The Ultimate Guide to Ecommerce
Are you ready to set up an inbound e-commerce website and you are not sure where you need to begin? This article will give you some of the best practices that will help you to get the best results from your effort and time.
1. Selecting and Customizing a Mobile-Friendly Theme
According to the current statistics, close to 57% of web traffic originating from mobile devices like tablets and smartphones. Therefore, it is prudent to use a mobile-friendly theme whenever you are building your e-commerce website. you can either choose to use premium or free themes for your e-commerce website. The most important thing is to get the one that suits your needs best. You can give your e-commerce website a unique look by including branding elements like your logo and a color scheme to your website.
Optimizing Your Website
Optimization of the website encompasses several tactics and strategies that will help in converting a high number of those people who visit your website into visitors. However, there are two main ones that are good for any e-commerce website. The first one entails writing enticing product descriptions. The use of persuasive copywriting triggers will help in selling your product descriptions. Therefore, you need to tap into the psychological tricks like exclusivity, reciprocity, and the fear of missing out among others. All these tactics will encourage the people who visit your website to buy now.
The second trick is adding beautiful product images. Visuals play a critical role when it comes to marketing. Visual elements are more important to online shoppers because they can neither see touch the product before making a purchase decision. In addition to the static images for your product, incorporate different models and videos to give your visitors a 360-degree view of your products.
2. Creating a Stellar Customer Experience
According to research, customer experience will overtake pricing and products as the main brand differentiating factor for sales by 2020. Therefore, you should focus on creating a customer experience that is impressive across the different touch points of your brand. One of the best ideas is by adding a FAQ page. This section will help your potential clients to easily and quickly get the information they need to make a purchase decision.
The other tip is to reduce the size of images for quick load times. People want pages that load within two seconds or else you will increase your bounce rate. The last trick is leveraging user-generated content. Include user-generated content such as customer reviews, testimonials, and social media images on your website. Customers tend to believe the words from previous customers more than what you tell them.
Best Practices for E-commerce Marketing
1. Test Social Media Ads
Facebook has a huge audience of more than 1.18 billion users every day that you can tap. Use social media video and posts to target your audience and test to see what works best in driving sales and generating revenue.
2. Collect Email Address and Keep on Touch
Email marketing offers excellent to good ROI. Collect email addresses on your e-commerce website and request clients to opt-in the future communications of your brand. It will help your visitors to keep coming to your site through the discounts, sales, and offers that you provide.
3. Use Personalization to Tailor Messaging and Offers
Personalization is becoming more important than ever for any online shopper. The promotions and ads that you send to your target audience should address their interests if you want to avoid frustrating your clients. Make maximum use of personalized product suggestions so that every customer will feel as if you are addressing him alone.
How to Increase Your e-commerce Sales
E-commerce sales have increased significantly in comparison to retail ones. More shoppers are going online because of the high level of convenience that comes with online shopping. However, competition is also high and you will not succeed unless you have the right strategies. Here are some of the tips that you may use to grow your e-commerce sales.
- Hook Prospects at the Consideration Stage
It can be too late to try to reach out to your prospects at their decision-making stage. You need to provide relevant content at the awareness state and then follow up so that you can move along with them through the purchase journey. People visit several websites before making the final consumption decision. Make sure you engage until you can convert them to active and loyal clients.
- Outrank Your Competitors Through Paid Targeting
Most of the lucrative e-commerce websites put in a lot of effort. A site that is like yours may generate high profits because of paid targeting. Paid advertising can give you a competitive edge in the market as long as you get everything right.
- Provide Some Information Before Your Visitors Leave the Site
Some of the visitors to your eCommerce store are not ready to buy now. However, you need to learn to engage everyone. Several reasons can make a person to visit your website. Make sure you give them information that will keep your brand at the top of their mind as they continue with their search.
- Invest in Re-engaging Those Who Abandon Carts
It is inevitable to have shopping cart abandonment but this is not irrevocable. Some users only need some little nudge and they will get back to the shopping cart. It can be through a simple email reminder or re-marketing. It’s good to learn some reasons why prospects abandon their carts to address this point.
- Remember Integrating Social
You can never underestimate the power that social media when dealing with online sales. You will choose the best platform form depending on your industry and target clientele.
Tips for Selecting the Best E-commerce Software
The following factors will help you to choose an e-commerce software that best meets your needs;
- Customization and themes abilities that allow you to customize your site to your company branding
- Customization of your domain name and URL
- 24/7 expert support from the platform. You need fast and reliable support in case of an emergency.
- Flexible payment options because customers use different payment methods that are secure.
- Multiple language abilities as you may get clients from different parts of the world who speak different languages.
The kind of software that you use will determine the success rate of your e-commerce site. All the steps in this ultimate guide to e-commerce will help you succeed in your endeavors.
Read Also: