How to boost your e-commerce site sales (+ 8 essential tools)
This morning, you connect to the e-commerce CMS with which you created your website, and make the same observation as the day before: the sales you make on it are still not up to your expectations.
No reason to be discouraged! The challenge of running a website today is more than ever - but there are levers to activate to boost your results.
To help you, we have gathered for you the keys to boost the sales of your e-commerce site, as well as 8 tools to use to do so.
Enjoy your reading, and the performance is yours!
Reminder : What is e-commerce ?
We call "e-commerce" or "electronic commerce" the fact of selling via an online store, a dedicated application, or even social networks, its products or services.
In this sense, any organization can become an e-business. It is then a matter of choosing its online sales channels, and designing a store that resembles a physical store, by highlighting its offers in an attractive way, and by creating a fluid purchase path on the Internet, until the final transaction.
What are the challenges of e-commerce sites today?
Creating an online store is full of challenges on a daily basis. Whether you are already a seasoned e-merchant, or you are just launching your online store, you may encounter the following challenges
Benefit from a real online visibility
Driven by the digitalization of consumer practices, but also by the successive confinements, which have pushed traditional retailers to launch online sales, e-commerce has exploded in recent years. And who says explosion of the online sale, necessarily says increased competition, and this, in all the sectors of activity!
Where the competition is really hard is on the visibility that your e-commerce site can get online. On all communication channels where your targets are, your competitors develop strategies to highlight their offers: search engine results, social networks, digital advertising ...
This will motivate you to set up a strategy that includes all the potential levers of visibility, and that will make your site's e-reputation shine.
Convert visitors efficiently
Once your visitors are attracted to the site, it is a matter of convincing them to buy your products or services online. And here again, the task is not as simple as it seems. Consumers are becoming increasingly suspicious of their online purchases: not only security, but also the customer experience they are offered, is scrutinized before they click the "Buy" button.
That's why you can't do without thinking about your user experience, which must be fluid and, above all, reassure your potential customers that your site is reliable.
One of the keys to meeting this challenge is to integrate quality content into your site, which allows you to reassure people about the quality of the products, but also about the security of their payment and delivery.
Also be careful to set up an optimal user experience (UX). Work on the layout of your e-commerce store, on the elements that must attract the eye, on the personalization of the recommended products... Remember that you are facing consumers who are more and more demanding as to the quality of the shopping experience they have, both offline andonline!
Retain highly volatile customers
Another consequence of the extreme competition in the e-commerce sector is the increasing difficulty to retain customers who, if they have so much choice online, can easily "go elsewhere". And, when we know that selling to an existing customer costs much less than reaching a new customer, we know how crucial it is to develop a real e-commerce customer loyalty strategy.
To do this, you will need to continue to attract your customers to your e-commerce site after their purchase. You can for example offer them quality newsletters, or attractive promotional campaigns.
Don't forget to take care of your after-sales service and your order returns. These are elements that are often neglected by e-tailers, but that can quickly contribute to the experience of your customers, making them true ambassadors of your offers.
Fighting against the web giants
It's a fact: GAFA are invading everywhere. Google is making sure that less and less people go out of its search results, which is detrimental to the visibility of online e-commerce sites. Amazon is the first marketplace in the world, and brings a huge traffic to the catalog of products offered on it. Facebook, as well as other social networks, are developing their own marketplaces, where consumers don't even have to leave the platform to buy their products.
This is a challenge that creates a complex competitive environment for e-tailers. That's why many of them decide to use GAFA's e-commerce platforms to their advantage, by making their products available on Amazon, running ads on Google Shopping, or creating their Instagram Shopping store.
In short, creating an e-commerce site is no longer enough: you need to develop a real brand image, which will compete with pure players with flawless user experiences!
Develop an omnichannel strategy
For e-retailers who also have physical stores, it is crucial to develop an omnichannel customer experience. What does this mean? Quite simply, a consistent company experience across all customer touch points, whether they buy online or offline.
To do this, your marketing and communication must be consistent across all these touch points. You must put forward the same values of your brand, the same visual identity, or similar prices.
How can an e-commerce marketing strategy help you boost your online business?
Fortunately, in the face of these common problems, a well thought-out e-commerce marketing strategy can help you become a true web ace. Here are a few things to consider in order to get the best out of it.
Online visibility on all channels where your targets are located
To ensure that your potential customers find their way to your e-commerce website, you must of course work on the natural referencing (SEO) of your pages. The idea: to go up in the results of search engines, on keywords related to your business, thanks to quality content.
But also make sure to integrate other levers to be visible online into your e-commerce marketing strategy, such as :
- The social networks where your customers get information: Facebook, Instagram, TikTok...
- Reviews from your satisfied customers, on verified review platforms and on your website
- A newsletter and promotional emailing
- Online advertising, on Google Ads or on social media...
If it is relevant to your target profile, don't hesitate to deploy a marketing plan on offline channels. Display or DOOH can pay off to attract traffic to your online store.
Improving your conversion rates with compelling content
At the heart of any e-commerce digital marketing strategy is relevant content, which aims to convince your targets to click "Buy".
But also take the time to include in your strategy an analysis of your UX (user experience) and UI (user interface). This includes analyzing the placement of different elements on your pages, making sure that navigation on your online store is smooth, or that all your key marketing messages are visible at a glance.
Levers to keep your customers satisfied as they should be
In your e-commerce marketing strategy, you will also integrate all the web levers that allow you to retain your customers:
- A newsletter strategy that engages your targets even after they have purchased
- Blog posts that reveal trends and tips for using your products
- A loyalty program with regular attractive promotions...
A brand image and a community to face the GAFA
Setting up a marketing strategy also means taking an interest in your brand image and the values you convey when selling your products. If GAFA did not succeed in obtaining the absolute monopoly of ecommerce, it is because other merchant sites put forward ethical and social values (related to CSR) that the web giants cannot hold!
To face them, you can also work on creating communities, on social networks or around a high value blog space, where your customers feel included in the story and the life of your brand.
A well-honed omnichannel strategy
By developing an omnichannel marketing strategy, you ensure that your brand messages, pricing, and product promises are consistent across all your potential sales channels.
But you can also look into developing a drive-to-store strategy, which allows you to attract your customers to the store, especially through a local SEO strategy.
And now, a riddle: what is at the center of a good e-commerce web marketing strategy? Content, of course!
8 ideas to modernize your website content and boost your sales
Let's discover the tips that will help you modernize your e-commerce brand communication, thanks to relevant and innovative content.
Designing modern product sheets
You probably already know: a basic product sheet must include at least precise information about your product, photos that allow the customer to project himself in his purchase, and clear prices and conditions of return and delivery...
What if you were to innovate a little more on your product sheets? You can for example...
- Use a 360° visualization tool, to give an even more immersive view of your products
- Integrate content that allows you to compare the different features or prices offered in a visual way
Using video
It's a fact: video is the ideal format to humanize your e-commerce brand image, and use storytelling to create emotion, in order to create the desire to buy.
In the form of a customer testimonial on your product pages, to present your company's values on your About page, to give advice on how to use your products on your FAQ page... Video is protean by nature, and can be used at every stage of your e-commerce purchase path. Think about it!
Focus on interactive content
We call "interactive content" the type of content where the visitor must be engaged, click and think, to view it. It gives a personalized feel to the experience your customers have on your site, and contributes to a good UX.
For example, why not offer a quiz to your customers that helps them choose the right product for their needs? Or a return on investment calculator, for a particularly expensive product?
Set up a high value-added newsletter
This advice seems basic, and yet, many e-commerce sites have not mastered the art of the newsletter. Here, we are not only talking about an email that dispenses promotional offers or news related to your products, but also aboutan email that gives your targets keys to use your products or to keep up to date with trends in your sector. In short, think added value first!
Be sure to personify your brand, using a recipient who actually works at your company. Also make sure to use storytelling to engage your targets when reading your newsletters.
Streamline your navigation with a chatbot
A chatbot, when well designed, answers the questions most frequently asked by users in a dynamic way. It thus takes over from a FAQ page that remains static and not very engaging.
So think about developing your chatbot, so that it adopts a tone consistent with the one you use in your other content. Make sure that it gives a real added value to your e-commerce site - it should not only send your visitors to your Frequently Asked Questions, but also help them navigate through your site.
Integrate social proof into your website
To go through with their purchase, today's consumers need to be reassured about the quality of your products and services. And to do this, they consult reviews from existing customers: this is what we call social proof.
So make sure you put testimonials and customer reviews on your website. And to go further, why not also integrate User Generated Content ? This is the content that your customers create about your brand on social networks, in the form of social media posts. Nothing like it to reassure your visitors, and boost your conversion rates!
Implementing an influencer marketing strategy
In the same vein as social proof, influencer marketing is a winning strategy for e-commerce. By launching aninfluencer marketing campaign on social networks, you offer promotional codes that your influencers share with their audience. To do so, be careful to choose influencers who share your brand's DNA.
You can then highlight on your website the content created by these influencers. Display on your homepage or product pages the Social Media posts (visuals, videos, etc.) that have been produced by these influencers: you will see your conversion climb.
Use the web story format in a relevant way
If you haven't heard of web stories yet, you're missing out on an opportunity to modernize your website's content in a simple way! Web stories are short mobile-friendly contents that combine several forms of content (text, image, GIFs, links, quiz...). They are quite similar to the stories that can be found on Instagram or Facebook, except that they belong to you, are not ephemeral, and you can integrate them into your website.
Web stories are a great way to :
- Boost your SEO strategy, and therefore your visibility, since they are optimizable and indexable by search engines
- Improve the user experience of your site, by integrating dynamic and innovative content
- Reassure your prospects and customers on your e-commerce site, by putting forward social proof(User Generated Content or influencer marketing posts)
For example, integrate a web story on your product sheets, where customers describe how they use your products, and help your visitors to project themselves in their purchases. Or integrate it into your FAQ page, to highlight key information related to your e-commerce site in a digestible way.
Need to know more than this innovative format? Discover 12 ways to use web stories in your growth strategy.
The 7 essential tools to create the content of your e-commerce site
You've come up with a lot of good ideas to create content that will modernize your e-commerce site. What if you added the following 7 to your marketing toolbox?
An SEO tool
To boost the sales of your e-commerce site through content, you have seen that SEO has a predominant place: that of making your pages visible in search engine results.
To do this, you need an SEO tool, which helps you to use the whole latent semantic field that Google uses to classify your web pages in its search results.
Tools to consider:
An interactive content tool
Do you want to make your site more dynamic, and boost the time spent on your pages, thanks to interactive content? Equip yourself with one or more tools allowing you to create quizzes, interactive videos, games, or even calculators to be integrated into your site.
Tools to consider:
- Typeform, to create surveys and quizzes where you can put forward interactive media
- Genial.ly, to design interactive presentations and infographics
A chatbot tool
To boost the sales of your online store, your chatbot must absolutely be finely tuned, according to the content of your site and the tone of your brand. Many tools to design a chatbot exist: make sure that the one you use allows you to create a quality chatbot.
Tools to consider:
- HubSpot chatbot, for a free chatbot
- Crisp, for a customer relationship oriented chatbot
- Botsify, to use Artificial Intelligence for your conversational agent
A newsletter tool
You've understood it: the newsletter is a key lever to build loyalty among your targets, and boost the sales you make with these satisfied customers. However, to do so, you need an adapted emailing tool, which allows you to design attractive newsletters, and which has automation options(marketing automation).
Tools to consider:
A tool for harvesting User Generated Content
To use your User Generated Content on your website, it's crucial to have a tool that allows you to create social media feeds, based on mentions of your brand hashtag or mentions on social networks. Also make sure that this tool allows you to get permission from your targets to harvest this UGC - and you'll have social proof built right into your e-commerce site!
Tools to consider:
A video creation tool
Creating professional quality videos in-house, without using an agency, and without specific technical skills: it's possible! To do so, you need to find an easy-to-use tool that offers customizable templates from which to create your content.
Tools to consider:
A tool for creating web stories
Do you want to surf on the emerging trend of web stories to boost the efficiency of your website? That's exactly what JOIN Stories offers you, with its easy-to-use drag-and-drop platform and What You See Is What You Get. The customizable templates included in the tool allow you to start from trendy web stories canvas, with a modern design, for efficient web stories created in no time!
Discover now how to turn your visitors into buyers with JOIN Stories.
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