Selling on Shopify: How To Set Up An ECommerce Store

Selling on Shopify: How To Set Up An ECommerce Store

by | Nov 24, 2021 | Analytics Reporting, Root & Roam Blog, Website

Selling on Shopify – As the world is ever-changing, more and more people are doing their shopping online. From basic necessities to clothing and groceries, just about everything is available for purchase through the World Wide Web. Perhaps you have a brick and mortar store or you’re just getting started and seek only to sell online, but you just don’t know where to start. There are numerous ecommerce-specific platforms available, but the ecommerce experts here at Root & Roam agree that Shopify is the gold standard. 

Shopify is a full featured, robust platform that handles the most nitty gritty of online selling. They have made it simple to process payments, create shipping labels, and design the actual look and feel of your website all in one place. Shopify has even built in various high-powered and highly effective ecommerce marketing tools. Gone are the days of confusing, clunky, hard-coded ecommerce websites. So, just how do you set up a Shopify store? Read on for our expert guide.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

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Selling on Shopify

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How to set up a Shopify store

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Utilize ecommerce marketing

HOW TO SET UP A SHOPIFY STORE

First things first—Shopify offers a 14-day free trial, and, once your trial period has expired, Shopify offers three tiers ranging in price from $29 to $299 per month. All of these plans will get the job done. However, the higher tiers give you access to more features like advanced reporting and deeper discounts on shipping. Advanced reporting in Shopify allows you access to reports such as a live view of your website, customer statistics, information on how your customers find your website, and more. Once you have selected the plan that best fits your needs, the setup process begins and consists of the following steps:

Choose a Shopify Theme.

Shopify offers several free themes, as well as third party paid themes in their Shopify theme store. The free themes are definitely enough to get you started. However, if you want more styling options and features, you’ll want to browse through the paid themes. Shopify’s themes are all mobile-friendly, and you won’t have to worry about configuring for mobile devices. Once you’ve chosen a theme, you can start customizing it and plugging in your content as you see fit. Don’t forget to develop your navigation, customize your checkout pages, and add legal pages like a privacy policy and terms of use.

Create Your Products.

Adding your products is relatively straightforward. Shopify has all of the necessary fields within their product listing sections. Be sure to complete as many fields as possible and use thorough, keyword-heavy product descriptions. Add high-resolution images that showcase different views of each product. Input pricing, skus, inventory, etc., for each product. You’ll also need to categorize each product into the appropriate “collection.” The collection a product belongs to will determine how the products are displayed on your website.

Determine Payment Methods.

What payment methods do you plan to accept? You’ll need to set this up in Shopify settings. Will you accept all major credit cards? What about Apple Pay, Google Pay, Amazon Pay, or PayPal? It is during this step that you will also need to provide your business information so that you can receive payouts.

Configure Shipping.

The possibilities are endless when it comes to your shipping terms. Do you plan to offer free shipping, flat rate shipping, or calculated shipping? Are you able and willing to ship internationally, or do you plan to only ship domestically? Will you use multiple carriers or stick with one tried-and-true option? It is imperative to determine your shipping structure up front and configure all options to match. If you plan to offer real-time, calculated shipping rates at checkout, you will need to shop and install a third party app from the Shopify app store.

Don’t Forget to Collect Tax.

Depending on the types of products you sell, where you are shipping them, and where you are physically located, you will need to configure the tax section in Shopify settings. Obviously, it is important to comply with all state and federal tax guidelines.

Test and Retest Your Store.

Once you have set up your Shopify store, it’s imperative that you test all aspects. Click around the front side to ensure all links are properly configured. Check to be sure your products are categorized in a way that makes sense and your product listings and individual product pages appear as you want. Add products to your cart, and walk through the checkout process, paying close attention to shipping options and the collection of taxes. Essentially, do anything and everything to try to “break” your site or the rules you’ve set in place. If everything operates as it should, you’re ready to go live!

    HOW TO UTILIZE ECOMMERCE MARKETING

    Shopify offers an assortment of ecommerce marketing tools to help you make more sales. One of the simplest ways to grow your audience is by encouraging visitors to sign up for email newsletters or SMS (text) updates, special offers, and announcements. Once you’ve gained these leads, you can build marketing campaigns to drum up site visits and increase conversions. You’ll want to use a third party service like Klaviyo, Omnisend, MailChimp, or Wishpond to create flows and push customers or potential customers through the funnel. If you choose to run SMS campaigns, be sure to meet all legal obligations in your Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy!

    Shopify Abandoned Cart Emails

    Another simple marketing tool that Shopify offers is abandoned cart emails. These emails are sent out at a specified time if a shopper places items in their cart but does not complete the checkout process. Shopify offers basic abandoned cart emails, but to really make the process more robust, it is recommended to use a third party service like Klaviyo. According to Shopify Partner Ezra Firestone, “Ecommerce customers who receive multiple abandoned shopping cart emails are 2.4 times more likely to complete the purchase than those who receive only one follow up email. And customers who receive multiple abandoned cart emails have a multiple transaction rate 44 percent higher than those who didn’t.”*

    Shopify Integrations

    Shopify integrates with several other platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Google to boost your efforts to the next level. You can use these integrations to build ad audiences to retarget and upsell your current customers, build like audiences that would be interested in your business based on the profiles of those who are already your customers, and re-engage users who visited your website but did not complete a purchase. Use a free Shopify app like Kit to build targeted social media ads and campaigns. (Kit is free, but you will pay social media platform fees for running ads.) 

    The ecommerce marketing options are truly endless. However, anything beyond basic needs will require the use of a third party app. When you find the one that fits all your needs, the cost is well worth it!

      Shopify Best Practices

      Now that your Shopify store is up and running, and you’ve got some ecommerce marketing campaigns in place, it’s time to enjoy the fruits of your labor. Don’t get too comfortable just yet, though! Successful websites and marketing campaigns are consistently monitored, weak spots identified, and adapted to be even more effective. The World Wide Web and all of its various algorithms are constantly evolving. Thus, it is important to stay up-to-date on advancements and trends and adjust accordingly. 
      If you find yourself in need of a new ecommerce site, or you’re unable to stay atop of the constantly changing environment, give the Shopify experts at Root & Roam Integrated Marketing Agency a call. We have extensive experience in both developing and designing Shopify websites, as well as running highly successful ecommerce campaigns.

      Resources

      https://www.shopify.com/partners/blog/how-to-build-an-abandoned-cart-email-sequence
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      RGB vs CMYK : What is the difference?

      RGB vs CMYK : What is the difference?

      by | Aug 20, 2021 | Branding, Creative Services, Digital Marketing, EDDM, Graphic Design, Root & Roam Blog, Website

      RGB vs CMYK – What is the difference between RGB and CMYK? Simply put, it’s just different ways of processing colors. Painters mix paint to make the perfect color palette. Digital designers also mix colors to create palettes, photography, and more. CMYK is the process of mixing 4 basic colors, Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Black, to make thousands of colors and realistic images in the printing process. RGB is the process of mixing three basic colors along with light, Red, Green, and Blue. The RGB color process was invented in the digital process when we started using televisions, computers, and retina displays.

      RGB is an additive color model that uses Red, Green, Blue, and light for screens and monitors. CMYK is a subtractive color model used for printing made of four colors: Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Black. Black is the key color that provides the detail. That is where we get the K in CMYK.

      Check out this graphic from our friends at Visual Pro:

      rgb vs cmyk

      The RGB process has made a huge splash in the design world now that we have retina displays at our fingertips that can interpret millions of colors. The technology is changing so quickly, but it is important to know the basic concept and why.

      The timeline of RGB actually dates back before the electronic age and has roots in photography. But it made its debut with desktop computers in the 70’s displaying an amazing palette of 16 colors. RGB made its next splash with 24-bit monitors and then again with HTML with its 24bit color palette. Now our monitors and phones can interpret millions of colors with RGB.

      What is RGB?

      RGB is an acronym for Red Green Blue. Based on these three colors plus light, you can create a spectrum of colors. This color combination plus millions of tiny lights allows us to see images on digital items, such as televisions, projection systems, computers, and cell phones. RGB has advanced so rapidly with displays that we can now see millions of colors, just by applying a combination of Red, Green, and Blue.

      Why should you care? Using the wrong color settings can cause your print projects to come out too dark or your website images to appear muddy and non-vibrant. RGB and CMYK are settings in most design programs that interpret the colors for us. Designers build graphics based on the end product and adjust settings to make your project perfect. If your end goal is digital, keep it RGB, but if you are looking to get something printed, you may want to change your mode to CMYK.

      What is CMYK?

      CMYK is a combination of 4 transparent colors; (c)yan, (m)agenta, (y)ellow, and blac(k). The K stands for “Key” – This is always black ink and helps finalize the details. This process is actually pretty awesome, and if you ever get to go to a printing press that uses CMYK plates, it’s an interesting process to watch. The printing press makes 4 plates (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Black). Ink is then applied to each plate and paper runs through the press perfectly lining up to make a final image.

      Check out this graphic from Printing Solutions:

      cmyk or rgb for print

      It doesn’t feel possible that combining those four colors would produce such a vivid image of color, but it does. Magic… science… same thing.

      We use CMYK for the printing process. This is how the ink is distributed on our inkjet home printers and our large 4 color press printers. Same theory.

      If the final destination of your graphic is not printed, this setting can make your color look a little muddy or not as vibrant. If it is really important that the color is exact for you, you will want to have a designer with a calibrated monitor help or do some test prints from the printer.

      Hex Codes and Web Safe Color

      Since not all monitors are the same, designing for the web can be tricky. Even if I use my RGB settings, things can differ based on the display type. Monitors and displays are constantly advancing also, but Hex codes are a way to keep your colors as consistent as possible. A hex code is a code of 6 letters and numbers that basically tell the monitor how to interpret the RGB color. Choosing web safe colors is still best practice to have consistency across displays, but this rule seems to have less value lately as most of the population have modern displays.

      This is a good reference for web safe hex values.

      One thing to note – make sure the numbers or letters are the same in each segment. This formula ensures that the color is going to be web safe. Like #CCFF00 is web safe because the numbers match up, while #CF01RR will not be as consistent across all displays.

      Hex Codes still interpret color in an additive RGB format; it is simply the code telling the website how much color to display.

      Color Blindness on the Web

      Because not every person sees things the same, we have to make sure content is still visible for our color blind friends and coworkers. Making sure your background and type have enough contrast is a good rule of thumb. Also, making sure that you don’t use certain colors on top of each other like red and green. Color combos and fancy backgrounds can be fun, but don’t forget websites are still a tool to deliver information. Check out this really cool tool that will help you make sure your site is color friendly.

      The difference between RGB and CMYK

      Here are the main things to keep in mind as you prepare graphics for output. CMYK setting is for print and is made of four colors in a subtractive color model like paint. RGB is a setting that uses light and an additive color model to make vibrant colors on our digital displays.

      Thanks for stopping by. The team at Root & Roam know some things about color, so if you are having trouble on a project, let Root & Roam help!

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      What Are Heading Tags and Why You Should Use Them?

      What Are Heading Tags and Why You Should Use Them?

      by | Jun 29, 2021 | Analytics Reporting, Audit, Creative Services, Digital Advertising, Digital Marketing, Local SEO, SEO, SEO Strategy, Social Media, Traditional SEO, Website

      It’s hard to believe at times, but the internet has rules. There are protocols and conventions that, when followed, tend to make things easier on all of us. They also make the content we create more accessible to more people! One of the foremost jobs of a digital marketer is knowing these rules and knowing how to use them to do better work for their clients. Heading tags fall under this category. This post aims to explain what heading tags are, why they’re important, as well as how they function.

      What are HTML heading tags?

      Heading tags serve several different purposes.

      Let’s start with the content creator or the web designer, the person writing and determining each heading tag. Here, heading tags act similarly to an outline of the content being created. They establish how the information and the content surrounding that information are to be structured. 

      To search engines such as Google or Bing, heading tags act like labels or signs. They help point search engines to the specific places within web pages to quickly locate the content that people are searching for. Heading tags inform the search engine robots about the hierarchy of the information that they’re processing – a heading tag helps delineate what is the most important content and where it is located. 

      Finally, to someone visiting a website to read the information or content, heading tags are topic signifiers and points of interest – by reading the “What are HTML heading tags?” above the previous paragraph, a reader can easily determine what the overall topic being presented will be and can deduct what to expect in the post. Heading tags are also an important accessibility feature that helps accessibility software like screen readers parse and categorize the most important information on a page. 

      heading tags are also an important accessibility feature

      How are heading tags structured? How many heading tags are there?

      Heading tags are numerical, starting with H1 to denote the most important section heading. This is the heading that a search engine gives the most weight. Most HTML (the markup that most pages are built with) supports six levels of headings, with H6 denoting the heading with the least importance. Within that markup language they look like this:
      heading tags are also an important accessibility feature
      But what about the page’s title? The title tag is used to denote what your page is titled, and it’s what displays as the preview for your page in search engine results and social media snippets. The page title tag is not the same as a heading tag, but a page title tag and the H1 tag are often mirrored. This is largely because best practices have shown that Google typically gives more authority to pages that are formatted in this way because it views those pages as being more accurate.

      Prevent inaccurate article titles

      We use our crawler to scan your article pages and determine the correct headlines for your content. Follow our best practices to help us display the correct title from your content:

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      Place the title of your article in a prominent spot above the article body, such as in an <h1> tag.
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      Match the title of your article page (in the HTML <title> tag) to the title of your article (in <h1> or equivalent).

      Google HTML Rules

      Heading tags and SEO best practices

      Although using heading tags alone may not have a substantial impact on overall SEO from the standpoint of a search engine (the keywords used on each page take precedence), it does have a substantial impact on the readability of your content. When utilized properly, this impacts the time that is spent on a page and the overall webpage traffic. Both have a substantial impact on your search rankings. When correctly utilized alongside your page title, meta-description, and target keywords, your heading tags play a key role in improving search rankings for those specific keywords. A few best practices directly from Google:
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      Match the anchor text that points to your article in your section pages to your article/page title.

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      Avoid using the article title, or a substring of the title, as an active hyperlink on your article page.

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      Do not include a date or time in your article title.

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      Article titles should be at least 10 characters and between 2 and 22 words.

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      Do not include a leading number in the anchor text of the title to make sure your article title displays properly on mobile devices.

      A few more SEO specific best practices include:
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      Use only one H1 tag per page.

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      Keywords should be aligned by the rank of importance corresponding to your tag hierarchy.

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      Keep your heading tags concise and keyword specific.

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      H1 headings should be approximately twice as large as your body text.

      Why should you use heading tags?

      There’s plenty of reasons to use heading tags, and it mainly comes down to structuring your content in a way that makes it coherent and legible for every interaction with them. They are also an important part of your overall on-page SEO efforts, especially when you consider how it impacts your entire audience’s ability to find and digest the information you put out there. A quick summary of why using heading tags is important:

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      Heading tags structure your content

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      They help make your content more accessible

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      They are an important part of SEO best practices

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      They enhance readability and improve accessibility

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      They play a part in enhancing the overall user experience

      Here at Root & Roam, we have a team of passionate people with decades of experience utilizing all aspects of available technology to help communicate value to customers. Our company has experience working with all forms of media through all available channels, platforms, and mediums. Our mission is to help businesses connect with customers, and we take pride in our ability to do just that. We know we can help you grow your business, so schedule a free marketing consultation to see what we can do for you today.
      Determining how to structure your page and its headers to best benefit your business and its goals can be tricky. Root and Roam has a passionate team with experience in Content Creation and Web development to help.
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      How to Sell on Instagram: Everything you need to know about how to sell products on Instagram

      How to Sell on Instagram: Everything you need to know about how to sell products on Instagram

      by | Jun 28, 2021 | Creative Services, Digital Marketing, Graphic Design, Root & Roam Blog, SEO, Social Media, Website

      As of 2021, 1.074 billion people are on Instagram worldwide making it the perfect place to sell your products. Instagram has all of the tools you need to get your product in front of the consumer and make them remember it. Selling on Instagram takes hard work, dedication, and marketing skills. This guide will show you how to sell on Instagram.

      Set up an Instagram business account

       

      To sell on Instagram, you will first need an Instagram business account. An Instagram business account will give you access to all of the great Instagram business features, including a “contact” button, analytics, sponsored posts, and Instagram shop. Follow these steps to create your Instagram business account:
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      Begin by creating a new account that does not contain any personal information.

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      Go to your Instagram page settings, click – Account
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      Click – Switch to Professional Account
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      Follow the steps and input the necessary information.

      Voila! You are now ready to start selling on Instagram.

      Build your Instagram shop

       

      Once your Instagram business account is set up, you will need to set up your Instagram shop. To do this, you will also need a Facebook business page. Create your Facebook business page in two simple steps:

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      Connect your Instagram business account to your Facebook business page.
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      Log into Facebook, go to your ads manager, and find Commerce Manager in the hamburger menu. Follow the instructions to upload your catalog.

      Your catalog can be uploaded three different ways:

      - 1 -

      You can bulk upload your items using an excel spreadsheet. You will need to create a spreadsheet and input the item name, description, and price. Then follow the instructions to upload your spreadsheet to your shop.

      - 2 -

      You can opt to manually input each item into your Instagram shop. If you choose this option, you will need to fill in the required blanks within the shop upload form to upload each item individually.

      - 3 -

      The third option is to integrate your instagram shop with your ecommerce website. To use this option, you will need to have already set up an ecommerce shop with any of the website platforms that Facebook integrates with. Your options are Shopify, Channeladvisor, Feedonomics, Admixt, Quipt, Woo Commerce, Bigcommerce, CommerceHub, CED Commerce, Data Caciques, and Zentail. The integrate option will automatically pull the inventory listed on your ecommerce website into your Facebook and Instagram catalog.

      Once you have created your catalog, you will then need to set up the Instagram shop. Click the shops icon on the left hand side of your mobile screen. Follow the instructions to create the shop. You will be able to organize your Instagram product into categories, choose your shop colors, button styles, and fonts. When you are satisfied with your setup click – save, and publish. 

      It may take some time for Facebook and Instagram to process your shop for approval. Keep the platform’s bylaws and rules in mind when adding products to your catalog. Once your shop has been approved, your customers will be able to shop directly from your Instagram business account.

      Reach your Target Audience and Gain Shop Awareness

       

      Reaching your audience is more than just posting content. Take the time to develop a strategy that shares content that grabs your target Instagram audience’s attention, and pair it with keywords, hashtags, and timing.

      Strategically build your Instagram shop awareness and audience with Instagram’s paid and unpaid advertising options. Take advantage of various posting methods such as posting, stories, reels, IGTV, post promoting, and Instagram paid ads to get the word out about your Instagram shop. Devise a strategy for what methods you will use and how you will measure success. Continually adjust your strategy as you find what works best. 

      Reaching your audience is more than just posting content. Content that grabs the views paired with keywords, hashtags, and timing are what makes a perfect post.

      Timing is Everything

       

      Instagram’s algorithm is designed to show the most recent posts at the top of the news feed. The Instagram insights feature shows you the time and days when your audience is most active. Post your content during the most active time for a better chance of getting in front of a larger amount of your audience and bringing in new followers.

      Optimize your Instagram post with keywords

       

      Optimize your Instagram shopping posts using keywords just as you would optimize your website. Keywords are also necessary for your Instagram post to be discovered in a Google search. Research keywords relevant to your niche and use them to strategically plan your next post.

      Hashtag it

       

      Hashtagging is not just a trendy activity. It could mean the difference between reaching additional audiences who would not discover your business otherwise. When you add a hashtag to your post, your post will appear in that hashtag’s feed. This means that anyone who follows the hashtag has the potential to see your post. 

      There is quite a bit that can go into your hashtag strategy. A few dos and don’ts when using hashtags in Instagram:

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      Use just a few relevant hashtags in each post that you upload to Instagram, regardless if your post is in your Instagram feed, a story, or a reel.

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      Make sure the correct audience finds your posts by ensuring that the hashtags mean what you intend.

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      Pay attention to the amount of posts within a hashtag. When you search a hashtag on Instagram, you will see the number of posts with that hashtag. If there are a large number of posts, the likelihood that your post will be seen decreases. Instagram’s algorithm currently shows the most recent content first. When many posts are being added to a feed quickly, your post will get rotated down quicker. If you are just starting or are a small business, we recommend using smaller hashtags.

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      Do not use hashtags that are irrelevant to your post, products, or services.

      Create a shoppable Instagram feed

       

      Build a shoppable Instagram feed by tagging your catalog products in your posts. When consumers tap the image, they will be able to follow the tag directly to that product in your Instagram shop and purchase within Instagram. Creating a shoppable post only takes a few simple steps:

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      Create a new post

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      Choose your image

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      Tap Products – find the product in your shop catalog and tag it. If there are multiple products in one photo, be careful to place the tags in the correct place to avoid confusion.

      Creating a shoppable Instagram story is similar:

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      Create a new story

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      Choose your image

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      Under links, choose – product

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      Search and tag the product in the story

      Use this method every time you post product photos, and you will have created a completely shoppable Instagram feed.

      Let’s sell product on Instagram!

       

      To achieve the results that you desire, everything you do with your Instagram business page and Instagram shop should be strategically planned. Remember to always develop a strategy prior to starting any social media project. Keep your goals in mind and plan your actions accordingly. Selling on Instagram is the way of the future.

      Here at Root & Roam, we understand that even with all of the tools available, selling on Instagram can be time-consuming and quite overwhelming. If you have any questions on how to sell on Instagram, we are here to help. Contact us today for more information on our Social Media services. Let’s move your product on Instagram!

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      Holiday Marketing Matters: Three Big Ways To Bolster Your Holiday E-Commerce Business

      Holiday Marketing Matters: Three Big Ways To Bolster Your Holiday E-Commerce Business

      by | Nov 18, 2020 | EDDM, Public Relations, Traditional Marketing, Website

      Many of us eagerly anticipate and look forward to the holidays. It’s a time for celebration, family, good food, and what we hope is just the right amount of snow. With Thanksgiving fast approaching, we’re quickly coming into the 2020 holiday season. As a business owner, you may look forward to the holiday season in more ways than one, as sales typically increase and for many businesses, it’s the busiest time of the year. Retail businesses see close to twenty percent of their annual sales during the months of November and December, average holiday spending has been trending upward for the last ten years, and over 80% of holiday shopping is done by the end of November. 

      If you’re part of an e-commerce business, it’s clear that more and more people are doing their shopping online. Last year over 20% of holiday shopping was done online, and that number is sure to multiply given the circumstances of the 2020 season. So, what can you do as a business owner to better serve your customers, increase your sales, and make the season as free from stress as possible? We’re going to cover that in this blog.

      1. MAXIMIZE CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE

       

      We love working to better serve our customers, and this is a good area to start with when evaluating how to help an ecommerce business grow. Ensuring that your customers have the best user experience on your website helps rule out barriers that may be getting in between a person’s interest in your products and their ability to purchase them. A few elements to focus on include:

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      Site Speed & Infrastructure – is your website quick and responsive? Optimized for mobile? Can your hosting provider handle big bandwidth spikes due to high amounts of traffic? Is everything up to par security wise? These are questions we deal with everyday and we can help you answer them.

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      Third Party Integrations & Payment Options – many websites use various third party modules and services to provide product lists and provide payments. Are they up to date? Are you offering as many forms of payment as possible? Are your shipping rates and your return policy clear and transparent? Do your customers have to log-in or register? Have you made that process as simple as possible? These are all areas we specialize in and can help you with.

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      Site Search Optimization – many ecommerce sites have a built in search function, and when you offer a wide array of products, customers will use this to find what they’re looking for. It’s important to configure your site search with helpful search suggestions and common misspellings to help show customers the products they’re looking for quickly – even if they happen to make a typo.

      It’s important to make sure these steps have been taken well in advance of the busiest parts of the year, and we recommend freezing any kind of major updates or changes to your website in the weeks leading up to the holidays. Once you’re sure your website is ready for the increase in traffic, you can focus on preparing for the holidays in other ways.

      2. PLANNING AND PROMOTING YOUR HOLIDAY OFFERS

       

      It’s well documented that the holidays drive some of the biggest sales numbers for online stores. Online Black Friday shopping sales hit 7.4 billion dollars last year – an all-time high. People are ready to spend because they know that they have a great potential to save money, as average savings on Black Friday specials are around 37%. With this in mind, you know that competing during these sales means coming up with aggressive promotions and offers of your own, and doing so in a strategic way. We specialize in segmentation, tailoring messages, and finding out what works for what crowds. A few of the things you can do to help plan and promote your offers are:

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      Dig into last year’s data and find out how low you can go, while still pricing in a way that will make all your effort worthwhile. If you’re an online retailer you can find where your strongest traffic came from and look to boost those relationships this year. This can come in the form of blogs and buying guides, social posts, and paid advertising. These are all areas we specialize in at Root & Roam Integrated Marketing Agency.

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      If you have an email marketing list or an active following on social media (or both), it’s imperative that you plan and schedule content that will help inform and guide your customers into making holidays purchases. Let your customers know what to expect and what to plan for, even if it’s telling them to keep an eye on their inbox and your pages for the soon to arrive specials! Creating a sense of urgency and taking advantage of FOMO (fear of missing out) can help sell to people that may otherwise miss out. This way when you start to ask for sales, they’ll be more likely to already have that perfect gift in mind.

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      Showcase your deals and products. This may be viewed as a no brainer – but get your best deals in front of people in as many ways as possible, from your website’s home page to your marketing pushes through email and social media. Surround your products with memorable design, from the digital work you put into your marketing to the packaging that makes your unboxing experience. Give your customers good reasons to tell their friends about their experience!

      3. BE PREPARED FOR VOLUME

       

      We’ve already discussed having your website ready for increased traffic and a higher volume of customers – but what about the rest of your business? Shipping and fulfillment will also be under pressure with higher order volumes, and having a plan in place to handle that will help ensure your holiday sales go off without a hitch.

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      Anticipate volume and hire accordingly. If you handle shipping and fulfillment in-house, you’re likely aware of the necessity of seasonal workers to help accommodate increases in demand. Getting this support in place is imperative and the sooner you can get it in place the better.

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      Consider a third-party logistics(3PL) provider for shipping and fulfilment, or if you work with a wholesaler you may consider what setting up a dropshipping relationship would cost. It’s different for every business and it’s up to you whether or not it’s right for you and your business. At a certain point of growth it can often make sense to offload shipping and fulfillment to someone with the infrastructure and expertise to handle it most efficiently.

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      Remember returns. Holiday buying sees higher return rates than any other time in the year – around 12% of all sales according to the National Retail Federation. Customers appreciate painless returns, and providing an easy return process is a good way to bolster long term customer loyalty. Many businesses are including return labels and using resealable mailers for gift purchases, and a short note or print out on how to make a return or even better an exchange can make your recipients (and your) life that much easier.

      The holiday season is something to prepare for on many fronts, and it’s no different for business owners. With a bit of planning it can be just as successful as a highly anticipated Thanksgiving turkey or Christmas ham. Before we know it, we’ll be stepping into a new year and it’ll be time to analyze and find out what has worked best for us and where we can improve. 

      We hope that the points discussed in this post give you a clearer picture of how to ensure your businesses holiday season success, and you should know that Root & Roam Creative Studio is here to help you take your marketing and business growth to new levels. We have a diverse team of marketing professionals ready to tackle any area of analysis, content strategy, creation, and delivery. Happy Holidays!

      Three Things To Consider When You Want To Sell Online

      Three Things To Consider When You Want To Sell Online

      by | Jul 15, 2020 | Website

      More and more people are shopping online whether out of convenience or necessity. As a retail business owner, you may realize that having an eCommerce website is becoming imperative, but you just don’t know where to start. Here at Root & Roam Creative Studio, we have extensive experience in both building and maintaining successful, intuitive eCommerce sites. Throughout the years, we’ve compiled a list of the most important aspects to consider at the onset of the build.

      PLATFORM

       

      There are a multitude of eCommerce specific hosting platforms available. Choosing the one that best suits your needs can seem daunting. Platforms like Shopify and BigCommerce are all inclusive content management systems built specifically for selling products online. They are powerful, user friendly, and easy to maintain. Both of these options will handle your hosting and security certificates, as well as the technical aspects of running an online store. For a Shopify or BigCommerce plan, you will pay a monthly fee ranging from $29.99 to $299.99 depending on the needs of your business.

      On the other hand, another popular eCommerce option is to build on WordPress using WooCommerce. Both WordPress and WooCommerce are open source software meaning they are 100% free to use. However, this is not an all inclusive solution. If you opt to go with WordPress using WooCommerce, you will need to acquire hosting and security certificates separately. (Don’t worry… we can help with that!) With a reputable hosting company, this will set you back, on average, about $20-$25 per month.

      Root & Roam Creative Studio has many years worth of working in both types of platforms. While we love the ease of use and customer support provided by companies like Shopify, we have found that WordPress using WooCommerce allows for much more flexibility in design. While there are pros and cons about each of these options, we do not prefer one over the other. The ultimate decision in which route to take depends entirely on the needs of our clients. We are happy to talk with you about your vision and goals for your eCommerce site and help point you in the right direction!

      ECOMMERCE SITES BUILT BY ROOT & ROAM CREATIVE STUDIO

       

      Built With Shopify

      VISIT SITE

      Built With WordPress Using WooCommerce

      VISIT SITE

      DESIGN

       

      One of the biggest variables in choosing the right platform is the design of your website. How do you want it to look? How do you want it to feel? If this is a brand new venture for you, the sky is the limit! You are essentially creating your brand right here and right now. It is important to research your target demographic and the competition. With this in mind, you’ll begin to create a brand vision and personality. This will guide you towards your color palette, font selections, and overall mood of your brand and website.

      If you have an existing brick and mortar store, and you’re looking to take it online, this process looks a little different. Many of your brand elements have already been chosen. It’s important to keep consistency across all mediums – whether it be a storefront, website, social media, or print advertising – in an effort to build brand awareness.

      When the basic feel of your website is determined, it’s time to explore what elements you really like/dislike when visiting a website (examples include parallax elements, full width images, contact forms, videos, Instagram feeds, etc.). What special functionality would you like to include such as wishlists, recurring subscriptions, bundling options, etc.? Visualizing how you want your site to look and function plays a large factor in which platform to choose.

      SHIPPING METHODS

       

      It is crucial to consider how you want to ship (and charge for shipping) at the onset of the site build. Do you want to offer real life calculation by carrier based on weight, size, and destination, flat rate shipping based on order total, free shipping, local pickup, or something entirely different? Each platform offers standard methods of shipping and calculating shipping, and those standards vary from platform to platform. By determining your shipping policy upfront, we can better direct you to the platform that will work best for your business.

      With all of that said, we don’t expect you to work through this alone! It’s a lot… we know! Our expert team is here to walk you through the process step by step helping to decipher your needs, vision, and goals. We offer all-inclusive e-commerce packages customized to the specific needs of your business. We will provide you with all the essentials you need to begin bringing your products and services to your customers while making the process straightforward and simple for both you and your customers. You’ll be able to start selling immediately, and we’ll be there to help make sure the process is safe and simple for you and your customers alike.