As the time goes by, Proven Strategies for Ecommerce Success seems to take increasingly important place in any business’s hierarchy. And truly, eCommerce has past the point when it reached the annual volume of $1 trillion long ago, and cracked the number of $4.45 billion during this year’s Black Friday, and Thanksgiving alone. It should be obvious then, that having an online store has become less a matter of choice and more a matter of necessity, especially for small businesses which cannot hope to have the network of on-site stores developed enough to compete with some bigger players. Here are a few strategies for making that ecommerce leap of faith successful.
Use an Ecommerce Website Builder
First and foremost, to enter the eCommerce arena, you will need an online store, and creating one can sometimes be harder, and indeed, more expensive than it seems. Unfortunately, this harsh reality puts the greatest pressure on small businesses which need their online stores to stay competitive the most. One of the most common remedies to this issue can be found in the form of some eCommerce website builder, which is a great asset small retailers can use to bridge the absence of the home-grown online store until they are able to support its development.
Make Your Website Good Looking and Professional
A simple picture of your product will tell your visitor a thousand words and work well with SEO too, but although the inclusion of good looking images is a must, do not rely exclusively on “eye-candy” to sell your products. Each one of them should feature extensive description, a short video, and, of course, user reviews, which can do wonders for your conversion rate (more than 60% of customers read a product review before they confirm a purchase).
Prioritize Mobile Users
As of summer 2015, the number of Google mobile searches has surpassed the number of desktop searches, and it will only continue to grow in the following years. That is why you should do your best to make your website appealing to this rising audience. Here are three easy steps to do that:
- Make the website layout easy to navigate from phone or tablet. Although the 5-inch screens have become a gold standard in today’s smartphone industry, your menus will still need to look clean and sharp, and be large-enough to be thumb-friendly.
- Keep the store clean of clutter. We already mentioned that all products should feature great pictures, but that does not mean that you should go overboard with graphics, animations and other imagery. Everything that will keep loading times on minimum will only do you good.
- Set a Mobile Friendly Preferred Width. Go as narrow as you can before you start compromising the desktop user experience.
Make the Product Categories Easy to Understand
No matter how your products may be good, if potential customers are not able to find and easily identify them, they will quickly lose patience and move to your competition’s website. Do not allow that to happen, and help your visitors to navigate your store easier through various labels, filters, easy to understand parent categories, and, of course, capable search functionality.
Pay Attention to Existing Customers
Did you know that businesses with 40% repeat customers are able to generate nearly 50% more revenue than some similar businesses with only a 10% of returning customers? That is why, while you are chasing to cover more market ground and reach new customers, you should take some time to engage the existing ones with more re-marketing, aggressive promotions on social media, and compelling loyalty programs.
Expand Product Portfolio
If you have successfully launched some new product be sure to have a great follow up. Whether you are going to use the momentum you have achieved to launch some new product line, or you are going to take somewhat safer route and expand the existing one is up to you, just be sure to come up with something that will utilize the positive word of mouth and expand your customer base. Rest assured, eCommerce market is constantly growing; if you refuse to grow with it, you will quickly fall into the shadow of the bigger boys.
These were some of the proven strategies that can help small businesses to make their stab at the lucrative eCommerce market. Competing with huge businesses with seemingly unlimited marketing resources may be hard, but if history has taught us anything that would be that good strategy can always overcome the strength in numbers.