Cyber Monday’s been around since the 1950s and has become one of the busiest shopping days in the US. Of course, we’re talking about Cyber Monday. It’s the official start of the holiday shopping season. So it’s no wonder that for many online retailers, it’s one of the busiest days of the year. In fact, it’s predicted that more than 50% of US consumers will participate in this shopping event.

So, how can eCommerce sites make the most out of Cyber Monday?

Plan. In. Advance.

So, here we’ll provide our nine top tips for preparing your Cyber Monday eCommerce strategy. From engaging with customers to creating a social media presence to managing inventory, read on to learn how to ready your business for Cyber Monday.

Cyber Monday Ecommerce Strategy – Tip 1: Social Media Marketing

Over the past three years, eCommerce website traffic from social media tripled! But, more specifically to Cyber Monday – during the weekend before, some prospective customers used the following social media channels to research the deals they could expect from their favorite brands:

• 17% of shoppers used Facebook
• 9% Instagram
• 4% on Pinterest
• 4% Twitter

As for demographics:

• Of the 17% using Facebook, 28% are aged 25-34, and 27% are aged 17-24
• Of the 9% using Instagram, 17% are aged 25-34, and 21% are aged 17-24
• Of the 4% using Pinterest, 7% are aged 25-34, and 6% are aged 17-24
• Of the 4% using Twitter, 5% are aged 25-34, and 5% are aged 17-24

So, if you’re not marketing on at least one of these channels, now’s the time to change that! It’s also worth noting that multichannel shopping continues to rise year-by-year, with US multichannel retailers generating more than $492 billion this year alone! So, if you have the time, we highly recommend launching a multichannel Cyber Monday social media campaign.

Pro Tip: A stream of non-stop, overly salesy promotions isn’t likely to attract customers – interestingly, 44% of social media users find ads irrelevant, and 74% think there are too many ads. Instead, high-quality, entertaining, and informative content will likely boast higher engagement rates. Of course, these posts can still relate to Cyber Monday, but try to have a little fun with it.

For instance, you could try publishing:

• A countdown timer showcasing how long’s left of the sale
• Product demos and reviews
• Guest takeovers
• Competitions and giveaways
• Gift guides and inspiration

If you’re looking for inspiration, plenty can be found online. For example, Sephora created a gift guide to give shoppers a flavor of what’s on offer. Elsewhere, Dr. Marten placed a countdown bar at the top of their email marketing pushes to create a sense of urgency.

Pro Tip: Many social channels allow you to A/B test different imagery, headlines, and descriptions to help you refine your marketing campaigns to generate the highest possible online sales. If you’re unfamiliar with A/B testing, this is when you test a campaign but change one of the variables to see which works best for your target audience (as illustrated above). For example, on Instagram, you can A/B test video content vs. photo content with the same caption or story copy to see whether video or images works best.

Cyber Monday eCommerce Strategy – Tip 2: Engage Customers

With so much cash to be made on Cyber Monday, it’s no wonder retailers are implementing increasingly unique ways to engage customers. For instance, over the last few years, we’ve noticed tons of stores offering discounts well before the big day arrives, with the best deals reserved for Cyber Monday. For instance Sports Direct started with 40% off in the first hour of its sale, graduating to 50% in the next hour. Elsewhere, Home Depot discounts began on Halloween.

This is an excellent strategy for driving traffic to your website and provides ample opportunity to communicate how customers can make the most of your Cyber Monday promotions. That way, when the big day eventually comes, you should have a pool of shoppers ready and waiting to buy!

Of course, this is just one of many customer engagement strategies you could adopt; below, we’ve jotted down a few other ideas:

• Offer mystery savings via a digital scratch card to build anticipation and interaction
• Offer your long-time/high-spending/VIP/loyalty program customers early access to your sale
• Offer conditional free shipping when customers spend over a certain amount

Here are some examples of the above in action:

Forever 21 created a scratch card that customers could interact with to win 15%, 20%, or 25% off on their Cyber Monday Deal. RayBan offered its email subscribers (called The Ones) an early bird 20% off in its Cyber Monday deal to encourage sales and engagement and deter unsubscribes. Elsewhere, Anthropologie offered free shipping on Cyber Monday purchases over $50

The best thing to do here is to do some research and check out what your competitors did last year and try them out for yourself.

Cyber Monday eCommerce Strategy – Tip 3: Sell Custom Merch

Creating and selling custom merch unique to the day is a great idea. For example, if you sell clothing, you could design a t-shirt that’s only available on Cyber Monday using t-shirt design software. This works wonders for creating a sense of urgency and exclusivity.

Alternatively, you could give away custom merch as part of your marketing strategy. Maybe as a social media competition prize? Or as a limited edition gift? Perhaps you could incentivize customers to spend over a certain amount on Cyber Monday to automatically receive a piece of merch when they check out?

The easiest way to offer custom products is touse a print-on-demand (POD) company like Printful. POD services make it a breeze to upload your design onto blank products to sell on your online store. Best of all, POD works similarly to dropshipping in that there’s no large outlay for merchandising, warehousing, buying inventory, etc.

Cyber Monday eCommerce Strategy – Tip 4: Publish Blog Posts

When it comes to planning Cyber Monday-related blog content, it can seem overwhelming. This is especially true if you have a vast product catalog and you’re discounting most of it. If this is your situation, you’ll need to plan ahead. This includes thinking about content relevant to Cyber Monday and ensuring that it meets your customers’ needs and pain points.

The first step is to brainstorm a list of ideas, for example:

• How To guides for the products you’re selling. For example, How to Make The Best of Your New Coffee Maker/Smart TV/Mobile phone, and so on.
• Look Books with inspiration on how to put different fashion accessories or outfits together that include links to discounted products.
• Use video content – for example, if you sell beauty products, embed videos on how to apply the makeup you’ll be selling on Cyber Monday.

While creating a list of blog topics, it’s wise to conduct keyword research. You want to focus on why users should buy without sounding overly sales orientated. Here are a few tips on how to do keyword research for Cyber Monday:

• Use Google Trends and Keyword Planner and input a wide range of potential search terms into the search function to see which words work best and peak in October and November.
• Use popular keywords such as Cyber Monday, Cyber Monday 2022, Cyber Monday deals US, deals, discounts, offers, sales, as well as words relating to specific products (e.g., TV, games consoles, clothing, and so on).
• Don’t forget to insert keywords into your blog posts that will pop up in Google search rankings, including: best Cyber Monday deals, Cyber Monday offers, best Cyber Monday sales, and so on.

On top of that, you’ll want to keep an eye on the competition to see what they’re writing about. This is crucial for staying ahead of the curve and ensuring you have a good idea of what’s trending. Alternatively, if your competitors haven’t released their Cyber Monday content yet, what did they publish last year?

Once you have your list, it’s time to start writing. Try to prepare and publish as many articles in advance. Not only is this better for SEO, but by the time Cyber Monday rolls around, you’ll likely be swamped with a million other things to do! That said, if you have the resources, it’s wise to leave a few gaps in your content schedule to capitalize on new trends as they arise.

One of the great things about long-form content is that you can recycle them into shorter content for your socials and email marketing, which leads us nicely to our next point…

Cyber Monday eCommerce Strategy – Tip 5: Schedule Email Marketing Campaigns

Although 60% of customers buy impulsively, the remaining 40% plan ahead. They want to know what their choices are before committing to a purchase. This is where you can utilize email content to your advantage. For example, ensure customers know what Cyber Monday discounts you’ll offer on the day itself and if you plan on providing discounts on the lead-up.

You can further plan ahead by scheduling and automating email content to best reach your audience. This frees up time to focus on other aspects of your business during such a busy period. For example, you can schedule automated emails to welcome new customers. During the lead-up to Cyber Monday, these messages should include info about your Cyber Monday sale. To boost sales, you could also ping potential customers a coupon code and/or a free gift to entice shoppers to make a Cyber Monday purchase. Of course, these tactics can also be used in your cart abandonment emails!

Of course, you’ll need to build up an email list in advance to do the above. Here are a few tips for doing that:

• Launch social media ads that funnel visitors to a landing page advertising an incentive for users to sign up for your mailing list.
• Ensure you have an email signup form on your homepage and other key pages, such as checkout and product pages.
• Entice customers with a loyalty program that offers deals and discounts by asking them to provide you with their email addresses.
• Use popups but not ones that appear as soon as someone hits your page (it’s annoying!). Instead, have them at intervals throughout your customer journey.

If you’re not already using an email marketing platform, a tool like Sendinblue makes scheduling email campaigns much more manageable. There are free and paid solutions on the market, so do some digging to find the best tool for your business’s needs. It’s also a good idea to send email notifications tailored to the recipient. For example, some tools can automatically generate subject lines with the user’s name and interests to entice them to open your emails, so be sure to bear that in mind during your search!

Cyber Monday eCommerce Strategy – Tip 6: SEO

If you’re hoping to make the most of organic traffic to your eCommerce store, you need to optimize your site for SEO. Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of optimizing your website so that Google and other search engines can easily find and rank your web pages. The better optimized your content, your chances of being indexed highly by search engines are greater.

This goes hand in hand with the keyword research we spoke about earlier. To optimize your site for maximum sales, you need to know what customers are searching for and which of your products will likely draw the most traffic.

For instance, in 2021, jewelry sales increased by 14% and footwear by 3%. Conversely, home goods went down by -9% and health and beauty by -15%. Of course, these are just a few of the many product categories you could sell. You’ll need to conduct your own research to get a sense of which products will likely be your bestsellers so that you can optimize your website accordingly.

To hit the ground running with this, we suggest that aside from your keyword research (see above), you do the following:

• Look at your search volumes. In other words, how many people are searching for particular keywords? You’ll get some sense then of how much in demand it is.
• Search Engine Results Page (SERP) details give you information about which of your links perform the best. In other words, you get an insight into what your audience prefers and clicks on.

There are plenty of helpful SEO tools out there, and some are free, including:

• Ahrefs Webmaster Tools
• Ahrefs Backlink Checker
• Google Ads Keyword Planner
• Answer the Public
• Google Analytics
• Google Pagespeed Insights

When it comes to optimizing your site for Cyber Monday, there are a few best practices to bear in mind:

• Include keywords in relevant titles and meta descriptions
• Mentioning deals throughout your website copy
• Aim for a keyword density of 1-2% across your website. You can use Google Adwords to determine this percentage.
• Ensure your site is mobile-friendly. Both Google and Bing algorithms detect when a visitor uses a mobile device. If your website’s mobile-friendly, it generally outranks those that aren’t.
• Ensure the fastest possible load times
• Ahead of Cyber Monday do a complete website audit. Use Google PageSpeed Insights to ensure your pages load fast and fix any issues you may have, including broken backlinks.

Cyber Monday eCommerce Strategy – Tip 7: Website Maintenance

On average, website traffic on Cyber Monday is 110% higher than on regular days; this surge in activity can dramatically affect site performance – for the worse. Needless to say, a poor-performing website will hinder the customer experience and could deter customers from buying. Almost 60% of customers will abandon their shopping cart if the website they use has a poor loading time (i.e., more than three seconds).

Fortunately, you can improve site speed by optimizing the following:

• Images: Reduce the file size of your photos using image compressors (ensure quality isn’t lost during the process).
• Scripts: Keep the number of scripts to a minimum.
• Plugins: Only install the plugins you actually need.

There are popular tools you can use to improve your website performance. Many of them use bots to crawl your website, find broken links, and see what’s slowing it down. Then with this info to hand, you can then fix the problem.

Some excellent, free examples include:

• Google’ PageSpeed Insights
• Hotjar

Cyber Monday eCommerce Strategy – Tip 8: Prepare Your Inventory

To stay on top of Cyber Monday demand, you can’t underestimate the importance of preparing your inventory. As many as 69% of abandoned carts occur because just one item in the shopper’s basket was out of stock. Cyber Monday is about excitement, spontaneity, and discovery – anything that gets in the way of this can kill the customer’s desire to buy.

So, with that said, the most important thing is to ensure your inventory is fully stocked.

Needless to say, many of your items will form part of a wider supply chain, which isn’t without its logistical challenges.

For instance, on Cyber Monday in 2021, consumer electronics took the most significant hit, with more than 40% of items out of stock. The retail insights company Bluecore suggests this was due to the impact the pandemic had on electronic materials shortages.

Although COVID isn’t as much of an issue, keep in mind we’re in a state of worldwide transition. Many countries are experiencing higher inflation rates, increased oil and gas prices, and skills shortages. Also, the ongoing conflict in Ukraine will likely impact supply and demand worldwide. Of course, preparing for these issues is easier said than done. But it’s worth discussing these concerns with suppliers in advance or looking at alternative stock options.

Cyber Monday eCommerce Strategy – Tip 9: Prepare Your Team

Preparing your team for Cyber Monday is crucial for ensuring everyone gets through the day in one piece – especially for those that haven’t experienced Cyber Monday before.

First, give your team a brief overview of how you expect the day will go. Perhaps schedule a team meeting a couple of weeks in advance to ensure everyone’s on the same page. This is a great opportunity for staff to raise any questions they may have and for you to provide a list of what they should be doing and what to focus on. It might be helpful to break down tasks into sections – i.e., customer service process, shipping, order fulfillment, etc., to make it more manageable.

It’s also wise to prepare your team for what could go wrong. Lots of moving pieces ensure Cyber Monday’s success, so there’s a good chance something will go awry. Try to predict these issues and provide your team with examples of how to cope and respond.

Pro Tip: Consider hiring extra temporary technical support and/or customer service members to ease the pressure on your team.

Are You Ready to Pen Your Cyber Monday Marketing Strategy?

According to an in-depth study by Future Publishing, Cyber Monday shopping is expected to bring in $158 billion in consumer sales this year.

In short, these holiday sales present an ideal opportunity to:

• Grow your email mailing list
• Increase customer engagement
• Boost brand awareness
• Check out what your competition is doing
• Use your customer’s interactions with your business as an opportunity to get to know them better
• Be inspired by other brands to get creative with your campaigns

In other words, if you want to succeed this 25th November, you must be prepared, and part of that preparation is to have a strong eCommerce strategy. Think of it as an investment in your business’s and your customers’ future. Then, once you have your strategy in place, all you need to do is dust it off and adapt it for future Cyber Monday and Cyber Mondays!

That’s all for our Cyber Monday eCommerce strategy tips! Let us know how you get on and whether our tips yielded fruit for your brand.

Author: Wail Amrani

Wail is a Shopify Expert & eCommerce Growth Consultant. Former digital marketing manager at Shopify I’m helping brands & retailers build 8-figure eCommerce. I’ve been leading digital growth for both online and retail brands for over 7 years.

We all have been there, developed a super-fast store from a reliable company like IKONIC US. What happened next? Now you watch your customers leaving the Shopify store after putting stuff into the cart? Although you did get the store right, you can’t figure out why it is happening. Well, you are not the only one. A study found that the average cart abandonment rate is 69.99%. With such a high ratio, you might wonder how you will get things straight. But fret not. Like always, we have a solution.

Your Shopify Customers May have Abandoned Carts But This Email Strategy Will Bring Them Back For Sure

To fix this issue in the Shopify store, you need an email strategy. According to research, 44.1% of abandoned cart emails are opened. Almost a third of clicks on abandoned cart emails (29.9%) lead to a recovered sale. For this email strategy, you need to understand why your shopper left. Was he just a “window shopper” who saw a Black Friday deal and added it to the cart on a whim? One other reason can be that your offer was not compelling enough or your checkout process is a bit more technical. The first thing that you need to do is analyze why your customers have left the cart. If you have pointed out your exact issue, then let us move forward to how you can send emails to reduce the cart abandonment rate. 

Make Them Open Your Email

Okay, first things first. You need your customers to open your emails. Your email opening rate and CTR are inextricably linked because if your subscribers don’t open your emails, they won’t click on any of your links. Improving your open rates is thus an excellent place to begin. 

There is a simple rule for increasing conversion rate, Personalization, Personalization, and Personalization. Changing the sender’s name and the subject line is one of the best techniques to ensure subscribers open your emails. Why not try using a specific individual’s name as the sender instead than your company name? 

Using the first name may appear to be a tiny thing, but it can make a significant difference. According to research, adding a personal name can raise open rates by up to 35%. 

Another important influence in whether or not clients open your emails is the title. Shorter topic lines may increase open rates. 

Here are a few more pointers to help you enhance your subject lines: 

• Use the buyer’s first name in the subject line.
• Don’t bother asking questions. Open rates are lower for subject lines that end with a question mark.
• Avoid using emojis in the subject line; this may turn off many individuals. 

Take Away Their Hesitation

You’ll want to grab users’ attention using short, quick, and urgent sentences in your email copy. After all, urgency is a well-known psychological motivator. You can also be fun with your call to action and pitch for people to re-engage, depending on what works best for your brand language. 

“Oh no! You’ll miss out on cuddling your dinosaur plushie if you wait too long.” 

“You only have 17 hours until your offer expires.” 

You can also try including social proof to demonstrate that other customers like their abandoned product. Customer reviews are becoming increasingly crucial in the modern consumer’s decision-making process. Therefore including a direct statement or endorsement of the product in question increases the likelihood that users will take action. 

Another option to address users’ concerns about checking out with an item in their basket is to explain the security of their money and a simple return policy. Addressing these pain points in your email message might give your users the confidence they need to execute the required action. 

Give Them A Special Offer Or Discount

Another strategy to increase conversions from abandoned basket emails is to offer your visitors a unique discount on the product or products in issue. You can further incentivize speedy action by framing your offer as a last-chance or time-sensitive offer. If you’re aiming to sell out a specific product category towards the end of a season, for example, some firms may benefit from going the additional mile and offering a discount on a specific group of items in their inventory. 

It may be worthwhile to offer a seasonal discount on items such as Halloween costumes, Christmas decorations, and so on. Using promotions or discounts to encourage users to return to their carts can be an effective method for increasing engagement with these campaigns. 

Optimize Emails For Mobile

According to a Placed study, up to 73% of shoppers use an average of two shopping apps. 

Another 42.8% of buyers check for coupons on their mobile apps, compared to 35.9% on print media, 16.8% on desktop, and 28.8% on mobile apps (all three channels). Based on these findings, you should optimize your abandoned cart emails for mobile devices to enhance conversion rates. 

You can put this concept into action by creating responsive emails that look good on a variety of mobile devices with varying screen widths. Or you may include a cart session link, which allows customers to click and return to the point on the checkout page where they left off. Including a CTA with eye-catching colors and fonts can also increase the likelihood that your prospects will click the abandoned basket email and complete the purchase. 

Recommendations That Are Appropriate

You can grab your reader’s attention in yet another tried-and-true way by including some product recommendations in the email you send them. This helps to attract customers who are on the fence about making a purchase by recommending complementary items that can pique their interest or inspire them to return to their carts. Your customer’s interest must be directly related to the content of the email you send them for you to have any chance of increasing your click-through rate. You have the advantage of knowing exactly what your target audience already wants if you build abandoned cart emails for customers who have shopped on your website but have not completed their purchase. 

Suppose your email solution is coupled with an AI-powered product recommender. In that case, it will be simple for you to compose a personalized email that contains product recommendations that are specific to the interests of a particular consumer. In such a case, you might want to try segmenting your target audiences according to the products they removed from their shopping carts. Then you can utilize A/B testing to optimize the product recommendations that each segment receives. You will be able to adapt future recommendations to your customer base in a manner that is more effective if you measure the CTR of these tests. 

Include a compelling CTA

Without a compelling call to action (CTA). An abandoned cart message is incomplete. People are taken back to their shopping carts so they may complete their purchases when they click the CTA button. Words that encourage action should be included in it more than anything else, as this will be the most effective way to encourage people to move forward with the process. Consider the use of phrases such as “get,” “shop,” and “purchase.” It is considerably more compelling than merely saying “click here,” and it informs readers of the next step they need to take. 

If you have more than one call-to-action button that you’d like to include in your reminder, you certainly may. For instance, you may choose to include one in the header and two in the body of your document. Both can be placed on the same page, one above and one below the copy. The objective here is to provide recipients with as many opportunities to click on a relevant shopping basket link as is humanly practical. 

Split Test Your Emails

If you are new to email marketing, it is possible that, at first, it will feel somewhat daunting to you. You might make things simpler for yourself by selecting one of the points discussed in this article and then conducting an A/B split test on that specific aspect of your email marketing campaign. 

Your email marketing provider needs to make it simple to test variations of the following, among others: 

• Email subject line
• Email content Images
• Text for CTA
• Buttons versus. Hyperlinks

Split testing two alternative calls to action (CTAs) to determine which one is more successful than the other is a smart place to start. You might also try out a few different button colors to see which one receives the most positive response from your target demographic. 

Rolling It All Up

Cart Abandonment strategy is not a game of 5 minutes. It takes time and optimization. Don’t send just a single email and call it a day. You have to constantly monitor and refine your strategy to decrease the abandonment rate of a Shopify store.

internet is a boon for growing businesses that want to reach a wider audience without physical or geographic boundaries. But with this increase in opportunities, the competition also increases significantly. An eCommerce customer is spoilt for choices. The internet era has bought along with it an increase in customer expectations. They want better products, faster services, and more empathetic customer support. And if they’re unsatisfied, they switch unscrupulously.

And given that most of your business costs like warehousing, transportation, and production are unvarying, customer retention is the key to scaling your business. It is no secret that retaining a customer is much cheaper than finding a new one. Ensuring customer retention is one of the most effective ways to increase profit margins. With increasing customer acquisition costs, customer loyalty is the key to eCommerce success. You don’t want to keep knocking on new doors to keep the lights on.  

So how does an eCommerce business retain its customers? Well, a study by Gartner suggests that 80% of companies today compete based on customer experience. The solution is apparent but not straightforward. Your eCommerce business needs to aim for customer delight to retain customers. Your customer support team plays an integral role in realizing this goal. It defines how your clients perceive your brand and can help you build meaningful relations with them instead of just answering questions or dousing fires.  

Customer support has the potential to act as a revenue channel and be one of the strongest mediums for customer retention.  

Factors that Affect Customer Retention: 

1. Responsiveness: one of the most significant factors that affect customer retention is how the business responds to issues and the state of return and refund policy, quality guarantee, etc. 
2. Contact Point: this determines the efficiency of your support system and how many contact points are available to customers, such as online chatting, email, and phone.
3. Convenience: the most significant factor in customer experience is the convenience of use. How easy to find what you want on your website and reach out to you or even make payments for their purchase?
4. Site Design: Good website designs are integral to the customer experience. Since most eCommerce customers use mobile devices, it matters how mobile-friendly your website is or how easy to navigate and find information. 
5. Security: Determines how secure your website and payment getaways are concerning personal information, whether security or financial. It also matters how their customer data is collected and used. 
6. Serviceability: Considers things like delivery, packaging, and other services related to your business. 
7. Customization: Determines how your business personalizes the recommendations and entire purchase experience to meet customers’ preferences.

How You Can Improve your Customer Retention for Shopify

Ecommerce encompasses a vast array of businesses, each with its unique goals and propositions. There is no one solution or framework that will help each business champion customer retention. The aim is to identify your business goals and creates a plan based on actionable steps you can take to further your cause. Here are some of the most effective tips to increase customer retention: 

• Personalized Shopify Customer Accounts: 

There’s nothing like the feeling of being valued. A customer deserves to be treated like an individual with unique preferences rather than a “type” or “persona.” On the other hand, discounts, strategies, or campaigns that target a set of audiences can be replicated by competitors easily. However, customer experience tailored to suit individual needs cannot be copied and offers an advantage for your business like no other.  

Another study by Gartner suggests that 38% of customers switch brands due to a lack of personalization. They would rather receive service and recommendations that were relevant to them personally instead of being clubbed with other customers.  

Similarly, personalization plays a crucial role in your customer support functions. Customers have different needs, demands, and problems that your business needs to address individually. For example, a business does not treat repeat customers with high lifetime value like they treat new customers.  

Data drive this type of personalization. Without the right Shopify integrations and the ability to extract relevant data about your customers, you cannot achieve this level of personalization. 

• Leverage Automation for Better CX

Automation is a boon for eCommerce businesses when used correctly. However, most companies are lured by faster responses and use automation to deflect customer queries. While speed plays a vital role in determining the user experience, it takes away from the goal of personalization. You should use automation smartly to make customers feel valued. It should encourage more meaningful conversations rather than promoting speedy responses. 

Automation increases efficiency and allows agents to concentrate on more pressing matters- issues that require human intervention and demand more empathetic interactions. 

• 24/7 Support through Live Chat

One of the most underutilized mediums of ecommerce customer support is live chat. With the right Shopify integrations, you can collect a website visitor’s browsing history, order history, and analyze their website journey. An excellent live chat support software will help you understand the interests and issues that the customer faces. For example, suppose an agent observes that a customer frequently visits a product page. In that case, they can reach out to the customer and offer to address any queries or inhibitions the customer is facing.  

You can significantly improve the customer experience by using live chat to provide pre-purchase services and turn website visitors into customers. You can also use live chat to upsell and cross-sell products. It increases revenue driven by customer support- directly impacting the bottom-line profitability.  

It is a great way to improve the shopping experience and strengthen your relationship with your customers, leading to increased customer retention. 

• Implement Omni-Channel Support

An eCommerce business can’t thrive using only one platform or channel. Every eCommerce business utilizes different channels, such as Instagram, Facebook, and Shopify, to reach their target audience, where they spend most of their time. The customers also view these channels effectively communicating with your brand.  

Streamlining customer support across all these channels is essential for a better customer experience. The best way to achieve this is to rely on helpdesk software that provides a centralized communication hub for all your customer support functions. 

• Self-Service

Your customer support should aim to empower customers to solve their problems without relying on your agents or waiting in a queue for simple problems. The right support software, including knowledge base software, will allow them to efficiently deal with issues like returns, tracking, and more, without contacting a support agent. It not only resolves problems quicker but also improves the customer experience by adding a layer of transparency to your processes. It promotes a sense of independence and ownership in your customers.  

Your customer self service flows can achieve much more than solving queries. You can utilize self-service to provide information on your products, such as tutorials, benefits, and how-tos, refining their pre and post-purchase experience. It allows you to educate your audience about your products and services so that they make the most of your offerings. The power to take simple order actions and find answers to their queries adds unparalleled convenience, which is bound to increase customer retention.  

Common Mistakes Businesses Make with Customer Retention Practices: 

• Ignoring Customer Service:

Imagine a customer walks into a physical store wanting a product unique to your brand. What if they can’t locate or figure out how to use it and there’s no customer service representative around? Ecommerce works in the same way. You could provide unique products and the best services for your intended customers, but without good customer service to back it up, you will not be able to retain customers. 

This also includes spending the right time and resources to train your support team members as well. Equip them with the knowledge to address issues pertaining to different departments and also the right tools that smoothen out processes and make their job easier. A happy agent means a happy customer.  

If investing, say $10,000 in training your agents helps them cross-sell 1,000 worth of products weekly, you will be seeing your money back in no time!

• No Proper Feedback Loop:

Loyal customers are not only the source of revenue for you; they are stakeholders in the growth of your business as well. The customer wants the best, and they will help you provide it if you can collect and analyze customer feedback to ensure you identify all the areas of improvement in your business. 

• Lack of SLAs for Customer Service: 

Transparency plays a key role in building a relationship with your customer. SLAs or service level agreements help the customers set expectations from your business- how fast can they expect delivery or how much time they will wait to receive service. These SLAs help promote accountability in the marketplace and staying true to this contract will help you build your reputation in the online marketplace. Set achievable goals and realistic standards for yourself- 

• What benchmarks define success?
• How flexible can your SLAs be?
• Do you want to set up rewards based on these targets?
• Do your SLAs match your business goals?

These are questions to ask yourself when defining the parameters of your agreement with your customer. These will help you engineer intentional reliability and help create a strong bond with your customers. 

• Not Rewarding Loyalty: 

Your loyal customers are worth so much to your business. They are pivotal in your growth, and it’s always a good idea to show them that their support matters. Set up loyalty programs that help you show appreciation for customers that have stayed with you for a long time and add value to your business. 

• Not Preparing for Growth: 

With increased onboarding or even frequency of orders, everything from logistics to customer support becomes a bigger task. You need the resources to meet demands, and the right people to get the job done. Most businesses fail to scale their operations and teams when faced with increasing demand. More often than not, the quality of service suffers due to this, leading to customer churn.  

To avoid being caught off guard, you need to identify the most repeatable processes and use automation to your advantage. This helps safeguard against any boosts or fluctuations, even when the right talent is difficult to find.  

This brings us to the last and most overlooked factor:

• Not Leveraging your Tech Stack Enough:

Goals require an actionable plan. If you want to increase customer retention, you must identify the things that are working for you, what aren’t and how to optimize your processes to get the best results. One of the most important things to do is to pick the suitable eCommerce tools and Shopify applications that will help you achieve your targets- this can include helpdesk software, the correct returns app, or strengthening cross-department communication.  

But much like the different departments in your business, your tools should also work as one cohesive unit and help you deliver the best results. Tools that provide great functionality and deep integrations with the other tools in your tech stack. For example- you’d want your helpdesk should be able to pull customer information from your site and act as a CRM to improve customer service. It should also be able to access information on returns and deliveries from the tools you have set up for these processes.

It will reduce friction in your day-to-day processes and help you utilize your technology stack to its full potential.  

Conclusion: 

Customer retention is the key to eCommerce success in the competitive eCommerce landscape. As a business owner, your aim should be to enable better customer support and improve customer satisfaction scores so that you don’t incur increasing customer acquisition costs. One of the most straightforward solutions to this challenge is to invest in helpdesk, CRM software, and other tools that enhance the customer and agent experience to help create a lasting bond between your brand and your customers. 

Introduction 

Congratulations on starting the process of changing your company.

You must be looking for sophisticated marketing techniques for your e-commerce website or interested in optimizing your store to appear in the top Google searches if you have arrived at this post.

You will discover how to increase leads and customers for your e-commerce site in this well prepared article. I bet what you learn in the next few minutes will astound you.

In order to better comprehend the world of sales and conversion in your Ecommerce site, let’s first grasp a few simple principles.

1. Choosing the right keyword 

What keywords should I use for SEO? 

Relevance, authority, and volume will all be taken into account when choosing the optimal keywords for your SEO campaign. Locate popular keywords for which you may reasonably complete depending on: the degree to which you are competing. Your capacity to create material of a higher caliber than that which is already ranked.

When selecting SEO keywords What three factors should you think about? 

The relevancy of each particular term, search volume, and user intent are three elements you must take into account while performing your SEO keyword research. This will assist you in determining whether you want someone who is writinga certain word into Google to interact with your own brand.

2. Keyword in Product Title 

What should an SEO tile include for best results? 

This is the page title or SEO title, often known as the HTML title tag. When you use a search engine to seek anything up, you receive a list of results that are presented as snippets. The SEO title, at the very least a URL, and a meta description are frequently included in the snippet.

Because they will help you rank, keywords are important when it comes to SEO. Include focus or primary keywords in the title of your product, and make sure it is precise, clear, and educational.

If you are an online ecommerce store, i.e. a seller at Amazon or Walmart, then you can go through the blog – 71 Amazon SEO Ranking Factors. 

3. Use Image & Video in Product page 

Does including photographs and videos improve SEO? 

For SEO, use images and videos on the product page.

Images are essential for making your content more user-friendly, appealing, and engaging, but they’re also key for SEO. They first provide significant contextual data to search engines.

How can I make videos and photos SEO-friendly? 

Maintaining modest picture file sizes makes it easier for your sites to load fast, which is crucial, especially for a positive mobile user experience. SEO Advice: Make it simpler for the browser to view your photographs. Each picture should be resized before being uploaded to your website, and the image tag should include the height and width properties.

4. Adding bullet points in Product page

Do numbered lists aid with SEO? 

Your Friend for Benefits and Internal Links: Bullet Points. Bullet points, like headers, provide incentives for both your SEO and conversion metrics. They distinguish themselves from the surrounding text and break up the page, increasing the likelihood that readers will read them.

What format should you use when including bullet points in your product listing? 

There are some badly worded bullet points. It is preferable to use simple and unambiguous bullet points. Keep your bullet points under 1,000 characters overall,

meaning for all five bullets together, not individual bullets. Their readability is improved by having less than 1,000 characters.

5.  SEO-optimized Product Description 

Does SEO factor into product descriptions? 

The answer to the aforementioned query is affirmative; product descriptions have an impact on the SEO of your website. It increases sales, conversions, and organic visitors. As you may know, websites hosted by Shopify are unique since they rank higher.

How much SEO should go into a product description? From 305 to 400 words

A product description should be between 305 and 400 words long, or as long as is

required to cover all of the product’s key attributes and give a succinct rundown of its advantages for the consumer.

Writing SEO-Friendly Product Descriptions: 5 Tips 

Make your writing compelling. Advertising tycoon David Ogilvy argues that sales may result from compelling language.

Tell stories through the power of words.   Keep your writing brief.

Be search engine friendly.

Keep your product descriptions unique.

If you are an online store owner,and also you want to excel as an Amazon store holder, then you can go through the following blog- How to create the perfect product page

 that ranks high on Amazon search results.

6. Customer Support 

In what ways may SEO enhance customer service? 

If you have a customer service department, SEO can help them produce better work. They may profit from search engine optimization by creating an internal knowledge base to enhance user experience and assist clients in finding the information they want. As a result, they can respond to inquiries and problems more quickly and proactively. Additionally, it aids in boosting customer satisfaction because satisfied consumers are more likely to return.

7. Boost Site speed 

Does SEO Impact Site Speed? 

Page speed has an impact on SEO.

The speed of your website affects how it will rank on Google as a direct ranking element. In addition to affecting SEO, page speed can also effect your site’s bounce rate and average session length.

Best Practices for Increasing Website Speed 

1. Lessen the Frequency of HTTP Requests
2. Implement HTTP/2
3. Image size optimization
4. Utilize a Content Delivery Network (CDN) (CDN)
5. Write mobile-first code, please
6. Reduce First Byte

Select the Appropriate Hosting Service Plan

13. Make Gzip Compression use
14. Minify and combine HTML, CSS, and JavaScript files
15. Consider Using Prefetch, Preconnect, and Prerender Techniques
16. Load JavaScript Asynchronously
17. Cut Back on the Plugins
18. Use website caching
19. Adopt Cloud-Based Website Monitoring

8. Category page optimization 

Do categories help with SEO? 

E-commerce sites receive higher traffic from category pages.

To determine if product or category pages performed better in SEO rankings was the objective. The findings revealed that category pages fared better at 27 of the 30 sites looked at. They had 19% more ranking keywords than product pages and a stunning 413 percent higher traffic.

How to Optimize Category Pages?

 Begin with the metadata. The fundamentals of content optimization are title tags and meta descriptions.

Use featured content, include text, make headings pertinent, and so forth.   Make the link text pertinent.

Emphasize Header and Footer Links, Category Navigation, and Header.

9. Improve usability 

How could usability be made better? 

These are the top seven steps you should do to make your website more user-friendly:   Speed up the loading of pages.

Maintain uniformity throughout your website.   Make sure your website is responsive.

Use a recognizable navigation structure.

With your material, use headers and subheadings.   Highlight your standout qualities.

Use pictures, but don’t use too many.

10. Write share-worthy blog 

Is writing blogs beneficial for SEO? 

Does blogging assist with SEO? By establishing your website as an appropriate

response to the queries of your clients, blogging helps improve SEO quality. You may

increase your chances of ranking in search engines and improve the user experience of your website by using a range of on-page SEO techniques in your blog articles.

How can I make content that people want to share? 

Ideation for 7 Things Content Creators Do to Produce Shareable Content.

Ideation for 7 Things Content Creators Do to Produce Shareable Content.

Brainstorming- It’s impossible to generate content ideas out of thin air.   Concentrate on titles,

conduct research,

take the time to get feedback,   strive for excellence, and

Focus on titles.

Do your homework. Take the time. Get some feedback. Aim for excellence.

Increase visibility.

11. Create a site with Hierarchical structure with no more than 3 levels 

How can you build a website using hierarchies? 

To improve SEO, create a site with a maximum of three tiers of hierarchy.

Let’s begin by going step by step through the process of developing a website structure. Take a look at what your rivals are doing.

Gather and classify the keyword list for a website.   Classify each page.

Keep your URL structure simple.   Link pages together internally.

Build an easy navigation system.   Publish a sitemap.

Check out your webpage.

12. SEO Friendly URL and Best Permalink Structure 

Which URL format is more beneficial for SEO? 

A picture of an SEO-friendly URL and the ideal permalink structure SEO-friendly WordPress Permalink Structure

In the URL, add Your Target Keyword. A target keyword is a term or phrase that you want visitors to use to reach your website on a search engine.

Use Hyphens Instead of Underscores, Avoid Using Dates or Years in Your URL, Use HTTPS-Secured URLs, Include Categories on Big Sites, etc.

How can I optimize my URL for search engines?

Making a URL slug that is search engine optimized   The page title should come first.

Take special characters out.   Eliminate numbers.

Delete information that is not necessary.   Reduce it to a single word.

Include keyword modifiers (optional)   To make it readable (optional)

Lowercase is preferred.

13.  Keep URLs Short and Sweet 

Does SEO depend on URL handle? 

Yes, the keywords you decide to incorporate into the URL structure may unquestionably affect your SEO and ranks.

Do shorter URLs perform better in SEO? 

The shorter the better. Shorter URLs “often tend to rank higher than lengthy URLs,” claims Backlinko. They conducted rigorous testing on one million Google search results to demonstrate this. This graph illustrates how Google ranks drop as URL length increases.

14. Add a breadcrumb menu on product pages 

How effective are breadcrumbs for SEO? 

Because they make navigating simpler, breadcrumbs serve as a crucial component of an

SEO-friendly website, which is why visitors adore them. They encourage users to browse more pages on a website before leaving, which lowers the bounce rate. They help with SEO.

It’s really simple to add breadcrumbs; just click the huge + button to add a block. Enter the name of the block in the search box or scroll down to the Yoast section to find the Yoast SEO breadcrumbs block. As an alternative, you may just enter /yoast breadcrumbs in a blank sentence.

15. Allow customer reviews on product pages 

Are customer reviews helpful for SEO? 

Given that reviews may enhance your social presence and authority, keeping your attention on reviews and how to increase them is crucial for your SEO. Google does, in fact, take into account your site’s ranking, and as is obvious, it prioritizes the websites with better ratings.

16. Design for Mobile 

Can we perform SEO on a phone? 

Mobile SEO is the process of optimizing websites for search engines while ensuring that they display perfectly on mobile devices like smartphones and tablets. Due to the growing popularity of portable devices, webmasters need to pay close attention to their mobile SEO strategy.

What makes mobile SEO so crucial? 

Mobile optimization, which takes into account factors such as site design, site structure, page speed, and more to create a superior mobile user experience, makes sure that

mobile visitors enjoy an experience that is optimized for their mobile device.

What can I do to enhance my mobile SEO? 

You should concentrate on the following two areas to increase your mobile SEO:   Make the user experience enjoyable.

A responsive website is a must.   speed up your website.

Implement organized data.

Don’t block HTML, CSS, or JavaScript code.   Avoid overusing redirects.

Select the appropriate viewport.

Don’t employ pop-ups or interstitials.

17. Use HTTPS / Secure Your Website 

Is HTTPS beneficial to SEO? 

It is obvious that HTTPS gives the protection that many Internet users need, and it is the best course to take if you want Google to favor your website.

Website security is manifoldly affected by the proper use of HTTPS.

Why SEO For E-Commerce Is Vital For Your Business? 

Ecommerce SEO focuses on increasing your online store’s exposure in search engine results. According to research, around 70% of consumers use search engines to identify products and read reviews of them before deciding whether or not to purchase them.

The internet has increased people’s flexibility to choose, compare, and, most significantly, save time while making purchases.

Making your online store more visible on search engine results pages is done through ecommerce SEO (SERPs). You want to show up as high in search results as you can for the things you sell to draw in as much traffic as you can. Paid search can get you visitors, but SEO is considerably cheaper.

You may attract a highly relevant audience to your website if your store ranks better in organic search results. Organic traffic is more beneficial for raising brand exposure, and customer loyalty is highly prized for its contribution to credibility building.

In actuality, 43% of shoppers conduct internet research while in a store. Your online business, which has a cheap cost of operation and provides greater value to your customers, is undoubtedly a win for everyone.

Author: Sarwar Abdullah

Founder of VATASK.COM

Author Bio: 

Content writing is my passion. And I believe in following my dreams to achieve my goal in life! I am a full time entrepreneur who believes in investing his time behind profession and passion equally.

Team building involves bringing together people to take part in bonding activities under the guidance of a team leader. The conventional version is usually in-person, but team-building tasks can now happen virtually, thanks to technology.

If unfamiliar, the following are the upsides of online team building.

Boosts Morale

A general working environment can be tense, with people trying to observe all the rules and deliver. On the other hand, online team building makes work more exciting and fulfilling to be a team member.

One of the most significant advantages is that it enhances mutual respect and eliminates conflict among employees. Therefore, people work better, knowing that the company cares and wants to invest in them.

Increases Productivity

When away from the typical work environment, everybody comes together for a common goal without the related pressure. Team leaders will find it more effective to help teach the organization’s goals and, in turn, motivate the team members to strive for success.

The communication channels will open up, allowing everyone to air their views and troubleshoot problems. Thanks to online team building, you will notice the work improving without employees burning out.

Fewer Costs

If you have previously planned a regular team-building exercise, you will attest that it can be pretty costly. You must factor in the costs of the venue and several other aspects.

However, online team building is relatively cheaper. It makes it a go-to for most companies, given that the funds can be tight and it can be hectic to convene people in one single space.

Enhances Creativity and Versatility

When away from the work environment, your creativity may diminish but having others around can help you brainstorm and bounce off ideas. You will get more creative ways to solve problems that you may not have thought of while working alone.

Organizing online team building creates a comfortable environment to experiment with ideas without fear of failing. Additionally, you can get inspiration from anybody, creating mutual respect.

Maintains Connections

The current trend has seen people working from home. Since there is no way to meet in person and talk with staff during random meetups, being away from the office can be pretty isolating, especially after months apart.

Online team building is the perfect way to get everybody together to maintain the connection and improve communication. You can catch up with colleagues after a while and interact even in the comfort of your home.

Connect Your Team

Creating online team building is the ultimate solution to connect people regardless of being apart. You benefit from regular team exercises at low cost and at everybody’s convenience. In the long run, you will enjoy a dedicated, hardworking workforce that effortlessly achieves the company’s goals.

With the growth of e-commerce and the number of Amazon sellers, it is no wonder the marketplace has changed so much. And it’s probably the primary reason why many sellers choose Shopify instead.

Some say Shopify provides higher profit margins because it charges lower fees than Amazon. But there may be a reason why many stay on with Amazon.

This post will tell you all about the two platforms—how they differ, their pros and cons, and recommendations on which may be the best marketplace for you.

The Difference between Amazon and Shopify

The most significant difference perhaps between the two is that Amazon is an online marketplace, whereas Shopify is an e-commerce platform.

While both platforms allow you to sell any product, they do so differently. On Amazon, you don’t get your own store per se. Instead, you post products individually alongside fellow sellers. Shopify, meanwhile, lets you build your own online store where consumers can find all your offerings.

Think of it this way: Selling on Amazon is like supplying the store with your products, while doing so on Shopify is more comparable to putting up your own store in a shopping mall. Your choice would thus depend on how you want to be seen as a seller.

As with any business decision, you need to consider several factors before deciding which platform is right for you. So we’ve broken down these considerations to make choosing more manageable for you.

Pros and Cons of Selling on Each Platform

While you both get to sell all kinds of products on both platforms, each has unique benefits and drawbacks. And you must understand these before making your decision. Let’s dive in.

Amazon

In addition to selling books, music, movies, household items, electronics, toys, and other products, Amazon.com acts as a middleman between businesses and its legions of customers.

Pros

• Ease of getting started: Opening an account and becoming an Amazon seller is not difficult at all. Plus there are a few business models you can start selling with. Depending on your ambitions, you can whether launch your own brand or do
  reselling on Amazon with dropshipping or arbitrage.
• High traffic: Amazon’s most significant selling point is most likely its vast customer base. And because you sell alongside all other vendors, you can tap into your competitors’ customer bases, along with your loyal customers.
• Global reach: Amazon currently has the biggest audience compared to other marketplaces globally. It currently serves 13 countries, each with its own dedicated site.

Cons

• High competition: Millions of products are currently being sold on Amazon, making the competition really tough. Selling the exact item as tons of other sellers means you’ll be vying for the Amazon Buy Box.
• High fees: Because Amazon typically houses all of its sellers’ inventories and takes care of processing and shipping, even customer service provision, your business can rack up costs. Even if sellers can choose among various shipping options (i.e., providers), the fees can still be significant.

Shopify

Shopify is a subscription-based platform that makes it simple for any seller to start an online store. But just like Amazon, using it has pros and cons too.

Pros

• Low fees: Shopify charges fees that are significantly lower than Amazon’s. That gives sellers more significant profit margins. Its membership fee is also lower, making it a winner in this case.
• Completely customizable storefront: Shopify is one of a few e-commerce platforms that lets sellers customize their storefronts. You can use different colors, add images and videos, and even create your own logo on your page.

Cons

• Additional apps can be costly: All sellers need a way to promote their stores, right? Doing that on Shopify may require subscribing to specific apps. The more apps you use, of course, the more money you need to shell out.
• High upfront costs: Unlike Amazon, where you can start selling at practically no cost, you will need to pay for a subscription on Shopify first. And that comes with additional charges, too, depending on how you want to set up your storefront.

Which Market Is Right for Your Business?

Choosing which platform is right for you depends on your business requirements. If you just want to start selling products to earn extra money, then, by all means, start selling on Amazon. But if you’re looking to grow your business and establish your own brand, Shopify may be the better option.

Given all the information we divulged here, it’s still hard to say which is better—Amazon or Shopify. So if you’re serious about your business, why not try them both? Each has its ups and downs, so you’ll have to see which works better for you. If you’re not sure you can consult with Shopify experts or an Amazon agency to gain insights into which platform aligns best with your business goals.

Conclusion

While Amazon remains the biggest online shopping platform to date, Shopify isn’t far behind. If you’re looking to start selling at once, picking Amazon may be the way to go. But if you have a longer-term goal in mind—establishing your brand—Shopify may be better for you. Whatever choice you make, consider your budget, needs, and objectives.

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