How can an African business improve e-commerce sales? This post will provide you with five exciting ways to achieve this feat.
You just launched an online business after thinking about it for a very long time. Not only is your online store fully operational and generating some revenue, but you have also employed some staff to help your business grow. Congratulations! Your work to improve your e-commerce sales has just begun. If you thought you could maximize your profits without fully optimizing your store and employing the proper consumer engagement techniques, you were sorely mistaken.
Even if you are making sales already, you can always improve these aspects of your business to make even more sales. A popular approach to boost your e-commerce sales is by attracting new clients. This isn’t always easy to achieve, though, especially for a new business. A better approach here is to figure out how to fully optimize the current customers your business has.
How to Boost E-Commerce Sales for African Businesses
Below are five ways you can do this and boost your e-commerce sales:
Upsell and cross-sell products
Selling a consumer a more advanced model of a product they’re interested in is known as upselling. For instance, a store selling electronics might highlight the advantages of a speedier laptop, a better TV, or a more robust tablet. Imagine you bought a brand-new guitar, and after a few years, you want to upgrade. At that point, a better, more expensive guitar might be upsold to you.
For its part, Cross-selling occurs when a company anticipates that you’ll need more products to complement your product and so sells those to you. For instance, after purchasing the guitar, the company might make you realize that you also need strings, a capo, a tuner, a case, and other necessary accessories.
Imagine that your business produces broadcast-grade microphones. Your customers are most likely interested in the product for their podcasts, for use in their radio stations, recording studios or home studios, or even their YouTube channels. Forget that you are the owner of the business for a few minutes and think like the customer. If you were buying that product yourself, what other products would make it easy for you to use that microphone? An audio interface, a stand, and an XLR cable? Then work towards those other products so that you can cross-sell them to your customers and make more profits.
The fact that upselling and cross-selling can account for up to 35% of Amazon’s overall income justifies giving this top emphasis in your business. When you are aware of the additional equipment or products your consumer needs to complement their new purchases from your business, you would find that cross-selling isn’t difficult to do.
Get rid of those empty carts
As many as 60 to 70 of the 100 customers who visit your website will leave their shopping carts empty. Many e-commerce companies lose money here or at the very least, leave money on the table. Imagine then a scenario where you sell products for $200 to 40 clients per month. That’s an $8000 profit. However, if you could lower the number of abandoned carts and increase conversion rates to 60%, your sales would increase to $12,000 each month, bringing in five figures.
Price and additional charges are among customers’ primary causes of cart abandonment. Put differently, your customers would abandon their shopping carts on your website if they could get identical items elsewhere at a cheaper cost. They are also likely to take their shopping elsewhere if shipping fees or other unanticipated costs are added to their order.
Although there are several strategies to reduce high desertion rates and boost your e-commerce sales, follow-up emails are one of the easiest. For systems like Magento, a straightforward automated sequence might assist you in reducing abandoned carts by reminding your customers of the items they have in their carts. By re-engaging them with upcoming sales or discount opportunities, compelling headlines, attention-grabbing language, and eye-catching images, you pique their interest and encourage them to follow through with their purchases.
Invest some resources in social media
Social media marketing is a great way to increase your e-commerce sales because every one of your target customers is already using those platforms. Unsurprisingly, Facebook is one of the main forces behind social commerce, and other top websites are Instagram, TikTok, Pinterest, Twitter, YouTube, and Reddit. Some websites can be more valuable than others, though, depending on your industry, but it’s very worthwhile to try and find out which.
Many small-to-medium-sized business owners are reluctant to spend money on social media since it can be challenging to demonstrate a return on investment. But social media is now more critical than ever in generating sales, so failing to embrace it could cost your company a huge potential to boost sales.
Be on the lookout for partners
Explore the world of affiliate marketing. Since affiliates receive commissions for promoting your products, they can assist you in selling more of them. While doing this may include providing your affiliates a cut of your revenues, the rise in sales may make it worthwhile. Essentially, you only have to pay when a transaction is made, and you get free publicity for your goods and company.
So research into potential affiliate marketers in your niche. Choose between starting your own tracking system and joining a network like Commission Junction. You may quickly locate affiliates offering products in your niche by utilizing already established networks such as social media apps. Pay your associates promptly. Typically, the price of paying your affiliates will be less than your advertising cost. Make it simple for affiliates to join your program and add tracking links to their website, landing page, or blog.
Get creative
Instead of using generic descriptions taken from a database, write clear, human-sounding language that is SEO-friendly for your products. Use eye-catching product pictures to increase customer trust and enhance your website’s visual appeal. Get creative with your business’s Instagram account. More than any other social media network, Instagram has the highest average order value at $65. It’s simple to understand why companies are experimenting with it to see if it works for them.
You can also set up a Facebook store and start selling immediately. Also, you can sell on one of the most famous websites online by using the Facebook Store app. When an item on their list is on sale, send your current customers a personalized email. Ensure that you create more consumer testimonials, and never underestimate the significance of social proof.
Conclusion
Several resources are available to support you in putting the aforementioned tactics into practice. Without having to expand your consumer base, you can still boost your e-commerce sales within the next few days. Is there anything you could be doing right now to increase sales for your company but aren’t already? Well, there is no better time for you to start than now.
Kindly read other exciting posts on SME360 to help you improve your business.