There are literally hundreds of thousands of ecommerce websites out there selling to every niche and audience imaginable. While there may be little in common between these online businesses, one thing is certain – they all want to generate more revenue and capture more customers. If yours is among them, consider these nine tips for scaling up your ecommerce business.
1. Implement SEO Best Practices. One of the biggest challenges ecommerce vendors experience is making sure their online shops are discovered by the right kinds of people. If this sounds familiar to you, try improving your SEO strategy to capture the shoppers you want. Research relevant keywords and search terms (such as “affordable furniture online” or “NFL dog collars”) and use them on your website in a natural way.
2. Creative Optional Email Subscriptions. Believe it or not, email delivers among the highest marketing ROI for ecommerce vendors. That’s because consumers actually want to know what your store has to offer. Make it a point to allow them to opt in to your marketing emails for news about the latest deals and product launches.
3. Embrace Customer Reviews & Content. Your online store would be nothing without your customers. So, take a moment to give them the proverbial spotlight by featuring their reviews and content in your social media channels. Your site appears more credible when shoppers post images and videos of themselves enjoying your products. It’s a win-win.
4. Leverage Easy PR Opportunities. While email, social media and SEO are all great for marketing, they aren’t quite as powerful as seeing your brand name in a reputable publication. Rather than hire a pricey public relations firm to connect you with journalists all you need to do is help a reporter out to gain some free PR opportunities.
5. Adopt a Cloud-Based Ecommerce Solution. Some websites slow down or even crash if too many customers shop them at one time. This can be a deathblow for an e-store. To avoid this catastrophe, conduct an enterprise ecommerce solutions comparison to find a solid website provider and hosting service.
6. Find Brand Advocates. Want to make your brand seem cool and relatable? Reach out to social media personalities who are thought of as cool and relatable. Brand advocates are social media influencers with a large (or small-but-dedicated) following who promote your products in exchange for payment, free merchandise, or shared visibility. Direct message them over the social media platform they use to start one of these relationships.
7. Include a Call to Action. To be a good sales person, you need to do more than just post your products online. You’ll actually have to use language that drives a consumer to buy your goods. This is known as a call to action or “CTA.” And it can be as simple as “buy it today” or “don’t miss out on this limited sale.”
8. Offer More Shipping Options. Among the reasons shoppers abandon their carts just before checkout is slow delivery times and unexpected shipping charges. You can avoid this disclosing by shipping charges on the product page, offering free shipping and faster shipping options.
9. Clean Up Your Design. Customers also abandon carts when a website is too difficult to use. In this instance, to grow and scale your ecommerce store, you’ll need to revamp your design. Examples include switching to a single checkout page or deleting superfluous images and functionalities.
These nine tips for scaling up your ecommerce business are just the beginning. There is always room for growth and ecommerce is constantly evolving. Have the courage to try different ideas to see what resonates with your customers.