Getting a webshop built in Groningen? Go for local results

Why a webshop in Groningen starts with your own customers

A webshop is not a second business alongside your existing one. It usually serves the same people, just at a different moment of the day.

So look first at who buys from you now. A butcher in Haren, a bike shop in town and a supplier of machine parts in the Eemshaven all sell something different. They do share the same starting point: customers who already know them and who like being able to order outside opening hours.

That is your biggest advantage. You do not have to compete with the large national shops on price or delivery time, but on something they do not have: people know you, they can drop by and they know who picks up the phone when something goes wrong.

So make that visible: your address, your opening hours and a phone number that is genuinely answered. Why that short line matters is explained in why business owners choose a local website builder.

What a webshop actually delivers

Before you think about colours and buttons: what do you actually get back? In practice, four things.

• Sales outside opening hours. A large share of the orders comes in while your shop is closed: in the evening and at the weekend.
• Less manual work. Orders arrive with address, payment details and invoice, so you no longer have to retype anything.
• A wider reach than your premises. Customers from Assen, Leeuwarden or Emmen buy from you without dropping by.
• Insight into what people look for. You see which products get viewed and where people drop out. That steers your purchasing.

What a webshop does not do is attract customers by itself. Being online is not marketing. The first orders come from customers you already know and from people who find you in Google.

A ready made platform or a custom webshop

There are broadly two routes. With a ready made platform you rent a shop that has already been built and fill it with your own products. With a custom webshop the shop is built around the way you work.

Ready made is fast and cheap to start with. That is a fine choice with a manageable product range, standard delivery and no link to your administration.

A custom build becomes interesting as soon as you do something out of the ordinary. Think of made to measure products, tiered prices for business customers, stock you also use in the shop or a link to your bookkeeping.

The question is not which route is better, but which suits the way you work. The same comparison applies to ordinary websites and is set out in custom website or template. What we build and when we advise what is on the page about having a webshop built.

Payment the way your customers want it

The payment page is where you lose the most revenue. If the method someone is used to is missing, they drop out.

We connect your webshop to a payment provider: Stripe or Mollie. Which payment methods your customers then see at checkout depends on two things:

• What that provider offers. Stripe and Mollie each have their own range, it differs per country and they keep extending it. For a Dutch webshop iDEAL is always part of it.
• What you switch on. You choose which of those methods you enable, and you can change that later without having the shop rebuilt.

Every payment method costs money: usually a fixed amount plus a percentage per order. Start with the method your customers use most and add a second one; look after three months at what is really being used, and only then switch the rest on.

Make sure the payment data flows straight into your bookkeeping. That saves you an afternoon of retyping every month.

Checking out on a phone decides whether you sell

Most visitors arrive on their phone, on the train or on the sofa. If checking out does not run smoothly on that screen, you never see the order.

So watch four things:

• Buttons large enough to hit with a thumb.
• A form that fills in the address from postcode and house number.
• No compulsory account: ordering as a guest has to be possible.
• Delivery costs shown before you enter your details, not only at the last step.

Speed counts double here. On a mobile network every second of waiting is a reason to click away. How a site adapts to every screen size is explained in having a responsive website built.

Test it yourself, and not only on your own new phone. Ask three customers to place a trial order and watch where they hesitate.

Delivery, collection and returns: here you beat the big shops

A national webshop can only ship. You can do more, and customers in the region respond to that.

• Collection in the shop. Customers order online and pick it up the same day. No delivery costs, no waiting for the courier.
• Delivering in the region yourself. For larger or fragile products that is often cheaper than a parcel service, and it gives you a conversation at the door.
• Returns at the counter. Bringing something back without a box and a shipping label lowers the threshold to order.

Do not tuck those options away in a footnote. Mention them on the product page and at checkout, because that is where the decision is made.

Be honest about delivery times too. Promising a day longer and keeping to it earns you more returning customers than a promise you just miss.

Being found in Groningen and the region

Your webshop has to bring in two groups: people who know your name and people who search for what you sell.

For that second group local visibility matters most. Term explained: SEO stands for search engine optimisation, everything you do to rank higher in Google without paying for it. For a webshop in Groningen it comes down to four things:

• A complete Google business profile with address, opening hours and photos.
• Product pages with your own text, not the manufacturer's. That text is already on a hundred other shops.
• A page per product group explaining what you sell and who it is for.
• Mentions from local parties: the traders' association, the club you sponsor, the regional news site.

If you are mainly after customers in the city itself, look at what we do in web design in Groningen. If you already have a site that delivers too little, SEO for existing websites is a cheaper first step than rebuilding.

What you arrange yourself before you go live

This is where most webshops run into delay. Not on the technology, but on the material.

Make sure this is ready:

• Product photos. At least two per product, on a calm background and all in the same format. Poor photos cost more sales than a dull design.
• Product texts. Short, in your own words, with the dimensions and the material. Customers cannot pick anything up, so your text has to replace that.
• Your product range sorted. Which products, which variants, which prices. A list in a spreadsheet is enough to start with.
• The legal pages. Terms and conditions, returns policy, privacy statement and a correct cookie notice. What applies there is in is a cookie notice compulsory.
• Accessibility. Stricter rules for digital accessibility are coming, for webshops as well. What that means for you is in the accessibility legislation explained.

We can write the texts, but start on it in good time: this is nearly always the reason a launch slips.

How we build your webshop, step by step

We work in four steps, and you know up front what is expected of you in each one.

1. Getting acquainted. We discuss what you sell, to whom, and how you handle orders now. The plan comes out of that, not out of a standard package.
2. Proposal and design. You get a fixed price, a schedule and a design of the pages that matter: the home page, a product group, a product page and the checkout.
3. Build and test. We set up the shop, connect the payment methods and the delivery options, and place real trial orders on phone, tablet and computer.
4. Live and beyond. We put the shop online, switch on the measurement and keep an eye on the first few weeks.

Want to see what comes out of that? Look at our work. Not after a webshop but an ordinary site? Having a website built in Groningen is the starting point.

What does having a webshop built in Groningen cost?

There is no fixed price, and anyone naming one straight away knows too little about your business. Four things determine the amount:

• The number of products and the number of variants per product.
• The payment methods and the delivery options you need.
• The links to your bookkeeping, your till or your stock.
• Whether you fill in a ready made design or have something of your own built.

Also count on fixed monthly costs for hosting, security and updates, and on the per order costs of your payment provider. Those run on, in a quiet month too.

The amounts per type of webshop are worked out in how much having a webshop built costs. With us you get a fixed amount up front, with what is and is not included alongside it.

After the launch: this is where you make the difference

Going live is the beginning, not the end. The webshops that do well do three things every month.

Measuring. Look at where people drop out during checkout. A single step that asks too much can cost you dozens of orders a month.

Keeping it current. Software ages, payment integrations change and security holes are closed with updates. With a webshop that weighs more heavily, because money and customer data pass through it. What is involved is in why maintenance is more than updates, and what we do is under website maintenance.

Extending on the basis of figures. Only add something once customers ask for it. Discount codes, gift cards and customer accounts are all useful, but not all at once in week one.

Frequently asked questions

How long does it take to build a webshop?

Usually six to eight weeks, depending on the number of products and the integrations you need. A small shop with a manageable range can be ready sooner. The biggest delay is almost always in delivering product photos and texts, not in the technology.

What does having a webshop built in Groningen cost?

That depends on the number of products, the payment methods, the delivery options and the links to your bookkeeping or stock. Also count on fixed monthly costs for hosting, security and updates. With us you get a fixed amount up front, with what is and is not included alongside it. The amounts per type of webshop are in how much having a webshop built costs.

Do you also work outside Groningen?

Yes. We are based in Groningen, but we work for business owners across the north of the Netherlands and beyond. Discussions then run over video call or phone, and we schedule a visit where needed. For the neighbouring regions we have separate articles about having a website built in Drenthe and in Friesland.

Do you also help with product photos and texts?

Yes. If you already have material, we use it. If you do not, we write the texts and help with choosing or arranging the photos. Do count on this taking time: good product photos of a hundred articles are not made in an afternoon.

Can my webshop be extended later?

Yes, we build with that in mind. Think of extra product groups, discount codes, gift cards, a customer account or a link to your bookkeeping. Our advice is to start small and only extend once your figures show that customers are asking for it.

Is a webshop worthwhile if I have a physical shop?

All the more so. Customers look online and buy in the shop, or they order online and collect from you. With collection in the shop and returns at the counter you have two things a national webshop cannot offer. Your webshop does not replace your shop, it makes it easier to reach.

Ready to start?

Having a webshop built in Groningen does not start with technology, but with the question of what you want to sell and to whom. Once that is clear, the rest is work we take off your hands.

Curious what it would cost for you? Request a free proposal and we will go through your product range and your way of working. Otherwise look first at what we do with custom webshops or at examples of our work.

Read more about how customers buy online and where they drop out at Think with Google.