While it’s true that most people prefer to shop online nowadays, you are mistaken if you think that online shoppers will buy from any ecommerce store. Making money through an online store is not guaranteed. You have to come up with a strategy like any other business or you will end up like the thousands of e-commerce stores that fail every year.
Tips to Improve your E-commerce Strategy:
1. Better Presentation
You have to display your products in such a way that they lead to more conversions. As much as you want your customers to see the type of products that you have to offer, you should also provide vivid product descriptions.
In this case, instead of presenting your products in a grid format, you should use a table layout to display them because they are more detailed and practical. At the same time include a quick add-to-cart button next to the table. That way, the client can easily buy the item after they find the proper size.
2. Show the Customers that you Care
Most online businesses assume that customer service is not that important when dealing with online buyers. They believe that online shoppers just want a quality product that’s not too expensive. To prove my point, when is the last time that you saw an online retailer without live chat or support?
If you are a startup, you want to start off on a high note. This means that you should not make assumptions about the customer. Strive to give them an online experience like no other. Keep all your communication channels open for inquiries.
3. Use Lead Magnets
There are two types of positive traffic for your business: warm and hot. Hot traffic refers to those high-value return customers. They will buy from you because they trust your firm. On the other hand, warm traffic refers to people that are interested in your business and may occasionally visit your website without purchasing anything. Your goal is to turn the warm traffic into hot ones so that you can increase your sales.
You can do this by using lead magnets to convince the warm traffic to give you their email addresses. A lead magnet is an attractive offer to the client. It shows them the value of giving you their email address. Once you get the client’s address, you can slowly gain their trust and turn them into hot traffic.
4. Make your Pages Load Faster
People hate slow internet and pages that take a long time to open. If you have been wondering about how you can increase traffic to your site, you don’t have to look that far. Just work on your site’s performance so that it can load pages faster than 4 seconds. In fact, a person is more likely to add an item to the cart and check out if they know that your site is fast.
You can improve the speed of your site by reducing the size of your images. Most high resolution images are large and can slow down the site.
5. Structure Abandoned Cart Sequence
There are times when the hot and warm traffic may place an item on the cart only to log out before checking out. In some cases, these buyers may have been distracted by something. That’s why they left without completing the purchase. Since you have the emails of those customers, you can send them a reminder message to entice them to make the purchase.
Alternatively, you can structure an abandoned cart sequence. This is whereby you automate the abandoned cart emails. The system will automatically send reminder emails to all customers that left without completing the purchase. An interesting thing about this system is that it sends more than one email to the client. As it turns out, the more you remind the client, the more likely they are to complete the purchase.
7. Make your Product Descriptions Unique
The mistake that some online stores make is copying the product descriptions from other similar sites. This is a bad idea because the search engine rankings will work against you. In most cases, the first company to use that description will get a higher rank than the rest.
Your goal as an online store is to make sure that customers know that you exist. To do so, your website needs high search engine rankings. And to get such rankings, you need high-quality unique product descriptions.
Here is a tip: before you write your product description, think about your target market. What kind of words are they likely to use when talking about the product? Then, use those words to write a unique description. Imagine that you are talking to the customer directly as if they just walked into a physical store.
8. Improve the Visuals – Product Images and Lifestyle Photos
Since your customers cannot physically touch your product when shopping online, they will rely on the quality of the pictures to make purchase decisions. Before you post product images, use a high-quality camera to take pictures of the product from all angles. Use a neutral background for this. The reason why you take pictures from all angles is so that the consumer can rotate the product and gauge its quality.
However, you can’t convince the customer with product images alone. You also have to include lifestyle photos. We live in a world filled with pictures and selfies of individuals enjoying themselves. Therefore, it’s only right that you use lifestyle photos. For example, if you are selling a summer outfit, it may be better to include a picture of someone wearing those clothes while enjoying themselves at the beach. Lifestyle photos add that emotional appeal and create a sense of urgency in the customer.
9. Consider Using Trust Signals
Apart from pictures, you can also use trust signals to convince customers that your products are of high quality. An example of a trust signal is an icon to show that a certain seller has been verified. Customer reviews are also examples of trust signals. Alternatively, you can include a special money-back guarantee for any products that don’t meet customer expectations.
The more trustworthy you seem, the more likely customers will buy from you.
10. Schedule Regular Blog Posts
If you want to sell anything, you always have to put the needs of the customer first. Most people love a good read, and it doesn’t matter whether it’s juicy gossip or an inspirational story. People will read whatever interests them.
A smart way to increase traffic to your site and possibly lead to conversions is to come up with interesting content. Include a blog section in your site. Use blogs to spark interest in the readers and gain their trust. Take your time to do enough research on a topic before you write about it. This is because search engines will rank your site depending on the quality of the information. The more blog posts you write, the more visitors you are likely to get to your site.
11. Secure a Launch Plan for New Products
You should create hype before launching a new product on your online store. Write a press release stating what is unique about the new product? What did the creator’s have in mind? Are you going to give any rewards to the first buyers?
You should also include a call to action. You can request the first purchasers to write reviews with statements like, ‘be the first to set the trend’. Alternatively, you can encourage the client to buy two new products by offering the second one at a discount.
A launch plan should also include growth strategies. You should know what you are going to do if the new product sales go beyond expectations. Have a manufacturer on standby to meet any additional orders that may be requested by customers.
12. Consider Guest Checkouts
Not all customers will be happy to give you their personal information and create an account so that they can buy from you. This is why you need to consider a guest checkout system that allows visitors to make a purchase without necessarily creating an account.
If you believe that your products are good and customers are going to be impressed with your service, you should not be afraid to try out guest checkouts. If the customer is really impressed with your product, they may decide to create an account.
Final Thoughts
The above are some of the ways that you can use to improve your e-commerce strategy. As you consider these tips, remember that the most important thing is to understand your online customers and meet their needs.
