eCommerce is ever-changing, even as the digital world continues to evolve itself. That means that eCommerce stores are taking to the Internet to reach potential customers in as many ways possible.
In this article, we’ll show you 10 things that are essential to your eCommerce business, so that your store can stay relevant and well-performed.
1. Choose The Right Platform
Not using the right platform for your eCommerce store is like trying to sell something in a place that you’re not familiar with. However, when running your store on the right platform, you’ll not only be able to showcase your products and or services better, but you’ll also get the user experience that you want for your customers.
2. First Impressions Matter
When it comes to selling something online, it doesn’t take long for users to either click on your site, or leave to your competitor(s). For this reason, you have to make that first click to your eCommerce store count by creating a web design that’s not only good-looking, but also user-friendly.
Speaking of user-friendliness…
3. Reach Mobile Users
There’s also mobile-friendliness that you’ll need to think about, when designing your eCommerce storefront. With over 5.11 billion unique mobile users worldwide as of 2019 (with 2.71 billion of them using smartphones), it’s now more important than ever to cater to such users. Wherever mobile users are (smartphones, tablets, etc.), your store should be there too!
4. Practice Customer Engagement
With eCommerce, it’s important to be as customer centric as possible. That means letting customers fully experience your products or services, so that they can make a good buying decision.
Here are some effective ways to engage with customers:
- Offer appropriate pricing
- Offer eco-friendly shiping
- Offer free shipping
- Have a quick and convenient checkout process for customers
5. Be On Social Media
There’s no better time than to take your eCommerce store to social media. Being on social media gives you unlimited access to your customers, and allows customers to come to you straight from their devices.
With that said, try out these quick eCommerce techniques:
- Post regularly with images, stories, and live content.
- Comment and like your competitors’ highly-engaged followers.
- Follow your competitors’ highly-engaged followers.
6. Post Visuals
According to Medium, image-based posts perform 650% better than text-only posts. So, let’s face it: People don’t want to be bored reading so much text. Instead, opt for posting stunning visuals – photos, videos, etc.
7. Enable Live Chat
You can also bring customer support to users instantly by enabling live chat in your eCommerce website. Having live chat allows you to not only get in front of customers right away, but also lets them see a human face to your eCommerce company. Just place your live chat button where users can see it online, and you’re all set!
8. Utilize SEO
Search engine optimization (SEO) is extremely important nowadays, because many eCommerce businesses will be flooding the Internet, which means that search engine algorithms will be categorizing and ranking websites. Since the first five results receive 67.6% of clicks, it’s important for your eCommerce store to rank high when people search for you online.
To better optimize your site, consider doing the following:
- Optimize titles.
- Check the URL.
- Make sure descriptions have relevant keywords.
- Provide fresh and useful content on your site.
- Improve your site’s loading time (since 40% of mobile users will leave if a site doesn’t load within 3 seconds).
- Consider Google authorship. AND
- Register your eCommerce store with Google and Bing webmaster tools.
9. Take Advantage Of CTAs And Sign-Up Buttons
Call-to-actions are also important to have on your site. Therefore, avoid lengthy sign-up forms by opting for attractive CTA and sign-up buttons. While lengthy sign-up forms can take a while to fill out, such buttons can take users to a quick form where they can complete registration right away. Just a simple email address and a password should be what they need to sign up.
10. Make Your Store Safe
Finally, your eCommerce store must be safe for people to shop. Like a physical brick-and-mortar store, your store must have security of its own. To reduce the risk of online fraud, and to ensure that your customers are safe online, implement the following techniques:
- Choose a secure platform to host your eCommerce store on.
- Track all orders.
- Use an SSL certificate.
- Ask users to create strong passwords, if they choose to create an account with your store.
- Run a PCI test regularly.
These methods ensure that you and your customers will be safe online.
Conclusion
Overall, eCommerce is evolving, and will continue to do so. But as long as you keep in mind these 10 essential things, not only will you see more and more user flock to your store, but your store will thrive in response to all the hard work that you’ve put into it online.
Lauren Groff is an eLearning consultant at Write My Essay UK. She explores marketing and social media strategies.
