Your site is polished, you’ve got the layouts and checkout just the way you want them. Everything on your eCommerce website is up and running. So now what?
Just like any part of your business, you’re always looking for ways to grow. eCommerce sites are anything but static; you have your customers browsing around (sometimes buying, sometimes not), your employees updating the backend with new inventory and content, and then there’s all your add-ons and dynamically generated content that works its magic on its own.
Updates need to be made to constantly stay on top of the newest security practices. Changes to design and checkout flow need to be optimal so they don’t deter anyone because they may look outdated. And the content on your site (your product descriptions or blog posts) needs to be fresh and optimized to improve your search rankings.
We here at 121eCommerce know what we’re talking about when it comes to building and maintaining eCommerce sites. As an eCommerce development agency, we live and breathe online sales. Let us explore what are some of the best ways you can grow your eCommerce website, keeping it fresh, increasing your traffic, and boosting your sales!
Build up your On-Site SEO
Once you’ve got your site up and running smoothly from a technical standpoint, you need to do some more work. It’s all about keywords. You need to figure out your niche and come up with lists of words and phrases that relate to your business, but also that people search for. You may be surprised by the kinds of things people Google to get to your page.
There are also plenty of third-party services like Ask the Public or Keyword In. And don’t forget to use things like Google trends or “people also search for” when you Google some of your top keywords. An eCommerce development agency or specialized marketing company can definitely help you with the strategy and legwork around implementing top SEO practices.
Use this research to compile lists of words you want to rank for on search engines and incorporate them in your content. No, it’s not necessary to start a blog about how great your products are (but it’s definitely something to consider if you have the bandwidth), but you already have product descriptions on your site. With these keywords, you can focus your product verbiage to include these long and short tail search terms to give your listings a boost!
Reclaim those Cart Abandoners!
You spend so much time and money advertising and improving your organic ranking that you want to make sure as many people who come to your site buy something. You’ve probably seen that there is a whole bunch of people who browse around, are clearly interested in your products since they put some in their carts, but then leave without checking out.
There are many reasons people abandon their carts—and you’ve probably done it many times yourself—sometimes they get interrupted in the middle of shopping or maybe they aren’t quite sure about their expendable income for that week. Whatever the reason, you as the seller want to get those people back in. Remarketing is the name of the game.
You’ve already gotten them on your site, so you know who these people are. Whether you set up an automated email that will get sent 48 hours after they left your site or you go for a dynamic display campaign—yes, those shoes that follow you around the internet after you search on Amazon—they are good ways of getting this really interested group to go “Oh yeah, I did want that thing” and come back to complete their purchase.
Remarketing takes a good amount of data—you need to gather the information on who the cart abandoners are, you need to track which channels bring back the highest number of purchasers, and you want to see what they end up buying. For all of this, a good business intelligence tool, like Magento BI, would really come in handy. These tools allow you to sync data from all your sources together, so you can see your website analytics alongside your social media measurements and backend sales metrics. Tools like this can save you and your team so much time and help you see what tactics have the highest potentials.
Follow-up Care
It’s always nice to get some feedback once you do something and for customers, it can show that you care about the purchase they made. Of course you and your staff aren’t going to have the time to individually email every shopper, but it’s 2020—we’re talking automation here! Set emails to autogenerate after an action is taken or a specified amount of time has passed.
Of course, you want to confirm the purchase made, since everyone wants to have a record of their order being received, but you can take this a step further. Check back with them after 5-10 days to see how they like their product. Here you can ask them to leave a review or offer a selection of other products related to what they bought.
This gives you the opportunity to connect with your customers and encourage them to be a regular shopper at your online store. You should definitely also test multiple versions of these emails to pinpoint the language, imagery, and subject titles that get you the highest read-through rate and conversion.
Keep Everything Responsive
As we’ve said before, you can’t just build a site and leave it. Tech is constantly changing, so your website is going to have to keep up. New devices come out on the market all the time, so you need to make sure your inventory and checkout work just as smoothly on a Google Home device as they do on an iPad.
Mobile is becoming more and more frequent as people browse on their commutes, but do also keep in mind the growing trend of voice search. SEO is going to be more important than ever as someone who orders over an Alexa is not going to be scrolling through, but will just buy the first result that comes up. This is especially true in the FMCG sector.
Stay fresh and up-to-date with all the newest tech and the customers will keep coming back. You and your team may not have the bandwidth to keep up with all this constantly, so hang on to your eCommerce development agency that built your site and they can maintain everything as updates are needed. This is especially important when it comes to cybersecurity and keeping the hackers away from your private customer data. No one wants a data breach!
Leverage the Power of Influencers
Love them or hate them, the world of influencers is a mighty one. Especially among the younger generations, if you get a minor Instagram celebrity to rep your products a few times, it can really add a lot of traffic to your site and boost your sales. Rather than targeting groups of people with other forms of marketing, by using affiliate programs and influencers, you can reach audiences that self-identify with the types of products you are trying to sell.
If you sell bicycle products, then find the top ten fitness and biking gurus on social media platforms. Their audience is exactly who you want coming to your site. Not to mention that having your links across social media platforms and blogs will do wonders for your SEO.
Offer Subscriptions
This one is really going to depend on your business, but oftentimes you will have some products that are frequently bought again and again. You might not be selling paper towels, but even something that is replaced once or twice a year can be made into a subscription. Offer a discount and automate the sale for whatever frequency works for you and your customers.
Selling socks? Why risk them going to Walmart and throwing in a multipack one day. If they have an active subscription for 3 pairs of socks every 6 months, they’re going to stick with you and your quality product long-term.
Summary
If you build it they may come, but will they keep coming back? Maybe, but to increase these chances you have to make sure you’re upgrading and updating. Keep growing and improving your website and traffic levels will follow. The digital sales environment is extremely competitive and you need every edge against your competition. Don’t let the shortcomings of your website or off-site marketing bring your sales down.
It’s critical to bring in as many people as you can to your site through traditional marketing, but also by using the growing pool of influencers and maintaining a high organic search ranking through good SEO practices.
Once you bring potential customers to your site, you need to make sure they have a good experience and that everything works properly on the site. Keep everything up-to-date and optimized.
If they leave, bring them back with remarketing techniques. These people are clearly interested enough to have browsed around and put things in their cart, so hone your language and tactics across multiple channels to bring them back.
And lastly, maintain a good relationship with people who have purchased. Keep them coming back with deals and follow-up care email, while encouraging subscriptions to maintain a steady flow of income.
Now get out there and make some great upgrades to keep growing and thriving!
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