Online retail sales reached almost
$2.5 trillion in 2018, and the upward trend is set to continue, so it’s safe to
say that there’s never been a better time to start selling on the web.
Therefore, it’s no surprise that
thousands of people start an online business with the hopes of
carving their own share of this booming market.
However,
even though there are plenty of opportunities for entrepreneurs online, merely
opening up an online store doesn’t guarantee anything. In fact, out of around
12 million eCommerce stores operating on the internet, only about 650 000 sell
products worth over $1,000 in a year.
That
shows that even though there are plenty of buyers, online stores are abundant
as well, so you need to know what you’re doing if you’re going to stand out
from the crowd of stores that buyers can choose from.
Luckily,
there are principles that you can follow that can significantly increase your
chances of success.
To
get you started on the right foot, here are a few of the most crucial things
you should consider if you want to maximize your chances of success.
1. Provide a
Seamless User Experience
38%
of web users will stop engaging a site immediately if they find the design
unattractive, so a good user experience can be the difference between your
store succeeding or failing.
Therefore,
if you want to have any shot of getting your website’s visitors to stick
around, you need to not only make your site look professional, but also make
the user experience as intuitive and easy to use as possible.
Since you’re operating an ecommerce store,
your focus should be on making sure that your customer’s journey from the first
second he reaches your site to the moment he enters his payment information
goes without any disruptions.
That means that you should make your multi vendor
eCommerce platform easy to navigate and have clear sections
that allow your customers to browse when looking for different products.
You
should also showcase your best deals for those that are looking for the best
value, and make sure that you provide an intuitive suggestion system to help
fill up that cart with additional items that the visitor could be interested
in.
Even something as simple as providing
high-quality images of your products can have a huge difference – while the price of retouching photos can
be high, it is well worth it if it can increase the perceived value of your
products and help you make more sales.
Customers pay a lot of attention to
good product pictures. If you have older images, you should upscale photos to
a higher resolution, clean their background and make it as pleasant to look at
as possible. A good product photo should deliver accurate information about the
product and an enjoyable experience while looking at it.
Most
importantly, you need to focus on creating a checkout system that works
perfectly, no matter the device that the customer may be using, or the payment
method that he may prefer.
The
last thing you want is to lose customers that have already decided to buy from
you simply because your checkout system failed to accommodate their needs.
Although
a lot of e-store owners want their site to appear modern and fill it with fancy
slideshows or media elements, the truth is, you should only add visual elements
if they work flawlessly on all devices and if they don’t become a distraction
that prevents your customers from moving towards making a purchase.
If you’re migrating your eCommerce to
another system, such as Volusion to BigCommmerce migration,
you can use this as an opportunity to revamp your site and lay out a clear plan
for how you could make the user experience better.
2. Showcase
Your Brand
Having
a strong brand persona is a great way to separate your eCommerce store from the
competitors and build a loyal following of fans that remain your customers for
many years.
However,
when starting out, it can be difficult to establish a brand that gets the
attention of your target audience, so you need to be very purposeful in your
branding efforts so that you can form positive opinions about your company and
create the right associations in the minds of the people that you want to
reach.
Joining a reputable industry
organization like the Blockchain
Association can also provide valuable networking opportunities
and further bolster your brand’s credibility in the blockchain space
Branding
can be especially powerful online since there’s a trust barrier when making
transactions – people are still not always comfortable entering their personal
information on sites they don’t know, so you need to create a reliable
reputation and appearance if you want to make sales consistently.
But
how can you showcase your brand on your eCommerce store?
Well, the first step of the process is understanding who you want to appeal to.
In most cases, the branding choices will be dictated by the audience that
you’re selling to, so you need to have a clear idea of who you’re targeting
before moving forward.
Your
brand’s main ideas should revolve around helping your customers solve problems
while at the same time telling a story that they can relate to.
You
could also associate yourself with beliefs and causes that are shared by your
target customers, which can help to position your company in a more positive
light and increase customer loyalty.
A
crucial aspect of a successful branding strategy is ensuring that all of your
communications and messages stay on point with your brand and your voice
because that’s the only way to strengthen your position in the market and
ensure that your company doesn’t lose the identity that you’ve worked to
create.
3. Cater
to Your Mobile Audience
No
eCommerce business that wants to succeed can afford to ignore the needs of its
mobile audience. With 52% of all web traffic coming from mobile in 2018, mobile
users now make up the majority of all potential eCommerce shoppers and thus
should be the focus of all online marketing efforts for businesses that want to
sustain their growth.
It’s
essential to have a responsive web design that can adapt to any screen size,
but that may not be enough – you need to analyze how your mobile visitors
interact with your site and ensure that they don’t run into any issues when
browsing for products or trying to go through the checkout process.
To
ensure that their mobile users are satisfied, many eCommerce site owners are
creating mobile apps to complement the mobile versions of their websites.
This
allows to not only provide another convenient way to shop for mobile users but
also enables to offer more functionality and special features to people using
mobile devices that would be hard to implement on a web-based mobile design.
And the best news is, it’s now easier
than ever to create your own mobile app without
experience – there are tools that can help you convert your
site to a mobile app and customize it according to your requirements, even if
you don’t have a large budget to spend for development.
If you’re already receiving a significant
part of your traffic from mobile, you can get more accurate mobile analytics
using the Google AMP addon, which can also help to improve your
site’s performance for mobile. If you want to centralize different tools’ data
in one place, you can try this e-commerce
analytics tool.
The
good news is that if you take the time to cater to your mobile audience, you
can gain an edge over some of your competitors who haven’t adapted to the new
trends of the web yet, which can help you carve out a larger share of the
marketplace and expand your reach in the niche that you operate in.
