Today, running an eCommerce platform is no easy task.
Several companies are vying for the same market share. Your main objective should be to stand out and make your business shine, but that’s easier said than done, right?
You probably know that your customers are getting more demanding, and it is your job to meet those demands. In the ever-evolving digital world, providing a great user experience has never been more necessary. Over 90% of consumers are willing to switch companies after only one bad experience. Since this is a very challenging environment, yet if you want to succeed, you must cope with it and remain competitive.
This may be hard without a proper guidance, so we’ve prepared some tips for you
6 tips to support your eCommerce performance
In this post we’ll address a list of eCommerce hacks. Here are a few tips on how to maximize your eCommerce efforts. Here’s a secret! The majority of the ideas can be addressed by EarlyParrot. How about we get started?
#1 Get to know your customers better
Before taking any business step, you should establish the type of audience for which your offer is intended. It dictates your company’s whole journey in the future. What is the best place to begin? The target audience of your eCommerce business should be understood in terms of its characteristics, needs, and preferences. By doing so, you will be able to tailor not only the offer, but also the way you communicate and market.
What is the best way to reach them? You won’t find it as difficult as you thought. Sometimes the simplest solutions are the best, so keep asking your audience for what they expect! Give customers a chance to provide feedback on their shopping experience. The market and their preferences change constantly, so follow what are the bestsellers and what your existing customer base is interested in. Customer satisfaction would increase and new potential customers could be targeted with a more tailored offer.
#2 Reward your clients
It is a given that people enjoy receiving rewards.
However, you need to find a golden mean here: don’t offer rewards to everyone, because then rewards would seem less enticing.
As well, you should figure out how to best manage such a system. When you want to reward many clients, then things can get complicated.
Here’s where EarlyParrot can help.
It would take you minutes to make your own referral program using EarlyParrot. It’s a very straightforward process.
You will be able to recognize your brand ambassadors and reward them accordingly with such a referral campaign. In the meantime, let’s recap how referrals work. In essence, once you have designed your program, you can invite your entire email list and wait for them to join. The individuals who sign up for your program receive their own unique referral link once they become interested in it. After successful referral, both the new client and the referring party may receive rewards. You decide on the rules and referral types, just make sure you explain them clearly to everyone involved. Clearly determine what constitutes a successful referral, such as whether the user has to comply with registration requirements, fill out a shopping cart, and complete the checkout process. Recognition and appreciation of the most active users can also be beneficial. Following them on EarlyParrot will allow you to reward them accordingly.
#3 Keep clients in the loop
In simple terms, it means that you should inform your customer about any upcoming changes, drops, etc. Email marketing is a good solution here, set up a newsletter, let your customer base know what is going on with your brand. If you want to set a default email campaign regarding referrals, you can do it while designing a program with EarlyParrot. You can set up a “Thank you campaign”, “Welcome campaign” and many more. There is a message creator so you can customize them as you wish. Building (and using) your email list may become a game-changer for your eCommerce business, we write about this topic here.
Speaking of communication, nowadays, social media platforms are a major channel to stay in touch with your target audience. Probably many of your loyal customers are following you on social media, so it is crucial to be active out there. It is also a way to reach your prospective customers and start their customer journey from the “like” on the Facebook page. Social media is also a perfect place to present product reviews or user-generated content as social proof that people love your items. 9/10 people say that authenticity is a crucial aspect while deciding which brand to support. In order to increase these factors, implement the above tips.
#4 What about self-service?
As with the brick-and-mortar stores, you can provide a self-service with your online one. We don’t mean the sale process itself since it is self-service already. We talk about post-purchase activities.
To be even more specific, we mean customer service. In these situations, the client is at the mercy of the customer service agent. You can change it. Over 6 out of 10 U.S consumers prefer automated self customer service via mobile apps or websites. It means that it is a very influential factor in the whole customer experience. So how to provide such self-service? Over half of the consumers claims that lack of available information is the main issue while it comes to solving problems on their own. In other words, you should deliver information and let your customers know where to look. As an online retailer, you should provide a FAQ section and knowledge base. These two should be done precisely and involve all questions and issues that may occur. Both sections should also be updated over time. A chatbot is also a good idea, but choosing the right provider and setting it up can take some time.
Moreover, you can consider your referral and affiliate partners as your customer agents for special tasks! During recommendations they can answer questions and dispel all the doubts. It helps you save time and lower the number of queries for your customer team.
Providing self-service doesn’t mean you should resign from customer service representatives and fire your whole customer support team. There are some issues that couldn’t be solved without a living human being and besides, some people just prefer a personal consultation over looking for the answers on your website. You may also provide an online chat for people who prefer interaction with people but via the internet. This way you will improve your customer service KPIs and offer help for all types of your customers.
#5 Make yourself known
Your eCommerce marketing strategy must include SEO, paid social and Google ads, in addition to a strong customer service policy. The importance of SEO for eCommerce businesses cannot be overstated, especially in such fierce competition.
Most clients type into the search engine the product they wish to buy, then check the results that appear. Since these users are your potential customers, attracting them to your website is crucial for you. However, how can we do that if everyone in the industry is striving for the same result?
Enhancing SEO is a popular eCommerce marketing strategy. Thus, ensure that you are using content marketing and brand referral links (we already mentioned that EarlyParrot makes it easy). Additionally, you should review your website copy. If you are focusing on search engine optimization, inquire about customer testimonials on Google and have your loyal customers contribute. Online reviews are another form of social proof that establishes your trustworthiness.
You can also boost your business performance by setting up Google Ads. It is worth trying them since 90% of consumers agree that they can influence their purchase choices. You should have a long lasting impact on the purchase decisions of your customers in order to keep them coming back to your online store. You can help it by using SEO and paid advertising, on top of other solutions we have already mentioned.
#6 Measure and optimize – also with EarlyParrot
Running a business means that you should keep your finger on the pulse constantly especially when it comes to all the most important indicators. This means checking ROI, retention, abandonment rate, etc.
These factors are all crucial for success. You can track most of the KPIs in your Google Analytics account but if you want to dig deeper e.g. in your referral marketing programs performance, EarlyParrot can do that for you. Due to the comprehensive overview of each of your campaigns, you are able to make necessary adjustments.
Moreover, always keep in mind this sequence for effective analytics:
- Measure
- Optimize
- Repeat
Will it guarantee the success of your eCommerce business? No, but it will definitely help it stay on track with measurable results.
Ready to conquer the eCommerce market?
Let’s make a short recap of what we have established so far. In order to provide the highest customer experience and stand out from the crowded market you should:
- Recognize the needs and habits of your customers.
- Be in touch with them.
- Customer service should be available in many forms so that everyone can find something to suit their needs.
- Be visible in the search engine.
- Optimize your marketing and sales actions.
Once you cover these aspects you will see the difference and your customer will recognize and appreciate it too.
Fingers crossed for your online business!