6 Steps to Creating an Effective Online Store
A successful website isn’t just about good design; it’s about how well it works, how well it sells, and how effective it is as a business tool. Whether you’re just getting ready to launch or are interested in improving your website and customer experience, these 6 simple steps will help you get things going in the right direction and help you take your site from basic & blah to eCommerce mega-machine.
1. Manage Inventory in Squarespace
If you ask me, one of the first red flags I look for on a mismanaged eCommerce site is people selling physical products but marking the inventory as “unlimited.” Eek. I mean, what kind of crazy roller coaster chaotic world this must be! If you sell… pretty much anything… you have to know how much you have to sell. Heck, even events or some digital goods need “inventory” counts; you know how many seats you have to sell or how many downloads you need to break even.
For a lot of shops, managing inventory could be as simple as syncing a Google sheet up to Squarespace with a tool like Zapier.
If you want to go a step further, you could also check out one of Squarespace’s inventory extensions. (I review them all here.)
Be sure to also check out the Squarespace Commerce app which allows you to make inventory updates from your phone or tablet.
2. Add Product Categories & Tags
Product categories & tags are the backbones of a well-organized eCommerce site. Not only can you use these to help guide visitors to exactly what they’re looking for quickly, but they can also help you do cool things with your navigation - and a few other tricks (more on those below)!
For a deep dive into all the ins and outs of categories & tags check out this post: How to Use Product Categories & Tags in Squarespace
For more tips on how to keep things from getting out of control, check out the tips in this post.
3. Use Summary Blocks
Alright, I told you that categories & tags would help you do cool things and this is one of them! I think a lot of people see Squarespace Summary Blocks as great tools for pulling in an overview of posts from blogs or events but they’re also indispensable for displaying product groups on your home page - or even in blog posts, like below! You can use a summary block’s filter settings to display products from any category or with any tag. You can also use them to display only featured products. This is a great way to showcase things like bestsellers, new items, or sale items.
As an extension of this, you can also use product categories or tags to power some of my favorite Squarespace plugins like the Featured Product Tag and Product Shop Labels ones from this post.
4. Connect People to Your Email List
Beyond just sales, one of your goals really should be to always be growing your email list. It’s just such a valuable business asset! (And not just because you shouldn’t bank on social media.) I would definitely recommend asking people to sign up for your list at checkout in addition to offering a signup form in the footer of your site. Not sold on email yet? Let me convince you:
Email marketing offers a higher ROI than SEO, display, advertising, and other forms of digital marketing. It’s estimated that for every $1 you spend on email marketing, you can expect an average return of $42. More in this post.
According to another study, email marketing reigns supreme with an ROI of 4400%. No, that’s not a typo. More here: 4 Post-Sale Emails Every eCommerce Site Needs
Feeling stuck? Here are 11 Lead Magnet, Offer & Freebie Ideas to Grow Your Email List
5. Use Product Blocks
A Squarespace Product Block is like a summary block on steroids. But instead of giving you an overview of a bunch of different products in a certain category and inviting you to click through for details, a product block puts everything you need right there front and center. Product blocks turn any page you want into a shop page. Use them in blog posts, on event pages, on your home page, on landing pages - wherever they make sense for your business. Product blocks allow people to “add to cart” from right where they are, no need to navigate anywhere else.
If you’re creating targeted landing pages for paid ads or social media posts, use product blocks to add just the product you’re advertising right on the page. No distractions or other shop items to get confused by! For more on creating a great sales page, check out this post.
You could also use a product block as a way to create an interesting upsell or cross-sell layout by adding it to the additional info section of a core product. This would be a way to display super-targeted products as opposed to using the Related Products feature which is going to constantly auto-update.
6. Add Automatic Discounts
Look, I love a coupon code as much as the next person but you know what I love more than that? NOT having to remember a coupon code in order to score a deal. 🥳 Automatic discounts on Squarespace allow you to set the conditions that need to be met in order to get the discount. Once the criteria you define is met ( - boom - auto discount. This is a great way to improve the experience of shopping on your site for your customers. You can create automatic discounts that apply to any order, orders over a certain amount, single products or whole product categories!
For more on this check out this post: eCommerce Crash Course: Coupons, Offers, Discounts & Promos
If you need some ideas on some sales and offers to try out using automatic discounts check out this post.
Automatic discounts like this are separate from and in addition to any automatic free shipping offers you create. I would just keep this in mind so that you don’t create too many offers that people can stack together (just pick one or the other). Check out this post for more on free shipping and setting up a profitable shipping strategy.
Bottom Line
When it comes to creating an effective eCommerce site, you’ve got to focus on some of the little things that have a big impact on customer experience and your business. Whether it’s managing inventory effectively, properly merchandising your products, or ensuring every interaction your customer has is smooth and easy - you can do it all using the built-in tools on Squarespace.
