The number of Americans shopping online has been increasing progressively over the past 5 years. In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic came along and ruined lives and the economy, but one positive thing happened: ecommerce sales accelerated.
With this growth, it’s easy to think that eCommerce businesses are killing it. Well, giant stores like Amazon are on a home run, but there are thousands that are struggling to make a sale.
If yours is one of those that are barely staying afloat, help is on the way. Continue reading for a list of things you can do to improve your eCommerce sales:
1. Figure Out Why Your Sales Are Low
You know the old saying: If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
And what if it’s broken? You don’t abandon it. You fix what’s broken.
This can be applied in the operations of an ecommerce business or any business for that matter. If your ecommerce sales are refusing to pick up, there’s a reason. Something is broken somewhere. Figure it out.
This typically involves doing a comprehensive audit of your operations. Sometimes you might need to hire an ecommerce expert to assess your business and attempt to get to the bottom of the cause.
In most instances, though, ecommerce shops that are struggling to sell usually have an inferior product, or a product that the market doesn’t need or want.
Whatever is behind your poor sales, once you know it, it’s easier to implement the necessary changes.
2. Highly Optimize Your Ecommerce Store for Search Engines
The vast majority of consumers in the U.S. shop online. You know this. What you probably don’t know is how they find the shops selling the product or services they want to purchase.
A good number begin their search on Amazon, but also another good number start their search on a search engine like Google or Bing.
You can say that the ones beginning their search on Amazon want to buy from Amazon or an Amazon store, so if your business isn’t on Amazon, there’s little you can do to attract such a customer.
However, those beginning their search on search engines are fair game: you have almost as much chance of getting these customers as your competitors.
The big question is: how do you get them?
Easy. Optimize your eCommerce website for search engines. How to do this is a whole new subject, but the meat of it is you need to build a responsive site and optimize your page and title tags, and product descriptions around your keywords.
An ecommerce site that’s optimized for search will show up higher on search engine results. This increases its visibility and the quantity of traffic it gets from organic searches.
3. Keep Building an Ecommerce Brand
Do you know the reasons millions of people go straight to Amazon’s website instead of starting their search on a search engine? Brand awareness.
Of course, you could argue that Amazon is so big everybody knows about it, but it didn’t get here overnight. It transitioned from being just an online store into an ecommerce brand.
You too need to build an ecommerce brand. Everything from your business name, logo, mission, vision statement and even user experience goes into your brand.
The problem with some ecommerce store owners is they abandon their brand development task as soon as the business starts operating.
Yet, brand development isn’t a short-term task. It’s a long-term effort geared toward creating a brand that customers will not only recognize easily but also love.
4. Use Social Media Ads for Quick Results
Sometimes you want a quick boost in your sales volume.
This is where social media ads come in handy.
As an ecommerce store, you probably have a social media presence. Along with organic search traffic, social media is a big source of traffic for ecommerce sites.
However, there’s only so much you can achieve with organic social media traffic. When you want to turbo-charge your sales, use social media ads. In particular, ecommerce ads for Facebook can deliver impressive results because Facebook is the biggest social media network.
That being said, pouring money into social ads doesn’t guarantee you quick results, let alone any positive results. You must know how to run an effective ad campaign that laser-targets your prospective customers.
Various social media platforms have different attributes when it comes to ad campaigns. Ensure you’re hiring a professional who’s proficient with the site you want to run your ads on.
5. Act on Your Customers’ Feedback
Once a consumer lands on an eCommerce store after doing an online search, the deal isn’t sealed yet. The web is full of con artists masquerading as eCommerce businesses, so the buyer is cautious not to get scammed.
This is why you’ll always find a buyer doing more research before settling on an eCommerce store. They’ll look up online reviews and ratings to see what people who have interacted with the store are saying.
As a business owner, these reviews are ratings and are your feedback. They indicate whether you’re doing a good job of messing things up.
If you’re receiving lots of negative feedback from customers, act on it before it’s too late to steady that sinking ship.
If customers are saying you’ve lengthy shipping times, for example, work to offer quick deliveries. If other customers are saying your product is low-quality, work to improve its quality.
You Can Get Your Dwindling or Stagnant Ecommerce Sales Rising
At a time when almost everyone is shopping online, your eCommerce sales should be trending upwards. If they aren’t, something is wrong. With this guide, you now know some of the steps you can take to boost your sales.
Running a successful eCommerce business is a full-time job, so keep reading our blog to gain more knowledge.
