How Does Your Website Stack Up?
Find out with a free tool from one of NBDA’s partners.
Words by Ryan Atkinson
How does your website stack up? Your website is your virtual front door. The vast majority of your potential customers are visiting you online before they decide to visit (or not to visit) your brick-and-mortar location. Are you making a positive first impression? Are you helping shoppers find what they need and want? Are you presenting the same welcoming, professional environment online that your customers experience in-store? Using our scorecard, you can answer these questions and identify opportunities for improvement on your website and your supporting digital marketing efforts.
What You’ll Learn (and why it matters)
The SmartEtailing Website Scorecard covers seven focus areas, from website setup to SEO best practices to analytics tracking. Within each focus area, we suggest three actionable tasks. If you can already check off each item, that’s fantastic. If not, checking off a few more of these boxes can improve your customers’ online experience, making them more likely to revisit you, online or in person.
Website Setup
When you were in the early days of opening your bike shop, you understood the importance of laying the proper foundation for your business. You built out your cash wrap, plugged in your POS, and placed fixtures and Slatwall. The same foundational planning should be applied to your website. Review the basics first and foremost:
- Is your inventory online?
- Can a customer add a product to his or her shopping cart?
- Are your shipping and in-store pickup options configured?
Before you start driving traffic through your virtual front door, you must review these settings, and others are covered on the scorecard to avoid confusing or inconsistent shopping experiences.
Website Merchandising
Once you have the foundational settings checked off, you can focus on your website’s content and design aspects. Site merchandising is very similar to in-store merchandising—you want to display relevant products and services in a compelling, easy to understand presentation.
You should regularly refresh your homepage, just as you update your in-store displays so that your website is seasonally appropriate and aligned with what’s happening in-store:
- Feature new arrivals, including bikes, apparel, and accessories
- Highlight service specials, including seasonal tune-up deals or financing offers
- Promote current sales, including spring, summer and holiday events
Whatever you’re displaying, be sure to link your homepage content to appropriate catalog pages or informative landing pages to help your customers take the next action.
Website Promotion
You’ve made it through the setup and merchandising checklists; now, it’s time to drive visitors to your website.
There are many ways to help potential customers find you, including organic or paid placement in online search, proactive email marketing campaigns, and engaging social content. Our scorecard covers several promotional best practices:
- Settings to review on-site for improved search engine optimization
- Suggested email marketing frequency for improved engagement
- Recommendations for levering social posts to encourage website traffic
Evaluating the efficacy of your promotional efforts is critical as well. Our scorecard includes analytics tips to ensure that you’re tracking and utilizing relevant data from your website.
Get Your Scorecard
Are you ready to get started on your website evaluation? Whether or not you have a SmartEtailing website, our scorecard provides you with valuable and actionable information to make the most of your online presence. Get yours today, start your review, and know that we’re here to help with your website and marketing needs.
This post was authored by Ryan Atkinson, President and Co-Owner of SmartEtailing. SmartEtailing provides website, marketing, and data solutions to help independent bicycle retailers compete in an evolving retail world.
The NBDA has been here since 1946, representing and empowering specialty bicycle dealers in the United States through education, communications, research, advocacy, member discount programs, and promotional opportunities. As shops are facing never-before-seen circumstances, these resources offer a lifeline. Together, we will weather this. We at the NBDA will not waver in our commitment to serving our members even during this challenging time—but we need your support.
Now is the time to become a member as we join together to make one another stronger. Whether you’re a retailer or an industry partner, your membership in the NBDA is one of the best investments you’ll make this year.
Learn more about the benefits of being a member and join now.
