Running an e-commerce business can be hugely rewarding (and profitable), but it can also be quite frustrating at times.
If you feel like your business could be performing better than it currently is, you might be thinking about trying to grow it.
This is a natural step in running a business. You’re selling things that people want, you’re doing pretty well but now you want to take things up to the next level.
This is where frustration can come in though. Knowing how to grow your e-commerce business is a very different thing from simply wanting to grow it.
In this article, we break down some of the things you could do to expand your business.
Spread The Word Through Blogging
Unless someone is actively searching for a product you sell, they may never find your website.
Even if they are shopping for one of your products, if there are competitors out there selling the same or similar products, they still might not make it to you.
Blogging is a great way of driving more traffic to your site without directly promoting one of your products to them.
Let’s say you’re selling a tent, for example. If potential customers are doing Google searches for tent-related items, your business could quite easily get lost in the hundreds of other businesses that sell tents.
If you wrote a high-quality blog post about tent aftercare or the top features to look out for when buying a tent, you have opened your business up to a lot more people.
This is because people don’t necessarily search for products they end up buying directly. They could be searching for an answer to a specific question such as “what makes a good tent?”. If your blog post on tents has been written correctly, it could very well show up in the search results which could lead to a visit to your website.
While they are on your website, the links within your blog post, the on-page marketing, and the professional look of your site could persuade them to have a look around and make a purchase.
Blog posts are great for organic SEO. They can take a while to have their full effect, but it’s well worth spending a bit of time producing regular, high-quality blog posts for your e-commerce business.
Build An Audience On Social Media
Using social media effectively can help grow your e-commerce business without the need to spend a lot of money (if any at all).
Simply by posting relevant, engaging, and appropriate content to your social media channels, you can build a large audience for your business.
Something to keep in mind is that having a big following on social media doesn’t automatically mean you will make more sales. What it does mean though, is that you can get your business in front of a lot more people.
With the right strategy, you can use social media as a free marketing tool that can generate more customers, more sales, more brand awareness, and more authority for your business.
The key points to remember when it comes to social media posting are consistency and quality.
While it’s important to post regularly (every day if you can), you shouldn’t just post sales-related stuff. Share useful information that potential customers might want to know, create posts where people can interact with your brand, and have fun with your audience.
Share your useful blog posts, engage with your audience, and give your business a great online reputation.
It’s these things that allow you to successfully post about new products you’re selling, a sale you’re currently running, or anything else that encourages people to buy from your business.
Once you have an audience that listens to you and is influenced by your posts – your business can grow in a big way.
Sell To Current Customers
Your current customers have already shown that they trust your business enough to make a purchase.
It makes complete sense then, to try and sell more to these people who are already buying from your business.
Upselling additional products during the checkout process, sending out little thank you’s with each delivery offering a discount on their next order, birthday discounts, loyalty schemes, and many more methods exist for encouraging current customers to increase their spending with you.
It seems that many businesses focus a lot of their time and effort on gaining new customers.
They offer deals that are exclusive to new customers, they promote a range of perks and offers to encourage new customers into the business.
Obviously, getting more customers is a good thing for pretty much every business. However, it’s important to keep your existing customers in mind too.
It’s far too easy to focus so much on driving new customers to your business, that you neglect current customers who end up leaving and shopping elsewhere.
Once you are in this position, your customer base could actually go down if more customers leave than enter your business.
Keep in touch with your customers through emails, regular offers, and personalized content. This will not only make your customers feel appreciated, but it will also keep your brand in their minds ready for them to make another purchase when they do their next bout of online shopping.
Broaden Your Horizons
A relatively simple way of growing your e-commerce business is by making what you’re selling available to more people.
Selling internationally can lead to big growth in your business.
It might not be as hard as you might think to expand on an international level. One of the best things about running an e-commerce business is that anyone can access your website from anywhere in the world.
By adapting the target audience of your marketing strategies, you can encourage international customers to buy from your business.
Obviously, there will be some logistics involved. You’ll need to work with a courier that can deliver on a global scale and you may have to charge the customer slightly more for delivery due to additional costs in shipping.
A lot of customers likely won’t mind paying a little bit more in delivery, providing the product you’re selling is something that they don’t want to buy from anywhere else.
Another consideration for selling internationally is the translation of your website. It’s usually a good idea to sell to customers in their native language.
While some customers are multi-lingual and will buy from websites in other languages, you’ll likely find your conversion rates are higher if your site has been translated.
There are plugins and apps that you could use to translate your content into another language although this can cause mistakes resulting in a less professional appearance. If you’re able to, hiring a professional translator can make a big difference to your international success.
You’ll also need to think about accepting payments in other currencies. This is something you probably need to talk to your e-commerce system provider about.
Expanding internationally may sound daunting, but with a bit of effort, it could result in lots of growth for your e-commerce business.
Be All About Customer Service
There are many parts of your business that could be improved simply by offering high levels of customer service.
This should begin as soon as potential customers visit your website though, and not just after they actually make a purchase.
Good quality e-commerce customer service isn’t just about delivering orders on time and saying thank you to customers.
As e-commerce businesses don’t have the human interaction element real-world businesses have, a huge level of trust has to be built up in a very short period of time.
Customers have to very quickly decide if your website is one that they feel comfortable enough with to give you their money.
Building this level of trust when you’re probably not even aware they are on your website in the first place might seem like a challenging thing to do. In reality, a big part of e-commerce customer service is based on being open, honest, and as transparent as possible.
Exaggerated claims of fast delivery, clearly made up or biassed customer reviews, and lots of small print on your website can all be indicators to potential customers that your business might not be completely trustworthy.
Instead of trying to make your business sound like it’s the best one on the planet, simply be honest with what customers can expect if they shop with you.
Give realistic shipping timeframes, give all relevant information about your products, and make it easy to contact you.
One common thing that appears to be a big worry for customers is when they can’t easily find contact information for a business.
If you can offer a live chat service, this will be useful for many customers. If this isn’t possible though, clearly showing your business email address can be a great way of highlighting to customers that you’re available to answer questions and help in any way you can.
E-commerce customer service shouldn’t be difficult. Honesty and the willingness to help are the two main components. If you get customer service right, your business should comfortably grow.
Improve SEO
Search engine optimization (SEO) is one of the biggest buzzwords in all of online marketing.
If your business can’t be found, then you’re not going to be able to encourage enough customers to help it grow.
SEO can be as complicated or as simple as you want it to be. Sometimes a basic approach can make enough of a difference to grow your business to a level you’re happy with. It’s not always the case though, and, sometimes, spending money is your best option.
In terms of basic SEO improvement – creating high-quality blog posts, making sure appropriate keywords are used on your product pages, naming images, and creating links are all SEO-related things you may be able to do yourself.
As your website gets older, you may also see an improvement in search engine rankings as your authority and number of visitors steadily increase.
This type of organic growth can take a while to happen though. If you’re looking for more of an immediate impact, Google ads, social media ads, and other SEO services can be paid for.
Paying for ads on Google and social media can be confusing but with a bit of trial and error (and money) you can help increase the visibility of your website.
There are some SEO specialists who, for a fee, will review your website and help you make changes that will help improve your SEO.
Any paid-for SEO ads or services can be quite expensive but, if used to their full potential, you could grow your business enough to make your money back in a relatively short period of time.
Use Multiple Selling Channels
Your e-commerce website will always be the hub of your business. That doesn’t mean it’s the only place you can sell your products though.
There are quite a few platforms where individuals and businesses can promote and sell their products to potential customers.
Places like Etsy, eBay, and Amazon all provide opportunities for businesses to use their platform to sell products.
There are fees involved and you’ll have to make sure you stick to all the guidelines each platform sets, but using them can be a great way to get your business in front of a lot of people.
Selling on these platforms still gives you the opportunity to promote your brand to customers through the way you package and ship their orders. Your branding can also still be used in most cases so, even though a customer might not buy directly from your website, they are still experiencing how your business works.
Many e-commerce systems allow the integration of these platforms so you can manage all your sales, product pages, and listings in one place.
This is a big benefit as it’s likely a lot of e-commerce business owners are put off from using third-party sites as they believe it will be unmanageable to look after multiple sites throughout their business.
Taking advantage and using these external platforms to their full potential can actually help significantly grow your business in a very short period of time.
