10 Mistakes
First-Time Online Sellers Make
—And How to Fix Them
Online sales stagnant…or nonexistent?
Check out these ten mistakes and tips for fixing them—fast!
Need an online store? DigiSage can help. We have extensive experience with ecommerce websites.
Setting up an online store can feel overwhelming, but it doesn’t have to be when you work with the right partner. We’ll help you through the process, from choosing the right platform to optimizing the checkout process.
Just need a simple online store?
We offer an affordable, pre-built template that will get you up and running quickly. It includes an attractive, modern design and basic ecommerce functionality. We’ll customize it to match your branding, upload your products, and train you on how to manage it.
If you’re looking for more advanced functionality and prefer a tailor-made design, this option offers just that.
Built on WordPress with WooCommerce, this solution offers a custom design created just for you and extra functionality to produce a more full-featured ecommerce solution.
This option is designed for businesses who need unique functionality paired with a bespoke design.
With this option, we’ll custom-create a design for your store, then custom-code the site for a made-to-order solution that offers maximum flexibility and functionality.
Our ecommerce websites come with great built-in ecommerce features.
You name it, we’ve done it! (And if not, let’s talk – we can build it)
Competition for online sales is fierce, and savvy marketers know they need to amplify their eCommerce platform with tools designed to provide an optimal user experience that will drive sales.
Having access to the right data is essential for running an online store, so our eCommerce solutions provide the exportable reports you need to make data-driven decisions.
(If there’s a report you need that’s not listed here, we can create it!)
With an ecommerce store built by DigiSage, your customers will experience the ideal online shopping experience.
You bet! WooCommerce is easy to use, and we’ll provide a training session so you feel confident updating your online store yourself.
There are many ecommerce platforms to choose from: SquareSpace, Wix, Shopify, Square, BigCommerce, Volusion, and many more. We prefer WooCommerce because it’s customizable, comes with many great built-in ecommerce features, and has over 400 extensions for added functionality. We also offer custom programming solutions for customers who require niche or more advanced ecommerce functionality.
Yes! WooCommerce runs on WordPress, which is recognized as one of the best platforms for SEO. And, we follow industry-recognized SEO best practices, such as optimizing for speed/performance, mobile responsiveness, schema markup, and more.
Yes! We follow Google’s recommended approach for building mobile-friendly websites, which is responsive design. This means the website “responds” or adjusts to the screen it’s being viewed on, whether that’s a large monitor, laptop, tablet, or mobile device. Given that mobile shopping (or “m-commerce”) is on the rise, you may opt for a “mobile-first” approach, where the site is designed first from the perspective of how it will look and function on a mobile device – paying special attention to things like tap area, offering mobile payments, etc.
We’re an entirely in-house team—based in Wisconsin—and we absolutely love what we do. We’re geeks…artists…and obsessed with providing the best possible solutions for our clients. Learn more about our team here.
Our hosting package comes with support time included.
We follow all standard best practices for web security including SSL certificates, enforcing secure passwords, etc.
“Both our Mepps and Mister Twister fishing lure brands have been fortunate enough to work with DigiSage for the past 23 years and we could not be any happier with the amount of time and professionalism DigiSage has shown us. They are constantly adapting their work to better fit the needs of customers in today’s technology-driven world.
Our very first ever Mepps.com website was created by Tim Lindner in a bedroom of his parents’ house and since that time, Tim, Bob and their great cast of employees at DigiSage have continually helped improve our website design while increasing our sales numbers by offering a state-of-the-art website that is custom-made to fit the needs of our business.
If you are looking for a professional web development & marketing company that will always follow through on their promises and do it with smiles on their faces, then DigiSage is no doubt the company you are looking for. We would absolutely recommend their services to anyone and everyone.”
-Nik Kolbeck, Communications Director, Mepps / Mister Twister
Online sales stagnant…or nonexistent?
Check out these ten mistakes and tips for fixing them—fast!
Good quality photos are essential to selling online. Often, stores will only include one or two images per product—generally, this isn’t enough for visitors to make decisions about a product! Stores should aim to use three to five images per product, and not just for expensive products.
Product photography should show the products in scale, call out special features, show what’s included with the product (such as attachments, add-ons, etc.), show different angles, and include a lifestyle image to help the visitor picture themselves using and enjoying the product. And, the product photos should be of sufficient size and quality to allow visitors to zoom in on the image to get the detail they need in order to make a purchase.
If you need high-quality product photography, we can shoot product photos in our studio, or conduct an on-site photo shoot for lifestyle photography.
Have photos, but they need a little TLC? Or, do you need product photos customized to show your branding, color options, or other variations? Need the photos’ backgrounds removed? Our Creative Director is a Photoshop and InDesign whiz, and can have a full line-up of your product photos customized and looking their best in no time. For products that have numerous color options, we can create a tool that dynamically generates isolated color options which reduces the need for individual photos of each option.
If you need additional graphic design support for collateral materials, logo design, packaging design, etc., we can help!
You know everything there is to know about your products, but if you just can’t quite find the right words to entice buyers, we can help provide expert, SEO copywriting services for product descriptions, your company overview, blogging, and more.
Sending regular enewsletters to your customers (and prospective customers) can be a great way to stay top-of-mind and generate sales. Let us take this task off your plate—we’ll design a beautiful, on-brand email template, then send regular emails on your behalf using a professional email marketing platform. You’ll receive regular performance reports and updates.
We can also provide expert advice and support to make the most of the other emails your store should be sending: transactional emails such as the order receipt, shipment notification, order cancellation and order refund emails; and marketing emails such as a “welcome” email, thank you emails, product education, and feedback requests.
Competition for online shoppers is high, so it’s important to proactively drive traffic to your online store. We can help by designing and managing online marketing campaigns that generate real results (read: sales).
You might be wondering how all of this comes together. We’ve developed a streamlined, repeatable, and efficient process for developing ecommerce websites. While there’s many details that occur ‘behind the scenes,’ we’ve outlined at a high level what you can expect, below. Wondering how long your site will take to build? We’ll discuss that following your initial consultation, as it can vary based on the size and complexity of your particular site.
During your free, no-obligation consultation, we’ll help you determine which DigiSage ecommerce package is right for you. We’ll discuss which products your site will carry, whether you want inventory management capabilities, which payment processor is right for you, which payment methods you want to accept, and your tax requirements, shipping methods, and ideal checkout process. Based on this initial consultation, we’ll provide a cost estimate and detailed project proposal.
If you opted for a custom design, we’ll facilitate a strategy session to determine your design preferences, then our Creative Director will create a made-for-you concept.
At this point, you’ll need to begin collecting assets for the store. We’ll need a list of your products, including product categories and tags, product options/variations, product descriptions, and product photography; in addition to the regular site content, such as your About Us page, Meet the Team, return policy, etc. (or you can work with us to develop these).
At this point, the plan for the site has been set, the design is finished, and we have all the assets we need to begin programming.
Once the site is programmed, we fully test the site in a variety of browsers and operating systems, including mobile devices and tablets, to ensure everything looks and functions as designed. Once we’ve completed our testing, you are invited to review the site as well.
We’ll conduct a training session with you to ensure you’re comfortable managing the site. We also provide a user manual.
Now, we make any final changes needed to the site, review our extensive pre-launch checklist, and launch the site!
Ready to get started? Fill out the form below and we’ll schedule your free ecommerce consultation. We’ll discuss your goals, answer any questions you have, and provide a free, no-obligation quote. We’re looking forward to hearing from you!