It’s good to keep in mind the online store best practices and some of the biggest eCommerce trends in 2020 we’re expecting to see in the coming months. As more consumers adopt a habit on shopping online, online retailers will compete even harder to attract customers, convert them, and keep their loyalty.
2020 Online Store Best Practices
1. Technological Improvements in Mobile Shopping
The rate at which mobile shopping has grown in 2016 has set the pace for new technological trends sprouting up in order to improve the mobile shopping experience and increase conversion rate. Statistics shows that over 50% of orders received by online merchants are triggered from mobile devices. This development whose tracking is made possible by tech giants like google through their analytics platform has proven to be a call to action for developers around the world. As the number of eCommerce websites increases on a daily basis the digital market grows larger and so does competition. Therefore targeting the channel with the highest turn out becomes a priority for:
The merchant: Who wants their online store to perform optimally on mobile devices
The developers: Who needs to deliver seamless online shopping experience to mobile shoppers
Hence you know going mobile is not just an option, its a must if you want to stay relevant and continue making profit from your online store
2. Keep an up to date inventory
Knowing what’s in stock and what’s not can go a long way in saving you:
Unecessary stress: Procastinating and piling up tasks to do at a later time will only make performing them more stressful when the time comes which leads to low performance output. Save yourself the stress by switching from doing so much hurriedly in a little time to doing bits over a long period of time.
Customer dissapointment: Displaying a product that is not available to your customers creates a false impression on them. After surfing your store pages and going through the sale process only for them to realize the product is out of stock. This can be a demeaning experince for them and you can well be on your way to losing lots of customers. So why not save yourself the embarrassment and negative impressions by keeping tabs on your stock at all times.
3. Regularly check your emails
Develop the habit of attending to notifications on time whenever you receive them. An order can be received anytime of the day and you must be ready at the receiving end to attend to them. One way of going about this is to synchronize your email accounts with your mobile mailing app so as to receive prompt notification in real time while you are mobile. Another way is to organize your inbox into folders, most mailing application provide the functionality to categorize email, and move things around in bulk. So take sometime to fiddle with these features until you get what you need
4. Use professional high quality pictures of your products
Don’t underestimate the power of good imagery, a picture can be worth a thousand words and in ecommerce its a good opportunity to create a positive first impression. If you notice today the most successful online retailers are those that use professional product photos in their store. And yes they must. why? Because the image is one of the only visual confirmations a consumer has of the product before they buy, hence it should be a high priority for online stores
5. Make yourself findable, increase your store’s visibility on search engines
Research has shown that most online shoppers do a product search before selecting the store that provides enough value which meets their expectations or requirements before completeing an online purchase. The first step in getting your business up and running is to setup an online store then you have to start attracting new visitors that actually make purchase. In order to achieve this you need to engage SEO and SEM.
Search engine optimization ensures that your websites shows up in the search engine’s unpaid results also known as organic listings. While Search engine marketing entails creation of enticing ads shown to searchers based on certain keywords they use in their search. With this tool you can present your products to users with purchase intents.
6. Use well researched product descriptions
In most cases online store owners are not the manufacturer of the products they put up for sale in their online store which means they will have limited information about the products. It is a known fact that people avoid things they don’t know but will rather stick with what they are already conversant with. Hence to get positive feedback from online shoppers as far as this section is concerned you must provide them with accurate information about the product they intend to buy.
- A little bit of research can uncover a lot of useful details about the products like:
- Specification
- Performance
- Functionality
- Design
- Non-government voluntary standard
- Purchase description
7. Include promotional code and discounts
Take a step further than your competitors by doing what they are not. This is a very good avenue to attract more customers, providing a little extra bonus on each product or packages can go a long way in making you the preferred choice of your customers. Everybody likes free things right so use this phenomenon to your advantage. But be smart about it there are certain factors to consider before engaging this strategy some of which are listed below:
- Find out what your competitors are offering and their current pricing
- Know your current profit margin, markup and break-even points
- Decide how long the sale price will be offered
- Calculate the best discount price to still make a profit
Stay tuned, and check back regularly as we will be updating this post with new and relevant tips that will ensure you get the maximum returns from your online business.
