For an eCommerce website to be successful in today’s competitive landscape, several factors need to be paid attention to. Below, we’ve listed common factors that contribute to eCommerce success.
E-Commerce Software: WordPress, Shopify, Magento
Each platform has its own pros and cons, including complexity of use, flexibility, functionality, management, security measures, third-party compatibility, etc.
Shopping Websites: Amazon, Google
Feeding your products through sites like Amazon and Google, yes, it does cost money, but this needs to be weighed against the additional sales generated and also the increased exposure of your eCommerce website.
Feeds can be set up to automatically take note of product and category changes you make on your e-commerce website and periodically regenerate and resend feeds across these shopping platforms.
Shopping Comparison Websites: Newegg, Shop, ShopBot
Similarly, with the ability to ship products through sites like Newegg, Shop, ShopBot, and other comparison shopping websites, the same strategy and cost modeling applies here.
Responsible for newsletters: Campaign Monitor, MailChimp
A great way to keep in touch with your customers, updating them on new products, product ranges and other useful or sales-focused information.
These systems range from the simple to the elaborate; enabling simple registration forms to managing customer journeys from the inception of a subscriber, customer through their entire lifecycle. Some allow the integration of product feed data to manage certain types of newsletters, such as cart abandonment. GDPR is an important consideration, so please make sure you follow the guidelines before sending any communication.
Social media platforms: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn
Another great way to attract potential and existing customers. It can be sales, customer service, dissemination of information, or general engagement – social media is a must for most businesses.
With Social Media there are a number of offers here in relation to reaching your target market. This encompasses free and paid forms of advertising your eCommerce website. And each platform attracts its own type of audience and user, so research the top x number of social media platforms to find where your audience is.
Campaign Managers: HubSpot, InfusionSoft
Managing new customer acquisition has become more complicated with the number of online channels where they can be located or found. Newsletters, social media accounts alike require management with a consistent message and as easily, from an administrative perspective, as possible. Offers like the one from HubSpot and Infusionsoft try to make this possible.
Pay Per Click Advertising: AdWords, Amazon, Facebook, Twitter
Another way to reach your target audience is to use pay-per-click advertising. Again, there is a cost, but it needs to be balanced against the sales/engagement your eCommerce website gets through them. The range of these types of advertising vehicles is wide, from dedicated platforms like AdWords and Amazon to this offering available through social media websites. Each one provides tools, dashboards, reports and metric goals and just like social media, your audience can be reached through a specific PPC channel, so do your research/test.
Analytics: Google, MSN, Hotjar
Who is visiting your eCommerce website and what are they doing when they get there. Which pages perform best and which require your attention, where are you losing customers, which pages are not converting.
Analyzing visits and interactions on your website can help you focus your attention on the parts of your eCommerce platform that require the most work.
Summary:
As you can see, the list of eCommerce tools is long and many need attention. As business owners, we have a lot of time during the day. So work methodically through the tools above (they’re in no particular order) so you can measure the results of the work you do at each point to find which elements are most effective for your eCommerce website.