Selling online can be very lucrative, but only if you get it right. There are a number of things that you can do to improve your online store and boost sales, so here are some tips to keep in mind.
First of all, your website or mobile app should be user-friendly, whatever screen it is being viewed on. If your website is difficult to view, this will instantly turn people away. One of the most popular solutions to this problem is to design a responsive website, which will display correctly on any size screen.
Make sure your website also loads quickly, has simple navigation and looks attractive to ensure better user-friendliness and keep people browsing for longer.
Write better sales copy for all of the products that you sell. This may be something that you do yourself, or you may want to hire a professional. Not only will sales copy encourage customers to buy your products, but it is also good for SEO because original copy will help your pages to show up in search engines.
A good search function, clear categories and simple navigation should all work together to direct your visitors to exactly what they are looking for. If they cannot find the product they want, they will lose patience and leave your site.
Once they have found what they want, make it easy for them to purchase it. This could involve using a simple payment process and clear call-to-action buttons to avoid losing them just before they make the purchase.
At CSI Media, we always try to use e-commerce solutions that will boost conversions on our clients' websites. One of these comes in the form of cross-selling. When someone looks for an item on your store or purchases something from you, use this to recommend other items to them. You will often see recommended items in online stores, either before or after a sale has been made, and this is a good opportunity to cross-sell.
Give people more reason to shop in your store rather than at your competitor's. This could include providing them with coupons and special offers via social media and emails.
You could also use remarketing tactics to encourage people back to your website based on products they have already bought. That way they will see ads related to your products and perhaps containing a promotion even when they are not on your website.
Always test your website to see if you can make improvements that will lead to more conversions. For example, you could design two versions of your landing page and split test them over a period of time to find out which works the best, then use this to make improvements.
You can also test your PPC ads and landing pages to see which ads are most effective and then adapt your ad campaign accordingly. Essentially, test everything you can as often as you can to find the optimal way to optimise your website to increase conversions.
E-commerce is competitive, but it can also be lucrative. You need to get the basics right first if you want to enjoy more success with your store, so follow these tips to improve your own e-commerce website and focus on constantly increasing your sales.