How to make your online store stand out

The e-Commerce market is expanding rapidly with an estimated number of 1.66 billion people worldwide who spend their money to buy stuff online. The growing trend of online shopping leads to the establishment of thousands and millions of online business in order to satisfy all of the customers’ shopping demands. Clearly, in that circumstance, your store might be a drop in the ocean. However, I believe that you don’t want your e-Commerce store to be just a simple, ordinary drop that can be wiped out easily in the fierce waves.

If you want to survive in the competitive e-Commerce race and become a successful business, you must find yourselves some distinctive features and some competitive advantages that can help you attract customers. Therefore, the key query is how can you make your business unique and stand out from the crowd? In this article, I will suggest 5 methods that can turn your store into a one-of-a-kind business that can steal the spotlight in the market.

1. Your website layout- first impression!

There is a saying that “Don’t judge the book by its cover”. However, with online stores, the “cover” is among the most important factors that can help stores attain customers’ attention at the beginning. Imagine a potential client visits your store and sees a messy, unorganized, and hard-to-navigate website. I’m pretty sure that they will leave right away since no one wants to have such an annoying and time-wasting experience.

Remember that the initial impression on the store will play a decisive role in business success. Therefore, having a clear, tidy, and unique web design is crucial. Some elements such as typography, font size, theme colors, product photo illustration should be carefully-chosen and well-arranged. They should be customized and designed in order to create uniqueness for your store yet still focus on your store’s objectives and target audiences. Also, a well-organized web presence can allow customers to find their interested goods with ease, and thus they are more willing to purchase.

2. A personalized experience for customers

Every customer desires to have personalized shopping experiences. If the customers have the impression that the web page is designed just for them, they will feel being cared for and respected in an intimate relationship with the retailers. The stores’ personalization attempt is also strong proof that they understand customers’ preferences and demands, and try their best to fulfill each client’s expectation. For example, customers are free to adjust their personal information and have multiple choices of payment and shipping methods as they wish.

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Stores care about each customer’ special occasions such as birthday by sending birthday cards and promotion in those events. The emails sent to clients will have their own name on it instead of “our beloved customer” in general. All of the settings in the frontend display will have to be for the customer’s convenience. Thanks to this personalization, customers will have better shopping experiences, whereas stores can have an insight into each buyer’s behaviors.

3. Promotion - never be obsolete

Sales, discounts, vouchers can be so attractive to customers. Since online vendors know how to make use of them effectively in particular periods of time, this can be an advantage that drives customers to spend money. Initially, store owners need to understand which time is suitable for a sales campaign, and which types of promotion should be used. Promotion can be provided seasonally or on special occasions such as birthdays, anniversaries, etc. Then, it is essential to recognize the target audiences of the campaign.

Read how to motivate customers to buy more by using multiple coupons

In other words, store owners have to target who are willing to actually or potentially purchase when receiving a promotion. All of these mentioned factors will decide how to notify the promotion to customers. Whether the store shows an eye-catching banner at the top of the web page, or sends private emails, for instance. Remember that promotions are appealing, but how to attract customers with those promotions needs careful consideration.

4. From a click to all the fulfillment

Customers are more likely to do things on-the-go due to the convenience of using mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets. If e-stores enable buyers to browse stuff and purchase in other mobile devices rather than just on the computer, sales can be boosted effectively. Shopping on smartphones and tablets is convenient and easy-to-use for customers since they can buy goods everywhere and every time. That’s why mobile compatibility is so crucial for every online business.

Obviously, the more channels that people can access to reach your products, the more opportunities you have to improve sales and profits. Your stores will stand out if you can make the most out of these widely-used platforms.

5. Trust - your last goal to customers

Trust is so vital when building the relationship between online vendors and customers. Nowadays, when privacy and security issues are getting more serious, customers seem to gradually lose trust in online stores. That’s an alarming situation since if buyers no longer want to purchase online, this e-Commerce market will collapse. Therefore, your store will definitely be outstanding if you can attain customers’ trust and loyalty.

Read about GDPR and how to get your store compliant.

To obtain this, your e-Commerce business has to show your guarantee and promise that you will protect your customers’ rights at the highest level. Besides, all of the security principles must be transparent, credible and necessarily based on a certified national/international standard. It is only when clients feel being protected with respects that they will trust in your store.

Don’t forget that even in before-sales, during-sales or after-sales period, customers should always be respected and supported timely. If you could keep your promises with customers and satisfy them, there would be no doubt that your business will be successful.

Final thoughts

These days, it is easy for anyone to build an online store but it is difficult to business in this competitive world. The 5 recommendations listed above are the key methods yet not the only ways to make your eCommerce business more outstanding than others.

Only you, the store owners, can understand what your business needs the most and which mediums should be prioritized to lead it to success. Actually, you don’t have to force your store to have unique characteristics. All you need to do is to identify your own personality, objectives, and goals; then try your best to make those factors distinctive in people’s eyes.