eCommerce has gained a lot of importance in recent years. However, it was in 2020 that we saw an exponential growth of eCommerce, due to the pandemic situation experienced and the closing of physical stores. According to the CTT eCommerce Report 2021, during 2020, eCommerce had an overall growth of around 46%, dominated by the domestic market, which grew by 70%.
Taking into account the results of this report, we can say that the growth of eCommerce, nationally and worldwide, is a trend that will continue over the next few years. Therefore, in today’s article we highlight important points to take into account when deciding to create your online store, in order to build your brand’s success.
Why invest in eCommerce?
Firstly, we highlight the fact that the bet on eCommerce allows for greater flexibility in the business model and its sustainability. The creation of an online store will increase your billing volume and, if you have any unforeseen event that prevents your physical establishment from working (for example, power cuts, floods, etc.) , a way to ensure the continuity of your business.
Secondly, eCommerce allows you, in addition to getting closer to your target audience, to reach a greater variety of audiences as you will have greater exposure given that online stores have a global reach.
Third, but not least, having your business digital allows you to keep abreast of your competition and thus stay relevant in the market. We are not moving towards a world without physical stores, but we are moving towards a world where the digital market is increasingly relevant.
5 Tips to have a successful eCommerce
Creating a good eCommerce can seem easy – just turn to WordPress and WooCommerce, choose a beautiful template and fill the site with your products. Sounds easy, but it’s not! Creating a good eCommerce involves, in addition to financial investment, a very large time investment to establish an effective business strategy.
In our experience, these are the top 5 tips for having a good eCommerce:
- Planning: just like when you created your company and had to develop a business strategy, creating an eCommerce requires the same commitment. We often see companies creating eCommerces to satisfy immediate needs, without thinking about the future. This lack of planning leads, in the vast majority of cases, to the fact that some time later (1 to 2 years), they are forced to develop a new store because the one they have no longer meets their needs.
- Process Automation: when creating an eCommerce, it is essential to think about automating processes such as managing orders, shipments, carriers, etc. to ensure greater accuracy and quality of the service offered. Doing these processes manually increases the risk of errors, which can affect the reputation of your eCommerce.
- Ensure a good hosting service: nowadays there are a multitude of companies that offer hosting services – some cheaper, others more expensive. Pay attention to the features of the services and don’t be fooled by the price! In many cases, paying for cheaper service implies lower quality. The hosting service is what allows your website to function correctly, so you must ensure that your service supports the traffic that your eCommerce receives every day, always bearing in mind that there will be times when that traffic will be higher (e.g. at festive times).
- Hire a good professional/agency! Currently there is a wide range of platforms where you can develop websites, with templates and other free services, so it is common to ask family and/or friends who are aware of new technologies to develop a website or eCommerce for us. However, developing an online website, and especially an eCommerce, is much more demanding than you think. It takes solid technical knowledge to develop a good platform. So don’t be afraid to invest and bet on a good professional or agency.
- Analyze data and measure results. Data and results analysis is critical to the success of every business. At the digital level, there are several platforms for data analysis such as Google Analytics and Google Tag Manager that allow you to monitor the performance of your eCommerce. Don’t forget that it’s also very important to analyze your results, for example: how many people visit your site more than once, how many customers make more than one purchase, what is your abandoned cart rate, among others.
When developing your eCommerce, don’t forget that you have to comply with the legislation! There are several legal aspects that you have to put on your website, such as privacy policy, electronic complaints book, among others. See our article abou this topic.