How to make a shop successful - 7 online shop tips
Posted: Sat Apr 19, 2025 10:16 am
The 7 points to optimize your online shop
1. Every customer journey starts at the beginning
When you visit a website you land on a homepage - it's as natural as the vegetable section in a supermarket. And the two are actually related, as they are designed with similar meticulous care. As an online shop manager you need to view the homepage as your store's calling card and entrance area. The first thing a new customer sees is the homepage. Does it appear structured? Is it inviting? Does it match your store's corporate design? Are relevant articles, current special offers and new products right on the homepage? The homepage is the crucial contact between your online shop and your customers. They are either invited to stay and browse further or they cambodia phone number data scream and run away.
2. Design, content and layout
A website can only ever be as good as its design. The internet has now returned to the era of minimalism; pages have more empty space to allow content to breathe. Shapes and colors are used sparingly, and fonts don't compete for attention; instead, they must be legible and blend into the page. Content must be optimized for optimal search engine rankings without incorporating keywords in an unnatural density. On the content level, cross-references to other pages on your website and a clean structure are more helpful than the contrived wording of the past.
You should create images for social media, because customers ultimately want to see your products from multiple angles. To ensure quick access to your site—especially on mobile devices—you need small thumbnails that can be enlarged with a click. Online shop managers have a responsibility to always provide up-to-date content and find the right mix of media, text, and free space.
3. Blind navigation
Navigating a modern website is surprisingly easy. Well-designed pages highlight controls by color or shape, menus are easy to find, and the header and footer contain all the shortcuts that allow quick access to desired content, such as the homepage or the imprint. However, this design language has evolved over the years and should not be taken for granted.
Here, too, online shop managers need to know exactly how they want to guide their customers, how they want to structure the site, and how they can optimize the path to the shopping cart. In short, customers should be able to understand a site at first glance, even without a learning curve. Competition is fierce, and few customers have the patience to engage with an unstructured site. Clarity and usability are fundamental requirements for a functioning eShop; online shop managers must not only create these, but also learn to test them.
As part of our E-Commerce Manager training, we offer you practical know-how:
E-Commerce Manager Training
Our recommendation
E-Commerce Manager
Online training with certificate and badge. ✓ 100% free with a training voucher. ✓ Content: Cross-channel marketing, affiliate marketing, AI & ChatGPT, pricing, payment, customer-centric shop operations, and much more! ✓ Get your first insights with free guest access.
to the online course
4. Responsive design
Responsive design (or, less commonly, "responsive design") refers to a technical method that allows your website's design to scale with the device and screen. Certain menu items and controls on a website change depending on the screen, ensuring your site remains usable from any device. In concrete terms, this means that your design looks just as good on the horizontal screen of a computer as it does on the compact screen of a smartphone or tablet. The site's design can also handle rotation.
Responsive design is generally not noticed anymore because it's so widespread. Only when users on smartphones have to zoom and scroll endlessly because they only see the PC version of a page do we even notice how important responsive design is. However, for you as an online shop manager, this usually means very little work. Tools and templates from modular systems include a responsive design that works immediately upon creation of your website. And a good web agency will always create a responsive design as well.
5. Icons and Digital Shorthand
An online shop doesn't emerge in a cultural vacuum; it can draw on many other online shops and leverage the visual and color palette of those sites. A digital shopping cart is the digital shorthand for a stored list of products. This requires no further explanation; every customer will understand what a shopping cart is. Stars in product reviews are equally clear; green markers indicate advantages of the shop, and red numbers represent discounts. Users have learned all of this over years of surfing; it doesn't need to be explained. They just need to implement these systems correctly—this is where navigation and design converge.
6. Target group approach and individuality
Whether existing customers or first-time visitors, every customer is unique and wants to be treated equally. If you offer accounts and registrations, then a customized homepage with recommendations is no problem. After all, you're drawing on experiences with those very customers. But e-commerce managers must offer different entry points for customers. This can be done, for example, through retargeting ads, with which you follow customers with relevant offers after they visit a page. Or you can redirect them directly to the relevant subpages via Google searches. Reach different target groups at their various entry points.
1. Every customer journey starts at the beginning
When you visit a website you land on a homepage - it's as natural as the vegetable section in a supermarket. And the two are actually related, as they are designed with similar meticulous care. As an online shop manager you need to view the homepage as your store's calling card and entrance area. The first thing a new customer sees is the homepage. Does it appear structured? Is it inviting? Does it match your store's corporate design? Are relevant articles, current special offers and new products right on the homepage? The homepage is the crucial contact between your online shop and your customers. They are either invited to stay and browse further or they cambodia phone number data scream and run away.
2. Design, content and layout
A website can only ever be as good as its design. The internet has now returned to the era of minimalism; pages have more empty space to allow content to breathe. Shapes and colors are used sparingly, and fonts don't compete for attention; instead, they must be legible and blend into the page. Content must be optimized for optimal search engine rankings without incorporating keywords in an unnatural density. On the content level, cross-references to other pages on your website and a clean structure are more helpful than the contrived wording of the past.
You should create images for social media, because customers ultimately want to see your products from multiple angles. To ensure quick access to your site—especially on mobile devices—you need small thumbnails that can be enlarged with a click. Online shop managers have a responsibility to always provide up-to-date content and find the right mix of media, text, and free space.
3. Blind navigation
Navigating a modern website is surprisingly easy. Well-designed pages highlight controls by color or shape, menus are easy to find, and the header and footer contain all the shortcuts that allow quick access to desired content, such as the homepage or the imprint. However, this design language has evolved over the years and should not be taken for granted.
Here, too, online shop managers need to know exactly how they want to guide their customers, how they want to structure the site, and how they can optimize the path to the shopping cart. In short, customers should be able to understand a site at first glance, even without a learning curve. Competition is fierce, and few customers have the patience to engage with an unstructured site. Clarity and usability are fundamental requirements for a functioning eShop; online shop managers must not only create these, but also learn to test them.
As part of our E-Commerce Manager training, we offer you practical know-how:
E-Commerce Manager Training
Our recommendation
E-Commerce Manager
Online training with certificate and badge. ✓ 100% free with a training voucher. ✓ Content: Cross-channel marketing, affiliate marketing, AI & ChatGPT, pricing, payment, customer-centric shop operations, and much more! ✓ Get your first insights with free guest access.
to the online course
4. Responsive design
Responsive design (or, less commonly, "responsive design") refers to a technical method that allows your website's design to scale with the device and screen. Certain menu items and controls on a website change depending on the screen, ensuring your site remains usable from any device. In concrete terms, this means that your design looks just as good on the horizontal screen of a computer as it does on the compact screen of a smartphone or tablet. The site's design can also handle rotation.
Responsive design is generally not noticed anymore because it's so widespread. Only when users on smartphones have to zoom and scroll endlessly because they only see the PC version of a page do we even notice how important responsive design is. However, for you as an online shop manager, this usually means very little work. Tools and templates from modular systems include a responsive design that works immediately upon creation of your website. And a good web agency will always create a responsive design as well.
5. Icons and Digital Shorthand
An online shop doesn't emerge in a cultural vacuum; it can draw on many other online shops and leverage the visual and color palette of those sites. A digital shopping cart is the digital shorthand for a stored list of products. This requires no further explanation; every customer will understand what a shopping cart is. Stars in product reviews are equally clear; green markers indicate advantages of the shop, and red numbers represent discounts. Users have learned all of this over years of surfing; it doesn't need to be explained. They just need to implement these systems correctly—this is where navigation and design converge.
6. Target group approach and individuality
Whether existing customers or first-time visitors, every customer is unique and wants to be treated equally. If you offer accounts and registrations, then a customized homepage with recommendations is no problem. After all, you're drawing on experiences with those very customers. But e-commerce managers must offer different entry points for customers. This can be done, for example, through retargeting ads, with which you follow customers with relevant offers after they visit a page. Or you can redirect them directly to the relevant subpages via Google searches. Reach different target groups at their various entry points.