First off, let’s talk numbers. E-commerce, the practice of buying and selling products and services online through websites and apps, has garnered almost $3 Trillion in the global web sales in 2018, growing by 18% and showing no signs of slowing down. There’s no question that e-commerce has made it easier for everyone to buy and sell products and services and even have business reach a broader market instead. As such, more and more e-commerce businesses start up each day, which is why your e-commerce business needs to stay ahead of the game through. So, we’ll be taking a look at tips and ways to help your e-commerce business succeed:
Allow For Reviews and Comments
Your e-commerce website should allow product/service testimonials and reviews. Many customers decide whether or not to buy a product through checking reviews. In fact, in a report by digital marketing group Fan and Fuel, 92% of customers would hesitate to buy a product if there are no reviews, and 97% of customers say that reviews (whether positive or negative) affect their buying decisions. Allowing for reviews is also an incentive for your e-commerce business to strive more for customer satisfaction. However, you might also want to consider restricting posting product reviews to only verified customers (those that have ordered the product through you). One cannot ignore the possibility of competition (or a disgruntled customer) spamming your e-commerce website’s products and services with unfounded negative reviews.
Allow Multi-Platform Access
The reason why people prefer buying and selling online is that it’s convenient, and they can do it anywhere that has internet access. This is why your website should be designed across multiple devices. Potential customers look for products and services through their desktops, laptops, smartphones, and tablets, which is why your website should also be built and designed to be easily accessed, navigated, and used across different devices. Otherwise, you’d be limiting your market, or even ending up losing potential customers.
Make Everything Easier
Ecommerce is convenient, and your e-commerce website should reflect that as well. Don’t let your customers go through a labyrinth of clicks and taps to buy your product; your checkout and payment process should be as easy as possible. Additionally, you’d want to allow as many modes of payment as you can, from COD to Credit/Debit Card, Paypal, and such.
SEO
As an e-commerce business owner, there’s a big chance that you already know all about Search Engine Optimisation (SEO). For those who don’t, SEO is the digital marketing practice of enhancing your website and employing webpage content strategies so that when customers look for certain products and services through a search engine such as Google or Bing, your website will rank higher in the search results.
CRO
Conversion Rate Optimisation or CRO, in comparison with SEO, focuses on converting your e-commerce websites’ visitors into customers. This is done through improving your business website’s designs, functions, and content to entice the website’s target market to engage with the website (either by making them inquire, book a reservation, and/or order products/services) instead of just clicking off. Both SEO and SEO work hand in hand; SEO’s job is to attract your target market while CRO takes care of making them stay and do business with you.
Conclusion
Ecommerce is indeed a lucrative and convenient way of doing business, but even if your e-commerce business is doing well, you shouldn’t rest easy. It’s important to continually improve your e-commerce business’ operations to keep up with the numerous competition; your competition is continuously growing and improving as well, and so should you.
