5 Strategies to Grow the Ecommerce Business Opportunities You’ll Pursue this Year
If you want your ecommerce store to thrive in 2020, you need to know the best strategies that you can implement to grow your store.
After all, with the number of prominent competitors around, you’ll need to ensure that you stand out, reach your target customers, expand your audience base, earn much, and more.
If you don’t leverage the right tactics, your competitors can easily push you out of the frontlines, outrun you in profitability, steal your customers, become more visible, and others.
You wouldn’t want that to happen, would you?
You probably don’t, which is why I’ve compiled five essential strategies to help you grow the ecommerce business opportunities that you plan to pursue this year.
Ready?
Let’s jump in.
1. Invest in robust cybersecurity.
If you want to avoid needless firefighting, then you need to invest early on in robust cybersecurity.
Data breaches, after all, have cost both big and small industries millions of dollars’ worth of financial, information, and reputational losses.
Hackers are not even showing signs of stopping but are constantly modernizing cyber threats and attacks they can unleash.
What you can do, among other things, is to educate your staff about cybersecurity.
For instance, you can train them on the best email security practices that include recognizing phishing and whaling techniques, strengthening passwords, and more.
You also need to install reliable IT infrastructure and enforce risk management measures, and cybersecurity and access governance policies for your executives and employees.
Plus, to do all that, you must allocate at least 7 to 10 percent of your company’s budget on cybersecurity.
Doing that can help you invest in critical preventive measures and respond to threats that may succeed in stealing your business assets.
2. Develop an eco-friendly brand.
Many consumers today have become more mindful about their shopping habits and how these impact the environment.
In fact, 87 percent of customers claim that they’ll be more likely to purchase products with environmental conservation causes and benefits.
Which is why, in 2020, you need to develop an eco-friendly brand.
You can do that by using environment- or animal-friendly ingredients or materials and indicating that on your website and packaging.
100 Percent Pure, which believes in environmental sustainability, exemplified that through icons, as seen below:
You can also choose a web design that expresses your support to environmental causes, as Dick Moby did in advocating sustainable fashion styles:
You can even mention how a portion of your customers’ payment goes to specific activities, like forest rehabilitation, coastal clean-ups, and others.
Just be sure to keep your support genuine because fake claims can damage your brand reputation and customer patronage.
3. Leverage visual content marketing.
Visuals are highly compelling materials for marketing your ecommerce store.
After all, statistics show that businesses leveraging custom visuals have conversion rates that are seven times higher than companies that don’t.
That said, one way to optimize your ecommerce website is through videos showcasing your products in various ways.
You can use videos to launch your new products, elaborate on your product features, teach your viewers on the best and proper way to use your products, and more.
Samsung, for instance, created a video that teaches its customers how they can set up call and text functionalities on their Galaxy tablet.
If your video is up on YouTube, you can embed it on your website to attract your visitors instantly.
Another type of visual content you can leverage is images — which can be in the form of infographics, product images, relevant quotes, and more.
Here’s an example by Rolex:
Rolex posts a stunning image of its Datejust 41 watch that impresses its audience and compels them to get one.
Visuals can also become excellent SEO-boosting tools, so remember to put the right keywords for your videos and images.
Optimize your visuals as well, so you retain their quality without hurting your site’s space and loading speed.
4. Set up an omnichannel strategy.
If your customers often transact with you from your mobile app, social media page, or other channels besides your website, then it’s essential that you establish an omnichannel strategy.
Omnichannel marketing is among the ecommerce trends for 2020.
With it, you can integrate the entire shopping experience seamlessly across all your channels, like social media pages, emails, website, mobile app, and your staff.
For instance, if your customer registers and books a hotel room on your app, he can visit your site, log in to his account, and call for other details, with your front-desk receptionist being fully aware of his transaction.
If you didn’t employ an omnichannel strategy, one or more of your channels, like your staff, will likely not receive information sent on other platforms, among others.
That results in frustrated customers who can cancel their reservation and even tell their friends not to go to your hotel.
In contrast, an omnichannel experience can bolster your customer satisfaction and patronage to your store, and more likely your sales and conversions, among others.
5. Create an eye-catching store design.
One of the quickest ways you can entice your visitors and customers to stay on your ecommerce store is through eye-catching designs.
If you’re the minimalist type, you can put plenty of whitespaces to steer your shoppers’ focus toward your product.
Here’s an example by Esqido:
Esqido highlights its eyeliners by showing them against a pastel blue background. The text is significantly smaller, so the store can wow you when you arrive there.
Brightly colored designs also excite your audience’s sights.
Take a look at Bon Bon Bon:
Bon Bon Bon’s homepage is a burst of colors, with its luscious treats on a large scale and set against a glittery pink hue, making your eyes pop (and your mouth water).
You can even merge a clean design with bright colors the way Poketo did:
Whatever approach you take, the important thing to remember is that your menus are logical, your visuals look neat, you send your message effectively, and that you stick to your branding identity.
When that happens, you keep your customers wanting more products that they can buy, increasing your sales, traffic, conversions, and more.
Bottomline
While the strategies above are far from being complete, applying them alone can do wonders for your ecommerce business.
You’d be able to generate loads of leads, sales, and even protect your business against cyber attacks, among other things.
If there are strategies that you think should be included in the list, feel free to add them below. Cheers!
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