The retail e-commerce sales worldwide is estimated worth $2.29 trillion in 2017, accounting for 10.1% of total retail sales. The share is estimated to swell to 16% by 2021, making the market worth $4.47 trillion.
Realizing the enormous opportunities e-commerce industry worldwide is posing e-commerce store owners are not shying away from investing heavily in free giveaways and competitions. eStore owners are constantly lowering their product prices to try and fend off their competition and increase brand exposure. However, there are other ways staying ahead of your competition can be done, and these are outlined below.
1. A Fresh Web Design
If you’ve been operating for a while and you’ve not given your website a facelift since you started the business, it could be time to make a change. The internet is growing rapidly and that means new web design trends can be taken advantage of. This doesn’t necessarily mean you need to follow them, it just means you need to consider investing in a new design to keep your brand fresh and up-to-date. Hiring a Minneapolis web design agency won’t be cheap, but it will pay dividends in terms of boosting conversions.
2. A Creative Logo
Your customers could well be getting bored of seeing the same logo every time they make an order and, although logos are important to create brand exposure, there’s nothing wrong in rethinking your brand and investing in your future. If you don’t think your current logo fits your ambitions, why not rebrand and start again? Even if a complete rebrand isn’t needed, why not consider a simple change in style. For example, if you have a 3D logo, consider opting for a fresh flat 2D design that will make your branded accessories stand out from the crowd. It will also make it much easier to copy this design from your website to your social media platforms, to any promotional materials that you send out.
3. Social Media Advertising
If you’re not advertising on social media today, you could be missing out on a lot of custom. While the likes of Facebook and Twitter do not guarantee any conversions from the traffic they provide, social media advertising does have more advantages in terms of promoting your social media presence. Promoting your social media pages could help boost your SEO strategies and that could, in turn, provide you with more organic traffic. Consider the type of products that you sell and determine which social media sites you would be better off joining. B2B stores would be better off advertising on sites like LinkedIn, whereas sellers of candles and crafts would do well with a presence on Pinterest and Instagram. If you haven’t tried social media advertising before – it could be time to change your marketing strategies for the better of your business.
4. Guest Posting
Guest posting is a service that’s used to try and boost keyword results in the search engines. It’s a costly process, but it’s one that should be considered if you’re trying to knock your competitors off their perch. Ultimately, how beneficial this investment is will depend on how much you’re willing to invest. Guest posting provides guaranteed results and it could be a way to attract more traffic directly to your product pages. Be warned, though, that unless you have the time to dedicate to this activity, it’s best to hire a professional SEO company to do it for you. Guest posting is something that takes a lot of time and effort to do correctly.
5. Customer Support Platform
If you’re serious about your e-commerce store, you should be serious about providing the best customer support. You can do that via phone, email, support tickets, forums, blogs, social media, and even a simple FAQ page. But, not all users are happy to use those support methods. The world of support is becoming “live”, and that means implementing live chat support so your customers can get prompt replies is the way forward. Speak to a website designer about implementing a live chat feature on your website – you won’t regret it.
Staying ahead of the competition could prove to be an expensive process but if you fall behind your competitors, it could prove to be costlier. By investing in the above tools and services, you can ensure your e-commerce store is going to have a higher chance of competing with the best.
