You're an online business, so it makes sense to be using technology to help drive more sales, and grow your brand. There is a problem with technology though. There is way too much choice. It's almost like being a kid in a candy (ecommerce) store.
Don't fret. I've scoured the Internet and here are 3 easy to implement technologies that you can start using today to help you start driving more ecommerce sales.
1. Recovery Messages
Over 68% of online shoppers will actually abandon their transaction once they reach the cart. That's actually surprisingly high if you think about it. These shoppers have gone through the entire process of learning about your products and added them to their shopping carts. But once they review their order, they leave.
In fact research says that over 2 thirds of them are doing so. Clearly they had interest in buying, but for one reason or another they decided not to. That doesn't mean that all is lost however, some of these customers might just need an added push or reminder to cross that purchase finish line.
That's where a recovery message can help.
It doesn't take too much imagination then to realize that reducing that number or winning back some of those cart abandons could be some really low hanging fruit when it comes to growing your business.
If you're on a Shopify Professional or Unlimited plan, one feature that some stores overlook is the fact that setting up an abandoned carts (or recovery message) alert email is actually an included feature.
Shopify not only saves those abandoned transactions in your events database, but there is in fact a way to automatically send an email to a customer with a permalink to their abandoned checkout as well. If you do this in an automated fashion there is a good chance that a portion of those abandons will actually return to the store to complete the purchase.
Here is a great tutorial from the Shopify documentation that walks you through the process of setting this up.
2. Social Media
As an ecommerce business there is a very good chance that customers are not only trying to interact with you though social media, but they expect you to be interacting with them in that fashion.
More and more social media is becoming the most convenient way for customer to keep up with you and your business. Customer service issue? Social media. Product inquiry? Social media. Referring their friends? Social media.
With that volume of activity, it's important for you to keep an eye on that channel to make sure you're not missing anything.
A great tool to help you organize what's going on across all your social media channels, including Facebook and Twitter, is Hootsuite.
Use Hootsuite to consolidate all of your social feeds onto one screen. You can also use the tool to setup automated searches for mentions of your store name or URL, or even mentions of your industry. When you see your name come up or a related conversation come up that you can add value to, add your two cents, or reach out directly to those customers. Retail is detail, and using today's channels to develop relationships with customers and potential customers is a great way to grow your business.
3. Word of Mouth
One of the most beneficial activities that customers can be engaging in online is generating positive word of mouth for your business. Forget the old definitions of B2B (business to business sales) and B2C (business to consumer), these days everything is H2H (human to human). This is especially true when it comes to marketing online. Consumers have trained themselves to tune out advertisements. Instead they are turning to each other for referrals and recommendations.
Don't miss out on that.
There you have it. 3 quick technologies you can start using TODAY to help generate more sales for your store.