As a business owner and operator in the eCommerce sector, you are always adapting to a rapidly-changing environment. Even without a physical storefront, there is a lot to manage in taking care of a business where customers deal only through digital interaction. Your business needs to be constantly evolving and growing in order to achieve this goal. Achieve peak performance and elevate your eCommerce business today.
As you begin your process of elevating eCommerce, you should strive to focus on just three things. As you take time to work through these tasks, it may seem like it just gets in the way of everyday necessities. Over time, you will realize, however, that they are not only important but also crucial to achieving success in your eCommerce business. You should focus on firstly, revamping your user experience to be the absolute best. Secondly, work with your existing customer base and reach out to them frequently. Thirdly, spend time building backlinks for your website.
User experience can be the determining factor between gaining and losing a customer and their purchase. According to an article by Annemarie Bufe from Uxcam.com, “53% of mobile users leave websites in 3 seconds.” When asked why users wouldn’t return to a certain website, the untasteful aesthetic design was often the determining factor in 52% of users, as reported by Josh Moody of Wildernessagency.com. From a business standpoint, it makes sense to invest in a modern, fluid website interface. Choose an option you like, finding the balance between aesthetics and functionality. An overabundance of design will distract the user from making a purchase. Lack of attention to detail and typos will diminish trust in the user.
In addition to website design, user experience is also affected by its mobile-ready experience. For instance, a potential customer may visit your storefront from an iPhone. He or she may not be able to see what you have for sale because the website is formatted for only desktop browser experiences. You will not want to miss out on these customers from mobile devices, as “61% of visits to U.S. websites in 2020” were made from a smartphone or other portable device. Making the site mobile-ready doesn’t, however, automatically infer a new, revamped, mobile-only website. Thanks to modern web technologies, a mobile-friendly experience can coexist within the same site as a normal desktop-based website. This will allow the user to further experience continuity, as they may begin their shopping journey from a mobile device and follow up with a purchase from a desktop browser, and vice-versa.
It is recommended that certain elements such as video and images are cached and available in small, pixel-friendly formats. As a mobile user visits the website, there may be friction if the data connection is slow but the website is content-heavy. When large-resolution images and high-quality videos begin to play, it takes a significant of bandwidth. Only the highest speeds of mobile data connection can keep up in this case. There are, however, online content delivery networks and other website caching software that can help a particular site to load quickly from a mobile device.
As your user experience improves, you will have a greater likelihood of retaining customers beyond a single purchase. With a growing customer base, you have more opportunities to remarket your website. From your customers’ purchases, you will understand what they are looking for and produce more effective marketing toward their needs. No, not all your customers think the same or want the same thing. You can, however, help them connect with your store by inviting them to re-visit your store and meet their needs, whatever that may be. Depending on your store model, you can reach your customers from existing lines of communication via text, email, or mail-in postcards.
One of the greatest assets in your eCommerce business is your website! Become familiar with backlinks, or simply links from one website to another. High-quality backlinks can give your website the potential to reach the top of search engines. According to Joshua Hardwick from Ahrefs.com, “Search engines like Google see backlinks as votes of confidence.” Low-quality backlinks, however, may have a neutral or negative effect on your site’s ranking. Brain Dean from Backlinko compared high-quality and low-quality backlinks, expressing how “a single quality backlink can be more powerful than 1,000 low-quality backlinks.”