In today’s digital age, not having an online store could translate to lost business for you. Online stores have been big in the last few years, especially during the pandemic. People prefer the convenience of being able to make purchases anytime anywhere. As of 2022, there were 268 million online shoppers in the United States and the number is expected to increase to 285 million by 2025.
However, just like its brick-and-mortar counterpart, customers would not find your online store if you will not promote it. E-commerce is a very competitive industry and you really need to stand out from the crowd to get noticed. Aside from that, you will be competing with the giants of the industry. With that in mind, we give you some tips on how to boost your online store so it can drive traffic.
Boosting Your Online Store
- Build and Update Your Email List
- Boost Your Social Media Presence
- Optimize For Search Engines
- Use omnichannel marketing
- Make Your Website Mobile-Friendly
- Include High-Quality Images
- Ensure Fast Loading Times
- Create Relevant Content
- Leverage Your Physical Store
- Be Consistent In Your Voice
How To Boost Your Online Store
Having an online store offers a wide range of benefits for your business. It will give your physical store the online boost that it needs. However, putting your store online is not enough. Potential customers need to be aware that you have an online store. If you are not sure how to go about promoting your online store, check out these tips and give your website the attention that it needs.
1. Build and Update Your Email List
Even with the rise of new marketing strategies, customers still prefer receiving an email from businesses. According to Hubspot, shoppers still want to receive brand communications via their email addresses. In the light of video and social media marketing, an effective email marketing strategy can generate a $36 return on investment for every dollar spent.
If you do not have an email list yet, it is high time to build one for your business. An email list is one of the ways you can open lines of communication to a prospective customer. You can send them an email about company updates or offer deals to them to keep them coming back to your online store. The average click rate for an email is 2.62%. This may seem like a small figure but you can use it to drive more sales and convert potential customers.
2. Boost Your Social Media Presence
In today’s digital age, who doesn’t have a Facebook or Twitter account? In its October 2023 Global overview, Datareportal revealed that 61.4% of the world’s population now use social media. In addition, the average daily time spent on social media is 2h 24m. If you are not on social media yet, you are losing out on potential customers.
Social media is an effective tool for creating buzz about your products or services. It also offers a channel for creating a more personal approach to your customers. However, it is worth noting that you should know which social media channel best fits your business. It all depends on which social media platform your customer is using.
3. Optimize For Search Engines
Search engine optimization is necessary if you want to have a good ranking on search engines like Google or Yahoo. Search engines use an algorithm to rank websites so it is important for your online store to be at par with this algorithm. Website elements such as the title, URL, meta tags, product descriptions, and others need to be optimized according to search engine standards. Non-compliance could translate to huge penalties or a decrease in your ranking.
An SEO-friendly website means your products or services can be easily found in organic search. Optimizing your online store for search engines will help ensure that your website remains on top of the rankings. It will allow customers to see your store more easily and build trust and credibility with your target audience.
4. Use Omnichannel Marketing
Nowadays, customers have their preferred channel for reaching out to businesses. The Harvard Business Review revealed that 73% of customers prefer shopping through multiple channels. A customer may be browsing products on your website but may purchase the item from your brick-and-mortar store, or vice-versa. This means that if you are not utilizing omnichannel marketing, you will not be able to attract the attention of the customers from the other channels.
Omnichannel marketing removes the friction that may stop customers from buying your products. The goal of omnichannel marketing is to ensure a seamless buying experience for the shopper. With over two-thirds of all purchases coming from a digital device, giving customers the option to shop from their preferred device is a must. You need to ensure the best customer experience from each touchpoint, whether it’s from your mobile app, website, or physical store.
5. Make Your Website Mobile-Friendly
As technology continues to evolve so does the capability of smartphones. Today, we see smartphone users shopping more from their mobile devices than on desktops. For this reason, your online store needs to be accessible from smartphones or tablets. Mobile shopping has been steadily increasing from just 56% in 2018, it is expected to increase to 62% by 2027.
Your online store will look differently on a mobile device. They have smaller screens compared to a desktop or laptop. With the latter, shoppers can view products on two-columns which is not the case on a mobile device. Ensure that your website has a responsive design when buyers search for products on their mobile devices.
6. Include High-Quality Images
Loading speed can heavily impact the overall user experience. Potential buyers do not have time to wait for your website to load on their desktop or mobile device. One of the things that can slow down the loading speed of your online store is the quality of your images. Unlike in a physical store where customers can touch and feel items, you can only provide them with pictures in an online store.
Using high-quality images invokes credibility and trust for your customers. Use professional photos instead of blurry and poorly lit photos. If necessary, hire a professional photographer to take product photos. If you want to do it yourself, invest in equipment or enroll in a basic photography class.
7. Ensure Fast Loading Times
Nothing can be more frustrating to a customer than waiting for an item on an online store to load. Keep in mind that most customers do not have the patience to wait for a product they plan to purchase to load on their screen. 82% of shoppers say that slow loading pages can affect their purchasing decision. Thus, ensuring fast loading time should be one of your priorities for your online store.
Just how important is loading time to your conversion rate? Statistics show that 1 in 4 visitors would abandon an online store if it takes more than 4 seconds to load. In addition, every second of delay in loading reduces user satisfaction by 16%. So pay attention to the loading speed of your website to guarantee the best customer experience.
8. Create Relevant Content
Adding relevant content to your online store is a great way to generate traffic. It does not only add value to your website but also helps position you as an authority in your industry. In addition, it can boost customer engagement. Nowadays, buyers want to find solutions themselves when trying to resolve their issues. Adding content like a knowledge base, user guides, or tutorials can help customers find the solution to their problems before reaching out to your customer service representatives.
Website content can also boost organic traffic coming from search engines and generate leads from social media or email campaigns. However, do not just post content. Make sure that your blog articles are relevant and will be valuable to your customers. Research shows that businesses with blogs are 13 times more likely to generate a positive ROI because 55% of users visit blogs.
9. Leverage Your Physical Store
We cannot deny the fact that some customers still like to touch or feel the products they plan to purchase. Seeing the item is different from being able to touch or feel it. 30.8% of buyers said they still want to see or feel products themselves. Aside from that, 29.9% of shoppers want their items right away. This is where having a physical store can come in handy. You can utilize your offline shop to boost your online store.
Customers are often having second thoughts about buying online because they have the fear that it might not meet their expectations resulting in a waste of money. Giving them the option to try or take home the product without any hassles alleviates that fear. You can create a separate landing page on your online store for customers requesting a free sample. Studies reveal that 35% of customers who tried a sample will purchase the product.
10. Be Consistent In Your Voice
Consistency in voice is important in boosting your online store. Whether you are making videos on Tiktok or creating infographics for Facebook or Instagram, you should maintain a consistent voice. Your brand voice will determine the methods and strategies you will utilize for your marketing efforts.
You need to identify your target market to be able to stay consistent in your voice. Adjust your strategies to suit your goals without losing your brand voice. Being consistent in your voice will help you stand out from the competition and increase brand recall.
Having an online store can help you achieve brand awareness and strengthen your online presence. But adding products is not enough. You need to do your work in increasing awareness of your online store.
Boost Your Online Store with airisX
Being successful in the Ecommerce space is more than just listing some products and hoping the sales arrive. airisX Ecommerce Solutions brings together a comprehensive suite of services to cover all aspects of operating and growing an ecommerce business. This allows our clients to achieve more with less resources to transform their business for the future.
Our solutions build you a dedicated custom team within our organization to provide you with the toolbox to grow, expand, and service your customers without the overhead and headaches of doing it yourself, all at a lower cost. Contact us today at contact@airisX.com for your customized ecommerce solutions.