Establishing the online presence of your business has never been so easy as it is now in 2019. Yet, the process of launching an e-commerce website can be quite time-consuming and confusing for those doing it for the first time. Let us make things a bit easier for you by sharing our top five tips on launching a profit-generating e-commerce website:

1. Choose the Right Platform

The first thing you need to consider when working on your e-commerce website project is the platform. Just like an actual store needs a location, your online e-commerce website needs a virtual space it will occupy. You have a choice between an e-commerce store built within the borders of a third-party e-commerce platform and a custom website built from scratch.

If you go for the first option, you are probably going to spend less money and time on establishing your online presence. Yet, your opportunities for customizing, optimizing, branding and upgrading your website will be limited by the platform. Your ownership rights over your online store will not be full in this case.

If you choose to make a custom website, you will need to search for a development team that will build it from scratch. You will have to pay for the development and design processes as well as for your website hosting and domain. Yet, you will get limitless opportunities for customizing, optimizing, branding and upgrading your website. E-commerce website development cost can seem excessive at first sight, but the benefits you get are going to be worth it in the long run.

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2. Make It Work. Then Make It Better

There might be no such thing as bad publicity for Hollywood stars, but it sure is a thing for online businesses. 35% of Americans share their poor online experience on social media. It basically means that if ten customers are unhappy with your services, three of them are likely to share it with their followers and ruin your reputation.

Poor website performance, slow loading, glitches, bugs, and weird mechanics belong to the early 2000s, and it’s where they should stay. In 2019, customers won’t give you a second chance and scroll to the great feature you’ve got on the third product page. They need fifty milliseconds to decide whether your website is worth staying on or not. Make sure all the impressions your website gives are worth staying for. Monitor your customer behavior and polish your website continuously according to it.

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3. Don’t Forget About Mobile and Tablet Devices

Over the second quarter of 2018, 62% of e-commerce traffic came from mobile devices. There’s nothing more to say about the importance of making your online store mobile and tablet-friendly. You have two ways to choose from when optimizing your website for mobile users. First, you can make your website mobile-friendly with the help of contemporary web development technologies. Second, you can build a native app for your business and reach out to your customers directly through it.

Creating an app for an e-commerce store is something big brands such as Amazon, eBay, H&M, AliExpress, and others have been investing in for a while. No wonder, since a native app gives businesses an opportunity to be connected with their customers 24/7, polish their customer relations, targeting and more.

4. Customer Service

If a website customer has an issue and there is no one to handle it quickly, they are very likely to get frustrated and leave for good immediately. Poor customer service is gravel that can sink your e-commerce store no matter how good your products and prices are.

Award-winning customer service is something to aim for. Be there for your customers 24/7 to ensure they have the best browsing and shopping experience every time. Modern AI technologies give you an opportunity to automate and optimize most of your customer service with the help of chatbots. Yet, sometimes a person needs to talk to a person. For better or for worse, machines are not almighty yet. Make sure to have a well-trained customer support team that can guarantee a superior shopping experience to every customer.

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5. Take Care of Marketing and Advertising

No matter how great your website looks and how awesome your product offerings are, it is all unimportant unless your target audience knows about your existence. To put it simply, you need to advertise and market your online website from the very beginning. Some businesses play with forecasts and start their marketing campaign before the website is even launched.

It’s important to study your target audience and reach out to them in the most appropriate way. Depending on where your customers are, let them know about your business launch on social media, news, banners, flyers or elsewhere. Engage influencers to promote your business to reach out to a wider audience.

Final Thoughts

Launching an e-commerce website in 2019 is easy and hard at the same time. While it might seem time-consuming and puzzling at first sight, you can master it with the right knowledge and tools. When building a custom e-commerce website from scratch, make sure to take care of its client-centeredness, excellent performance, mobile-friendliness, and customer support. And, by all means, you need to market and advertise it to be seen by the target audience.