Look online and you’ll find endless articles and posts about launching your eCommerce business. What is harder to find are product launch checklist you want to sell.
Think about whenever you have a unique design or a seasonal offering for your online store. You need to have all your ducks in a row before posting about this product or service, so the response is not only worth the effort, but compliments the regular sales on your existing site.
That is why we have put together a quick checklist of those essential tasks you need to get your product off the ground. From picking up a Xero WooCommerce plugin integration for the backend to running a quick audit of your site to ensure the customer experience is perfect. Read on and jot down notes you can customize for your store.
1 – Optimise for Mobile
You have to optimise for mobile because it’s already critical to current market demands and will only become more important in the coming years. Mobile is the future of business. It’s where the users are—and if you don’t reach them there, someone else will beat you to it.
Make sure all of your images and site layout for your new product page are optimised, so it is easily viewable on all device platforms.
2 – Plan for Out of Stock
There is a difference between creating urgency with a limited supply and running out of stock when you need to scale.
Having plenty of inventory is good for sales. Customers who want to buy something but find it sold out will likely abandon their shopping cart, which means you’re missing out on potential revenue from those who would have paid full price.
If your product isn’t available when a customer wants it (whether due to high demand or poor planning), they’ll likely leave negative reviews about this issue online, which can hurt your SEO rankings and make potential new customers think twice about buying from you in the future.
3 – Partnerships & Collaborations
You can use partnerships and collaborations to promote your product. This could be social media influencers or affiliates to help you promote your product. For example, if you have an affiliate program, you might offer a 10% commission on every sale made by that person.
4 – Integrate Analytics
Make sure your new product is already part of your data analytics program and automation. For example, a Xero WooCommerce integration plugin allows tracking customer and inventory data without needing to constantly reference individual records.
Analytics are information about your website’s traffic and performance. It gives you insight into how many people visit your site each day, how long they stay on that page before leaving or moving on to another one, whether or not their search terms resulted in clicks for your new product, and so much more.
5 – Audit the Sales Process
Put your feet in a buyer’s shoes and run through purchasing your new product from beginning to end. That includes actually making a purchase or abandoning your cart. Watch how the process works and assess whether or not you would have made the purchase if this was another company.
6 – Automate Your Backend
Save yourself time, money, and endless headaches by including your new product into your backend automation. This means having all of the correct new product information and details on your WooCommerce storefront, a place for it in your Xero accounting, a plugin to communicate the details between the two, and anything else needed. This ensures when your product is launched, it can be purchased, shipped, and reviewed with as little effort on your part as possible.
A critical part of this step is calculating appropriate sales and use tax as well as shipping information for the areas of the world you are soliciting customers.
7 – Feature Complimentary Products
Complimentary products are products that go together. A lot of times, when you buy one product, you’ll be tempted to buy the other. For example, when you buy a book on how to make your hair grow longer and stronger, your next purchase is likely going to be a shampoo or conditioner.
Complimentary products can also help increase average order value (AOV) since customers often add more items to their cart after clicking on them.
As an eCommerce store owner, you must feature complimentary products as much as possible because they can significantly boost sales. This is especially true for new product launches. Therefore, you need to find 2-5 products you can list on your new product page that make sense to purchase.
8 – Create Promotional Content
This is the fun part. Take some photos, design graphics, make a video, and anything else that allows you to post your new product everywhere you can. From social media integrations to email marketing campaigns, you need to have the information that best represents your product’s value and branding.
9 – Engage Your Loyal Audience
Launching a new product is an exciting time for your customers, and they’ll want to be involved as much as possible. So make sure you give them plenty of ways to learn about it.
Promote the upcoming release on social media channels like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Pinterest (if applicable). Keep their attention by posting about it regularly throughout the countdown period.
Send out a series of emails leading up to and following your product’s release—this will help keep interest high throughout the process, so people don’t forget about what’s coming next week or next month.
10 – Launch Your Product
The day is finally here! Set a time and date and stick to it. You want to coordinate all activities around this specific event so that your product launch garners the most attention it can with as few speed bumps along the way. Write out your product launch plan and make this the final destination of your journey.
11 – Evaluate the Results
Once the launch is over, evaluate the results. What worked and what didn’t? Are there any areas where you can improve your product launch process? How do you plan to use this information in your next product launch?
It may be helpful to have someone else review the data with you so they can offer input and suggest improvements.
This isn’t just for your new product but the process itself. That way, your strategy will be smooth and easy to follow when launching another new product.
Need More Help?
One of the easiest ways to set up your eCommerce business for success with a new product is to have an automated backend. This gives you the valuable data-driven insights and decision-making capabilities you could not get with manual data entry.
A powerful tool for this automation is the Xero WooCommerce plugin integration from OPMC. This will save you time and money by taking many of your accounting tasks like payments, invoicing, reconciliations, and more and automating them into the background so you can focus your efforts on new product development and customer interactions during a launch.
You have a lot on your plate trying to grow your eCommerce business. Let the expert developers at OPMC help with a robust and cost-effective WooCommerce Xero plugin that makes your day-to-day operations so much easier. This way, when it is time to launch your next big product, everything will be ready to go so you can boost your sales potential!
We hope this new product checklist will help you outline a solid plan for the future. Good luck, and may your next launch be a massive success!
