More than a quarter of small businesses do not currently have a website, according to research from Top Design FirmsSM. While these business owners risk missing a substantial portion of their potential buyers, even those with websites that are low quality might lose business.
As the popularity of online shopping has accelerated in recent years, maintaining a high-quality digital storefront might be essential to the success of your small business. For that reason, investing in your online presence could be one of the most effective ways to reach online shoppers and build long-lasting customer relationships.
What are digital storefronts and why do you need one?
A digital storefront is the representation of your business online. It is more than just your website, however — it consists of your entire digital footprint, including social media activity. As Millennials and Gen Z especially come to represent a larger portion of your potential customer base, it is becoming increasingly important for companies — even those that primarily operate in person — to create and maintain a clean, user-friendly online presence.
Just like a physical storefront gives customers a window into the style, inventory and service quality of a business, a digital storefront enables customers to learn about your small business before making the decision to step foot inside (or make an online purchase). This has become a critical part of the buying process for many shoppers. In fact, research from GoogleTM and IpsosTM found that 83% of shoppers conducted research online before visiting the physical location of a store.
The essential components of a digital storefront
The most successful digital storefronts tend to share the same core characteristics. Here are the essential components of a great digital storefront you should consider incorporating into your online presence:
• Efficient payments: Customers in today’s digital market want things to get done fast. It is important to break down as many barriers as possible during the checkout process to ensure customers are able to easily complete all of their purchases. This reduces the likelihood of abandoned shopping carts and customer churn.
• Arresting imagery: People tend to be visual learners, and that is especially true for online shoppers. Adding high-quality, varied photographs of your physical location, available inventory, and even current employees can help potential customers get a better sense of the type of experience they can expect when giving you their business.
• User-friendly navigation: Your website likely consists of numerous pages (possibly dozens), and that could make it difficult for users to easily locate the information they are trying to find. Include a user-friendly navigation bar at the top of your website to let users jump between different pages with ease.
• Calls to action: Many potential customers are likely visiting your website because they want to take some action. In addition to the top-of-page navigation bar to facilitate searchability, each of your landing pages should include clear calls to action that help prompt users to take their desired action.
Maintaining and improving your digital storefront
You should consider your digital storefront to be an ongoing work in progress, making occasional tweaks, adjustments and possibly even overhauls to extract the most value from your online presence. Here are some of the ways you can improve your digital storefront:
Optimize your web pages for search
Similar to a physical storefront, your digital storefront will not get the exposure it needs to drive meaningful customer engagement if it is not situated in a high-traffic area. In the online world, prime digital real estate tends to be the first two (especially the first) pages of search engine results.
Investing in search engine optimization (SEO) for each of your web pages could help you improve your ranking and drive more traffic to your online business. Among the main factors that search engines take into account when ranking your page include:
• On-page SEO: This includes metadata like titles and meta descriptions, which should accurately describe the content on the page and include any keywords you are targeting.
• Off-page SEO: This primarily refers to backlinks from other sites linking to your page. You should devise a backlinking strategy to maximize these opportunities.
• Technical factors: The technical components of a website, including page speed, have a significant impact on usability and search ranking.
Make the customer experience your priority
The customer experience should be your north star when both designing and upgrading your digital storefront. Put yourself in your customers’ shoes — when you navigate your website, is it easy to find all the information customers might want? Do you directly address customer problems on your product pages, demonstrating an intimate understanding of their challenges?
What about your layout: Are your pages overcrowded with information, distracting and overwhelming the user? These are just a sampling of the questions you should be asking yourself when building a website that makes the customer experience the top priority.
Offer social proof of the value you bring
Many customers prefer to buy from brands they can trust. For many of them, however, they might not be willing to rely on your word alone — they want to hear about the experiences of other customers that have already used your products. In fact, according to BrightLocalTM, 81% of shoppers rely on Google reviews to evaluate local businesses.
Consider creating customer success stories that detail the problems other customers faced and how your offerings help them overcome those challenges. Even if you do not have the resources for full-fledged case studies, you can still prominently display good customer feedback and testimonials across your website to build trust and confidence in your brand.
Optimize your digital presence with Comerica Bank
Building a better digital storefront could be one of the most important investments you make in the long-term success of your business. Many business owners, however, do not know where to start.
Our digital readiness division at Comerica Bank works with clients to help them accelerate their digital transformation and create more value for their customers.
