2020 was an exciting year for eCommerce. In the past 3-6 months, we have seen growth that normally would have taken a decade to achieve. Since the world is on lockdown and people are scared to leave their homes, shopping online has become the new normal.
Nearly 150 million people started to shop online during this pandemic. What ecommerce growth strategies can brands employ in 2021 and beyond to make sure that they come out on top? Competition is fierce so we need to up our game in order to succeed.
Here’s a quick list of all the top eCommerce growth strategies that your business should utilize to grow.
Optimize your site
Do not waste time flipping from one site to another. Now is the time to consolidate both consumer and product data into one space. This will allow you to easily share information with third parties if necessary.
Take advantage of all your site has to offer and make it as responsive as possible. What causes customers to bounce from your site is when it is not user-friendly. Whether a consumer is visiting your site from their phone, computer, or tablet, the site needs to adapt accordingly and display content the right way.
Optimize your site so that it will automatically organize supply and sales regardless of where the transaction occurred. If you are operating both in a retail brick-and-mortar shop and online, you need to make sure you can track all purchases (consumer and company) efficiently.
Take care of user experience
Consumers expect online shopping to be fast and convenient. It goes without saying that the more seamless your user experience is, the more conversions you get. There are a few ways that you can accomplish this:
- Checkout Experience needs to be very quick and pleasant. Automate promotions and deals so the consumer does not need to search hard for them. Used predetermined shipping totals based on what the consumer chooses.
- Augmented Reality gives customers a ‘real-feel’ which can add another positive dynamic to the online experience. This is especially comforting for those new to shopping online.
- Livestream Shopping Events allow customers to chat with sales reps and stylists in real-time and easily select an item for purchase. This way, consumers have the ‘shopping experience’ without waiting in a checkout line.
Expand to new marketplaces
Ecommerce companies need to expand to new online marketplaces to get access to new online audiences and get more sales. There are a number of online marketplaces to take advantage of. Whether the marketplace offers virtual inventory, physical products, services, or niche options, they are all great places to get your products out there.
There is a challenge to relying on one marketplace too heavily even if it is a large platform. If anything goes wrong in the service center, you might see sales numbers drop like hot potatoes. In order to sell through marketplaces successfully, you need to diversify the marketplaces your brand appears on. Look past the large corporations like Amazon and find niche or service marketplaces to expand to and spread out the risk factor.
Use marketing automation
With the new trends of buying online, employees can be busy for days just following a handful of customers, running flash sales, marking promotions, and so much more. Time is something everyone needs more of and marketing automation is one way to get it. Anything and everything you can possibly automate, you need to automate. If a machine can do it, then keep your employees for more important tasks.
Grow your referrals
For any company that has an online presence, it just makes sense to set up a customer referral system. Not only will it grow your referrals at a low cost, but it will also keep the rewards exciting for your existing customers. Word of mouth is still the best way to spread news so referrals go hand-in-hand with your social media strategy. When a customer shares on social media that they purchased from your store, all of their contacts see it and it increases trust in your brand overall. It is really a fantastic way to increase traffic and lead to potential sales.
Recap
We discussed how the economy is going in a very different direction than in previous years. The trends have completely changed for 2021 and onward. Many, if not most consumers have made shopping online the new regular for them. There are multiple ways to take advantage of this enormous change.
First and foremost is to update sites to make them as user-friendly and simple as possible notwithstanding what device they are being viewed on. Make sure to diversify what marketplaces you are selling on in order to increase visibility and sales. Do not rely too heavily on one marketplace no matter how big it is.
Lastly, hold on tight to your existing customers and use them to grow your referrals through a simple refer-a-friend program. With all these tips, you will hopefully be the one on top!
