Starting an eCommerce store with a small team, or even a medium-sized team, can be hard. Even once the site is live, it can be tough to get sales up and running. Making your first sale is a huge milestone and this handy guide will showcase what we believe are the essential qualities of a highly successful eCommerce store. We want to make sure that your eCommerce store is selling as much as possible and that your business doesn’t waste its great potential.
1. Keep spreadsheets of product data for reference
Whilst you may know your products very well, other people working on your eCommerce store may be less familiar. A good idea is to set up a spreadsheet, so relevant information about your store’s products is easily accessible. For example, a department store would have a spreadsheet with columns for every product name, description, price, dimensions and category. Here is an example of what this could look like. The information is simple and clear so everybody working on their eCommerce store will understand what the product is.
2. Use simple product identifiers (SKUs)
Simple product identifiers are essential for making it easier to find products in large eCommerce stores. SKUs are used by customers when they want to find a specific item. Each product (and sometimes variation) in your store should have a unique SKU. Each SKU should have a logical structure that describes the product and its features in a small number of characters. Some attributes that could be included in a SKU are range, size, colour or material. Your eCommerce store could be different, however, and it may be best to think up your own logical structure. Below is an example of what a good SKU might look like for a Large Homeware Leather Sofa. At Optimus, we love to use WooCommerce to manage product SKUs (amongst many other things).
Use: HOME-SFA-LTH-LRG
Don’t use: SOFA112894
3. Describe your products in detail
Put simply, the better the description the more likely your product is to sell. Simply saying “a white T-shirt” does not do your item justice. You need to describe the item in detail.
Using the t-shirt example, we could describe features such as collar shape, arm length, product material, washing instructions or regular fit/slim fit. Descriptions of these features all help the customer identify the product in your eCommerce store and decide whether they want to buy it. The easiest way to do this is to put yourself in the customers’ shoes and think of the questions you would ask if you were considering buying it.
4. Take quality images from all angles
Clear images from multiple angles can boost your product sales massively. Buyers will have more confidence in your item and are less likely to return it once they receive it. Just think, would you buy something if you didn’t know what it looked like? The is probably no. For a bonus, you can also take images of each colour variation. Make sure images are appropriately named. For example: ‘Back View of Dark Blue Padded Puffer Jacket SKU 123456. The SKU number should be added to find the item later on. Remember that most eCommerce trade takes place on mobile devices, so images cannot have too much white space, otherwise, customers will not be able to see the item.
Some additional quickfire tips
- Suggest products that customers frequently buy together;
- Offer discounts for new customers;
- Offer free delivery for orders over a certain price;
- Promote your products on social media.