5 Ways to make your E-commerce Business Website Successful

You’ve probably recognized the potential of running an e-commerce business, now you are working ways to make it a successful one. In the years to come, e-commerce business may attract more investors. Statistics from The Enterprise Guide to Global E-commerce show that global retail e-commerce sales will reach $4.5 trillion by 2021. This is actually amazing for any businessman who is working out for the opportunities to grow in this industry. 

Whatever the case, you’ve started your e-commerce business that means you have to brace yourself for the competition because it’s going to get tougher every minute. Out of all those hundreds and thousands of websites, you have to make people chose the product from your website. The good news is there are few ways that you can implement and make your online store a successful one.

Some critical tips to give your e-commerce business a better place in the market 

1. Analyzing & Choosing the right E-commerce Platform

Choosing an e-commerce platform is the most difficult job. You have the option to choose between self-hosted (Magento, WooCommerce, etc) or hosted cloud-based platform (Bigcommerce or Shopify).

Before you pick any platform you have to understand all the limitations and benefits. Some platforms may not support payment via third-party vendors and that is one of the biggest criteria to improve the user experience. So look into that. In addition, look into the number of plugins and integrations supported. More the numbers, easier it will be running your e-commerce business.

The platform on which you are going to build your website should lay a solid foundation for your business and not the other way around. 

2. Having High-Quality Product Videos

It’s essential when customers shop on your website they connect better with the products that you are selling. Brands around the world are giving VR experience to increase their in-store sales, so if you are still sticking with a small photo, it’s a bad decision for your business.

Show your product in a 360-degree spin. You can even tell a beautiful story and help customers relate and understand the benefits of using your product. You can take inspiration from Apple’s Native Union product Ad; they have done a wonderful job marketing their products. 

The study from tubularinsights found that 64% of consumers make a purchase after watching branded social videos. 

If you dive into other statistics then video marketing tops the list of marketing professionals. Also, 51% of them have accounted for video content with the best ROI. 

3. Keep your Website Mobile-Friendly

When you promise to provide seamless user-experience for your customers that means you are promising to be part of the Smartphone market.

It is predicted that worldwide the number of Smartphone users from 2014 to 2020 would reach a staggering 2.1 billion. That’s a huge number. To be truthful, you can miss a huge number of potential customers if your e-commerce website doesn’t work on the Smartphones or other mobile devices.  

In addition to that, you have to focus on the page load time and other factors that would enhance the experience of mobile users accessing your website.

Keep in mind that people don’t use their Smartphones for just calling or texting; they use it for shopping, paying bills, and many other things. They find the channel more comfortable and convenient. So be a part of their mobile life and you will see a better sale rate.

4. Be on top of SEO Marketing

The e-commerce industry is growing fast. You’ll find a lot of business owners building their empire somewhere out there. You cannot survive the competition unless you outrun each of them and make yourself available to customers when they need your products or services.

Having a website is not sufficient. You have to make your website visible to the viewers or customers when they are hitting the search engine. The secret ingredient is SEO marketing. 

It’s the same thing that you do after you set up a conventional brick and mortar shop. You do marketing so people visit your shop and buy something. In the online industry, you take help of SEO marketing. Google guidelines should be followed to show that your business is legitimate. 

Once that is done your business website will automatically show in the search engines and you can easily achieve your e-commerce goals.

You have a lot of work in SEO marketing. You should see to that you are following both inbound and outbound SEO practices for comprehensive results. 

5. Let the Checkout process be as simple as it can be

One thing that commonly haunts an e-commerce business owner is the shopping cart abandonment. A study by barilliance found that the average cart abandonment rate in 2017 rose to 78.65% from 77.24% as found in 2016. 

It was also found that complex checkout process as one of the reasons customers dropping out from the checkout funnel. Whatever may be the cause, your business will lose customers and it will impact your revenue at the year-end.

Make sure that you optimize your sales funnel for customers. Focus on giving a user-centric experience. Create checkout funnel that converts.

Some tips that will help you.

• No distractions - Remove all those elements that may change the mind of customers after they make it to the checkout page.

• Visual clarity - The call-to-action buttons- use the words, color, and size as relevant as possible.

• Ask minimum information – Is it very essential? If yes, ask it or avoid forming a lengthy questionnaire. 

• Include trust signals - Show your customers that they can trust your payment system.

• Use heatmapping technology - Is there any place that is slowing down your customers or stopping them from proceeding further? Check that out and work on it.

• No Repetition - Create a permanent registration process. Do not ask your repeat customers to register every time they visit your website.