6 Tips to Increase Your eCommerce Sales
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Congratulations on successfully starting your own eCommerce business! But there is no rest for the wicked. Now is the time to dominate the eCommerce game.
According to eCommerce stats, 2.24 billion people around the globe will buy products and services online. The growing trend of online shopping is here to stay. This means that more and more customers are switching to online purchasing, but also that there will be even more eCommerce merchants.
To survive and thrive, you need to stay on top of your game. If you want to learn more about the ways to increase your online sales and grow your business, below you will find a list of valuable tips.
Build Trust
It is essential to start building trust from the very start. Your customers need to see your brand as a reliable entity that always delivers what it promised.
- Start with your products. Try to provide high-quality products and make sure they match your product descriptions. A description has to accurately explain what a customer gets when they pay for your products/services. This will indicate that you are honest with your customers.
- On top of that, always keep them engaged on your social media pages. Respond to their questions, reply to their comments, and share content with your audience.
- Finally, share what your customers write or say about your company and products. User-generated content can really make a difference since people would much rather believe what other customers have to say compared to big brands and companies.
All of these practices are set to make your brand an authority that can be trusted by your customers.
Create a USP
A great way to set yourself apart from the rest is to have a great unique selling proposition (USP).
To create a USP that will help you win the eCommerce game, ask yourself the following questions:
- How are you different from the rest of the online vendors?
- How much do your products cost?
- Why should someone buy them?
- How good are your products?
- What type of customer service do you offer?
Once you figure out all these questions, you need to capitalize on the answers you get.
It sometimes happens that store owners don’t quite realize how to go about their USPs. If that is the case with you too, visit a review website and see what your customers are writing about your brand and what keywords they are using.
These keywords are crucial since they describe your service to your audience. So, it’s important to include them in your marketing efforts, as they are the actual words of your customers.
Don’t Forget About Instagram
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Instagram has more than 1 billion users on a monthly basis. On top of that, Instagram offers brand engagement that is considerably higher than all other social networks.
And the best bit is that you can easily share Instagram posts on other social websites such as Facebook or Twitter.
It is quite obvious that Instagram can be a great marketing tool for your business that can really help with increasing sales and overall growth.
Here are some tips that can help you get the most out of Instagram.
Product Photos
Create a product photo gallery on Instagram. Include a list of photos that tell a story of your products. Instagram has the ability to transform your photos into fun, lively images that entice viewers to take action (buy or share).
Include photos that help prospective customers understand how to make the most out of your products.
Hashtag
Once you gather a few photos that are ready to be uploaded to Instagram, think about creating a hashtag. In order to inspire engagement on Instagram, you should create a hashtag for your products so consumers can tag, and you can organize posts about your products or brand.
For the best results, choose a hashtag that is short and specific. You can also geotag the pictures you post, so viewers don’t forget where you are located. If you want to take things a step further, include cross tags and use specific themes for posts and hashtags.
Link to Product Pages
Finally, don’t forget to link pictures to product pages. Whenever your product is featured on Instagram, link it to the product pages. Just don’t be overly promotional, and also try to link to other sites.
Once you master the basics of Instagram, you should also think about Instagram automation. This is important since you need to be consistent when posting. And when you master this segment too, you will see your Instagram engagement increase.
Create Quality Product Descriptions and Photos
Having an accurate and thorough product description for each of your products is essential if you want to enhance customer experience and build trust.
By writing the best product description for each of the items on your website, your products will sell easily. Also, you will be able to upsell, as your customers will be able to shop with ease.
Product descriptions can also help you stand out from competitors by telling customers what your products have that others don’t.
So, when writing these descriptions, make sure that you don’t write the same description for all your products. Each description should be as unique and different as possible from all other product descriptions on your website.
Also, ensure that you have no spelling or grammar errors. Failing at this can make your brand look unprofessional, and that is something you definitely don’t want if you want to drive more sales.
When it comes to product photos that go with descriptions, you need to include high-resolution photos that accurately present your products.
Do not modify the photos in any way, as this can be misleading. If your customers get a feeling that you are trying to trick them, things could go from bad to worse in a matter of minutes.
To make the user experience even better, include 360-degree photos of your products. This way, a customer can examine a product before purchasing in a similar fashion as if they were in a physical store really holding a product in their hands.
If you don’t have enough time to do this yourself, you can always hire a professional photographer or even outsource photo retouching and editing. Remember, if you don’t have the necessary skills, it’s best that you leave this job to someone who is a photography expert.
Offer Great Customer Support
People are more likely to purchase from businesses that resolve customer issues efficiently. That is why your store should offer effective customer service to your customers.
In order to achieve this, you should:
1. Add a Live Chat functionality to your eCommerce store.
2. Allow chatbots to answer the most frequently asked questions. This will decrease the number of chats you have to answer manually and increase the number of orders you get.
3. Send personalized email messages to your customers and reply to them immediately in case of complaints.
4. Use 24/7 phone support, as it makes contacting you more convenient for global customers.
Optimize for Mobile
Image by William Iven from Pixabay
Nowadays, people love shopping on their phones. This trend is certainly huge, and it’s here to stay.
So, it’s only logical that you deliver a great experience to mobile users too. As an eCommerce store owner, you have to make your website work great on a mobile phone.
Optimize your website by making sure that:
1. the navigation is easy and smooth
2. all the photos are displayed and can be seen clearly on a phone screen
3. all clickable elements are actually clickable
4. you don’t have any flash videos since they can’t play on most mobile devices
5. the checkout process works well on mobile devices
Remember – if you want to drive more sales, your website has to work great on all platforms.
We hope you enjoyed this promoted piece as much as we did!
