eCommerce: A Primer on Success

There is always a terrific feeling when someone buys a product from your online store. Most people will agree that eCommerce is an amazing thing when it works as intended. What if I told you there are simple ways to make your online store sell even more?

eCommerce

Where Do We Start?

Overall, not too long ago, eCommerce was considered fairly new. Some people may not remember, but there was a time when PayPal did not exist. People used to pay by “email” back then, which is a foreign concept to most young people. That being said, selling online is the future. In order to improve your online business, there are a few adjustments you can make.

Making Money With an Online Shopify Store

As an online ecommerce store owner, there are a few quick changes you may want to consider. There are several different ways to implement an eCommerce website, but for the purposes of this article, we are going to use Shopify as an example.

Imagine a scenario in which a customer just now makes a purchase. While it is exciting to make the sale, a salesman must also consider his or her next move. Rather than let it go by the wayside, as a business owner, you should do whatever is necessary to encourage that customer to return.

There are many different techniques for influencing customers, and the sheer number of possibilities can be overwhelming. Learning these techniques, however, is the fundamental key to mastering the art and science of eCommerce. In order to make things easier, let’s focus on understanding the customer and applying what we learn to handle our online store.

Why is eCommerce Important to Us?

This question is probably pretty easy to answer. eCommerce is important to us because we want to make money and either 1) we have already been doing it to some level of success online; or 2) we have heard that the online money-making process is intriguing and may be our “thing.”

It needs to be understood that eCommerce is not some sort of “get rich quick” scheme. Anyone who has any real experience with it should already know by now. However, eCommerce is something that can be learned, and therefore, converted into profit. Any online veteran will tell you that the road to eCommerce success involves understanding customers.

Step 1: You Don’t Have to Learn it All in One Day

The first step is to understand just how important the customer is. Without the customer, you wouldn’t have sales, and without the sales, eCommerce has no value.

Having accepted that you need to focus on the customer as a human being. This is very important.

Step 2: Keeping the Balance While Learning, Understanding, Adapting

Or, Know What You Know and What You Need to Know.

First, you need to figure out what you need to learn. Take it at a reasonable pace and apply what you can without burning yourself out. One method is to identify what you want to study (learn) each day and then scale it back to about 50%. Implement only about 25-50% of that per day. Also, allow yourself to take days off. In addition to a day on the weekend, consider taking a day off in the middle of the week as well. By taking these steps, you can help to balance your time and ensure you are more consistent.


The following article, from Shopify’s blog, provides some actionable steps and strategies that you could implement today to improve your ecommerce site. The article is “The 10% Strategy: Growing Your Business by Making Small Incremental Changes.” A quick Table of Contents (TOC) or index of the strategies listed in that article include:

  1. Increasing Leads
    • Writing Guest Posts
    • Creating Juicy “Hooks”
    • Considering a Retargeting Strategy
  2. Increasing Conversions
    • Showing Social Proof
    • Using Video for Conversions (see Ultimate Video Resource List)
    • Email Marketing Strategies
  3. Increasing Average Order Amount Per Order
    • Apply a Psychological Methodology to Your Pricing Strategy (Right up my alley, with my Ph.D.Doctorate Journey in Psychology!)
    • Implement a Related Products Display
    • Offer Discounts for the Purchase of Multiple Products/Services
  4. Increasing Number of Orders
    • Frequent-enough Communications with Customers (Utilizing Effective Communication Methods)
    • Using Special Offers
    • Creating a Loyalty Program Strategy (and Implementing It!)
  5. Increasing Profits
    • Implement a “Reverse Defection” Strategy (definitely need to read the article and learn about this one!)
    • Implement Technology in an Effective and Efficient Manner (another of my specialties – IT infrastructure development and strategies!)
    • Learning How to Interpret the Profit and Loss for Your Company and Its Site (also the other analytical reporting aspects)

It is interesting how the outlined list of strategies, above, is a part of an article on 10% improvement tweaks that help to bring success to your online Shopify store. And, at the same time, the step of learning, understanding, and adapting, is also about moderation and ensuring that we move forward each week at a reasonable pace. Just as stated above, we shouldn’t try to do it all at once so that we crash and discontinue our strategy for success. See a pattern here?

We have covered the step about understanding that we don’t have to build Rome in a day, but that doesn’t mean that we sit back and eat bonbons and watch TV, hoping that our ecommerce site works out on its own, without our intervention or management.

No, we need to figure out what we need to learn. Take it at a reasonable pace and apply what you can without burning yourself out and crashing. What I have found is that it is helpful to identify what you want to study (learn) each day and then scale it back to about 50% of that and implementing 25-50% of that per day. Also, allow certain days to be your day off, like maybe a Wednesday in addition to a day on the weekend. By taking these steps, you can help to balance your time, ensure that you are more likely to be consistent, and help to avoid that dreaded burnout and crashing moment (which I hope none of you experience!).

Let’s simplify a bit. Stay balanced and don’t bit off more than you can chew at any given time. How’s that?

Step 3: Implementing Quality Support

Now, which response is going to keep YOU as a customer? Think about customer service in terms of what you would want as a customer.

Excellent customer support and service are a requirement if you want to succeed online.

Keep in mind that we are keeping it simple, to start. You can always bookmark this article and come back later to dig in deeper.

Wrapping It Up and Getting Started

All sorts of ideas can come to mind when you start to brainstorm on how you can serve your customers. As you make your list, keep in mind that you want to build customer loyalty. Ask yourself what you can do to help to attract your customers, help them to have a pleasant experience, and retain them as customers.

About the author: Deborah is the “secret” SEO ninja and internet marketer from the very beginning (and sought after by the legendary Corey Rudl, and other industry pioneering greats). For more information about Deborah (aka Deborah E), visit the “About” page.

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