The constant evolution of the internet and the ability to have whatever you want delivered to your doorstep in a couple days just by the click of a button makes going to the store ancient history. Ecommerce businesses are putting a heavy strain on brick-and-mortar stores to focus on a more omnichannel business model. An omnichannel approach means hosting a seamless shopping experience for any and all customers. This means offering your product or service online and in a physical brick-and-mortar. Surprisingly enough, nine out of ten customers expect this business approach.
As the “Buy in One Click” starts to become the new reality when purchasing supplies for your home or office, eCommerce has become a fast approach to boosting sales. Time has now become more valuable than money, proved by a study expecting online sales to rise to 95% of purchases by 2040. This year alone, mobile sales revenues hit a new high of $204 billion.
Just thinking about starting a successful eCommerce store for mobile seems to be a rather daunting task, yet it’s made simple when breaking down the steps and outsourcing experts to get the job done right the first time.
7 Steps to Optimizing Your Online Store for Mobile
1. Post Consistently on Social Media
As over 70% of online sales come for a company’s social media presence, this is an easy and inexpensive way to bring in a couple extra pennies. Either hire a photographer to capture the beauty of your product or take it upon yourself to have a photoshoot to best represent your brand.
2. Push Marketing Advertisements During the Week
Weekends get busy — events, catching up on life, spending time with family, and running errands to prep for the week ahead. Push your marketing campaigns to release at the beginning of the week to ensure an overall increase in engagement and reach.
3. Design Around Apple Products
Over 65% of mobile traffic comes from Apple products — make sure your web design is represented accordingly using these products. Either hire a web designer or work your magic to offer the ultimate brand experience for visitors.
4. Implement Personalization Tools
Whether this means personalizing email campaigns, product recommendations, or discounts, this has the opportunity to bring in an extra 15% in sales month after month. Show your customers you value their support and interest in your business products.
5. Use an Upsell Tool
We all want the best quality product when purchasing anything. Make sure you are utilizing upsell tools at checkout to show customers what may be a better option, or what products could assist the original one being purchased.
6. Optimize Your Checkout Experience
Providing seamless and easy checkouts that offer various payment options can reduce cart abandonment by a whopping 69%. A longer process customers have to go through to purchase items can increase purchase guilt and inaccessibility, with them exiting out before purchasing.
7. Make Your Website Accessible to All
Fostering a successful omnichannel business model can increase sales by 51%. Make sure you are testing out your design, usability when navigating pages, and offering an on-brand aesthetically pleasing presence for your eCommerce store.
Some Dos and Don’ts
Do: Test your page load times
Think about it — what do you normally do if a page doesn’t load fast enough? Click out of it. Make sure you are offering fast load times to your customers to avoid cart abandonment and increase traffic to your site.
Don’t: Abuse Pop-Ups
Online stores that push email sign-ups every time you hit a new landing page will push customers to click off the site immediately. Cut down your usage and offer one single pop-up at the beginning or end of a users session.
Do: Keep Your Promises
Uphold your promises to consumers as over 97% of business owners consider their reputation the most important element of their business model.
Don’t: Assume Organic Traffic
There are over 3 billion eCommerce sites out there — stand out in the crowd of others by upscaling your marketing efforts.
Do: Plan, Plan, Plan
Research and plan out your business strategy months in advance. Understanding what you should be doing, when you should be doing it, and why can increase your business’s success by 356%.
