The Ultimate Guide To Grow Your Online Shop in 2022
Customers love convenience! And e-commerce is all about that! The Covid-19 pandemic in the past 2 years definitely changed a lot of things and consumer behavior is no exception. In a phenomenon that would not have been believable until a year ago, Covid has led the world towards online shopping and e-commerce rather than the usual brick and mortar stores. Surely this trend will still be in action in 2022, as confirmed by analysts, making it the perfect opportunity for your online shop to flourish and push those sales up!
Here are the top 4 tips and tricks to follow in 2022 guaranteed to make your online shop a success and allow it to keep growing into the future:
Table of Content →
- Multichannel and Omnichannel Marketing
- Email Marketing
- Easy Transaction
- Personalize Customer Experience
Multichannel Marketing vs. Omnichannel Marketing; And Why You Need Both.
Simply put, multichannel is having your product/service available for your users through multiple different channels (e.g: Amazon, Instagram shopping, your website and maybe even in store). While omnichannel is “all channels” being customized for a single user experience to be better, so if they shop through a phone then go over to their laptop or iPad, the shopping experience continues and they do not have to start over. Why do you need both, you ask?
First of all, multichannel marketing will allow for both; a bigger customer base and more conversions. Through being on different channels, you will be catering to each user’s purchase experience by being on their preferred channel, making them more inclined to make the purchase. Additionally, the more channels you are in, the more exposure for your brand. So, not only will this increase brand awareness, but ultimately will reach more potential consumers and increase the sales!
As for omnichannel, having your channels customized for the user, will not only provide a better and smoother user experience, but will allow a level of personalization that can not be acquired any other way. By studying and investigating the consumers patterns and behaviors, you can identify the main touch-points and tailor an omnichannel strategy. The exemplary website that allows for that needs to load quickly, be responsive, easily navigated and overall allows for a pleasant hassle free shopping experience. Not to mention having a unified experience across all platforms, making sure to maintain same content, quality, tone of voice, availability of products/ service…etc.
An omnichannel strategy cannot exist without a multichannel one. That being said, having the technological skills and abilities to apply an omnichannel strategy will definitely sustain your business future and tie all your channels together through utilizing all of the different channels available in our modern and continually updating world.
Make Use of Email Marketing: It’s Important!
Email marketing is one of the best tools to utilize, but only when used in the right way. Contrary to recent belief, email marketing is still in! However, make sure to continually update your list, include active email addresses by sending out a questionnaire about wanted products for example. Not only will this give you deeper and updated insights, but will most definitely position your brand better and avoid it being falsely perceived as “spam” or being negatively associated with unwanted emails.
Another important note to take into consideration is adding an incentive. By including an incentive in the subscription box by the end of the user’s shopping experience ( exclusive offers, a discount or a free gift…etc.), you will be growing your list with consumers who actually want to be included. In addition, sending out abandoned cart emails is an efficient way to tap into that opportunity cost and is a great way for up-selling too!
Existing customers who already know your brand are more likely to add more items in the cart, are willing to spend more (up to 10 times the value of their first purchase) and are proven to have a higher rate of conversion. The probability of selling to a new customer is 5-20% compared to that of selling to existing ones, which is 60-70%. Crazy, right? Make sure to retain those existing customers and do not forget to stay in touch. Think of it as a friendship rather than a business relationship, always send meaningful emails, holiday mails, seasonal discounts and early bird freebies! They will end up loving your brand so much, they will be waiting for your next email!
Create An Easy Checkout Process
The checkout process is the make or break of the whole process! You want your customer to make the purchase and not think too much of it or back out, so ultimately your role is to make the transaction process an easy one. Some points for that to be done are:
- A progression indicator at each step so they know how many are left
- Offer various payment methods
- Clear but concise call to action for checkout pages
- Option to save cart for later
- Guest checkout option (creating an account can make users back out)
- No time out for shoppers so they do not start whole process from the beginning
- Ensure fast page loading
Why Your Customer Needs It? Answer Me!
We all know at least one or two online shop owners, right? So the options today are many and the consumer has a wide variety to choose from, it is almost overwhelming. How can we show the consumer that YOUR product is the one he needs? You create a sense of urgency.
FOMO (fear of missing out) is one technique to encourage customers not to hesitate before adding the product to the cart. Time sensitivity, limited availability and limited edition products are all tactics used by online shops all the time, the incentive will push them to take immediate action.
Another great tactic is up-selling and cross-selling. The “have you seen this?” option with similar products is good bait that will definitely show the consumer products they will miss out on. The “frequently bought together” tactic is also a very smart one, especially for furniture and kitchen products. Who does not love bundles and complementary products that go together?
Personalize The Consumer Experience and Give More
The consumer loves feeling special, don’t we all? A one size fits all strategy for your e-commerce business will not work for long, instead you can shift your focus on personalizing each individual’s customer experience. According to the edesk blog, an online store that personalizes the purchase experience is more likely to sell to customers by 80%.
But how to personalize the experience?
Through customer analysis and investigating user insights and analytics, you can get all the information you need to make each shopper’s experience a rather special one. Not only will this push brand loyalty sky high, but will also allow for a higher conversion rate. By displaying products that are relevant to them and what they were interested in during their last website visit, they will feel welcomed and are more likely to make the purchase.
Another strategy that will also work wonders for your e-commerce is showing excellence not only online but offline as well. Offline marketing channels and sales are also important for your e-commerce, so make sure to invest in the appropriate offline sales channel. Moreover, focus on the three levels of your product/service, including the last level, also known as the augmented product/service. This is where the offline part also becomes important, what you offer after the consumer makes the purchase can make all the difference. It is crucial you make sure that the delivery process is hassle free, after sale service (such as customer service) is available, warranty is there when needed and that as mentioned above, the transaction process is not a long one.
To conclude, e-commerce has been substantially growing for the past years and will undoubtedly keep growing for the next few years as well. Kaii Lab is proudly here to witness it and have the back of all business owners and entrepreneurs. Keep up to date with our socials for the latest tips and tricks, as well as the latest updates on the digital industry through these links: Website, LinkedIn, Instagram and YouTube.
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