10 Strategies for More Successful E-Commerce Websites

The world has become comfortable in making purchases, researching prices, and having the opportunity to customize the products they desire on the Internet. The state of shopping, in general, has now surpassed the walks through malls and shopping centers that were so familiar just a few decades ago. Now consumers are capable and likely to do most of their shopping online. The ease and convenience of using e-commerce are undeniable, and shoppers around the world find them too handy to ignore.

If you are a retailer, and you would like to test the waters of e-commerce; or if you are well-established, but want to raise the bar where your sales and your customer growth is concerned, you’ve come to the right place.

1. Be Innovative, Creative, and Distinctive

Buyers are searching for products that are unique, different, and beguiling. In e-commerce language, this consumer need relies on what is called a unique selling proposition. A USP is what sets you apart from other e-commerce stores similar to yours. The idea is to express everything there is to know about your business so that customers are aware of the theme, or essence, of your products and services. This concept is not new, but “deep analysis” remains exceptionally valuable for small businesses, especially.

• It is a beneficial idea to take as long as you need to thoroughly review your business’ target market, also known as your typical customer.  As you discover the similarities, likes, dislikes, personalities, motivations, activities, and more, you can ensure that your store is offering what your “public” is desiring.
• Learn how to make your products provide what your customer base wants as opposed to other products.
• The information you obtain from your studies will give you the information you need to come up with an advertising slogan that is eye-catching and memorable. If you are a cosmetic business, and you have done your due diligence, you might come up with a slogan such as, “Affordable makeup for stylish women of all ages.”
• Your signature USP will enhance your marketing strategies as you include it in your advertising, emails, social media interaction, and other customer communications.

2. Make Shopping Easy for Your Customers

An e-commerce website, in the same manner as a brick-and-mortar store, must create ways to find the item and purchase it easily and fast. If your purchasing process is cumbersome or inconvenient, the likelihood of making a sale decreases. Simplify the process as much as is feasible. The more complicated it becomes to find, sort, and pay for an item, the more likely your customer will abandon his or her shopping cart. Work continuously on ways to pare down, reduce steps, eliminate barriers, and assist your shoppers’ in ways that smooth out and clarify the buying journey.

Since e-commerce sites can ship your product to the customer no matter where the e-commerce’s location may be, customers can shop at your online store and have their purchases sent to them via UPS, FedEx, and other shipping companies. This fact makes shopping from home as easy as possible. Establishing trusted shipping processes, therefore, can mean higher customer satisfaction.

3. A Great Home Page is Not Sufficient

The landing page of your store’s website is normally the first look your customers see when they are searching. A beautiful home page is a must, but it cannot stand alone.  In most cases, the search engines will go directly to specific products. That’s why product description pages are so vital. The description pages need call-to-action buttons and easy navigation throughout the site.

4. Master Search Engine Optimization

For all websites, but particularly for e-commerce sites, content is still king. Quality, uniqueness, and informative keywords used within the site’s content are what earn high rankings on search engine pages. But that content must be properly search optimized. The best SEO services available are essential for start-up sites. Currently, 75% of e-commerce users do not click past the first search page results, so if that’s not where you are, you are going to lose a huge amount of traffic.

Website store owners can learn the skills that are necessary to raise their rankings in the search engines. The question is, how much time does it take to do so, and how difficult is the learning curve compared to the cost-effectiveness of taking the time necessary to ramp up your rankings yourself?

A company like Fluid Services has the experience and knowledge to:

• Create a custom SEO strategy specifically for your business
• Identify the optimal keywords
• Write friendly site code
• Use linking tactics
• Produce quality content for social media and blogging

5. Clean Up Your Technology

A good example of “cleaning up your technology” is to get rid of and replace old blogs on your site, some of which are not even relevant. Get a pristine, on-topic, current blog established. Blogs that are over a year old may have little to add to the conversation.

You may not be seeing your site as others see it since you are so familiar with the content. Want plenty of sales? Freshen up your website.

6. Get Your Supply Chains under Control

Product Sourcing

Most e-commerce business owners agree that their stores can only be as good as their supply chain management. In many cases, the product is sourced and sold to the customer.

Drop-Shipping

When a customer browses an owner’s site, the customer’s order travels to another company that fills the orders by shipping them directly to the customer on behalf of the e-commerce store.

Wholesale Suppliers

Wholesale suppliers provide online store items to e-commerce store owners at wholesale prices from the manufacturers.E-commerce websites must spend time deciding on suppliers, pricing, shipping, inventory, and the many other pieces of the supply chain puzzle.

7. Mobile Selling

In today’s world, consumers are just as likely to browse and shop using their mobile phones as they are using their tablets, computers, tablets, and laptops. Owners must supply their customers with the same excellent customer service across all platforms, from mobile sales to brick-and-mortar stores, if necessary.

8. Keep It Simple

Studies have shown that it takes only 0.05 seconds for a customer to form an opinion about your website. Online shoppers decide whether your website is the right place for them to shop or not in that small fragment of time. The best approach is to keep your home page as uncluttered and simple as possible. One of the most important reasons for cleaning up your homepage is so that visitors can easily identify your Call-to-Action (CTA). The assistance of an expert web builder is a smart idea. Doing so is completely worth the investment.

9. Working with Shopping Cart Abandonment Situations

Some store owners do not take advantage of abandoned carts. When they do so, they are probably not getting the purchases that could be theirs. One popular idea is to send automated emails to customers who left items in their carts. Everyone has abandoned a cart at one time or another. The shopper may have gotten a phone call or left your site to look for a lower price, or because of a million other reasons. Sometimes, a gentle nudge from the store owner is an appreciated gesture. The shopper liked the item enough to put it in the cart the first time. Give that customer another chance to purchase something he or she may have forgotten.

10. Website Design

Reports say that a majority of e-commerce consumers do not want to shop on a site with a poor design. Here are some recommendations that are easy to integrate into your website’s persona:

• Make shipping costs easy to see and understand.
• Consider free-shipping.
• Know that an “About Us” page is a must. Showing customers a few things to know about a business engenders trust.
• Optimize the speeds of loading pages.
• To extend your customers’ lifetime value (LTV), establish a loyalty program, send thank you notes, ask for feedback, ask your customers for reviews.
• Maximize your customers’ experience.

Fluid Services

Our company is all about marketing from top-of-the-line websites to Local SEO performance and e-commerce.  Helping small businesses grow is the goal we have set for ourselves. You can use our years of experience to build long-term growth for your business by increasing the local visibility you need to get your product discovered.

Our process includes:

• Content Choice
• Search Engine Optimization
• Content Promotion
• Conversion Improvement
• Marketing Insights
• Website Design
• E-Commerce and Sales
• Branding
• Organic Growth

Our clients often share with us their appreciation to be working with a company that is on the cutting edge of marketing, technology, and volumes of valuable information we have garnered over the years and want to share with our customers. To get a complete overview of your local SEO performance, search rankings, local listings, reviews, on-site SEO, and social media, contact us today. Simply share your business name on our home page, and we will take it from there. Fluid Service is looking forward to assisting you in growing your e-commerce business and supporting you in all the ways we can.