A Complete Guide to Nashville Ecommerce Development
You may be asking how Nashville ecommerce development is different than any other ecommerce development…and to be honest, it’s not.
But we are based in Nashville, and what can we say? We love it! Not only is it a great place to live, but it is a great place to base your business. So, as big supporters of the business and startup ecosystem here, we wanted to show our local businesses some love.
And make sure to check out this highlight of the top 11 ecommerce businesses based in Nashville.
Whether you are a 100 million dollar ecommerce company or a new business just starting out, this guide will give you valuable tips and resources to grow and improve your business. Just scan for the tips that apply to where your business is and check out the resources.
1. Getting Started Launching Your Ecommerce Business
When you’re just starting out, the most important things to focus on are your brand and your product.
First you need to know who you are as a company and why you do what you do. It’s important to have a compelling story behind your company both internally and when presenting yourself to your audience.
Second, you need to have a great product. If you don’t have a product that your audience will truly love, you won’t last very long out there in this day and age.
Resources:
The Startup Guide to Market Research for your Ecommerce Website
Creating a Holistic Ecommerce Marketing Strategy
Your Business is More than Your Ecommerce Store (1 of 5)
2. Building Your Ecommerce Site
So it’s time to build your ecommerce site, which means you need to decide on a platform and a partner to help you build it. Don’t just default to the first platform you’ve heard of or the first partner that crosses your path. It is important to investigate each platform and partner to make sure that you can accomplish the site that you want.
This is especially important if you have anything different about your sales process. Most platforms will work for your standard ecommerce store, but if you have subscriptions, unique billing requirements, digital products, membership rules, etc. it’s important to dig a bit deeper to find the platform and partner that are right for you.
Resources:
9 Reasons Shopify Is Our Go-To E-Commerce Platform (& Should Be Yours Too)
How to Build Trust on Your Ecommerce Website
Why Your Ecommerce Strategy Is Useless without Experience Design
7 Skills Ecommerce Companies Need in a Design Agency
3. Creating Your Ecommerce Marketing Strategy
The tendency is for business to jump straight into marketing activities. They want to start running Facebook ads and PPC campaigns straight out the gate. But planning is everything. In order to be successful in online marketing, you have to create and follow a well-developed strategy.
It’s important to first decide on specific business goals for your marketing in terms of revenue or traffic and then back out of those goals in order to determine what levers to pull and what channels to use in order to reach them. Layer who your target customer is on top of that and choose your channels and messaging based on where they are and what they care about.
Resources:
How to Build an Effective Marketing Budget
The Real Reason You Aren’t Hitting Your E-Commerce Goals
The Metacake Formula for Success
5 Questions Every Business Should Ask for a Stronger Marketing Strategy
4. Optimizing Your Ecommerce Site
You’ve already invested money to get traffic to your website. So your best opportunity is to optimize your site in order to convert this traffic. This is often the lowest hanging fruit in order to increase your revenue.
As you optimize your site, every marketing campaign you run, every thing that you do to drive traffic to your site becomes more effective. That’s why we focus on this a lot with our clients.
Resources:
Get Out of Your Customer’s Way for Ecommerce Success
Onsite Optimization for Ecommerce (Part 3 of 5)
Do Things That Don’t Scale in Your Ecommerce Store
5. Tracking for Success: Metrics & Analytics
If you didn’t track it, it didn’t happen. At least that’s what we say around the office. Tracking your ecommerce site and all of your marketing allows you to see what is working and what is not working at a deep level. This is essential.
Otherwise, your site performance may have improved 1 month, but do to what? And if you can’t answer that question in detail, then you can’t replicate that success. You won’t know how to do it again, so you are essentially flying blind. Instead, track everything so that you know how to replicate your success when it comes and can build a formula for success going forward.
Resources:
3 Important Analytics to Track for Ecommerce Success (Part 5 of 5)
Ecommerce Search Success: 5 Metrics You Must Measure
You Don’t Need More Analytics, You Need Smarter Insights
6. Growing Your Ecommerce Site
Once you have this functioning ecommerce ecosystem, it’s time to take it to the next level. Start thinking about additional ways to add value to your customers. This could mean adding additional products or services that complement your existing product line or creating quality content to educate customers on how to better use and enjoy your product to name a few. You know your customers well by this point, so what do they want? What would make them even happier with your brand?
And if you don’t know, just ask them!
Resources:
13 Things You Can Do Today To Grow Your eCommerce Business
How To Grow The Lifetime Value of Your Ecommerce Customers (Part 4 of 5)
6 Simple Ways to Grow Your Ecommerce Store
How To Use Ecommerce Reviews To Boost Your Revenue
5 Steps To Reach New Ecommerce Audiences With Facebook’s Hypertargeted Ads
7. Rinse and Repeat
This guide is not a step by step guide that is over one you finish step 7. It is more of a cycle. You need to be constantly revisiting each of these steps in order to ensure a successful ecommerce business in the long run.
Here are some some case studies and examples from some of the best online and from our own work.
Resources:
5 Smart ECommerce Landing Pages.. And What You Can Learn from Them
Case Studies:
Lenox
Groove Life
Lolli and Pops
Pioneer Woman
