Is Your Ecommerce Site Ready For The Holiday Rush?

Labor Day is over, and you know what that means – it’s time to get ready for the holiday season. While your customers may not be thinking about shopping just yet, they will be in the next month. That means you only have one month to get your website ready for the busy season.

Back in July we discussed the shipping steps you should be taking for the holiday rush, but this time we’re going to focus on your website.

Let’s get started.

Figure Out Peak Shopping Periods

Before you start working on anything else, you need to dive into your website data to figure out when your busy season really begins. Look at data from the past few years and make notes on patterns. When do your sales usually spike? When does your website traffic usually spike? What was it that brought customers to your website during those specific times? Look at the browsing and buying patterns so you can make adjustments to your inventory as well as featured products, banner advertisements, and more.

Plan Sales Strategically

Now that you know the peak trends on your website, it’s time to use that information to create a sales and promotions schedule. Experiment with offering sales on historically busy days as well as slow ones. Sales can entice people to buy more, or just to buy when previously they were on the fence. You may also experiment with offering extra perks during certain peak times, such as free gift wrapping.

Start Marketing Early

You know that you have to increase your marketing during the holidays, but get an early start instead of waiting for Thanksgiving to roll around. Preview holiday promotions to your loyal customers. Create some free content, such as blog posts or how-to videos, to get customers coming to your website more often. Make sure you’re sharing product news and information relevant to the holiday shipping season. You want your customers to be thinking about shopping with you before the holidays get underway.

Upgrade Your Systems

What can you do now to make the busy holiday season easier? Now is the time to make upgrades to your systems for a smoother workflow during the holidays, and moving forward. What parts of your shipping process can be automated? Do you need to update product photos and descriptions? Maybe you want to have social media automation so you can focus on other things. Start working on these upgrades immediately so they’re ready in time for the holidays.

Test Mobile Performance

Is your website optimized for mobile? It needs to be. Not only are more and more people shopping using a mobile device, but Google is starting to prioritize mobile when it comes to search engines. If someone looks up your website while on their phone but the site is clunky on mobile, they may not bother to look again. There’s still time to make changes before the holidays.

Make it Easy For Your Customers

The holidays are a busy, hectic time for people. By making your website as easy to navigate as possible, you’re reducing stress and confusion for your customers. Make sure shop policies such as your return policy is crystal clear and easy to find. All shipping information should be readily available to customers before the checkout process. Your goal is to get your customer on your website and checked out as quickly as possible, and the easier you make your website to navigate, the more often that will happen.

Optimize Checkout

Reduce customer headaches by testing your checkout process and optimizing it. Test all of your coupon codes to make sure they ring up correctly. Analyze how many steps your customers must go through to actually make a purchase. Remember, the goal is for this to be as easy as possible for your customers, with as few website errors as possible.

Don’t Forget About Shipping Supplies!

Head to ShippingSupply.com to stock up on shipping supplies for the holiday season so all your orders get shipped out on time!

Everything You Need To Know About Online Advertising

Advertising has been around for hundreds of years, but it is only in the past couple of decades that online advertising has really taken off. While online advertising may seem more complicated than putting an ad in the newspaper, it doesn’t have to be.

Whether you sell exclusively online or you offer brick-and-mortar services, it is important to consider if online advertising is right for you. If you have the budget to do some advertising online, it can be a huge boost to your profits.

Why Online?

Just about everyone is online nowadays, which means online advertising has huge potential for your business. Advertising platforms such as Google Ads make creating online advertisements relatively straightforward.

Online advertising allows your customers to take action immediately. A customer who hears your radio ad may forget your company name by the time they get to a computer, but someone who sees your advertisement online can click on it right away. That is truly what makes online advertising so remarkable.

But with so many options when it comes to online advertising, how do you decide where to put your money?

Paid Search

When people are in need of a product or service, they are likely to head to a search engine. This makes paid search advertising invaluable for your business.

Paid search is all about keywords, and your competition is using the same keywords you are. Paid search essentially acts as an auction, with the advertiser choosing maximum bids. It’s not as simple as the higher bidder gets the top search engine result, though. The quality of your ad is just as important as your maximum bid, so by crafting excellent ads you may still be able to rank well on Google.

So how do you make sure you receive an excellent ad quality score? When creating a new ad, consider these factors:

·        How relevant is the ad to the search?

·        How relevant is the ad to your ad group?

·        How relevant is the ad to the linked landing page?

·        How is the click-through-rate on the existing ad and ad group?

·        How well has your Google AdWords account done in the past?

For this reason, bidding on niche keywords can be a more effective strategy than bidding on highly competitive ones. If you are advertising for a brick-and-mortar business, you can also target audiences based on geographical data.

Paid Social

While it is still possible to generate leads organically using social media, it is getting increasingly difficult. Paid advertising on social media is a great way to get your message out there to a targeted audience. You can advertise on most of the big social media platforms, so it is important to choose the ones that are right for your audience.

That being said, each social media platform is different when it comes to advertising, which is something else you need to consider.

Facebook

Facebook has the largest user base when it comes to social media platforms, which makes it an attractive option for advertisers. When you are thinking about advertising on Facebook, there are a few key factors you need to keep in mind.

·        What type of campaign are you running?

·        How aware are your customers of your brand?

·        How much customer data do you have for targeting purposes?

·        What is your budget?

Facebook has several campaign types as well as specific campaigns available within each campaign type, so it is important you choose the one that works best for your business. From there you can even choose your campaign objectives, making it easier to reach your target audience and your marketing goals.

The targeting tools Facebook offers is a huge benefit to advertising on the platform. You can target your ads based on all sorts of criteria including interests, age, website visitors, and much more.

Instagram

Instagram is where you want to go if you’re targeting millennials and generation Z. Because Facebook owns Instagram, their advertising is fairly similar in terms of structure.

You can choose from a variety of ad formats, and as you can imagine, all of these formats are very visual. You can also make use of Facebook’s targeting assistance, as ads are integrated with Facebook Ad Manager. There’s even a guided creation option to help you set up your Instagram ads.

From there, creating an advertisement follows a similar formula to Facebook. The key difference is to make sure you are using hashtags.

Twitter

Twitter isn’t as popular as it used to be, but that doesn’t mean you should dismiss it as an advertising platform. With only two ad options to choose from, it is far simpler than working with Facebook or Instagram.

Automatic promoted tweets is very simple; it promotes the first 10 tweets you post a day. You can also create manual Twitter ads, in which you can be selective about the tweets you promote. When creating a manual campaign, you’ll need to set your objective and budget. From there you create an ad group and create ads. You can even choose where you want these ads to appear on Twitter.

While not as advanced as Facebook and Instagram, you still have a fair amount of targeting options to choose from on Twitter so your ads are reaching the right audience.

But Wait, There’s More

There are plenty of other types of advertisements available for you to look into. Display ads, Youtube ads, and native advertising are just three examples of the many advertising opportunities out there.

If you’re just getting started with online advertising though, paid search and paid social ads are likely what you will be working with, especially with a limited budget. Don’t be afraid to dig deeper into online advertising and experiment.

What’s your favorite platform for online advertising? Let us know!

Meeting Customer Shipping Expectations

Customers have high expectations when it comes to the shipping of their orders. Do you know what the biggest customer demands are? And are you meeting them? We’ve compiled a list of the leading customer demands when it comes to ecommerce and how you can be sure to deliver.

Expectation: Fast Delivery

Solution: At the bare minimum, you must make sure to meet the deadlines you’ve set for yourself on your website. If you state that products will arrive one week after an order has been placed, you need to be sure that the products will arrive within that one week timeframe.

But ideally, your products will be in your customer’s hands within several days of a product being ordered. Aim for faster delivery times, and aim to have your product arrive faster than a customer expects. They’ll be pleasantly surprised to get your product early.

Expectation: Easy Product Tracking

Solution: If most of your tracking systems are manual, now is the time to update your supply chain. Think about your shipping process and consider when during the process customers are able to track their order.

The goal is to offer updated shipping information regularly. This may include emailing the customer, texting them, or creating landing pages where customers can easily track the status of their order. If nothing else, you’ll want to set up a process so that a customer is emailed when their item ships.

Expectation: Multiple Shipping Options

Solution: Your customers are busy people, and they won’t always be home to collect parcels that are being delivered. When it comes to more expensive parcels in particular, customers want the opportunity to have more control over the arrival times and days.

It’s easy enough to offer multiple shipping options, whether that is faster delivery times or delivery of parcels on specific days such as on weekends or after typical work hours. Get an idea of what your customers want so you can offer the options they’re looking for.

Expectation: Fair Return Policy

Solution: Customers are more likely to spend their money online when returns are easy to make and ideally, free. There are several things you can do about this to keep customers shopping and ultimately, buying. You want to make sure your return policy is clear and easy to find. You also want to make it as easy as possible for customers to return an item. Nothing frustrates a customer more than being unhappy with a product then having to jump through hoops to get their money back.

We wrote in depth about return practices HERE, so take a look for more details.

Expectation: Free Shipping

Solution: Customers love free shipping, and your brand loyalty will grow when you offer free shipping. It may seem expensive, but there are a few ways you can offer free shipping without losing money.

We did an entire blog post on this subject, which you can find HERE.

Expectation: Products Arrive Safely

Solution: Properly package your products before sending them to your customers. By properly packaging your items with the correct shipping supplies, you can be reasonably sure your products will arrive safely.

Shop ShippingSupply.com for quality shipping products that will get your items safely to their destination, helping you to gain loyal customers.

Easy Ways To Build Customer Trust

If you do most of your business online, or even all of it, gaining the trust of your customers takes a little bit of extra work. When it comes to ecommerce, every small detail either helps or hurts when it comes to building trust with your customers. Product descriptions, photos, reviews, and social media posts will all have an impact on if your customer sees you as a trustworthy brand or not.

It isn’t enough to know you are running a legitimate operation; you have to assure your customers that your business and your products can be trusted. The good news is that once you start using the following strategies, it’s not too hard!

Use Good Branding Techniques

Having a cohesive style across your company website, social media, and printed materials is one of the easiest and most effective ways to build trust with your customer base.

Consistent, strong branding shows customers that you have put a lot of work and thought into your company. It also shows that your company has a clear story to tell and value to add to people’s lives. The story of your brand should permeate every aspect of your shop, from your company logo to your product descriptions. Consistency here is key.

To learn more about how to create a successful branding strategy, read our Branding Guide.

Update Frequently

By updating frequently you show customers you’re here to stay. This doesn’t mean you have to redesign your entire website every few months, but it does mean you should be regularly updating banners, social media copy, and your product listings to keep content fresh.

If a customer is interested in your product and heads to Facebook to look at your profile, it doesn’t look good if there haven’t been any updates for over a month. This gives the appearance that you aren’t staying up-to-date on trends and that you aren’t concerned with providing your customers with updated information.

We’re constantly monitoring our website and have a daily deal that we post about on our Facebook page.

Showcase Positive Reviews

Inspire trust from potential customers by showcasing positive reviews from past customers. You worked hard to get those positive reviews, so make sure you use them to your advantage. When customers see that others have had a positive experience shopping with you, it gives them confidence in shopping from you as well.

We have an entire Customer Testimonials page on our website for this very reason!

Interact With Your Customers

If you get a question or comment from a customer, don’t ignore it or put off answering. Quick response times and interactions with customers is an easy way to show that you value customer concerns and opinions.

By interacting with customers regularly, you’re also showing that your business is active. Personal interactions are also more likely to build a loyal customer base. People like feeling as if they are special, so make them special!

Provide Clear, Informative Product Photos & Copy

Short, vague descriptions and blurry photos are easy ways to turn customers away from your website. It makes your business look scammy and lazy. That’s why it is so important that you take the time to make each product page as nice as you can.

Use crisp photography that showcases your product from a variety of angles. Your product descriptions should clearly state the product features, dimensions, and any other pertinent information that customers will be looking for.

Your photos and copy should be clean and professional across your entire website. That goes for banners, FAQ pages, About sections, and every other page on your website.

Now that you know how to build customer trust, don’t forget to deliver with high quality shipping supplies so your customer’s orders arrive undamaged!

Retain Customers With The Best Return Practices

There’s no way around returns. The product your customer purchased may not fit, may not be exactly what they wanted, or may arrive damaged. No matter the reason for the return, it is important you use the best return practices you can to retain that customer in the future.

Retaining customers is much more inexpensive than gaining new ones, so even if you have to take a loss it is important you try to retain each customer’s business. If your return policy causes your customers grief not only will you lose their business, you will lose business due to their negative feedback.

A hassle-free return policy is an easy way for your business to keep customers happy and loyal. While return fraud is a real concern and absorbing shipping costs can be expensive, these are things you can work around in your return policy.

Instead of thinking of returns as a loss of time and money, think of them as an opportunity for excellent customer service that will bring your customers back again and again.

Here’s how.

Have A Clear, Easy To Understand Return Policy

Your customers are already dissatisfied with your product, so don’t irritate them with a policy that is difficult to find or understand. Keep the language of your return policy simple and easy to skim.

For example, take a look at the ShippingSupply.com Return Policy.

We have a single landing page that clearly explains our return policy, including an “Important Notes” section that states requirements for returns. Our language is free of legal jargon so it is easy for our customers to understand just by scanning.

Include Return Information In The Packaging

Making it more difficult for customers to return products they are unhappy with is shortsighted. When finding return information is challenging, customers become annoyed and more likely to avoid your business in the future.

Including a simple note with your packaging makes it easy for customers to find the information they need. Your customers will appreciate not needing to search the website for your return information. Don’t worry; including the information in the packaging will not make customers more likely to return it.

Don’t Begrudge Customers For Returns

It may be true that the customer is the one who broke your product or didn’t read the description closely enough, but if you resist taking the return it will hurt you in the long run.

Not only will it infuriate your customers, it will waste a great deal of time and you may lose that customer forever. If the experience is bad enough, that customer may leave negative feedback that other customers will see, or tell their loved ones about their negative experience losing you more customers. Returns are a part of any business, so make sure to provide excellent customer service to try and retain the customer. In fact, providing customers with an excellent return experience can gain a lot of customer loyalty.

Ask Customers For Feedback

Ask customers why they are making the return. While this idea seems very straightforward, you can use this feedback to make big changes so you have fewer returns in the future.

By tracking feedback patterns you will get a better idea of why a return was made. If a lot of products are returned due to damage, for example, you may not be packaging your products correctly. If customers state the product doesn’t meet the description, it may be time to update your product copy and photographs. Returns are an excellent opportunity for you to make improvements to your business.

Keep Customers Updated

There’s nothing more infuriating than waiting for your money to be returned to you, or for a replacement product to arrive. Luckily it is easy enough to update customers about the state of their returns via email or phone.

Inform customers when you receive the returned item(s) and how long it will take for the replacement item to arrive or for the money to show in their account. Your customers will be glad they don’t need to keep calling your business for this information.

Cover Return Shipping, If You Can

Depending on the size of your business you may not be able to afford to cover return shipping, but customers will appreciate it if you can.

Customers may be irritated at being forced to pay return shipping costs. As a compromise, you may consider covering return shipping for specific situations, such as a damaged product.

What return practices are you using for your business? What has worked and what hasn’t?

Our Top Tips For Ecommerce

Most companies have a website nowadays, and use that website to make sales. But ecommerce is constantly evolving, and it is important to give yourself an edge over the competition. Here are the top ecommerce tips we’ve got for you.

·        Think like your customers. When they come to your website, what do they want? Something straightforward? More dynamic? Design your website in a way your customers would love.

·        Create a loyalty program. This will keep customers coming back over and over again.

·        Make sure your website works well on mobile devices. So many people are shopping on their phones now, so you have to make sure your website looks good on one!

·        Make your delivery options stand out. People love fast shipping, so experiment with ways to make shipping faster, and be sure you advertise it! Can you offer free shipping? Even better!

·        Use photos on your website, on your blog, and on social media accounts.

·        But don’t neglect your text. Good copy is also very important.

·        Your goal is to make your customers have a smooth, easy shopping experience. That means you want them to have to go through the fewest amount of steps possible to get what they want. Test this on your website.

·        Monitor analytics to get an idea of what is working and what isn’t. And monitor often. Trends change!

·        Make sure your company has a voice. You don’t want to simply list your products, you want to list them in a unique way.

·        Don’t focus on the features of your product, focus on the benefits. Show how your products will improve people’s lives.

·        You’ll have to experiment. Try different types of ads. Different pictures. Find what works best for your audience.

·        Be specific with product categories. This makes it much easier for your customers to find what they are looking for.

·        Make your customers feel special. Maybe this is through a customer appreciation promotion, or maybe this is by giving away something for free every so often. You want your customers to feel appreciated.

·        Build your email list and use it. And you don’t want to build up a list of random emails, you want to get email information from customers who actually buy your products and will buy again and again.

·        Have an FAQ section. This doesn’t only save you time, but it is generally expected on any website. Answer common questions this way and you’ll get less emails containing questions, and customers will be pleased that they don’t have to wait for an answer.

This is only a small start, but these are our biggest tips for running a successful ecommerce business.

Have tips you’d like to share? Let us know in the comments!