In the past few years, the turnover of transactions made on the Internet has been growing more and more. Along with this, virtual entrepreneurship is developing. The market proved to be profitable, easy to learn, allowing you to find your client, regardless of geographic location. But only then the outlet in the virtual web will bring real income when the concept of the online store was clearly formulated. This is an important starting point for any online business.
Important Nuances
Different organizations conduct business on the Internet in different ways. While some try to concentrate on offline sales and use the Network as an additional source of income, others choose the Internet as the main method of attracting customers. There are also companies that basically do not work offline, and interaction with customers is possible only through the pages of a virtual store.
Regardless of which particular option a particular entrepreneur is interested in, he must remember that only careful preparation at each stage of the organization of the work process can lead to success. Opening your own store on the Web begins with thinking about the direction, followed by the development of the concept of an online store and creating a unique image that should remain in the memory of a potential buyer from the first meeting.
Preparation as a first step to success
The preparatory phase is the foundation on which future success will be built. When creating your own business, first of all, an entrepreneur:
- analyzes the market;
- defines the target audience;
- calculates risks associated with access to "free swimming";
- gets to know the needs of people;
- analyzes the work of competitors.
All these measures allow you to get a sufficient database in order to formulate the concept of an online store and promotion strategies.
What's next?
It must be remembered that it is the concept of the online store that gives the client the answer to the question of what else is worth choosing a company, and to the entrepreneur herself, she will outline a short plan of action and formulate goals that one needs to strive for.
What does the concept of an online store include? Content example:
- issues of procurement of goods;
- storage of positions;
- pricing
- payment issues;
- delivery of goods.
When all this has been determined, you can begin to design your online store.
Concept and marketing
Any modern enterprise should have a marketing component, otherwise there is nothing to dream of success. What is marketing for the average person? This term hides management mechanisms, social methods of manipulating individuals and groups of people, as a result of which the product finds its buyer.
Why do we need the concept of an online store? The example below will help answer this question.
Imagine two firms. One of them has a clearly formulated concept, the second works randomly, without an obvious structure and a pronounced target audience. In the first case, a group of people is quickly formed who consider it profitable to purchase in this particular store, perhaps this will even become a reason for pride for them. The second company can only rely on random customers, it is completely impossible to predict the future of the company. In order for the concept to be correctly formulated and lead to success, it must take into account the marketing experience gained over the past several decades of studying market mechanisms.
How it works?
A correctly compiled concept of an online store of products (or clothing, household goods, cosmetics) will guarantee that relations with consumers will become more active than within the company. What is this about? The company must be connected with reality, and as dynamically as possible, in order to quickly respond to any changes in the social environment.
Thanks to a well-thought-out and clear concept, information from outside the company will not be lost somewhere between the end employee and the managing staff, but will be most useful for the development of the business. In fact, we are talking about "feedback", the response from the client.
The concept of an online store of children's goods (however, like any other product) should provide accurate answers to questions about how the company will develop in order to succeed. Integrity, objectivity - these are the main features. Simply put, a concept is a model of organization expressed in words or diagrams.
About terminology
The concept of an online store of clothes, products, goods for everyday use and any other is a method that helps to understand how to interpret an object or object, phenomenon or process in order to ultimately form an idea on the basis of which it will be possible to systematically improve the work process.
The concept is also a fundamentally new approach to building entrepreneurial activity. To succeed by betting on the development of a concept, you must first know exactly what the market needs, and already start working on it, using methods more effective than those used by competitors.
From the foregoing, we can conclude that the concept of developing an online store is a single system that allows using many methods to develop the organization’s activities. To create a truly working project, it is necessary to apply the most modern methods. Which ones? This is best described in Western periodicals for marketers and businessmen.
Turnkey work concept
When planning to start your own business on the Internet, it is not necessary to do everything yourself from start to finish. The entrepreneur should have a general idea of what he is going to do, his task is to formulate the course of the company. Details are something that professionals should trust.
When it comes to an online store, remember that its creation is a process that includes several important steps, at each of which the concept becomes the dominant fact, the answer to the question "how to do it." To some extent, this is a technical task formulated extremely concisely.
What is this about?
When working on a turn-key basis, the concept of an online store includes an idea of:
- the appearance of the project (attractiveness, friendliness of the interface);
- resource functionality;
- ease of transition between pages (how long does a person who first accesses the Internet take a site to understand?);
- ease of administration (because you need to control the operation of your store very accurately and quickly).
Design: how does the concept of concept apply to it?
The concept of an online store is closely associated with a design decision. At the stage of project development, the entrepreneur and the designer hired by him must take into account the general public's ideas about the beautiful, as well as the characteristics of the target audience. The wider the profile of the store, the more neutral its appearance should be.
Ethnicity, exoticism, subculture - all this applies when the concept of an online store requires the involvement of a specific category of customers. If your products are designed for such a narrow category, this must be reflected in the appearance of the store, otherwise such an approach to design will only scare away a potential customer.
Remember the social status of the prospective customer.Say, if your store offers relatively cheap goods, ostentatious luxury will be useless, excessive decorativeness will frighten off. But the asceticism of the design solution in a luxury boutique will be perceived by the client as an underestimation of himself and his tastes, which will also lead to a loss of clientele.
Subtleties of the technical side
Regardless of which design the concept of your online store requires, always remember that different customers access the Internet from different devices. The logic doesn’t work here: “I sell goods for a wealthy audience, which means I can afford a“ heavy ”site, because the buyer has only the best and most powerful equipment.” In fact, the client can come from anywhere: from a phone, tablet, laptop, public computer. Perhaps you are lucky and it really will be a powerful machine, and your Internet connection will turn out to be high-speed. Otherwise, there is a chance to lose a client.
“Why?” - a person who is far from technology and the Internet may ask. Everything is simple: the "heavier" the site, the slower it loads. Download speed depends on the conditions of access to the virtual web, and on the power of the machine through which the buyer visits the resource. As soon as the main page was “clogged” with flash movies, animations and unreasonably large pictures, the owner immediately loses a large percentage of the audience - all those who are trying to explore the range from smartphones and tablets.
Another subtle point
When creating an online store, the concept must necessarily include the following clause: “Attract all customer attention to our product”. The design decision of the site should be subordinated to this point completely. What is this about?
Remember that all sorts of flashing, pop-ups and sound notifications are very distracting. The more of these there are in your online store, the more the attention of the potential buyer will be scattered, which reduces his purchasing power. With a certain critical mass of animation, a person will leave without even looking at the assortment.
Remember the main thing
From the foregoing, it obviously follows: the concept of an online store is extremely important for the success of the entire project as a whole. Defining it, you need to formulate your niche and understand who exactly your client is, what he expects from the goods. Already from this it follows what the assortment will be, whether it should be large, whether it is expensive, what other features should be possessed to attract an interested buyer. Also remember that all products must be divided into groups when taking into account the characteristics of different circles of the clientele. The breakdown may take into account the age of the buyers, gender and tendency to one or another price category.
Even when working with highly specialized goods, when formulating a successful concept and following it, you can quickly achieve success. You can create a store where they sell only goods for children, open a point with products for middle-aged men or something that retirees need. In any case, remember: the narrower the specialization, the more important it is for you to retain each client. It is unacceptable to lose a single person, and it is on the basis of this that the business concept is built.
Attention even to trifles!
Finally, the brand name. As they say, "whatever you call a ship, it will sail." If this is not always true for a sea vessel, then it works for shops in 100% of cases. Name will be the first distinguishing feature by which your company will be remembered (or not remembered) by customers. Choosing a name always follows from the concept of the company, accounting for the clientele and its features, as well as tariffs. Try to avoid complex and long words, abbreviations and obscure foreign terms.
So, be careful, accurate in details, purposeful, and then your company will surely come to success.Remember: the concept of an online store must take into account all areas of the company, internal and external. Paying due attention to this, you will create a firmly standing company.