Selling Building Materials Online: Tips for E-Commerce Entrepreneurs

Increasingly, companies are taking the step towards e-commerce. What once seemed implausible for many goods and complex products a few years ago is now standard practice.
The reasons for this change are diverse. Often, the prospect of a sales channel that requires relatively low capital and workforce is a driving force within the company, as is the growing expectation of potential customers to be able to compare and order products from home.

Therefore, it is crucial that when selling goods online (e-commerce), all important information is present and well-structured. This is comparable to exhibitions or showrooms in traditional building material retail, which allow customers to gather all the essential impressions and information to make their purchasing decision. Furthermore, visibility in search engines is a key piece of the puzzle for success in online commerce.

Below are four tips to help you implement the aforementioned requirements for a successful online business.

1. Thoughtful Information Provision

Consider in advance what information will be relevant for visitors. This can vary depending on the type of product but should be consistent for identical products to allow for easy comparison. For example, product-specific information for front doors might include available door fillings, and for windows, different sash profile geometries or product types.

In addition to providing pure information, think about user-friendliness, such as intuitive and appealing presentation formats and corresponding support. For technical specifications like Uw or Ug values, provide explanations to help non-experts interpret and assess these details.

2. Search Engine Optimization of Page Content

Search engine visibility is crucial to attract as many visitors as possible to your website without paid advertising. The deliberate selection and strategic placement of keywords are essential for visibility and positioning in search results. The rarer certain terms or phrases are on the internet, the easier it is to secure top positions in the search results.

However, keep in mind that search volume is also key to drawing attention to your online business. Therefore, achieving the first position for a term that nobody is searching for won't bring any value to your company. Once you’ve defined specific keywords for each page, they should be included in the page title, description, header, and content to maximize search engine weighting.

3. Unique Selling Propositions (USPs)

To differentiate yourself from other online retailers, highlight your unique selling propositions. These are crucial to attract and convert the desired target audience. Specifically, in the building materials sector, end customers often find it difficult to identify and compare the key characteristics of different offerings from online retailers. Regardless of specific price and product information, it's essential to emphasize your company values and the benefits of your online shop, such as:

• Best prices for aluminum front doors in Berlin
• Measurement and installation service for all garage doors available nationwide
• 20-year warranty on all plastic windows with triple glazing
• Sustainable building materials made from renewable or fully recyclable raw materials
• Delivery within 7 days of order receipt

4. Intentional Link Building

Once your online business is up and running, you’ll notice that most pages are either not found or poorly indexed in search results. This is partly due to the factor of time. The longer pages have been available online, the more likely they are to be indexed and the higher their weighting. However, this weighting advantage is increasingly balanced over time by search algorithms. Therefore, in the medium and long term, other factors become more important, which can be actively influenced. These include measures for on-page search engine optimization as well as effective link building.

Search engines typically assign higher relevance to websites that have incoming links. To quickly generate new backlinks, social media profiles and listings in various online directories can be useful. However, the quality of the backlink is just as essential as the quantity. This depends on the ranking of the referring website and whether there is a thematic relationship between the pages. For example, if you want to sell windows online, a backlink from an established window manufacturer would be ideal for your venture.