8 Full Proof Ecommerce Strategies For Increased Sales

One of the biggest hurdles with online businesses is building credibility with your customers. This is mainly because there is a lot of competition in online retailing and also plenty of traders who offer low-quality products or worse, run off with your hard-earned cash. If you’re reading this article then you probably run or are looking to run an eCommerce business. 

The first order of business. Purpose to give quality. I can’t emphasize this enough. 

If you cannot deliver quality; from customer experiences to quality of goods sold, then please don’t start that ecommerce business! 

So, whether you run a jewelry store, a clothing website, a sneaker store, a furniture store, a phone dealership, a bakery, or a fitness site, the list goes on; the key to success beyond using the eCommerce strategies we will share with you is delivering quality all the time. This way, trust is earned and you will have to yourself a loyal base of customers who will become your brand promoters. We are going to assume you are nodding yes and we are on the same page. 

With that said, here are 10 ecommerce strategies of 2020 your business can adopt for increased sales.   

1.  User interface sells, all the time!

When running an e-commerce website, the overall user experience can make or break your customer base. Why?, you ask. 

• A friendly user interface draws people in and keeps them there.
• Providing users with a seamless experience converts more
• Saves users time by anticipating their needs
• Improves customer satisfaction
• Improves your SEO rankings. If your site does not deliver the customer needs and they bounce off too soon, the search engines will flag your site as not worth visiting. This hurts your SEO efforts.

Here are a few tips to improve the visual design and the overall user experience of your ecommerce website:

• Simple and minimalist designs – Complicated designs are likely to do more harm than good to your website. It is important to stick to designs that do not cloud your website’s underlying purpose.
• Simple navigation – Your users have no idea how your site is structured. It is your role to make it easier for them to navigate to every page of your website with ease. Make use of the header, footer, sidebar, and drop-down menus to provide seamless navigation to your users. They will love you for it.
• Interactive experience – We love those platforms that speak to us. When a website performs the desired action and responds to us when it cannot do so, it feels personal. For example, if you submitted a contact form but missed a required field, the website should communicate that to you. If you click on a broken link, the website should tell you why and what to do next.
• Typography matters – Using the right fonts, highlighting headings and bullets improves website usability.
• Consider colors – Colors set the mood and tone for your brand. Try out colors that attract users and enhance your message.

Need inspiration? Check out some of our ecommerce websites like Kickstore and Spenny Technologies that offer exceptional user experiences.

2. Create Ads That Sell

You want to draw people in that are avid users of the internet. The best way to do this is by having bomb content. Lucky for you we already have you covered on how to create good social media content for your business in our previous blog.

Once you have your eCommerce website built, you need to let people know you exist and why. Use social media platforms especially Facebook and Instagram to drive traffic to your site. Today, you can get clicks to your website for just a few cents.

Charleson tips for creating ads that sell: 

• Write great copy. Your advert copy should be able to tell people what you are offering, how it benefits them, and what to do next.
• Test everything. Do not assume! 
• Write to one person.
• Write Different Facebook Ads for Different People.
• Ensure Your Facebook Ad Copy Goes with Your Visual

Looking out for additional tips on creating ads that sell on our next blog. Remind me.

3. Use Detailed Product Descriptions

No matter the kind of products your e-commerce site deals in, clear and detailed product descriptions will improve your conversions. Use the product description section to include photos and videos of the product in use, a 360 view, shots from various angles, item specifications, and any other important information about the product. Remember this is the section that addresses any doubts a customer may have regarding the products you offer. 

4. Reduce checkout process 

For e-commerce businesses, purchase conversion is the most important metric. The checkout is the page that leads to a purchase. The more complicated or lengthy your checkout process is, the more likely you are to see fewer sales and more abandoned carts.

Charleson tips.

• Create a single-page checkout process. Two main benefits of this are; It appears shorter and gives the customer incentive to complete the transaction. Single checkout is also less complicated especially for new users on your site as everything they need to fill in is on one page. 
• Minimize the amount of information you ask from the user. Some information like Company Name is irrelevant for most businesses not unless such information may help you make more informed business decisions.

5. Use lead capturing autoresponders 

Build your list. We cannot emphasize this enough. The average conversion rate for an eCommerce store is between 1 – 2%. This is not bad. But what happens to the other 98% of your site visitors? Having a clear lead capture strategy and using automated emails to communicate to these leads about your offers and discounts will see them convert at a later date. A business not taking advantage of this is losing out. Check out some good lead capture providers like OptinMonster or Holler Box and watch your conversion rates increase instantly. 

6. Optimize your search function 

When you are running an eCommerce store, you are basically serving two groups of people; those regular customers who already know where to find what they are looking for, and new customers who most of the time might not have an idea of what exactly they want to purchase. Customers have already been accustomed to using search features on search engines to instantly get results. They do not want to waste time manually scrolling through tens or worse hundreds of products looking for a particular item.  Some of the strategies you can adopt today to optimize the search function on your website include:

• Offer help – Offering autocomplete or the ability to filter results will go a long way to assisting customers get what they are looking for with ease.
• Show detailed results – For example, show the number of results, show the results by order of relevancy, show more than just the catalog results.
• Factor in misspells or alternate keywords – Dress your “No Results” page with suggested categories, best sellers and other offers.

7. Use High-quality images 

You cannot compromise when it comes to product images in your catalog. Blurry or pixelated images will turn off prospective customers before they can even see what you have to offer. High quality images will draw people in, are shareable and will help boost your SEO when coupled with the right alt-texts. 

Charleson tip 

• Take the pictures from different angles using a good camera and good lighting. Also, consider editing the images slightly to improve brightness and contrast.
• Leverage free stock sites like Freepik or Pexels to download HD images with free licenses for your products.

8. Invest In A Mobile Responsive Website

According to online shopping statistics by Statista between 2015 and the present-day, mobile purchases for eCommerce increased from 31% to 51%. Today, more than half of your web visitors are on mobile! Test out your website on different devices to check for any overlapping elements and have them fixed by your developer. Aim to provide the same seamless experience on your desktop site as well as on mobile.

9. Invest In Retargeting Ads 

Have you installed a tracking code on your website yet? A tracking code like the Facebook Pixel allows you to know exactly what actions users perform on your website. This gives you the power to target back users who have visited your website but did not make a purchase. With the pixel installed, you are able to identify patterns and a visitor’s level of interest depending on the pages or products they viewed or the time they spent on your site. This information is a goldmine! 

Once you map out a group of people that showed high interest in particular products, you can create ads that target this particular group trying to convince them to come back and make a purchase. Go a step further and provide coupons and offers to the said group. 

If you ever feel lost, our social media marketing team is always available for consultations to help you reach your goals. 

10. Use Social Proof 

The biggest challenge all online marketers have is building trust with a customer before they make a purchase. Remember, the sole reason you are not selling on eCommerce is that your customers don’t trust you! Your role, therefore, is to position yourself as a trusted brand and people will start adding items to the cart. How do you do this? you ask. 

1. Encourage product review
2. Use user-generated product images
3. Show customer testimonials
4. Show number of people who have bought a particular item
5. Recommend similar products, “People also bought…”.
6. Display product endorsements

Charleson Tip – Utilize social media platforms to indicate how many Facebook friends have purchased or signed up.

11. Loyalty Marketing

Keep the conversations going even after a purchase. If they trusted you enough to purchase the first time means you have to make sure that you keep drawing them back in by finding new innovative ways to do so. Have special discounts for repeat buyers, maybe even introduce loyalty points. Encourage also your customers to share genuine reviews on your product pages, on your Google business listing, or even recommend you to their friends. 

Over to you. We hope these tips come in handy and help you reach your business goals this year. For all your digital marketing services, we are here to help out. Look out for additional tips in our subsequent blogs. 

We would love to hear from you, tell us about your business or share your thoughts in the comments. Cheers!