From Misguided Merchant To Ecommerce Excellence

If you run a store or sell products, you’re likely well-aware that ecommerce is starting to take over the industry. More people are moving to the online world to buy what they need. Even when they’re not, they’re using physical stores connected to the digital world through new-fangled techniques like the omnichannel. You, too, can make the jump to ecommerce, but you need to make sure you’re prepared.

Creating the best possible site

If you have an existing site, it’s not enough to just tack on an ecommerce section. You’re going to have to rethink it from the ground up. You’re going to think about web hosting for ecommerce sites, what people tend to expect from ecommerce navigation options, and providing new online support through the site. Spend as much time as you can researching and testing the site before you get it to launch.

Building your platform

Hopefully, social media marketing is already a big part of your strategy. If not, you’re going to have more of an uphill climb as you build up the user base you need. Creating an online community is a vital way of getting new offers and content out and spreading through word-of-mouth. It’s time to redouble your social media efforts. But you have to think about using other online marketing methods like influencer marketing, video marketing, and search engine optimization as well.

Reaching for that personal connection

If you’re used to dealing with customers in person then you might become quickly aware of the personal disconnect that might exist in ecommerce transactions. But there are still plenty of ways to build that all-important customer happiness. For instance, you could send out a thank you with each package, ranging from a simple, hand-written note to some candy for each customer.

Establishing trust

Warm feelings are all well and good, but they’re not going to make customers trust you. Instead, you have to work to build that trust yourself. For one, make sure your site is actually secure. Then look into acquiring trust seals for your site from independent bodies like Google Trusted Stores or Norton Secured. The more of these you can get, the better. If you don’t have them, then you’re at risk of suffering the effect of 61% of your customers failing to complete a purchase.

Understanding your customer

While being face-to-face can help you better understand your customer as a person, the online world is much better at helping you understand your customer as a customer. The data analytics you gather can help you understand not only what they’re buying. It shows you what time they’re most likely to be on the site, how they’re most likely to find it and so on. This can help you expand your range of products in a more insightful direction or change your social media schedule so you’re most active when most of your customer base also is.

If your products still have a lot of appeal and life left in them, but not enough customers, then taking the shop online could be the key to success you need. Just don’t do it lightly. Spend time working on the site, strategizing customer connection, and knowing the tools that are available to help your site work even better.