What does it take to get the sale?
This is a question that most, if not all, ecommerce businesses face: Just how do we boost our business - whether it is simply revenues or converting site visitors to customers?
There are thousands of blogs out there offering the full range of advice and tips on which techniques you should use to boost your ecommerce business. With the ecommerce industry reportedly being worth $1.9trn, yes that’s right, $1.9 trillion, in 2016 alone, it is not surprising there is a crowded field competing for your attention.
However, it can be overwhelming so here are some of the top techniques:
Push Notifications:
A push notification is a simple concept. A Facebook alert notifying you of a new message from a friend is a ‘push notification,’ and the same goes for a new product alert that might pop up on the app of a fashion brand. It may seem ‘pushy’ but it happens all the time, without us really realising.
However, push notifications do work, particularly among millennials. Around 84% of millennials respond to well timed notifications on their mobile devices from their favourite brands, which proves there is a huge market ready to, at the very least, click on any push notification.
At a more general level including all ages, data on push notifications have an average click through rate (CTR) of 40% which is far higher than the CTR of emails at around 5.4%. So they clearly engage users and potential customers.
These notifications work particularly well with apps that people have already downloaded and evidently interested in your brand. This means they are more likely to be receptive to what you have to say whether it is a new product launch or a special offer.
Social Media - If used properly:
Social media seems to be an obvious tool to drive traffic and revenue to any ecommerce business. That’s because it is. There are 1.15 billion monthly active users on Facebook alone and a combined 1.89 billion monthly users in the top six social media sites. This is an incredible resource with a reach to a quarter of the world population - so it would seem foolish not to spend time and effort into ensuring your business is getting the most out of social media.
The first thing is to decide which social media platforms are right for you. Facebook ads for example, can be tailored to your target audience as set by you. The ROI is dependent on how wisely you set the criteria, so for example - an advert showing the latest set of headphones will perform much better among 18-24 year olds in New York than say 50-65 year olds from New Delhi. Again, it seems obvious but it's how you target your audience.
Who’s your audience?
You should also consider other social media sites, if you are offering B2B services rather than retail, Linkedin might be a better site for your products. However, it is also worth remembering that B2B decision makers spend an average of 18 days a month on Facebook, with 1 in 4 saying Facebook would be their social media channel of choice for making a decision on a product.
Bottom line, it’s as simple as four questions:
- Where is my audience online?
- What niche social media sites are right for me and my company?
- Where is my audience actively engaging?
- Where is my audience searching and for what?
Keep these in mind, invest the time to do your homework right, and your business will benefit tremendously.
Abandoned Cart Emails
It’s the bane of of any ecommerce business, your potential customer has gone through the whole process of looking at your product, clicking the ‘Buy’ button and at the crunch moment at the checkout, they drop out. It is a far more common phenomenon than people realise, with up to 60-70% of customers abandoning their carts.
This means ecommerce companies are losing billions of dollars of potential revenue each year but it is also an opportunity to chase those customers who are clearly interested in your product.
As Thomas Smale, founder of FEInternational puts it; “Let’s say, for example, that you’re selling $200 products to 40 customers on a monthly basis. That’s $8,000 in revenue. But if you were able to reduce abandoned carts and convert at 60 percent, your sales would jump to $12,000 per month, and you would be into five-figure revenue.”
So how do you chase those hot leads?
Firstly, your ecommerce business must be able to comprehensively track website traffic so you are able to tell when customers have made a purchase or abandoned their cart at the last minute. With the data, you will be able to see who those people are and send them an email, ideally within 24 hours after they abandoned their cart.
This technique has proven effective in the world of ecommerce, with the average purchase from abandoned cart emails being worth 58% more than direct orders. These are, after all , the hottest leads you will have. And be innovative, keep the tone of the email friendly and maybe even attach a special offer to entice them back.
Welcome Emails
When someone comes into a ‘bricks and mortar’ shop or office, the first thing any responsible business would do is make them feel welcome and special, right? Well the same logic applies online. The first thing any ecommerce business should do when a user signs up to their site, is to send a welcome email.
After all, ‘welcome emails’ have an open rate of 50% which is 86% higher than other forms of email and generate 320% more revenue than any other type of promotional emails. With figures like these, it is little surprise many ecommerce and retail businesses are creating friendly and engaging welcome emails for their customers.
Welcome emails also perform better when they are personal. A small thing like saying their name can make a big difference in engaging the reader. Something like ;Hey George,’ or ;Thank you for signing up George,’ is incredibly powerful and entices the reader to stay on and read what the email has to say.
Keep it short too, there’s no point in making the email any longer than it has to be - people get bored easily. If you can afford it, include a discount code or a gift and get the potential customer locked into your brand. First impressions count and a high class service right from the beginning will make it easier for you to retain that customer, and hopefully a profitable one.
Affiliates - Get others to promote your products and brand
Affiliate marketing has been a moneymaker for thousands of individuals and other small ecommerce sites for several years now, and it has proven very successful for one of the ecommerce kings, Amazon. There are claims the affiliate program has been responsible for up to 40% of its business.
How does it work? Its pretty simple; Essentially it is a referral system where the company selling the product, for example, Amazon would pay commission to affiliates who manage to send customers to its site and make a purchase from their own online assets.
The benefits are obvious - Amazon get a bigger reach and more exposure which results in more revenue. The affiliates have an opportunity to monetise their online presence.
But is it right for your business? Some of the bigger brands can afford to be generous, with Shopify offering up to 200% commission on the first purchase, but most ecommerce companies do not have that sort of budget. However, with a carefully designed program, you can create a ‘win-win’ situation where you only pay the commission (Amazon pay out 4% on most products) upon a successful purchase. The appeal of this technique is that it is relatively cheap to set up and there are plenty of sites that can help you.
Of course, the other way is to become an affiliate yourself - particularly if you have a high volume of traffic coming onto your site. The obvious thing here is to avoid referring potential customers away from your product.
Be Creative, Be Bold
With such a huge and fast growing industry such as ecommerce, there is plenty of competition and it can be difficult to stand out - especially if you are not offering a niche product. But with competition comes ideas, and there is a lot of them out there. This article offers just some of the techniques available and they have all proven to be successful but the bottom line is to be creative, be bold.
Don’t be afraid to try new things. They don’t have to be hugely expensive website overhauls or rebranding projects - it can be just trying a new marketing technique or tweaking a current approach.