How to Build a Successful Online Store in 10 Steps

Contents · 10 sections

The main goal of an online store is…
Choosing a platform for your online store
Create quality, useful content
Build a strong brand
Have a digital marketing strategy
Search engine optimization
Stick to the standards
Know your customers and give them an unforgettable…
Be creative and stand out from the competition
Think big and keep growing your online store

Today’s consumer is digital. People spend far more time online than in the real world, and more and more of them skip physical stores and shop online to save time and effort. That’s why the smartest move for your business is building an online store. It costs much less, and e-commerce has plenty of other advantages. But with so much choice out there and so much competition, remember that building a successful store is a very different thing from building a merely good one.
On August 24, Biz Labs kindly invited me to lead an event on “The Basics of E-commerce.” My goal was to answer the most common questions about selling online and share the core knowledge and know-how you need to create an online store. The feedback was so positive that I decided to share my tips and the presentation here too, for everyone who wanted to come but couldn’t make it.

The main goal of an online store is to make money!

Nothing you do with your store should get in the way of this first rule. You don’t want to join the many online stores that fail or never quite take off, do you? That’s why a clear business model is one of the most important steps toward a successful store. Decide whether you’ll make and sell your own products, import products from abroad, use affiliate or dropshipping, or go with a hybrid. Only then should you move on to your business plan, which will give your young online business a solid foundation.

Choosing a platform for your online store

There are three main options: a custom-built platform (custom code), an open source platform and software as a service (SaaS). In my opinion, open source platforms are the best solution on the market right now. They’re one of the most popular choices, and for good reason: they give you a lot of freedom and flexibility, with themes and extensions you can shape to your needs. They’re also very dynamic, updated all the time and constantly tested for bugs and security holes. Last but not least, open source platforms are fairly affordable if you don’t need a lot of customization.

Create quality, useful content

Content exists to deliver a message. Ranking higher in search engines is just one of its many benefits. Quality, original content is one of the most important foundations of a successful online business, since it’s one of the few things on the internet you can actually measure. Always aim for informative content that gives your readers extra value and is fun to read. Educate your customers with engaging, interactive information. Customers trust experts, and the only way to show you’re an expert in your field is through your content.

Build a strong brand

Content is still a key part of a successful online business, but your brand matters more and more to consumers and to Google. Building a successful, recognizable brand takes years and is genuinely hard. It takes a lot of time, work and investment, and above all it rests on the quality content you give your customers or readers. I like to say that “content is king and brand is queen.” Together, the two will play a central role in building a successful business with a good reputation online (and offline) in the years ahead.

Have a digital marketing strategy

The right digital marketing strategy is what separates a successful online store from a merely good one. You can have the best content, a strong brand and unbeatable service, but none of it matters if it doesn’t reach the people in your target group. Which approach is right for promoting your store is your call, based on the needs of your business and your industry.

Social media marketing

Remember that social networks (especially Facebook, the biggest of them, with more than 1 billion daily users) are not online stores. They’re channels for talking with current and potential customers. Businesses use them more every day, but people still go there mainly to unwind. So your social media presence needs to be creative and low-key enough that people welcome you with trust and goodwill.

Email marketing

Email marketing is the part of digital marketing that lets you send personalized, precisely targeted messages only to your target group. It lets you build an emotional connection with your customers and gives you a great chance to convert them. Using your own customer databases and personalized messages is a very good strategy.

Google AdWords and Facebook Ads

This is the paid way to reach as many of your (potential) customers as possible. With Facebook or Google ad campaigns, you can show what’s great about your services or products only to people who are likely to care. In recent years, remarketing has delivered especially good results.

Search engine optimization

SEO means making your website or online store more visible in search engines through so-called organic methods. Simply put, the higher your site shows up in Google, the more visits it gets. And Google’s goal is to give its users the most relevant result. There are different approaches to optimizing a website, known as white hat SEO and black hat SEO. White hat SEO is made up of “allowed” methods and good practices for climbing organically in search results. They include authority (link building, guest blogging and backlinks) and user experience, but the key to successful optimization is, once again, the content you offer. Without content there’s nothing to optimize, and without quality content Google will never love you or show your site on the first pages of results.
There’s a huge range of SEO tools that can turn optimizing your online store into something that brings your business nothing but good, not headaches.

Stick to the standards

Most of the time you have three seconds to make a good first impression on your (potential) customers. Your store’s design is one of the first things visitors notice, so it has to meet modern standards. That’s how you give your customers a great user experience.
One of the most important factors for a good user experience is responsive design. More and more people shop on all kinds of mobile devices, so your online store needs to work on every one of them. Google has also announced that mobile-friendly sites will rank higher in its search results.

A few more valuable tips:

Make sure your pages load fast
Go for a clean, simple design
Skip bland, generic photos
Clear your online store of errors

Know your customers and give them an unforgettable experience

“If you build a great experience, customers tell each other about that. Word of mouth is very powerful.” Jeff Bezos (founder of Amazon)

Knowing your target group is one of the most important conditions for a great user experience. Different people like different things, and you’ll never please everyone. The truth is, you don’t need to. Your online store serves a specific niche and aims to be useful to a specific group of people.
Google Analytics will help you collect a huge amount of data about how people use your website and about the site as a whole. It will also help you set goals around the audience you want to reach.
Once you know who your target group is, take care of them. Speak their language, find different ways to connect with your customers emotionally and show them they’re special.

Be creative and stand out from the competition

“You should learn from your competitor, but never copy. Copy and you die.” Jack Ma (Executive Chairman of Alibaba Group)

For your online business to succeed, you need to know up front who you’re competing with for customers’ attention and trust. Researching your competitors is essential for building the right business strategy: it shows you where you’re better than them, so you can build on that. Customers love to feel special, and they also love a different, interactive shopping experience. Offering fresh ways to shop (with games, for example) is one of the most effective ways to stand out.
If you’re not different and unique, people won’t like you, or they’ll quickly forget you.

Think big and keep growing your online store

Your online store grows as you grow. The world keeps changing, and you need to keep up with new technologies. Staying curious about new ideas, trends, technologies and markets, and about growth itself, is key to your success online. Go after new markets and take on new challenges. It’s the only way to stay ahead of the competition and build a successful business that lasts.

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About the author

Petar Dyaksov

Entrepreneur and founder of a digital agency, in e-commerce since 2009. He grows online businesses such as Fragrances.bg and Timedix and shares his experience as a speaker, moderator and mentor at nearly 80 conferences and trainings.

More about me

How to build a successful online store in 10 steps