The advent of the pandemic pushed businesses to embrace the online factor and make business owners take their ventures online. This helped them maintain their business during the quarantine days and expanded their growth. The pandemic conditions were a wake-up call for all the companies, especially those that only dealt with offline, to go online and adapt to new methods to expand their horizons.
Many businesses, even the ones that seemed to have thrived offline only (like escape rooms), found their way online. Hence, there was no excuse for any businesses not to venture online. However, almost all companies going online also increased the competition manifold. This pushed the firms to develop reformed strategies to compete with their contenders.
If you are an eCommerce business owner looking to grow your business, this blog post is for you. This blog post will list ten powerful growth hack ideas for your eCommerce store.
1. Try out social proof notifications
Businesses going online has also given a steep rise in scam websites. Let’s face it; the internet makes scamming people very easy, more so because of the anonymity factor. This makes people suspicious of online businesses, especially if your business is new. This is where social proof notifications can help you out. Social proof notifications restore your business’s credibility, making it more trustworthy to people so they would want to invest. They could even help you earn them as loyal customers and even acquire more customers.
2. How long does your website take to load?
Another significant yet overlooked factor of eCommerce stores is how quickly their websites load. Your website mustn’t lag too much because if people wanted to put in that much effort, they would just go to an offline store. Moreover, a website that loads quickly will minimize your website’s bounce rate and improve your ranking on Google searches. If your website lags too much, people would not want to spend much time with you and look for alternatives for similar services that other businesses provide. This means your loss and your competitors’ profit.
3. Let your customers do your marketing
Business CEOs often spend a lot of time and money on appealing advertisements. We understand that they are essential and such an investment, but only to an extent. Once you have acquired a handsome customer base, you need not worry about advertising for yourself, for your customers do that job for you way better than any advertisement. You should have a good review section where the customers can refer your website to newer clients and help expand your customer acquisition and retention. Believe it when we say this, there is no better testimony and referral than word of mouth.
4. Consider writing guest post articles
If you have been aiming to acquire a loyal customer base, publishing guest post articles might be one of the best ways. People are constantly researching various products and, most importantly, their ingredients. A word of caution would not be dull, whether it is the products used in a skincare product or the basics behind digital marketing. Don’t advertise your products or services. Go into the basics, and provide information that only you know. When you’re attracted to your customers, engagement is bound to increase.
5. Personalize it for your customers
Another great strategy to grow your eCommerce store is to personalize the experience for your customers. You need to keep tabs on your customers, their likes and dislikes, and the choice of products they tend to go for. You can do so by checking what they are most interested in, the kind of place they are coming from (geographically), and their popular searches. This keeps them engaged on your website for longer durations while they can come across products of their liking almost effortlessly, thanks to the personalized approach.
6. Use pop-ups when customers are exiting your website
There is no other better way to keep your customers returning to your website than to have pop-ups on their way out. This could be in the form of coupons or upcoming sales, or probably their favorite products being given away at discounts. Pop-ups are a fantastic growth hack and have proved to be adequate to have customers keep coming back to your website, sometimes even multiple times a day. This works exceptionally well for customers who visited your site but didn’t buy anything. This tactic can change their minds and acquire them as loyal customers.
7. Sale countdowns
There is nothing that customers like more than sales. And there is nothing better that pushes them to make purchases when deals last only for a limited time. Hence, one of the best ways to convince your customers to buy a particular product is through sale countdowns. If you are already offering products at a discount and adding an added value, the latter being only for a limited period, customers rush to make purchases. Big conglomerates like Amazon rely heavily on this tactic.
8. Everyone loves flash sales and holiday sales
Oh boy, if there is anything that can drive your engagement and boost your growth like crazy, flash sales and holiday sales are the way to go. Flash sales are somewhat like sale countdowns on select products, whereas holiday sales go up around holiday periods. Occasion or not, everyone loves shopping when discounts are being offered. Regular flash sales can drive up your customer engagement very well. And sales around holidays can boost it even further.
9. Try out birthday ads
A great way to kick your personalized approach up a notch is through birthday ads. You already have the required information about your customer base, so why not put it up for use? You can offer exclusive discounts to your customers on their birthdays, gift them coupons, and even choose to give away freebies with their purchases made on their birthdays.
10. Free shipping
Ah, the bliss that free shipping is! When customers see the word ‘free’ on anything, they won’t think twice before buying it (it should be ethical, of course). And if there’s anything that customers hate the most, it’s the shipping fee. Hence, add the minimum purchase amount on your website to help your customers avail the absolute blessing that free shipping is.
Final thoughts
While traditional growth strategies can help you grow, growth hacks can help put where a conventional approach can’t. Growth hacks are unconventional and creative and help you get over that stagnation.
Author’s Bio:
Charlotte Lin is a content creator at EscapeRoom. She’s a passionate young woman, a mother to an amazing nine-year-old, and an avid reader. Over the years, writing has helped her explore and understand the world as well as her own self. She loves to travel, meet new people, and spend quality time with her daughter.