Ecommerce has been snowballing over the past few years, thanks in part to the ongoing global pandemic. The eCommerce share of the total retail sales was an impressive 14% in 2019. By 2023, it is expected to have crossed the 20% mark. If you have an eCommerce store or want to set up one, we are going to discuss eight ways to get the competition out of the way and increase your sales.
1. Improve your customer service
Ecommerce customer service is all about addressing customers’ inquiries, concerns, and needs before, during, and after-sales. It is the process of responding to messages your online business receives on marketplaces and social media and via text, calls, and email to quickly secure deals while leads are already engaged. It may also mean hiring agents to monitor customer communications on various channels.
To deliver great customer service, you need to respond quickly, solve problems creatively, maintain a positive attitude, listen, and help customers help themselves. You also need to be available, especially if you serve customers in different time zones, and be ready to act on the complaints and suggestions you receive rather than just listening to them.
2. Set up a trading strategy and retail calendar
Implementing a retail calendar that captures events such as bank holidays, paydays, and seasons can help you plan sales-improving tactical promotions. Your trading strategy should also lay out the details on approaches like upselling, cross-selling, and using incentivized visit captures to inspire subsequent visits.
3. Optimize your site for mobile
Mobile searches have toppled desktop searches and look set to wipe computers entirely out of online shopping. This means your eCommerce site needs to be mobile-friendly, whether this will call for a few design modifications or a complete overhaul. Most customers will gauge your reliability and authority on the responsiveness of your site and will likely leave if your store loads slowly, is difficult to navigate, or has a difficult checkout process.
4. Establish your defining selling proposition
In crowded markets, your best bet of growing is usually finding the one thing that sets you apart from the competition and parading it. It could be:
- A unique after-sales service
- A rewards-based loyalty program
- An unmatched product catalog
- Exclusive rights to selling a renowned brand’s product
5. Employ scarcity tactics
When a product is scarce or available for a short period, undecided visitors are likely to purchase quickly in fear they won’t find it later. You can use scarcity to increase your eCommerce sales by hosting flash sales or including countdown timers on product pages. You can also add scarcity for item sizes and aesthetic variations.
6. Invest in SEO
Search engines almost single-handedly determine where organic traffic will land when looking for a product or information. You want to make it easy for them to crawl your store and determine, with close accuracy, what the various pages have to offer. A proper SEO strategy increases your ranking on search engine result pages and makes you visible to prospects who don’t have a specific store they want to buy from.
7. Improve your content
First-time customers will base their purchase decision on how well a product meets their needs. This is found in the product information they can find in your store or elsewhere. Your content should be as inclusive as possible. A sales funnel will help you sprinkle complementary content across pages and platforms to avoid creating a mess of your store and product pages.
8. Join an affiliate partners program
The idea of joining forces with competitors is risky, but a well-formulated affiliate partners’ network has more to offer on the advantage front than on the flipside. It gives you access to customers and sales intelligence and channels that you wouldn’t have tracked single-handedly and saves you on marketing costs. The best part about affiliate partners’ networks is that they are commission-based, meaning they will only cost you if the partners drive traffic to your website. The commissions are usually low (2% to 5%) and will not apply to a customer’s subsequent visits to your site.
Endnote
A dynamic landscape such as eCommerce calls for quick adaptation in marketing and operation. The above tips can provide the foundation to increase your sales and set your eCommerce business on a path to steady growth.
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