As the owner of an e-commerce business, you are likely familiar with the ups and downs of maintaining a business where most customer interaction is through a screen. Because of this, it can sometimes be difficult to understand the needs of your customers and how you can better reach them in order to boost your business.
Read through the tips below to see how you can boat your e-commerce business for greater success.
User-Friendly Website
The pillar of a successful e-commerce business is the usability of the business’s website. If a customer cannot navigate your business’s website, then they are not likely to stay on it for long. In order to update your website, you should first look at the aesthetic of the home page. Does it have appealing imagery, colors, and content? Can the customer easily figure out where to go and navigate the different tabs in the menu bar?
To test these questions, go onto the website yourself and pretend to be a customer. If it takes you a while to find what you need, you may want to simplify your home page so that customers don’t take longer than a minute to find what they need. If it takes any longer than this, then they may get frustrated and leave the website.
As far as the menu page goes, make sure that you don’t have too many tabs and that they are easy to navigate. A good e-commerce business website has an About Us tab to put a human face behind the business, tabs specific to each product you provide, a reviews tab, and a sale section tab. These should be displayed at the top of the home page, usually above a rotating array of featured products. This gives customers a full view of all you have to offer and they can quickly choose the product that they are searching for.
Consider Using a Third-Party Shopping Platform
If you are noticing that traffic to your own personal website is low, you may want to consider partnering with a third-party online shopping platform. This will help bring in new customers who are familiar with certain platforms and are accustomed to how they are used. These types of platforms allow shoppers to buy products from multiple different companies in one go, offering they a more seamless shopping experience.
Businesses all over the world have opted to transfer their online shops to these kinds of platforms because it allows for growth and makes everyday operations easier. If this sounds appealing to you, you do not have to do it alone as there are many companies out there that are able to help by providing a Shopify migration service in which you basically transfer your online shop to the Shopify platform where your customers can still access all of your products. With this platform, you can sell your products through more than one channel if you want and you don’t have to spend hours calculating taxes or shipping costs because they are all built into the platform.
Easy Checkout Process
This process is one of the main reasons why people get turned off from online purchases. The checkout process on some websites can be tedious and feel unsafe, leading many potential customers to ditch their orders before even entering their credit card numbers. If you want your e-commerce business to have a reputation for easy and secure checkouts, the best thing to do is operate through a reliable third-party platform like was mentioned above. When customers know that you are using a reliable platform, they are more likely to come back again and again.
Use Social Media
Social media engagement is a huge influence when bringing awareness of your brand to potential customers. Your e-commerce business should have at least two social media accounts where you post regularly about your products. Keeping followers up to date with new products and advertising in a fun and intriguing way is guaranteed to boost your online sales.
You can also use social media to post advertisements on things like Instagram stories where they will get lots of views. All advertisements should include a link to your trendy and fun website and some advertisements should also promote any sales that you are having on the website. Big, bright animations that say things like “25% off” and “Buy One Get One Free” will lure customers onto the website and then they are one step closer to purchasing your products.
Offer Deals and Discount Codes
Nothing draws in customers like discount codes and other offers like holiday deals. If you are using social media properly, people will see these offers and click on them. Once they are on your website and have the discount code, they are more likely to purchase something.
Prepare For Growth
If you have put into place all of the steps above, then it is likely that you are on your way to getting more customers in the near future. Because of this, you should begin preparations for company growth and make sure that you have the infrastructure to support lots of incoming orders.
This may include hiring more staff to help with production and packaging as well as deciding whether or not to expand to a new space. If you are selling physical products that need some room to create, you may want to invest a large portion of your earnings in renting a warehouse or an office space where you will have more room to create and expand your line. The downfall of many start-up companies is that once they see some semblance of success, they are not prepared to provide their services to match the demand. This is why it is so important to have a future plan when creating an e-commerce business.
Creating an online business takes a lot of hard work and ingenuity, but once it has kicked off, it is nice to sit back and watch the customers roll in. If you are facing any issues with sales or customer flow, keep these tips on hand and you are sure to have greater business success.
