Creating an online store. Part 1

Introduction

Today, online stores are very popular, they are considered as a platform for increasing sales, and for creating a business from scratch. At the same time, really useful information about what an online store is, why it is needed, what it consists of, how to organize its work and about many other important nuances is almost impossible to find on the Internet.

This is a paradox: on the one hand, a huge number of articles have been written about online stores, on the other hand, there is very, very little useful information in them. I am not talking about technical texts designed for professionals, here, as a matter of fact, there is quite a lot of information. And the questions asked by future owners of online stores, mostly remain unanswered.

By the nature of my work, I also often come across online stores. A lot of questions are asked to me by clients, heads of small and medium businesses who are trying to understand whether they should open an online store, and if so, how best to do it. Also, my acquaintances often turn to me for advice on how to open an online store, what is needed for this, etc.
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In this article, I decided to explain in the simplest and most understandable language what an online store is, why it is needed and even why it may not be needed, how to create it and how to organize work.

The article is intended for a wide range of readers, there will not be difficult terms and some technical nuances interesting to experienced specialists. Here I will talk about the basic concepts associated with the operation of an online store, and also consider the basic principles of its work. This text will be interesting to those who are thinking about creating an online store or simply seeking to understand what it is and how it works.

Online store: do you need it?

When people ask me what to do to open a store, I try to find out first, but do these people really need an online store?

The fact is that today an online store is a fashionable concept, the same as, for example, a startup. Everyone has heard that it is very necessary and very profitable, but what it is, to whom and why it is needed, most do not even think about it.
As a result, it often turns out that the online store for this person really doesn’t need, in his case, the usual online business card, which has been functioning for a long time, will cope well with sales.

Even worse, if the decision to open an online store is made from scratch, simply as an investment: without a product base, without market knowledge, without selling skills. In this case, such a project from the first day is doomed to failure.

I will try to systematize the most common situations in which the creation of an online store is a waste of time and money.

You do not need to open an online store if:

1. You are a good consumer of the product, but not the seller.

I have observed similar situations many times. For example, parents with many children decide to open a children's clothing store simply on the grounds that they understand the clothes for children very well. Yes, they know where to buy good clothes for their children. They communicate with the same parents, and see that the demand in this area is quite high. But all this is not enough to achieve results in sales. It is necessary, at a minimum, to know this market from the point of view of the seller, to understand pricing, to know its competitors, to have a reliable and profitable channel for the supply of goods.

I know quite a lot of stories when people tried to start trading on the Internet from scratch without any experience or knowledge. And they tend to end sadly. Therefore, in such cases, I always discourage unnecessary costs. I believe that free money can be spent more usefully.

There are several exceptions to this rule:

• You are an expert in some field, know how to trade, and sell a product that is well versed. For example, fairly successful examples of "online shopping from scratch" among sellers of electronics. They know where to buy quality goods, often as regular customers have good discounts from sellers, more or less know the market in their region.
• You know the product well, you have your own supply chain, and at the same time, you have found some niche that is still unfilled or minimally filled. For example, I have a friend who has been fond of cheerleading for years. He collected recordings with performances of support groups, watched programs, etc. And then I decided to engage in the sale of goods for athletes. He had a good supply chain from the USA, he was very well versed in the product. As a result, his business is booming.

And therefore: if you are not just a consumer, but a specialist, if you know the goods at a professional level, you have an entrepreneurial spirit, open up boldly!

2. No need to open an online store just as an investment of free funds.

Online trading is just a type of regular trade. Yes, sales on the Internet have their own specifics, some peculiarities. But the online store as such is not a competitive advantage for a long time.
As a competitive advantage may be:

• Best price
• Unique product
• Convenient delivery
• Any other unique selling proposition.

And the online store itself is nothing more than a marketplace. Therefore, it is very important to understand in advance what you will sell, why you will buy this product from you, and not from any of the competitors, what you will attract and retain your customers with, etc.

Because I think that just as an online store investment is pointless. You need to invest where the real profit will be.

And, since we are talking about investments, I want to clarify one thing. Here and further, I do not plan to raise the topic of startups at all. Just because I worked a little. And therefore, I am not going to write about them.

On the other hand, an online store would be a good solution if:

1. You have your own trade in offline stores, wholesale warehouse, etc. In this case, an online store for you will be another sales channel for goods. Trade enterprises often compare the creation of an online store with the opening of a branch, which is simply located on the Internet. Everything is simple enough: there is a product, there is a delivery or the ability to organize it. Online store with the right approach will be successful.
2. You know the goods that you have come to work with at the specialist level, know how to trade, have a supply chain for this product, have developed a unique selling proposition, and have the opportunity to arrange delivery. In this case, the online store will be your convenient trading platform. The success of a business will depend only on you, just as in the case of opening any trading company from scratch.

Creating a store: where to start?

So, you weighed the pros and cons, and came to the conclusion that the online store is what you need. What to do next?

Here I will talk about creating an online store from scratch, it is this option that I most often find in working with small and medium businesses. In addition, this approach will allow to consider all the necessary concepts, all stages and actions. It is possible that you already have some experience, and some steps for you are a past step. In this case, just skip what is no longer relevant for you.

From the point of view of work organization, any online store can be divided into two parts:

• Front office. This is the site of the online store, mailing and SMS sending, calls to customers. In general, this is all that your buyer faces.
• Back office This is the work of the delivery service, pricing, supply, integration of various systems. In general, this is the part of the work that remains “behind the scenes” for the buyer, but is also very important for smooth and reliable work.

You can create a beautiful online store site, but this will not be enough to work. Any online store is a site plus people, product, and more.

Here I want to make another remark. I am a business consultant, not a programmer. In addition, from the very beginning I promised to write in simple language for a wide range of readers. And because so many technical nuances in my article will not be considered. Experts will find the necessary information without my help. In my article will be exactly the basic concepts, the main stages, the organization of work. And on technical issues you can always get advice from programmers.

First steps and fundamental decisions

So, before you start creating an online store, you need to:

1. Choose a product that you will sell online. This is necessary even in the case when you have been successfully trading offline for a long time. Is it worth it to put in the online store the entire range? Will this or that product be sold on the Internet? These questions are best found in advance.
2. Decide on pricing. Many even experienced businessmen do not know anything about pricing on the Internet. And because this issue is also worth studying.

On pricing, I can give advice based on practical experience. If you do not know what price to point to a particular product, it makes sense for the first time to set exactly the same prices as in your regular store. The main thing is to present the goods to the buyer, people should see that this position is in your store. And then, when the site is already working, the price can always be adjusted. Moreover, this will help you statistics on the behavior of customers in your online store. You will be able to see what the conversion is for a particular product (conversion is an indicator that tells you how many visitors to your site or even a specific page have become buyers, and how many have left without a purchase). And with the real numbers in hand, it will be possible to revise the price if this is necessary.

In addition, it is very important to collect high-quality content for your store. Content is:

• The goods themselves: descriptions, photographs, characteristics.
• Information about you: how you position yourself on the Internet, what advantages you have.
• Information about payment and delivery.
• Articles, useful tips and other information that will help attract visitors.

It is very convenient if you already have most of such information, for example, in the 1C program in the item cards. It is much more convenient than creating from scratch the entire catalog of goods based on paper prices and other similar sources of information. But even in this case, be sure to pay attention to the quality of information. On the Internet, you will not be able to show the buyer a real product, he will not have a close and persistent sales assistant who will tell you why this position is good, and why it is better than others. The buyer will receive all the information on the page, where there should be high-quality photos and a clear and complete description.

How to trade a product that is not available?

This question is often asked by businessmen who open an online store. On the one hand, I want to show the entire possible range, on the other hand, it is not very clear what to do if an order comes for a product that is not currently in stock.

Possible solutions:

• Do not show the buyer the goods that are not on the balances. I do not recommend this solution, since hiding a product is losing a potential buyer.
• Show items that are not on the balances marked “out of stock”.

I believe that it is better to receive a request for a product that is not currently available than to lose the buyer in principle. If you (your employees) are well aware of your range, you can always offer an alternative, often even at the best price. In some cases, buyers agree to wait for the delivery of the desired position. In any case, losing a potential client is undesirable.

Also in this case, the question of payment arises, since it is necessary not to allow the buyer to pay for the missing item. And here there are also different solutions:

1. Refuse to fully automatic payment. Those. buyers will be able to pay for goods upon receipt (by courier or cash on delivery) or by bank transfer, but after final approval of the order with the manager.
2. Make a software check of balances before payment. Those. after placing the order, but before opening the payment service for the buyer, a check must be made on the availability of the necessary goods on the balances. If they are, the form of payment is opened, if something is not present, information appears with an apology and an explanation that this heading is no longer available, and a suggestion of some solutions to the problem.

Both of these options are quite convenient, here the choice depends mostly on the technical and organizational nuances of the implementation of the online store. The main thing is to get the contacts of the buyer and his needs, as well as to try to take his requests as correctly as possible. It is clear that some buyers may be offended in this case, but practice shows that there are few of them, and the ability to offer an alternative and still get a sale is worth a lot.

Create a front office

So, we dealt with the basic questions of principle a little, we proceed to the creation of the front office.
What is the front office:

1. Price
2. Range
3. Content
4. Feedback

I already wrote about pricing above, and therefore I will not repeat. I also discussed the selection of the range and content a bit earlier. And here I just want to remind you that:

1. The quality of the content on the product page determines whether the potential buyer will be interested in this product.
2. The level of customer confidence in the store as a whole depends on the quality of the content on the information pages.

But feedback should be discussed in more detail. Today this concept includes without fail:

1. Phone. It is best if you use a separate number or separate extension number for an online store. It should be allocated to communicate with customers online store of the individual. You will receive most of the requests from your customers on the phone, as this communication channel is convenient for many people and gives the opportunity to get the most lively communication with a consultant that is so in demand in any stores.
2. Email. And you need to upload your address in a convenient form for the buyer. Various pictures and copy-protected text fragments are very annoying to buyers. Therefore, it is better to create a special mailbox for the store and accept a certain amount of spam than to lose potential customers who prefer this particular method of communication.
3. Feedback form on the “Contacts” page. A convenient alternative to Email. At the same time on the site page there is a form in which the user can enter their contact information (email, phone), the subject of the question, the message itself. And after clicking the “Send” button, this message will be sent to the site administrator’s mail.
4. Online chat. This service is designed so that the buyer can quickly ask a question and get an answer in text form. Online chat services usually look like a pop-up window “ask a question”, they are very convenient and are becoming more popular every day. They are provided most often on a monthly payment basis, and a programmer will help select and connect such a service.

Today this list is considered the necessary minimum, which should be on the website of the online store. In addition, it is possible to place additional information: physical and legal address, some documents, certificates, if necessary, etc.

Selecting and connecting a CRM system

I recommend to always connect the phone, which is dedicated to working with clients, to the CRM system. In general, the effective operation of an online store requires the use of a particular CRM system, especially if you have a sufficiently large number of sales planned. So far, such a scheme of work is not actively used, many companies do not keep records of sales and quality control of working with clients, but I believe that this path is a dead end, and the real growth in the performance of my clients after the introduction of the CRM system demonstrates my point. In detail about what CRM systems are, how to select and implement them, I wrote in the article What are CRM systems and how to choose them correctly?

And here I’ll just briefly list some of the advantages of using CRM for an online store:

1. All contacts of your customers will be collected in one place in a convenient form.
2. You will not have "lost" requests or missed and "forgotten" calls. Properly adjusted CRM system helps to compensate for the human factor.
3. You will be able to record all conversations with customers and monitor the effectiveness of the manager.
4. Even in the case of an unexpected change of employee (illness, dismissal), you will not lose a single contact, and you can always figure out at what stage of cooperation the absent manager stopped.
5. You will be able to set and verify the quality and timeliness of performance, even for tasks not directly related to working with clients (content updating, reporting, etc.)

Email and SMS distribution

And one more very important method of interaction with clients is SMS distribution. Today it is considered to be good practice to notify the buyer by means of SMS about sending his goods, about delivery to the post office or to the address, etc. To do this, when making a purchase usually offer to leave also a phone number. In the future, you can use the base of these phone numbers to solve marketing issues: for example, to notify customers about promotions and discounts, about the appearance of new products, etc.

I warn you: SMS distribution should be used with extreme caution so as not to be subject to the law prohibiting SMS spam. In fact, the likelihood that you will have some kind of trouble due to SMS mailings is extremely low. But better study the law and create mailings correctly.

Also a very important marketing tool can be a database of email addresses of your customers. It is also considered good practice to notify the buyer of receipt of payment, of sending the order by e-mail. In the letter, you can specify the number of the parcel or the estimated time of courier delivery, other necessary details. And in the future, you can also use these email addresses to create a mailing list.

Email newsletters will help you:

• In a beautiful way to notify buyers about the appearance of new products, holding promotions, discounts and other interesting news.
• Control how your products are interesting to customers. All developed mailing systems allow you to track: whether the recipient opened the letter, followed the link (if yes, for which), etc.
• Implicit, but also an important plus: you can control the quality of the email database itself, since the distribution system will also inform you that some of the addresses contain errors. In some cases, customers accidentally put spaces or make a typo in the name of the mail service, and then you can correct this address yourself and calmly send notifications there. Sometimes there are errors that can only be corrected by the buyer, in this case a telephone call will help. In many cases, timely notice to customers is as important as you.

And, to close the topic of marketing tools and feedback, I will talk about another interesting way to interact with customers - this is SMM (work through social networks). The method of communication with customers in social networks is not yet very common, although it is very effective. Some stores almost all of their work with customers is based on the use of social networks. They create groups of VKontakte and Odnoklassniki, less often - on Facebook. They carry out actions there, spread entertainment and advertising content, answer questions and even part of the sales lead right in the group. This technique is very effective. True, I personally do not recommend my customers to use SMM from the very beginning, but the only reason is that it is not realistic to cover everything at once, and later, when the store works reliably, you should pay attention to social networks.

Many of the experienced users and experts now, most likely, also recalled various options for advertising the site, including the use of contextual advertising or other promotion methods. Therefore, I decided to immediately clarify: these methods are more likely to attract new customers, and not to work with existing ones. And I plan to talk about them separately in future articles.

CMS selection

Once you decide for yourself all of the above questions, it will be time to move on to the next stage - the choice of CMS.

It is very important to understand that CMS (engine), design and content are different components of an online store. Why do I emphasize this? Many people are confused in concepts, and they believe that design is an online store or that a CMS is the whole site. Let's not confuse the concepts.

So:

• Content is the foundation, this is what your site will be filled with. In fact, the buyer is not at all interested in which engine your website is running, your design delights are not very interesting to him either, the main thing is the availability of the right product, an attractive price, clear information about payment and delivery.
• Design is your website design. Moreover, product photos, for example, are not included in the design, photos are content. And the design is the “site header”, colors, fonts, various menus and buttons, etc.
• CMS (content management system) is a software part, the same “engine” or platform on which the whole system works.

And here the content is the most important, although the other components need to be given sufficient attention. But you should not spend too much time on the technical part. Your buyer will not appreciate it anyway.

I have come across in practice with projects that have been preparing for the release for years. The design was perfected to perfection, the software part was worked out, many additional features were added: calculators, comparison services, etc. As a result, sales either did not increase at all or increased slightly.

Because, I repeat, the buyer is not important. Of course, it's nice to be on a beautiful site, it's nice to use additional features. But if you do not have the right product, if the buyer is not satisfied with the price, or if there are no important parameters for the product description, it will turn around and leave without buying from the most beautiful site.

But nevertheless it is necessary to choose CMS. What will your site work on?

The choice of CMS is a rather extensive topic, and we have come up with a lot of various content management systems today. Over time, I plan to devote a separate article to the topic of comparing and choosing a CMS. In the meantime, it will suffice to say that the principle of choosing a CMS is not much different from the methods of choosing CRM-systems. I wrote about this in detail in the article What are CRM-systems and how to choose them correctly?

Those. just about everything as well. There are Stand-Alone solutions, there are Saas solutions. Each option has its own characteristics, which are based on the principle itself: use your own copy of the software product or work in the "clouds" with a monthly payment for using the system.

But for the success of the online store, in fact, the type of CMS is not so important. I personally saw successfully working solutions on samopisny engines, and also very poorly working systems on widely advertised CMS. Those. here, almost everything depends on the specialist or the company that serves you.

But still I want to give you some recommendations on choosing a CMS for an online store:

1. Do not think that free CMS worse paid. In fact, many free engines work as successfully as expensive paid systems. In addition, you may simply do not need all the features offered by paid CMS.
2. Limit your desires. I often came across the fact that from the very beginning my clients started asking for everything at once: the connection to 1C, the connection of various payment systems, the complex CRM, the callback, and the integration with social services. networks, and some kind of automatic calculator and more. In fact, at the beginning of work you do not need all this. At first, you just have to imagine what you have. Show your product online. Try to work. And then, based on the results of work for some period, you will be able to understand exactly what you need, what to add to the site, what features to connect, and what will be superfluous.
3. Russian localization. Choose only those systems that have Russian localization. Practice shows that no matter how well you know English, no matter how good the system itself is, but if it does not have Russian localization, then you will always have some problems in your work, and as a result you yourself Decide to refuse such inconvenient system. The reasons are simple: you can know English well, and your employees? And how much time will it take to train everyone? And how many improvements will be needed on the site itself, because here, then there will appear English words that are applied there by default. In general, it is better to immediately focus on the presence of Russian localization. It is much more convenient.

Integration with 1C

When creating an online store, many of my clients immediately raised the issue of integrating this resource with their 1C software product. I believe that such integration at once is an extra cost of funds and time, as a result of which opening an online store is postponed for quite a long time, the work on integration requires the involvement of additional specialists, including 1C programmers, and as a result very often it turns out that solutions that have been implemented in part or even completely do not correspond to the needs of online commerce of a particular business or require significant refinement.

I believe that at the first stage of an online store, integration with 1C may not be necessary at all. Especially when it comes to downloading orders from the site, which is quite difficult to implement, but very many owners of online stores, however, tend to get it.

How does integration with 1C work?

• This is uploading to the site information about products, customers, if any.
• Download information from the site, usually it is information about orders.

Many try to get this data exchange immediately, at the stage of creating an online store. But at the same time, in order for any integration to start working without failures, you need to solve a lot of problems, including problems in the system in which you work, it can be 1C or any other system. So, in 1C, it will be necessary to refine the product card, resolve issues with access rights, etc. etc. And at the first stage it does not always make sense to do this.

So, if you have 100-200 items in stock, you can manually lay them out, so, in fact, the question of the initial filling of an online store is decided very often.

On the other hand, somehow it is necessary to take orders from the site. At the first stage of the order store, in fact, there is always very little, literally, one. And you can also pick them up manually. Later, when you have been working for some time, you will understand in what form it is most convenient for you to pick up orders, and what kind of integration you actually need.


Thus, when choosing a CMS, the possibility of integration with 1C is not the most important thing, this issue can be solved later.

Online Store Design

When there is a question about choosing a design, the first thing to do is to install a ready-made template design or develop your own design from scratch. I recommend, if funds allow, to immediately order a specialist to develop a unique design. But if deadlines or finances do not allow for a full-fledged work on creating a design, there is nothing to worry about choosing and downloading the appropriate ready-made design.

Pros and cons of these solutions:

Template pluses:

• Quick fix (can be installed immediately after purchase or download)
• As a rule, the template has already been tested with several versions, some improvements have already been made, and some bugs have been fixed.
• Cheap. You can either buy a template for a minimal, practically symbolic amount, or you can download it for free on the Internet.

Pattern Cons:

• The complexity of the code and the complexity of refinement. So, if you want to change something in the template that you don’t like, you will need quite serious work and the obligatory participation of a specialist.
• Binding to a specific platform. When you buy a template, the seller’s website indicates which platform it fits to, this is also important. For example, if you buy a very beautiful Wordpress template, you will have to work with this CMS. As you know, Wordpress is not well suited for online stores, and therefore you will constantly be confronted with the limitations of this system.

Pros of design from scratch:

• The lack of restrictions that imposes a template, as your design is developed to suit your needs, and then imposes on the CMS that you choose.
• The absence of extra code, as a result, the ease and simplicity of improvements in the future.

Design minuses from scratch:

• High price. The work of the designer will cost you many times more expensive than template solutions.
• Timing. Work on the design will last from a few days to weeks.

A very convenient solution is to simply take the design of an online store you like and copy it with the modifications you need, without disturbing copywriting.

If you just use the idea, and when implementing you will use a different color scheme, slightly different buttons, your logo, then your store will look different and there will be no complaints from the owner of the store you like. Creating a design similar to a particular online store is much easier and faster than inventing everything from scratch. Thus, you get the design that is ideal for you in minimal time.

In principle, when launching an online store, design as such does not play the most important role. The functionality and accuracy is very important, and the design can be, in principle, any.

Epilogue

So, I tried to tell you what you need to pay attention to make a decision: do you need an online store, told you what you need to prepare before you start working directly on a software solution.

I also tried to tell the most simple and detailed about the work on the front office. , - – , , . CMS , , , .

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