As we see more and more high street shops struggling to remain open, the move from a physical high street presence to online is more important than ever.
For businesses across all industries, the marketing world presents us with an ever-changing landscape of dos and don’ts for 2020, there are so many actions which could be taken to improve a business’ on and offline presence.
The key, however, to an effective marketing strategy is to prioritise the activity that is most relevant to a target audience. This will differ from business to business, but predominantly one of the biggest priorities a business (particularly retailers) should have for their marketing strategy is their website.
Research supports this prioritisation, with estimates that 50% of all retail sales will take place online by 2028. The question, therefore, that retailers must ask themselves, is how effective their existing website is at attracting and retaining those valued sales and long-term customers?
If your website currently acts more as a ‘brochure’ of what you have to offer, now may be the time to increase its e-commerce capabilities so that you can stay ahead of your competitors with regards to online sales.
Don’t forget about usability
Whilst the design of your website is extremely important, it is important that your design does not impact upon the usability of the site. Make sure visitors can easily find what they’re looking for, with the fewest clicks possible.
Furthermore, if you are expecting an influx of visitors at any one time (say you are having a sale), then ensure your servers are up to the job. We have all likely been in the position where a site has crashed at a critical stage in the buying process, don’t let that happen to your e-commerce site as it will have a significant impact on your sales and the number of customers that return.
Make it secure
In a time where cyber-attacks are becoming ever-more sophisticated, ensuring your website is secure for your customers is critical. Particularly under GDPR, if you suffer from an attack and your cyber security is found wanting by an investigation, your business could face hefty fines, not to mention the impact it would have on customer trust.
Quality is vital
Ensuring a quality product or service is vital in every aspect of every business. When it comes to e-commerce businesses, this quality must extend much further than the quality of the products and their delivery.
The buying journey will begin on your website, this is a customer’s first impression of the quality of your product, and therefore your website must reflect this. Going back to the usability, this must ensure a seamless visit for your potential customers and the information they are looking for should be easy to find, your web copy should be clear and provide detailed descriptions of your products. Additionally, the images you use need to be of a high resolution, particularly if your site has a zoom feature.
Track your activity
Perfecting your site is unlikely to happen instantaneously. You will be continuously tweaking and amending areas to ensure that it continually provides the ideal shopping experience for your customers. To do this you must track activity on your site regularly using analytics.
Does your behaviour flow show multiple visitors dropping off at a certain point? How are people reaching the website? Are the demographics shown reflecting your target audience? Taking a look at these and other areas, asking yourself why and how they can be improved is key to making your e-commerce site work for you.
Are you looking to develop your website this year? Get in touch with the team at Entyce today to discuss your requirements.