Online store management consists of four major parts: technical, administrative, sales management, advertising and promotion management. Everywhere there are effective tools that make the task much more accessible. And at the same time, it increases sales, often without the owner’s participation. Trade automation has been a steady trend in recent years, especially in the e-commerce segment. A computer program could easily replace a hundred managers. However, first things first.
1) Store Website: Choose A Website Maker
A store made on a self-written engine, most likely, will not bring anything but a headache, and it is not worth saving here. Yes, and it is unlikely to succeed: programmers and developers ask a lot for a digestible product. In the end, there will be difficulties with payment and integration with other services.
Therefore, it is essential to choose the best Website maker, which is tailored for online sales, and already has the integrations necessary for the efficient operation of an online store.
2) Inventory management
Let’s describe the ideal case:
- The goods are always in stock in the correct quantity.
- If something runs out, it is automatically ordered from suppliers.
- Any item sold is immediately written off from the warehouse balance.
3) Personnel Management
The work of sales managers is a critical factor in the success of an online store. All your efforts can be nullified by a single unlucky manager who is rude on the phone or does not have time to process applications. And there will be no sense from low prices, a wide range and excellent service.
It is necessary to work here in two directions: to create the right working atmosphere in the company and automate communications between the manager and the customer.
4) Accounting and tax management
Approaches will depend on the scale of activity, the number of employees, sales volume and other factors. The goal is to properly manage finances, keep records of income and expenses, calculate salaries for employees and make payments to the budget on time.
A small online store with a few employees may connect online accounting to the site. The program will calculate expenses and incomes, fill in and send tax returns, and transfer money to the budget.
5) Sales management
It all comes down to the concept of a sales funnel. The transaction should be as automated as possible. Let’s take an example
A potential client visits the site for the first time. There are a lot of goods, and it is not an option to search for the desired position in the catalog. Convenient navigation should be organized on the page so that the search takes place in a couple of clicks. To do this, you will need filters (by brands, size, characteristics – depending on the specifics of the assortment) and a search (for those looking for something specific). It all depends on the functionality of the site and the additional features attached to it.
Now comes the most crucial step – making a payment. It is psychologically challenging for a person to part with money, and he begins to doubt. What if the product is terrible? Or maybe competitors are cheaper? What about delivery? At this moment, the site should automatically adjust to the user’s actions and roll out triggers that motivate them to complete the transaction. The system of such triggers is the sales funnel.
6) Advertising and promotion management
The ultimate task of promotion is to attract traffic to the online store’s website and increase its conversion. Traffic is the number of visitors, and conversion is the ratio of visitors to purchases. The easiest way to buy traffic is to order contextual and targeted advertising and remarketing. But there is a big minus here: while you pay – there is traffic, stop – there is no traffic.
It is much more interesting to go the other way and get organic traffic from search engines. The work is long, complicated and expensive, but the result is excellent: your online store will take the top lines of the search results, and visitors will come to it from the search for queries. Yes, you understood correctly: traffic, in this case, will become shareware.
