From Retail to e-Tail: How to Launch anEcommerce Website for Your Brick-and-Mortar Store

Are you ready to bring your brick-and-mortar store into the world of online shopping?

Building a virtual storefront from the ground up can feel like anoverwhelming experience.

You’ve probably noticed that there are dozens of SaaS products on the market claiming to ease yourtransition into ecommerce.

But how do you navigate this experience and maximize your resources? How do you find the right toolsand deploy them for maximum e�iciency?

There are 3 major pieces to this approach:

Laying the groundwork with pre-launch preparation.

Optimizing your store.

Marketing your store.

In this guide, we’ll look at each of these parts in detail, and you’ll learn how to transform your existingphysical store into an online shop—all while exploring various marketing strategies that keep customerscoming back again and again.

We’ll look at how three ecommerce professionals were able totransition from brick-and-mortar to online shopping.

Those three experts are:

Tommy Ekstrand, BigCommerce designer and SEO specialist.

Rohan Moore, founder and CEO of UK fashion company, Olive Clothing.

Tahnee Elliott, founder and CEO of T.C. Elli’s fashion company in the United States.

Best of all: You’ll learn how to do most of this without relying heavily on SaaS tools and marketingagencies.

Let’s get started.

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Lay the groundwork with some pre-launch preparation

1. Determine your primary customers.

There’s a lot of planning that goes into building a successful ecommerce website, which is why youshouldn’t rush into building your virtual storefront without doing first doing some strategic planning.

Before anything else, you need to answer the following questions:

1. Who are your primary customers?

2. How will they find your website?

For Tahnee Elliott, identifying and servicing her primary market was especially easy.

“Being in a college town, we have a lotof transient customers who go homeduring the summers and holidays,”she said

“The primary objective of launching the onlinestore was to give these customers a chance to buyour clothing while they were away from school forthe summer.”

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Generally speaking, primary customers are going to be the oneswho’ve already been consistently shopping at a brand’s brick-and-mortar store.

This existing customer base is a major advantage, as businesses can get a running start with an audiencethat’s already interested in the brand.

2. Choose your domain name.

The next challenge is determining how to redirect focus to your online presence—and to do this, youneed to pick a domain name where people can find you in the digital environment.

There are two ways you can go about picking your domain name:

1. Choose a catchy, SEO-friendly name that will resonate with your audience.

2. Stick with your current brand name.

Both approaches have their advantages.

An SEO-driven domain name gives you a chance to:

Rebrand your store.

Create an online marketplace that’s optimized for organic ranking and tra�ic.

The downside of choosing a new domain name is that you won’t be able to capitalize on the brandawareness you’ve developed with your brick-and-mortar business.

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With that said, choosing the right SEO-friendly domain name can makeit easier for your company to reach a larger audience—especially whencombined with a site that’s been optimized for text and voice search.

When BigCommerce designer Tommy Ekstrand helped his father come up with an online marketplacefor their brick-and-mortar paint store, they decided to go with a new domain name that was appealingto a wider audience.

“We ended up with an SEO-friendlyversion: US Paint Supply. We’veowned the family name website since1998, but that site is purelyinformational.

The decision to go with a more SEO-friendlydomain was to find something more universalacross our selling area (U.S. target audience).”

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Ultimately, if your online marketplace depends on organic tra�ic, youmight want to drop your brick-and-mortar name in exchange forsomething more SEO-friendly.

While it can be more work in the beginning stages as you create more awareness around your digitalbrand, it can help your brand in the long run as your organic SEO ranking increases more quickly.

3. Select initial products to place online.

Ideally, your inventory or services should be strategically chosen to appeal to a broader audience—especially when you’re just starting out.

If you’ve got a wide selection of products to choose from in your brick-and-mortar store, we recommendnarrowing your inventory down to approximately 100 of the best-selling items for your onlinemarketplace.

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“We started with o�ering tops, bottoms, shoes,dresses, and rompers,” said Tahnee.

“Of course, we added more as needed andreorganized so our list of categories andsubcategories evolved based on demand andtrends.”

When choosing products to carry online, make sure to choose items which are:

Top sellers in your brick-and-mortar store.

Items you receive special requests or calls for 2-3x per month.

The latter is especially important, as many customers have a hard time finding special inventory onecommerce sites.

Another great way to optimize your online inventory is by stocking itwith products that are nationally popular.

That way, you’re able to start out with an appeal to a wider audience (rather than only targeting specificsegments of the market.)

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4. Learn what your competition is doing.

To ensure that you’re o�ering a fair and competitive price for your products, you’ll want to look at whatsimilar online retailers are charging.

Don’t just look at the price retailers are charging for their products,look at the total cost as well (tax + shipping charges + service fees).

When conducting market research for US Paint Supply, Tommy noticed that these additional chargesmade up a significant portion of the total cost.

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“Shipping is o�en a big thing for online retailers asalmost everyone was charging an arm and a leg forshipping due to heavy products. Most of theproduct itself was priced moderately.

On Amazon, though, product prices were extremelyhigh because of their marketplace fees forsomeone to sell. Many of the products we sell thatalso sell on Amazon are nearly 2x the price overthere.”

5. Write custom page titles and meta descriptions.

When you’re trying to get your store launched ASAP, you won’t have time to write product descriptionsfor 100 or more items in your catalog.

Besides, full-length descriptions aren’t something you exactly want to rush through.

Fortunately, you can quickly come up with a collection of meta descriptions and page titles to get youronline marketplace operational in the meantime.

Here’s how:

1. Compile all your products and product data into a CSV file.

2. Use the following format for titles and meta descriptions:{Product Name} is a {type of product orcategory} used in/for {primary uses}.

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If your product happens to come in various sizes and colors, or if it’s important that your buyer knows itsdimensions, add those details in the meta description.

Remember: Your page titles and meta descriptions aren’t supposed to be in-depth.

You just want to get something custom on the page that highlightswhat you’re selling. You can always revisit and refine your descriptionsover time, expanding them a�er the site is up and running.

6. Take pictures of your inventory.

Did you know that using original photos rather than stock pictures can give you a much-needed SEOboost?

If you have a basic camera or smartphone, you can take professional-grade product photography foryour store. All you need is a piece of white paper to use as a background.

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“Original images and image descriptions helped usto rank far above other retailers using stock photos.Having alt tags on all images is absolutelynecessary.” Tommyy commented.

“Most of the time it’s just the product name andmaybe “- Front” or “- Back” or “- Side.” Since I sellpaint, some examples are ‘C2 LUXE Gallon in Satin’and ‘C2 LUXE Quart in Eggshell.’”

If you’re working in an industry like fashion or design, you’ll need to schedule extra time to takingquality product pictures—especially if your website involves models.

For Tahnee, who worked in an aesthetically-driven industry, taking pictures of inventory was one of themore time-consuming processes.

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“Next step was taking quality product pictures,which required investing in quality equipment andsourcing: a camera, tripod, professional lights,professional background, models, learning how toedit pictures, and training an employee to help.

Since we’re a clothing boutique, we’re heavy intovisual aesthetics, which needed to reflect ourbranding.

Of course, I thought I had a great game plan butsoon found out I needed a lot more training andequipment. Studying at night about photography,lighting, and modeling poses became a six-monthundertaking.”

Also, regardless of your industry, you may want to consider purchasing photo editing so�ware likePhotoshop and Lightroom.

Combined with a good quality camera, these tools are essential for creating attention-grabbing, lucidimages that help your website stand out.

7. Determine your shipping costs.

The last thing your customers want is to watch their total cost skyrocket at the end of checkout.

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Consumers don’t like unexpected fees, which is something you want tobe mindful of when setting your shipping costs and other fees.

We recommend going with a flat rate on shipping, as well as o�ering free or discounted shipping forcustomers who spend a certain amount of money.

In the case of Tommy and his father, they o�ered free shipping on orders over $100.

“This helps our conversion rate bysetting up total cost expectations rightaway and removing surprise costsduring checkout.

It also helps with organic advertising in SERPs(search engine results page) as a quick callout to“Free Shipping.” Consider a meta description thatsays ‘Free Shipping over $100’ at the end of it.”

Research shows online shoppers are o�en deterred by additional costs that pop up during checkout.

This method helped boost sales by giving the customer a clear idea of how much they’ll paythroughout the entire purchasing journey.

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Here are some ways you can use shipping costs to drive sales and reduce abandoned carts on yourwebsite:

Display shipping fees (as well as other expenses like taxes and processing fees) in a table on yourwebsite and/or item pages where customers can see.

O�er free or discounted shipping for customers who spend above a certain amount.

Add a line into your metadata to include the following in your itemdescription: Free/DiscountedShipping on orders over ___ to encourage customers to spend more,and increase your AOV.

8. Choose your payment methods.

There are two things you should keep in mind when choosing your payment methods:

1. What’s the easiest payment method to set up?

2. How can you accommodate a wider audience?

When it comes to maximizing convenience, Square is a must. It can be integrated into your digitalmarketplace in a couple of minutes and syncs with your brick-and-mortar inventory and checkout. 

Square also allows you to accept:

Apple Pay

Android Pay

Moreover, connecting Square POS with your BigCommerce store allows you to see all of your salesmetrics in a single dashboard. Keep track of sales performance, inventory and more across your onlineand o�line channels without having to manage multiple tabs. 

Square accepts all major credit and debit cards as payment. Great for brands that run an active brick-and-mortar shop, Square can be used to turn iPads and similar devices into point-of-sale systems whencoupled with a card reader.

For Tommy, accommodating the largest amount of customers was the motivating factor behind US PaintSupply’s accepted payment methods.

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9. Take care of your security and tax details.

Taxes and security are two things you want to make sure you have sorted before launching your store.Otherwise, you’ll run into issues later that could inhibit your growth and revenue.

The good news is that tax compliance has never been easier with the help of programs like:

Avalara: Designed to help ecommerce businesses of all sizes, Avalara automates calculations,exemptions, and filings to ensure that your company is tax compliant from day one. Also, itsplatform comes ready to integrate with more than 600 ecommerce and ERP applications.

TaxJar: Like Avalara, TaxJar automates filings, reporting, and sales tax calculations to ensure thatyour business doesn’t make any unnecessary compliance slip-ups. Moreover, TaxJar is trusted bymore than 10,000 organizations, including Coca-Cola, Dell, and the American Cancer Society.

You also want to make sure that your customers’ information isprotected from data breaches.

This can be done by adding an SSL certificate to your website. BigCommerce o�ers free SSL certificatesto all digital stores regardless of service plan and can easily walk you through the process of securingyour digital marketplace.

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“This is when I got into the other details of settingup an online store, including taxes – we use Avalara– importing products, and installing an SSL,” saidTommy.

“This is all standard stu� and the Bigcommercebackend walks you through these.”

10. Come up with an ironclad shipping and refund policy.

Unless your brick-and-mortar store is already a nationally recognized brand, you’re going to need tospend time building relationships with your customers.

One way to build trust between you and your shoppers is by being upfront about your shipping andrefund policies.

Create a webpage highlighting your shipping and return policies, as well as any other importantinformation the customer should know.

Provide links to frequently asked questions (FAQs) in your emails to customers.

When asked about ways to improve customer service and work more e�iciently, Tommy mentioned theimportance of linking to shipping and refund-related FAQs in his emails.

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“By providing links in emails, we wereable to prevent additional contactsthrough our customer supportchannels.

Typical questions were ‘What doesthis status mean’ or ‘When is my order going toship’ or ‘I need to return this,’ so making sure thatthose things are right up front in their emails theyreceive helps to deflect that stu�. It saves us timeand cuts service costs in the long-run.”

Make it easy for customers to return their products. Give shoppers a generous timeframe toreturn their items—we recommend a 20-day return window.

For many customers, returning online purchases can feel like a hassle.

Coming up with a refund policy that makes returns more e�icient is an important step towards buildingcustomer loyalty and increasing conversion rates.

BigCommerce o�ers a Return Request feature, which gives customers a return shipping label when theycomplete a return request online.

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When asked about her return policy at T.C. Elli’s, Tahnee had this to say:

“We wanted our brick and mortarreturn policy to be reflected online aswell. BigCommerce o�ered a ReturnRequest option which worked greatfor us!

Customers would need to complete a returnrequest in order to receive a return shipping labelfrom us. This way, we could confirm the itemwasn’t past the 20-day return window.”

Another way to make shipping more convenient is to use reusable boxes.

Eco-friendly packaging company, Ecoenclose, has solved this problem by creating resealable boxes. Thislets customers return their purchases in the same box they received.

Taking a more practical approach, Rohan Moore believes that good shipping starts with inventorymanagement.

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“For most retail products, warehousesare best organised with stacks ofpicking bins that can be numberedand labelled, so you know what’swhere when fulfilling orders.

I’d recommend adopting these principles early,even if your ‘warehouse’ is a cupboard under thestairs.”

11. Build organic SEO content.

Have you uploaded your products, written your meta descriptions, and put a checkout system in place?

If so, your store is ready to go live.

That means it’s time to focus on building organic SEO content that attracts visitors to your website.

In the beginning, focus on inbound marketing techniques:

Build content.

Engage with customers on social media.

Write SEO-driven product descriptions.

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Don’t worry too much about how your website looks as long as it’sfunctional. We’ll get to aesthetics later—for now, focus on basic SEO.

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Optimizing your ecommerce store

A�er your website is up and running, it’s time to build upon the framework you created in the daysleading up to your store launch.

This is where you’ll start to focus on the aesthetics of your site, as well as continue the ongoing processof building good SEO content.

1. Choose a design for your website.

Unless you’re in a field like design or fashion, you don’t need to have an overly flashy website.

Most customers prefer functionality over creativity.

With that said, you don’t want to neglect your website design completely—it still needs to lookprofessional.

BigCommerce o�ers a number of di�erent themes and templates that make it easy for you to design asite that looks both professional and aesthetically pleasing.

But what you really need to focus on is mobile responsiveness.

Mobile commerce made up nearly 60% of digital sales in 2017.

Google prioritizes sites that are optimized for mobile devices.

Customers are 62% less likely to purchase from sites that aren’t optimized for mobile devices.

In today’s market, it’s absolutely essential for your ecommerce site to be mobile responsive. If not, yourun the risk of turning away new and returning customers.

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2. Boost conversion rates by enhancing your design.

Look at ways you can improve your website’s design and improve user experience (UX).

Customers buy online for convenience, so it’s only natural that your website should be designed to makethe shopping experience as convenient as possible.

A good customer service policy doubles as an e�ective conversionstrategy.

For this reason, Rohan recommends launching your website with a ticketing system in place.

“Similarly with customer services,you’ll get in a mess with customerqueries over orders and returnswithout a formal ticketing system.Integrate one from the outset — don’tbelieve that an organised inbox will su�ice.”

Here are some other ways you can increase conversions through design optimization:

Reduce the number of clicks on checkout by defaulting to guest checkout or pre-selectingshipping methods.

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Organize your inventory into categories and subcategories based on demand or market trends.

Arrange your menu items into easy-to-understand categories.

Include trust seals like: SSL certificates, accepted credit cards, payment gateway.

3. Don’t spend too much time tweaking your homepage.

There’s a good chance that most of your tra�ic will come from people searching for products or tra�icbeing directed through your landing pages.

While your homepage is important, your product pages are where youwant to devote most of your time perfecting your design.

“Very few people search for our brandor store by name,” admitted Tommy .

“They’re searching for the products wecarry and therefore landing directly onthose product pages”

4. Start working on your product descriptions.

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Now that all the heavy work is out of the way, it’s time to start writing product descriptions.

While your meta descriptions did a fine job directing tra�ic to your website, there’s nothing moree�ective than a rich product description that captures the visitor’s attention to increase organic tra�ic—especially when the right keywords are used.

“Product descriptions were fairlystraightforward and simple until wediscovered that keyword-richdescriptions benefited the customerin their buying journey,” suggestedTahnee.

“It decreased the number of customer servicephone calls and emails, which were few and farbetween at first but gradually ramped up in 2014and 2015”

But there’s more to e�ective product descriptions than good SEO.

You also want to summarize your products in a way that connects withyour customers.

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Here’s how:

Be consistent with your style.

Use well-written headlines that capture the reader’s attention.

Use bullet points to summarize important information and product specifications.

5. Continue writing SEO content.

As the saying goes, “Content is king.”

Developing SEO-driven content isn’t something you do once o�—it’san ongoing process.

A large part of what makes ecommerce websites successful is the content. You want to always havefresh, meaningful content that benefits your readers in one way or another.

Here are some ways you can create content that adds value to your site:

Add content onto your brand pages using banners so that your products remain above the fold.

Include short descriptions in your category pages—be brief enough to keep products above thefold.

Create an FAQ page to drive tra�ic from people searching Google for similar questions.

Also, if you ever get any questions related to a specific product, consider adding the question andanswer in your FAQ page or as part of a product description.

This will help direct more tra�ic to your site from people looking for specific products.

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Marketing your ecommerce website

While a solid business strategy and optimized website are important for converting leads, you still needa good marketing plan to get your ecommerce business o� the ground.

If you’re a smaller company, we recommend doing your own digital marketing rather than outsourcing itto an agency.

That way, you’ll get a better idea of your customers’ needs and expectations as you interact with themon social media.

“If you’re a small player, tackling thetechnical and strategic challenges ofdigital marketing directly — with anoverwhelming focus in the socialmedia space — will educate you moreabout your customers,” suggested Rohan.

“And which products and content they relate with,than any market research or agency insights.”

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By running your own marketing campaign, you’ll be able to seefirsthand which type of content engages your audience the most.

Next, let’s take a deeper look at how you can create a digital marketing strategy that takes your businessto the next level.

1. Improve your website’s performance with Google Search Console.

Google Search Console (GSC) lets you compare a list of keywords on your site with a list of keywordsusers commonly search for, as well as see just how many impressions your keywords are getting.

To do this, simply:

Go to the Search feature and turn on all data times (CTR, clicks, impressions, position)

Sort your keywords and phrases by impression, making note of which words and phrases are thehighest ranking

From there, you’ll be presented with a ranked list of keywords and phrases which helps you see how wellyour keywords are performing.

When asked about increasing keywords impressions, Tommy had this to say:

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“Know that moving from position 50 up to 10 oreven 20 is going to be extremely di�icult. Considerpaying for these (AdWords) if you know they’llconvert.”

There are a number of other third-party tools that can help your business grow. However, Rohan warnsagainst new businesses depending heavily on marketing and management tools.

“There is an ever-growing catalogue ofSaaS products on the market, o�enpromising solutions to growth andconversion that all e-com storeowners are anxious to enhance.

It’s not a mistake to see e-com as an opportunity toexpand sales without property costs, but SaaS isundoubtedly the new rent.”

When asked what tools he felt new online businesses should rely on, Rohan had this to say:

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“To avoid the digital rent doing to theprofitability of your website what yourproperty rent already does to yourbricks-and-mortar profitability, limitthose SaaS subscriptions to three coreproducts: your shopping cart, your warehousemanagement system, and your online customerservices ticketing system.”

2. Apply GSC’s keyword list to your website.

The benefit of GSC’s keyword is that it helps you get a better idea of the type of keywords and phrasespotential customers are searching for.

You can then incorporate this information into your titles, product descriptions, meta descriptions, andimage tags for an added SEO boost.

You can even change product names and URL addresses to fit these keywords—just remember toimplement a 301 redirect.

3. Come up with an outbound marketing strategy.

You read that correctly.

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Outbound marketing still plays an important role in generating brandawareness and engaging with customers.

Here are some tools to help you reach out to loyal and prospective customers:

Mail A�er Purchase (MAP) post-purchasing reviews from Yotpo surveys customers a�er they’vemade a purchase.

Social Bribery widget by Justuno makes it easier for you to run incentivization campaigns,rewarding your customers for sharing your products with their friends on social media.

Use Smile.io to enroll customers in loyalty, VIP, and referral programs.

Emailed coupon discounts for abandoned checkout carts.

When asked what he suggests new businesses spend their marketing budget on, Rohan placed value inmarketing tools over outsourcing.

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“Many fledgling (and some established) onlinebusinesses are enticed, for every £100 they spendin digital marketing, to pay another £100 to be toldhow to spend it.

Taking the wheel and spending all £200 on actualmarketing will give you both results and experiencethat will form the backbone of your longer-termstrategy.”

4. Explore di�erent ways to increase conversion rates.

As you may have guessed, conversion rates is a topic that is constantly featured throughout this guide.

Converting visitors into loyal customers is how you’re going to growyour businesses, and it’s something that needs to be in the forefront ofyour mind as you design your website, interact with customers, andcome up with a solid marketing strategy.

Here’s how you can increase conversions while marketing your ecommerce site:

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Survey customers. Gather feedback from customers whenever you can, and include theirfeedback into your product descriptions and FAQ sections—especially if customers are inquiringabout a product’s specifications. This will help the lurking visitors who want to learn more but arereluctant to contact your customer support.

Use Google Analytics to pinpoint any drop-o� points. If there’s ever a sudden dip in yourwebsite tra�ic, look at factors that could’ve caused it and correct any issues that inhibited yourconversions.

Minimize your website loading time. More than half your visitors will leave your website if ittakes longer than three seconds to load. Prevent this from happening by optimizing your site forspeed.

When asked how he increased his website’s speed, here’s what Tommy recommended:

“Compress images, load JavaScript inasync mode or defer, minify all CSSand JavaScript files or combine ifpossible. If an app that requires extraJavaScript isn’t performing, removeit.”

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Executive Summary and Launch Checklist

There’s a lot of work that goes into launching an ecommerce site that accompanies your brick-and-mortar store. But you can help make your launch go as smoothly as possible by remembering thefollowing tips:

Convenience and UX of your website are more important than looks. Give your customers aseamless website that’s quick and easy to navigate through. And don’t forget to include morethan one type of payment option.

Make SEO your top priority. Look at ways to incorporate keywords into your descriptions,metadata, and headings. If you think it’s information that the customer would benefit fromknowing, add it to your page.

Be up front with your policies. Make sure customers are informed about your return policy,shipping fees, and other expenses they may incur. Also, give them step-by-step instructions onhow they can return a product without them asking you beforehand.

Constantly explore various ways to increase conversion rates. Consumer preferences changeover time, and if you don’t change with them, you’re not going to get the growth you’d hoped for.Never stop optimizing your website design, SEO content, and marketing strategy for conversions.

Focus on the important things first. Get your products online, create a site that works, andimplement a good SEO strategy. These three things need to be taken care of before you worryabout making your site look visually appealing.

Don’t be surprised if your online sales lag in the first couple of quarters a�er going live. In fact,many businesses report that following the initial launch of their ecommerce site, their brick-and-mortar stores benefit from a huge boost in sales as customers browse selections online and makepurchases at the physical stores.

In the first two years of her website launch, Tahnee recalls just how much her ecommerce site influencedbrick-and-mortar sales:

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“The online store wasn’t a hugesuccess at first but it was huge fordriving foot tra�ic to our local brickand mortar shop.

I initially leveraged it as a marketingtool. Girls would get online during class to see ournew arrivals and then stop by the store a�erward totry on the pieces they loved online.

In 2015, just two years a�er the launch of the onlinestore, our brick and mortar sales tripled!”

When it comes time to enhance the look and feel of your site, try using a powerful developmentplatform like Stencil by BigCommerce.

Stencil makes it possible to get the best of both worlds—a beautifullydesigned website that o�ers a smooth, sleek build that’s easy tonavigate.

Growing your high-volume or established business?

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“I’ve worked with all sorts of front-endsystems,” says Tommy.

“And [Stencil] is by far the mostadvanced, capable and well-thoughtthrough. I’m psyched to get to rebuildmy own store using Stencil, I hope to see a 10-20%increase in conversion from the changeover.”

By following this step-by-step guide to migrating your brick-and-mortar store over to ecommerce, you’llhave a greater chance of seeing as much as 50% growth over the course of the following year.

Interested in learning more ways to get the most from digital storefront? See how 12 online companiesused a popular brick-and-mortar business tactic to maximize sales.

Growing your high-volume or established business?

Start your 15-day free trial, schedule a demo or give us a call at 1-866-581-4549.