Ecommerce businesses are booming right now, thanks to the massive growth of leading brands in the industry, like Amazon. But it’s also easier than ever before to set up an online business, which means that the marketplace is crowded. Grabbing attention is much more challenging than many business owners believe or expect.
In this post, therefore, we take a look at some of the ecommerce strategies you can use that your customers won’t be able to ignore. There are tactics that other companies have used in the past and are proven to work. No gimmicks and no “quick fixes''. Just honest advice that works.
Collect More Data
If you want to run a successful ecommerce store to compete with the big brands, collecting an email list is everything. Without it, you’ll struggle to gain any traction at all.
We suggest asking it at every opportunity on your site: on wishlists, checkout forms, in-stock notifications and chat apps. Find multiple ways of collecting them and don’t just rely on regular contact forms. Very few people actually use these.
Make Shipping Free
If you really want to grab people’s attention, make your shipping fee. It makes customers feel like they’re getting something for nothing, even if it means wrapping up shipping costs in the overall price.
If you’re worried about high prices versus your competitors, just offer discounts when customers spend a certain amount. 5 percent off when they spend more than $50 should help make you more competitive, and it’s much more palatable to customers, encouraging them to spend even more money. Remember, when customers get free shipping, they tend to select orders with much higher purchase value.
Get To Know Your Customer Personas
If you don’t know your customers yet, now’s the time to start learning more about them. The more you can get under their skin, the greater the affinity that you can develop with them. When they feel as if you know them well, they’ll be much more likely to hand over their hard-won money.
If you created your customer persona a long time ago now, don’t be afraid to update it. Go back over it and ask whether it still applies to your business now. If it doesn’t, change it.
Create Reviews That Stand Out
Smart companies know that people will decide to shop from them based on their online ratings. That’s why they collect as many reviews as they can. A company with 1,000 reviews giving it 4.5 stars is much more trustworthy than one with one or two reviews at five stars. Most customers won’t buy from companies with no negative reviews. They see it as suspicious.
Create Demo Videos
Here’s something that the big eCommerce sites don’t do: create product demo videos for their customers. It’s something, however, that you can quite easily do with a camera and a quick script. All you need to do is create a tutorial and you’re done.
Create A Sense Of Urgency
If you want products to fly off the shelves, then creating a sense of urgency is an amazing tactic. To do this, you can write things like “click here to reserve yours today” or “low stock: we only have a few of these items left to order.”
These statements grab shoppers' attention because they worry that they won’t be able to return in the future. It stops them from putting off purchases and encourages them to take action. Did you know that that encourages urgency has both higher open rates and click-through rates. So it really works.
Create A Reward Program
Customers love reward programs. They want to feel like you value their contribution to your business.
But how do you do this? Well, the simplest way is to just copy the best in the business. Just look at Amazon’s loyalty program. If you pay a small subscription, you get free delivery, instant streaming and TV shows and access to a range of free Kindle Books. You might not be able to go to those lengths, but there’s nothing stopping you from rewarding your most loyal customers.
Send Out More Promotional Emails
Bargain-savvy customers love promotional emails. That’s because they offer them opportunities to save money that they wouldn’t be able to find through regular channels.
Repeat customers tend to spend significantly more than new customers too (because they already trust you to deliver). So sending out emails can build loyalty and keep customers coming back for more.
Send Out Abandoned Cart Emails
Abandoned carts are a massive problem and something that hurts eCommerce businesses all over the world. But there’s a way to stop this from happening: automated abandoned cart emails. Research suggests that by gently reminding customers to return to their carts, you can rescue upwards of 30 percent of abandonments.
Give SEO Your Undivided Attention
More than 90 percent of web traffic originates on search engines. Put bluntly, it’s the most likely place for people to find you. So SEO should get your undivided attention, should it not?
The trick here is to get onto the first page for the most common keywords in your niche. Don’t assume that your competitors are already exploiting all of these. They’re probably not.
If you want to rise in the ranks for certain keywords, try writing web page content around your products. This way, you can tell Google that you provide users with more in-depth information than standard, boilerplate product descriptions.
Turn To Mobile
Shoppers aren’t on desktop or laptops anymore. Instead, most people are on their mobile devices. So that means that you need to optimize for smartphones.
But what do consumers actually want from a mobile site? Here’s a quick list of things to focus on:
No scrolling forms
One-directional scrolling (either up or down, or left to right)
Easy to save baskets and wish lists for later
Finger-friendly buttons for selecting products and checkout options
Easy-to-use search bar
Quickly find out more information about products with a single click
All images and descriptions fit comfortably on mobile screens