Most brick-and-mortar retailers have been in the same situation when it comes to launching their eCommerce site. They work tirelessly getting their site ready to go live but when they finally launch, orders just kind of trickle in (even after a few weeks pass by). They certainly aren’t seeing the sales that they hoped and worked really hard for.
What can be overwhelming at that point is that there are not obvious issues to point to as to why it’s not generating more sales. It’s like hitting a brick wall and seeing no way to get around it.
So do you then just turn around and head back home? Certainly not!
When you hit the wall, the first question you always need to ask yourself is, “where is the disconnect between our customers and our online store?”We have been in this business long enough to have seen this same situation play out numerous times, and in every single case, the eCommerce sales problems come down to at least one of what we define as The 3 Pillars of eCommerce Growth.
Pillar #1. Traffic
We all know we need to increase traffic (aka get people) to our site in order to grow sales. The problem where we see most retailers fail is they try to get anyone and everyone to their site.
Why is this an issue? Although it may seem better to get in front of as many people as possible, it’s not beneficial to your business if the audience you’re getting in front of has no intention of buying.
We don’t want to increase traffic and get in front of a random audience who doesn’t identify as our perfect customer.
So the first big mountain to climb is making sure to drive our target audience to our site. This is where SEO, ads, and a social strategy all come in to play. If you don’t know who your target audience is we recommend you read the “Understanding Your Customer” section in our blog post.
Pillar #2. Conversions
Imagine being a salesperson and getting 100 leads (potential customers) and not one of them buying from you. Now, if someone offered 100 more leads for $1000, would you take it? Probably not. We’d want to figure out why the first hundred didn’t buy before we add even more.
The same is true online.
In the whole online experience we want to know what actually makes people buy.
A lot of times we see retailers get stuck on only focusing on traffic. They keep trying to get people to their site but when they finally get them to their site they end up not making a purchase.
Think of it like a leaky bucket. You can fill your site with all the traffic possible, but if it’s bad at converting those visitors into sales, all that traffic is going end up falling through.
This is a huge issue.
Luckily, we see that these results can often be easily achieved by fixing four things on your site. Related post: The four biggest low-hanging fruit and how to fix them in your site.
Pillar #3. Retention
Recently, we talked with a retailer who was running ads but their problem wasn’t with the ads themselves. The ads were actually very successful in bringing sales in for their business. However, when they turned the ads off, they stopped getting sales.
The reason for this is retention.
It’s essential to get our customers back and get them buying again and again. The way to do this is by finding unique ways of building brand loyalty across all of our sales channels.
This can be simple things like finally capturing email addresses at your point of sale in-store and using an email tool like Klaviyo to stay in front of them. To take it one step further, you could even use an SMS tool to increase traffic for new launches or promotions.
Next Steps
Having an eCommerce site is essential in order to keep your business running smoothly. However, if it’s not bringing in sales then it’s not working for you or your business.
We hope you are able to take these three eCommerce sales problems and be able to better identify where the issues might be for you.
If you think you might need some extra help, we set aside a few blocks of time each week to help retailers get a sense of direction through a free strategy session. At the end of this 30 minute call, you’ll have a clear idea of what is needed for your business to succeed online.
You can apply for a free strategy session HERE.
Whatever your next steps are, we hope that you can overcome these obstacles and that you come out of all of this stronger than ever.
