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The world of e-commerce has expanded in leaps and bounds, since its humble beginning in 1994. When Jeff Bezos launched Amazon on July 1994 and Pierre Omidyar launched eBay in 1995, neither them nor the world could imagine the expansion that e-commerce websites would see, especially in the 21st century.
Today, every major and minor retailer across the globe is expanding their operations to include an e-commerce website. After all, 4 in 10 purchases are made using only an online channel and millennials now make 54% of purchases online. These numbers are also expected to increase drastically as the years go by and technology becomes more accessible. To stay ahead of the curve, most companies have already built a website with which, users can purchase their products.
But is it enough?
The sheer volume of e-commerce websites out there means that you need to have a highly-customised and effective website to make an impact. To help you make your website pop and sparkle, here’s four things you should look into about your e-commerce website.
Improve Customer Service
Discounts, free delivery & coupons are great ways to attract customers, but they don’t affect retention in the long term. Customer service is proven to be a deciding factor for long term customer retention with 86 percent customers reportedly willing to pay up to 25 percent more for better customer experience. Companies with good customer service will be rewarded with improved consumer lifetime value and transaction size.
Your ecommerce website needs to be designed in a way, wherein all the information they need should be clearly visible. Make sure that your contact information (email and telephone numbers) are visible on each page of your ecommerce website. This gives your customers the option to contact you if they have queries or issues they need to resolve.
When customers submit a ticket or call your service number, ensure that you’re well-prepared to manage issues promptly and solve them in a timely manner. Any delay in problem resolution will cause negative feedback, which can deter customers from using your services in the future.
Make Website Decisions for Search Engine Optimization
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) refers to the process of taking steps to drive more traffic to your website from known search engines. To make your e-commerce website more SEO friendly, ensure that your website is easily accessible, you have an active blog with content updated regularly, and you’re using accurate keyword and descriptions that attract customers and optimizes your webpage for search engines.
Use website traffic analysis tools such as Google Analytics, SEMrush etc., to identify reasons that makes visitors switch from your site to the website of your competitor. Based on what you find, make relevant changes, try A/B testing on different templates & features, and implement methods that proves to be successful in converting visitors to customers.
Create & Use Quality Product Images & Description
Use good quality images for all your listed products. After all, you want to give customers a great buying experience, which includes making their purchase experience as like buying at a physical store.
Additionally, focus on writing high-quality product descriptions. Product descriptions help customers understand the relevance of a product and how it’s a solution to their pain points.
Build Customer Loyalty Using Email Marketing
Email marketing is a great way to find new leads & convert them to customers. Use email blasts to communicate sales, discounts, offers and content to subscribers not present on your other marketing channels. Incorporate different types of emails to communicate a healthy variety of promotions, updates, news, industry content, etc. A strong email list is important for continued growth, because emails are the easiest channel to convert subscribers into customers.
Making checkout simpler, navigation simpler, including mobile compatibility and customer reviews, are the four ways with which you can take your e-commerce website from 9 to 99. These are quite simple to initiate on your website, but their impact will be deep-seated and will yield returns in customer retention and purchases.
