eCommerce growth is booming. The global market is expected to close the year at $5.545 trillion. By 2025, retail eCommerce sales are projected to reach $7.4 trillion. And there’s a lot of fish in that sea; approximately 24 million eCommerce websites exist.
However, less than a million of these make $1000 annually. This may not seem like good tidings, but the growth projections are optimistic, and based on the number trying their hand at eCommerce, the barriers to entry are low. Provided you have a solid all-around strategy and are willing to devote serious effort; you can make your mark in the eCommerce industry.
Below are a couple of time-tested tips on growing your eCommerce business, whether from the ground up or as an ongoing business.
1. Have Ways of Knowing Who Your Target Audience Is
Failure to engage the suitable target market wastes about $37 billion a year globally. Google’s data shows that 56% of ad impressions never meet a human eye. These are people who have no interest in buying what you’re selling.
If you want to go far in eCommerce, wasted expenditure is something you want to avoid. You can learn more about your customer by first understanding your product and the group of people who might desire it. Further, study your current customers and extract the characteristics they all share to hone in on your audience.
How about the competition? Who are they targeting that you are not? Or better yet, what segment are they overlooking? Use Google Analytics to track your users and understand what channels lead them to your website, their age, gender, interests, and so on.
Facebook insights and other social media analytics can help you make data-driven decisions that increase the chances of reaching your target audience. Reaching this audience is key to driving sales.
Surveys for your target market are another important tool in finding/segmenting your audience. Knowing more about them enables you to serve them better, and according to a Deloitte study, client-centric companies are 60% more profitable.
2. Improve Customer Touch Points
Think of all the areas a customer gets to interact with your brand. Often, this is through your website, so your eCommerce site has got to be magnificent. Vital metrics such as being fast, user-friendly, having a great conversion funnel, and well-placed CTA’s – all these need to be tailored to meet customer satisfaction.
You’ll also want to consider progressive web apps (PWAs) as they combine the benefits of a website and a native app experience into one. Companies such as Starbucks, Uber, Debenhams, and Tinder use PWAs to provide users with a fast, native app experience that also happens to take up much less space than a traditional app.
The results are higher conversion rates and lower bounce rates. Giving your eCommerce site the added advantage of a PWA frontend for headless commerce allows you the flexibility to iterate your front end without worrying about the back end. That separation is a game-changer that is revolutionizing the eCommerce space.
3. Optimize Your Conversion Rates
69% of people who visit your website will do so without making a purchase. By focusing on the visitors you already have, you lower your customer acquisition costs. Optimizing the conversion rate increases revenue per visitor, which is great for your books.
Assuming your eCommerce website is fast and optimal, what can you do to improve your conversion rate? You can launch a cart abandonment email campaign. Perhaps woo them back with discounts on items they abandoned. Offer time-limited sales. Smoothen up your sales funnel. Incorporate chatbots to provide quick responses, carry out surveys, and progress customers through your sales funnel.
Consider additions to your signup and landing pages. Signup forms on landing pages have the highest conversion rate at 23%. The pricing page can lose you customers if it’s not well thought out. Keep it simple and straightforward with just the necessary information. An abundance of pricing plans can cause friction – making the customer pause and have uncertainties or doubts. Include testimonials or free trials, and have your CTA displayed prominently.
There are many things you can try to make things fit just right, so keep testing to see what works and what doesn’t.
4. Give Your Customers Great Support
Things can get quite bleak if customers do not feel that you care about their queries. Data show that 78% of customers enjoy having brands and organizations reply to them on social media.
67% of customer churns can be avoided if queries are solved at the first engagement. 57% prefer to be reached via mail, social media channels, video chat and chat over traditional telephony.
This emphasizes the need for your eCommerce business to have different channels to contact customers. Not only that, you need to be able to respond quickly. Implementing features such as a detailed FAQ page, product review incentives, and live chat support will help you build trust with your customers and break the corporation/customer barrier to great effect.
Conclusion
Don’t ever slack. Always be on the lookout for new ideas, new products, more robust inventory, and better methods to market your eCommerce store. If you want to go far, you’ve got to keep abreast of any changes and keep testing out different ideas.
