By 2026, retail ecommerce sales are projected to reach more than $8.1 trillion — with even more growth projected in the future.
For many ecommerce businesses and startups, competing within an ever-growing marketplace can be intimidating and as the marketing continues to grow more and more saturating, finding your place may seem like a tall order.
The best way to separate yourself from the competition is to ensure that your website and your business are up-to-date on the latest ecommerce trends and best practices.
By crafting a modern business and marketing strategy, you can set yourself up for success and bring greater value to your customers.
Make Your Website Simple and Easy to Navigate
When crafting your ecommerce website design, make sure that it is streamlined, simple to read and easy to navigate.
Whether it is having to deal with slow loading times, overly dense imagery or difficult-to-find search bars and navigation bars, navigating a complex website can be challenging and lead to potential customers leaving before ever even looking at your products.
UX and UI optimization.
A streamlined user experience and interface is one of the most essential attributes of a successful ecommerce website.
By making each aspect of navigating your website — from landing pages to product pages — and understanding your products simpler, you can make it easy for potential customers to move from one product to the next.
The longer they are on your ecommerce site, the more likely they will purchase your products.
Prioritize High-Quality Customer Support
When building out an ecommerce website, make sure that you prioritize providing excellent, easily accessible customer service. This can include features such as 24/7 phone support, live chat on your website, equitable return policies or even a responsible email system.
With 81% of consumers saying a positive customer service experience increases the chances of them making a purchase, providing excellent customer support can be the difference that pushes potential customers over the finish line.
Create High-Quality Product Descriptions, Images and Videos
High-quality product descriptions, product images and videos are a fundamental part of a successful ecommerce website.
By optimizing these categories, you can increase conversion rates and SEO to bring greater eyes onto your page and, ultimately, more buyers looking to purchase.
Cultivate an Organic Marketing Strategy
With 33% of organic search traffic coming from the very first listings on Google, making sure that your ecommerce brand builds an organic presence online is critical to your long-term success.
To accomplish this, you should consider utilizing the following:
Build a blog.
Crafting blogs on a regular basis can go a long way toward establishing an organic marketing presence and building a strong following.
By optimizing your blog with search engine optimization (SEO) in mind, you can use the power of Google and keywords to bring more eyes to your page. The more people who read your blog posts, the more likely they are to convert into sellers and land on your ecommerce homepage.
Launch a podcast.
In 2022, there will be 140 million podcast listeners in the U.S., a number expected to rise to 164 million by 2024 — highlighting a remarkable opportunity for online companies nationwide.
Through the use of podcasts, ecommerce organizations can open themselves up to a broader base of customers and connect with them in a meaningful way while increasing traffic generation.
Start a YouTube channel.
YouTube is the second largest search engine online after Google, making it an ideal place to host your video content, from product demos to how-tos.
With a YouTube channel, you can enhance your multichannel marketing efforts to help bring more customers to your ecommerce store.
Invest in creating TikTok videos.
TikTok has quickly grown in the last few years into one of the world’s most downloaded social media apps, especially among members of the younger generations.
Even for those less up-to-date on recent social trends, TikTok could represent an opportunity for businesses to showcase their products and boost visibility within a rapidly growing customer base.
Post on Facebook and Instagram.
More than 2.7 billion people use Facebook every month, making it one of the behemoths of the entire internet. If you’re not participating in the platform, you’re missing out on a significant potential revenue stream and cutting off millions of buyers.
Through the use of Facebook Marketplace and Instagram Shop, you can expand your audience while boosting sales with a smooth, streamlined customer experience.
Work with Influencers
One of the fastest ways to drive sales and bring in revenue is to establish credibility and social proof within a market — and influencer marketing is a fantastic way to start.
With the help of influencer endorsements, you can create an excellent first impression, raising the value proposition of your offerings to help build trust and bring in new customers.
Get Featured on a Blog, Podcast or YouTube Channel
On the flip side of influencer marketing, one of the best ways to expand your brand presence is to participate with content creators on different platforms.
By partnering with high-traffic bloggers, podcasters or even YouTubers, you can take advantage of a pre-existing audience to highlight the capabilities of your solution — all while using the credibility of your partners to raise your own credibility.
Set Up an Email Strategy for Cart Abandonment
Building an email marketing campaign is one of the surest ways of driving traffic to your online store, whether reaching out to potential customers or enticing current ones towards new offerings and best sellers.
Additionally, through the use of shopping cart abandonment emails, you can remind buyers that they are close to the finish line or even present them with new offerings or discounts. Oftentimes, a simple reminder can be all it takes to convert a customer.
How to Increase Ecommerce Sales
Explore our collection of free resources designed to help you scale smarter and accelerate your online growth from $1 million to $100 million.
The Final Word
Finding success in the ecommerce marketplace can be a challenging and worrisome prospect, especially for organizations who are not quite sure where to start.
By incorporating ecommerce best practices and trends, you can ensure that you are giving yourself a headstart on the competition and setting yourself up for a profitable resubottom linelts.