Learn how to grow your ecommerce business with these six simple tips. From marketing to fulfillment, this guide contains everything you need to know to increase sales and scale your business.
eCommerce presents its own set of opportunities. Online shopping has become a habit for most consumers, and for merchants, ecommerce sales channels are easy to launch and scale. The ecommerce market has exploded since 2020, and Nasdaq estimates that 95% of purchases will be made online by 2040.
Knowing that the opportunity is out there is the first step for ecommerce merchants, but knowing how to capitalize on it can make all the difference for the growth of your business. We’ve put together our top tips to help you grow your ecommerce business and increase sales.
How to Grow eCommerce Business: 6 Tips
From marketing to onsite experience to payment options and fulfillment, these six tips cover all the most important aspects of your ecommerce business. Learn how to convert more sales at the top of the funnel and create an end-to-end customer experience that keeps shoppers coming back to your brand again and again.
1. Meet your customers where they are.
Today’s consumers have unlimited options for product discovery. They’re shopping on multiple channels — from ecommerce marketplaces to social media. That means you have to be selling everywhere to stay top of mind for your best customers and expose your brand to as many new customers as possible.
The key to success in a multichannel sales strategy is to create a consistent brand voice across every channel, with enticing content, clear messaging, and excellent customer reviews. It can take multiple touch points to finally catch the eye of your target customers, so make sure your messaging is consistent and compelling.
2. Deliver to customers where and how they want to be delivered to.
Whether it’s home delivery, curbside pickup, 2-day delivery, same-day delivery – consumers expect to have options when it comes to shipping and fulfillment, and they all have different preferences. Buy Online, Pickup In-Store (BOPIS) grew significantly during COVID lockdowns and accounted for the enormous success of retailers like Target and Walmart during the pandemic. However, a 2021 consumer survey revealed that 67% of consumers actually still prefer 2-day shipping to in-store pickup.
What’s more, same-day delivery services like Roadie have increased consumer demand for hyper-fast same-day delivery. To increase cart conversions and ultimately grow commerce business, you should be offering multiple fulfillment options and not only displaying them at checkout, but advertising them at the top of the sales funnel. Shoppers are highly motivated by fast shipping promises. In fact, 69% of shoppers say that they are more likely to click on a digital ad that mentions fast and free delivery.
The key, then, to using fulfillment to grow commerce business is to not only offer the delivery options your customers want but to let them know that you have those options early and often in their buying journey.
3. Create a frictionless end-to-end experience.
Every step of the buyer journey — from customer acquisition to delivery and returns contains a different opportunity for friction. Your goal should be to remove any obstacle between your customers and your product in order to grow your ecommerce business.
Start at the top of the funnel. Create photo, video, and copy content that is eye-catching and gives as much information about your product as possible in as few words as possible. Start with customer pain points and notable features of your product to stand out from your competitors.
After winning that first click, ensure you have an on-site experience that is easy to navigate and understand. Provide as many photos as possible so shoppers feel that they truly understand your product before deciding to purchase. This will not only increase conversions but also decrease returns.
Then design a purchasing journey that takes as few clicks as possible. Amazon pioneered this kind of on-site experience with its high-converting “2-click purchase” feature. Often the more steps a user has to complete, the less likely they are to follow through on the purchase.
Finally, consumers don’t like to be surprised at checkout. Make sure you’ve communicated shipping costs and options early in the buying journey. And don’t tack on unexpected fees or backorder notifications at checkout. On the other hand, what consumers do like to see at checkout is payment options. Work to accept as many payment types as possible and consider offering low-risk Buy Now Pay Later options through a provider like Four.
4. Prioritize sustainability.
According to a consumer survey, 88% of consumers say that sustainability affects their purchasing decisions. The new ecommerce consumer is aware of the impact of their shopping habits and wants to know that the brands they support share their values. In today’s ecommerce-first environment, shipping and packaging are big contributors to retail’s environmental impact and really shouldn’t be ignored.
The future of the planet depends on more sustainable ecommerce business practices, but the growth of your ecommerce business also depends on it. Much like fast shipping promises, commitments to sustainability should be advertised early and often. 66% of consumers say they’re more likely to make a purchase from a brand that offers carbon neutral shipping, but they can’t be influenced by your sustainable shipping options if they don’t know you offer them.
5. Create personalized experiences.
The benefit of direct ecommerce sales channels is first-party data. By gathering email addresses, sizing information, and purchasing history, you can personalize shoppers’ experiences with custom product recommendations and targeted campaigns.
You can even leverage customer data to let them know when their size is back in stock or to offer customized options for delivery and pickup. Google has observed a 500% increase in searches that include the phrase “available near me” in the past two years. If you know where your customers are located and where you have inventory available near them, you can geo-target them with suggested locations for in-store pickup.
6. Offer international shipping.
The beauty of ecommerce is that shoppers can reach your online store from anywhere in the world. You just need the capability to ship to them. Selling your products cross-border opens you up to a quickly-growing market and can increase sales by 10%.
How to Grow eCommerce Business with the Right Partnerships
Ware2Go is a UPS-owned on-demand warehousing provider that helps ecommerce merchants provide affordable 1- to 2-day shipping to their customers. Ware2Go’s industry-leading fulfillment software seamlessly integrates with any ecommerce platform so processes like order uploading, shipping notifications can be fully automated. By enabling affordable fast shipping to merchants of all sizes, Ware2Go helps merchants like you grow their ecommerce business and increase sales. To learn more about Ware2Go’s ecommerce shipping solutions, reach out to one of our shipping experts.