My Top 10 eCommerce Tips

How to maximise online sales during the Black Friday, Cyber Monday and year-end festive season

28 September, 2022

The next few months in retail are crucial for most retailers’ bottom line, and sales during this period can often make up 70-80% of annual revenue and profits. With Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and Christmas trading days looming, I thought I would share my eCommerce tips and recommendations to maximise your sales, based on my experience in the field. Whether you are involved in a small or large retail business that has an eCommerce platform, these tips and recommendations are all key to include in your online strategy.

Working in the e-commerce world and being an avid online shopper myself has always complimented what I do for a living as I’m constantly assessing what a successful online experience can be like and what it should avoid. I find the best way to truly understand, and experience e-commerce is to be right amongst it. If anyone is working in eCommerce and doesn’t shop online then it’s not something they should be proud of, especially if they do not take the time to shop on their own website to really understand the true customer journey and experience.

To maximize the user experience and your eCommerce sales, I have put together my top 10 eCommerce tips and recommendations t – it’s never too late to implement these quick wins, that will ultimately reward you with a return on investment (ROI).

1. Pricing Strategy

With the current economic downturn and smaller marketing budgets to work with, keeping your pricing competitive is key not only during this time but all the time! Knowing what price your competitors are selling like-for-like items is crucial to your success, especially in the established brand space. When I say stay competitive in your pricing, I don’t mean you have to go and discount all your prices but the complete opposite, by being in tune with your pricing, you can often prevent losing margin on products. You would be surprised how many of your products are still priced way below your competitors – and yes this happens more often than you think.

Suppliers and eCommerce companies are constantly changing their pricing structure, pricing tiers and margin expectations, to link back to their sales strategy, especially in this volatile economy and you don’t need to be caught with your pants down where you could be adding value to the customer, but still remain profitable and competitive.

One key pricing analytics system I have worked with in the industry is Prisync. It is one of the most intelligent products I have come across that actually gives added value to a business. Not only does it monitor all prices and pinpoints uncompetitive prices to address quickly and efficiently. It also automates the process, as opposed to having your buying, merchandise & data teams having to manually run price comparisons across multiple sites. The software allows you to still offer your customers value, but remain profitable and competitive where you can. This can result in huge savings for the company’s overall bottom line if you understand the importance of pricing in your strategy.

2. Delivery (Last mile delivery)

Having a delivery strategy in place for your products to reach your consumer is key, remember couriers can become maxed out at this time of year, and this can become your biggest customer challenge and frustration. Make sure you have a way to handle delivery queries, upskill your customer services department and give them adequate and ideally real-time information, to really assist the customer. It’s important to have a backup courier company you can lean on and remember “Don’t have all your eggs in one basket”.

Ensure delivery fees and free delivery threshold (if you have one) are competitive in the market. Delivery fees are a key area that can often make or break the sale going through. Your customers are price savvy and know what they are willing to pay for delivery, so don’t price yourself out the market based on high delivery fees.

I strongly suggest offering a variety of delivery options and prices, such as Standard/Economy | Express | 24hr | Next day | Weekend delivery, Click & Collect, Pargo, Pudo Lockers, etc.

If you really want to go to the next level find a logistics partner with operational and eCommerce integrations that can help you with the below:

Provide customers options to select a specific day or time to deliver
Ability to postpone delivery should that day or time not suit them
Supply adequate updates when the delivery will happen (SMS, email, etc notifications day before and day of delivery)

3. Website Experience – User Journey (UX)

Become that eCommerce destination that always over-delivers to your customer, you want to be the online platform that customers are quick to recommend to their friends or family. Don’t give your customer a reason to leave your website for your competitors. You need to really understand what they are buying and make your destination the best experience for them.

These may seem like no-brainers to some, however the number of websites that forget the importance of this is more than you can imagine. Below are just a few tips on user experience and the impact of website design;

Navigation:

Be Mobile friendly – this does not mean the customer has to zoom in and out to view your content. The layout should be different from a desktop, easily allowing the customer to click through information with as few clicks or swipes as possible.
Think about your category tree and make sure your customer can find what they are looking for with the least amount of clicks.
If you see a word, image, button, or content and you would immediately want to click that, most likely your customer would like to do the same thing. Make sure it is clickable and links to the most valuable area for conversion to sales.

Content & Imagery:

Incorporate as much real and accurate imagery that truly reflects the product, don’t just have one image have at least four. Try to work on an image principle of a front, back, side, and a detail shot for each product, and add any PDFs or added dimension drawings for products that need this. Have the zoom function as an option – remember not everyone has eagle eyes.
Adding videos where you can, this is a great interaction and experience vehicle for your customers to see the product being used.
Have great content and information on the product, make your site the best option to make the buying decision as trust me once the customer has left your website they most likely don’t come back.
Include additional information on Models, Years, Sizes & Dimensions to assist the customer buying decision, on those products that need them.

Search functionality:

Add key search words to your content. Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is your friend when used correctly, making it easy for your customer to find the products they are looking for. Don’t let them search for a word or exact match of your product on a marketing ad, only to be given pages and pages of the product till they find that specific thing.
Search/Filter functions: By size, colour, brand, age, size, fabrication, etc. The customer doesn’t have to use it, however provide them the choice to make their browsing quick and efficient – You can also use all this segmented attribute data to your own advantage when analyzing product info at the end of the season.

Sales:

Remember above the FOLD – This is the area your customer first sees on your website, it’s your most expensive real estate don’t underestimate its power!
Call to Actions (CTA’s), are key to use for conversions don’t forget them on banners or areas you want to help your customer make a quick decision

(BUY NOW, SHOP NOW, Add to basket, MORE INFO, etc.)

Site Speed & Extra Information:

Check your website speed, this really is an important element to consider in giving your customer a great experience (Aim for 2 seconds loading time anything better is a bonus if you want a quick check on your website use GTmetrix to get an indication of where you are.
Give easy and quick access to customers to view Delivery information, Return policy, and Contact information.

Make sure your site is EQUITABLE at the end of the day – consider all your customer profiles, and don’t forget people with diverse abilities/disabilities and backgrounds. Make use of Assistive Technologies (AT’s) such as colour modification, voice control, screen readers, and alternative text to offer added benefits.

Remember your website is not just a shopping vehicle it is also a product catalogue if you have traditional stores. Capture the sales of both the online shopper and the shopper who browses online and prefers to purchase in-store. If you can give them a guide to what stores have that product in stock this is a great help too.

4. Payment options

There are so many to choose from and on offer, these days, make it your aim to cover as many varieties that are feasible for your business to run. Partner with payment operators that work alongside your unique financial budgets.

If it is not feasible to offer a certain payment method to your customers then don’t, rather make sure that the options you give are the best representation you can offer to shoppers. In the long term, this will be best for both your business and your customer.

The payment world is endless:

*Stripe unfortunately is not available in South Africa yet.

5. Stock availability

This area can often make or break your sales targets. Focus on in-stock items with short lead times. Virtual stock holding and long lead times can be a deterrent for a customer, unless you are the only one selling the specific product. Customers will often spend a little more to get instant gratification from stores that have product in stock.

Be sure to keep stock of your top sellers, replenish correctly, and focus on the key products and product lines that drive customers to your site to maximise profits.

If your stock holding model is Virtual (Where your supplier holds the stock) and has longer lead times make sure the stock on hand reflecting on your website is as accurate as possible. This can really make or break your relationship with a customer especially when they are parting with their hard-earned money only to be told something they ordered is out of stock.

Make sure your relationships with your suppliers are strong, help them understand the urgency and importance of keeping their stock feeds updated, as this has an impact on both your and their success. Again keeping your stock availability under control removes a customer service backlog that you don’t need during the busiest time of year.

6. Returns (Instant refunds)

This is the latest thing that has been discussed at length in the industry and one that every company needs to have in their strategy. Customers are no longer satisfied with having to wait 5-10 days for a refund, especially if they have cancelled their order before they received their product. It frustrates the customer and also becomes a customer service nightmare, creating unnecessary tickets for your customer service agents to process at this busy time as well as tying up your customer’s valuable cash.

Look at your internal refund policy and process, as well as your agreements with your service providers. Remember your customer should come first, so making this as seamless as possible is really important in ensuring the customer’s returns experience is a good one.

7. Product

Drop new stock regularly, to entice your customers back to your website more often. Don’t market all the old stuff that you’ve had listed for ages, this is a waste of your marketing budget but also becomes draining and a sure way to lose the interest of your consumer.

Make this time easier for your customer. What are they looking for and how can you assist them? Think about including gifting guides, really think about gift lists that help people with ideas using products you have on offer 💡 solve a solution for them that makes their loved ones happy.

If your website is not a gifting product destination, there are lots of other product guides you can assist customers with, think event guides using your products to help your customers celebrate different occasions.

8. Marketing

Be clever and use the sales data you have already built up to your advantage. Don’t forget the true power of targeted emails – use those wishlists to your advantage. You may want to offer unique coupons to people with wishlists for these specific products. Upsell your baskets to make customers qualify for their discount or a deal. You are more likely to get a conversion on these sales if you run any promotional material.

Make sure any product you market on your emails goes directly to the product, don’t frustrate a customer by showing them a product and then sending them to a full category page to try to find the product. By linking them directly to the specific product on the emailer, will create an easy and instant sale.

Use waitlists to your advantage – make sure your planning teams use these as a guideline to replenish and promote items that are sitting on your customer lists, to drive traffic back to your site. Often these are winners that customers are happy to wait for, and eagerly await your feedback when they are back in stock.

Facebook and Instagram Ads can cost a huge amount during this time with the added competition. Don’t waste your budget on promoting a product that has already gone out of stock, this is highly frustrating for your customer. Yes, it may drive the customer to your site, however for the wrong reason. That advert only ends up costing you money and you most likely didn’t gain anything.

You don’t want to become known as a discount-only store, so be careful not to use this as your only marketing tool. Combine a mix of newness, value, and promotional items. If you have a variety of price points you can still offer those higher price points but add in some more value-driven products at the same time to show you are a destination for all.

9. Reviews

Use this time to gain product reviews, as customers refer to these reviews more than you think. Amazon is so successful because people can use this as a guideline when spending their hard-earned money. Incentivize customers to review your products. Look at your customer journey after the purchase it’s just as important as the start.

It is also important to use these reviews as valuable information to work off and remove products that your customers are hating, it also removes the product return nightmare for yourself which is an added cost to your business. Do have some caution on reviews as there will always be the disgruntled customer, however, if the reviews give you a clear and constant indication that the product is not what people want then don’t waste your time keeping it, as it can really ruin your reputation. Vice versa look out for products with awesome reviews to promote, gain traffic and gain happy customers.

10. Deals

Black Friday, Cyber Monday & Festive Deals

This day is no longer only 1 day or a weekend, retailers seem to be starting their specials earlier and earlier and in many different ways.

Make sure your deals are unique to maximize the use of these key holidays, as many customers set aside a large amount of their spending budget for these days.

Focus on making sure your deals are good deals, and not just aimed at old stock you are trying to flog. Don’t make your deals over-complicated either. Customers are smart and have been watching prices on things they want. Make them great loss leaders and push your newness that is really exciting at the same time, to upsell with good margins. Use this time wisely to ensure you secure more sales.

Customers know your pricing so do not be tempted to put your prices up ahead of time, only to make your discounts look larger or more appealing. Also, make sure these are really discounts compared to your competitors. Not mentioning any online retailers by name, however, there are some businesses with business models based on offering greatly discounted products throughout the year, however, if you do any research online you will see their discount price is actually pretty much the same as if you bought it from another retailer at full price. Don’t be the retailer that rips off your customer, brand credibility is key to harnessing your relationship with your customer.

Remember you don’t want to be known as a discount site, so always think about the deals you put forward strategically, and don’t undercut yourself so much that it becomes a truly detrimental loss to your business. Remember trading is all about creating awareness of your online brand and the service to the customer, however, you are no service to the customer if the season only bleeds you of profits and you have to shut your doors next year. There’s one way to gain traction by using loss leaders but this needs to be done in a clever way and not beyond the company’s limits.

In summary remember you need to shop regularly on your own website, whatever position you hold in the company, as eCommerce websites are always being updated and changing. By not doing this regularly you lose track of the user experience. It may be great today, however, with a few minor tweaks and changes in your strategy pipeline, certain great ideas can turn out to negatively affect other great working parts.

Have a wonderful season all you retail movers and shakers may your hard work be rewarded with a successful season. Look after your employees too, as this can really be a period of burnout for many, with a lot of late shifts.

Please share this with anyone you think could get value from it. If you ever need to run some ideas or thoughts by me, I’m always open to assist where I can, as sometimes all you need is to get a second opinion, so don’t hesitate to get in touch.

kerry@fusion22.co.za

Ps: I do not gain commission on any affiliated links or product names added in this, If I have added any links or names I have purely just given them to make your lives easier.

Ask yourself these Questions if you are involved in a retail business and want to know how ready you are for the SEASON:

Do you have an online presence? Would you happily shop on it?
Do you have a brick-and-mortar presence? Does your online offering give the customer the same experience or better?
How many payment options do you have? Do you have a variety for the type of customers you have? Have you got at least one payment plan method as an option?
Have you trialed your checkout process yourself, is it Intuitive, easy to navigate, quick and convenient, safe and secure?
Would you buy your unique deals if you saw them? Or would you shop somewhere else?
Do you have a delivery strategy? Have you up-skilled and empowered your customer service to handle queries? Do they have access to your courier company for info?
What is your category tree like? Can your customer find what they are looking for with the least amount of clicks?
What are you needing your deals to do for you? Brand Awareness? Conversions? Increased AOV? Traffic? Will your deals fulfil your Key performance indicators (KPIs)?

Written By: Kerry Clark

Founder & CEO Fusion22