E-shop optimization for beginners
Higher e-shop performance and bigger profit? Read our proven advice and tips :)
Often, an e-shopper gets to a stage when sales do not grow and profit just drops. Inflation may even reach 10% in 2022, employees still want to raise wages and margins on products do not grow. At the same time, transport costs, credit for advertising and not to mention energy are also becoming more expensive. In addition, the competition is constantly increasing (we have over 50,000 e-shops in CZ) and the big players are launching their Marketplace with great determination. Owners must react flexibly to these circumstances, because over time they may encounter the opposite of a tipping point – they simply stop making money! We want to prevent this from happening, which is why we thought we'd write down at least a few tips that have helped us to steadily grow sales and profits over the past few years.
Optimization of the e-shop from the point of view of UX - is your e-shop user-friendly?
For many people, shopping on the Internet is more convenient on a mobile phone than on a laptop or computer, so it is necessary to have a "tuned" e-shop even on a mobile device. If the buttons on the website are difficult to click, you will be penalized by Google and, above all, your visitors will leave your site angry. These optimizations go hand in hand with the display of products and the labels you have for the products. You can find instructions for optimizing labels in the e-shop in a separate article here.
TIP: perhaps augmented reality will help you, with the help of which your customers can project your products into their home/office
Also, don't forget to improve your loading speed. Not only the user is looking at it, but also mainly Google. If the speed is slow, visitors are annoyed and Google will move you lower in the search.
Do you have enough margin on all products?
During the pandemic, the conditions for the transportation of goods deteriorated considerably. Container shipping could become more expensive by hundreds of percent, and delivery speed could be extended by months. Even so, companies often order the same products in the same quantity, which may not mean the right strategic move. Why? Because if your traffic increases by hundreds of percent, it can also mean that your margin ends up with the transport company. Subsequently, it is important to recalculate the fixed and variable costs that you need to sacrifice to sell your products. You can find the costs in your accounting system. If you need advice, do not hesitate to contact us.
TIP: try the BCG matrix, which is very clearly explained by Associate Professor Ladislav Tyll in his book "Business Strategy"
Let's also not forget the expensive clicks reported by Heureka, and at the same time, various studies indicate that Google and Seznam are also becoming more expensive. At the same time, competition in PPC advertising is also increasing, which logically pushes the cost per click (CPC) up. Learn more about how PPC ads work here.
Which transport methods to choose for your e-shop?
Carefully selected transport methods are also part of optimized UX. It is very easy to choose only the transport company that offers the lowest price, but do not forget that people like to choose favorites, even among transport companies, so if your e-shop is missing, for example, Zásilkovna, it is possible that the customer will not complete the purchase right away because. At the same time, don't forget to compare the price of your transport with the competition.
SEO - are you optimizing your e-shop for Google and Seznam search engines?
SEO is the alpha and omega of any website - without SEO it is very difficult to make any money on the internet at all. These days, SEO goes hand in hand with UX. You can find out what SEO is here. If you need to answer questions about search engine optimization directly for your e-shop, do not hesitate to contact us. We even train SEOs and will be happy to enlighten you on techniques that will help you get to the forefront of results.
Online Marketing for your e-shop - are you making the most of your budget?
These days, PPCs are not salvation. It is not necessary that you will automatically move your business forward after you start advertising on the internet. Sometimes you can even end up losing money if you are not careful with your ad settings. Today, there are many e-shops everywhere on the Internet and it is very difficult to find a piece of the market that is not yet occupied. Of course, you can have excellent competitive advantages that other companies do not have, but then you need to communicate with them well using a carefully prepared marketing mix and communication strategy. If you want to take the right steps and not go the "trial/error" route, talk to us about the possibilities that online marketing offers and we will be happy to help you with campaigns.
What to watch out for in online marketing?
What is your acquisition/branding ratio? In other words – how much money are you putting into the ads that make you direct sales? How much are you putting into ads that introduce people to your brand, products and services? We often see ruts - companies run the same ads over and over and people don't respond to them. You are confident that you are offering a solution to your potential customer's problems. Are you communicating to them in a language they can hear? Do you have campaigns set according to the latest trends?
