ecommerce business Archives - E-commerce Made Easy in India | E-commerce Solutions India - ANS Commerce

Powerful Referral Marketing Strategies For E-commerce Businesses

Humans have a natural tendency to share their personal experiences with those in their close social circles. Whether it is the frustration of delayed delivery or the delight of discovering a new product they like, people pass on their experiences to friends and family in casual conversations.

What might seem like a simple chat can hold immense significance for E-commerce businesses like yours. Every time a customer recommends your online store, they are essentially providing you with valuable, trusted marketing for free. And this is the whole idea of Referral Marketing.

In this post, we will understand the ins and outs of Referral Marketing, including its definition, benefits, examples, and some best practises you can follow if you plan to adopt it for your online store.

What Is Referral Marketing, And How Does It Work?

Referral Marketing is a marketing strategy that encourages happy customers to advocate your brand to others in exchange for incentives. This word-of-mouth marketing tactic is more commonly known as a refer-a-friend program. Referral Marketing has been the go-to marketing method for all those E-commerce businesses looking to grow their sales without spending thousands of rupees on marketing. Overall, it’s a win-win situation for all parties involved.

The working of Referral Marketing is pretty straightforward.

You first create a Referral Program for your business, wherein you decide the incentive (type and amount) to give for every successful referral. Types of incentives could be coupons, discounts, gift cards, or cash rewards. The referrer is rewarded only if the referred person completes an order with the store. You also need to provide the existing customers with a unique link or a code that they can share with their friends and family. This step is essential to link the referrer, referred, and the incentive and complete a successful referral.

Types Of Referral Programs

There are several types of Referral Programs:

Standard Referral Program: In this, your loyal customers are encouraged to refer others to your E-commerce store. When a referred friend makes a purchase, the referrer receives an incentive. This is the most common type of referral program.

Double-Sided Referral Programs: In this, you reward both the referrer and the referred customer. This type of referral program is more capital-intensive but encourages customers to refer others more actively.

Tiered Referral Programs: In this, your customers earn increasing rewards as they refer more and more people. For example, a customer might receive a 5% discount for their first referral, 10% for the second, and so on. This can gamify the referral process and motivate customers to continue referring over time.

Points-Based Referral Programs: In this, instead of offering immediate incentives to customers, you let them earn points for each successful referral. These points can then be redeemed for products or discounts. This type of referral program can create a sense of achievement and encourage ongoing referrals.

How Is Referral Marketing Beneficial For E-commerce businesses?

Here are some key benefits you will enjoy by adopting referral marketing for your E-commerce business:

Build Trust Towards The Brand

When an existing customer refers your store or your product to someone else, it carries a strong endorsement. In other words, since these recommendations are coming from someone they know, it automatically builds trust in the minds of potential customers. Ultimately, trust is a key component of the customer journey in an industry like E-commerce, where customers cannot touch or feel the product before they buy.

Improved Sales With Targeted Marketing

When satisfied customers refer your products to their contacts, they are essentially matching your products with individuals who are likely to have similar needs or interests. This targeted approach increases the likelihood of converting leads into sales. Think of Referral Marketing as having your own brand advocates working on your behalf to identify and attract potential customers who are genuinely interested in your offerings.

Recommended Reads: How to measure your online sales success

Increase Reach And Brand Awareness

Referral Marketing is all about gaining access to new audiences who may not have otherwise heard about your E-commerce store. As these referrals continue from one known person to another, it creates a cascading effect where your brand’s presence multiplies organically, creating a broader customer base. Moreover, since referrals often come from trusted sources, your potential customers are more likely to pay attention to your brand, leading to heightened awareness and recognition in the market.

Cost-Effective And Low Risk

Referral Marketing is one of the most cost-effective marketing strategies currently available. Traditional advertising and marketing can be expensive and uncertain when it comes to ROI. However, Referral Marketing revolves around the concept of rewarding customers only when their referrals result in actual sales. This means it is a “pay-for-performance” model where you spend marketing rupees only when you see actual results.

Easy To Track & Manage

There are several Referral Marketing tools available today that can accurately track the performance of your Referral Program. For instance, you will know who referred whom, which referrals converted into sales, and what incentives were delivered. Such visibility allows you to constantly refine your referral program for the best results. Additionally, the simplicity of managing Referral Programs means you can focus your time on other aspects of your store while your Referral Program continues to generate leads automatically.

E-commerce Referral Program Examples

Here are some examples of brands that have crafted some of the most successful referral programs today:

1) Nykaa

Source: Nykaa website

Nykaa, a leading beauty and wellness E-commerce business, has a highly successful Referral Program. With a dedicated landing page that talks about the benefits of referring a friend along with the incentives, Nykaa has got all their basics right.

Nykaa follows a double-sided Referral Program where both the referrer and the referred person get incentives. Both parties get cashback on their wallets, ensuring that they make their next purchase in Nykaa. The referral process is very easy, too. All you need to do is share the link to your favourite product with friends & family who have to shop using the same link.

2) Boat

Source: Boat

Boat, a popular electronics and lifestyle brand, has implemented a Referral Program that benefits both its existing customers and their friends. When an existing customer refers a friend to Boat, both the referrer and the referred friend receive a discount of 100 rupees that can be redeemed on their next purchase. The discount is usually shared with the referrer via email 15 days after the referee completes their first purchase. This Referral Program reflects Boat’s commitment to providing value to its customers and strengthening its community of loyal customers.

3) Lenskart

Source: Lenskart

Lenskart, the eyewear brand has one of the most user-friendly Referral Programs. Users can seamlessly refer their friends by either syncing their contacts through the Android or iOS app or by sharing a unique referral code. When contacts are synced, there’s no need for the friend to input a referral code during sign-up; the system automatically recognizes the connection.

After a successful purchase, both parties stand to gain ₹50 LK CASH+, which can be utilized on their eyewear purchases. It is a great example of a double-sided Referral Program.

Things You Need To Do Before You Start Your Referral Marketing Program

Here are some prerequisites you must fulfill before kickstarting your Referral Marketing Program. Following them will ensure that your Referral Marketing efforts bear fruits in the long run –

Focus On Building Your Brand

Let’s face it – your brand is the heart and soul of your business. It’s the impression that your customers will carry forward when interacting with your brand. To lay a strong foundation for Referral Marketing, it is important to strengthen your brand identity. After all, a well-defined brand that customers remember easily and believe in is more likely to be referred to, than the one they can’t recall. Also, a strong brand will generate a sense of pride and affiliation among your customers. When they refer your brand to their friends and relatives, they are indirectly quoting, “I am proud to be associated with this brand.”

Here are some tips to build your brand successfully:

Ensure consistency in your branding. Right from your logo to your website colours, everything should create a cohesive and memorable image in the customers’ minds.
Develop a distinctive brand voice that aligns with your brand’s personality, resonates with your audience, and is memorable for a long time.
Share your brand’s story, including its origins, challenges, and successes, on your website. A compelling narrative can create an emotional connection with customers.
Create a content marketing strategy that provides a lot of value to your audience. Constantly share informative, entertaining, or inspiring content that your customers will consume and have a positive experience with.

Make Sure Your Customers Like Your Product

No matter how big your incentive is, your customers are not going to recommend you if they don’t like your product. You must provide your customers with high-quality products that they love and use. This is an important step before asking for any referrals. If they like your product after using it, they will recommend your brand to others because they will believe that you will offer quality products to every customer.

Now, how do you know whether your customers like your products or not? Simple! Go online and find out if your brand is mentioned in social media posts or any review portals. You can even check customer reviews on your own website. If the reviews are largely positive, you can go ahead and ask for referrals from your customers.

Provide Exceptional Customer Service

Along with good branding and great products, you must also offer exceptional customer service. For instance, providing 24/7 live chat support for instant assistance, hassle-free return and refund process, safe and timely delivery, faster or free shipping, etc.

This is important because when issues about your product’s quality arise, excellent customer service can counter the negative situation. Customers who experience quick and effective resolution for their problems or get faster than usual services, often become more loyal and enthusiastic referrers.

By providing exceptional customer service, you are essentially creating positive experiences that customers want others to enjoy. Outstanding customer service also builds trust and reliability in your brand, both of which are key ingredients for referrals.

By successfully completing these steps, you will be able to build a loyal customer base that will be more than happy to refer your brand to their friends and family.

6 Effective Referral Marketing Strategies For E-commerce Businesses

When done right, Referral Marketing can harness the power of word-of-mouth marketing to acquire new customers and boost sales for your E-commerce store. Let us explore six effective Referral Marketing strategies that can help you achieve this:

Choose The Right Incentive For Referral Marketing

Your entire Referral Marketing Program revolves around incentives. Incentives give your customers a compelling reason to refer your products to others. So you need to carefully pick an incentive that is valuable enough to motivate your customers to take action. Here are some different types of incentives you can adopt for your Referral Marketing program:

Discounts and coupons: It offers the referrers a discount on their next order. It can be a percentage off the total purchase or a fixed amount of discount. Besides incentivizing customers to refer their friends, this incentive can drive repeat purchases from your existing customers. This type of incentive is suitable for all types of E-commerce businesses. Looking for inspiration? Checkout the best discount marketing examples from E-commerce businesses.

Use discount as an incentive for referral marketing

Source: Samsung

Points: These can be awarded for referrals, which can then be redeemed for discount coupons, gifts, or exclusive perks. Customers love the idea of accumulating points and getting rewarded for their loyalty. This is an ideal incentive for those stores where repeat business is common. For example, grocery.

Source: Fabindia

Exclusive access: This type of incentive gives your customers a unique opportunity to be among the first to experience a new product after a successful referral. This incentive taps into the desire for novelty and exclusivity and is effective for businesses selling tech gadgets or entertainment products.

Freebies and Product Samples: In this type of incentive, you offer customers free products or samples in return for referring friends. This is quite appealing to customers because they get to experience your products without cost. This is ideal for stores selling cosmetics and food, where product quality and taste matter more than anything else.

Cash: It can either be a fixed amount or a percentage of the referee’s order value. The best thing about cash incentives is that even a small value can motivate people. In other words, even ₹50 or ₹100 will motivate people to take action. This is ideal if your product has a long buying cycle, such as furniture, appliances, or luxury items.

Do Research To Understand How Other Brands Are Doing Referral Marketing

Before launching your Referral Program, conduct thorough research and understand how your competitors are implementing Referral Marketing. Study their strategies, their success stories, and learn from their mistakes. This will offer valuable insights and help you fine-tune your own referral marketing program.

Visit the websites and social media profiles of these brands to gather information on their Referral Programs. Learn what worked well in terms of incentives, timing, and targeting.

You can learn about their promotional strategies by keeping an eye on their email marketing campaigns, social media posts, and other marketing efforts related to their Referral Program.

Competitor research can help you assess whether your program is competitive in the industry and make the necessary adjustments to stay competitive.

How competitors entice your customers with marketing

Ask For Referrals At The Time Of Maximum Conversion

When it comes to Referral Marketing, timing is very important. You need to know when it is a good time to ask for referrals. Your goal must be to pick a timeframe when the chances of conversion are high.

Humans like to feel appreciated. So when your customers feel appreciated due to something nice you have done for them (could be early delivery, quick resolution, or a surprise gift), it is probably the best time to ask for referrals. Do not wait for too long, as by then; your customers will have forgotten about their positive experiences. Similarly, do not ask for referrals from customers who have had a negative experience recently.

To find happy customers, you can closely monitor your website’s review section or your social media handle.

Try Email Referral Marketing

Sending emails can be an effective strategy for Referral Marketing. Once you create a referral program, you could send out emails to all those customers who have made purchases. This strategy is particularly useful if you are new and don’t have a large customer base yet. The key is to make the referral process as easy as possible. Here is Ugaoo, the online gardening store, sending out emails to existing customers to refer their friends and families:

Use email marketing to send referral emails

Source: Ugaoo

Here are some tips to get your email Referral Marketing right:

Create an attention-grabbing subject line that motivates customers to open the email.
Always address the recipient by name. Wherever possible, use dynamic content to personalise the message based on their past interactions with your brand.
Clearly state what you want the customer to do. In this case, mention you want them to ‘Refer a Friend’. Use persuasive language to encourage action.
Emphasise the benefits of referring friends and family. That is, talk about the rewards they get and explain how it’s a win-win situation for both the recipient and their friends.
Include eye-catching visuals, such as images of your products, to make the email visually appealing.

Promote Your Referral Program

Unless and until people know about your Referral Marketing program, they are not going to bring in new customers for your brand. You need to talk about your Referral Program in every possible channel and highlight the benefits of successful referrals.

One common place to promote your referral program is on your own website. You could talk about it on your homepage or add a link in your website menu so that customers can easily access information related to it. You could also talk about it on the order confirmation or thank you page. This will ensure that customers see it as soon as they complete a purchase.

The other option is to talk about it on social media platforms. You can also try WhatsApp marketing or SMS marketing if you have the budget.

Keep Track Of ROI On Your Referral Marketing Efforts

Thanks to modern Referral Marketing software, it’s very easy to track your Referral Program. You will instantly get access to information like how many referrals you have got in a month, what percentage of existing customers referred others, what percentage of referrals ended in sales, and so on. Many businesses also track the total revenue they make from referrals along with the AOV of an order made through a referral link versus the value of overall orders. Besides these metrics, you could also track the following:

Customer Participation Rate: Number of customers taking part in your referral program.
Referral Rate: Number of referrals made by each customer
Website Referral Traffic: Number of people who visited your website after receiving a referral link.
Conversion: Number of referred people who completed a purchase on your website.

Must Read: E-commerce KPIs & Metrics you should track for business success

Conclusion: Make Referral Easy With ANS Commerce

Referral Marketing is one of the most effective ways to boost revenue growth and drive customer acquisition in an E-commerce business. Following the tips and strategies highlighted in this post can ensure that your Referral Program becomes successful and helps in fulfilling your business goals.

If you are looking for assistance to create and manage your referral program, you can partner with ANS Commerce. With ANS Commerce by your side, creating and managing your Referral Program becomes a breeze, ensuring that your customers can effortlessly refer your brand to their friends and family.

Besides referral marketing, ANS Commerce can handle other aspects of your E-commerce business, too, such as performance marketing, marketplace management, warehouse, and fulfillment, so that you can focus on more strategic components of your business. To know more about how we can help you, contact us now.

13 Proven Strategies to Boost Your E-commerce Sales

You just analyzed the latest sales report of your E-commerce store. The numbers aren’t looking good. But you did everything right this year.

Hired more staff.

Spent more on marketing.

Streamlined your logistics.

Still no improvement. You now feel the pressure to increase your sales faster. At the same time, you do not want to compromise on the quality of your service. What to do?

Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered. In this post, we will take you through some of the best and proven strategies to improve sales for your online store.

1. Optimize Your E-commerce Store For SEO

When your E-commerce store ranks higher in SERP (Search Engine Results Page), it not only improves your brand’s visibility but also drives more targeted traffic to your website. In other words, your store will be visited by all those people who are actively searching for products similar to what you offer. This will increase the likelihood of conversion.

Here are some tips you can adopt to improve the SEO score of your online store-

Embed your product titles with relevant keywords.
Generate unique and compelling meta descriptions for every product you upload.
Ensure that your URLs are descriptive and include keywords.
Optimize product images with descriptive file names and alt tags.
Improve site speed for better user experience and search rankings.
Ensure that your website is optimized for mobile devices.

2. Use Paid Ads Strategy To Boost Sales

Sometimes just optimizing your website for search engines might not be enough to attract visitors to your website, especially if you want results quickly. For such cases, you must embrace Paid Ads along with SEO to boost sales. Here are some strategies related to paid ads you can adopt-

Drive Traffic With Facebook And Google Shopping Ads

Facebook and Google offer robust ad platforms that you can use to easily target the right people at the right time. Both these platforms have a large user base who are active and always on the lookout for solid information to consume and high-quality products to purchase.

While posting ads on these platforms, make sure your product images and creative copies resonate with your target audience. Also, not all your ads have to be about your products. You can even include videos about your customers or how your store works to build deep customer relationships. Here is an ad from Yogabar that is not about their brand or product. They have instead focused on one of their CSR activities involving an NGO. The goal of such ads is to drive brand awareness.

Must Read: 10 Types Of Facebook Ads D2C Businesses Can Use To Grow Sales (With Examples)

Use Lookalike Audience To Target

Lookalike Audience is a Facebook feature that lets you target people who haven’t heard about your brand but share similar characteristics with your ideal customers. By using a lookalike audience, you can drastically improve conversions for your store as you are essentially targeting those people who are more likely to buy from your brand.

While creating a lookalike audience for your brand, ensure that there is no audience overlap and you pick the audience from a quality source. Also, it is recommended to have at least 1000 people in your source audience to have a desirable effect on your targeting.

Focus On Retargeting Ads To Improve Conversions

Not all first-time visitors to your site will end up becoming a customer. Most of them will leave without purchasing anything. However, that doesn’t mean you can’t do anything about them. You can win them back with the help of retargeting ads.

Facebook, for instance, offers the Pixel which can detect who visited your website, whether they purchased anything, from which page they left, etc. Armed with this vital information, you can use Facebook Ads to attract these people. The goal of retargeting ads is to generate more exposure for your store, which will push the visitors to eventually buy from you.

Here is a great example of a retargeting ad-

Some of the best practices you can follow while creating and managing retargeting ads include:

To ensure that your ads don’t go unnoticed, make sure to highlight your logo and branding across all ad units.
Do not overexpose your ads as your potential customers may start ignoring your ads. It is advisable to set a frequency cap that will limit the number of times a tagged user will see your ad. We recommend anywhere between 15-20 ads per user per month.
Always exclude your converted users from your retargeting list. The last thing you want is annoying your customers. More importantly, why waste valuable impressions on those people who have already converted.
Do not run the same set of ads again and again. Your users will no longer be curious and will end up ignoring them. Rotate your ad creatives after every 2-3 months.

Must Read: 8 Best E-commerce Advertising Campaigns To Get You Inspired

3. Create An Email List And Build An Email Marketing Strategy

Emails are still as relevant as they were a decade ago. More importantly, it is a great marketing channel as it offers a way to communicate with your prospects directly. But successful email marketing requires thorough planning and seamless execution. We suggest adding additional information while creating an email list. Add information like, your prospect’s interest, purchase history, or last communication with the brand. It will help you personalize your communication.

Here are some more tips to master email marketing for your store-

Ensure that your emails are responsive. In other words, every element in your email must be clearly accessible on all kinds of devices
Never send an email without a clear and prominent call-to-action button. It should encourage recipients to take the desired action
Consistently monitor email metrics like open rates, click-through rates, and conversions, so that you optimize your email campaigns for better performance
A/B test different email formats, layouts, and content to identify what resonates best with your audience and yields higher conversion rates
Add customer reviews and testimonials in your emails to build trust and social proof.
Give your emails a personal touch without compromising on the professionalism aspect. The best way to do this is by by sending it from a specific employee with the pattern: <your first name> from < company>
While determining when to send your emails, keep your audience and mail type in mind. For instance, if your target audience is working professionals, and you are sending emails with a discount coupon, then you may want to send it during the lunch break or in the evening after office hours–simply because your target audience might be more likely to check it during that time
Lastly, your email copy should be concise and to the point. It should have actionable verbs to inspire action and effortlessly blend with your CTAs

4. Utilize Popups And Signup Forms To Capture Visitor Information

Time and again, popups have proven to be a great ally for marketers. Despite its intrusive nature, it can still grab the attention of visitors and get them to interact with your brand while they are browsing. To reduce the intrusiveness, you can trigger them during different scenarios like when a customer spends a certain amount of time on your page or when they scroll down the page to a certain point.

Your popups could be designed to offer various incentives, such as exclusive discounts, freebies, or access to insider information. This will encourage visitors to provide their email addresses willingly.

Here is a popup on the website of Pepperfry, asking guest users to signup in return for credits that they can use while making the first purchase.

You can also trigger signup forms to capture visitor information, such as email addresses, which then allows you to build a valuable email list for your email marketing strategy. Remember to keep the form fields simple and minimize the number of required fields to reduce friction. In other words, make the signup process quick and easy. Here is an example of pop-up to collect email addresses by Bunnai:

5. Make It Easy For Customers To Purchase

Remove obstacles and reduce friction throughout the buying journey to ensure that your customers complete a purchase. Here are some strategies you can adopt to make it easy for customers to purchase-

Offer A Variety Of Payment Options

If there is one thing you don’t want, it is your customers leaving your store without completing a purchase just because their preferred payment option was unavailable. Gone are the days when simply offering credit cards, debit cards, and Internet banking was sufficient.

Today’s generation wants payment methods like mobile wallets, UPI, and Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL). BNPL, in particular, has become quite popular because it offers customers the flexibility to spread their payments over time. This is ideal for all those customers who prefer more financial flexibility or those who may not have immediate access to funds. Myntra, the popular fashion brand offers a variety of payment methods to cater to every type of customer out there.

Various payment methods you can offer on website

Low Shipping Charges Or Free Shipping

Today’s customers not only expect convenience and fast shipping but also free shipping or at least minimal shipping charges. If you manage to offer no-charge deliveries on all your orders, customers will be more likely to choose you over other brands. You could give free shipping on products with the highest margin or only if the order value reaches a particular amount. Hamleys, the popular toy store offers free shipping on all orders above ₹999 and they have highlighted this on their homepage.

You could also keep free shipping only for loyalty program members since they’re more likely to make repeat orders from your shop and that means you have a lower customer acquisition cost. Here are some smart ways to reduce shipping costs.

Fast Delivery & Easy Returns

Most customers value quick delivery and a seamless returns process over everything else. They feel confident in purchasing from brands offering top-notch experiences. You must have a dedicated returns policy page highlighting all the information about the returns process, including the time window for initiating returns. Similarly, offer multiple refund options like store credits or the original mode of payment. Finally, you should display the return policy link on the footer or your product page for easy access.

Must Read: Strategies To Streamline Return Management And Reduce Cost: A Complete Guide

Ajio has designed its returns policy in the form of FAQs so that customers can quickly get their queries answered.

6. Run Strategic Promotions On Your Website

A well-thought-out promotion strategy will resonate with your customer base and automatically drive conversions.

You can run time-sensitive promotion campaigns that create a sense of urgency such as “flash sale” or “limited time offer”. Display a countdown timer for such promotions to encourage customers to act quickly and take advantage of the deal.

Another type of promotion that you can run is exclusive promotions. You can offer discounts to your email subscribers or loyalty program members to reward their engagement and encourage continued brand loyalty.

Some brands also go out of the box and run other varieties of promotions such as contests, giveaways, and referral programs to generate excitement and encourage participation.

Here are some tips to adopt while you run promotions on your website-

Use visually appealing banners and eye-catching graphics on your website to highlight the promotion and draw attention to the special offers.
Amplify the impact of your promotions by talking about it in all channels, particularly in social media. This will help you reach a wider audience.
Consider collaborating with influencers to generate buzz around your promotions.
Monitor and analyze the performance of your promotions. Track metrics like conversion rates and average order value to see if your strategy is working. If the numbers are not improving, you can fine-tune future campaigns.

Here’s Shoppers Stop, prominently displaying their current sale on their home page.

7. Create Urgency And Scarcity To Drive Sales

By creating a sense of urgency, you essentially tap into the psychological triggers that motivate customers to purchase from you. And the easiest way to instill urgency in the minds of customers is through scarcity. Using scarcity, you are helping the customers see the perceived value in making an instant purchase. Some of the different ways in which you can drive scarcity include:

Show stock quantities on product pages to trigger FOMO
Show how many people are currently browsing or have bought that particular product.
Using phrases like “Limited stock” or “Hurry, only a few items left” etc.
Allowing customers to pre-order select products or give them access to pre-sale opportunities

Here is an example of a brand using phrases like “Limited Stock” to create a sense of scarcity on their E-commerce website-

Show limited stock to create urgency in fast selling products

8. Upsell And Cross Sell To Your Existing Customers

Upselling is all about encouraging customers to upgrade their purchases or opt for higher-value products whereas cross-selling is about selling additional products that compliments the initial purchase. This is an effective strategy because you are mostly selling to those who already know you. You need to understand customer preferences and needs and present compelling offers to increase the average order value.

For example, if a customer reaches the checkout page to purchase a mixing bowl, and they get a personalized recommendation for a bigger one – just for ₹50 more. They’ll be obviously tempted to upgrade their product. Upselling not only increases revenue but also helps in building long-term relationships with your customers.

Here is an example of Upselling by Body Shop-

upsell and cross sell example for Ecommerce

9. Minimize Cart Abandonment By Optimizing The Checkout Process

Here’s the harsh truth – You can never eliminate cart abandonment. However, you can improve the conversion rate by optimizing your checkout process. One of the reasons why most customers leave their carts is the lack of transparency. When your customers can’t see shipping fees, taxes, and other additional costs displayed on the checkout page, they will start rethinking their entire purchase. So ensure that you have a detailed order preview page that includes all the costs involved. You can also incorporate visual elements like progress indicators to reinforce transparency.

The other reason for cart abandonment is a complicated checkout process. The longer and more complicated your checkout process is, the greater the possibility of cart abandonment. You can simplify your checkout process by leaving out unnecessary form fields, allowing visitors to checkout with a guest account, and so on. Here’s Ikea offering guest checkout for all its customers-

Simplify checkout to prevent cart abandonment

Must Read: 17 Best Abandoned Cart Email Examples With Key Takeaways (+Free Templates)

10. Display customer Reviews To Build Trust And Credibility

Most customers will look for social proof and acknowledgments from others before making up their minds about a product. So it is important to have reviews and testimonials highlighted on your E-commerce website. You need to ask your customers to leave a review after every order is placed. However, not everyone will leave a review. To encourage them you need to offer incentives like freebies, cashbacks, or discounts on their next purchase.

Most importantly, you need to display the reviews where they will create maximum impact. Here’s Mamaearth displaying customer testimonials and marketplace reviews, on their homepage.

11. Showcase Your Top-Selling Items

This strategy works on a very simple idea – everyone wants to lay their hands on products everyone else is buying. Listing and showcasing your top-selling items on your website is a great way to get customers excited about trending items. When customers see the top seller label, it makes those products more appealing and reassuring as it has been bought and enjoyed by many in the past.

Showcasing your top-selling items can also simplify the decision-making process by presenting customers with the most popular and trusted choices. This will make it easier for them to make a purchase.

Here’s Juicy Chemistry displaying all their best-selling items on their homepage.

12. Add A Post-Purchase Survey To Your Website

Post-purchase surveys give you a lot of information about your customers’ experience. For instance, you can learn about what convinced them to buy from you, what was the deal breaker, and what could have improved their overall experience. Such key pieces of data can help in learning about your own strengths and weaknesses through the eyes of the customers.

To increase the number of responses, you can reward survey-takers with a discount for their next purchase. You must highlight the reward right before the survey to encourage them to leave feedback. It is also important to implement the changes based on your respondents’ feedback, to show that you value their opinion. Here’s an example of a post-purchase survey from Decathlon-

13. Use Conversational Commerce To Keep In Touch With Your Customers

Conversational Commerce is a great way to have meaningful interactions with your customers. Using it, you can offer personalized support that will improve satisfaction and loyalty among customers. Two popular ways in which you can adopt conversational commerce include live chat support (both bot and human agent) on the website and WhatsApp chat.

Using Conversational Commerce, you can promptly respond to customer inquiries, provide product recommendations, and address any concerns or issues they may have. The proactive nature of Conversational Commerce showcases the importance you place on customer experience, which will ultimately drive ongoing engagement.

Here’s Bombay Shaving Company actively engaging its customers through WhatsApp Conversational Commerce.

How to Boost E-commerce Sales: Conclusion

As you have seen in this post, learning how to increase E-commerce sales doesn’t have to be incredibly difficult. There are plenty of strategies that are easy to implement and highly effective at the same time. It’s also a good idea to try out as many strategies as possible and find out which ones have the most impact in your sales.

However, if you want to put your entire E-commerce store in autopilot mode and focus on other aspects of your business, you can join hands with ANS Commerce. ANS Commerce can handle the A-Z of your online store, right from setting up to running day-to-day operations. To know more about ANS Commerce and how we can help, book a free demo now.

How To Plan The Best Strategy For Social Media Marketing?

Social sites today have changed how society functions; the interaction, the connection, even the behavior of people have changed. With the growing popularity of social platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, businesses realized that these websites can influence customer behavior and took the opportunity to reach out to them with their products and services.

Many companies became successful with it as it allowed them to contact millions of people and spread the word about their product in a breeze. However, not all businesses achieve that success. Do you know why?

Social media is continuously growing! New platforms are emerging with different features, and the old ones are getting updated in order to keep their visitors engaged. So, no fixed strategy works. It needs to vary depending on which social networks your target audience uses. Before we discuss that, let’s understand what it is and what it can do for your business.

What is Social Media Marketing?

The process of building a community on social media platforms with the target audience to generate traffic to your business is known as Social Media Marketing (SMM). It is an overall method to communicate with existing consumers and reach out to new ones on the platforms where they socially interact.

Businesses use social media marketing to promote their brand, culture, mission, and even tone. There are a variety of methods on social media networks that allow marketers to advertise their products/services, connect with their users, and interact for the purchase.

Importance of Social Media Marketing

With social media playing such a crucial part at the top of the funnel, it is important to generate a fantastic marketing opportunity. And if you’re not making use of this lucrative source, you’re missing out on its great benefits.

Some benefits of Social Media Marketing are-

Increases Brand Visibility

Having a social media presence for your brand can undoubtedly increase your company’s visibility as it allows you to reach the same level where your customers are, and create a community where your users can interact. Social networking is the most stress-free and profitable digital marketing tool that can quickly generate a large following for your company and boost your brand recognition within a limited period of time.

Improves Brand Loyalty

Communicating with customers on a regular basis and creating a bond with them increases customer retention and loyalty that every business requires. When you have social media presence your customer can easily locate you and connect with you, moreover, you can also engage with your customers and keep them happy increasing brand loyalty.

Helps Remain Budget-Friendly

Social media marketing is perhaps the most cost-effective technique as almost all social networking sites provide free registration and account creation. However, if you decide to employ paid social media advertising, start modestly to have a sense of what to expect. Being cost-effective is critical since it helps you to maximize your return on investment and dedicate more money to other marketing and business needs.

Enhances Customer Satisfaction

When customers post comments on your page, they like to receive a customized answer rather than a generic statement. A firm that appreciates its clients and takes the time to craft a personalized statement is naturally regarded as positive. With the use of these platforms, you can give your company a voice that will help you build your brand image.

Boosts Web Traffic

Another advantage of social media is that it aids in the growth of your website’s traffic. If you post your content on social media, users will be more inclined to visit your website. The more high-quality content you share on social media, the more inbound traffic you’ll receive and the higher your conversion chances will be.

How to Create a Social Media Marketing Strategy?

Social Media Marketing Process includes simple steps:

Define goals

It is important to clearly outline what you want to achieve from social media platforms. Whether you want to increase the followers or enhance sales of your company. Determine the purpose of your company’s social media presence in the first place. Without a clear goal in sight, you won’t be able to choose the best course of action.

Prefer using the S.M.A.R.T. goal framework to create your objectives

Specific- For your goal to be more effective, it is important to be specific. The more specific your goals are, the easier it will be to develop a strategy and set standards. If you want to raise brand recognition or gain followers every month, be explicit about how you’ll accomplish it.

Measurable- Specificity is a good start, but quantifying your objectives makes it easier to follow your progress and determine when you’ve arrived at your destination. You may enhance your results by tweaking your method if you are not able to achieve your goal.

Attainable- This is the moment in the process where you should do a serious self-evaluation. Companies might become too ambitious and establish unreasonable, unreachable objectives. Check to see if your aim is feasible given your resources.

Quick Tip – Reflect on whether your goal is something your team can fairly achieve or is certain to fail. Remember that your goal holds the efforts and the confidence of your whole team. If your goal fails, the confidence of your team also fails.

Relevant- Relevant goals are tightly tied with a company’s aims. This is when you must consider the larger picture. Why are you aiming for this particular goal? What influence will it have on your bottom line?

Time-bound- Set your deadlines! You and your team must discuss the time frame and agree on when a target has been met in order to accurately assess success. Discussing when the team should begin and execute can further make your goal more effective and memorable.

Set different goals for each social media platform you are using and keep a track of your progress to check the difference.

Determine audience

A target audience is a set of individuals who are most likely to be interested in your company. They’d have similar demographics and habits.

Remember, assumptions are bad for marketers! So don’t be afraid while researching your target audience. It will allow you to go deeper into the details and produce more relevant posts. Most of the information you need to shape your social media marketing plan is already available. It’s only a matter of knowing where to look.

With the right technologies, marketers can quickly research their target demographic. There’s no need for professional market research or data science expertise.

Choose Platform

We already discussed the increasing periphery of social media and distinct features that the platforms own. You can’t just incorporate every social media network in your approach because there are hundreds of them. It’s critical to perform some research before deciding on the best platforms for your marketing plan. Approach the ones that are most relevant for your brand and help you reach a large audience.

You also need to understand that a distinct collection of users interact in distinct ways on different platforms. So, you cannot post the same material across all platforms as your audience won’t like it.

Here are some pointers on how to pick the best social media platform:

Facebook- Facebook has almost 2.7 billion users that love to develop relationships and stay in touch with old friends. As a result, Facebook is an excellent medium for increasing client loyalty but for attracting a new audience it has an enormous user base, and you might need to go for ads to make your posts reach a large number of people.

Consider your company goals when you evaluate Facebook as a possible platform.

Learn Facebook Ad Targeting Tips to Drive Conversions for Your Business.

Twitter- Twitter is a wonderful tool for increasing brand recognition. A hashtag is a tool used by Twitter to arrange conversations around a word or phrase. You may discover what others are talking about by Googling hashtags and tailoring your tweets to join in on the topic.

Many companies mix Twitter with offline interaction, such as events, because Twitter is frequently used to offer real-time information to an audience.

LinkedIn- LinkedIn has the distinction of being the most popular platform among citizens between the ages of 30 and 49. LinkedIn is also distinct in that it has a specific emphasis on educated users. LinkedIn is used to look for employment and network professionally. As a result, the platform is beneficial for generating B2B leads, general networking, and personnel recruitment.

LinkedIn serves as a hub for in-depth, industry-specific material that is more niche than what you’ll find on Facebook or Twitter.

Pinterest- Pinterest is a social media platform for “scrapbooking,” or preserving material by “pinning” photographs or videos to a virtual bulletin board. The Pinterest demographic is dominated by women. Recipes, styling suggestions, breathtaking images, and DIY projects are among the most popular pins. You’ll need good images to captivate consumers on Pinterest because it’s a visual site. Strong retail sales have been connected to successful company usage of Pinterest.

Instagram- Instagram is one of the most popular social media networks, especially among millennials and Gen Z. Instagram, like Pinterest, depends on photographs or videos to generate interaction. As a result, this platform is ideal for enterprises that are visual in nature, such as art, cuisine, retail, and beauty. There is less noise than on Facebook because it is a growing platform. As your reach is broader, the platform is excellent for generating leads.

Create Content

It is no surprise that we are already aware of the importance of content. Content is the core of any social media marketing plan. Based on your goals, audience, and brand identity, you should have a very clear sense of what to post at which stage.

Here are some suggestions and ideas to get you started-

Conduct keyword research- While keyword research and analysis are essential for advertising success, doing keyword research on social media may substantially boost your exposure.

Post in the form of Stories- Stories aren’t going away anytime soon. Story-style content is both participatory and can’t-miss. An appealing story can help your brand’s account “jump the line” and stay in the mind of your followers.

Engage with conversation- Ask questions, give answers! Drop the statements that can initiate conversation. Show more of your human side as people love interacting rather than getting instructions.

Quick Tip – You can conduct a competitive analysis to check what your competitors are up to.

Advertise Posts

It’s difficult to get your work seen on the internet, especially on social media, where nearly half of all information is shared with no one.

Post your content on the right platform at the right time to reach your target audience. Customers are not available on all platforms at all times. You need to check the density of the visitors on the specific platform and post the content during that same time so that it reaches the maximum viewers.

Moreover, follow the 80/20 rule to get the most out of your social media: “spend 20% of your effort developing content and the balance (80%) advertising it.”

Measure Progress

Your social media marketing plan is crucial to your overall marketing strategy. It’s difficult to get everything properly the first time.

As you begin to implement your plan and track results, you may discover that some of your approaches aren’t as effective as you had hoped. Keep track of your performance and compare it to entail your top-performing material.

Adjust your Approach

By this point, you should have a clear vision of your social media approach. However, you must be able to change your plan as the year progresses. There’s no doubt that a lot of social media is a learning process. Real-time monitoring can help you to make incremental adjustments to your social media marketing plan.

ANS Commerce Enabled Services

We are a team of experts that have years of experience in a variety of industries and brands with varied sizes and complexity. We are well aware of the kind of assistance you require when landing on social media platforms. Whether it is to increase brand visibility, ROAS, or retarget users based on their interests. We take care of every platform from the start to the end and influence customer behaviour to make impulse purchases.

Our services include Performance Marketing, Marketplace Management, Warehouse & Fulfillment, and e-commerce advice to help you get relieved of your marketing stress. We handle everything social media marketing- tools and target. So, get a DEMO and improve your internet presence now!

E-commerce Blogging Tips: 7 Brilliant Suggestions to Boost your Brandstore Sales!

E-commerce businesses put constant efforts into marketing and branding strategies. Be it their brandstore, or social media channels, you will find aesthetically pleasing visuals with short-crisp content.

Now, visit your favorite brand’s website and check their blog segment. You will hardly find any blog. This is one of the biggest mistakes businesses commit. What they don’t understand is, to communicate their offerings with the users, social media and brandstore are not enough, especially if you are a B2C business.

Blogging not only helps your customers understand your brand better but also increases your inbound traffic.

“While your blog must add value to the reader’s knowledge, it must harness the power of persuading them a step further.”

7 Incredible Blogging Tips to Rev Up your E-Commerce website!

1. Focus on value-added content

Marketers focus on quantity than quality when it comes to writing blogs. The trick might stand true for social media, but for blogs, create content to entertain, educate and empower your audience. If your write-up is not adding value to your reader’s lifestyle, it’s of no use. To make it winsome, study the needs of your audience first, then make the content accordingly.

Quick tip: Data and stats add a context and support your statement. Try to use numbers as often as possible. For example, you are a business dealing in alcohol-free fragrances. To sell your offerings, tell people about the disadvantages of alcoholic perfumes in numbers, supporting your statement. Additionally, you can also mention the benefits of using alcohol-free fragrances while featuring your product portfolio.

2. Don’t lose the consistency

Focusing on quality doesn’t mean you will be inconsistent and post once every six months. Consistency is a must to attain traffic. Post at least twice every week to notify your customers. Keeping your posting schedule consistent makes it easier for the readers to expect new content from you. If you can’t manage, you can even hire people on a freelance basis. Seeking help from a professional would only strengthen your content marketing strategy. Be consistent, you will see the results automatically.

3. Tie your blogs to the product pages

For all SEO professionals, this is one of the best techniques to increase your website’s ranking organically. Curate content for the blog while linking your offerings. For example, you are writing a blog on “10 bootcut jeans you can’t afford to ignore in 2021.” Here, you can add your brand’s products to the blog with a ‘BUY NOW’ button. Also, remember not to add too many links as this can create clutter in the minds of the users.

Quick tip: Can’t boost your website’s traffic organically? Well, invest in our performance marketing solution, made with a special focus on lead generation and ROAS. To know more, request your free DEMO now!

4. Put your emphasis on meta descriptions

Adding a meta description in your blog is similar to adding ad copy in your google ads. Without a meta description, it’s impossible for the blog to rank. Moreover, it’s one of the first things people read when your blog comes in the search results. Many e-commerce websites, either don’t use meta description or use the same content for all the blogs. If you want people to read your blogs, you need to create fresh meta descriptions for each blog.

5. Don’t forget to optimize your images

Images act as proof of your written content. If they are pixelated and don’t resonate with your text, they are of no use. To optimize your images for the blogs, it’s important to use high-quality images. But, don’t forget to compress so that they don’t take time to load. Secondly, use the ALT tag in your image code. It helps your images to appear in the google image search.

Want to design your e-commerce website from scratch, but don’t know how to? Read on!

6. Talk less about your products and more about people

Times have changed and so have people. There’s no room for fancy content with persuasive promotions. People read blogs to either gain knowledge or get entertained. They don’t want to read your sales pitch in the shape of a blog. Understand your audiences’ needs first and then make your content accordingly. In short, don’t surround your blog with the offerings, rather give people the solutions for their problems. Once they start trusting you, they’ll definitely buy from you.

7. Simplify your URLs

Your blog’s ranking is directly dependent on its URL. If you use complicated URLs with too many conjunctions and articles, your sites’ ranking will immediately dip as it’s hard for search engines to read. Try to use simple plain English. Also, don’t forget to include the primary and secondary keywords in the URL.

How can we help you?

Are you still confused as to how you can market your offerings and fuel your e-commerce business? Consult us for all your e-commerce needs and we will help you scale your business. From performance marketing to warehousing & order fulfillment to marketplace management to brandstore tech, leave everything e-commerce to ANS Commerce. To know more about us and our offerings, request your free DEMO now!

Quick tip: Still couldn’t understand how can you make the most out of blogging? Below are the links to the blog segments of some of our partner brands’ websites. Check it out and ace the knack of blogging!
https://www.mystereparis.com/blog
https://www.kayayouth.com/blog
https://blog.ruosh.com/
https://blog.khadims.com/
https://blog.rossobrunello.com/

Many brands don’t understand the importance of blogging, but we hope you will follow the above-mentioned tips to get increased visibility and brand awareness. Also, don’t forget to share your blogs on social media channels as they help you create backlinks, increasing the engagement of your content.