f you own an online store, you certainly know that e-commerce is not just buying and selling. You may currently find your online store working well in the short term, but you may lose all your efforts in the long term if you do not have a professional online store management plan that is organized and well thought out. .
The same also applies to beginners in the field of e-commerce, as they start in the field of e-commerce and suddenly feel that the field is huge or difficult to control all things at the same time, and thus this is reflected in losses, whether in the short or long term.
Therefore, in today’s article, we will provide you with a comprehensive guide on how to manage an online store professionally, based on personal experience and an integrated case study, so that you can enter the field of e-commerce or complete your previous steps in an organized and tidy manner, so continue reading the article with us.
What does online store management mean?
Creating an online store is the first step in order to start in the field of e-commerce, but after that there are many other procedures and steps that you need, starting with insurance steps, monitoring performance, analyzing results, following up on inventory, tracking shipments, technical support, comments, marketing, and much more.
You cannot perform all of these roles alone, even if you specialize in the technical field on a large scale, because each of the previous points requires sufficient time and effort for planning, follow-up, and development.
Hence the meaning of online store management appears, as you divide the roles of the online store into main and sub-sections and arrange them according to priorities. Then you allocate those sections to the appropriate specialists and then allocate sufficient time to monitor and follow up the specialists in all roles according to the plan and the basic goal of the project.
In emerging projects with medium capital, it is possible to consider dividing departments into more comprehensive sections and thus save on the total payments so that the online store spreads more widely, but here the greatest effort must be made in planning the future steps of the project accurately.
The importance of managing the online store?
When you provide a well-thought-out and organized plan for your online store, you will feel that your store is working like a machine with steady steps and provides you with many benefits, the most important of which are the following:
- Defining the roles of all team members and the basic goal required at the individual level or the online store in general.
- Providing a comprehensive vision of the project that helps you evaluate the current situation of gains or losses and determine the appropriate time for future expansions, etc.
- Convey a good impression of your brand to your customers.
- Allocate sufficient time to monitor markets, best-selling products, and analyze competitors to develop your online store’s sales.
And many other countless advantages, but let us explain to you how to manage the online store professionally through an integrated case study, so continue reading the article with us.
How to manage the online store?
Managing an online store essentially requires experience, but when creating a new online store you may not have that experience, so we will present to you in the following paragraph a set of steps and advice on which your online store management plan must be built.
Treat your online store as if it were a physical store
The first and most important point in managing the online store is to deal with the online store as if we were a real store, and this entails all the following points, for example, allocating work start times, work end times, monthly vacations, and so on.
After that, you will feel that you already have a real project and you will begin the steps to develop the project as planned. You will also be able to organize the work of the online store better and you will notice an increase in productivity in the long run. The most important point is that with this simple step you will get rid of the most famous disadvantage of freelancing, which is the inability to organize… Business and time.
Invest as much time as possible to study the specialty of your online store
When establishing a new online store, your focus should not be limited to starting the project as soon as possible, but rather your focus should be limited to studying the market sufficiently.
Therefore, you must prepare a set of basic questions about your online store and start searching for an answer to each question separately and sufficiently, for example the following questions:
- What is the right product for your online store?
- How much experience do you have in the specialty and your ability to learn more about it?
- Who are the main competitors for the desired specialization?
- To what extent are you able to compete with competitors in terms of quality, marketing, cost, service, etc.?
Of course, you can prepare a list of special questions that are appropriate for your electronic project, and when you prepare the appropriate response to all of these questions, you can start launching the online store on a trial basis as well, until you are sure that all the basic factors have been properly studied before the official launch.
Prepare a future business plan before starting to publish your online store
The next step to properly manage the online store is to prepare a future business plan, so that you define future goals, a plan to achieve those goals, expansion stages, and more.
Through this plan, you can judge the success of your online store according to the criteria of future goals, as well as determine the most appropriate time for all future stages of expansion and spread, the steps to be followed, and so on.
Complete brand processing
The online store management plan must include the appearance of the store and social media pages in front of customers, as their general appearance reflects the level of professionalism of the store, and the primary factor in achieving this goal is preparing a complete brand for both the online store and all social media pages.
Therefore, you must work on designing a brand that reflects the specialty of the online store, starting with the online store’s logo, basic store colors, social media page templates, packaging, the storefront itself, and much more. It can be said that a simple spelling error in the website interface reflects a very bad impression on your online store. Therefore, you must focus on preparing all brand elements in the required professional manner.
Build your e-commerce team
You can manage your online store independently in the beginning, but you will not find that everything is going as it should or with the required quality, especially with expansion and spread. You will find that you need more effort and time, and you also need specialization in order to produce the work in a professional manner in front of your customers.
Therefore, you must build a team dedicated to e-commerce that will help you double the effort and make the online store better and faster. The online store team can be divided into the following:
- Online store manager : The store manager is the basic element for managing all administrative work in the online store, for example, the strategies and plans followed, decision-making, etc., while supervising all specialized work such as marketing campaigns, developing the online store, inventory, products, prices, etc., and most likely the owner of the online store will be The manager of a specialized online store is responsible for this specialty or is largely involved in it.
- Web developer : It is possible to create an online store in a simple way and upload products through some educational lessons available for free, but you need a web developer in order to try to provide the best possible user experience for the customer in facilitating the process of browsing the site, purchasing products, etc., which helps increase sales, as well as Immediately available to solve all technical problems that may arise for customers.
- Marketing Manager : Marketing is the basic element for the sales and success of your online store, and here you need a marketing manager specialized in the field of your online store to help you prepare advertising campaigns on all social media platforms, email, etc., to try to reach the target customer at the lowest possible cost, and it also helps you analyze the markets. Competitors, etc., and most likely you may need a specialized team and not an independent person to carry out all these roles.
- Customer Service : The customer service team is the least expensive among the previous specializations, but it helps customers complete the purchase process if they have any questions or problems in completing the payment process, as well as responding to all comments on social media platforms, following up with customers, etc.
- Financial accountant : Most online stores need a financial accountant in order to determine the appropriate financial flow, as well as the selling price that covers the cost of production and profit margin, and try to reduce costs, organize purchases, etc.
You will find that the previous list may increase the expansion of your online store, for example, performance analysts, warehouse managers, and much more, but in the beginning you can rely on the main specializations to reduce the cost and after that you begin developing the specializations gradually.
Providing multiple payment methods
If the customer does not find the appropriate payment method for him during the payment completion process, he will immediately leave the online store and begin searching for the appropriate alternative, even if it is at a relatively higher cost, and thus all your efforts in the online store management plan will be lost.
Therefore, you must study your target audience well and then determine the appropriate payment methods for them and try to add these methods in a simple way to your online store. For example, most customers do not want to add a lot of data during the purchase process or purchase from a payment gateway with an external transfer, so you must Taking all of these criteria into the study points regarding payment methods.
There are also some basic payment methods that cannot be unavailable in your online store, for example, payment via Visa or MasterCard credit card, as well as payment via PayPal, and these are considered international payment methods, and two or three local payment methods can be added for your customers in your online store. Depending on the target audience, for example, Mada card for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Fawry, or Vodafone Cash in Egypt.
Inventory Management
Managing your online store’s inventory well helps you provide the best service to your online store’s customers, so that no one of your online store’s customers requests a specific product and finds that this product is not available in the store and has the option of waiting or searching for a suitable alternative.
Therefore, inventory must be managed periodically and organized as well, as you identify products with high demand and try to increase their inventory, as well as identify products with a surplus percentage in the store and reduce their purchases in order to compensate for other products and maintain the amount of financial flow, and that is certainly while providing the best appropriate storage methods for your online store’s products, and you may You need a specialist to manage inventory as your online store expands.
Shipping services management
Managing shipping services is just as important as managing inventory, and this point requires extensive research from you because you will find a large group of shipping companies in the markets with different features and prices.
You search for the best shipping service suitable for your online store customers in terms of delivery speed, shipping cost, possibility of previewing products, refund policy, etc.
After that, all shipping requests must be monitored and managed periodically due to these companies’ common problems, such as delayed orders, delivery errors, etc., and the customer service team can take care of managing the shipping services.
Ensuring the safety and security of the online store
The security and safety of the online store is one of the basic points in the online store management plan. If your online store is exposed to attacks or a hack, this will lead to the online store stopping in front of your customers, causing you to lose customers in the long term.
It also causes the data of your online store and the data of your customers from personal accounts or payment data to be exposed to danger, and this matter may lead to a loss of trust in the brand for life and lead to the loss of all previous efforts. You will also need a great effort to re-protect your online store completely securely and restore trust. Again with your brand.
The most important safety standards followed are the following points:
- Relying on a web hosting company that provides advanced security services.
- Install an SSL security certificate on your online store. You may find it free with most hosting companies.
- Update your online store add-ons to the latest version periodically to close all security vulnerabilities that could appear in them.
- Do not share your online store data on any electronic platform at all, and it is preferable to keep it in an external file that is not connected to the Internet.
Pay attention to reviews and comments
There is no e-commerce system that is 100% integrated, even with the e-store management plan prepared in a completely professional manner. For example, a problem with shipping methods, payment methods, inventory, etc., and we certainly do not ask you to reach a 100% customer satisfaction rate, but try Satisfying as many target customers as possible is the primary goal.
The best way to try to identify all the problems of your online store and try to improve them is by paying attention to the reviews and comments point, whether on your online store or on various social media platforms, for example, activating the evaluation feature after purchasing products on your online store.
The customer service team can take care of all of these reviews and comments, and they are analyzed by the online store manager to try to provide appropriate solutions for them. He also uses this information to support the future business plan, for example, reducing products with negative reviews and replacing them with products with positive reviews.
You can also try all the positive reviews and ratings for your online store and try to publish them on the storefront or on social media platforms in order to increase the confidence of your online store customers.
Conclusion
Online store management is the basic criterion for determining the success or failure of your electronic project, so you must allocate a large portion of your time and effort to reading and learning about managing the online store professionally in order to avoid most of the mistakes of others in the field of e-commerce.
In today’s article, we have provided you with a comprehensive guide to online store management in terms of the general concept and the most important benefits that are promised to your online store, while clarifying the most important steps and tips that you should focus on when managing your online store.
If you have a special question or inquiry that was not answered in today’s article, do not hesitate to comment below the article, and your question will be answered as soon as possible, God willing.
