Online shopping is now more popular than ever. Due to the growth and penetration of technology to nearly every corner of the globe and among nearly every country and culture, an online lifestyle has become more important than ever. People busy with their everyday lives, running from one errand to another can easily browse a selection of goods and services in whatever sectors they wish to, and order them from the safety and comfort of their own homes or even in transit, at the click of a button. The length and breadth of online offerings are continuously growing, and more and more businesses are finding it an extremely beneficial market to be in. But with the growth of the online shopping community there is an exponential growth in the number of e-commerce shops that are appearing as well. With countless options literally at their fingertips how can you entice customers to visit your online store and spend their money with you?
Attractive storefront and a highly UX oriented design
The primary way your customers will identify you and want to work with you is through your website and online store. Having a beautiful website and store front is a great way to advertise your products and convince your customers how quality-conscious you are. A potential customer coming to a web store built without proper UX in mind, is likely to leave as fast due to the sheer frustration of trying to find and purchase something.
The primary way your customers will identify you is through your website and online store.
It is important to remember that you are not only looking at the colours and graphics of your site and store but are looking at the overall experience a user will have when making a purchase. From the time they enter your website, navigation, search, ability to see pictures and descriptions of products, product categorising, ease of finding a product, and ease of making a purchase will play a large role in influencing a customer to make a purchase and recommend your store to others.
In addition to this, build their confidence and establish your authenticity by including a business summary, contact details, reviews from previous customers, etc.
Boost your social media presence and SEO
Social media plays such a large role in influencing customers, that being an influencer has become an extremely lucrative profession. While you may not be looking at investing in an influencer to increase your market share, you can certainly benefit from making your brand known on social platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and blogging etc. These platforms also provide a great way to interact with your customers and also work as a more personal and human side of your online presence. You can even encourage people to be brand ambassadors by creating fun events and hashtags that grow organically or by encouraging people to use your hashtags when leaving reviews or comments on their posts. Having attractive and striking posts on social media is a great way to boost your store's traffic, as customers will be encouraged to visit your website, and to also share your posts with friends and family on their own accounts. To maintain your presence, make sure you post regularly, even daily if possible, make your posts interesting and striking using graphics whenever possible. Engage with customers who respond to your content, and post on multiple platforms for better reach.
You can even encourage people to be brand ambassadors by creating fun events and hashtags that grow organically.
Search engine optimization is another way to ensure that your business gets the coverage it deserves. Many customers count on popular search engines to find items they are looking for. Ensure that your store has a noticeable presence on search engines to drive more customers your way.
Maintain your ranking by having a website and blog optimised for SEO with quality content and no grammatical errors. This will help search engines to recognise your website as an authentic business.
Customer reviews, ratings and testimonials
As briefly mentioned earlier, customer reviews are a great way to boost confidence in your store and products. People tend to be more comfortable buying and trying a product that has a perceived history of being successful. For example, when visiting an online store like Amazon, we would not be too happy to purchase a product with a one-star rating.
People are more comfortable buying products that have a perceived history of being successful.
You can also encourage people to review your products on their social media platforms while using your hashtags and tagging in your website to further spread brand awareness. Some users will even post photos or videos of themselves using your products, if these reviews are positive, they will go a long way in promoting your brand. Make sure you pay attention to customer reviews. Thank people for positive reviews and respond immediately to anything negative and help sort out any issue customers may have had. Having good reviews about your store and its products is one of the best ways to advertise your brand as something that can be trusted and it will help build your brand loyalty.
Look after your customers
The best brand ambassadors are satisfied customers. Great customer care is not only a good way of retaining your existing customers but also of making sure that they bring more customers to the fold by word-of-mouth. People are much more willing to trust the reviews of a friend or family than any other source. Looking after customers is no simple matter though, you have to make sure that you respond promptly to their inquiries, acknowledge them on social media, help with any issues they might have with your products, and always be polite and available in general. While this may sound daunting, as long as your products are of high quality you should be seeing little to no bad reviews or inquiries in to usage or replacements. More importantly don’t forget that your gains are two-fold, you get to retain customers who will keep making more purchases from your store, and attract new customers when your existing customers tell everyone how awesome you are.
Marketing campaigns and promotions
Another great way to attract more first-time customers is through marketing campaigns and promotions. Many companies run promotions for first-time customers by offering either a discount on promoted goods or giving a supplementary item along with each purchase etc. Customers are attracted to make purchases when they feel that they are getting a great deal. While the deal may only apply to the first purchase, once they have come to your site and made a purchase you can expect return customers based on their satisfaction. Not to mention if you are able to request their contact details, you can promote other items to them based on their demographic.
Social media campaigns, email campaigns, and discount codes are other great ways of marketing your store and getting your brand known. Just make sure you don’t make a nuisance of yourself while doing it and spam potential customers so badly that they never visit your store at all!
Conclusion
There are many ways to attract and retain customers to your online store. While most of them require some effort on your part, the rewards of that labour are an increasing and loyal customer-base. If you feel that you are not attracting the number of customers you deserve, talk to us to find out how we can help make your online store even more popular and profitable.
