eCommerce is a booming industry with no sign of slowing down any time soon. According to recent estimates, the eCommerce market will reach $1.2 trillion by 2021, up from an estimated $453 billion today. To take advantage of these lucrative opportunities, many businesses are launching their own eCommerce sites and selling their products directly to consumers rather than wholesaling them to other retailers. Whether you’re just starting out with an eCommerce business or have been selling your wares online for some time now, it never hurts to have some helpful tips in your back pocket. After all, any successful business requires strategic planning and continuous optimization in order to grow and thrive in today’s competitive market. In this blog post, we’ll go over 10 ways that you can grow your eCommerce business, improve sales conversions, and increase customer loyalty moving forward.
Make User Experience & User Interface Improvements
As with any type of business, customers’ experience and interactions with your brand will have a direct impact on their purchasing decisions. One of the best ways to improve your eCommerce conversion rates is to enhance your site’s user interface (UI) and user experience (UX) with a few simple tweaks. For instance, you could add live chat support to your site in order to provide visitors with a more personalized shopping experience and quick response times. Likewise, you could optimize your site’s design and layout in order to make it more user-friendly and intuitive to navigate, eliminating any sources of confusion or frustration. And remember to make your site’s product descriptions thorough and informative, as these are the first things that potential customers will read when browsing your site.
Incorporate Video Advertising
Another excellent way to improve your eCommerce conversion rates is by incorporating video advertisements on both your site and social media channels. Video ads are appealing to consumers in part because they make it easier for businesses to clearly convey their value proposition and core messaging, in addition to conveying a more personalized brand message. Beyond this, research suggests that video advertisements have a direct impact on eCommerce sales, with one study estimating that video ads have a 10% increase in sales compared to static display ads. By incorporating video ads across your eCommerce site and social media channels, you can increase your brand’s visibility and help improve click-through rates, which will, in turn, lead to an increase in sales.
Add a Blog to Your E-commerce Platform
With the rise of social media, many companies have stopped blogging entirely or at least scaled back their blogging efforts. However, blogging remains a highly effective way to engage your customers, build trust, and drive targeted traffic back to your eCommerce platform. For example, by creating content that’s relevant to your brand, target audience, and product offerings, you can position yourself as an authority in your niche and attract highly qualified traffic from search engines. And remember to publish your blog posts regularly, at least once a week, to keep visitors coming back and encourage them to purchase your products.
Leverage Influencer Marketing
Another excellent way to improve your eCommerce sales is by leveraging influencer marketing campaigns. An influencer marketing campaign involves partnering with social media influencers and celebrities to promote your brand and products. To implement an influencer marketing campaign, you’ll want to partner with influencers who have a large following in your niche, as this will help you reach a broader audience and boost your brand’s visibility. An effective influencer marketing campaign will help increase your brand awareness, drive targeted traffic to your site, and boost your eCommerce sales.
Implement Omni-channel Marketing Strategies
As the eCommerce industry grows, many businesses are transitioning from a single-channel strategy to an omni-channel strategy. Omni-channel marketing refers to a type of business strategy that unifies a company’s various marketing channels, including social media, email marketing, blogs, and other digital platforms. Ecommerce businesses that implement an omni-channel marketing strategy are able to reach customers on different devices and in multiple ways, potentially resulting in higher conversion rates, increased customer loyalty, and higher sales totals. To take advantage of this strategy, make sure that your website is mobile-friendly and that you’re matching your brand’s visual identity across all of your digital platforms.
Give Visitors More Ways to Buy During Checkout
One of the main reasons that customers abandon their shopping carts and don’t complete their purchases is because they worry about the overall transaction process, from payment to delivery. In order to improve your eCommerce conversion rates, try giving visitors more ways to pay for products during checkout. For example, you could implement a third-party payment platform, such as a credit card processor, that offers more payment options and more streamlined processing. Alternatively, you could try offering free shipping on all orders, which will help reduce your customers’ concerns about checkout and encourage them to complete their purchases.
Offer Free Shipping and/or a Guaranteed Return Policy
As we mentioned above, one way to reduce your customers’ concerns and increase their confidence in your brand is to offer free shipping on all orders or implement a guaranteed return policy. Adopting a free shipping policy will make it easier for your customers to purchase your products, removing a major source of frustration and concern. And by implementing a guaranteed return policy, you’ll let your customers know that they can shop with confidence and that they have a safe place to exchange their items in the event that they don’t fit properly or meet their expectations.
Provide Exclusive Deals for Email Subscribers Only
Another excellent way to increase your eCommerce conversion rates is to provide exclusive deals and discounts to your email subscribers. By signing up for your mailing list, your customers are opting into your brand’s communications, which makes them more likely to trust your brand. When you offer exclusive deals and promotions to your email subscribers, it not only encourages them to make purchases, but it also increases their loyalty to your brand.
Monitor Website Behavior with Analytics Software
Last but not least, it’s important to continually monitor website behavior with analytics software. Doing so will help you identify areas for improvement and determine how you can maximize your conversions in the future. By monitoring your traffic and website behavior, you can identify any problem areas and make improvements to your site, such as optimizing your call-to-action copy, improving your product descriptions, or adding more relevant product images. You can also identify which marketing campaigns are bringing in the most traffic, which will allow you to focus your energy on the sources with the highest ROI.
Summing up
The eCommerce industry is booming, and it has no sign of slowing down any time soon. To take advantage of these lucrative opportunities, many businesses are launching their own eCommerce sites and selling their products directly to consumers rather than wholesaling them to other retailers. Whether you’re just starting out with an eCommerce business or have been selling your wares online for some time now, it never hurts to have some helpful tips in your back pocket. After all, any successful business requires strategic planning and continuous optimization in order to grow and thrive in today’s competitive market. If you follow these tips and make the necessary improvements to your website and marketing campaigns, you’ll be well on your way to growing your eCommerce business and increasing your revenue streams.