E-commerce online sales have been surging to record highs, growing 50% in America since 2019, and seems to show no signs of stopping. In fact, while U.S. retail ecommerce sales reached $870-billion in 2021, this figure is estimated to hit $1.3-trillion by 2025. With a low barrier of entry, and its undisputed rise these past few years, it’s clear to state that businesses both small and large don’t want to miss this lucratively profitable opportunity while it’s in a state of growth. Let’s break down five expert strategies you don’t want to neglect when establishing your e-commerce online shop.
Provide an Omnichannel Shopping Experience
86% of shoppers engage in two or more online channels, meaning that businesses should engage their audience across these various online options. Whether you’re reaching customers through your website, social media, or separate e-commerce marketplaces, it’s essential to provide an omnichannel experience to avoid alienating potential online customers. While it can get complicated when managing multiple social channels, marketplaces, and websites, don’t forget to make the customer journey seamless across these touchpoints.
Invest in SEO
Organic results that appear on the first page of search engines (Google, Bing, Yahoo, etc.) are more than 10-times likely to receive a click compared to results on page 2 or beyond. We’ve written a blog about the importance of SEO (Search Engine Optimization) before, which you can read here, although it’s hard to overstate just how important SEO is to attracting online users to your e-commerce shop. Some straightforward ways to improving your SEO includes:
- Build backlinks to other websites.
- Perform keyword research and add strong keywords to your copy.
- Optimize your website and develop a quality user experience.
Offer Free Shipping
Free shipping has been proven to be a big hit that customers have come to expect these days. Even though you’re likely eating the costs of free shipping, this method has still proven to increase sales and revenue. It’s been shown that 70% of shoppers hold a higher opinion of brands that offer free shipping. Additionally, 84% of online shoppers are more likely to purchase from sites that offer free shipping. While Amazon has set a standard for customers to expect free shipping in most situations, it’s about time for most e-commerce shops to add this profitable service.
Develop for Mobile
In 2021, a third of all online purchases during the holiday season were from mobile users. Additionally, 79% of all smartphone users have made an online purchase using their phone in the past 6 months. Neglecting to focus your e-commerce efforts for mobile users can be a costly mistake that can even negatively affect much more than your revenue. For example, Google ranks mobile-friendly websites higher in search engine results compared to websites that aren’t optimized for mobile. Some tips to optimizing your website’s mobile experience includes:
- Create larger clickable buttons.
- Present your images in smaller formats.
- Integrate a mobile-friendly design from start-to-finish.
Optimize you E-mail Campaign
Surprisingly, e-mail marketing is unanimously held as one of the most effective methods available to generate sales and repeat customers. The first step to mastering your e-mail campaign strategy is to capture subscribers, which tactics are thoroughly outined in one of our previous blogs. Once you have a sizeable e-mail list, you can send e-mail blasts, shop e-mails, e-mails highlighting your social media, e-mails that segment your list into multiple audiences, and many more options. Among the public online world of social media, e-mail marketing has remained one of the absolute best ways to personalize your message to a specific target audience.
At Destination Marketing, our agency’s omni-channel digital marketing approach and customized digital solutions will turn your leads into customers and your business into an industry leader. They will also increase your traffic, engage and re-engage your leads, and boost your e-commerce sales. With a fully integrated digital strategy and content that converts, our digital marketing agency helps you stand out from the crowd because everything we do is focused on generating prospects for your business.
