Read the forums on any ecommerce platform provider (Shopify, BigCommerce, WooCommerce, etc.) and you will find post after post about poor conversion rates. Online entrepreneurs create their ecommerce stores and then are disillusioned and afraid when they realize consistent sales do not magically happen. In the same way brick-and-mortar store sales do not happen without ongoing effort, so too do ecommerce sales take plenty of hard work and creative thinking. Build it and they will come only applies to baseball diamonds; customers will not immediately flood your online store unless you optimize your business in numerous ways. If you are an ecommerce shop owner in search of dependable sales, following are five actions you can take to improve the profitability of your online business.
Image Optimization
A slow-loading ecommerce site can send potential buyers directly to your competitors. One super simple way to improve your load speed is to compress your product images. Use plugins like Imagify or EWWW Image Optimizer to reduce file size of your uploaded images and you will be astonished at how quickly your store loads on both desktop and mobile devices.
Improve your search
Improving the search function of your ecommerce store can have a significant affect on your ecommerce conversions. Too many merchants rely on the search function that comes with their store’s template instead of upgrading to better search tool like Advanced Woo Search or WooCommerce Product Search. Taking the time to improve your site’s search can impact both conversion rates and customer satisfaction rates too.
Social Media Post Keyword Optimization
While many ecommerce merchants understand the importance of optimizing their website content for search engine discovery, far too few are aware of the importance of optimizing their social media posts for search discovery. When you incorporate terms potential customers might use into your social media posts, you increase your product discovery opportunities. Anything from keyword-optimized Twitter posts (Google indexes tweets) to hashtag-optimized Instagram images can increase the number of customers who find your ecommerce store.
Loalty Program
Consider offering a loyalty program to increase your conversion rates. With thousands of global ecommerce stores at their disposal, buyers like to be rewarded for their patronage. Offer a small incentive to encourage customers to purchase from you on a frequent basis and you can see a significant increase in your annual revenues. Reward customers for shopping with you and they are likely to return (and maybe even tell their friends about your shop).
WooCommerce Related Products
In the same way bloggers showcase related posts on their websites, ecommerce merchants can also highlight related items. When a customer adds an item to their shopping cart, spotlight similar items other shoppers have purchased. This is a great way to move some of your slow sellers and increase your average order size at the same time. WooCommerce already has this build in feature called “linked items” right on the product edit page.
Small adjustments on an ongoing basis can greatly influence whether your ecommerce store succeeds or slowly dies. It will take consistent effort on your part, but it is possible to take a slow-selling store and turn it into a thriving online business. Just because your sales start off slow, that does not mean you are destined to struggle to increase your revenues. With attention to detail and a willingness to double-down on conversion rate optimization, you too can be the proud owner of a profitable ecommerce store.