According to Statista, ecommerce sales around the world amounted to $3.5 trillion (USD) in 2019.
With the market share for web sales expected to continue rising exponentially in upcoming years, now’s a great moment to take advantage of this growing interest in online shopping!
However, with up to 24 million online stores currently active, you must work hard to get customers in ecommerce while also giving shoppers the services they want to turn them into repeat customers.
Nevertheless, achieving ecommerce success is definitely possible with the right preparation and strategies in place.
If you’re looking for ways to stand out from the competition, build a solid customer base, and become more profitable, here are five important pillars of ecommerce to know.
1. Product selection
You may think that product selection means that you must have the largest web store in your sector. However, this isn’t necessarily the case.
In fact, you’ll probably never be able to compete with some of the most popular sites. You may sell only one or two dozen items, but you can still build a strong website with excellent product selection.
No matter how many items your business offers, you must ensure that each item is made with the highest-quality materials or ingredients to ensure complete customer satisfaction with every order.
Although you may not be able to compete with huge online retailers, you can set yourself apart with a dedication to offering the well-made, trustworthy goods.
Besides featuring high-quality products, you can also sharpen your pricing measures. See if there are ways to lower the prices of some of your items, such as by offering bulk discounts, creating digital downloads, or storing items offsite.
If you determine that some goods are simply not profitable for you to sell, you may want to consider cutting them altogether from your shop.
Note that while fair pricing is important, it’s not always the most essential thing for shoppers. Consumers are often more interested in finding the exact items they want in stock so that they can get them when they need them.
They may also be more intrigued by items that offer warranties or easy shipping options than they are by the amount of money that they’ll have to spend.
2. Speed
When you consider speed, it’s important to think both about how fast shoppers can receive their purchases and how fast they can browse your store and complete their orders.
First, you need to examine supply chain optimization. Once you receive orders, you must fulfill them quickly if you want to have consistently satisfied customers.
To do this, you should be able to predict what visitors are going to purchase and when they’ll make their purchases. You must also use a reputable physical fulfillment center if you aren’t storing and sending out orders yourself.
If possible, choose a fulfillment center that not only can stash your physical products for you but can also ship your orders directly to your customers. This eliminates one step that can potentially slow orders down by several days.
Second, you must consider the shipping options you offer. Most consumers expect free shipping options these days, and offering this can get more visitors over to your checkout page.
Nevertheless, be sure to offer other shipping options as well so that visitors can decide whether they prefer more costly quick shipping or free shipping with a slower turnaround.
Next, you’ll need to examine the overall speed of your website. It must be convenient to navigate and should always load quickly. Potential customers may quickly click away if pictures aren’t loading or pages are broken.
Did you know that when you create your store with WiziShop, your website automatically has the accelerated mobile pages (AMP) format?
Without any extra steps on your end, the AMP format ensures that Google’s able to retrieve your shop’s pages quickly and display them to your visitors in the blink of an eye!
Finally, note that successful businesses on the internet help people locate what they need quickly using smart menus and search options. Keep your store well organized, and provide customer service information and answers to frequently asked questions where visitors can easily find them.
3. Customer service
Even the most amazing products, fastest shipping speeds, and top-notch ecommerce marketing won’t be enough for you to build a successful company if you don’t also offer helpful customer service.
Visitors should ideally be able to locate answers on their own without too much difficulty. However, if they do have to contact your company, they want quick response times and answers that actually work.
Some of the key concerns of online shoppers is that they won’t be able to track their orders, view information for their purchases, or return their merchandise if it’s not what they were expecting.
Make it easy for customers to find and track their orders from their account pages. In addition, ensure that they can change their billing and shipping information on their own and return items with a few clicks of a mouse.
Furthermore, it’s essential that you focus on making shoppers happy while creating an effortless purchase and return system.
Your business must capitalize on the human factor that consumers are missing by choosing to make purchases on the internet over visiting traditional brick-and-mortar options.
When packages go missing, items arrive broken, or clothing doesn’t fit, react with understanding and quick fixes to ensure a positive experience.
4. Security
With the increase in consumers venturing online to make purchases, there’s also been a boost in cyber crime. Visitors to your store count on you to keep their personal information safe at all times.
When consumers shop at traditional brick-and-mortar stores, they often feel as if they have more control over the entire shopping experience than they do when they buy from websites.
After all, when shopping online, they can’t handle the products or hand over cash to a human being to complete their purchases. They instead have to input personal information into online forms and produce a credit card number that may be stored on your site.
Note that with the WiziShop platform, your store automatically comes with an SSL certificate. This ensures that shoppers’ data remains protected, giving both you and them extra peace of mind!
When consumers feel completely safe on an ecommerce site, they’ll generally have no problem completing their purchases.
What’s more, website security can actually affect search engine optimization (SEO) and your rankings on sites like Google. A secure website will bolster your organic marketing efforts, which are essential for your ecommerce marketing checklist.
Give visitors confidence in your store by telling them more about your company, posting clear answers to their most frequent questions, and making it clear that your website is secure and that transaction information is encrypted.
5. Rewards for customer loyalty
Customer retention and loyalty are proven ways to keep your business humming along happily for years while also helping you attract new traffic.
Happy purchasers are more apt to tell others about your shop, through word of mouth, social media mentions, and rave reviews on the internet.
It can be easy to think that loyalty isn’t really that important. After all, it has nothing to do with your site or the goods you sell.
However, you should actually view it as the basis for everything else you do in your business. When shoppers feel dedicated to your store, they’re less likely to be tempted to search elsewhere for a better price or a faster shipping speed.
The methods you use for improving loyalty can be as unique as your business itself.
For example, if you have a very large site and a budget to match, you might consider investing in artificial intelligence software to assist your site in making personalized product recommendations for customers. This individualization can help shoppers to feel noticed and special.
If you have a smaller budget, you could instead incentivize return customers with loyalty rewards and discounts. Bring back visitors who haven’t made a purchase in a while by emailing them a small discount code for future purchase occasions.
Offer a small amount of cash back on each order that customers can use for when they next buy something. These steps can keep people coming back for the next good deal you offer.
Fortunately, with WiziShop, you’ll have access to a feature that makes it super easy for you to create special discounts and promotion codes!
For instance, you can decide if customers accumulate loyalty points based on how much money they spend or how many purchases they make. What’s more, there’s plenty of room for customizing this feature to best suit your individual needs.
Remember that a loyal shopper who purchases from you repeatedly is far more profitable than someone who only makes a single purchase.
Final thoughts
Each of these five measures should serve as pillars for your ecommerce business. If one area is shaky or nonexistent, it’s very difficult for the rest of the pillars to support your success on their own.
When you focus on strengthening and building each pillar equally, though, you’re sure to build a successful online store that’ll give you the greatest potential for gaining a healthy market share in this growing industry.
Ready to throw your hat into the ring?
You’ll soon be able to sign up with WiziShop’s spectacular online store builder, so get ready to start your new life as an ecommerce entrepreneur in the near future!
Be sure to visit our homepage and provide your email address to sign up for early access and email updates.
