eCommerce isn’t easy, but if you follow some simple rules, there’s no reason, even in the crowded virtual marketplace of 2017, why you shouldn’t make a success of an online shop.

As with any business, image is everything. You must look top notch or no-one will buy from you. A decent logo, business address and a landline phone number are still important to give you credibility.

An eCommerce site must be fast, and that’s not only because of functionality. Site speed is a signal that Google looks for when determining where the pages of your eCommerce website will be in the index.

The site needs to look clean and clear with great navigation. If you can have all of your shop categories accessible from a main menu across the top, all the better.

You need to be able to put your products in to multiple categories. Ok, this depends on the size of your shop but if you can, do it. For one thing it’s makes your shop catalogue look larger.

Use descriptions on your categories. It’s worth remembering that Google indexes web pages not web sites. so all of your pages need clear descriptive original descriptions. With the product pages, write good original product descriptions. Perhaps add in information about what the product might be used for. Not just information about the product itself. Yes you need to list the features but you’ll do better if you add benefits to each product description.

The product images must be square. Don’t have different shaped images as it looks truly awful. If your images are all different shapes. Make them square by altering the canvas size.

Use a system that has all the bells and whistles. Cross selling, up sellling, a variety of shipping options, colour options, size option, multi-images and many more.

Do plenty of research as to what system to use for your eCommerce site. Can you move it to another server if you need to? There are many eCommerce systems now that require you to stay with the company that built is as it’s their own unique system. These systems have some merit but they won’t have as  much functionality as say OpenCart for example.

Ok, that’s just a few things that come to mind. If are thinking of starting an eCommerce business, feel free to give me a call as I’d be happy to help with words of advice and encouragement.

You can contact me by phoning 01603 383477 or filling in my contact form.