Follow These Ecommerce Tips to Grow Your Online Store

Stop for a moment and think about where you are in your eCommerce endeavors.

You may have just started an online business and you are only beginning to realize how exciting the eCommerce industry is. Or maybe you are already an established brand in your industry and your starting days are long gone.

But at the end of the day, it doesn’t matter what kind of situation you are in since every single entrepreneur will reach a point where they will have to seek new ways to grow.

And, seeing that the eCommerce industry is becoming oversaturated, it’s better to start now than to rush things later.

Take a look below at a handpicked selection of eCommerce tips that will help you grow your online store and become even more successful.

 

Create a solid content marketing strategy

Not many people realize the benefits of a good content marketing strategy. However, pushing engaging content still remains a great method to reach your current and potential customers, and provide something valuable to them.

If you are just starting your business, do not forget to craft an effective content marketing strategy. And if you have been around for some time now, try to create a strategy of this kind as soon as possible.

Figure out what methods you will use to reach out to customers. There are various channels that you can use to push content, such as newsletters, blog posts, videos, and so on.

In addition, make sure to check in with this strategy every month or two just to see how your content is doing.

Bottom line is that you need to provide unique, fun, useful, and engaging content that adds value. Customers will spend money on your products, but if you show them that you appreciate them so much by posting content for free for them to enjoy, you will only grow even more in their eyes.

 

Optimize product photos and descriptions

Never underestimate the power of a quality photo paired with a clear and concise description.

When customers visit your store, they mainly rely on visuals when it comes to product browsing. To be precise, people like to see nice, high-quality photos of products. If those photos are not professional, they will believe that your products are of low quality. Or that you are trying to deceive them.

So, invest in good photography and it will pay off. And if you can introduce a 360-degree view of your products or find the best clipping path solution that better shows what you have to sell, that would be great.

Every extra effort that you put in is an extra step that will take you the extra mile ahead of your rivals.

Of course, you should be smart with product descriptions too. Never mislead customers, but write clear, accurate, and straightforward product descriptions instead. This kind of text needs to provide every important detail and piece of information about a given product.

And, it wouldn’t be bad if you considered SEO for optimizing your descriptions.

 

Optimize your email campaigns

Image by rawpixel from Pixabay

Email marketing is still relevant and that is simply a fact. This marketing channel may be old, but it still provides a good ROI on every dollar you spend.

Now, you most likely know how important it is to run email marketing campaigns. After all, that is the first step towards reaching your new customers, addressing your current ones, and getting all of them to buy more.

But, here is something new. Something that many don’t know. Since sending messages can be a long and tiring process, you should look for ways to automate it.

There are many software solutions that will help you get addresses, send bulk messages, and even monitor open rates, CTR, and so on. These tools and eCommerce resources can be rather helpful for your business endeavors.

In addition, you should do your best to segregate your recipients into groups. When you have lists of recipients based on their preferences, demographics, and so on, you will reap better results when you combine that with efforts to personalize emails.

Do not send the same message to everyone. Instead, write a few messages, dedicate them to your audience segments, and then hit the send button. Generic messages are slowly but surely becoming a thing of the past.

 

Ensure simple payment methods

One of the biggest problems that many store owners face on a regular basis is cart abandonment. Just because your customers reach the checkout doesn’t mean that they will actually complete the purchase.

That is why you have to simplify the final stage of the shopping experience as much as you can. It has to be smooth and simple if you don’t want to risk losing easy sales.

That is why you need to Introduce more than one payment method. Also, make sure that your customers don’t have to go through numerous forms or tabs to complete the purchase.

Do your best to accept PayPal and one or two credit cards. 

Think about all your customers:

• Are they all local?
• Do you have some foreign buyers?
• What cards are the most popular option now?
• What can you do to enable more people to buy from you?

These are all some serious questions you need to ask yourself. Do not shy away from this issue. Losing customers when they only need to click one more time to buy something is something you should avoid.

 

Diversify social media platforms

Image by Pixelkult from Pixabay

Being present on social media platforms is no brainer nowadays. Billions of people use networks such as Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Snapchat, and others. So, it is only reasonable that your business has a page there.

But, what can you do when you know that social media is always a tough sell for eCommerce companies? Figuring out which platforms work best in certain markets is really difficult. There is no doubt about that.

This most likely won’t solve the problem entirely, but you could try to diversify and cut the platforms that don’t work well or don’t work at all for you.

Look at it this way. You are investing in stocks, spread out the risk, and figure out which options are making the most profit for you.

Create a Facebook page, an Instagram page, but be present on other platforms too. Spread your content on these websites and use social media analytics tools to measure your success.

Only then will you get a better understanding of what networks work well for you. Even if you narrow down the list to only one network, you are still giving all your customers a way to connect with your company.

 

Be mobile-friendly

There is no doubt that many people nowadays are completely abandoning devices such as desktop PCs or laptops in favor of smartphones and tablets.

That is why you need to optimize your store for the mobile world. Of course, you could just find someone or optimize your website personally to make your store run smoothly on phones.

However, some businesses are taking things up a notch by creating a store app. With a store app, you will be providing a stunning UX and you will never have to fear laggy navigation, bad videos, and images again.

Responsiveness will not be a problem at all when you have a store app.

 

Bonus tip – Think about your customers’ native languages

If you are a local and local-only business, there is no need to read this. However, if you are one of many companies that have realized how good it can be to tap into the global market, keep reading.

It is okay to have everything written in English on your store. That way, you will probably still sell your products from people living in countries where English isn’t the primary language.

However, if you could provide translations on your online store in two or three other languages, that would be great. This way, you will show your foreign customers that you appreciate their differences.

People will feel better and you will attract them to your brand if you offer them products in their own language.