5 Ways to Make Your E-commerce Business Stand Out

Online shopping has made many people’s lives much more comfortable. Not only can you order things to your door, but you have a world of products at your fingertips. We are no longer limited to the selection of products available at our nearest stores. As incredible as it is to have all of these options, it makes owning an e-commerce store a challenge. The market is getting more saturated every day.

Standing out as an e-commerce business can be tough. Today, online retailers abound in practically every niche, and many have gotten their distribution and shipping down to a science.

In a time of very high online competition, it is important to stay on top of trends and do everything you can to make your website and product stand out.

So how can you draw attention to your e-commerce shop and make it stand out from the crowd? Here are five ways that will help distinguish your e-commerce website from the competition:

1. Create a powerful brand

Somebody else is selling what you sell. It is virtually impossible to stand out based on your products and services. The key is building a brand that positively differentiates you from your competitors.

Your branding is impacted by everything from your choice in the logo to the content on your website to your company’s mission statement. It is mostly your company’s personality; it drives how people see your business, and the type of customers your business attracts. Successful branding requires a branding strategy that defines how customers perceive your store and the products you offer.

Your e-commerce store may not be able to compete on product, price or shipping. If that’s the case, then recognize that your brand voice is something others can’t duplicate. Even if they can copy your business in every other regard, your branding remains your own. Look for the ways to highlight unique aspects of your business.

2. Offer a great website experience

Customers form an opinion about your business the minute they land on your website. So your site should be designed to make the steps to purchasing as pleasurable and straightforward as possible. Nothing frustrates consumers more than a website that is slow, unclear and unprofessional looking. Having a beautifully designed website and logo can make your store stand out from others which use pre-made layouts or logos.

Put yourself in the shoes of your customers and try to purchase on your website. Conduct frequent audits of your website, especially the checkout process to ensure that everything works smoothly. Don’t forget to test using different devices and browsers. It’s important to serve up an excellent experience for all customers.

Also, make sure your site works on mobile. This is increasingly becoming more and more important to the bottom line of e-commerce stores, so stay with the crowd.

3. Use high-quality images

Using high-quality images is very important in your product presentation. Make sure that your photos are explicit and show what the product is. The higher quality the photographs, the better. Having pictures which look expensive convinces customers that the product is high quality as well.

Many people underestimate the importance of excellent photography that highlights the unique features of a product. We often use placeholder images when designing a website for our clients, and this gives us the opportunity to show the client what type of photography we recommend using. However, when the site goes live, clients sometimes replace our placeholder images with not-so-professional photos, and it completely alters the look.

It is essential to show off your products as best as you can. You want to evoke a feeling that makes visitors want to grab the product through the screen – and immediately click on the “buy” button.

4. Increase your Social Media efforts

Social media is where potential customers are looking for you. 75 percent of customers will check out social media before they make a purchase. If you aren’t actively engaging with customers on social media and posting content written by your top writers, then you lose your chance to reach them.

Social networks offer new ways to reach the customers. Share user-generated content from social platforms on your website. It will add credibility to your company, showcase the community of your followers and give your users ideas on how to use your products.

Post engaging content with your logo on your social media accounts such as motivational quotes, short videos, gift ideas and much more. Always be sure that your social posts include clear calls to action that bring people back to your website to buy your products. Make sure to bring your followers to your website by sharing links to your landing page.

5. Social proof

Social proof indicates credibility; it can stimulate new website visitors to place an order with you. Moreover, if they’ve been scanning your site for a while without coming to a buying decision, little social proof can be the tipping point they need.

Social proof comes in many forms, but for e-commerce, the most important is customer reviews. That’s because we all trust them, and many of us base our entire purchasing decision on them.

There are various ways to leverage social proof on your website, try at least some of them. If you do not have the customers yet, influencer reviews and testimonials can work as well. Contact the influencers in your field on social media and ask them if they would be interested in reviewing your product.

Source https://webzool.com/blog/5-ways-make-ecommerce-business-stand

12 reasons you should repurpose content

What is Repurposing Content?

Repurposing content is a way of taking content that you have used for one mission and reusing it for another. Just as you can repurpose an old shoe into a flower pot, you can repurpose a blog post into an infographic, or an interview into a blog post. Content repurposing is a digital marketing strategy that comes in handy for many reasons. It can enhance your marketing, save you time, help with your online presence, and many more.

Benefits of Repurposing Content

As a small business owner, you have already got enough on your plate. Why not save yourself some time and effort by stretching your content a bit further? Below are 12 reasons why to start gathering up your existing content. From the old to the new, the top performing pieces to the flops, all content can be repurposed.

1. Enables You to Achieve Multiple Goals

If you have a content that is performing well in one area, there is a chance it can perform well in other fields too. Maybe you have a blog post which is driving traffic to your website. Why not change it into a printed pocket guide with a tracked phone number, which you can hand out at your next event?

2. Gives You a Chance to Purchase Less Successful Content

Some of the content you publish isn’t going to perform as well as other ones. Though, it may not be that the content itself is weak. It may be the context in which it is presented. An eBook that did not capture many leads for your business might make an excellent series of blog posts that drive traffic to your website. Or, a series of blog posts that are not getting many visits might cumulatively make a great e-book that attracts a lot of consultation requests.

3. Helps You to Reach New Audience Members

Whether it is a blog article or social media post, something you published a year ago will not reach the same people if you publish it now. Every day new social media users are creating accounts. Besides, you build and refine your audience over time, so try to spruce up an old piece of content and re-publish it to get it in front of your new and loyal followers.

4. Expands Your Reach

Your targeted audience members may have a lot in common, but they’re likely to range in their preferences and learning styles. Some are visual learners, and others prefer audio. Some like to see numbers, and others like to look at examples. Repurposing content into different forms of media is an excellent way to extend your reach out to the various members of your target audience.

5. Broaden Your Content

Consistency is vital in marketing, but that does not mean you should use the same medium for everything. Instead, you should convey the same message across different mediums and marketing channels. Repurposing the same content into various forms will help you to achieve consistent messaging across diverse channels.

6. Enables You to Target Buying Stage

Not everyone in your targeted audience is at the same stage in the buyer journey. Those who are on the verge of making a purchase might be looking for longer pieces of content so they can make a choice. Those just getting familiar with your business may be searching for quicker, bite-sized pieces of information. Instead of creating different pieces of content for each of these buyer stages, repurpose one piece.

7. Maximizes Time and Effort

When you repurpose your content, you can yield more output with the same amount of input, while maintaining the quality. It will save you time so that you can work on new marketing ideas and focus on other aspects of your business.

8. Increases Your Online Presence

Repurposing content leads to more quality content and the more of that you have online, the higher your online presence will be. Having a powerful online presence is crucial for raising brand awareness, building your audience, and ultimately getting more customers.

9. Improves Your SEO

Another benefit of repurposing content is that having more content online helps to increase your SEO or search engine optimization. Search engines like Google prefer websites they can trust, so the more pages of quality information you have, the easier they can recognize you as a credible source of information.

10. Provides More Backlink Opportunities

Online users love to share useful and interesting content, such as images, blog posts, and infographics. So, the more you put out there, the more possibilities you have to get your content shared, which creates backlinks for your site—another SEO perk.

11. Strengthens Your Messaging

You can think that it’s redundant to take information in one form and convert into another. The truth is, this is a grand repurposing strategy that can help strengthen your messaging. The more diverse ways you can convey your expertise and brand voice, the stronger it will be. As your audience sees a common theme across each of your channels and mediums, they’ll start to see that you are an expert in X, or that you’re passionate about Y.

12. Enhances Your Knowledge and Skill Set

You can never be perfect at what you do. Repurposing content helps you to reinforce the knowledge that you already have in your head, to add on to it, and become even more well-versed in what you do. Besides, repurposing allows you to get familiar with the different forms of content and various platforms, making you a more versatile marketer for your company.

Content holds a lot of value, but it may be holding even more than you think. Take a look at your existing content and think about how you can repurpose it. And even better, create new content with this strategy in mind, so that it can be easier for you to repurpose down the line. Repurposing your content will make your life easy, but you can make repurposing even easier by thinking one step ahead.

Source https://webzool.com/blog/12-reasons-you-should-repurpose-content_

9 Tips to Minimize Cart Abandonment in Your Checkout Process

Are you trying hard enough to handle your shopping cart abandonment?

The first step is to track and recognize how many customers are leaving items in their carts without finalizing the purchases.

If you are not addressing it, you are missing out on sales.

Take a moment to think about how you can improve the customer experience.

First, the consumer becomes aware of your products, services or brand.

Next, they have a want or need that sparks interest in something more specific.

Once the customer knows what they want, they consider the purchase.

Adding a product to their shopping cart qualifies as the consideration part of this conversion funnel process.

They are now just one step(click) away from finalizing the sale.

So, what is the problem?

If consumers are getting all the way to the shopping cart, you do not have a problem with your homepage or product service page.

What about your contact page or customer service information availability?

It is possible the customer does not feel comfortable finalizing the purchase based on the provided information about your business, reputation, warranty, or return policy.

But again, they have already made it to the checkout page with items in the cart.

So, the issue has to be in the final step of your conversion process.

In this post, we will show you some techniques that will minimize shopping cart abandonment on your platform and increase your conversion rates.

1. Recognize that customers are price sensitive

Your prices may be deterring the consumer from finalizing their purchase.

Apparently, you are trying to make money.

I am not telling you to start giving everything away.

You should be making a healthy profit on each transaction.

But unexpected prices are the first reason why consumers are abandoning shopping carts.

So, the initial price of your item might be okay.

But the added charges are turning customers away.

Some examples of these extra charges may include:

•    Processing fees
•    Sales tax
•    Shipping
•    Any other hidden costs

Is there a way you can discharge some of these?

Here is an idea.

Maybe you can take on the shipping fee.

Rather than putting that burden on the customer, you can adjust the original prices of your products to account for the shipping charges.

The customer will still end up paying more, but it is not an unexpected charge.

You have got to find a middle ground and try to keep your prices competitive while still generating a nice profit.

You may be making slightly less money in each transaction, but it is worth it if you can increase the transaction rate.

2. Make sure your website and checkout process are secure

In the last five years, 46% of Americans were victims of credit card fraud.

That is an alarming number.

Americans are being the targets of nearly half of all the credit card breaches worldwide.

This is a real concern for consumers.

Your customers may have had a negative experience in the past, and that can make them hesitant about online shopping.

Therefore, the purchase process on your website needs to be secure.

You hold the responsibility for your customers’ credit card information.

Do not be the reason for their accounts getting hacked.

Take the proper security measures and place the corresponding badges on the checkout page, similar to the graphic above.

It makes the consumer feel more comfortable on the checkout page.

A secure website and checkout process need to be a priority for your e-commerce store.

3. Let your customers check out without creating a profile

You want customers to have an account with your company.

It is a great way to track their behavior and keep them informed of special offers and promotions.

However, you should not be forcing people to create a user profile to make a purchase.

Why?

•    It is an extra step. People are in a hurry, and you want the procedure to be quick.
•    They may have a fear of getting unwanted text messages, emails, or junk mail.

If your website does not have a guest checkout option, you are making a mistake.

There should be two clear options.

Returning users can easily sign into their accounts, and customers without an account can proceed without creating one.

This ensures you are not losing sales.

However, to complete the checkout process, the customer still needs to enter their information.

Which means you will have their name, location, email address, and other information.

Once the sale is finalized, you can entice them to create an account.

All they need to do is create a password.

You already have all the other information in your records, so they do not need to submit information twice.

Give the customer a reason to create an account.

What’s the customer getting in return?

•    Option to track the order
•    Exclusive discounts

But they should not be forced to create a profile just to make a purchase.

So, make sure that is optional.

4. Accept a broad range of payment options for the customer

What kind of payment options are you accepting?

Visa only?

Do you not accept Discover cards?

I understand that particular credit card companies have higher processing fees than others.

Accepting transactions from PayPal or similar platforms could be even more costly.

By not accepting some payment methods, you could be turning customers away.

You might think everyone has one of the credit cards you accept, but that is not always the case.

Give the consumer lots of options because alternative payment methods are trending upward.

If you are accepting only 1 or 2 payment forms, it could be the reason for your shopping cart abandonment. Because some customers get to the checkout process only to discover you are not offering their preferred payment option.

5. The process needs to be mobile friendly

Your website should be mobile friendly, and the checkout procedure should be optimized for mobile devices.

Research shows 84 percent of smartphone users have experienced a problem completing a mobile transaction.

And 40 percent of users will go to your competitor after an unsatisfactory experience on your mobile site.

What do these numbers tell you?

People want to shop on their phones.

Almost 5.2 billion people have a mobile device across the world.

Of course, not all these people are your potential customers.

But a large part of them could be.

Do not alienate people from shopping on their mobile devices.

It is estimated that half of the e-commerce transactions happen on mobile platforms.

If getting to a desktop or laptop is the only way for your customers to shop, it could be hurting your sales.

Make sure your checkout procedure is optimized for mobile devices to decrease your shopping cart abandonment rates.

6. Avoid your competitors from stealing your customers

How unique is your service or product?

Chances are, you do not own the space outright.

You have plenty of competition.

It is not always easy to compete with the big players like Amazon or Walmart.

36% of shoppers abandon a shopping cart because they found a better price elsewhere.

If your prices are higher, that needs to be justified.

Make sure your service and quality are outstanding.

Your customer needs to understand this.

The website needs to load fast because 64% of smartphone users expect a site to load in 4 seconds or less.

And do not make the process too complicated.

We know that 25% of consumers abandon their shopping carts if the navigation is too complex.

They will go to your competitors instead, and therefore you should be aware of how your competitors are operating.

7. Send a reminder email if a cart is abandoned

So you may not be able to prevent everyone from abandoning their shopping carts.

Even if you reduce the abandonment rate, you will not get that number down to zero.

Where do you go from here?

Do not give up just because a customer abandoned their cart.

If you have their information, reach out and send them a reminder.

Sending an email, you can accomplish a few things:

• remind the customer of their shopping
• create a sense of urgency
• offer an additional incentive

The reminder alone can be enough to get the customer to finalize their purchase.

But if it is not, it can create a sense of urgency by saying “high sell-out risk.”

It can also provide an extra incentive by offering a discount.

Earlier I mentioned that consumers are price sensitive.

They may abandon the cart for financial reasons.

Giving the customer a discount will show them you care.

That promotion may be enough reason for them to finish the checkout.

8. Use A/B testing to simplify your checkout process

How long does it take the consumers to purchase on your site?

Every extra click they have to make gives them a chance to second-guess their decision.

You can run an A/B test to see which checkout procedure is more successful.

If you have a long checkout system, you should definitely shorten the procedure significantly.

Run an A/B test by using your current system as the control group and a shorter version as the experimental group.

See if you there is a difference in your shopping cart abandonment rates between these two groups.

9. Create a sense of urgency

You can do FOMO(Fear Of Missing Out) on your checkout page to reduce cart abandonment.

Some customers are just browsing.

New customers most likely will not buy anything on their first visit to your website.

But you can give them an additional incentive to finalize their purchases.

Create a sense of urgency.

“Limited quantity remaining.”

“Sale price expires at midnight.”

“8 other people are looking at this room right now.”

“14 people booked this flight in the last 24 hours.”

I am sure you have seen phrases like this before while browsing online.

Airlines and hotels do this all the time.

Act now, or miss out.

You can incorporate this psychological method into your checkout process to reduce cart abandonment.

Conclusion

The shopping cart abandonment is a problem for your e-commerce website.

But it is not too late to make changes to your checkout process to prevent future cart abandonment.

You can follow the advice above to keep your abandonment rates low while increasing your conversion rates and revenue.

Customers are price sensitive so do not hit them with any unexpected charges.

You should accept multiple forms of payment while also making sure the payment procedure is entirely secure. Customers will not shop on your website if they think their credit card information is at risk.

Do not force customers to create a profile to check out. Instead of that offer a user account as an option after they complete the process.

Make sure your website is optimized for mobile devices. Because if not, your customers can go to your competitors.

The checkout process has to be short. You can run an A/B test to play with different formats and options.

To avoid cart abandonment, create a sense of urgency: if the customer does not act now, they may not be able to get the exact product in the future.

Even if someone abandons their cart, it is not too late. Send them a reminder email about the product.

You can also offer a promotion or discount as an extra incentive to finalize the sale.

Source https://webzool.com/blog/9-tips-to-minimize-cart-abandonment-in-your-checkout-process_