If you are in the business of selling goods, not having an online store is a crime against your business. After all, without online representation, your store loses a huge audience. In many cases, a virtual store is the only sales channel and a great opportunity to start your business. Now even with a modest budget, you can make a store on the web on your own. The main thing to remember about the internal revenue code section 162m.
Although small and medium-sized businesses can promote their products on social networks, the online store remains a necessary tool for development. It is in your store that you can showcase your products in the most favorable light. Conveniently structured catalogs, the design that corresponds to the subject of the goods, and, of course, the ability to pay – these are the functions, the implementation of which is difficult to imagine in groups of social networks.
It is also possible to make a store on your own if you take advantage of proven solutions. What to pay attention to when creating an online marketplace?
Domain
A store starts with a sign, and an online store begins with a domain name. When choosing a name for your store, keep in mind that it should be easy to remember, easy to write, and easy to type in the address bar. Too long and incomprehensible names, which confuse users, are a very big mistake.
In addition, the name must signal that you have a serious business, have and inspire confidence. So, when choosing a domain is better to invest in a good name with extensions that are familiar to most users, and choose the ones that have proven themselves.
Home page
The home page of your store is the storefront. At a glance, the visitor needs to understand where they are, what they can buy in this store, and why they should buy here. This means the best products and promotions are on the home page. In any store, we see the showcases with the most attractive offers and the best products first.
What else should be noticeable when entering a store? The different departments (product catalog), the checkout (sections on payment and delivery or shopping rules in general), the salesperson (online consultant or a highly visible search bar).
Product catalog
This is the most important section of the entire online store, for which your site is created. And when designing the catalog, you need to take a responsible approach to the issue of grouping products by category. If you have a small assortment, then it is easier to do, but without preparation and careful thinking can not do.
The customer needs to understand what products he will find on this or that page in the catalog, as soon as he reads the name of the category. Don’t strive to reduce the list of categories and groups: it’s better to add one group with a small number of items than to make it difficult to find the right product.
When you’ve decided on the number of categories, you can choose how you want to navigate. For the location in the header are suitable catalogs, which have no more than five groups, a maximum of seven. Larger catalogs have a list in the sidebar.
Do not use more than three sublevels in the catalog itself, so as not to confuse customers.
Search
The search bar should be clearly visible on every page. Don’t forget about filters: allow visitors to sort the output by popularity, price, date of arrival, or other parameters relevant to your products.
Shopping cart
The ability to see what’s already in the cart should be accessible from any page. And the section itself shouldn’t distract from the purchase. The list of selected products, the price, and the button with the call to buy. It’s also a good idea to indicate what steps need to be taken before the purchase can take place.