What You Can Learn From Successful eCommerce Retailers

With over 25 years of experience in the payments industry, Greg Constantine provides expert business leadership and marketing strategy development to SecureNet and its clientele as Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer.  From Fortune 500 companies to successful startups, Constantine has an extensive background in entrepreneurial guidance, marketing, sales, product planning, client services and operations management.

Running a successful eCommerce shop can be highly profitable, but it takes some planning and research to get the venture started. Using ecommerce selling, you can take advantage of the Internet’s marketing potential and the cost-savings available to those who avoid the overhead expenditures of a physical store location.

When you’re starting out, it helps to mimic the qualities of successful eCommerce retailers that you see on the Web. There are some common qualities of successful eCommerce retailers that you can study and learn from as you strategize on your eCommerce venture. Analyze the following characteristics and determine how you can instill your eCommerce retail platform with these same traits.

#1 – Customer-driven– It’s important that you pay attention to any possible input from customers. Many successful ecommerce platforms give customers the opportunity to review products and include testimonials. Needless to say, customers like to have their voices heard, and they will feel more compelled to do business with you when they see that you make adjustments to accommodate their wishes. You can open up communication channels between your company and your clients in a variety of different ways, but on the Internet, social networks are perhaps the best tools when it comes to getting to know your clients and sending them information about your company’s offerings and objectives. As a company, you need to learn to pinpoint those prospects who might be interested in your products and convince potential clients that you offer what they need through savvy marketing and publicity efforts.

#2 – Think Simple– Your eCommerce store should exhibit an appealing simplicity that immediately gives customers the idea that transactions are quick, safe, and convenient, and that the desired item(s) can be located with just a few clicks. Look at your site from the customer’s perspective and anticipate any potential problems that might come up for site visitors. Many retailers make the mistake of developing overly complicated platforms that actually deter users from visiting and making purchases.

#3 – Attractive– Give some thought to design features and to aesthetics as you develop your eCommerce store. On a subconscious level, consumers will be enticed to spend more time on a site that they find pleasant to look at and navigate through, and it’s especially important to give your eCommerce store a professional look that is appropriate to your industry. To get a really great-looking site, you might have to invest in professional web design. It’s hard to get a site to look highly attractive and appealing if you don’t have advanced knowledge in this area.

#4 – Well-marketed– By now, you should be aware of the fact that good marketing can sell even mediocre products. Good or bad marketing inevitably makes or breaks new companies that are just starting out in a venture. Get the word out about your store and promote it using the tools that the Internet provides, including search engine optimization and inbound marketing tactics. If you already have a website, then you have something of an advantage. You can simply add to your online store and use your current site’s popularity and publicity. If you are starting from scratch, it may take some time to get your site developed, bring in traffic, and rank high in the search engine results.

#5 – Easy to use– Above all, your eCommerce store needs to be user friendly. User friendliness is perhaps one of the most important qualities of successful eCommerce retailers. Remember, your clients may or may not have a great deal of experience surfing the web and making purchases online. The process of making a purchase using your site should be self-explanatory and intuitive. It’s very common for those putting together an eCommerce store to overlook any potential user difficulties because they are so familiar with its operations. The entire process of shopping on your eCommerce platforms needs to be as easy as possible, from browsing for items to checking out.

Bottom Line

Incorporating all of these qualities of successful ecommerce retailers will set you on the right track to becoming a respected online retailer. It might take a lot of work to get your store up and running; however, once you’ve successfully worked all of these features into your eCommerce platform, you will see that word catches on quickly about a convenient online shopping platform that offers Internet users products and services that they want.