8 Ways to grow your eCommerce business in 2020

The e-commerce sector has seen unparalleled growth in the last few years affecting the lifestyles of millions of people and is still growing.

Ascending income and a diverse range of goods & services available on the internet is making online shopping more attractive and convenient for consumers across the globe.

In the fast-moving on-demand generation, e-commerce has acted as a boon. It provides 24*7 support. Customers can make transactions to buy a product or inquire about any product or service at any time of the day or night, from any location.

All of this has inspired many young entrepreneurs like you to enter into the eCommerce business domain.

Now, the thing is, with so many online stores emerging, customers are left with abundant naive options. The challenge is to beat the rest and stand out with your unique business idea.

Thus, we are here to suggest 8 promising ways to grow ecommerce business and win over the online market race by upgrading your existing store.

Increase Conversations with your Customers is key to grow your ecommerce business

No one likes silent treatment. Your customer would always want some interaction with the seller(you) to engage his trust, whether it is traditional shopping or online.

Moreover, your customers would feel some personal attention if you interact with them one-to-one, addressing them by their names.

There are various ways to lead conversations with your online shoppers, some of which are integrating live chat, co-browse, voice and video calling.

Live Chat

Ideally, whenever you go shopping in any store, you feel so important when one or more salespersons come to assist and help you to shop for your choice.

In the same way, when visitors land on your shopping website, you should assure that you instantly assist them through live chat options.

This way you can provide instant customer service, serve many customers at one time, undergo pre-chat surveys through chat-history, and derive important reports.

Co-browse

Take your customer’s permission and assist them by browsing for them, navigating them to indicative URLs, give visual instructions, and take actions for them.

Co-browsing gives your customers a personalized experience and satisfies them. It reduces the abandonment rate of your visitors as you can assist them in order-form completion.

Voice & Video Calling

Integrate voice & video calling options to get to your online shoppers to aid them with your assistance and help guide. Solve all their queries and they will be pleased to shop from your improved eCommerce store.

In this way you grow ecommerce business by enhancing your customer relationship management, battle logistics issues, build confidence & trust, and monitor your ROI by call tracking.

Artificial Intelligence will help you sell more on eCommerce

A smart technology that has reserved all the powers of the human brain like the ability to learn, refine, scrutinize, and organize data is the ever-persuasive Artificial Intelligence.

Healthcare, Finance, Education, Entertainment, all industries have seen drastic benefits owing to this powerful industrial science, and it is not leaving behind the eCommerce sector to prove its potential.

AI can helps to grow your eCommerce business in the following ways

Customized Consumer Content

Artificial Intelligence technology has the power to convert & process capacious amounts of data into useful information and make cogent decisions based on that information.

This way, your customers get to see filtered products according to their preferences and choice, suggestions, and form auto-complete tips.

Hence, AI can accurately make predictions about your customers’ likes and choices, using which you can reduce your store’s bounce rates and increase conversions from visitors into shoppers.

Managing Inventory

Not only your customers, but even you can benefit from AI. This technology can denote customers’ preferences, most bought products, and demand-increasing products. This way you can never get out of stock by pre-filling your online store’s depleting stock.

You can also keep a track on your eCommerce store’s warehouse by customer demand management, stock updating, and denoting customers’ preferences & trends.

Smart Visual Search

Yes, that’s right! AI avails the unthinkable, Visual Search! Your customers will no longer have to search by typing text or phrases, instead, they can search by uploading an image of the required product they saw or found somewhere.

For example, ASOS, a UK based eCommerce giant, lets its users upload a photo while searching for aspired products.

Remarketing

AI helps many eCommerce businesses by suggesting relevant products based on search history, pattern, relevance, similar products purchased, etc by your customers. In this way, it can improve your cross-sale and up-sale. Also, based on the above information, your users get reminders, notifications, for product availability or special discounts on wish-listed products, email-reminders, etc.

Customer Service

The whole & sole purpose of online businesses is to satisfy their customers. You can grow your eCommerce business only when your customer service is up to the mark, and maybe over it.

AI-powered Chatbots are the most acclaimed resource for customer service in the eCommerce industry. They are the first interaction place for your customers. Assume a customer is visiting your online website at 4 AM in the morning, there wouldn’t be any customer support staff available at work.

Thus, emerged the AI-assisted Chatbots, that help your customers with their saved FAQ answer information, query results, and other interactional conversations.

What are Chatbots?

Chatbots are AI-empowered computer programs that simulate text conversations with humans with the aim of accomplishing some sort of service depending on the purpose of the website/webstore.

How do Chatbots work to improve eCommerce business?

Mostly Chatbots are used to upgrade eCommerce stores to anticipate conversions of visitors into shoppers.

The bots interact with the visitor surfing an online shopping website in search of a particular product, by greeting, assisting through customer support, providing answers to FAQs, solving customer queries, suggesting products, filtering searches, and guiding to seek varied product-pages.

This way, by using AI Chatbots, eCommerce businesses can increase their ROIs, increase customer satisfaction, enhance their customer service, and retain loyal customers.

Example of a Chatbot

Sephora, French beauty and personal care company, uses a custom Chatbot on its website to offer its users with make-up tips, and suggest cosmetic & skin-care products based on personal quizzed played with the customer.

However, Chatbots are close to the human mind but are not human, so they can be wrong. Instead, a composite man+AI assisted chatbot solution turns out to be the best possible customer support option for flourishing eCommerce businesses.

Enhance your eCommerce store with Augmented Reality

You might be wondering why should you upgrade your eCommerce store with Augmented Reality? We will tell you why.

AR brings to your customers, exciting anticipation which makes them interact with your online store. Consider the following factors

Benefits to the Customers

Your customers feel Involvement while online shopping

Engagement is a strong feeling. When your customers engage with a virtual product displayed in 2-Dimension, they are connected lucratively to buy it eventually. AR gives you the power to captivate your potential customers.

AR presents product stories in the form of Narratives

Augmented Reality has an enduring storytelling ability that it leaves your prospects spellbound. The virtual platform presents some product relevant story or news which keeps the users keen with your content.

Inquisitiveness brings online shoppers to your eCommerce store

The appealing and inspiring characteristics of AR promote users to visit your online shopping center so that they can interact with the new and exciting technology.

Precise visualizations by AR helps them find the right product

Online shoppers mostly face the barrier of inefficient product descriptions and sizing details which keeps them dissatisfied. Now, what AR with 3D visualizations grant you is- the mapping of the product image on the customer’s image or camera, giving them an accurate visual description of the product.

Personified product trials satisfy your customers

AR contributed virtual trial-rooms are gaining traction because users can now see themselves in the chosen outfit instead of imagining it. Another instance, they can try on themselves the shade of the chosen cosmetic on their skin-tone with the help of virtual image mapping.

All these were the benefits of AR for your customers. If you are thinking how is your eCommerce business going to benefit by integrating AR in your online shopping website, abide by the below aspects

Benefits to your eCommerce Businesses

AR becomes your Virtual Salesperson

Your customers get well-informed purchase assistance with the help of AR. It acts like a salesperson, which virtually helps your customers to try on different products. This way you can attract and retain traffic on your upgraded eCommerce store.

AR aids Immersive Trials reducing your Product Returns

Shoppers return products on your website mostly due to the sizing problems faced by them. But, AR assists your customers by availing them of virtual product-trials which enables your customers to find the right fit and also to judge how well the product suits them.

Product Videos will grow eCommerce business

If you haven’t yet introduced videos in your eCommerce business, it’s time to wake up from your dreadful sleep and take action because the eCommerce industry is leaping ahead of you hurriedly and in no time you will be left out.

The below points will tell you why you should upgrade your eCommerce website with product videos.

Improves conversions by 85%

Videos depict a closer and better look, feel, wear, and touch of the product. Users can relate to a product better when they see someone else using it on a video.
It is found that customers who watch product videos are more likely to purchase that product. The rest of them simply abandon shopping carts because of the lack of product-reliability.
Mostly all the big eCommerce businesses use videos in their channel to retain customers.

Educative & appealing

Product Videos are very informative, they explain the content better than a picture would do. The human mind is very curious- by default. Thus, if you upgrade your eCommerce store with product-videos, your visitors will stay back to watch it and get appealed to buy the product they are interested in.

Popular with mobile users and youth

Research has found that mobile users are watching more videos as compared to tablet and web users. And with the increasing rate of mCommerce, you should not let go of your prospects from e-shopping.
Also, the young generation is attracted to watch videos because of their interactive approach. Thus, you must not forget to incorporate product videos in your online shopping website.

Caters to omnichannel shoppers

Today, if someone wants to buy a product online, they won’t simply hit an eCommerce website and purchase it. Rather, they would research the product, read reviews about it, search the product on varied platforms like on social media, and then after satisfying results would buy it.
Here, you have got a great opportunity. When your prospects are searching for their wished product on various websites, why don’t you provide your product-video on multiple channels on Youtube, Facebook, Instagram, and other social media platforms?
This way, they will be directed to your eCommerce website and buy your product.

Increased sales & reduced returns

It is found that online shoppers are prone to shop just for trials, and on the slightest chances, they instantly return the product bought. This happens because of inefficient product descriptions and details.
Now, thanks to videos, buyers get the right evaluation of the product they want to buy. Ultimately, this benefits you by increased sales and reduced product returns on your eCommerce store.

Shareable on social media

Videos have the potential to go viral. They have got tremendous opportunities to be spread. Your happy customers will be content by your product and they will share your product video on their social media networks. This way you get freely marketed.
More than text and images, users share videos on social media. This is your time to decide what are you going to provide them for sharing.

Reinvent buyer’s guide with video

Online shopping is gaining acceleration. Help those who are new to this phenomena. Explain your visitors through video demonstration- how your site functions, how can they view and search a product, how can they make a purchase, guidelines for payment options, and your site guide as well.
Release nuisance for those who are shopping for the first time online.

Voice Search can serve you to increase Revenue in eCommerce

Voice commerce is the talk of the internet. Thanks to AI and machine learning, as everything is happening at your voice commands, why not shopping through voice command?

You might be wondering how voice search can help you grow your ecommerce business? We will tell you.

What is voice commerce?

It is an AI technology that allows you to search for desired products on online shopping websites/ apps through voice search that aids accurate results and also allows customers to make purchases via voice commands.

It is simply a hands-free technique to shop online even while one is immersed in other activities.

How is voice commerce used?

For users to shop online using voice commerce, they require a mobile phone or a smart speaker and a virtual assistant like Amazon Alexa, or Google Home.

The user speaks voice commands that are used to activate the virtual assistants and sequentially converse with them until they achieve shopping what they are looking for.

What are the challenges of voice commerce?

Though technology is speedily aggressing, it still needs to pace with these human-level realizations:

Trust

Current data says that only 39% of online shoppers trust the suggestions they get from virtual assistants. And that customers are mostly using voice commerce to buy consumable goods because they are reluctant to trust machine intelligence to buy a product they have not seen or used before.

Language/ Speech barriers

AI can detect voice through natural language processing, but the human accent and mother tongue imposition (MTI) in humans can result in misleading results through voice search.

Privacy

Many users are not comfortable with smart speakers always listening and detecting whatever is spoken at homes, and thus they can not trust AI for voice search.

What are the future prospects of voice commerce?

According to a study, the number of homes in the United States using smart speakers is going to increase by more than 50% by 2022, which is significant.

Today hardly 6-7% of users use voice shopping, but this number is going to hit 50% by 2022.

The voice technology is revolutionizing the future of eCommerce.

Increased sales & reduced returns

It is found that online shoppers are prone to shop just for trials, and on the slightest chances, they instantly return the product bought. This happens because of inefficient product descriptions and details.
Now, thanks to videos, buyers get the right evaluation of the product they want to buy. Ultimately, this benefits you by increased sales and reduced product returns on your eCommerce store.

Shareable on social media

Videos have the potential to go viral. They have got tremendous opportunities to be spread. Your happy customers will be content by your product and they will share your product video on their social media networks. This way you get freely marketed.
More than text and images, users share videos on social media. This is your time to decide what are you going to provide them for sharing.

Reinvent buyer’s guide with video

Online shopping is gaining acceleration. Help those who are new to this phenomena. Explain your visitors through video demonstration- how your site functions, how can they view and search a product, how can they make a purchase, guidelines for payment options, and your site guide as well.
Release nuisance for those who are shopping for the first time online.

Upgrade eCommerce store with onsite Personalization and Personalised Products

Customers like to be in a familiar spot. The unknown is always scary. No one likes to be in a place where everything is obscure. This happens to your customers when they are new to your online shopping website.

Think of when you go visit a store to buy a pair of jeans for yourself, how special and happy would you feel when you see a familiar and known salesperson at your service who is already aware of your fashion taste.

Say for example, when a user is searching for a specific product- ‘backpack’, he finds a product, and he gets reviews from his known people (in his contact-list) who have already bought the same product. This might be a very good help for the user before buying and such a trusted review leads to your eCommerce business’ revenue.

Make such experience handy for your online shoppers as well. To grow an ecommerce business in today’s competitive market. It is very important to personalize your online store according to your visitor’s preferences and likes, based on your customer-behavior, product attributes, or collaborative behavior.

This will make your customers more comfortable on your site and will also increase your up-sales and cross-sales.

There are several ways that you can incorporate product-based personalization on your eCommerce platform using either of customer-specific product recommendations, product-specific recommendations, and custom product clusters.
Some of the popular ways are by incorporating ready widgets available like

• Similar Products
• Product recommendations based on browsing
• Customers who bought this also bought
• Trending Products
• Top-sellers in Category
• Bestsellers
• Product Clusters- combos suggested by you

Web Payments & Flexible Payment Options to increase sales in eCommerce

The pivotal barrier pertaining to eCommerce sales is monetary transactions. It is obvious that shoppers can not be trusting just any eCommerce shopping app or website for payments and transactions. That’s the reason most of the shoppers prefer cash on delivery of the product.

However, with the exponential growth seen in eCommerce and mCommerce, you must adapt to advance payment methods and upgrade your shopper’s experience so that they can rely on you.

As per the Baymard Institute, 28% of cart abandonments occur due to long or complicated checkout procedures on your website.

This can be eradicated simply by incurring smarter payment options on your online shopping store. Some of them are

Integrate multiple payment modes, banks, cards, and COD

Customers like freedom. Let them use any payment method and any bank, just be acceptable.

Multichannel Selling

Don’t limit your customers to shop only on your shopping website or app, instead, allow them to shop from their favorite platforms.

May it be social networking platforms like Facebook, Instagram, or Snapchat, allow your prospects to shop from there and then as they come across your ads on those platforms.

QR code payments

Ensure your buyers that the transactions they make on your shopping site are totally safe by allowing app-independent payments via QR-code scan for product details, as well as for monetary transactions.

Subscriptions

The Subscription model is gaining hype and success in the eCommerce industry. This is trending in the modern mCommerce domain, so be welcoming and increase your customer satisfaction.

AI to assist the checkout process

As most of your customers lose it on the checkout process, hold them back by assisting them with AI Chatbots that help them complete their checkout process easily.

Multi-Currency, Multi-Language & Multi-Channel support in your online store

Not to doubt- Customer is King, and anything and everything must be made possible and easily available for the King.

Multi-Currency

To increase your customer reach globally, you must add a local touch to their shopping experience. Generally, users are not comfortable with foreign currency purchase and thus they abandon your eCommerce app.
Hence, it would be ideal to provide products with varied currency rate options for your international customers.

Multi-Language

Undeniably, your customer must get a language option of his choice. If you are providing your eCommerce service for more than one country, and you want to grow your ecommerce business in foreign country, not including multi-language support is not an option for you.

Multi-Channel

This is the future of eCommerce. Why restrict your user to shop only from your website or only through your mCommerce app? Let them ease their shopping experience at the best by whichever way they want to shop- at your physical store/outlet, on your online shopping website, or through your mobile shopping app.

What are the future prospects of voice commerce?

According to a study, the number of homes in the United States using smart speakers is going to increase by more than 50% by 2022, which is significant.

Today hardly 6-7% of users use voice shopping, but this number is going to hit 50% by 2022.

The voice technology is revolutionizing the future of eCommerce.

The Power Lies In Your Hands.

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Conclusion

The eCommerce industry is showing no sign to slow down, rather it is rushing in high speed to bring about a revolution in the shopping patterns of society.

It is hence the right time to pace up with this expeditious industry trend and rejuvenate your online store and grow your ecommerce business by adapting to some of these ways mentioned above.