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Creating an eCommerce store with a Perth Digital Agency

How to create a successful eCommerce store with the help of a Perth digital agency.

Scott Ingram. Director, Helium Marketing.

An eCommerce website is a website where goods or services are sold to customers. The business can be purely online, or a brick and mortar shopfront or warehouse that sells in-person and online. From digital downloads to fertiliser, homewares, furniture, foods, online courses, and much more, the content of the store can be almost anything.

Is an eCommerce site the same as a transactional site or catalogue site?

A successful eCom website design is key to a successful product-based business. Aside from promoting your products online, it makes the website more purposeful, more practical, and is more effective than a transactional site or simple catalogue website.

Many people believe that an eCommerce website is the same as a regular, transactional site. However, there are some key differences between the two. For example, while both websites have products for sale, an eCommerce site will have more detailed product information and pricing than simple a transactional site would. In addition to this, an eCommerce site often includes customer reviews and ratings of products. This helps potential customers make informed decisions about what they want to buy.

A catalogue site is slightly different again. It looks very similar to an eCom site, but does not offer the option to purchase online. This can create a frustrating experience for website users who will happily browse products, then be annoyed when they realise they have to go in-store to actually buy something.

Catalogue Site Transactional Site

What to consider when it comes to eCom design.

Designing an eCommerce website is complicated one and needs a lot of effort and expertise. The Designer needs consider and balance many elements including user experience, backend use (how easy it is to regularly update stock or add new products?), aesthetics, brand alignment, and more.

Perhaps most importantly, choosing the correct platform or "CMS" for an eCommerce website is paramount. For example, while providers like Shopify have relatively simple backend functionality, the layouts are heavily templated and lack flexibility. While this isn't always a bad thing, in this instance, it means that your online store could end up looking like a lot of others, and you lose a bit of your brand's spark in the process. On the other hand, other platforms (such as WordPress) offer WooCommerce integration and virtually unlimited flexibility, but require advanced website deign knowledge to make them look any good.

This is why it's essential to choose a digital Perth agency that knows their stuff when it comes to eCom sites. Not only can they advise on the best CMS for your store's needs, they also have the skills to bring it to life.

Understanding your target audience so you can maximise conversions.

It's so important to understand your target audience and not just rely on gut-feel. This ensures you're marketing the right products to the right people. In this section, we'll discuss how you can use customer profiling to identify the demographics of your target audience.

Customer profiling is a valuable way of understanding who your customers are, what they want, and what they need. It helps online stores in many ways, such as:

Identifying customer needs and product demand. Ask yourself, why does my customer need what I'm selling? If they don't "need" it, how can I turn their "want" into a "need"? How much demand is there for my product?
Understanding buying behaviours. This refers to the decision-making process and acts people go through to buy products. Factors include social trends, time of year (e.g. do your products make good Christmas gifts?), background influences, accessibility to your store, and more.
Creating buyer personas. A "buyer persona" is a semi-fictitious person — who represents your main audience — interested in your products, based on real data and research. As a bare minimum, this persona should include their age and sex, life stage (married, single, has children, retired), and financial situation. Detailed personas can be very in-depth and include suburb, job title, hobbies, and personal interests.

Choosing the best payment gateway for your online store.

Payment gateways are the most fundamental part of any eCommerce site — without one, you wouldn't have an online store at all! They're responsible for enabling online purchases as well as processing credit card transactions in a secure manner. However, choosing the right payment gateway for your online shop can be overwhelming and time-consuming. Here's the secret: as a merchant, all options are pretty good options and very similar for you...

In any case, here's a rundown of the three most popular payment options for Australian eCom stores — Stripe, PayPal, and Afterpay. Keep in mind that you actually don't need to choose just one option. Many online stores offer their customers multiple payment options so customers have more flexibility when it comes to payments and can choose the path that suits them best.

Stripe vs Paypal

The first thing to note is that Stripe is an online payment processor that primarily handles credit card transactions for online stores and businesses. PayPal is also an online payment processor, but it does more than just credit card transactions. PayPal also handles ACH (Automated Clearing House) payments, which are bank-to-bank transfers that allow money to move between your business accounts and your customers’ accounts.

Both platforms are easy to set up and you can start accepting payments almost immediately. Neither company requires a contract and you can cancel anytime. The main difference between PayPal and Stripe that Stripe offers slightly more flexibility with the ability to customise practically every process of the online payment experience.

Afterpay

Afterpay is a relatively new player to the scene. With interest-free instalments and no fees, it's not surprising they've quickly become one of the most popular ways to pay for goods with deferred payments over time. Afterpay lets your customers buy something they might otherwise not be able to afford, making your products much more accessible — particularly if they on the more expensive side.

Why would I need the help of a Perth digital agency to build my eCommerce website?

Building an eCommerce website (a good one, anyway) is a difficult task requiring multiple skillsets, which a digital agency — like Helium — can provide. As the business owner, it's unrealistic to expect you can do the job of an entire, trained marketing and design team as well as run your business and online store. When you partner with a digital agency, you're benefitting from experienced professionals who know how you build you an incredible, converting website from the ground up. This includes work from a:

Copywriter: who will create content for your eCom site, tell your business's story, craft engaging product descriptions, and weave purposeful SEO throughout your site.
Website Designer: who will design an intuitive, beautiful, user-friendly layout that highlights your products.
Website Developer: who will handle the complex parts of your website, including coding (if applicable), integration, and hosting.
Digital Marketer: who will maximise conversions through digital advertising and SEO initiatives.

Need help building an eCommerce website?

Hey, we're Helium, and we can help. Based in Leederville, we support businesses of all sizes with incredible eCommerce sites where products shine and your story is told. In fact, building incredible websites is one of the main digital marketing services we offer. Start the conversation here and check out our portfolio of recent eCom sites here.