If you’re an eCommerce merchant, then it’s safe to assume that you understand this fundamental truth — setting up an eCommerce website is a totally different ball game from turning the store into a revenue-generating channel.
The above truth is why eight out of ten eCommerce stores that launch, eventually fail while a significant number of online store owners are very far from becoming profitable.
Interestingly too, we can assume that mastering the techniques to maximize revenue on your eCommerce store, will set you on the path to becoming one of the most successful merchants in your niche.
Now, that is the purpose of this article, as we will from this point discuss techniques that can help eCommerce merchants to increase their revenue numbers. Note that these measures can be easily adapted to both new and existing eCommerce stores.
5 Techniques to Maximize eCommerce Revenue
1. Embrace Mobile eCommerce
In case you missed it, StatCounter reported way back, that the number of people using mobile devices topped those using a desktop for the first time. Since that time, too, internet users are getting more glued to their mobile devices with the image below, showing statistics recorded in the past.
These numbers, coupled with the fact that over 1.6 billion people use their mobile devices to shop online globally clearly show that you must prioritize mobile traffic conversion as an eCommerce merchant.
Here are some tips to help you achieve the desired results:
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Set up Accelerated Mobile Pages
Accelerated mobile pages (AMP) which first appeared in 2015 as an open-source project to meet the needs of mobile users have become a trend that eCommerce merchants can count on to increase conversions.
According to a Google-sponsored study, eCommerce stores that use accelerated mobile pages (AMP) record a 20% increase in sales when compared against those who did not set up the functionality.
This result clearly shows that potential visitors are more likely to become paying customers if they can browse through your mobile website with laser speed as eBay’s website allow.
If you’re using Magento custom development or other eCommerce platforms such as Shopify, and WordPress, these sites offer plugins that allow you to set up AMP pages seamlessly. You can also see this guide from Cloudways on how to install AMP for specific pages.
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Optimize Mobile SEO
Aside from setting up accelerated mobile pages, you can increase revenue that you search engine visits to your eCommerce website by optimizing page titles and meta descriptions for mobile users.
Another technique that you can employ includes using keyword research tools to find keywords that potential customers use to search for products on search engines and integrate them into your content.
Further, with stats showing that 62% of marketers are not ready for voice search yet, you can start to pay more attention to the emerging trend by:
- Writing content that answers questions and using the questions either as a title or major subheading.
- Using a table of contents display for relevant contents.
- Monitoring voice search trends and the growth of the new search tool.
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Create a Mobile App for your eCommerce Website
With the increase mentioned above in the number of mobile users comes the need to serve your eCommerce website on variants of mobile platforms including applications for Android, and iOS devices.
While developing a typical mobile app for an eCommerce store would usually cost a lot of capital, you can leverage new SaaS tools such as Appypie and Apptuse to turn an existing eCommerce store into a distributable mobile application.
2. Create Product Demo Videos
Rather than adopt the conventional strategy of using only text and images on your product pages, you can choose to increase conversions and revenue by creating demo videos for your hot-selling products.
According to OptinMonster, 90% of online consumers watch videos on mobile devices, while a whopping 84% of shoppers purchased after watching a video.
How can you use these stats in your favor?
Hire a video content creator or use simple tools such as PowToon and VideoScribe to create demo videos. Typically, your product demo video should be concise with three goals in mind:
- To educate customers
- Reveal the benefits they will miss by not buying a product right away and
- End with a call-to-action (CTA) to complete a purchase.
Remember, even though you’re outsourcing the product video creation, you need to be actively involved as the third-party may not have all the insights that you have regarding your potential customers.
Lastly, share a sample of the product demo video with your existing customers and gather their inputs before launching the final version.
3. Use Targeted Cross-Sells and Upsells
BoldCommerce recently reported that 30% of eCommerce revenue comes from targeted recommendations, a stat shows why you must prioritize cross and upsells.
For the basics, cross-selling involves an attempt to sell a related product to a customer while upselling is selling a more expensive version of a product that the customer already has or intends to buy.
Upselling could also include adding extra features or add-ons to that product such as an extended warranty or discount.
Now that we’ve gotten that, here are some ways to use these techniques to maximize revenue on your eCommerce website:
- Display filtered recommended products on your cart page or other high converting pages of your website.
- Display upsell products after checkout and on delivery emails after the consumer completes a purchase.
- Retarget existing customers with products that can either complement or offer more value than their previous order. This technique relies on the fact that it is more easier to sell to an existing customer than to a new one and could do wonders for your revenue numbers.
- Upsell products should be reasonably priced with the current value of what the user has in the cart. For instance, the Apple MacBook Pro product page features products worth $1499 and $1799, even though pricing starts at $1299.
Conclusively, employ A/B testing to discover which offer customers are buying and stick to what works.
4. Reduce Cart Abandonment
Another significant reason why eCommerce merchants fail to maximize revenue is high cart abandonment. Baymard Institute puts the average cart abandonment rate on eCommerce stored as 69%, even though the number could be even higher for newer online stores.
What steps can you take to reduce cart abandonment?
Well, one of the basic ways to do so is by offering free shipping, a feature marketed as one of the top incentives that online shoppers expect.
Next, you can optimize checkout by providing multiple payment options, including the most unpopular ones, including cryptocurrencies, that is if they are legally acceptable in your jurisdiction.
As noted above, collecting payments in cryptocurrencies is still an unpopular option for online shoppers but offers your eCommerce the opportunity to serve the number of visitors from the emerging industry.
You can use the payment service providers such as BitPay to receive cryptocurrencies from your eCommerce store without worrying about the continually fluctuating prices at the time of the transaction.
That said, another way to reduce cart abandonment is by offering guest checkout instead of requiring users to create an account when they’re almost ready to leave or possibly in a hurry.
The format above from New Look captures my ideal version of a guest checkout page.
Meanwhile, you can send abandonment emails to potential clients who did not complete a purchase. In the email, offer to solve any problems that they faced while checking out and also display the items they left in the cart. You can even take it a step further by offering coupons or discount codes to incentivize the customer to checkout.
Lastly, it is crucial to time the delivery of your abandonment emails. You can send the first within an hour after the card is abandoned while the second and third emails will follow after one and three days, respectively.
5. Trigger FOMO With Flash Sales
If you ever bought something because you feared missing out on a good deal, then you’re not alone because I have done that a couple of times and on several cases wish I never bought in.
However, there are still sometimes when the fear of missing out landed me good deals, meaning that it is not wrong to trigger that feeling in your shoppers in a bid to sell more of your products. Stats also support that FOMO could play into your hands since more than 55% of people on social networks fear missing out on updates and thus spend hours online.
That said, here’s how to use FOMO to your advantage, depending on your marketing budget and business goals.
- Offer selected product(s) for sale for a limited time and use urgency-based language to trigger FOMO.
- Use a plugin or extension to attach a countdown timer to the product page or feature it prominently on your homepage.
- Display stock levels as well as the number of people who are competing for the offer.
- Show that people are buying as shown in this SeedProd sales page.
- Do not use the FOMO all the time. If customers notice over time that they’re often coerced into buying even when they’re not in the mood, then they may stop visiting or viewing your emails.
Rounding Up – Best Techniques To Maximize Ecommerce Revenue
As we noted at the onset, generating revenue consistency using an online store can be a difficult task if done the wrong way. However, with the techniques discussed in this article, you should have a handful of actionable tips that will help you maximize revenue over time.
Will these techniques work straightaway?
Some will but others would require the expiration of a significant period before you start reaping the rewards, and when it does come, you would have mastered the path to generating consistent eCommerce revenue.
Got any questions about the tips given here or any tips to add? Let me know in the comments below. And if you need any help to increase eCommerce conversions, reach out to us, Wigzo will help analyze your strategy and your eCommerce sales.
