Having an eCommerce business is a great deal of profit. Not only does it allow you to run your business without any hassle, but it also makes your business stand out among the rest. An ecommerce website or store allows you to showcase your inventory of products to audiences all around the world. People can visit and shop on your ecommerce store from anywhere, which is not so easy and feasible in traditional business.
But along with all the convenience and benefits comes growing competition, technical prerequisites, SEO, and several other challenges. These factors often affect the growth of an ecommerce store, and it’s noticed that the majority of ecommerce stores fail in the first two years themselves.
Therefore, we believe it’s necessary that people learn and understand some basics of owning and running an ecommerce business so that they don’t have to face failures. Hence we have prepared this guide containing tips and e-commerce business strategies for successful growth.
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Crucial Factors for Success in E-commerce
By keeping some e-commerce tips in mind, you will see success in the E-commerce business. According to our experience, initially, you should not conclude success by sales but focus on visitors, engagement, authority and branding. Once people recognize you as a trustworthy source for shopping, you will automatically begin to get sales.
So, according to our ecommerce business strategy and experience, here are a few tips for you that you can follow for effective ecommerce sales growth.
1. Don’t rush the launch
One of the most common things that every unsuccessful eCommerce entrepreneur does is rush to launch the website in the market. There is only a single shot to launch the website, and you just can’t miss it. People make this common mistake of beginning without a robust e-commerce business strategy, so what else can you expect other than failure.
A smart move can be purchasing the domain and updating some sort of “Coming Soon” tag on your page. You must avoid revealing something big until you have done a critical task like SEO, content marketing, paid advertising etc., for reaching your prospects.
Without SEO or customer targeting, you will be throwing all your efforts into the bin. Other things to ensure before launching the website includes:
- Optimized images and other media related to products and services.
- Content should be properly formatted and well organized.
- Proper interlinking and navigation on the website.
- Categorized menus and different sections of the store.
- If the ecommerce store is operated through a mobile application, then it must be optimized accordingly.
Read “How to start an e-commerce business in India?” for detailed knowledge of starting an ecommerce business.
2. Test Everything
Remember, after, before, and during the launch of your eCommerce website in the market, invest in analytics and testing. Imagine yourself as a “user” and explore if something needs to be changed or updated. Human testing is a crucial point in any successful ecommerce business strategy because an ecommerce business cannot survive if its interface is not user friendly.
There are service providers who test your digital solutions for any possible errors or dead ends. The testers perform Quality Analysis of your website and other automated and manual tests using professional software programs designed particularly for software testing.
3. Integrate Social Elements
One of the best ideas to include in your e-commerce business strategy to make your business successful is the integration of social media elements. Some of the most common features that you can add are social login plugin, follow button testimonials, product reviews, and many more.
We all know how much time people, especially teenagers, spend on social platforms.
No “how to grow ecommerce business” strategy can ignore social media if they want success. People are also shopping from Instagram pages or Facebook stores etc., these days, unlike in the past. So a social media presence is also essential. And integrating social icons with the ecommerce stores makes sharing and other operations easy for your visitors.
An effective social media marketing campaign is a highly successful technique to increase brand awareness and gives an extra reason to your audience to trust your brand.
4. Focus More on SEO
Since the eCommerce industry is growing at a rapid pace, every day, more and more new businesses are entering this market. This simply means to stay on top of this competition, and you need to focus more on SEO. Focusing more on SEO will help you win the eCommerce market for a long time.
Grabbing traffic from online ads is effective for a short time, but you cannot keep spending money on ads to get traffic to your website in the longer run. This is where SEO comes to your rescue, as it is generally a one-time investment with long term returns.
If your page starts ranking in the SERP results organically, you don’t have to spend any more money on it. This way, you can enjoy higher ROI. This is how to grow the ecommerce business organically for a more extended period of benefits. For help, you can consult and hire a digital marketing company in Jaipur for professional SEO of your store which will eventually help you grow the business.
5. Evolve Regularly
The most important aspect is never to stop evolving. As technology trends and the demands & needs of customers change every day, always keep your eCommerce business integrated with the latest trends and features.
For this, you can keep an eye on your competitors for any updates, and if they introduce any latest technology in their ecommerce stores, you should also include it in your marketing strategy for success and coping up with the latest technology.
6. Put the Focus on the User
There is no doubt that one of the significant drawbacks of eCommerce businesses is not allowing users to touch, smell, feel, and see the products before buying them. As there is no solution to this issue, you can compensate for this by offering a discount, free shipping, and an easy checkout process on your website.
Moreover, you can improve the user’s experience by keeping the UI clean, easy-to-navigate, engaging, and attractive. In the meantime, ensure the safety and security of users’ data for the trust and authenticity of your platform. These days, multiple encrypted payment gateways and responsive interface are the two most vital features of any ecommerce business strategy.
Check out our latest blog on “Top Web Development Strategies To Use For Small Businesses“
7. Work Closely with Social
If someone is telling you that they outsource social media to team members is crazy. Undoubtedly, social media is the heartbeat of a business that allows you to have a look at the lives of your customers. Having a social media manager is a nice idea, but involving yourself also is even better. One can easily hire someone to develop and supervise an ecommerce business strategy, but as a business owner, you must know how your audience is interacting with your services and products, for which socializing is essential.
8. Go Mobile
There is no doubt that mobile phone users are increasing daily, and now everyone has a smartphone. These mobile devices have changed the scenario of various industries, and eCommerce is one of them. So if you are not planning to make your business go with mobile in mind, it will probably become irrelevant in five years. To become a brand like amazon or Flipkart in the ecommerce world, your e-commerce business strategy checklist must include having a mobile application soon.
Explore “Shopify Vs WordPress” to find which platform would be more suitable for your ecommerce business.
9. Collect Information
Unless you are thinking of launching a single site only and then stepping away, you must collect and know about customer information to build databases for future launches. The most valuable information you can collect from the audience is their email. Having an email list is considered one of the most valuable assets an online business can have for growth in sales and marketing.
If you follow the steps mentioned in the guide above, we believe you can outrank most of your competitors as not everyone is equally dedicated to their ecommerce store. You can also avoid failures if you know the basics of online business.
