This post was contributed by Jillian Hufford, Marketing Analyst for nChannel
Growing your Magento store isn’t always easy. While you have access to all the tools you need, it takes more than just great software to build a thriving online business. You have to be thoughtful about how you use those tools to improve your shopping experience, turning more visitors into buyers and then loyal customers.
Whether you’ve been selling online for 6 months or 10 years, there are always ways to improve your shopping experience. Here’s our 5 tips to grow your store on Magento.
1. Speed Up Your Site
Your customers don’t want to sit and wait for your pages to load when trying to buy from you— especially on mobile where the average time to load is 15 seconds.
Nearly 70% of consumers admit that page speed impacts their willingness to buy from an online retailer. — Unbounce Page Speed Report
On one hand, Magento is known for being a highly-customizable platform that can handle complex web design. However, this can lead to some Magento developers not following best practices when writing code, installing plug-ins, or integrating systems, which can be the main culprits behind slow load times.
The good news? Page load times are completely fixable. You just need to work with an expert like 121eCommerce to make sure your Magento installation and its pages are optimized for speed.
2. Add Financing Solutions at Checkout
While consumers want to buy high-quality products with brands they can stand behind, the price of luxury/lifestyle products is often out of reach. To alleviate this problem, there’s new tech that splits high-cost online purchases into smaller payments for consumers to pay off later.
Paying in installments gives consumers the ability to budget for the products they want. As the merchant, these financing solutions can increase your conversion rates. Customers won’t have to abandon their purchase because they can’t afford the product right then and there.
Check out popular financing solutions like:
Another advantage of these providers is that each operates as a shopping marketplace. So, you’ll be one of the brands included on their platform, giving you exposure to new customers too!
3. Be There to Answer Any Questions
As a seller, your goal is to remove any friction in the shopping experience. You can do that by anticipating customer questions about your products and services and providing timely answers. Online shopping will always be at a disadvantage because customers can’t touch and feel items or ask a store rep for help.
However, you can replicate these types of experiences online by providing information through:
- FAQ Sections— Make a list of the most-asked questions and be sure it’s easy to find.
- Product listings — Detailed information about fit, size, materials, etc should be easy-to-access, consistent, and complete.
- Chatbots — Chatbots can integrate communication throughout your whole website. You can set up a chatbot to answer common questions or hand-off the customer to a live rep when needed.
- Reviews— Encourage both text and image reviews so customers can a better idea of what your products or services or like
- Contact info — Is your contact information on every page? Always give customers an easy way to reach out.
Stop losing sales because customers have an easy question you could have answered on-the-spot.
4. Offer Competitive Shipping Rates
Most sellers know that high shipping rates can hurt sales as today’s customers are conditioned to expect fast and free shipping on just about anything.
The problem is managing shipping costs can be one of the most expensive and time-consuming parts of your business. If you’re not careful, your costs can quickly eat into your profits.
While you may not be a logistics expert, there are simple and effective ways to offer competitive shipping rates so you can win more sales. Consider the following:
- Use shipping software — Software like ShipStation can get you lower rates with carriers, print your labels, and track your packages.
- Outsource to a 3PL — Hand your fulfillment processes over to a third-party logistics (3PL) partner. It can save you money and time while giving you peace of mind that your packages will be delivered on time.
- Invest in a backend system like an ERP — With an ERP, you can track sales, manage inventory, and fulfill orders from a single place, which can speed up your processes and eliminate costly mistakes.
Not only can offering competitive shipping rates lead to higher conversion rates, but a positive delivery experience can also lead to better reviews and repeat purchases.
5. Automate Your Processes
If you already have a few systems in place alongside Magento like an ERP, shipping software, and/or 3PL, you can look to system integrators like nChannel to connect those systems and automate your everyday workflows.
Consider what you can automate during the order lifecycle from the point of checkout to delivery. The goal is to reduce the number of people and steps it takes to handle an order. The more hands involved, the more likely there will be delays or mistakes like shipping to the wrong address as data moves from one destination to the next.
Automation eliminates manual data entry and speeds up your processes. For example, automation can be key to instituting same-day shipping, displaying real-time inventory on your website, or effectively running flash sales.
(If you already have integration in place that you’re not happy with, read more about what can go wrong with Magento integration and how to fix it.)
Learning from Others
While these tips can get you started, always be on the lookout for inspiration from your own personal shopping experiences and even competitors. What did a brand do that made you want to buy from them again?
Your growth comes down to bringing in new customers AND ensuring they make repeat purchases.
About the Author:
Jillian Hufford has spent years educating merchants on digital commerce and marketing growth strategies and best practices. She is a frequent author and thought contributor on DTC and B2B commerce, SaaS software, system integration, and B2B content marketing. She also contributes regularly to CMSWire. Connect with Jillian on LinkedIn: @JillianHufford
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