Creating an eCommerce site is an excellent way to make money online. It’s also easy to create one, especially with the help of drag-and-drop builders and user-friendly eCommerce platforms.
However, the growth journey of the website can be challenging. There are many tasks to do regularly, such as attracting traffic, increasing sales, and maintaining customer relationships. The competition is also steep. There were over 24 million eCommerce websites in 2020, and the number is expected to continue growing.
In this article, you’ll learn practical ways to grow your eCommerce site. We’ll also cover examples from existing brands to help you gain real-life insights.
1. Customize Your Website
With many eCommerce websites competing with your business, it’s crucial to stand out and gain recognition. In addition to using branding elements like logo and fonts, consider offering a unique feature in your website.
The optical brand Zenni implements this practice. It created a virtual try-on so visitors can try glasses online with 3D/180-degree views and see if a frame looks good on them. The tool also analyzes the users’ face shapes to recommend suitable glasses.
However, such features may take up space and bandwidth and increase your loading time. Thus, make sure your website uses a reliable and fast hosting service like Hostinger web hosting.
2. Add an Instagram Shop
An Instagram Shop is a digital storefront that helps users make purchases right from the platform. Alternatively, some businesses use this feature to direct followers to purchase on their websites.
In the Instagram Shop, you can display essential product information like price and description, and use a shopping tag in your Instagram posts and stories.
Follow these steps to set up an Instagram Shop:
- Make sure your business complies with the requirements.
- Convert your account into a Business or Creator account.
- Upload the product catalog from Facebook Business Catalog Manager.
- Submit your account for review.
The approval process may take from one to two weeks. Consider visiting Shopping in the settings tab to check your application status.
3. Make the Website Mobile-Ready
More than 70% of people have purchased something online using their smartphones. Therefore, having a mobile-ready eCommerce website is a must.
To make the website mobile-friendly, install a mobile-responsive theme or template. A tool like Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test is helpful to check whether the theme is mobile responsive by copying and pasting the demo site link to the tool.
Also, make sure to use proper sizes for fonts, images, and CTA buttons.
The CTA buttons have to be large enough to be tapped with a finger and have enough space between them, so people don’t accidentally click the wrong one. Make sure that the text is readable and the images don’t slow down the loading time on mobile devices.
4. Grow Your Email List
Email is known as one of the best marketing channels. It helps 64% of businesses reach their customers.
Here are some tips to increase email list subscribers:
- Make the registration as easy as possible.
- Show the sign-up forms in different places, like the homepage and blog posts.
- Create compelling lead magnets, like discount codes and eBooks.
- Display social proof, like positive reviews or the total number of email subscribers.
5. Personalize Customer Experience
Marketing personalization refers to the use of personal data to create targeted advertising. It was once limited to targeted offers but now extends to the whole customer experience, including:
- Updates on product availability
- Price
- Content personalization based on location
- Similar product recommendations
From the customer’s perspective, personalization helps allocate their money and time based on their preferences. For businesses, it helps increase sales since 80% of consumers are more likely to buy when brands provide personalized experiences.
Zalando is an eCommerce website with an excellent personalization strategy. It includes displaying a pop-up to returning visitors as a reminder of what they were browsing.
6. Showcase Your Popular Products
Popular products make the highest contribution to eCommerce sales. Therefore, consider displaying them to attract even more growth.
For example, ProFlowers compiles all of their best sellers on the homepage, including best-selling flowers, birthday bouquets, and plants.
Other places to showcase best-selling items include:
- Recommendation sections
- Push notifications
- Other communication platforms, like social media and newsletters
7. Focus on Content
Content is one of the most effective ways to grow your eCommerce website. It attracts organic traffic and generates quality leads.
Content marketing also helps brands build strong relationships with customers, as 70% of people prefer learning about a company through content rather than conventional ads.
Types of content a company can include in its website are:
- Articles
- Videos
- eBooks
- Infographics
- Podcast
One brand that has top-notch content marketing is Urban Beardsman. Its blog posts have thorough information about its niche – beard and hair growth – and include relevant images and videos. No wonder they represent 69% of the website traffic.
8. Implement Omnichannel Marketing
While multichannel marketing delivers the same message across platforms, omnichannel marketing connects various channels to create an integrated customer experience.
Let’s say a visitor goes through an eCommerce website without purchasing.
In omnichannel marketing, the brand will send an abandoned cart email. If it doesn’t work, the company gives a special offer via a Facebook ad and changes the strategy into displaying its social campaign.
For eCommerce businesses that also own a physical store, omnichannel encourages the company to invite the users to visit the physical store and try the product.
To implement this strategy, compile necessary data, like the users’ online behavior and contact information. Then, choose a marketing automation tool, such as Wigzo or Insider.
Conclusion
Building an eCommerce website requires commitment, but growing it is another challenge. With the intense competition and many sectors to tackle, it’s essential to have the right strategy.
The eight ways to grow your eCommerce website that we’ve discussed in this article are:
- Customizing the website
- Integrating an Instagram Shop
- Making sure the website is mobile-friendly
- Growing your email list
- Using marketing personalization
- Displaying best-selling items
- Creating high-quality content
- Applying an omnichannel marketing strategy
We hope this article provides some inspiration for creating your eCommerce growth strategies. The results may not happen overnight, but it’s worth giving it a try.
