As many businesses turned to online platforms in 2020, it has boosted e-commerce and made the industry more competitive. To rise above the competition, businesses must have the right strategies to improve their online presence and increase their revenue.
Here are ten tested e-commerce marketing practices that will help boost your e-commerce sales. Select the strategies that best suit your business model, and get ready to drive more traffic and sales.
1. Make sure product pages are SEO-optimised
Any business that wants to establish its presence online must incorporate SEO practices into their website, especially their product pages. After all, 39% of e-commerce traffic comes from search engines.
Optimise your product pages by doing keyword research on your products, and then incorporate the keywords on your title tag, meta-description, product page copy, and URL. Also, make sure that your website follows an SEO friendly structure
Having an organised website structure enables website crawlers and users to navigate across your site. It will not only help crawlers index your product pages, making them easier to find on search engines, but also help customers find the items they need.
Ultimately, an SEO-optimised website leads to more traffic and purchases.
2. Add product reviews
Some businesses hesitate to add a review section in fear of gaining negative comments. However, 71% of customers are more comfortable purchasing a product that has reviews. Therefore, more good reviews means more orders.
Maximise reviews by allowing customers to comment on their experience of receiving and using your product. You can also pull reviews from social media by featuring posts that tag your brand or use a certain hashtag.
Businesses must level up their products and services to compete in the e-commerce space.
3. Boost sales with sales
Customers love discounts. In fact, many customers decide where to shop depending on available discounts. Leverage this desire by incorporating sales throughout the year.
You may wish to use email marketing to offer exclusive coupons for loyal customers, or use social media to announce upcoming sales. Consider connecting with influencers to help promote your brand and increase purchases on your site.
One popular technique is holding a flash sale, as often as once a month. Many online e-commerce platforms lower their prices and provide free shipping vouchers, resulting in higher purchases.
Use all the tactics that you can to pique the interest of your target audience.
4. Optimise your website for mobile
As many consumers prefer to use their smartphones to shop, businesses must adapt by developing dedicated mobile apps or optimising your website for mobile.
Here are some tips to ensure a good shopping experience for your customers:
- Reduce your website’s loading time. If it takes too long, users may leave your page.
- Minimal design is best for mobile.
- Focus on one or two call-to-actions on every page.
- Keep copies clear and concise.
With 54.8% of global website traffic coming from mobile users, businesses must learn to tap into this market to increase their online presence and boost their revenue.
5. Use product recommendations to cross-sell
Recommendations help users find the right item, enable businesses to showcase their products, and encourage customers to buy.
Shoppers who clicked on product recommendations were twice as likely to return to the site.
The great thing about cross-selling is that it can work for any brand. Know your most popular products and recommend them on relevant pages.
For example, you may wish to include a “Customers also bought” section below each of your items.
6. Tap into Instagram
130 million Instagram users view sponsored shopping posts every month. Instagram is also a popular tool for consumers to research products and services. Putting your business on Instagram will expand your brand awareness and help reach the right target audience.
Moreover, more businesses are now using Instagram to sell directly on the platform, as it includes new shopping and e-commerce features.
To maximise Instagram, some brands also work with influencers to review or promote their products. This enables businesses to reach a large audience.
7. Maximise video marketing
2021 is the year for visual marketing, specifically video. From YouTube to TikTok, brands can leverage these platforms to showcase their business in video format.
Successful brands use video content to highlight tips related to their niche, gain attention through fun viral content, and distribute empowering messages.
As the cost and skill required for creating videos has decreased, it’s easier than ever for small businesses to produce their own content. In fact, much content is simply shot on smartphones. This makes video marketing a cost-efficient marketing strategy with good returns on investment.
8. Revive inactive customers with email campaigns
One platform that the e-commerce industry uses well is email. Businesses can automatically send email reminders to customers who have abandoned their cart and encourage them to make a purchase.
Most retailers also use email to promote sales, discounts, giveaways and more. As a result, email marketing contributes up to 23% of a company’s total sales. Boost your email open rate, click rate, and overall sale by using eye-catching email subject lines and promoting relevant content.
9. Offer fast and flexible checkouts
Minimising the steps customers need to take to purchase your products will make buying more convenient and ensure that you make a sale.
Moreover, providing flexible payment options not only speeds up customers’ check-out time, but also offers them the ability to pay with their preferred method.
This accounts for your customers’ overall shopping experience. The faster and easier it is to buy an item, the more likely they are to purchase again.
10. Leverage content
Finally, use content wisely. Maximise all forms of content that apply to your business model.
Choose from blogs, ebooks, publications, video, quizzes, and more. Besides promoting your products, produce content that’s relevant to your audience. For example, if you’re an electric scooter brand, you may wish to write content on how to ride electric scooters safely or guides on maintaining an e-scooter.
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