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Boost Your e-Commerce Conversion Rate With These 4 Simple Hacks

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If you have an e-commerce website, conversion rate is the best way for you to see how successful of a businessperson (let’s be PC here) you are. It is not enough to be simply present on the Internet, you have to have a product page that makes your customers’ shopping experience not only pleasant, but also inviting.

 

Internet has allowed stores to come to buyers with one simple click, so you should be as approachable as possible not only for a one-time buy, but also to bring in repeat customers.

 

 

(If you aren’t sure if you even need an e-commerce website for your business, read one of our earlier blog posts.)

 

Here are 4 simple hacks which will surely help bringing about a rise in your online sales.

1) Make your web page simple and easy to use

 

When a prospective buyer comes to your website, the whole buying process needs to be as simple and easy as possible. Navigating through your e-store shouldn’t require a map, so don’t make visitors go on a treasure hunt on your website. People who are adventurous enough for that tend to go to actual shops when they want to buy something, wouldn’t you say?

 

To make everything visible and easily accessible, categorize neatly so that all the site elements can be easily found and clicked on. Your search bar needs to be in a prominent position and give relevant results. Imagine if your own grandma tried to find a cardigan in her favorite color and started wandering through your e-store… What if she found an ugly holiday sweater for you that you’d hate on sight, but be forced to wear year after year? Make your own life easier and eliminate that possibility pronto!

 

Once on the product page, the customer should be focused on nothing but your product, so clean up the sidebars and generally minimize the number of links that can lead your customer off your site. You don’t want them going to your competition, do you?

 

Make a quality description of your product, one that will focus on who it is for, what it can do and why it is good. Use multiple big, zoomable and rotatable pictures that best portray the item you are selling from not only different angles, but also showing the way it is used.

 

Maybe a kid will like what they are seeing and pester their parents to buy them your product.
And then another, and another…

 

Simply because they like your pictures.

 

Why even stop at pictures? You can also employ short videos provided by your team reviewing products or satisfied customers using their favorite new product (bought from you, of course). The videos can even be funny, but as long as they talk about your product in a positive light, there will purchases.

 

Moreover, customer reviews are a great way to add more credibility to your description copies, since they are considered to be unbiased source by reluctant customers. According to Invesp, as many as 90% of customers read online reviews before turning to a business, 88% trust them as much as personal recommendations, and no less 72% will follow through on your call to action.

 

 

Also, make your e-commerce site mobile friendly, since shopping while drinking coffee with friends is a nice way of spending more money (or making, in your case). We all like to mess with our phones while shooting the breeze with friends, so use that to your advantage!

 

2) Make them an offer they can’t refuse

 

As a seller, even one in a virtual environment, you need to make yourself more appealing to customers than your competition. A good way to do that is to give them a little nudge in the right direction (toward your checkout cart) by having time or quantity sensitive deals and promotions. Who can honestly say they don’t like deals? Right?

 

You can play the card of impulse shopping by offering limited-time deals, package deals or even free items if a purchase is made before the deal ends. Emphasize the amount of money buyers will save if they buy now, make it visible how many people have already bought the product, the quantity of product in stock and how much time is left. Offer free coupons right there on your e-commerce website, so as not to lead people off your site in search of them, but toward spending more money on what you are selling.

 

 

Another great way to attract and keep loyal customers is offering free shipping on your products. I know that I don’t even think about buying something online if I have to pay for the product (or more often than not, quite a few of them) to be delivered to me, especially if I am a loyal customer. This feature shouldn’t even be considered a privilege nowadays, but a small cost to pay for the increase in your sales. Psychologically speaking, whenever a person is offered anything free, it is a good purchasing incentive. So strike while the iron is hot and get your buyers to come back to your website over and again.

 

3) Be of service to your customers

 

No matter how well you think you have optimized your e-commerce website, a situation that requires your help is bound to emerge. After all, there will always be those who will want you to tell them if you have the cardigan in grandma’s favorite color (or confirm you are out of those ugly holiday sweaters). Ease their minds and respond right away so that grandmas everywhere can be let loose on your e-store.

 

It is important to make your contact information clearly visible, especially if you are a small business and not a well-established brand. In addition, it leaves a nice impression if your contact phone number is free to call, as well as if there is a real person on your end instead of an automated response. When your customers want to talk to a robot, Siri is always in the mood, so don’t deprive them of topics to cover together.

 

This also goes for live chat support. It is no surprise that immediate answers to customer inquiries lead to purchases, so make buyers feel cherished and they will come back and be loyal. Train your employees to be knowledgeable about both site navigation and inventory, be mindful of the time you have cited as when customers can contact you and don’t be afraid to communicate with your buyers, as it can give you great feedback. Establishing a natural flow of communication with customers can also help with decluttering your website, since you will have less need to bury buyers with filling-in forms. Let’s be brutally honest here, no one likes those, not even the people who create them.

 

4) Earn buyers’ trust

 

For your e-commerce website to be trusted, you need to generate credibility and do it fast if you want buyers to leave you their credit card information, name, number, shoe size…

 

Just kidding, don’t ask for shoe size.

 

Unless you actually sell shoes.

 

Then, it would be a good idea.

 

Be subtle about it, but assure your customers that you are a real deal and not a fraud.

 

Firstly, use SSL protocol and security badges all throughout your website to let them know you care about their privacy and safety. It goes without saying that you should have active accounts with well-known certification brands (McAfee, GeoTrust), and not just put them on there for show.

 

Secondly, inform buyers how you will track and handle information they are to leave with you.

 

Finally, keep your checkout process as simple as possible – don’t make them regret spending time in your online store by asking them to fill in registration forms or various questionnaires in order to buy your product. No one wants to reach the finish line and then realize they have more to go.

 

By sending trust signals to your site’s visitors, you are already on the path of turning them into loyal customers.

 

Don’t risk sending them to competition by asking too many unnecessary questions, and then not handling all the given information properly.

 

Keep the shoe size a secret, people!

 

All jokes aside, it’s time to bring it home. There are many other ways of boosting your e-commerce conversion rate, but here you have just a few suggestions that will make you stand out from competition if implemented appropriately. Think about both customers you want to attract and those you already have, and make your e-commerce website a place they will turn to first and last. Devote yourself to your buyers, don’t take them for granted and invest in your online presence.

 

If you feel unsure of how to do that, drop us a note today and we will chat about it with you for free!

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Alexandra Djordjevic
I am a linguist who enjoys using English every day. I write about marketing and whatever else piques my interest. Reading, watching and listening to everything and anything under the sun shapes my world on a daily basis. Sharing knowledge is one of my strengths and great joy.

5 Marketing Tips to Learn from Game of Thrones

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Who here still hasn’t heard of Game of Thrones? There is no such person, right? Why do you think that is? Is it that good of a TV show? Are the books upon which it is based just that well written and engrossing? No offense, but…

 

It’s just good marketing, people!

 

 

We came across a lot of confessions online stating that folks only started watching Game of Thrones after hearing over and over again that it is the most pirated TV show of our day. Therefore, it is under a big question mark whether it has actually merited such popularity solely on quality. After all, there are better TV shows out there.

 

But, we are not here to discuss cinematographic tastes. If nothing else, GoT has shown us how to properly advertise a product (or a brand, if you will) and that is what we will focus on today.
Let’s see the 5 marketing tips we can all pick up from Game of Thrones.

 

1) Keep up with what is popular

 

One of the pillars of quality content marketing is creating evergreen blog posts or marketing campaigns which can be used again with only a little bit of tweaking. However, let it be on record that when something is popular and everyone is talking about it, a good marketer should get in the conversation. Everyone has something to sell, so get on the bandwagon and use it to your advantage.

 

Yes, someone might accuse you of exploring the hype, but if you do it right, you will reap the benefits of aligning with a massive trend. Don’t think of it as taking advantage. If a particular sentiment portrayed in Game of Thrones fits what you are trying to say to your customers, why not use it (and give credit, of course)?

 

Use the words and the visuals that have already resonated with your audience – that can never be a bad thing!

 

 

 

 

(More on how to talk to a target audience read in one of our previous blog posts.)

 

2) Use social, people!

 

How do you engage your audience? We bet most of you will say that you use Social Media platforms for that. But, do you use all of them? Or, at least, all the major ones? If you don’t, there is no time like the present to get started! Don’t restrict your SM game to just one or two channels, because you cannot count on your target audience using the same ones you do. Even if they do, Facebook and Twitter do not have the same things to offer neither you as a marketer nor them as someone you market to. If they did, one would run the other out of business.

 

Here is another question for you. Do you use the same content on all the SM platforms you use? Think about it and step up your game if you do, because you are not reaching your full potential in the answer is yes. The GoT marketing team uses different channel strategies to promote the show on various Social Media.

 

For example, HBO decided to use Facebook Live to reveal the season 7 premiere date by asking their followers to watch a simple block of ice melting. Even though there were some technical difficulties, 162,000 people stuck around for the reveal. That is some reach, right? Moreover, HBO and Snapchat revealed a new selfie filter making users look like White Walkers or allowing them to kill one with a dragon glass dagger. All the while, people were encouraged to share their snaps on their Twitter profiles.

 

Game of Thrones has always had a strong presence on Twitter inviting their followers to share their favorite GIFs and lines from the show, to participate in character-centered campaigns (#RoastJoffrey or #YouKnowNothingJohnSnow), or to share real-life Game of Thrones events from all over the world. Whether the people wanted to brag about an amazing thing that happened to them that day or to just be part of a worldwide phenomenon, the trick worked. Suddenly, the Twitterverse was flooded with pictures of the #ArtTheThrone exhibition or White Walkers in London – ordinary people and fans of the show coming together on Social Media to speak for the show and about something they value.
Smart, right?

 

 

3) Build up the suspense

 

If you have something great in store for your audience, don’t reveal everything at once. Use just enough to keep them intrigued and on their toes. Marketing is a long game, after all. Plan ahead and stick to it.

 

Moreover, have you ever noticed that Game of Thrones never really leaves our Social Media feeds? There is always something going on in the land of Westeros and they don’t want us to forget. For example, in anticipation of season 7 premiere, HBO took to Twitter to ask followers how they plan on welcoming winter using #PrepareForWinter and references from the show. Needless to say, they’ve created the hype with just that one brilliant move.

 

 

Work that angle, too! Give your audience just enough to come back for more.

 

4) Create aesthetically pleasing content and put it front and center

 

People are readers, sure, but in this modern day and age, not many have the patience to wait for you to get to the point. You have to be fast and direct when trying to reach your potential (or even existing) customers if you want to sell them anything. What better way to do that than by employing visual means?

 

“A picture is worth a thousand words”, someone very wise once said. So, create a picture to go with your content! And not only that – create a beautiful picture!

 

 

We are all attracted to beautiful things, and that stands even for our Social Media feeds. A striking, colorful visual will always catch our eye, which is exactly what the GoT marketing team is counting on when doing their magic. In anticipation to every season (or even episode) premiere, one or more amazing pictures are released to tickle the public’s imagination. It is always something heavily alluding to a character being in an unexpected situation, but actually revealing nothing concrete.

 

 

Clever, right? Well, it wouldn’t be so effective if it wasn’t. And effective it is, because SM reach increases 2-3 times when you use pictures in your posts. So, don’t be lazy and get to work!

 

 

5) Inform and entertain

 

When we say inform and entertain your audience at the same time, some of you might feel daunted by such a task and rightly so! It is never easy to educate a person, but to do it without their realizing it (or simply focusing on the educating part) is that much more difficult. Thus, you might ask yourself what is the proper way to go about it. Well, let’s see what Game of Thrones does, shall we?

 

Before season 5 started airing, GoT took to their Facebook page to remind their audience of that as well as give them a montage of some of the best lines for the show with a simple message: “1 week. #GoTSeason5”. Or, they take their followers behind the scenes to give them a closer look at costumes:

 

 

or special effects:

 

 

These particular tactics are pretty common nowadays in promoting movies and TV shows because it has proven very effective. People always want to know one more piece of information on why something is done or how it is made, so give them that and they will feel closer to you and whatever it is you are selling them. Sometimes, the simpler the approach the better the effect it has.

 

 

There it is, our two cents on how to do marketing like the big dogs, but what it all comes down to is this: be active on Social Media in various shapes and sizes and to give your audience not only quality content but also relevant. Every tactic we have mentioned here has proven effective because it well thought out and as such reflects the fact that you can’t advertise something just for the sake of it, but because you know what your followers want to see, hear and experience both in real life and on Social Media. When you have that kind of knowledge, you have the power to do almost anything. So, get to know your target audience and get creative in your interaction with them.

We would like to hear from you in the comments below or just contact us if you want to have a chat about taking your business strategy to the next level.

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Alexandra Djordjevic
I am a linguist who enjoys using English every day. I write about marketing and whatever else piques my interest. Reading, watching and listening to everything and anything under the sun shapes my world on a daily basis. Sharing knowledge is one of my strengths and great joy.

6 Simple Reasons Your Website Might Suck At Converting

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You can build a website for free.

But if you want it not to look generic, a single template customization will typically cost you at least $300 while there is no top limit.

Not to mention the costs of effective copy and further maintenance.

So, it may or may not be expensive, but it’s a must for any business today.

If you are a small business owner, you surely already have a website, but it most probably doesn’t work as well as it could.

Maybe it looks good but doesn’t sell.

Maybe it doesn’t even look good. (And good doesn’t mean fancy.)

Maybe people find it fast but bounce faster. Or, maybe they remain there for a certain amount of time, but somehow omit to click on those crucial buttons that for you mean the difference between growing a lavish garden full of fruit and investing in a wasteland.

There are a number of reasons for failure. Your website is not just a virtual storefront. It’s a communication panel where you get to talk to the prospects and they get to click in response. Or not.

A modern website should make for a great combination of verbal and visual elements. All of which should work together to entice the reader to do something you want. Your goal is their action.

That’s why we decided to single out six most common reasons websites fail to do their job.

1) It doesn’t capture attention in an instant

Yes, the attention span of an average website visitor is short, and even goldfish concentrate longer yadda yadda. You know the drill, so we won’t repeat it.

It’s common knowledge that it takes just a few seconds for a visitor to estimate whether they’re in the right place or not. Tribute Media says that the first thing visitors have in mind is what the website is about.

We kind of disagree with that.

Before the interest phase, there comes attention phase. The AIDA (Attention – Interest – Desire – Action) principle works here well. So, you have to grab the visitor by the sleeve, and only then (if they are still there) make them understand what it is all about.

Yes, as a visitor, I know that I am looking to buy an instrument, for example. But there’s always a chance something might get me started even if it isn’t just the right thing. Think about how often you’ve spent dozens of minutes on a web page with a topic that you aren’t even interested in. Just because they made it sound and look compelling.

Just to be completely clear, of course, you aren’t aiming for those who happen to stumble upon your website. They aren’t really your prospects. That’s why websites are keyword optimized. But we’re talking about pre-judgment here. Before the visitor has even decided if that’s what they were looking for or not, you have to attract them and keep them there for a little while longer.

2) It lacks focus

Am I at the right address?

This is the second question that crosses the visitor’s mind during those few seconds.

It makes the difference between clicking the X and staying there to browse some more.

It’s about relevance.

The website copy and imagery need to be ultra-specific, intuitive and clear so that there isn’t any doubt what it’s all about. There’s this term “above the fold” that is borrowed from traditional, print journalism. It’s the portion of the page that a visitor sees first, without having to scroll down. It should contain all the vital information, neatly organized in an appropriate manner.

The visitor should be positive about a few things:
What the website is about. If you are a music store, it should be clear whether you sell music albums or instruments, or if you are a production label, or an antique shop that sells gramophones and LPs.
What she’s supposed to do. That is, what is the key functionality of the website. Is it selling a product, or getting them to subscribe to your mailing list by entering their information to get a free resource? Is it raising brand awareness by getting them to follow you on social media? All of these goals should have their place on your website. But their positioning is vital, as well as which one you intend to show first.

3) It’s about you, not me

Yes, it’s your website, but you are not supposed to be the center of it.

The Earth revolves around the Sun. They used to kill people who claimed it, but today it’s the only acceptable way of viewing things. Similarly, in today’s world products and services revolve around me as a customer, and not you as a seller.

It’s not just about showing me you care about me. I have my mom for that. I need you to answer my needs and prove that your product is the one in the sea of products that is worthy of my coin. So, don’t start by telling me how awesome you are. (There is a time and place for it, and it’s called testimonials. Back to it later.)

It’s like having a date. You don’t put yourself in the center of the conversation. Of course, the aim is to present yourself in the most appealing manner, but bragging from the beginning won’t help you do that.

4) It misrepresents your brand

The website is a mirror of your business and general culture and I’m sure as hell that you don’t like to look in the mirror while wearing shabby pajamas. Let alone to let others look at you.

Dress accordingly, mind the minutiae, and don’t let anything look sloppy. If there are photos, they have to be high-resolution and yet, not sluggish because of it. If there’s a background video, it better be shot professionally.

Having a video autoplay or any kind of music or sound is an out-of-date technique and many people dislike it. The reasons are obvious: you can’t presume people will like your choice of music. After all, I know that I have run away from a bunch of websites just because a song started playing and it was easier for me to hit X than to scroll and look for the stop button.

Unless, of course, you are that example of a music store. Then it’s somehow logical and tolerable to have an appropriate ambient.

5) You don’t appear trustworthy

According to the Bright Local’s Consumer Review Survey 2016, 84% people trust online reviews as much as a personal recommendation. Total strangers are presumed to be a reliable source of information because, obviously, they don’t have a reason to lie.

So, if you don’t have any kind of content that would verify and validate the quality of your product or service, acquire it now.

Ask your previous clients to give you testimonials – either written or video (of course, a video would be awesome). You can even use Google reviews for this purpose if you have a local business. Case studies are great if you have some more information.

Just let it be genuine because faking it is not only unethical but also quite easy to spot.

6) The checkout process is complicated

If you have an E-commerce store, you have to be extremely careful not to overcomplicate things for the buyers.

Shopping cart abandonment rate stats are appalling, all because shipping costs are too big, or the checkout process too difficult.

Don’t demand too much information in the form they have to fill. There’s hardly anything as annoying as having to type my company name, job title, ex-girlfriend’s pet’s name, shoe size (unless you sell shoes), etc. Even if you need some of those fields for your marketing purposes, make them non-obligatory.

(For more about this, check out these recommendations how to improve your online clothing store.)

When talking about websites, it’s vital to remember one thing that we tend to forget all too often.
People don’t buy because they have money, nor do they refrain from buying if they lack money. It isn’t about what they need.

People buy because they want to buy.

Purchasing decisions happen in the reasonable part of our brains, but they are conceived below it. Desire dances its way to the wallet, leaving the need to wait patiently in the line of priorities.

So, let your website appeal to the visitors’ wants and needs, in that order.

Does your website perform well? If not, call us and we’ll help. If yes, let us know and we’ll admire it together.

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Alexandra Djordjevic
I am a linguist who enjoys using English every day. I write about marketing and whatever else piques my interest. Reading, watching and listening to everything and anything under the sun shapes my world on a daily basis. Sharing knowledge is one of my strengths and great joy.

Harness The Power Of Your E-Commerce Clothing Store With These 4 Tips

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What does your personal computer mean to you?

For you, it’s a private haven. You customized it to suit your needs. When you’re there, you have a feeling that you are in an unconditioned space of total freedom where nobody else has access. You feel uninhibited to do whatever you want. In other words, you are the master of the universe, which you have made and tailored to suit your needs.

Well, the truth is more complicated than that. If you want to buy something (and you frequently do it online), you are free to jump to the eleventh page in search engine results page.

But you’ll never do it.

Admit it. You will only scan the results on the first, maybe even second Google page. What about the remaining thousand? Well, if you want to exercise your right to freedom to the fullest, you shouldn’t be satisfied with what you’ve got on the first page. Nor should you discriminate the rest just because they didn’t make it to the infamous top 15 results.

When I typed “online clothing store” into Google, it returned 92 million results (May 2017). I don’t have all the time in the world, nor do I care that much, so I only viewed the first two pages of results, which is about 30 websites.

In other words, I relied on the results that the search engine curated for me.

Which means that you and I are not all that free after all. Some products and stores have this power of sneaking into our computers and homes. They do it in a very discreet way so that we don’t mind (and many people aren’t even aware of it).

Let’s assume your clothing store has transcended the limits of brick-and-mortar and sneaked into people’s homes through their gadgets.

(If it hasn’t yet, read our previous blog post about the need for you to enter the E-commerce world.)

You have to follow certain rules to avoid failure that awaits 80% of all online businesses even within the first two years of work.

Today we give you the most important rules to stick by.

1) Don’t turn your online clothing store into a flea market

Unless it’s a flea market clothing store.

People go to flea markets for the sheer joy of finding everything that they have never needed. Or the joy of not knowing what they’d stumble upon.

That attitude is the complete opposite of doing business on the Internet. When you sell clothes online, your best guess would be to target precisely the population that is interested in what you have to offer. The reason behind this is simple: people who are looking for a cheap red scarf are more likely to Google “cheap red scarf” than “online clothing store”, and then waste hours of time to choose among hundreds or thousands of products.

Anyway, selling online is more than just assembling different categories of merchandise and hoping someone would pass by and purchase. It is about establishing authority in a particular niche. Therefore, it is preferable to narrow down the choice and find your brand identity in a carefully picked and defined range of products. Sell them products and give away the philosophy of your brand for free. The more people buy from you because of your brand, the better your bottom line will be.

If you don’t believe us, take a look at your own buying habits. Would you prefer to buy a high-quality necklace in an online store that sells jewelry, or in a store that sells everything, from shoes to cufflinks to vintage umbrellas?

2) Make it beautiful

Building a beautiful website is not rocket science these days, nor does it have to be expensive.

For a good online store it is intolerable to have lousy, low-quality or pixelated images that aren’t zoomable. It isn’t enough to just have very intuitive interface, beautiful product photos and all the right information in the right place. (Of course, these things are something you can’t do without.)

Put yourself in the buyer’s shoes. Do they have to click 15 times and fill out 17 form fields to order a single product? If yes, they will most likely leave it rotting in their shopping cart and probably never come back. (If you need a better website for your online store, give us a call and we might just have the perfect solution for you.)

3) Make it HIGHLY functional

The checkout process has to be extremely simple, devoid of any obstacles. Instead of forcing users to register so you would have plenty of awesome information about them, consider putting a single field for their email address – if they are guest users who are not ready to buy yet. (Later on, you’ll use the email address to gently nudge them, of course.)

For those who are ready to buy, clearly indicate what info they should provide – name, address, card number, the number of products (with a small photo, of course), individual product prices, as well as the final price shipping included.

One vital thing to remember is that they may always change their mind. Well, instead of doing all you can to prevent it, help them reconsider! Make sure there’s a “Save” button. You will email them later to remind them they had left a product in their cart. It’s an awesome thing to do. And you know what will blow them away? If you offer it at a discount.

They came back and purchased? Congratulations. You’ve just got yourself a nice customer who is at least 10% more loyal than your average Joe.

Write this on a sticky note above your desk: The average shopping cart abandonment rate in 2016 was as high as 69.23%. (Source: Baymard Institute.) The first reason is that the extra costs were too high. The second – the user was forced to create an account.

According to Baymard Institute, an E-commerce store can improve their conversion rate by 35.26% by recovering the abandoned shopping carts through a better checkout flow.

These stats are worthy for you as a merchant. Quite a lesson, don’t you think?

4) Boost those visits to your website

Just like we said before, your online store won’t be worth a nickel if it doesn’t have a decent place in search engines.

Now, we hate to break it to you, but organic traffic is not enough. Gone are the days when great content was enough to make you a star.

To bring visitors to your online store, you have to devise an attack strategy on multiple fronts.

Engaging content comes first. At least one in-depth blog post per week would be advisable. Make it useful, valuable, nicely written, intelligible for your ideal customer. However, these days written blogs are not enough. You should consider creating video content – clothing and fashion niche is especially suitable for this approach.

But awesome content that converts is futile if there’s nobody to convert. You have to get in people’s faces via content promotion across different social media channels. If you are diligent enough to find fashion influencers who have already built a wonderful online presence, and reach out to them, you might acquire some awesome backlinks to give Google the signal that your content is widely appreciated and relevant.

But it is never enough to count on the amazingness of your content. You don’t want to go anywhere on foot when there is an organized transport that everyone’s using, do you? Once you’ve laid foundations for a wonderful user experience, paid ads will make sure that it actually gets consumed.

5) Recruit customers to promote your products

And now for the best part.

You and your team aren’t on your own. There’s a heap of customers you can recruit to promote you. Not only won’t they mind promoting you, but they will do it for their own sake. Because it’s cool to promote brands people like.

How many times did you check in a cozy restaurant for your Facebook friends to see? You did it for your own sake, but the restaurant just got promoted for free.

Or was it for free? They are sure as hell really good if they made you want to brag about just another ordinary meal you’ve had yesterday.

The same goes for reviews. It is a well-known fact that people believe online reviews more than any other proof.

There are tons of ways you can engage people to interact with your brand. For example, organize a contest on Instagram and Facebook for the best photo with your product, with the most creative caption featuring a hashtag of your brand. Nice rewards will motivate people to join in, and it won’t be too expensive for you to give them out since the benefits are countless! Remember Calvin Klein’s campaign with the fill-in-the-blank “I ______ in #MyCalvins?” That’s right. Nearly 500 thousand posts on Instagram only.

OK, you are not Calvin Klein, but you get the point.

Be cool enough, and people will be happy to wear your stuff and show it off.

Have an E-commerce webiste set in place but could use improvements? Let’s talk through it for free.

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Alexandra Djordjevic
I am a linguist who enjoys using English every day. I write about marketing and whatever else piques my interest. Reading, watching and listening to everything and anything under the sun shapes my world on a daily basis. Sharing knowledge is one of my strengths and great joy.

4 Facts That Prove Your Clothing Store Needs E-Commerce To Survive

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Most men hate shopping. They get in. They spend 5 minutes on buying or not buying something. They run out.

Naturally, women are shopinistas who enjoy roaming the modern colorful jungles of trinkets and rags, browsing around, trying things on, touching things they don’t even intend to buy.

OK – enough with the stereotypes. There are men who feel at home in a clothing store, as well as women (myself included) who hate it and will endure the annoyance of buying something only if they really can’t do without it.

The point is, all people belong to one of the two categories – shopping addicts and officinaphobes. (Yes, this word is the official term for people who are allergic to shopping.)

And guess what?

Online shopping appeals to both of these categories.

1. E-commerce is the new consumer revolution

The first Consumer revolution happened around four centuries ago. Acquiring things other than the mere necessities is an old phenomenon, and people started succumbing to this inclination as soon as the middle class emerged and started filling their pockets.

Back then it was a question of class.

Today it is a question of accessibility. A greater number of people than ever before can access more things than ever before.

If you wanted to have a new garment back then, you had to invite a tailor to your house if you were rich or make it yourself if not. Today you can order a piece of clothing from the other side of the globe and pay only a few bucks for it.

To go back to the shopping addicts and haters: E-commerce serves the whole world of possibilities to the former ones. It spares the latter the trouble of having to deal with the horrors of making a single choice among so many things.

Although you might think you’re good with a small shop or two in a physical place where you will always have your loyal customers, it isn’t true.

The truth for both your customers and yourself is one and the same.

Why should they settle for walking to a store and choosing what to purchase by hand when they can go online and find everything they have ever wanted?

The other side of the coin says the same: Why should you settle for customers who may or may not want your products when there are so many people out there who surely will?

The whole world is a buying and a selling place.

You just need to get out there and lure those shoppers and anti-shoppers out to come and visit your online store.

Which means being there, on Google, when they search for something that suits them.

All it takes to find what a customer needs is a couple of clicks and a few seconds of time. Once a customer has a taste for it, they’ll never go back to their old ways.

2. The Internet is an ever-growing market, and there is room for you, too

Let’s pull out some numbers to prove the point.

As many as 53% of internet users in the US have made at least one online purchase in 2016. In total, this makes one billion users. In 2015, each customer spent approximately $1,800 on online shopping over the course of the year. Furthermore, 40% of surveyed men and 33% of women from 18 to 34 years old said they would ideally love to buy everything online. (source: SmartInsights.com).

Projections shoot high, and so do the expectations of an average online shopper.

3. Remove the bricks from your shop

If your physical storefront is seen by 100 people each day, your online storefront has this wonderful potential of being seen by thousands.

There is one crucial difference between selling in a brick-and-mortar store and selling online, though.

The number of those who will stumble upon your merchandise online is insignificant. They will come to your online shop because they searched for that red scarf or a fancy looking pair of shoes, and Google estimated your shop was worthy and relevant enough to list it on the results page.

Your online store is going to be visited almost exclusively by people who are really interested in what it has to offer. Even more – a great number of them will eventually buy from you if they like the offer.

Your customer basis is going to grow much easier if you get on this train. You’ll aim at potential customers on different fronts – Google, social media, advertising, word-of-mouth. But you’ll hit only those who want to be hit.

4. Communication made easy

Successful communication is about:
1) knowing how to listen to others and
2) answering their needs.

It doesn’t work the other way around.

Once you delve into the online realm of demand, you’ll know what exactly you need to supply.

Furthermore, you will have direct means of speaking with your customers, engaging them, sending attractive offers their way, giving away a product for free to get hundreds of followers in return in just an hour or two.

The possibilities are endless.

Sure, some serious work needs to be done if you don’t want to lose the game in a highly competitive environment, where there are hundreds of thousands of sellers.

But it’s a fair game. The players who get to know the rules will swim. Those who resist the zeitgeist will drown.

And the zeitgeist isn’t all that hard to understand. It all comes down to a basic human trait. The need to be heard.

Where there are thousands of sellers, there are millions of buyers.

Identify your buyers and start marketing to them.

Listen to them and start selling.

Have some questions about starting E-commerce? Drop us a note and we’ll answer them for free.

The Iuvo Omega






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