Achieve success with your online shop
Whether you’re talking about E-Commerce, online shopping or online commerce, in order to be successful in the world of E-Commerce, it is important to have comprehensive background knowledge of customer behaviour in online shops. Many successful elements of a good online shop can also be found in the real world of business.
Principles for success in E-Commerce
In order for an online shop to succeed in the market, it is important that it is adapted to suit the needs of the customers on a number of different levels. Good online shops make use of the advantages of E-Commerce – such as the lack of time and location restrictions for customers – but also consider the advantages that come from normal shops in the real world.
Advantage check – the online shop
It is not certain, but most likely, that the online shop presents cost advantages to the provider compared to normal shops. The cost of renting premises is usually considerable higher than operating an online shop. There are also a further two significant factors to operating an online shop:
- No time restrictions: there are no restrictions on opening times which means that the online shop can operate 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. There are no holidays (except in terms of product delivery, which – with the exception of software and digital content – is not carried out online).
- No location restrictions: in most cases, the customer can visit and make purchases in the online shop without having to leave their home. This is an advantage that can also be seen in catalogue shopping 20 or 30 years ago.
Advantage check – transfer of ideas from normal shops
In order to successfully implement an online shop on the market, it is often sufficient to implement a number of factors from successful land-based shops. Thinking about which ideas and methods can be transferred to the online market, providers are already well on their way to success.
- If a customer is interested in purchasing a product but is not sure that the product is right for them, they can request more information about the product.
- If a customer has purchased a product, a good seller will also offer the customer suitable additional products.
- If a customer is unsure about Terms and Conditions, such as delivery times or restrictions, they can obtain further information in the shop and no questions are left deliberately unanswered.
On average, online shops still lose around half of their potential in sales volume. Customers are still highly likely to cancel purchases halfway through the process – often because the online provider has failed to implement the advantages of land-based shops into their online shop which leaves the customer uncertain about certain aspects of their purchase. This effectively prevents them from entering their credit card details and purchasing the product.
