Why Turnkey Services are Simplifying eCommerce for the Better

You’ve heard realtors and marketers mutter this word countless times: turnkey. What exactly does it mean in the glitzy, growing world of online retail and eCommerce? The short answer is that it’s a solution worth paying attention to.

In this article, we’re going to swiftly break down turnkey eCommerce. Why are we qualified to inform you about this? Because we wake up and sink our teeth into this stuff daily.

Defining turnkey in eCommerce

Investopedia defines a turnkey solution as “a product or service that is designed, supplied, built, or installed fully complete and ready to operate; the contractor or provider undertakes the entire responsibility from design through completion and commissioning.”

That is quite the all-encompassing definition if we’ve ever heard one. But the truth is that while every online shop shares certain similarities, each one also has distinctly different needs that must be addressed in order for a given shop to achieve longevity and success online.

Here at Simplistic, we specialize in four indispensable areas: creative, development, optimization, and support.

To many, eCommerce is a tough business to make a buck in, especially with well-funded competitors sprouting up daily. We aim to offer a simple, straightforward, highly tailored approach to building your online offering and making something that’s indicative of your brand’s personality and offering.

Today, a turnkey service in eCommerce equates to a team handling your online presence from initial concepts all the way to a beautiful, living, breathing site with tons of functionalities and nuances.

This includes things like domain registration, web hosting, payment processing, web design, drop shipping, omnichannel marketing, automated systems, customer management software, and plug-ins and integrations for anything from rewards programs to video testimonials.

Turnkey service in tangible steps

Let’s walk through what turnkey service and consulting can look like. To execute all our big ideas, we use Shopify. Why? There’s really no better tool in the market. 

Shopify shops have seen nearly 3x as much growth as the general eCommerce market according to Statista and a Blogging.org article. Those are astounding numbers.

Creative

Like walking into a physical store, you want your online store to be its own unique experience. Think about how different it is setting foot in an Apple store versus a Panera cafe. The former is a sleek tech haven, draped in glossy white and cut with sharp, clean edges. The latter is a warm concoction of cozy colors, plush booths, and dim lighting that feels a bit like a living room.

Your online shop needs to have its own feel. That’s why we build around the user’s experience and cater the design, graphics, and iconography accordingly.

It’s more than colors and fonts. What is the first thing a customer sees when they digitally set foot in your shop? What will they click on? Where will they go next? Take a look at the site build we’ve completed for Ritual, a forward-thinking vitamin brand. 

Want inspiration from other sparkling sites that nailed their design and experience? Check out this Awwwards article.

Development

On the flipside of creative is development. The behind the scenes code and technical elements that power a site and all its shiny bells and whistles.

For us, this typically involves migrating information over from a different platform, creating customized themes and layouts, integrating apps and plug-ins, and implementing a variety of things like subscription services.

Streamlined development can take a complex purchasing flow and make it a breeze for the customer. If you’re hiring a turnkey service, make sure they take this seriously.

Optimization

Okay, thus far we’ve built an experience from the bottom up, infused it with creative elements, seamless navigation, and intentional design. Even better, it feels exactly like how the digital version of your brand should.

Now it’s time to get optimized and make some money. 

Revenue optimization includes things like analytics and insights reporting, A/B testing, landing and product page design, and experimenting to get the site as conversion-oriented for the customer as possible.

People are less likely to buy something when it’s hard to even get to the purchase. Make it as easy and thoughtless as you can. This means collecting data and iterating constantly.

Support

The last pillar in our book of turnkey services is support. After all, an online shop is a living, breathing, changing experience. A true turnkey service is one that will continually help your site grow, iterate, and morph into better versions of itself.

For us, this comes in the form of routine theme upgrades and continuous design and development support. 

An example of this is the ongoing work we do with a brand called Loeffler Randall, a shoe, handbag, and accessories shop. 

For Loeffler, we’ve built several layouts and modules that can be turned on and off as well as different promotions.