Starting an ecommerce business can be an exciting and challenging venture.
While many factors contribute to the success of an online store, there are tried and true strategies that can help grow your ecommerce business to nauseous heights.
That’s what we will cover in this guide.
Whether you’re just starting or looking to take your ecommerce business to the next level, these tips will help you reach your goals and achieve long-term success.
1. Offer free shipping
Free shipping is a tried and tested shipping strategy for small businesses—it can be a significant incentive for customers to purchase.
In a survey conducted by Epsilon, 63% of online shoppers said that free shipping was the number one incentive to shop online more often.
Even if your ecommerce business is relatively new in your industry, offering free shipping can help you compete with other, more established retailers.
Other benefits of offering free shipping are:
- Improved customer satisfaction. Customers often see shipping costs as an added expense they don’t want to pay. Offering free shipping can enhance their overall satisfaction since it’s one less thing they can avoid paying.
- Increase customer loyalty. Show care and gratitude to your customers by offering free shipping. When you offer free shipping, you’ll get more repeat purchases. The more your customers transact with you, the closer your attachment to your ecommerce brand becomes.
2. Diversify your product line
Consider adding new or related products to your inventory to appeal to a broader range of customers.
Diversifying product line help mitigate risks. If you only offer a few products and one of them becomes unpopular or goes out of style, it could have a catastrophic impact on your business.
Diversifying helps spread out the risks, making your ecommerce more resilient.
What’s more, diversifying helps you stand out from your competitors. If your competitors only offer one type of product, yet you offer several products that complement each other, purchasing your brand becomes an even more attractive prospect for your audience.
For example, if you’re selling skincare products, you can also offer haircare, makeup, or other body care products. That way, when your customers shop for skincare products, they won’t have to visit a different store to buy other body care products. Your ecommerce business becomes a one-stop-shop for people looking for healthcare products.
3. Put a premium on hiring the right people
If you want to avoid needless headaches and costly firefighting, then be insanely meticulous about who you hire.
According to a study by the Workforce Solutions Group, companies with a strong employee selection process experience 50% lower turnover and 35% higher productivity compared to companies with a weak selection process.
The 50% lower turnover and a 35% increase in productivity should give you a solid mental picture of what your company will enjoy and miss out on if you hire the wrong people.
Consider using BambooHR, a human resource information system (HRIS), to simplify your hiring and HR tasks. BambooHR has several competitors, but they’re undoubtedly one of the best in the market.
Below are some of its crucial features:
- Employee profiles. BambooHR provides a central location where you can store and access your employee information, including contact information, job titles, salary, and benefits. This makes it easy to keep track of your employee data and access it whenever necessary.
- Time tracking. BambooHR offers a time-tracking feature that allows you to track the hours your employees work and generate reports on their time spent on various projects. This can help you improve your project planning and budgeting.
- Performance evaluations. BambooHR offers tools for creating and conducting performance evaluations, including customizable evaluation forms and the ability to track and store feedback. This can help you track the progress and development of your employees and identify areas for improvement.
4. Implement upselling and cross-selling techniques
Offer related or complementary products to customers during the checkout process to increase the average order value.
For example, if your customer purchases a blender, you can upsell a higher-end model with additional features for a slightly higher price.
An example of cross-selling would be to sell a matching pair of shoes or a handbag to a customer who bought a dress.
In both examples, your ecommerce store’s profitability increases since your customers pay more.
Before you fire up your upselling and cross-selling strategies, consider these crucial dos and don’ts.
Dos:
- Offer relevant and complementary products or services that align with the customer’s needs and interests.
- Use language and techniques that focus on the benefits and value the additional products or services will provide to the customer.
- Use data and customer insights to personalize and tailor your cross-selling and upselling efforts.
- Be transparent and honest about the costs and terms of any additional products or services offered.
- Thank the customer for considering the additional products or services and follow up to see if they have any questions or need further assistance.
Don’ts:
- Refrain from being pushy or aggressive in your cross-selling and upselling efforts.
- Don’t try to sell products or services that are not relevant or useful to the customer.
- Don’t make false or exaggerated claims about the benefits of the additional products or services.
- Don’t try to upsell or cross-sell to customers who have explicitly stated that they are not interested.
- Don’t neglect to provide excellent customer service and support to all customers, regardless of whether they make additional purchases.
5. Use data to make informed decisions
Using data to make informed decisions is important because it allows ecommerce store owners to base their decisions on objective, verifiable information rather than subjective opinions or guesses.
Data provides a clear picture of what is happening within a business and helps identify trends, patterns, and areas for improvement.
It allows businesses to make informed, evidence-based decisions that are more likely to lead to success.
Using data to make decisions also helps businesses to be more efficient and effective.
By analyzing data, ecommerce store owners can identify and prioritize the most important issues and allocate resources accordingly.
It also helps to minimize the risk of making costly mistakes by providing a clear understanding of the potential outcomes of different decisions.
6. Invest in social media marketing
According to Instagram, 60% of its users say they have learned about a product or service on the platform.
Considering that Instagram has 1 billion monthly active users, which was back in 2021, you miss out big time if your ecommerce business is nowhere visible on the platform.
That’s just Instagram, of course.
How about the millions of users on Facebook, TikTok, Twitter, etc., that you could target?
TL;DR: Be present on social media platforms. You miss out big time if you aren’t selling on social media sites.
To streamline your social media marketing initiatives, consider using top-of-the-line social media marketing tools.
SocialPilot, Hootsuite, and Vista Social are among the best in the market.
Vista Social, for example, is generating a lot of buzz because of the myriad of modern, unique features it offers that are comparable, or even better, than its competitors.
The best part, Vista Social only charges $3 per social media profile, making them so much more affordable. (Vista Social’s competitors have higher monthly fees and charges per seat—which easily skyrockets their users’ monthly payments.)
Take your ecommerce business to the next level.
The strategies above are proven and tested by countless ecommerce store owners.
However, for the tips to work, you need to implement them first and make logical adjustments based on the results you generate.
If you build upon the strategies above, you are bound to grow your ecommerce business.