Setting Goals for Your Online Store

You’ve done all the hard work of researching, building, & launching your store. Whether you’re new to ecommerce selling or are ready to uplevel your success, it’s time to set some serious goals. Here’s how to get started building your ecommerce empire through goal setting.

Write Down Your Goals

Writing things down does more than keep you organized. Research shows that writing down your goals in vivid detail is strongly associated with success. Chart out what you want your goals to look like, from sales revenue to how you want your day-to-day to look like. Whether you’re looking for more flexibility or less stress while reaching your income goals, write it all down to see it as clearly as possible & turn them into a reality.

Chart Your Revenue by Channel

Your revenue goals can be more detailed than just earning more. Organize your ambitions based around different channels, including:

• Ecommerce store blog
• Social media
• Email marketing campaigns
• Facebook ads

Goals organized by channel could help skyrocket your ecommerce success & also offer more insights. As your revenue grows, you can analyze which channels earned the most victories, which aren’t worth the effort, & which need some nurturing to take off. 

Think About Your Average Order Size

Tie your ecommerce goals around growing your average order size. If you sell specific, niche products, your order size may be pretty predictable. But if you sell a variety of items, you can earn more by upselling & cross-selling. Built-in apps on platforms like Shopify allow you to customize which products you want to upsell, bundle, or cross-promote. 

Check Conversion Rates

Ambitious goal settlers know conversion rates reign when it comes to their ecommerce business. Conversion rates go beyond the traffic, clicks, and sales coming into your online store. Your conversion rates can also be measured with your social media channels, email marketing campaigns, & affiliate sales. Before you get started, ensure your Facebook Pixel is installed & any sales links are trackable to collect as much conversion data as possible.

Focus on Customer Reviews

Customer reviews are a powerful way to reach your goals & drive more sales. According to Oberlo, 89% of consumers worldwide make an effort to read reviews before buying products. Entice your customers to leave more reviews with email reminders, discount code incentives, & engagement on social media. 

Make It Engaging

Earning more customer engagement is a win for business owners looking to strengthen their business. Building loyal, engaged customers leads to more sales & generates buzz for your store. 

Its true engagement is a complex goal to measure, but it is possible with the right tools. Keep track of your comments on your ecommerce & social media channels. Tools like HootSuite & Planoly can help schedule & monitor your social media channels to measure engagement as a goal. 

Increase Your Content Marketing Efforts

Your business goals can also revolve around increasing your efforts in building your ecommerce store. Look to content marketing to strengthen your SEO, earn more organic traffic, & convert more customers. Content marketing takes time to develop but is worth the search engine traffic you’ll build.

Make it a goal to spend a few hours a week on improving your content marketing. Here are a few ways you can get started:

• Blog once a week
• Create more product videos & add SEO enriched content on YouTube
• Launch an online gift guide
• Release a free ebook that ties into your product or services & offers value to your customers 

Keep it Automated

Goal setting doesn’t have to be a time-consuming process. Instead, you can set up systems & processes to automate as you go. One place to start is with your email marketing campaigns. Offer a tempting opt-in like a discount code or VIP access to products to entice more sign-ups. Once your prospective customers are in, you can automate a drip campaign of emails that showcase your products & services.

Inventory is another way to automate your ecommerce processes to save time & resources. CustomCat offers print-on-demand, white-labeled services. Start by uploading your designs to any of our hundreds of products. When it sells, we fulfill it & take care of all the details like shipping. You never have to worry about having too much, or too little, inventory or taking time to manage the orders. 

Need more ideas for automation? Check out these 25 apps that can help build, grow, & automate your ecommerce store on Shopify. 

Stay Realistic

Remember that goals are not fantasies. They should be realistic, executable, & trackable. Dreaming up a goal like, “I want to earn $1 million in ecommerce revenue” probably isn’t that realistic if you’re currently making a few hundred dollars. Instead, focus on goals that bring more traffic, conversions, and profit to your store & work towards scaling those results to the big paydays you want.

Track Your Results

Goals are also just dreams unless you know how to reach them & can measure the results. Fire up your ecommerce shopping analytics, whether it’s Google, Etsy, or Shopify. Study how your efforts are performing, what’s working, & what’s not. You should also track your individual goals in a project management tool or spreadsheet to stay organized & see your progress firsthand.

Celebrate Your Wins

Goals deserved to be celebrated! Take time to honor big & small wins alike. Set aside time to go to lunch with a friend, buy that accessory you’ve been wanting, or pop open the champagne. The more you acknowledge & embrace your successes, the more enjoyable the journey will be. 

Final Thoughts

With some persistence & focus, you can set ambitious goals to take your ecommerce store to new levels. Share your online business goals by leaving a comment below! What about you?