You have finally achieved your dream of starting an eCommerce website. With the right product and services, you hope that customers flock to your online shopping platform. However, the number of visitors remains low month after month, the conversion rate remains weak, and the revenue remains volatile. What could have gone wrong?
In the eCommerce industry, the competition is much more brutal than in the brick and mortar segment. You cannot afford to give your visitor any reason to look elsewhere to buy.
So, what are the most successful online shopping platforms doing right?
All the best tips to run an eCommerce business boils down to one thing – Make your visitors’ journey easy and pleasurable on your eCommerce website.
In other words, create your eCommerce website design user-friendly so that the users don’t have to spend a lot of time and effort. That’s one of the pro-tips to boost conversions on your online marketplace.
Sounds Great? But how can you improve the user experience and help potential buyers buy effortlessly?
Stick around for a little more, and we will share the industry-proven ways of boosting traffic and conversions on your eCommerce web platform.
I. Start by Auditing Your ECommerce Website
First things first, start by identifying the problems that need to be solved.
Scrutinise every iota of your eCommerce website design. Identify what is slowing your website down. Why is it not reaching your target audience? Why do your visitors bounce back to other search results?
To help you out, we have prepared a checklist for things to analyse in your eCommerce website:
- In terms of design, what could be better?
- What are the top eCommerce companies doing?
- Is your website responsive on mobile/iPads?
- What are your website’s loading speed and bounce rate?
- Does any web page on the website have an error?
- Is your content keyword optimised?
- What have your customers reviewed?
You can use tools like Google Analytics to audit your website. Accepting the results without preconceptions will be the most painful but crucial step in improving your eCommerce business.
II. Make Customers Aware About Your Brand
It takes more than just appearing on the top search result page to gain the trust of your potential customers. Make people aware of your brand.
Brand awareness has a direct impact on trust. When people recognise your brand name, they buy from you before other internet shopping websites in their search results.
People will purchase from your platform more if they are familiar with your company. It means more sales and revenue for your business.
Prepare an online marketing strategy with expert digital marketing services on the posts you should publish on your social media. More importantly, how can you drive engagement on your marketing channels?
Here are a few tips that you can write on a sticky note to remember:
- Analyse the audience on each social platform.
- Maintain a consistent social media presence.
- Create high-quality content.
- Collab with social media influencers.
- Join and post on relevant social media groups.
- Don’t overlook the value of paid ad campaigns.
III. Simple and Appealing Web Design
The common thing among the best eCommerce platforms is they have a smooth and functional design that doesn’t look very bulky.
The two critical factors of a great user experience are:
- Intuitive User Interface
- Minimum steps to complete a task
Make it pain-free for your audience to navigate around the various pages of your website. The subconscious mind of your visitor should know where to find the “Add to cart” option. The more clicks users have to make, the more likely they are to leave the site.
Apart from the web design and layout, the other visual elements also play an imperative role in drawing potential buyers. Improve customer engagement by including relevant graphics in your site content.
To increase the legitimacy of your online business, upload photos of the items, inventory, and frontline teams. For the job of snapping pictures, you can either hire an adept photographer or buy stock images from sites like Shutterstock, iStock, Alamy, etc.
To execute all these strategies, you need either a dedicated in-house design team or hire a top-notch web design company.
IV. Split Test Your Design Elements
Are you worried that too many buyers are abandoning your site during the checkout process? Maybe it’s time to test your design elements.
You can put your design on A/B testing. You’ve probably heard of A/B testing in terms of altering icons and font colours. To define, A/B testing, often known as split testing, is a way of evaluating which design element is more appealing and functional for the users. It enables you to test a different version of your page (or a portion of the page) to see how it affects the behaviour of a test batch of users.
For your reference, we’ve made a checklist of the areas where you can do split testing:
- Colour Schemes
- Button/Icon Designs
- The layout of the pages
- Product Images
- CTAs (Call-to-action)
- Promotions
Audit your e-commerce website periodically. Conduct A/B testing on its many components. Use the insights to make informed choices about how to improve your conversion rate.
V. Implement New-age Email Marketing Strategy
According to a Campaign Monitor study, email marketing generates $44 in revenue for every $1 spent. Emails have a proven record of boosting sales and revenue if done correctly. You can obtain relevant email lists by posting content, which your target audience is interested in, i.e., information that solves some of their concerns. Signing up for your newsletter, your potential customers are making it easy for you to engage them.
Also, don’t only send emails to prospects to offer discounts and promotions. To establish personal engagement, send information that is relevant to the customer.
But, how to get a relevant email list for your marketing campaign? Here are some tips
- Include an email capture form to get more people to sign up for your newsletter.
- Ask for the customer’s email address during checkout.
- Motivate visitors to sign up with their email addresses by providing incentives, such as a discount voucher.
But, be cautious!
Avoid sending too many emails to the same address. Start by mailing one or two weekly campaigns. Experiment with email frequency to discover the optimal balance of click-through and unsubscribe rate.
VI. Upgrade Your Social Media Marketing Campaign
Whether you have an offline and online business, social media is a great marketing tool to extend your reach. Don’t sit around waiting for consumers to find you via an internet search. Instead, take a more proactive strategy and use popular social media marketing to reach potential buyers.
Instagram is the perfect visual marketing media for a generation with a short attention span and a taste for vibrancy. You can create encapsulating stories and posts, create IGTV and Reels, go Live on IG to make people interested in what you’re selling.
Experiment with what kind of posts and frequencies is bringing more traction and engagement to your brand. If you have budget and resources, go for short video ads on your social media channels to raise brand recognition and encourage buyers to visit your eCommerce site.
VII. Make Your Site Responsive
According to studies, 79 per cent of online shoppers have made an online purchase through their smartphone. The lockdowns and social isolation created by the Covid-19 outbreak must have accelerated the trend in the past couple of years. As a result, if you want to expand your online business, you’ll need a mobile-friendly site. Make sure your website is mobile-responsive, which means it adapts automatically based on the mobile device used to view it.
While you’re testing your website design elements in the A/B testing phase, also check the mobile version of the website for:
- Clickability of buttons
- Display of webpage content
- Responsiveness of site to mobile users
Final Thoughts
Now you are aware of the best practices in eCommerce website design and digital marketing strategies. Experiment with these tips, keep track of your results and figure out what works best for your shopping site. We must remember the success of both design and marketing depends on users’ perspectives. And perspectives are fluid. No two users are the same, and popular trends keep evolving.
In other words, there is no silver bullet to have a boost up sales on your online retail store. It is a continuous process of identifying business objectives, applying different strategies, and evaluating the results.