Ecommerce businesses have the potential to grow quickly, and ambitious entrepreneurs with access to great products can use eCommerce sites to great advantage. But if you are looking to grow your startup for the first time it can be difficult to start from scratch. In this article we take a look at six smart strategies that any eCommerce business can use to help them grow.
Establish your Target Audience
Many eCommerce startups make an early mistake; they fail to identify their target audience. This might seem like a small detail, but it can actually seriously get in the way of the growth of your organisation. Understanding your audience is essential in helping you decide how to spend marketing budget, and can result in seriously wasting money.
It is possible to spend a lot of money having a marketing consultancy create buyer personas and establishing your target audience – but it is also something that you can do yourself with relative ease. Even having a vague understanding of who you are targeting can make many decisions much easier for you.
Focus on Repeat Business
It is natural when businesses start that they want to get out there to as many people as possible, and this means that early on there is a lot of effort put in to acquiring new customers. However, this can leave small businesses with the problem that they are not doing enough to retain the customers that they get initially.
The fact is that repeat customers spend a lot more money with your business than new ones – statistics show that repeat customers actually spend three times more per transaction than other customers.
Outsource your Digital Marketing
For all eCommerce businesses, your digital marketing plays an absolutely vital role in your ability to grow. From your paid advertising and social media to search engine optimization (SEO), these are your primary ways of attracting online business. However, trying to manage this in-house can be extremely time consuming, and you may lack the necessary expertise and knowledge to carry it out correctly.
Many eCommerce businesses interested in growth tend to outsource their digital marketing, especially when they are still a smaller company with few employees. Of course, there are many pitfalls when choosing who to outsource to, so it is essential that you take your time and select a business that can provide you with the digital marketing services you are looking for.
Offer Complementary Products
It may be the case that your business offers a specific product – and your whole may be based around the success of selling this product. However, it is especially important if you want to grow to surround the key products you are selling with complementary options; this may you can more effectively up-sell to your customers, boosting your revenue per transaction.
Customers get a broader range of products available to them, and they are more likely to be see the value in your products. Some customers can even be tempted with the option of saving on packaging costs or receiving money off when they spend more.
Provide as Much Customer Support as Possible
Too many eCommerce businesses fall into the trap of focusing their whole operation around making sales in order to maximize revenue, believing that this is the most effective strategy for growth. However, while sales are important, they shouldn’t be considered more valuable to your organisation than excellent customer service.
When customers interact with you and have a bad experience they will move on your competitors, and may even tell others about their bad experience with you. Whereas providing great service can promote loyalty to your brand. You should offer as many customer support options as possible including everything from email and phone to live chat. Live chat for customer support is especially important, to deliver the customer experience that buyers want. People want instant solutions. If they have to wait in line on the phone or can’t find contact details at all, they will take their money elsewhere.
Work with Influencers
It is a great idea for new eCommerce businesses to align themselves with digital influencers in their sector. This could be social media personalities or well-known industry figures who can promote your products and add credence to them. Whether you bring influencers in as product reviewers or even brand ambassadors, this can do a lot to help your business grow.
Start Shipping Globally to Scale your Business
Offer international shipping to your site’s visitors. Scale your business to new levels by not just targeting your domestic audience, but the entire world. Global, cross-border order fulfillment and shipping by Floship allows you to do this. We help you store your goods (SKU’s) in our warehouses, pick & pack orders as they come in through our fully integrated and automated software that connects seamlessly with your eCommerce platform, and ship them with one of our many logistics partners to anywhere in the world. Straight from either Hong Kong or Mainland China. Want to learn more? Feel free to reach out and get a free, no strings attached consultation with one of our solution experts.
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