eCommerce was already a growing industry even before COVID-19 forced stores to shut down, and required customers to find other ways to shop. With the spread of the virus, the concern was high for the large crowds to be incubators for the pandemic spread. In light of this many stores were initially asked to close their doors if they weren’t selling essential items, and customers were asked to practice safe distancing by staying at home.
Coronavirus related restrictions have been eased to a certain degree within recent months. “Non-essential” brick and mortar stores have re-opened, and customers have been allowed to shop as long as they wear face masks. Stores though are finding that it’s in their best interest to have a robust eCommerce presence, in the off chance that they are asked to close once again. With that said, here are suggestions on how a retailer can grow their store’s eCommerce in the wake of COVID-19.
Find the best product to sell.
Going into 2021, you’ll want to find a product that is hitting big amongst customers. Maximize the opportunity of increased eCommerce sales in the wake of COVID-19 and find exactly what people want. By completing this simple first step you are headed to tapping into the $4.9 trillion which the eCommerce market is estimated to make by the year 2021.
Follow this up by finding a customer’s pain point. Find those things which customers need. For example, for people who had headaches, Tylenol was created. Dog owners got tired of having to save plastic grocery bags to pick up pet waste. Dog waste bags were created. People needed a way to fill oil into their vape cartridges, pens, and pods. Companies like CoolJarz created oil filling machines.
Choose a product that makes you personally happy to manufacture and sell it. If you don’t care about the items which you’re providing to customers, it’ll show in the quality of the product, and in how you market it. Also, try to capitalize on trends as early as possible when choosing a new product which you will sell in your eCommerce store.
You should also make it a priority to have an understanding of the perspectives held by the people who will be reading your work. There is absolutely nothing that can prevent you from increasing your sales and convincing your customers to buy your products if you take advantage of services like image clipping path that are provided by professionals. One of the most remarkable aspects of UK Clipping Path is that it provides its services at prices that are among the most competitive in the industry with best outcome you can receive.
At the end of the day, with any product that you’re selling, you’ll prioritize those items which sell the best with your customers. Tracking point of sale history, sales data, web traffic to specific parts of your website, and reviewing customer service inquires on specific products can help you to see which item is the top performer amongst the myriad of products which you’ll be selling. This will continue to inform you if the product which you’ve chosen to sell is benefiting your company.
Utilize the best eCommerce software for your website.
In order for electronic stores to continue to make continuous sales possible it helps to have the best eCommerce software that’s available. eCommerce software is simply the engine that makes your online stores sales work. This software makes it possible to easily manage inventory, add or remove products, calculate taxes, and all of the other actions needed to manage your website and fulfill orders.
Many of the top eCommerce arms of popular brick and mortar stores use such technology to process online sales for customers. Utilizing such eCommerce software as the NitroSell QuickBooks POS system, many businesses are able to add to annual rising eCommerce sales. For example, by using such QuickBooks point of sale technology, a business is able to sync its e-commerce site with its point of sale system.
By utilizing such a system, businesses are better able to accept credit card/mobile payments, and the system also helps to expand payment processing capabilities. This allows for more online orders and point of sales, which total up to more sales in the long run. To the tune of $601.75 billion which was spent in online sales by United States consumers, eCommerce stores would do well to have the proper software in place to meet the increased customer demand of online sales.
Invest in paid traffic.
Paid traffic is a great way to expand the reach of your eCommerce presence. Paid traffic is traffic that results from customers’ visits to your website after you’ve paid for advertising directing them to your website. The different types of paid traffic include pay per click (PPC)/ per impression, paid or sponsored posts, influencer marketing, buying targeted traffic, and paid directory listings. The best places to utilize many of these tools include Google Ads, Instagram Ads, Facebook Ads, YouTube Ads, sponsored product ads by Amazon, and LinkedIn Ads.
This type of digital traffic can be beneficial in directing people to your eCommerce page. They are often easy to set up and can be launched within a matter of minutes. You are also allowed to target specific groups of customers, who are possibly looking for your product online. Say for example your company offers post-production services like visual effects, special effects, and video production for commercials, or even independent films. You can set up a host of paid traffic opportunities where people who are seeking post production services on their filmed projects can be directed to you.
Make your eCommerce website mobile friendly.
Many people live with their faces in their phones. Its become a strange, yet unavoidable occurrence amongst humans, and doesn’t really show any sign of stopping. In the United States alone, people check their phones about 96 times a day. This is once every 10 minutes and is actually a 20 percent increase in usage from two years ago.
In light of these stats, it would help to make sure that your store’s eCommerce presence is customer friendly. If this isn’t the case, there’s a good chance that you can lose sales from potential customers. In a Google survey, 61 percent of respondents said they would likely leave a website if it wasn’t mobile-friendly. 67 percent said that would be more likely to buy products if the website was mobile-friendly.
Having a mobile-friendly site means that more customers will visit, and will stay for longer. To make your website more user-friendly first try to make your site as responsive as possible, make sure your website loads quickly, optimize your mobile site and improve site search options, and lastly make the checkout process as simple as possible. By doing this you will make big steps towards making your eCommerce website more customer-friendly, and increasing your point of sales in the long run.
Add live chat to your store’s eCommerce.
When customers go shopping at a brick and mortar store, they like to have an employee of the store available if they have questions. When they swipe their debit cards, most people enjoy having a cashier there to provide good customer service. The same can be said for eCommerce. Though the platform is virtual, customers can benefit from having a live chat option on the website.
Live chat can allow customers to ask questions and express concerns before they make a purchase. Helping a customer before they make a buying decision can help your conversion rate, and create a solid shopping experience overall. There’s no substitute for human interaction, but giving the customer an option for having someone to speak to online can do wonders for increasing profits through eCommerce. Having a live chat option is a good fit for an eCommerce store.