You have dedicated a great deal of time, work, and money to create your online store. You have prepared the design, developed the shop, loaded the products and the categories. You have opened accounts on social networks and made paid advertising campaigns. You have considered many details, read, and been advised and consulted about e-commerce. Your online business should be up and running.

But you don't sell.

To put it more precisely: you sell, but you sell little, not enough to make the store profitable, but not enough to make it clear that it doesn't work, and you have to close it.

Other stores, which are no better, are selling, and yours isn't.

It's clear that something is wrong, and you don't know what it is. You compare with other stores, you make changes, you make offers, and it always seems that now you've got it right, it's about to start... But it never ends. You know that something is wrong, something is preventing customers from deciding to buy, if only you could know what it is

If you are in this situation, what you need is to relaunch your online store.

WHAT IS A RELAUNCH?

In a store that doesn't sell enough, there can be two completely different situations. In the first case, the store is selling, it clearly has the potential, but it doesn't sell enough - you have to work more on marketing and making improvements in the store (conversion optimization - CRO). It's a question of quantity: if you put more, you sell more. If you put in enough of what is needed, the store will be profitable.

In the second case, on the other hand, it's not a question of quantity: now you're losing everything you're putting in. If you put more, you will lose more. And if you put a lot more, you're going to lose a lot more - the sales machine is broken, no matter how much you pour gasoline on it, it won't start running.

What you have to do is recognize what the situation is, thoroughly review what's going on, see what's wrong, and solve it. And, as I was saying, it's not just an individual factor, it's some important part that's not working.

1. THE OFFER

The first and foremost thing an online store must have is a product that can be sold profitably. "That it can be sold in a profitable way" implies several things:

• There is someone who will be interested - someone may want to buy it. It seems obvious, but there are many products that have no market.
• The combination of product features, wreck, service, delivery, and warranties ("the offer") must be better than the offer of the competitors - at least of the competitors who are looking at each particular customer (you don't always have to be the cheapest).
• The market must be large enough, there must be enough customers for the entire assembly of the store, its promotion and daily operation to be profitable.
• The margin left must be sufficient to pay for all store expenses, including advertising and external services.

This is the first thing to check. If the product you want to sell is not competitive or does not have enough market, it will be impossible to make it profitable, no matter how much you invest and no matter how well it is done.

2. PRODUCT INFORMATION

To sell a product requires much more than showing the name and price. The customer must know what is being offered to him, must see what he needs, must know that it is this and not another similar product, that he will not need anything else (he will not have surprises), that it is convenient for him to buy it here and not elsewhere ... All this is the information that must be given about each product, and about the service and guarantees are given by the store.

Can it be returned? What will it cost? What is the guarantee? What happens if I get the product wrong? Will there be spare parts when I need them? Why should I buy this one and not another cheaper one?

3. THE SHOP

The most common thing is that the whole store fails - that it is not well made. An online store must be thought, designed and built around the product it is going to sell and the customer, the market it wants to sell to. But most shops are just a free e-commerce platform with a template and a list of products.

This does not work. Each store is different - there are many parameters to choose from, and each combination gives a fundamentally different store model. Selling books is not the same as selling travel, fashion, consumer electronics, industrial supplies, installations, art, food, jewelry, cars...

4. FUNCTIONALITY AND USABILITY

If the product information is good and the store is well done, there may be problems with functionality and usability. In the easiest (but infrequent) cases where there is a simple cause (or group of simple causes) of not being sold, those causes fall into this category: it is not sold because customers cannot buy because of some problem in the software or in the buying process.

5. MARKETING

In an online store, visitors will arrive because it brings them something: natural positioning (SEO), advertising on Google (AdWords, Shopping), Facebook, emailing, affiliates ... But all this does not happen by chance, not even the natural positioning (which, by the way, many people believe is free - it is not, only that you do not pay Google).

When setting up an e-commerce, you have to define how you are going to find and attract the target audience, which channels you are going to use, which messages, and you have to be very clear that it is going to have a cost. Each visitor is going to have a cost - ten times more visitors are going to cost ten times more.

6. LOYALTY

Getting a new customer can perfectly cost 7 times more than maintaining it. The cost of acquiring an order from a new customer can be very high, while that of a repeat customer is ridiculous. It is much easier to keep a customer satisfied than to take a customer away from the competition.

DO YOU WANT TO RELAUNCH YOUR STORE?

Consider doing it with us. We have a lot of experience in reactivating stores. You can send us an email!