You have created an excellent eCommerce store and stocked some great items in it. You just need one important element to make your store successful; customers.
The customers are the king of any business. They decide if the business is going to reign in the online arena or will fade away in the huge crowd of other eCommerce stores.
There are currently around 12 million to 24 million online stores across the globe. The number is sure to increase as more people have opted to shop online because of the ease it provides. It is estimated that in 2040, 95% of the total purchases will be made through the eCommerce store.
This implies that eCommerce is going to make its way up in the market and is not going any time soon. More and more businesses are merging in the arena of the online world. While this may be a good thing for the customers to have access to multiple sellers and a variety of stores, sellers have to face tough competition in the market.
If an eCommerce store fails to target the potential audience or does not provide its customer a good shopping experience, then its competitors will be ready to target the customers like a hungry shark.
If you want to stay ahead of your competitor and emerge as a successful online store, then it is high time for you to implement successful eCommerce strategies.
Keep reading to discover ideas to grow your business and attract customers to the online store.
12 Easy Ecommerce Strategies To Help You Reach More Customers
1. Include Advanced Product Filtering
One of the top reasons why people prefer online shopping is because it saves time. If a buyer gets access to all the products quickly, then he would love to shop from that store.
To provide your buyers quick access to all your products, create a proper menu. Do not list all your products on one single page, rather distribute them into different categories to make it easier for your customers to locate them. For instance, a brand dealing with perfumes can divide the products into three categories; male, females, and unisex. It will be easier for the user to look for the product in a particular category than to search the entire store.
Another option that can enhance the shopping experience of your customers and save their time is the advanced search option. Instead of going from page to page and looking for a particular article, the search option can find the article in a matter of a few minutes.
By adding proper tags to your products you can enable your customers to search for the product by its code, color, size, price, brand, etc. The famous eCommerce platforms like Shopify, WooCommerce, Magento, etc. allow adding up to 250 tags for filtering a product.
This advanced product filtering and searching option keeps your customer happy as it saves his time.
2. Use High-Resolution Product Imagery
Would you buy a product online solely based on its description? Of course not. People view the pictures of the product from different angles, zoom in, and check for other details, before hitting the buy now button.
Products images are of utmost importance to the visitors. They make their purchasing decision based on the images and the reviews of the people. This is why the design of your webpage is essential. Images are important. And, providing high-quality images on your site is not a big deal, especially when images are capable of improving your conversion rates. Quality images can be the deciding factor for a purchase. Top tools like 3D configurator help buyers view all the angles of the product while purchasing. Similarly, it’s possible to get a 360-degree view of the product to make designing a unique experience. Seeing the exact preview of the final output is now a possibility that ensures a better product for you.
A business must use high-resolution images on its website to attract the attention of the visitors and compel them to buy the product. Try to use the original pictures of your product. If you have uploaded a picture from a free image source, then there are high chances that your visitor must have seen that free source picture before. Customers do not like to
purchase from a brand that doesn’t use its pictures.
Take clear pictures of your products in proper lighting. Do not upload one picture on your product page. Take several pictures from different angles and provide the option to zoom them to allow your customers to have a better look at the product.
3. Personalize Your Homepage
Another effective technique to reach more customers is to create personalized pages with the help of custom web development services.
Personalization refers to the technique of suggesting the products to the customers, based on what they viewed in their last visit to the store, or other eCommerce websites.
A lot of eCommerce stores have adopted the personalization technique by tracking the user’s behavior on their websites. It records what kind of product a user is viewing, and purchasing. When the user visits the store next time, the website displays the goods that are related to his previous purchases, or the items added to his wish list.
Amazon is the perfect example to quote in this regard. Its homepage allows the buyers to find the products they’re interested in under the tag ‘Related to items you have viewed.’
By personalizing the homepage you not only save his time to select the products that he needs but also advertise other products that might tempt him to buy them.
4. Content Marketing
The pattern of marketing has changed in the last decade. People are no longer influenced by the campaigns that center on the products and their features. An advertisement will only highlight the positive aspect of its product and describe how remarkable it is.
Customers do not pay heed to such marketing campaigns. They prefer customer-oriented brands. If your business doesn’t focus on the problems of the customers, then you are minimizing the chances of growing your customer base.
Content marketing is an excellent way to address the problems of your customer and offer them a solution, without sounding self-promotional.
To make your content marketing successful, understand the problems of your customer, and then create content that would help them to overcome it.
For instance, a business dealing with exercise equipment will have fitness enthusiasts, or people on their weight loss journey, as their potential audience. By creating informative articles and posts, its audience will get an insight into the expert knowledge of the business and they will turn to it for seeking a solution to their problem.
If your audience is a group who wants to lose weight then you can create articles on how to shed calories by cardio exercises, or which meals to include in the diet, etc. to keep them interested in your content and learn more about your products and services.
Content marketing also helps to improve your SEO and increases your website’s visibility on search engine result pages. You can incorporate the keywords in your content that your potential customers can use to find you.
5. Provide Easy Checkout Process
The more ease you provide your customer, the more they will come back to you and share good things about your brand.
Checkout is the last stage where you get the customer to share his details and transfer the amount to your bank account. If you made your customer happy throughout their shopping, then make sure not to make them angry at the checkout stage. An irritated or angry customer will abandon his cart, which is the last a business would want.
Make sure your customer finishes his buying journey and checks out smoothly from the store. Your checkout form should be short and relevant. It should only ask for the details that are necessary to process and dispatch the orders. Do not waste the time of your customer by asking him for irrelevant information.
Do not force the buyers to create an account for checking out. If you do so, then 37% of the buyers will part their ways with you. Offer them an easy method to checkout without having to create a separate account for shopping.
6. Email Marketing
It often comes as surprise to many businesses when they are suggested to use email marketing as a part of their digital marketing strategy.
The majority of people think that email marketing is not effective and will not produce a high ROI. However, they’ll be surprised to learn that the ROI of email marketing is $44 for each dollar spent.
There are numerous reasons to start email marketing. First of all, you have the audience’s consent to receive the updates. Secondly, you can divide your customers into different segments according to their buying behavior, needs, and interests, etc.
Moreover, email marketing allows you to design personalized messages for your subscribers. This benefit is not available in social media marketing, or paid advertisements.
If you want to stay connected with the people who showed interest in your business and products, then email marketing is the perfect way to do so. And, for such online businesses they normally confirm the order by Order Confirmation Email.
Encourage your visitors to sign-up for the newsletter in return for a discount voucher, deal, or gift. They would love to share their emails with you in return for something valuable or free.
Also, provide the option of signing up for the newsletter at checkout time. Inform your customer about the content, promotions, and other announcements they will receive via emails to lure them into providing their email addresses.
7. Social Media Marketing
Social media platforms have become the second most used websites after google.com. A huge audience is available on these platforms. For instance, the pioneer of the social media website; Facebook has 1 billion active users and Instagram has more than 100 million users.
This gives the business a golden opportunity to reach a wide audience and increase its sales. Social media is free to join. Businesses don’t have to pay a penny for making their business accounts or page on social networking sites.
The key to the success of social media marketing lies in the uniqueness of the content and your engagement with your followers. If your content is unique, and useful for the audience, they would love to follow you on your business account and might even share your posts on their profiles.
Another effective way to attract customers to your online store is by hosting a giveaway. It is an excellent method that is adopted by many successful brands on social media. The audience loves to participate in a giveaway. They would happily invite their friends to like your page and engage under the posts. If they win they’ll receive gifts from the brand, if not, they have nothing to lose.
8. Run Retargeting Ads
98% of the users do not buy on their first visit. They would come to the store, explore the pages, view the products, and exit the website.
If a person showed interest in your product then you have to go after them and remind them about the products that interested them.
This can be done by running retargeting ads. Retargeting ads are an effective measure to convert your potential audience into customers. Your customers will be reminded about your brand and products by the ads that will be displayed on their social media accounts and on other websites that they use, for instance on YouTube.
60% of the buyers notice the ads of the products they viewed, on other websites. If your audience notices your products, there is a good chance that they will return to your store to add their favorite products to the shopping cart.
9. Connect With A Third Party Site
If you are a small startup that wants to sell its product, then think about connecting with third-party websites like Amazon, Etsy, eBay, etc.
All you have to do is create a seller account, pay a nominal amount of registration fee, and let the third-party site handle the rest of the matters for you.
These websites have a wide customer base and great exposure to the market. They can easily sell your products to a huge audience by marketing your goods, and you can enjoy the profits.
10. User-Generated Content
Apart from creating and promoting your content, you can also use the content created by your customers for your products or brand. For instance, if a user has shared a detailed review about your product, then don’t keep it with you, share it on your website and social media accounts. Let other people read what your customers have to say about you.
Moreover, if a user has used your products and tagged you in their pictures and videos, then you can repost their content on your account with their consent. If the customers share good things about your product and highlight its usefulness, then other people will be tempted to try your products and reap the same benefits which your customers are getting by using your products.
11. Hold Sales And Offer Discounts
Reduction in prices, deals, and bundles are sure to catch the attention of the masses. By offering a discount on your original prices, the new audience will be tempted to try out your products.
To make this tactic work, make sure that you spread the word about the upcoming sales and offers on your social media platforms and your website. If your budget allows, use paid ads to inform the audience about it.
You can also display limited-time offers, and show the count of the stock under the product images to create an emergency. This technique speeds up the decision process of the people and they hit the buy now button.
12. Build A Mobile App
People no longer have the time to switch on their desktop devices to shop online. The majority of the websites are responsive to various mobile devices. It makes it easier for people to buy their desired articles by logging on to the website by using their smartphones.
However, for many successful businesses, having a responsive website was not enough. They have made their online stores available to its customers by just a tap on their screens and to allow them to view the products even if there is no internet connection. Many successful stores have turned their websites into mobile apps to make the shopping experience quick and smooth for their customers.
By building a mobile app for your eCommerce store, your audience will just be one tap away from your store from exploring the products and buying their favorite articles. Moreover, a mobile app loads much faster than a website. Your customers will not have to wait longer to start their shopping spree.
Conclusion
These aren’t the only eCommerce strategies to help you reach more customers. There are numerous other ways which you can opt for. However, whichever strategy you choose to apply, don’t forget to stay consistent. Without consistency, survival is not possible in the competitive world of eCommerce.
Author Bio:
Ricky Hayes is the Co-Founder and Head of Marketing at Debutify – free Shopify theme, helping dropshippers build high-converting stores in minutes. He is a passionate entrepreneur running multiple businesses, marketing agencies, and mentoring programs.