Strategies For Developing E-Commerce Websites

A good product is nothing if it’s not founded on effective marketing strategies that ensure its success. When you develop an e-commerce website, you must create and follow game plans designed to increase your brand’s leads, conversions, and sales. 

These strategies generally fall under two main categories: site-building and marketing. By designing a site that’s intuitive to user needs and by employing relevant methods to promote your e-commerce website, you are setting yourself up for greatness.

Establish Your Brand

Before you can even come up with strategies, you must be able to establish your brand internally—with your employees. Share information about and insights related to your business goals, brand guidelines, target market, and products and services with them. 

Treat employees as valued partners, and you should have a number of ambassadors who will begin spreading the information about the company and its products or services with their friends and relatives.

Get the Details Ready

Get all the basics down-pat, including your e-commerce website’s name, tagline, look, etc. It may be helpful to create brand guidelines and a style book that you can base strategic and creative decisions on as you move forward.

Know Your Target Market

Without knowing your market, it will be difficult to create effective marketing campaigns because strategies are designed to target a specific audience that your products are relevant to. 

Be specific in the type of people you want to cater to. You can even create a buyer persona or a characterization of the ideal buyer that you want your e-commerce website to attract.

Identify Your USP

Your unique selling proposition (USP) is what will set you apart from millions of other products—which is essential for e-commerce sites that are battling for consumer attention from around the globe. Know your USP and ground your website and marketing efforts to communicate it to potential customers.

Design Your E-commerce Website

A good website doesn’t just depend on using the best e-commerce website builder for small businesses. It’s a mix of aesthetics, user interface (UI), and user experience (UX) designed to effectively convert interest to a concrete purchase. It should be appealing to the eyes. 

But more importantly, it has to be intuitive to the needs of customers, anticipating their moves on the website to make sure that there’s zero friction from browsing, to adding products to the cart, to checking out.

Anticipate Customer Needs

Think of yourself in your customer’s shoes, and ask “What does this website need to get me to buy something?” Though it can differ depending on your brand, target audience, and product, generally, this involves adding proper navigational tools such as drop-down menus and a search bar. 

Add a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) section to help customers know about your e-commerce website and how to navigate it without having to go through lengthy customer service steps (though having a customer service feature like an online chat or toll-free number is a plus!).

Brush Up Your Products

Offline, people can examine products by picking them up, turning them around, and feeling them. Online, customers don’t get that experience, so they rely on visuals and descriptions on e-commerce websites to guide their decisions. It’s essential, then, that your products are presented with great photos and informative descriptions. 

Design For Mobile

Since people spend a lot of time on their phones, their first contact with you will likely be on their mobile devices. Your e-commerce website must be optimized for mobile use so that anyone who’s browsing through it on their phones can do so seamlessly and with the same experience as on desktop.

Optimize Check-Out

A large percentage of people abandon their online shopping carts. But an optimized check-out process can lessen this statistic for your e-commerce website. Make sure that there’s zero friction in the check-out process, and take steps to allow customers to save or recover the items in their cart.

It’s also helpful to employ a retargeting program, whether through email marketing or ads to recapture people who abandoned their carts. You may just be able to push them to check out.

Create Social Proof

When a person sees their peer buying a certain product, he or she will be more likely to do the same. Leverage this social proof by generating and collecting user content such as photos and reviews, and posting them on your website or promotional channels to help establish yourself as a trustworthy e-commerce website.

Upsell And Cross-Sell

Identify opportunities to upsell and cross-sell products within your website by attaching related options and links to product listings. This simple step can increase sales because it empowers customers to buy products that are higher in value or other products that can improve their experience with their original purchase.

Promote Your E-commerce Website

Now that you have an optimized and intuitive website, it’s time to market it. Let people know about your e-commerce shop and products by targeting them through different online promotional channels such as social media, content marketing, and paid ads.

Social Media

Social media remains one of the greatest avenues to connect with customers because people spend most of their time on these platforms. You can attract customers on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, etc. through integration, influencer marketing, and even product giveaways. 

These help people know more about your products and, if done right, can lead them to your e-commerce website.

Content Marketing

Content marketing involves creating relevant content to add value to your products and establish your brand’s authority and trustworthiness in the market. You can engage in content marketing by creating blogs and content pieces that relate to your customers and your products.

Paid Ads

Paid ads are a quick and effective way to drive sales and conversions. With just a few bucks, you can place your ads in high-traffic sites, apps, games, etc., capturing potential customers outside your marketing circle.

Conclusion

The secret to a successful e-commerce website is a well-thought-out strategy focused on website development and digital marketing. Grounded on your business’ profile, products, and goals, create a solid strategy early on. But never be afraid to experiment and change it up to go with the times as your business grows.