This great article on Sydney Morning Herald is a must read for both traditional and online retailers. It highlights problems for Australian retail and the changing ways shoppers are making their purchase decisions.
It is hard for shop owners with rents and wages to compete with online prices. Shoppers are researching products and prices even when in store via their mobiles.
Some suggested ways to combat this are:
- Making their own online stores
- Utilise EBay and Amazon as additional sales channels
- Research competition prices (Your customers are)
- Good customer service goes a long way
Have you heard of Responsive Web Design? Responsive websites and online stores adjust their layout to suit how they are being viewed. Rather than just shrinking the website to fit a mobile the layout changes so that the writing is still a readable size and the layout is simplified. It provides a much better user experience on mobiles and tablets.
We track nearly 200 websites in Google Analytics. Mobile traffic now far exceeds desktop traffic on most websites.
Putting up an online store alone isn’t likely to bring you big sales. There needs to be a marketing plan and multiple sales channels. Social media, AdWords, affiliate systems, blogs and search engine optimisation (SEO) all work together to raise the profile of your brand and increase sales.
We recommend WordPress with WooCommerce for online stores. You might also consider Shopify, Magento and other eCommerce platforms.