15 Recommendations to Sell More for Ecommerce
Every day more people and businesses leap to start selling online. However, entrepreneurs face a constant challenge in such a competitive environment: How to sell more online!
India’s e-commerce market is projected to reach the US $350 billion by 2030 according to IBEF. This means that there are more and more customers and also more competitors.
To stand out from the competition, we have made 15 recommendations based on research and trends that will help you reach more customers and sell more online.
Let us begin! 🚀
1. Make a distinct identity from your competition
Copying the competition much? Sometimes, it is good to copy the moves that work. But often the business that follows everything that its competitors do, becomes a shadow of the original and loses credibility.
There were 1.66 billion digital shoppers worldwide in 2017. With more and more people buying online, more and more businesses are being created, and with it a strong and competitive market.
This makes it more difficult to stand out from other competitors, and the need to come up with creative new ways to sell your product is ever increasing.
2. Do not leave the men behind
Men spend more compared to women online. It might be surprising for you at first but it makes sense when you think about it. They are more likely to buy expensive luxury goods and electronics compared to women.
Men spend 68% more online than women (KPMG). Also, when men shop online, they tend to be efficient. This means that they buy in large quantities to save time.
By selling to the male audience, you can increase your conversions by offering related products and bundle deals.
3. Focus on Generation X
Generation X are the people born between 1965 – 1981 and, logically, they spend more than Generation Z and Baby Boomers (PGKM).
These are the people who have settled in jobs and businesses and have families. They have the money and the motive to spend it online.
Also, Generation Z spends a lot on new gadgets and electronics as the new generation is likely to go to work earlier than the older one.
4. Continually optimize your online store
Considering that more than a tenth of the total retail sales were made online, we cannot recommend you strongly enough to optimize your online store.
In 2018, e-commerce sales were 11.9% of all global retail sales (Statista). This means there are more opportunities for online merchants to increase their traffic and conversions.
5. Add PayPal to your payment options
Users like to have easy payment options and PayPal is one of them. With PayPal, shoppers can buy products online without having to pull out their credit cards, making the checkout process easy.
In fact, there are more than 254 million active PayPal accounts in the world, which makes a strong case to add this option to your website. However, it does not mean that people do not like to pay through credit cards. It is still one of the major payment methods.
6. Offer the user a personal shopping experience
With an average conversion rate of just 2.86 percent, there is much room for improvement in e-commerce.
Offering the lowest prices or the best products is no longer enough. You must offer a personal shopping experience for each visitor.
7. Mobile optimization is a must
In the last quarter of 2021, smartphones accounted for 72 percent of retail site traffic worldwide and generated 60 percent of online shopping orders.
Not only mobile devices, but consumers also add items to carts on mobiles or laptops and go to buy them from another device.
Sometimes, shifting the devices make the items vanish from the cart. That is why it is important to optimize for multi-channel marketing and keep things mobile-centric as most of the people go there for order placement.
8. Offer a price comparison
When you are going to buy something online, you make sure that you are not paying for an overpriced item. So, you go to the search engine to look for price comparisons.
The survey maintains that 65% of consumers search for price comparisons on their mobile while in a physical store.
9. Connect with people outside office hours
Many people buy online because they can shop from anywhere and anytime. Shopping has never been more convenient.
But even if the online store doesn't close, the customer service department does. When the users go looking for support or a little friendly advice, there is no one or an undesirable robot on the other end that usually fails to sort or register issues effectively.
To avoid potential problems with potential buyers who can't contact you outside of business hours, create contact campaigns during office hours and outside of office hours.
10. Do not forget about your earlier clients
When we already had a good experience with a brand, we are more likely to return to that same brand and even recommend it to others, aren’t we?
Well, 30% of consumers say they prefer to buy through a website where they have already bought.
Here, email marketing becomes important to contact the buyers and go to them whenever some new item or a good offer is available in your store.
Nowadays, even WhatsApp and other messaging apps can be used to directly send the offers to the user’s mobile.
11. Add the option to buy on Amazon, Flipkart, Indiamart, etc.
I think we all agree on one thing Amazon is one of the best competitors in the market for most e-commerce businesses in India or on an international level.
One of the biggest reasons is the convenience; if you can get everything you need in one place, you are more likely to buy it there.
According to Inviqa, 59% of 16-36-year-olds shop at Amazon sooner than at any other online store.
Therefore, it is better if you can add an option to buy the item on Amazon, and if you are selling in India, you can consider Flipkart, Indiamart, and a host of other e-commerce platforms.
12. Avoid adding extra costs on the checkout page
These extra costs include shipping, taxes, and other charges.
According to the Baymard Institutes, 48% of people abandon carts due to these extra costs.
To prevent shoppers from abandoning their shopping carts, let visitors know about extra costs before they proceed to the checkout page.
According to HubSpot, 24% of shoppers are willing to spend more to opt for free shipping, so it's a great way to increase average orders.
13. Send an email to people who abandoned the cart
If you've ever abandoned the checkout process before completing an order, you've probably received an email about your abandoned cart.
According to Moosend, card abandon emails have a 45% opening rate.
14. Use an exit-intent campaign on the checkout page
Cart abandonment rate is a staggering 69% of the total online orders.
A good practice is to add exit-intent campaigns to your checkout process to reduce cart abandonment.
With exit-intent campaigns, you can convert cart abandoners into email leads or complete purchases.
15. Encourage the shoppers to share a review or testimonial
More than 60% of consumers read reviews before buying a product online. Reviews are very effective in giving those potential buyers a push to buy.
It is always a good idea to encourage your visitors to leave feedback on their shopping experience as well as the products.