An online store has a specific and cruel problem: it can be perfect — good products, good photos, good prices — and receive nobody. Unlike a shop on a street, there is no passing footfall. Every visit has to be brought in.
Search is where the buyers are
Someone typing "men's running shoes size 10" is far closer to buying than someone who saw an ad in a feed. That person went looking. It is the most valuable visit there is, and it is free.
To receive it, the product page has to be named the way people search. A store that names its pages "Product 1", "Ref. 3345" or just the supplier code is invisible to that search.
The four steps, in order
1. Page names that match the search
Each product with the name people use, not the internal name. Free, and the one with the biggest effect.
2. Being discovered
Register the store in Google Search Console and make sure sites point to it. A new store with no links takes a long time to be found — sometimes it never is.
3. Catalogues and search sites
Being where people look for your kind of product brings visits and, alongside them, the links that help the store climb. It is the slowest step done by hand, and it is what Magneth solves in one go: your listing is published across more than 100 search sites in the network.
4. Social media
Great for showing products and closing sales with people who already follow you. Poor as the only source, because reach is decided by the platform.
Paid ads: mind the maths
They work and they are fast. They just demand discipline: with thin margins, the cost per click eats the profit without warning. Work out beforehand how much you can pay per sale.
If your store is a reseller store
Anyone reselling for Avon, another direct sales brand or a large retailer is in a particular situation: the store comes ready-made, but the address looks like that of thousands of other resellers. Worth reading the specific article.
