Online Retail Sales: Tips for Growth in 2021

woman on laptop paying with credit card online shopping

Surge Online Retail Sales for Your Business This Summer

While online retail sales have been around for quite some time, it experienced a significant surge in the last year; many who could not shop in person due to the pandemic turned to eCommerce options for their retail needs. This, in turn, supplied retailers with a flock of new customers.

Even as the pandemic fades in the rear-view mirror and states start to open up, online retail will undoubtedly remain a popular option among consumers as they’ve become accustomed to its convenience. Retailers are now asking themselves: how can they retain these newly acquired customers? And further, how can they grow business further through online retail sales? Read on to find out:

Optimize Your Site for Increased Sales

More customers than ever are searching online—it’s important to make sure they find you. To start with, get to know your audience and what they’re searching for. Once you’ve determined this, you can create content related to their searches. An excellent way to do this is by supporting your brand with blogs. Writing and promoting these blogs will not only drive traffic to your site, but will also allow you to engage with your community.

While optimizing your site, remember to optimize not just to be found, but to make conversions. There are a variety of ways to do this, including through shopping cart abandonment software. This software allows you to create and send follow-up emails that remind customers they’ve left items in their cart. To really incentivize a conversion, offer them a coupon code in that message.

Conversions can also be made by utilizing personalization software and dynamic content. These strategies customize your homepage with items in your customer’s search or purchase history. Creating a personalized experience will increase online retail sales since you’re making it easier for the customer to find what they actually want.

It’s also important to monitor bounce rates for each page on your site. If people are opening a page and closing it quickly, that’s a good place to look for ways to improve.

Create a Unique eCommerce Customer Experience

A great customer experience doesn’t just exist in-store. Another way to increase online retail sales is by cultivating a unique eCommerce experience. Understand your customers through feedback surveys on your site or through post-purchase emails. Once you have a deeper understanding of them, you can highlight trendy products relevant to them.

Customers will quickly become frustrated and leave your site if your products aren’t easy to find. For this reason, make sure to include product categorization or bundles so that customers can quickly and easily find what they’re looking for. It also helps to include a feature that allows customers to filter by their preferences, further streamlining their search and improving their experience as a whole. Amid all these features, it’s critical not to forget to create visually striking and informational product pages that will appeal to customers and assure them that they are making an informed purchase.

The bulk of a traditional customer experience is browsing at a brick-and-mortar store, an activity that many are missing. Retailers can replicate this experience in digital form in a few ways, including filtering and categories as mentioned earlier. Retailers can also implement “shop the look” style image assets which serve the same function as mannequins and showrooms. These can be made easily clickable, giving the customer easy ability to add pieces of (or the entire) bundle of products to their cart.

For more information on how to choose the right POS to implement these features, read our eBook.

Mind the Logistics

In order to provide a positive customer experience and drive repeat online retail sales, it’s imperative that retailers are mindful of logistics. They must ensure a seamless experience beginning with adding to cart and ending with the delivery. The truth is: customer expectations have shifted. They assume quick delivery, no matter where they live. For many customers, the last mile in the delivery process is the costliest to the retailer. Retailers struggling with these delivery costs should explore new methods to offer a better customer experience.

To achieve this, many retailers are implementing last-mile alternative such as pick-up hubs and even robotics that deliver products right to the customer’s home. After an order is placed, retailers can send a confirmation email to customers to confirm that delivery is expected to be 30-60 days, but for quicker service, they can opt to pick up the item themselves from a pick-up hub.

Delivery can truly make or break the customer experience. It’s important to establish and communicate realistic expectations. If you’re able to, implementing these tech-driven trends will impress customers with convenience and innovation. Offering pick-up options is less flashy, but it can ultimately accomplish the same goal: customer satisfaction.

With restrictions easing into the summer, people are ready to shop and will have various options for how to do so. Some will rush out to their favorite brick-and-mortar location; others will continue to enjoy the convenience of online shopping. If you want to see your online retail sales surge, you’ll need to take the proper steps to make your online store their preferred method of shopping—not just the only option they have.

For guidance on the latest retail technology solutions, contact the experts at Paradise POS today!