In the age of a broad range of options, every customer is worth their weight in gold. But how do you get ahead of the competition and draw their attention specifically to your online business? The answer is simple: do everything you can to make purchases in your online store simple, enjoyable, and memorable. Today we will talk about 5 great strategies to help you achieve this.
Chatbot for your online store
The phrase “please hang on” and then a ringing silence for ten minutes ended more than one thousand never-started deals. This is logical: the possibilities of managers (operators) are not endless and they are able to serve not so many people in a day. But customers’ reasons are no less clear: no one likes to wait long. And if there is an opportunity to find a similar product elsewhere, they will definitely use it. Fortunately, there is a simple and elegant solution – add a chatbot.
A chatbot is a virtual assistant that helps to communicate with customers. With a well-written script (response algorithm), it can do almost the same thing a person does. But at the same time, it does not get tired, does not have lunch, and does not need a vacation.
Things to be aware of:
- Offloads managers by taking over the processing of routine customer requests;
- Works 24 hours a day and 365 days a week, which allows you to automate sales;
- Serves hundreds of customers at the same time, which, of course, is incomparably faster than a living person.
- It works only according to the script and, therefore, it will not cope with tricky questions and emergency situations. In such cases, you will need to quickly redirect the customer to the manager in order to avoid their dissatisfaction with the service;
- Suitable only for those e-commerce industries where customer requests are mostly predictable.
Free shipping option for customers
Free shipping is a serious argument to make a purchase in your online store. At the shopping cart stage, many shoppers start to wonder if they really need this product badly. And if they see that additional costs are not required, most doubts are dispelled.
This is confirmed by studies of American marketers: for 59% of customers, price is the main “to be or not to be” factor. At the same time, 44% of respondents unequivocally cancel their order if the cost of delivery exceeds their expectations.
Things to be aware of:
- Motivates a potential customer to make a purchase. As a result, the number of orders, the size of the average check, the number of new customers and the level of loyalty are growing.
- Nothing is truly free. If the customer is not paying for the “last mile”, then you are paying for it. In order not to lose in profitability, you will need to carry out serious calculations and take into account the margins of the products, the profitability of the order and the actual cost of transporting parcels for each specific country, city or region.
Influence marketing for your online store
Influence marketing is cooperation with creators of various content who “have clout” in certain communities and can influence the opinion of their audience. Working with them is to jointly create content for brand promotion.
Things to be aware of:
- Increasing awareness. Especially useful if you have recently created a company, are launching a new product or are scaling up. Traditional methods of promotion in such cases either do not work at all, or they swing for a long time.
- Availability. Unless, of course, we are not talking about advertising on Cardi B’s instagram. Each influencer has their own rules of cooperation: someone works at a fixed price and someone agrees to barter; in most cases this is cheaper than buying regular advertising on search engines or social networks.
- Quality content. Opinion leaders have not become such out of nowhere – these people know perfectly well how, what and when to tell their audience in order to earn their favor. Therefore, the advertising they create most often does not cause negativity, but, on the contrary, is perceived as friendly advice.
- Unpredictability. You can come up with a great strategy and find a great opinion leader, but… sometimes things can go wrong – the post may not resonate with the public and may give almost no results.
- Cancel culture. Any opinion leader is, first of all, a person who can make a mistake (speak out carelessly, do a stupid act, etc.) and thereby cause the anger of their audience. Usually, this does not threaten advertisers, but if your brand is very visible or has been working with a certain influencer for a long time, there may be consequences.
Product reviews
Reviews are almost the most important success factor in the e-commerce segment. This is logical – few people like to waste money. So if the product cannot be touched, you need to learn as much as possible about it. And preferably from those who have already decided to buy.
Things to be aware of:
- A deadly argument for doubters. Reviews are created by real users and this increases the credibility of the online store in general and a specific product in particular.
- Not everyone wants to share their opinions. Most often, reviews are left either because of a great love for the brand, or because of an extremely negative customer experience. But if everything went well, they are in no hurry to report it. In that case you can motivate customers with some bonuses, discounts or pleasant surprises.
Video marketing for your online store
Product videos add reality to the online storefront. In other words, they give you the opportunity to virtually hold them in your hands. It is a great promotion strategy, but it is also a long-distance race. Frankly advertising or low-quality videos, at best, will not interest anyone. And at worst, they will cause prejudice and unwillingness to somehow interact with your business. But with the right approach, video marketing will become a powerful word of mouth for you and will significantly increase sales, gain a loyal audience and greatly strengthen your brand.
The best platforms for this type of promotion are, of course, good old YouTube and trendy dynamic TikTok:
- It is convenient to post long and detailed video reviews on YouTube. Suitable for those who trade in products that need to be talked about with sense and arrangement.
- TikTok is about speed, dynamism and creativity. Boring videos get scrolled in a second. At the same time, TikTok’s algorithms allow much more videos to be included in global recommendations, so with creative content you can quickly “go viral” and gain your audience.
Things to be aware of:
- The content should be beneficial to the customer. Creating something truly useful requires all kinds of resources – money, time, creative and strategic effort. Get ready that the first time your channel will become a black hole.
- Take your time to monetize your YouTube videos. Modern audiences value their comfort. Nobody wants to endure 5 minutes of ads for 2 minutes of content.
- Create collaborations. YouTube and TikTok are overflowing with creators. Making nice videos is not enough to stand out from the crowd. The best way to get people to talk about you is to negotiate with already popular bloggers about creating joint content that will bring profit to two channels at once.
Feel free to experiment: the best way to achieve results is to combine different promotion methods. And remember: if you do not try, you do not reach a new level of sales. Good luck!