eCommerce businesses have the potential to grow fast but scaling is not easy. You not only have to drive traffic to your site but also turn visitors into leads or, even better, buying customers.
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Unfortunately, there is no secret formula for scaling your online business overnight. However, there are some smart strategies you can employ in order to increase engagement and sales.
In this post, we’re offering 8 smart strategies that any eCommerce business can use to help them grow.
1. Use Executive Coaching Services
With the increasing globalization, many business owners and team leads are using executive coaching services to support the development of leadership skills, including managing employee teams and navigating conflict effectively.
Leaders who embrace coaching increase not only their self-awareness but also their responsibility to the company. Some of the benefits of executive coaching include:
- Enhancing performance and productivity
- Retaining highly-skilled employees who need extra support to reach the next level
- Supporting executives who’ve been recently promoted or hired and have to make an immediate impact
- Investing in managers who are valuable to the organization
- Attracting highly-skilled talent
2. Provide Outstanding Customer Service
Many eCommerce stores focus on making sales, believing that it’s the best growth strategy. But although sales are definitely important, they should not be considered more valuable than great customer service.
When shoppers have a poor experience with your company, they will leave and go to your competitors. What’s more, they might tell other people about their poor experience with your online store. Providing outstanding customer service, on the other hand, can promote loyalty to your eCommerce brand.
Try to offer multiple customer support options, including phone, email, and live chat. Live chat is especially important when it comes to delivering an excellent customer experience. According to live chat stats, more than 80% of customers were satisfied with their live chat experience, compared to just 60% of email users and an under 45% of phone users. Fast responses mean satisfied customers and a reduced burden on your customer support team.
3. Personalize Everything
According to Forrester, more than 75% of consumers have chosen, recommended, or paid more for a brand that provides a personalized service or experience. In addition, about 80% of customers are more likely to buy from eCommerce sites that provide personalized experiences?
eCommerce businesses should focus on offering personalized experiences for their customers. This personalized experience should be implemented throughout the entire customer journey and include social media activity, on-site browsing, email, and paid advertisements.
4. Use Long-Form Content
Many marketers and online store owners ignore the power of content marketing. But in reality, content marketing is among one of the biggest opportunities for eCommerce businesses. In fact, every other traffic-driving activity you do will work even better if you have a solid content marketing strategy.
Studies have found that highly visual guides, raging between 3,000 and 8,000 words are one of the highest performing types of content when it comes to increasing search traffic, social engagement, email subscribers, and revenue.
When created around specific product categories, content marketing for eCommerce provides an excellent opportunity to drive quality traffic for a one-time investment in creating the content.
5. Leverage the Power of Social Media
Social media has proven to be a powerful tool for eCommerce businesses. A study by the ODM Group found that nearly 75% of consumers rely on social networks to help with their purchasing decisions and more than 70% of consumers would make purchases based on social media referrals.
With social media channels like Facebook and Instagram, you can boosts posts about products or promote product deals. Nearly 40% of customers said that they would follow a brand’s page on Facebook to find out more about promotions and deals. So, while it might seem like a lot of work to build a strong social media presence for your eCommerce business, it’s worth the effort as it will make a big difference in your success.
6. Grow Your Email List
eCommerce businesses shouldn’t ignore email marketing and here’s why:
- The number of active email users is expected to reach 4.3 billion by 2023.
- Almost 9 out of every 10 marketers use email marketing to distribute content organically.
- The average expected ROI from email marketing is $42 for every $1 you spend.
- Customers buying products through email spend nearly 140% more than customers who don’t receive email offers.
Make sure there is a place on your eCommerce site for your customers to subscribe to receive emails. The more you can grow your email list the more customers you’ll be able to build a relationship with and, as a result, increase your conversion rates.
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7. Work with Influencers
Social approval definitely matters! And getting the approval of influencers is one of the best ways to build brand awareness and boost profits.
Influencers can be social media personalities or renowned industry figures who can promote your products. Influencer marketing is considered to be one of the most profitable types of marketing, returning an average of $18 for every dollar spent. Regardless of the industry, this type of marketing is very popular among marketers, but the eCommerce brands seem to have got the best out of influencers.
So, whether you bring influencers in as brand ambassadors or product reviewers, this can do a lot to help your business grow. You could also use your own customers to promote your products. This way, your customers become a sort of micro-influencers and advertise your eCommerce brand.
8. Focus on Your Existing Customers
It’s natural to want to reach as many people as possible and expand your customer base. However, this means putting lots of effort into acquiring new customers and, as a result, not doing enough to retain the customers that you already have.
Acquiring new customers costs five times as much as retaining existing ones and only a 5% boost in customer retention can increase profits by 25% to 95%. The fact is repeat customers spend much more money with your business than new ones; to be more precise, repeat customers spend 3 more per transaction than other customers.
Final Thoughts
To make sure that your eCommerce business is always growing, it is important to understand what your customers want, improve the overall experience, and processes in which you do things.
Creating a strong eCommerce growth strategy can seem daunting but if you invest the time in doing it, you will certainly see results.