Secrets of e-commerce growth,
unlocked for you!
Knowing that your e-commerce store has hundreds of competitors offering similar products is always a matter of concern. No matter you have an amazing online store and offer outstanding products, success can still be elusive. Survival, sustenance and growth in this domain is all about beating the competition and emerging as a winner in the race. Rather than running pillar to post to understand how you can do it, you should simply read this and unlock the secrets to e-commerce growth. So let’s begin!!
Secret #1: Build a buyer persona
The secret that is no secret is that you cannot sell unless you know who you are selling to. So get your hands dirty and start researching, gathering information through surveys, and doing everything you can to identify your target audience, their expectations, preferences, demographics, and shopping behavior. Since you do not interact with the customer physically, building a buyer personal is tricky in e-commerce. However, you can leverage tools and technologies such as Big Data Analytics to track the online behavior and browsing activities of the existing and potential customers and use the information to come up with the picture of an average customer.
Secret #2: Focus on being a fierce competitor
While a majority of sellers emphasize on getting better in terms of product development and user experience, not being a fierce competitor can be a major mistake. The e-commerce domain is highly competitive, with hundreds of rivals showcasing offerings similar to yours. The secret to success does not lie in offering extraordinary products or services bur rather in being better than your competitors. The idea is to know your competitors and their strategies and take every measure to beat them in the game. Therefore, you need to ensure that your focus is always on staying ahead in the race.
Secret #3: Stay on top of trends
With the ever evolving dynamics of online markets, keeping pace with trends becomes the need of the hour. This is what you should exactly do to ace the e-commerce game. Whether it is the adoption of high tech features or leveraging the power of social, embrace everything that is trending. For example, those selling fashion or lifestyle products should invest in virtual experiences that enable the shoppers to have a life-like view of the products being offered. Similarly, being voice ready is another trend that you must absolutely follow because customers are increasingly using conversational interfaces to search products and services online. Not being there means that you don’t exist!
Secret #4: Build a community
Loyalty is the mainstay of a successful e-commerce business and the best way to cultivate it is by establishing a strong connect with your audience. Building a community is a great way to foster relationships with your loyal customers and extend your reach across the social channels. A community serves as a platform where your existing and potential customers can interact, share stories, engage in conversations, and create a buzz around your brand and offerings. Similarly, the loyal ones can bring in more customers and propagate your business with effective word-of-mouth advertising. This practice is as good as referrals and even betters that people who join the brand communities are more likely to stay with you for a lifetime.
Secret #5: Maintain a high-quality mailing list
It is no secret that personalized interactions have the potential to win over the prospective customers and convert them into brand loyalists. To take your e-commerce business to the next level, build and curate an active mailing list that you can leverage to unlock new possibilities with email marketing. Not just having a genuine mailing list is important but you also need to craft a personalized e-mail strategy that possibly appeals to the customers enough to accelerate the conversion rate. Here again, the buyer persona will be useful to understand the expectations for creating personalized emails.
Secret #6: Fortify your online reputation
The internet as a selling landscape is like a double-edged sword; while it offers humongous opportunities to sell, even a single negative feedback can kill your brand. Having an online reputation management strategy in place is another secret to succeeding as an e-commerce seller. Keep track of all the online conversations about your brand and be quick to take action when you notice something amiss. Besides addressing negative comments, also work on consolidating on favorable aspects because a majority of online shoppers check out what others have to say about brands and most of them tend to believe things too.
Secret #7: Persevere!!
The road ahead is long but perseverance can get you to your destination. E-commerce selling is ridden with challenges and failures but the secret to success lies in trying something different every time you feel left behind. Be ready to align and realign your tactics because this landscape is highly dynamic and not keeping pace with the changes can result in failure. At the same time, learn to take failures in stride because you can expect the unexpected to happen anytime.
