Six e-Commerce Resolutions for the New Year

Before you know it, 2017 will be here. Most of us start the new year by making some personal resolutions, perhaps to lose some weight, save some money, eat more healthy foods or spend more quality time with family and friends. It’s also a good idea at this time of year to reflect on how you can improve your business operations and resolve to do so. No matter how successful your business is, there is always room for improvement, so here are a few resolutions you can make to help keep your e-commerce business thriving.

Re-evaluate your unique selling position (USP)

Your USP is what differentiates you from your competitors and is the reason your customers prefer to do business with you. If customers can’t differentiate you from your competition, you won’t be able to stay in business in the long term since you haven’t given your customers a compelling reason to be loyal to you. You should be able to sum up your USP in one sentence. Review your website, and be sure you’ve tailored it to be consistent with that sentence.

Refresh your website content

The beginning of a new year is the perfect time to review your website and make any changes you deem necessary since traffic is usually lower after the end of the Christmas shopping season. Perhaps it’s time for a new colour scheme or some updated photos to make your product pages more searchable and attractive. If you’re updating your images, consider providing multiple views of products for better customer experience.

Develop sales campaigns for all holidays

Don’t just focus on Christmas in 2017. Mother’s Day, Valentine’s Day and other seasonal holidays all offer opportunities for you to market to your existing customers and develop themes to attract new customers.

Update your transaction emails

Every email you send to a customer gives you the opportunity to increase customer satisfaction as well as increase sales, so review your email templates and keep them fresh. You should have email templates for order confirmation, order shipment, shopping cart abandonment and customer feedback after they receive their shipment. Many customers place items in their shopping carts with the intention of returning later to make a purchase but often forget to, so sending customers an email reminding them of an abandoned shopping cart is an effective way to increase sales.

Consider offering free shipping

Offering free shipping may not be an option if your profit margins are low. However, one of the major reasons potential customers abandon their shopping carts is seeing the price of their order increase with the inclusion of shipping costs at the end of the check-out process. If you can’t offer free shipping unconditionally, consider offering it after a certain price threshold, such as $25 or $49. Often, customers will purchase items they had not originally planned to so they can exceed the threshold and avoid their perception of wasting money by paying shipping costs.

Decrease your page loading time

Customers are likely to go to a competitor’s site if your site takes too long to load, so monitor your page loading time. If you see an increase in loading time, take prompt corrective action to avoid losing customers.

Have a prosperous 2017!