No reward is greater than starting an eCommerce business from scratch and watching it grow. Online retail is a booming business and the demand for eCommerce website development is growing in leaps and bounds. However, there are online stores that are struggling to get traction.
Creating an eCommerce business is more than choosing the brand name, listing products and starting selling online. Shopify app development helps build ideas that could drive enough traffic to the site and boost sales.
GET STARTED
The first important step is to start doing research and never operate out of a hunch. Remember that any eCommerce business is an investment and thus you should treat it as such or you can use an ecommerce fulfillment software. There’s no such thing as a business structure that works for everybody.
Before deciding on what to sell, it’s important to understand what the available business models are. It may not be rocket science but it impacts the business structure. Furthermore, you also have to decide on a platform to operate your eCommerce business, such as for instance Shopify theme development.
GROW YOUR ECOMMERCE BUSINESS
The following are seven strategies for growing an eCommerce business.
1. Use affiliate marketing. A great web marketing strategy to boost an online store is using affiliate marketing. It’s a performance-based strategy wherein you reward commissions to affiliates that send successful sales your way. Affiliate marketing is very attractive to an online business since you only have to pay affiliates when a sale is successful.
Creating an affiliate program requires having an affiliate software, such as the OSI Affiliate Software, which streamlines running and managing an affiliate program. A Shopify developer could help in this regard.
2. Selling to current customers. Search methods to boost sales to your current customers. This is much more affordable than looking for new customers. One way to do this is to give discounts. For instance, if the cost of production is not that high, offer discounts, such as a buy one get one free.
Furthermore, considering offering loyal customer rewards by providing customer loyalty cards that entitle them to free products or services for every ten items they purchase. This may be a common strategy but it truly works.
3. Targeting other groups. Don’t focus only on the main target audience. Expand your efforts and look for new customers. For instance, when the primary target market includes college students, try expanding to other markets, like teens for instance. Another thing, those selling to stay-at-home mothers, consider selling to working moms also.
Partnering with other organizations. Look for an eCommerce website that’s related to the one you have and partner with them. This is one of the most affordable and easiest marketing techniques to grow a business. Consider offering a discount to all customers of your partner site when they come to purchase your products through your partner.
4. Market products that are most popular. Take time and effort to focus on the promotion, selling and marketing popular products. It will boost sales and conversions of the eCommerce store. While it may be tempting to try to market all products, usually it’s less risky and more profitable to choose a few products you trust and use them to bring traffic to the shop.
5. Offer complementary products or services. Don’t skip on the potential of selling other products that are related to the product, known also as upselling. Customers will not only have a wider selection of products, they most likely would also be more attracted to the products available. This will greatly appeal to customers who have the tendency to love stocking up on a product against just one item.
6. Out-of-the-box thinking. When it comes to finding other strategies, think out of the box. Although most online businesses tend to stay small in scope, you may find that your store could possibly become a franchise or a wholesale distribution. Also, find other ways to sell, like affiliate networking. Creative thinking and looking for more ways of how the business could make money is extremely rewarding and drives business growth.
Author Bio
Rooney Reeves is working as a Business Development Executive at – eTatvaSoft, a Shopify Development Company. Check out this if you want to know more about the upcoming Shopify related news. She always accepts challenges and puts some effort into it. She loves to write and spread her knowledge through writing. Follow her on Twitter.
