4 Essential Factors That Will Help Your E-Commerce Business Prosper

Regardless of whether you have started your e-commerce business before the COVID-19 pandemic or once the online shopping landscape had already been transformed, you will certainly agree that the market is extremely competitive. New e-commerce websites are springing up like mushrooms, which makes it extra hard to attract the attention of customers. 

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Sure, more and more people shop online, but why should customers choose your site if dozens of companies offer similar products? 

We won’t promise you that getting to the top is going to be easy, cause it won’t be, but in a moment, we’ll go over the things that could help make your e-commerce business stand out from its competitors and attract customers. Let’s go!

Multiple Payment Options

One of the primary aspects that you should consider if your e-commerce business isn’t generating enough revenue is: are you offering enough payment options to your customers? It might be the case that the visibility of your website isn’t the problem, as the numbers of visitors are pretty substantial, but for some reason, they don’t end up buying products. Although it could be caused by a couple of different reasons, such as poor UX, or slow page loading time, there could be another culprit: lack of payment flexibility. 

According to the experts at MyPaymentSavvy, if your e-commerce website only allows clients to pay with their credit and debit cards, those who are partial to PayPal or Google Pay will leave your website even if one of the products you are selling attracts their attention. That’s why you should ensure that your customers have at least several payment options from which to choose. Also, if you are using Shopify as your business platform, these Shopify & Xero integration guides will definitely help you to effectively streamline your payment and accounting process.

SEO

It doesn’t matter if you are selling products of higher quality than your competitors if internet users can’t find your e-commerce website in the first place. That’s why you should put some effort into ensuring that the search engines appreciate the content of your website. 

If you start reading about the basics of SEO, you will find out how keyword research can boost your website’s rankings, and it is certainly true. However, we recommend focusing on designing your website in such a way that your visitors will have an easy time finding the things they need, and won’t be eager to ask you any questions for the simple reason that your page will already contain all the answers. 

Google’s algorithm is evolving constantly, which makes it difficult to keep up with all new developments, but if you make your website user-friendly the good rankings will follow. Apart from that, you shouldn’t forget to optimize your website for mobile devices, as most of your visitors are likely to be mobile users.

Customer Service

Even if your website is optimized for search engines, and your customers can pay using several payment methods, the chances are, your e-commerce website isn’t in any way better from your competitors. 

It is true that there are still many misconceptions about SEO, which causes some e-commerce websites to be filled with certain phrases, which often has the opposite of an intended effect. 

At the same time, there are bound to be at least several companies in your sector that allow their customers to pay only using their credit and debit cards. 

However, most of your competitors will follow industry standards, and you’ll have to find another way to attract new clients. One way to achieve this goal is by providing excellent customer service. 

When customers first visit your website, they won’t grow attached to your brand; there are probably hundreds of websites selling similar products. Your prices might be lower, in which case they’ll choose your company, but when they find a better offer, they’ll switch to another online store. That is, unless they think that your e-commerce business can provide something that most of your competitors can not: exceptional customer service. 

If you show that you are willing to go the extra mile to help your clients if they encounter any issues, they’ll be more likely to return to your e-commerce business on a later occasion. At the same time, let’s not underestimate the importance of cultivating your brand’s image as being attentive to your customers’ needs. 

Most people trust online reviews, which means that customers who have positive experiences when dealing with your company could help attract more clients to your business. Sure, the previously mentioned factors such as price of the products and easy-to-navigate website are just as important, but your goal shouldn’t be just to offer good services, but rather to offer better services than your competitors do.

Social Media

If you want to go one step further in your attempts to ensure that your customers’ experience is nothing short of amazing, you should engage with them on social media. The numbers of users who use most popular social media platforms, such Facebook, Instagram, or YouTube, aren’t counted in millions but in billions. 

There is a high chance that some of your customers are on social media, which means that by creating an account on any of those platforms you could answer their questions and solve their issues more quickly. If, on top of that, you’ll also publish useful content, your posts might be shared by others, which could then help attract new customers to your website. 

If you can spare some money, you could even hire a social media manager so that you could focus on other aspects of running an e-commerce business.

Conclusion

Though the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the ascent of online shopping, even without this dramatic situation we would observe similar trends. That’s because we are used to convenience, and that’s what e-commerce businesses certainly provide, as their customers don’t have to go anywhere, with the product being delivered to their doorstep. 

However, the e-commerce industry is quite competitive, and it is certainly not for the faint of heart. Even though there is not one recipe that could help your business prosper, if you want to increase your chances of success, you should pay attention to the factors that we have mentioned in this article. Also, it is recommended to hire accountants that specialise in helping ecommerce businesses as they have the relevant expertise to do your business accounting effectively and efficiently.

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