No one can deny that ecommerce is where the future of business is at right now.
Ecommerce is fueled and propelled by the success of giants like Amazon and even relatively new players such as Warby Parker. Along with the relative ease and low cost it takes to set up shop, it’s no surprise that more people are getting into ecommerce. In fact, ecommerce sales are predicted to reach $4.48 billion by 2021. Which means that the market and potential for ecommerce continues to grow.
Before you get too excited thinking about all the cash you’ll make by starting an ecommerce venture, hold your horses. It has been found that 74% of internet startups usually fail. Besides having to think through every single business aspect of an ecommerce project, you also have to find ways to adapt to current trends to make your site discoverable and memorable by online shoppers.
The rapid growth of mobile ecommerce across the world has impacted growth opportunities in a hugely positive manner and has opened up incredible opportunities for ecommerce entrepreneurs. With smartphones becoming a powerful tool for consumers to purchase goods and services, retailers must be relentless in their efforts to find innovative ways of delivering personalized experiences. That will ensure another strong run of success for the industry for an extended period of time, even when the current global situation is not exactly conducive to normal business activities.
With that in mind, here are the top 10 selling essentials for ecommerce startups in 2020.
SEO is a must for every new and upcoming ecommerce business. Search Engine Journal said it best: 93% of all online activity begins with a search. SEO is the most basic (and the first) thing that you should work on when you start an ecommerce business.
There are many advantages to SEO:
SEO is a long-term investment. Know that once you implement SEO, you won't necessarily be experiencing its effects immediately but it is the gift that continues to give.
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If you haven't heard about social selling, according to Hootsuite, it is the “art of using social networks to find, connect with, understand, and nurture sales prospects.” Businesses that use their social media sites to connect with their customers are engaged in social selling even if they aren't aware of it just yet. Engaging and building relationships with prospects is a way to keep your business at the top of their minds until they're ready to take action.
Social selling is effective. 78% of salespeople that use social selling outsell their peers that don't. Besides offering the ability to nurture leads and build relationships with your prospects, social media has also become savvy enough to include integrated selling platforms. Platforms that can help you to take advantage of how people are engaged in social buying, like finding vendors and researching them by reading reviews.
By using these integrated platforms on social media sites, you're not only building and nurturing relationships but you’re also giving customers an alternative channel to purchase your product and an option to act immediately when they are interested.
Here are two social media platforms that integrate nicely with ecommerce:
Facebook is the largest social networking site, with 2.13 billion users (as of December 2017), with people spending about 40 minutes on the site each day. If you haven’t yet set up a Business Page on Facebook, you’re missing out on a huge opportunity - even in light of their recent organic zero news feed change.
If your ecommerce shop has a Facebook Business page, you can use it to create ads, but the Facebook Shop tab will be available to you as well. All you have to do is add it to your page, setup your shop details, configure payment methods, then add products. Once completed, you’re ready to sell on Facebook!
Facebook’s sister site also has an ecommerce selling counterpart called Instagram shoppable posts. They were borne out of the clamor that it was hard to purchase products from within the app. In the past, users who clicked on Instagram’s singular clickable bio link were redirected to an external browser displaying the company’s website, which would disrupt the seamless experience shops were aiming for.
Instagram introduced the shoppable feed, which users can differentiate from other Instagram posts due to the shopping bag icon at the bottom left (when appearing on the feed) or at the top right (when appearing on the profile).
Users can tap the image to see the details, and when they tap on the product details tag, they will be led to a page within Instagram where they can see more information about the product. They can also directly tap on the “Shop Now” button to take them directly to the company website to complete a purchase.
Instagram shoppable posts are just like normal Instagram posts that you can promote to show up on others’ feeds. Note that this is only applicable for Instagram Business accounts.
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Video, which was touted as the “next mega trend” (after mobile) by none other than Mark Zuckerberg, is particularly effective when used in ecommerce. 90% of consumers say videos are helpful when deciding to make purchases online. And 64% say that they are more likely to make a purchase after watching a video.
Video is easily shareable, which is a win for your marketing efforts. For example, if you share a video that customers find and like, they might also share the video themselves, getting more eyes on it with few (if any) costs on your part (thanks to the generation of organic traffic). If you're targeting a younger demographic, video is where it’s at - younger people watch more video than TV.
Also, video contributes to your SEO efforts: research has shown that Google favors sites with video (ideally hosted by YouTube, a Google product), putting those sites on top of search engine results.
If you want to get started on video but don't know how, it’s important to realize that you don’t necessarily need to shoot fresh video. There are video software tools like Animoto (which helps you easily create animated videos) that offer a bunch of templates you can use to scale this process - especially if you have a lot of products to show off!
An automated email marketing software tool can be extremely useful to ecommerce shops. You will be using this tool to inform and contact customers about new arrivals, promotions, and sales.
Email is 40x more effective in selling compared to social networks because it goes straight to your customer’s inbox - no need to worry about organic reach, or a lack thereof. Because of this, email has a 3800% ROI. Besides encouraging sales, you should also use email as a relationship building tool.
Here are some email types you might want to setup within your automated email tool:
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With more than half of people accessing the internet through mobile phones, and Google’s recent announcement that mobile page load speed will be search ranking factor, optimizing your ecommerce shop for mobile is more important now than ever.
Since ecommerce shops involve large media files like photos and videos, you should also opt to use an image optimizer to help make your site load faster. BigCommerce offers the Akamai Image Manager, which automatically optimizes your images when you use their platform.
Repeat customers spend 67% more than new customers, which is why it is important to setup customer loyalty programs to retain those customers. Community building programs, on the other hand, is how a small business transcends being competitive and becomes relevant.
Startups can hardly afford to build and maintain a huge inventory. It is natural for startup ecommerce businesses to invest in stocks that they are sure will sell but in limited quantities. A larger inventory is certainly not advisable especially when you know that you are up against formidable competitors. In such situations, it is not uncommon to face out-of-stock situations on specific products. This can be extremely frustrating.
There is a solution to this problem that’s common among ecommerce startups. There are plugins and apps available that allow you to pre-order and pay for a product even if it is out of stock. This facility can be provided to your customers with a note of caution about the time-frame for shipping the product. This will give you some leverage and also help your customers decide whether they want to place an order or skip it.
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As mentioned above, for any business to be successful, you must get your customers to repeat their purchases and as frequently as possible for added benefits. When you are in a highly competitive business domain such as ecommerce, you simply must find a way to convince your customers to come back and shop for their needs from your online store.
Ecommerce start-ups can make use of an effective referral and reward system. When done right, it can help spread the word about your business fast. Choose reward tools that can be customized to create a better impact. There are many reward tools available for incentivizing customers for tasks such as sharing and promoting your campaigns, discounts, offers, and product pages.
How many products are you offering to your customers through your startup store? If the products list is limited, then there are limited opportunities to cross-sell but if you have a wider range to offer, then you should definitely have a go at cross-selling and up-selling. The ‘You might also like’ line is unlikely to be missed by shoppers, especially if it is peppered with some hi-definition images and catchy descriptions.
It is a great idea to integrate your website with proven product management apps and plugins as it allows you to showcase some extra offerings such as gift-wrapping, add-ons like matching accessories, custom logo and messages, and so on. This creates the chance to upsell the product.
Another effective upselling strategy is to list your most popular, fastest-selling, and budget-friendly products in separate sections. Just ensure that they are neatly categorized as well and you are ready to go.
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Your startup needs all the exposure possible to reach out to a wider audience and improve sales potential. However, boosting conversions can be a huge challenge. There is a solution to this problem. Many ecommerce enterprises are using SEO-friendly review scores to get their website on the top pages of Google search results.
You can get some good review scores by using an effective management review app. Such apps can provide support for structured data also known as microdata. Your score’s aggregate review score is added and displayed in search results, boosting the chances of your website being discovered by relevant audiences.
Ecommerce shops are growing in popularity because they are easy to setup and require low capital and overhead costs. The industry is growing at a galloping pace globally with demand going through the roof. Consumers are discovering the convenience of ordering almost everything they need by using this stress-free method of shopping. This obviously means that there is a growing demand for more online retail stores. Like any other industry, newcomers to the world of ecommerce are most likely to face certain challenges in the areas of management and operations.
But because of their popularity as a modern business venture, it can be harder for businesses to sustain successful operations - especially with so many shops coming into the market. This is why ecommerce stores need to up their game when it comes to getting the word out.
