How to stay relevant as an e-commerce business

Over the past couple of years, we’ve seen massive transformations in the e-commerce business—and more changes are still underway. Shoppers’ expectations are evolving with each passing day, and businesses are looking for ways to keep up with these changes. Any business that can't keep up with the changes will be left out!

But with so much happening in the e-commerce world, how do you ensure you stay relevant as an e-commerce business? Let’s find out!

Your online reputation is key to boosting your e-commerce business

The secret to remaining relevant as an e-commerce business is boosting your online reputation. One way to achieve this is by increasing your business’ search results ranking to help attract more visitors to your website/store.

Here are our top tips for increasing your business’ search results ranking and building your online presence.

Customer reviews matter

Customers are the backbone of any business, and their reviews about your products are key to building your business’ digital presence.

In fact, the number and quality of reviews your get have a 13% say in determining where your business ranks in Google Search and Maps results. This means that reviews can improve your online visibility and increase the likelihood of shoppers visiting your site/store. If you rank higher, more consumers will land on your website, and with more traffic to your e-commerce store, you’ll get more sales (keep reading to learn how you can maximise your conversion rates! 👀).

It’s therefore essential to have a process in place to consistently request feedback and reviews from your customers, and it’s essential that this process is quick and easy both for you (so you don’t increase your admin) and for your customers (so they can’t say no). If you are looking for ways to increase your customer reviews, check this post.

Keywords and paid search

Another tip to help you rank high in search results and stay relevant as an e-commerce business is focusing on keywords and paid searches.

Keywords are words or sets of words that you think potential customers will search for when looking for a product like the ones you offer. Adding location-based keywords to your website's main pages, such as the homepage, about us page, products/services page, contact us page, and blog posts, helps your business rank higher on Google Search and Google Maps, which means more prospects will click on it when searching for those keywords. And since 92% of global searches happen on Google, it pays to rank high on it.

You can also consider advertising on Google through paid search. This is done through Google Ads search campaign, where Google gets your site to show up at the top of the search Engine Results Page (SERP) when users search for keywords of your choice, and charges you a small amount of money for everyone who clicks on the link.

Keywords and paid searches aim to drive more traffic to your page, thus helping you remain relevant.

Building a fan base

We can't overlook the role that an online fan base plays in helping you build a digital presence and remain relevant in the e-commerce business space.

You can build and expand your fan base by collecting reviews and sharing customer stories as website content and ads. This is essential not only to retain your customers and encourage repeat purchases but also to attract more customers that have read the positive experience you offer and want to give you a chance.

Maximise your conversion rate

Now that you’ve managed to generate customers' interest through the tips above, the next thing you need to do to continue being relevant is to maximise your conversion rates. Convert that interest into a sale! Give potential clients every reason to choose you over a competitor.

You can do this by making it extremely easy for prospects to get in touch with you and enquire about your products or services. This means adopting multiple communication platforms to give your prospects options, integrating your communication channels in a website widget, and being hyper-responsive.

A website chat widget (like the one Fuzey provides) can significantly impact your conversion rate. It consolidates all your communication channels in one place and gives customers the option to reach you through their preferred means.

Here are more tips on how to convert website visitors into customers with ease.

Stay in your prospects' and customers' pockets

Our last tip to help you stay relevant in the competitive e-commerce landscape is to ensure you stay in your prospects' and customers’ pockets. This means adopting modern personalised marketing channels to stay on top of your prospects’ and customers’ minds.

Some of the most popular personalised marketing channels include WhatsApp and SMS marketing. So, ditch the old-school email marketing and embrace the power of messaging to get in touch with your clients on the platforms they love and are already using. If you’re looking for tips on WhatsApp and SMS marketing check these resources:

• Why SMS is the next frontier in marketing
• WhatsApp Marketing and choosing between WhatsApp Business and API

Although messaging can help you stay on top of your prospects’ and customers’ minds, keeping up with multiple communication channels can be overwhelming.

Fuzey's All-in-One Inbox can help centralise all your customer communications in a single place, making it easy to monitor and respond to every message while ensuring you never miss a lead.

Book a live demo with us to understand how our Website Widget and All-in-One Inbox work - what are you waiting for? 🚀

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