How to increase sales on your e-commerce website
Now that you just entered into 2021, it’s a good time to stop and briefly think about the specific actions you will take to drive your eCommerce business/website sales and what you’re going to do differently in the months ahead. You have to start compiling and working through a list of growth ideas that you can implement to fuel real growth and profits for your eCommerce business.
As many businesses struggle to keep their doors open, figuring out how to boost your eCommerce sales now could be the deciding factor in how well your business will survive the current storm.
If you have been observing the current trend, you must have realized that an online store is a major requirement to start an e-commerce business in Nigeria and anywhere in the world. It would help if you had an online presence where customers can do business with you. If you cannot afford to hire a web developer, you can begin with a free WordPress site, then upgrade to a pro version as the business grows.
With the consistent rise in smartphone users and internet penetration in Nigeria, the eCommerce industry has witnessed enormous growth since 2010. Research has shown that the e-commerce industry is set to record higher growth in the coming years.
Setting up an E-commerce website can often be a great way to get started; however, if you want to generate sales setting up a website is not enough. You need to know how to market your website so that sales actually occur.
I will be discussing things you can do to generate sales for your E-commerce website. I will show you specific tactics that you can put into action while also analyzing why each tactic works. By the end of this post, you will be able to turn your E-commerce website into a powerhouse that generates sales day and night.
Let’s go.
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Update your product descriptions.
How recent are your product descriptions? If it’s long since you’ve refreshed them, devote some time to it now. You must clearly write your product descriptions to be quickly scanned by the person who is reading the page.
Whenever you’re describing benefits, you need to have an in-depth understanding of who your customers are. You can then relate how certain features of the product will aid the struggles of your customers.
To write product descriptions that appeal directly to what your audience cares about, look through your past reviews and any feedback you’ve received from loyal customers. Please pay attention to any specific features or benefits they mention and the language they use, and put it into the descriptions you write.
While you’re working on this, use the opportunity to make sure each product page is optimized for search engines. Figure out the best keyword to put for each page, and include it in the title tag, meta description, image file name, and image alt tag. And if you have any good customer reviews or testimonials for each product, put them right there on the page to show social proof.
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Showcase Product Benefit.
People buy benefits, not features. There are multiple ways you can do this. The most obvious way is by taking better pictures of the product you are showcasing. You can also use videos to showcase your products.
3.Change your shipping options.
According to data from Statista, shipping issues play a role in two of the top reasons people give for shopping cart abandonment:
Some people abandon their carts because the shipping cost was too much. At the same time, some stop buying from you because the shipping time was too slow.
Shipping speed and cost are a common impediment to purchase. Making the options more attractive for the coming days or weeks is a practical way to encourage more of your visitors to buy to take that final step.
You can Consider offering free shipping for a limited time for some of your products. If you can’t afford to cover the full cost, think about other ways to make shipping feel like a better deal for customers. You can also provide free shipping for orders that meet a certain minimum (e.g., free shipping for all orders over #50,000 in the case of Nigeria). Offer multiple shipping speed options for those that value speed over cost.
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Make checkout easier.
While shipping issues are often the main reason behind cart abandonment, sometimes any little thing that makes checkout more difficult can hinder sales.
It would help if you considered removing the need for people to sign up. By providing people with the option to checkout as a ‘guest,’ you’ll be able to soften the process of checking out.
All of this helps to reduce friction and, therefore, makes going through the checkout process easier and less tiresome. You can also make the checkout process simpler by reducing the number of form fields that potential customers need to fill in.
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5. Check your analytics to review.
If you have been running your eCommerce site for some time now, you should know what works well for your customers by looking at your own analytics. Check
What traffic sources are sending the most visitors to your site
Which sources send the highest-converting visitors
Which send the visitors with the biggest order sizes, or those that become repeat customers
What pages people visit the most
Which pages most consistently lead to sales
Which pages lead people to stick around and visit other pages
Which lead to other types of conversions such as content downloads or email signups
Which of your marketing efforts increase eCommerce sales, and which customers are the most valuable to your business.
All this information will help you shape a more successful long-term marketing strategy designed to attract the right customers.
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6. Do a customer User Experience testing.
You will never be able to see your website the way a customer does. The only way to find out if your eCommerce website is intuitive and easy to use for customers is to give them the chance to test it out directly. Contact some of your customers to help you out with UX (user experience) testing.
You can make them try out different actions, seek out specific products, go through the checkout process, ask them for feedback on the overall experience, and note anything inconvenient or difficult. Through their information and reviews, make updates to the website to improve the customer experience.
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Invest in building your social followers
Social media gives you a way to connect directly with your potential audience. But your social posts won’t even be seen unless you manage to build your followers. Determine which social platforms make the most sense for you to prioritize based on where your customers spend their time. For example, does your target audience spend the most time viewing Instagram ads, or do they prefer Facebook? Decide, then develop a strategy to start actively posting and interacting with relevant accounts in your space.
You can also consider joining Twitter chats, jumping into conversations you see happening on LinkedIn, and creating a Facebook group. To speed up the process of gaining followers, invest in social advertising. It’s the easiest way to reach people that don’t follow you yet.
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Focus on customer retention.
Getting a new customer is hard, but keeping one is much easier. In your strategy to increase eCommerce sales, consider how to encourage repeat purchases. How do you give customers every reason to come back and choose you again?
Part of that is making sure your products are high quality, providing exceptional customer service any time a customer has a problem or question, and being proactive about reminding them you exist.
You can Send emails checking in and offering special deals. Consider starting a loyalty program to reward them for spending more with you. And make it clear every step of the way that you value them.
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Incorporate Pop-Ups on Your Website
Finally, if you aren’t using them already, consider using pop-ups on your eCommerce website. Pop-ups can help you announce special offers, capture the email addresses of new visitors, catch potential customers before they leave your website, and direct potential customers to products they would be most interested in. With most pop-up software tools, you can do a fair amount of advanced targeting and customization when building your pop-ups. This can ultimately help you ensure that you’re putting the right messages in front of the right people.
Final Thoughts
In the midst of a global crisis, Running an eCommerce business is challenging. But if you invest in marketing and ensure you’re providing a strong customer experience from their first contact with your website to beyond that first purchase, you’ll build a sustainable eCommerce business that lasts well into the future.
If you are the proud owner of an eCommerce website or plan to be one shortly, you’re probably on the lookout for tactics that will help you boost sales.
Hopefully, as a result of reading this article, you now understand what steps you can take to achieve just that.
In any case, now that you’re aware of what needs to be done, all that’s left for you to do is get started and watch the tips mentioned, work for your eCommerce store.
