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For an Artisan, the process of building an online store can be hectic and can also be very confusing. You stumped at the point of allowing about what to do first. So, you almost do something from everything. Thus, this results in missing some small and important steps which could help in making your eCommerce store a hit.
What Is An Ecommerce Checklist?
An eCommerce checklist (or eCommerce website checklist) can be defined as a list containing the steps to be taken, keeping in sight the opening of an eCommerce site. It helps you go through the steps, processes, and assets one needs to restructure before any store launch.
Why An Ecommerce Checklist Is So Important?’
In our day-to-day life we almost make checklists for almost everything; may it be shopping, grocery, or buying stationery items.
This helps us ensure that none of the steps or processes is neglected or left out of our sight and mind. Likely an eCommerce checklist can help you make sure the launch of your website goes as smoothly as possible.
Many eager eCommerce entrepreneurs feel engulfed by all the steps they have to take from the very beginning.
What theme should be picked? Where did one place the images? Should you have a cart icon on every page or just the product page? What design elements and apps should you use to promote your store? What’s a payment gateway, and how do you set it up?
These are just some of the many questions coming to the mind while getting an eCommerce website. Having an eCommerce checklist can overcome the feeling of being overwhelmed and will just ease the work.
Your Ecommerce Store Launch Checklist
1. Add a Custom Domain
Getting a custom domain name for your online store will help you gain brand recognition and makes it easier for people to remember your website.
You’ll always want to use a domain name tool first to see if the one that you prefer is available or not. If it is, you can get a domain directly through Typof.
If your domain name is already taken, it doesn’t mean you have to go back to the first step. There are also business name generators available online to help you find a unique name for your store.
2. Create Your Standard Pages
Any online store needs some pages where it can always list some helpful information regarding the business. Some of the visitors might want to know your story and some will browse around, trying to get a bit more information about the products shown on the website.
Make sure you have all the following pages before jumping into creating product pages and checkouts:
- Home Page: This is the most essential page of a website. The homepage helps to establish the overall look and feel of the store and also makes sure the consumers have a clear navigation experience. Different links to category and subcategory pages goes from the homepage.
- About Page: In this page the customers tend to learn about the purpose of the business, how your company began and what is the value of your brand. This helps you tell your story and what your organisation stands for.
- Contact Page: The contact page tells you how one could connect with you. You can also add a physical address with an attached map showing the location, a contact number, email and even a social media platform detail.
- FAQ Page: FAQ means Frequently Asked Questions. This page answers all the questions that are frequently asked by the customers or anyone wanting to know about the website’s basic things.
- Privacy: this page of the website shows the information about how you use your customer’s information. Lawyers can’t often provide any advice on how to write your privacy policy for compliance purposes.
3. Optimize your checkout process
Your checkout process can always make or break your chances of a sale. With online shopping cart abandonment rates nearing highs, it’s wise to minimize the risk and resolve any errors at checkout. When doing the checkout, make sure:
- Shipping prices will appear during the checkout.
- Discount codes/coupons are easy to add.
- Various payment methods should be available.
- Customers can easily enter the shipping details.
- The contact page should be easily accessible in case any problem arises.
- An email should be sent when the purchase is confirmed.
- Language and currency switching is possible.
4. Work on Ecommerce SEO
Most of the customers will start their product search on Google. Keeping that in mind, it’s important to make sure that your website shows up whenever your clients search for some specific words related to your products or services.
Ecommerce SEO involves several steps, such as:
- Keyword Search: Find and enlist the terms customers might use to find your online store.
- Keyword Optimization: Use your selected keywords in product’s descriptions, category descriptions, meta titles descriptions, H1s and URLs.
- Optimize Images: Use “alt attributes” and image meta descriptions to improve the chances of being ranked high for some specific keywords.
- Schema markup: Using schema markup improves the chances of getting rich snippets displayed at top of the search results by Google.
- Create a Sitemap: Design a sitemap and submit it to Google for the crawlers to navigate.
- Use Content Marketing: Use blogs to rank the keywords ranking and get links to your high-value pages via guest posting.
5. Set up Email Marketing
Marketing through email is an efficient way to welcome new customers and raise the existing ones.
- Welcome emails: Introduce the customers to your brand, set their expectations and early and high.
- Abandoned Cart Emails: Remind the customers about the items present in your cart.
- Order Confirmation Emails: Let the customers know you received their order request.
- Cross-sell emails: Promote items that compliment a customer’s previous purchase.
- Shipping Notification Emails: This helps in keeping the customers up to date about the delivery status of their respective order.
6. Install an Analytics Tool
The key to optimizing a successful store is Analytics. If you input the right data then it shows you what kind of products the customers like most, and when they are most likely to buy, and more.
Many services come with analytics and reporting built-in so that one can track things like conversion rates and traffic. However, many eCommerce businesses are using third party Google Analytics.
7. Adjust your Tax and Shipping Settings
Check the tax and shipping rates that are applicable for whatever you’re trying to sell. Do not keep the shipping rates high enough, as they could be losing profits by paying for your order fulfilment out of your own bank account.
Think about whether one will need to add any extra fees for international/foreign shipping and how much one should charge for the express delivery.
8. Install Necessary Apps
In this modern era of trending smartphones, mobile applications
(apps) are the real thing. Almost every service is available in the form of apps and they also help us to access the eCommerce site easily and hassle-free.
For an instance, if you’re a member of Typof Technologies and you have set up an online store then you can easily have access to your account through the application available to download on your smartphone. This makes it more easily and readily available.
9. Test Before Launch
Always make sure that your consumers have the best first impression because the first impression lasts long. Make sure to test your website thoroughly before launching it to the respective audience. You should make sure there are no broken links and no pages that don’t load.
In summary, here are all the steps that will make your online store checklist complete:
- Use a custom domain
- Build your standard pages
- Optimize your checkout process
- Do ecommerce SEO
- Set up email campaigns
- Install an analytics tool
- Adjust your tax and shipment settings
- Install the right apps
- Test store before launch
For some initial months, the online store is going to be busy. But with this checklist, we assure you that all these will be checked out in a split second.
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