It’s easy to think that creating and managing an online business is a complex, difficult process. However, the truth is that anyone can start an e-commerce business with the right tools and knowledge.
Whether you’re just getting started or you’ve been in the business for a while, these 12 tips will help you make the most of your e-commerce experience. From increasing your visibility to boosting customer loyalty, you’ll be able to become a successful e-commerce business in no time. Let’s begin!
Tactics to Boost Ecommerce Sales With Minimal Effort
If you are an e-commerce business owner looking for ways to increase sales with minimal effort, there are various tactics that you can implement to help reach your goals. By utilizing the right strategies, you can boost your e-commerce sales in a cost-effective and efficient manner. These tips will help you maximize your sales potential and give you the edge you need to stand out in a competitive market.
1- The Side-By-Side Comparison Technique
It’s all about psychology here. Giving more than one option is the key to nudging your customers toward checkout.
See, if we say, “Would you like to buy these headphones?” your brain naturally starts thinking to buy or not to buy. It’s a simple yes-no question. But if instead, we give you two options, “Would you like to buy these headphones or these alternative ones with extra noise reduction?” your brain now starts thinking, “Hmm, should I buy the pair that fits my budget or the pair that better suits my needs?” You can immediately spot the difference, right?
This technique has proven to boost sales, which is why you’ll always see it on sites like Amazon.
2- Offer Free Shipping To Supercharge Your Conversions
There are so many massive reasons why you would want to do this. The main one, how about the fact that 66% of customers expect free shipping for all online orders, with shipping fees being the cause for almost 70% of abandoned carts. And if that doesn’t quite butter your crumpet, 48% of customers will add extra items to their cart just to qualify for free shipping.
However, to be honest, it’s no surprise. The word “free” can influence even the most reluctant of buyers. A proven strategy you could use here is to add a threshold for when the free delivery applies. When the users look at their cart, they see they can get a discount if they just spend that extra five pounds. This is an excellent way to increase the sal value from that customer and boost your profits.
3- Create A Sense of Urgency
Turn your window shoppers into paid customers by adding a sense of urgency, and telling them that there is only limited stock available.
A good technique is to put the text stating this in red. As color psychology research shows that red is associated with urgency. Building on this, you can escalate that urgency by showing how many people are viewing that product right now.
You’ve probably seen these techniques used by eBay a thousand times. Feel free to do it your own way. However, to boost your conversions, always use powerful words to lure your customers in like “Don’t miss out!”, “Limited time only!”, “Last chance!”, or only “X number of days left!”. You get it. In the end, what you need to do is simple. Make it hard for the customers to think twice.
4- Sell the Click
If you are running ads to drive customers toward your business’s landing page, your main goal is to get them to that page. So, you can convert them. That’s why you need to ensure that your ads don’t get too caught up in product features.
Tease the customer by only giving them enough to spark curiosity and get those all-important clicks. Let them know that the answer to their prayers is only a single button press away.
5- Hunt for Those Abandoned Shopping Carts
This is often an area that people neglect, leaving massive stacks of cash on the table. You must have your shop set up so that if a user doesn’t complete their order after filling their cart, they’re sent a reminder after a designated period. Even a measure as simple as this will give you boosting conversions.
However, if you want to take this further, you can also create a sense of urgency by highlighting how many items are left in stock. If they still fail to purchase, you can even send them discounts on that specific item further down the line.
6- Use A/B Testing
This is where you test out small changes to your e-commerce site to make sure it’s got the very best chance of getting those conversions. This includes everything from:
- Color of your “Buy Now” button
- Landing page imagery
- Copy in the product description
Just be sure to use whatever you discover is performing best. There are so many software products out there you can use to help with this: Such as Unbounce, Optimizely, Omniconvert, HubSpot, and countless others. You’re really spoiled for choice. So really, there’s no excuse when it comes to making sure your site is in tip-top condition.
7- Increased Efficiency of Data Labeling for Machine Learning
Having tailored experiences for customers on the web is essential for generating more sales and bringing about success in e-commerce. Machine learning is used to enhance the customer’s journey through improved search, recommendations, and more. Even though ML in e-commerce is very useful, few people are aware that its effectiveness is dependent on the data it is trained on.
Three components are required to make an ML product work, which is software, hardware, and data. Although the software and hardware are usually obtainable and do not present many difficulties, the gathering of quality data to use in ML models remains difficult.
One method that companies can use to strengthen the training of ML applications is by labeling data with human insight. In order to optimize search results, it is beneficial to work on teaching the website’s ranking algorithms and gauging the search quality compared to other sites. Despite this being a complex task involving machine learning, it is still necessary to rely on human opinions to determine the pertinence of search results.
8- The Rise of Social Commerce
As e-commerce continues to evolve, it is becoming more and more necessary for businesses to include social media as a part of their strategies. Consumers now use social media for discovering, researching, and even buying products, so it is essential to utilize these platforms in order to reach and connect with customers.
Brands that target their audiences need to pay close attention to social commerce, as it is expected to generate $30.73 billion in sales by 2023, making up 20% of global retail e-commerce. Gen Z customers are reportedly more inclined to seek product recommendations on TikTok than on Google, so brands targeting these customers should consider using TikTok as part of their strategy.
Additionally, influencer marketing is an effective tool for businesses to use, as it allows them to build relationships with already-engaged customers and thus increase their engagement, conversion rates, and sales.
9- Expanding Omnichannel Capabilities
Businesses need to be able to interact and sell to customers through many channels all at once. This could be having a website, a Facebook shop, and an Instagram profile. Omnichannel is the next step and is becoming the standard for e-commerce. Currently, half of all online stores have omnichannel capabilities.
To make sure customers have a continuous, pleasant experience, companies must understand their target audience, since this increases customer loyalty. Companies with strong omnichannel strategies keep almost 89% of their customers, whereas companies with weak strategies maintain only 33%.
10- Add Financing
Long gone are the days when financing only existed for high-ticket items like cars and smartphones. Now, financing can be implemented with a never-ending range of everyday items. In fact, businesses that provide customers with a financing option have experienced a 32% increase in sales. That’s quite the boost. You see, by helping people with their cash flow, you are reducing the barriers that stop them from going ahead with a purchase.
11- Choose the Right Time
We all know that seasonal holidays bring with them a huge uptick in customers. So make use of these occasions by selling your product as the perfect accompaniment to them to truly real customers.
For example, are your socks a perfect gift for Christmas? Is your picnic basket the perfect way to kick off the summer? Or are those pencil sets you are offering great for going back to school? Either way, once this step is done, you are good to put them on a mailing list for any further upsells.
12- Make Sure You Use Money Back Guarantees
Guarantees only work if you understand their two major functions:
- First that they reduce the risk for the customer. Stating that if the business doesn’t fulfill its promise, the customer is compensated.
- And second, promising that the business will actually be harmed should it not honor its claims.
Effectively providing proof of their promises by saying, “We must be telling the truth, otherwise, we wouldn’t be in business.”
Last Words
Overall, e-commerce doesn’t have to be hard. With the 12 tips outlined in this article, you can make the process of setting up an e-commerce business much easier and more efficient. By understanding the importance of customer service, building an effective website, and using the right marketing strategies, you can easily create an online business that will be successful for years to come.
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