Most businesses are now online offering both goods and services. This comes in the backdrop of high internet penetration with 50% of the world’s population now online. If you have an eCommerce business, the hardest part comes in boosting sales in the highly competitive digital landscape. Many eCommerce businesses struggle to break even as sales stagnate. As such, you need the best strategy to boost sales for your business to survive.
Impressive eCommerce Numbers
The industry numbers paint a positive picture. In 2019, online retail sales of physical goods reached $365.2 billion with the numbers expected to $600 by 2024.
A Nasdaq survey projects that by 2040, 95% of all purchases will come through ecommerce. Such numbers highlight the immense opportunities available in the eCommerce industry. However, they also belie the tough conditions eCommerce businesses operate in due to stiff competition. Many businesses fold up within a few years due to low sales but it doesn’t have to be this way.
This guide explores some ideas to help your business grow its ecommerce sales tenfold in 2020.
Identify the Problems Affecting Sales
A good eCommerce sales strategy must start with a frank assessment of your ongoing campaigns. You have to carry out an audit and identify the weak aspects leading to poor sales conversion. Some of these include:
- A poorly optimized website
- Lack of trust in your brand by customers
- Poorly set sales funnel
- Targeting the wrong people
- Failure to leverage email marketing
These are just a few of the problems that could be affecting your eCommerce sales. Once you identify them, it becomes easier to set a strategy to boost sales conversion on your eCommerce website.
Use Professionals For Your Marketing Campaigns
Your eCommerce business might be small but bringing in professionals is a sure way to boost its growth. For instance, you can work with SEO professionals,writing professionals, social media marketers, influencers and other experts to showcase your brand, products, or services.
Optimize Your Ecommerce Website
Your eCommerce website is the storefront of your business. It determines the quality of the experience customers have when interacting with your business. For a start, you should invest in search engine optimization (SEO) to boost ranking on search engines.
Optimizing your ecommerce site for search engines can include boosting loading speeds, adding navigation links, rewriting the Meta description, generate an XML site map, social sharing buttons and a blogging platform.
Build Your Brand Awareness
Online shoppers prefer visible brands because it is easier to trust these. As such, you have to create a strategy to build a positive brand image and this takes time.
Some simple ideas to build your brand’s image include:
- Improving the quality of your products or services
- Building visibility on social media networks
- Engaging with potential customers on different platforms
- Using user-generated content across multiple channels such as blogs, social media pages, and websites. Such content includes testimonials, reviews, case studies and it serves to boost authenticity and build trust.
Review your Unique Selling Proposition (USP)
Why should people buy your goods or services and not those of the competition? This is an important question every eCommerce entrepreneur must ask when creating a marketing strategy.
You have to consider that unique factor that makes your brand/products/services tick. It could be the cost, the quality, the effectiveness among other things. Check what your customers have to say and you will find the USP. Once you know the USP, start capitalizing on it in your marketing campaigns.
Invest in Excellent Customer Support
Customers are essential for your eCommerce business and you need to treat them right. 90% of Americans rely on customer service to decide who to shop from. Another study reveals 49% of American consumers moved to other companies owing to poor customer service.
These numbers highlight the need for excellent customer service as a strategy to grow your eCommerce business and boost sales. Great customer service through 24/7 live chat, email, phone and text can help you convert leads to customers. It is also important for customer retention.
Optimize Your Shipping Operations
Long shipping time and complications in the process can cost you a lot of customers. When customers don’t receive their orders on time, they can cancel them or post negative reviews of your business. This leads to the loss of customers and decreases your sales.
Consider hiring a third-party logistics (3PL) for efficient shipping processes. If you offer free shipping, you can also include the option of paid shipping for faster delivery.
Leverage Creative Marketing Tactics
In this digital age, there’s no dearth of innovative marketing strategies. From video marketing, animations, social media marketing, email marketing to influencer marketing, the options are endless.
These creative techniques will build your brand’s visibility while showcasing your products and services. It is an effective strategy to boost eCommerce sales in 2020.
Final Thoughts
Struggling to boost your eCommerce sales? You are not alone. The eCommerce landscape is highly competitive and you have to adopt the best strategies to attract customers. In this tough environment, these simple tips will help you increase sales for your eCommerce store in 2020.