Selling or buying through the Internet is no longer a curiosity, it has become something common in our lives and it has been shown that it is a very important sales channel for many companies and a source of income to be taken into account.
Despite the fact that electronic commerce is a well-known and established practice in a large part of business, on many occasions we only think of it as an online store.
For e-commerce to be successful, it is necessary to review a series of fundamental levers and ensure that they have been taken into account. These points are listed below as an inventory in order to establish control over their existence and degree of completeness.
1.- User experience
The created environment must be accessible and intuitively navigable. An important help is to create a design style book and programming model, which seek to place buttons and functions that facilitate purchases, quickly, giving the option to review the shopping cart as many times as required and returning to consult the product information without getting lost in other sections. A good user experience drives not only the first purchase, but subsequent purchases as well as recommendations.
2.- Responsive web, adapted to mobile and tablet
It is essential because smartphones and tablets rank second among the devices used by Internet users to make purchases online and also to search for information about the products or services they require, before making the purchase. Still having a mobile app. the web version should be available to more easily link to mailing lists, user-to-user links, advertisements, and so on.
3.- Selected information
It is important to have enough information: neither so brief that enough elements cannot be obtained to make the purchase decision, nor so overloaded that the user flees due to excess. This selection must include images of the products of excellent quality and that help users to know what is being sold, without having to see it physically.
4.- SEO positioning (Search Engine Optimization)
Being very well positioned in the search engines will help new potential customers to find your own e-commerce, since the site will appear in the first places of the search results list.
5.- Social Networks
Social networks must be present in each of the ecommerce activities. With a good strategy, you can attract more traffic to the site and create a community interested in your own products or services, thus establishing an effective communication channel where you can interact with customers. On the other hand, the bad reputation in social networks, without adequate management, produces a very negative effect on the attraction and sales capacities.
6.- Brief and simple purchase form
It will allow to have data that can be used to send promotions and relevant information to customers. Only the necessary information should be requested so that they are fast and not intrusive. Customers must always be reminded that the information will be well kept, in accordance with legal and compliance principles, and that it will not be used for other purposes.
7.- Customer service
The moment in which a client completes his purchase is just the beginning of the work. From this moment the customer service begins. During this process, the client must feel accompanied and listened to regarding the doubts that he may have about the shipment of his order and when receiving it about its operation, preparation, cleaning, care and even return. Taking care of each of these aspects allows you to have satisfied customers who want to repeat the shopping experience and recommend it.
8.- Ecosystems and affiliate networks
Exponential growth occurs thanks to the creation of affiliate networks. An affiliate network allows other digital environments to obtain a remunerated profit thanks to sales directed from the audience itself to the electronic commerce of origin. An affiliate network can be used with a specific website or an entire ecosystem of sites and services that bring together even larger audiences as a result of the sum of the users of each of the sites that make it up.
9.- Continuous improvement
Keeping abreast of trends and new habits on the Internet and networks maintains the audience. It requires responding to the changes and all the demands for information that arise from day to day. To be up-to-date, it is important to consider continuous training in new functionalities in social networks and search engines, among other topics that may become more relevant for users.
If your business is not on the internet, your business does not exist - Bill Gates
