The digital age has made it easier than ever to start an ecommerce business. Whether you've built your own web store, have an enterprise solution or are selling on sites like Amazon or eBay, you have to be able to compete at a high level in order for your business to thrive. In this blog post, I share 5 ways that will help you increase your performance based on my experience helping to run multi-million dollar ecommerce stores!

1. Create a 'reason to shop' at your ecommerce store.

When your customers are online, you have to expect that they are visiting an endless number of ecommerce sites, at the same time. Often they have multiple tabs open as they compare products, services, prices, offers, features, expertise, availability or value. Each website they visit, helps them to narrow down further the product or service they want to purchase.

So you need to ask yourself: What is so good about my web store that will convert a visitor into a customer? How will I make the sale versus the next tab that's open?

Make sure that when visitors land on your site, they can easily find something that appeals to them. You don't always need to be the best online, but you need to be offering a reason for your prospective customers to buy something from you. Do you sell anything unique or exclusive? Are you a local business? Do you have great prices? Do you have a unique range? Do you deliver quickly? Do you have a great loyalty program? Do you have a great returns policy? Do you have great customer service? Do you have relevant or educational content? Do you have a great online shopping experience?

Focussing on these points will help you to stand out from the crowd and give users a reason to choose your ecommerce site.

2. Implement a conversion funnel and optimise for better performance.

Do you know where your best customers are coming from? From which channel? From which campaign? Are you able to track a prospect from the top of the funnel to the middle to the bottom and then onto conversion? With today's software and platforms, it's becoming easier to do.

Use the conversion funnel in Google Analytics to track ecommerce performance and improve retention rates on your site. You can use different funnels for each user segment eg: new users or returning visitors etc., so that you know where most conversions are coming from, which then means you can focus your efforts, campaigns and media spend on the funnels that are delivering you better results.

Make use of heat mapping software, like Hotjar, on every page to help identify where most people click or tap; and then optimise your onsite experience and design for better ecommerce performance.

Don't forget to connect your Facebook with your web store using the Facebook pixel to track your campaign performance. This will help you track and identify your engaged ecommerce customers who have clicked through to your website from your Facebook campaigns. If they don't purchased straightaway, you can advertise to them again them with a retargeting campaign.

3. Grow your contacts database and offer them incentives to purchase.

A healthy contacts database is vital to ecommerce success as it provides you with a list of potential customers who are already familiar with your brand or have expressed interest in hearing more from your brand. Offering incentives such as discounts, vouchers and free gifts can encourage ecommerce customers to return and purchase from the site again or for the first time. Focus on frequency of purchase, how much your customers purchase each time, or any customers who haven't purchased in a while.

Email marketing is one of the best ecommerce strategies to grow and nurture your contacts database. It's much cheaper than social advertising or Google Ads and can deliver great results if you know what subject lines, content and offers will grab their attention. If you're starting off, you can try MailChimp or the native email marketing software on your ecommerce platform. Or if you want a powerful tool, I would recommend you consider Klaviyo.

To grow your contacts database:

• Make sure you have sign-up forms at multiple points across your website;
• Offer additional incentives if visitors sign-up to your database;
• Run a lead generation campaign through social media and capture their details natively through the platforms; and
• Introduce a referral incentive to your existing customers for any new customers they bring to your website.

4. Use your Customer Service team to improve customer satisfaction and to sell more.

One of the most valuable assets in your ebusiness should be your customer service team. They are on the frontline and can have a big impact in converting happy customers into raving fans for life.

This doesn't just mean answering e-mails or calls, but rather turning disgruntled emailers into satisfied customers with tailored solutions to their queries.

To unlock their potential, make sure that your customer service team has access to as much information as possible so they can give the best possible service and experience to your customers. This means giving them access to:

• Social media channels, so they can reply to customers posts and comments more quickly or take them into another communication channel to resolve their problems;
• Your ecommerce platform, so they can see the customer's order history, customer lifetime value (CLV) and communication history, allowing them to resolve the orders or issues right away in the platform;
• Promotional offers, discounts, specials or decision making remit, so they have the ability to resolve a customer issue or upsell a customer based on their particular needs at the time.
• Training and product information, so they can speak about your products or services with expertise.

Consider a unified customer service platform like Gorgias, which is built for ecommerce and will bring all the above together into one screen for your team. If you do this then you will find that your ecommerce store performance and customer satisfaction scores, retention rates, as well as sales improve.

5. Make sure you are on the right ecommerce platform to help you grow.

Choosing the right ecommerce platform is critical to your ability to perform. Sometimes an enterprise solution is not better. Sometimes cheaper is not better. Being able to deploy things faster is definitely better. However, it does depend on your business requirements, your internal ecommerce capabilities and the skills of your team. Just don't buy the Ferrari, if you are still learning to drive. Buy it when you are ready to appreciate it and can really drive it.

Platforms like Shopify (Canadian) and BigCommerce (Australian) have been successful at offering the best of both worlds. They offer ecommerce platforms that are more affordable and simpler to manage, but can still give you access to enterprise level features. Many of the world's businesses are moving towards these two platforms because of this. However, if you're looking for an all-in-one ecommerce solution to help you manage more complex digital and ecommerce challenges, then take a look at UltraCommerce (Australian). Whichever one you choose, the ecommerce platform should match the needs of your business and be able to scalable with your goals in the short to medium term.

Once you have the right ecommerce platform, ensure that:

• Your mobile experience is amazing;
• Your site speed is as fast as it can be;
• Your ecommerce site has a clear and intuitive navigation;
• You have enough content on your ecommerce site and on each of your product pages;
• You have a clear call-to-action on each page of the website to guide customers on what you want them to do;
• You are meeting customer expectations and their ecommerce journey is seamless, simple and enjoyable with good quality products they can trust; and
• You are aware of what’s trending in ecommerce marketing today, making changes quickly on your site or campaigns to adjust to changing requirements.

As 2021 continues to be a disrupted year, online sales will only continue to grow to be a larger share of the pie. So whether you are a selling online to a business customer site or selling direct to a consumer, make sure you keep trying and keep improving.

If you do need any help with your ecommerce, please reach out. At the Digital Mavens, we are a full-service digital agency. We're not just another web development company that can build your web store; we're the experts who can guide you through the entire journey from strategy through to implementation, helping you get more out of your marketing channels (paid media, social media, email campaigns etc) and your online store. Resulting in more sales, more revenue and more customers!

At the Digital Mavens, we will help you to DEVELOP YOUR EDGE.

Please reach out and contact us. Or book in some time directly with me for a chat.