By Audrey Isaac, 100 Candles
Whether your business is exclusively web-based, or you are incorporating online sales as one aspect of your wedding business, there are several factors that are key to a successful e-commerce business. The more effort you put into building a solid, functional and customer-friendly business, the more profitable you will be.
Start with Excellent Customer Service
It really doesn’t matter what you sell, how you sell it, or who you sell it to – the key to true success is giving your customers superior service. Keep this in mind as you build your e-commerce site. Focus on what consumers need to get to know your business, trust your products and services, and ultimately choose to pay you to enhance their weddings.
Offer information that helps lead your prospects to the purchases that will best fit their needs. That could be a strong FAQ page, or rollover text that better explains features of a product. Make sure your navigation is intuitive and accurate so visitors find what they need. And always remember to seek and be responsive to feedback before and after you make a sale.
Balance Visual Appeal and Function
Developing a pretty website that attracts a prospective customer’s attention is only half the battle. You do need to capture attention with a professional look, and a style that reflects your branding. But you also need to help your visitors have a smooth and enjoyable shopping experience.
Include features like “breadcrumb navigation” that track where your customers have been on your site periodically to ensure they never have to start all over again in frustration. Make sure your site is mobile-friendly as an ever-growing number of consumers shop primarily on devices like cell phones and tablets.
Also make sure that your site works! Links should lead where they are supposed to and load times need to be reasonable to live up to the Millennial demand for instant gratification. Shopping online is so common now that couples have high expectations for ease of use. Make sure your site delivers on those expectations, and exceeds them when possible.
Monitor Your Performance
Install and use a program like Google Analytics to help determine how many visitors your e-commerce site attracts, where on your site they visit, how long they stay, and who they are demographically. If any of the measurements fails to line up with your expectations, the results should allow you to tweak your site so you can perform better. By regularly monitoring your site performance, you’ll be able to make educated decisions before making major changes to your site.
There are many factors that contribute to a successful e-commerce business, but all of them are within your reach! Start today with these tips and you’ll soon see a reward for all of your hard work.
Audrey Isaac is the spokesperson of 100 Candles, a wholesale market for candles and lights. Since 2002, thousands of wedding and event professionals have entrusted 100 Candles with their wholesale candle accounts. For more information, please visit https://www.100candles.com/.