10 tips to Succeed with your Retail eCommerce

The success of a Retail eCommerce can be difficult to achieve because there is a lot of competition, purchasing decisions are based on emotions, and perhaps it is the industry with the most demand in design and image.

This complexity is also reflected in the sales figures of the shopping cart, one of the most important variables of an ecommerce. For example, according to a report by Business Insider, the abandonment of the shopping cart is exponentially increases every year and represents more than $4 trillion in uncompleted purchases. An Statista study, illustrates some of the most common causes: 25 percent of users leave shopping carts due to complicated navigation, 21 percent because the process of order takes too long, and 15 percent because the website is out of order.

However, as there are challenges there are also opportunities. The growing influence of mobile devices is an opportunity no retailer can afford to ignore. The company eMarketer estimates 25 per cent of eCommerce sales will be made from mobile devices. This data will translate into billions of dollars and will continue to increase year on year.

Having said all this, these are a few general considerations that you should include in your strategy. Having a successful eCommerce strategy requires a comprehensive marketing plan. Here are 11 tips that can help you differentiate yourself from your competition and turn your website into your most profitable sales channel:

1. Trust and Retain Your Customers

No matter what your industry is, the customer should always be at the center of your strategy since ultimately, your efforts are for them. According to the Harvard Business Review, it can cost between 5 and 25 percent more to acquire new customers than it does to keep existing ones. We often believe making loyalty strategies requires complex procedures and high budgets, but it's often easier than we think. Something as simple as a reminder and a discount on your client's birthday makes a great difference between you and your competition.

2. Mobile Strategy

Whether it's through a responsive web design strategy or through an App, it's very important that your company has optimized your eCommerce to be viewed from a phone, tablet or desktop. It's very likely the first consultations in your site be from a tablet or smartphone, so your eCommerce site should be easy to interact with any device.

3. Be the #1 on Google and Bing

Search engine optimization (SEO) is another critical component of your ecommerce strategy, after all, if it's hard to find your website on the first page of Google, how do you expect to make significant sales? Doing SEO on websites or eCommerce requires a lot of time, patience and executing different strategies. Work with an SEO consultant to make sure that his page is optimized for each product. In addition to the meta tags that provide search engines with the information, you must to properly index your product pages.

4. Integrations With Other Systems

As nice as your eCommerce looks, it is not likely to succeed if you don't integrate different systems that are vital to properly automate your eCommerce. The main integrations should be: inventory system, billing system, databases, schedule, processes and business rules, shipping system (shipping CRM), and online payment methods.

5. Marketing Campaigns Through Your eCommerce

It is very important to keep your brand active through your digital channels. For eCommerce, it is important to make use of discount coupons, wish lists, free shipping promotions, promotions "Take x pay y" and others. Never go without posting an activation for a month.

6. Define Your Buyer Persona

Many of the marketing strategies fail because companies don't really (and objectively) know who their main client is. Buyer persona exercises will help you define your target customer, this customer's preferences, customer lifestyle, and other variables to help you create better strategies for this segment.

7. Service

Nothing frustrates a customer more than bad customer service. Is your eCommerce really an eCommerce or is it a simple website with a shopping cart? An eCommerce is a system that automates complete end-to-end processes in marketing, sales, and customer service processes. If your eCommerce does not have a service module...., you no  not have an eCommerce. According to the Wall Street Journal, about one-third of all online transactions are returned. If possible, have customer service agents available 24 hours a day to handle and resolve customer inquiries. Excellent customer support can significantly shorten the sales cycle and gain customer loyalty

8. Simple but Recurrent Processes 

Schedule, in your eCommerce, purchase reminders or promotions according to time rules. These reminders should be linked to the purchase the customer has made. For example, if a customer purchased baby products, you may want to schedule a product promotion rule for 2-3-year olds 12 months after purchase.

9. Confidence - Image + Design

If you are looking to buy a product and you enter an unprofessional, lousy-looking page with less than optimal product descriptions and images, would you feel encouraged to make a purchase through it or would you rather confide in Amazon? The secret to a many successful eCommerce sites is not necessarily the popular logo at the top of the site but rather the feeling of trust and reliability the page delivers. You are not likely to be successful with a site that has not been updated in months, nor will you be likely to succeed if you fail to currently make attractive promotions.

10. The Basics of All eCommerce

It is essential that your site has:

• SSL security certificate.
• Define an Inventory Manegement prrocess.
• SEO *this it's non-negotiable!
• Updated content every month. Ideally, create an inbound marketing strategy.
• A private virtual server is ALWAYS going to have a better result in Google searches than hosting.
• A URL strategy based on languages and regions.

Now that you have a better understanding of the elements needed to improve your eCommerce efforts, feel free to consult with an eCommerce expert. Talk to a specialist today about building your eCommerce to grow your business or visit our page for a view.