In the past decade, brick and mortar retail establishments have started to go the way of the dinosaur. Modern consumers generally go online when they want to buy a particular product. Shopping online allows a person to make purchases without leaving the comfort of their home.
It is estimated that ecommerce sales will reach nearly $4 trillion by the year 2021. If you are looking to join the ecommerce revolution, your first goal should be developing a Shopify store. Shopify is an all-in-one ecommerce website hosting and building platform that is extremely easy to use.
The first decision you will have to make when developing a Shopify store is what type of theme you want to use. Looking at existing Shopify stores is a great way to get some inspiration when attempting to make this important decision. Using tools like Shop Theme Detector will allow you to figure out the exact Shopify theme a store is using.
The following are just some of the elements you need to have in place to make your Shopify store successful.
1. Creating a Mobile-Friendly Experience
Nearly half of the traffic Shopify stores get are from people using mobile devices. Modern consumers use their smartphones and tablets to browse these stores and make purchases. Making sure your Shopify store is responsive is essential when trying to cater to this large portion of your audience.
If your site is not responsive, it will be extremely difficult for mobile users to read the text and see the images you have on your Shopify store. Often times, this will frustrate the mobile user, which will lead to them leaving the site altogether. Instead of missing out on potential sales opportunities, you need to make sure all users can engage with your site from any device.
2. Properly Securing Your Site is Vital
Most ecommerce websites receive a lot of sensitive information from their customers. The last thing you want is for a customer’s credit card number or other sensitive data to be stolen due to a lack of cyber-security.
Your Shopify store should have things like SSL encryption in place and a secure payment processing system. If consumers see that you have gone the extra mile when it comes to data security, they are far more likely to trust your company. While these security upgrades may be costly, they are definitely worth the investment.
3. Finding Unique Ways to Deal With Cart Abandonment
One of the biggest problems you will face as an ecommerce business owner is cart abandonment. Finding a way to reduce the number of cart abandonments can increase the income from your Shopify store greatly.
The first thing you should try when attempting to solve this problem is offering a discount to consumers who attempt to abandon their cart. Usually, a discount will catch a consumer’s attention and keep them interested in buying from an ecommerce store.
4. Great Customer Support
When trying to attract new online shoppers, you need to show them you value their business. The best way to do this is by offering great customer support.
Using chatbots can help you provide consumers with answers to their questions about your products. Chatbots use artificial intelligence to come up with answers to these questions. The best part about using this software is that it can provide help to consumers regardless of what time of day it is.
Having success with a Shopify store will take lots of hard work. Constantly honing and refining your ecommerce strategy is a great way to increase sales over time.