When you first dreamed of opening your own business, you likely had visions of making it “big”. The first couple of years selling your products or services might have been rocky – but over time, you’ve grown. Maybe slowly, but you’ve grown.

Maybe you’ve grown so exponentially, you can’t keep up with demands or customer expectations. Or it could be that you’ve hit a plateau.

Whatever the case may be, ensuring your business remains on the path to greatness—planning for your eCommerce store’s growth in the future—is essential. This planning can be time-consuming, but it isn’t as hard as you might think.

It’s important to make the right decisions from the very beginning, such as choosing the right eCommerce platform that can grow with you.

The Importance of Preparing to Scale

Growing a successful business doesn’t happen overnight—it takes a lot of strategic planning. Scaling properly helps you manage mega growth spurts and avoid a snowball effect of unsatisfied customers.

You’ve likely tried several growth strategies, such as:

• Online marketing
• Omnichannel sales
• Email campaigns

You may have even begun seeing the positive effects of these strategies. You’re excited at your potential—but you might also experience some growing pains.

Properly preparing to scale your online business means you’re always ready for whatever comes next, such as:

• Adding new products to capture an expanding audience
• Adding social accounts for enhanced engagement
• Boosting content marketing efforts through freelance writers or social media influencers

Here are some suggestions for how you can effectively scale your eCommerce business.

Getting Your House In Order

As frightening as scaling an online business might seem, it’s really not that hard. But it also isn’t something to undertake without the proper plan from the beginning. Before attempting any sort of growth strategy, take a step back.

Where are you now? Where do you want to be? In a year? Five years?

As you reflect, consider the following:

Your goals. What’s your endgame? What do you think growth should look like? Do you just want to scale up and serve more customers? Do you want more high-paying clients, or just to convert more of your traffic into sales? Regardless of your answers, you need a plan.

Using your goals as a guide, create a growth calendar. Your timeline should highlight your goals—or you can use your goals to guide your steps. As you progress, continue evaluating where you are, what you’ve accomplished, and where you’re yet to blaze trails. Don’t be shy to adjust—and readjust—your plans as you move forward.

The current state of your business. This is a biggie. How well is your business currently doing? Is it doing well? If you can’t answer “yes” to this question, scaling isn’t the answer. Think about it—if you’re not doing great, do you really want the world to know?

Perfect your business model, products, and customer service before you attempt scaling up.

3 Tips to Scale Your eCommerce Business the Right Way

Once you’ve considered the above and properly planned to scale your online business, it’s time to move forward. Here’s our list of tips:

1) Make your website easy to access and simple to use
You only have about five seconds to convert your site’s visitors to stay on your page. What they see when they arrive must be clear and inviting. If your potential customers can’t see what you sell and how to buy it immediately, they’ll move on to your competitors—and take their spending dollarswith them.

Navigating your site should be as easy as possible. Consistency between pages is also necessary. Keep videos and other image content to a minimum. Everything on your site should have purpose and clearly enhance your overall messaging.

2) Make purchasing your items simple and straightforward
As in, ridiculously simple and straightforward. Go through your site with the eyes of a customer, or, better yet, ask a friend who’s not overly acquainted with your store to navigate your site through to the purchasing aspect. Ask them for an honest opinion on its functionality.

Is it easy to see what items or services you offer? Or how to make a purchase?

Based on feedback, consider how you can tweak your site’s checkout process or product placement.

3) Make an investment in technology
Technology evolves exponentially and that can be scary—but it doesn’t have to be, and it shouldn’t. Scaling your online business needs the type of technology that can support your growth.

You may have started your online business with a platform that just offers the basics. If you grew rather quickly, you may have met a ceiling at which you outgrew the platform.

But an eCommerce platform that grows with you and supports you right where and when you need it means a smoother scaling experience.

We’ve Got Your Back

Whether you’re running your ecommerce business from home or you have a dedicated team of 100, Square has what you need to grow your business online easily and with support when you need it.

Whether you need an easier way to accept online payments or a streamlined website, we’ve got you covered. Partner with Square for free and see how easy it is to grow and sustain your eCommerce business.