There’s little doubt that the ecommerce landscape is an incredibly competitive market, so if you’re looking to scale your online business in 2020, you’re going to need to rise above the competition.
The importance of ecommerce has been highlighted this year by the global Covid-19 pandemic. With so many people encouraged to stay at home and only shop for essentials, consumers have turned to online shopping, with a staggering £5.3bn added to UK ecommerce alone. In 2019, Statista predicted that there would be more than 2.14bn consumers shopping online in 2021 – growing from 1.66bn in 2016 – but with such growth this year alone, it’s likely this number will increase further.
These numbers show the users are out there, ready to engage with your brand – it’s up to you to attract and retain them, helping your business to grow in 2020 and beyond. There are many things you can do to ensure your company thrives online and performs as well as it can – here are our top tips for growing your ecommerce business in 2020.
Focus on providing a great ecommerce customer experience (CX)
The importance of great ecommerce CX cannot be underestimated. From the moment your customers interact with your brand – whether that’s a web search, visiting your site or coming across your Instagram account – they will judge your brand based on their experience. Leave no stone unturned in this regard – no matter the touchpoint, there should be no way your potential customers have anything but a positive experience.
Things to consider include:
- Personalisation and relevancy
- Transparent, consistent social media
- Clear and easy to use returns policy
- Mobile-first optimisation
- Joined-up shopping experience/single source of truth
Heighten your website performance
If you want your ecommerce business to grow this year, it could be your website that’s holding you back. If your site pages are slow to load, your traffic is low, your CMS lacks flexibility or the capabilities of your website mean you can’t scale, you might need to consider alternative options. In fact, slow loading web pages are said to lose users in 10 seconds.
With expert planning and execution, migrating or re-platforming your website can have incredible benefits for the growth of your ecommerce business.
Employing the help of ecommerce specialists is the best course of action for this process – it’s something you want to get spot on. It can not only skyrocket your rankings but boost organic traffic, heighten site speeds and ultimately bring in more sales and revenue and even save you money.
Implement CRO tactics
Of course, your website could be performing fantastically in terms of quality traffic, but your issue might be conversion. By following a conversion rate optimisation strategy, you could boost your revenue and grow your business. First, identify how your users behave by analysing their activity – this can help you to find drop-off points and create a better experience for them.
Data is also imperative – think surveys and polls. Incentivising is also a great way to help boost a customer relationship – attract customers or hook them back in with smaller commitments such as sharing social media posts, filling in a survey for a free download or free trials of your service. Finally, don’t forget to segment your audience and create personas as this will help with personalisation.
We hope these tips for growing your ecommerce business set you off on the path to success. Always remember your customers are your most important and valuable business asset, so keep the focus on them and you’ll be able to grow your venture in 2020 and beyond.
