With online sales skyrocketing more than ever due to the current pandemic, more eCommerce stores are springing up daily. Due to the hike in the number of Internet users searching for products and services online, eCommerce plays a significant role even for small businesses.
Simply having an online store won’t do the job. In order to meet your sales goals, you need to take the necessary measures to optimize your site and conduct effective eCommerce marketing to promote sales. Or else, your brand may never attain its full potential.
The Importance of eCommerce in Today’s Online Ecosystem
Though you will find many stores with physical locations, most buyers prefer to make their purchases online due to its convenience. Most individuals are more than willing to shop exclusively online these days. So, if your business does not have an eCommerce platform, then you’re missing out on many potential customers and sales leads.
Here’s why you should consider starting your eCommerce store:
- Easy to Operate – Starting your eCommerce store has become quite easy in recent years. Further to that, you can now list your brand on established platforms like eBay and Amazon and make use of the massive amount of traffic these sites receive.
- Expand your prospective customer base – By starting an online store, your products will reach a new set of potential customers. It goes beyond geographical barriers and allows you to conduct business with customers outside your local area.
- Increased Sales – By reaching out to customers online, you will be able to increase your sales and revenue quickly.
Now, let’s find out what tactics you need to boost sales on your eCommerce platform.
3 Pointers To Increase eCommerce Sales
Once you’ve built your online store, customers aren’t just going to come and buy your products without help. It’s at this point that the right marketing strategies can be used to direct the attention of potential customers to your brand.
1. Use Multiple Communication Channels
Having a website is great, but it shouldn’t be the only string to your bow. If you wish to succeed with your eCommerce business, you need to make your presence known on numerous online platforms. This will give you a better chance to get noticed by new lead prospects. Try implementing these ideas:
Select a handful of social media platforms suitable for your brand and post informative and engaging content using a casual tone. Avoid forcing your products and services onto visitors and mix in entertaining posts in between.
Start blogging by posting articles concerning the products and services you offer. Blogs are effective in maximizing SEO and allow your site to show during online searches.
Implement a reliable email marketing strategy by building an email list. You can opt for sending the same weekly newsletter to all your subscribers or segment your audience based on their personal preferences and actions taken in the past on your site.
That is, segment your subscribers based on the type of products they have purchased from you and what sort of email promotions they prefer to receive. While opting for an email marketing campaign, make sure to follow the strategies:
- Personalize your newsletters to gain better click-through rates.
- Include Images to demonstrate your product and enhance engagement.
- Come up with a clear Call To Action.
2. Provide Incredible Customer Service
More often, users opt for businesses that resolve their complaints efficiently without much hassle. So, eCommerce stores need to provide amazing customer service to their customers. The best way to ensure this happens more often than not is to:
- Use chatbots to answer most queries. This will reduce the load of having to answer queries manually and boost the order quantity.
- Include the Live Chat option on your online platform.
- Facilitate 24/7 customer service - if possible - to build trust among your potential customers.
- Send personalized emails and reply immediately in case of any complaints or queries.
What customers want from you is to listen and do your best to resolve their problems. What will drive them away never to be seen again is if you reply slowly and fail to take action to solve the issue. Incredible customer service goes an awful long way.
3. Accept Multiple Payment Methods
To reduce cart abandonment during checkout, it’s advisable to introduce multiple payment options on your eCommerce store. Studies report that more than 7% of the customers leave their shopping cart before checking out, as sufficient payment options are often not available - or at least the one they want to pay with isn’t shown.
Also, customers prefer a familiar route for making payment options. This is mainly because new customers may not fully trust the security options of your site to begin with. To ease their concerns, provide numerous familiar online payment methods. This includes popular digital wallets like Apple Pay or Google pay.
Small Changes Can Make Big Differences
Setting up an eCommerce business and running it is the first step in launching a successful online venture. However, to increase your eCommerce sales, you need to come up with sustainable marketing strategies. You won’t find any set rules to generate more sales on your eCommerce store, as each industry and sector is different.
It mainly depends on the type of eCommerce business you operate, how you operate, and the audience you’re planning to target. However, what you should take heart from is that the tips shown here are proven, with even the smallest changes potentially having a big impact.
Boosting your online sales isn’t difficult, and you don’t have to burn yourself out while doing so. All you need to do is combine some effective techniques that work together to attain your revenue goals. However you implement yours, we wish you the very best of luck.
