So without further ado, let’s dive in.

1. What is POS?

Point of Sale (POS) is the place your customer makes a purchase or completes a transaction. You can also call it point of purchase or point of service. Often this is the check-out, where you’d find a traditional cash register. Online, the Point of Sale (POS) is the online shopping cart.

2. What is a POS system?

The combination of software and hardware used for processing transactions is called a POS system. The function of a POS system is to act as a simple cash register, but POS systems do much more. 

Most vendors now refer to their POS system as a retail management system. A retail management system adds features like:

• Inventory management,
• Supplier records, 
• Membership features and CRM,
• Loyalty marketing management,
• Bookkeeping,
• Stock transfer, 
• Sales reporting, 
• Quotations, etc.

3. Key POS terms

It is easy to confuse different POS terms and definitions. In order for you to have a better understanding of this guide, I’ll list key POS terms you should be aware of.

POS terminal

A POS terminal is the hardware or machine used to process and accept card payments. If you do in-store shopping, then you must have seen it before.

Here’s how a POS terminal works:
A debit or credit card is swiped on the POS terminal. Then the machine checks if the customer has sufficient funds by reading the magnetic strip on the card. If there is, it makes the transfer. 

The technology behind POS terminals is constantly evolving. Many advanced POS terminals now accept contactless payments using RFID chips and have  options for payment with Google Wallet, Samsung Pay, and Apple Pay.

Mobile POS (mPOS)

Mobile POS is a wireless device – tablet or smartphone – that doubles as a POS terminal or cash register. 

You download the POS software as an app and connect it to a card reader. This way you can take your POS system everywhere your business needs to be.

You’ll find mPOS useful if you interact with your customers outside of your business physical location. Or for instance in Bars and restaurants, if you want to ring up the invoice and order at the table. 

4. How does a POS system work?

The basic function of a POS system is to process transactions between the retailer or merchant and the customers.

A cash register does this too, but when you connect your cash register to hardware like barcode scanner, receipt printer, POS terminal, and POS software, you’ll be able to do more than process customers’ payments.

You’ll have a powerful tool that helps you monitor your inventory, use it as a CRM, manage employees, and so much more. Advanced POS systems also offer integrations to your small business marketing software and help you manage your business without stress.

Hardware and software components of a POS system

Every POS system is made out of POS Software and POS Hardware.  Let’s look at these two components in detail.

POS Software

Just like your mobile phone or PC, your POS needs an operating system. This operating system is the POS software. The POS software has a frontend and backend interface.

The frontend interface is accessed by the cashier processing the customers’ transactions via a display monitor or tablet. But the backend interface shows what happens behind the scenes and it is reserved for management and analytical functions.

These two interfaces are synchronized to provide the best POS experience.

When it comes to POS software, there are two types:

• On-premise POS software
• Cloud-based POS software

While these two help you achieve the same goal, they do have clear-cut differences. What are the differences between On-premise POS software Cloud-based POS software? 

It is no secret that many businesses are switching to cloud-based POS solutions. This option is scalable and cost-effective. 

But, if you are charmed by the idea of your data never leaving your physical location, or have special (security) requirements then the on-premise solution is still an option.

POS hardware

Regardless of the type of POS system, the hardware set-up is made from several components. Your POS software needs to run on a device, right? So it starts with a  computer, which is the heart of the traditional POS system.

Display, monitor or Tablets

A lot of POS software can be operated on tablets or iPads. These are portable and give you access to a 360-degree view of your business.

With POS software installed on a tablet, you’ll have access to your inventory database, sales report, customer details, etc, depending on the capabilities of your chosen software.

Card reader

According to the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, 75.5% of consumers have at least one credit card. So, unless you run a cash-only business, you’ll need a way to accept card payments.

Card readers help you process this sort of payment. They are quite affordable.

Barcode scanners

This is especially useful in a brick and mortar retail shop as it helps you automate your checkout process. It gives you instant access to product information like pricing, description, stock levels, and so on.

Cash drawer

Unless you plan on not accepting cash for your business, you’ll need a cash drawer. The cash drawer acts as a secure place to keep cash and other receipts for accounting purposes.

POS Receipt printer

As you might have guessed, this is a machine that prints receipts showing the details of your customers’ purchases. Some POS systems allow you to brand your receipt with your logo and add other types of promotions to the receipt. 

Paper receipts aren’t the only type of receipts. You can also send your customers an email receipt, a text / SMS receipt or update their customer profile on the website to show the billing details. The receipt is a reference to their purchases.

Network device

An internet connection is a must for any cloud-based solution. In the case of an on-premise solution, network devices will come in handy when linking your computers. 

5. Benefits of using a good POS system

Increased efficiency

POS systems can help you increase your company’s productivity by automating processes. 

For example, easy access to product information means a faster checkout process. Reducing lines and waiting times leads to more sales and happier clients. Time is money.

You can also automatically reorder stocks helping you save time and money.

Better employee tracking

A POS system can track your employees’ hours, speed, and pay. Advanced POS systems can also give you access to customer reviews regarding each of your employees. This can help you find your top-performing employees and those who aren’t pulling their weight. In short, a POS can give you the information to boost your employees’ performance. 

Improved stock and inventory management

Keeping track of your inventory can be a real headache if you do not have a way to manage inventory.

Using a POS system helps manage your stock. All you need to do is to input the current inventory levels and the system will update itself anytime a purchase (or return) is made. This is also useful for keeping track of your bestsellers

Accurate Sales tracking and reporting

Most POS systems give you reporting and analytics. While the comprehensiveness of this feature varies among the POS systems, they still give you an overview of your daily activities.

And also help you make sales and revenue predictions for your business.

6. What should your POS system do? 

A POS system can help increase the efficiency of your business activities by simplifying the not-so-simple tasks you engage in on a daily basis.

But if you are looking for a POS system for your business, you should know that they are all different in terms of functionality and efficiency.

Systems in the same price category will often offer you different features.

The following features are essential to a good POS system.

Inventory management

This is one of the most important features of a POS system. Through inventory management, you’ll be able to track every product – sometimes even the individual products on serial number.

Some systems also allow you to track inventory levels across different locations and automatically place orders when your best sellers fall below a certain number.

Employee management

Your employees are important to the success of your business. So you should pay attention to POS systems that allow you to manage and track their activities.

With this feature, you can add employees and give them tiered permissions. You can also see who your superstar employee is and who probably needs more training.

Customer relationship management

According to research, a 5% increase in customer retention can result in a 25% increase in profit. So, a POS system that offers customer relationship management features should definitely be at the top of your list.

CRM gives you the ability to accept and store customers’ information such as purchase history, email, phone number, etc. With some POS systems, you can even create a loyalty program and reward your loyal customers.

Reporting

Most POS systems will come with some form of reporting and analytics. The data provides you the ammunition to make smart business decisions.

Ideally, your POS system of choice provides sales reports, customer reports, and inventory reports.

Integrations

While this might sound like a no-brainer, you should make sure that your POS solution integrates easily with the apps and platforms that you use.
Check to see if you can integrate your POS solution with your Customer Relationship Management (CRM), payment solution, website, accounting software, project management software, and so on.

7. Industry specific POS systems

There is no one-size-fits-all approach when it comes to POS systems. But even then, some POS systems cater to the needs of specific industries and you’ll have to look for those specific functionalities. 

For instance,  a quick peek into types of POS systems based on industries:

• Retail POS
• Restaurant and bar POS
• Salon POS

Retail POS

When you run an offline retail store, you can be sure that your needs will be different from that of businesses in other industries.

Retail POS systems come with features that are built specifically for merchants. Some of these features are:

• E-commerce integrations for online stores
• Scanner for accessing product information
• Digital scales for weighing items
• Employees fees and commissions

Restaurant and bar POS

Bars, nightclubs, restaurants, and cafes fall under the category of businesses that need a restaurant and bar POS.

This type of POS system offers unique features such as:

• Self-order menu
• Online ordering
• Lay out and reservation management
• Kitchen display system
• Menu configuration
• Cheque splitting
• Contactless payment

Salon POS

A third type of POS system is the salon POS system. This is for business owners that run a salon, spa, hairdresser, or health business. Just like the other two POS types, salon POS has unique features that set it apart.

Just think of

• Calendar and appointment management
• Combined services and retail item checkout
• Memberships management and CRM

So each of the POS systems has specific features that are typical for your own industry / process. 

Best POS systems for small businesses in 2026

Even after narrowing down your POS choices, there are still a lot of options, but don’t worry – better to have a look at some of the best and see how they differ, Here is a list of 5 top picks among the best POS systems that you can use in 2026 for your business. 

 5 POS systems for SMB

Here is our list with SMB POS systems and a short review of each.

• Lightspeed POS
• Toast POS
• Touchbistro
• Shopify POS
• Square POS
• Vend POS

Shopify POS

We know Shopify to be an hugely popular eCommerce platform, so it isn’t surprising that its POS system is here listed in our best POS systems.

To use Shopify POS, you need to have a Shopify store. Your subscription plan will determine how much you pay in card processing fees.

Here’s how much you pay according to each plan:
For the Basic plan ($29 per month, billed yearly), you’re charged 2.6%.
For the Grow plan ($79 per month, billed yearly), you’re charged 2.5%.
For the Advanced plan ($299 per month), you’re charged 2.4%.

Shopify POS has two plans: Shopify POS Starter and Shopify POS Retail.

The Starter plan costs $5/month and gives you features such as QR-codes, customer profiles, order and product management, mobile POS, and hardware accessories.

The Shopify POS Retail is $89 per month per location and it comes with additional features such as unlimited store staff, unlimited registers, smart inventory management, in-store analytics, omnichannel selling features, and the ability to assign staff roles. Have a look here.

Square POS

Square POS is trusted by diverse small businesses – from restaurants to boutiques – and the ersatility has helped it become one of the leaders in the POS space. 

Square POS offers three pricing plans:

• Free plan: free to use
• Plus plan: $60 per month if you opt for the annual subscription
• Premium plan: for enterprises that want a custom solution

You’ll pay a credit card processing fee of 2.6% + $0.10 for in-person payments and 2.9% + $0.30 for online transactions for using square’s integrated payment which is available on all three plans.

Each of the plans gives you access to features like sales reports, time tracking, barcode scanning, low stock alert, Instagram selling, gift cards, etc.

Square is among the best POS systems, and can be recommended to not only small business owners but also medium-sized and large corporations.

Vend POS

Vend POS prides itself on its usability. It does have a simple interface and is easy to use.

Vend POS offers three plans:

• Lite plan ($99 per month if you’re billed annually)
• Pro plan ($129 per month if you’re billed annually)
• Enterprise plan (if you want a custom-built POS solution)

All three plans give you access to real-time inventory management, unlimited product, integrated payments, unlimited users, analytics, 24/7 support.

But with the Lite plan, there is a monthly turnover limit of $20,000. If you exceed this limit three times within a year, you’ll need to upgrade to the Pro plan.

Lightspeed POS

When it comes to iPad POS, look at Lightspeed. It provides a set of integrations that makes it easy for you to reach your customers, whether you are in the retail or restaurant industry.

Lightspeed offers customized pricing plans for these two industries. Retail has five plans

• Basic ($69 per month)
• Starter ($99 per month): includes e-commerce module
• Standard ($119 per month): includes e-commerce module and accounting integrations.
• Advanced ($169 per month): includes e-commerce module, accounting integrations, and loyalty program.
• Pro ($229 per month): includes e-commerce module, accounting integrations, loyalty program, and analytics.

The restaurant POS has only one main plan which is $59 per month for a single register. You can add more registers for $34 per month.

The restaurant POS also offers two sets of add-on plans:

• Add-ons ($12 per month): featuring customer-facing display, kitchen display system, advanced reporting, self-order table menu.
• Premium add-ons ($39 per month): featuring loyalty app, self-order kiosk, loyalty, accounting, delivery integration.

You’ll also have access to their educational materials and 24/7 support.

Toast POS

If you are in the food industry – restaurant, bars, bakeries, Toast POS offers POS solutions specially designed for your needs.

You can choose from three different pricing plans:

• Starter plan ($0 per month)
• Essential plan ($99 per month)
• Growth plan ($199 per month)

With all plans, you get a cloud-based POS, payment processing, customer care, and real-time fraud monitoring. 

You can also purchase extra add-ons like online delivery, gift cards, loyalty, restaurant email marketing, etc.

Toast POS is designed for restaurant success. It can be customized to fit the needs of different restaurant types including fine dining, casual dining, night clubs, bars, etc.

8. How to choose the best POS system for your business

How do you choose the best POS system to take care of your business needs?

I have gathered top tips that will help you make that decision.

1. Make a list of your POS needs

Start with writing down what features you need and want your POS system to have. Doing this, helps you be more focussed and slash the number of options you choose from.

This is because POS systems differ when it comes to functionality. So knowing what you want beforehand will make your decision-making process easier.

Here are five base questions you should ask yourself:

• What features do I need?
• Is there a POS system specially designed for my business?
• What is my budget like?
• Do I have plans for growth and expansion?
• Can I trust the vendor?

2. Put a few vendors side-by-side

It is smart to look at multiple options. One of the first places to get inspiration is our own picks, but don’t forget to also check with your network. Ask other merchants who operate in your industry about the POS they use. Are they satisfied with it?

Side-by-side can compare different POS systems and understand each one of their strengths and weaknesses. You can have a look, but i’d not trust review sites blindly, many of the reviews are not very close to your real experience.

3. Don’t shy away from trials and demos

If a POS company offers you a free trial, demo, or a look at the hardware / software set-up. Grab it. This will allow you to get firsthand experience. From a free trial or demo, you’ll be able to decide if the POS software suits your needs or not.

9. How to set up your POS system

After choosing your POS system, it is time to get it up and running. This means we are going to set up the hardware and software of the system.

Hardware installation

At the very least, your POS hardware will consist of a monitor, a POS terminal, and a barcode scanner. To set up your hardware, connect each of the components to one another and the internet.

You should know that an internet connection is non-negotiable if you are using a cloud-based POS.

A power backup is also a must have, like UPS. So in case of power outage or short disturbance, the system can still run. 

Software installation

The steps to install your POS software depends on the type of software.

If you are using an on-premise solution, then you’ll probably have an agent from your service provider come over to install the software for you and guide you through the best practices.

But if you use cloud-based software, the installation process is simpler. You get instructions in the form of a step-by-step guide or video. Or you could just ask for assistance from your service provider.

Conclusion: What does POS mean (to me?)

So that’s our guide on Point of Sale (POS). If you are still thinking: “Can I survive without a POS system?”  It is not likely.  People have been running their business with a simple cash drawer for years. But you will be intentionally leaving a lot of money on the table by not even considering the POS options available.

Automation is key to growth and POS helps you achieve this. It increases your efficiency and helps you excite your customers.

The post What is POS? A definitive guide on Point of Sale and POS systems. appeared first on Email vendor selection.

Over 2.14 billion customers were buying goods and services online in 2023.
That is a lot of potential. And you don’t want to leave that market share to your competitors. So retailers need to start an e-commerce shop and website, but how to get started?

In this guide we’ll help you through all the steps involved to take your brick-and-mortar store online. But before we get into that, let’s quickly see the reasons why you should launch an online store.

Why take your brick-and-mortar store online?

Here are the four most compelling reasons to set up an online store.

1. Sell 24/7 (on semi-autopilot)

Like the idea of making money while you sleep? A big advantage of your online store is that you don’t have to worry about standard opening hours.

Your customers can find you anytime they want and buy from your ecommerce store 24/7.. It doesn’t matter if it is during the day, at night, or even on public holidays. 53% of customers will always research their purchase online before buying. So if you don’t have an online presence, you’ll be letting a lot of revenue slip away.

Online ecommerce success doesn’t come magically, there is still a great deal of work involved But first successes are super easy to attain. 

2. Expand your business without the upfront costs

Expanding a brick-and-mortar store means hiring more people, training them, opening at new locations, paying rent, ect. That’s a lot of overhead and a lot of investment. 

When you expand your online store, you’re no longer restricted by your geographic area. An audience could be across state, country, and even the world can be your e-commerce oister

So online expansion allows you to reach a much larger audience, without the upfront costs you’d see in retail store locations.

And with a strong  marketing plan you can hypothetically drive an unlimited number of customers to your store.

3. Make customers happy

Sam Walton, the founder of Walmart, said that the customer is a company’s only boss. And the customer can fire everyone by simply spending his money elsewhere.

For a business to survive, it has to keep its customers happy.

Research by Zendesk showed that 80% of consumers will rather do business with a competitor if they had more than one bad experience. But there are plenty of options to create customer satisfaction with your online store. 

Don’t underestimate your website’s value as a communication channel.

• Save hours of phone calls between your customer and customer service with a well-written FAQ page and knowledge base.
• Get a warm welcome for sales reps who deal with informed buyers that already know about your products.
• Give information to your customer when they need it, through your online store.
• Capture important customer details with Point of Sale and e-commerce integrations. With this information, you can personalize the customer experience for each buyer.

4. Increase brand awareness

A sustainable business depends on trust. 81% of customers say that they buy based on trust.

And the more your customers trust you, the easier it is for you to build lasting relationships. In order to get to this point, your customers first need to know about you.

An online store and website allows you to build that SEO strategy that will get you on the first page of search engines. It allows you to channel what is going on online, in social and have people look into your business more closely. The size of the company doesn’t matter, it works even better for small businesses. 

You’ll get noticed as an authority once you begin to show up on search engines for a particular niche.

Show up online and start building trust and brand loyalty. 

3 Steps involved in taking your brick-and-mortar store online

Without a doubt, opening an online store has a lot of benefits for your business.  But the question is: “How do you go from a brick-and-mortar store to e-commerce?”

There are 3 stages to taking your business online: 

1. Pre-launch preparation
2. Optimizing your online store
3. Marketing your online store

Let’s go over each one in detail.

Pre-launch phase: Preparing your business for online

1. Finetune your market and customer persona

The first thing you need to figure out is who your ideal customer is. Know your customer in advance, and you can relieve yourself of a lot of stress during marketing.

So how do you create a customer persona and pick a target market? Here’s the good part. A buyer or customer persona is a semi-fictional description of your ideal customer.

Since you already run a brick-and-mortar store, you already have a customer base to work with.
You only need to study them.

Your customer persona’s (or lack of one) greatly impacts the direction of your marketing strategy. A clearly defined persona will arm you with crucial information such as

• How your customer is most likely to find your website
• How your customer will want to interact with your online store.

Creating your website using a buyer persona can increase your website traffic by up to 210%. 

You need customer data, industry research, and informal observations to create a good customer persona.

Buyer personas can improve your email open rate 2x and your click-through-rate 5x.

When crafting a customer persona, you should ask yourself these questions.

• What age, gender and demographics describe my ideal customer?
• Is my customer spontaneous or calculating?
• What benefits does my product offer to my customer?
• Is my customer looking for these benefits?
• How important is price to my customer?
• Is my customer making the final purchase decision?
• What social media platforms and sites does my customer visit?

There’s one more thing to keep in mind.

The users of your product might not be the actual buyers. A store selling children’s toys for example has children as its end users. But the parents are the ones who buy the toys. In B2B, this is the same – often there are influencers and decisions are made together. 

Develop a buyer persona based on the person holding the money.

2. Choose the right e-commerce platform

You’ll need an e-commerce software platform or website builder to set up your online store.

There are plenty of options to choose from. These platforms have one thing in common though.

They give you the tools to get your online store up and running in no time.

The most popular ones are:
E-commerce software: Shopify, BigCommerce, Magento, WooCommerce
Website builders: Squarespace, Wix, WordPress

Answer the following questions to decide which e-commerce platform is best for you.

• How easy is it to start, what is the learning curve like?
• How much flexibility do you have with design?
• Can it integrate with your essential business tools, like accounting and POS software?
• What’s the platform’s total cost?
• Is the platform scalable?
• What kind of security does it come with?
• How many products can you upload?
• Is customer support available?
• How much will you pay for a domain name and hosting?
• How well does it work on mobile, desktop, and other devices? 

Because there is so much to say about them, here is a full review of the best ecommerce platforms.

If you already have a great website for your business, you don’t need to build another one. You can give your website e-commerce capabilities by installing an e-commerce plugin. An example of such a plugin is Ecwid.

It’s even better if you can connect your brick-and-mortar’s POS software to your online store. This will allow your customers to enjoy a smooth checkout process.

Some of the popular POS solutions are Lightspeed, Vend, Square, and Shopify POS. You can integrate these POS options with both your offline and online stores to manage both channels effectively.

To understand which POS software is right for you, check out this in-depth guide on POS systems.

3. Select your domain name

After choosing your preferred e-commerce software, the next step is to pick a domain name.

Your domain name is the address of your website that people type into their web browser.

For example, the domain name for this website is www.emailvendorselection.com

It is getting harder to catch your preferred domain name.  First quarter of 2020 there were over 366.8 million registered domain names a 4.2% increase from 2019. So many of the desirable domain names are already gone…

Keep the following domain name tips in mind: 

• Choose an easy-to-remember domain name. Make sure that people can spell and pronounce your domain name with ease. You should be able to share your domain name while speaking too.
• Use keywords into your domain name. Using an SEO-friendly domain name tells search engines what your website is all about. This in turn can help you rank higher on the results page. 
• Get a dotcom domain name. .com domains are the most popular domain. They account for 35.11% of registered domain names. This is because they are the most trustworthy and memorable.
• Use a variant. There is a good chance you might not get exactly the .com domain name you want. In that case it isn’t the best idea  to use unpopular domain name extensions like .photography, .drama, and so on. Instead, use a variant like adding “my” or “get” at the front of the name, or opt for a .store or a .shop domain name. These are more trusted.

4. Choose which products to sell

The next step is to decide which products to sell online. Sometimes you won’t be able to 1-on-1 sell exactly the same inventory online as in-store. Even if you have a huge inventory of products available in-store.

So how do you choose which products should be sold online?

Here are three cosiderations on which products to sell:

• Pick your top sellers first. Choosing products with high demands will enable you to target a larger audience. So, even if you have hundreds of products in your inventory, start with the products with high demand.
• Choose items that can be easily managed. You will save yourself (and your team) a lot of stress if you can package, store, and ship the products without problems. It is advisable to only sell bulky items in your brick-and-mortar store. Or allow your customers the option to buy online and pick in-store.
• Think about solid margin. As with all business there is some retail math behind it. All the costs involved, the gross profit margin should be healthy, even if you are getting returns.

As you begin to scale, start adding new products and product categories based on your market and competitor analysis.

5. Research your competitors

Good artists copy, great artists steal.

Those are the words of Pablo Picasso.

There are different ways to interpret that statement. But it is certainly true when talking about competitor research.

When researching your competitors, don’t just copy their strategy. A copied strategy can only be as good as the original. And that’s if you manage to get all the pieces right.

Instead, you should ‘steal’ from your competitors.

Take the time to understand why they made a particular move and why. It is only when you understand this that you can use those ideas where it applies to your business.

The aim is to figure out ways to make your product offering more appealing to your customers. Understanding your competitor’s approach to solving problems will help you.

6. Write custom pages and meta-descriptions

A good product description can give you a massive sales boost. So, you shouldn’t rush the process.

But if you’re trying to take your brick and mortar store online, there won’t be time to write a hundred custom product descriptions before launch day.

But, what to do then?

What you should do is come up with meta descriptions for each of your products.

A meta description is an HTML element that summarizes your page’s content to other users and search engines. It usually appears in the search engine result as a snippet under your page title.

Why should you care about meta descriptions? 43% of users click on a search engine result based on the meta descriptions.

Unlike product descriptions, meta descriptions aren’t meant to be in-depth. In fact, you only have 160 characters to work with. But your meta description should show the important information about a product.

These are the qualities of a well-written meta description:

• Relevant to the page
• Compelling
• Non-spammy
• Uses active voice
• Contains keywords

Meta descriptions don’t directly impact on your Google ranking. But a well-written meta description improves your click-through-rate (CTR). Your CTR has that direct impact on your ranking.

7. Set up your payment provider

You need to integrate your online store with a payment processor to accept payments. There are two options for you, merchant accounts and payment service providers.

A merchant account is a type of bank account that allows you to accept and process card transactions.  Essentially it is an agreement between the merchant and the acquiring bank that makes all the transactions simple.

A payment service provider (PSP) takes care of all aspects of sending and receiving payment, for a cut of the transaction. Popular PSPs are PayPal, Stripe, and Square.

If you use a payment processor for your in-store card transactions, then the choice is easy. You only need to check with your provider to see if they support online transactions (which most of them do).

But don’t forget to compare the costs of PSPs. Using more than one payment processor for your online store gives customers a variety of payment options.

PayPal is a very popular and trusted PSP that allows customers to make secure online purchases.

A study showed that 54% of customers are more willing to buy if you add PayPal as a payment option. And this holds true even if PayPal isn’t used for the final transaction.

8. Determine your shipping and return policy

We don’t like it, but returns are an unavoidable part of selling online. How you handle shipping and return will determine whether customers buy from you. 

This is because 67% of buyers check the return policy before making any purchase.

And 92% of customers will buy from you again if your returns process is easy.

Add transparency and build trust in your shipping and return policy by

• Create a clear and informative page for your shipping policies
• Give your customers enough time to return products
• Add direct links in your emails to frequently asked questions

Phase 2: Optimize and improve your eCommerce store

1. Choose a website design

You don’t have to go overboard with a flashy web design, but at the very least, you want your brand’s design to project a sense of professionalism.

Most e-commerce platforms come with premade design templates to quickly build a professional looking store.

This is a must as 38% of your site visitors will leave if your design is unattractive.

The best one for you is the one that allows you to balance professionalism with aesthetics.

You can always hire a web designer to create a custom design if you feel like you’re not getting what you need.

Just make sure that your design is helping the customer experience. It is important to keep pages free of clutter. Use simple navigation to make your customers’ lives easier.Don’t forget about the mobile experience of your site. 

The m-commerce share of the e-commerce market reached 72.9% in 2021.

More people use their smartphones to begin and end an online purchase, so your store’s design should be optimized for mobile users.

Source: merchant savvy

2. Improve your conversion rates based on best practices

In most cases, people shop online because it is convenient.

We don’t have to walk all the way to a brick-and-mortar store when we can get what we need from the comfort of our couch. KPMG discovered that the number one reason why people shop online is that they are able to shop at all hours of the day.

The following tips will help you hook customers that land on your site.

• Use an easy-to-understand website with clear navigation. Try to minimize the total number of clicks a customer has to make before checkout. 18% of customers claim a complicated checkout process as their reason for cart abandonment.
• Use white spaces on your website. White space helps you highlight your most important call-to-action (CTA). It also improves the legibility of your text.

3. Build out your product pages

Even if your meta description does a good job of driving traffic to your website, you still need great product pages to get people to complete their purchase.

87% of consumers rate product content highly when making a purchase decision.

If you make a sale, 50% of your shoppers will return the item if it doesn’t match the product description.

That’s how important your product page content is.

Product pages get the most traffic. 

Create your product pages using the right keywords. A keyword-rich product page will not only increase your organic traffic. It will also help visitors make a buying decision faster.

Some of the characteristics of a good product page are:

• A good product page should contain all the necessary information a buyer needs to arrive at a buying decision. This will also reduce returns.
• Make good use of social proof. Don’t be shy about flaunting testimonials and ratings. A study showed that testimonials can increase conversions by up to 34%.
• Use a consistent style for all your product pages.
• Use bullet points so your pages are easily readable.
• Add information on shipping and returns.
• If you sell clothes, display a size guide.

4. Don’t waste too much time on your homepage

Your homepage is the main webpage of your online store.

But in reality, most people land on other pages of your site through search. An ecommerce homepage is a very important page. Preferably telling your store’s story and guide people on their way. But you shouldn’t spend too much time tweaking it for your first launch.

5. Create SEO content

If you’re serious about driving organic traffic to your website, then you should focus on search engine optimization.

51% of all website traffic comes from organic search, so your store needs to be SEO-optimized. This isn’t about stuffing your website with keywords. 

Provide content that your customers will find valuable.A happy customer will always come back for more. And that customer might even refer more people to you.

The flywheel popularized by Hubspot

Do the following to start creating valuable content for your store.

• Include short descriptions in your category pages.
• Add banners to your brand page.
• Add FAQs to drive traffic from related search queries on Google. 
• If a product gets specific questions, add the answer to the product description.

Phase 3: Marketing your eCommerce website

Now the framework is in place, your online store is ready to run smoothly. You’ll need a marketing strategy to make sure sales take off.

How do you get started with marketing your online store?

If you already have a brick-and-mortar store (along with a customer base), it makes sense to  start from there. Make sure your customers know about your new website.You shouldn’t have much difficulty convincing your brick-and-mortar store customers to (also) use your online store.

Add your website’s link in your social media posts, your newsletter and refer to it in the store. 

But how should you market your eCommerce store? Let’s have a look.

1. Use social media to reach your customers

No matter what industry you are in, chances are, your audience is online and active on social media. According to Social Media Today, customers spend 20-40% more with companies that engage with them on social media.

Buffer reported that 58.8% of companies claim that social media is very important to their overall marketing strategy.

But how do you drive traffic from social media to your store? We know of organic social media marketing, and that can be a worthwhile endeavour it may take lots of time and effort to see the first results.

Luckily there is also social media advertising. 94% of companies using Facebook uses paid advertisements. This should tell you that social media advertising works.

4 quick tips for social media marketing success.

• Make sure that you promote only your best content and offers
• Try remarketing ads for customers that have recently interacted with your brand. Remarketing ads are more likely to convert website visitors by 43%.
• Set up shopping carts on your social media pages. Give your customers the chance to buy directly from social media platforms. This will help you target impulse buyers.
• Explore influencer marketing. Customers are very open to recommendations from their favorite influencer or niche expert. Influencer marketing is said to have an average ROI of $7.65 for every $1 spent.

2. Use email marketing to boost your sales

The success of email marketing is well documented. Your email marketing strategy can produce 3800% ROI if you know how to implement it correctly. And start with email marketing right when you launch your online store (or even earlier).

For some added success in ecommerce email marketing, follow these tips.

• Use contests, ads, and gated content to get people on your email list. Ebooks work well for gated content. You can easily create one with eBook creation software. Growing your email list is essential, you can have no email marketing strategy. Use targeted ads, lead magnets, or contests to entice people to your list.
• Segment your list. There are plenty of advantages of segmenting your list. It helps you decide quickly who your paying customers are. Also, you’ll stop sending irrelevant emails to your customers. \
• Make good use of cart abandonment emails. This strategy can significantly boost your sales. 68.1% of online shopping carts get abandoned. But 29.9% of cart abandonment clicks usually lead to a purchase. that’s a huge part of your revenue that could have slipped away.

Pro tip: To improve the results of your cart abandonment campaign, offer a coupon code or free shipping. This will compel people to complete their transactions. 

3. Research how to improve your conversion rate

As an online store, your conversion rate is critical to how fast you’ll be able to grow.

The average conversion rate for an e-commerce store is between 1-20%.

that’s, you’re expected to convert 2 out of every 100 web visitors you get.

It is not enough to drive traffic to your store. What these customers do when they land on your site is just as important.

Here are four tips to improve your online store’s conversion rate.

• Get to know more about your customers. Surveys are important if you want to understand your customers. Ask for feedback from your customers to know what they expect from you. Analyze your responses. If the feedback is about a particular product, consider adding it to your FAQ page. This will help inform future customers.
• Improve your website loading speed. Did you know that 64% of shoppers who are dissatisfied with their shopping experience will visit a new store the next time? One of the courses of this dissatisfaction is slow website loading speed. Your customer’s satisfaction reduces by 16% for every 1-second delay.

Your online store launch checklist

The steps outlined above will help you move from brick-and-mortar to the online space.

A lot of work goes into making this change successful. But these are proven methods. And they will work for you too.

Here’s a launch checklist to guide you on this journey.

1. Select your e-commerce platform: If you need help choosing the right platform for you, check out this in-depth review of the top e-commerce platforms.
2. Get the right domain name: Remember that your domain name must be easy to remember. If possible, aim for a dotcom domain. But if you can’t get that, use a variant or different domain extension like .shop.
3. Choose your launch product catalogue: Start with proven bestsellers. They will help you reach a wide audience quickly. The best items to sell online are those that are easily shipped with high-profit margins.
4. Research your competitors: Find out what makes your competitors successful. don’t just copy it. Discover the motive behind each tactic. And figure out how you can apply it to your store.
5. Create quality product descriptions: Your product description should motivate people to buy. Ensure that you include all the information a customer needs to arrive at a buying decision.
6. Set up your payment method: Choose multiple payment processors to begin accepting payment on your store. I recommend making PayPal one of your options.
7. Refine your shipping policy: Make sure that your customers are aware of your shipping and return policies. Be upfront with any expense they might have to bear.
8. Optimize your store: Learn about SEO, conversion optimization and design. Apply what you’ve learned to your webstore.
9. Start with marketing and sales: Get the word out there. Use marketing channels like social media, emails, and your storefront to let people know that you’re open for business online.

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