Focusing on generating sales via online channels is one of the best ways to grow your business. E-commerce is highly scalable and lets you tap into a far greater pool of potential customers than would be possible with even the most centrally-located and capacious brick-and-mortar premises.
But getting online is just the half of it. When building an e-commerce platform, there are certain tried-and-tested methods that you should follow if you wish to drive traffic and win sales. Here are six tips for winning at e-commerce in 2020.
Table of Contents
Consider dropshipping
Many e-commerce businesses sell products created and dispatched in-house, but others source products from far and wide, leaving warehousing and shipping to a third party. Of all the ways to sell online, dropshipping is one of the most lucrative, eliminating the cost burden of holding and shipping stock while giving you access to an array of suppliers. If you’re in the product business, dropshipping deserves your consideration.
Advertise coupons or discount codes
Buyers like to save themselves a buck. While you don’t want to overwhelm visitors with annoying pop-ups and garish dynamic banners, it’s a good idea to tastefully advertise coupons and discount codes. These can appear on the homepage, on a product category page, or on the product page itself. Indeed, they might appear on all of the above: the important thing is not to devalue the product by suggesting that the price is plummeting due to slow sales.
Highlight the value in your sales copy but be sure to convey that the buyer is getting a good deal, perhaps by stating that the reduced price is for a limited time only. Sports nutrition website MyProtein is particularly good at emphasizing discounts throughout the buyer journey.
Display trust icons prominently
Customer testimonials, professional accreditations and certifications, ‘Verified by Visa’ and ‘Money Back Guarantee’ logos, links to your TripAdvisor page and social media profiles: all serve to assuage the doubts that new site visitors might harbor as to your authenticity and trustworthiness. Use a plugin like Feefo or Trustpilot to collect product and/or service reviews, and focus on continually providing skeptical buyers with peace of mind.
Integrate a live chat facility
How many times have you been on a website and failed to find the information you were looking for? In these instances, you might simply give up and take your business elsewhere. By integrating live chat on your website, you can make customers think twice about exiting your store: all the more so if it’s monitored by a human rather than a bot (although bots can be useful for when staff clock off). A live chat plugin can answer buyers’ queries and make product recommendations, reducing your bounce rate and increasing conversions. It can also help to build trust. Of course, it’s also a good idea to display a phone number on your website, should customers wish to get in touch that way.
Create a sense of urgency
Online shops don’t close, their websites being accessible around the clock. While this is great for the customer, it does lead visitors to ask “Do I need this now?” and essentially talk themselves out of a purchase. This is why it’s important to create a sense of urgency, whether through judicious use of promo codes, savvy sales copy, a reference to limited stock or by mentioning that customers must order before a certain time to make next-day delivery. Retail giant Amazon is great at gently but persuasively pushing customers into the sales funnel by heightening the sense of urgency.
Simplify the checkout process
According to Moosend, 69% of online carts are abandoned by users, with shipping-related issues responsible for most of them. These statistics underline the need for a simple, clean, friction-free checkout process that gets customers over the finish line. Why do you think Amazon has a One-Click Ordering option?
So here’s what to do: remove unnecessary stages from your checkout process; include trust indicators on the page (even if you’ve already done so); give an approximation of when the customer can expect to receive the product; allow guest orders; expand the payment options; display your returns policy.
By following these six steps, you’re sure to increase your conversions and grow your e-commerce business. As long as your product or service is good, providing a superior user experience on-site will ensure your shoppers come back for more.
About Carson Derrow
