You may have a superb business plan, but that will not be enough to ensure success if your digital business has a poorly designed website.
In today’s competitive economy, your website must be secure and easy to navigate. Also, your website must be mobile-friendly and it must load quickly.
Your potential customers will turn to your competitors if your website does not satisfy these basic functions, so, here are 5 tips to take into consideration when opening a digital business.
Use high quality images and fill in as much information about what’s relevant to your digital business
When opening a business that’s solely focused on the online environment, you must ensure that your potential customers have all the necessary details about your brand.
For instance, when shopping online, customers are unable to pick up a product and take a good look at it. Instead, they rely on the images your store provides, along with matching descriptions.
Don’t rely solely on price. Entice visitors with great imagery and product detail – always offer photos that display the product from multiple views, using only high quality images, and be sure to include unique detailed descriptions instead of generic product descriptions from the supplier.
If you have poor quality photos or offer limited descriptions, you’ll almost definitely lose sales. High-quality product images are essential since your customers cannot physically examine your merchandise. If your images are not clear and focused, you will lose sales, so replace any that are not up to standard.
High quality images along with relevant information are not limited to online shops. Let’s say you are opening an agency focused on web design – a portfolio containing your great looking web designs along with a price range is a great way for your potential customers to see your talent and reach up to you to have their website designed by you.
Use a clean theme and don’t rattle your visitor with a lot of pop-ups and ads
Your website must look attractive, with crisp text and complementary colours. If you are at the beginning of your digital journey and do not afford a custom-made design, you can choose a public theme or you can buy one online. ThemeForest has plenty of nice looking themes, but please be advised – the code is not proper in all of them.
When money is tight, you may also be inclined to add as many advertising spaces in your overall design in order to increase your income. We know, the beginnings are usually hard and hustle is the name of the game, but your readers or potential customers end up on your website for a specific reason. They do not want to be invaded with tons of pop-ups or ads.
A mobile friendly website is a must
We’re a society moving more and more to mobile, thus, your digital business will need to keep up.
If your website wasn’t properly designed to be device adaptable, you will be offering a poor user experience on mobile, with clutter, slow navigation options and an overall frustrating feeling.
30% of mobile shoppers abandon a transaction if the experience is not optimized for mobile.
Make sure YOU’re bringing a top notch consumer experience to the game.
Create a smooth and easy purchase process
Amazon pioneered the simple purchase process. And when they did, it revolutionized ecommerce. Consumers were begging for simpler checkout methods with fewer steps. A complex, multi-step checkout process is a frustrating experience for customers, and they’ll likely give up before completion.
Avoid frustration by offering a very short checkout process. Also, make guest checkout available. Let customers go through the process and choose the option to register and save their details at the end, in case they want to come back. Otherwise let them checkout as a guest, without the need to register.
Be sure that any potential customer can contact you and be there for them!
It seems like a small issue, doesn’t it? But not displaying full contact information, or trying to bury it deep in the site, is a major trust barrier for potential customers. Before they buy, no matter what you sell, they will look for this information, as they want peace of mind that if they need to contact you, they can. If you refuse to show location and contact information – including a phone number – you are going to have a hard time establishing trust with potential customers.
You need to develop a relationship with your customers to keep them coming back. This is why a Customer Care & Delight strategy will definitely help the process. We all like to feel valued, right?
Communication is key is every relationship. Your digital business is not excluded. *wink
Sending regular newsletters will keep your potential customers informed and your buyers delighted (especially if you include a 10% discount on their next purchase or maybe suggestions for other purchases based on what they already bought).
However, don’t overdo it – sending two emails a day is a sure way to get a customer to unsubscribe from your email list.
In conclusion
Remember, it takes time to build a digital business, so don’t expect overnight success – be patient!
Too often new business owners imagine that they will earn profits immediately. But that is not typically the case. Don’t be surprised if it takes several months to earn even meager profits.
Do not try to sell too many products (or services) initially, be honest with yourself and determine if you can afford spending time managing the procurement, inventory, sales and after sales service of your products or outsourcing of services.
The goal is to succeed in providing a great pay-for-value and an impeccable customer service, instead of a lot of products or services.
Also, when things go down, remember that they will also go up. Don’t quit! 🙂
We wish you the best of luck in your digital business.
