The Ultimate Guide for Better ROI from Your Ecommerce Store
It’s never been easier to start an online business through building an Ecommerce store and start selling online .
For instance, a site like ExpandCart can build your ecommerce store in only 24 hours.
But selling online has a lot more into it than setting up your online store and adding some products, whether physical, digital, or else.
Keep reading through, as this is the ULTIMATE guide for a better ROI from your Ecommerce store .
I will walk you through detailed steps to generate sales for your e-commerce website to boost your online store business performance and improve conversions.
Let’s first make sure that you fully understand what ROI is.
The Meaning of ROI
ROI is the abbreviation of Return on Investment.
Return on investment is a performance measure to evaluate how efficient an investment is; i.e., ROI tries to directly measure the amount of return on a particular investment, relative to the investment’s cost.
So here, you invested in your online store . Then you want to evaluate how much your store is giving you in return.
Is it getting many clicks?
Do people stay long on the site?
Do prospects convert into buying customers?
Do buying customers become loyal customers to your website?
If yes, continue reading to get even better conversion rates.
If no, please continue reading for this is your ultimate guide for a better ROI from your Ecommerce store to generate sales while you are sleeping!
1. Don’t be Afraid To Invest in Paid Ads
Myth #1 >> Paid ads are very expensive, and there is no point of it.
Myth #2 >> I have personally invested in paid traffic a lot and saw ZERO results.
Myth #3 >> You are going to get lost among Google ads, social media ads, sponsored posts, influencers, etc. A headache that you can spare!
Truth: Paid ads to generate traffic is crucial to any business’s success. Paid ads are not scary, nor are they hard to learn. Growing your Ecommerce store and generating sales start by investing in paid ads on different digital platforms so that people get to notice you, and then organic traffic will flow in.
Tips for a better experience with paid ads to improve the ROI of your e-commerce website:
- Spend wisely and little by little. A Facebook ad starts from $1 per day.
- Test the waters first with one campaign. If things work out, spend more on it. If not, do some changes and test again. Test test test till you get satisfactory results and a better understanding of what works best for your specific business.
- Know your audience well. Draw a picture of your customers (behavior, beliefs, place of living, attitude) and try to appeal to them; that’s buyer persona.
- Make the most out of the advanced targeting options provided by the different platforms you are going to use.
- Specific targeting (as opposed to general random targeting) means that your ad is delivered to the right audience, which leads to a high conversion rate (people who see the ad visit your website) and an increased chance of sales occurring on your ecommerce website (better ROI).
Now that you’re ready to dive into paid ads, let’s explore the different platforms you can use to advertise your Ecommerce store in order to generate traffic and sales.
Be careful, think well of the suitable platforms for the type of your business. What works well for a yoga-classes website wouldn’t do for a motorcycles’ accessories one.
Where do your audience hang around?
Some Digital Platforms to consider for Paid Advertising to generate Traffic/ Sales for an Ecommerce store :
a) Google Ads
Google Ads is always improving and changing. Google now presents cool features for advertisers to help them launch a successful e-commerce campaign that increases ROI and generates sales.
Use the “Promotion Extension” to highlight a promotion you’re offering in your Google advertisement.
Include the “Message Extension” to allow your audience to interact with you directly from the ad.
Add the “Price Extension” to your Google ad to avoid people who are outside your price range clicking the ad and cost you money.
You should know more about Google ads, how to create one and read statistics. Targeting people using specific keywords on Google search can do wonders in increasing the ROI from your online store business .
Learning is free. It only costs you time and effort. Then it brings you money and sales.
b) Facebook Ads
Facebook is by large the most popular social media channel in the world.
If you think that your customers are using Facebook for communication and asking for reviews, then you should consider Facebook ads in your paid advertisements’ budget.
Facebook allows you to create an ad, target people based on geographic location, life events, status, jobs, behavior, likes and dislikes, interests, and much more.
Facebook ads manager also gives you detailed reports about your campaigns, spending, audience reaction, and all you need for a successful marketing campaign.
So, use Facebook channel to direct interested prospects to your website, and hence increase ROI .
Tip: Facebook owns Instagram. Pick your best ad campaign and run it on Instagram as well, if not to drive sales directly, then for brand awareness and being digitally present.
c) Twitter Ads
Quoting from Oberlo , “there’s no doubt that the reach of Twitter for any marketing campaign remains huge.”
Setting up, running, and analyzing “promoted tweets” on Twitter looks a little bit different, but it’s an easy, step-by-step process once you create an ads account on Twitter.
Twitter helps you create a paid campaign for “website clicks or conversions” and select your audience based on location, language, gender, the device they use, and many audience features.
Adjusting the targeting options for your ads smartly guarantees you a successful campaign that is going to be shown to a relevant audience who will convert.
Other platforms are a huge success for certain target audience for various types of businesses, for example, running a paid ad on Pinterest to generate traffic for an online store selling handmade home décor items, or announcing about your website for medical members on LinkedIn because that’s where your audience are likely to be found.
Remember: Determine on the correct digital platform/s to invest your money and efforts in, to generate the desired traffic, increase ROI, and boost sales to your website.
2. Take Advantage of E-mail Marketing for Ecommerce store
It’s time for a free technique that proved efficient in drastically increasing e-commerce ROI and boosting sales: e-mail marketing.
Use any number of emails you have in hand, no matter how few they are.
DON’T send a boring weekly newsletter that finds its way to the trash bin faster than a shooting star
Send a personalized email to your customers encouraging them to take an action.
DON’T send a general email to all customers on your mailing list.
Segment your audience based on their shopping history and preferences. For example, a “you might like these ones too” email for those who made a purchase from you within the last two weeks, and a “take me home” email for those who have abandoned their cart recently.
So, here are some ways, tested and personally used, to increase ROI through email marketing:
- Offer a 50% discount coupon for first-time users (limited for 3 days to add a sense of urge that usually drives people to take an action).
- Motivate a second purchase with a 20% discount coupon (with an expiry date of 2 weeks).
Example for a discount coupon to encourage a second purchase
- Send a video about “what to expect when you receive the product” one day after the customer makes the purchase. Studies say that online store buyers tend to regret a purchase a day after, that’s when you evoke an eagerness and desire to receive the package inside your customer to avoid returning/cancelling the order.
- Stimulate “cart abandoners” with a “take me home” message, a testimonial from previous users, or an offer to help with checkout process.
Example for an “abandoned cart” email with a customer testimonial as a footer
- Increase sales by cross selling. Say a customer has bought a pair of walking sneakers from you; two weeks after, send them an email about how others are in love with the new trendy yoga pants or the just-arrived sweatshirt of the same brand. That’s cross selling.
Example for cross selling to increase ROI
- Increase value of order by upselling ( different from cross selling ). Upselling is trying to convince someone who is buying an iPhone XS with an iPhone XS Max or 11. Send an email with the latter’s extra features or a comparison between the two.
Illustrative picture to show the difference and meaning of up-sell and cross-sell
That’s being said, it’s obvious how emails can increase ROI from an online store and generate extra sales. All you need is to infuse some creativity, plan ahead, use an automated mailing tool, and craft your email templates in a way that adds value to your prospective customers.
3. Optimize your website pages
Optimizing the pages of your ecommerce website helps it to rank higher on Google and hence increase the ROI.
We suggest that you
- Edit the products’ description: make it informative, detailed, and worth reading (don’t ever use the same manufacturer’s description; it invokes Google’s “duplicate content kiss of death”).
- Use high-quality, eye-catching, breath-taking images for your products.
- Add attractive videos to your product pages, whether to showcase an item’s benefits, educate users about how to use a product, or show previous users’ reviews and testimonials.
- Refresh your top pages every two weeks.
- Build multiple links to important pages frequently.
- And, of course, make sure that all of your pages are SEO friendly.
An award-winning web page that captures all features and benefits of its product
4. The Easier the Better
Checkout page is where the online store loses a large percentage of customers.
After years of experience, experts say that the easier the checkout process is, the higher the ROI is.
No need for lengthy obligatory fields to fill in.
Provide buttons and drop-down menus for users to choose from.
Include a progress bar at the top of the page; it keeps the user engaged and gives him/her a sense of achievement.
Example for a checkout progress bar
One nice trick Apple did to make the checkout process simpler is that they provided people with the option to “checkout as a guest.” Removing the need to register to complete the checkout process is an effective means towards a higher ROI from your Ecommerce store .
“Guest Checkout” on Apple’s store to soften the checkout process
Put yourself in the shoes of the buyer, and try your best to give them a soft, flowing, hurdle-free buying experience.
5. Build Trust and Add Social Proof
There is a funnel that a potential buyer goes through from the moment he/she sees an ad and visits your store till they checkout successfully.
We want to increase the amount of trust at each stage of the funnel to increase conversion rate.
- On the product page: display reviews and rating (77% of people rely on social proof and online reviews before making a purchase).
- Install a “live chat” option so that people’s inquiries are answered instantly (live chat provides top-notch levels of customer service).
- On the checkout page: place a “trust badge” seal. Some surveys revealed that 61% of online customers do not complete their purchases due to concerns about payment security.
The customer follows a similar eye path, regardless of the badge, searching for the trust badge before making a purchase.
- Include, if possible, some testimonials on the checkout page as a form of social proof, in order to give your customers the reassurance they need before clicking the “buy” button.
The experience was so stress free – They happily processed my returns and even provided me with a coupon for my next purchase.
- Reach out to your loyal customers and ask them to write genuine testimonials for your Ecommerce store .
Wrap up on ways to increase ROI from an online business
Your Ecommerce store is your life-time project. You invested money, time, and effort in it. So you would want to see a good return on investment from it.
In this article, we tried to compile the best practices and put them in this guide for increasing the ROI from your Ecommerce store .
Pick the digital platforms that you are planning to be present on, that’s where your audience live, and invest in paid ads, wisely and slowly.
Work on your email marketing strategies to address every customer you have based on their personal experience with your website.
Keep working on the site’s pages all the time; it pays off when it comes to search engines, ranking, organic reach, and organic results.
Simplicity is a key factor in taking your customer all the way through to the checkout page.
Word of mouths works wonders with people at all ages in all countries. Enhance trust, be supportive, and believe in the strength of social proof of customers’ testimonials.
“Make a customer, not a sale”
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