E-commerce is currently one of the hottest business niches. At the moment there’s more than 1 billion online buyers around the world and this figure is continuously growing. Experts say that worldwide e-commerce revenues are going to grow to $3.4 trillion before 2019.
This huge growth doesn’t necessarily affect the dealings of e-commerce entrepreneurs. They still need to work hard and face many tough decisions if they want to develop their online store and turn it into a highly profitable enterprise. In this article, we’ve shared 5 very practical tips that will help you to improve your sales and grow your e-commerce business.
Categorize your Products
Online stores need to have a top-notch navigation. Its purpose is to help shoppers to find products and check out pages quickly and easily. Each e-commerce website should have a list of helpful category labels. They need to be meaningful and each label needs to target a specific consumer group. For example, online sports stores often categorize their products depending on the type of sport they can be used for. So they often have a basketball category, which encompasses different types of products that range from Spalding balls to Air Jordans.
Improve your Product Pages
The emergence of e-commerce marked the beginning of the retail revolution. The only thing this concept lacks at the moment is a personal interaction between buyers and salespeople. Since e-commerce businesses can’t benefit from advanced sales skills of their staff, they need to rely more on the creativity of copywriters, graphic designers and content creators.
Product pages need to offer plenty of useful information about the product and its use. They should also have detailed images and videos, as well 360 degree view, if possible. Customers should have a chance to rate and comment their favorite products and their references should be visible to all website visitors.
Introduce Live Chat
A live chat feature is the best replacement for the live interaction between shoppers and salespeople. Most e-commerce businesses use live chat as the form of customer support, but these apps can also become an essential part of company’s sales strategy.
Some online stores use live chat apps to greet new website visitors and to offer them help with choosing the product that suits their needs. Some companies even add a video chat to their list of features. This way, they are offering authentic shopping experience to their customers, who will feel the same thrill as if they’re wondering around fancy boutiques and having a knowledgeable salesperson at their service.
Improve Delivery Network
One of the greatest benefits of e-commerce business is its ability to overcome all geographic limitations. Consumers can visit online stores from other countries and continents. The only thing that determines the demographics of an online store’s visitors is the size of its delivery network. For this reason, big e-commerce companies are constantly trying to spread and improve their delivery networks. They can do it by signing deals with courier companies and using 3pl warehousing services.
Start Blogging
Same as all other websites, online stores also need to post interesting and useful content if they want to improve their search engine ranking. Most online stores have at least a few dozen product pages, but they should also add a niche-specific blog to this mix. This way, they will be able to target specific consumer groups with useful content and carefully chosen keywords.
At the moment, e-commerce is one of the most competitive business niches. Big retail business have entered the game and invested millions of dollars in their online stores. E-commerce will continue to grow at a very fast scale during the next 10 years and entrepreneurs who want to increase their sales and profitability should closely follow the latest online shopping trends.
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