Are you wondering why your eCommerce store just doesn’t seem to be as successful as your competition’s? Chances are, it’s because your competition has already implemented several tools to help their business succeed. Now, it’s your turn to see that same level of success! We’re going to let you in on a few of the best-kept secrets in eCommerce and how you can implement these tools to keep money coming in without working too hard. Keep reading for more information!
Sales Funnel Finesse
Chances are, your eCommerce site already has a blog and at least some social media presence. That’s a great start toward building your sales funnel. However if you aren’t doing anything to further your business, you’re probably losing all of your potential leads or customers. Basically, when someone clicks on your website or blog, you want to know what happens. Do they navigate away or do they develop interest, eventually leading them to the action of buying your product? If you’re not sure, you or your leading sales team members need to take a look at what is driving customers and what may be causing them to choose your competition. It could be something as simple as your website being difficult to use and altering it for a more user-friendly experience.
Update Your Ecommerce Software
While you may be able to make some adjustments to who your site runs and how easy it is to use, it could simply be time to completely overhaul your eCommerce software. Aside from making your site easier to use for your customers, by updating, you will be making it easier for your team to manage your business.
When choosing new eCommerce software, you are going to want to consider how it will integrate with your current payment gateways and point of sale systems. It is also a huge bonus if the software is SEO-friendly which can help you drive traffic and see an increase in new customers!
Ultimately, you want your site to be visually appealing, but having a visually appealing store does nothing if the actual website and software won’t work. Be sure to check the functionality of any new updates before releasing them to the public, preferably by having a third party walk through the buying process.
Streamline Your Data
Wouldn’t it be wonderful if you could anticipate ordering trends and never run out of popular products, thereby never missing a potential sale? Maybe you’d like to see what items customers are ordering together in order to create packages or price each item accordingly.
Whatever the case is, your website already has the data you need. The issue is whether or not you are utilizing a data warehouse ETL process. A data warehouse stores all of the information your website gathers. Using an ETL (extract, transform, load) process allows all of the pertinent data to be gathered and formatted into usable information. This information may include buying trends, or as mentioned, the items that customers tend to order together. You could also use it to market directly to previous customers, reaching out to those who may not have ordered in a while.
Automate Your Online Presence
Creating each social media post takes time and effort; timing the sharing of the information at the perfect moment is a completely separate (and sometimes frustrating) task. Every social media platform has its own algorithm to determine which posts are seen and by how many people; you should focus on the platform(s) that make sense for your business. When using Instagram, you can view your insights (given your account has at least 100 followers) to see when the times and days in which they are most active. Generally, you will want to post around these times. However, posting randomly during these times isn’t going to get you Insta-famous; you also have to post consistently. Whether you choose to post three times per day or three times per week, pick a frequency and stick to it. You can easily plan your posts, choose their frequency, and exactly when they’ll be shared by opting for a social media automation service. These are typically geared more toward Instagram but can be found for Facebook and other platforms as well.
Social media automation goes back to the sales funnel we talked about earlier. By sharing on these platforms, you can generate awareness about your brand, pique buyers’ interest, and cause people to desire your product which eventually can lead to the action of buying!
Give Customers What They Want
No one likes waiting on the phone to speak to an actual person and most people send emails and instantly forget about them. Instead of losing possible customers because they can’t seem to receive the answers they need in a timely manner, consider offering a live chat option on your website. Live chats are typically easy to implement and only require a few employees that are knowledgeable about your products. Most of the time, a single employee can handle multiple chats at once which can keep customers happy and feel as though they are getting an experience tailored to them. A live chat feature will also help ease the workload of some of your call center employees while still allowing customers to feel cared for and appreciated.
Knowing What Works
Not every tool will work for every eCommerce site. The key to finding out what works for your website will usually be trial and error. Obviously, if what you currently have was working perfectly, you wouldn’t still be reading this article; so now it is time to make some decisions! You don’t need to implement all of the tools mentioned at once; in fact, it is probably better to slowly try different options to see what is most feasible for your business and how effective it is. It won’t be easy and sometimes it’ll feel like a complete failure, but eventually, you’ll find the right combination of tools for your eCommerce site.
Photo credits: coworkinglondon.com