We don’t need to convince you that you need to be online. Whatever you’re selling, digital sales are the main channel where retail happens nowadays. The competition in this market is all about providing better quality, speed, and satisfaction than your competitors. A rich digital presence, perhaps combined with innovative point-of-sale technology, can make your store stand out.

There are plenty of ways to “wow!” your customers and create satisfying buying experiences, you only need to get creative. Chances are that whatever you come up with, it can be done. Embrace the digital, and get creative!

Off-the-shelf solutions like Shopify can be a great way to start your journey into the world of e-commerce if you’re a small vendor, or a local store owner who wants to go digital. This is one of the few situations where you can successfully build and run a shop by yourself using Shopify or an alternative solution.

When it comes to larger stores, with a national or international range and big sales numbers, doing everything yourself is no longer a viable solution. You can still use an off-the-shelf solution (to an extent), but you’re going to need developer support to make sure that your shop stays online, nothing goes awry, security is tight, and back-ups are in place. Plus, you might need to integrate custom software into your store, which is impossible to do if you’re not a programmer.

Nowadays, a lot of things are done through APIs (Application Programming Interface). This means that developers combine different solutions (as a very basic example, Wordpress + Shopify) by making them “talk” to each other and exchange data in a fast, secure way. Modern stores usually consist of a collection of different solutions that communicate through APIs.  

It’s not easy to beat your competitors, but it’s possible. A lot of it is done through marketing on social media and through Search Engine Optimization/Marketing. But, once you get customers to come to your store, there are several things you need to have in order to convince people to buy from you.

The first area where stores compete is design. This means your website or mobile app, your shopping interface, the cart, product pages, but it can also mean promotional materials that appear on in-store monitors and point-of-sale device interfaces.  

Quite simply, people don’t like to buy from ugly stores. We’re used to shops that are beautifully designed from point A to Z, and it can scare customers away when your store’s design is buggy and doesn’t meet today’s standards. And those standards keep changing, so you need to keep improving as well.

The second area where stores compete is speed and security. Optimizing your store to be both secure and fast can be a difficult job, but it’s a critical part of convincing customers to stay on your page. When products take too long to load, or customers feel that the store is unsafe and incomplete, they won’t be willing to buy from you.

Finally, you can combine point-of-sale technology with your digital presence to provide a complete customer experience. For example, some big footwear e-commerce stores have locations with foot scanners. Customers can make a detailed scan to get the perfect fit whenever they order shoes online. Ideas like this are like a cherry on top after you’ve taken care of all the above - design, speed, and security.