To begin with, the fact that e-commerce sales are exploding is no secret to any businesses around the world. Retailers have their work cut out for them to get noticed with more consumers shopping online than ever before. But for small or medium scale businesses who have never tried any online sales before, the question remains as to how they can optimize their website to start selling online. Also, how to perform content marketing for the website. There are some businesses that wrongly presume that online sales are meant for large businesses with huge budgets which actually is a big mistake.
Latest studies have proved that online shopping has been the preferred choice of over half of the consumer population. The fact itself is great news for businesses irrespective of their scale. Thankfully, to increase your e-commerce traffic, you don’t need a huge advertising budget.
Let us discuss certain ways with which you can optimize your website without spending a dime to grab the attention of the customers to your online marketplace:
1. Focus on the product/service benefits and not just the features
Most of us are aware of the fact that the customers buy a typical product or service to serve their problems or pain points. Hence your website must be optimized in such a way that these problems are solved that delights the customer in every possible manner. Try to remember that in your space, you are selling against everyone. To convince your customers that your product is the only one that can solve their problem, you have to showcase valid reasons.
2. Present the website content that makes your business unique
While targeting your online customers, the content should be presented always by keeping your unique value proposition in mind. The term value proposition is not a fancy buzzword as it is one thing that makes your business unique.
You have to bear in mind that a million other people might offer your product or service but none of them can do it in the same way you do. On a webpage, your potential customers spend less than or up to 15 seconds. To reinforce why your product offers something that no one else can, you must use every one of those seconds.
3. The importance of social proof
The recent studies have shown that around 70 per cent of the online customers trust a recommendation from a total stranger while buying a product and if the recommendation comes from a peer, close to 90 per cent of consumers trust the same. The term social proof is what it actually sounds like. It means that your peers or trust a brand amply to buy from them.
4. Send abandoned cart emails
To see a web visitor reaching the endpoint of purchase and then quitting without a trace that frustrates the online retailers. What you have to realise is that even if once someone abandons a shopping cart all is not lost. Thanks to abandonment emails, in fact, almost 30 per cent of abandoned carts can be recovered. The best news is that to help you automate your abandonment email campaigns and start capturing lost revenue, there are tools like GetResponse.
5. Strategize SEO
As we know the importance of SEO, instead of giving it the attention it deserves, sometimes we let it “happen by accident”.
Research has shown that less than 5% of web searchers make it through to the second page of returned search results and close to 90 per cent of web traffic comes from a search engine. You have to ensure that you make it to the first page always. While using keywords, you have to be careful about the type of product keywords used. To guide you to the right list of words that are the most relevant to your product, try using a tool like the Google Keyword Planner.
6. Send promotional emails
Once you build a healthy subscriber list diligently, the questions come in the form of what do you do with it. With promotional emails, you can test the waters. Experts have found that on average than new customers repeat customers spend around 70 per cent more. To build loyalty and keep customers coming back for more, one of the best ways is to rely on promotional emails. Before anyone else, you are letting your “best customers” in on something special.
7. Checkout process Simplification
A lot of online customers try to quit the checkout as they might find the process as frustrating especially in case of e-commerce sites. Never try to follow their suit as it might make things more difficult for you.
To keep your checkout process simple, follow this guide for a few tips, including:
- Making a mobile-friendly process
- Offering multiple payment options
- Enable a fast guest checkout
- Eliminating unnecessary text, buttons, and navigation
By following the above points, you can tweak the checkout process to satisfy your customer needs and demands.
