Your e-commerce store may have been around for some time now and it may have carved out a healthy and comfortable existence for itself in its market, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t dream for more. No matter how much success you may or may not have attained in the past, there’s no reason why you cannot strive to take your business to the next level. There are always going to be new heights for you and your online store to scale; you just have to be brave enough to scale them.
For advice on what you need to do to take your e-commerce store to the next level, be sure to read on.
1. Embrace AR
E-commerce probably isn’t the first thing that springs to mind when you come across the term ‘augmented reality.’ Due to the pace at which AR has evolved in recent times, however, you now have an opportunity to use this tech in a bid to improve your store.
AR blurs the lines between 3D visuals and the real world, meaning it can be used to help your customers decide if the products that they see online are going to be just as good in real life. Will that hat suit them? Will that new set of table and chairs look good in their dining room? As is the case on the world’s best IOS augmented reality apps, embracing AR will allow you to help your customers visualize what it will be like to own the products that you sell.
2. Update your branding
If your store has been in operation for several years without having had a rebranding, it’s high time you took the plunge and updated your brand. Failing to take on this all-important challenge will see your store looking outdated sooner rather than later. As a result, consumers won’t trust in your abilities to provide them with service befitting of today, and that’ll then result in them taking their business elsewhere.
In your attempt to freshen up the look and feel of your online store, it’s important to generate content that is easily identifiable for today’s audience. Here are a few ways to do just that:
- Work on your logo and favicon
- Realign your core brand assets
- Refine your company voice
- Revisit your target buyer persona
- Launch a new product range
- Go down new marketing channels
- Take new photographs
3. Improve your SEO
SEO can be difficult to get to grips with, but it’s vitally important that you improve your efforts with regards to SEO tactics if you’re to take your e-commerce store to the next level. You need your site to rank high on Google and you need it to appear in all the right places online — if it doesn’t, you won’t stand a chance of converting any leads, simply because your customers aren’t going to go out of their way to find your website on their own. They need to be led directly to your platform, which is why you need to improve your SEO at all costs.
4. Get active on social media
Being active on social media is a great way to spread the message about your online store and engage with your audience on a deeper level. For one, social media platforms grant you the opportunity to engage in discussions regarding your product line. By simply talking about your goods on Twitter or Facebook, you will prove just how much of an expert you are with regards to your industry. This will give you some authority in your field, and in turn, that’ll make people feel much more comfortable to come to you whenever they need the products that you make available.
5. Market your store in the real world
Your profit may be generated online, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t market your e-commerce store in the real world.
To embark on such an advertising campaign, you must:
- Participate in networking/charity events
- Follow up on orders via phone calls
- Hand out business cards whenever it is possible for you to do so
- Show off your products in your local community (via a pop-up stall, for instance)
- Nurture relationships with your local media outlets
- Collaborate with other local businesses
- Never be afraid to give products away for free
By putting all of the advice laid out above into practice, you’ll be sure to take your e-commerce store to the next level in no time.
