The initial stages of a business are also the most crucial. It is when you’d be laying down the foundational stones for the ground on which you will build and expand your business.
e-Commerce websites need to escalate as quickly as possible, and this can be achieved with optimization of resources, a solid marketing strategy, and a high-converting website.
The point is, with more and more businesses selling and consumers shopping online. A perfect reason to align it with your business goals.
Here are some of the most effective tips that you can use to scale up your E-commerce startup the right way:
1. Implement a Solid Marketing Strategy
Like any online business, the road to building a successful E-commerce begins by implementing a solid marketing strategy.
One that includes all the channels of promotion and advertisement, including both free and paid media, so as to attract more traffic your way.
You should also take advantage of all the platforms such as social media, emails, mobile phones, community forums, video streaming services, and online influencers to grow your online presence and reach a wider audience base.
Apart from showcasing your products online, you should also be able to keep a close eye on your visitors and competitors.
There are many types of tools that you can use to analyze the data as far as your customers’ shopping behaviors and the performance of your business rivals are concerned. For instance, Google Analytics and Google MyBusiness, to name a few.
By analyzing the data up close, you’d be in a far better position to make informed decisions about your customers’ expectations and come up with products likewise.
Adding CTAs into your content is yet another way of making the most out of your online marketing campaigns.
2. Automate and Outsource
What’s more, is that modern technology allows you to automate many of the time-consuming tasks that could only be dealt with manually not long before.
Since most of these tools are AI-enabled and have intelligent algorithms at play, taking meaningful insights from your database has never been so easy.
AI-enabled chatbots, VR furnished product page, and a well-regulated buying funnel are all great examples of the technology of automation.
For processes that cannot be automated, you’ll always have the option of outsourcing them to an expert or outside firm while directing your efforts to the more important tasks at your workplace.
The idea is to eliminate the number of hours required to boost your productivity and sales while becoming more apt to complex processes that can take your business to new markets.
Customer satisfaction, thus retention, is one of the key benefits of automation.
3. Design a Website that Converts
While there are a number of ways to sell online, like Shopify and Amazon, having a website for your startup will provide a lot of benefits to your business and customers.
In fact, your official website would be the very first self-help tool that most online shoppers (24%) would use, followed by mobile apps (14%), voice-controlled systems (13%), and live chat (12%).
Sadly, 68% of small businesses do not have a proper Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) strategy in place, the most important factor in acquiring new customers and retaining the existing ones.
No wonder why only 2.8% of all e-commerce websites are able to convert visitors into customers.
In order to avoid that, you must first get familiar with your customer’s shopping journey in your e-commerce store. Going full circle, back to data analytics!
By understanding the reasons for your visitors leaving in between or abandoning the shopping cart, you can easily spot the flaws in your online store and remove any errors and disturbances that can lag your sales targets behind.
For example, unasked ad popups and high extra costs (the biggest reason for abandoning the shopping cart).
4. Provide Excellent Customer Service
As more and more customers turn to the internet for shopping purposes, it’s natural for them to anticipate around-the-clock support there and then.
Buyers usually tend to contact the place of purchase for any query regardless of whether it’s the official online store or a third-party vendor. All the while making the customer experience one of the most crucial aspects of online shopping.
In fact, over 60% of online shoppers regard past customer service to be the most influential factor in their purchasing decisions.
Again, using smart tools like CRM (Customer Relationship Management) is an essential way of organizing your customer conversations and overall relations.
Aside from pricing and convenience, branding, personalization, and transparency can also contribute big time to influencing a customer’s buying decision and building strong and long-lasting relationships.
The goal is to keep your customers happy so that they’d be willing to come back over and over again.
5. Optimize, Optimize, Optimize
The key to nailing the whole E-commerce aspect of your business is optimization. Since every action to scale up your eCommerce startup would revolve around the internet, it’s important to optimize all of your online content.
There are plenty of other benefits of optimizing your eCommerce website. For example,
- A faster page load speed for all your web pages across all devices, platforms, and types of internet connection.
- A functional and catchy design with a unified look throughout the website for better brand visibility.
- Instant navigation and easy access for your visitors.
- Lead generation pages with a higher rate of conversion.
- Swift internal processes such as product info, customer record, payment management, and so on.
Speaking of optimization, SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, is the first thing that comes to mind. It’s how you make your business known on Google and catch a user’s attention.
But in order to catch their attention, or better yet, catch the attention of Google bots in the first place, you must be able to meet its ranking criteria.
There are many factors in the search engine ranking criteria that are constantly evolving with the latest tools and trends as new technologies come to life.
Among hundreds of these factors, some of the most critical ones include website speed (as mentioned earlier), keywords, links, and user interface or mobile-friendliness. So make sure to pay close attention to them when it comes to the infrastructure of your website.
The same goes with personalization, as it’s one of the biggest trends in the digital space as of late. Something that you must invest in for better customer service.
Conclusion
Building an eCommerce website from the ground up is certainly easier and cheaper than coming up with a brick-and-mortar store on any given day.
Apart from giving you wider coverage, it also provides you with the means to meet your business needs and customer expectations.
All you need is a proper plan and the right tools and techniques in place, and success won’t be too far away.
