Pure Gold! 7 ways the Olympics can inspire you to a better Magento store

It's all over; the athletes are on their way home, the torch has been extinguished and the Olympics have left London probably never to return in my lifetime *wipes small tear away from eye*.

It has been a privilege to experience the Olympics in the UK - the whole country got behind Team GB and the results were staggering, even better than any of us could have imagined. Not only that, it has given a new generation role models who have actually achieved something through hard work - this can only be a good thing!

To be a great athlete requires determination, skill and lots of practice. Success for these guys does not come overnight and it occurred to me that this could be true of running an online store. So here are my own views on running an ecommerce store with gold in mind.

1. You won't get overnight success

Let's not beat about the bush here. An Olympic athlete doesn't just turn up on the day for an event, put in a top performance and walk off with Gold - they will spend months and years training for that event. There are things you can do to speed up success which I will discuss below but don't expect your store to go from zero to hero overnight, you've got to put in the work - the more you put in the more you will get out.

2. Get a great team around you

A sportsman is part of a team. In Team GB's case there were as many backroom staff as athletes, from coaches to kit cleaners: they all had a job to do, contributing to the success of the team. In a successful team everyone knows their responsibility and the significance of their contribution.Your back room staff - your team - are the best asset you have. Make sure they know what they are doing and empower them to help make your store better. If your store is built with Magento (and if you're reading this blog I'm going to assume it is) then there is so much you and your team can do in house without having to disturb your web developer. The problem is you don't know what you don't know. Get yourself and your staff familiar with what features are available - Magento U provide online tutorials which will explain the functionality. If you want to get more in-depth, practical knowledge why not send your staff on our Magento merchant boot camp where they will get expert training in a hands-on learning environment.

3. Respect your competition (and learn from them)

Competition is great. If it wasn't for competition we would never have broken the 4 minute mile or ran 100 metres in less than 10 seconds. Competition pushes us to do better. Identify your main competitor web sites, or the online stores that you see as your current achievable benchmark and work out what they are doing that you could be doing - and what they are not doing that you think they should be. How do they display products? What is the navigation like? What calls to action do they use? What they are doing may not be right, but spending some time each month studying what they do will give you a good idea of how you are measuring up and in turn give you new ideas. If you can see they are doing something that is really working for them then maybe you should consider doing it yourself.

4. Stay one step ahead of your competition

British cycling has pioneered the use of the latest available technology to give them the all important edge. From ergo-dynamic helmets to heaters that keep muscles warm between races theses are all things that the competition did not do - did it make a difference? Well Team GB got 12 cycling medals and no one came close to them in the cycling medal table. Why don't you do the same for your Magento store, make sure you are using the best technologies available to give you the competitive advantage? There are Magento partners out there producing excellent, world class extensions that you can install on your Magento store that will give you functionality for a fraction of the cost it would be to develop this yourself.

Take a look at what is offer at the Magento Marketplace known as Magento Connect

5. Lots of small changes can give you a great accumulative results

Great Olympians don't just make one change to achieve there goals. Team GB look at all aspects of an athlete to get the most out of their performance from how and when they train to what they eat, the clothing they wear and so many more small things. Individually each of these changes might not have a great effect on the athletes results but together they can produce significant results.

Think about the following:

If you could increase the number of visitors to your website by 20% what would that mean? What if you could increase the number of visitors converting to sales by 20%? How about increasing the average value of a sale by 20%? What if you could increase the return rate of a visitor by 20%?

Each of these on their own would probably result in a increase in revenue of 20% but what if you could achieve all four? The accumulative increase in revenue could be over 100%! Not so shabby. And this is just the start, you can start looking at targeting X number of sales through social media or through direct mail (old school but still has its place).

Why not look at encouraging repeat business and retention from your clients using a loyalty programme. Test one for free by installing the Sweet Tooth loyalty extension - I can highly recommend it and it will give you that edge over most of your competition.

6. Don't rest on your laurels

Athletes are getting faster, stronger and have improved endurance - every Olympics Games records are broken. This is also true of ecommerce. You cannot rest on your laurels: once you have got to the top of your tree there will be a competitor trying to knock you off, trying to shoot you down. You must always be looking at ways to improve your online store. Make sure you keep up to date with the latest trends in the ecommerce environment. Should you be looking how your website works on mobile devices? Mobile commerce is a fast growing area. Take a look at an example of a responsive Magento mobile theme.

7. Enjoy what you do

If you enjoy what you do you will be better at it. Empower yourself to understand online marketing, understand how to run a Magento store, don't be put off by anyone saying this is the domain for developers or marketeers. These are skills that if you don't already have you can learn. No one will be more passionate about the products that you sell than you so make sure you are at the heart of your ecommerce store. Enjoy it, embrace the challenge and go for Gold!

Oh one last thing, don't use drugs to enhance your website's performance, you'll get found out and be stripped of Gold!