Although the world has reopened after the initial pandemic lockdowns, customers are still drawn to e-commerce as a favored shopping destination. Aside from the ability to research products, examine features, and compare prices, e-commerce shopping saves customers time.
Take advantage of customer interest by making your storefront easier to use and explore so you can close more sales. Start plotting your plan of attack to bring in more revenue in Q1 and beyond with these four steps.
1. Recapture Lost Customers
This has probably happened to you. You start an internet search for something you’ve been meaning to buy, and then, bam! Life happens. Before you know it, you’ve abandoned your cart, and it’s left to linger in a long-forgotten browser tab.
Combat human behavior and increasingly brief attention spans by using retention marketing to get your customers to check out. By tracking customer engagement through data captured via first-party cookies, you can retarget across devices.
Now a mobile browsing session your customer initiated on their phone in between appointments can be reactivated once they’re back on their desktop. Use emails or SMS to remind your customer of their cart. These gentle reminders can help you close more sales and ensure your customer gets what they need without delay.
2. Modernize Your Payment Options
Safe online credit card transactions were the biggest shakeup to commercial exchanges in the last 30 years. Now that customers are comfortable with making payments online, their demands have shifted to the modern-day version of layaway.
This increasingly popular approach doesn’t involve waiting in line or even making a call. Buy now, pay later options are commonly offered by e-commerce boutiques, tech supply retailers, and more. Dollar amounts don’t seem to factor into the applicability of and desire for these flexible payment options.
Smart retailers should consider adding a BNPL choice for their customers’ consideration. Some consumers want to smooth their monthly expenses, cash-flow a larger purchase, or avoid credit card interest. For any of these reasons, they might eagerly embrace this payment method. Many BPNL options are already integrated with digital payment providers, so review yours to see how you can add this capability.
3. Use Content to Drive Traffic
You’ve got great products, so customers will surely find your e-commerce site with ease, right? Maybe. But maybe doesn’t cut it when it comes to e-commerce, especially as new competitors can pop up in an instant. Kick off your year with a content strategy that complements your other sales techniques to attract and retain new customers.
Forget what you think you knew about blogging and instead pivot to developing helpful and engaging content. Put yourself in the position of your target customers and consider what they may be searching for. A person working from home may be researching home office equipment that easily transitions to their kids’ homework station. In this scenario, you could develop a step-by-step guide to creating a multi-use home office.
Include helpful links to products along with organizational techniques and other value-adds that don’t ask for a sale. The more your content conveys a spirit of helpfulness, the greater trust and engagement you’ll earn, which can in turn drive sales. Use your owned content to expand your online presence, earning links to your target keywords on third-party sites. The more you do this, the greater your web authority will be, and the higher you’ll rank in organic search.
4. Rethink Your Social Media Strategy
Perhaps the most malleable tactic of all, social media is a challenging one to wrangle. The early days of social media focused on friends and peer-to-peer sharing. But as the top platforms have seen more business engagement, individuals have migrated to other platforms. If you’re still planning out blatantly promotional social media posts, it’s likely your customers have tuned out, if they’re there at all.
Take a hint from your content strategy to drive your upgraded social media approach. Focus on your audience and understand the differences between platforms and their power users. Your tone and delivery will likely be different for each, so develop a style guide to keep you in alignment.
Today, e-commerce retailers whose social media posts feel like those of a friend are what resonates most with customers. It may feel strange to not lead with your product lineup, but be willing to take some calculated risks. Share your founders’ story, provide a behind-the-scenes look at production, and give away the secrets to getting a great deal. Social media allows you to connect one-to-one at scale, so don’t miss the opportunity to create relationships that boost revenue.
The Future of E-Commerce Is Bright
E-commerce sales in the United States are marching toward the trillion-dollar mark, so improving your practices is a solid investment. As people seek efficiency in time and budget, digital shopping has become primary. With more e-commerce customers about, you have more opportunities to close sales. However, this also means that more will be expected of you.
Stay up on e-commerce trends and implement those that will enable you to stay ahead of the curve. Test new concepts with sample customer groups to determine what works and what to adjust before going all in. When you land on a practice that works, integrate it throughout your business. Before you know it, you’ll be hitting new revenue targets each quarter.
