Some trade secrets every e-commerce site must know

After several years of intensive work with e-commerce sites of all sizes and types, we have come to one particularly important insight – it is impossible to separate the brand itself (the site and the products) from the campaign (the ads, budgets, strategies). The site, the brand and the campaign are one. We would be happy to explain. E-commerce is a partnership, and as an agency that promotes e-commerce brands, we have adapted a holistic concept for ourselves – the campaign and the brand as one, inseparable unit. This means that we teach and share with our clients methods and techniques for improving e-commerce activity even beyond the campaign. And why will only they benefit? Here are some trade secrets that we think you should know:

Shelf arrangement – nice to know, must be implemented

Just like in a physical store, an online store also requires a storefront and shelf arrangement. Shelf arrangement is critical to success and maximizing activity. It costs almost nothing, especially if you do it yourself, and it can bring in quite a bit of money. Why? When we analyzed a large number of e-commerce sites, we discovered that the average number of pages per visit is about five pages – meaning that the average visitor will visit your site on only five pages. Others visit one page, and there are also those who will go through page after page and obsessively view all the products. Let’s put them aside for a moment, and focus on the typical visitor who probably won’t get to page 10 when browsing through the products.

This means that if we want to make a sale (and that’s what we’re here for), we actually only have 5 clicks to hit the target and present a product that the visitor will want to buy. We won’t detail the entire method here, but it includes precise recommendations on how it is worth and recommended to arrange a shelf in the online store, what to put in the shop window, what to put at the top of the page, and more. And as for the frequency of arranging the shelves in the store – this also varies from site to site, depending on needs and character, but it is undoubtedly something that needs to be done regularly.

How many products?

Here it is really simple. Most e-commerce sites come into the world with few products. The task of feeding is a painstaking job, but hey, you have to start somewhere, and sometimes it is better to launch a store with few products and start learning quickly. But over time, your site needs to grow in the scope of products it offers. It can be said that, broadly speaking, customers with large turnovers (for example, over K100 in monthly income and more) are usually sites with quite a few products. How many? As many as possible. If you have made sure to implement the previous section regarding shelf arrangement, the more products there are, the greater the sales power. Of course, this does not apply to every brand (for example, at Apple, the iPhone accounts for 69% of the company’s total revenue). For example, there are boutique sites that choose in advance to display a small number of excellent products, and there are also sites with only one product. Again, these are the exceptions and those women aside. We are talking about standard websites with a variety of products, where we think it makes more sense to increase sales power by increasing the number of products on the site.

A small warning – don’t drop everything and start adding products to the site like crazy. You need to calculate the move and take into account inventory, demand, demand on Google and other factors. Products that no one will buy do not serve you, and it is recommended to add products with sales power and demand. We do advise our clients to try to get into a routine of adding about 5 new products each week to a small website and 30 products to a larger website, in order to accumulate a large mass over time. It is just important to adhere to the rules of efficient and correct shelf arrangement while adding.

Full inventory

An important point in planning a new e-commerce site or leveraging an existing site is to first think about inventory, and lots of it. We have promoted enough projects to understand that sites that have unlimited inventory – software licenses, for example – have a huge advantage over sites with limited inventory, as long as there is demand for the product of course. Sites with unlimited inventory – simply continue to sell as much as possible. In the physical world, with an emphasis on Retail, the situation is a little different.

We discovered a paradox that can be a challenge – products sell at two rates: very slowly, or too quickly and run out of stock, especially when there is a sale or price drop. If you manufacture yourself, be on the alert to perform Repeat – rapid production of the best-selling products, to meet demand. Whether you manufacture or import, it is important to have your finger on the pulse, identify trends and locate leading products in order to prepare properly in terms of inventory.

There are quite a few clients that we have been supporting for a long time, who have managed to create original features that allow them to break away from the need for rigid inventory. This flexibility reduces risks and allows for comfortable growth. If your inventory is very rigid – for example, like large electrical appliances waiting in the warehouse – you need to plan well: at first, sell at full price as a new product in high demand, and reduce prices and hold sales as demand decreases, to adjust to your inventory situation and clear shelves for new models that come in.

On the same subject, the best friend of any e-commerce site is the outlet, a magic category where products are placed that then magically disappear from the shelf. The Israeli consumer is very price-conscious (Price Sensitive, as they say), and moving products to the outlet category at reduced prices is the best way to part with existing inventory and increase sales and revenue. The outlet is a perfect place to meet new customers who came looking for a sale, or to resell to existing customers who purchased a product at full price and will now be happy to return for another purchase at a bargain price.

In short, whether in the outlet category, in pricing, production or planning – inventory is always a critical consideration. By the way, don’t panic when products run out of stock. This is a normal part of the daily life of any ecommerce site. It’s just important to respond accordingly.

Note, we haven’t said a single word about campaigns and sponsored promotion, media amounts, ROI calculations, and more. God forbid, we neglect them. The campaign is the heart of the growth and multiplication process, and it is important and critical. But at the end of the day, the campaign and the brand are one. And proper planning in all sectors will allow the campaign and the brand to grow and grow together. Happy selling!