Top 5 Ecommerce Strategies to Get More Customers in 2020
This year can be a challenge for every business.
Rising competition and increasing customers’ expectations will make you and your team work harder on your strategy. On the other hand, new technologies and innovations can facilitate several processes and help you face these challenges.
Take a customer-centric approach and let 2020 be your year with our choice of best ecommerce strategies.
Take Advantage of AI
Optimize Product Pages
Use Social Commerce
Provide an Omnichannel Customer Experience
Enhance Cybersecurity
Conclusion
Sounds good? Let’s dig in.
Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning can easily be called the hottest e-commerce trends right now. Such solutions can both automate and personalize the customer experience, which gives marketers great possibilities.
By 2021, 72% of retailers are planning to invest in cognitive computing or machine learning. If you do not want to stay behind your competitors, you need to implement innovative solutions also in your online store.
By 2021, 72% of retailers are planning to invest in cognitive computing or machine learning. If you do not want to stay behind your competitors, you need to implement innovative solutions also in your online store. Click To TweetWhile improving user experience on your website, take a closer look at the product searching process. Very often, shoppers can be simply disappointed with the search results. It is crucial to provide customers with results that can satisfy him. Natural language processing (a branch of AI) can solve this problem. Another significant improvement thanks to AI, is an image search. Thanks to that solution, customers can look for products similar to objects that are presented in the picture. That way, they can easily find desired products, and at the end, that is what the e-commerce industry is about.
Voice search and voice commerce can be game-changing. Thanks to voice assistants, such as Google Home and Alexa, customers can do their shopping while doing other things. Such conversational way of shopping can be more intuitive, faster and more pleasant than in a “traditional” way.
Communicating with devices by using voice can be extremely effortless so that we can see voice search as a rising e-commerce trend. Thus, even if you are not planning to implement voice assistant in your store, you should definitely optimize your online store for voice search.
AI can gather customers’ data about their previous interactions with a brand, such as clicked ads, browsed products, conversations with customer service, purchased items and more. AI-driven personalization can help you recommend to your customers’ products that they really could buy. Therefore, your actions are helpful, and your campaigns can be even less annoying.
Of course, you already know that the website’s optimization is crucial for e-commerce success. In 2020 focus on product pages to increase your online store’s conversion.
Product pages are essential because nowadays while running many marketing campaigns, including social media, you can drive traffic directly to the given products. That is an excellent way to shorten customer journey and get more customers. Therefore, product pages on your website have to be impeccable and appealing.
First of all, make sure that your product is presented properly. While shopping online, customers need to get all of the important information, including visual presentation, to make an informed decision. The more precise you will show your products, the more chances of purchases you have. Add high-quality pictures (that will not slow website loading time) from a few different perspectives and close-up pictures to show details, such as buttons, seams, pockets, zippers, etc.
An example of a product page. (Source: dziendobrysklep.com)
Some brands have already started to use videos for more precise products presentation, or even Augmented Reality. Thanks to technological innovations customers can imagine, for example, how will the given furniture look in their apartments. It can revolutionize online shopping, and it is worth to consider such solutions in the upcoming years.
Moreover, use value propositions to highlight the best features of your products and give customers a reason to consider buying them. Remember that shoppers buy functions or emotions, not just parameters. That is why you should expose practical values, but also add technical specification later in the description, so that customers can get every desired information about the products.
Clear and visible Call-To-Action (CTA) is a must-have on the product pages so that customers exactly know what action they should take next. Make it clear, which button proceeds to checkout and which is for adding to wishlist, so that there is no confusion. Additionally, you should add information about the delivery time, as well as payment options. These aspects are crucial for online shoppers as they indicate when customers will receive desired products and if their purchases will be safe.
Woohoo! You’ve just signed up. Check your inbox to confirm the subscription.
Probably most of the online stores are already using social media for promoting their products. Social commerce is a more complex concept, though.
As mentioned before, linking directly to products can effectively shorten the buyer’s journey. Facebook and Instagram enabled tagging products on posts. That is an excellent way to run killer campaigns. Facebook also provides the shop section, so that you can add your products to your Facebook Page. If you decide to do that, you can add products, photos and descriptions so that customers can make a purchasing decision already while browsing Facebook. Try also other new formats, Instagram videos and stories to improve your customer’s engagement.
Social proof is another aspect of social commerce. Today online stores face a lot of competition, and one of the great ways to stand out are opinions and recommendations. Encourage your customers with small discounts or gifts to share their opinion about shopping at your store with other social media users.
Do not forget that the purpose of social media is to interact with each other. Do not be pushy on social media, take a customer-centric approach and be helpful. Post valuable and entertaining content to build a community for your brand’s fans.
Do not forget that the purpose of social media is to interact with each other. Do not be pushy on social media, take a customer-centric approach and be helpful. Post valuable and entertaining content to build a community for your… Click To TweetNowadays, you can reach your customers via many channels (social media, smartphones, tablets, chatbots). You should make the most of the possibilities and create an omnichannel customer experience.
The key to the omnichannel customer experience is to run campaigns and send messages to customers that are strongly connected with each other. Create a holistic strategy for excellent overall customer experience. Design a seamless buyer journey that will ideally only generate positive experiences. Pay attention to visuals and language that you use while interacting with customers. Make the messages coherent.
When it comes to customer service, you should also provide many ways of contact with your support. That way, you can meet shoppers’ expectations regarding customer service.
First of all, automate responding to the most common questions. Use chatbots in Messenger and live chat on your website to deliver fast and accurate answers.
Thanks to AI (machine learning and natural language processing), your bots can be very helpful and smart. You can even create a brand hero that can answer your customers’ questions. With a friendly personality, your bot can entertain your customers and help them immediately. Once an issue is too complex, a bot can handover an inquiry to your agents.
Thanks to AI (machine learning and natural language processing), your bots can be very helpful and smart. You can even create a brand hero that can answer your customers' questions. Click To TweetChatbots can also help in choosing the best products. With smart recommendations and conversational marketing, you can increase your revenue. Although creating a bot might seem challenging and expensive, you do not need a dedicated developer for that task. A market is filled with chatbot platforms that can help you build Messenger and live chatbots with no coding skills.
An example of a chatbot for ecommerce. (Source: ebay.com)
Do not resign from the most traditional ways of contact – e-mail and phone. Even though many shoppers may prefer to use more innovative channels, some can still favour e-mails and phone calls over anything else. In 2020 shift your call center to the next level. Use cloud-based phone system with features like automated call distribution, Interactive Voice Response Menu, caller-based routing and more.
While designing the omnichannel customer experience, make sure to use online tools that you can integrate with each other. That way your agents can have access to all of the important information about your customers in one place, and they can use it for faster and more accurate help.
Every stage of the buyer’s journey matters, so make sure to provide an outstanding customer experience even after purchasing (add a thank you note to your packages and send them small discounts for a birthday). Make your customers smile and build stronger relationships.
This is one of the most crucial aspects of the e-commerce industry. Developing technologies give us a lot of new possibilities, but they also bring threats to internet users, including online retailers and customers. Among the most common threats that you can face, we can list phishing, malware and ransomware, SQL injection, cross-site scripting (XSS) and e-skimming.
Make sure that your payment providers and procedures are safe. Cooperate only with trustworthy companies that are popular on the market. Inform your customers about your partners, so that they can trust you while making their purchasing decisions.
What more can you do to secure your online store?
We are glad to share with you the best e-commerce strategies that can help you get more clients in 2020. To achieve your goal, you should consider every trend and implement into your e-commerce. Test different ideas, visuals, and copy to find out your visitors’ preferences. Listen to your customers and be helpful in every stage of the buyer’s journey. You do not need to revolutionize your business overnight, but take baby steps to meet your customers’ expectations and continuously improve your strategy.
If you are looking for a partner to help you grow your e-commerce, do not hesitate to contact us!
They are listed in our free ebook: get the Ultimate Review of ALL 2020 Ecommerce Trends to know them all. Better get your copy ASAP
💡 At Growcode, we develop and maintain online shops and B2B ecommerce on Magento!
