5 Essential WooCommerce Tips For Your First Online Store Sale

If you are looking to scale your business by establishing an online store, then WooCommerce is definitely one of the best eCommerce solutions around. Put it this way: statistics from a recent BuiltWith report found that more than 2.2 million online stores are being powered by WooCommerce.

To put that into perspective, that is more than 0.6 per cent of all websites. Bear in mind, that is all websites, not all eCommerce stores. When we look at eCommerce websites more specifically, we find that a whopping 42 per cent of such sites are powered by WooCommerce. This makes it the largest eCommerce platform around, crushing the likes of Shopify and Magento.

This is unsurprising as there are more than 5,000 WooCommerce plugins available, allowing for endless customization to your retail environment. So, if you are one of the 2.2 million eCommerce store owners looking to access the power of WooCommerce, here are 5 essential tips to help you make your first online sales.

1. Think about how your products will be displayed

Though the standard WooCommerce format can be effective for certain businesses, it is certainly not suitable for many others. You need to think strategically about exactly what products you will be selling and how your customers will expect to see them displayed. In fact, you should give careful thought to which layout will provide the optimal customer experience.

For example, say you are running an online t-shirt store. You are going to need to display a wide variety of different products. It will be very confusing if these are all laid out in a grid layout with no apparent system.

If customers have to click through to a separate page for each product in order to choose their variation options and buy, then it becomes almost impossible to compare products alongside each other. Instead, they’ll sell better in a table format that lists products next to each other with helpful product data, variation dropdowns and quick add to cart buttons.

Also, it has become the standard to allow your customers the ability to search, sort and filter the products displayed based on size and other preferences. A plugin such as WooCommerce Product Table will help you to do exactly this and quickly improve the customer experience.

2. Focus on speed

Speed is a crucial thing to focus on at all times for two key reasons. First off, when Google ranks your site for different search terms, it places heavy importance on how quickly your site loads as this will improve the customer experience. Secondly, visitors are far more likely to stick around with and purchase from a site that loads quickly and seamlessly.

So, it’s crucial that you ensure each page of your WooCommerce store takes no longer than 4 seconds to load. There are a number of things you can do to help improve page load speeds, but reducing multimedia file sizes is usually a great place to start. It is natural for you to have lots of great quality pictures showcasing your products, just ensure their files sizes are minimised as much as possible.

3. Write unique, compelling copy for every item

Though this point may sound straightforward, it is incredibly surprising how many WooCommerce stores are loaded with endless products that just have very basic descriptions. This is a bad approach to take.

First off, customers need to be convinced that you are the best company to buy from. And they need descriptions in order to make an informed purchase decision.

Secondly, if you are using products that have bullet point descriptions which have been copied and pasted from elsewhere, it won’t help you in the search results. Search engines such as Google ignore duplicate content. And that will rank your site lower because you are failing to write unique copy.

Instead, write informative, well-optimized descriptions that will be better for humans to read and are more likely to help your products rank organically.

4. Use trust signals

The very nature of buying online means that consumers don’t get the chance to hold products to check the quality. Instead, they must rely on trust signals when deciding whether or not your products are up to the mark. So, be sure to deploy a number of trust signals throughout your WooCommerce store. This includes the following:

• Integrating customer reviews
• Having active social media accounts that can be linked to from any page
• Have videos showing you and customers using the product
• Obtain an SSL certificate for your site
• Display press mentions if possible
• Showcasing a money-back guarantee in case something is wrong with the product

5. Offer guest checkout

One of the biggest causes of abandoned carts are customers becoming frustrated with having to create an account just to make a simple purchase. Instead, you should customize your WooCommerce store to allow people to make purchases as a guest. After all, if your products are really so great, the customer will come back time and time again anyway. They may eventually create an account!

Also, the reason that many shoppers are not happy with creating an account is due to privacy concerns. Instead, just give your customers what they want and help to create an easier and more satisfying shopping experience. After all, the customer is always right. And if it means they’re more likely to buy from you then you will ultimately benefit.

WooCommerce Tips Wrap Up

Beyond following these WooCommerce tips, being successful with your online store means putting yourself in your customer’s position. And think about ways to improve their experience. This means putting in the time and effort to help customize your store and try out new techniques and tactics. Luckily for you, WooCommerce provides the perfect environment in which to customize your store and use different plugins.

Over time, you will find what works and will be able to properly optimize your site for more WooCommerce conversions and build a successful eCommerce store.