Thanks to the digital age, e-commerce has become the new norm. From the biggest, oldest brands to the smallest home-based ones, everyone offers their products online. Web design and content are also now a quite a big deal, with ads being rejected in favor of more engaging posts like blogs, inforgraphics, and opinion pieces. Suffice to say, a large portion of the competition is now concentrated on garnering online engagement, which interrelates to racking up sales.
That said, pushing your way to the top using your website is no walk in the park. Skilled web design service providers and other places can help you launch the most aesthetic and user-friendly e-commerce site out there, but your efforts and investments shouldn’t stop there. The key is maintaining high engagement and organic traffic to earn the highest ranking on search engine results pages (SERP), and to ensure that customers always complete their transactions in your website.
Implement Transparency
The top reason 56% of online shoppers don’t complete their orders is unexpected hidden costs of shipping. Many e-commerce websites only calculate the shipping costs halfway through the order, which results in frustrated customers as it blows up their overall payment by a lot. Of course, shipping rates are required, but the trick is to implement transparency from the get-go.
Include an estimated shipping cost and delivery time on the product page, not just on the checkout. When the product has been added to the cart, the order summary has to already include shipping costs and taxes, which is another usual hidden fee that drives online shoppers mad.
If you can, provide codes for free shipping as well. Online shoppers spend 30% more when free shipping is an option, so take advantage of it. Show the code on the homepage so that it’ll be the first thing your customers would notice.
Simply Checkout Process
Another top reason for shopping cart abandonment is a complicated checkout process. User-friendliness is the best feature of an engaging e-commerce website, so if you lack this, then you’re veering your business to disaster. Make your checkout process simple; include every important detail in a single page as much as possible, like payment options, shipping options, data validation, return and shipping policies, and security buttons. Lengthy checkout processes may cause your customers to question your business’s legitimacy and trustworthiness, so a simplified checkout is the number 1 rule to remember.
Publish the Most Engaging Content
Search Engine Journal rounded up the top 7 contents that gain the most engagement, and its topnotchers are authoritative blogs, infographics, and opinion pieces. Authoritative blogs are highly informative posts addressing industry-specific key questions and providing additional insight into other topics relevant to your brand. Posting authoritative blogs gives your brand a voice, which is helpful in developing your position in the industry.
Infographics is a combination of visuals and text used to present research data. They’re excellent at drawing attention, so they’re shared on social media 3x as often as other types of content. They last longer compared to other contents, too, so if you wish to make a long-lasting impact, go for infographics.
Opinion pieces are those articles published on Medium or Huffington Post. They can be controversial as they’re often related to current events and politics. But you don’t necessarily have to follow that approach to publish a good opinion piece for your brand. Just focus it on your industry, without including anything that might be offensive.
By having all of these traffic and engagement catchers on your e-commerce website, your standing in search engine results pages or SERPs will always be favorable without having to constantly bombard consumers with annoying ads. Hard-selling is already a thing of the past, so keep up with the change by always being attuned to the current consumers’ behavior.
