Being a business owner comes with a lot of responsibilities, including the upkeep of your store. If you’re an online trader, then it can be a little more difficult to manage your ‘store’ because it’s virtual. If you’re not tech savvy and something goes wrong, you could risk losing out on days, possibly weeks of all important business. Here’s how you can run a successful online store.
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Man the decks
In every sense of the phrase, you should be manning the decks of your business. This means having someone on the phones during business hours to deal with enquiries and complaints. You should also hire someone that can sort out any technical issues for you if something were to go wrong and you don’t know how to resolve the issue. Finally, making sure that you have members of staff ready to pack and distribute the items that you’re selling is also very important to business.
Sort out your delivery service
One thing that many online stores fail with, is their delivery services. Often, companies will go with the cheapest option for them so that they can offer free delivery to their customers. It’s a well known fact that customers would rather pay for the delivery because it means that their package is in safe hands and often means that it will get to them much faster. Shiply offers courier services and offer very competitive prices. Choose a courier and stick with them.
Ditch automation
If you’re using a service like eBay to sell your products, then make sure that you don’t have any automatic messaging services turned on for your customers. This often comes across as spammy which turns customers away from using your service again, if at all. As mentioned earlier, make sure that you have someone on hand to answer any queries or complaints rather than sending back an automated message.
Give customers as much information as possible
Buying items online is risky because until the item arrives to you, you never know if the picture is anything like the item you’re going to be receiving. Make sure that you give your customers as much information as possible so that when they are viewing your items, they can better make a decision on whether to buy it or not.
There’s nothing worse than looking at clothing online and the sizing chart being vague with a chart that says xxs-xxl. Nobody wants to risk getting the wrong size, so make sure that you have measurements to each of your sizes so that your customers can pre measure before buying. The same goes for other items too. Make sure all sizes and weights are displayed so that your customers don’t have a shock and are disappointed when they receive their delivery. This also protects you as a company too, because you’re not lying or hiding information from your customers.
Take these things into consideration and enjoy running a successful online store!