If you run an eCommerce business that predominantly sells products online, you know that getting your website in front of prospective clients and customers is essential to your success. The easiest way to do that is to up your
eCommerce marketing efforts and make sure your site is able to attract the customers you’re looking for each day. So, where do you begin? Here are a few proven marketing tips to set your website up for long-term success.
1. Make Sure It’s Optimized for Mobile Devices
These days, more people are using their phones and tablets to surf the internet and make purchases from eCommerce stores. If your site isn’t optimized for mobile devices, people will have trouble navigating through your products and completing the purchase.
Take a look at your site now. Pull it up on your phone and make sure everything loads in a way that makes finding and buying your products easy. If you notice any pain points or see that your site is not formatted properly, make a plan to update it as soon as you can.
2. Implement Online Chat Support
It’s completely normal for customers to have questions about your products and when they shop in person, it’s easy for them to get answers right away. However, when your customers shop online, getting answers to even the most basic questions can be difficult at best. If they email you, it can take days for you to sort through your inbox and respond appropriately. The longer customers have to wait for answers, the more likely they’ll be to turn to your competitors.
Launching an online chat support function makes it easy for your customers to get the answers they need in a timely manner. When your customers know that you’re there for them and can answer their questions, they’ll feel more confident in working with you.
3. Use Email to Your Advantage
Email marketing is one of the most powerful tools you have. Unfortunately, many eCommerce business owners fail to use it to its fullest potential. Take a look at the types of emails you’re sending your customers. You’ll want to send a mix of promotional emails and informative newsletter-type emails designed to build confidence in your brand and create a relationship between your business and your customers.
4. Update Your Website
Your customers will be able to tell when your website is old. It won’t look chic like your competitors and it will likely load more slowly than other eCommerce stores. Get in the habit of routinely updating your website to keep things fresh and relevant.
Anytime you add a new product, or an existing product gets updated, upload new photos to showcase those updates. This will keep your website looking fresh and your product listings looking like new at all times. The more current your site seems, the more confident customers will be when making purchases.
5. Write Detailed Product Descriptions
One of the major challenges eCommerce business owners face is conveying the quality of their products to their customers. When people shop in person, they can handle the product and inspect it physically. Online, they’re only able to read product descriptions to learn about the features of every product you sell.
Take the time to write detailed and optimized product descriptions. Highlight the features of your products that stand out from your competitors’ listings. Use keywords (terms your customers are searching for) in your descriptions to help search engines better direct traffic to your website. When done properly, you can increase traffic and make more sales month over month.
6. Leverage Your Social Media Accounts and User-Generated Content
Your social media accounts are great for promoting products, sales, and ongoing deals. But that’s not all that you can use them for. You can also gather user-generated content and share it on your social media channels. What is user-generated content? It’s posts created by your customers that showcase, review, or otherwise discuss your products.
Often, these posts carry unbiased opinions on your products which you can use to better promote your store. Just make sure you get permission and/or tag the original creator when you share their post. By giving them credit, you’re showing your customers that you value the content they make and encouraging them to promote your brand to their friends and followers in the future.
7. Look at Your Cart Abandonment Rate
Cart abandonment is one of the biggest challenges that eCommerce store owners have to overcome. It can happen for many reasons including:
- Poor user interface on your site
- Slow load times on the purchase page
- Requiring users to create an account to complete the purchase
- High shipping fees
- Security concerns when entering payment and personal details
Take a look at your site’s average cart abandonment rate. Then, walk through the process pretending that you’re a customer. Make a note of the issues you find and work on correcting them as soon as you can. This will help you reduce your cart abandonment rate and encourage customers to complete their purchases.
You can also leverage your email system to further reduce your abandonment rate. When customers who already have an account with you abandon their carts, your email system can send them a reminder that they left items in their cart and invite them to come back and complete the purchase. While it’s not a guarantee that you’ll make a sale, it can encourage shoppers to come back.
Set Your Online Store Up for Success
Managing an eCommerce business requires far more than selecting the right products. You need to actively manage your website and stay on top of routine updates if you want to keep your store relevant in the eyes of your customers.
Make sure to implement these tips as soon as you can. The sooner you do, the easier it will be to streamline your business and increase your sales and profitability.
If you’re not comfortable making updates or creating high-quality content to draw your customers in, reach out for help.
Contact Denver Website Designs and schedule a consultation to see how we can help.