Are you running an ecommerce business and looking to grow it? Are there things holding back your business from growing? If you answered ‘yes’ to either of these questions, this guide can be a game-changer for your business growth.
We have discussed almost all the strategies that every E-commerce business must leverage to grow and expand, but most of the time, they are overlooked.
For your ecommerce business to be very successful, you need a good blueprint!
It’s clear that the e-commerce market is constantly growing. According to Statista, by 2026, it will grow from its current value of $6.3 trillion to $8.1 trillion. However, not everyone can earn in this sector. It is difficult to scale an e-commerce business while still making money.
Therefore, if you want to make your e-commerce store globally successful, here is a strategic plan that will help you achieve that.
On this page
Find out who your customers are:
For your e-commerce business to grow, you need to concentrate on the right people. Here is the reason why you must focus on building an ideal customer profile (ICP).
Just because anyone can see your products online doesn’t mean everyone is interested in buying. However, they are costing you money. For instance, you must pay for hosting or Shopify, and you might also be using other cloud services or tools that charge you money.
The more visitors visit your store, the more it costs you money; the more traffic, the more bandwidth and resources are utilized, and the more it costs you money.
If the conversion rate is too low let’s say below 1%, you are wasting your resources for no reason, and it’s because of a lack of Ideal Customer Profile (ICP).
But you can fix it.
Prioritize targeting your marketing at specific groups of people—your potential customers!
Begin by finding out who already has an interest in what you sell. You might look at existing clients or words used in searches.
Social media will also help identify the target market by seeing people who follow you or those who join related groups on products.
Let’s say you sell sportswear. In this case, the intended audience could be fitness and sports enthusiasts. With such information, make sure that all your ads reach them directly.
Try new ways to sell:
It is worth looking for other options, even if you already use the usual ways of selling. By adding new ways to sell as people’s preferences change, your business can earn more money.
Consider these three:
eBay:
eBay is not only about old stuff anymore. In the present day, eBay connects you to a large community of 185 million active buyers globally.
Because so many individuals use eBay today, including on mobile phones, it can help you reach customers who may not be available through traditional selling methods. This will raise the likelihood that unassuming customers will find and buy your products.
Google Merchant Center:
For e-commerce companies, using Google Merchant Center is a wise choice. It ensures that you stay competitive with larger brands and show up in online searches.
Google can help you find new customers and sell more online. Furthermore, it allows consumers to buy from numerous sellers without having to abandon different platforms while making purchases.
Amazon:
Selling on Amazon lets you reach a lot of customers, and it’s not too hard to get started. If you are just starting out, do not forget that the reputation of Amazon and its delivery system can work for you. Therefore, keep in mind that this is a good place to sell your stuff.
Make the most of your email list:
Even though some people think email isn’t popular anymore, it’s still a quick and powerful way to talk to customers, as long as your emails aren’t marked as spam.
Based on a recent survey conducted in the USA, most customers, for instance, 57% of Generation Z and 79% of millennials, prefer companies contacting them through email.
Sending emails to everyone on your contact list would not work. For your email strategy to be successful, you must send customers emails that are relevant to their areas of interest.
For example, if the store sells clothes for men and women, and a customer has only bought women’s clothes before, then sending them an email about men’s trousers will probably not make them purchase anything.
f you have not already divided your email list into different groups, try sending out a survey to your subscribers. By doing so, you can find out more about them, like what they are looking for in your store or how often they want to receive emails from you.
Using this information, you can create separate lists of emails based on the preferences of the customers.
Make your business easy to use on phones:
Since most people use their phones to browse the internet nowadays, it’s really important to make sure your website and online store work well on mobile devices. Luckily, there are tools to help with that.
A tip from a Successful Entrepreneur: “Make sure your website is designed to work well on different screen sizes. Check that links work, content shows up right, and it’s easy to scroll.” — Joy Organics.
If you use a popular e-commerce platform, your store is probably already set up for mobile.
But it’s a good idea to check a few things on your product pages:
- Are the pictures the right size?
- Can I read everything clearly?
- Is it easy to add things to my cart?
- Do all the links work?
- Are the social share buttons working?
Try using your website on your phone or tablet to make sure everything looks good and works right. As more people shop on their phones, it’s worth updating your store to make it easy for them.
Improve your website with SEO:
It might surprise you that 43% of the traffic to ecommerce stores comes from search engines, according to the Wolf Gang Study.
And you can also get a share of this traffic by either running ads or optimizing your ecommerce store for search engines such as Google, Bing, and others.
Rather than buying ads, it is better if your website comes up naturally on top of search results. This is called organic ranking, and it’s what you should aim for.
SEO is one of the most important pillars of digital marketing.
Here are some components of an SEO strategy that will help increase visibility for your online business and also drive more sales:
- Keyword selection: Identify keywords that relate to your products that are moderately easy to rank for. These terms have to be what people are looking for.
- Write unique descriptions: Ensure that your product descriptions are unique and contain a call–to–action. Use words that make your products look like they are the best on the market and don’t use the same descriptions as other sites.
- Get backlinks: Guest blogging is an excellent way to get links from other websites to yours. When high authority sites link to you, it increases the visibility of your website, bringing in more visitors. Here are some easy link-building strategies.
If you want to target this free traffic, you can either build your in-house team or outsource it to a well-reputed company that understands how to secure top positions, how to take care of your branding, and what to do to improve conversions.
One thing I can assure you of is that a freelancer can’t take care of everything because it’s teamwork. We have five different team members who take care of their parts, and that’s the only way we can manage everything, from building brands to attracting high-quality traffic.
You can contact us via email [email protected].
Make really good content:
Content marketing is a way to draw people to your website or online store without directly advertising to them. On the other hand, traditional marketing involves reaching out to people, as in emails and social media for instance.
That means you make useful content that answers people’s questions or solves their problems. In this manner, whenever people search for things on the internet, your website will appear in search results.
It’s a big job, but here are some important things to remember:
- Make content that teaches or informs your audience.
- It doesn’t matter if you start slowly but post new content more often.
- However, try as much as possible to make it better than what others are doing.
But don’t forget this: content marketing isn’t a quick way to grow your business. In addition to that, you need to build trust with clients, which does not just happen overnight, but being exposed over time will be fruitful in the end. So far so good, though, because in the future it will pay off.
Think about partnering with influencers:
Influencer marketing is all about collaborating with online personalities who are well-known to the public in order to promote goods and services. Given that a lot of their followers trust them, any post they make about a particular product can bring more people to your online shop.
These influencers concentrate on different products and have different numbers of followers. This will enable you to reach out to new audiences while getting more people interested in what you are selling.
Influencer marketing is often a “pay for performance” arrangement, which means payment only happens when the campaign succeeds. It’s therefore a good way to grow your online business because it doesn’t cost anything if it doesn’t work out.
Be really good at helping customers:
To make sure customers come back to buy from you again, it’s super important to give them the best service possible.
Remember, the sales process does not stop at the purchase. Since customers cannot touch or try your products before buying them online, it is up to you to ensure that their shopping experience is stress-free and simple.
You also need to give them assurance that if anything goes wrong with what they bought, you can offer assistance.
Another thing about online shopping is reviews. Numerous individuals look into what others say about a product before getting it.
According to Podium, nearly nine out of ten people read reviews before buying, and over half of them read at least four reviews. Plus, almost half of internet users write reviews themselves every month.
That’s why if you want good reviews from your customers, then great customer service must be offered by you.
If your customers leave bad reviews, it’s not just bad news for them to come back to shop again. It also keeps away other people from trying your products.
They’ll go somewhere else with better reviews and feel safer spending their money there.
Sell to international markets:
Currently, e-shops have a great chance to sell their products to people all over the world. Even small businesses can reach out to customers worldwide, not just big companies.
Expanding into international markets, such as USA, is a good way to do business but it takes time. People prefer shopping in their own language and getting delivery as fast as possible. But don’t worry; you are still able to trade in these markets.
Several online selling platforms provide tools for translating your product descriptions into various other languages. Alternatively, you could employ an experienced translator who would help ensure accuracy and suitability within the specific culture.
This makes it easy for your brand to connect with customers from other countries.
Apart from translating, your online store must accept different currencies. If your website allows only one currency, then others will not be able to buy from you, even if they wish to.