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By now, you've already learned about how to create a product catalog, configure your shopping cart, accept payment and fulfil orders, and advertise your store. That sums up the essentials of a successful Web-based store. There's always room for improvement, though. Over time, you'll learn what works well and what doesn't, and you can make little changes as you go to improve your site.
ShopSite has a variety tools designed to help you discover what's working and what isn't. One of the easiest ways to track what's happening on your site is by enabling Google Analytics for your store. Google Analytics can help you learn how customers are coming to your site (saerch engine, other site, etc.), what they're looking at, and how long they stay at your site. ShopSite also sends some anonymous purchase information to Google Analytics so you can compare the activity of visitors who place orders with those who don't.
ShopSite also has built-in reports to let you quickly see visitor and order trends on your site. You can also view search logs to see what visitors are searching for and whether or not they're finding it. When you know the habits of your visitors, you can adjust your store to better serve them. For example, you may learn that most of your orders come between 1PM and 5PM on weekdays. You could then plan your schedule so you and your store are ready to process orders during this time. The reports can also help you know if you need to make some products easier to find, or if your navigation system is too complex, or if you need to fine-tune your keywords for specific products.
Reports are helpful, but they don't tell you everything your customers are thinking. You may want to consider providing a feedback form or inviting customers to participate in a survey to help you learn more about what you can improve on your site. News sources can help you keep track of economic trends and relevant industry events that might impact your customers. Offering discounts or lower prices when customers aren't spending a lot of money helps keep sales up. If you know a product is likely to have higher than normal demand, you can make sure you've got plenty of inventory, competitive pricing, and that your customers know you've got what they're looking for through advertising.
Finally, keep your site looking inviting and fresh. Visitors will notice if your site looks like it hasn't been updated for a long time. It's not hard to set up a rotation of seasonal sale items in prominent places throughout your site, or even add appropriate accents or colors for special occasions. In addition, Web site fashion changes as often as fashions in clothing, and you may want to plan on updating the look of your site every couple of years. When you do update the look of your site, it's a good idea to balance change with consistency. For example, you may want to change the overall image of your site without changing way the navigation menu works, or you might keep the same colors on your site while you update the look.
Above all else, keep in mind that it's the products that make the store, but the customers who make the purchases. Keeping the needs of your customers the top priority is the most important key to success as a merchant, online or anywhere else. As you create, maintain, and update your ShopSite store, make customer satisfaction your number one goal.
You can learn more about any individual feature in ShopSite by looking up the feature in the Online Help.