Gearing up for the big launch of your online store can be a bit overwhelming.
After all, there are a lot of factors to take into consideration. Is your site as good as it can be? Are your products interesting enough to capture attention? Is there a market for them?
These are things that you take care of in the early planning stages of your business – when it’s more of an “on paper” thing than a “real” thing. I’m going to assume you’ve got your bases covered on that stuff.
For now, we want to talk about the things you need to do right before you hit publish on that e-commerce site you’ve been working on day and night. Those things that, when done properly, can launch your business head and shoulders above the competition.
1. Have Site Monitoring in Place
One of the first things you should do is figure out how you’re going to track site traffic and conversions. One of the most popular ways to do this is through Google Analytics. It requires inserting just a brief bit of code into your site to setup and the rest is pretty straightforward, though you will need to configure e-commerce tracking and establish your sales goals. If your website is designed by us, you don't have problem when it comes to that...you can secure access that right from your admin dashboard
Google has several great tutorials on this, however, so we won’t bore you with the details here. Instead, we’ll just say that the convenience of being able to see how your site is performing across a variety of metrics – landing page conversions, social media, advertising, etc. – is a godsend for already overtaxed business owners.
2. Establish a Newsletter
An email newsletter is one of the most effective tools to have in your marketing arsenal.
Seriously, nothing compares to it. Just think about it: an email marketing campaign will put you in your subscriber’s inboxes on a regular basis. That’s an excellent opportunity to offer coupons and discounts, announce new products, and provide helpful information.
Your first step is to select an email marketing platform. A few popular options include MailChimp, Aweber and Constant Contact.
Then you’ll need to select your template, customize it, and write your welcome email content. You’ll also need to add a subscribe form to your site.
You’ll want to have all of this setup (at the very least) before your store launches. After all, if someone visits your site and wants to learn more, they’ll want to subscribe to keep tabs on you, And if they do subscribe, they’ll be expecting to receive at least one email right away. Ideally, you’ll have several followup emails prewritten so there’s no risk of falling behind schedule once you’re caught up in the hustle and bustle of site launch..
Once you design a website with us, you shouldn't worry about thinking of how to run your newsletter feature, with just the lowest # we can help you manage your customer and get you more sales through astonishing newsletters
3. Get Set Up on Social Media
When running an online store, you absolutely need to have a social media presence – and a robust one at that. This is how many people will find out about your products for the first time, so it’s essential that you establish compelling profiles as soon as possible. Try to get the same username for all the social sites. You’d want your Twitter profile (www.twitter.com/yournamehere) to match your Facebook page (www.facebook.com/yournamehere), for instance.
You also shouldn’t feel compelling to establish yourself on every single social media site that ever existed. It’s a better idea to focus on a couple and to make your profiles and engagement level rock solid than to spread your efforts too thin.
Don’t forget to customize your cover and profile photos, too, if you really want your brand to stand out and resonate.
4. Develop a Backup Plan
Literally now, backup your site. Whether it’s developed by us or not, WordPress or not, WooCommerce or not, back it up. Regularly. There are no exceptions here.
While every single website owner should back up their sites on a regular basis, it’s doubly important for e-commerce sites. Your livelihood is at stake, yes, but inventory and individual pages tend to be updated more frequently than on other sites. It’s essential then that you make it a priority to backup your site and its database in case of a technological disaster.
If your site is on WordPress, you might want to consider plugins like BackupBuddy and VaultPress as potential backup options.
If your website was designed by us, worry less about backing up your website, we do all that on your behalf
5. Establish Your Shipping Options
Shipping can make or break your online store. Seriously. A customer who adds your products to her shopping cart can still exit your site without completing the purchase if your shipping costs are too high. This is especially true if you’re selling something that can be found on an online big box store like Konga, Jumia, Asos, Ali Express, Amazon etc
Keeping that in mind, it might be a good idea to offer flat rate shipping or to absorb shipping (or at least part of it) as an expense on your end to keep customers on the path toward conversion. Of course, if you’re drop shipping you don’t need to worry about this step but businesses that manufacture a product or sell wholesale products will need to think about shipping before the store goes live.
6. Check (and Double Check) Your Site
This is your last chance before the site launches so you’d better take advantage of it! Now’s the time to evaluate your site down to the smallest detail. You won’t get another chance – at least not before the general public has a chance to view it – so make sure you take your time and get it right.
A few things to look for include:
- Proofreading all copy on the site
- Making sure all the links work (and direct toward where you intend)
- Ensure product pages are informative and anticipate customer questions
- Contact information
- Social media information.
7. Plan the Announcement
So, how are you going to let the cat out of the bag about your brand new online store? A simple press release isn’t going to cut it (though you should certainly do that, too). You need to have a robust plan to attract the attention of as many people as possible upfront.
You can do this by offering a site-wide discount straight out of the gate or probably an affiliate program, where customers can earn discount codes or any amount of money for referring a friends. Or hold a contest of some sort. You’ll want to post frequently on your social media accounts prior to the store’s launch as well as do some community building. It won’t do you any good to share frequent messages if you don’t have any followers.
Once the big day arrives, make sure your launch plan is consistent and takes into account every place you have a presence online. Take the diversified approach and you should be good.
Conclusion
You put a lot of work into setting up an online store so it’s important that you pay equal attention to the period of time leading up its launch. This
will ensure you make the biggest impact in your industry possible. The bigger the impact, the greater the sales – and the greater chance you have to actually making this thing work.
If you’ve launched an online store in the past, we will love to hear what you did just prior to launch. Did you follow the above tips or was there something else you found to be invaluable? As always, we will love to hear all about it in the comments.
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Image source: jurvetson