PART 2 SET UP SHOP BUILD AND LAUNCH AN E-COMMERCE WEBSITE
Our definitive guide to selling online
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smarter.telstra.com.au [
POWERED BY TELSTRA INTRODUCTION You’ve done your homework, ordered your stock, selected a shipping provider and chosen an e-commerce platform to power your new online business.
If you’re ready to build your The first e-book outlined the research e-commerce website, this e-book and preparation needed to plan your is for you. e-commerce business. The journey Our Definitive Guide is the second in continues here, turning your e-commerce a three-part series, mapping every business plan into an online reality. stage of your e-commerce journey In the third part, you’ll learn how to from idea to launch, and beyond. promote your new e-commerce website, to attract and keep more customers. Time to start building!
TECHNICAL TERMS EXPLAINED BY STAY ON TRACK WITH THE TEAM AT NETO [DOWNLOAD NOW] OUR HANDY CHECKLIST 1. WEBSITE DESIGN
Your website only has a few seconds to make the right impression before visitors click the back button. Thankfully, you don’t have to be a design genius to have a great-looking site! EXPLORE CURRENT CHOOSE A DESIGN CUSTOMISE TRENDS IN TEMPLATE YOUR DESIGN E-COMMERCE DESIGN Many e-commerce platforms Make the design your own by adding Make a note of your favourite online come with a large library of design your logo and images. Your template retailers. Why do you like them? templates. For a fee, some will help may also have settings to adjust the What would you like to replicate? you to integrate a design template layout, colour scheme and more to from elsewhere. This is extremely suit your branding and preferences. The best e-commerce designs useful if you have an existing website are uncluttered, with plenty of Most visitors will arrive on your and want to use the same design space to show off your products. homepage first. Make a bold with your new online store. Look at other online sites to see statement with an eye-catching what works (and what doesn’t!). Can’t find a template or want banner image and headline. The Threadless and Roku websites, a bespoke design? You may need for example, have simple layouts to hire a designer experienced that focus on the product. with your chosen platform. Neto has 60 free website templates to select from, as well as an in-house custom design service. You can even try out Neto on a free 14-day trial.
Good design = More sales Learn how the right website design can make a purchase the most logical conclusion for visitors. 2. BRANDING Before you start designing, think carefully about your brand. It must encapsulate the personality and values you want consumers to have top of mind when they hear your business name. DEFINE YOUR BRAND DOCUMENT YOUR CUSTOMISE YOUR Write down what your BRAND GUIDELINES DESIGN TEMPLATE business stands for and what you For a brand to be effective, its Adjust the design template to want it to achieve. This will inform look and feel needs to be simple, represent your brand, including the 'personality' of your brand. recognisable and consistent. logos and images. Your template l What’s your selling proposition? Create a ‘Brand Guidelines’ document may also have settings to adjust the Is it all-natural products, niche and include the colour palette (with layout and colour scheme to suit expertise or something else? details of the colour breakdown or your branding and preferences. l Who are your ideal customers? specific Pantone colour), font, logo Most visitors will see your Your brand needs to appeal to requirements, any specific design homepage first. Make a bold brand them and align with their values. elements, as well as key messaging. statement with an eye-catching l How will your brand differ from Your Brand Guidelines will make it banner image and headline. your competitors? What will be easier to brief designers and others, the individual ‘personality’ of your reducing the risk of confusion or brand? costly mistakes. Even if you already have a business, how well will your existing brand work online? Is this an opportunity for a rebrand?
All your design docs in one place Neto has collated all of the documentation, templates and advice you or your designer will need. Follow tutorials, download templates and learn simple design tweaks. 3. CREATE CONTENT: COPYWRITING
How hard can it be to add a few words to a website? Beware: Careless or rushed copy can undermine all your hard work. Don’t leave it too late!
PRODUCT COPY history of the business and explain your values. Great product copy is brief, simple and informative. It takes skill Maybe there’s a story about why and time to say so much in so few you chose to only sell sustainable words. You can write it yourself or recycled products. Or perhaps pay a copywriter to do it. A web your love of vintage troll dolls will search for ‘copywriter’ will return a prove to other collectors that you Avoid vague long list of possibilities. Choose one understand them and their needs. statements and hyperbole. whose style matches your brand. l Break up copy with descriptive TERMS AND headings and subheadings CONDITIONS l Use bullets to summarise While often necessary, guarantees, important information legal disclaimers and other l Keep sentences short fine print content can be long, l Always include a ‘call to action’ confusing and intimidating for – a statement to motivate the customers. reader to take the next step Such important copy shouldn’t TIP Avoid vague statements be a chore to read, never mind and hyperbole. Why is it “high understand. Summarise or quality”? Is this really the “sale highlight the most important of the year”? points. Use plain English; avoid jargon, legalese or complex sentence structures. And get BRAND PAGES a lawyer to check it’s correct. Customers like to know who TIP Terms and conditions are they’re buying from. A short ‘About legally binding, so you should get Us’ page is where you can tell the a legal expert to check your copy. 4. CREATE CONTENT: IMAGES
The right picture can be worth a thousand words. Give every page of your website plenty of visual appeal with eye-catching and relevant images. COLLECT TAKE OPTIMISE UPLOAD APPROVED YOUR OWN YOUR IMAGES IMAGES TO IMAGES PRODUCT Before uploading, crop THE WEBSITE Your product suppliers will PHOTOS each image to the correct Once uploaded to the probably have a library If you sell handcrafted, display size and aspect platform, you can add of approved images for bespoke or second-hand ratio to avoid distortion. more information to each you to use. For instance, items, it may be time to Large image files and image. A descriptive title a book publisher will get out the camera. Unless formats take longer to helps search engines index usually have cover images you have professional download, slowing down your content. ‘Alt text’ prepared for retailers. equipment, consider your webpages. Optimise describes the image for Also check if there are any hiring an experienced each image for the web to screen text readers used guidelines or restrictions photographer. While more achieve the best quality at by the blind. you need to observe. expensive, a studio shoot the lowest possible size. If you need a few ensures every image is Learn more about image non-product images, consistent and every formats and how to buy credits from a stock product looks its best. optimise your images. image library, such TIP Make sure you retain as istockphoto.com or all commercial rights in 123rf.com. your photographs and TIP Don’t breach images to avoid possible copyright by downloading disputes later. product images from Google, other retailers or related websites.
THE IMPORTANCE OF PROFESSIONAL PHOTOGRAPHY Learn how brands such as McDonald's and Airbnb achieve great images. 5. THE PRODUCT CATALOGUE
Time to stock those shelves! Product pages will make up the bulk of your website, so it is vital that you plan your page structures and categories correctly.
CREATE PRODUCT ADD PRODUCTS TO CATEGORIES THE WEBSITE STOCK CONTROL Too many categories can become Some e-commerce platforms have It can be extremely frustrating confusing. Keep the website simple several methods for creating product to buy a product online only to with as few categories as possible. pages on your website. Your choice learn that it’s out of stock. A good will most likely depend on how many Give your categories a logical e-commerce platform allows you to products you have to sell. You could: structure or hierarchy by grouping set stock levels so customers always l them under a few relevant parent Add each product page know if the product is available. categories. For example, a parent individually via the web interface category of ‘Menswear’ might have l Import products in bulk with subcategories of ‘Shirts’, ‘Trousers’, a .csv spreadsheet ‘Shoes’ and so on. l Use the platform’s API TIP Some products may appear (Application Programming in more than one category, giving Interface) to import from another customers multiple ways to find it. system (advanced) l Integrate and import from a MANAGING compatible inventory system CATEGORIES IS l Integrate and import from eBay SIMPLE WITH NETO (see section 10) Learn more about setting up your Regularly adding large amounts category structure, including a few of new products manually is not examples, with Neto. sustainable. The web interface is not intended for large stores. 6. GOING MOBILE While your design may look great on a desktop or laptop screen, more customers now use mobile devices to shop online.
CHECK DESIGN FOR SIMPLIFY THE SMARTPHONES AND TABLETS MOBILE EXPERIENCE A responsive design rearranges and resizes the various Looking good is only the beginning. The way layout and design elements to fit the different screen customers use your website can still present sizes. This ensures the copy is still readable and images challenges on a mobile device. are presented as intended. Choose a responsive design template or, if you're Are forms easy to use on a smartphone? commissioning a designer, specify responsiveness Include fewer fields. Use dropdowns to reduce in your design brief. touchscreen typing. Use an online tool such as ResponsiveDesignChecker.com Are important buttons in the right places? to preview your website on different devices and Is it easy to spot and hit that 'Submit' or 'Buy' screen sizes. button with a thumb? Have you eliminated unnecessary clicks? GO UP THE GOOGLE RANKINGS Pages load slower over a mobile connection. In 2015, Google Make them count. began assessing mobile responsiveness when ranking Are videos short and optimised for mobile? websites in mobile search Videos chew through mobile data. Avoid using them results. The search engine is for essential information. increasing the effect of this TIP Never require users to download large PDF files ‘mobile-friendly’ ranking (for example, user manuals or terms) to complete signal in May 2016. a transaction or to find information.
Will they love your website too? TOP MOBILE E-COMMERCE TRENDS
Predicted value of Mobile e-commerce traffic exceeds Smartphones account for most mobile e-commerce mobile desktop e-commerce traffic e-commerce traffic transactions in 2016
80% 50.3% SMARTPHONE US$142 MOBILE 49.7% BILLION DEVICES COMPUTERS 20% TABLETS
Customers using multiple channels/devices are 4 $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ IN 20% more likely to purchase on their 10 mobile device transactions involve multiple devices
SOURCES: WWW.MOBILECOMMERCEDAILY.COM/MCOMMERCE-SALES-TO-REACH-142B-IN-2016-FORRESTER, WWW.SHOPIFY.COM/BLOG/15206517-MOBILE-NOW-ACCOUNTS-FOR-50-3-OF-ALL- ECOMMERCE-TRAFFIC, WWW.CRITEO.COM/MEDIA/3016/CRITEO-STATE-OF-MOBILE-COMMERCE-REPORT-Q3-2015-US-LETTER.PDF 7. THE SHOPPING CART AND CHECKOUT On average, 68.63 per cent of shopping carts are abandoned without completing the order*. That’s a lot of lost sales! Improve your checkout process so that more customers make it through to the end. ENCOURAGE ELIMINATE AUTOMATE MULTIPLE SALES UNNECESSARY STEPS ABANDONED When a customer adds a product You may want to promote your CART EMAILS to the cart, they might want email newsletter or capture When a customer abandons your to continue shopping. Don’t customer information for your cart, automated emails give you immediately drive them into the marketing database. However, a second chance to close the sale. checkout process, forcing them to each extra question increases the l Increase sales by reminding navigate back to the product pages. risk of abandonment. customers of what’s in their cart Make it easy to keep browsing, Only include steps necessary to l only entering the checkout when Reach out to answer questions complete the transaction, with the and solve issues they're ready to buy. minimum number of clicks. TIP Adding a product to the cart TIP Use abandoned cart emails TIP Encourage customer as a gentle prompt, not a push. gives you an opportunity to suggest registration, making it easier related items the customer may The wrong approach can lose to check out next time by a sale just as easily. also be interested in. automatically populating account information.
*SOURCE: HTTP://BAYMARD.COM/LISTS/CART-ABANDONMENT-RATE
GET CHECKOUT RIGHT WITH A SHOPPING CART BUILDER Find out how to create the ideal checkout experience quickly and easily with a shopping cart builder. 8. ONLINE PAYMENTS At some point in a transaction, money has to change hands. Online payments aren’t difficult to set up, but Make card there are strict requirements to be followed. payments safe SET UP ADD A PAYMENT for you and your PAYPAL GATEWAY PayPal is such a popular and easy way A payment gateway connects to customers. to make online payments that it can your online merchant account to be frustrating when the option isn’t authorise credit card transactions and available, and PayPal users have to secure stored payment information. trudge downstairs for the credit card. In Australia, recommended payment However, customers don’t need to be gateways include eWAY and SecurePay. registered with PayPal, as it can handle Some merchant facilities, such as those credit card transactions as well. NAB Transact and ANZ eGate, include While PayPal’s fees are higher per their own payment gateways. transaction, you can start selling Ask your bank. instantly without setting up an online merchant facility. PROTECT YOU AND YOUR CUSTOMERS APPLY FOR AN ONLINE FROM FRAUD MERCHANT FACILITY You are responsible for all payments An online merchant facility is different through your website. If a payment to the merchant facility you may is fraudulent, the bank can debit the already use for EFTPOS and in-store money from your account and charge credit card transactions, and it allows additional fees without warning. you to process online payments Fraud prevention software such as securely into your bank account. MaxMind minFraud can reduce your Find out how to apply for an online exposure to credit card fraud for just merchant facility. a few cents per transaction. 9. RETURNS AND DISPUTES
E-commerce isn’t just about guiding the right people to the right products. Before anyone clicks your ‘Buy Now’ button, they have to trust the transaction won’t disappoint!
DECIDE ON A SET UP THE RETURNS POLICY RESOLUTION CENTRE PAYPAL DISPUTES Returns will happen. Faulty goods, Sometimes, things go wrong. How Customers may also lodge disputes incorrect sizing or damage in transit you resolve complaints and disputes via PayPal’s resolution centre, are just three reasons you may be will make a huge difference to or be covered by PayPal’s Buyer asked to refund a sale. whether customers come back or Protection program. A good returns policy, well recommend your website to others. communicated, can reduce potential Your website’s resolution centre Learn more about how to resolve disputes later. allows customers to raise a dispute PayPal disputes. l When should a product be against a transaction so you can exchanged? resolve the issue quickly. Common l What scenarios will merit a full, disputes include: partial or no refund? l Item not received l Who is responsible for return l Item significantly different from shipping? described l Is there a time limit for returns, l Item not working within 30, 60 or 90 days of l Incorrect item purchase? l Unauthorised transaction l What about sale stock? Or l Overcharge RETURNS intimate apparel? Find out how Neto helps to resolve Check your policy against Australian disputes and process refunds. consumer law. For example, a customer shouldn’t incur extra costs to return a faulty item.
10. EBAY AND OTHER SALES TOOLS
Many online retailers start out on eBay. But you don’t have to leave the world’s largest online marketplace behind when you launch your own e-commerce store.
INTEGRATE WITH EBAY ADD INVENTORY SET UP A GOOGLE Some e-commerce platforms, FEED TO SHOPPING MERCHANT ACCOUNT such as Neto, allow you to integrate COMPARISON SITES Many customers use Google to with your existing eBay store to Comparison sites such as Shopping. search for products. While the better manage your listings. You can com save consumers a lot of clicking regular search results merely rank choose whether to also import your around by displaying the products webpages containing the product eBay listings as inventory for your of hundreds of merchants side by name, the Shopping tab displays website as well. side for easy comparison. This can matching product listings. Even if a customer purchases the potentially expose your products to For your products to appear in item on eBay, you can still manage thousands of potential customers, Google Shopping results, you will the entire transaction from within eager to compare offers. need a Google merchant account. your e-commerce website, so you Add the product feed URL from your You can then add your website’s have one simple workflow. system to each comparison site to inventory feed to your merchant TIP Your system may allow you keep them updated daily with your account. to automatically leave positive current inventory. Learn how to open a Google merchant eBay feedback when an order is TIP Use comparison sites to see account. paid in full. how your products and pricing compare. Do your offers look like a good value deal? 11. THE CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE
We’re nearly there! But will the customer experience be impressive or frustrating? Before you launch, check how easy your website is to use.
TEST WEBSITE USABILITY Ask a few friends to test your website with a fresh, unbiased eye. Use the checklist to identify any issues. Testing, USABILITY CHECKLIST testing 6 Can visitors quickly find 1 Can popular products be found answers to questions? within three clicks? What questions did the tester have? Provide shortcuts to popular items. Do you need an FAQ page? 2 Do any buttons or forms not 7 Is all pricing clear and function as expected? transparent? What did the tester expect to happen Was the total price at checkout what on clicking the button? the tester expected? 3 Are all menu items/categories 8 Is the registration process simple? unambiguous? Too many mandatory fields? Does login Does the tester get lost? Use clear and work as expected? familiar terminology. 9 Is it easy to lodge an enquiry 4 Is the copy easy to read? Do or complaint? images display correctly? Does the tester know when to expect a response? 5 Are the copy and icons easy to understand correctly? 10 Is company contact and location You know what they should mean, information easy to find? but do your testers agree? A lack of contact details can look untrustworthy. 12. PREPARE FOR LAUNCH
You may be itching to hit that ’launch’ button, excited to welcome your first customers. Yet a little more planning can ensure your launch is smooth and successful. SET A LAUNCH DATE NOTIFY Instead of simply launching STAKEHOLDERS when the website is ready, schedule AND YOUR EXISTING your launch day for maximum impact CUSTOMERS and minimum stress. Do your suppliers know about your l Don’t launch in a busy week. Any website? Smaller boutique suppliers, teething problems will need your in particular, may want to publicise full attention your online store to their customers. l Plan and coordinate promotional Spread the word about your website, activities such as social media and launch date and URL to your existing advertising campaigns networks, market stall regulars, eBay l Should you synchronise the customers, even family and friends. launch with your existing admin/ TIP Don’t forget to add the website billing/ordering cycles (eg, 1st of and the URL to your business cards, the month)? email signatures, social media The unexpected will always happen. profiles, etc. Planning your launch schedule reduces the risk of surprises and keeps you in control.
ATTRACT AND WIN MORE E-COMMERCE CUSTOMERS What will make my website Can I keep customers coming How do I measure what’s easier to find? back again and again? working and what isn’t?
Find the answers in the third e-book in this series: Top Shop: Attract and win more e-commerce customers PREPARE FOR LAUNCH (cont'd) FINAL CHECKS CHECKLIST While making the last few hurried changes 1 Are there any broken or incorrect links? before launch, it is very easy for new mistakes to creep Some last-minute changes may cause internal links to break. in. Before making your website public, put aside a little time and check each webpage one last time. 2 Do any pages still contain placeholder copy? Ensure every line of placeholder copy is replaced with your own. 3 Are there any typos or other copy mistakes? Read everything closely with a fresh eye. 4 Do any pages still display default images? Check all images and icons are displayed correctly. 5 Have you checked how the website looks on different sized screens? Thoroughly test the website on mobile devices. 6 Do all social media buttons work as intended? Test how your webpages display when shared to social media. 7 Have you set up a 404 (error) page? A good 404 page provides reassurance when an error occurs, such as an incorrect URL. 8 Are prices and product details still correct? Some time may have elapsed since starting your e-commerce journey. Check your prices, shipping quotes and other details are still accurate. CASE STUDY: BICYCLES ONLINE ADVICE ON SETTING UP AN ONLINE STORE FROM JONO ALLARA, CO-FOUNDER OF BICYCLES ONLINE BICYCLESONLINE.COM.AU Bicycles Online grew from a backstreet garage to a $5 million a year business on the strength of great service and smart e-commerce strategies. Here Jono explains how it launched its own online store.
in commission. So if you can get And it worked really well for a start- shoppers to organically buy through up business like us. We didn’t have to your own online store, it’s much pay for all the coding and own any more profitable.” actual infrastructure. It allowed us to scale on a very low budget.” YOUR DOMAIN NAME 2 MATTERS A LOT – IT’S IT’S WORTH INVESTING PART OF YOUR BRAND 4 IN SMART E-COMMERCE “The first thing was to get a domain TECHNOLOGIES name that was going to be powerful “Neto is a better all-in-one solution for search engine optimisation (SEO). for e-commerce. Things like shipping, We bought it from someone else marketplace and sales channel and switched over our company management, accounting and registration to the new name: Bicycles inventory management at multiple Online. We knew the name was going warehouses are now a lot easier to do to work well for building the brand.” and much more efficient. Everything YOU’LL WANT YOUR OWN integrates well, from email marketing 1 STORE AT SOME POINT PAY-BY-THE-MONTH to SEO and marketplace connectors, “We’d spent a lot of time making the 3 WEBSITE DESIGNS ARE and reporting is very strong. For an eBay store look polished. But while A GOOD START Australian business trying to expand, eBay works quite well for acquiring “We had a limited budget, so we used innovation is important because customers, if you’re a small business this software-as-a-service you can get it keeps us relevant in the global you pay 7-10 per cent each time to design our e-commerce website. marketplace.” YOUR E-COMMERCE CHECKLIST
Tick it off! In part two you learned how to…
1 Design your website Will you use a template or 5 Set up your product catalogue Plan your invest in bespoke design? Visit leading websites for categories, product descriptions and page layouts ideas on current best practice. to make each product easy to find.
2 Define your brand Create an individual personality 6 Check mobile responsiveness Many customers people will remember. Reflect your brand in the logo, shop online with mobile devices. How will your website colours, copy and more. look and perform on a phone or tablet?
3 Prepare your website copy Will you write the 7 Streamline checkout Prevent shopping cart copy or hire a professional? Effective copy takes time, abandonment. Make checkout simple, with as few so plan early. steps/clicks as possible.
4 Prepare your images Do you have authorised 8 Accept online payments Will you use PayPal, product shots from suppliers or will you need to take a payment gateway or both? Your website will also your own? need to be secure. 9 Develop policies for returns and guarantees How 11 Test the customer experience How quick and easy will you handle returns? Are you subject to safeguards is it for new customers to use your website to find and such as PayPal Buyer Protection? buy the right product?
10 Synchronise your product listings Do you list 12 Launch Check every page, image and line of copy products and manage transactions on other sales for errors before pushing your new website live. platforms, such as eBay?
Whether you’re just starting in e-commerce or looking for ways to improve your existing site, pick the e-book that’s right for you.
OUR HANDY E-COMMERCE GUIDES WILL HELP YOU GET THERE Find out how you can plan, build and promote your own online business with our Definitive E-commerce Guides, free to download courtesy of Smarter and Neto. Check out the other parts in the series …
1 Talking Shop Plan your 3 Top Shop Attract and win more Checklist A full checklist to tick off e-commerce business [link] e-commerce customers [link] for planning and launching a site [link]