The e-commerce market is rapidly growing, with an estimated 1.66 billion worldwide who want to buy their stuff online. The trend of online shopping led to the establishment of many online businesses, all created to satisfy their customers’ demands.
Suppose you want to thrive in a highly competitive e-commerce industry and build a successful business. In that case, you need to look for distinctive features and competitive advantages that will attract customers to your e-commerce store.
So, how do you make your business unique, making it stand out from the rest of the pack? In this post, we’ll discuss several best practices on how you can create a one-of-a-kind business that will steal the spotlight. Let’s jump right in.
1. Offer excellent online support
Customers need to know they have your support after purchasing with you. Guaranteeing troubleshooting and offering to consult before purchasing can convert prospects into loyal, returning customers.
A 24/7 live chat feature is one of the best types of support. This tool enhances site-wide conversions by up to 10%. If you don’t have enough resources to offer round-the-clock support, you should show some service to help them during these working hours.
Make sure that you have these features when you build your e-commerce site, whether this is a chat box or phone line available on the homepage so that buyers are aware of these services.
2. Discounts and daily deal strategies
An effective discount strategy is one of the best ways to entice more prospects to your e-commerce store. Customers love the opportunity to save money and probably won’t go anywhere else with their next purchase.
Offering a special daily deal is an excellent way to make you stand out and dramatically boost your profit gains. The main idea here is to sell a limited quantity of your products for a special price for a limited time.
With a daily deal strategy, you will be reaping high revenues and have the opportunity to engage more customers and expand your current client base. Additionally, your customers will have the chance to explore other items in your product catalogue and purchase them in the future.
3. Gather feedback and work on it
Your products are crucial to making your online store stand out. That’s why ignoring customer reviews and focusing instead on ad spending won’t get you far.
You need to take a step back and analyze product reviews. As much as possible, collect feedback from your customers. Then, see if there’s any room for improvement on your part. If there is, then you need to focus on improving your products first.
4. Focus on your “About Us” page
One of the highly trafficked pages on e-commerce sites is the About Us page. People want to know whom they’re buying from. There might even be times when they want to know the physical location of the online store before they part with their money.
To provide this information, you need to tell them who you are and other important information about your company on the About Us page.
5. Offer a variety of payment methods
Some online stores only offer standard payment methods like credit and debit cards. But this is often a mistake. You must provide customers with various online payment methods to stand out from your competition.
It includes popular payment solutions like PayPal, Google Pay, WePay, and Amazon Payments. You can also offer other methods like wire transfers, e-checks, or maybe bitcoins.
6. Offer genuine and useful social proof
Social proof is one of the most crucial aspects of e-commerce. But it’s easy for most shop owners to miss this. The thing is, people want to see that they can trust your products and brand. You need to do this as credible social proof.
For instance, product ratings and reviews have emerged as essential forms of social proof. Sites like Amazon have popularized the act of reviewing purchases and product experiences.
As a result, many of today’s shoppers seldom make online purchases without looking first to the ratings and reviews from other users.
7. Work with people and influencers who genuinely care about your brand
No, you don’t have to spend most of your marketing budget trying to partner with celebrities with millions of followers. Instead, you can start with micro-influencers who have followers that might be interested in your audience.
Work with people who genuinely vibe with your brand and company values to make the most of your campaign.
8. Mobile-friendly website
In an age of mobile devices, every e-commerce merchant should now have a mobile version of their web store. Most customers nowadays prefer to make purchases while they’re on the go.
Unfortunately, not many site owners have an adequately optimized design tailored for mobile devices, therefore, losing prospective clients. While mobile optimization can be extensive, it has an excellent potential to boost your sales volume.
Final Thoughts
Nowadays, it’s relatively easy for anyone to build an online store from scratch. But it’s challenging for online businesses to thrive in a highly competitive world.
The following best strategies we’ve mentioned are some of the ways that you can make your e-commerce business outstanding and stand out from your competition.
Identifying your brand personality, goals, and objectives is crucial. Then, try your best to make these elements stand out in people’s eyes. Good luck!