9 Tips to Make Your Ecommerce Business Wildly Successful
Ecommerce is like the new oxygen for any individual or enterprise that wishes to survive in the 21st century business scene. The internet has totally revolutionized how we live, and more and more people are carrying out most of their activities online like working, shopping, communicating, and studying and so on.
If you feel ready to take on this amazing cash cow, it’s crucial that you arm yourself with important factors affecting e-commerce business success so that you can know the dos and don’ts in this line of operations.
Below we look at the main e-commerce success factors.
Don’t rush the launch.
Just like the popular saying goes, haste has no blessing. If you plan to launch a sustainable business that will withstand the test of time, you need to take your sweet time conducting proper market research.
Many times it’s easy to get drawn into a trending idea only for you to hit a dead end after some short-lived success. You can therefore go ahead, get a domain name for your store, and start teasing your prospective customers with “coming soon” messages.
But don’t hit that launch button before you have sorted out important factors like SEO, content marketing, suppliers, shipping and so on.
Put the focus on the user
Hot on the list of e-commerce success factors is understanding that your customer is the king. You could hire the best web developers in the globe and even partner with the best platforms, suppliers and shippers but if you forget about the user, then your business is doomed. Your goal should be to offer the ultimate user experience.
Ensure aspects like smooth navigation, fast loading speeds, ample product information, easy checkout process, round the clock customer support, money back guarantee and so on.
Cyber Security
As amazing as the internet is, it’s also full of malicious cyber criminals who are always trying to dupe the unsuspecting user so as to steal their sensitive data or hard earned cash. Especially when it comes to an e-commerce store, there are so many cases of abandoned carts where a prospective buyer was just about to make the purchase but then they felt uncomfortable at the checkout phase.
To avoid this scenario, you have to invest in a proper cyber security mechanism that will assure clients of their safety. The best way is getting an SSL certificate and above all, a cheap EV SSL certificate will be an ideal choice for your ecommerce platform. It will activate a green padlock and HTTPS on the browser. When you click on a padlock, it will show your company details to assure clients that they are on the right platform. Moreover, to comply with the PCI-DSS card industry regulations, an SSL certificate is mandatory
Test absolutely everything
You will never know what works until you test the waters with different approaches and strategies. Luckily in the e-commerce space, there is a wide array of tools that you can employ to see the products that work best as well as factors like the best mode of advertising, demographics and so on.
Use your store analytics to study customer behavior and what appeals to them most. You can also identify the most engaging content and SEO strategy.
Work closely with social
Social media is like the breath of life for any e-commerce business. With your business operating online, the best place to interact with your prospective customers is on the leading social media platforms where you can get to study their tastes and preferences and also give them that sense of belonging to your company.
Depending on what you sell on your store and the age groups of your main customers, you should be able to identify the best platforms to join.
Incorporate social elements
It’s very important that you incorporate social elements on your e-commerce store if you want to succeed. You can for instance have a spot for customer testimonials and reviews as well as a forum or a blog where customers can chat with one another and staff members so as to feel like a family.
You can also have social login options and follow buttons for customers to find you on social media.
Go mobile
Everything has gone mobile these days. Ever since mobile overtook desktop as the preferred mode of search, this trend has never gone back and actually continues getting deeper and deeper.
Chances are that most of your store customers will be operating from smartphones. Ensure that your site design is therefore compatible with all devices and you can even go that extra mile and create a mobile app.
Stay on top of SEO
New e-commerce stores are opening up every day and this trend can only deepen as the world shifts more and more online. You can therefore not afford to be lazy in your SEO efforts because someone hungrier and younger will kick you to the curb easily.
The cutthroat competition in the e-commerce industry favors the person with the smartest SEO techniques to place them on top of search results where it is easier to record more conversions.
Collect information
Information is power. If you have that entrepreneurial blood in you, chances are that you won’t just stop at that one store and you will keep testing new waters. It’s therefore very important to create a database where you collect customer information like their email addresses and even minor details like their birthdays.
A simple gesture like sending a customer a birthday email with a limited time coupon code can go a long way in sealing customer loyalty.
Parting Shot
The above nine factors affecting e-commerce business success can help your store to become wildly successful if implemented properly. It’s also important to note that entrepreneurship is a highly dynamic journey that keeps evolving. You should therefore stay on top of new trends to ensure that your business doesn’t become extinct.
Cyber security is an important so you should not forget to arm yourself with proper security measures.
