years ago
The complete guide to launching your very first online store – tools and strategies inside
Mohab Ecommerce 0

The complete guide to launching your very first online store – tools and strategies inside

“If your business is not on the internet, your business will be out of business” – Bill Gates

Starting an online business isn’t a trend but a necessity. It is comparatively easier to set up than a brick-and-motor store, less resource intensive and allows you to experiment and iterate quickly as per your customer’s demands. There is a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow… and here’s your guide to get started.

Find a problem to solve: From selling cars to buying accessories to finding dates, the digital world is uniquely finding ways to solve problems by making lives convenient, and   saving time and money. The key to create a successful business online is to not only find the right problem to solve but also have the expertise and skills to solve it. What is your core expertise? What problems do people face in that industry? Why are YOU the best entrepreneur to do this job? Once you have the answers, you’ll know what your online business will be.

Build your website: Your website is your store front. It’s key to determining how you’ll sell and how much time, effort and maintenance you are willing to put up. You may have a store with hundreds of products which will need back end management that you’ll have to think through like updating stocks, offering discounts and being search engine friendly. In this case, you’ll have to make your choice between options like Shopify, WooCommerce, Open Cart, Get Shop and other such services based on their terms and feature list.

Write copy that sells: This is one of the most important parts of your online business. Once people come to your website, they’ll give you a minute or less to make your pitch. Your content will have to be cutting edge, to the point and push people towards the sales funnel. Explainer videos and infographics are strongly recommended to deliver your punches in the shortest possible time.

Choose a payment gateway: A payment gateway is a very important feature for your store. Its functionality will ensure that you can get paid not only in your native currency but from anywhere in the world where people can pay in their own currency and you can receive the money in yours hassle free. The right payment gateway can ensure you can reach any corner of the earth with your products.

Choose a fulfillment partner: A fulfillment partner is as important as your payment gateway. If your products have the chance of getting damaged in transport, you’ll have to find someone who can deliver with care. Some countries have restrictions on the products you can ship and you may need to work with different fulfillment partners who know the local regulations and ensure you aren’t selling anything that can’t be delivered in that country.

Start with PPC and then jump in to SEO: Pay per click advertising on Facebook and Google will allow you to do a quick market validation. Start this as soon as your basic website is ready. You’ll know if customers are understanding your website and products and if they are willing to trust you and make the purchase.

Get social: Social is a great place to build your community. Get together people who have similar likes and you’ll eventually find customers there.

Use email marketing: Build your email list from day one and offer incentives for people to sign up. Email marketing will allow you to sell, up-sell and cross sell, automate your communication and be in your customer’s inbox.

Go on, try it for a few months until you have proof of market. Your online store, if done well, can fetch amazing returns.

6 years ago
Digital Marketing: Key for an e-Commerce Startup
Mohab Ecommerce 0

Digital Marketing: Key for an e-Commerce Startup

You have a great idea; you have registered your name and your business; you have complied with the tax regulations, you have chosen a brand name, you have signed up for your domain, you are developed your website, you have selected a shopping cart plugin for your site or developed your own shopping cart, you have selected your payment gateway you have stocked your inventory.

Now you are all set! Your maiden e-commerce venture is about to begin! But, how do you get the word out that you are a new e-commerce venture and how do you attract customers to buy from your website, whether it is a marketplace or a single store. The answer lies in Marketing. Considering all forms of marketing available nowadays, the most effective form is to market through the digital form, especially social media.

The following factors are the reasons why you should concentrate on digital marketing:

  1. Variety of Content:

    As a business, you would have multiple forms of content that you can leverage to educate the consumer about differentiating factors of your e-commerce platform, be it blogs, infographics, images, etc…. From a content creation standpoint, focus on the USP of your platform and the experience that your platform provides.

  2. Pervasiveness of Search Engines:

    Most consumers search online looking for products to buy. Hence it is an imperative for your e-commerce platform to be SEO friendly. You should have optimized all the pages of your site/platform to be picked up by Google/Bing/Yahoo. Well, the most popular search engine is Google, therefore optimization of product pages on your site is a necessity. Most importantly, ensure your site has a search bar for any consumer to search for a specific product they are looking for. Search engine crawlers tend to rank sites higher with a product search option. This also enables your site’s product page to be featured for product searches done on the search engine.

  3. Analytics and Targeting:

    The role of analytics in the digital marketing space has grown over the years and it proves to be a great barometer of consumer assessment. You can often target a consumer who spends more time on your site by pushing out relevant ads of the product pages he has browsed, through remarketing (either google remarketing or facebook remarketing).

  4. Growth of Social Media:

    It is a no brainer that social media platforms such as facebook or twitter have grown to become hubs for consumer conversations. It adds value to have a strong social media presence and market yourself effectively on social media to create awareness about your new e-commerce venture.

  5. Social Listening:

    Using advanced social media listening tools to gain insights about your consumer, as in picking up clues from his conversations, actions, etc… Social listening tools enable you to keep a tab on your competitor and their navigation of the digital space. It is a must for analysing consumer behaviour and analysing competition.

  6. Video Marketing:

    Videos in the digital world are known to capture the consumer’s attention in a very short span of time. Video content can be used for paid/non-paid digital advertising leading the consumer to go to the site and browse through or purchase. It pays to invest in video marketing, as the ROI over a period is going to be highly profitable for you.

As you can gauge by now, digital marketing is an intrinsic lever to grow your e-commerce business. What are you waiting for? Start now! Subscribe to our blog to gain more insights on e-commerce. You can also sign up for a demo of our Payments Solution to understand the value that we can bring to your e-commerce venture.

7 years ago
7 Tips for E-Commerce Success
Mohab Growth Hacks 0

7 Tips for E-Commerce Success

The 2016 Pitney and Bowes Global Online Shopping study estimated 66% of online consumers are international. This percentage is likely to grow in the coming years.

Having said that, before you jump the international e-commerce bandwagon, it is important that you focus on certain areas for long term success. As we provide you with the following tips, you would need to be mindful of the fact that the e-commerce race is a marathon and not a sprint!

  1. Don’t Hurry: Launching your e-commerce site shouldn’t be done in a hurried fashion. There is only one shot you have in launching your site. Therefore, it is important to ensure that all functionalities of the site are working properly. Do a thorough testing. You can purchase a domain name and create a pre-launch page on the lines of “Coming Soon”, but until you have done significant groundwork in terms of content, technology, functionalities, SEO, paid advertising planning, don’t launch!
  2. Consumer is the King: The user or the consumer should be the focus of your e-commerce venture. Notwithstanding the recent advances in augmented reality and artificial intelligence, the big shortcoming that you would have to deal with is the fact that the consumer cannot touch, feel and smell the products before buying. You can compensate this by offering better prices, free shipping and more importantly, simplified shopping carts and a hassle free checkout with a seamless payments solution.
  3. Testing: At every stage of your e-commerce business (pre-launch, launch and growth), you should test everything, right from functionalities to user experience and user interface. Hence, it is imperative to invest significantly in testing and analytics.
  4. Social Focus: Do not outsource social media marketing at the starting phase of your e-commerce venture. It is indeed the heartbeat of your business. Through social media you can gain valuable insights into prospective customers. As an entrepreneur, you would need to be hands on with your social media. You can employ a community manager but you need to keep a close watch on your social media marketing. Include social elements on your e-commerce website. Small elements like reviews, social login options and follow/sharing buttons help in conversion.
  5. Mobile: Way back in 2014, Goldman Sachs had predicted that global mobile commerce will account for nearly half of e-commerce by 2018 amounting to a figure in excess of $620 Billion*. If you aren’t building your e-commerce portal with a mobile first approach, then there’s no point in venturing at all.
  6. SEO: Over time, Search engines have evolved to be more valuable for e-commerce sites. In fact, most of your traffic will come from search engines as people are increasingly searching for products on Google, Yahoo or Bing. Therefore ensure that you stay on top of SEO to stand out among competition. You may need to hire an agency to help you out with SEO in the beginning.
  7. Information and Evolution: Make it a point to collect as much of customer information and build databases to aid future launches of different versions, categories or a new sister site. Lastly, evolution is a critical element because technology, trends and consumer tastes/preferences change over time.

For more insights on e-commerce and payment solutions, you can subscribe to our blog alerts.

Moreover, to understand our payment solutions and how we can help you grow your e-commerce business, click here.

*Source: Digicommerce 360

7 years ago