Online shopping is replacing physical shopping at an accelerated rate. It is a darling of the younger generation with 67% of American online shoppers being in the 20 -30 years age bracket. An online store ought to embrace innovation and come up with new strategies of doing business.
If you have an online store and are wondering what to do to be competitive in the year 2017, then relax. We share with you ten ways in which you can accelerate your online store.
1. Ease of Use
Simplicity is the way to go in 2017. Your online store should be user-friendly in that customers should be able to get what they need with a lot of ease. If online users can’t get what they want quickest possible, they move on to the next available online store.
Provide shopping categories, filters as well as comparison capabilities to assist your customers in making smart decisions. Having easy- to- find customer reviews and a knowledgeable FAQ is helpful to clients.
It is your duty to provide your clients with an excellent user experience. That way, they will not only keep coming back but also share their experience with friends and relatives thus marketing your online store. They will also leave you an excellent review which is invaluable in convincing other shoppers to purchase at your store.
2. Responsive site
More people are increasingly shopping through smartphones and tablets. To tap into the market, you need to have a platform that can be viewed across different devices. A responsive website is also useful for SEO purposes.
All mobile devices aren’t the same; it makes no economic sense to design a site for every type of device. That’s the reason behind having a responsive web design that can perfectly fit on any screen be it at a tablet, iPhone, laptop or gaming console.
Smaller devices sometimes do have lower processing capabilities thus a desktop ‘centric website’ cannot load fast on a mobile device.
3. Establish your niche audience
To accelerate your online store, you need to find a niche audience. It is wise to target a particular audience, determine what they need and how they want it and work hard to provide a solution to them. Research has shown that those online stores that find their niche market and show it lots of love accelerate their growth as compared to those that do not.
4. Provide suitable content
Your site should have relevant, compelling content that your customers can’t find anywhere. Your content should include articles, graphs, and videos that do not directly relate to your products. Excellent, unique, original and shareable content will attract traffic to your site. Having blogs that are invaluable to your target audience will work for your online store in 2017.
5. Variety of payment options
So you have a store, and the traffic is a buzz, wait, is the traffic leading to conversions? Could it be that many visitors are not able to pay, owing to lack of a payment option? Any important online business has to provide to its customers a variety of acceptable but secure payment methods.
It is wise to listen to your clients and find out what methods of payment are convenient to them. You must also be aware of new payment methods and try to implement them so that your customers gain more confidence in you. Providing customers with a simple and fast check out system is one of the factors that will determine whether an online store accelerates its growth or stagnates.
6. Security Features
E-commerce sites are a major target for hackers and cybercriminals in general. Online stores have to protect consumer information and ensure that the information that they collect remain private.
An SSL Certificate is a requirement for any online business that stores confidential information. Sites that enjoy the protection of an SSL certificate will have a lock icon and a green address bar for the ones with extended validation SSL certificate.
7. Detailed shipping information
Unexpected shipping charges frustrate a lot of online buyers. It is prudent for online stores to include shipping costs early in the checkout process. Online stores should also include delivery time and options for faster delivery. It is also important to state which countries are outside of standard delivery zones and even where possible provide alternative for them. Customers are known to purchase more when shipping is free. In such a case, an online store should take advantage and avail codes for free shipping on all pages and if possible through the header navigation.
8. Loyalty and Rewards Programs
Loyalty and rewards programs will be the in thing in 2017 and will play a significant role in customer retention. Coming up with a system that rewards your client on spending a certain amount of money shopping in your store can be an excellent motivating factor that can help to drive sales. Also giving your shoppers points for every purchase they make at your store and which they can exchange for goods at your store is a sure way of accelerating your online store in 2017.
9. Customer support
Customer support has become central to the success of any online store. Can your clients get answers to their pressing questions? How fast you can provide solutions to their problems will determine whether they will keep coming back to your store. Having a telephone number where your customers can reach you is important. The same goes for an email contact, chat, and messaging.
10. Social reach
An online store that intends to grow in 2017 has to harness the power of social media. Social media helps brands to connect with customers on an emotional level which helps create trust and advocacy. Social media helps brands to show authenticity, and it’s an excellent opportunity to drive sales.
This article is written by Divyang Jetalpuriya. He is a Digital Marketing Consultant. He has more than 4 years of experience in SEO and Internet Marketing. This article he explains about how to accelerate online store platform with Cheap SSL Certificate from Cheap SSL Coupon Code.
