Thanks to improvements in technology and online resources, it is now easier than ever before to start your own eCommerce website.
In just a short amount of time, you can have your own eCommerce store up and running, ready to sell to your customers. However, opening an eCommerce store isn’t the issue – it is finding a way to keep it growing.
Because it is so easy to start an eCommerce store, there is a new competition each day. If you want your eCommerce store to continue to grow, you have to implement some more advanced strategies.
Here are just a few ideas you can use to help grow your eCommerce business and make it more profitable.
GENERATE USEFUL CONTENT
A great place to start is generating useful content on your website. Creating content such as blog posts, guides, video reviews or product demonstrations gives people another reason to visit your website other than shopping.
Sometimes getting people to your website is the hardest part. Great content makes this a little easier, and after you gain their attention, you can work on converting them into a customer.
This strategy is called inbound marketing and it is one of the more effective marketing strategies out there. Think about the type of content your audience might like to see, then work on putting out a steady stream of it.
Each time you produce a new piece of content, you give your audience another way to learn about your brand. Seeing the results of an inbound marketing strategy can take some time but is typically worth it in the long-run.
WORK WITH AN ORDER FULFILLMENT COMPANY
In the eCommerce industry, shipping customers’ orders can be challenging and daunting, especially if you fail to follow certain processes. When this happens, there’s a possibility that you’ll make some mistakes. This results in wasted valuable resources and potential profits.
Hence, if you want to avoid these problems that can hinder your growth and profitability, consider working with an order fulfillment company. This will make them responsible for certain logistics processes, such as storing, packing, and delivering goods to the clients. In addition, they can help you develop an efficient order fulfillment process to prevent returns, damage, and other order-related problems. Thus, making your clients happier and more satisfied.
Moreover, partnering with a company that offers reliable shipping fulfillment services can contribute to your business’s growth and profitability in the following ways:
- It can help attract customers to buy more products from your eCommerce business. By having a well-planned order fulfillment procedure, they’ll have peace of mind knowing their orders will arrive safely and at the fastest time possible. As a result, they’ll be convinced to choose your products over the competition.
- It can help generate more sales because it assists your business in delivering your products to your customers’ doorstep on time. Typically, customers are encouraged to buy products from an eCommerce business that has an outlined preparation and shipping procedure. This is because they know their orders are handled properly.
MAKE USE OF CONTACT DATABASES
Sometimes the best way to sell your products is by contacting a prospect directly. However, in order to do this, you need to have their contact information.
There are a number of ways you can do this, such as requesting it on your website, but one of the best ways to get a headstart is by using a contact database.
There are services you can pay for that give you access to their vast contact databases. Inside, you’ll find the contact information for thousands, sometimes even millions, of people. You can then sort through this database, pulling out the contacts that are most likely to buy your products or services.
One great service is ZoomInfo, however, if you are not willing to dole out so much money on it, there are also plenty of cheaper ZoomInfo alternatives. Choose a service based on the number of contacts available, the sorting features, and a monthly cost that fits your budget.
IMPROVE CUSTOMER SERVICE
A simple way to help your eCommerce business grow is by improving customer service. Shopping online can often feel like an impersonal experience, but a quality customer service team can help change that.
One way of achieving this is by adding a live chat feature to your website. With live chat, customers can instantly connect to a member of your support team and have a conversation with them. And, if you don’t have the staff available to run live chat all the time, you can also add in an automated chatbot to handle some of the workloads.
Social media is another great way to connect with your audience. However, you don’t want to spend your time focusing on people who are unlikely to buy your products. You want to interact with and promote your social media posts to a specific audience instead so that you get the best return on your investment.
When running social media ad campaigns, be sure to fully use the help of social media analytics tools. These will get you to better understand your audience, learning things such as their demographics, the social media channels they prefer, and the type of content they want to see.
The more you learn about your audience, the better you can tailor your social media approach. This will help you to not only gain more social media attention but the attention from the right people as well.
PERSONALIZED EMAIL MARKETING CAMPAIGNS
When shopping online, people want a personalized experience. For example, they want to see product recommendations that are actually products they would buy. A great way to add more of a personal touch to your eCommerce site is through a personalized email marketing campaign.
Rather than sending the same email to everyone on your contact list, send out emails that are specific to that customer.
For instance, you could send out a special discount code when it is a customer’s birthday. Another option is to send an email when a product goes on sale that is similar to a product they have purchased in the past.
By sending more personalized emails, you make it more likely that the customer will open the email and visit your site. You can get started with personalized email campaigns by finding some email marketing software that allows you to automate and segment your campaigns.
SPLIT TEST ECOMMERCE WEBSITE CHANGES
Finally, small changes on your website can often make a big difference when it comes to conversion numbers.
Simply changing the title or layout of a page can adjust your conversion rates by a few percentage points, which has a big impact long-term. To know which changes are best though, you need to run some tests.
Split testing is when you create two similar versions of a page, but with a small difference that you want to test out. Visitors are then randomly shown one of the pages when they visit. Over time, you’ll see which page performs better, allowing you to know if the change was a good one or not.
MAKE USE OF THE TOOLS AVAILABLE TO YOU
The key to growing your eCommerce business is making use of the tools available to you. Whether it is social media tools, personalization tools, or split testing software, there are plenty of tools out there that can help take your eCommerce business to the next level.
Hopefully, this guide was able to introduce you to some of these tools and strategies, and you’ll be able to use them to great effect in your own business.
