Growing a successful eCommerce business isn’t an easy task. Ecommerce doesn’t mean putting a product online and wait for customers to come and buy them. Today, the competition in the eCommerce scene is harder than ever.

With giants like Amazon, Walmart, Alibaba, Flipkart, Target, etc., businesses that don’t work for their customers have to experience high failure rates. But if you get to do most of the things in your business in the right way, you get an edge over the competition and win the eCommerce gain.

Here are the key factors that you must take into consideration to take your online store to the new success level.

1.Customer Service

80% of customers stop shopping with an online store if they had a bad customer experience. A satisfied customer is the best business strategy. It is the customer experience that makes Amazon the  #1 eCommerce website. So, what you need to incorporate in your business to become great in customer service?

Here are a few practices to improve your customer service.

• Learn about your customers through social networks, browsing behavior, feedback, queries, etc.
• Leverage social media to know about customers’ interests and make them offers accordingly.
• Make your product catalog informative by adding a maximum number of photographs and even videos.
• Build a seamless user interface by adding AI, machine learning tools to your site
• Keep your shipping, returns, and refund terms easy and simple
• Create a knowledge base such as FAQs or Help and add live chat support, email and phone support.
• Collect product feedback from customers and post them on your site to pave way for more shoppers.

2.eCommerce SEO

44% of people start their online shopping journey with a Google search. According to a study by SEMRush, 37.5% of all traffic to eCommerce sites comes from search engines. Ecommerce stores need to optimize their websites to get targeted traffic and increase conversion rates.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) provides the best ROI among all forms of marketing methods, but still many online stores pay little consideration to SEO. If you don’t want to miss out the traffic opportunity and chances of increasing sales, follow this eCommerce SEO strategy:

• Do keyword research to find the types of keywords customers are searching.
• Perform a site audit and analyze site architecture based on your keyword research.
• Conduct on-page SEO using strategic keyword optimization.
• Perform technical SEO to better crawlability of your store by search engines.
• Do local SEO marketing to attract and engage local organic traffic
• Work on your content marketing strategy to drive organic visitors.
• Do link building in a way that increases your site’s authority and credibility.
• Measure and monitor the results of each activity through Google Analytics and Webmaster

3.User Experience

88% of online shoppers say they wouldn’t return to an eCommerce website after having a bad user experience. And, 70% of online stores have failed because of bad usability. This shows eCommerce customers today are pickier and more hard-to-please than ever before.

That’s why it is critical for your online store to have an intuitive, effective and easy-to-use interface. Here are a few affordable approaches to improve your UX right now:

• Good eCommerce UX is based on personalized suggestions based on the past behavior of your customers.
• An easy checkout process tends to lower shopping cart abandonment rate. Save information of customers who logged in, keep checkout page clean, let customers login with an existing account, simplify the data validation process, and make it easy for the shopper to switch between the cart and products page.
• Enable a shopping experience through multiple channels like desktop, mobile, iPad, etc.
• Focus on functionalities rather than aesthetics.

4.Multi-Payment Gateways

As an online seller, you must take advantage of multi-channel payment gateways to increase your sales. By integrating several payment methods to your store, you can attract more customers and retain the existing ones. People use credit cards, debit cards, and various online payment services for making transactions on eCommerce stores.

The motto behind integrating different payment gateways on your site should be to make payment-processing effective, secure, and hassle-free for your customers. Fuel4Media assists online stores and marketplaces owners in implementing a multi-channel payment system to fit their needs and budget. Here is the list of best 20 payment gateways in 2020:

	SagePay	SecurionPay	AmazonPay	Citrus
Briantree	Adyen	World Pay	Zoho Checkout	WePay
Stripe	PayU	Payza	Instamojo	eWay
Paypal	Skrill	Paytm	Cashfree	Mpay

 

5.Website Security

eCommerce websites are a major target for hackers and fraudsters. This is because hackers can get access to customer information from online stores in the form of email IDs, personal information, financial and information including credit card details.

Based on the conversations with our eCommerce website security specialists, we have listed some security essentials for entrepreneurs and businessmen running an eCommerce sire.

• Make your site PCI-DSS compliant and use an SSL certificate
• Take daily backups of all data on your site
• There should be multiple database version backups
• Use HTTPS and hardware firewalls
• Use real-time bot detection technology
• Select a secure eCommerce platform like Magento, Shopify, and WooCommerce.
• Insist on customers using strong passwords and train employees on cyber security.

6.Content Management System (CMS)

A content management system is a software system that helps to publish, edit, and manage content on your eCommerce site. The main source of content that will feed the content management system are the products for sale and their description and images as well as blogs if you wish to integrate one.

An eCommerce CMS should also be able to save and manage product identifiers (SKU), sale price data, purchase price data, supplier data, stock data, and product attribute data.

Look for the following features in a CMS if you are starting an online business or looking to change your existing software:

• It should have an easy-to-use content editor
• It should have design flexibility and mobile support
• It must provide analytics and social media integration
• It must allow third-party integrations and plugins
• It should have built-in SEO features
• It should have exemplary support, high-security and easy administration

Top eCommerce CMS systems are Magento, WooCommerce, Shopify, PrestaShop, OpenCart, Virtuemart, Squarespace, and BigCommerce.

7.Multi-Channel Marketing Tools

Customers are everywhere and you need to reach out to them across all channels. The integration of different eCommerce marketing tactics is crucial for success. These marketing tools can help you take your eCommerce store with better upselling/cross-selling opportunities.

• Google Ads & Google Analytics
• Social media tools
• PushOwl
• HubSpot
• ReferralCandy
• LoyaltyLion
• Sumo
• OrderlyEmails
• Happy Email
• Personalized Recommendations
• Fomo
• Mobile Converter
• SMSBump
• Shopping Feed
• PressKitHero
• Sixads, Klaviyo, PageFly, Zoho, Plugin SEO etc.

8.Social Media Marketing

77% of companies report they acquired customers through Facebook, and shoppers referred by Pinterest are 10% more likely to make a purchase than referrals from other social networks.

Social media is a powerful tool for eCommerce websites as it can attract buyers toward a new product or an attractive deal and also engage existing customers to convert them into brand ambassadors. Here is a social media strategy that is sure to get you sales and returns:

• Invest in Facebook Ads. For example, PupSocks spent $1 million in 30 days to gain $4 million in sales.
• Start using shoppable posts on Instagram.
• Utilize IGTV of Instagram to showcase and sell products.
• Add shop the look to your posts.
• Test collection ads on Snapchat.
• Create a video strategy for YouTube.

9.Product Reviews

Product reviews are important for your online store’s branding and marketing. Reviews help to build trust among shoppers, ultimately increasing your sales. 63% of consumers are purchase from a site if it has product ratings and reviews.

More than 70% of customers consult reviews before making a final purchase. Now that you’ve understood the importance of reviews, let’s look at how to start generating them:

• Make review posting on your product page easy for shoppers.
• Send out friendly emails to buyers asking for a review.
• Give your reviewers coupons, discounts, and gifts.

10.Acquisition, Conversion & Retention

With a growing number of eCommerce stores, acquiring new customers is quite difficult. Delve into key practices such as search engine marketing, SEO, affiliate marketing, and paid search marketing for the acquisition of new customers. The more efficiently you can drive conversions, the more you can make money through your product sales.

A good conversion optimization strategy must include these 4 principles – Incentives, Engagement, Personalization and Trust. The best way to grow your business is not to lose customers. If you can retain just 5% of your customers annually, you can generate up to 125% more profit.

So how to retain your loyal customers? Nurture them with Facebook Ads, do remarketing ads, start loyalty & brand ambassador programs, cross-sell related products, and provide novelty products.

Conclusion

The competition in the eCommerce market is fierce today. Taking an eCommerce website at the top of the success pyramid can be a daunting task. To grow your business in a scalable and profitable way, you need to follow the above-mentioned tips.

If you need a reliable eCommerce development and marketing company that can help you grow your business online, then contact Fuel4Media Technologies. Here at Fuel4Media, we have a proven track record in helping eCommerce companies grow their sales every month with our unique strategies and the key success factors discussed above.

Give us a call at +91-981029-2408 to chat with an experienced strategist!