Saving Money With The Right Online Store Build
One of the best ways to save on your budget is to use a complete eCommerce website builder. These include all the tools and features you need to build a profitable online store very quickly. An eCommerce site builder includes a shopping cart, product pages, your choice of customizable theme, and ideally some built-in search engine optimization.
Take some time choosing your eCommerce solution. It’s common to jump straight to the idea of creating a Shopify store, but don’t simply use the first eCommerce website builder you’ve heard of. You actually have several options when it comes to eCommerce platforms. The quality of the platform you use will affect everything about your online business, so look carefully at the built-in features, theme selection, and available tools for managing your site and serving customers.
Your website builder should be easy to use and include important features that attract more shoppers to your site. You need an attractive, customizable theme to match your brand, strong SEO on every page, and access to reliable, secure payment methods. Customers are still hesitant to shop online considering how often data breaches occur, so reassure them with rock-solid, PCI compliant security.
Sign Up For A Free Trial
Go to shopify.com, and on the main page youll see an option to sign up for a free trial. Enter your email address and hit the button Start free trail.
Shopify will ask you a few questions to setup your store like whether you have an existing store and then have you enter your name and addressyou should add your business address if you have one.
Shopify will automatically create a new store for you like yourname.myshopify.com and youll be redirected to your dashboard.
A Product Idea That Is Trending
Its up to you whether you want to sell shoes, for men, or women, sneakers, boots, or any other type. A good thing to do is to do market research and understand what works and what doesnt. Suppose you are in Europe and you want to sell in the Asian market. Start by asking questions: which are the best-selling shoes in Asia? Which specific product do I want to focus on? How will I sustain my business?
If your goal is to sell any and every type of shoe, beware its not a smart move.
Of course, everybody needs shoes. But targeting everybody is a risky thing in eCommerce. We suggest starting by choosing a niche product that aims at specifying specific market needs. You might have already figured out but in case you have not, heres what you can do
Instead of thinking I want to sell mens shoes, focus on a narrow market like leather shoes, knee-high boots, sneakers, and so on. Focusing on a niche will aid in getting in front of the right audience for a small business.
No matter which niche you choose, one way to stand out from your competitors and build a loyal customer base is to consider offering customizable shoes.
Your customers no longer want to have the same generic white sneakers. They want to add a personal touch to their shoes, and hence biggies like Adidas and even startups have started enabling product customization.
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Customer Buying Behaviour In Digital Environment
The marketing around the digital environment, customer’s buying behaviour may not be influenced and controlled by the brand and firm, when they make a buying decision that might concern the interactions with search engine, recommendations, online reviews and other information. With the quickly separate of the digital devices environment, people are more likely to use their mobile phones, computers, tablets and other digital devices to gather information. In other words, the digital environment has a growing effect on consumer’s mind and buying behaviour. In an online shopping environment, interactive decision may have an influence on aid customer decision making. Each customer is becoming more interactive, and though online reviews customers can influence other potential buyers’ behaviors. In addition, not only those reviews, people more rely on other people’s post information about product commends on social media. There will shows common problems in the past and some solutions or comments of the merchants will be attached for customer reference.
How To Retain Customers For Your Shoe Brand
Retaining customers is one of the most effective ways to grow your shoe brand.
Oftentimes, it’s easy to find yourself focusing on generating new customers, vs retaining your current ones.
Look at it this way – you are 60-70% more likely to sell a new product to an existing customer than you are a new customer.
That’s not to say that finding new customers and revenue streams is not important, however, the easiest source of new revenue is right there in front of you.
Here are some ways you can retain customers for your shoe brand:
- Responding to comments on social media
- Send discounts to loyal customers
- Provide valuable content, for free
- Write a hand written thank you note
- Provide awesome customer service and build relationships with customers
To find out more tips and tricks on retaining customers, check out this article here
Steven Sashen, founder of Xero Shoes dives deep into the process of attracting and retaining customers:
Again, Ive been in the Internet marketing world since, well, before there was an Internet.
So, were doing everything you can imagine: Facebook ads, Adwords, Google Shopping, Affiliate marketing, Social Media, email marketing, content marketing, SEO, joint ventures, Youtube ads, etc.
So the identifying process starts with just pondering, “Who else would be interested in natural movement?” And the answers were obvious: Barefoot runners, yoga and martial arts practitioners, people into health food or alternative medicine, etc.
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Register Your Domain: ~$10
Registering your domain will cost you around $10 using registrars like NameCheap or GoDaddy.
Your domain is the address for your website and what customers type into their browsers to find your online store.
Theres not much to say about registering your domain except that you should obey the following criteria.
- Choose a domain that is easy to spell
- Choose a domain that is memorable
- Check the USPTO trademark database to make sure you arent infringing on someone elses name.
Some webhosts like BlueHost will give you a free domain upon signup.
Open A Business Bank Account
Managing your finances is important in protecting your personal assets and staying on top of all your business expenses. Tracking your business financials is important, especially when its audit season. So, open a separate business bank account to make the process easier.
Opening a business bank account is relatively straightforward. While some requirements can vary per bank, these are the general things you would need:
- Sole proprietorship and partnership: Owner drivers license, Trade Name Certificate, EIN, or SSN
- Corporation: Owner drivers license, Certification of Formation, bylaws, Certificate of Good Standing, EIN
- LLC: Owner drivers license, Operating Agreement, Certificate of Formation, Certificate of Good Standing, EIN
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Lack Of Full Cost Disclosure
The lack of full cost disclosure may also be problematic. While it may be easy to compare the base price of an item online, it may not be easy to see the total cost up front. Additional fees such as shipping are often not visible until the final step in the checkout process. The problem is especially evident with cross-border purchases, where the cost indicated at the final checkout screen may not include additional fees that must be paid upon delivery such as duties and brokerage. Some services such as the Canadian-based Wishabi attempts to include estimates of these additional cost, but nevertheless, the lack of general full cost disclosure remains a concern.
Cons Of Starting A Shoe Brand
Motivation of employees
If you plan to have a sales/content team on board, finding creative ways to motivate them can be a challenge. It’s important that you’re able to offer great incentives and a good work environment for your employees.
Longer Sales Process
A shoe brand can be a big time and money investment for your customer, so it’s important you plan and predict a longer conversion funnel and stay in communication with potential customers.
Low margins
The gross margins for your shoe brand are typically around 46%, which can make it more challenging to incur new expenses and maintain profitability.
Taxes
As a shoe brand, you typically pay self-employment taxes which can be quite high. It’s important to understand what you will be paying in taxes each year so you can determine if the work you’re taking on is worth it.
Niche Market
A niche business is not necessarily a bad thing, in fact, it can be the key to your success. However, it can be more challenging and time consuming to find the perfect niche market and target audience.
High overhead expenses
With starting a shoe brand, there are overhead expenses that come with selling a physical product. You will want to make sure you strategically budget for these overhead costs. We discuss this more in the startup costs section below.
You may need to charge sales tax
Churn
Time commitment
Difficult to build trust with your customer
Impatient customers
Be prepared to get out of your comfort zone!
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Is Villa Shoe Store Legit Online
1 review of Villa “This place is legit! Went in and got help right away. They helped me find what I needed and I was on my way. The store is located near another shoe store that sold similar shoes and I noticed a pair of shoes in Villa at a much cheaper price. Will definitely be going here from now on to get my shoes.”
Pros Of Shoe Selling:
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Hot selling product. As we said, people will always need new shoes as our boots wear out or go out of style. According to statistics, almost every adult purchases at least two pairs of footwear during the year. And some of us consider the process of buying shoes a way of relaxation .
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Good income. Shoe stores make money, and good money, so you can count on a decent income .
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Choice of assortment. Youre free to compose your assortment in such a way as to compete more successfully with other market players.
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No need to purchase expensive equipment. Online shoe stores dont need production facilities .
However, before we describe how to start a shoe store, we feel it necessary to warn you what obstacles you may face.
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Step : Define Your Brand
Your brand is what your company stands for, as well as how your business is perceived by the public. A strong brand will help your business stand out from competitors.
If you aren’t feeling confident about designing your small business logo, then check out our Design Guides for Beginners, we’ll give you helpful tips and advice for creating the best unique logo for your business.
Recommended: Get a logo using Truic’s free logo Generator no email or sign up required, or use a Premium Logo Maker.
If you already have a logo, you can also add it to a QR code with our Free QR Code Generator. Choose from 13 QR code types to create a code for your business cards and publications, or to help spread awareness for your new website.
How to promote & market a shoe store
How to keep customers coming back
Customers, by and large, will be attracted by your products. Your stores reputation will grow if it offers well-priced, reliable shoes. To retain customers, youll need to incentivize return visits. Shoe shopping is a rare occurrence, so youll need to be independent of your competition.
Still unsure about what kind of business you want to start? Check out the latest Small Business Trends to help inspire you.
Selling Private Label Barriers To Entry
The main downside to selling private label products is the upfront cost. Because you are dealing with factories in Asia, your minimum order quantities will be much higher than acquiring your goods wholesale in your home country.
In addition, importing goods from China carries other disadvantages which include:
- Longer lead times for manufacturing
- High costs of shipping and freight forwarding
- Customs duties and tariffs
- Cultural and language barriers with your suppliers
- Higher costs of quality control
But because the barriers to entry for selling private label products are much higher, youll have less competition and you can establish your own brand.
You are in full control over your entire supply chain which makes it much more difficult for another store to compete with you.
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Select What You Want To Sell
There are several ranges of shoes to sell. For example, you can choose to sell high-end designer shoes, hip streetwear, work boots, or more traditional everyday wear. You can offer your customers sizes, colors, shapes, and brands that are rare to find on the market. This uniqueness could attract more customers to your store.
Among many other options, below are some of the most common niche products that shoe stores offer:
- Sports shoes: running shoes, soccer shoes, cycling shoes, basketball shoes
- Dance or ballet shoes
- Sandals and other light casual or summer footwear
- Specialized footwear, including remedial footwear
Whatever product line that you decide on, make sure you have the resources, vendors, and supply chain established beforehand. This will help you determine pricing, optimize ordering, and establish efficient inventory management from the very beginning. Plus, you need to be confident in your vendor relations be sure that any products you order early on can still be ordered down the road.
The Most Important Rule For Selling Successful Products
Search volume and competition aside, the cardinal rule for any successful product is having a good unique value proposition or UVP.
A Good UVP:
- Defines how your company or product is different from the rest.
- Shows why your business or goods are better than the competition.
- Solves a unique problem in your target market.
Having a strong UVP allows you to worry less about competition and you can often raise your prices without affecting demand.
For our ecommerce store, our prices are significantly higher than the competition and we still make sales because we have a strong brand and our products are higher quality.
This is where private label sellers carry a significant advantage.
When you sell other peoples products, there will be many other retailers competing to sell the exact same goods. As a result, comparison shopping always leads to price erosion and theres very little brand equity for your shop.
Ultimately, you should focus on the high end because selling premium products means higher margins, flexibility in advertising, and leeway with your customer service.
For example with my shop, our margins for many of our products are 90%+. As a result, whenever we get an unhappy customer, we simply refund them AND let them keep their product.
This Amazon like customer service allows us to quickly grow via word of mouth.
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Designing An Online Store
Once the framework of your online store is in place, it’s time to start defining your online store’s design. This includes the look and feel of the website as well as other important aspects like category and product page structure, included content pages, and more. Make sure you plan out your design before you begin so as to achieve a much better end result, preferably with no need to go back and correct things later. Don’t rush this process take your time to methodically plan out and implement each step so you
How Does Dropshipping With Printify Work
When it comes to selling online without inventory, dropshipping is a type of retail fulfillment that does the trick. No stock mostly means fewer worries. On-demand production is the easiest way to make money in retail.
If wondering, how to start an online store without inventory, POD is the number one option. The most common approach for dropshipping on is to seek out a supplier located in your area . Once a customer buys a product, the fully automated process on our end takes care of the rest: product ordering, fulfillment, packaging, labeling, dispatching. All you have to do is check if the details are correct.
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Social Media And Social Commerce
Social media is a great way to grow your brand organically without increasing too much of your costs. You can interact with your audience, increase interest in your products, and run special promotions to spur your sales.
Your business should have a Facebook Page, and ideally you should export your products directly into a connected . Create useful, interactive posts and informative content that your customers will be happy to see in their news feed. Run some exclusive promotions just for your social media audience, such as a daily coupon with limited uses. Don’t overdo the promotions, though your primary purpose on social media is communication.
Facebook also has a powerful targeted advertising system that allows you to display ads to people meeting extremely specific criteria, so you may want to look into that if your budget allows it.
Choose Between Dropshipping And Your Own Products
There are 2 ways to start an online store dropshipping or your own products.
Dropshipping is a retail fulfillment method where the seller doesnt keep the inventory of products it sells. Instead, when a store sells a product, it purchases the item from a supplier and the supplier shipped it directly to the customer. AS in this model, the seller doesnt have to handle the product and shipping directly and has to handle only sales and marketing of their store.
The best part of dropshipping is that it requires zero initial investment, and its effortless to get started. You can start this model even from home or any location, and its also easy to scale later on.
Some examples of the best dropshipping companies are Doba, Oberlo, Wholesale Central etc
In the traditional model, you first have to get the products from suppliers or create them yourself, offer these products via your online store and handle the shipping once customer buys your products.
The initial investment in own product is high but it helps building your own brand. In the initial phase of your eCommerce business, if you choose your own product, i would suggest you to choose products something thats easy to store in the space you have.
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