Are you in the mood for trying something new? No doubt, there is no better time for trying your hand at launching a new online store than today. The unprecedented increase of digital consumption caused by the Coronavirus pandemic will surely facilitate your first steps into the effort.
It is no secret that in 2020, digital development transcended all our hopes and expectations, and so did eCommerce. With the upcoming Christmas 2020, digital stores around the world have long started preparing to meet unprecedented consumer demand.
With this in mind, this article is going to see what it takes to build a good online store. That is, we are going to tackle which is the most popular online store platform and how it supports the building of killer eCommerce stores.
Other issues that we will look at include: what are the essential WordPress features that we need to take into account to ensure our business success? And also, are there any vital WordPress eCommerce optimization techniques that can facilitate our sales?
As an aside, if you believe that you are familiar with the principle benefits that eCommerce brings to customers, you may be quite surprised at finding out what moments it may resolve over Christmas. Do watch this funny short video about shopping over Xmas and think it over with respect to online shopping.
An online store for the upcoming Christmas: is it worth the risk?
Indeed, taking a decision for launching a new business in times of uncertainty may be daunting. Yet, eCommerce is on an unprecedented rise, and that is for certain.
Let us take a deeper look at present eCommerce development data, and more particularly, at the forthcoming Christmas season. This is what marketers labelled as “expected 2020’s Xmas E-Commerce shift”. Relevant data features:
- In the second quarter of 2020, digital sales increased by 71% as compared to the same period last year;
- This Xmas [2020], half of the consumers are going to make a purchase online;
- This season, 30% of all holiday spend will be digital.
This data brings exciting pieces of news for the preparation of many shop owners. Although most of them have picked up marketing as their strategy for the season, there are others who re-focus on fine-tuning the performance of the store itself.
We have been receiving multiple WordPress migration requests for example, where businesses are looking for new ways to attain top websites and hit better selling. And indeed, choosing the best platform pays off over time.
As a starter, let us see what makes WordPress the most popular platform for online store development.
What makes WordPress the most selected eCommerce platform?
WordPress’ popularity has surpassed all other platforms worldwide.
One of the things it is most famous with is the versatile content management system (CMS) it provides. Among other things, it allows a continuous ecommerce optimization, which we will discuss later. Last but not least, it ensures cost-effectiveness, easy management, website expansion options and many many more.
How popular is WordPress?
Generally speaking, there are 75 million websites that use WordPress (WP) according to a survey. As stated by the same research, the 2019 WP data shows that:
- Almost 15% of World’s Top 100 websites are based on WP;
- There are over 500 new websites created daily using the WP free version;
- 17 new blog posts appear every second.
Additionally, it has been reported that WooCommerce, the WP eCommerce plug-in, enables nearly 30% of all online shops. And this is really impressive!
What are the best WordPress advantages?
WordPress is distinct with many benefits but in our context we have collected the following advantages:
- It provides a website, which is “crawlable” by search engines – imperative for getting noticed;
- Offers premium user experience (UX) – key for attracting and keeping customers;
- Assures very good speed and security – what is nowadays indicative of a standard;
- It allows for first-class support – thus ensuring you receive an overall website service;
- There are over 50 000 WP plug-ins – which can empower any functionality you may need.
Based on that, you may rest assured that by choosing WP for your online store, you will gain access to a vast collection of tools and WordPress eCommerce optimization techniques for successful development. And if we have to describe a successful WordPress store in two words, then it would be something like “a convertible store”. That is, a store that sells.
In order to sell well however, your WordPress store will have to be aligned with the main principles of WordPress eCommerce optimization. This involves a long-term strategy but may be initially associated with your website discoverability, number of visits and convertibility.
Which are the top 3 features for WordPress eCommerce optimization?
It is really important to do things by the book. This is especially true if the “book” is made up of tested practices and ways of work, which have proven effective. And this is yet another benefit when using WP – you can draw on the experience of a vast WP community who masters WordPress optimization techniques.
Based on our experience and expertise, we have picked up these top 3 features as most important for your initial WordPress eCommerce optimization:
- Optimal Layout and Image Use – website conversion is strongly dependent on the key items you select for your website layout. Here, good and well-positioned images increase conversion. Actually, studies have shown that a well-combined image-text ratio can increase conversion by 9%.
When doing this selection, you should be always guided by the goal to make visitors add items to their shopping cart. Usually, this can be achieved with a larger product image and minimum extra information to guide the purchase.
- Copy and SEO – this primarily aims at increasing your customers by organic search. You have to be prepared to develop quality content, including relevant keywords, as well as page titles, meta descriptions, tags and slugs.
You can support your efforts by the WP plug-in Yoast, which can lead you through the process of content optimization.
- WordPress tools for converting visitors into buyers – these are infinite but they should really integrate with your overall sales and marketing strategy. These tools usually aim at improving customer’s experience during purchase, and may involve incentives such as discounts, chat service, etc.
Good example:
A good example in this respect is provided by the Review for Discount WordPress Plug-in. It offers customers discounts when leaving a review. Another illustration would be Olark Chat which offers customers live chat support throughout the sales process.
These 3 features are really just an illustration framework for your WordPress eCommerce optimization. It may be achieved by selecting the proper set of optimization plug-ins to attain desired customer behavior. And it should form part of a longer-term strategy.
Sometimes, WordPress eCommerce optimization may become complicated. But do not worry, it is not rocket science! You are really welcome to contact us for further ideas and assistance.
How to attain a WordPress store that sells more?
There is no single answer to this question. Sometimes you may need only website improvements, other times optimization strategy, and yet other – total rework. Probably, if you are new to eCommerce, you have the chance to plan every single store detail from the start.
No matter what the specific situation, you should always respect the principles of ecommerce optimization. It is really the effects of optimization that will let you sell more both now and in the future.
We have been building WordPress stores for years already, as recently a project of ours has been featured as best practice on WooCommerce. We are happy to share this achievement for our WordPress store Tochici.bg.
The site was developed entirely on WP, ensuring premium UX, convertibility perches and many more. You can take a look at our showcased example of Tochici.bg here.
The case study spotted by WooCommerce illustrates in detail the core WP technologies and extensions we have used. You, however, are more than encouraged to do your own research on the latter here.
Key Takeaways
Launching a digital business in 2020 may be challenging but has good development prospects. This is due to registered customer demands, technological know-how and overall eCommerce development.
WordPress is the most popular eCommerce platform globally. It assures a set of features for attaining trustworthy online store experience. One of the most important aspects for successful store development is its eCommerce optimization. It can be assisted by a set of key WordPress eCommerce optimization techniques but should also be taken as a long-term strategy.
Christmas 2020 is expected to lead to unprecedented eCommerce shift, which makes the moment particularly suitable for launching a new WordPress store.
