How to Improve Your Ecommerce Sales
Marketing is one of those business activities that is never finished, it’s not a one-off task in any shape or form which is why I always encourage business owners to start small and grow with cash flow, that way you don’t burn your budget in the early days before you have figured out what works.
Sales growth is essential and without consistent visibility and a strong public profile, it’s virtually impossible to achieve this. Taking your foot off the marketing pedal won’t make you stand still, it will send you into reverse. The only way to get more sales is to work for them.
Every ecommerce business needs to understand that marketing isn’t a remedy for under-performance: it should be part of the routine. We’ve put together some ideas on how to improve sales if you’re running an ecommerce business.
How to Improve Sales with Site Optimisation
Websites are important in any marketing campaign but even more so for ecommerce. Your site needs to offer the very best possible customer experience. First and foremost, it needs to load quickly and cleanly. 47% of consumers get impatient if a site takes longer than 2 seconds to load and 40% will give up after 3 seconds . The easiest way to fix speed problems is to hire an expert but there are certain things you can do yourself, such as compressing the size of images.
Beyond the question of speed are other issues such as the use of pop-ups. Used sparingly, these can be a great way to encourage interaction and ultimately get more sales, but don’t bombard your visitors as soon as your site loads. Instead of immediately thrusting downloadable apps and pdfs in their faces or asking them to agree to fill in a survey when they’ve barely glimpsed your homepage, let them get their virtual bearings. Make them feel welcome, not overwhelmed.
Review Search Queries
Most customers will come to you via search engines so you need to make sure that your keywords and headings are tailored to the most popular searches. There are many online tools to help you with this, some of them free. One of their best features is to let you key in any URL and almost instantly see the keywords for which that page ranks. One of my biggest skill sets is SEO and my job is to figure out which phrases/keywords bring sales and get our clients ranking for those phrases.
Product Pages
These are primarily functional but you should make them as attractive and informative as possible. Use quality images to show an item from several angles or perhaps even videos. Make sure the content is not only accurate in its description but also encourages the consumer to relate and aspire to it. Sell gently but persuasively.
Cross-Selling
If your site is functioning well and visitors are browsing happily then they’re probably in a purchasing mood. One of the best examples of how to improve sales comes from sites which respond to an item going into the basket with suggestions headed ‘people also viewed’, ‘customers also bought’ or ‘items that go well with this’. The customer might need to be reminded of an essential accessory for their main purchase, or they might appreciate the bargain value of getting two items at a discount.
Optimise for Mobile
Our last tip for now on how to improve sales in ecommerce is to remember that more than 50% of all searches are carried out on mobile devices. Your site must look and function perfectly on a small screen, from loading to browsing to checkout. Mobile performance can be the difference between conversion and abandonment.