A merchant who opens an online store often imagines a second store to manage, with its stock, its schedules and its hassles. In practice, a well-started online store requires hour per week and cash in while the curtain is down.
Choose ten products, not three hundred
The temptation is to put everything online so as not to miss anything. This is the best way to never open, because photographing and describing three hundred references takes months.
Instead, select products that check three boxes:
- they already sell well in stores, so the demand exists;
- they travel without breakage and without refrigeration;
- they do not require advice: a client must be able to decide alone.
Ten to twenty references are enough to get started. You will add the following according to the requests, which is much more efficient than guessing. If your site does not yet exist, start with the showcase: the boutique is then added to it, it does not replace it.
A product sheet that sells
A product sheet replaces the seller. It must answer what customers ask you in the aisle.
- Three photos minimum: the product alone on a light background, a detail, and a scenario which gives the scale.
- Dimensions and weight, systematically. This is the first cause of return.
- What the product solves, in two lines, before the technical characteristics.
- Availability and shipping time, written in black and white.
- The price including tax, with no surprises in the next step.
The majority of baskets are abandoned for one reason: a cost discovered too late. Fees shipping, delivery time, minimum order, everything must be visible before the payment button.
Set shipping costs
Three approaches work, and you can combine them:
| Formula | When to choose it |
|---|---|
| Fixed price per order | Products of uniform weight, simple to understand calculation |
| Price per weight bracket | Heterogeneous catalog, from light to bulky |
| Deductible from an amount | To increase the average basket, with an achievable threshold |
Always add in-store collection, free. Local customers choose this option most often. It costs you nothing in logistics and brings the customer back into your shop, where they often buy something else.
What the law requires
Distance selling to individuals covers three main points:
- Seller identification: name, address, company number, VAT, contact.
- Information before order: total price, delivery costs, delivery time, terms of delivery payment, existence of the right of withdrawal.
- The right of withdrawal of fourteen days for the consumer, with exceptions precise (perishable products, personalized goods, digital content already downloaded).
Your general conditions of sale must be accessible and accepted before payment. Write them once, seriously, rather than copying those of a competitor: they engage your responsibility.
Organize daily life
An online store is run with a simple routine:
- A fixed slot per day to prepare the packages, for example before opening.
- A confirmation email at each stage: order received, package shipped, tracking number. This is what avoids most calls.
- A single stock. If a product leaves the store, it must disappear from the site. Otherwise you will sell what you no longer have, and that's the worst customer review.
- A monthly meeting with your figures: what is selling, what is dormant, what we are looking for at home without finding it.
How much does it bring in, concretely?
The most telling calculation is that of the commission. In a marketplace, count between ten and twenty percent taken from each sale. Out of a thousand euros of monthly sales, this represents one hundred to two hundred euros per month, every month.
A store on your own site leaves you those amounts. You pay only your subscription and the bank charges on collection, as with the card terminal at your counter. This is the principle of our online store, without commission on sales, with details of the formulas on the page prices.
Start small, with ten products and in-store pickup. You will see in a month if the demand exists, for an initial investment close to zero.
Two useful readings before you get started: rank on Google near you, since your first orders will come from people who were already looking for you, and the essential pages of a showcase site, who welcome the store.
Frequently asked questions
Should you put your entire catalog online?
No, and it is even the most common error. Start with ten to twenty references: those that sell best, transport well and do not require advice. You will complete with what customers demand.
How to set delivery costs?
Start from the actual cost of an average package, round up, and offer in-store collection for free. The free shipping from a certain amount increases the average basket, provided that this threshold remains achievable.
What are the obligations for selling online?
Your general conditions of sale, the complete identity of the company, and the price including tax displayed with shipping costs before validation. Add the fourteen-day right of withdrawal for individuals, with its exceptions. A standard withdrawal form must be accessible.
Will online sales cannibalize my store?
Experience shows the opposite in most local stores: the online store raises awareness of the store, and on-site collection brings people back to the shelves. It mainly captures sales that you would not have made, in the evening and on weekends.
