First Steps Shop

Thank you for choosing 21.Commerce!

This document describes the first steps after the Installation of the shop system. As PepperShop Administrator, you will be guided through the most important configuration steps in this document and will be explained the first administration tasks. At the very end of the document there are hints and tips.

Legal aspects of the operation of an e-commerce system are also described.

Online shop? What for, anyway?

I probably don’t need to explain to you that online trade has been on the rise for several years. The turnover figures of Swiss online trade have been in the fast lane for years. And the trend is upwards.

Nevertheless, it is important that you make a conscious decision to sell through your own online shop. Ask yourself three basic questions in the initial phase:

1. which products do I want to sell online? Nowadays (almost) every product can be sold online. But not every product is suitable. Think about which products you want to sell in your online shop. Does it make sense to sell the entire product range online or do you only want to offer a part of it in the online shop?

2. Are these products suitable for online sales? Is there any demand for your products? Are the products you want to sell online in fashion? Analyse trends and find out what keywords people are searching for. Free tools such as Google Trends and the Google Keyword Planner are perfect for this.

3. Who should buy my products online? Defining the target group: unnecessary theory or tough practice? The answer is clear: if you don’t know to whom you want to sell your products, you will only be moderately successful in e-commerce.Attention: The following is a short excursion into the basics of target group definition.

Reserve the domain you want early on

I recommend that you take care of the desired domain for your online shop as soon as possible in the initial phase of your e-commerce project. Because if your favourite domain finds another buyer, it is very difficult to get it back.

But what is important for a domain? What is a good domain? There are some helpful tips on what you should consider when choosing your domain:

• Domain should be memorable.
• Avoid hyphens if possible (e.g. my-new-shoeshop.ch).
• Do not use combinations of foreign words (e.g. myshoeboutique.ch).
• The name should not be misleading, but should ideally be related to your company or your products.

With so-called registrars you have the possibility to check the availability of your desired domain and to reserve it directly for you. Well-known registrars are, for example, Metanet, Domaindiscount24, Amenic or Hostpoint.

Design: The eye shops with you

You are probably familiar with it yourself. You come across an online shop and within a few seconds form an opinion based on the design as to whether this online shop is trustworthy or not. If the online shop looks unprofessional, is overloaded with information or you simply cannot identify with the design, you leave the online shop. Customer gone, turnover gone.

Corporate identity

Make sure that your logo is clearly visible (ideally at the top left or in the middle) in your online shop. Your corporate identity forms the basis of the design of your online shop. It is therefore essential to use your corporate colours and the corresponding, defined fonts. This will quickly give your online shop a very professional and consistent look. That inspires confidence!

Target group-oriented design

At the very beginning, we defined your target groups. Your target groups are the measure of all things. Put the focus ALWAYS on your target groups. Also in the design. Imagine that your target group consists of small Swiss companies in the metal construction sector. Does a hip, colourful balloon design make sense here? To appeal to this target group, definitely not.

Clear main menu

Your customers want to find what they are looking for quickly. Therefore, structure your main menu in such a way that it is immediately clear what your online shop is about, what you sell or what services you offer.

Product images

You have to decide pretty quickly whether you produce your product images yourself or whether you use those from the manufacturer. Both have corresponding advantages and disadvantages, of course. On the whole, it is very important that you radiate professionalism with your product images. A small additional tip: Give your product images meaningful file names instead of cryptic combinations of numbers or letters. So it’s better to use mug_lila.jpg than f5Hbx3.png. A proper file name has a positive effect on the image search in Google.

Logistics concept: How do I send my parcels?

Logistics is the backbone of every online shop. If your distribution does not function properly, there may be a delay in delivery. This can result in a drop in customer satisfaction or the customer may even look for an alternative online shop in the future. We don’t want that. Therefore, please give the topic of logistics at least the same attention as your design, the correct product selection or search engine optimisation (SEO). Here are some tips that you can take to heart when designing your logistics process:

• Ask yourself which countries you would like to deliver to at all.
• Decide which logistics service provider you would like to use to send your parcels.
• Transparent handling of shipping options and the right of withdrawal are basic requirements for good customer service and a trustworthy online shop.

Statutory adjustments: AGB and Imprint

In the ‘Shop-Administration’ > ‘General settings’ in the tab ‘Customer info / Revocation / General terms and conditions’ the general terms and conditions have to be used. Rule at least jurisdiction and revocation.

Own content

The imprint is linked by default for each page visible in the footer. In Switzerland, an imprint obligation similar to the German provider identification has been in force since 1 April 2012. In the imprint therefore the contact data, as well as the address from the general settings are automatically adopted and displayed, markers are used for this. The imprint must be completed by the administrators according to the legal requirements: ‘Content’ > ‘pages'. In Germany, among other things, the provider identification obligation must be fulfilled.

Info Legal Service Partner: With the Trusted Shops Seal, you as a shop operator create trust in a customer who does not yet know you and thus increase the conversion rate in the shop. The second important pillar is legal security for the operation of your e-commerce system. Your shop and your legally relevant documents such as terms and conditions, cancellation policy, imprint, privacy policy, … will be carefully checked. You will also receive marketing materials from Trusted Shops.

If you are located in Germany or supply to the German market, your e-commerce system must also comply with the legal provisions applicable in the target market (this provision does not apply only to Germany). We have prepared a special preconfiguration for Germany:

Important settings for Germany (company headquarters or delivery address)

General shop settings

• shop configuration
  • Order overview Display → on the order completion page
  • Show article pictures in shopping cart
• Edit product
  • Product price additional advertisement → ☑ Display VAT information → ☑ Show shipping info → ☑ Use basic price
• Customer info/revocation/general terms and conditions
  • → ☑ Should the text for customer information / cancellation instructions be displayed during the ordering process?
  • → ☑ in the e-mail. (Please also write a corresponding text.)

Furthermore, we must activate an information message for countries outside the EU which informs the customer of additional costs such as customs and taxes on the order completion page:

Countries of delivery and shipping

• Edit country group → ☑ Show additional costs info

Note: Please make sure that product names describe the essential characteristics of an article!

Via Own Contents - Edit navigation – Create new entry – Page with content – Type = Page with content – Page = Shipping and payment insert the entry (e.g. with Infolinks).

Marketing, SEO and SEA

So. You have now thought about why you want to create an online shop in the first place. You have defined your target groups and know who should buy your products online. Online payment methods are ready. The design of your online shop is attractive and quite modern. But … nobody comes and buys. Why? The marketing is missing!

SEO: The basis

SEO (search engine optimisation) deals - as the name suggests - with optimising your online shop so that it is indexed in the common search engines and ultimately found by the right people. Here are some SEO basics that can be implemented without much prior knowledge:

• The loading speed (Google Page Speed) of your online shop is a decisive factor for a good ranking in Google & Co.
• Optimised URLs
• Sensible meta and title tags
• Attractive and relevant article and category descriptions: It is advisable to produce your own high-quality descriptions and not to take the texts from the competitor or the manufacturer. The more unique and relevant your descriptions are, the better your online shop will rank in Google.
• Use the Google Search Console for faster and cleaner indexing of your URLs on Google.

As you can see, there are numerous ways in which you can optimise your findability in the search engines. And this is only a fraction of them. You need to understand that SEO is not a one-off. SEO is a continuous process.

SEA & Marketing

Phoo. Almost there. In order for your online shop to gain traction, you need to do some marketing. However, don’t do it on a whim. Before you start beating the advertising drum, you need to be clear about the following points:

• Who do I want to address with my marketing measures? Please do not forget: We determined the target group(s) at the very beginning. These are always the centre of our actions. Especially in marketing.
• What are the goals? Is it your goal to generate as many sales as possible on your online shop as quickly as possible? Do you want to increase awareness, acceptance and trust of your online shop? Do you want to increase the number of visitors to your online shop? Clearly defined goals will help you choose the correct marketing measure.
• How high is my marketing budget?
• How do I check whether my measures are working?

There are numerous ways in which you can push your online shop in terms of marketing.

Analyze, improve

Check which products work well, which you still miss in the shop and where the visitors move in the shop (and leave it again). 21.Commerce offers various options for this:

• Search Analysis Module: This module shows you what your customers are looking for in the shop and how many results the shop has shown you. So here you can see where the trends are heading and what you are still missing from the range.
• Google Analytics Module: With the Google Analytics Module, 21.Commerce offers a very extensive integration of the shop with over 300 different information data for the Google Analytics analysis software provided by Google free of charge. With this tool you see the visitor flows in the shop and can realize extensive reports. It is very important to keep an eye on where visitors leave the shop the most. From this it can be concluded whether, for example, marketing campaigns address the wrong prospective customers (jump always already in the article catalogue) or whether relevant payment methods are missing (jump always in the cash register).

Payment in the online shop: How should payment be made?

In the course of planning your online shop, it is essential to ask yourself which payment options you would like to offer in your online shop. One thing in advance: the more, the better. If online shoppers have a choice of different payment methods, this has a positive effect on the conversion rate.

Invoice

Old but gold. The classic invoice is still the number one payment method in online retailing. According to the latest online retailer survey, 83% of all online shop operators offer the classic invoice as a payment method.

With purchase on account, your product leaves the warehouse without you being sure that you will ever receive the money.

Credit cards

A must have for every online shop. Anyone who does without credit card payments in their online shop these days is scaring away potential customers - no question about it. Payment by credit card is uncomplicated, fast and above all secure. In order to be able to offer credit cards as a means of payment in your online shop, you need corresponding contracts with a Payment Service Provider and an appropriate Acquirer.

Payment Service Provider In Switzerland, there are three large PSP providers (PSP = Payment Service Provider) available for payment processing. This is the contractual partner who provides you with a virtual terminal for the encrypted receipt of credit card data, checks whether the credit card is covered and then initiates payment with the acquirer.

Acquirer In order to be allowed to offer credit cards for payment on the Internet, you need an acceptance contract with the respective credit card companies. This is done contractually through a so-called acquirer.

The credit card commission (varies greatly, approx. 1.8% - 2.2% of turnover) is charged by all acquirers. This commission depends on the turnover and is negotiable. Small tip: The commissions should be renegotiated with the acquiring partner at the latest after the contract expires.

TWINT

TWINT is currently the talk of the town. Despite initial teething problems, the intuitive payment method from PostFinance has established itself in Switzerland. Especially in online retail. The advantage: your customers do not necessarily need a credit card. The payment process is simple and straightforward. Your customers scan a QR code and confirm via fingerprint or they use a 5-digit numerical code. According to a media release from January 2020, TWINT now has over 2 million users who carry out around 5 million transactions per month.

Prepayment

You only send the goods when you have received the corresponding amount in your bank account. For you as a shop owner, this means zero risk. Be careful, however: Prepayment is not very popular in Switzerland and increases the rate of purchase cancellations enormously. Especially if you do not offer alternative payment methods such as invoice, credit cards or Twint.

Further help

Do you need further support? PepperShop provides you with different options.

• Often a click in the administration on the top right on the question mark icon helps. Here you can get direct help on the relevant topic.
• We are also available to you by email swiss21-support@peppershop.commailto:swiss21-support@peppershop.com)