Whether you’re selling flowers, clothing items or digital devices, having a responsive and engaging virtual store is crucial for your business.
Why?
Well, first of all, statistics show that approximately 26.28% of the world population is using the internet to shop for products or services. This percentage is just one of the many reasons why you should pay extra attention to your e-commerce strategy, if you haven’t already.
Secondly, we’re in the middle of a pandemic which makes all of us reluctant about real-life shopping sessions. While this may be considered as a downside, in fact it is a huge opportunity to improve your presence on the seemingly endless virtual market.
For this holiday season, Deloitte predicts that e-commerce sales will increase by up to 30%, which translates into about $182 billion in sales.
But creating the perfect e-commerce experience for your business is difficult. It’s even more challenging than designing a real-life space since your shoppers can’t touch, smell, feel or taste your products.
So how can your company thrive on the virtual market in 2020?
Today, we’ll deliver a few basic guidelines that might help you in your online journey.
- Focus on product visuals
As I was saying earlier, your customers’ only sense available during virtual shopping sessions is sight. This means that you need to provide as much information as possible about your products visually. This can be done using two main strategies:
- Spinning product views. If a customer enters your physical store, they can touch an item and study it from every angle. Now you can provide the same benefit through 360-degree product views which allow your clients to spin an item using their fingertips or mouse. Not only does this make your products more trustworthy, but it’ll also build customer loyalty in the long run.
- Zooming options. Another equally important feature is the possibility of zooming in each part of your products. Details can make a huge difference regardless of item as they can reveal more about the materials, colors and prints used in the manufacturing process. Make sure that each product image is high-quality no matter how much your client zooms in.
- Micro-videos are the future
Honestly, I can’t stress the importance of video content enough. Sure, words matter and an image is worth about 1,000 of them, but nothing compares to a high-quality, compelling video. After all, why are the most popular social apps nowadays focused on videos?
Using short videos to present your products activates two of your consumer’s senses: sight and hearing. Once again, there are two techniques you can opt for:
- Shoppable videos. In this case, you’re going to list your products alongside a video using an expandable product bar. This tool allows your clients to get detailed information on a product while visualizing exactly how it looks. As a plus, you can add clickable hotspots on your images which send viewers to the item’s exact location. It’s interactive, increases brand awareness and makes customers more loyal!
- Micro videos. Here’s a secret tip: people have a very short attention span, especially when browsing online. Basically, your goal is to impress viewers so much they hit the ‘Buy’ button on your website. In this sense, short videos of 5 to 20 seconds can be a decisive factor – if they are done effectively. Make sure that each video is responsive on all screens and loads quickly.
- Hello, microbrowsers!
Don’t know what microbrowsing is? Don’t worry, many other marketers don’t know either – but they should.
A microbrowser is the URL you share in a private text message on any message app. I think you’ve probably noticed that whenever you send or receive an URL in a message, it shows an ugly preview you can’t understand anything from. Chances are, your own website faces the same problem when a customer wants to share a URL to someone else. The result? Decreased sale numbers!
With a good microbrowsing strategy, your URL preview will show a product thumbnail along with essential information about your brand or item. This makes you seem more professional, while your clients are more compelled to click the link and check out your products.
If you want your business to thrive (especially in times like these), your online presence should be just as impeccable as the real-life one. Nowadays, technology allows us to make any product compelling and showcase its best features at one click away.
What is your goal, when imagination is the only limit?
