E-commerce – A Boon for Sales

How does e-com boost your online sales?

Being a businessman if you are hoping to increase sales, you are following the right trail.

The key to any successful business is to increase sales and Increasing sales has a mounting and rampant value.

Addition of subsequent sales entirely changes the way how customer interacts with you.

Success mantra for any business is- “improving your funnel of sales, by selling to old and acquiring of new customers”

How ethically e-com boosts up sales?

With software like Shopify, WooCommerce, BigCommerce, it has become much simpler to start an e-commerec store. Setting up of an e-com store to make money online is the best way.

Underlaid are few bullet points that best describes how e-com lead to increase in online sales-

“You can’t just open a website and expect people to flood in, if you want to succeed you have to create traffic“

Paid Traffic-

One of the most important reason behind sales escalation in e-com is through Paid Traffic.People often talk about bearing losses through this method, for some it seems to be expensive, for others it might be a source of loss.

• However, if utilized properly paid traffic takes your business to next level at an affordable price.
• Spending small amounts to “test the waters” is foremost thing.
• Running multiple campaigns works out best. Driving of traffic and then closely monitoring metrics brings desired results.
  Raising of more funds for those ads after spotting traffic.
• Clear understanding of right customer and good targeting ensures that ads are displayed to appropriate people. This increases chances of sales.
• Coupon codes, hefty discounts and other sorts of incentives set the seal on for quick and honest survey.

“When you say it, its marketing, when your customer says it, its social proof”

Ad platforms for generating and augmenting sales includes-

• TWITTER
• FACEBOOK
• INSTAGRAM
• Different ad platforms with different working techniques helps in sales generation.
• Ad campaigns through social media platforms aids in collecting valuable data of your campaign performance.
• Keywords lets you target your audience, customer engagement, and success stories showcased on web page play the role of eye-candy for customer 

Improving trust within sales funnel-

Building trust is the second-best method to boost sales for e-com sites.

VISIT SITE > VIEW PRODUCT PAGE > CHECKOUT > PAYMENT GATEWAY

The above process is referred to as funnel, that buyers go through.

Increasing amount of trust at each step, helps in maintaining and mounting conversions.

This encompasses-

Product review displayed on web pages

=> As a matter of fact, 77% of people consult online reviews before the final purchase.

Live chat options 

• Actuality shows that 73% people prefer live chat over other options.
• It allows questions to be answered quickly.
• Customer services influences the amount of trust people put in companies.
• Top notch levels of customer service can be accomplished through live chat.

Checkout

• Trust badges should be placed during checkout process.
• People tend to abandon cart due to payment security and do not complete their purchase due to lack of trust seal.
• McAfee, Secure, PayPal, GPAY, PHONEPAY serves as secured mode of payment.

Testimonial

• Testimonials at checkout page are best forms of proof and provides customer security and maximizes their efficacy.
• Testimonials like – “Experience was stress free, happily processed my returns and even provided a coupon for next purchase” boosts customer’s confidence.

Customer’s permission is required before using their testimonials on a particular site.

Effortless and Facile Checkout

• Removing the need for people to “sign in”, makes the checkout simple.
• Providing an option of checkout as “GUEST” makes the process soften and reduces friction.
• Reducing and eliminating the number of form fields that are to be filled by customer makes checkout simple.
• Also providing features like “MANDATORY & NECESSARY” adds to its simplicity.
• Autofill options for fields like e-mail, address etc. just by entering postal code allows to select address from drop down.
• Providing a progress bar, gives sense of progress to customer about their checkout and helps in customer engagement.

Use of e-mail marketing

E-mail marketing has an average ROI of 43%.

There are 2 ways of approaching E-mail marketing-

• Marketing your product to your old list of customers, and creating a new one is one way.
• Creating a new list, is a good idea to conduct a giveaway.
• Cross selling is another option- Cross selling via e-mail is very easy, promoting of complementary products, offerings of seasonal events and gifts.

Periodically serving sales via email list is beneficial. Better email marketing helps in better segmentation and better promotion.

“Always deliver more than expected”

Become better at showcasing product benefits- Showcasing benefits of your product improves e-com store sales. People buy benefits not features.

Clicking best pictures of product, you are showcasing – 

• Taking pictures against good background, mostly preferred “white”.
• Proper and right lighting, professional photographers using their expertise ensures that product looks perfect.
• Use of videos to showcase your products and dimensions as well as functionality tends to be helpful.
• Disclosing benefits, in-depth understanding of customer is required.

Implement Upsells – Implementing power of upsells boost sales.

1. Upsells boosts sales, thus increasing average order value.
2. It helps in selling “Upgraded or customized version” of products.
3. It works 20 times more than cross sales.
4. Displaying of “next model up” encourages people to take action towards expensive buying.
5. Information like ratings, reviews and product comparisons enhance chances of upsell.
6. Sections like “customer also bought” works well.
7. Upsell have contributed to 16% of the total order value.
8. Introduction of new offerings that can be sold at higher price can boost sales.

Augmented Reality

• AR offers a much richer buying experience.
• Inability to see the product is a major concern, AR bridges this gap and enable online shoppers to visualize product of their interest.
• Augmented reality acts as game changer.
• It helps in better understanding of products, and helps e-com sites to stand out of competition.
• Delivering personalized experience to consumers will provide better online shopping.
• Exploring and testing products is possible through AR.

Mobile Shopping 

Sales made via mobile devices came in at 2.66 trillion. Sales is expected to grow by 19% by 2022.

• Improving e-com experience for mobile users can be a huge opportunity.
• Increase in usage of mobile devices has driven e-com sales.
• Browsing history and research using cell phones leads to quick purchase.
• Customers start to feel more comfortable, shopping through mobile.
• With more and more sites, optimized for mobile use, e-com has become simpler and accessible for larger audience.

Conclusion

Whether taking advantage out of paid traffic, or email marketing or implementing upsell, whatever option one decides, success often relies on knowing your customer.

With advancement in technology and changes in customer behavior, these e-com trends have led to increase in sales.

Whatever trend you decide of adopting, aim at improving customer service and satisfaction, and building of long-lasting relationship.

Let’s take e-com evolution to next level, evolving side by side and take advantage of these trends.

“Being customer focused allows you to be more pioneering“