In this weeks episode, we dive into the second half of the Online Store Success Checklist. Ali Dee, your host, will first quickly review the first five items you want to make sure you've got set up on your store, and then will breakdown the final five.
Join us inside the TRENDSETTER membership here.
Work with me in The Sales Lab, DM me SALES on IG or TT for the deets
Follow the Retail Success Club on TikTok and Instagram @retailsuccessclub
In this weeks episode, we dive into the second half of the Online Store Success Checklist. Ali Dee, your host, will first quickly review the first five items you want to make sure you've got set up on your store, and then will breakdown the final five.
Join us inside the TRENDSETTER membership here.
Work with me in The Sales Lab, DM me SALES on IG or TT for the deets
Follow the Retail Success Club on TikTok and Instagram @retailsuccessclub
This episode of boutique success club is brought to you by boutique blastoff launch your dream boutique. have you been wanting to turn your dream of owning a successful boutique into reality? Let me introduce you to boutique blastoff launch your dream boutique. The ultimate online course designed to guide you. Step-by-step on your boutique journey. Hi, I'm Allie D your boutique bestie and chief cheerleader in this program, you'll gain the knowledge, confidence, and strategies to build a thriving boutique that stands out from the crowd. So what are you waiting for? Start the journey to launching your dream boutique today with. Boutique blast off. Head to boutique success club.com to enroll now. Welcome to Boutique Success Club. I'm Allie d, the founder of Boutique Success Club, your boutique bestie, and your chief cheerleader with over a decade of experience in the retail industry trenches. I'm here to help you skyrocket your store. Get ready to dive into insider strategies and educational resources that will transform your boutique business. No more guesswork. No more struggling alone. We'll be your partner in this journey, and together we will conquer all the obstacles. This is Boutique Success Club. Welcome back to the boutique success club podcast. I am of course, super pumped to continue on our journey. This is part two. Of the two part series. checking out your online store success checklist. So we are going to talk about the 10 things that are so important to set you up for success with your online store. Hopefully you're using Shopify, but if not any e-commerce platform we'll do. I just want to make sure that you are taking note of each and every single one of these items on our checklist. So you can be implementing them and also doing like an audit, a self audit to see how you fare and each one of these items. So we've been through the first five. Now we're going to continue on to the second five but just to quickly recap In case you miss part one, this is going to be like a little bit of a cheat sheet for you. A cliff notes, if you will. First of all, here's the first five we've got clear branding. So you want to make sure your boutique website has distinct memorable branding that customers will easily recognize and know, it's you also, number two, you're going to want to have high quality product images. We talked about how this is really, really important in order for you to gain trust with your customers. Especially when you're just getting started. They want to see nice high quality product images, because for some reason, when we see low Rez, we just think low quality and then we think spammy and then we think. We can't trust you. That's number two, number three, those compelling product descriptions. So you're going to want to write engaging and persuasive product descriptions. Remember that speak directly to who your ideal customer is. So you're going to want to speak like them in your product descriptions. This again is going to gain trust. They're going to feel comfy cozy when they read your product descriptions, because it's something that they can really relate to. Remember. We talked about the voice being either sassy or professional or corporate. Or fun or whatever it is that your ideal customer will relate with. That's how you want to write your product descriptions. Next number four, we talked about simple navigation. How important it is for you to create a website that is easily navigated, meaning there's two to three clicks max, where customers can find exactly where they want to get. We talked about not lumping all of your products under one never-ending category called shop. We talked about breaking them down into exactly what they are. If it's a top or a bottom and accessory breaking it down, even farther into a necklace bracelet, whatever that is. Okay. And lastly, in part one, we talked about mobile optimization. How important it is. To understand really that almost all consumers are shopping now from their cell phones. So you immediately want to check your phone, go to your website and see what does your website look like on your cell phone? Can you see all the texts? Can you see the fonts? Are they readable? Are your pictures looking okay? Is everything clicking? How it's supposed to click or something's off screen? You just want to make sure it's optimized for your mobile again, because pretty much everybody is shopping mobile. That was the super quick recap. And if you haven't already, I want you to go back to the episode before this and listen to it. It's part one. Of the online store success checklist and i just want to make sure you nail those down because each and every one of them is so important and you can't really set yourself up for success for selling online unless you conquer all of those so go back review what you need to fix with those and then now we're going to move on to the final five items that i want to make sure you have really nailed on your website So the first item we're going to focus on today in part two is having an email list sign up. I know this is something that is just on the back burner for you. You've been meaning to do it. You, you know how important email marketing is by? You're just not taking the action to put it into place yet on your store. My boutique besties, you are missing out on one of the most reliable sources of revenue in e-commerce period. Every single major retail chain, major boutique major store. Is using email marketing to reach their customers on a regular basis. I'm talking weekly, if not daily. They are converting customers into sales, via email marketing, popping in their email box every single day, offering them, promotions or coupons or just listing new products, announcing new arrivals, making sure they are top of mind with their customers. There's two reasons. This is so important. Number one, these folks actually opted in to receive your emails, which means they already like you, they already know you. They like what you have to sell. they're vibing with you. They feel like you have something that they're going to like in the future. So that's really, really awesome. And secondly, why this is so important is because, like I mentioned that top of mind awareness, this is what marketing is all about. You want to get in front of your ideal customers. As much as possible because you want them to remember you when they're thinking about how they need a new pair of jeans or they need some new boots, new shoes, new accessories, you want to be the person that pops into their mind first. So maybe they're checking their email during the day at work. And here comes your cute little sales email, and you have some products that they've been thinking about. Oh yes, I actually need acute jacket to wear this weekend. Let me hop on this website. I've already been there once or twice. Maybe they haven't purchased. Just from you yet, but they've visited your site. Obviously they gave you their email address. So now is the perfect opportunity for them to buy. If you're not emailing these customers. You're basically just throwing away money. It's just might as well, just put little wings on the cash and just fly out the door because you have them to your site, which is one of the hardest things. Just getting them to. Your website, Then they actually opted into your email list, sign up, which is triple double bonus. So now not only have they been to your website, they've decided that they like you enough to give you the email address. Now it's on you. It's like dating, someone's giving you their contact information and you don't call them. They're going to be like, okay, well, I guess they're not interested in me and it's going to be the same thing for the customer. It's just going to be. Out of sight out of mind, they're going to forget about you because there are so many competitors that are willing to take the time and the energy and learn what it takes to be in their inbox and to get the sales. That you're going to miss out on those sales It's something that's so simple and so easy to learn. I don't want you to get discouraged. I don't want you to think it's too complicated or something you can't do, or you're not techie enough. Like I always say you can learn all the things, knowledge and action, the two most important things that are going to help you be successful with your online store. So learn about email marketing. I teach all of this in the boutique success bundle. You guys know this. If you're in there already, if you're not, I strongly suggest you hop in there because one of the coolest things about the boutique success. Bundle. Is that not only do I provide the knowledge, but I also tell you the action. I tell you what you need to be doing, how to implement these things. So you're not just learning, learning, learning, you're learning and taking action learning and taking actions. So check out that boutique success bundle. We go over email marketing there as well. How important it is, how to do it in all the things. So that's the very first one. Now for the second one, let's talk about social media integration. So this is second on our checklist today. Remember we have the final five to go through since number two of five social media integration. What does that mean? You're going to want to make sure on your Shopify site or e-commerce platform that you have connected your social media platforms at the very least through links that are usually easily accessible for you to just pop in that information in the. Template I know on Shopify, there is you just click the social platforms type in your links. That'll go directly to your social media.'cause a lot of times when people find your site and maybe it was from like a Google search, they search something and they came across your site. They don't know you. So they're trying to like fish around and figure out what you're all about. More than likely they are going to hop onto your social media pages because they want to see that you're active on social media. You have real followers. You're answering questions or answering comments. This is why I say it's always so important to interact with your customers on social media, because you don't know what buyers are hiding in the background. Just, you know, like watching you with their goggles from behind the scenes, checking to see, is this a real store? Do they reply to comments? What's the customer service. Like, I'm not going to give them my credit card if they're just ghosting everybody on social media. So, I guess this is kind of twofold important you needed available on your Shopify website. So people can go to your social media and check out more about you. But also to check you out and make sure that you are a real true, truly vetted store and not just a random spammy website, which that is just the worst place to end up falling. And it's really hard to come back from that. You just want to make sure if someone's coming to your site for the first time. You are giving them every opportunity to trust you. So this is your job as the store owner, make sure that everything you can do to possibly set you up for success has been done. And these things are so easy. This is nothing crazy. Nothing hard, nothing you can't do. You just have to remember to do them. So that's why we got this awesome checklist. Oh, by the way. If you, um, don't have a notebook with you and you're not, feverously taking notes, you can grab the online store success checklist for free. Just go to boutique success club.com. Um, Scroll down you'll see it there it's called online store success checklist you can download it for free and you could follow along with us or um you know download it later to make sure you are circling and making notes on what to improve on or things you need to work on okay let's talk about the third one Let's go over basic SEO set up. So don't get scared. I know SEO can be very intimidating, especially when you're just getting started. I honestly love it. It's like one of my favorite things to do on a Friday night is work on my SEO. I know I'm so nerdy, but I just love the idea that we have the capabilities. To reach exactly who we want to reach. If we can figure out our SEO. And if we implement it properly, This is so valuable to our businesses. And this is one thing that I think a lot of people think this is just too hard for me, or I can't learn it, or the terms are too weird or what does SEO even mean? All that kind of stuff can end up being a roadblock for you or a. Road hazard that you're not even willing to go past and figure out, and I'm telling you, now you can do this. It's basic search engine optimization. So elements like your meta titles. I know a weird word, but it's just a product title. That's in a specific area. Your descriptions and your alt tags. All of this is going to improve your site's visibility on search engines. so the better seo you have the more likely google or a search engine is going to be able to find you and zap you to the person searching for what you have A great basic place to start. If you're on Shopify, you go to your product page, you scroll all the way down to the bottom. You'll see the SEO area down there. So you can adjust your product title there to represent something that's more specific to what you think is searchable, which you can also do keyword research and all that. I'll do a whole podcast episode on SEO, but I just want you to have the basics down the basic concept, the understanding, and know if you need to improve here or not. Um, so again, you can scroll down on your Shopify. You'll see, in the products section, you'll see at the very bottom where you can set up your basic SEO, you can enter in your meta title, titles, your description. And then also when you upload a picture to your Shopify platform for a specific product, you can click on it and add alt tags. And this is just another way that Google uses like their weird. Background, whatever algorithm and thingy. To figure out what your picture is about, what your product is about. And if it is in fact, relatable to whoever is searching for something similar to what you have, all tags are originally set up to help the visually impaired. So we want to be cautious of that and understanding of that. So using those three things again, that's meta titles, descriptions and all tags. That's your three basics you want to focus on when you're just getting started with SEO. Real quick boutique bestie. I know you've been thinking about building and growing your own boutique. It's that beautiful dream that you have in your mind, but maybe you just need like a little push forward. That's why I created the boutique success bundle. If you are tired of the overwhelm, the guesswork, the confusion, then this all in one bundle is for you. I break down everything into modules. It's a step-by-step process where we are building the foundation, setting you up for success. It also has every single guide I have ever created right there and an easy to access dashboard plus Q and a with me, if you get stuck. So if you've been thinking about jumping in now is the time go to boutique success club.com and join us today in the boutique success bundle. This next one's a biggie. And a lot of people rush through it because they just want to get it done and get it over with, but it's your customer support information. So this is a really important. Step in our checklist to make sure you have done. So you can again, gain the trust of the customers, visiting your site right off the bat. They want to know that if anything goes wrong, there's a way to reach you. So have a good, clear contact us page, where you have, maybe you have a form there. They can fill out, include an email address. Maybe there's a phone number. You want them to reach out, tell them right there the best way to reach you. If it's that form say. The best way to reach us is by filling out this form. dot.dot. We promise a real person reads every single one of these. So they're, they're not just thinking they're sending some form off into Lala land and no one's ever going to get it. I always like to include a little personality wherever I can on my site. I think it helps people connect with us and know that we're real people here we're really like working day in and day out to ship your orders and make sure everything going is going out as planned. And I think it's important for you to include that, to add a little personality again, whatever your ideal customer will like. Be sure you include that in the contact us page. Also, this is going to include your policy section for like your shipping. your returns, your exchange information, all of that needs to be clearly noted on your website in case anyone has any questions it's already been answered. Like how long do you have for a return policy? does it need to be a new unworn condition? Like all of those things need to be crystal clear. How long does it take you to ship an order? Is it usually three to five business days? Is it one business day? Are you like the fastest person in the world? And it's like a six hour turnaround time. All those things that are important for customers visiting your website to know you want to make sure it's easy for them to find. The worst thing is if someone comes to your website and they're digging around and they want to know before they give you their credit card information, that you're like a real thing. And they go to find some kind of contact information, just anything. To ease their mind a little bit and they'll feel like, okay, this is a real website that I can purchase from. and that information is just simply missing. So make sure you have a nice, clear contact us page, and then don't forget your policy pages like your shipping and your return and your exchange information. Okay. And the last one for our online store success checklist is going to be a secure checkout. This is something we've talked about last episode, this episode, this whole thing is building trust because once people trust you. They're more likely to buy from you. They need to know that when they're giving you their bank information, their credit card information. That it's going to be a secure process. So you want to make sure there's multiple payment options because people are comfortable with different things. For example, my customers, some of them love PayPal. They only want to check out with PayPal. They think it's the most secure thing. That's what they love. They feel very, um, safe using it. They like that. It's easy. One click their stuff's already in there. They don't have to go find their purse, dig out their credit card information, all that. A lot of our customers love paying with PayPal. And we know this because we can sort by payment type and see that PayPal is a very popular option. So we want to always make sure that that's available to our customers, because if we took that away, would we lose a lot of sales? Because those that love PayPal are just simply not willing to get up and go get their credit card. They just want to do the one click thing, or maybe they just trust it more than typing in their credit card into a site they've never purchased before. So PayPal is a really big one for us. A lot of people like other types of payment options though. So just make sure, you know, there's things like apple pay and All kinds of ways to make payments and make sure you can provide as many as you possibly can. Usually like for Shopify, it'll just like click a million of them. Roll with that. the more, the better again, there's also shot pay and that's really cool. there's also offering things like after pay, which is kind of like a payment plan option. so just make sure there's as many possible ways for people to pay you as possible. Again, this is all stuff that we talk about and breakdown in the boutique success bundle. It's my all in one package. It's the thing that I think is the absolute best. For any store owner, that's either just getting started opening their store, or maybe you're not seeing the results that you think you should be seeing yet. Maybe you've been open a year, year and a half, six months. And you're like, ah, What am I doing wrong? Why am I not seeing the sales that I'm expecting? Hop in the boutique success bundle. Download it. it's a really cool dashboard where when you log in, you're going to be able to have access to so much amazing resources and also really cool worksheets and workbooks and checklists and ways that you can be taking action. If you have all the knowledge in the world, but you take no action. You're going to get nowhere. If you just are taking all kinds. Kinds of random action, but you have no knowledge on exactly what you're supposed to be doing. Then you're going to end up chasing your tail and moving in all the wrong directions. so it really takes the combination of the two they work together in synergy it's knowledge and action and that is the whole basis of boutique success bundle to make sure you're getting those two things getting them equally and being able to really start getting results So that's the 10 things that are going to set you up for success with your online store. And I want to quickly just go over all of them again, one through 10. If you're making notes, now's a good time to grab your notebook, um, or just make mental notes or again, go download this checklist for yourself. It's absolutely free. Just go to boutique success club.com. Look for online store success, checklist and boom skis. It'll be right there in your inbox. Okay, so let's review. We have the clear branding. We have high quality product images. We have compelling product descriptions. You want to make sure you've got simple navigation. You want to make sure your mobile optimization is done? Next be sure. You've got your email list. Sign up, ready to roll your social media integration, meaning you've connected your social media profiles to your store. Your basic SEO setup. Your customer support information. Remember that contact us page, that shipping return exchange information. And then finally your secure checkout. All right. Now, you know, all of the 10 things right there that are going to set up your store for success. I'm so excited that you are willing to take action, right? Boutique bestie. You're going to circle the ones that you need to work on. Check off the ones that you think you've nailed and really start getting to work, learn how you can make each one of these items that you need to improve on better. Well, thank you so much for listening to part two of this two part series for your online store success checklist. Remember if you need anything at all, you can always go to boutique success club.com, check out all the different options that we have. I highly suggest you check out that boutique success bundle. I can't say it enough. I'm obsessed with it. Oh, and I also am updating it as I get more and more questions from you guys and we connect more and I see what you really get stuck on and need help doing. I actually add that into the bundle. So it's kind of evergreen. Ever-growing like, I just added a boost your online sales module, because I felt like that was a question I was getting over and over and over again. Then I created this checklist because I saw, oh, wow, we actually need like a baseline of where to start so we can see exactly what we need to work on. So I'm constantly improving and adding and changing and evolving as I hear what your needs are. So please feel free to contact me. You can hit me up on Instagram at boutique success club or Tik. Uh, talk at boutique success club. And again, thank you so much for listening to this episode, we will catch up next week. Hey, thanks so much for listening to this episode of the boutique success club. Don't forget to subscribe and give us a five-star review. It really helps us grow and reach more boutique besties. have a great day and go get them.