If you have an online fashion store that has been successfully running for a couple of years, congratulations! You’re part of a huge industry worth more than $53 billion in 2018 and is predicted to grow to over $870 billion by 2023. But just because you’re past the painful start and awkward infancy phase, that doesn’t mean you can sit back and relax.
Today, shoppers have many choices, ranging from giant marketplaces like Amazon to smaller standalone eCommerce stores. To attract customers and generate sales, online retailers need to optimize and improve all aspects of their eCommerce business constantly.
Now is a great time to begin testing different methods to monetize your online store more efficiently. Here are 5 tips that will help you take your online retail store to the next level.
1. Update your branding
If you’re like most companies, many things have probably changed since you started out. So, it’s logical to ask yourself whether your original branding matches your company today. Your first task is to upgrade your branding in order to help people remember your new online retail store.
When updating your branding, ensure that everything on your site looks attractive. Start by checking the images for each and every one of your products. In the online shopping world, images are everything. In fact, people remember about 80% of what they see and only about 20% of what they read. So, if your images are not of the highest quality, you’ll need to source new ones.
The process of updating your branding is long, so it might be wise to take small steps. Break the process into smaller chunks; for instance, once you’re done with updating the product images, take a step back before you move on to updating your logo and redesigning parts of your site. After all, you do have a business to run!
2. Implement a clothing inventory management system
The number of businesses without a robust inventory management system in place is shocking. More than 45% of small and medium companies either don’t track inventory or use a manual method. However, in this day and age, manual processes are just not enough for online fashion businesses.
Anyone who sells clothing, from small fashion brands to well-known luxury brands, must do everything they can to make their operations more efficient. With such a large number of products, orders, sales, and operations, online retail companies need to be highly adaptable and flexible. Fortunately, this can be easily achieved with the right tools.
Implementing clothing inventory management will help with everything from sourcing, design, and manufacture to sales, inventory tracking, and feedback analysis, all with an aim to improve efficiency, save time, and ultimately add value to their customers’ shopping experience.
3. Optimize for mobile
As the number of people using their mobile devices to shop online is growing, having a mobile-friendly site is crucial for acquiring new customers, as well as boosting conversion and improving retention. It’s also important for your online visibility as Google favors mobile-friendly sites and ranks them higher.
Make sure your interface is easy to use so that people can find what they’re looking for and checkout without too much fuss. Another important element of mobile optimization is the loading time of your site. The longer a web page takes to load, the more your bounce rate will skyrocket. Research conducted by Google found that nearly 55% of mobile website visitors will leave if a page takes more than 3-4 seconds to load.
It’s very important to make sure that the mobile version of your eCommerce site is functioning properly. If your online retail store isn’t optimized for mobile, there’s a solid chance you’re missing out on tons of potential sales.
4. Take advantage of SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
Improving your online visibility and driving organic traffic can help you take your eCommerce store to the next level. It’s no wonder that many successful online businesses constantly invest resources and time into SEO.
Constantly updating the content on your site’s product pages and optimizing it for relevant keywords can help improve your rankings. In addition, implementing both offsite and onsite SEO will help build brand awareness and improve organic traffic. This, in turn, will result in higher conversion rates and increased revenue.
5. Increase customer engagement
Do you engage with your customers often enough? If your answer is “About twice a month,” or if you are not sure, you need to step up your game because engagement is closely linked to trust and customer loyalty.
You can leverage social media to engage with your customers. Giveaways or contests are great tools for increasing the engagement of social media users. Followers love contests, and a well-designed giveaway will generate lots of chatter among your community.
Another great way to boost customer engagement is by using surveys. Send your customers an email with a survey containing questions about their experiences with your store. The feedback you receive will help you to understand your audience better and serve as a basis to make the necessary improvements.
Final thoughts
Taking your online retail store to the next level might sound simple, but it’s easy to get caught up in the day-to-day business. Make sure to take a couple of hours every week to think about a strategy. Include these 5 tips or come up with your own ideas. The key is concentrating on areas that are working and improving aspects that aren’t.
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