The goal of any e-commerce site is to make as many sales as possible. When most businesses set out to achieve this goal, they think in terms of marketing, trying to drive as many new customers to their site as possible.
However, equally important is the experience that customers have when they reach your site. You can use technology to optimize their experience so that customers are tempted to increase their average order value (AOV) and so that they have a much better experience on your site.
Customers who have a good experience are much more likely to return, so it’s important to spend some time getting this right and outshining your competitors.
Optimize for mobile
Many businesses spend a good deal of time creating a fantastic website, only to be let down by the mobile version. This is a mistake.
In 2017, the mobile share of the e-commerce market was 58.9 percent. That’s $1.4 trillion! And this number is only expected to increase as mobile technology develops and people rely on their mobile devices more and more.
It’s a market that’s not being tapped as much as it could be, as most people would like to make purchases on their mobile but simply find mobile e-commerce stores inconvenient to use and choose instead to make their purchases from a laptop or computer.
Many people use their mobiles not only to make purchases but also to research products they might buy, so it’s worth considering this when you’re designing your site.
If you can truly optimize your site so that it is easy to use on mobile devices, you could convert those casual research visits to your site while someone is waiting for a bus into immediate sales.
Upselling
Once you have a customer on your site, ready to make a purchase, it makes sense to try and get them to increase their order size!
It’s 68% more affordable to upsell to an existing customer than it is to find new ones. Not only this, but upselling can increase your revenue by between 10 and 30%, so it’s definitely worth some time and attention.
When upselling on your site, the simplest way is to add an app to your site that will do the hard work for you. Apps for upselling usually come in four categories:
- Manual – you choose which products will be upsold to every customer.
- Rule-based – the products that are recommended are based on a set of rules that you define.
- Algorithmic – the app will use its own algorithms to determine which products to upsell; for example, it might choose to upsell products that have previously sold well together.
- Personalized AI – the AI within the app will determine which products to recommend based on that customer’s past activity.
There are many different apps to choose from when it comes to upselling, each with its own pros and cons.
If you want to learn more about the best apps to increase Shopify AOV, this article from jivochat provides an overview of the top 15 apps available today.
Subscription services
Subscription models can add a huge amount of value to your e-commerce site.
If you have a product that a customer might need to buy more than once, for example, beauty products or household items, then offering a subscription service can be a great way to ensure repeat sales and increase brand loyalty.
Typically, businesses will offer products to customers who sign up for a subscription at a lower rate than customers who make one-off purchases. This means that your customer gets a great deal, and you are guaranteed a repeat sale.
Subscription services also solve a customer problem because they never run out of the product they have subscribed to.
From your side as the site owner, it makes managing your inventory a good deal easier.
Enabling e-wallets
Consumers are embracing e-wallet technology, and if you want to keep up, you need to embrace it on your site, too.
Digital wallets are becoming more popular because, in many ways, they are more secure than traditional banking. Additional security measures such as face scanning and passcodes aren’t there when someone uses a physical card. They also offer a way for people who don’t have access to a bank account, to pay for goods and services online.
If you want to add e-wallet technology to your site, you can begin the process by speaking with your payment processing provider. They will advise you on the next steps you need to take to ensure that payments are secure and function correctly.
Self-service
Most of the reason people like to buy online is that they don’t have to talk to anyone else!
Therefore, you must allow your customers to self-serve as much as possible on your e-commerce site.
Thoroughly test your customer journey to ensure that customers can easily add the items they want to their basket and check out. Key things to look out for are areas where it’s unclear what the customer should do next. When testing this, be sure to enlist the help of less tech-savvy people, too, as they will spot issues you might not have otherwise.
It’s also important to allow customers to self-serve regarding issues they may have with placing orders. Think about adding an FAQ section or a chatbot to allow customers to get the information they need without calling you.
VR and augmented reality
If you really want to get ahead of the game, look into augmented reality for your e-commerce site.
Augmented reality solutions allow consumers to virtually try on clothing or create a rendering of how a product might look in their home before they buy it.
This helps to reassure people that they are making a good purchasing decision and means that they are more likely to go ahead with the sale. It also means that people are likely to come to your site purely for research purposes, which gives you an additional opportunity to wow them and make a sale.
