With the increasing popularity of online retailers, many consumers are turning into loyal stay-at-home online shoppers. With the correct strategy and marketing tactics, you can capture the benefits of this trend to increase your online sales and build loyalty from consumers.                                                                           

Understand your target audience

In order to make the right decisions about your marketing activities and products, you need to understand your customers. When you have a normal, brick-and-mortar store, you can chat with your customers in person and find out what they like. When these customers are online, you must proactively take steps to see what appeals to them.

By analyzing your online store and POS system, you can observe purchasing patterns and customer preferences. This of course can’t replace a face-to-face interaction, but there are still many opportunities, like email and online chats, to inquire and learn about your customers. 

Find your unique selling proposition

What is the story behind your store and products? What do you offer that no one else can?

Once you identify what makes your company different, you need to promote it LIKE CRAZY. Make it prominent on your home page, post it on your social media, and emphasize it in your email marketing. By creating your marketing campaigns around your unique selling proposition, you give consumers a reason to come to your online store and purchase your products, which is the most important thing!

Provide a chat feature on your website

With the rise in popularity of online retail as opposed to in-person, more and more customers are now relying on chat to communicate with businesses. If you don’t already have one, add a chat feature to your website and check it often.

For the customers that will message after business hours, include an auto response to let them know when you will be able to respond.

Focus on customer service

Consumers appreciate good service. According to a Zendesk report, 84% of survey respondents reported that customer service is a huge factor when deciding whether or not to purchase a product.

Create a contact page on your company website that shows how to contact you. This should include a phone number, email address, and chat link (if you have one). To help customers right away, add an FAQ page.

Most importantly, when consumers reach out to you, respond ASAP. Because face-to-face interactions are rare in online retail, use the opportunity to build a relationship with as many consumers as possible.

Create a simple checkout process

While the checkout process is part of the user experience, it’s a key point for many sales and deserves extra care and attention. Offer a guest checkout option so consumers can purchase items without filling out long forms. Divide the checkout into either an expanding page or multiple pages to avoid overwhelming the consumer with information fields. Keep text short and concise. Use standard buttons, such as a “buy” button and a shopping cart icon.

Put customer reviews on product pages

It may feel daunting to let consumers share positive and negative comments about your products, adding customer reviews can actually increase your sales. According to Moz, 67% of customers are influenced by online reviews. If one of your products gets a lot of negative reviews consistently, you have a chance to either improve the product or discontinue it. Make it as easy as possible for customers to leave reviews and allow them to leave both a comment and a star rating.

Be active on social media

You can help new customers find your store while building loyalty with current customers by actively sharing interesting content on social media. According to Hootsuite, 50% of all online brand discoveries happen on social feeds. 92% of Instagram users say that they followed a brand or bought a product after seeing it on their feed. That being said, on Instagram, share high-quality pictures of your products or videos of them being used.

With these strategies, you will likely see an increase in sales and loyalty from customers. For more tools and resources for running your online business, visit bbb.org.

Emily Prather is communication and social media coordinator for the Better Business Bureau serving Central California & Inland Empire Counties.