Few more days and before 2020 ends. Since COVID19 and it’s socio-economic impact, a lot of businesses have made their move explored E-commerce as a part of their (if not, made their primary) sales channel. Since then, many have gone aggressive due to the positive yield it has brought. Here are Top Ecommerce Skills and Tools that will Get You More Sales and Orders in 2021.
If you haven’t started yet, I highly recommend Shopify. I have worked with thousands of E-commerce sites and brands, and I have seen nothing so seamless in terms of digital marketing channels integration, campaigns, and day-to-day web shop a.k.a e-commerce operations easy to manage other than Shopify.
If you’re considering making a switch or looking for a hassle-free way to get started, head to Shopify using this link.
If you haven’t bought the address of your online store yet, you can enjoy the cheapest annual domain from Bluehost as low as $12.99 per year. Secure your online store address now.
1. Increasing your E-commerce store online presence
- You can do on-page SEO to increase search visibility of your product, pages, on Google. If done right, you can get free traffic from Google – which make it easily one of the Top Ecommerce Skills worth honing.
- Optimize your brand presence on social media platforms – now is the best time to be selling on Instagram. As IG’s latest interface allows you to shop on the app directly. Facebook has also improved their Catalog manager feature so you may have noticed how some of the posts and stories on both Instagram and Facebook have tagged products into it. From what I’ve seen, 40-60% of online sales came from social media channels especially from Facebook and Instagram and as they developed this shopping feature, more and more customers will be accustomed to shopping online without actually leaving the app.
Tools you can use:
- SEMRush
- Google Search Console
- Google Analytics
- Google’s auto suggest tool (the one where google predict what you will type)
- Google Related searches (you can locate at the bottom of the results page)
- Google Trends
2. Get into Data Analytics
I keep on saying this, “What you can measure, you can manage, and what you can manage, you can improve!” It’s important to know that – most of the insights platform we have now caters to users of different levels – making it both easy to access and digest.
The key is to have an objective, a realistic objective in mind. E.g. Website traffic, Conversion signals (enquiry form submission, Vanity Metrics (FB Likes, IG Followers, IGTV views, YouTube subscribers… )
Tools you can use:
- Facebook Business Suite Insights
- Google Data Studio
- Google Search Console
- Google Analytics
Also, LEARN HOW TO SET UP GOOGLE ANALYTICS TO AN ECOMMERCE STORE ON SHOPIFY
3. Marketing automation
Get your hands into email marketing and crm. One of the most common use cases is winning back customers who added the product to their cart but for some reason, did not finish buying/placing the order. This is most commonly known as Cart Abandonment. Let me give you another one, 9 out of 10 online shoppers expects a discount, voucher, or offer before making their first purchase! The idea is to build a different segment of your audience (leads and customers) and start marketing to them the right way and the right time.
Tools you can use:
- Mailchimp
- Klaviyo
- ActiveCampaign
- ManyChat
4. Digital Marketing Funnel, and optimizing for User/Customer Experience
Most business owners I’ve spoken to focus on getting customers and increasing sales, but when I ask them about the current structure of their sales funnel – they end up giving me a confused look.
I mean, I know I get it… at the end of the day, you want sales but let’s be real here – In order for someone to BUY, you need to convince people that your product / service is the best, the after-sales is good, the price justifies the value and so on so they will CONSIDER, before that, they will have to be INTERESTED on how your solution is fit to their needs/wants, and before that, they must be AWARE of your existence and their needs/wants. This is the Buying Journey. For some industries, this is a linear process, for some, it’s a longer phase to jump from one stage to another.
Once you know what the stages your customers go through before making a purchase with you, you will know what to say and when to say it which brings me to my last point: Content Marketing.
Tool you can use:
- Internal (gather your team, the front-liners, write down the FAQs and typical sales objective. It will also help to ask customers how they find you.
- Competitor Research through SemRush
- Google/Facebook/Instagram/Visit site what your competitor are up to.
5. Get into Content Marketing
No matter which level your potential customers or prospect leads are at in their buying decision stage, they will need content to convince them to push through the next buying step. You have to make sure you know what to write, whom to write, and what call to action will influence them to take the next step down to your funnel.
Tools you can use:
- SEmrush
- Google Trends
- Buzzsumo
- Google Analytics
- Behavior and Engagement insights
With practice and application I’m certain that these Top Ecommerce Skills and Tools will help you get more sales in your Ecommerce store this 2021!
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