bit.ly/ZYVzJW 5 Cutting-Edge Ecommerce Techniques for Driving Sales Online If you are a business owner, marketing director, or head of sales for a company, you probably already understand the importance of a great ecommerce platform and strategy. Ecommerce, or the act of buying and selling goods electronically, is an essential part of revenue and profits for a business. In fact, U.S. consumers will spend $327 billion online in 2016, Forrester Research says, so it is all-too imperative to drive sales through your website.If you need to grow your business earnings, here are five cutting-edge ecommerce techniques that will help you drive sales online:1. Launch a Recovery CampaignAccording to the Baymard Institute, 67.45 percent of online shopping carts are filled, and then abandoned before a customer ever makes it to check out. If you’re a business owner who’s losing a potential two-third’s worth of sales due to abandoned shopping carts, you need to launch a recovery campaign to touch base with those customers who fled your site before buying. An email that’s catchy and cute, and encourages users to return to their forgotten cart, can make all the difference. Who knows, by implementing a recovery campaign and reaching out to an “almost there” buyer, you may be able to more than double your sales.2. Use Social Media to Maximize Ecommerce PotentialIf you have an ecommerce site, then chances are your business also has a profile on a variety of social media sites. While you may be posting to these social media sites like crazy (you’re a hit with memes and hashtags), if you’re not using social sites to maximize your business’s ecommerce potential, you’re missing out on a great opportunity. Each social post should include a call-to-action directing people to your ecommerce page, and testimonials from your social media pages can be added to your ecommerce site’s checkout page to push the buyer into action.3. Display Other Customers’ ActionsHave you ever visited a website to make a reservation for a hotel and noticed the text (directly under the room you want) that says “5 other people looking at this room right now?” Those blurbs of text may seem insignificant to you, but to the consumer, they can make all the difference. By showing off other customers’ actions – like what they’re doing or what they think about a product in the form of reviews or ratings – you’ll increase the value of your brand, and therefore increase the level of desire with which people want your brand.4. Make it PersonalizedNothing sells a product like a personal touch. As such, if you want to drive sales online, you need to make your ecommerce site more personalized than it currently is. Things like discount codes at checkout, customized packaging, and an improved mobile site can all assist in making customers feel like they’re receiving personalized attention.5. Save Yourself Some TimeManaging inventory takes time, as does creating descriptions for each and every product you carry. If you want to make your ecommerce site more effective, you should make creating descriptions and tracking inventory more efficient – doing so will save you time that can spend to improve other parts of your business or ecommerce strategy. In order to streamline the process, consider taking advantage of a barcode scanner – also known as a universal product codes (UPC) scanner – to generate stock information and product descriptions.Great ecommerce strategy can be crucial in retaining customers, attracting new customers, and upping the number of conversions, therefore driving online sales like never before. To get started, begin by launching a recovery campaign, using social media to maximize ecommerce potential, displaying other customers’ actions, personalizing your site, and saving yourself some time by employing new technology, like barcode scanners.Image courtesy of Flickr.
Posted on: Wed, 29 Oct 2014 08:22:13 +0000