Stepping into a designer boutique can be like stepping into the perfectly filtered Instagram photo. All of the vintage artwork hanging on the walls, and the to-die-for leather booties, will have even the least fashion savvy planning their future wardrobe and home decorations. But how can this ambiance be translated to your eCommerce store?

When entering the premises it takes you somewhere else. Some make you feel you’re in Europa, others like you’re in the middle of Farmville. This atmosphere is often lost when trying to create big business online. The potential online is exponential, there’s no excuse for a lame looking storefront especially with all of the resources at your exposal.

If you’re running an eCommerce store, you might find this toolkit interesting to bring in a whole lot more business.

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How can I capture that personal feeling online?

The first thing you’re probably thinking is how you can turn the World Wide Web full of impersonal information, into the cozy warm feeling of a small shop. Many people would argue that personal connections get lost over the web since the message is broadcast to many people.

Often in a boutique store the owner there greeting people as they walk in, giving a face and name to your brand. The good news is you can capture this feeling of warmth and personality for your brand online by doing just that.

As “site personalization” tools are launched a dime a dozen these days, some tools are taking this to another level and are pretty easy to use. VideoStir is a platform that allows you to bring a touch of humanity to the site, something that online sellers are constantly struggling to improve. Anyone with a camera is able to shoot him or herself explaining how your site works or walking them through the top items and sales funnel.

Putting a name and a face to your brand not only makes your boutique more personal and homey, but it also increases the consumer’s trust in your brand and products. You might also pay a visit to Fiverr’s video testimonials and attach those to your important product pages.

Who is your market?

Before you even begin to decide which products you’re going to sell on your online store, it’s essential to know whom you’re marketing toward. Once you get to know your target audience, you can gain a deeper understanding of their wants and needs. The sooner you conduct this market research, the less money you wind up wasting on investing in the wrong audience or products.

Start off by narrowing down your selection. While it may seem like a good idea to target ‘everyone’ you’ll often end up missing your target completely. You can narrow down your selection by segmenting your audience into different demographics.

Remember the Hasbro game Guess Who? You keep guessing certain characteristics to eliminate other characters until you’re left with the correct one. This is the same process you should follow to hone in on your ideal target audience. When you guess, is it a boy? You’ve already eliminated 50% of the wider audience, continue this process until you’ve got a very specific ideal character.

Once you’ve narrowed down your audience according to geographic region, age, behavior, lifestyle etc. you’ve got your target market.
The online shop ITLY, as much as similar ecommerce sites, aims to convert women that care about high profile products but for inexpensive prices. Through market research they know that women who are on a budget, but are not willing to sacrifice their quality, are typically mothers.

Now what can we derive about mothers? We can estimate an age range from about 30-40, they tend to buy products for the whole family, and they decided to pay specific attention to the American market. One derivative of your target market can help you fill in a lot of the other blanks with your market research.

Where is your product coming from?

Here is where your unique products come in. eCommerce owners have the ability to tune into their audiences wants and needs and provide products that are in demand. However, at the end of the day it’s most important to figure out how your customers will receive your fabulous products.

When it comes to your inventory and where your product is coming from you basically have three options in the online business. You can either, a.) Make the product yourself, b.) Outsource the manufacturing from China or Taiwan, c.) By wholesale from a manufacturer, or d.) Drop shipping, a practice of selling products you don’t actually own.

Making the product yourself is a lot of work, that being said however will also have the highest payback. Initially, it’s a lot of time and money going into the labor of your product, but in the end people will love that it’s homemade. This method is good for all of you DIYers that want to have a business as more of a hobby as it can be difficult to scale into a large business.

A more popular option is finding a manufacturer to create the product for you. You can choose to source locally or overseas, but keep in mind the prices are a lot steeper if you go local. Alibaba is one of the largest b2b marketplaces, they set you up manufacturers from Asia to execute your unique idea.

ITLY, the online boutique from the example we provided above made the executive decision to source their manufacturer overseas in Italy. They were able to use this, as their USP and play up their Italian-made products in their marketing.

How will your customers find you?

Unlike your quaint little shop on the corner of Main Street; your online store will not attract the same foot traffic where people can’t resist but come check out your beautifully adorned shop. It will take a little extra marketing efforts, but with the right tools and influencers you can find yourself swarming with happy shoppers.

First of all, it’s essential you set up shop for your online store. Platforms like Shopify and Magento offer customizable sites that you can set up completely on your own without the help of IT people or a web designer. With all of the themes and effects these platforms offer, there’s zero excuses for an unappealing storefront.

Once you’ve added all your products, and your site is launched and running, you finally have a place you want to welcome your customers to. Marketing efforts are often overlooked at this stage in the process, but it’s the most important thing for your online business to grow.

You can start right here on Fiverr^® by checking out the fashion and marketing Gigs^®. This is a great place to start because who doesn’t have 5 dollars to spare, and it’s a great foundation for your whole marketing process. Once you’ve outlined your strategy find a Gig that will do the creative work for you, like creating ad banners, or designing content. If you need more help with SEO there’s plenty of Gigs who will help you with keyword research, and direct more traffic to your boutique site.

Next, you should utilize your social media following. You’ve already done your market research so you should have a pretty good idea of where your target audience is hanging out online. For example ITLY’s moms that they’re attracting are primarily hanging out on Pinterest and Facebook. Using Facebook ads, you can target exactly women age 30-40 with interests in Prada, Gucci, and other Italian quality brands. This allows you to precisely target just the people that are relevant to your individual boutique.

If your eCommerce site isn’t the smashing success you expected, or if you’re simply interested in starting one up to make more money online, these are some very useful steps to follow. It’s not going to be easy, a lot of work goes into successfully launching and maintaining an online store. However, if you’re up to the challenge your eCommerce site can become the center of attention for your business and the start to a flourishing relationship with your customers.