Getting into eCommerce with the fundamentals in check

Many Australian businesses are feeling the push to get into eCommerce. But here’s what you need to know before you get started… it pays to get the fundamentals in check. Why? You’ll set yourself up for better longer-term success. Take a read and we’ll introduce you to the key partners and supporters you need for building a business online.

Why now for eCommerce businesses in Australia?

Online shopping is surging, just look at these stats from Australia Post’s ‘Inside Australian Online Shopping: 2020 eCommerce Industry Report’ (PDF):

• Online shopping is no longer the primary domain of the multi-tasking TV viewer and night owl – from 32% of purchases taking place between 7–10pm in 2019, market research indicates a more consistent spread throughout the day during April 2020.
• Not only did more than 200,000 new shoppers hit online in April 2020, over a third (35.5%) made more than one online purchase, and 16.7% shopped three or more times.
• The difference between the average number of Australian households who shopped online in 2019 as compared to 2020 is huge:

How to start a successful eCommerce business?

Starting your eCommerce business requires planning and smart resourcing. With resourcing, it’s about knowing who you need and when you need them.

1. Nail your eCommerce niche

Something to think about early on is whether your store will be an extension of your current business or something different for your online customers. You should consider doing an audit of your current offering and talk to your customers

Who could help you with this?

You could do a lot of this yourself. Or, you could find a contractor, freelancer or small business advisor specialising in ‘planning and strategy’ across either merchandising, marketing or customer experience.

2. Find the best web address

If you don’t have a domain name yet, you can find available URLs by typing “domain name registry Australia” into Google.

• Check that both the “yourdomainname”.com.au and “yourdomanname”.com extensions are available (you don’t want poachers or copycats)
• Your URL should contain your business name
• If someone owns the URL you are after you could consider checking whether they would be willing to sell it to you (it might be worth a shot)
• If you don’t have a web address containing your business name, build a marketable name that includes a main keyword for search engine optimisation (SEO)

3. Build your online store

You don’t need all the bells and whistles – just something that will work for you and can be scaled as you grow.

• Don’t have coding or design skills? Shopping cart platforms like Shopify, WooCommerce and PrestaShop have many professional templates you can choose from to set up your eCommerce store.
• Or for more control over how your website looks and functions, you could hire a web developer to build a custom website – bearing in mind that you’ll also need their expert help in keeping it updated.

Who could help you with this?

Check out Tyro’s shopping cart partners to see the popular carts and platforms we support for online payments (it’s all the main providers), then click into the individual cart links for more information. To find a web builder, check your local business and freelance directories or seek out recommendations from your friends or networks.  

4. Connect eCommerce payments

There are plenty of providers out there, but Tyro customers in particular get that competitive edge. You will get both your EFTPOS and eCommerce insights in the Tyro App and Tyro Portal, and you’ll receive your eCommerce and EFTPOS settlement together – at the same time.

To connect your online business to Tyro eCommerce for payments you have options:

• Shopping Carts – this can be as simple as connecting your cart to a plug-in to process the payment, which you can do without much technical knowledge.
• Custom payment pages – the payment form can be customised and completely embedded within your site for a seamless experience.

5. Market your eCommerce business

Organic search accounts for a huge chunk of web traffic, so it’s important to get search engine optimisation right when promoting your eCommerce website (SEO).

Why?

For the big search engines like Google to find your business and serve your website high up on the first page of the search results, you need to give them exactly what they need.

To do this, your site must:

• rank well for your chosen keywords
• be technically sound and load fast
• include content that your customers want
• be ‘backlinked’ (a link to your website from other websites), like in business directories and news sites.

There’s more, too, but SEO is certainly the foundation

• Great photography and compellingly written copy on every page
• A consistent brand that people will recognise – colours, logo, tone of voice
• Online and social media advertising – known as digital display or banner advertising
• Talking to customers on your social media pages – build a community of loyal followers
• Customer email and text lists – this is called ‘permission-based marketing’

Where to find expert partners

The point of the story? Find the right relationships.

With most of your partnerships – payments and carts aside – you could work with freelance experts or contractors. There are plenty of online directories out there to help you find specialists in everything online; including SEO, shopping carts, product planning and web hosting to get your site up and live on the internet. Once you find a few people you’re interested in talking to, use LinkedIn to verify their credentials and read their customer reviews.

And lastly on the advantages of bringing your online and instore payments together with Tyro – find out more how our solution could work for you, with EFTPOS integration, virtual terminal, recurring payments and more here: https://www.tyro.com/products/ecommerce/

As always if you’d like to chat about how Tyro eCommerce could work for you, contact us directly on 1300 966 639 or at cs@tyro.com