Setting up an online store today is not simply about form and function. However, a nice website that works well may not be enough to get you the attention you need. You need to be able to go beyond that and make your website attractive to your audience.
Now, this means many things to many people. What may be attractive to one generation may not be so to another. It will depend on your target market, of course, but a good number of online stores target millennials. Millennials or Gen Y (people born between 1981 and 1998) are particularly important in the US, because it is the largest population segment in the country at 75.4 million (about 25%).
Millennials are know to be picky and curious when it comes to online buying, and they favor mobile over desktop. They also favor high loading speeds. If you do happen to target millenials for your business, then you want to design your online store to make it hip and millennial friendly. Here are some practical suggestions for how to do it.
1. Focus on speed
One of the best things you can do to make your online store millennial friendly is to make sure it loads as fast as possible. You may dream of making your site looking bad-ass, and want to include all the bells and whistles to make it fantastic. However, all your efforts would be in vain if your site loads a tad slower than three seconds. Millennials will simply not wait. Set up a simple one on a fast host server, and get them on your site. You can tweak your website as you get to know your audience a little better.
2. Tickle their fancy
Millennials are picky, but they also like to be different. Offer them something unusual, and they are sure to come to check it out. Are you selling T-shirts? Offer a line of pop culture ones, and that will give you a chance to show them your entire line. Check out these sites that offer something “ticklish.”
3. Start from the end
Millennials employ a non-linear way of thinking, perhaps because they are unwilling to delay gratification, and want to see what’s in it for them upfront. They want to see results rather than the process before they will even consider making a purchase. Tailor your selling process with the outcome first. Show them how your product or service can improve their lives. If they like what they see, they become an easy sell. You can accomplish this in three ways.
4. Share a cause
Most people dismiss millennials as selfish and egotistical, but paradoxically, they are quite passionate about social causes. They are even willing to pay a premium if they believe your company values are in line with their own. They will be more likely to support a brand or online store that supports a cause they care about. It could be animals, the environment, recycling, and so on. You can make your online store more hip to millennials by showing your own social conscience. Don’t be shy about it, either. If you can, put it in all the pages so they don’t miss the message.
5. Go mobile
You probably know this already, but it is so important that it deserves repetition: make your site mobile-friendly. In fact, when designing your online store, think mobile first. Mobile technology is the preferred mode of connection for millennials, and about 60% of them buy online. Of that, a full 89% use smartphones to buy online. Think about that for a second, and consider that refers to 89% of 45 million (60% of 75.4 million millennials) people in the US alone, and decide if mobile first is a good idea.
6. Choose a fully hosted shopping cart
You can easily set an online store as you can see on Websitesetup.org (How to build an online store with Shopify), and the great thing with using a platform like Shopify is that it comes with an easy-to-use shopping cart. With everything going on in your start-up, the last thing you want to worry about is to worry about cart abandonment. With about 63% of millennials regularly shopping online, you want to make sure they go through with it to the very end. You want to make sure the shopping cart does not present a problem for your millennials.
7. Make it easy to share
Millennials spend a lot of their time online, but that doesn’t make them any less sociable. This includes sharing their finds, reviews, and comments on blogs and other social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, Yelp, and so on. It also means they look to these platforms to find out what other people think to make buying decisions. You can give your online store a significant boost if you make it easy for them to share and socialize through and about your site, brand, and business by making sure you have social sharing buttons in a prominent position. If you ever decide to have a physical store, your online store can be a crucial for your marketing.
Conclusion
Designing an online store for a millennial market is not hard if you understand how they make buying decisions. The tips above are specific to motivating millennials to go to your site, buy, and develop brand loyalty. Implement them in your own startup online store.
Also if you want to create your own online store website for your small business. Shopify is the perfect platform for people who don’t have any technical knowledge to create a website. Their platform is very customizable for people who wants to sell clothes online.
from Feedster http://www.feedster.com/blog/twitter-easyvince/how-to-make-your-online-store-hip-and-millennial-friendly/
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