E-commerce: an online sales guide
From clothing to food, from beauty products to the car and motorcycle industry, the companies that have opened their doors online in Italy in the last 10 years have tripled. According to InfoCamere and Unionecamere, the regions with the highest growth in the e-commerce field are Lazio, Campania and Lombardy.
However, owning a website and entering the world of e-commerce does not necessarily guarantee sales. Even if users visit the site on a daily basis, they don’t have to finalize purchases. In fact, it is usually only purchased in sporadic cases. Selling online, for some companies, can turn out more difficult than expected.
Low conversion rate: what it depends on and how to prevent it
The Conversion Rate is the percentage of visitors who finalize a purchase. The higher its value, the better the performance.
This index refers to the percentage of users who buy something from the online platform, based on the number of visits received on the site.
The reasons for a low conversion rate can be multiple. One of these is definitely the structure of the website, which may not be intuitive for users who visit it.
It is said that a website is difficult to navigate when confusion reigns between its pages. To make sure your website is easy for Internet users to explore, you need to be able to answer these initial questions:
- Are the articles sorted according to clear and specific categories?
- Are the various pages well connected to each other?
- Are filters used correctly?
Presenting a messy and hard-to-navigate ecommerce site is one way to get the user to stop the experience and give up the purchase.
Cart abandonment and customer abandonment
The cart abandonment rate is equal to the number of transactions made (successful sales) / number of transactions started and not completed (checkout) x 100.
It is an index that highlights the number of people who put the products in the cart but who have not finalized the purchase. If a user puts products in the cart, he is probably attracted to them and would like to buy them but then, for some reason, he no longer
The customer churn rate is equal to the number of customers lost in a given period /the number of customers at the beginning of that period x 100.
This metric indicates the percentage of customers who made a purchase and then never returned.
Customers who repeatedly shop have greater value for businesses because they are loyal. And the cost of maintaining a loyal customer is infinitely lower than the acquisition cost.
How to improve sales? Content Marketing and Social Networks
One of the most profitable ways to attract and win new customers is undoubtedly to provide valuable products and experiences that attract and stimulate the desire for sharing.
Content marketing is done by a good website/blog and effective interaction on social networks.
The interaction on social networks should not be aimed at selling, but should be a way to bring customers on the website, from which the purchase will be finalized.
The abandonment rate of the cart is the nightmare of the companies and must be prevented as much as possible. To do this, you need to simplify the user purchase process and manage the services offered with targeted strategies.
At Sellmasters, we follow companies throughout the online sales process:
- Product Assessment
- Ecommerce integration
- Positioning
- Packaging & shipping
- Customer care