How To Make Your Ecommerce Store More Competitive
One of the biggest challenges in ecommerce is competition. Ecommerce is a fiercely competitive marketplace as every store is competing against the major household name retailers and other sellers from all over the globe. This can make it challenging to stand out and get noticed, which can hold you back from success. So, what can be done to make your ecommerce business more competitive? There are a few steps to take that should help you stand out in a noisy marketplace and engage your target audience. Keep reading to discover the best ways to make your ecommerce business more competitive.
Invest In Digital Marketing
First, you should invest in digital marketing. In a fiercely competitive online marketplace, you need to have experts helping you build your presence online. Strategies like SEO will improve your visibility online and increase organic traffic to your website. This should also involve social media marketing, as this can make it much easier to compete against the larger retailers online.
Prioritize Customer Service
Customer service is a key area to focus on when looking to boost your ecommerce store. This is an area that some companies neglect, which can cause a great deal of frustration for consumers. A few tips for improving customer service standards include:
- Omnichannel support
- Responding quickly
- Being honest and transparent
- Resolving issues swiftly
- Handwritten thank you notes
- Discounts/promotions
Offer Affordable Delivery
Another way to stand out from the crowd is to provide affordable or even free delivery. Shipping costs are often what stop customers from completing an order, so this is another important area to focus on. You can reduce your shipping costs by using platforms like shiply.com to compare quotes from different delivery companies. This will help you find the best rates—which could be 75% off standard rates—and reliable shipping companies. Offering affordable shipping or covering the costs yourself will help your store stand out and increase conversions.
Offer Free Returns
Similarly, it is also a good idea to offer free returns. Buying any kind of product online can be a risk as you cannot physically see or hold the item, which is why you want to reduce risk for consumers with free returns. This will increase conversions and help you develop a positive reputation as a store that cares about its customers.
Obtain Customer Reviews
Finally, you can help your business stand out by obtaining customer reviews. These days, customer reviews are one of the first things a consumer looks for to assess the reliability of an online store and get an idea of what the product and customer experience are like. A store with no reviews can be a red flag, so you should incentivize your customers to provide reviews and post them on the website and on social media.
It is difficult to stand out in such a competitive marketplace, but these are strategies that should help. By combining a few of these together, you should get your online store noticed and engage your target audience online.