Increase Your Online Sales Today!
In this modern age of technology, there is more than enough data to make your head spin. Today well learn which data points are indicators of customer behavior that you can use to boost sales for your e-commerce store. Knowing who your customers are and measuring their shopping behavior will tell you exactly what you need to know in order to keep your current customers coming back while simultaneously gaining new ones. Visitors that enter your e-commerce site are providing you with valuable information that is right at your fingertips. Here are seven key ways to use customer data to boost sales for your online store today!
1. Track conversion rates
Your conversion rate is the percentage of visitors you convert into buyers. This number is considered a key performance indicator used to analyze the effectiveness of an e-commerce site. You need to know whether your online shop, its design and all of your efforts are paying off. Once you identify whether your conversion rate is on track or not, you can investigate whether you need to make changes to your site. Here are a few tweaks to your site that can improve user experience and increase purchases:
Easy checkout process with guest option
Easy user account creation
Visually display return and shipping information
Secure Payment seals displayed (SSL, Credit Cards accepted, BBB seal)
To learn more, read our past blog post on maximizing conversion.
2. Measure the success of your promotions
Dont blindly create promotions, discounts and vouchers without analyzing your customers data. You need to know if your promotions are actually attracting customers to purchase at your online store instead of your competitors. Knowing which promotions are working will give you an idea of what to do in the future to repeat that success. Its extremely important to track the vehicles used to communicate your promotions. Which promotional e-mail blasts create the most traffic for your online shop? What vouchers have the highest rate of usage- your buy 1 get one free voucher, or your 20% off entire cart voucher? Use a variety of different channels to market and track the data of your promotions. Social media, email, online advertisements and more can all be used in conjunction to test and refine your promotional campaign strategy. This valuable information will tell you the best place to share promotions for your products.
3. Learn what products customers are buying
Which of your products are selling like crazy and which ones are getting less love from your customers? Once you know which products are the most popular, you can promote them more to increase sales. You can place those products on your shops homepage and also feature their image on advertisements. But that doesnt mean you should ignore products that are less popular. Products that arent selling as much may simply need a little push. But if you cant seem to get customers to purchase certain products, you need to consider investing less in these products or even discontinuing them. Removing unpopular products allows you to focus your time and money on products that will get you a better ROI and increase sales.
4. Track the times customers are buying
What if 90% of your customers shop between Mon-Fri, 9-5 PM, do you think that a weekend promotion would be a success? Make sure you know exactly when your customers are checking out and making their purchases. This will let you know what days and times they do their online shopping, which is a great window of time for you to try different methods of promotion. There also may be a seasonal factor here. Depending on your industry and products, you may see peaks during different months or holidays. Knowing this information will allow you to better manage and promote your e-commerce site to boost sales.
5. Review email analytics
Virtually every study reveals that customers prefer online stores to communicate with them via email more than any other channel. Through email you can inform your customers on their order status, customer support, upcoming promotions and new products. Are they responding to your emails or even opening them? If youre not tracking email analytics then you wont know! With a successful email strategy, your customers will spread the word to family and friends, creating more traffic and potential sales. The right formula will also turn one time customers into loyal patrons. You should pay attention to the following stats: the open rate, bounce rate and engagement. Keeping an eye on this data will inform you if your email marketing strategies are working. Once you know your average range for each stat, youll be able to recognize if an email campaign performed better or worse than usual so you can refine your strategy to find the best approach to maximize sales.
6. Track traffic sources
Another crucial data point to track is how your customers are getting to your e-commerce site. Tracking traffic sources for visitors to your online shop is also a key to effective promotion. Where are your customers coming from? Are most of them finding you on Facebook, Google, or other sites? Knowing which sites your shoppers are visiting before you will tell you a lot about your customers. For example, if you have many people finding you on Google, you know they are specifically searching for your site or the type of products you offer. This also means your e-commerce site can be found on a search engine which is great news for your business! Traffic sources also reveal great sites to implement or boost advertising. This can also lead you to sites where your online shop or products have been mentioned or even reviewed. One final advantage of analyzing traffic sources is that it can also tell you if any marketing campaigns already in place are effective. Keep an eye on these stats to see if they have any correlations between your marketing efforts and sales. Once you advertise on a certain channel, track the traffic from that site to determine whether its boosting sales. If not, you will know to try other advertising strategies until you find one effective in increasing sales.
7. Manage average order value
How much is each customer spending when they purchase on your online shop? Strategies like cross-selling and promoting related products and accessories can increase customer spending, but you have to measure their behavior first. Your customers average order value (AOV) reveals their spending power or spending habits, but it can tell you other crucial information as well. The key to analyzing a customers cart value is to go a step further and also learn what customers are buying. If you have many customers only buying one item, you should look at what complementary products or accessories they could have bought as well. Showcasing complementary and related products and also offering special pricing for purchasing these product combinations, leads to bigger shopping carts and bigger profits! Another great tip for higher AOV is to offer attractive perks such as free shipping or product samples. Give customers an incentive to buy more each time they visit. Learn more about how to increase cart values in this previous post.
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