7 Effective eCommerce Strategies for Your Small Business

eCommerce is one of the most significant and profitable industries in the world. With over $1 trillion spent online last year, it is a staple in global trade and will likely continue to grow exponentially.

The eCommerce industry is a tough one to break into, though. With millions of new products being added to the internet every day, the competition is high. 

However, that doesn’t mean you can’t succeed as an entrepreneur. In fact, with the right strategies and cautious planning, you can weather any storm and build a successful business.

Having an eCommerce is a growing trend, but many small businesses don’t have an eCommerce strategy. 

With the success of online shopping comes new opportunities for both small and large businesses to reach customers, no matter where they are. There are many successful eCommerce strategies that you can adopt for your business. 

That being said, building an eCommerce business can be tough. It takes time, dedication, and plenty of hard work to get it off the ground—and even more to keep it up and running. Thankfully, you don’t have to do this alone. 

This article will cover 7 effective strategies for eCommerce success for your small business.

Why eCommerce is Important For Your Business

Almost every business owner wants an online shop to showcase their products and services in light of the growing need for the eCommerce industry. All have the same goal in mind: to increase traffic to their online shop and boost sales.

What are some of the advantages of eCommerce for businesses?

1. Lower Price Range

Online businesses have upkeep costs low since no personnel is needed at the physical location of the store. Security and cleaning services are also unnecessary. The only place requiring staff is when it comes to sales, and everything else is automated. 

Also, direct sales don’t always need storage. That’s why certain online shop prices are cheaper than regular retail pricing.

2. 24/7 accessibility — an eCommerce is open all-day

Buyers can access eCommerce at any time, acquire all the information they need, and purchase anything they desire. This improves the potential to generate revenues and sales, as well as the interaction between customers and merchants.

3. International Sale

Businesses can now sell their products to a wide variety of customers all over the world.

Using the internet expands the market and generates new revenue streams.

4. Personalization

Online businesses allow for monitoring customer experience and tailoring offers, emails, and everything else to individual consumers.

5. Constructing a Client Database

Having a customer database is common when you start running an eCommerce. Using the data, the sellers can immediately adjust their offer to a possible customer and keep in contact later. 

One of the reasons why your retail business requires a mobile app is that you can quickly gather information on clients by allowing them to use your app and leave a print.

The 7 Strategies You Should Consider Implementing in Your eCommerce

While you may believe that organic website traffic is enough to get your small eCommerce off the ground, reconsider implementing strategies to help your business grow. 

If you’ve already set your heart on what type of products you are going to sell, on which eCommerce platform, and you understand how that platform works, you are halfway there. What you need next is to:

  • develop a plan to promote your product
  • create an engaging website for your customers to explore and purchase from
  • set up your inventory, customer service, and payments correctly
  • use social media to your advantage
  • test which marketing efforts are working best for you by measuring the results and tweaking accordingly

If this sounds too confusing, contact internet marketing experts or read on for further clarification.

Strategy 1: Start With an Inventory Management System

If you are starting your store, it is important to invest in a reliable inventory management system. 

An inventory management system will help you track the goods that are moving through your store. It also helps you manage your inventory and predict when supplies may need to be replenished.

One of the most popular systems for small businesses is Shopify, which has a free trial period. You can use this trial period to test out the system before making any commitments.

Strategy 2: Create a Website That’s Easy for Customers to Navigate

If you want your customers to find what they’re looking for, you need to make it easy for them to navigate your website.

You should design your homepage to be straightforward. This will allow customers to find information about your products and services quickly.

You’ll also want to create a “menu” of links that highlights the most important sections of your website.

If you are unsure of how to do it yourself, you can always hire a custom website design company to help you achieve the look of your dream website. 

Strategy 3: Implement Live Chat and Customer Service

One of the most frustrating things for customers is not being able to connect with a person when they need help. There are so many great questions or concerns that come up during the buying process, but without customer service, it’s difficult to know what to do next.

Live chat is a great way to address customer service issues and give your customers the personal touch. It allows you to be there for them even when you can’t be on-site or on-call. It also provides an opportunity for you to answer any pressing questions before they buy anything from you, which will hopefully lead to more sales.

An eCommerce store that provides live chat and customer service is more likely to generate revenue than one that doesn’t. If your business is medium or large enough, hire a full-time person for this purpose.

Strategy 4: Partner With Pop-up Stores

If you’re hosting a pop-up store, you need to make sure your eCommerce strategy is in place. Otherwise, you’ll miss out on a major opportunity to sell products and generate revenue.

Here’s how it works: You set up a small shop at someone else’s event and sell your products there. This allows you to get in front of new customers and potentially get them hooked on your brand.

The best thing about this strategy? You don’t have to invest in the inventory or coordinate logistics–you just show up with your computer and work for the day!

Strategy 5: Use Social Media and Influencers to Grow Your Brand and Drive Traffic to Your Website

There are a lot of ways for you to use social media and influencers to grow your brand, and one is through collaborations with social media influencers.

Social media influencers will post content on their page about your product or service. These posts will reach a highly targeted audience who may be interested in what you have to offer.

For example: Let’s say you make hair care products for natural hair. You could find a popular natural hair blogger and reach out to her about doing a custom collaboration that would include product reviews, tutorials, or live tutorials on how the product works. 

This way, she’ll promote your product on her social pages and drive more traffic back to your site!

Strategy 6: Reach Out to Bloggers for Product Reviews

Bloggers will often provide reviews of products that they like or that they feel would be appealing to their audience. If you’re interested in reaching a larger audience, this is one way you can do it!

Bloggers are often more than happy to provide reviews for products, especially if the company that offered the product or service has a strong and authentic brand.

To reach out to bloggers, start by looking through your industry’s social media pages. Many brands have tagged bloggers in posts about their product or service, which can be helpful when searching for bloggers who are relevant to your business.

If you don’t know how to contact these influencers, head over to their social media profiles and search their name on Google. 

You’ll find many opportunities to reach them through email addresses listed on their blogs or websites or even just general contact information on social media sites.

When contacting bloggers with product reviews, be sure to send them over something that allows them to try out the product before publishing a review on it. 

This could include sending them a free sample of your product or asking them if they would be willing to purchase your product themselves. It also helps if your marketing materials are clear and easy for bloggers to understand!

Strategy 7: Offer Free Shipping on All Orders Over $100

A sure-fire way to improve your eCommerce store’s conversion rate is to offer free shipping on all orders over $100. This will incentivize customers to spend more and purchase from you.

Let’s say a customer adds two products to the shopping cart, one for $75 and one for $250. The customer pays with a credit card or electronic payment system like PayPal. In this case, the customer would be charged for the total amount of the order, which would be $325. 

However, if you offered free shipping on all orders over $100, that customer could have spent an additional hundred dollars before their order is shipped for a total of $400 in purchases and not been charged any shipping fees at all!

Offering free shipping encourages customers to spend more money in your store without paying anything extra upfront. 

Giving them a discount also stimulates them to buy from you because they won’t have to go through the hassle of finding another seller who offers them a deal if they need something right away.

Conclusion

Having an eCommerce is a great way to be seen and to have more revenue and sales. 

Even if you have a physical store that works well and generates a nice income, eCommerce will broaden the scope of your customers and allow you to reach more people with your products or services. 

With good strategies, you are halfway to being known worldwide.

Author bio

Travis Dillard is a business consultant and an organizational psychologist based in Arlington, Texas. Passionate about marketing, social networks, and business in general. In his spare time, he writes a lot about new business strategies and digital marketing for DigitalStrategyOne.