As technology advances, so must your eCommerce growth strategies. An eCommerce growth strategy today might look very different to what it did five years ago. We now have software and tools to enhance our efforts further, like AI and automation technologies. These technologies can give you insights with pinpoint accuracy, and take over many of the manual processes involved in eCommerce.
In essence then, technology must play a part in your eCommerce growth strategies if you're to keep up with the competition. But you want to know specifics. You want to know the best eCommerce growth strategies for 2024.
Key Takeaways from this Post
The best ways to encourage eCommerce growth change as technology advances. You need to make sure your business keeps up with technological advancements so you don't get left behind.
AI and automation are both prevalent throughout our top 10 tips. These two technologies combined will give you critical insights into your business and your customers. Plus, automation will save you lots of time so you can concentrate on other areas of your business.
Another point that's prominent throughout this guide is to be a brand that customers can relate to. To do this, you need to create a strong brand image and communicate this throughout your methods of contact.
That's exactly what we're looking at today. Read this guide and uncover new and effective ways to encourage long-term eCommerce growth and success.
Top 10 eCommerce Growth Strategies for 2024
- Use AI and Machine Learning to Enhance the Customer Experience
- Boost Your Average Order Value
- Dive Into New Sales Avenues
- Leverage Automation Throughout Your Processes
- Run Subscriptions For Digital Goods
- Run UGC Campaigns
- Use Social Proof
- Encourage Brand Loyalty
- Go Live
- Abandoned Cart Campaigns
1. Use AI and Machine Learning to Enhance the Customer Experience
The customer experience is the key to the success of your eCommerce business. You must work hard to create a positive experience for your customers which makes them feel valued. AI and Machine Learning can improve a myriad of customer experiences.
Here are just some of the ways to incorporate it into your customer services:
AI Chat Bot
An AI chatbot mimics human conversation and learns from responses. It uses natural language processing and other conversational technologies to understand what customers are saying to them and also to gauge customer sentiment.
Installing an AI chatbot on your website will help grow your eCommerce business by ensuring there's 'someone' there to answer customer queries 24/7. They can address specific concerns, point customers to pages for relevant information, and put them in touch with the appropriate person within your eCommerce business if needed.
Granular Analytics
AI and machine learning can gather data from various sources, such as chatbots, emails, social media platforms, and website behaviour, to present analytics on a granular level. They can make reasonable judgements about your business, the churn rate of your customers, and buying patterns. They can also use analytics to recommend products based on previous purchases and searches. This can make it easier to sell products to the right customers.
Personalise Communications
Use AI tools and software to personalise customer communication across various touchpoints like never before. Such software can generate content that specifically suits individual customers, whether they're getting in touch via your website, email, or social media. Additionally, AI can generate personalised special offers to send to customers based on the intelligent data it's gathered.
2. Boost Your Average Order Value
Boosting your average order value means you generate more profit from each sale. And therefore, your campaign ROI is greater. Whilst getting lots of customers is a fantastic achievement, getting those customers to spend more in your online store is even better.
Here are some ways to boost your average order values amongst your customers:
Free Shipping Threshold
Consumers love free shipping. In fact, according to recent stats, 66% of online shoppers expect free shipping and 48% of consumers actually abandon their carts because of shipping costs. Now offering free shipping on every item, no matter how small, is normally not a good idea. However, putting a minimum threshold for free shipping, and then communicating it clearly throughout your website, is a great idea.
Showcase Best Selling Products
For whatever reason, people are often interested in the things that are popular at that time. Whether that's the latest film on Netflix, a hot topic on social media, or the best selling products in an online store. Use this knowledge to your advantage, and showcase your best-selling products to both new customers and existing customers. This also provides inspiration to those who are not sure exactly what they're looking for.
Personalised Recommendations
On the flip side, we have personalised recommendations. These are products that are specially selected for each customer. They're based on browsing data and previous buying data. As mentioned above, AI and other software can help you greatly with this tactic. Products can be displayed on the homepage of your online store, for example, or emailed to customers.
Offers With a Time Limit
FOMO is an age-old phycological tactic to get people to buy quickly. Standing for Fear Of Missing Out, it works to place an urgency on an offer by letting the customer know that the offer will soon be withdrawn. They're then nudged into making a purchase because they don't want to miss out. Customers don't want to go through the regret of not buying something while they can.
3. Dive Into New Sales Avenues
.webp)
Launching an eCommerce business is a big deal. It takes careful planning and strategic marketing efforts to get it off the ground. But if you've done all that and you're keen to take it further, consider diving into new avenue to sell through.
Carry out market research and gather data that tells you where your customers are online. Perhaps they're on TikTok or maybe they're eBayers. Either way, expand your business and find new customers to market to.
4. Leverage Automation Throughout Your Processes
There are loads of automation technologies that you can implement throughout your eCommerce business processes. Automation will enhance business productivity and help you create a more efficient business all-round.
The result is more accurate processes because of the decreased risk of human error, more time for you to market your business and source new products, and greater customer satisfaction because of the quicker responses.
But let's go through some specific ways you can apply automation to your eCommerce business:
Inventory Management
Manage your inventory effectively with inventory management automation. When someone buys something from your store, the updated stock levels are reflected in real time. You can also receive notifications of low stock. And, get analytical data that tells you, for example, which products are your best-sellers.
Additionally, a lot of inventory management software can connect with multiple stores. This means that all your inventory levels will sync up, regardless of which platform the sale happened on.
Fulfilment
Automating the fulfilment process involves intricacies like notifying customers of their order status. It also involves managing your stock that's spread across multiple warehouses in the most efficient way possible. For example, automatically dispatching goods from the warehouse that's nearest to the customer.
Email Marketing
Ensure your customers are kept in the loop with automated email marketing. These could be simple thank you emails after signing up or making a purchase. Or, they could be more goal-specific campaigns like abandoned cart recovery emails, for example, or marketing specific products to customers. Create your own triggers for automatically sending targeted and personalised emails to your email list.
eCommerce Bookkeeping
.webp)
For many people, accounting and bookkeeping tasks are two of the most daunting aspects of running a small eCommerce business. But with automation, it really doesn't need to be that complicated. Link My Books will connect with your accounting software and your online store. It takes just 15 minutes to set up and once you have, your financial data will automatically transfer from your online store to your Xero or QuickBooks account.
Link My Books also calculates taxes for you based on the details you provide when you sign up. And, it's got some powerful analytical tools that'll help your business thrive. Benchmarking, for example, and Profit & Loss by Channel. Link My Books can connect with multiple sales channels simultaneously. This also makes it an ideal choice for those running multi-channel eCommerce businesses as it gathers and consolidates all your important financial data.
Customer Segmentation
Segmenting your audience is the process of separating them according to different characteristics, such as demographics or buying behaviours. By segmenting your audience you can better tailor your marketing materials to appeal to individual groups. Automation eCommerce tools can effectively segment your customer base into segments that'll help you with your targeted campaigns.
Customer Support
We've gone through this briefly already but you can automate the customer support process. Automatically respond to customer communications. Point them in the right direction to answer their queries, and recommend actions and products they're more likely to buy.
Advertising and Marketing
You can also automate aspects of your advertising campaigns. For example, some software automatically adjusts keyword bids for PPC ad campaigns. Additionally, you can use automation software for search engine optimization, and to automatically personalise advertising and marketing materials.
5. Run Subscriptions or Sell Digital Goods
Subscriptions are an excellent source of recurring income. Additionally, selling digital goods as one offs means you only have to create the thing once. And you can sell it again and again for minimal extra effort on your part. If you've got a niche, there's plenty of opportunities for selling digital products. The common theme behind many of them is sharing your knowledge and expertise.
Here are some ideas for selling digital products:
- Courses
- Gated content
- eBooks
- Downloadable posters
- Guides and tutorials
- Planners and templates
- Stories
- Graphics
- Printable colouring books
6. Run User Generated Content Campaigns
UGC (user-generated content) campaigns are campaigns where you ask customers to create content for you. They post it on social media and tag you into it. Or, they can send their creations to you directly. The beauty of UCG campaigns is that they're real people sharing their real experiences with your brand. They're effectively acting as brand ambassadors.
Let's got through a few ideas for running UGC campaigns:
- Run a design competition where people create a design for a new product.
- Ask people to post images of themselves using/wearing your products.
- Ask customers to come up with new ways of using/experiencing your product.
UGC campaigns are normally all about encouraging creativity and innovation. Starbucks, for example, has run campaigns where customers design their own Starbucks cups and share their creations online. On the other hand, Apple ran a 'Shot on iPhone' campaign where loyal customers posted photos of images they, you guessed it, shot on their iPhones.
7. Use Social Proof
Social proof is a powerful thing. It is the aspect that can make a difference between a purchase and walking away. It tells your customers and potential customers that other people have bought from your eCommerce store. And, (hopefully) they've had a positive experience. Social proof can be about your brand and company in general. Or, it could be about individual products.
Here are some top ways for cultivating social proof:
- Make sure you ask each customer to review their products after every sale.
- Ask customers for testimonials and display them on your website.
- Ask customers to review their experience with you on review sites like Trustpilot.
- Display the number of a product that has been sold recently to create a sense of high demand.
- Display credentials like well-known brands who use your products or services.
- Show recommendations based on what similar shoppers have bought.
- Consider influencer marketing.
8. Encourage Brand Loyalty
Brand loyalty will enhance your business by increasing the customer lifetime value and making customers feel like they're part of your brand's family. To do this effectively, you must first create a buyer persona so that you can really get to know your target audience. Once you do, you can speak to them on their level, highlighting your shared values.
Customers will see you as a like-minded brand who understands them, what they want, and how to communicate with them.
We're now going through some ways of encouraging brand loyalty:
Loyalty Program
Run a customer loyalty program that rewards customers for shopping with you. This could be a points-based system where they get points every time they shop with you. Alternatively, the program could simply involve being part of an exclusive club that receives special discounts and offers. It could also give members access to content only available to those who've subscribed.
Community-Driven
Dedicate some of your time to building a community around your brand. Remember we talked about like-minded people? Well you want to bring these people together through the likes of social media, for example, and encourage conversations. Ask questions about things they're interested in, ask for opinions, and make bold statements that'll get tongues wagging.
Sell Quality Stuff
People are more likely to buy from sales channels time and again if they sell high quality products. People like to treat themselves to lovely things. If you sell cheap junk, it's not going to feel like a positive or special experience when a customer buys from you. Therefore, if you're looking to boost customer lifetime value with ultimate brand loyalty, consider the all-round quality of what you're selling, in addition to the quality of your service.
Be Present
Always respond promptly to comments and questions on social media. You need to be present and involved in driving conversations amongst social media users. To encourage customer loyalty, express your brand's personality. If you're not communicating, it's pretty hard to do this. Be present and engage with your audience. Show them you're listening.
Ask For Feedback
This kind of feedback is not necessarily for eCommerce brands to display to their customers. It's the kind of feedback where you want to get to know all about your customers experiences with your brand. Let your customers know you welcome positive feedback and negative feedback. Ask for suggestions for improving your service. If multiple people say the same thing, you can take that as something you should aim to improve.
Run a Referral Program
Referral programs are useful for encouraging customer loyalty. The eCommerce industry is crowded. If someone gets rewarded for sharing your eCommerce business with their friends and family, they'll have a positive view of your business. Equally, the person they've referred to your eCommerce website is more likely to trust you because you've been recommended by a friend. Therefore, they've begun their relationship with you in a positive light.
9. Go Live
Hosting live events can be a powerful way to boost your eCommerce business in 2024. Invite your customers to your virtual event and you can even give away freebies to attendees. These don't have to be physical products or particularly expensive. They can be a money off coupon, digital downloads, or reward points for your loyalty program.
These are some of the events you can run from social media or a webinar platform like Zoom:
- Product launch: Go through product specifications and when the product will be available on your store.
- Q & A session: Have a Q & A session about industry topics where customers can learn from your expertise.
- Influencer collaboration: Partner with an influencer in your industry and discuss topical issues.
- Tutorials: Demonstrate how to do something or how to use a product you sell.
- Announcements: Talk about an exciting, one-off event that's coming up for your business.
10. Abandoned Cart Campaigns
Abandoned carts happen most on mobile devices, with 85.65% of online shoppers abandoning their carts. These can be detrimental to your eCommerce sales if you don't act quickly to recuperate them. It requires a strategic abandoned cart campaign via email marketing to increase eCommerce sales.
Here are some tips for running this type of email marketing campaign:
Understand the Reasons
If something negative keeps happening throughout your business, your best bet is to discover the reasons behind it. And consistent abandoned carts is no exception. The reason could be high shipping costs, long delivery times, awkward checkout processes, or simply that there's a lack of trust. There could also be a vast number of other reasons behind the abandoned cart. You might want to do some investigating to see if you can find a common theme.
Make it Snappy
Your email subject line will play a big part in whether or not the email gets opened. Come up with something snappy that sparks curiosity or a sense of intrigue. Don't be afraid to inject some humour into your subject lines. And definitely make it stand out. For example:
- Oops. Did you forget something?
- We've kept it safe for you.
- The [thing] in your cart is selling quickly.
- Come back. We miss you...
Do it Quick
Ideally, abandoned cart emails should be sent within 30 minutes of the cart being abandoned. This is when the intention to buy is still fresh in the customer's mind. If there's no response, you can send another one a few days later following up. And then, you could even send another at a later date offering a discount.
Email Structure
The structure of your emails should be as follows:
- Personalised 'Hello'.
- Introduction line.
- Brief explanation of the abandoned cart situation.
- Items in the abandoned cart.
- Special offer (optional).
- Call-to-action button that encourages a purchase.
You might also include customer reviews and an option to get in touch with you if they have any issues or questions.
Get Your eCommerce Store Off The Ground With Strategic Digital Marketing
eCommerce businesses have so much competition, particularly as it's become easier to sell on a global scale. To make your eCommerce site stand out, and to encourage more customer purchases, you need a growth strategy that's designed for the evolving digitalised world. Online shopping is continually changing and your eCommerce stores, and your marketing, should reflect this.
You need to harness the power of AI and automation technologies to keep up with your competitors. You also need to hone in on your target audience, personalise all communication, and get active on social media. This makes your customers feel like you treat them as real people, and not just a means to an end. Consider referral and loyalty programs too. Plus, ways that'll free up your time so you can get more done.
Link My Books can save eCommerce websites hours of time every month by automating their bookkeeping and calculating their eCommerce taxes. Keep on top of your business's finances and take advantage of the powerful analytical tools all Link My Books users have access to. Ditch the manual data entry and sign up to Link My Books today for your free trial.
.webp)
.png)