20 Tips to Improve Each Stage of Your eCommerce Sales Funnel
The eCommerce sales funnel, as is explained over at runrex.com, outlines the process a person goes through to go from being a potential customer to an existing customer and beyond to retention. The time taken to go through the process varies, as it could happen within minutes where one sees something, they like and want it, then they buy it, or it could take months or years for them to finally decide to complete the purchase. The eCommerce sales funnel comprises of 5 stages: the awareness stage, consideration stage, decision stage, purchase stage, and the retention stage. This article is going to highlight 20 tips to improve each stage of your eCommerce sales funnel.
How to improve the awareness stage of your eCommerce sales funnel
Lookalike audiences for Facebook ad campaigns
Given that, as discussed over at guttulus.com, the main goal of the awareness stage is to draw as big of an audience as possible to your brand and products, without losing sight of your ideal customer, creating lookalike audiences for Facebook ad campaigns is a tip worth considering. With a lookalike audience strategy, you will be able to increase your reach without ever losing sight of who your ideal customer is, and you can use your email lists, users who have engaged with your content, or recently converted customers to build one.
Leverage product groups and negative keywords in Google Shopping
As is outlined over at runrex.com, when you start a Google Shopping campaign, all of the products in your product data feed are grouped, which is why it is recommended that you narrow your products into specific groups based on price, conversion rate, and profit margin. The closer you can get all of your products in one group to be equal across all these three metrics, the better your results. Using negative keywords in your Google Shopping campaigns will also help you improve awareness of said products to ensure that you only appear on relevant searches.
Referral programs
Another tip that will help you improve the awareness stage of your eCommerce sales funnel is to create a referral program matching your brand. As the gurus over at guttulus.com will tell you because people dong refer their friends and family to products that don’t make sense, be creating a referral program, not only will you build brand awareness, you will also be able to focus on the right audience for you.
Partner with influencers
Yet another tip that will help you improve the awareness stage of your eCommerce sales funnel is by partnering with influencers, particularly on social media. This way, you will be able to leverage the influencer’s already sizeable following, allowing you to build your brand’s awareness when done properly.
How to improve the consideration stage of your eCommerce sales funnel
Leverage user-generated content
Given that at this stage the customer is evaluating what you are offering to decide whether to make a purchase or not, one way to improve your performance here is by leveraging user-generated content. This way, your existing customers will be able to speak directly to your potential customers, helping convince them, as people trust the word of fellow consumers more than the word of any brand.
Optimize your product descriptions
Yet another tip that will help you improve the consideration stage of your eCommerce sales funnel is by optimizing your product descriptions, with the experts over at runrex.com recommending that you write benefit-driven product descriptions. Make sure that your product descriptions are designed to help your customers understand the value of your product, and avoid branding yourself here. When writing product descriptions, focus on the benefits to your customers, not your product’s features.
Optimize your forms and website navigation
Your forms and website navigation can also hold you back when it comes to the consideration stage of your eCommerce sales funnel. To improve it, optimize these two as is discussed over at guttulus.com. Take a minimalist approach when it comes to your forms, only asking your customers to fill up what is necessary. You should also optimize your website navigation, making it easier for visitors to find whatever it is they are looking for.
Offer relevant offers
Another tip to improve the consideration stage of your eCommerce sales funnel is offering your customers relevant offers. Remember, as explained over at runrex.com, even though your customers aren’t ready to buy from you at this stage, they are extremely intrigued by you, which means that offering them relevant product recommendations and discounts might help push them along the sales funnel.
How to improve the decision stage of your eCommerce sales funnel
Offer excellent customer service
At this stage, your customer may know almost everything there is to know about you and your products but may have one question that isn’t available on any of the available pages on your site. If you are to help them, you will need to offer impeccable customer service. This means making sure that you are easy to reach, through features such as Live Chat, FAQ and help desk pages, as well as through Emails. Make it easy for potential customers to contact you for a quick response.
Have an exit-intent strategy in place
Given that about 97% of your customers will leave your website without making a purchase, having an exit-intent strategy in place allows you to get something from such customers before they leave. You can do this by implementing an exit popup that appears when a customer abandons your page, with the plan here being to get the user to stick around or to come back for more.
Personalization
Another tip that will help you improve the decision stage of your eCommerce sales funnel is to offer your customers personalization. As is discussed over at guttulus.com, this will make your customers feel valued, providing them with a unique one-to-one experience that will ensure that they make a purchase.
Offer honest reviews
By offering your customers honest reviews and customer feedback, you will be able to convince prospective buyers to purchase as explained over at runrex.com, which will also help you improve the decision stage of your eCommerce sales funnel.
How to improve the purchase stage of your eCommerce sales funnel
Create a seamless checkout experience
Things like hidden prices or a long and drawn-out checkout process are some of the things that prevent the checkout process from being smooth and seamless. Therefore, one way to improve the purchase stage of your eCommerce sales funnel is to create a seamless checkout experience, according to the experts over guttulus.com.
Allow for saving of your carts
Some of your customers may want to complete the purchase, but not at that time, or not on that platform. By allowing them to save their carts, and be able to pick up their purchase once ready is yet another way through which you can improve the purchase stage of your eCommerce sales funnel. You can have them save their carts to their email allowing them to pick up where they left off.
Allow for guest checkout
Not everyone wants to register for an account on your website before making a purchase, and sometimes this is what may be leading to abandoned carts. To reduce this, and by so doing improve the purchase stage of your eCommerce funnel, you should consider offering your customers a guest checkout option, making the checkout quicker for anyone who doesn’t want to register for an account first.
A/B test your checkout
Yet another tip that will help you to improve the purchase stage of your eCommerce sales funnel is by A/B testing your checkout process. Create various variations of your original checkout flow, A/B test them and see which one performs best for you, as is explained over at runrex.com.
How to improve the retention stage of your eCommerce sales funnel
Ask your customers to create accounts
As mentioned above, and covered in more detail over at guttulus.com, while allowing for guest checkout will help quicken the checkout process, if you are to improve the retention stage of your eCommerce sales funnel, you should encourage your customers to create accounts on your website. This means you should ask them to do so even after completing their order if they had utilized the guest checkout option.
Leverage add-ons, upsells, and cross-sells
Offering your customers add-ons, upsells, and cross-sells, as discussed over at runrex.com, is yet another way through which you can improve the retention stage of your eCommerce sales funnel. This is because you will be reaching out to customers who already have an interest in your brand and your products based on the transaction history, offering them value, and retaining them as customers.
Offer discounts and offers
Discounts and offers are a great way to bring back your customers, particularly those who are dormant, which is another tip that will help you improve the retention stage of your eCommerce sales funnel. These offers and discounts will help encourage your customers to come back for repeat purchases.
Interact with your existing customers on social media
Social media will also help you cultivate a relationship with your existing customers, helping you improve the retention stage of your eCommerce sales funnel. Make sure that you are regularly engaging and interacting with your existing customers on social media and you will be able to retain them better.
The above discussion only begins to scratch the surface as far as this topic is concerned, and there are more tips and more information on the above topic to be found over at the excellent runrex.com and guttulus.com.