Laying Out Your Store

If you were the manager of a bricks and mortar store a big part of your job would be to decide how to layout all of the products in that store so that they would sell optimally. That means getting people to walk through specific aisles in order to find the best sellers, thereby being exposed to other products they might be interested in but hadn’t considered for example.

In other words, the way you set up your store can end up having a big impact on the number of sales you make and this really comes down to basic psychology. Of course there aren’t quite as many factors for you to consider if you’re going to be selling products online versus a physical store but there are still some ways you can influence the decisions of your buyers.

Here are just a few things to keep in mind…

(1) Security and ‘Barrier to Sale’

One very important consideration for your store is the security and the ‘barrier to sale’. Remember right at the start of this book, we discussed the growth of ecommerce and why it hadn’t already grown to beyond brick and mortar store sales. The reason? People are concerned about spending money online.

If you want to sell to the broadest range of people possible, then you need to ensure that your site looks official and trustworthy. This is why it’s so important to use a professional looking design and to create a professional looking brand with a high quality logo. Something as simple as a low resolution image, a typo or ‘Copyright 2010’ when it is 2017 can make your website look less trustworthy and cause people to leave.

Another way to overcome this barrier to sale is to let people leave reviews on your store. This is something that many people will be nervous to do, seeing as it can potentially mean people end up leaving bad reviews! But overall, letting people leave reviews means that your customers can see other people have bought from you and received your products. If you respond to negative reviews, this will also reassure your customers that you’re listening and that you care about what they have to say.

(2) Easy Checkout

Another ‘barrier to sale’ is the time and effort involved in making a purchase. Believe it or not, this is actually a big deal and surveys show that people are much less likely to buy from a store if they need to set up an account first.

If you want to sell as much as possible then, you need to make the process of buying from you as streamlined and simple as possible. Amazon does this incredibly well with its ‘Buy With One Click’ system.

But even if you were to mimic something like this for your site, your visitors might still be required to create an account the first time they shopped with you, which could mean having to input their card details, their delivery address etc. etc.

Again, try to make all this as simple as possible to make sure it isn’t off-putting for your visitors. For example, one thing you can do is to use PayPal to handle your checkout process. This can help people feel more secure shopping with your site (as they don’t have to input their details) and makes it a lot easier for them to buy from you.

(3) POS

POS stands for ‘Point of Sale’ and is a concept that relates to the ‘barrier to sale’ we were just talking about.

In a highstreet store, you will often find something called a ‘Point of Sale Display’. This is a display that will promote and sell a cheap product while people are waiting in the queue. You’ve no doubt encountered these before and that’s because they work.

The thing to understand, is that when someone has made the decision to buy from you, they will already have made that important psychological step that turns them into a prospective buyer. Prior to this point, they are still umming and ahing about whether they want to bother setting up and account or whether they want the guilt of spending money.

Once they’re checking out then, they’ve already gone through the hard bit. Convincing someone to add something small to their order now then is actually relatively easy and means you can increase your profits further.

Of course you don’t have a queue online, so your ‘point of sale’ is the checkout page. That’s why you’ll often find sites offering you to add extras to your order like gift wrapping for a small fee.

(4) Color Scheme

On an unrelated note, you also need to think carefully about the color scheme and palette of your ecommerce site design.

What’s key to understand here is that different colors can have different effects on your customers. For example, the colors red and orange actually make people feel slightly more impatient and have even been shown to elevate the heartrate. People find very red color schemes somewhat ‘uncomfortable’ and this can be used to your advantage.

For example, this is actually the reason that a lot of fast food joints are red or orange in their color scheme. The uncomfortable color palette means that people don’t quite feel comfortable to spend a long time eating and this means that the store can accommodate a higher turnover of customers and make more profit as a result! And likewise, it turns out that if a ‘buy now’ button is red, it becomes more likely to be clicked more regularly!

Conversely though, if you want people to take their time and leisurely explore your site, then you need to make sure that you use cool and relaxing colors like blues.

Also important is to make sure that your color scheme allows you to use contrast. In other words, you need to avoid making your color palette too bright and your layout too busy. If you do that, then it will be impossible to draw attention to anything.

Your aim is to make sure you can control the attention of your visitors and to get them to look at the products you’re interested in selling. If everything is red and moving, then people won’t know where they should be looking.




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philaccardo Premium
Hi Dave:
I Have a couple of questions for you. Related to Subdomain which I think I prefer over a new domain:
Once I have created a subdomain for eCommerce, will I advertise that subdomain or will I advertise the main domain?
Can I call the subd. shop.mydomainname.com or myproducts.mydomainname.com
Is there a special way to link them together? Or are they just naturally linked?
Thanks again
Best
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DaveSw Premium
Hi, Phil!...If you're looking to get prospects directly to your store, you can use either the sub-domain link as is, or if desired, and perhaps better, use a tool to change the link name to whatever best fits, i.e. a cloaked link...This way there will be no confusion...Certainly, you can link the two together through banners, ads, links within posts, etc. Cheers! Dave : )
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philaccardo Premium
thank you, Dave.
Unfortunately I do not understand this : "use a tool to change the link name to whatever best fits, i.e. a cloaked link..."
Can you explain, please?
Best
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DaveSw Premium
Sure...

If you go to a link cloaking tool like bitly dot com (replace the "dot" with a period) you can then create a shortened link or a link that relates to where you are sending the person clicking on the link...

Have a look at the image and I have created a simple sample and screenshot to show you what I mean...

This screenshot I have here is what will come up after you click on create a link from the bitly home page and when type in the link you want to change...

In the screenshot, you see three arrows...

(1) The first at the top shoe the original link as created by bitly after you add the link you are trying to change/shorten...

(2) The second arrow points to what I want the link to look like...i.e. instead of the shortened url as shown in arrow one...

(3) The third points to the "create" button, which when I click on it will then create my cloaked link which will look like you see where arrow 2 points to...

My result would look like this:
...bitly/memories

Note that the free version of the bitly tool will NOT allow you to create a modified cloaked link, it will assign a random file name, as what you see at the first arrow of the screenshot...

There are however many options out there you can use for this, many of them free. I use a tracker pixel tool and it will do the same thing for me (this is a paid tool)...

If you do a simple google search you will see some - check them out and see which would work best for you...

In our case, since we are tracking what is happening with our sales campaigns and ads, pages, and websites, the tracking tool works well and the cloaking of links feature is just a plus as part of this tool...

The reasons for using this kind of tool are many...

The links look nicer in many cases, they fit better to the subject or content, they hide affiliate information when you are promoting something, and they create a better impression to the prospects...

To tell you the truth, I do not think you would have to cloak the link for your subdomain unless you wanted to make it look better somehow. You could create a cloaked link and test it with a link that is NOT cloaked to see which gets a better response from prospects, and then go with what works better...

Cheers! Dave
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philaccardo Premium
Thank you much, Dave. Eveything OK now.
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addgypsee83 Premium
good question! I would like to know this one too. Of course i haven't gotten to the part that I can have a sub domain for my store. even better.
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philaccardo Premium
Hi Dave:
please explain, this "If you did choose to move to this theme, the store that is created will ‘replace’ the website you already have."
Does this mean that you loose your original theme you chose to start with to create your store?
If this is the case, it doesnt matter what initial theme to install WP would be, Right?
In this case what initial theme would be better?
Also, you write:
"You might want to use a subdomain or a separate secondary domain for your shop and create a separate website, then link the two together rather than install the entire theme on your current blog website".
Where can I learn how to do that?
Thanks
Best
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DaveSw Premium
Hu, Phil!

Thanks for the questions and let me get you some answers...

When you start a website using a domain and WordPress, the first installation will add automatically a couple of themes that come standard...

After you have uploaded the WooCommerce theme you can activate and then delete the unneeded themes. I would leave at least one so you can switch if you need to...

As you say, it really does not matter. I would likely add a second WooCommerce supported theme so the store would be up and running if you do have problems...

Keep it there as a back-up, it might save you losing down time if something happened with the main theme you use...Also, I would create entire site backups often, daily or more if possible...

On to the next question...How to set up a subdomain here using SiteRubix...There is some training if you check out this tutorial it will help you get it done - this works, by the way, I have set one up here in the past... If you have any problems, just put a support ticket in (I had to as well because I was getting a specific theme set up and it required access from a third party)...The folks will help and quickly!

Cheers!
Dave : )
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philaccardo Premium
Thank you much, Sir.
Best
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DaveSw Premium
Not a problem at all...If you have more questions, drop them here, I do try to look in here regularly as possible! Cheers! Dave : )
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karden Premium
Dave,

Thanks for taking the time to create this training, you did an amazing job.

I do have a question, maybe you can help. I already have a Paypal account that was previously setup for personal use. Can I use the same account or do I have to create a Business Paypal Account?

Does it cost anything to setup Paypal Business Account?

I am also not sure if I have to setup a Braintree account also?

Sorry for all the questions.

Thanks for all your help it's much appreciated. :)

Ann & Alex
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Labman Premium Plus
You can convert your personal Pay Pal to a business account easily.
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karden Premium
So I do need to have a Paypal Business Account. Correct?
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Labman Premium Plus
Yes, I would recommend that you do that.
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DaveSw Premium
Yes, that is correct...Easy to change over....
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karden Premium
Ok Thanks :)
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DaveSw Premium
Hi Folks! No probs at all, I am glad this may have helped...E-Commerce works, so many are doing it these days, me too! Cheers! Dave : )
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Sophie5391 Premium Plus
Hi Dave, thank you for making this tutorial. i just added the woocommerce plug in, because of my theme it is active as a link, but is very easy to access from my web page. this may seem like a silly question but how do i verify where the funds go, once a client makes a purchase? i found the wording in the setting options a bit confusing, so i wanted to be sure before i added product.... thank you for your help:)
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DaveSw Premium
Hi, Sophie...

When you set up your payment routing system you should be able to check it out to make sure it is working properly. PayPal has a sandbox tool where you can test everything to make sure it is working properly...

If you are using another payment system, I would make a test order just to make sure it all is working OK...Maybe have a friend make the order, reimburse them, and you will know...

We used the second method when testing the Thailand operation out, but for Germany, we used the sandbox testing...Both worked well and we had the peace of mind that all was OK...

When you do this testing, you will also see that the email series is working properly (i,e, thank you and order confirmation, shipping confirmation, update messages, support, etc)...

It is all about the customer experience, and this is an important piece of that...We have also added a checkout process plugin, so the clients can see their progress as they go through checkout (we have to activate this after switching themes)...

Best of luck!
Cheers!
Dave : )
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Sophie5391 Premium Plus
Hi Dave, thankyou for the detailed feedback, I will go through it all again to check it and then test it. That's a great idea... I appreciate you taking the time to respond to my questions.
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DaveSw Premium
Not a problem at all Sophie!! : )
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jvranjes Premium
Dave, a few questions, again. I shall definitely use WooCommerce, so just trying to find a way.

Would it make sense using WooCommerce for selling Amazon stuff (as a start, for one site)? This means I would not need its all features, only some of them. Is there possibility to show updated price?

Product descriptions in such sites are usually short, so can one really rank with it? Earlier you replied to me by saying this was the usual SEO.

Are those pages or posts? If pages, there is a limit of pages in ordinary WP site menu (it is 80, know it for sure, I reached the limit once and could not continue, had to convert pages to posts). How is it with WC site?

Thank you in advance. Jovo
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DaveSw Premium
Hi, Jovo...

Sorry so long to get back to you on your questions, I missed the notification I guess on my email....

I have not tried selling Amazon products using WooCommerce, but I do not see why not...

Here is an article that will give you some insight on options...

https://shopitpress.com/blog/woocommerce-setup/top-3-ways-to-integrate-your-woocommerce-store-with-ebay-and-amazon/

There are add-on plugins that will help you import the data I do know that...I just have not used them (I do not like the commission rates, I know they do build over time and can be significant, but...).

Regarding SEO, yes e-commerce stores typically have short descriptions and the keywords are in the title, the meta description, maybe the tags, and maybe the image information...

Maybe try to link a review article to the WooCommerce product page (not sure if this makes sense over sending directly to Amazon product page), maybe do some testing to see which works better?

On page limits so far no issue at all...We have 140 product pages and these have between a simple product with one item all the way up to 6/7 variations (size or color differences)...

We are in the process of adding an additional 160 items and some of these also have variations (i.e. T-Shirts) so at the end of the day, we will have almost 500 line items...

The other factor with this scenario is that we are adding German translation pages for each item too...That is a work in progress and each dau we are doing 4-5 pages...

With the auto translation tools such as Google Translate that the Chrome browser has, I am not sure this is worth the effort as of now - we will see (we are doing manually ourselves inhouse, after 4 external "experts" screwed the pooch badly for us)...

The WooCommerce product pages are also separate from the normal pages on the theme we use (all we have used to now too), and you manage these separately...There may also be a limit, but so far we have not run up against that (I believe I read somewhere that 500 was the magic number but not positive that is correct)...

I hope this is not too late to make any difference Jovo, and apologize again for taking so long to get back to you!

Cheers!
Dave : )
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jvranjes Premium
Many thanks Dave, no need to apologize.
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DaveSw Premium
Cheers Jovo! : )
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