In this fast-paced and technology-driven world, a digital store is your golden ticket to offering your products and services to a large consumer base.
You can do this outside the time and distance constraints of conventional mortar and brick stores.
What is a digital store?
A digital store allows you to deliver products and services to customers anywhere in the world (as long as the necessary logistics are in place) without them needing to come into your physical store.
While traditional stores are not going away anytime soon, let’s face the facts; consumers’ buying patterns are fast changing.
More and more customers are turning to the Internet to find information about products before making purchases. This is because “digital shopping” affords customers easy access and flexibility, providing them with all the details they need to make a purchase directly online.
A digital store also comes with different functionalities that allow customers to make payments – within the platform – and dictate where and how they want their goods delivered. This eliminates the need for direct human interaction in the sale process.
One of the major factors driving the astonishing growth of digital stores and marketing continues to be the use of mobile devices. According to research by Statista, Smartphones accounted for more than 60% of all retail sites.
And what’s more?
A digital store does not necessarily have to be a one-stop destination for your sales and marketing efforts. It can also function as an integral piece in the customer’s journey to making a purchase.
Many people research the features and price of a product online, even if they ultimately intend to buy it in a physical store. A marketing survey by KPMG suggests that over 65% of customers do this.
If so, you can design your digital store to complement and drive more traffic to your physical store. Either way, a digital store is an invaluable asset in your marketing strategy.
But how do you start a digital store? Here are some steps to follow:
Steps to starting a digital store
Find your ideal product and target market
Instead of getting your digital store launched right away, take a moment or two to answer these questions:
“What am I selling?”
“Who am I selling to?”
Many entrepreneurs make the mistake of not thoroughly evaluating the target market and their product’s suitability to such a need before launching their digital Store.
Regardless of the features your digital store possesses, its ultimate goal is to sell. Therefore, you have to identify a niche that has products with enough sustainable demand to keep your business thriving.
There are a few ways to identify such niches:
Other Digital Stores are doing well in the niche
The presence of other Digital stores doing well in the same niche is an indicator of its market segment profitability. While a new, unexplored niche might be a mouth-watering offer, being the first in a market segment means you have no data or other competitors to learn from.
It can also signify low demand for products and services in that niche. Unless you have enough resources to conduct extensive market research to determine a new place’s viability, it’s safer to stick with already-known sustainable market segments.
But since there are already other competitors in these niches, how do you differentiate yourself?
Identify the lapses in the competitor’s marketing channels and fix them
Are your competitors efficiently advertising? How is their customer feedback? Are their prices too low or exorbitantly high? What are the typical problems customers have when using the digital stores of your competitors?
You can even spy on your competitors by using their digital stores for a few purchases. This will allow you to identify the delivery gaps and opportunities you can leverage to out-perform them.
Develop your marketing strategy
Now that you are aware of the lapses in your marketing strategies of other digital stores in your niche, it’s time to design your own.
There are three major approaches you can use for marketing your Digital Store:
Organic SEO
Search engine optimisation is a way to make your website visible to potential customers using Search engines, e.g., Google or Bing.
By getting the keywords for your products to rank high on Google, you can get enough organic traffic funnelled right to your digital store. While SEO traffic is dependable and gives you a level playing ground with big brands, it has a significant drawback.
SEO results take significant time and effort to show.
Paid Ads and Marketing
If you want faster results and are ready to spend money on advertising, you should consider paid Marketing. This involves running ads on Facebook, and Instagram and using Google AdWords to get your products before more potential customers.
Paid Marketing works, especially if your digital store is in a niche that sells highly visual and eye-catching consumer products that are simple to understand. However, paid marketing comes with no guarantees and requires a significant investment up-front.
Platform Marketing
You can also leverage existing platforms like Amazon and eBay to create your digital store.
Since these are already established marketing platforms, getting traffic to your digital store will not be a problem. All you’ll have to do is optimize your store for specific product keywords and get as many five-star reviews as possible.
Decide between drop-shipping and holding your products
With your marketing strategy in place, it’s time to get the “product-supply” question.
Will you be drop-shipping your products or using your production mechanism? Each of these methods comes with its advantages and challenges. With drop-shipping, you do not require startup capital, warehousing fees, or having to bother yourself with pick-up and delivery. You can also list more items on your digital store.
When a customer orders, all you have to do is drop-ship the item to their location. However, inferior branding and defective products are real challenges that may ultimately decrease your customers’ trust in your digital store.
On the other hand, using your production mechanism means you can effectively brand your products and streamline the delivery process. You’ll also be able to promptly respond to customer issues and get them solved. Moreover, great branding and packaging will encourage your customers to share your products on Social media happily, thus promoting your store.
Create your digital store
With all your marketing mechanisms in place, you can now set up your digital store. As opposed to what many people think, this is relatively easy, and there are several ways you can go about it.
WordPress with Woocommerce or Daalder
If you already have a blog with significant traffic, you can use Woocommerce to add a digital store to your website.
You can also use Shopify and BigCommerce to set up your online store. On the other hand, you can choose to go for a custom e-commerce store using the Daalder platform. It’s much cheaper and more flexible compared to most pre-made plugins and software.
Market your new digital store
You are all set!
You now have to upload your product catalogue to the digital store and kick-start an aggressive marketing campaign. This should be relatively easy as you’ve already done all the background work needed.
Conclusion
Starting your digital store might involve a lot of work at the start, but before long, the benefits should be rolling in.
